Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Sexual abuse victim slams Pope Francis for appointing McElroy to DC archdiocese: ‘He spat in my face’Rachel Mastrogiacomo said Pope Francis ‘spat right in my face’ by promoting Cardinal Robert McElroy to the Archdiocese of Washington three months after she sent him a letter detailing McElroy’s protection of a now-laicized ex-priest who subjected her to satanic abuse.A survivor of satanic sexual abuse whose abuser was left in active ministry by Cardinal Robert McElroy for more than a year after confessing guilt slammed Pope Francis’ appointment of the controversial San Diego cardinal to the Archdiocese of Washington.“Roman Catholics in...

A tatted-up Tren de Aragua gang hellcat was allowed to take off her ankle monitor a year before she was busted running a lawless, brutal border hotel brothel, sources said. Federal immigration authorities let alleged Venezuelan sex trafficker Estefania “La Barbie” Primera go without the tracking monitor after she whined that her belongings had been stolen, including the bracelet’s charger, sources told The Post. “La Barbie” was later arrested by cops in El Paso, Texas and accused of running a sex trafficking ring out of the Gateway Hotel, which had been taken over by TdA gangbangers, sources added. Border agents...

Actor Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit against New Mexico prosecutors and the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, alleging “malicious” prosecution in the wake of the tragic 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust. This comes after Baldwin’s manslaughter case was dismissed during his July trial, with the actor’s legal team accusing officials of withholding critical evidence and pursuing the case for “political” and “personal” reasons. The shooting shocked Hollywood and reignited debates over firearm safety on movie sets. Baldwin, who was both the actor holding the weapon and a producer on the film, faced...

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said the UK government should consider allowing Shamima Begum, who left the country to join the Islamic State group in 2015, to return to the UK. "I've never wanted to. I've instinctively never wanted to. But I'm now thoughtful, I'm thoughtful. I don't classify her as an ISIS, an all out ISIS killer," Farage told ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton. "So she's sort of less... She is a lesser part of the equation," he added. Farage made the comments after Donald Trump's terror chief Seb Gorka said on Thursday that ISIS members in...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis-appointed cardinal of Naples gives platform to LGBT activist during MassCardinal Domenico Battaglia allowed an LGBT activist to promote homosexual and transgender propaganda to the faithful during Mass at the Naples cathedral just weeks after Battaglia was created a cardinal by Pope Francis.Cardinal Domenico Battaglia of Naples, who was recently created a cardinal by Pope Francis, gave a platform to an LGBT activist during a liturgical celebration. On December 31, Battaglia celebrated a “Te Deum Mass” at the Naples cathedral, during which he allowed LGBT activist Cristiano Cimmino from Naples’ LGBT group “i Ken” to address the faithful....

There’s an old idea about science fiction that I’ve always loved: It aims to create cognitive estrangement, to make the familiar seem unfamiliar, so it can be looked at anew. But sometimes the opposite is needed: We need to make the unfamiliar into the familiar, to see what is old in what feels new. This can be a challenge with Donald Trump. He can appear as a hurricane of strangeness. It was a liberal rallying cry in his first term: Don’t normalize him. Remember, this is abnormal. In a way, it’s no less true in his second term: An antivax...

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg criticized the Biden administration for pushing for censorship around COVID-19 vaccines, the media for hounding Facebook to clamp down on misinformation after the 2016 election, and his own company for complying in an appearance on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. Why it matters: Zuckerberg's three-hour interview with Rogan gives a clear window into his thinking during a remarkable week in which Meta loosened its content moderation policies and shut down its DEI programs. Driving the news: The Meta CEO said a turning point for his approach to censorship came after Biden publicly said social media companies were...

Gov. Gavin Newsom is dreaming about the White House. Unfortunately, half his state is on fire. Newsom could fight the fires or he could dismiss all criticism of his miserable mismanagement of the state as “disinformation”. Two guesses which way he went. This is pathetic even by Gov. Newsom’s standards. There’s Biden, the feeble pretender to the throne, trying to focus on the Democrat disaster Zoom session while mumbling something about “extreme weather” that some staffer probably wrote on a card in red marker and drilled him on, and the new pretender to the throne auditioning on a national stage...

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm dropped nearly $125,000 in taxpayer money on pricey hotels and other expenses during her electric vehicle-boosting summer 2023 road trip — flanked by a gas-guzzling car — while her staff improperly exceeded their daily, federally determined allowances, according to the department’s watchdog. Granholm’s team submitted 42 travel vouchers worth $124,824 for the taxpayer-funded tour — but 36 of the them had lodging costs valued over the government’s per diem rates to the tune of $9,487.50, the watchdog found. Some of the travelers also received higher reimbursement amounts than they were supposed to and several travel reports...

New Mexico’s senior senator objects to holding a nomination hearing for President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy secretary pick without a completed FBI background check and financial report. On Thursday, Energy and Natural Resources Chair, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, scheduled a nomination hearing for Chris Wright for Jan. 15. The committee’s ranking member Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said in a statement that he is disappointed the hearing will come before a financial report or background check, which are required by committee rules. “As I have made clear to Chairman Lee, the American people deserve transparency on the individuals nominated to...

Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an independent investigation into the causes behind water supply problems that left dry fire hydrants and hampered firefighting efforts during the devastating fires in Southern California. Newsom’s demand for answers came amid criticism of city officials in Los Angeles over their handling of the disaster and questions about whether local water-related decisions and planning played a role in depriving firefighters of water during the most destructive fires in L.A. history. The governor has also come under fire, largely on social media and in right-wing media coverage, for the state’s handling of the disaster.

California has enormously expensive and intrusive government that can’t even provide firefighters or water when your neighborhood burns down.Astonishingly devastating fires are burning mostly unchecked in Los Angeles, destroying whole neighborhoods, and see if you can spot the problem in this Yahoo News update I found in my inbox this week:As of that report, thousands of acres of fire burning into (and then straight through) neighborhoods; 1,400 firefighters. In Pacific Palisades alone, where the biggest fire started first, we’re below one firefighter per two acres of fire. I’ve spent most of my life in California, and a quite common experience...

As the story is told [SEE HERE], and it aligns with every scintilla of researched data on the darkest and deepest elements of the Deep State, DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard has reversed her position and will now support FISA-702, the warrantless searches of American communication and electronic metadata. Apparently the FISA process and the 702 aspect (specific to American citizens) is the line in the sand the Senate Select Intelligence Committee has drawn. If Tulsi Gabbard does not support it, her confirmation is in doubt. As a result, she has reportedly reversed her position and now supports it.This is absolutely...

'Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states,' Trump said in 2019 "The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must ‘clean’ his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers," the former and upcoming president posted to X in 2019. "Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for...

It wasn't funny if this was meant as a joke, especially now that Los Angeles County is likely experiencing the costliest wildfire in American history. During a commercial break for the show ‘9-1-1’ on Fox, LAFD Assistant Chief Kristine Larson did a media spot to increase diversity in emergency services. The LAFD has been criticized for spending an inordinate amount of time on DEI initiatives and less on vital aspects of training, like stopping wildfires.

The United States just formally declared that genocide has taken place in the northeast African nation, but the calamity there dates back decades. A civil war in Sudan that has killed 150,000 people and forced more than 11 million others from their homes, by some estimates, prompted the U.S. government on Tuesday to declare that a genocide had been perpetrated by one of the war’s main antagonists, the ethnic Arab militia known as the Rapid Support Forces.

After two wet winters in a row, summer heat has turned California’s tremendously thick layer of grass and shrubs into fuel for many of the wildfires that are burning across the state. All of that vegetation baked to a crisp under a record-shattering heat wave that stretched on for days and is set to dial up again across Northern California after a slight cooldown on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of vegetation, and with the heat and the wind that we’ve been seeing, it’s dried out significantly,” Chelsea Burkett, a public information officer with Cal Fire’s Santa Clara Unit, told KQED....

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday in his felony hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment, an outcome that cements his conviction but frees him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.Trump’s sentence of an unconditional discharge caps a norm-smashing case that saw the former and future president charged with 34 felonies, put on trial for almost two months and convicted on every count. Yet, the legal detour — and sordid details aired in court of a plot to bury affair allegations —...

Biden inherited a mess. He leaves the U.S. in far better shape, at home and abroad.It is easy to forget how desperate things were on Jan. 20, 2021, when Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. became the 46th president of the United States.Just two weeks earlier, thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters had stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to keep Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory. The nation was at the height of the coronavirus pandemic; in that month, 3,000 Americans died daily from covid-19. There were newly developed, lifesaving vaccines, thanks to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed...

A quiet but bitter partisan clash is underway on Capitol Hill over President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choices for key cabinet posts, as Republicans face immense pressure to fast-track confirmations and Democrats charge that they are cutting corners on vetting for critical administration jobs.The feud is coming to a head as senators are planning a crowded schedule of confirmation hearings next week, with at least nine planned and more possible ahead of Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.Republican senators who attended a private planning session with Mr. Trump on Wednesday evening said that he urged them to stay united behind his...