Free Republic

Tell me the Democrats aren’t laundering money through ActBlue without telling me the Democrats aren’t laundering money through ActBlue…..

The European Union has warned X that it may calculate fines against the social-media platform by including revenue from Elon Musk’s other businesses, including Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Neuralink Corp., an approach that would significantly increase the potential penalties for violating content moderation rules. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc can slap online platforms with fines of as much as 6% of their yearly global revenue for failing to tackle illegal content and disinformation or follow transparency rules. Regulators are considering whether sales from SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and the Boring Company, in addition to revenue generated from...

Abortion may be the first thing Democrats want to talk about, but it doesn’t crack the top eight issues affecting Americans every day.Kamala Harris has done her best to make abortion the central issue for female voters this election. Of course, Democrats can’t even define “woman” (They aren’t biologists!), but they have no problem defining women’s issues as “reproductive freedom,” which is just lefty-speak for abortion at any time for any reason. Luckily for the Republican Party and the rest of the country, not all women are abortion-loving childless cat ladies — which was abundantly clear in both of Trump’s...

[Catholic Caucus/Anglican] BREAKING: Cardinal Zen warns Synod aims ‘to overthrow’ Church’s hierarchy for ‘a democratic system’'Obviously, the purpose of this conference was to overthrow the hierarchical class of the church and implement a democratic system,' wrote Cardinal Joseph Zen about the Synod on Synodality.Cardinal Joseph Zen has issued a strong warning about the Synod on Synodality and the persistent division resulting from Fiducia Supplicans, saying the “future of the Church” is “uncertain” unless issues are resolved.“I feel most anxious about how this so-called ‘synodality’ of the Synod of Bishops can be concluded smoothly,” began Zen, the emeritus bishop of Hong...

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 10, 2024. | SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris among Catholic voters in crucial swing states, according to the findings of a recent poll.A new poll conducted by the National Catholic Reporter released Wednesday found that, among Catholic voters in seven “battleground states,” which were identified as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Trump held a lead.The...

The Biden administration announced Thursday it is racing to cancel student loans for more than 60,000 public service workers. The move comes just 18 days before the 2024 election and brings the number of public service workers who have now benefitted from such taxpayer-funded largesse to over one million. The gift delivers $4.5 billion in debt relief to teachers, firefighters, and other service workers who have been dutifully meeting loan repayment obligations for over a decade, the Hill reports. The administration claims fixes it has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program over the past four years has...

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign released a new ad Wednesday focused on Vice President Kamala Harris’ eyebrow-raising response to a question during her appearance on “The View” last week. The 30-second spot highlights Harris, 59, telling “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin that “there is not a thing that comes to mind” when asked what she would’ve done differently than President Biden over the last 3.5 years. “A flood of illegals, skyrocketing prices, global chaos and Kamala wouldn’t change a thing,” the narrator says in the ad.

Media commentator Brian Stelter said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview on Fox News was “a sign of toughness and strength.” Network commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “I am among those people who worked with Donald Trump was in the Situation Room, was in the Oval Office with him. And can tell you you can’t fix bad character. He is somebody that has a historic number of his advisors, his own cabinet officials have spoken out and said this is a man that we don’t think is fit for office. I...

Do you believe in "sports curses?" -- snip -- For the last few years in Texas, there has been a brewing superstition surrounding one of the state's top politicians: Senator Ted Cruz. "The Ted Cruz curse" – whether you believe in it or not – has derived from Texas-based teams seemingly losing important games when he is in attendance. Most recently, the legend grew when he attended the Houston Astros ALDS, which ended after losing to the Detroit Tigers. He also famously attended the Texas Longhorns' College Football Playoff game against the Washington Huskies, where UT lost 37-31. Cruz's opponent...

Comedian Andrew Schulz has accused the Brooklyn Academy of Music of pulling the plug on the taping of his scheduled stand-up special just hours after he hosted former President Donald Trump on his podcast. The Big Apple-based comic said he had booked shows at BAM over a month ago — but learned he was no longer welcome there just a week before tickets were due to go on sale. “Three and a half hours after the [Trump] interview, they canceled the shows,” Schulz, 40, said Wednesday on his popular podcast, “Flagrant.” ... Schulz shared an email from BAM telling him...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that it may have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, after a body was discovered that closely resembled him in the aftermath of a battle in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar was the architect of the October, 7, 2023, terror attack, and became the overall leader of Hamas when Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, Iran, in late July. In a statement, the IDF said: Initial report – During IDF operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated. The IDF and ISA are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar....

Daily Readings from the USCCBWhen Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say. Luke 11:53–54Over the past few days, we have been reading Saint Luke’s version of Jesus’ “Woe to you” rebukes of the scribes, Pharisees and the scholars of the law. Today’s Gospel concludes these rebukes of love by pointing out that these religious leaders did not convert. Instead, they began plotting against Jesus so as to “catch him at something he might say.” This...

The tense exchange between former President Barack Obama and current President Joe Biden was captured during Ethel Kennedy’s funeral this week. The moment in which Obama looked uneasy left viewers questioning the nature of the pair’s animated conversation.

by Jeff ChildersWe need to check in on developments with China. The New York Times ran a story yesterday headlined, “With Jets and Ships, China is Honing Its Ability to Choke Taiwan.” I’m not sure “honing” is the right verb for that mixed metaphor, but we got the idea. China put Taiwan in check yesterday with military chess pieces. In our intense focus on the upcoming elections, it’s easy to forget how rapidly the rush of events is overtaking the world in other places. Yesterday, the United States, Japan, South Korea, France and Britain held massive joint military drills near...

(*reported as of 9/16) Mohave: 🟥: 80,413 (⬆️ 10,103 from 2020) 🟦:18,573 (⬇️ 3,075 from 2020) Pinal: 🟥: 107,625 (⬆️12,811) 🟦: 65,055 (⬇️ 1,617) Navajo: 🟥: 26, 886 (⬆️ 1,802) 🟦: 22,329 (⬇️ 4,119) Santa Cruz: 🟥: 5,446 (⬆️356) 🟦: 13,604 (⬇️1,518) Apache: 🟥: 11,284 (⬆️ 1,043) 🟦: 26,728 (⬇️ 1,803) Yavapai: 🟥: 89,528 (⬆️ 9,007) 🟦: 32,200 (⬇️ 3,335) Cochise: 🟥: 31,523 (⬇️ 1,421) 🟦: 18,803 (⬇️ 2,718) Yuma: 🟥: 34,124 (⬆️ 1,891) 🟦: 30,173 (⬇️3,982) Coconino: 🟥: 23,175 (⬇️641) 🟦: 34,357 (⬇️ 4,244) Gila: 🟥: 16,667 (⬆️ 594) 🟦: 7,902 (⬇️ 1,063) Graham: 🟥: 10,398 (⬆️ 599) 🟦:...

A woman undergoing life-saving cancer surgery in Canada was offered assisted suicide by doctors as she was about to enter the operating room. The case comes as the number of people opting to end their lives under the country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program has risen thirteen-fold from 1,018 to 13,241 in 2022. Assisted dying, which was legalised in Canada in 2016, is now the fifth-leading cause of death in the country. The case will sound alarm bells in the UK, where a bill on assisted dying is set to be brought forward in parliament this month. If it...

New details are emerging about drones that flew over U.S. military bases last year, though there is still no explanation for where they came from. ... Exclusive video given to NewsNation by someone who lives near the base shows lights in the sky with the person who took the video describing the drones being the size of cars. Some of the new reporting has corroborated that description. According to The Wall Street Journal’s reporting, Pentagon officials who have seen the drones in person say they were about 20 feet long, traveling at around 100 mph or faster and at an...

EU ministers are debating alternatives to Russian gas imports as the Ukraine transit deal expires in December 2024.. Concerns are rising regarding rising Russian LNG imports and the effectiveness of EU sanctions on re-exports.. Some EU members advocate for stricter LNG reporting and alternatives like Azerbaijan are being discussed, but no concrete solutions are yet agreed upon.. European Union energy ministers are discussing the flows of natural gas from Russia to the EU as the transit deal via Ukraine is nearing its end. The ministers are also talking about the issue of Russia’s LNG shipments to the bloc, which have...

On the menu today: We didn’t get a second debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, but perhaps last night gave us something even better — Harris forced to face tough questions about the Biden administration’s record from a questioner who cared about the details and wasn’t going to let her filibuster. Meanwhile, speaking before a union in Philadelphia, President Biden boasts that he can’t wait to see Donald Trump get sentenced for his felony convictions. For a long stretch, Americans have hungered for real leadership. We’ve yearned for a figure who was sharp, well-versed on all the...

Nothing proves the title better than the recent reinstatement of a mask mandate in San Francisco hospitals. Every clinical doctor knows the data overwhelmingly proves they don’t work “to prevent the spread of the flu, COVID and other seasonal illnesses,” the ostensible, official reason for re-masking.Note the adjective “clinical” doctor to contrast MDs in the trenches caring for sick people with bureaucrat MDs who, like Fauci, have never cared for patients in the real world but who dictate how the clinicians must practice medicine.For most viruses, a cloth surgical mask is as effective as a screen door on a submarine....