Free Republic

The GOP has a duty to condemn the riot and those who refuse to acknowledge it. We’re in an acrimonious period of partisan tribalism and have been for some time. Both parties are guilty of overwrought denunciations of their political opponents. My criticisms are often aimed at Democrats; on the anniversary of Jan. 6, I’m addressing squarely those Republicans who for a year have excused the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, disrupted Congress as it received the Electoral College’s results, and violently attempted to overturn the election. These apologists say those who stormed the Capitol were innocent...

Destroying the world’s major semiconductor market might be more of an invasion deterrent than actual open conflict, military paper suggests; Taiwan should adopt a ‘scorched earth policy’ and wipe out its own semiconductor foundries in the wake of any Chinese invasion as a deterrent, US military academics have suggested. First spotted by Nikkei, a paper in the US Army War College’s quarterly academic journal Parameters suggests the US and Taiwan can detour Chinese invasion of the island by creating a ‘deterrence by punishment approach via a legitimate and credible threat' to destroy the country’s own chip fabs if invaded. The...

The brain is one of the mysteries of creation that we are only just starting to understand through science and medicine. As more knowledge about the mechanisms of the brain is uncovered, researchers are also constantly revising their theories about how it works. As we discussed in Chapter 3, an early theory was that depression was caused by a neurotransmitter deficiency in the brain. But science has moved ahead to understanding the brain as functioning primarily through connections between neurons, through how the brain gets wired and rewired, in a process called neuroplasticity. The brain is constantly changing and adapting,...

Boston marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev was ordered by a federal court to turn over the $1,400 in coronavirus relief funds he received, along with other money sent to him, to his victims as restitution. SNIP But so far, he has paid only $2,203, court documents reveal. Tsarnaev has $3,885.06 in his inmate account, funds that came from the COVID-19 relief check he received on June 22, 2021, as well as deposits from individuals and groups, including the Officer of Federal Defenders in New York. ​ Federal prosecutors say Tsarnaev ​has splurged on “gifts,” “support,” and “books” to his siblings —...

@jonkarl Former VP Dick Cheney also just told me this: “I’m deeply disappointed we don’t have better leadership in the Republican party to restore the Constitution.” He noted that his daughter is an exception.

SYDNEY (AP) — The leaders of Japan and Australia signed a “landmark” defense agreement Thursday that allows closer cooperation between their militaries and stands as a rebuke to China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met in a virtual summit to sign the Reciprocal Access Agreement, the first such defense pact signed by Japan with any country other than the United States. The agreement follows more than a year of talks between Japan and Australia aimed at breaking down legal barriers to allow the troops of one country to...

Funny parody of the FBI and the Jan 6 "insurrection". Only 2 minutes 57 seconds long.

Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the vice-chair of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot, said Thursday on NBC’s “The Today Show” that former Vice President Mike Pence was a “hero” for his role in certifying the 2020 presidential election at the January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes. Host Savannah Guthrie asked, “How does former Vice President Pence fit into this case? Are you willing to subpoena him to get his testimony? Do you think he’ll cooperate?”

Less than a month after voting to form a union, employees at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, N.Y., have gone on strike over grievances about working conditions. Six employees on the schedule to work instead formed a picket line in front of the store. Three other employees reported to work as scheduled, but Starbucks closed the location for the day. The striking employees stated that the surge in coronavirus cases and illnesses among the staff had created “unsafe working conditions.” In recent days, Buffalo area Starbucks locations have been operating on a take-out-only basis. “Pressure to go to work is...

A former Trump White House official on Thursday condemned the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as a "coup attempt" and said the former president "failed to meet the moment" in reflections on the anniversary of the insurrection at the Capitol. Sarah Matthews, who served as a deputy press secretary in the Trump White House and resigned on Jan. 6 over the day's events, called the riots from a year ago "one of the darkest days in American history."

The bodies of four swimmers have been found mauled by piranhas in a spate of attacks that has sent shockwaves throughout South America. The attacks happened in Paraguay, where people have visited local rivers in large numbers during the current heatwave in order to cool down. The first death of the New Year happened on Sunday when a 22-year-old man was bathing in the Paraguay River.

America isn’t just seeing less of Mike Pompeo because the Trump administration is no longer in the White House. We are seeing less of the former Secretary of State because there is literally less of him — 90 pounds, to be exact. The former Director of the CIA has faced a lot of challenging situations in his long career, but he hesitates to talk about his weight loss because of a nagging fear he will put all the pounds he lost back on. But, in an exclusive interview with The Post, he revealed how he did it and why.It all...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday suggested former President Donald Trump may have learned some lessons from President Biden's speech marking the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, after Trump dismissed the remarks as "political theater."

President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and his supporters of holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy” in a forceful speech Thursday marking the anniversary of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. He warned that though it didn’t succeed, the insurrection remains a serious threat to America’s system of government. Biden’s criticism was blistering of the defeated president whom he blamed for the assault that has fundamentally changed Congress and the nation, and raised global concerns about the future of American democracy. “For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election, he tried...

[T]he meteor that exploded Saturday morning in the skies above Western Pennsylvania produced a blast that was equal to 30 tons of TNT. On New Year’s Day, a loud boom was heard and felt throughout the region, with some people reporting rumbles in their homes and rattling windows. NASA told The Post that the meteor was a yard in diameter, weighed 1,000 pounds, and hit the atmosphere at a staggering 45,000 mph. A meteor of that size travels through Earth’s atmosphere every three or four days, but because most of the planet is water-covered, the majority of those meteors fall...

The carrier variant of the stealthy Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35C, has deployed onboard an aircraft carrier for the first time in U.S. Marine Corps hands. While the Marines also operate the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B version, the service is procuring the C-model to ensure it can continue with the long-established TACAIR Integration agreement under which it provides squadrons to go aboard the Navy’s big-deck carriers. The addition of the carrier-going F-35C to the Marine Corps inventory also signals a significant boost to the service’s ability to confront high-end adversaries, especially in the Asia Pacific theater.The Marine...

It’s time to join together with loved ones and celebrate America’s newest holiday: January 6th! To make the most of your holiday, please consider these ten patriotic ways of remembering the day democracy almost, but didn’t quite, die.

Health officials inside and outside his administration privately acknowledge that there’s little new left for the federal government to do but hold on and hope the worst is over soon. “Hold on and hope the worst is over soon” is very, very far away from “I’m going to shut down the virus.” The good news is that with all of the vaccinations, boosters, and natural immunity and past infections, the Omicron variant wave isn’t going to be nearly as deadly as past waves. But we’re still in for a challenging couple of weeks ahead... the number of hospital beds in...

Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off the Biden administration’s remarks on the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot by comparing it to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them where they were and what they were doing when our democracy came under assault. Dates that occupy not only a place in our calendars, but a place in our collective memory. December 7th, 1941. September 11, 2001. And January 6th, 2021.”

The Persei booster was launched for a test mission on Dec. 27 by the heavy-lift Angara-A5 rocket. However, the upper-stage booster failed to enter Earth's orbit as planned. Instead, it began inevitably being pulled back toward the atmosphere by Earth's gravity for an expected return to the surface in bits and pieces (if at all) on Wednesday afternoon, Pacific time. The rocket is thought to have weighed around 20 tons, but over 75% of that mass would have been in fuel that almost certainly would have burned up in the atmosphere. The 18th Space Control Squadron of the US Space...