Free Republic

The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Monday against Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch known as "Putin's Chef," for attempting to influence the 2018 U.S. election, blocking Prigozhin's yacht and private jets from entering the U.S. The Treasury previously sanctioned Prigozhin, one of the wealthiest men in Russia and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg-based internet troll farm, for their 2016 election meddling campaign. It is now adding additional sanctions for attempted meddling in the 2018 election.

The black high school student who accused three white male classmates of pinning her down and cutting off her dreadlocks has 'acknowledged' that she made the allegation up, according to her school.

GOP senators attack whistleblower's credibility GOP senators attack whistleblower's credibility BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 09/30/19 06:00 AM EDT 13,753 Republican senators scrambling to protect President Trump from a formal impeachment inquiry are attacking the credibility of the whistleblower who filed a complaint. GOP lawmakers are asserting the whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge of the actions detailed in the complaint and question whether the person had a political agenda. “It doesn’t come from a person with personal knowledge. It’s like I heard these people say this, and now I’m reporting it. I think that is pretty bizarre,” said Sen. John...

Orthodox rabbis and Evangelical Christians equally believe that the world is on the cusp of the Battle of Armageddon and that “we are about to see the messiah,” said Dr. Jeffrey D. Johnson. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Johnson said that the reality of devout Jewish and Christians sharing this common bond, “should cause us all to pause and say, ‘Oh my word, there is hope here.’ In a world of great despair, there is hope in the messiah.” Specifically, he said the common bond is in the belief that one day soon, there will be a war...

The two BMD airborne infantry fighting vehicles used to be eight feet tall. Emphasis on used to be. Russia’s army airborne forces faced a setback this week when the parachutes of two BMD armored vehicles malfunctioned, sending them plunging toward the ground. The vehicles were destroyed on impact. Luckily, there are no reports of injuries. The incident took place during Russia’s Center-2019 military exercises and involved paratroopers from the famous 98th Guards Airborne Svirskaya Red Banner Airborne Division. The exercise, as reported by the BMPD military blog, involved the mass drop of the entire 217th Airborne Regiment. The airdrop involved...

ROME — Pope Francis has publicly endorsed an essay that appeared in 2017 criticizing relations between Evangelicals and Catholics in the United States as an “ecumenism of hate.” On Thursday, La Civiltà Cattolica journal released the transcript of a meeting between Pope Francis and a group of 24 Jesuits on September 5, 2019, during his recent trip to Mozambique in which the pope suggested that certain Evangelical Protestants in the United States “cannot really be defined as Christian.” “Two important articles in Civiltà Cattolica have been published in this regard. I recommend them to you. They were written by Father...

China Launches First Type 075 Big Deck Amphibious Warship By: Xavier Vavasseur September 27, 2019 10:45 AM • Updated: September 27, 2019 11:21 AM China’s first amphibious assault ship, a Landing Helicopter Dock known as Type 075, was launched in Shanghai on Thursday. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy), the customer of the vessel, said in a statement that after a brief ceremony starting at 9:20 am at a CSSC’s Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard, waters began to be pumped into a dry dock in which the ship’s hull was built. Participants at the ceremony – officials from the central...

A federal judge handed the Trump administration a win Monday, dismissing a lawsuit from states with high taxes. The lawsuit asked U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken to block the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's limit on how much people can deduct in state and local taxes (SALT). The provision effectively raised the tax burden on citizens of high-tax states.

New 3rd Fleet CO Committed to Operating Forward to ‘Preserve Peace’ By: Gidget Fuentes September 27, 2019 9:13 PM NAVAL BASE CORONADO, Calif. – The Navy’s West Coast-based fleet welcomed a new commander on Friday as Vice Adm. Scott “Satan” Conn took the helm of San Diego-based U.S. 3rd Fleet from Vice Adm. John D. “Sarge” Alexander. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, piled praise on Alexander, who wrapped up a two-year tour leading 3rd Fleet through a transition to bolster the fleet’s maritime warfighting capabilities. “His efforts to prepare our forces for a high-end fight… and sustain our...

Rap legend Kanye West said he will only make gospel music going forward -- no more secular music, according to a Chicago music promoter who was in the room. West reportedly made the comment Saturday at a listening party in Chicago for his new album "Jesus is King: A Kanye West Experience." "Kanye also announced that he is no longer making secular music," said Andrew Barber, owner of music media company Fake Shore Drive. "Only Gospel from here on out." West said he is "done being an entertainer," Barber told FOX Business. Anyone attending the Chicago listening party was required...

Now that he has dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is free to indulge in his favorite pastime—shafting the citizens and residents who fall under his governance. The newest bit of tyranny from the Mayor is the enactment of an ordinance that imposes hefty fines on anyone using the phrase “illegal alien” or the word “illegals.” “We determined that our ongoing policy of shielding accused rapists and murderers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents is not enough to discourage attitudes of hostility toward individuals who have entered...

Expeditionary Strike Group 2 Admiral Removed from Command By: Sam LaGrone September 27, 2019 6:24 PM The commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 2 has been removed from command due to a loss of confidence by the commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet, service officials told USNI News. “Rear Adm. Erik Ross, commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Two (ESG-2), was relieved of his duties by Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet (C2F), due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” reads a statement from the command. Ross was involved in an alleged off-duty incident that prompted Lewis’ decision...

They raise a number of questions about the conversation and the unidentified “whistleblower,” but they manifestly do not demonstrate that Trump should be impeached. Remember the running gag on Seinfeld that the whole show was about “nothing”? This is going to be a “Seinfeld impeachment”: it, too, is about nothing. ......... The fact that the IC-IG labeled the complaint “credible and urgent” proves that the IC-IG did so in willful evasion of the law describing his jurisdiction. Atkinson wanted Congress to create, as Pelosi and Schiff have, an uproar when the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel told the...

Whether we admire & support this President is irrelevant, the sheer contempt for our sensibilities and American ideals by Democrat operatives is appalling. I’m hardly a drama queen, however, this is actually disturbing me. I can honestly say, that before the election of our 45th President, Donald J Trump, I was disgusted with both our Democrat and Republican leaders. I had invested several decades into vexing the convoluted swamp of Washington politics, in a feeble attempt to make sense of it all. I’d concluded that both parties were venerating the same master, making it appear that we actually had a...

Freshman Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is in hot water after blocking users on Twitter. A federal judge set a precedent in May outlawing politicians from blocking users on Twitter, contending President Donald Trump would violate the U.S. Constitution by preventing certain Americans from viewing his tweets on the “designated public forum.” The same ruling applies to the socialist “Squad” leader. Former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat who describes himself as a “proud Jewish American and a staunch supporter of Israel,” filed a lawsuit against Ocasio-Cortez after she blocked him. Ocasio-Cortez tried to get the case dismissed, arguing Hikind...

Somalia: “The mujahideen stormed the military complex, engaging the crusaders in an intense firefight” SEP 30, 2019 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER Those opposing the U.S. and its allies call themselves jihadis and their foes crusaders. The U.S., meanwhile, denies that they are crusaders, which is fair enough, and that its opponents are jihadis, which is pure wishful thinking. To refuse to understand the enemy’s perspective is to bring defeat upon oneself. “Jihadists ‘Storm’ U.S. Air Base, Bomb Military Convoy in Surprise Somalia Attacks,” by Tareq Haddad, Newsweek, September 30, 2019 (thanks to Lookmann): Jihadists in Somalia have attacked a...

An absolute, ROCK-STAR reception from our French conservative allies today at the Right Convention. There is a grassroots movement bubbling. The room was positively electric. My words to attendees: “I stand upon this stage in unity with the French conservatives because if history has taught us anything, it is that when the chips are down, the American patriots will always ally with the French and English patriots to fight for freedom.” Western civilization matters. We all need to start acting like it. #MAGA #ViveLaFrance

<p>Some Burger King customers may have been getting an unwanted side of identity theft.</p> <p>A woman claims that she witnessed one of the fast-food chain’s employee’s take a picture of her debit card while using the drive-thru at a location in Ohio. When the woman complained, a manager for the restaurant reportedly discovered multiple photos of customers' debit cards on the worker’s phone.</p>

Seemingly following in the misleading footsteps of CNN host Wolf Blitzer and chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, the Thursday evening reports on ABC and CBS lied about the contents of the phone call transcript between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Both broadcast news outlets misinformed their viewers and claimed the “favor” Trump asked of Zelensky was to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden, that was not the case. As this author noted on Wednesday, any honest person who actually read the transcript knew the “favor” (which appears on the top of page-3) had nothing to do with the...

The sixth-grade girl at a private Virginia school who accused three classmates last week of forcibly cutting her hair now says the allegations were false, according to statements from the girl’s family and the principal at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield. School officials met with the girl and her family Monday morning before releasing the statement. The 12-year-old, who is African American, said three white boy students held her down in a school playground a week ago during recess, covered her mouth, called her insulting names and used scissors to cut her hair. The grandparents of the girl, who are...