Free Republic

Senate Republicans are re-opening the Clinton email probe. It had to be done. Several thumb drives were never analyzed, with a detailed report showing that the FBI came up with laughable reasons not to do it, deviating from department policy. As Matt Taibbi, a former contributing editor to Rolling Stone, noted, the 35-page annex to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's 2018 report on the DOJ’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server and the 2016 election was a Keystone Cops operation. With such glaring incompetence, it was reported last night that this probe will be re-examined.

ATHENS/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked Israeli tourists from disembarking in Greece on Tuesday, forcing an Israeli-owned cruise ship carrying 1,600 passengers to reroute to Cyprus. The Crown Iris, operated by Israel’s Mano Maritime, was prevented from docking in the port of Ermoupoli on the Greek island of Syros as an estimated 300 demonstrators gathered in and around the port to protest Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, witnesses said.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court in a landmark advisory opinion Wednesday said countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations.Advocates immediately cheered the International Court of Justice opinion on nations’ obligations to tackle climate change and the consequences they may face if they don’t.“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” court President Yuji Iwasawa said during the hearing....

Daily Readings from the USCCBOn that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables… Matthew 13:1–3Why did Jesus speak in parables? In today’s Gospel, Jesus goes on to teach the familiar “Parable of the Sower.” Immediately after that parable in today’s Gospel, the disciples do ask Jesus this question. They ask, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus responds to them,...

SummaryStocks rally, driven by auto makers China, EU face looming deadlines Trade deal not seen adding to inflation FRANKFURT, July 23 (Reuters) - Japan's trade agreement with the U.S. could serve as the benchmark for many other deals currently being negotiated with Washington, and the global economy could just about support the 15% level agreed overnight, economists said.Tokyo's deal with the U.S. lowers tariffs on auto imports to 15% from levies totalling 27.5% previously. Duties that were due to come into effect on other Japanese goods from August 1 will also be cut to 15% from 25%.The Reuters Daily Briefing...

High school student suspended for saying "illegal aliens" also gets payout to cover his private school. Professor who banned Christian student from defending gun rights removed from class. Calling Hamas a "terrorist" organization, illegal immigration a "cancer" and people who illegally immigrate "illegal aliens" is no longer punishable speech at taxpayer-funded schools in California and North Carolina, under settlements to resolve litigation this month.In a third quadrant of America, Eastern Maine Community College didn't wait for litigation before replacing a professor who called a Christian student a hypocrite for defending the Second Amendment in a debate assignment, and twice ordered...

Colbert killed comedy. Then comedy killed his show.The Late Show was born out of the desperation of CBS executives to poach David Letterman. Johnny Carson had decided to bring his unchallenged reign over late night to an end. The future of the Tonight Show was up between Jay Leno, a hard-working comic, and Letterman, the darling of media types in New York, who had the hip alternative Late Night show. NBC settled on Leno, who underwent the first of a series of bastings by the chattering classes for upstaging one of their favorite cringe comics, while CBS created the Late...

The winner of the New York City Democratic primary for mayor is traditionally considered the overwhelming frontrunner in the general election. That's because Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly six-to-one in the nation's most populous city. However, that's not the case this year, one month after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Ugandan-born, state assemblyman from Queens, stunned the political world by topping former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates in a come-from-behind primary victory to capture the nomination. President Donald Trump believes that Cuomo, who last week officially announced he would continue his mayoral bid as an independent...

Skeletons are exploding from the closet of team Obama in the wake of declassified and damning documents from the Russia collusion hoax. In the wake of the release of newly declassified documents, we are reminded again that the Democrat Party, the Deep State, and their allies in the Pravda Press are the real threats to democracy. Or better stated, this democratic republic. For as many times as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the rest of the political left have screamed that President Donald Trump is “an existential threat,” the record reflects just the opposite. The Dems’ many attempts to “86”...

The Bible Chapel advertises its special-needs ministry as “a place where you can attend church services without worry.” It also boasts that all its staff and volunteers are “rigorously screened, cleared, and trained.” But one family claims the nondenominational megachurch, located in the McMurray suburb of Pittsburgh, negligently enabled a known sexual predator to abuse their 13-year-old son, who has Down syndrome. A June statement from attorneys representing the family says that on Jan. 5, the victim was assaulted in Bible Chapel’s sanctuary during a youth group event. The alleged perpetrator, Daniel Gould, is an adult on the autism spectrum....

Sir Keir Starmer fears a repeat of last summer’s riots as he demands urgent action from ministers to repair “fraying” Britain. The Prime Minister told his Cabinet it was vital Britain’s “social fabric” was healed amid a series of protests outside taxpayer-funded hotels housing asylum seekers. He also said cultural integration in communities that have experienced high levels of migration must be improved. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, warned that immigration was having a “profound impact on society”. She said the government must acknowledge “real concerns” from voters about the impact rapid demographic change is having on issues such...

Last week, we warned of a coming anti-democratic backslide. Now, we see it happening. A parliamentary vote, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s lawmakers, today took away the independence of Ukraine’s key anti-corruption bodies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). Zelensky signed it into law the same day. Under the new law, the prosecutor general, a notoriously non-independent figure, will now oversee anti-corruption investigations — in a complete overturn of the system that was set up to be independent from other law enforcement bodies. In reality, it means that Zelensky’s office will be able to...

Courtney Wingo trusted Leatherwood Baptist Church in Anniston, Alabama, to take her 12-year-old daughter Kamryn on a youth trip in the Houston-area from June 4–7. But she believes the church betrayed her trust and risked her daughter’s safety. “This trip was executed with no proper planning, no consent, and no consideration for the safety or readiness of the children involved,” Wingo told MinistryWatch. “My daughter was unprepared and shaken by what she saw in the tent city. It’s deeply troubling to me that an adult in a position of leadership would act so recklessly — especially when responsible for other...

Could Barack Obama have orchestrated the “Russia hoax” – what Donald Trump has called “the crime of the century”? A closer look at Obama’s political rise in Chicago and his governing style in Washington suggests it’s far from implausible, and even likely. While the mainstream media has long celebrated Obama for his eloquence, historic symbolism, and aspirational rhetoric about “hope and change,” his career tells a completely different story. Beneath the polished image lies a consistent pattern of ruthless tactics and deceptive narratives straight from the Chicago machine playbook. “The Chicago Way” refers to a hardball and often corrupt style...

The party’s last rebuilding effort took nearly a decade and followed debilitating ideological battles. Some in the party see it as a model, up to a point. The Democratic Party had just lost another presidential election. It was hemorrhaging support among blue-collar voters and was seen as out of touch on cultural issues. It was struggling to find its next generation of leaders. The future seemed bleak. The year was 1984. Eight years later, Bill Clinton — a moderate governor fromArkansas who presented himself as a “New Democrat” — was elected to the White House, unseating a Republican president, George...

NSA general counsel April Doss advocated for banning Trump from social media for "insurrection," called for crackdown on GOP "disinformation."A top lawyer for President Donald Trump’s National Security Agency previously worked for Senate Democrats on their discredited probe attempting to tie Trump to Russia and has a history of partisan anti-Trump activism, a Daily Wire investigation reveals. April Falcon Doss is the current general counsel for the NSA, the powerful cyber-intelligence agency, according to the agency’s website. A longtime veteran of the agency, Doss also worked as an NSA intelligence lawyer from 2003 to April 2016. But in between those...

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The director of a summer camp at Bob Jones University between 2018 and 2024 is accused of criminal sexual conduct with a minor during his time as director, according to court records. Stephen Kopp was charged in April 2024 with second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, court records show. The records say the victim was under the age of 16. An arrest warrant for Kopp said he engaged in intercourse with the victim multiple times between Nov. 16, 2023 and Feb. 16, 2024. It said Kopp was acting as a "custodial guardian" for the victim during...

Using a new method they developed for analyzing social-science data, a pair of sociologists was “surprised” to discover that, no matter how they sliced the data, they could not refute a 2012 study finding that children of same-sex “parents” fare much worse than those of married heterosexual parents.Multiverse MarvelsIn March, Cambridge University Press published Multiverse Analysis, a book by Cornell University sociologists Cristobal Young and Erin Cumberworth. The publisher’s description:There are many ways of conducting an analysis, but most studies show only a few carefully curated estimates. Applied research involves a complex array of analytical decisions, often leading to a...

For myriad reasons, I’m not fond of traveling, not the least of which is that traveling in the 21st century is such a horrible shlep. Having said that, I am a very well-traveled person. That means that I’ve visited more than my share of places that UNESCO has tagged as “world heritage sites,” and every time I see that designation, my hackles go up. That’s why I was just thrilled to see that Trump has dumped UNESCO (again).The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was formed out of the wreckage of WWII to bind humankind together and prevent future...

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” — Ian Fleming, Goldfinger “…probabilities cannot be bribed to deceive, and … they cannot be convicted of bearing false witness.” — Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book 1, Chapter 15 On July 13, 2024, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, before witnesses and unimpeded by law enforcement, climbed onto the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building at the Butler Farm Show. He was 441 feet away from the stage on which candidate Donald Trump was addressing 15,000 enthusiastic supporters. From that perch, Crooks used a semi-automatic rifle to rapidly fire eight rounds at...