Free Republic

@RyanMarino If you ever doubted that the “fentanyl exposure” myth could cause real harms and is just one more weapon in the war on people who use drugs… A real woman just got a real life in prison sentence for the most unscientific, counterfactual nonsense I’ve ever heard.,.. They sentenced this woman because a *Sheriff* said he thought drugs aerosolized (literally impossible under the conditions described thanks to the laws of physics) & “believed” that his deputies overdosed from touching people who might have previously used drugs (also impossible)

On Wednesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” 2024 presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) stated that he’ll reform the college accreditation system so “instead of you have to have gender studies, or you have to have DEI to get accredited, it’ll be the opposite. We’re not going to accredit you if you have DEI and some of these other things.” Host Hugh Hewitt asked, “As president, what can you do about tenure from K-12 and in colleges that are state-funded?” DeSantis responded, “Through the accreditation cartel. So, we’re going to totally blow up the accreditation cartel. Right now, part of the...

French Emperor Napoleon III would use a unique set of aluminum cutlery only for his most honored dinner guests.Normal guests had to contend with gold utensils.In the middle of the 19th century, aluminum was more scarce and desirable than even gold.As a result, aluminum bullion bars found a place among the national treasures of France, and aluminum jewelry became a symbol of the French aristocracy.Aluminum, known by its atomic number 13 on the periodic table, is a ubiquitous element, yet it mainly exists intertwined in complex chemical compounds and not in its metallic state.The complex procedure of transforming aluminum compounds...

India’s state power giant NTPC Ltd reported on Tuesday an 83% jump in coal production from the mines it operates in the first half of the 2023/24 fiscal year as India continues to rely on coal to meet most of its electricity demand. Coal still generates around 70% of the country’s electricity. NTPC, with a current installed power generation capacity from all sources of more than 73 gigawatts (GW), is the largest integrated power company. In the first half of the fiscal year 2023/2024, between April and September, NTPC also saw coal dispatch for the period soar by 94%, Indian...

Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) said in a Wednesday interview that he would support a theoretical vote to remove from the GOP conference the eight colleagues who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the historic Tuesday vote. “If it was up to me, I’d vote for it,” Joyce said in an interview on CNN’s “Inside Politics.” “It’s a waste of time having conversations with these people,” he added. “And I think we need to start working and, going forward, as a unified group.” Joyce, who chairs the moderate caucus known as the Republican Governance Group, criticized his Republican...

The federal government believes that the threat of violence and major civil disturbances around the 2024 U.S. presidential election is so great that it has quietly created a new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump's army of MAGA followers.The challenge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the primary federal agency charged with law enforcement, is to pursue and prevent what it calls domestic terrorism without direct reference to political parties or affiliations—even though the vast majority of its current "anti-government" investigations are of Trump supporters, according to classified data obtained by Newsweek."The FBI is...

As we head into fall and winter, the situation continues to worsen for Ukraine. The biggest developments have happened outside the locus of the conflict itself, but rather in the geopolitical scene where Ukraine is faced with a disastrous loss of financial support. The U.S. House of Representatives has just removed its Speaker for the first time in history, primarily over his secret side deal with Biden to get funding to Ukraine. Some of the current options on the table for his replacement would spell disaster for Ukraine as they are all staunchly anti-funding Republicans. On top of that, there’s...

Tempers are flaring in the city of Chicago and protests are taking place on an almost daily basis now. But the city’s residents are not protesting against Donald Trump or the police or carbon emissions. They’re protesting the government of newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson. And they’re not just upset about the rampant crime rates in the city, though there have been some protests about that as well. The most recent protests are in opposition to the city’s handling of the busloads of illegal migrants that are showing up in Chicago and the Mayor’s plans to convert more buildings and...

It has been three weeks since a Ukrainian attack seriously damaged a Russian submarine and a Russian landing vessel which were both in dry dock at a port in Crimea.A major incident occurred at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in temporarily occupied Sevastopol last night. Witnesses observed a number of violent explosions that continued for some time, followed by a major fire. Russian sources said that a large landing ship Minsk and a submarine "Rostov-na-Donu" had been struck. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian GUR thanked Ukrainian pilots for their great work. Russian sources claim that the shipyard was attacked with 10 cruise missiles, 7...

New York, NY, October 4, 2023 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement today regarding recent developments with X/Twitter: “In light of recent events, it feels like a useful moment to clarify the ADL position on X and its leadership. "As we have noted in our research over the past several years, X – along with other social media platforms – has a serious issue with antisemites and other extremists using these platforms to push their hateful ideas and, in some cases, bully Jewish and other users. "We appreciate X’s stated intent over the last few weeks to...

Three days. After years of not having to pay a dime, the bill came due again for student loans as of this past Sunday. Federal student loan borrowers will need to start making payments again this month after a three-year-plus pause due to the pandemic.You should expect a bill that lays out how much you have to pay each month at least 21 days before your due date. It’s likely that most borrowers have received their bill already but if you have not, visit your loan servicer account. Interest started accruing again in September.Not three days later? The old grifter...

It appears that playing the "Mean Girl" at the second GOP Debate turned out to be in former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's favor. An exclusive USA Today/Boston Globe/Suffolk University survey shows Haley winning 19 percent of likely voters in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary. Haley has pushed past Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who now languishes at 10 percent. Advertisement"I'm not 100% with Nikki; just with what I've followed so far, she's the one that's closest to what I would like to see in the president," said David Paquette, 72, a retired engineer from Atkinson, N.H.,...

The fallout from the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is still alive the day after the lower chamber voted to remove him from his position. Speculation as to who might replace him has been prominent on the airwaves and interwebs.But what does America think?The findings of a new poll might shed some light on people’s attitudes toward the historical moment. A new Economist/YouGov survey reveals conflicting attitudes on the fate of McCarthy, which was brought about by a collaboration between Rep. Matt Gaetz and House Democrats. The move has been hotly debated on the right, with people...

More days than not, the Biden administration leaves you shaking your head in exasperation as they deliver one terrible decision after another. On Wednesday, however, they actually announced a good decision—let's build a wall to help solve the disastrous, self-created border crisis. A wall! What a great idea. Too bad nobody ever thought of that before. Or maybe someone once did...? Here's the newest plan, as announced by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas:The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping...

@RepThomasMassie I support Jim Jordan for Speaker.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Shares in Scandinavian Airlines dropped more than 90% on Wednesday after the ailing carrier announced new shareholders in a restructuring scheme that will see the company delisted and existing ownership stakes erased. The rescue deal involving airline alliance Air France-KLM and private equity firms Castlelake and Lind Invest, which became investors alongside the Danish state, was presented late Tuesday. The deal means that SAS will receive $475 million in new equity and $700 million in convertible debt. Scandinavian Airlines will be taken off the stock exchange in the second quarter of 2024 and no payment will...

[Catholic Caucus] "The Synod, the Dubia, and the Pope to come" - by Roberto de Mattei Roberto de MatteiCorrispondenza RomanaOctober 4, 2023On Oct. 4, the solemnity of St. Francis of Assisi, the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on "synodality" opened. Many opposing statements and controversies have preceded and are accompanying the event. On October 2, in the face of "various statements by some senior prelates (... ) blatantly contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the Church, and which have generated and continue to generate among the faithful and other people of good will great confusion...

Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general, made his case on “60 Minutes” amid his department’s politically loaded prosecutions of Donald Trump and Hunter Biden. His case amounted to: Hey, don’t look at me. I’m only in charge here. One dispositive outcome so far is that the federal indictments of Mr. Trump have helped him to a near lock on the Republican nomination, the most overdetermined result in social science history. CBS’s Scott Pelley asked one obvious question: Were the special-counsel charges meant to damage Mr. Trump for the general election? He failed to ask another: Did the department consider that...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) criticized those who voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker on Tuesday. “A handful House members just want to blow up the institution and themselves in the process,” Cornyn said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Sad.” Cornyn’s post quoted another post that appeared to criticize comments he he reportedly made, calling to push to get McCarthy out “disgraceful” and dubbing it a “terrorist attack.” “We saw a similar thing happen to Boehner, Ryan, and now McCarthy. I’m sure the next speaker is going to be subjected to...

Members of Kevin McCarthy’s staff have been working the phones on behalf of Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan’s run for speaker, multiple sources confirmed to Semafor. It’s unclear if McCarthy himself has sanctioned their work. One source familiar with their efforts described the staff as “consulting and providing guidance” to Jordan’s operation, which they distinguished from an endorsement. Jordan’s top competition is Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a longtime McCarthy deputy. McCarthy said he “might” endorse a successor at his post-ouster press conference on Tuesday night but has not suggested which candidates he’s inclined to favor.