Free Republic

As Florida recovers from Hurricane Ian, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a moral plea against looting that appears to have some firepower behind it. Speaking near Fort Myers in the leveled community of Matlacha on Friday, the Republican Governor relayed one sight he saw in Punta Gorda in neighboring Charlotte County the day prior. “They boarded up all the businesses, and there are people that wrote on their plywood, ‘you loot, we shoot,'” DeSantis said. “At the end of the day, we are not going to allow lawlessness to take advantage of this situation. We are a law-and-order state, and this...

Martha Stewart has been accused of being 'tone deaf' after revealing she used a 'small iceberg' to keep her cocktail cold. The lifestyle guru, 82, posted about her recent trip from Iceland to Greenland on the SH Vega expedition ship, run by Swan Hellenic cruise lines, which included sipping on drinks chilled by an iceberg it appears. 'End of the first zodiac cruise... into a very beautiful fjord on the east coast of Greenland. We actually captured a small iceberg for our cocktails tonight,' Stewart captioned the carousel of photos. Among the images is a smiling Stewart clutching an iced...

Hawaiian officials attributed the cause of catastrophic wildfires to alleged failures from the state's main power utility company and downed power lines this week after Democrats blamed the disaster on global warming. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the government of Maui County, Hawaii, alleged Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and its subsidiaries failed to properly power down live electrical equipment amid a red flag windstorm earlier this month. Due to this failure, downed power lines operated by the utility company sparked a series of deadly fires on the island, the lawsuit claimed. "The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants acted negligently by...

A group of climate activists disrupted and shut down a Nantucket, Massachusetts, fundraising event benefiting Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey after they demanded she ban new fossil fuel projects. The activists, who are members of the group Climate Defiance, interrupted Healey during the event earlier this week on the ritzy Nantucket island located off the coast of Massachusetts and which appeared to be taking place in the backyard of a house. They then chanted slogans before being forcibly escorted off the home's premises. "Excuse me, Gov. Healey, I'm sorry to interrupt. We are in the midst of a climate emergency,"...

resident Biden’s comment that he had “practically” declared a climate emergency is reigniting calls on the left for him to actually take such action. The White House has not announced any explicit climate emergency declarations. Biden appeared poised to do so last year when talks on his signature climate legislation stalled, but he did not ultimately take the step. After the president was asked during a recent Weather Channel interview if he was prepared to declare a climate emergency, however, he at first said he already had. When pressed, he said he had done so “in practice” and practically speaking....

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., struggled to drum up support amid her remarks about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on Wednesday, insisting the audience should clap throughout certain parts of her speech. Joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the White House to boast about the measure on its one-year anniversary, Pelosi touted what she believes to be benefits of the IRA, which she described as a "remarkable accomplishment." Pelosi said there is "no more urgent task than saving our planet," claiming the issue of climate change is a "health issue," an "economic issue," and a "moral...

The Biden administration quietly revised its data analysis of gas stove regulations it proposed earlier this year, showing they would produce fewer consumer savings than previously projected. The Department of Energy (DOE) filed a notification of data availability as part of its ongoing gas stove rulemaking this week, showing that Americans will save 30% less than it said they would under the regulations when they were first proposed in February. The agency's new analysis showed consumers are now expected to save just 9 cents per month under the gas stove regulations. "The newly released DOE analysis revises downward the potential...

A group of left-wing senators led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecute the fossil fuel industry over its alleged climate disinformation campaign. In a letter Monday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Senate coalition - joined also by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. - argued fossil fuel companies have conducted a "longstanding and carefully coordinated campaign" to mislead Americans about the risks posed by global warming and "discredit climate science" in pursuit of profits. If the DOJ were to pursue such a case again the fossil...

The summer holidays are nearly here which would normally mean there's never been a better time to fire up the barbeque and line it with beef burgers. But a new study shows you might want to swap them for meat-free alternatives if you want to do your bit to save the planet. University of Oxford experts say eating just 100g of meat per day – less than a single burger – creates four times more greenhouse gases compared with a vegan diet. The researchers now want to see prompt policy action from government and organisations to trigger 'dietary shifts away...

From flooded cities to hellish wildfires and deadly droughts, gloomy climate reports constantly describe a world ruined by climate change. But what would this actually look like? Environmental specialist Marish Cuenca has partnered with DiscoverCars.com to create artistic depictions of tourist spots in just a quarter of a century from now. London's Big Ben looks straight out of a disaster movie, straddled by a mass of murky floodwater, while the Pyramids of Giza are home to a toxic urban landscape. Palm trees of Hawaii have been ravaged by fire, while California's Death Valley is so hot that the roads are...

Lugging around a heavy suitcase on holiday could become a thing of the past if an airline's clothes rental experiment proves a good fit for customers. The service, dubbed 'Any Wear, Anywhere', allows passengers to rent a bundle of clothing ahead of their flight, which is then delivered straight to their hotel or AirBnb on arrival. Japan Airlines launched the scheme yesterday in the hope that it will mean customers can leave bulky bags behind and make a 'sustainable choice'. Travellers can tailor their clothing style depending on whether they are on a business or leisure trip, choosing between smart,...

A multibillion-dollar energy developer has wired tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine's campaign in recent years while aggressively pushing a massive offshore wind project. The Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy's political action committee (PAC) has funneled $23,000 to Kaine for Virginia since 2011, with the latest, a $1,500 contribution, coming in February. In that same time span, Dominion Energy has given another $44,500 to Common Ground PAC, the leadership PAC affiliated with and chaired by Kaine. Since 2021, Dominion Energy executives led by CEO Robert Blue and Senior Vice President William Murray have donated $19,600 to...

Michigan Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced a sweeping bill package that aims to put legal teeth behind efforts to wean Michigan off fossil fuels. The package, which Democratic leaders said would be filed by Thursday, would require state-regulated utilities to stop burning coal by 2030, and would require them to deliver 100 percent clean energy by 2035. Senate Democrats spokesperson Rosie Jones initially said Wednesday that would be a renewable energy requirement but later clarified the bill would require “carbon-free” energy. She did not specify whether that leaves the door open to utilities continuing to use fossil fuels while deploying...

Cultural Marxism is dystopia peddling utopia through grievance narratives and rank emotionalism, the hallmarks of transgenderism. ... In a surreal moment at the Country Music Awards last week, co-host Kelsea Ballerini joined with several drag performers to belt out a campy version of her single, “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too),” an anthem taking aim at Tennessee laws denying wrongly named “gender-affirming care” for children. The performance was steeped in queerness, both in the pretend “oppression” of performers literally center stage at a nationally-broadcast awards show and in the academic sense, where drag serves as a kind of...

Investigation into Verra carbon standard finds most are ‘phantom credits’ and may worsen global heating The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading certifier and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation. The research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to...

Reparations advocate Robin Rue Simmons told CNN that she does not know how San Francisco will pay Black residents $5 million each in reparations after successfully awarding reparations to approved residents in Evanston, Illinois. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus asked Simmons during an interview about how the city of San Francisco will pay Black residents $5 million. "I don’t know. And so those are the challenges that we all have as municipalities," Simmons said. As a former alderwoman turned activist, Simmons pushed for reparations in Evanston, which became the first city to award such restitution to Black residents who qualify. Those who...

The editor-in-chief of the Science academic journals wants scholars to know that they should agree with him on climate change if they want to be published. Holden Thorp, a professor at Washington University who oversees the Science publications, recently praised Nature magazine for explaining why it made the rare decision to endorse politicians, including its 2020 endorsement of President Joe Biden. He argued that opposing the politicization of science “gives people the permission to say things like ‘climate change may be real, but I don’t think we should have government regulation to deal with it,’ which is unacceptable,” Thorp wrote...

It’s Washington’s newest guessing game: Who is the unnamed Biden family member who got proceeds from a $3 million wire to Hunter Biden associate John “Rob” Walker weeks after Joe Biden left the vice presidency in 2017? House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) first revealed Monday that bank records obtained via subpoena implicate a “new Biden family member” in the panel’s probe of the first son’s alleged influence-peddling scheme. Comer is expected to reveal the person’s name at some point, but has not yet announced specific plans to do so, leaving the door open to speculation about who else...

The favors seem to get even more outrageous with every passing awards season, and the 2023 package is valued at a whopping six-figures, with plots of land in Australia, luxury vacations to Italy and Canada, Art Lipo body sculpting, facial rejuvenation procedures from Dr. Konstantin Vasyukevich, and more lavish items. So, even if the artist isn't walking away with the golden trophy, it's safe to say they are not going home empty handed. "We are excited and proud to once again be creating what is known worldwide as the ultimate swag bag," Distinctive Assets founder Lash Fary said in a...

Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced visit to Ukraine, where he reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to assist Ukrainian officials in pursuing war criminals, Fox News Digital confirmed. On Friday, March 3rd, Garland made the surprise to Lviv, Ukraine at the invitation of the Ukrainian prosecutor general to join President Volodymyr Zelensky at the "United for Justice Conference," Justice Department officials confirmed. Garland's trip was not disclosed "for security reasons."