Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump announced a lawsuit Monday seeking an audit and return of the items taken from his Mar-a-Lago home in an FBI raid earlier this month. “We have just filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida strongly asserting my rights, including under the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution, regarding the unnecessary, unwarranted, and unAmerican Break-In by dozens of FBI agents, and others, of my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida,” Trump wrote in a statement. He specifically singled out alleged requests from FBI agents to turn off security cameras during the...

Eight pro-abortion groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Texas because they want to start paying for women to travel out of state to abort their unborn babies again. Dallas Morning News reports the abortion funds asked a federal judge to prohibit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and local authorities from prosecuting their abortion work under a new state pro-life law. The 2021 Human Life Protection Act, which is slated to go into effect Thursday, prohibits the killing of unborn babies in abortions and allows criminal charges to be filed against abortionists who violate the law. Exceptions are allowed if the...

The Biden administration told a United Nations body that it promotes abortion to minorities and illegal aliens in order to combat racism. The exchange came last Friday, August 12, during the U.N.’s periodic review of how the U.S. is implementing the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In light of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, “what measures have been taken to address the impact of intersectional discrimination and systemic racism on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of racial and ethnic minorities?” asked the South African member overseeing the CERD review, Faith Dikeledi...

The Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST in gray, long and low with saddle bags on a bright, sunny day. I expected to hate this -- but I didn't. In the motorcycle world, Harley-Davidsons are a lot like Jeeps: You either get them or you don't. And I'm not going to lie, I've always counted myself in the "don't" crowd. While I've been suitably intrigued and impressed by Harley's recent efforts at branching out, like the Livewire and the Pan America Special, the traditional big, V-twin cruisers that defined the company have never done anything for me. Even BMW's attempt at making...

Long-term CTH readers might remember in 2014 when President Obama claimed U.S. families had been paying too little for electricity for too long. As soon as Joe Biden took office, he began implementing the Green New Deal energy policy that, (a) directly forces higher costs for energy; and (b) is now creating massive problems. In July I noted my own electricity bill had jumped 28% in a single month. That bill was followed by another almost identical increase this month. A review of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July [Data Here] shows that nationally the same thing is happening....

A pregnancy resource center in Schenectady, New York became the latest target of more than 100 vandalism and arson attacks on pro-life organizations and churches since May. Joe Burkuras, a journalist with the Catholic News Agency, broke the news Wednesday about the vandalism at Alpha Pregnancy Care Center, near Albany. A photo of the crime shows the words “Jane’s Revenge,” “Fake clinic” and “Stop forced birth!” spray-painted in red across the outside of the pro-life organization’s office. Jane’s Revenge is a radical pro-abortion group that has been connected to fire bombings and vandalism at pro-life organizations across the country. Burkuras...

At the beginning of this year’s midterm campaign, analysts and political operatives had every reason to expect a strong Republican showing this November. President Biden’s approval rating was in the low 40s, and the president’s party has a long history of struggling in midterm elections. But as the start of the general election campaign nears, it’s becoming increasingly hard to find any concrete signs of Republican strength. Tuesday’s strong Democratic showing in a special congressional election in New York’s 19th District is only the latest example. On paper, this classic battleground district in the Hudson Valley and Catskills is exactly...

In your typical midterm election with an unpopular Democratic president, you’d expect Republicans to be flying high. But the evidence is mounting that the national political environment right now actually leans toward Democrats. On Tuesday, Democrat Pat Ryan defeated Republican Marc Molinaro in a special election for New York’s swingy 19th Congressional District by 2 percentage points, 51 percent to 49 percent.1 At the same time, Republican Joe Sempolinski defeated Democrat Max Della Pia by a closer-than-expected margin of 7 points in the special election for New York’s solid-red 23rd District. On their own, these elections could be dismissed as...

Now that the Anthony Fauci era may soon be (finally) coming to an end, it may be useful to reflect on the very real damage this man has done over the course of the past several years during the most extraordinary reaction to a viral pandemic the American people have ever seen. Yes, you read that right. Even during the devastating Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, when 500 million people worldwide were infected with an estimated 50 million deaths, the American reaction through the federal government was relatively muted and the economic impact created at the direction of our national...

Yet another Coptic Christian church has been set aflame; and yet more Christians have been killed in Egypt. On Sunday, August 14, 2022, the Church of Abu Seifein—named after Saint Mercurius of Caesarea, revered by the Copts—caught fire as it was packed with over two hundred worshippers celebrating morning mass. At least 41 Christians—18 of whom were children—were either burned alive, killed by asphyxiation, or during the subsequent stampede. Along with the officiating priest, 5-year-old triplets, their mother, grandmother, and an aunt were among those killed. What caused this church fire? Considering that radical Muslims have torched or bombed hundreds...

A PLO representative who wrote to Zehava Galon 'moved us all' - awarded a shield of honor to the mother of 6 terrorists, among them the participants in the lynching in Ramallah Ishay Fridman @IshayFridman: Aug 24, 2022 Mohammed Al Madani, the chairman of the interaction with the Israeli society, sent a congratulatory letter to the chairman of Meretz, Zehava Gal-On. Nice of him. The same Al Madani awarded a token of appreciation to "Umm Hamid" a symbol of the Palestinian mother. 6 of her children became serious terrorists. Murdered Israelis, suicide attacks, murdered Israeli soldiers, the lynching in Ramallah...

Russia is preparing to hold "sham" referendums in occupied Ukrainian territories within a matter of days or weeks, the US warned on Wednesday. Moscow has instructed officials to begin preparations in areas that have fallen under its control during its war on Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The first referenda could be announced as soon as this week's end, he added, noting the US and international community will not view any such elections as legitimate. "We expect Russia to try to manipulate the results of these referenda...

... The U.S. plans to implement the controls with its international partners under a pact dating back to the Cold War known as the Wassenaar Arrangement. The new rule has been “coordinated via the Wassenaar Agreement, so it would be multilateral in nature,” Triolo said. “In terms of companies that could be affected, for this particular rule, it is the EDA tool makers that would be most affected, here Cadence, Synopsis, and Mentor. However, the wording of the rule remains unclear, and as written, the industry is pushing back because it is not clear that advanced versions of EDA tools...

A two-decade boom in real estate made many Chinese families feel richer. Now that the market has turned, many are curbing spending as their wealth declines, worsening the country’s economic slowdown. In dozens of cities, average prices for new and secondhand homes have fallen since September, with no sign of a recovery on the horizon. Numerous property developers have defaulted and stopped construction, sending sales lower and triggering a wider loss of confidence in the market. Now, many Chinese property owners are curbing spending and saving more as they worry about the possibility of further falls in home values ahead.

An amendment that would have held drug dealers accountable for fentanyl deaths was rejected by the Senate on Wednesday. Assembly Bill 2195, authored by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), would amend the penal code to creative an alternative plea for those charged with drug offenses to a charge of public nuisance. Specifically, AB 2195, also known as the Alternative Plea Act, would deal with charges that allege unlawfully cultivating, manufacturing, transporting, giving away, selling, or possession or use of a drug, or possession or use of drug paraphernalia.

There’s a warning for Republicans in the defeat of Marc Molinaro in Tuesday night’s special election in New York’s 19th Congressional District, but also hope. It was a tiny turnout across the board but especially for the Trump base — rural and working-class, non-college-educated white voters — who stayed home, while Democratic women without much else to vote for are newly energized by abortion, as we have seen in each of the four US House special elections since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June overturning Roe v. Wade. But that does not mean Democrats will be riding a Dobbs...

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy repeatedly pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the Biden administration’s plan for student loan forgiveness. President Joe Biden announced his plan to provide $10,000 in student loan forgiveness to those making $125,000 a year or less and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. When Doocy questioned Jean-Pierre about how the U.S. can afford this, the press secretary said the nation’s federal deficit has and will continue to drop. “And you might spend $300 to $900 billion extra, so you can do that and not increase the deficit?” Doocy asked. “Here’s...

Surprised no one has posted this or the just released Barr memo, totally destroying IMHO the Mueller Report

In this age of hyperpartisan politics, performers have taken to lecturing concert-goers who paid for the price of a ticket to a political lecture as well. A recent example came from Lady Gaga, who at her Tuesday night concert in Arlington claimed that Texas was a "purple" state, and that she hoped her fans would help turn it "blue." Writing for the Houston Chronicle, Ariana Garcia praised and highlighted parts of Lady Gaga's speech: During Lady Gaga's Arlington, Texas stop Tuesday night for her ongoing Chromatica Ball Tour, the popstar gave an impassioned two-minute speech encouraging the Lone Star State...

The Navy separated 67 sailors over the past month for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the sea service announced Wednesday. The Navy has so far separated 1,187 active-duty sailors and 324 reservists since it mandated vaccinations against COVID-19 following the FDA licensure of the Pfizer vaccine, now called Comirnaty. Of the 67 sailors separated in the past month, 66 were active-duty while one was a reservist. The 1,187 separations do not include 22 separations for sailors in their first 180 days of service. There are still 3,000 active-duty and 3,376 reserve sailors that are not vaccinated, according to the...