Free Republic

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to social media Sunday to politicize Saturday night’s shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and dozens of others injured. After Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) sent out a tweet condemning the violence and expressing that the victims and their families were in her prayers, Ocasio-Cortez levied an attack on her colleague, suggesting she deserved blame for the attack.

President Joe Biden pardoned two White House turkeys on Monday, continuing a presidential tradition. The two turkeys were named “Chocolate” and “Chip,” prompting the president to talk about ice cream. “Of course, Chocolate is my favorite ice cream,” he said after talking about the turkeys. He spoke briefly and moved over to the two turkeys pardoning them immediately.

The United States Senate voted Wednesday to advance the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. HR 8404, which passed the House of Representatives in July, “provides statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages,” repealing provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman. The legislation also “repeals and replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin,” allows “the Department of Justice to bring...

President Biden on Monday approved an emergency declaration for New York and ordered federal assistance to help respond to the severe winter storm in the western part of the state. His action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to supplement state and local response efforts in place since the snowstorm hit over the weekend. The federal government can now coordinate disaster relief in 11 New York counties, including Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara.

President Biden said there was no evidence of election fraud — or “fowl play” — as he took part in the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony at the White House. “The votes are in. They’ve been counted and verified. There’s no ballot stuffing,” Biden cracked — in an apparent dig at former President Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election — as he prepared to pardon the turkeys in the gobble-filled tradition on the South Lawn on Monday.

A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that McCarthy prevailed in Republican House leadership elections on Tuesday, overcoming a challenge from hard-line conservative Representative Andy Biggs in a 188-31 vote by the caucus.

Student loans have been at the forefront of higher-education policy discussions for quite some time. The recent actions taken by the Biden Administration on student-loan forgiveness have made the issue all the more prevalent. One of the key arguments of those who favor forgiveness is that students didn’t know what they were getting themselves into when they signed up for huge loans. While I don’t entirely buy that argument, my own experience with student loans suggests that it has a surprising amount of credence. According to a survey conducted by the Brookings Institution, only 52 percent of surveyed students could...

The persecution of conservatives since the 2020 presidential election had reached unprecedented heights as the concept of “disinformation” and political correctness on steroids called “wokeness” had the media punishing, blocking, and canceling all who spoke any opinions that were not held by said media. The social media giant Twitter canceled users at a furious rate, even canceling the President of the United States. The recent purchase of the social media platform by Elon Musk, who vowed to make free speech possible on social media again, has opened up the platform to those who state conservative views as well as liberal...

Miquel A. Jones was arraigned Monday morning in Edgartown District Court on a charge of being an accessory after the fact in connection with Thursday’s armed bank robbery of the Rockland Trust in Vineyard Haven. Jones, 30, is a former Jamaican pro soccer player, according to attorney Casey Dobel who represented him in the courtroom. Jones will be represented by attorney Matt Kelly. Court records show Jones is a Jamaican national who lives in Edgartown. His job listed on court records is landscaper. Bail was set at $300,000 by Judge Benjamin Barnes with a curfew and GPS if he makes...

In July, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a 190-page proposal for new rules under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. If passed, the rules would reintroduce Obama-era standards for defining and addressing “sexual harassment,” which means, in practice, restrictive speech codes, proliferating Title IX jobs on the public dime, and campus kangaroo courts. This time, the OCR intends to add a mandatory reporting requirement that would turn teachers and professors into enforcers of an infantilizing sex bureaucracy. The most troubling aspect of the new rules, however, is what they do on the gender-identity...

This morning CBS Morning News was on in the house (not my choice) and they were covering the latest spin on Hunter Biden's laptop. CBS overall was unusually critical of the evidence on the laptop. But what caught my attention was at the end of the story when anchor Gayle King made this comment starting at the 5:48 mark: "Could be a lesson to pay your bills. Eighty-five dollars could have changed everything had the bill been paid." Is it just me or did she say that criminals should do a better job of covering up their crimes?

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Monday on CNN “This Morning” that it was “hard to conceive” the motive was not “hate” in Saturday’s shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 25 injured. Weiser said, “So the investigation’s ongoing, and I think it’s fair to say, based on the facts, it’s very hard to conceive a situation where the motive wasn’t generated by hate. This was a well-known nightclub that individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, or gender identity, the LGBTQ community knew was a safe place. It was a place where people could...

Republicans will start every day in the new Congress with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Monday. Republicans will take back the House in the next Congress, as Trump-backed Kevin Kiley’s (R-CA) victory brought the GOP to 218 — the number needed to have a majority in the lower chamber.

In recent years, several left-wing institutions, including the mainstream media and public education, have ramped up their attacks against the beloved holiday of Thanksgiving, often falsely accusing the holiday of remembering racism and violence that never occurred. Thanksgiving is remembered as the special feast held by the Pilgrims after they first arrived to America aboard the Mayflower in 1620, and was historically significant as an occasion where the Pilgrims and the Native Americans were able to come together peacefully and enjoy the abundance of natural resources that the New World had to offer. In the following centuries, it is observed...

Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone (D) on Monday said the deadly shooting that left five people dead and 25 wounded at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., was the result of “tropes, insults, and misinformation” about the community. “The LGBTQ+ community woke up this morning to yet another horrific event of murder. When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LTBGQ community, this is a result. I’m angry & my heart breaks for those who lost their lives,” Titone, who is transgender, wrote on Twitter.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Monday said the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” underscoring the Biden administration’s commitment to keep funding the nation in its war against Ukraine despite concerns a new Republican majority in the House may plug up spending. Austin, speaking at a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, said the U.S. has provided more than $20 billion to Ukraine and the country has used it effectively.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chair of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, credited former President Trump for Democratic turnout in the midterms and said Trump could continue to be a problem for Republicans. “There’s no question that Donald Trump is a motivating factor for turnout when it comes to Democratic voters,” Peters said in an interview with NBC’s Sahil Kapur. Democrats secured a razor-thin majority in the Senate in the midterm elections by flipping Pennsylvania’s seat and defending vulnerable incumbents in Nevada and Arizona. In Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) will face Republican Herschel Walker again in a Dec. 6 runoff that...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Monday ordered the New York State Police to increase surveillance and protection for at-risk communities in the wake of the deadly shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I have directed the New York State Police to ramp up monitoring and increase support for communities that are potential targets of hate crimes. Here in New York, we will not tolerate violence or bigotry toward any community,” Hochul said in a statement. A gunman on Sunday killed five people and wounded 25 others at Colorado’s Club Q nightclub, on the eve of...

Russia's leading war hawks rallied behind the humiliating decision for Moscow's forces to retreat from the Ukrainian city of Kherson this month, but the commander who argued in favour of the move is now under growing pressure to prove it was worth it. Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, on Nov. 9 recommended Moscow's forces quit Kherson and the west bank of the River Dnipro where they were dangerously exposed. Surovikin, a 56-year-old veteran of wars in Chechnya and Syria who has been decorated by President Vladimir Putin, argued the withdrawal, completed two...

FBI Director Christopher Wray has a curious set of priorities. He bailed out of a Senate hearing in August to use a private jet to take him to a very important personal vacation in the Adirondacks. Wray doesn't like answering questions- especially the critical ones. And so it was once again last Tuesday that Wray refused to answer rather important questions. FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to answer multiple questions Tuesday from a Republican congressman concerning whether FBI sources were embedded among Jan. 6 protesters during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Worldwide Threats to the Homeland. Republican Louisiana...