Free Republic

Democratic Reps. Andy Kim, D-N.J., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., are scheduled to be sworn-in as U.S. senators on Monday after their placeholders George Helmy and Laphonza Butler resigned last week. Schiff won the seat of longtime Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last year. Kim won the seat that was vacated by former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. He resigned after he was convicted on federal bribery charges. Their first formal vote in the Senate is expected to be on the confirmation of four district judges, according to Politico. The new Congress convenes on Jan. 3.

Newly reelected U.S. President Donald Trump conducted a phone call with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol today to discuss the presence of North Korean troops in Russia. The president-elect and the South Korean leader reportedly spoke on the phone about South Korean issues with North Korea and scheduling a meeting for a future date. Discussing the phone call in a press briefing, Yoon said, according to France-24: "We agreed to meet in the near future … I believe there will be an opportunity to meet within this year." The South Korean president also discussed changing the country's previous policy...

Political tensions in Israel tonight involving the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu... The political scene in the US Democrat Party strategist James Carville says there needs to be an open process including former Presidents...to select a replacement for Joe Biden... US, British and French warplanes violating Syrian airspace 12 times in the past day... The Biden Administration saying public statements from Israel and Hamas do not reflect the true state of the talks... Russian Foreign Minister spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying she expects an accusation of chemical weapons use by Russia... "It's time for it to end" US politics Joe...

North Korea is preparing for its first nuclear bomb test in nearly five years, government sources in South Korea have told local media. Kim Jong Un's secretive regime appears to be hastily constructing a 'shortcut' to a tunnel at its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in preparations for a seventh underground nuclear detonation, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Sunday. Warnings of the nuclear test, which would be the first since September 17, come just days after the North test-fired its massive Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, which could deliver a warhead anywhere in the United States.

There is no greater danger to the country than this effort to politicize the military by ensuring that all officers hew to the political party line of this administration.resident Joe Biden and his administration are continuing to purge and politicize the American military. Consistent with the totalitarian left’s effort to control curricula down to the grade-school level, their latest effort targets the education of America’s future military leaders at the service academies: The U. S. Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. This is not happening by accident. And...

What used to be unobjectionable truths could now get you fired from your job or canceled in class. #SAS2021 @TPUSA pic.twitter.com/NKP1sfhWA5— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 19, 2021

President Trump leaving office will not make America more decent if it just returns power to those whose garb of civility covers corrupt hearts. There is honor among thieves. There has to be, if they are to be successful. Even lawbreakers require some sort of law, both in reality, where organized crime requires organization, and in fiction, where it is a standard trope that the Guild of Assassins (or whatever) has rules. The wicked still need some virtue to be effective, although it must be severed from the whole of virtue. This explains a lot about politics. The rules and...

The notion that Barrett must recuse herself or ‘categorically sit on the sidelines until the President who nominated [her] has left office’ is entirely antithetical to precedent.It seems Democrats are determined to rely on the same worn playbook of appealing to “norms” that do not exist. Their latest attempt to obstruct the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett includes a particularly ridiculous demand: that Barrett agrees to recuse herself from any future case that may arise in relation to the 2020 presidential election.Democrats are citing a fictitious standard that has no basis in reality in much the same way they...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was widely praised for his tone of leadership, but hiding behind it were dismal failures.During the first two months of the Chinese virus crisis, most in our media depicted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s public persona as “It is so refreshing to see real leadership.” After years of bashing Donald Trump for his tone and supposed rejection of norms, the media found in Cuomo a kind of anti-Trump. His tone was supposedly perfect. But we are now learning that his actual response to the crisis left quite a bit lacking, to say the least. The general media...

Imagine that a depraved tyrant is oppressing your country, driving its citizens into misery. You have the opportunity to save the country: By starting an affair with the tyrant’s wife, you can gain access to the tyrant and depose him. Is that OK? This case was raised by a commentator on Aristotle, who thought it a circumstance in which adultery might be justified. But St. Thomas Aquinas, in his De Malo, says that the commentator is wrong. “One ought not to commit adultery for any benefit,” St. Thomas writes, expressing the constant teaching of the Church. Some acts, whatever the...

“To learn who rules over you, find out whom you are not allowed to criticize.” — Voltaire If you’re wondering what Americans can do as our ruling class sets about enforcing its redefinition of marriage, start by looking back at what it did to the citizens of Indiana when their legislature raised the possibility that someone might object to joining in celebrations of homosexual marriage. Support for homosexual unions was incidental to the insistence of the likeminded folks atop society’s commanding heights on punishing Indiana. What incurs their ire has less to do with any substantive matter than with the...

Professional code for journalists: sense or nonsense? By Steven de Jong, chief editor Politiek-Actie.net - Because of factors like rivalry pressure and the high running speed of news, we tend to more and more forget about the journalistic norms and values. Important methods and values like hearing both sides of a story, objective reports and independent gathering of news are under pressure. When media copy each others reports too fast without taking the time to observe those values, media hypes with very harmful effects will develop. Harmful not only for those directly involved, but also for the journalist and the...

Catholic World News (cwnews.com) has reported that the long-awaited document on the liturgy that the Holy Father called for in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, will soon be made public. It seems to have been delayed by high-level disagreements within the Vatican. It is also reported that the document will not contain any striking innovations. In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul had said that the new document would provide juridical norms regarding the celebration of the Eucharist. The purpose of the document, Vatican officials disclosed at the time, was to curtail liturgical abuse-- a problem that was viewed by...

Draft: Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial PoliciesDealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minorsby Clergy or Other Church Personnel PreambleOn DATE, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." The charter addresses the Church's commitment to deal appropriately and effectively with cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy and other Church personnel. The Bishops of the United States have promised to reach out to those who have been sexually abused as minors by anyone serving the Church in ministry, employment, or a volunteer position, whether the abuse was recent...