Free Republic

Retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in an interview that too many politicians in Washington “don’t care” about the country, only about their “political ambitions.” In an interview with The Associated Press published Wednesday, Leahy said when he first joined the Senate in 1975, senators found ways to get things done regardless of differing views. Leahy, 82, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, has spent the last 48 years in the Senate and serves as the chamber’s president pro tempore and is third in line to the presidency. “I think then, most of [the senators] knew there were basic things the...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who’s up for reelection in 2024, said in an interview published on Wednesday that “I’m convinced that if I run, I win.” In the interview with Politico, Romney didn’t say whether he would seek a second term as senator but projected confidence that he would win if decided to do so. “I’ve faced long odds: Getting the nomination in 2012 was a long shot, becoming a Republican governor in one of the most liberal states in America, Massachusetts. … So I’m convinced that if I run, I win. But that’s a decision I’ll make,” the first-term...

President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in their meeting on Wednesday are expected to discuss what a ‘just peace’ looks like and a potential end to the war in Ukraine, according to a White House spokesman. “I have no doubt that they’re going to talk about President Zelensky’s notion of a just peace and what that looks like, what are the components of that and how do we help Ukraine get to that point,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told CNN on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The giant annual spending bill unveiled by Congress on Tuesday contains more than $44 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, renewing the U.S. commitment to the country’s defense as Russia’s invasion grinds toward a second year.The new wave of aid for Ukraine — billions more than President Biden requested in mid-November — comes amid growing concerns among the country’s backers about the depth of America’s support. Some Republicans have questioned the massive spending, while some progressives have called for peace talks.

The Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers following an emergency landing and fire earlier this month, and none of the strategic aircraft will perform flyovers at this year’s college bowl games. A bomber experienced an in-flight malfunction on Dec. 10, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where it caught fire. The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries. The standdown is significant in that there are fewer than 20 stealth bombers in the entire fleet and the aircraft provides, along with the B-52 Stratofortress, the air...

Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown commuted the execution sentences of her state’s 17 death-row inmates effective Wednesday, all of them convicted killers. Brown reduced the inmates’ sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, saying she did so solely because capital punishment is universally “dysfunctional and immoral.” The convicts’ crimes include child murder, rape, robbery and a plot involving a bomb.

American higher education has changed drastically over the last half-century or so. It used to be that relatively few people thought postsecondary education was necessary; for those who did, college was not terribly expensive and mostly offered serious courses based on fields of knowledge. If you asked college or university presidents what the purpose of their institutions was, they’d say something like, “To help people understand the world through teaching and research.” The authors of Don’t Go to College: A Case for Revolution lament that few of our colleges are still like that. Instead, they are intent on changing the...

In San Francisco, the Asian-American community has drawn a lot of press for having had it up to here with crime, bums, dereliction, drugs, hookers, lootings, wokester education, and openly declared violent hate-crimes on the street. They threw out a slew of Board of Education wokesters plus the wokester let-'em-out district attorney, Chesa Boudin, in recall earlier this year, but little has changed, wokerism remains, the mayor isn't up to the job because she still thinks the solution is to throw money at the problems, and the crime keeps spreading. With no plan in action, citizens there elected more Democrats...

[snip] In 1459, a book was written that contained images so bizarre that even 500 years later their meaning is still shrouded in mystery. It depicts improbable medieval siege engines and machines of war. Figures an extraordinary apparatus and blood-thirsty jewels. Why was this manuscript written, and who could have unlocked its full potential? This book will reveal the secrets of a medieval age far more advanced than future generations could ever imagine. [/snip]The Most Violent Medieval Inventions You Won't Believe Existed Fight Book | Absolute History1.66M subscribers | 1,178,367 views | 50:29 | November 6, 2021

Taxpayers will fund the erection of press statues in Washington, D.C., along with handing out media subsidies worth over $1 billion, if the Omnibus bill is passed into law in the coming days. According to section 708 of the bill, the establishment media will be given a “commemorative” location in Washington, D.C., to honor “journalists”: The location of a commemorative work to commemorate the commitment of the United States to a free press by honoring journalists who sacrificed their lives in service to that cause within Area I, as depicted on the map entitled ‘‘Commemorative Areas Washington, DC and Environs’’,...

A recent article said according to polls Liz Cheney may be the least popular prominent person in the Republican Party now. So here is a collage I made for everyone. Enjoy! 🤣

Joe Biden’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over a million jobs were created in the second quarter, a heartening statistic that no doubt helped the Democrats in November. But now, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve says that those million jobs were almost entirely fictitious: The Biden administration vastly overstated its estimate that employers created more than 1 million jobs in the second quarter of this year, claiming historic job growth when in fact hiring had stalled, according to a new estimate. Job growth was “essentially flat” in the second quarter with only 10,500 jobs added, the Federal Reserve Bank of...

Sousan, a young Yazidi girl of 16, had one of the happiest days of her life when she was married to Fouzi, a Yazidi man, in the town of Sinjar, northern Kurdistan, Iraq. What she didn’t know was that five months after the wedding, in August 2014, ISIS would attack and take her town. This was after ISIS had already attacked and taken a large part of Iraq as well as Syria. The ISIS fighers swooped in with machine guns, tanks, and mortars, destroying all in front of them and targeting the Yazidi especially for brutal treatment. The Yazidis practice...

The State Department awarded a $30,000 grant to an organization that promotes the transgender ideology in the mostly Muslim nation of Kyrgyzstan. The grant from the State Department, which was given to an organization called Kyrgyz Indigo, was intended to “prevent gender-based violence against the transgender community and increase acceptance through sensitivity and advocacy trainings, and media campaigns.” Kyrgyz Indigo calls itself the “largest LGBT+ human rights and advocacy organization in Central Asia” and partners with organizations like Amnesty International and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.

Researchers at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium documented the case of a female zebra shark who hatched pups from eggs that were fertilized with her own genetic material. Photo courtesy of the Shedd Aquarium/Brenna Hernandez Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago said researchers were stunned when they discovered a female zebra shark had hatched pups without any genetic material from a male. The aquarium said the female shark, nicknamed Bubbles, hatched pups in the tank she shares with multiple other adult zebra sharks, and the babies were originally believed to have been fathered by a male shark in the...

An aide to former President Donald Trump told the House Jan. 6 committee earlier this year that he saw the commander-in-chief “tearing” up documents, according to a report. Nick Luna, who served as Trump’s personal aide in the White House, told the House select committee during a deposition on March 21 that he witnessed Trump destroying presidential documents, possibly in violation of the Presidential Records Act, according to CBS News. “Did I ever see him tear up notes? I don’t know what the documents were but there [was] tearing,” Luna testified to the panel investigating last year’s Capitol riot, according...

American kids are in the grip of a gender contagion. New research from the Ethics and Public Policy Center reveals that the number of prescriptions for puberty blockers to under-18s doubled between 2017 and 2021. The data, based on information gathered from insurers, provide the clearest picture to date of the booming industry of gender butchery being practiced on American minors. In this medical Wild West, a well-oiled campaigning machine with tentacles into nonprofits, schools and even the White House recruits healthy kids and spits out sterilized simulacra of the opposite sex, often with lifelong health issues. Concerned parents, meanwhile,...

Authorities said Tuesday that eight teenage girls in Canada have been charged with the murder of a homeless man after allegedly stabbing him multiple times over what police believe was a bottle of alcohol. The 59-year-old victim, who began living in Toronto’s shelter system in September, was allegedly “swarmed” by the girls just after midnight Sunday in downtown Toronto, The Associated Press reported. He was then transported to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, the police report states. “I’ve been in policing for almost 35 years and you think you’ve seen it all,” Detective Sgt. Terry Browne...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Luke 1:39–40We are presented today with the glorious story of the Visitation. When Mary was about two months pregnant, she traveled to be with her cousin Elizabeth who was to give birth within a month. Though much could be said about this as an act of familial love given from Mary to Elizabeth, the central focus immediately becomes the precious Child within the womb of Mary.Imagine the...

Dean was convicted of manslaughter for shooting and killing Atatiana Jefferson in her home in 2019. He was on duty as a police officer at the time. Former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean has been sentenced to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison for the manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson. Dean shot Jefferson through her bedroom window while responding to a call about open doors at her home. The last part of his sentence resonates with the date of that call: Oct. 12, 2019. If sentenced to 10 years or less, Dean would have been eligible for...