Free Republic

A man in Sri Lanka broke two world records this month when he had a massive kidney stone removed from his body, according to Guinness World Records. Sixty-two year old Canistus Coonghe, a retired soldier, had not only the largest kidney stone but also the heaviest. It was removed June 1 by a team of urologists. The 1.76 pound kidney stone – roughly the same weight as five baseballs – is the largest kidney stone ever recorded. Guinness stated on their website that the kidney stone is larger than Coonghe's actual kidney. Lengthwise, the stone reportedly measured 5.26 inches by...

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., gloated about his censure during an appearance on “The View” Thursday and said he was “doing pretty damn well.” Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked Schiff about the censure and argued there were a lot of other things House Republicans could be doing. He told the hosts that the GOP goes after people they think are “effective.”

A group calling itself Mecosta Environmental and Security Alliance has formed to oppose the planned Gotion electric vehicle battery component factory in Mecosta County. The non-profit organization is seeking to stop the construction of the Gotion plant in Green Charter Township, citing environmental and national security concerns . The group’s website claims the plant would risk harming significant wetland parcels around the proposed site. A screenshot of the map is below. The organization aims to raise awareness, educate the community, and fund legal efforts to stop the construction of this facility. The group’s formation follows the federal government approving the...

‘The Justice Department just baptized Hunter Biden: a lifetime of sins washed away in an instant,’ Carlson said. ‘It was a secular miracle.’ (LifeSiteNews) — Following the news of Hunter Biden accepting a plea deal from his father’s Department of Justice (DOJ), Tucker Carlson argued that while ordinary citizens would go to jail for “cheating on [their] taxes or violating federal gun laws,” such “princelings” may “do what they want” and avoid any real consequences. It was reported Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges in exchange for avoiding prosecution...

If you’ve ever dreamed of leaving everything behind and living on a remote island, now might be your chance. Ireland will give you a grant of up to 84,000 euros ($92,297) if you settle one of the country’s coastal islands. But there are conditions attached to the deal, as well as a few factors that may deter people from making the move. The islands in question are cut off from the mainland by the tide on a daily basis, and aren’t connected to it by bridges or causeways, according to the Irish government. Around 300,000 visitors come to these islands...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-navy-detected-titan-sub-implosion-days-ago-6844cb12?st=rz3q4fzv9sg13ni&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink I'm sharing this article as an allowed "share". I hope it works. If it doesn't let me know and I will ask the mods to delete the thread.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is buying a roughly 5% stake in the parent company of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals and WNBA’s Washington Mystics as part of a $4.05 billion deal, a person with knowledge of the sale said Thursday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement between the Qatar Investment Authority and Monumental Sports & Entertainment had not been announced.

After six years at the helm, Disney's chief diversity officer and senior vice president, Latondra Newton, recently announced her departure from the company, according to an internal memo obtained by Variety. Newton was brought on board to implement inclusivity policies within the company, which stirred up significant controversy and alienated some of its longtime customer base. Newton's profile on the company's website states that she led "diversity and inclusion initiatives" that built upon "Disney's commitment to produce entertainment that reflects a global audience and sustains a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone." An internal memo from Disney HR chief Sonia...

The NHL will not allow teams to wear "cause-based" jerseys next season, the league confirmed on Thursday. The league's Board of Governors agreed with Commissioner Gary Bettman's view that the refusals overshadowed teams' efforts in hosting Pride nights that in some cases included auctioning off the warmup jerseys. All 32 teams held Pride or Hockey is for Everyone night. Teams will still celebrate Pride and other theme nights, including military appreciation and Hockey Fights Cancer. They're also expected to still design and produce jerseys to be autographed and sold to raise money, even though players won't skate around with them...

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sued Amazon, alleging the nation’s dominant online retailer intentionally duped millions of consumers into signing up for its mainstay Prime program and “sabotaged” their attempts to cancel. The agency claims Amazon violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act by using so-called dark patterns, or deceptive design tactics meant to steer users toward a specific choice, to push consumers to enroll in Prime without their consent. “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” FTC Chair Lina Khan...

Nearly all Republican presidential candidates have either vowed to reform the top ranks of the FBI upon assuming office, enact sweeping structural reforms or dismantle the bureau entirely. Only one major GOP candidate — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — has explicitly said he would not fire FBI Director Christopher Wray. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have all vowed to get rid of the director as part of their plans to overhaul the bureau. Two other candidates...

House Republicans are moving to effectively strip security clearances from any intelligence or defense official who signed on to an October 2020 statement that raised the question of whether the release of Hunter Biden's emails was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.As part of a much-larger bill funding US defense, Republicans on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense proposed prohibiting any funding to grant, renew, or maintain a security clearance for any official who signed the statement.More than 50 former intelligence officials, including former CIA Directors Mike Hayden, Leon Panetta, and John Brennan, signed the letter raising questions about the...

Our world is becoming a creepier place with each passing day. Most of us just want to live our lives in peace without excessive governmental interference, but unfortunately the control freaks that are running things just can’t help themselves. Ultimately, they aren’t going to be happy until they are able to watch, track, monitor and control virtually everything that we write, say and do. This is one of the big reasons why they are gearing up to introduce “central bank digital currencies” all over the western world. Such digital currencies will make it much easier for them to control us...

Former president Barack Obama said Thursday on CNN’s “News Central” that former President Donald Trump’s indictment upheld the idea that “nobody is above the law.” Amanpour said, “The spectacle of a former president being federally indicted. How is the rest of the world, the democratic world, maybe even the non-democratic world meant to interpret that indictment and indeed the fact that a federal indictee is running, is able to run for the highest office in the land, maybe even the world?”

Those vaccinated against COVID-19 have a 26 percent higher mortality rate on average compared to those who declined the jab – and the death toll is even more staggering for vaccinated people under 50 years old, where mortality is 49 percent higher than for those unvaccinated. The shocking numbers are based on government data from the United Kingdom and were brought to Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) attention by Josh Stirling, one of the nation’s top insurance analysts and formerly Senior Research Analyst for U.S. nonlife insurance at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “Worst of all – the people who only...

Upon announcing his resignation, Supervisor Bruce McPherson reflects on his accomplishmentsLast week, Fifth District Supervisor Bruce McPherson, just shy of his 80th birthday, announced he’s retiring from a career in public service. “It’s been a great run,” McPherson says, calling Santa Cruz County the best in the entire world. “I just love this place.” Now, he’s reminiscing about how he went from writing opinion columns, to the halls of the State legislature, to helping victims of the CZU Lightning Complex Fire navigate the rebuilding process. When McPherson was growing up, he thought he might pursue medicine. But he was also...

With Bill C-18 on the verge of becoming law, Canadians could soon see news removed from their Facebook pages and Google searches.. OTTAWA — After the Senate passed the Online News Act Thursday, Meta confirmed it will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users, but it remained unclear whether Google would follow suit for its platforms. Article content The act, which was known as Bill C-18, is designed to force Google and Facebook to share revenues with publishers for news stories that appear on their platforms. By removing news altogether, companies would be exempt from the...

Newly released whistleblower documents reveal that federal prosecutors repeatedly interfered on Hunter Biden’s behalf during the probe into the younger Biden’s business dealings. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith on Thursday released five documents that include the testimonies of two IRS whistleblowers, as well as supplemental affidavits and memos detailing alleged efforts to politically interfere with the probe. The whistleblowers testified that from 2014-2019, Hunter Biden personally received 8.3 Million Dollars from Ukraine, China, and Romania and didn’t pay taxes on the income, but the Biden Department of Justice attempted to block the IRS agents investigating the tax...

Filmmaker James Cameron has broken his silence on the devastating submarine implosion 200 ft from the bow of the Titanic wreck. The director of the 1997 mega-hit movie based on the shipwreck tragedy Cameron said that the 'catastrophic implosion' of OceanGate's Titan sub reminds him of the 1912 disaster. Speaking to ABC News he said: 'I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result.' {snip}...

Ukraine's armed forces are gaining ground and pressing ahead with counteroffensive operations, but the Russians are putting up a fight and deploying aviation assets to the front lines in ways they haven't been until recently to blunt Ukrainian efforts to retake captured territory.Ukrainian forces are pushing beyond the protection of some of their fixed air defenses without the kind of mobile air defenses they really need, and Russian attack helicopters, like the Ka-52 Alligators able to do damage with its 30mm cannon or anti-tank missiles, are emerging as a threat to Ukraine's ground forces that must be quickly engaged with...