Free Republic

An Ohio ballot initiative to make it harder to change the state’s constitution, prior to November’s referendum on whether to codify abortion as a right, has failed – thanks to major opposition funding by radical left-wing groups. Defeated by a large margin on Tuesday, State Issue 1 would have raised the threshold for passing future ballot measures from 50% to 60%. Because it failed to pass, pro-abortion forces need just a simple majority of Ohioans to vote their way in order to codify a right to abortion in November. Proponents of the measure, represented by the Protect Our Constitution coalition,...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear one of the most important tax cases in history, which could either greenlight the constitutionality of an economically disastrous wealth tax, or destroy critical parts of the U.S. tax system. Unless the justices take a middle road and define the 16th Amendment according to the history and traditions of the U.S. tax system, the case will result in bad law and worse outcomes. The case (Moore v. United States) concerns the constitutionality of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA). The act imposed a mandatory repatriation tax on pre-2018 profits that companies...

5 Sarah Rumpf-Whitten Wed, August 9, 2023 at 11:42 PM EDT·1 min read A Georgia man, who was seen by Target employees stealing a TV, was caught red-handed after a police officer was waiting to arrest him at the store's exit. The alleged shoplifter and the responding police officer engaged in a dramatic tussle in the store as well as in the parking lot. The Atlanta Police Department said in a social media post that law enforcement was called in the evening to a local Target store on Monday, August 7 after the store called law enforcement after a man...

Earlier this year, the seven United Methodist churches in Amarillo, Texas, voted to leave the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination over issues of homosexuality and gender identity. Since 2019, in a process dragged out by the COVID-19 pandemic and denominational infighting, hundreds of churches across Texas — and thousands across the U.S. — have opted to disaffiliate from the half-century-old denomination through a protocol that allows them to keep their real estate and pay off their clergy pension obligations. But the departure of all seven UMC churches in this city of 200,000 made it the largest city in the nation known...

Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead during a campaign event in northern Quito on Wednesday night, according to Reuters. A suspect in the killing of Villavicencio later died from injuries sustained during a shootout, the attorney general's office said on Twitter. "A suspect, who was injured during the shootout with security personnel, was apprehended and moved, badly injured, to the (attorney general's) unit in Quito. An ambulance from the fire department confirmed his death, the police are proceeding with collection of the cadaver," the attorney general's office said. Villavicencio's party Movimiento Construye said on armed men attacked its...

Resurrection Anglican Church South Austin plans to leave the more conservative Anglican Church of North America to affiliate with the Episcopal Church. It is the second church in the last year to do so. According to a post on the church’s website by the church rector Shawn McCain Tirres, the parish voted in favor of the change by more than 80%. Tirres said the church’s decision deepens its commitment to “be the kind of place that could welcome everyone in our neighborhood to encounter the love of God.” Resurrection Anglican Church South Austin, also referred to as Rez Austin, was...

A Tennessee church has announced they have voted to disaffiliate from the Southern Baptist Convention after nearly 70 years of partnership, warming the cockles of our hearts with this wonderfully thrilling news. Monte Vista Baptist Church, a 150-member congregation in Maryville, TN, issued a press release announcing the unanimous vote of the community “in response to the convention’s recent decisions that only men are qualified by Scripture to serve as pastor of a local congregation and the subsequent exclusion of some churches where women were serving in a pastoral position.” They explain: “Monte Vista has ordained women to serve as...

MOSCOW, August 10. Nine people are reported missing after the explosion in Sergiev Posad, the emergency services told TASS. "As of now, we have no information about nine people," the spokesperson said. On Wednesday morning, an explosion at a fireworks warehouse owned by the Piro-ross company rocked the city of Sergiyev Posad, some 60 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The warehouse is next door to the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant, but not part of it. The shockwave shattered the glazing in apartment buildings and public establishments in two neighboring streets. Rescue teams are removing the rubble, as 150 workers have been involved...

A mob of thieves was captured on video fleeing a luxury clothing store in Glendale, California, carrying armloads of merchandise reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in broad daylight on Tuesday. Bystanders outside the Americana at Brand shopping complex in Glendale recorded now-viral cellphone video of the dozens of masked thieves running out of an Yves Saint Laurent store. "All merchandise was taken in less than a minute," a store worker told FOX11 Los Angeles. Video shows that a delivery driver nearby tried to stop one thief as another bystander shouted, "Let him go! It’s not worth it." Other...

*SIGH*, I had my desktop computer crash, renewed 10 year old Dell (Win10) last week, just went blank, screen eventually came up asking if I wanted to do a diagnostic test, I hit yes and after the diagnosis it said it didn't recognize my hard drive.Where TF did my hard drive go?Anyway, not being a computer nerd I ordered a different (HP) renewed computer from Amazon, it arrived Sunday, set it up and through my Microsoft account was able to recover all my files, documents, pictures, etc but not my MP3 music. 😥.What happened to my music files?I'm not a...

A growing number of leprosy cases are being reported after COVID-19 vaccination, including two cases in the United Kingdom that researchers said may have been caused by the vaccines. The researchers examined records from the Leprosy Clinic at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London. They found that of the 52 people who went to the clinic in 2021, at least 49 were vaccinated. The study definition of a leprosy adverse event associated with a COVID-19 vaccine included developing leprosy or a leprosy reaction within 12 weeks of receiving a dose and the person having no previous history of leprosy...

Our Nightmare is Their Utopia The United States is just waiting on divorce papers, the separation is already here. In the part of this nation controlled by communists like Antifa and BLM a defense attorney can openly declare herself to be a member of Antifa and (during a civil suit between Antifa and longtime Antifa nemesis Andy Ngo) tell the jury that she will remember their faces long after the trial and that isn’t considered jury tampering, obstruction of justice or threatening a jury. How is that any different from a defense attorney looking at the jury and saying: “I...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, end of sex trafficking, agribusiness, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears...

Nigeria has cut its electricity supply to Niger after West African neighbors imposed sanctions on the junta that ousted the country’s elected leader last week, a Niger power company source said on Wednesday. “Since yesterday, Nigeria has disconnected the high-voltage line transporting electricity to Niger,” a source at Niger’s power company Nigelec told AFP. Niger depends on Nigeria for 70 percent of its power, buying it from the Nigerian company Mainstream, according to Nigelec, the country’s monopoly supplier.

Roughly two-thirds (66%) of 700 financial executives who worked remotely part time said they would quit their jobs if they were forced to return to the office five days a week, according to a survey published Tuesday by Deloitte.“Professionals — men and women alike — whose work and personal lives have been reshaped by remote work largely want to maintain flexibility even if it comes at a personal cost,” the accounting firm said in its report.That cost may be corporate advancement, the survey suggests. More than half of respondents (52%) said they thought in-office workers were paid more. Likewise, 63%...

Exciting. Great crowd. This was Michael Lorenzen's debut (recent trade acquisition) in Philly. I'd say he did well and may become a favorite.

Yesterday morning, I took to Twitter (which I still refuse to call “X”) and predicted that Issue 1 in Ohio would fall short by a 55/45 margin.Predicting that Issue 1 fails in Ohio today, probably with a 55/45 or so split. Opponents have made the debate entirely about abortion rights rather than the constitution and the huge early turnout suggests it's worked.https://t.co/kJgIRx67fS— Jazz Shaw (@JazzShaw) August 8, 2023It actually turned out to be around 57/43 (we’ll embed the final result widget below) but that was the general ballpark. That doesn’t make me some sort of clairvoyant. It was just how...

I ran across a reminder of why I reflexively defend Donald Trump against his critics, despite not liking the guy.The answer is simple: the people going after him are tyrannical liars, or at the very least so blinded by their hatred that they have abandoned reason. And because they hate Trump with a white-hot passion that outshines the sun they are willing to destroy America.Donald Trump is their Great Orange Whale, and they are determined to kill him whatever it takes. Law, truth and reason all must bend or be broken if the destruction of Trump is the end result.“Donald...

There was a lot of really greatness in music before the 90s and I just give this as an example, but could easily give you a hundred more. but I just don't see it today, and I don't know why. Am I just missing all of today's talent somehow or has something changed?

President Biden unexpectedly told an audience in New Mexico Wednesday that he has “hibernated” in the past, an apparent joke that resurrected memories of former President Donald Trump bestowing the unflattering nickname during the 2020 election campaign. “Siemens Corporation laid off workers who were making wind turbine parts and put the plant in Iowa and Kansas into what they now call, they refer to as ‘hibernation’,” Biden said at a wind-tower plant in Albuquerque. “I hibernated in a while — all, you know, in Iowa for a while,” he said to a smattering of chuckles. “But look, now we’re reopening...