Free Republic

The United States Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling sparked a raft of shrieking rhetoric from the usual Florida suspects last week, but those voices are 24 years too late, and as it turns out, they don’t have much to shriek about. In 1999, during then-Governor Jeb Bush’s first months in office, Florida embarked on the same journey away from race-based admissions quotas upon which the entire nation is now about to embark.A quick survey of Florida’s most respected colleges and universities, seeking answers on how the court ruling might impact their admissions practices, yielded an almost universally identical answer: it...

Australia's controversial detention centre on Nauru is empty, after the last remaining refugee was evacuated into the night last week. It pauses over a decade of Australia's processing of asylum seekers on the tiny Pacific nation, with 4,183 people held there since 2012. Described as a place of "indefinite despair" and "sustained abuse" by visitors from Médecins Sans Frontières and Human Rights Watch, the Nauru centre is a thorn in the side of Australia's human rights record. Yet offshore processing - which involves detaining people in the Pacific while they await resettlement in a third country - remains one of...

CIA Director William Burns recently traveled to Ukraine and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian intelligence officials, according to a US official. “Director Burns recently traveled to Ukraine, as he has done regularly since the beginning of Russia’s recent aggression more than a year ago,” the official told CNN. “As with other trips, the director met with his Ukrainian intelligence counterparts and President Zelensky, reaffirming the US commitment to sharing intelligence to help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression.” The official noted that Burns traveled to Kyiv before Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion, which was not a topic of...

Sailer's Law of Mass Shootings: If there are more wounded than killed, then the shooter is likely black. If there are more killed than wounded, then the shooter is likely not black.

The day of the school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., last year, Averie Bishop posted a TikTok video, sobbing. “These things happen all the time and nothing changes,” she said. After the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights, following her home state’s own restrictions, she posted again: “When you live in Texas and all you wanted was a hot girl summer, but now you have a ‘no reproductive rights’ summer.” In March, she posted about the need for comprehensive sex education and mourned the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the abortion precedent abandoned by...

Bud Light's sales have plummeted so much that a glass bottling company was forced to shut down two of its plants and lay off nearly 650 employees. The Ardagh Group, one of the largest glass producers in the world, announced last week it was shuttering its Wilson, North Carolina, and Simsboro, Louisiana, plants on July 17. The Wilson plant employed nearly 400 people, and the Simsboro plant had 245 - all of whom now find themselves without jobs. The company did not cite a reason for the closures in its statement, just saying it was part of a 'multi-year performance...

After visiting Ukraine and speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military leaders, former Vice President Mike Pence has come away "more determined than ever" that full military support for Ukraine is the right course for America. "Think about it, Tom," Pence told Newsmax host Tom Basile in an interview that aired Sunday, "in a year and a half, Russia has gone from the second most powerful military in the world to the second most powerful military in Ukraine. "It's real progress and it's because America has been there,even though the Biden administration has been too slow.

In another blow to President Joe Biden’s war on guns, a federal judge has reversed an ATF ban on so-called “ghost guns,” ruling that the president and his gun agency overstepped their jurisdiction. On Friday, Texas-based United States District Court Judge Reed O’Connor said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went further than Congress in banning the partially made guns. “This case presents the question of whether the federal government may lawfully regulate partially manufactured firearm components, related firearm products, and other tools and materials in keeping with the Gun Control Act of 1968,” wrote O’Connor. “Because...

South Africans are experiencing worsening blackouts as winter hits and the crisis is fuelling demands for political change in Africa's most-advanced economy.SNIP But for hours on end, his battered, electric sewing machine sits idle. The power is off in Khayelitsha for eight or 10 hours almost every day. In South Africa they call it load-shedding. Mr Bambatha grimaces and admits his business is hanging by a thread. It is a story being replayed across the country. In an already dysfunctional economy, with half of all young adults unemployed, load-shedding is a jobs killer. "The government has been promising us a...

Former Vice President and perpetual backstabber Mike Pence hasn’t had any traction in the vast majority of presidential polls. At last, he found a Fox News poll that has him ranked at the top of the list! Unfortunately for Pence, it’s a poll asking who Republicans “would NEVER vote for” in the GOP primaries. At 35%, he has nearly as much as any two other candidates combined. He’s toast.

The Chinese tagline on the movie poster says it all: "I will wait for you, no matter how long it takes." It tells the true story of Hachiko, the faithful dog that continued to wait for its master at a train station in Japan long after his death. The cream white Akita Inu, born 100 years ago, has been memorialised in everything from books to movies to the cult science fiction sitcom Futurama. And the Chinese iteration - the third after a Japanese version in 1987, and the Richard Gere-starrer in 2009 - is a hit at the box office....

A search is underway for the person who targeted multiple businesses in Northeast Washington, D.C., with explosive devices and a 'Molotov cocktail style object.' The attacks happened just minutes apart at Truist Bank, Nike store, and a Safeway grocery in 'The District' overnight, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Police are seeking the help of the public to help nab the suspect and the department is offering a reward of up to $20,000. .....

A week ago, I published an article about how Walmart’s Walton family has sold off more than 71 million shares of stock this year alone. This is the most they have ever sold and the largest amount they have ever sold as far back as 2016. At least, that is what I have seen in my research. From March 2023 to June 2023, they have offloaded that huge amount. This action has raised a lot of questions about WHY they would be offloading this much stock in such a short amount of time. In looking at what would cause them...

Apple announced it will permanently do away with the My Photo Stream album next month. The feature automatically stores pictures taken in the last 30 days. Due to the impending shutdown, My Photo Stream stopped uploading snaps on June 26 — and everything in the album will be deleted when the service ceases July 26. However, any pics that were uploaded to My Photo Stream before June 26 will remain in iCloud for 30 days from the date of upload and will be available on devices where My Photo Stream is enabled. To ensure you do not lose any pictures,...

Furious passengers began to lash out at Pete Buttigieg over the Forth of July weekend's travel chaos as 3,000K delayed or canceled flights has left thousands of people stranded. Angry tweets slammed the Transportation Secretary for not fixing the airline industry as the number of Americans traveling by air for the holiday is expected to reach 25 million, surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time in four years. 'Almost 3000 flights were delayed or cancelled this weekend. And this is after he said he would fix the airline industry,' one Twitter user lamented. But Buttigieg doesn't appear worried with how...

It’s the true art of the steal — child support edition. Hunter Biden, 53 has settled his ongoing child custody dispute with baby mama Lunden Roberts by striking a rather strange compromise. The beleaguered First Son will not give his love-child Navy Roberts, his last name – as requested by Lunden. But the amateur artist will give her one of his paintings. A bizarre clause in the settlement stipulates that Hunter provide Navy, 4, with the proceeds from an undisclosed number of his novice works for an undisclosed period of time.

Openly gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of using “oiled-up shirtless bodybuilders’’ to try to prove his masculinity in an ad attacking Donald Trump. The controversial clip features Trump, who is vying against DeSantis for the GOP presidential nomination, crowing in 2016 that he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” — as multiple images of DeSantis and shredded bare-chested men are interspersed between the perceived dig and others targeting the former president.

Explanation: It was one of the better skies of this long night. In parts of Antarctica, not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks below the horizon. At China's Zhongshan Station, people sometimes venture out into the cold to photograph a spectacular night sky. The featured image from one such outing was taken in mid-July of 2015, just before the end of this polar night. Pointing up, the wide angle lens captured not only the ground at the bottom, but at the top as well. In the foreground, a colleague is taking pictures. In the distance, a...

Onlookers caught glimpses of the Titan submersible wreckage as its crews brought its remains ashore. These provide clues to what may have happened while a formal investigation is underway. Though it's difficult to know for sure, an expert said the carbon-fiber hull likely failed first. Photos of the Titan submersible wreckage support the theory that the vessel's carbon-fiber hull may have led to its catastrophic implosion, an expert told Insider. The US Coast Guard brought debris from the Titan submersible ashore this week, giving onlookers a brief, imperfect glimpse as it was taken away for analysis. ... Though it is...

Okay, we are coming up to July 4, a big day for picnics, especially on the BBQ. So what food are you preparing for July 4?I'll start off by stating that I am preparing a big TRIFECTA of food. Smoked turkey, chili cheese fries, and, most importantly, PICANHA steak.The smoked turkey is now being dry brined with kosher salt, brown sugar, pepper, and thyme. Tomorrow I will smoke it on my Weber for a total of about 2 1/2 hours. So why smoke it the day BEFORE July 4? Well, because I need the Weber for something else that day...