Free Republic

The Office of Legal Counsel for the Michigan House of Representatives filed a lawsuit on June 4 against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, over her refusal to turn over subpoenaed election materials to the House Oversight Committee. The lawsuit, filed in the Michigan Court of Claims, requests a declaratory judgment from the court that the Michigan House has issued a valid subpoena and that Benson must comply with it. The lawsuit also requests an injunction prohibiting Benson or the Michigan Department of State from modifying any relevant records. The House Legal Counsel filed the verified complaint for declaratory...

New Mexico’s program is just the tip of the iceberg.While experts have long dismissed large-scale Medicaid fraud as improbable, evidence from New Mexico tells a different story. This discovery presents an unprecedented opportunity to offset part of the $880 billion budget deficit without cutting healthcare services for enrollees.As the most powerful stakeholders, insurers frame fraud as an issue with hospitals, physicians, and enrollees while quietly escaping scrutiny themselves. A 2020 Health and Human Services report claimed that fraud in Medicaid fee-for-service stood at 12.3%, compared to just 0.3% in Medicaid managed care, reinforcing the industry’s message that managed care is...

[Recordings at link. The 1 min D-Day audio includes the words of the announcer.]The Sound of the Liberty BellThe Bell as Ben Heard ItThanks to modern computer modeling, we may have a closer idea of exactly how the Bell sounded when Benjamin Franklin heard it. In 1999, graduate students from Pennsylvania State University were able to digitally create a structural model of the Liberty Bell. From this computer model, they were able to mathematically equate the vibration of the Bell and add sound. Knowing that the tone of the Bell was E-flat, they were able to come up with a...

These are not Americans and she is not the victim. In the aftermath of that attempted mass murder in Boulder, Colorado, when a crazed illegal alien from Egypt with alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties named Mohamed Sabry Soliman used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set ablaze 12 people staging a pro-Israel rally, we now have our newest controversy.Naturally, because it involves the corporate media and the Left, it’s something which is a controversy despite the fact that it isn’t controversial at all among sane and rational people.Soliman was here in the country illegally. He came to America on a...

Whales, as the largest mammals on Earth, have long been an important resource for human societies, whether it be for food, oil, or other materials. According to a report by Popular Science, hunter-gatherers in present-day Spain and France have been crafting essential tools from whale bones for much longer than previously thought. A new study analyzed 83 bone tools found at sites along the Bay of Biscay and 90 additional bones from the Santa Catalina cave in Spain. The investigation relied on mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to determine that humans living in the region have been making whale-bone tools,...

Thursday on CNN’s “The Arena,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk “suddenly got a big dose of truth serum” while commenting on his disagreement with President Donald Trump. Host Kasie Hunt said, “What we are seeing play out right now between the President of the United States and the richest man in the world is unlike anything I think we’ve seen in politics.” Van Hollen said, “You’re absolutely right. It’s as if Elon Musk suddenly got a big dose of truth serum, and he’s letting it all pour out. And it is, I think, going...

When it comes to sharing his opinions on pretty much any topic, Steve Bannon has never been shy, and today, in defense of his good friend, Donald J. Trump, Bannon eviscerated the world’s wealthiest man, calling him ‘incompetent,” and suggesting Musk had no business receiving the kind of trust or praise Trump bestowed upon him. Today, while speaking with two of his co-hosts, former US Congressman Dave Brat and social media personality Jack Posbiec, Steve Bannon appeared to have had enough of the very public feud between Elon Musk and President Trump and mercilessly unloaded on Musk. “Elon Musk is...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. Pull up a seat and relax. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. Birthday wishes for all June babies.No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup or a glass, and start a conversation. You never...

The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that he was unsure he would be able to quell Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Ukraine and Russia may need to keep fighting, President Donald Trump said Thursday, comparing the warring nations to squabbling children in what appeared to be a signal that the U.S. leader was losing interest in brokering peace in a conflict he once promised to end in a day. The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that...

I have a lot of Democratic friends who are extremely disappointed with their party leaders. They tell me that the Democratic Party is currently rudderless, weak, passive, lacking a compelling message. I try to be polite, but I want to tell them: “The problem is not the party leaders. The problem is you. You don’t understand how big a shift we’re in the middle of. You think the Democrats can solve their problems with a new message and a new leader. But the Democrats’ challenge is that they have to adapt to a new historical era. That’s not something done...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae and the June Battle of FlagsWere it not for Dignitatis Humanae, there would be no supposed theological justification for this demand that human dignity requires us to refrain from questioning the “transness” of those claiming to practice the Catholic Faith. Thanks in large part to the defenders of Vatican II, though, Fr. Martin and the New Ways Ministry can insist that Catholics ought to celebrate Pride Month in recognition of the human dignity of the Catholic LGBTQ community.As reported by LifeSite, Fr. James Martin recently shared his opinion about why Catholics ought to celebrate...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIV Faces an Early Challenge: How to Deal With Pope Francis’ Restrictions on the Latin MassA significant early challenge for Pope Leo XIV will be how he chooses to handle the restrictions that Pope Francis placed on the traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Since Pope Francis issued his apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition) in July 2021, the freedom to celebrate the pre-1970 Mass has been curtailed — severely in some cases — with the long-term aim of allowing only the new Mass. Cardinals, bishops, priests and many of the laity, including some who do not...

Let me get this straight:Democrats tried to put Trump in prison for 700 years, take his business empire from him, impeach him twice, take him off the ballot, and censor him on all social media - all the while they were sitting on info that Trump was on the Epstein list? This is total and complete nonsense.

A former state organizer for the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus has launched a new political organization called the Voluntaryist Party of Alabama. According to its founder, the group will focus on education, bold messaging, and grassroots activism rather than electoral politics. Mike Shaner, who previously organized for the Alabama Mises Caucus, announced the party’s launch on social media Tuesday. In his statement, he described Alabama as an “authoritarian nightmare” and said the Libertarian Party was no longer capable of challenging the state’s political establishment, calling it “impotent” and unwilling to “take the easily accessed medicine that could fix it.” Shaner...

When the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a wide-ranging rollback of environmental regulations, he said it would put a “dagger through the heart of climate-change religion” and introduce a “Golden Age” for the American economy.What Lee Zeldin didn’t mention: how ending the rules could have devastating consequences to human health.The EPA-targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination that included the agency’s own prior assessments as well as a wide range of other research.It’s by no means guaranteed that the rules will...

SummarySanctions target ICC judges over Afghanistan, Israel cases ICC condemns sanctions as undermining judicial independence Sanctions complicate financial transactions for targeted judges WASHINGTON/THE HAGUE, June 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court, an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal's cases regarding alleged war crimes by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and over the court's issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Washington designated Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler...

The speaker is mounting a multi-front rebuttal to the billionaire’s criticism — and trying to keep the backlash contained.Mike Johnson has spent his 19 months as speaker forging a close relationship with President Donald Trump — in part to avoid the social-media bombshells that derailed so many Republican priorities during Trump’s first term.Now he has to deal with another, perhaps even more unpredictable online bomb-thrower.Elon Musk’s decision to launch a sudden scorched-earth campaign against the GOP’s domestic-policy megabill has forced Johnson into a sudden scramble to save the centerpiece of the Republican legislative agenda.Starting in the moments Tuesday after Musk...

President Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to attempt a deescalation in his mounting feud with Elon Musk, ignoring a jab about his presence in the Epstein files and focusing on the positive attributes of his legislative priorities."I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago," Trump posted. "This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that.""I didn’t create...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene vows to oppose the One Big Beautiful Bill when it returns to the House if there are no changes made to the artificial intelligence provision. Greene says she was unaware of the AI provision when she first voted for the bill and now argues it would endanger state rights, risk job losses in her manufacturing-heavy district, and open the door to forced property seizures. Facing criticism for missing the provision, Greene defended her transparency, claiming no other lawmakers publicly flagged the AI clause and pledging to fight any future legislation that limits state authority over AI...

In politics, they say you want your people all peeing out of the tent rather than into it. In this context, there is a case to be made for assigning Elon Musk a new task to keep his mind off the budget and keep him focused and on point. Here is the assignment. Give him a contract to develop the desalination technology that will increase the habitable size of the USA by one-third and double the habitable size of the Earth. This can be achieved by collapsing the cost of desalinating seawater to roughly $ 200 per acre-foot. (That would...