Free Republic

Multiple prominent conservative Catholic social media personalities have joined their voices to online conspiracy theorists who believe that the United States government controls the weather. The outlandish claims gained traction in the wake of the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene and picked up steam during the unprecedented strengthening of Hurricane Milton — but did not reach mainstream social media until Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) proclaimed on X: "Yes, they can control the weather." There is no evidence that the government or any other entity can control, manipulate or route a hurricane or storm in a specific direction. Officials warn...

Yesterday, Politico ran a grotesque story headlined, “Helene hit Trump strongholds in Georgia and North Carolina. It could swing the election.” The story breathlessly described how hurricane-fueled voting problems will hurt President Trump’s election chances. But Politico never once mentioned the political implications of the slow, defective federal response to the storm, or impeached Democrat Mayorkas, who heads FEMA.There is a nightmarish parasitic fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, or ‘cordyceps’ for short. It invades the brains and central nervous systems of small insects, usually ants. Once installed, the fungus takes complete control of the victims’ actions, forcing them to act in...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is waging a PR battle to combat ‘rumors’ and ‘confusion’ about the failures of the Biden-Harris administration to take care of Americans affected by Hurricane Helene. In a post on X Twitter on Thursday, FEMA said, “There has been a lot of rumors spreading about the #Helene response. Rumors can create confusion & prevent people from getting assistance they need. Help us share accurate information: http://fema.gov/helene-rumors There has been a lot of rumors spreading about the #Helene response. Rumors can create confusion & prevent people from getting assistance they need. Help us share accurate...

As Kamala Harris deals with her own Katrina in North Carolina, Donald Trump has a two-point lead in the state. The comparisons between former President George W. Bush’s supposed mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris’s blatant mishandling of Hurricane Helene are quite startling. Back in 2005, Bush was criticized for not immediately returning to DC from his ranch in Texas to personally oversee the rescue efforts. Bush was also severely criticized for a photo that purported to show him looking over the damage from Air Force One.

A Killer Hurricane Our Country Will Never Forget Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) became a large and extremely powerful hurricane that caused enormous destruction and significant loss of life. It is the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States, surpassing the record previously held by Hurricane Andrew from 1992. In addition, Katrina is one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States. In all, Hurricane Katrina was responsible for 1,833 fatalities and approximately $108 billion in damage (un-adjusted 2005 dollars). On August 23rd, a tropical depression formed over the southeastern Bahamas, becoming Tropical Storm Katrina on August...

The media and other Democrats colluded to destroy President Bush in the same way they have continually colluded for years to destroy President Trump. Now they are comparing their politically motivated criticism of Bush's response to Biden's obvious incompetence in Maui: MSNBC’s Jansing: Biden’s Lack of Response to Hawaii Is Reminiscent of Bush with KatrinaOn Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports,” host Chris Jansing noted that President Joe Biden went days without mentioning the fires in Hawaii even as the response has been criticized for being slow and compared Biden’s response to then-President George W. Bush praising then-FEMA Director...

LAHAINA, Hawaii — The windswept wildfires that scorched Maui last week were the deadliest in modern U.S. history. Authorities now fear that the death toll will only rise in the days and weeks to come, intensifying the pain of islanders already scarred by catastrophe. At least 114 people have been confirmed dead, and officials say an estimated 1,000 more could still be unaccounted for, further complicating the arduous process of locating deceased victims and confirming their identities.

President Joe Biden is being slammed for his “disgraceful response” — being termed his “Katrina moment” — after appearing unconcerned by the rising death toll in Hawaii when he offered “no comment” when asked about the current catastrophe after reclining at a Delaware beach. On Sunday evening, the president reportedly said he had “no comment” when asked about the rising death toll from the devastating Hawaii fires that have ravaged Maui since Tuesday. “After a couple hours on the Rehoboth beach, @potus was asked about the rising death toll in Hawaii. ‘No comment,’ he said before heading home,” tweeted Bloomberg...

The New Orleans Advocate reports: "NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who apologized on the air Wednesday night for lying about an experience covering the Iraq War, is now facing scrutiny over his gripping accounts of Hurricane Katrina, the disaster that burnished his nightly news bona fides almost a decade ago. Williams’ account of seeing a body float by in the French Quarter — which remained largely dry — and even a claim of catching dysentery from drinking Katrina floodwaters have raised eyebrows among bloggers and elsewhere since he took it on the chin this week over a claim that he...

Only 6 of the 109 homes remain in reasonably good shapeBrad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation built 109 eye-catching and affordable homes in New Orleans for a community where many people were displaced by damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now this housing development is in disarray. The vast majority of the recently constructed homes are riddled with construction-related problems that have led to mold, termites, rotting wood, flooding and other woes. At least six are boarded up and abandoned. Many residents have filed lawsuits that are still pending. That is, a nonprofit that built houses with input from...

Baltimore is burning because community organizers and various thugs are tearing the city apart in the aftermath of the strange death of a young black man who was in the custody of police — and President Obama is trying to make things worse.In an incredible non-coincidence the rioting follows a weekend rally by the Occupy Wall Street-like Baltimore Peoples Assembly. There also was a first wave of rioting over the weekend. Outside activists have been flooding into Baltimore, according to reports. Police and civilians have been injured. A CVS store was looted and set on fire. Rioters chopped up fire...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The closest most people will ever get to remote Papua, or the operations of Freeport-McMoRan, is a computer tour using Google Earth to swoop down over the rain forests and glacier-capped mountains where the American company mines the world's largest gold reserve. With a few taps on a keyboard, satellite images quickly reveal the deepening spiral that Freeport has bored out of its Grasberg mine as it pursues a virtually bottomless store of gold hidden inside. They also show a spreading soot-colored bruise of almost a billion tons of mine waste that the New Orleans-based company has...

resident Biden is tapping former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu to coordinate the implementation of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, the White House announced Sunday. “In this role, Landrieu will oversee the most significant and comprehensive investments in American infrastructure in generations - work that independent experts verify will create millions of high-paying, union jobs while boosting our economic competitiveness in the world, strengthening our supply chains, and acting against inflation for the long term,” the White House said in a news release. In Sunday’s announcement, the White House touted Landrieu’s work shepherding New Orleans through its recovery following...

A grand jury in Texas this week returned a capital murder indictment against a man accused of viciously beating his girlfriend’s 11-month-old son to death. The infant’s mother was also indicted after prosecutors say she failed to protect her children from abuse she knew was taking place regularly. Officers with the Texarkana Police Department on Sunday arrested 28-year-old Joshua Deshaun Lowe for allegedly killing Javontae Neeley. He is charged with one count each of capital murder of a person under ten years of age, aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, and injuring a child with the intent to cause severe...

Homicide rates are rising once again across the country after last year’s spike, and Houston is faring worse than the largest U.S. cities. Four homicides in Houston in the last 24-hours have brought the total this year to 199, a 35% increase over 2020. Compare that to only a 5% increase in homicides so far over last year in Chicago, a 17% increase in New York and a 23% increase in Los Angeles. The total number of homicides is also higher in Houston than in Los Angeles, a city with nearly twice the population. It’s also higher than New York...

A review of Capitol security after the Jan. 6 riots is going to recommend adding more fencing around the building, as well as more than 1,000 Capitol Police officers, two sources with direct knowledge of the findings told CNN. The draft proposal of recommendations comes just over a month after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tapped retired Lt. General Russel Honoré to review security around the Capitol in the wake of a mob of former President Trump’s supporters laying siege to the building in an attempt to prevent the certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory. At the time, Pelosi said...

The public safety director at New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center — where officials are erecting a makeshift hospital for patients infected with COVID-19 — stole 80 masks recommended for healthcare workers battling the deadly disease and was arrested Friday, according to court records.

A man who was arrested last year for throwing a glass of water on Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was sentenced this week in a federal court to two years probation. Blake Gibbins, 27 of Lafayette, Colo., pleaded guilty in September to one misdemeanor count of assaulting a member of Congress, The Des Moines Register reported. Gibbins was arrested in March 2019 for throwing water at the lawmaker at the Mineral City Mill and Grill in Fort Dodge, Iowa. King was reportedly eating a group lunch when Gibbins approached the table and threw the water, hitting King and those at lunch....

In response to potential health risks; and anticipating multiple agency aspects of the U.S. government would need a unified approach; President Trump has assembled a unified task force to coordinate all response efforts across the totality of government. President Donald J. Trump announced the formation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force. Members of the Task Force have been meeting on a daily basis since Monday. At today’s meeting, which the President chaired, he charged the Task Force with leading the United States Government response to the novel 2019 coronavirus and with keeping him apprised of developments.

The Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar (The Victory) was on the port of Malta on Ausgust 27 2012. According to a Fox News investigation, shipping records confirmed that the Al Entisar docked at the Turkish port of Iskenderun on September 6. Iskanderun, or 'Alexandrette' on the map below is quite close to Idlib (where the Syrian revolution is raging now). [source] Fox News reported that, according to a report by the Times of London (September 14, 2012), the Al Entisar was carrying 400 tons of cargo when it dock in Iskanderun. Some of it was humanitarian, but also reportedly weapons,...