Free Republic

Multiple clinics that provide abortions closed down Friday in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court's ruling that will end federal protections on abortion.

Before the Supreme Court released its ruling Friday upending abortion rights in the U.S., Elisa Wells was thinking of virtual mailboxes. For people who move or travel a lot, a virtual mailbox is a way to check their mail online. If an item is critical, they forward it to their current location. For Wells, founder of the online abortion site Plan C, which tells women how to find the abortion pill, it’s a potential workaround to state laws restricting access. Using dried garbanzo beans and old pill bottles, Wells tested whether a virtual mailbox set up in a state like...

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard people yammer on and on about how horrible classic cars are for the environment. Usually their eyes are bugging out, spittle’s flying out of their mouth, and they’re absolutely filled with self-righteousness but few facts. They’ll vehemently insist that driving your old Camaro, Mustang, Charger, or whatever you own is absolutely destroying the planet in real time while refusing to discuss the process of extracting minerals for making EV batteries, let alone the insane energy levels required in the manufacturing process. That’s why reading a new study from UK insurance...

The rights of LGBTQ students would become enshrined in federal law and victims of campus sexual assault would gain new protections under new rules proposed by the Biden administration on Thursday. The proposal, announced on the 50th anniversary of the Title IX women’s rights law, is intended to replace a set of controversial rules issued during the Trump administration by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. For the first time, the rules would formally protect LGBTQ students under Title IX. Nothing in the 1972 law explicitly addresses the topic, but the new proposal would clarify that the law applies to discrimination based...

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said that after investigating former President Donald Trump’s actions around the 2020 presidential election, he has “entered so much in Donald Trump’s head” that he can see the former president’s next moves because of Trump’s “real blood thirst for power.” Anchor Chris Hayes said, “It is still surprising to me how the scope and systematic nature of the various attempts, just the thing that you guys showed about the calls to the state legislators, the calls every day, the voice mails, it was not grasping at straws, you know? It wasn’t a temper tantrum. Did you...

A New York Times guest essay argued that American gun culture has been made all the more fanatical because of its ties to Christianity. It also claimed that Christianity makes mass shootings more possible. Author Peter Manseau, a religious author, wrote in his Thursday piece, "But many of our fellow citizens don’t just own guns, they believe in them. They believe the stories told about guns’ power, their necessity, their righteousness." Manseau theorized that this is what has happened at the intersection of American Christianity and the Second Amendment. He opened his opinion piece with the question, "Is our gun...

Just heard on NBC 4 DC 11:00 news that 22,000 ballots were put into ballot boxes on the Tuesday of the primaries. Bowser only leads by 10,000. Several other races are much closer. I have not found another source for this, but I expect to hear more later. HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!

What, are there a bunch of redcoats in the Keystone State or something? Pennsylvania is apparently one of the least patriotic states in the country, according to this one study. Financial site WalletHub decided to find out what makes a patriot as the Fourth of July holiday nears. In order to do so, they first took a look at all 50 states across two key dimensions: “Military Engagement” and “Civic Engagement.” From there they proceeded to grade each on sub-metrics such as “Veterans per 1,000 Civilian Adults” and “Share of Adults Who Voted in 2020 Presidential Election,” peppering in data...

Netflix is preparing for yet another wave of layoffs as the streaming platform continues to grapple with plummeting stock values and tanking subscriber numbers. The Los Gatos, California-based streaming giant, which employs 11,000 staffers, is expected to notify those impacted by layoffs at the end of the week, Variety first reported. It comes on the heels of a previous downsizing at the company prompted by the company losing 70 percent of its stock value since the spring.

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — The Union County Library abruptly backed out of plans to participate in the county’s pride events and will not participate in the festival. Pride organizers said the decision came from Union County government leaders. Union County Pride President Cristal Robinson is organizing the county’s first pride festival in September. Robinson said they had plans with the library to host seminars this pride month and in September when the festival will be held. Organizers also planned a drag queen story time and partnered with the library to host a book club for teens, because they said the...

Vice President Kamala Harris bungled a history lesson about the Juneteenth holiday Monday, telling kids that black people were enslaved in America for 400 years — overstating the actual time period by more than 150 years. “I think that we all know today is a day to celebrate the principle of freedom,” Harris told a group of about two dozen elementary school-aged children at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington. “And think about it in terms of the context of history, knowing that black people in America were not free for 400 years of slavery.”...

While a warming climate could spell disaster for countless snow-loving species, an ice-free Arctic artery could also offer critical trade alternatives to the Russian-controlled Northern Sea Route, a new study has found. Climate models indicate that parts of the Arctic Ocean that were once blanketed in ice year-round are now warming so rapidly that they will likely be iceless for months on end in as soon as two decades, according to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Former President Donald Trump expressed sympathy for President Joe Biden after he fell off his bicycle, in a rare moment of goodwill between the two political rivals. "I hope he has recovered because, as you know, he fell off his bicycle today," Trump said of Biden while speaking at his American Freedom Tour in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday. "No, I'm serious. I hope he's okay. He fell off a bicycle," Trump said after the crowd responded with laughter.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a vocal critic of former President Trump, said that some churches have changed from institutions that worshiped God to institutions that worshipped Trump. Kinzinger, who is one of only two Republicans sitting on the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, tweeted a video clip of remarks that he made at a conference in April on Friday, stating that the U.S. is in a “leadership crisis.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has argued that there is no conflict between religious faith and support for national protections for abortion, as the Supreme Court is poised to issue a major ruling that could curtail abortion rights. Harris, a practicing Baptist from a multi-faith family background, told reporters on Friday that she had 'convened faith leaders' to discuss the abortion issue from a religious perspective. 'For those of us of faith, I think that we agree, many of us, that there's nothing about this issue that will require anyone to abandon their faith, or change their faith,' she said, referring...

A document, titled “1776 Returns,” which federal prosecutors said was used by the leader of the Proud Boys, lays out a plan to occupy Capitol buildings on Jan. 6, 2021, using covert operators to let "patriots" inside government offices in an apparent effort to force a new election. Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, and four other members were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges this month. Tarrio has twice been ordered detained until trial. The nine-page document, filed in federal court Wednesday, lays out a plan to fill buildings “with patriots and communicate our demands." Its stated...

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday warned against a "global mental health crisis," while launching a report on mental health. "We are living through a global mental health crisis," the top UN official said in his video message to launch the World Mental Health Report 2022: Transforming Mental Health For All. Guterres said that nearly 1 billion people around the world, including millions of children and young people, "have a mental health condition," adding that most of them lack access to treatment.

Four ways to fight soaring teacher burnout “Even though teachers are very stressed, about two thirds of the teachers who reported experiencing frequent job-related stress said that they were coping pretty well with that job-related stress,” said Elizabeth D. Steiner, lead author of the RAND Corporation’s new State of the American Teacher survey. By Adam Barnes an empty school classroom and chalkboard Istock Story at a glance Teachers are facing stressors that range from disrupted student learning, to managing student behavior to dealing with staff shortages to addressing students’ mental health. A myriad of solutions, including shortened work weeks, increased...

It couldn’t be the experimental, novel-platform gene- and immune-modulating COVID spike protein-making injection linked to heart inflammation, could it? They’re calling it Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, or SADS for short. Just like SIDS – Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – when healthy babies die suddenly (and most often on the same day as a wellness visit to the pediatrician). Except it occurs in adults. And children and teens too, though the name doesn’t reflect that. Yet. Healthy, young people are suddenly dropping dead across the globe, the Daily Mail reported last week, saying the surge of the “mysterious syndrome” is baffling...

On his Wednesday night show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes and his liberal guest trashed the backlash to children attending drag shows as "scary," "bizarre," "disgusting" and "violent." Journalist Parker Molloy told Hayes that conservatives and Republican politicians who oppose children at drag events view LGBTQ people "as a threat to be around children." On screen it read, "The far right threat: Right wing extremists ramp up LGBTQ hate." The pair complained about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signaling he would be open to signing a bill that would punish parents who took their children to drag shows. "You have multiple lawmakers...