Free Republic

Socrates defines individual justice as “What is good for the individual soul.” He defines justice for the community as “Each person doing their part in a way that others do not interfere with their societal roles.” Social justice as applied in the United States fails to meet either definition of justice. Social justice policies have caused massive property destruction, increased crime, increased inequities, and increased racism. Rather than meeting Socrates’ definition of justice, they embody injustice by their very nature. These policies cause both individual harm and cripple many of the essential functions of society. In 2020, businesses and neighborhoods...

It’s been widely reported that former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-bankrupt guru behind the cryptocurrency FTX, was a major player on the Democrats’ fundraising landscape. He funneled more money to left-wingers than everyone except their favored multi-billionaire George Soros.

The Richard Nixon Foundation, created to memorialize the achievements of the 37th president of the United States, recently commemorated the 50th anniversary of his historic opening to China. The program was entitled “Grand Strategy Summit Dedicated to Addressing America’s Geopolitical Challenges,” and began with a keynote address by Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s first national security adviser and second Secretary of State. It was moderated by Robert O’Brien, a successor of Kissinger’s at the National Security Council. Kissinger noted that Nixon came into office at a fraught moment for U.S. foreign policy, facing issues in Vietnam, the Middle East and the Soviet...

In Pennsylvania, citizens in some counties are asking for recounts of election results. Some want an explanation for why just 37 minutes after polls closed on election night, the Department of State website reported that the results of the governor’s race had 4.2 million more mail-in ballots cast than the number of registered voters in Pennsylvania. Others are requesting a recount based on problems they experienced at the polls and want confirmation that their vote has been counted. Now is the time to make a recount request. Once a county’s Board of Elections finishes the computational canvassing, which is required...

A Gallup poll reported Monday that support for stricter gun control fell from 66 percent in June to 57 percent near the end of October. The poll was conducted October 3-20 via a random sampling of 1,009 American adults. Gallup found 46 percent of Americans says there is a gun in their home or somewhere on their property while 33 percent said they “personally own a gun.”

An SOS From Ground Zero Maricopa County Hangs in the Balance Kitty Gillespie I love Arizona. I’ve lived here since fleeing Chicagoland in 1984. It’s the most amazing place to live. And living in the Phoenix area (the now infamous Maricopa County) gives its residents the best of all worlds. Palm trees. Cactus. Swimming pools. Arizona Office of Tourism weather that the country covets half the year. Driving around the state is easy and always an adventure. The Grand Canyon. Tombstone. Antelope Canyon. Winslow and Route 66. Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. Sedona. Bisbee. Petrified Forest. Jerome. This is big sky...

A new book shows how the 1619 Project is being taught to students City Journal last month released a survey that asked eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds whether they had been taught six concepts related to critical race theory. These included: “America is a systemically racist country,” “White people have white privilege,” “White people have unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people,” “America is built on stolen land,” “America is a patriarchal society,” and “Gender is an identity choice.” Each of these was answered in the affirmative by a majority of participants, of whom more than 80 percent attended public schools. That’s curious given...

Oil meets 97% of American transportation needs, is a core component of over 6,000 everyday goods, and has no significant substitute. Oil has to be used, regardless of price. Look around you: oil is integral to everything that you see. Diesel and jet fuel derived from oil are literally the lifeblood of domestic and international commerce. There is no such thing as “transitioning” away from oil: oil is as invaluable and irreplaceable as water, which is why it’s the world’s most traded commodity.

ROME — Pope Francis railed against systemic injustice Tuesday in an address to members of the World Jewish Congress in the Vatican. “How many human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, are violated in their dignity as the result of the injustice that racks our world and represents the underlying cause of so many conflicts, the swamp that breeds wars and violence!” the pontiff exclaimed. “The One who created all things with order and harmony urges us to reclaim this swamp of injustice that engulfs fraternal coexistence in the world, even as environmental devastations compromise the health...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned residents of the country on Monday to be “very frugal” with their electricity use as Russia continues perpetrating attacks on energy sources. “Of course, energy workers, utility workers, rescuers and everyone involved are working at their maximum,” said Zelensky in his daily address. “But the systemic damage to our energy sphere by the attacks of Russian terrorists is so significant that all our people and businesses should be very frugal and spread consumption by hours of the day.” The president said that Ukrainians are using a higher level of electricity “than the country can provide...

Since Election Day, the Arizona attorney general’s office has ‘received hundreds of complaints’ over Maricopa County’s administration of the 2022 general election. ... Arizona ballots that couldn’t be counted due to broken machines were mingled in some locations with already tabulated ballots, according to the Elections Integrity Unit of Arizona’s attorney general’s office. State officials listed numerous ways Maricopa County, Arizona, election officials failed to properly segregate, count, tabulate, tally, and transport ballots during the midterm 2022 elections, which likely resulted in significant disenfranchisement of Election Day voters. In a letter sent to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office by Assistant...

Satellite observations and computer simulations are important tools for understanding past changes in Earth's climate and for projecting future changes. However, satellite observations consistently show less warming than climate model simulations from 1979 to the present, especially in the tropical troposphere (the lowest ~15 km of Earth's atmosphere). This difference has raised concerns that models may overstate future temperature changes. Rather than being an indicator of fundamental model errors, the model-satellite difference can largely be explained by natural fluctuations in Earth's climate and imperfections in climate-model forcing agents, according to new research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists. "Natural...

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — The lights were literally going out on this year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt as weary negotiators engaged in the final hours of heated, middle-of-the-night bargaining. Yet one of the summit’s most powerful diplomats had to work the phones from afar, isolated in his hotel room after contracting covid-19. It was hardly the first time U.S. special climate envoy John F. Kerry, 78, has been tripped up in trying to exert U.S. environmental leadership. The former secretary of state is the face of the U.S. government’s response to climate change, but his résumé of accomplishments...

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Tuesday hailed House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in a rare show of bipartisan support for a congressional member on the other side of the political aisle. Blunt praised Hoyer following a Washington Post editorial about Hoyer deciding to step down from Democratic leadership in the House. “An editorial in today’s Washington Post referred to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer as a ‘beloved, admired giant on Capitol Hill.’ I couldn’t agree more,” Blunt said. “During the almost 10 years we served together as the Republican and Democratic Whips in the House, we often didn’t vote...

Winter 2020 was the season of Zoom holidays. By 2021, the omicron surge spoiled end-of-year plans. So far, the 2022 holiday season is off to a bumpy start with an early, sharp surge of flu and respiratory syncytial virus cases with an expected wave of Covid-19 cases on the horizon. With a lack of national and local precautionary guidance, individuals are now on their own to gauge risk and protection. However, Americans have more tools in their arsenal when it comes to protecting themselves against Covid this holiday season: vaccines, boosters, tests, masks, knowledge of how the virus spreads. ...Make...

Joe and Jill Biden Monday evening traveled to Cherry Point, North Carolina to participate in a ‘Friendsgiving’ dinner with service members and military families. Biden told a little boy it’s okay to steal.

Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) was narrowly reelected Monday, defending his seat despite voting to impeach former President Donald Trump last year, only the second Republican of ten who did so to return to Congress. Valadao defeated Democrat Rudy Salas by three percentage points in the close race in the 22nd congressional district. A Republican in a heavily Latino district, Valadao has always faced tough reelection races. In 2018, he was narrowly unseated by Democrat lobbyist T. J. Cox, who has since been indicted for fraud in that election.

New Twitter owner Elon Musk says addressing the problem of child-sexual-exploitation content on the social media platform is "Priority #1." Musk made the declaration in a tweet last Sunday night in response to a post about the issue. Eliza Bleu, an advocate for human trafficking survivors, says the three biggest hashtags for selling CSE on Twitter had been “virtually eliminated.” In a tweet Saturday, she also said that under Musk's just weeks-long ownership, Twitter's reporting system now includes an option to report such content, according to the news outlet ADN America. Twitter had been criticized for being slow to act...

A teacher at a high school in Scappoose, Oregon, treated her white students to a litany of insults that called them “predator,” “privileged,” “school shooter,” and, of course, “racist.”

The U.S. military is being sued over a policy that prevents people living with HIV from enlisting in the armed forces. The lawsuit was filed November 10 by Lambda Legal, which advocates for the LGBTQ and HIV communities and argues that the policy is “senseless” and “discriminatory.” The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three plaintiffs: Isaiah Wilkins, a 23-year-old Black gay cisgender man; Carol Coe, a 32-year-old Latina transgender lesbian; and Natalie Noe, a 32-year-old cisgender straight woman of Indigenous Australian descent living in California, according to a Lambda Legal press release. All plaintiffs are HIV positive.