Free Republic

A former NBA player and actor was sentenced to 90 years to life in prison on Friday for a series of violent sexual assaults, some of which occurred in Los Angeles County, authorities said. “During their investigation, detectives learned [that] in 2010, Byrd was convicted of sexual assault involving a different victim,” the LAPD release stated. “Detectives also discovered that Byrd had been arrested for sexually assaulting a young woman in Washington State in 2005.” Byrd’s victims told investigators that he was “initially charming” before he subsequently forced them into a variety of sex acts. “He started as a charmer,...

“Can we keep our sons from conservative politics?” That’s the question writer Kathryn Jezer-Morton posed in a recent column for New York Magazine’s The Cut. “In her son’s case, I wouldn’t bet on it,” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat shot back on X. He’s right. Jezer-Morton is facing an age-old conundrum of parenthood: Kids rebel against their parents’ politics. Except, in 2024, the classic trend is being inverted.

Is it possible to speak obvious truths without being chastised? It depends entirely on whether that truth supports The Narrative™ or challenges it. The most powerful tool to enforce compliance with the dominant Elite ideology is the requirement that the language we use be chosen and defined by that Elite. Legally and common sensically everybody knows that men do not belong in women's sports and women's spaces. So for those who want to make that happen the answer is to redefine the word "women" to include everyone who wants to be one. Hollow out words and pour in whatever meaning...

We’ve been sounding the alarm for several years. Ben Shapiro: “DEI Could Get You Killed In the Operating Room”. We have been covering the growing racialization of medical schools for several years. Our CriticalRace.org database of medical schools has received widespread media attention, including this Fox Digital article in July 2023, after we completed documentation at all 156 U.S. based medical schools: The “racialization of medical education” has created a “national emergency” because many of America’s future doctors are being inundated with critical race theory (CRT) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to the founder of CriticalRace.org. CriticalRace.org, which...

In this painting, Kehinde Wiley, an African-American artist, strategically re-creates a famous French painting from two hundred years before but with key differences. This act of appropriation reveals issues about the tradition of portraiture and all that it implies about power and privilege. Wiley asks us to think about the biases of the art historical canon (the set of works that are regarded as “masterpieces”), representation in pop culture, and issues of race and gender. Here, Wiley replaces the original white subject—the French general-turned-emperor Napoleon Bonaparte—with an anonymous Black man whom Wiley approached on the street as part of his...

Beginning Monday, Pittsburgh police won’t respond to any calls that aren’t in progress emergencies. Chief Larry Scirotto wants to cut their call volume from approximately 200,000 calls per year down to about 50,000. That essentially means that calls for criminal mischief, theft, harassment and burglary alarms, just to name a few, will all be handled by the telephone reporting unit or online reporting.

The city of Chicago on Tuesday sued six major oil companies and the primary fossil fuel lobbying group, alleging they funded and planned a campaign of climate change denial that directly affects the city’s residents. In the lawsuit, the city accused BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) of misleading the public about the impact of their products and of contributing to the effects of climate change on Chicago. These impacts include unsafe summer temperatures, an increase in extreme weather, shoreline erosion and susceptibility to disasters such as flash flooding in basements on...

I have written about the disastrous policies of Mayor Brandon Johnson for Chicago. As a native son, it is hard to watch this wonderful city undermined by Johnson and radical allies in the city council. Some initiatives like reparations and state-funded grocery stores will cost money but will not impose nearly the costs of Johnson’s dismal record on crime and taxes. However, this week saw a particularly confusing moment when, after calling the anti-crime program ShotSpotter “racist,” Johnson asked the company to extend its contract beyond the upcoming Democratic National Convention. So Johnson will put an end to this supposedly...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defended staying in the Democratic nominating contest on Friday by pointing out that her husband had not wrapped up the nomination until June 1992, adding, “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” Her remarks were met with quick criticism from the campaign of Senator Barack Obama the comments touched on one of the most sensitive aspects of the current presidential campaign — concern for Mr. Obama’s safety.

MSNBC host Joy Reid lamented that black Americans have not received sufficient reparations for “literally, physically” building this country, believing that former President Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure is the best they will get. Reid issued her comments during an interview on Salon Talks with writer Dean Obeidallah wherein she said that black people “literally, physically, built this country” and therefore deserve much more than a two-term black president.

Never knew the name of this department. But every American should. They're the ones who show up to harass and threaten rape victims and the families of murder victims They exists to insinuate and threaten legal consequences for victims who "make it about race" and bully vulnerable people into surrendering their first amendment right to say whatever they damned well please about the people who harm them and their family no matter how "hateful" Whenever the parents of a murdered girl make a statement about "Saying no to hate" or fathers "Don't want to comment"... These are the people behind...

Lloyd Austin underwent an invasive surgical procedure called a prostatectomy for his prostate cancer. He was readmitted to the ICU ward of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center seven days later, on January 1st, due to complications caused by a severe infection. It appears he was septic. He concealed his inability to carry out his duties from Biden, Congress, the Pentagon, and his Deputy Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Hicks. On January 4th, finally becoming aware of Austin’s hospitalization, security adviser Jake Sullivan notified Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico. Even though Biden continued to back Austin, Austin was already...

The commercial "What Does the Data Say?" from Monday dot com has three actors: - an older black male - a white female - a white male. If you've been watching TV ads over the last few years, can't you basically write the script? 999 chances out of 1000 you'd get it 100% correct. The older black male is the boss, the white female is a super-competent employee, and the white male is an incompetent doofus that the other two mock. No company would ever have the black male or the white female as the doofus: it's almost always a...

The Attorney General of Indiana has launched an interesting initiative to prevent the progressive indoctrination of children in public schools.In an interview with The Daily Signal, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced the launch of an online portal in which parents can monitor content of potential concern. “This is a tool to empower parents in their dealings with their own school system so they can better raise their kids, which is their job and not the schools,” Rokita told the Signal. Rokita said that he felt the need to take action after parents sent him lesson plans showing how their...

Oklahoma's largest newspaper must pay out a staggeringly large settlement to a sports broadcaster they wrongly identified as being a racist, it was announced on Tuesday. The Oklahoman, the state's largest newspaper, was ordered by a jury to pay $25 million to Scott Sapulpa after they accused him of engaging in a racist tirade against high school basketball players. The incident in question took place in March 2021, when players from the Norman High School girls basketball team "took the knee" in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. As the protest took place, audiences were astonished to hear one...

It’s Black History Month. Back in 2005 on CBS “60 Minutes,” Mike Wallace told actor Morgan Freeman: “Black History Month, you find. . . . “ “Ridiculous.” “Why?” “You`re going to relegate my history to a month?” “Come on.” “What do you do with yours? Which month is White History Month? Come on, tell me.” “I’m Jewish.” “Okay. Which month is Jewish History Month? “There isn’t one.” “Why not? Do you want one?” “No, no.” “I don’t either. I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” “How are we going to get rid of racism until...

More than 60 current and former NYCHA workers have been busted in a bribe-and-extortion scheme that authorities say involves the largest number of federal bribery charges in a single day in Department of Justice history. The suspects — accused of accepting cash payments from contractors in exchange for lucrative New York City Housing Authority contracts — were hauled off in handcuffs in a widespread raid Tuesday morning, according to the Southern District of New York. The charges may be linked to “micro-purchase” projects, or contracts for smaller repairs and other construction at city housing developments, sources told The Post. As...

Reparations advocates had the wind in their sails last year. Cities across the US set up teams to hash out plans to compensate black people for the legacy of slavery, taking their cue from a successful pilot in Evanston, Illinois. The landscape in 2024 is very different. Squad member Cori Bush, the Missouri Democrat who has championed payouts, is under investigation for campaign spending violations. Her bid for a $14 trillion federal compensation package is dead in the water. The reparations task force in Detroit — a hub for African-American culture — has descended into a 'shambles' of quitting and...

The continued embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM combined with a broad decline in academic standards is producing a generation of scientists who are less capable than their predecessors, warned some scientists in recent interviews with The College Fix. From easier math classes in high school to the elimination of standardized tests to extreme grade-inflation to DEI tropes that elevate lived experiences and ways of knowing over facts and data, the trend represents a pressing problem for science professors working to protect STEM and preserve its standards and meritocracy. Alex Small, chair of the physics and astronomy department...

SNIP According to its website, Gem’s software allows recruiters to track “gender and race/ethnicity throughout the entire hiring funnel.” Essentially, it appears to include a comprehensive race and gender tracking system designed to help companies fill race- and gender-based quotas with precision. For example, in a 2021 diversity webinar posted on YouTube, a Gem employee seemed to explain how the software could show how many candidates a company would need to reach out to if it had three engineering positions open, but didn’t want to hire men for them (in her words: “wanted to give women a chance”). In the...