Free Republic

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago, is stepping down from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the influential Chicago-based civil rights organization he founded through its predecessor, Operation PUSH, more than 50 years ago. After ceding day-to-day operations last year, Jackson, 81, is formally handing the reins to his successor, the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, a senior pastor of friendship at West Baptist Church in Dallas. Haynes’ appointment is expected to be announced this weekend at the annual Rainbow/PUSH convention, sources said Friday. Haynes said it’s an honor to be chosen for this role....

Tucker: "I'm sorry, Mr. Vice President. You are distressed that the Ukrainians don't have enough American tanks? Every city in the United States has become much worse over the past three years. Drive around. There's not one city that's gotten better. And it's visible. Our economy has degraded, the suicide rate has jumped, public filth, and disorder and crime have exponentionally increased and yet your concern is that the Ukrainians, a country most people can't find on a map, don't have enough tanks? I think it's a fair question to ask: Where's the concern for the United States in that?"...

Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon in a stunning 6-4, 6-4 upset over No. 6 Ons Jabeur on Saturday. "After everything I've been through, it's amazing I can stand here and hold this," Vondrousova said while holding the championship trophy on court after the match. "Tennis is crazy." Once a top-15 player and 2019 French Open finalist, Vondrousova, a lefty, has been hampered by injuries and pain in her left wrist. She underwent multiple surgeries in the three years that followed her Roland Garros run, and last year, she attended Wimbledon as a tourist with a...

Priceless!

1/ Russian soldiers are dealing with the stresses of trench warfare by hiring sex workers to entertain them in their dugouts. Meanwhile, Russian brothels are offering soldiers on leave the opportunity to fulfil their fantasy of "punishing bad Ukrainian [women]". 2/ A report by The Insider highlights how the war in Ukraine has changed the nature of sex work in Russia. The country's sex workers are facing many challenges, from the loss of established clients, to increased competition from soldiers' wives and girlfriends taking up sex work. 3/ The Insider reports on the various impacts of the war on Russia's...

Russia will regard Western F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine as a "nuclear" threat because of their capacity to carry atomic weapons, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday. Modern warplanes have been at the forefront of Kyiv's demands for military aid from its Western allies as it fights back against Russia's offensive. Lavrov spoke of a US plan to transfer F-16s to Ukraine, although Washington has not given the go-ahead for any country to supply them. "Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons. No amount of assurances will help here," Lavrov was quoted as...

The left's resentment of effective means for curbing crime is no longer limited to armed homeowners, robust police forces, stern criminal laws, and effective prosecutors. Now, home surveillance tech has been classed as "dangerous" and potentially racist. Ring cameras are a popular commodity among those seeking greater security or at the very least some hope of identifying home invaders so that justice can later be meted out. TheBlaze has previously detailed multiple occasions on which these devices and others like them have been utilized to great effect, highlighting heroics, exposing criminality, documenting statist intimidation efforts, and recording unsettling events. The...

OMAHA BEACH: Last Living 1st Wave D-Day Officer on Storming Normandy | 34:07American Veterans Center | 269K subscribers | 227,941 views | June 6, 2023

Ordinary Time focuses on the growth of the Church. I would prefer we called it “Extraordinary Time,” because there is nothing ordinary about the Second Person of the Divinity becoming en-fleshed in our presence through the Sacrament. Be that as it may, the Readings for this Lord’s Day are clearly united by the motif of sowing the seed of God’s Word. 1. The First Reading (Isaiah 55:10-11) is one of the earliest passages in Scripture where an explicit analogy is drawn between the natural cycles of agriculture and the fertility of God’s Word: Reading 1: Isaiah 55:10-11Thus says the LORD:...

Anasazi Lies? Taking the Past Back. | 15:21Navajo Traditional Teachings | 251K subscribers | 70,830 views | July 10, 2023

Senate Republicans accused President Joe Biden Wednesday of creating "the largest child trafficking ring in U.S. history." The video accompanying the statement, which contains remarks from various senators, including Ted Cruz (Texas) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), echoes recent remarks made by Tim Ballard, the former Department of Homeland Security agent whose relentless pursuit of child traffickers across the globe is the subject of the massively successful new film "Sound of Freedom." Cruz says in the footage that "the Biden administration has utterly failed to secure the border and has encouraged parents to send their minor alien children on dangerous trips...

2024 Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that former President Donald Trump is “probably the most successful debater in the country” since Lincoln-Douglas in an interview with Fox News on Friday. Kennedy told the hosts of Fox and Friends that True was “extraordinary” for taking down the other 16 Republican candidates during the 2016 presidential election. Trump is “unlikely to participate” in the upcoming Republican primary debates as he’s confident in his high lead in national and state polls, according to one of his advisors who spoke to The Hill. “We’re going to try to get [Biden] to...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) will oppose Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su's nomination to the top job, he announced Thursday afternoon, striking a major blow to her confirmation chances. President Joe Biden nominated Su in February to replace former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who left his post to lead the National Hockey League Players Association. Her nomination was met with heavy criticism from Senate Republicans and centrist Democrats alike, largely based on her time leading California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency during the pandemic. On Su's watch, the state fulfilled between $20 billion and $32 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims, and...

This post compares the attitudes of Rembrandt and Jesse Ventura, both born on July 15, to suicide. In 1664, Rembrandt showed genuine compassion in his portrayal of the suicide of the raped ancient Roman noblewoman, Lucretia. Her left hand is raised as if to say no to the attack on her person. Her other hand holding a knife ready to destroy herself. Her sweet, beautiful face is both purposeful and powerless in its sad tilt towards the blade. In modern times, in openly discussing the taboo issue of suicide, Ventura has shown a good combination of tough honesty and human...

After 16 months of fighting in Ukraine, Russia's military still has nearly all of its combat aircraft, but neither Russian nor Ukrainian aircraft can control the air, the Royal Air Force's top general said Thursday. Jets and helicopters have not disappeared from over Ukraine, but thickets of air-defense systems make the airspace inhospitable. And even though Russia has a vastly larger air force, other issues may keep it from operating effectively, according to two NATO air commanders. In a speech at the Global Air & Space Chiefs' Conference in London on Thursday, Air Chief Marshal Rich Knighton, chief of the...

New Jersey is moving to implement a controversial two-decades-old law requiring the sale of so-called "smart" guns in the state. On Thursday, the state Attorney General's office announced that the Personalized Handgun Authorization Commission has approved “performance standards and qualifying criteria” for personalized handguns to be sold in the state, which officials described as a key step to implementing the long-delayed law. Under the new criteria, manufacturers seeking to be added to the state’s personalized handgun roster must demonstrate the handguns have reliable personalization technology, features to avoid accidental discharge or damage and comply with state and federal law, the...

Tucker does a fabulous job with his questions.

California Democrats reversed course and moved to strengthen sentencing for trafficking minors after public outrage over the Assembly Public Safety Committee’s initial failure to approve the bill. With a final vote of 6-0, including two abstentions from progressive Democrats, the bill now moves to the Appropriations Committee, after which, if it is approved, can move the bill to be voted upon by the entire State Assembly. If passed, SB 14 will make trafficking of minors a serious felony that would qualify under California’s three strikes law, which keeps dangerous, serial criminals off the streets, and make individuals convicted of the...

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently added two grassroots groups, Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education, to its “hate map,” labeling them “antigovernment” for daring to disagree with the SPLC’s political beliefs. In their Wall Street Journal op-ed condemning their inclusion on the list, Moms for Liberty founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich say they were targeted because SPLC wants them to “sit down and shut up.” They are right. Labels like “antigovernment,” “radical,” and “domestic extremist” are increasingly weaponized against ideological adversaries. Instead of debating the merits of ideas, it is easier to tar and feather speakers....

The FBI is seeking to block the release of its records pertaining to a since-retracted memo that said that traditional Catholic communities presented an opportunity for surveillance. The political advocacy organization CatholicVote sued the FBI in April, seeking to force the agency to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request that sought records pertaining to the FBI's drafting and dissemination of a memo at the agency's Richmond, Virginia field office that said "radical traditional Catholic" communities are possible sources of domestic extremism and cited the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI retracted the memo after it was leaked online....