Free Republic

June 7 is National VCR Day. Yes, you read that right. Videocassette recorders are still around and there are enough of them to justify a spot on the National Day Calendar — the national day marketing calendar under digital media company Zoovio, Inc. While most people have retired their VCRs, not everyone has gotten rid of these devices or the VHS tapes that worked with these physical video players. Some might even be holding onto the retro gadgets after seeing that a sealed, mint-condition "Star Wars" VHS tape from 1977 sold for $57,600 in New Jersey by Goldin Auctions, a...

Using the latest scientific methods, Tom Higham and Katerina Douka from the University of Vienna want to solve a great mystery of human evolution: Why are we the only humans left? Higham and Douka were the first ones to find a first-generation offspring of two different types of human. They continuously publish new results in high impact journals, most recently in Science Advances.Our ancient cousins are more present in modern human DNA than we thought: Modern humans possess a small proportion of genes from archaic groups like Neanderthals. Every person having a European or Asian background has an average of...

Japan is reportedly planning to send an "active-duty" defense official to Taiwan to strengthen "information-gathering capabilities" in the wake of increasing Chinese aggression in the Taiwan Strait. Japan's Ministry of Defense (MOD) is considering sending an official this summer (June to mid-September), reported local website Sankei. Tokyo currently has one retired defense official deployed in Taipei. This official, who is also called the security chief, is equivalent to a defense attaché at a diplomatic mission abroad. Since he is not on active duty, he cannot communicate directly with the MOD but only through diplomatic channels. Japan started posting a defense...

Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is working as an unpaid intern in the congressional office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Yiannopoulos, 37, announced the job on his Telegram account Monday with a photo of his official intern congressional badge. “I’ve finally been persuaded out of retirement. But my skills are a bit rusty, so the best role I could land was an unpaid internship with a friend. Pray for me!” Yiannopoulos said.

We never seem to get enough information in the hours and days immediately following a horrific crime, but after a few days or weeks have gone by, usually after the story has faded from the front page, the necessary backstory finally comes out. First, an “All Points Bulletin” on May 12 alerted the state of Texas that Gonzalo Lopez, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, had just escaped from custody during a transfer, by breaking out of his transportation cage and stabbing the driver of the prison bus. He remained on the run for three weeks, using up precious...

CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten said Monday on “The Lead” that Republicans will win a massive majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the November midterm elections. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “If you’re a Republican running for re-election or trying to unseat a Democrat, things are looking pretty good, right?”

{UPDATE} As has been discussed at length, initial reports were incorrect and this was almost certainly a Ukrainian MIG-29. Photos at the scene of the crash and reports from reliable UAF sources have confirmed this. We apologize for the error and will do our best to ensure information is as accurate as we can before reporting. In those cases we still manage to get something wrong, we will acknowledge and correct it.

Annette Taddeo drops out of Florida gubernatorial race and shifts focus to US House seat By Steve Contorno, CNN Mon June 06, 2022 (CNN) Florida state Sen. Annette Taddeo is dropping out of the Democratic primary for governor and instead plans to run for a Miami-area congressional seat. Taddeo changed the bio on her campaign Twitter page on Monday to say, "Democrat for Congress in Florida's 27th District." Taddeo first shared her decision with CBS4 News in Miami, and explained that she had made the call to change races after the recent spree of mass shootings around the country. "We...

Searches for Sapir Nahum - the Arab [Muslim, ex] spouse in custody Former spouse, nationalist and criminal offender, "Tiktok star" who published videos about Jewish women who (allegedly, he claims) "converted" [sic] to Islam and took part in the riots in Acre during the "5781 [2021] riots" Shalom Friedman, 7 Sivan 5782 - 06/06/2022 Police are conducting extensive searches for Sapir Nahum, who disappeared about 4 days ago, and suspect that her Arab partner is involved in her disappearance. Sapir Nahum (24), a mother of two children from Acre, disappeared last Thursday after she was reportedly seen getting in the...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Camp Lejeune, North CarolinaMarine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a 246-square-mile United States military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Its 14 miles of beaches make the base a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports (Wilmington and Morehead City) allows for fast deployments. The main base is supplemented by six satellite facilities: Marine Corps Air Station New River, Camp Geiger, Stone Bay, Courthouse Bay, Camp Johnson, and the Greater Sandy Run Training Area. The Marine Corps port facility is in Beaufort, at the southern tip of...

On Amazon Prime I'm watching a docuseries called "Second War Diary", in particular watching the June 1944 episode (episode 58). It's fascinating to see what all was going on in the war practically simultaneously with the Normandy invasion 78 years ago. It's a great series. It doesn't have a bunch of wasted time with interviews from "scholars" or blah blah. Each episode is an hour long narrative with video clips (and some Hollywood movie clips) while a narrator tells what happened on June 1, 1944, then a minute later what happened on June 2, etc. It's basically factoid after factoid...

Gov. Tom Wolf has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time, according to a post on his social media. “My symptoms are mild,” Wolf wrote. “I’m grateful that I recently got my second vaccine booster.” Wolf said he is isolating at home, according to CDC guidance. In December 2020, Wolf tested positive for the virus but was asymptomatic. He was testing negative in the following days, his office said at the time. It was unclear Monday how Wolf would be handling upcoming engagements.

After the mass murder of 10 in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket committed by a man who posted a racist manifesto, Wesley Lowery, a CBS reporter, said: “Let’s be clear, the stuff Tucker (Carlson) and Laura Ingraham say every night, it could be written by white supremacists very often. There’s a section of this manifesto where the shooter starts talking about, ‘People will always say diversity is strength. How is it a strength?’ And I could hear it in Tucker’s voice. He says this all the time, right? But the Ben Shapiros of the world say this. ... There are...

The Justice Department’s decision not to charge former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows or deputy communications director Dan Scavino with contempt of Congress is sending mixed messages about the extent those in the president’s inner circle can flout lawmaker subpoenas. The Department of Justice sent a letter to the House saying it would not pursue contempt charges against the two men even as it filed charges Friday against Peter Navarro, a former White House economic adviser, for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

I wish we had Ronald Regan back as President! The stuff going on today, would not be happening!! But, I will replay the video I made of the entire Funeral in his honor!

A Californian is going viral after sharing the biggest culture shocks she faced after moving to Iowa. The clip comes courtesy of Katie Bishop (@katphishhbishh), a podcaster and CRNA student now living in Iowa. Her video, about the most surprising differences between her old state and new one, now has over 800,000 views. It’s the latest entry in a long line of posts about culture shocks TikTokers have faced after moving.

The White House on Monday reminded Americans frustrated with record-high gas prices that the cost of fuel was even higher in foreign countries. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions about high gas prices during the daily briefing by noting it was “really important” that people understood that prices were higher across the globe.

I recently discontinued cable TV, which also provided phone service. I decided to get a wireline service, mostly because it works when the power goes off. Problem: 99% of the calls are robocalls. I looked into how to stop this, which (according to the internet) is expensive, difficult, and something about which the FCC and the rest of the State is powerless. This seems absurd to me. Why can't this practice be outlawed, and its practitioners be executed?

The pain at the pump continues for the vast majority of American drivers. According to AAA, the average price of regular unleaded gas surged 59 cents over the last month, and Monday's average of $4.87 per gallon represents the most expensive average rate in United States history. The one-week pricing spikes in Michigan (45 cents per gallon), Indiana (41 cents), and Wisconsin (39 cents) have been staggering. The price hikes in Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Texas have also been steep, with each of the six states incurring a minimum increase of 30 cents per gallon over the last...

The Biden White House is reportedly worried that the parallels to former President Jimmy Carter's presidency are going to stick as gas prices and inflation continue to increase and the president's approval rating remains low. Politico reported on Sunday that President Biden and his aides were feeling defeated by their efforts to counteract the many challenges the Biden administration currently faces. "Morale inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is plummeting amid growing fears that the parallels to Jimmy Carter, another first-term Democrat plagued by soaring prices and a foreign policy morass, will stick," Politico's Jonathan Lemire wrote.