Free Republic

Retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen, is on administrative leave from his role as president of the Brookings Institute D.C. think tank after the FBI seized his electronic data on suspicion of lying to investigators and withholding evidence about his role in secretly lobbying for the government of Qatar. As a general, he commanded all U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in the Obama administration. The court records, which were unsealed Tuesday, are the latest public evidence showing the FBI and Justice Department are conducting a large-scale investigation into the stateside influence of wealthy Arab nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia...

(snip) Nor can you own child pornography, and it’s important to understand why. Child pornography is among the most restricted material in our society. You don’t have to produce it or sell it to commit a crime; it’s a crime simply to possess it. Why does child pornography merit such a unique level of suppression? I’ll give you a hint: it’s called “child pornography.” Children cannot consent to sexual acts with adults and are severely damaged by being forced to do so. Child pornography hurts children, so we suppress it with all the legal might our nation can bring to...

Top lithium producer Albemarle Corp (ALB.N) may have to shut its Langelsheim plant in Germany if the metal used in electric vehicle batteries is declared a hazardous material by the European Union, its finance chief told Reuters. Lithium's pivotal role in electric vehicles makes it an important commodity in meeting global targets to cut carbon emissions, and it was added to the EU's list of critical raw materials in 2020.

According to The Washington Post report, citing Western officials, China is constructing a naval base for its military in Cambodia, with both Beijing and Phnom Penh going to great lengths to conceal the operation. According to a Western official speaking on condition of anonymity, the facility, which will occupy a portion of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, will be only China’s second foreign outpost after the opening of a base in the East African nation of Djibouti in 2017. The base is said to be located west of the South China Sea, where Beijing has territorial...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has pushed colleagues on the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 to support ditching the Electoral College, Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Hans Nichols reported Sunday. According to the report, Raskin has argued in multiple conversations with committee members that the panel should recommend abolishing the Electoral College to “protect future presidential elections against the subversion that [President Donald Trump] and his allies tried to pull off in 2020,” Swan and Nichols write. In January, Raskin stated in an interview on ABC’s This Week that he opposes the Electoral College — personally preferring a national popular vote...

Close on the heels of the climate disclosures for companies, the SEC has issued a much-needed proposal on standardizing ESG disclosures for ESG funds. I believe greenwashing is rampant in ESG funds as I have documented in academic papers with colleagues and in Forbes columns before. The DWS greenwashing scandal is potentially just the tip of the iceberg. The new ESG funds rule is a 350 odd page document. I just finished reading most of the salient requirements. I realize that the SEC has also issued a rule on naming of funds. I will address that rule in another column.

The NFL has signed its first biological male who identifies as transgender to be part of the women's cheerleading squad for the Carolina Topcats. Justine Lindsay, 29, announced the news that Lindsay would be joining the women's squad. Lindsay announced the news in March via Instagram with "Cats Out the Bag you are looking at the newest member of the Carolina Panthers TopCats Cheerleader’s as the first Transgender female."

On Monday, June 6, we will be live blogging as the court releases orders from the June 2 conference and opinions in one or more argued cases from the current term.

At least 14 people were shot, three of them killed, when gunmen fired into a crowd on South Street in Philadelphia late Saturday night. It happened on South Street between 2nd and 3rd streets shortly before midnight. Police said officers heard multiple gunshots, then saw several gunmen firing into a crowd of people. An officer fired his gun at one of the shooters, Philadelphia Police Inspector D. F. Pace said. It is not known if the suspect was struck, however they did drop their gun and flee.

(snip) But in one very important way, gay marriage will not quite be marriage even in New York, even 30 days from now when the law goes into effect. That is because the psycho-sexual-financial-commercial-legal dramas that entangle the domestic lives of straight people often have another component: religion. And religious institutions have an exemption in the new law over accommodating gay people. It was key to the passage of the legislation. Marriage without a church or temple wedding isn't the real thing. Why can some people have all the bells and whistles in the church of their choice but not...

The Democratic primary for a Georgia county has been called into question after a hand count revealed the voting machines were off by thousands of ballots. Marshall Orson, a Democratic DeKalb County school board member running for the county commission, asked the local elections board on Thursday to not certify the results as scheduled on Friday due to "numerous issues" with the race.

NASCAR apologized to the LGBTQ community on Wednesday, for so-caled "recent actions" that may not have "alligned" with the auto racing giant's "mission to be a welcoming sport for all." "As we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, we acknowledge that recent actions have not alligned with NASCAR's mission to be a welcoming sport for all," the statement said. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to create a more inclusive environment – in our workplaces, at the race track & in the stands," the post concludes, along with along with a graphic featuring the so-called "progress" pride flag and a message wishing...

Left-wing activists and prominent journalists that write for liberal publications spread a hoax on Thursday that Texas Governor Greg Abbott paid the families of the Uvalde, Texas shooting massacre victims for photo ops. The shocking false claims came from the Twitter account @MyCancerJourne3, which stated that following the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, a representative for Governor Abbott showed up to his residence and attempted to coerce his family. The post has since gone viral. "Uvalde Update: We were finally able to see my living nephews body to confirm identity. Shot in the face. While leaving to return home we...

Two blazes that grew into New Mexico's largest ever wildfire were both started by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the agency said on Friday, prompting the state's governor to demand the federal government take full responsibility for the disaster. Forest Service investigators determined the Calf Canyon Fire was caused by a "burn pile" of branches that the agency thought was out but reignited on April 19, the Santa Fe National Forest said in a statement.

There was another school shooting plot aimed at a Uvalde school but it was thwarted when police arrested two teens who had detailed plans for what was described as a “mass casualty event.” In 2018 police arrested two 13 and 14-year-old boys. They initially plotted an attack at Uvalde High School in 2022, their senior year, on the anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting. But police said one of the teens convinced the other to move the date of the attack sooner and instead carry out the plot at Morales Junior High School that year. The 2018 arrests have...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday went after the Catholic Church for what she characterized as its hypocritical position when it comes to the politics of life and death. Pelosi, a practicing Catholic, was recently barred by the archbishop of San Francisco from taking communion for her support of abortion rights, which the church considers to be homicide at all stages from conception to birth. Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program on Tuesday morning, Pelosi wondered why the archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, hasn’t applied the same ban to Catholics who support capital punishment.

Pollyanna Inc.’s new “Racial Literacy Curriculum” for high school students injects a Critical Race Theory lens and radical far-left politics into several major subjects of study, including English, Math, History, Biology, and Art. At a leaked “implementation seminar” held on May 5, project manager Julia Kingsdale led prospective teachers and administrators through each of the 65 lessons of the curriculum, many of which not only rely on activist scholarship, but involve assignments directing students to becoming activists themselves. Whether it concerns immigration, climate change, prison reform, income inequality, the curriculum is a cornucopia of political litmus tests, where every subject...

The number of sailors who deserted the Navy more than doubled from 2019 to 2021, while desertions in other military branches dropped or stayed flat, pointing to a potential Navy-wide mental health crisis amid a spate of recent suicides, according to experts and federal statistics obtained by NBC News. Among a fleet of more than 342,000 active sailors, there were 157 new Navy deserters in 2021, compared with 63 in 2019 and 98 in 2020, Navy data shows. The total number of deserters who were still at large in 2021 grew to 166 from 119 in 2019. Most of them...

The United States Army is considering a proposal to allow servicemembers to request a change in posting if local laws do not cater to their sensibilities with regard to their choice of gender. The policy, dubbed “compassionate reassignment” will permit soldiers to request a transfer to a different base if they feel state or local laws discriminate against them due to their gender identity.

A military plane carrying 78,000 pounds of specialty infant formula landed Sunday in Indiana as part of President Biden’s scramble to shore up a nationwide shortage. The shipment is part of “Operation Fly Formula,” which will swiftly import formula while Mr. Biden invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to spur domestic production.