Free Republic

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says Senate Democrats don’t have any jurisdiction over the Supreme Court’s ethics and should “stay out” of the court’s business, after ProPublica reported conservative Justice Samuel Alito accepted a luxury fishing vacation from wealthy benefactors. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the chairman of a key Judiciary subcommittee, said in response to the report that they will mark up Supreme Court ethics legislation. But McConnell sent a strong signal Wednesday that any Supreme Court ethics reform bill is not likely to get enough Republican support to overcome a...

MULTIPLE VIDEOS AT LINK......... An extensive search-and-rescue has entered its third day trying to locate a submersible that went missing during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck, and time is running out. Rescuers have been racing against the clock because even under the best of circumstances, the vessel, OceanGate Expedition’s Titan, could run out of oxygen as soon as Thursday morning. A glimmer of hope came Wednesday morning, when the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said in a statement that a Canadian aircraft had detected noises underwater. The statement did not elaborate on what rescuers believe the noises could be. In...

The world is falling well short of the progress needed to meet the United Nations’ sustainable development goals by 2030 in areas ranging from poverty to clean energy to biodiversity, with a growing gap between wealthy and developing nations, according to a report Tuesday from the nonprofit tracking the goals. The … United Nations member states adopted the goals in 2015. Now, halfway through the 15-year time frame, not a single one of the goals is on target to be met. “We’re at the risk of a lost decade for sustainable development,” said Guillaume Lafortune, a lead author of the...

“Intense worry” is how a former passenger of the missing Titanic submersible describes his feelings as he waits with hope that the five people onboard, including two of his friends, will be found safely. Alfred Hagen, president of Hagen Construction and Development and a self-described adventurer from Pennsylvania, spoke with Global News about his connection to the ship and recounted his own journey he took into the ocean depths in 2021. His friends Paul-Henry Nargolet, a French diver considered a world expert on the Titanic, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush were on the submersible when it went missing Sunday. “As...

A heartbroken mom has been left devastated after no one showed up to her daughter's third birthday party. Gloria, who does not disclose her full name, had planned a Minnie Mouse-themed gettogether for daughter Daleyza. The family had festooned their backyard in Modesto, California, with pink balloons, glistening streamers and enough chairs to seat up to 20 guests. Gloria took to TikTok to vent her frustrations after not a single person arrived - but things eventually started looking up. In the 18-second clip, Gloria panned the camera around the backyard to show off the themed décor which had a table...

Attorney General Merrick Garland implied Hunter Biden’s plea deal with United States Attorney David Weiss did not involve a double standard of justice. While attending the EU/US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, a reporter asked Garland if he thought the Hunter Biden plea deal reflected “a different standard of justice depending on political leanings. Garland replied: As I said from the moment of my appointment as attorney general, I would leave this matter in the hands of the U.S. attorney, who was appointed by the previous president and assigned to this matter by the previous administration,...

Back in 2015, Hamtramck in Michigan became the first American city to elect a Muslim-majority council. Naturally, liberals celebrated this milestone for multiculturalism, while leading media outlets hailed it as a triumphant success. “Residents in Hamtramck from different religious and cultural backgrounds coexist in harmony,” beamed the BBC. Sadly, however, this verdict may now need to be reconsidered. Because Hamtramck’s Muslim council has just voted to ban Pride flags: the rainbow-coloured symbols of the LGBT community. For the Guardian – which had previously run articles hailing Hamtramck’s “multicultural populace” – this development appears to have come as a terrible shock....

Organizers of Pope’s synod insist they have ‘no agenda’ beyond listening ROME – Organizers of Pope Francis’s upcoming Synod of Bishops on Synodality have hit back against insinuations that the working document for the gathering is skewed in favor of liberal-minded Catholics, arguing that there is no conspiracy or pre-set agenda for the discussion.Speaking to journalists at a June 20 presentation of the synod’s working document, called the Instrumentum Laboris, Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxemburg said, “We have no agenda.”“There was not a conspiratorial meeting with some people to come up with how we could add some progressive points...

NEW YORK (AP) — Geraldo Rivera has quit as one of the lonely liberal voices on Fox News’ popular political combat show “The Five,” saying Wednesday that “a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences” made it no longer worth it to him. The last scheduled appearance on “The Five” for the television veteran, whose 80th birthday is on July 4, is next week. “It has been a rocky ride but it has also been an exhilarating adventure that spanned quite a few years,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I hope it’s not my...

Explanation: Does the Sun follow the same path every day? No. The Sun's path changes during the year, tracing a longer route during the summer than the winter. Pictured here, the Sun's arc was captured from noon to sunset on three days, from highest in the sky to lowest: summer solstice, equinox, and winter solstice. The images were taken near Gatto Corvino Village in Sicily, Italy in 2020 and 2021. The path and time the Sun spends in the sky is more important in determining the season than how close the Earth is to the Sun. In fact, the Earth...

PORTLAND, Ore. — With a need for more families to help foster youth and especially LGBTQ+ youth, a new campaign has been launched to recruit new resource families. The campaign called Fostering Pride is a collaboration between the Oregon Department of Human Services, along with Basic Rights Oregon, Unicorn Solutions and several other pride organizations. They say youth identifying as LGBTQ+ are overwhelmingly represented within the foster care system, and like all children, they need supportive environments to thrive. "Nationally, up to 1 in 3 youth in foster care identify as LGBTQIA2S+," said Elliott Hinkle, founder of Unicorn Solutions. Fostering...

Regarding Synods, Sins, and Itching EarsJune 20, 2023 (Steven O’Reilly) – Today, there was a press conference held at the Vatican at which the Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming Synod on Synods this October was released to the Vatican press corp.While the Instrumentum Laboris is perhaps intended to appeal to the ears as convincing rhetoric, the Gettysburg Address it is not. No. Instead, as has come to be expected of such ‘clerical-speak‘ in recent decades, it is but a mealy-mouthed stream of ambiguous, nauseating, pablum. Be prepared to see the word “synod” used copiously, such as talk of a “synodal...

A massive brawl broke out among protesters outside a California school board meeting Tuesday night over whether Pride should be included in the curriculum. One person was arrested after about 300 people attended the Glendale Unified School District's protest, the majority fighting against the inclusion of LGBTQ+-related material in the classroom. The clash, which was captured on video, comes just weeks after violence broke out amid a previous school board meeting in Glendale, a largely Armenian community. This time, there was a large police presence who came prepared - equipped in riot gear in case protestors became violent. Barricades were...

New Ways Ministry Praises New Synod Document That Includes LGBTQ+ PeopleThe following is a statement from Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry’s Executive Director, regarding the working document for Synod’s October assembly, which was released today.It is nothing short of an amazing and true blessing that LGBTQ+ people were mentioned twice in the Vatican’s working document for the assembly of the Synod in October, which was released today. The language and style of the document, called the Instrumentum Laboris, is highly generalized, mentioning very few specific topics, so getting not just one, but two mentions in the document signifies that LGBTQ+...

Joe Scarborough was so hell-bent on defending Hunter and Joe Biden, that on Wednesday's Morning Joe, he flagrantly twisted the facts about what Republicans and conservative voices were saying about the pair. Scarborough concluded that the real "witch hunt" is against those poor Bidens.Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

The interruption of education during COVID-19 lockdowns “damaged a generation,” England’s former Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dame Sally Davies has said. Giving evidence to the COVID-19 Inquiry on Tuesday, Davies, who is now the master of Trinity College, Cambridge, said education “has a terrific amount of work to do” to mitigate the impact on children and students. Davis was England’s CMO between March 2011 and September 2019, months before SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spread worldwide. Answering questions on pandemic resilience and preparedness, the first module of the COVID-19 Inquiry that’s expected to last three years, Davis said it...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has lashed out at Good Morning America for saying it was 'too dangerous' to film in the city's downtown, claiming it is 'hampering' efforts to bounce back from the pandemic. ABC's chief national news correspondent Matt Gutman told viewers Wednesday he had been advised against appearing live from Union Square or the now-closed Westfield Mall for a segment on the spate of stores fleeing the crime-ridden city. 'It is worth mentioning that we are not at Union Square or the Westfield Mall this morning because we have been advised that it's simply too dangerous to...

President Joe Biden spilled “sensitive” United States intelligence about China to campaign donors at a recent event in California, according to a report. At the fundraiser in California, Biden revealed to attendees what the U.S. intelligence agencies had learned about the Chinese spy balloon incident earlier this year, reportedly surprising U.S. officials. The New York Times reported that at the fundraiser, Biden “set off into what appeared to be an unplanned riff” about the spy balloon incident, “revealing what United States intelligence agencies had learned about the internal confusion in Beijing during the incident.”

A Bay Area woman and alleged biker-gang “enforcer” was sentenced to life in prison last week for a triple-murder of a family in 2016.

A North Carolina dad shot and killed an intruder who reportedly threatened his young daughter at their home on Father's Day, according to local authorities. Members of the Wilson's Mills police department and deputies with the Johnston County Sheriff's Office responded to the home at about 9 p.m. on Sunday over a report of a breaking and entering in progress with someone shot, according to The Johnston County Report. Wilson’s Mills Police Chief A.Z. Williams said the suspect entered the home's backyard on Sunday evening as the owner's children were playing outside. The suspect reportedly accosted the dad's 11-year-old daughter,...