Free Republic

Occasionally I hear credentialed professionals with prestigious titles whine about the so-called “war on expertise.” It really bothers people who see themselves as “experts” that a growing share of society ignores them. A psychologist might intuit something revealing from the lack of self-confidence plaguing our “expert” class. If all the fancy degrees, voluminous curricula vitae, and lofty career positions have failed to instill a resilient modicum of self-esteem, then perhaps all those things are not the true measures of a person’s worth. “Experts” do not like to be challenged. They say things such as, “I have a PhD in this,”...

A report published by the Spanish newspaper ABC on Thursday claimed that Venezuela’s deposed socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro spends his nights in prison yelling “I am the president” and claiming that he was “kidnapped” by the U.S. Maduro, long wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges, led the Venezuelan socialist regime from March 2013 to January 3, 2026, the day the United States executed a law enforcement operation in Caracas to arrest him and his wife, Cilia Flores. The now-deposed dictator clung to power after the end of his first term in 2019 by holding sham presidential elections in...

For decades, the United States and its allies have been gaming out what a full-scale war against the Islamic Republic of Iran would look like. As recently as 2020, in the immediate aftermath of the airstrike that neutralized Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, mainstream and center-left media outlets summarized the forecasts of American war planners. Their conclusions were sobering. In a war that the Iranian regime sees as existential, Tehran could be expected to pull out all the stops. “Iran’s vast network of proxies” would be activated. American and European civilians would be targets, as would vulnerable U.S....

Vance, who has long questioned U.S. intervention abroad, has publicly defended Trump’s Iran operation. But White House officials revealed that the vice president made his opposition known in the leadup, pulling the curtain open after months of speculation about Vance being far more tepid about military action than Trump.Vance is “skeptical,” is “worried about success” and “just opposes” the war on Iran, a senior Trump official said via text message. The official was granted anonymity to speak about the vice president’s views.A second senior Trump official said “his role is to provide the president and the administration, you know, all...

Andrew Stanton of Wisconsin faces up to 10 YEARS in prison for a TikTok where he threatened to shoot @DHSgov law enforcement: "If ICE shows up to your neighborhood — I’m sorry, I’m just gonna say it. It’s time to start f**king shooting at them." Welcome to the find out stage, Mr. Stanton.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, created artwork for an essay book compiled by an anti-Israel activist who has described Jewish people as “vampires,” “demons” and “ghouls” – and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. Duwaji, a Syrian American artist and first lady of New York City, drew the lead graphic for “A Trail of Soap,” an essay published by Susan Abulhawa in the Slow Factory’s latest issue of “Everything Is Political” magazine, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday. Abulhawa is a staunch critic of Israel and has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(3/13/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesGenesis 41:47-5747 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. 48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 49 And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number. 50 And unto Joseph were born two...

An FBI advisory referencing an unverified tip about a potential Iranian drone concept off the California coast circulated to multiple California law enforcement agencies — only to be forcefully downplayed by the White House hours later. The advisory, distributed through federal security channels, referenced intelligence suggesting Iran had "aspired" to launch unmanned aerial systems from a vessel offshore. The email did not identify specific targets, dates or operational details. After reports about the advisory surfaced publicly, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sharply criticized the coverage. "This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false...

This week, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit charged Gertrue Kemunto Mongare with multiple counts of felony theft by false representation. Investigators say Mongare is the owner of B&G Caring Angels LLC, a Medicaid-enrolled home health care agency. She's accused of submitting more than 3,000 claims totaling more than $600,000 over four years. WCCO went to the address listed for the business to ask for comment. No one answered the door, and when we called the unit number, we were hung up on. According to the complaint, investigators found no records of services provided and no background...

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Nearly two weeks after retired Air Force Gen. William McCasland disappeared from his home in the Albuquerque foothills, investigators have released a new photo they believe shows what he may have been wearing the day he vanished. Authorities say the 68-year-old was last seen on Feb. 27. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office believes McCasland left his house on the morning of Feb. 27. A repairman interacted with him around 10 a.m., and his wife left for a medical appointment at about 11:10 a.m. When she returned just after noon, he was gone. Items unaccounted for from his home include hiking...

A former Army National Guard member who had spent eight years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State opened fire on a classroom at Virginia's Old Dominion University on Thursday before ROTC students subdued and killed him, authorities said.He had yelled “Allahu Akbar” before the shooting, which left one person dead and two wounded, according to the FBI.Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, said at a news conference that the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students showed “extreme bravery and courage” and prevented further loss of life by stopping the gunman, Mohamed Bailor...

Hiya kids! Hiya, Hiya!Good Morning Crypto-FReepers.I see some of the same old faces out there.But that's OK - I like you anyway.Today's quote is a modern-day parable.but it's also scary.Hope you like it.Have fun!!! Ha Ha Ha!I'll be good - I will, (like heck) I will. Ha ha ha. UKQW QE K SPQWX YJ SPD ZQWT KWT SPD ZQWT NKW HD NYWSFYRRDT.- EUYNI, ESKF SFDI, E1,D29, YUDFKSQYW KWWQPQRKSD!__ HAL'S CRYPTOGRAM HELPER

According to a statement released by the Nature Publishing Group, Anopheles leucosphyrus mosquitoes may have evolved to feed on humans in Southeast Asia. Upasana Shyamsunder Singh of Vanderbilt University, Catherine Walton of the University of Manchester, and their colleagues sequenced DNA from 38 modern-day mosquitoes from 11 species in the leucosphyrus group. Then the researchers employed computer models and estimates of DNA mutation rates to reconstruct the evolution of these mosquitoes. The study suggests that the bugs switched from feeding on non-human primates to early humans in the region of Sundaland, an area including the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and...

Tradition holds that the eldest son of Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, founded the Golden Horde and was buried in Kazakhstan with his descendants. According to a statement released by the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison), an international team of researchers led by Ayken Askapuli of UW–Madison analyzed genomes taken from remains found in four Golden Horde tombs in Kazakhstan, and determined that their ancestors could be traced to the Mongolian plateau through their Y-chromosomes. “We saw evidence that their Y-chromosomes are part of a branch of the C3* cluster,” Askapuli said. Some 20 years ago, fragments of DNA...

The FBI has warned California’s governor and law enforcement agencies about the possibility of an Iranian drone attack targeting the state due to information acquired last month. The bureau authorities issued the alert at the end of February, which noted that they had information that, as of earlier that month, before the current Middle East war, Iran sought to “conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States Homeland,” according to ABC News.

The “Melania” documentary about first lady Melania Trump debuted at the top of Amazon Prime’s streaming charts after premiering earlier this week. The documentary, which follows 20 days in the first lady’s life before President Donald Trump’s second term in office, hit the streaming service Monday. Just one day after its premiere, “Melania” became the most-streamed film on the platform and the most-streamed content overall in the United States, according to Flix Patrol. The first lady celebrated the feat in a post on X Tuesday. As of Thursday, the film is the third most-streamed overall behind the Amazon Prime series...

A flying taxi took a spin over San Francisco Thursday — and the Bay Area’s tech crowd was there to watch. The small electric aircraft from Joby Aviation flew across San Francisco Bay near the Golden Gate Bridge during a demonstration flight that drew reporters and industry guests to the St. Francis Yacht Club. The flight is part of the company’s push to launch electric air taxis — small vertical takeoff planes designed to carry passengers on short trips of roughly 10 to 50 miles. Joby’s aircraft seats four passengers and uses six propellers. The company says rides could cost...

A California pedophile imprisoned for a horrific string of sex crimes could soon walk free after being granted parole under a controversial law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Gregory Lee Vogelsang, 57, has been granted early release thanks to a 2020 law that offers parole to “elderly” convicts 50 and older who have served 20 or more years in prison. Vogelsang molested several children in the ’90s in the Sacramento area before being convicted on dozens of felony counts, including a lewd act on a child, kidnapping a child to commit a lewd act, and lewd act on a...

The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration, the sources said. And now it may be weeks before the administration’s efforts to alleviate the intensifying economic fallout take hold, officials said Thursday, including high-risk naval escorts of oil tankers through the strait that the Pentagon...