Free Republic

A Massachusetts district judge extended a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the enforcement of a new provision that would cut Medicaid funding to certain Planned Parenthood health centers. Obama-appointed federal Judge Indira Talwani ruled that a provision of the Reconciliation Act, which would prevent Medicaid reimbursements to organizations providing abortions and meeting certain financial criteria, including receiving over $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023, could not be enforced. The ruling specifically impacts the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates, including the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. “Defendants, their agents, employees, appointees, successors,...

I spend a lot of time talking about how western civilization – in particular as driven by the United States – is easily the greatest that mankind has yet created. If one looks at it objectively, it’s not even close. The list of things that are part of the everyday life of people around the world is basically a list of things that were invented or developed in the west. From cars to planes to advanced agriculture to elevators to plastic and mobile phones and computers and DNA and much, much more. But every now and then something happens that...

Lately there has been a big increase in speculation about an official revaluation of gold. At YouTube this week Rebel Capitalist's George Gammon seemed surprised by the possibility as he called attention to financial letter writer Luke Gromen's recent report that the May edition of the Federal Reserve's Financial Accounting Manual for Federal Reserve Banks describes a mechanism by which the U.S. Treasury Department and the Fed can revalue the U.S. gold reserve: https://www.youtube.com/live/oDNhrvbZV34 While this was news to Gammon, revaluation is an old story with gold. Gromen actually disclosed the mechanism in the Fed manual last year -- https://www.gata.org/node/23332...

The Buffalo News published a political cartoon appearing to mock right-wing victims in the lethal flooding disaster in Texas, and many on social media were outraged at the news outlet. The cartoon showed a man with a MAGA hat being swept away in the flood holding a "HELP" sign, while behind him, a word bubble has the famous conservative phrase, "Gov't is the problem not the solution." The cartoon by Adam Zyglis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, appeared to accuse conservatives of hypocrisy for asking for help from the federal government during a natural disaster while criticizing the government during brighter...

Pope Leo XIV Appoints Pro 'Fiducia-Supplicans' Bishop – For AfricaPope Leo XIV appointed Rev Michel Guillaud on July 11 as Bishop of Constantine–Hippone, Algeria. It is the historic diocese of St Augustine (354-430).Born in 1961 and ordained as a priest in the Diocese of Lyon in 1990, he dedicated his ministry to Arabic and Islamic studies.He arrived in Algeria in 2006 and was assigned to the Diocese of Constantine.Since 2015, he has served as Secretary of the Regional Episcopal Conference of North Africa (CERNA).In this role, he co-worked a notable statement aimed at challenging the narrative that Africa as a...

In an emotional interview on Saturday, Helen Comperatore, the wife of Corey Comperatore, reflected on the murder of her husband at a Trump rally during the failed attempt on President Trump’s life on July 13, 2024. Would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was able to climb on top of a roof next to Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally and put Trump in his scope. A bullet grazed President Trump’s ear on July 13, 2024, during his Pennsylvania rally. Corey Comperatore was fatally struck in the head. Two other rally attendees were wounded, one critically. Comperatore dove in front of his family to shield...

And what the truth is (IMO), is what I explained here The "Great Reset" That Is Needed, three+ years ago. In essence, Epstein weaved a web, and numerous “elites” have been caught in it; think of the material on Hunter Biden’s laptop, and multiply it by 100s. There likely isn’t a formal “list,” there doesn’t need to be one, all of the “right” people know who else is on the list, and somewhere, at the apex of all of this, is some unknown entity or entities that is the gatekeeper for the compromising information that’s been stored/archived in various media...

By Dr. John BergsmaFred Rogers used to sing at the opening of his classic children’s show: It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood A beautiful day for a neighbor Would you be mine? Could you be mine? … Won't you be my neighbor? Won't you please, won't you please? Please won't you be my neighbor? Fred Rogers was a highly theological educated man, who also gave generous grants to St. Vincent’s College and Seminary (Roman Catholic) in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I think he was well aware of the theological significance of the concept of “neighbor,” which we will explore through the...

The unidentified patient, from Coconino County, showed up to the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department and died there the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said in a statement. It is unclear when the death occurred. The hospital noted that "appropriate initial management" and "attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation" was performed, but "the patient did not recover." Rapid diagnostic testing led to a presumptive diagnosis of Yersinia pestis. Coconino County Health and Human Services said testing results confirmed Friday that the patient died from pneumonic plague, described as “a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.” This marked the...

President Donald Trump has announced that the European Union and Mexico will face a 30% tariff on imports to the US from 1 August. He warned he would impose higher import taxes if either of the US trading partners decided to retaliate. The 27-member EU - America's biggest trading partner - said earlier this week it hoped to agree a deal with Washington before 1 August. Trump has this week also said the US will impose new tariffs on goods from Japan, South Korea, Canada and Brazil, also starting from 1 August. Similar letters were sent this week to a...

Jonestown is seared into the American psyche as one the darkest tragedies of the modern era, where 918 people “drank the Kool Aid” and ended their lives under the command of cult leader Jim Jones. Located in the remote Guyanese jungle, the site where the army first discovered the mass of dead bodies of People’s Temple members in 1978 is now opening as a somewhat morbid tourist attraction. It is designed to pay somber tribute in the manner of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields of Cambodia. The curious can pay $750 to visit the clearing where Jones’ religious cult, mostly...

What makes the Galápagos tomatoes particularly notable is not just that they produce alkaloids, but that they are generating types not seen in modern tomatoes...The team examined more than 30 tomato specimens collected from various locations across the islands. They discovered that tomatoes growing on the eastern islands produced alkaloids similar to those found in today's cultivated varieties. However, tomatoes from the western islands were synthesizing a different form of the molecule—one that matched the chemical profile of ancient eggplant relatives.This distinction is due to stereochemistry, which refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule. Two compounds can...

Attorney General Pam Bondi has fired more than 20 Department of Justice employees who were involved in investigating the January 6 protest and the case regarding President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to a new report. On Friday, at least 20 employees from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team were let go, including two prosecutors, seven support staff members, and U.S. Marshals, according to reports from Reuters and Axios. Per Axios: The firings are part of a massive purge aimed at clearing DOJ of attorneys and support staff who took part in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump...

Now Zohran Mamdani, in addition to ticking off the Jewish Americans who make up 11% of his city’s population, is ticking off Italian-Americans (another large minority). An old Twitter post (2020) has resurfaced, and it’s not a good look for the wannabe mayor of the Big Apple.

Border czar Tom Homan revealed the Department of Homeland Security has already located 10,000 of the approximately 300,000 migrant children that went missing under the Biden administration. “Have you heard that anywhere?” Homan said on Fox News. “No, the media’s simply not covering it. And look, this should be a nonpartisan issue. Arresting public safety threats and national security threats, everybody should be on same page on that. Rescuing children, I mean, it should be a nonpartisan issue. Everybody should be in lockstep on that, but they’re not. The media’s lying. The Democrats don’t want President Trump to be successful,...

The City of Los Angeles has declared itself to be in a state of rebellion against federal law. See Mayor Karen Bass’s executive directive, which officially aligns the city on the side of lawbreakers–in many cases, violent lawbreakers–and against the rule of law.Violence against federal law enforcement officers has gotten out of hand. Most recently, in executing a raid on a marijuana farm in California, federal agents were attacked by a mob of 500 rioters and fired upon. They made 200 arrests and rescued ten children who were being exploited as laborers.Outraged at escalating violence against law enforcement, President Trump...

The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens. The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state’s outsize role in...

As he looks back at the defeat of former Vice President Kamala Harris last fall, the thing that keeps bothering Andrei Cherny, a onetime Democratic speechwriter and state party leader, is that he didn’t know what Harris would have done as president if she had won. The way he saw it, President Donald Trump ran on his own ideas, but Harris only ran against Trump’s. “The oldest truism in politics is you can’t beat something with nothing,” Cherny said. Now Cherny, the co-founder of a nearly 2-decade-old liberal policy journal, is organizing a group of Democratic thinkers to re-create what...

The Count of Monte Cristo

A Secretive Muslim Community, Established By A Pakistani Cleric With Ties To Islamic Terrorist Organizations, Has Been Tucked Away In South Carolina For Forty YearsIn the wake of President Trump’s B-2 Bomber “Operation Midnight Hammer”, a surprise strike on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, concerns have surged nationwide about possibility of retaliation on American soil. With tensions still unsettled in the Middle East, chatter has turned toward the risk of sleeper cells hiding in plain sight, particularly after the Biden administration allowed tens of millions of undocumented people to enter the country. Over the past week, we have received several emails from...