Free Republic

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) late Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit from House Republicans seeking to block the chamber from holding proxy voting, in which members vote for colleagues remotely on the House floor. Pelosi issued a statement calling the lawsuit a "sad stunt" aimed at distracting from new efforts for an additional relief bill amid the coronavirus pandemic. "The House made its will clear two weeks ago when it voted to implement remote voting by proxy and other necessary measures to ensure that Congress can continue to protect lives and livelihoods," Pelosi said in a statement. "The House's position that remote...

Nicolás Maduro, the embattled leader of Venezuela, said Monday that authorities in Caracas captured 13 “terrorists”—including two U.S. citizens-- in a failed invasion attempt that he said was no doubt orchestrated by the Trump administration. Maduro made a nationwide broadcast on state television and held up a pair of U.S. passports that he said were recovered. He read off the names and birthdays of the two Americans.

Ohio state Rep. Tavia Galonski (D) said that she will make a "referral for crimes against humanity" over President Trump's promotion of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for novel coronavirus, despite its unproven benefits and lack of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. "I can't take it anymore. I've been to The Hague. I'm making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow," Galonski tweeted late Sunday. "Today's press conference was the last straw," Galonski added. "I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one." Trump has repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine, which is approved to treat conditions...

[Catholic Caucus] Miraculous Crucifix Ruined at Pope Francis’ Urbi et Orbi Centuries-old wood 'explodes' after exposure to pouring rain VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - A "miraculous crucifix," which survived a fire in 1519 and halted the great plague of Rome in 1522, has suffered potentially irreparable damage after being exposed to pouring rain for over two hours during Pope Francis' special Urbi et Orbi blessing in St. Peter's Square on Friday. The wood on the sculpture tumefied and "exploded" as the rainwater penetrated the priceless work of art. The stuccos in various places used to plaster-coat the body of Jesus were severely eroded and much of the ancient...

Facing intense heat, poisonous gasses and molten lava, daredevil Nik Wallenda says there's "little bit more angst" for his highwire walk across one of the most active volcanos in the world. The stuntman, who's traversed Times Square, the Grand Canyon gorge and Niagara Falls on tightrope, will attempt a 1,800-foot walk over the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. The stunt will mark Wallenda's "longest and highest highwire walk ever attempted," according to ABC, which will air "Volcano Live with Nik Wallenda" as a live two-hour special.

House Intelligence Committee chair turned House impeachment manager Adam Schiff tried to pull a fast one Wednesday by accusing President Donald Trump of “bribery” and “extortion.” “[W]e think there is a crime here of bribery or extortion, conditioning official acts for personal favors; that is bribery, it’s also what the founders understood as extortion,” he said while trying to rebut an argument from the president’s legal team that only actual criminal acts such as bribery are impeachable offenses. **SNIP** “If this were a criminal trial in an ordinary court and Mr. Schiff had done what he just did on the...

Patriarch John X of Antioch and the heads of several other Christian churches in the Middle East met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on Wednesday, October 30 to discuss the ongoing persecution and ways to protect the suffering Christian communities in the Middle East. The meeting, which was organized by Prime Minster Orban, was also attended by Patriarch Mar Ignatius Ephraim II of the Syriac church, Melkite Patriarch Youssef I AbsI of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem, and Syro-Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and all the East Ignatius Youssef III...

In August, a photo surfaced of a boy in an Afro wig with makeup-darkened skin standing in for 11-year-old African-American actor Keith L. Williams on the Vancouver set of “Good Boys,” a comedy about three sixth-graders who ditch school and wind up on a road trip. The image sparked online outrage, and Seth Rogen, one of the film’s producers, quickly apologized, declaring that on all future projects his team would “take every precaution to make sure something similar does not take place again.” It turned out that the boy in the makeup, reportedly the son of a stuntman, was African-American...

The woman who scaled the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday has been identified. Cops say Therese Patricia Okoumou — a 44-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo — was the person responsible for the Fourth of July protest. She lives in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island and is currently in federal custody, according to police sources. Officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit transported her to a federal detention center on Wednesday night following her three-hour standoff with authorities. Her case is being handled by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

A 13-year-old running for governor in Vermont is highlighting gun control in his platform. Ethan Sonneborn, who declared his candidacy last year, is calling for stricter gun control in his home state, and told CNN in an interview published Friday that the refreshed national conversation on guns in the aftermath of the Florida school shooting presents a “good opportunity to make change.” “There's always been a sense of, 'We don't talk about that in politics.' That's what I wanted to change," Ethan told CNN. "I wish it didn't take a tragedy for us to become involved in a national dialogue...

DALTON, Ga. -- A teacher is in custody after police say he barricaded himself inside a classroom at a high school in northwest Georgia Wednesday, police say. Police responded to the report of shot or shots fired at Dalton High School in Dalton and reported via Twitter that a person, believed to be a teacher, was barricaded inside. A Dalton police spokesperson told CBS News the teacher had a gun. CBS affiliate WDEF reports the situation began around 11:30 a.m. when the teacher blocked students from entering his class. When the principal tried to unlock the door, they heard a...

The Greatest Show 30,000 Feet Above Earth®, otherwise known as the Bergoglian Circus, is in the news once again. Yesterday, aboard the “papal” airplane en route to the Chilean port city of Iquique, to the utter delight of Heathens and Humanists, and Heretics of all Ages ®, the ringleader of Modernist Rome performed a never-before-seen stunt.Billed by publicists in the Vatican as a “marriage ceremony,” this latest act of daring is perhaps the greatest feat of illusion Bergolgio has performed since 2013 when first he managed to convince unsuspecting Catholics the world over that he is the Successor of St....

<p>HALSTAD, Minn. -- A Minnesota woman has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting her boyfriend in a videotaped stunt they planned to post on YouTube. Monalisa Perez, 20, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree manslaughter in the June death of 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III, The Star Tribune reported . Perez, who was pregnant at the time of the shooting, has two young children with Ruiz.</p>

Father of Muslim bomb hoax clockster was Qur’an’s defense attorney against Terry Jones in mock trial ByPAMELA GELLER on September 17, 2015. When I first posted this story, I said it smelled fishy. Now it positively stinks. Does this look like a clock to you? And now the plot thickens. In what has become one of the most egregious of the faked hate narratives, the bomb hoax clockster has a family with a history of supremacist stunts. “One of the earliest instances of the standout citizen making national news was in 2011, when he sensationally stood up to an anti-Islamic...

BEAUMONT, CA – A viral video of a person jumping a Southern California freeway was making the rounds Friday. The motorcyclist's daring – and potentially deadly – stunt was caught on camera and shared on Facebook. The video clip, which is just under a minute long, was shot in an area known as The Badlands, between Beaumont and Moreno Valley. In the segment, the rider is seen as he first prepares the dirt path in the hilly pass and then as he jumps across four lanes of traffic on the 60 freeway below.

Developer tightens security, no unauthorised personnel allowed British thrill-seeker James Kingston, who had previously climbed 414-metre Princess Tower in 2014, has climbed the 425-metre Marina 101, but then reaching to the top of the crane at 465 metres. “Marina 101... This is by far the tallest structure I've climbed so far... I later found out that it's the tallest residential building in the world. Crazy, huh?” he said in a post on youtube. It took him about an hour and a half to get to the roof of the building using the crane to get up the first 50...

The unfortunate drama surrounding the collision and sinking of the Ady Gil has finally reached a conclusion. An arbitrator last week ruled that the Sea Shepherd acted “wrongful” in their decision to scuttle the ship and not allow for proper salvage efforts. The trimaran, named for its benefactor and owner Ady Gil, a Hollywood TV businessman and animal activist, famously collided on January 7th, 2010 with a Japanese whaling vessel. The event, captured on film for Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” reality series, drew international attention for both the conservation organization and its anti-whaling mission. While the Ady Gil was disabled...

Wow, pretty cool stunt, watching the video is almost surreal.

The mysterious appearance of two large white flags flying over the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City this morning has the city scrambling to figure out why they were put there.... It is unclear why they are there and who put them there, authorities said.

  See: Obama: Boehner's lawsuit is 'a stunt' ”President Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner's plans to file a lawsuit over the President's use of executive action "a stunt," in an interview with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos.” The obvious truth is, Boehner’s threatened lawsuit is another clever strategy by the Republican Establishment to assist Obama in his fundamental transformation of America while pretending to be fighting against it. Boehner’s lawsuit is basically the same strategy which was pulled when 26 State Attorney Generals file suit against Obamacare. Instead of these AGs filing their case directly in the Supreme...