Free Republic

Explanation: Is the sky angry with Mount Shasta? According to some ancient legends, the spirits of above and below worlds fight there, sometimes quite actively during eruptions of this enormous volcano in California, USA. Such drama can well be imagined in this deep sky image taken in late June. Evident above the snow-covered peak is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, on the left, and a picturesque sky toward the modern constellations of Scorpius and Ophiuchus, above and to the right. The bright orange star Antares and the colorful rho Ophiuchi cloud complex are visible just to the...

Tuesday, during an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, National Hurricane Center acting director Jamie Rohme responded to the possibility Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida was a direct consequence of climate change. Rohme downplayed any direct ties to climate change but said it was possible “on the cumulative.” Partial transcript as follows: LEMON: Yes, that’s a big area. So, meteorologists, Jamie, have said that this storm could be entering another period of rapid intensification. Can you tell us what this is and what effect the climate change has on this phenomenon? ROHME: Well, we can come back and talk about...

The Financial Post reports that major banks in the United States and Europe are threatening to withdraw from green banking and investment group committed to pursuing net zero goals due to fears of lawsuits and the impact of increasingly stringent carbon dioxide emission reduction benchmarks on the firms' profitability. This is a wise decision.Ending the use of fossil fuels in a vain attempt to prevent climate change is bad for the economy in general and banking and diversified investment funds in particular. These banks never should have led or participated in such an effort.According to the Financial Post, major U.S...

When it comes to cooking and baking, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that butter just makes things better. But with the holiday season coming up, many may have to scramble to find enough butter for their baked goods. That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which recently reported on a dairy shortage in the U.S. due to staffing issues and lower milk production. With less butter on shelves and in storage facilities (reportedly the lowest since 2017), that means the price of the yellow stuff has gone up. Over the last year, butter prices have gone up by more than...

In his first inaugural address in March 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” It was the Great Depression. The unemployment rate was over 25 percent. An estimated 12 million people were out of work, about one-fourth of the civilian labor force. “More than 11,000 of 24,000 banks had failed, destroying the savings of depositors,” according to the National Archives. 7 ways to lower your credit card debt after the Fed rate hike Fast forward to now, and as bad...

Activists driven by false theories about election fraud are working to toss out tens of thousands of voter registrations and ballots in battleground states, part of a loosely coordinated campaign that is sowing distrust and threatening further turmoil as election officials prepare for the November midterms. Groups in Georgia have challenged at least 65,000 voter registrations across eight counties, claiming to have evidence that voters’ addresses were incorrect. In Michigan, an activist group tried to challenge 22,000 ballots from voters who had requested absentee ballots for the state’s August primary. And in Texas, residents sent in 116 affidavits challenging the...

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said deliberate disruption would meet the "strongest possible response". The EU has previously accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon against the West over its support for Ukraine. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed accusations of sabotage as "predictable, stupid and absurd The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he thought the leaks would "not have a significant impact on Europe's energy resilience". Neither pipeline is transporting gas at the moment, although they both contain gas. Mr Blinken did not directly accuse Russia - but said it would be in...

Grammy-winning pop star and Joe Biden-Kamala Harris surrogate Lizzo played a 200-year-old crystal flute lent to her by The Library of Congress, before proclaiming, “*****, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s.” Lizzo was on stage at one of her recent concerts, when she was handed a 200-year old flute originally owned by the fourth U.S. president, James Madison.

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is asking that parents of children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border undergo another round of psychological evaluations to measure how traumatized they were by the Trump-era policy, court documents show. The request comes in a lawsuit filed by migrants seeking compensation from the government after thousands of children were taken from parents in a policy maligned as inhumane by political and religious leaders around the world. Settlement talks with attorneys and the government broke down late last year. The requests came in two cases filed by 11 families. There are nearly two dozen similar...

Since his arrest, Ryan Samsel has been held in a Washington DC prison. On March 21, 2021, Ryan was awakened by correctional officers and his hands were zip-tied. Then they walked him to an unoccupied cell where he was brutally beaten by the officers. Ryan Samsel lost an eye in the beating. His face was smashed. The next day the guards beat him again. In July 2021 Ryan’s attorney Joseph McBride joined Greg Kelly on Newsmax to reveal the unbelievable abuse of the Jan. 6 political prisoners in Washington DC.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is counting on a variety of private-sector partnerships to help fund and implement its ambitious goal of ending hunger in America by 2030. Biden’s administration released a list of more than $8 billion in commitments to the cause from private companies, charitable foundations and industry groups. They range from outright donations to in-kind contributions of services and include: —A $20 million commitment from the Novo Nordisk pharmaceutical company to improve access to healthy foods and safe spaces for physical activity in marginalized communities. —A $3.85 million commitment from the Publix grocery store chain to...

United Arab List RA'AM mourn [Mufti] supporter of suicide bombings The Islamic movement paid tribute to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the senior leaders of the "Muslim Brotherhood" and the head of the instigators against Israel. "Dedicated his life to the defense of Islam" Senior officials in the Ra'am party and the southern faction of the Islamic movement paid tribute to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the leaders of the "Muslim Brotherhood" and the greatest instigator against Israel, after he died during Rosh Hashanah. In the obituary issued by the southern faction of the Islamic movement affiliated with the Ra'am party, and...

Pacific Legal Foundation filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education to block its illegal move to cancel more than $500 billion in student loan debt. “Congress did not authorize the executive branch to unilaterally cancel student debt,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “It’s flagrantly illegal for the executive branch to create a $500 billion program by press release, and without statutory authority or even the basic notice and comment procedure for new regulations.” In August 2022, President Biden announced his plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt per person for more than...

The audiobook for the 1916 book The History of the Fabian Society is now complete. Full disclosure - this isn't my voice. Yes! those of you who know, I've been recording free open source public domain audiobooks for years now in order to bring content to a conservative audience who realizes the natural advantage that history brings for us. So why not leverage it? Why let an advantage go to waste? To that end, I had a conversation with a gentleman some time ago, we discussed potential works, and long story short he put in the work and produced this...

A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday told the man accused of killing six people at last year’s Waukesha Christmas parade to “stop playing games” as the suspect voiced his intent to defend himself at trial. Darrel Brooks, 40, is facing 77 charges — including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide — for the horrific vehicular attack at the Wisconsin city’s annual parade in Nov. 2021. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges. “I would like to represent myself,” Brooks told Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow. Dorow asked Brooks what that means to him, to which he replied “Again, because I’ve already...

The sentencing trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz is being delayed as Hurricane Ian threatens to slam Florida. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer postponed the trial — which was expected to continue through the rest of the week — until Monday. The state began making its rebuttal case on Tuesday and was expected to resume its arguments on Wednesday, Thursday and a half-day Friday. However the Broward County Courthouse where Cruz’s trial is underway will be closed at least on Wednesday and Thursday due to “the potential impact of Hurricane Ian,” the county clerk’s website states. The state is seeking...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed changes proposed by a bipartisan group of senators to the Electoral Count Act, the 1887 law that governs how Congress affirms presidential election results and a smooth transition of power. The Kentucky Republican’s support means the evenly split chamber almost certainly has the ability to pass the proposed modifications that are meant to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters temporarily halted the certification process and some GOP lawmakers contested the results from states that voted for President Biden. “I’ll proudly support the legislation, provided that nothing more than technical changes are...

Democrats’ lead in the generic congressional ballot narrowed to 2 points in a Politico-Morning Consult poll released Wednesday. The poll found that Democrats led Republicans in the ballot 45 percent to 43 percent, down from the 5-point lead they had in the same poll last week. Democrats are holding the narrow lead six weeks out from the crucial November midterms. Democrats are seeking to defy a historical trend that usually sees the president’s party lose seats in Congress in the midterm elections, while Republicans are trying to retake control of both chambers.