Free Republic

A New York Appeals court on Tuesday denied Trump’s request to delay Friday’s sentencing in Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s ‘hush money’ case. Trump will be sentenced on Friday after appellate Judge Ellen Gesmer said presidential immunity does not cover presidents-elect. Last week crooked Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to be sentenced in Bragg’s hush money case related to Trump’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. .....Snip..... Judge Ellen Gesmer rejected Trump’s claim that the case should be delayed because of presidential immunity, after his attorney argued before the court that Trump is covered by presidential immunity that extends to him...

Not Everbody Loves Raymonds Above: St. Raymond and the miracle of the sailing cloak.The last thing you must do is…to convince. It’s not right to convince someone of your faith…. Proselytism is the strongest venom against the path of ecumenism.So Pope Francis reportedly addressed thousands of Lutherans in Rome on October 13th, 2017, ahead of the ecumenical commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation (while standing beside a statue of Martin Luther!). Unfortunately, it seems the case, to quote Bishop Sheen, that “[t]he man who can make up his mind when proofs are presented [and he who presents...

In the most recent SpaceX Starship presentation, Elon Musk stated that the SpaceX Starship can become lower cost than airplanes for long haul cargo delivery. I have some detailed calculations. Starship will double the payload capacity. Full fueling costs are about the same for the 1200 tons of fuel for Starship versus 50,000 gallons of jet fuel for a long-range cargo plane for each flight. However, twice payload means half the cost. Non-fuel costs for the vehicles and the frequency of flights are hugely in Starship favor. Starship should have twice the payload. Starship starts off at half of the...

The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday. A laptop, cellphone and watch are still under review nearly a week after 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger fatally shot himself just before the truck blew up. An investigation of Livelsberger’s searches through ChatGPT indicate he was looking for information on explosive targets, the speed at which certain rounds of ammunition would travel and whether fireworks were legal in Arizona.Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, called the...

The soul singer was 83.Soul singer Brenton Wood, who hit the Billboard charts in 1967 with “Gimme Little Sign” and “The Oogum Boogum Song,” died Jan. 3. He was 83. Manny Gallegos, Wood’s manager, confirmed the singer’s death to Variety. He said that Wood died surrounded by family members at his home in Moreno Valley, California. Born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shreveport, Louisiana, on July 26, 1941, Wood moved with his family to San Pedro, California, during the 1950s, the Los Angeles Times reported. A self-taught pianist, Wood wrote songs and harmonized with his friends, according to Billboard. The Compton...

Horrific video has emerged showing the moment a Las Vegas showgirl was knifed to death in the street in her red feather outfit during a mass stabbing. Maris Mareen DiGiovanni, 30, was killed in the October 2022 rampage along with Brent Hallett, 47. Prosecutors say Yoni Barrios, 34, is responsible for their murder as well as injuring six others, many of them showgirls.

LOS ANGELES, California — The fast-burning wildfire that broke out in the mountains above Pacific Palisades amid extreme high winds on Tuesday morning threatened homes and the local public school, which was evacuated. The fire broke out in the brush near the Paseo Miramar neighborhood, above, Palisades Drive and spread quickly. One witness told Breitbart News that she saw homes and cars burning, and that embers had leapt across the canyon to the neighborhood of Marquez Knolls.

President Joe Biden is signing a proclamation to establish two new national monuments in California, in part to honor two tribes, a person familiar with the decision said Monday. The proclamation will create the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans that were to be announced Tuesday in California. The declaration bars drilling and mining and other development on the 600,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) area in Southern California and roughly 200,000 acres (800...

As the top recipients of H-1Bs, Indians have been incensed by MAGA criticism of the program.KOLKATA, India — The “civil war” among supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over H-1B visas in recent days has sparked sharp reactions and accusations of racism from commentators in India, where these visas for skilled workers are in high demand.Newspaper columns and social media posts decried what they characterized as a “racist” backlash against legal Indian workers in the American high-tech industry, after criticism of the visa program by far-right activists in the United States, such as Laura Loomer. “The rising power, wealth, and visibility...

Jury selection concluded on Monday in a Florida courthouse in the defamation trial against CNN. Here are the best moments from the selection of prospective jurors: Prospective Juror 1 Dislikes the Media Juror 1 told the Bay County Circuit Court he could not be impartial because he dislikes the media, “especially CNN,” according to Media Research Center Associate Editor Nicholas Fondacaro and Fox News’ Brian Flood. Juror 1 later doubled down on his “dislike” for the media, saying CNN is “fake news.” At least six other prospective jurors expressed the belief that CNN “creates fake news.” Prospective Juror 4 Avoids...

An influential Labour Party group has broken with the Prime Minister to back calls for a national inquiry into the grooming and rape gangs. The Blue Labour outfit said that a new inquiry was necessary to “give voice to the many thousands of forgotten victims,” in what they described as “the worst series of atrocities that have taken place in Britain since the war”. The Labour group, which was founded by Labour peer Lord Glasman, said “progressives denied, obfuscated, equivocated, averted their eyes, changed the subject,” when faced with the scandal. The statement, seen exclusively by GB News, said that...

A 36-year-old step-grandmother accused of beating and shaking an 11-month-old baby to death will not even spend a year in jail. Shanica Callaghan was sentenced to 364 days in prison by Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant in Queens Supreme Court on Tuesday after striking a plea deal. Her husband Clinton's grandson Jeremiah died on September 6, 2017, with a fractured skull and injuries to his brain, neck, and spinal cord. A medical examiner found the baby died from 'violent, repetitive forces of acceleration and deceleration and significant blunt force trauma being applied to [his] head and body'. Callaghan, who has three young...

[Catholic Caucus] Disloyal, Petty, Vindictive, and Ugly: Francis Forces Bp. Dominique Rey to Resign One Year After Asking Him to Stay -- Persecuted for Being Close to "Trads."Bishop Dominique Rey, of Fréjus-Toulon, France, one of the best and most solid bishops in the world, and a beacon of liberty for the Traditional Mass, resigned his office today. He is 72.Francis had first suspended the ordinations in his diocese. Then, he named a coadjutor for him, but encouraged him to stay until his regular retirement, at 75. In his letter of resignation today, Rey says,“During a private audience on December 23,...

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his threat that "all hell will break out" if Hamas does not agree to release hostages it has held in Gaza by the time he returns to the White House on Jan. 20. The comments came during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago where Trump aired a long list of complaints about a wide range of issues, ranging from President Biden's new ban on offshore drilling, to his various legal cases, to the Panama Canal. Negotiations between Hamas and Israel are ongoing in Qatar, with Hamas this week naming 34 hostages in Gaza — including...

Bro, they did Hulk Hogan wrong when he returned to Monday Night Raw last night in LA. Look at this absolute disrespect of an American hero: VIDEO AT LINK.................... Just gonna boo Mr. America, huh? This was Raw's first-ever showing on Netflix, and the snowflakes of California just let Hulk Hogan have it. Likely, they're upset because Hogan came out in support of Donald Trump over the summer. That's their right, I suppose. Kamala Harris, the California girl, got absolutely pummeled by Trump, and they're probably still sore about it in Cali. But honestly, who boos Hulk Hogan? Only in...

Proposition: Human flourishing will not be advanced at the upcoming meeting of the Modern Language Association, which begins next Thursday in New Orleans. Evidence: The conference program includes among its listed sessions the following gibberish, gossip, and complaint: “Contemporary Astrological Media of Minoritarian Self-Making”; “The Queer Conspiracy of Illegibility”; “Against Resilience: Laziness as Refusal”; “How to Be a Woman Though Male: On Uncertainty and Trans Pedagogy”; “Embracing the Low Road? Hating ‘Men’ in Manifestos”; “The (In)Visibility of Claudia Rankine’s and Donald Glovers’s Public Responses to the 2015 Charleston Shooting”; “‘Just a Young Boy in the Hood’: Imaginative Cartographies of the...

CNN Anchor John Berman and data guru Harry Enten laid out the polling that proved, despite the repeated insistence of many Democrats and media talking heads, the American people just weren’t all that concerned with blaming President-elect Donald Trump for the Capitol riot. snip “If you go back, you know, four years ago, right? Trump’s role on January 6, 2021, should make him ineligible to be president, the clear majority of voters said yes, 56%,” Enten said, noting that they had also said he should be removed from office at that time. “But of course, Donald Trump won the presidency,...

The Israeli document that forms the basis of the hostage negotiation talks in Doha, Qatar was published by Israeli public broadcaster KAN on Tuesday evening. The Hebrew version of the document has been presented to the security cabinet. "The purpose of the agreement is the release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza—civilians and soldiers, whether alive or not—taken at any time, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, and the establishment of lasting quiet, leading to a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and the rehabilitation of the...

The number one podcast in the world to start off the new year doesn’t belong to Joe Rogan. It belongs to Father Mark-Mary Ames of Ascension Press. Or, really, as he told Fox News Digital, it belongs to God. In a time when Bible sales are seeing a sudden spike amid research that suggests people are unsubscribing from religiosity at large, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that "The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR)" climbed to #1 on Apple Podcasts to start off the new year — holding that spot for three consecutive days before...

A violent quartet of teenage females beat and tried to rob a 71-year-old woman in a Brooklyn subway as she was headed to church on New Year's Day — but the outnumbered victim wasn't about to lay down for the youthful mob. Linda Rosa — a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority computer operation worker who lives in East New York – got off a No. 3 train at Hoyt Street just after 6 p.m. and had just passed through a turnstile when one of the four females tried to grab her purse, she recounted to the New York Post. Rosa told...