Free Republic

Michigan businessman Linden Nelson reportedly approached Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Hill Harper with a $20 million campaign contribution proposal if he instead made a primary challenge against Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Politico reported Wednesday.

The steamship Fulton, Capt. WOTTON, from Charleston Bar, on Friday last, arrived yesterday afternoon. We are indebted to Purser MCMANUS for prompt delivery of our news packages. The Fulton brings a report that the sea-wall of Sumter has been entirely destroyed. The rebels were building a bomb-proof in the ruins. The bombardment still continues.OUR SPECIAL ARMY CORRESPONDENCE. MORRIS ISLAND, S.C., Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1863. Yesterday Charleston was again shelled, making the third time that city has been subjected to a direct fire since the commencement of the siege. The shells were thrown from Battery Putnam, formerly Gregg, and numbered altogether...

A university-affiliated Florida school district offers exceptional education in science, technology, engineering, and math while sidestepping political controversy. Americans are questioning the purpose of education, the content of curricula, and the right way for schools to admit students. While social-justice advocates challenge the notion of meritocracy, arguing that such concepts as achievement and empiricism are unjust or racist, defenders of traditional merit counter that these notions, when applied effectively, constitute the fairest system of evaluation and form the basis of the public benefits flowing from educational institutions. These debates can get especially heated with respect to selective high schools, which...

The city of Charleston this week elected a Republican mayor for the first time since the mid-1870s, signifying a new chapter for the centuries-old southern city. The new mayor, William Cogswell, a former state representative and real estate developer, won a tight runoff election on Tuesday in South Carolina against Mayor John Tecklenburg, a Democrat who was seeking his third term in office. Mr. Cogswell’s election indicates a shift for Charleston, a stubbornly left-leaning city that has consistently elected Democratic mayors — including one to 10 terms — even as the state as a whole has not voted for a...

It is déjà vu for major oil producers, who are again considering steeper production cuts. It took only a month after the Hamas attacks on Israel unleashed a punishing war for oil prices to fall below their pre-Oct. 7 level. The steep drop in oil prices last week, with Brent crude briefly dropping to $77 per barrel, led to speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers (OPEC+) will decide to cut production at its next meeting. OPEC’s last-minute decision to delay the meeting, now scheduled for Nov. 30, will only add to the speculation. U.S....

The temporary pause agreed to in order to secure the release of some 50 hostages from Hamas hasn't even gone into effect yet, and the terrorist government is already breaking the terms. Early on Thursday, it was reported that Hamas had postponed the deal for reasons that weren't immediately apparent. Speculation centered on whether the terrorists could even locate the hostages they were promising given how splintered the factions inside Gaza are. There is no central hostage repository because some were taken by civilians, some by Hamas fighters, and some by other terrorist groups. The new timeline is a ceasefire...

A nip is in the air, frost or snow is on the ground, trees stand decorated in living rooms, and eggnog is in the refrigerator. Yes, it is that time of year again. Time to reveal the Fourth Annual Hoax-of-the-Year Awards! So grab a cup of your favorite cheer, take a seat by the fire…and read on. Last year’s winner was The Great Reset Is a Hoax Hoax, the first winner in which a supposed hoax was itself a hoax, and indeed all too real. Without further ado, here are the contenders for this year: As usual, there are a...

Draft dodging in "ukraine"....stayin alive....

April Showers (her real name), a self-described “serial entrepreneur” much of her life, looks at 2020 as a paradox. George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and the ensuing social justice movement across the country were “painful and exhausting. Very troubling and a moment in time we won’t forget,” she said. For a Black businesswoman, though, the subsequent impact of the protests following Floyd’s death heightened awareness of vast social inequities and inspired the #BuyBlack movement, which encouraged support of Black-owned businesses. But as so-called Black Friday arrives, with sales and promotions for the holidays just about everywhere, Black entrepreneurs who spoke...

A Houston couple’s trip to New York City turned into an extra special one when they got engaged during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In video shared by the New York City Police Department, the couple danced in the street while the NYPD Ceremonial Unit performed during the parade Thursday morning.

The Swiss government says it will pass a new law by the end of February to ban any “Hamas activities" or "support" for the Palestinian group.

US forces in Iraq have come under attack again by Iranian-backed terrorists who launched rockets and clashed with soldiers at the base. According to local media, militants calling themselves the al-Dafirin attacked the base with bombs or missiles before exchanging fire with US forces in the base. US bases in the region have been targeted multiple times in the last 24 hours. The attacks come as a spokesman for Hamas's military wing - the al-Qassam Brigades - called for escalation on "all resistance fronts".

Double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was granted parole Friday, 10 years after shooting his girlfriend through a toilet door at his home in South Africa in a killing that jolted the world. Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Pistorius would be released from prison on Jan. 5. Pistorius, who turned 37 this week, has been in jail since late 2014 for the Valentine’s Day 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, although he was released for a period of house arrest in 2015 while one of the numerous appeals in his case was heard....

In an election held on Sunday, Argentina chose as its new President self-described libertarian Javier Milei. Milei won by a not-close margin of about 56/44 over Sergio Massa, who has been the economics minister under the incumbent President Alberto Fernandez. Milei is known for a bombastic style of speaking, and for using a chainsaw in his campaign appearances as a symbol of how he plans to hack away at the government. He is also known for having even worse hair than Donald Trump. Current President Fernandez is what they call in Argentina a “Perónist.” That’s after Juan Perón, who became...

A night of torched vehicles and shop looting sparked in Dublin after a knife attack outside a school was of an "extraordinary" level of violence unseen in decades, police said Friday. The violence started when a group broke through a police cordon Thursday in the area where three young children and a women who was caring for them were injured in a knife attack. Some protesters carried signs reading "Irish Lives Matter" and waved Irish flags through a neighbourhood home to a large immigrant community. One protester told AFP that "Irish people are being attacked by these scum." Ireland has...

Hard-to-eradicate swine exploding in Canada and threatening to spill south of the border: expertAn exploding population of hard-to-eradicate "super pigs" in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion. In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada's leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, "the most invasive animal on the planet" and "an ecological train wreck." They are often crossbreeds that combine the...

The operator of a power grid in the mid-Atlantic is warning that the planned shutdown of a coal-fired power plant could disrupt and short-change electrical supply before people can replace it. PJM Interconnection, the company that manages wholesale electricity in parts or the entirety of 13 states and provides electricity for more than 65 million Americans, said that they expect the shutdown of the Brandon Shores coal power plant outside of Baltimore to disrupt the power there and leave it wanting. The plant's owner, Talen Energy, made a deal with the environmentalist group Sierra Club to deactivate it by 2025...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemActs 16Paul and Silas in Prison 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the...

Rights groups are preparing for the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates with trepidation, fearing surveillance and detention under the oil-rich monarchy's strict criminal justice system. The UAE, an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms, bans unauthorised protests, outlaws homosexuality and prohibits criticism of rulers and speech that is deemed to create or encourage social unrest. Defamation as well as verbal and written insults, whether published or made in private, are prosecutable by law. The country's penal code also criminalises offending foreign states or jeopardising ties with them.

Not quite the same as the old Dark Age. The old Dark Age happened when the corporate governmental structure of Rome collapsed, allowing hordes of tribal heathen to overrun what had been the empire’s domain. Today’s Dark Age is instead happening because modern governments continue to become ever more powerfully intrusive into what used to be private affairs, using their assumed authority to enforce some sort of contrived orthodoxy and thus moving towards politicizing just about everything. This is particularly obvious in the various fields of science. Having previously been the means by which civilization crawled out from the old...