Free Republic

Yesterday in history, on July 22, 1456, the West scored one of its greatest victories over the jihad — and, in so doing, inaugurated the ringing of church bells at noon. Three years after conquering Constantinople, the Ottoman Sultan, Muhammad II, at the head of over 100,000 Turks, marched towards the strategic fortress town of Belgrade, key to Western Europe, in the spring of 1456. Cognizant of all the death, destruction, and mindboggling atrocities this massive Muslim march presaged — the memory of the sack of Constantinople was still fresh — a great panic swept through the Danube region. Even...

The Biden administration’s war on the ability of American Indians and tribal nations to develop their energy resources is finally receiving the probing attention it deserves, resulting in an aggressive pushback from American Indians and tribal leaders. The tipping point came last month when Biden’s Department of the Interior announced a 20-year moratorium on new oil and gas leases on 350,000 acres of federal land within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historic Park in northwestern New Mexico. Navajo Nation, which earlier withdrew its support for a 5-mile park buffer due to the economic cost to tribal members, had lobbied...

Police have identified the gunman suspected of killing a 15-year-old boy, an innocent bystander, in a broad daylight shooting on a Brooklyn street last week. The alleged killer is just a teen himself, according to cops who said they are looking for Leopoldo Nash, 17, in connection to the slaying. Nash, of Gravesend, is accused of shooting Faridun Mavlonov – a student at James Madison High School student — in the back when he meant to strike another person on 62nd Street near 20th Avenue in Bensonhurst around 1 p.m. last Monday, police said. Mavlonov was rushed to Maimonides Medical...

Former President Donald Trump declined to meet last week with a grand jury investigating whether he should be criminally charged in connection to the events that culminated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, The Hill reported Monday. Trump on Tuesday said he received a "target letter" from the office of special counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice, who is overseeing several probes into Trump's conduct. Sources told the Independent that the letter set a midnight Thursday deadline for Trump to say whether he would appear before the grand jury to give evidence on...

The newly-elected mayor of Jacksonville has allocated $500,000 in the Florida city’s budget to remove a monument dedicated to women who lost loved ones serving in the Confederate army. Donna Deegan — a progressive Democrat who toppled her Republican opponent in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ backyard — had pledged to topple the monument and lined up the dollars to do so. “We are looking at all potential options and Mayor Deegan remains committed to removing the Springfield Park monument,” her spokesperson, Philip Perry, tweeted. Erected in 1915, the monument is one of the last Confederate memorials remaining in Jacksonville, the...

In this installment I will use the ideas discussed in previous posts to make projections. A projection is different from a forecast (and, certainly, from a prophecy) in that it is not an attempt to predict what will happen. Rather, it is a description of what would happen given certain hypotheses and assumptions. Typically, we want to make several projections, using different assumptions. This gives us some idea of how different assumptions result in different possible future trajectories. A good rule of thumb is that we should start with the simplest possible model, but one that captures the most important...

House Republicans aim to pass two appropriations bills as part of a greater strategy to pressure President Joe Biden to adopt more spending cuts. The House hopes to pass the fiscal year 2024 Agriculture and MilCon-VA [Military Construction, Veterans Affairs] appropriations bills and two Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolutions. The MilCon-VA bill would boost Veterans Affairs Department funding as Biden and congressional Democrats have said that Republicans would use a debt ceiling deal to cut veterans’ care.

Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved a key portion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's divisive plan to reshape the country's justice system despite massive protests that have exposed unprecedented fissures in Israeli society. The vote came after a stormy session in which opposition lawmakers chanted "shame" and then stormed out of the chamber. Mass demonstrations erupted outside the parliament building in Jerusalem and in central Tel Aviv after the vote. It reflected the determination of Netanyahu and his far-right allies to move ahead with the plan, which has tested the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattled the cohesion of...

Spam. As we get into the election cycle, my inbox and spam folder are filled with spam from campaigns. I donated to Cruz in 2015-2016, still get repeated mail despite unsubscribing. I donated to Trump 2016-2022, still get repeated mail despite unsubscribing. I get spam from local, national, and obscure candidates from around the US. Some days, half the email I receive is political spam warning of this or that calamity and begging for money. Unsubscribe is futile.

Jane is a junior doctor working several extra locum shifts to make ends meet. Burnt out after the pandemic, and struggling with her physical and mental health, she would really like to take unpaid leave, but she cannot do so. Last month, her landlord hiked up her rent, then served her with an eviction notice when she said she couldn’t afford it. She now has to move for the fourth time in three years, and is back in a flat-hunting market where rents are higher everywhere. Trapped in her job, with her accommodation options diminishing and her time permanently constrained...

Despite the many economic challenges people are facing today, including stubbornly high inflation and 401ks that are still reeling from the worst stock market drop since 2008 , many contend that we’re witnessing the triumph of “Bidenomics.” The White House has been touting statistics showing 13.2 million jobs have been created during the Biden administration and that the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in June. Not bad, right? At least some seem to think so. “America under President Biden has better employment numbers … than the America of 1984 when President Reagan ran morning in America ads touting the economy,”...

A Canadian pastor has “exiled” his family to Kenya after his government invoked emergency war measures to punish citizens who attended a protest where he prayed and sang the national anthem. Harold Ristau, a decorated veteran and seminary professor, participated in the “trucker convoy” against lockdowns last February, when The Federalist interviewed him last. He is now party to a lawsuit arguing the government’s response to Covid that included treating dissent as terrorism violated Canadians’ fundamental rights. “The fight is far from over,” said Marty Moore, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which is litigating Ristau’s...

Houston social media star, 29, claims the screaming stemmed from a verbal tussle between herself and the manager of a local car rental shop when she stopped in to pick up her personal belongings in April. Allen’s credit cards, debit cards and cellphone had been impounded along with her rental car the day before the blowup, after she and her friend were involved in a minor traffic accident near the Arabian Gulf. The manager allegedly demanded money in exchange for the possessions and reacted with hostility toward Allen. “He followed me outside the office and I felt very intimidated. I...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

California State Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) says "the imbalance we see where Blacks are over represented in our prisons is indefensible. For too long we've allowed racism to unduly influence who goes to jail and for how long. Steps must be taken to rectify this injustice." A bill to enact the reform this assemblymember wants has already passed the Assembly by a 58-13 margin. Jones-Sawyer bragged that "this bill will allow courts to consider whether a sentence would aggravate or mitigate the existing racial imbalance among the prison population. The standard sentencing practice of giving longer sentences to those...

"These undercover journalists in England (well, YouTube citizen journalists) decided it was time for normal people to take their sweet, sweet revenge."

RUSH researchers recently discovered that a muscle-building supplement called beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate, also called HMB, may help protect memory, reduce plaques and ultimately help prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. HMB is not a prescription drug or a steroid, but an over-the-counter supplement that is available in sports and fitness stores. Bodybuilders regularly use HMB to increase exercise-induced gains in muscle size and strength while improving exercise performance. HMB is considered safe even after long-term use, with no known side effects. "This may be one of the safest and the easiest approaches to halt disease progression and protect memory in Alzheimer's...

Elon Musk unveiled perhaps his most vigorous shakeup of Twitter so far on Monday: rebranding the social media platform and the famous blue bird with X. After buying the platform for $44 billion last year, Musk announced a number of changes, including limiting the number of tweets users can see and installing a subscription system for blue ticks that saw the verification taken away from notable profiles. The changes have alienated some users and turned off advertisers, leaving the microblogging site vulnerable to new threats, including rival Meta's new text-based app Threads that directly targets Twitter users. Despite this, Musk...

On Friday, we analyzed a just-released FBI 'FD-1023' document, in which a trusted FBI informant asserted that executives from Burisma -- the Ukrainian energy company that famously employed then-Vice President Joe Biden's son, despite his dearth of relevant expertise, while the elder Biden was running point on Ukraine policy in the Obama administration -- had described a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that enriched both of the aforementioned Bidens. The Bureau's confidential human source (CHS) told investigators that the Burisma leaders held a dim view of Hunter Biden's personal value and intellect, but kept the generous payments flowing to him because Hunter...

The federal government this month is set to launch FedNow, a “safe and efficient” instant payments service which will allow the Federal Reserve to facilitate payments between bank customers and receive their transaction data.With FedNow, the Federal Reserve will act as a middleman in transactions between banks and credit unions. Currently, transactions pass through a financial institution called a clearing house, which facilitates the payments. But at the end of this month, the clearing house will instead be the Federal Reserve for many banks. For example, if John Doe wishes to pay a bill, he would initiate the transaction as...