Free Republic

Deventer, The Netherlands Hay bales in flames, manure dumped on highways, blockades at supermarket distribution centres and demonstrations on politicians' doorsteps. Dutch farmers have been generating global headlines with protests described by Prime Minister Mark Rutte as "wilfully endangering others, damaging our infrastructure and threatening people who help with the clean-up". This proud farming nation is under immense pressure to make radical changes to cut harmful emissions, and some farmers fear their livelihoods will be obliterated. "It's in our blood, I want to do this, and if we have to adapt to new situations, I want to, but we have...

The normal procedure for Congressional hearings is for both Parties to choose their own representatives on the committee conducting the hearings. Both Parties would be empowered to call whatever witnesses they deem appropriate. Both Parties would have the right to cross-examine each other's witnesses. None of these normal procedures have been observed in the January 6 Committee. As a result, key evidence has been ignored. While the Democrats running the Committee contend that Trump desired and instigated the violence at the Capitol, evidence from the Pentagon shows that he was concerned enough about preventing violence that on January 3 he...

China said it was conducting military exercises Saturday off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the U.S. House of Representatives to scrap possible plans to visit the island democracy, which Beijing claims as part of its territory. The ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, was conducting “live-fire exercises” near the Pingtan islands off Fujian province from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Maritime Safety Administration warned ships to avoid the area. Such exercises usually involve artillery. The one-sentence announcement gave no indication whether Saturday’s exercise also might...

'Real Time' host Bill Maher said Republicans would 'secretly love' to see Trump incarcerated over January 6 as much as Arab countries 'love when Israel would bomb Iraq.' Maher, 66, returned to his show Friday night after a month-long break and was joined by Politico's White House Editor Sam Stein and Columbia Associate Professor John McWhorter. The liberal host jumped into the roundtable discussion by calling former President Donald Trump the 'cloud hanging over this country,' but admitted the January 6 committee hearings were 'pretty impressive.'

The sheriff of San Mateo County, Carlos Bolanos, has come under fire for allegedly sending a four-man team to Indiana to raid the garage that produces Batmobiles as a favor for a friend who can’t wait for his order, as reported by ABC News. “Your public money paid for the trip last week by the sheriff’s investigators – four round-trip plane tickets, three nights of hotels, meals, rental cars, and a lot of overtime, all because of a friend of the sheriff who can’t wait for his batmobile,” the news outlet reported. Sam Anagnostou, a real estate agent from Atherton,...

Funny Aging Quotes "To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable." - Oscar Wilde "The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for." - Will Rogers "We must recognize that, as we grow older, we become like old cars – more and more repairs and replacements are necessary." - C.S. Lewis "Old age comes at a bad time." – San Banducci “ "Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." - Jennifer Yane "Old age is like a plane flying...

I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable. Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them -- until yesterday, when I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.” It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump's character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect. I need to man up in my defense of the former President's virtues....

Twitter on July 28 imposed a blockade on all content from The Epoch Times without explanation, raising further concerns about freedom of speech on the platform and drawing ire from three U.S. senators. The platform enforced a warning on all links from The Epoch Times. A click on a link directs users to a page titled “Warning: this link may be unsafe,” which prompts users to return to the previous page. “The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe,” the warning stated, citing Twitter’s URL policy.

In the Readings for this Sunday, texts from the Old and New Testaments remind us that human happiness is not to be found in the accumulation of material goods. Riches are fleeting and empty. We are called instead to “store up treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroy, where thieves cannot break in and steal.” 1. Our First Reading is Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23: Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he...

The Cornell University Library has removed a bust of President Abraham Lincoln and a bronze plaque of the Gettysburg Address after reportedly receiving a complaint. Randy Wayne, a professor of biology at Cornell, said the library had removed the display, which had been there since 2013, after "someone complained," the College Fix reported . In a statement to the Washington Examiner, university spokeswoman Rebecca Valli said the bust of Lincoln "was part of a temporary exhibit on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address" and that it had been on display from 2013-2021. With the display gone, only an empty...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday in the highest-level known contact between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine, with Blinken urging Russia to accept a deal to win the release of American detainees Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.Russian officials gave no public hint whether Blinken had made any headway, only issuing a chiding statement afterward urging the U.S. to pursue the Americans' freedom through “quiet diplomacy, without releases of speculative information."...Blinken did not provide details of Lavrov’s response to what he had previously called a “substantial proposal" for Russia...

Footage has emerged appearing to show the aftermath of a Ukrainian strike against a key bridge that has further cut off Russian troops in Kherson. Social media users said that the video circulated on Saturday showed the remains of the Antonovsky railway bridge over the Dnipro River, which is near the scene of a Ukrainian counter-offensive by the southwestern city. On Tuesday, the Antonovsky road bridge was heavily damaged following Ukrainian rocket fire from the U.S.-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems or HIMARS. The inability for vehicles to use the bridge dealt a blow to Russian forces as it...

The Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), England’s hub for child gender reassignment which has been ordered to close down, is said to have left “thousands of damaged children” in its wake. Currently subject to an investigation as a result of whistleblowers, parents, and patients accusing it of rushing children, particularly girls, into medical treatment for supposed gender dysphoria, the Tavistock is now set to be shut down by Spring 2023 after the paediatrician leading the investigation announced some of her recommendations early — most notably that GIDS is “not a safe or viable long-term option” for its patients and...

Billboard’s top 5 songs from July 31, 1982. This is my favorite top 5 from any week.These are Billboard’s top 5 songs from July 31, 1982. This is my favorite top 5 from any week.https://top40weekly.com/1982-all-charts/1 Survivor – Eye of the Tigerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV42 Toto – Rosannahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmOLtTGvsbM3 John Cougar – Hurts So Goodhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dOsbsuhYGQ4 Fleetwood Mac – Hold Mehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0sha1XfHxw5 The Steve Miller Band – Abracadabrahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY8B0uQpwZs

A 23-year-old man who “exited” a plane Friday afternoon before it made an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport was found dead around 7 p.m. in Fuquay-Varina, authorities said. ...Crooks was the plane’s co-pilot That was the tragic ending to a confusing emergency at RDU Friday. Around 3 p.m., a twin-engine turbo prop aircraft reported landing gear issues as it approached the airport, according to the airport. The plane landed on Runway 5R-23L and veered into the grass, according to the airport. The pilot, the only passenger on the plane when it reached the ground, was taken to a Duke...

A new study claims that air emissions from farms kill 17,000 Americans per year. It’s the first shot in a second try by the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency to control American farms through junk science-fueled air pollution regulations. The study is funded by a $10 million grant awarded by the Obama administration’s EPA, and pretends to examine fine dust and soot emissions (called “PM2.5”) from all farm operations — including machinery, tilling, fertilizer use, field burning, livestock movement, waste management and more.

Since 2013, Rubenstein, 72, who co-founded the private equity giant the Carlyle Group, has given millions to entities that repair and upgrade historical monuments and landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument as well as Monticello and Montpelier, the homes of US presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. But some say the restoration at the presidential homes has recast the presidents as sinister racists while downplaying their accomplishments... But a quick dive into Rubenstein’s backstory shows he’s not so pure himself. He made his initial fortune in the 1980s by exploiting a tax loophole in Alaska allowing him...

The nation of Andorra will be the 33rd country to recognize marriage rights for same-sex couples. Lawmakers in the tiny nation – which has a population of about 77,000 and is smaller than the city of Chicago in land mass – voted unanimously to allow same-sex couples access to civil marriage. “Today we vote for a law for all, which includes us all, a law of a modern country that ensures the free development of citizenship and bases its success on the most important nucleus of organization, the family, with all its diversity,” said Carles Enseñat, president of the Democratic...

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday the Archdiocese of Indianapolis acted within the law when it fired a long-time counselor because she is in a same-sex marriage. The Chicago-based Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the former counselor was employed as a minister at the Catholic faith-based Roncalli High School, and she was expected to support the school’s religious mission and follow church teachings in her personal life to remain employed. The Catholic Church does not support gay marriage. The court affirmed a district court’s year-old decision in a 27-page ruling and barred discrimination, retaliation and hostile work environment claims...

European Union policymakers have started to prepare the public for siege conditions this winter if gas supplies from Russia are completely cut, an effort to demonstrate diplomatic resolve as well as avoid panic later in the year. In recent weeks, officials from Germany and other EU member states have begun to talk openly and urgently about the need for immediate reductions in consumption in advance of the peak winter heating season. They have also started to plan publicly for compulsory allocation, including rationing and prioritization among industrial users, as well as sharing among member states in the event there is...