Free Republic

(Reuters) -Hawaiian Electric's shares jumped more than 40% on Monday after the utility said its power lines in West Maui had been shut down for more than six hours before wildfires started in the area during the afternoon. (snip) Hawaiian Electric said on Monday that a morning fire on Aug. 8 caused by power lines that fell in high winds was subsequently reported "100% contained" and later declared "extinguished" by the Maui County Fire Department.The utility said another afternoon fire started in the same area more than six hours after all of its power lines in West Maui had been...

TRENT, Italy, June, 1979, Address by Abp. Lefebvre: “The Second Vatican Council: what would the Fathers of the Council of Trent have to say about it?” An exclusive translation. Introductory remarks from the translatorThis is an excerpt from a long article in “La Tradizione Cattolica”( Year XXXIV – n°2 (124) – 2023). It is the transcript of an address the Archbishop gave in Trent on June 17th 1979. It was difficult to translate because as the Archbishop himself says in his introductory remarks: ‘First of all, please excuse my Italian, as I do not have complete command of the language,...

Today is a good time to remind everyone that CNN represents the public relations arm of the U.S State Department. Two overlays: first, most non-U.S. government entities regard CNN as the state run media for the U.S. State Department, because it is. Second, the U.S. State Dept is the umbrella organization for most global CIA operations. In essence, the intel community reports that surface from CNN are from the State Dept/CIA. In this latest example, the unnamed U.S. intelligence officials are once again promoting the proactive narrative that Russian FSB services are responsible for manipulating smaller networks of U.S. social...

The world is heading for the mother of all showdowns between the forces of freedom and autocratic might. Hard as it is to digest, the looming confrontation will make the Cold War look like a warm-up act. This time what is at stake is not simply whether capitalism or socialism is a superior model for civilisation-building.Rather the question is whether humanity can ascend to the next phase of civilisation at all. Instead it may be doomed to languish in a new dark age of militarism and technological stagnation. The outcome hinges on a stupendous yet pragmatic question: will the great...

Numbers 32:32 warns ne’er-do-wells to “be sure your sin will find you out.” But if the verse had been written about this particular criminal, it would have read, “Be sure your sin will find you out immediately - and leave you with second-degree burns.” An arsonist managed to light himself on fire while attempting to ignite the front doors of an Oakland Park church in Broward County, Florida. Investigators said they’re still searching for the person caught on surveillance camera around 1:30 a.m. on Monday. Firefighters responding to a call had arrived on scene and put out the flames before...

In 2017, Lue Elizondo and I made senior policymakers in the Administration and Congress aware that unidentified aircraft were routinely violating sensitive, restricted airspace off the East Coast of the U.S. This was soon confirmed on Capitol Hill by the testimony of U.S. Navy aviators. Although not as prolific elsewhere, it turned out that similar incidents were occurring near U.S. warships off the West Coast and over DoD test ranges in other parts of the country. Then, earlier this year, we learned that China sent an instrumented intelligence collection platform across the U.S. using a high-altitude balloon. It now appears...

On Wednesday, the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council released the results of a nationwide study analyzing the beliefs of American churchgoers. Of the 1,009 survey participants, 72% reported weekly church attendance, while the other 28% said they go to church at least monthly. Regular church attendance was a prerequisite for participation in the survey to ensure better insight into the beliefs of America’s most devout Christians. The FRC survey covered an area of theological and worldview issues. A portion of the study specifically looked at what churchgoers believe about abortion and the Bible’s teaching on life. What...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb7w_1FZ1Mg

A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found Republicans and Democrats are in agreement over one belief about President Biden: He’s far too old to be an effective leader in a second term. That’s what 77 percent of respondents said regarding the 80-year-old commander-in-chief—a belief 89 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats shared. And while former President Trump is only a few years younger, voters were less concerned about his age. Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults said the GOP presidential candidate is too old to effectively serve a four-year term, with Democrats unsurprisingly outweighing Republicans...

Among GOP hopefuls at the first debate of the campaign season, militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out drugs and undocumented immigrants emerged as an overwhelmingly popular position—and as the surprising default answer to unrelated questions. When moderators asked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis whether he'd support sending U.S. Special Forces into Mexico to target drug cartels, he replied, "Yes, and I will do it on day one." DeSantis claimed that the president should "use all available powers as commander in chief to protect our country and to protect the people." "Yes, we're going to use deadly force," he continued. "Yes,...

Kimberly Jones is the Senior ‘pastor’ of Limitless Church in Fayetteville, Georgia. Known by her moniker Real Talk Kim, she is a “mother, pastor, entrepreneur, mentor, motivational speaker, entertainer, and best-selling author” featured in the spiritually crass and unseemly TV show Preachers of Atlanta. She was previously co-senior pastor of Church of The Harvest alongside her husband, Mark Pothier, but she divorced him and formed her own congregation after he allegedly cheated on her. A mixture of the worst excess of Joel Osteen and the most irritating parts of Steven Furtick, her preaching style might be described as prosperity gospel...

Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur turned politician, constructed his climate comment at last week’s Republican debate very precisely. “The climate agenda is a hoax,” he said to the raucous audience. For years, many Republicans, most notably Donald Trump, have claimed that climate change is a hoax. Inserting the word “agenda” into the once-common GOP refrain, may seem minor, but it represents a significant evolution. The signals of climate change have become increasingly present—think of the record-setting extreme heat and near-constant flooding—and leading Republicans can no longer feasibly deny that climate change is happening. Indeed, it’s happening in the backyards of Republican...

C3 Church Global, formerly Christian City Church International, is a charismatic movement founded by false prophets Phil Pringle and Christine Pringle. Now comprising over 500 churches, they’re known for their hip ethos, preaching the prosperity gospel, aggressive proselytizing and inviting new people to church, and their propensity to focus on tithing in exchange for blessings and miracles. Notably, their Toronto location is run by Pastor Sam Pickens, who is the subject of an alleged leaked internal memo released by c3churchwatch. (note, the blue edits are not ours or c3wc) The missive contains a “User Manual’ for dealing and interacting with...

First Christian Church of Burbank is an “open and affirming” congregation nestled in the heart of California. No ELCA or PCUSA; they are part of the Disciples of Christ. This mainline protestant denomination is in full communion with the unregenerate rapscallions in the United Church of Christ. The DOC has been bleeding members over the last decade, losing nearly half their congregants, the majority of whom died of old age, and now have a little over 110k on a weekly basis. As a denomination, they have adopted the 19th-century slogan of the Stone-Campbell Movement: “In essentials, Unity; In non-essentials, Liberty;...

(NEXSTAR) – The COVID-19 public health emergency may be over, but the spread of the virus sure isn’t. COVID hospital admissions jumped another 21% last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The summer surge has some people – who haven’t donned a COVID mask in months – wondering if they should dust off their N95s. We asked three medical doctors if they thought the rising cases and hospitalizations meant masks are needed now. For Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, the rationale hasn’t really changed. “Masking remains an inexpensive and portable way to reduce risk...

Migrant smugglers are growing increasingly desperate and violent — heavily arming themselves, donning body armor and even firing at US border agents — to get their illegal customers from Mexico to California. The recent uptick in drastic tactics by coyotes, or people-smugglers for hire, includes an Aug. 18 incident in which a Border Patrol agent tried to stop a group of migrants crossing into California through the Otay Mountain Wilderness, US authorities said. A suspected smuggler fired multiple shots at the agent, US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, claiming the criminals’ desperation is being driven by the...

As reports emerge of an upswing in COVID-19 and a push for vaccinations begins, a new report is questioning the reasoning behind the termination of a major system for reporting coronavirus vaccine health incidents. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that a new push for vaccinations will begin this fall, according to ABC. “Vaccination is going to continue to be key this year because immunity wanes and because the COVID-19 virus continues to change,” a CDC official said. “For those reasons, vaccines remain the best protection against hospitalization and death. And in the case of the COVID...

@RepMTG There is no climate crisis, it’s a fabricated scam that lines the pockets of politicians and their business partners with the zero carbon hoax and carbon credit scams. Yes the climate changes. It’s been changing ever since God created the Earth and will continue to change. But man is not causing the Earth to heat up nor will be able to cause it to cool. Shame on the climate cultists using the tragedy in Hawaii to sell their agenda.

This is a link to a short video that shows the authorities are putting up miles of black fence so you cannot see beyond it, and they are not allowing anyone to stop or to send a drone into view the burnt areas. Not sure what to make of this, but it seems noteworthy and unusual.

It's already being called "The Biden Curtain," as new videos from Lahaina, Maui, reveal miles of black curtains erected to prevent people from seeing what's happening at the origin site of this month's catastrophic wildfires in Hawaii. Geoff Cygnus, a citizen journalist on TikTok, posted the video, with a caption reading: "Miles and miles of black fencing being put up in Lahaina. Ground Zero is now behind the Biden curtain." "There seems to be a huge emphasis on ensuring that the media and anyone else can't see what's going on," Cygnus reported. "There are miles and miles of this black...