Free Republic

Vera Jourova is the current vice president of a body ironically called the "European Commission for Values and Transparency." Recently, while speaking at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel, Jourova stated that the United States will "soon" have "illegal hate speech laws." (Hate speech laws themselves should be illegal and, in fact, are in the United States, due to protections afforded Americans by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, this hasn't deterred Democrats, wokesters, and other would-be authoritarians from trying to ban speech they find distasteful and/or against their interests.) The Daily Caller recently reported that Jourova "participated...

There go the property values. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared Astoria, Queens to the People’s Republic of China during an inauguration ceremony this week for a fellow socialist, newly elected state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez. “Kristen is like the last Infinity Stone to the People’s Republic of Astoria. With her election, we now have DSA members elected to every level of government” in the neighborhood, AOC boasted on Thursday, ignoring China’s horrific history of committing human-rights atrocities, as she instead referenced a plot line from “The Avengers” Marvel series. Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan, who grew up in Belarus under Soviet Union rule,...

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The 911 call alerting law enforcement to the murders of the four University of Idaho students has long been shrouded in mystery after Moscow Police said that the caller initially reported “an unconscious individual” in the home. The call was made from the cellphone of one of the two surviving roommates at around 11.58am on 13 November, with the dispatcher speaking to multiple people. Officers arrived at the home to find a bloody scene, with Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin all dead from multiple stab wounds. Since then, questions have persisted around why the caller reported...

In what is likely to become a landmark case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an en banc decision of all the judges in the circuit, struck down the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule which changed the definition of a machinegun to include bump stocks. Thirteen judges were in the majority, with three judges dissenting. The case is Cargill v. Garland. This correspondent wrote about it previously. Here is a summation of how the sixteen judges ruled. From the opinion: Of the sixteen members of our court, thirteen of us agree...

The Left has replaced the class-war game with a war on competence and achievement, hiding beyond claims of racial and sexual equity. Decades ago, the Left played the class-war game. These days it’s a war on competence and achievement, hiding beyond claims of racial and sexual equity. In Virginia, we are to believe that on their own, high school administrators in seventeen schools decided not to inform those of their students who had scored high enough on their scholastic aptitude tests to be named National Merit semi-finalists. Of course, it was not coincidental. Two factors are involved: The spurious claim...

A Las Vegas judge and mother of three killed herself a year after leaving her position to avoid a complicated ethics probe that began over what she said was her attempt to save her daughter from prostitution. Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, 53, who stepped down as a Justice of the Peace before a hearing regarding her ethics investigation, was reportedly found dead by suicide Friday, 8NewsNow reported. The outlet did not provide details about how she died. The judge charged that pimps were “targeting the daughters of judges and law enforcement” to recruit them into prostitution. Andress-Tobiasson was being investigated by Nevada’s...

The Talk Shows Jan 22nd, 2023 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Anchor Shannon Bream: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.); Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). Roe v. Wade debate: Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Elizabeth Wydra, Progressive constitutionalist, Supreme Court litigator, and legal expert for TV & print. Panel: Josh Holmes, Francesca Chambers, Raymond Arroyo and Marie Harf. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Hosted by Chuck U. Toad: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). Panel: Peter Baker, Brendan Buck, Kimberly Atkins Stohr and Kristen Welker—just...

Of course, the “Joe Biden” classified document scandal is less about the documents per se than it is about the Biden family business, which was accepting large sums of money from shady foreign interests for unspecified services rendered. “Joe Biden,” the brand, is owned, perhaps to the degree that he can be called “a sell-out.” Selling out your country is kind of serious. For instance, our country is right now deeply involved in a war between a Biden family client, Ukraine, and its angry relative, Russia. The USA has pumped more than $100-billion into Ukraine just this past year. That’s...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday renewed alarm over Beijing's intentions over Taipei and said China is "no longer comfortable" with status quo on Taiwan. Antony Blinken said the world is concerned about Taiwan now because it saw what happened to Hong Kong in the past few years, reported Taiwan News. Blinken spoke about Beijing's constant growing efforts to isolate the nation and the major military exercises it carried out near it in August. Beijing has upped its military activity and routinely sends several warplanes and vessels towards Taiwan to intimidate the island. It has also warned foreign...

Embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., admitted he dressed up as a woman "for fun" at a party in Brazil, but denied ever performing as a drag queen. Santos made the comments to reporters while caught at the airport Saturday, days after he first denied reports of his drag queen past as "categorically false." "No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young, and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life," Santos told reporters, according to the New York Post. Santos is facing widespread calls for his resignation from Congress for lying...

According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Sundays are holy days of obligation. In addition, the Code lists 10 holy days of obligation in the Church

PHOENIX - A bipartisan group of Arizona lawmakers have introduced legislation to study the possible benefits of psychedelic mushrooms for mental health and various other disorders. If House Bill 2486 is passed, a research advisory council would be established to study the impacts of the drug. The bill would not legalize mushrooms for recreational use. Clinical trials would be conducted to evaluate the effects of mushrooms on PTSD, depression, long-term symptoms of COVID-19 and other conditions. Lawmakers would seek $30 million for a three-year study. Read the bill here: https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/56leg/1R/bills/HB2486P.htm

WASHINGTON - Just like teens, members of Congress are setting up TikTok accounts - even as the popular app is increasingly barred from government devices and heads of federal intelligence agencies raise concerns about data collection and surveillance obtained by a Chinese-owned company. At least 32 members of Congress - all Democrats and one independent - as of early January had TikTok accounts, according to a review by States Newsroom. While there are no laws in place banning lawmakers from using the app on their personal devices, cybersecurity experts have raised concerns over data collection for those members who deal...

Not in my HUGE back yard! 156-unit low-income housing project sparks outrage in billionaire's playground Nantucket - where Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and former Secretary of State John Kerry spend their summers Plans to build an affordable housing project on Nantucket, Surfside Crossing, were first submitted in April 2018, and have been hotly contested ever since Developers want to create 156 homes on a 13.5-acre site, with 70 percent designated for people who live on the island year-round They said 15 of the homes and 24 of the condos would be sold for between $261,000 and $373,000, but locals say...

Germany may transfer 19 Leopard 2A5 tanks to Ukraine, Der Spiegel magazine reported. Germany is ready to transfer to Ukraine only 19 of the oldest Leopard 2 tanks, which are used in exercises to simulate the enemy, Spiegel writes. In total, the German military had 312 Leopards in 2 different production series in the spring, the newspaper notes.

A coalition of news organizations is seeking evidence surrounding the alleged home invasion of Paul Pelosi’s residence in October. The media outlets filed a court motion last week seeking the release of evidence introduced in David DePape’s preliminary hearing. This comes as other stories across the country, such as Biden’s classified documents blunder, have been stealing some of the clout of this bizarre episode. **SNIP** It includes body camera footage from police officers who responded at the scene of the Pelosi residence, footage from Capitol Police surveillance cameras at the home, and video of a post-arrest interview with DePape, according...

At least nine people were shot and killed on Saturday night in Monterey Park, California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said...The Los Angeles suburb is hosting the Monterey Park Lunar New Year Festival this weekend, marking the beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar...The annual two-day street festival is widely attended, with previous celebrations drawing as many as 100,000 daily visitors...events were scheduled to finish at 9 p.m...shooting began just after 10 p.m.

FBI investigators on Friday found additional classified material while conducting a search of President Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home. Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, said in a statement that during the search, which took place over nearly 13 hours Friday, “DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President. DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential...

As the week draws to a close, I can’t help but realize that the meeting at Davos is in fact the new gathering for a bastardized transhuman religion that certainly is attempting to replace the old-school religions with scientism. Of course, this scientism is created and will be forced on us with great hostility. Scientism, the secular belief system of the modern world, sawed off the Old Time Religion quite some time ago. Many people believe there’s a scientific solution to every problem. And like all new religions, the secular religion of our times also incorporates some of the rituals...