Free Republic

President Vladimir Putin has denied owning a sprawling luxury estate by Russia's Black Sea, after opposition figure Alexei Navalny accused him of hiding the property due to corrupt financing. In an almost two-hour-long film shared on YouTube last week, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) showed drone footage of an opulent 68-hectare (168-acre) "secret palace" that boasts an enormous mansion, two helipads, an arboretum and an underground ice hockey rink. The film alleged the property, which is worth $1.35 billion, was paid off through an intricate web of illicit funds orchestrated by Putin and his allies.

In 2018, the last year for which a complete picture can be discerned, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded nearly a thousand research grants devoted in whole or part to 'diversity, inclusion, and equity' (DIE) aims, to the tune of more than $1.3 billion. From 2010 to 2018, a total of more than $4 billion have been awarded to more than 2,200 DIE-oriented grants...DIE now holds the trump card in deciding what science is worthy of funding. No matter how stellar the science, the message is clear: gobble up the DIE brainworm, or your funding will dry up, and your...

I believe the time has come to realize or at least consider; whatever reaction one may or may not have; that the people in power are going to keep some variation of CV-19 going for a long, long time. Today, Newsom (CA) stated that 50% of the new cases in Los Angeles are of the new, UK, more contagious variety. It's isn't a matter of whom you are gonna vote for, or whom you wish to blame. It's a matter of the swamp et al realizing that they can now control the masses with a word: "Hey, there's a new...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed an order Monday reversing a Trump-era Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender individuals from serving in the military. The new order, which Biden signed in the Oval Office during a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, overturns a ban ordered by President Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office. It immediately prohibits any service member from being forced out of the military on the basis of gender identity. The decision comes as Biden plans to turn his attention to equity issues that he believes continue to shadow nearly all aspects...

Dominion Voting Systems on Monday sued Rudy Giuliani, accusing former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney of carrying out “defamatory falsehoods” about Dominion in part to enrich himself through legal fees and his podcast. The company said it seeks to “set the record straight, to vindicate the company’s rights under civil law, to recover compensatory and punitive damages, and to stand up for itself, its employees, and the electoral process.” “Although he was unwilling to make false election fraud claims about Dominion and its voting machines in a court of law because he knew those allegations are false, he and his...

More than 200 Antifa protesters repotedly descended on Tacoma, Washington, Sunday evening Video and images showed broken glass scattered on sidewalk outside of businesses and graffiti on buildings Protesters started at least two fires in the area using a barricade for one and an American flag for the other The group gathered to protest Tacoma police after an officer drove over a man during an incident Saturday Police said they were responding to reports about drag racers when the group swarmed a patrol car Tacoma Police patrol car - surrounded by people - surged forward, and knocked five people to...

A 26-year-old man had just gotten off a bus from Atlanta when he was attacked by a group of about a dozen suspects who beat him, cut him several times and stole his clothes, including his underwear, cops said Sunday.The group of males and females began assaulting the victim around 11:30 a.m. Friday near Canal and Allen streets in Manhattan, cutting him with an unknown object, police said.Police released video of the suspects and are seeking witnesses. The attackers took the man’s cellphone and removed his pants, underwear and shoes.

The 107 page lawsuit against Giuliani was filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday morning. Dominion claims that allegations of election fraud were “demonstrably false.” It also brought up the protest at the Capitol on January 6 for some reason. In fact their announcement to attack Rudy Giuliani reads like something from a far-left publication. Later this morning Rudy Giuliani responded to the Dominion Voting Systems announcement. Rudy says he looks forward to investigating their history, finances and practices fully and completely. Via WABC Radio: Giuliani, who is also a host for WABC radio, issued the...

I just watched todays' briefing with the new Press Secretary. She really didn't have ANY answers to any of the questions asked, always just saying, "I have no knowledge on that" or "I will have to get back to you. Anyone else see that?

"It's obviously still inside the rock, so we have a few more years of digging ahead of us." Paleontologists in Argentina have discovered the fossilized remains of a 98 million-year-old titanosaur that they say may be from the largest animal ever to walk the earth. A team of researchers with Naturales y Museo, Universidad de Zaragoza, and Universidad Nacional del Comahue actually found the remains in 2012, but excavation work only began in 2015, according to paleontologist Jose Luis Carballido of the Museo Egidio Feruglio. In a new report published in the journal Cretaceous Research, the group lays out what...

Sen. Josh Hawley on Monday filed an ethics complaint against the seven Democrats who last week filed one against him and Sen. Ted Cruz seeking their “expulsion or censure” for objecting to the presidential election results. The Missouri Republican — who in a Post op-ed Sunday decried the muzzling of viewpoints through “cancel culture” — objected to certification of President Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania shortly after a mob of then-President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Hawley wrote to the Senate Ethics Committee that his seven accusers “filed an unprecedently frivolous and improper ethics complaint against me and...

At the height of the Matrix, the protagonist Neo (he'd been called CopperTop) sees that everyone in the world is wired into a giant power grid. Dr. Robert Epstein -- a mysterious man warned that he'd better watch out, then his wife died in a mysterious "accident" -- most recently reported on Tucker Carlson that Google switched 6 million votes. Earlier before the Senate, he projected about 10 times that much cheating. How often do you vote, every 2 years? What about the rest of the 365 (×2) days? We listen to conservative talking heads who use the same old...

The River of Forgetfulness Before we are all reprogrammed, remember for a bit longer that the reset of memory and truth is not just a political agenda, but a holistic effort to redefine our past, present, and future. Riotous rogue Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol on January 6 were properly and widely condemned by conservatives. They were somewhat reminiscent of the mobs of fanatic leftists and union members that a decade ago stormed the Wisconsin state capitol at Madison, or the unpunished hundreds of rioters who created havoc on Washington, D.C. streets during the Trump 2016 inauguration. We...

U.S. Bishop Chairmen Express Concerns with Executive Order on Supreme Court DecisionWASHINGTON — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty; Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J., of Oakland, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education; Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism; and Bishop David A. Konderla of Tulsa, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, issued a statement responding...

Proving that there's virtually nothing the liberal media can't turn against Republicans and conservatives, Berman today somehow managed to use President Biden's dogs to swipe at the GOP and Tucker Carlson. During New Day's 7 am hour, co-host Berman, commenting on reports that the Biden German Shepherds have taken up residence at the White House, said: "We're also hearing Republicans have launched an investigation into the dogs. Susan Collins, we're told, is concerned, and Tucker Carlson is devoting 15 minutes a night to saying the dogs represent cancel culture because it obscures a discussion that he so desperately wants about...

Coverage of presidential inauguration week underperformed already-low expectations, with the usual measured accolades and sober analysis for the incoming president mostly sidelined for fawning praise and outright activism. The overall theme centered on the premise that President Biden is in essence the second coming of George Washington, who, according to popular lore, vowed never to tell a lie. Anchors and pundits returned to this theme again and again with Biden, who famously dropped out of his first presidential run due to a plagiarism scandal. Biden also claimed multiple times – including once during last year’s presidential campaign – to have...

The Washington Monument will remain closed indefinitely to the public to protect staff and visitors from COVID-19, the National Park Service (NPS) said Saturday. The monument closed on Jan. 11 as part of security measures around President Joe Biden’s inauguration. NPS said they would be keeping an eye on the public health conditions in the D.C. area and other indoor attractions’ operating status to determine when it would be safe to reopen. Along with the Washington Monument, all indoor attractions managed as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks — such as the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, Ford’s...

Catholic bishops sign statement to LGBT youth: ‘God created you, God loves you.’A group of U.S. Catholic bishops, including a cardinal and an archbishop, have signed a statement of support for L.G.B.T. youth, telling them, “God created you, God loves you and God is on your side.”“As we see in the Gospels, Jesus Christ taught love, mercy and welcome for all people, especially for those who felt persecuted or marginalized in any way; and the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that LGBT people are to be treated with ‘respect, compassion and sensitivity,’” reads the statement, released by the Tyler...

Unverified rumors Donald Trump could be about to launch a new political party has been growing since he promised a comeback as he left the White House. While the former president has not announced any such plan, many of his supporters have championed the idea of a new so-called “Patriot Party.” George Papadopoulos has said on Twitter that the “Patriot Party will be a viable third party,” Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs has suggested the name has a “great ring to it,” while far-right social media personalities such as Lin Wood have circulated logos featuring a lion for a party of...

A Native American tribe this week criticized the Biden administration’s order halting agency approvals for oil, gas, and coal permitting on federal lands including tribal lands. As the Washington Times reported Friday: The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, which has run an oil-and-gas operation on its 4.5 million-acre reservation for more than 70 years, requested Thursday an exemption for tribal lands from the Interior Department order that halts agencies from issuing permits and leases on mineral production for 60 days. In a letter Thursday, chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee Luke Duncan wrote, “The...