Free Republic

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shoulders much of the blame for the security breakdown at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a preliminary report from Republican investigators Reps. Jim Banks and Rodney Davis determined. The Capitol Police (USCP) were half-staffed on Jan. 6, Pelosi’s House Sergeant at Arms denied multiple requests for National Guard assistance from the Pentagon and the USCP Chief in the days leading up to Jan. 6, officers were poorly equipped and had insufficient riot shields and helmets, and they were never trained to handle a riot even after the riots of 2020, the investigation...

Federal agents searched the Virginia home of former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday morning, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the activity. It was unclear which federal agencies conducted the search, but one neighbor who witnessed the law enforcement activity said they saw officials entering and exiting the Lorton, Virginia, home after arriving there early Wednesday.

Plants are growing in complete darkness in an acetate medium that replaces biological photosynthesis. Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis. The research, published in Nature Food,...

Convinced that police, prosecutors, and prisons are inhumane methods for combating crime, Chicago is trying a “peace-circle” approach. Local advocate for the idea Howard Zehr contends that “bringing victims and perpetrators face-to-face can achieve restorative justice because it allows the participants in the original so-called crime to meet again and make their apologies. This inspires a healing process that will do more to discourage future harmful interactions than simply locking up the assumed offender.” After he was caught in possession of an illegal gun, prosecutors wanted Ojani Cruz to be held in jail, but a judge let him out on...

Netflix is laying off around 300 more employees across the company. The cuts, which represent around 3% of the company’s employee base, come about a month after the streaming company eliminated about 150 positions in the wake of its first subscriber loss in a decade.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of state Republican Party leaders in a case nominally about a voter identification law that a lower North Carolina court previously found was passed with “racial discrimination” as a “motivating factor.” Stylized as Berger v. NC Conference of NAACP, the case was decided in favor of GOP state legislators who argued the Tarheel State’s Democratic Attorney General was not “adequately” defending North Carolina Senate Bill 824, which requires a photo ID to vote.

Six people died on Wednesday when a tourist helicopter used in Hollywood movies crashed in West Virginia during a vintage helicopter show where guests without pilot licenses were allowed to fly the aircraft. The Vietnam-era helicopter, which had previously appeared in movies including Baywatch, Die Hard and Outbreak, was being flown during the 7th Annual Huey Reunion, an event for historical aviation enthusiasts. Guests at the event, hosted at the Marpat Aviation school in Logan county, could pay to fly the helicopter for $250 for a 30-minute session even without having a license, according to the event page. The helicopter,...

A nanny goat has injured several Russian servicemen by triggering their tripwires with pinned grenades in the village of Kinski Rozdory in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.Ukraine’s Chief Intelligence Directorate has shared a curious incident that happened at a local hospital.A total of 40 invaders have been stationed at the medical institution in Kinski Rozdory.The Russian military installed a "circular defence" and placed tripwires around the perimeter of the hospital.The aggressors regretted this decision after a goat from a neighbouring farm decided to pay a visit to the hospital.As the frightened animal moved chaotically around the area, she accidentally "disposed of" several grenades....

Even though former President Donald Trump has yet to officially announce his 2024 presidential candidacy, he still dominates the GOP as a kingmaker and the most recognizable name in Republican politics. With Trump in the race for the GOP nomination, he receives a majority (54%) of votes from Republican primary voters, which is four to one more than the next most popular candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (12%), with former Vice President Mike Pence nipping at DeSantis' heels with 10%.No other candidate received support within the margin in the error, including Senators Ted Cruz-TX (4%) and Marco Rubio-FL (3%), former...

Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz said on Thursday that a recent New Hampshire poll showing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) narrowly edging out former President Trump indicates Republicans are saying “it’s time to move on” from Trump. During an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Luntz and the network’s chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, spoke about the University of New Hampshire’s latest Granite State Poll, which found that 39 percent of likely GOP primary voters in the state would back DeSantis as their first choice in a list of Republicans who are considered possible presidential candidates. Trump, meanwhile, received 37...

A judge has dealt a blow to a couple fighting to keep a little white cross on display at their home in The Villages. Judge Michelle Morley has ruled in favor of Community Development District 8 in its protracted legal battle with Wayne and Bonnie Anderson of the Village of Tamarind Grove. She dismissed their most-recent counter complaint. The Andersons had claimed that their display of the little white cross should be protected under the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act. However, CDD 8 has long held that the cross is considered a “lawn ornament” and therefore forbidden under deed compliance...

President Joe Biden’s new advisory council on families and education includes many pro-transgender, Critical Race Theory-supporting opponents of normal two-parent families. The council “is made up of people and organizations that are in lock step with the administration’s socialist ideology and agenda for our children,” Elicia Brand, co-founder of Army of Parents, said in a Fox News report. After the Department of Education announced the formation of the new National Parents and Families Engagement Council last week, some parental rights organizations are calling foul. “The National Parents and Families Engagement Council will serve as an important link between families, caregivers,...

“Note that she only ruled it out because Biden said he intends to run!” Those are the cautionary words of political veteran Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas, who reacted Monday to the maelstrom of media hype surrounding two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her bold declaration she’s done with politics. As Radar first reported, Hillary publicly declared over the weekend she won’t run for the White House in 2024. But privately, she is telling political powerbrokers she’ll be “ready” to be drafted in to save the ailing Democratic party if approval ratings starved President Joe Biden were...

A New York Times guest essay argued that American gun culture has been made all the more fanatical because of its ties to Christianity. It also claimed that Christianity makes mass shootings more possible. Author Peter Manseau, a religious author, wrote in his Thursday piece, "But many of our fellow citizens don’t just own guns, they believe in them. They believe the stories told about guns’ power, their necessity, their righteousness." Manseau theorized that this is what has happened at the intersection of American Christianity and the Second Amendment. He opened his opinion piece with the question, "Is our gun...

The director of Texas’ Department of Public Safety revealed this week that the police officer husband of a slain Robb Elementary School teacher was detained and disarmed when he tried to enter the school to save his wife. An 18-year-old male, who will not be named per Daily Wire policy, killed 19 students and two teachers at the elementary school on May 24. Col. Steven McCraw testified that now-deceased teacher Eva Mireles called her husband, identified as Uvalde CISD Police Officer Ruben Ruiz, “shortly after the gunman attacked her classroom and told him ‘she had been shot and was dying,'”...

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said that after investigating former President Donald Trump’s actions around the 2020 presidential election, he has “entered so much in Donald Trump’s head” that he can see the former president’s next moves because of Trump’s “real blood thirst for power.” Anchor Chris Hayes said, “It is still surprising to me how the scope and systematic nature of the various attempts, just the thing that you guys showed about the calls to the state legislators, the calls every day, the voice mails, it was not grasping at straws, you know? It wasn’t a temper tantrum. Did you...

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic Senate candidate, has replaced the pro-weed and LGBTQ rights flags hanging from his office balcony with bigger ones after lawmakers moved to ban the display. “Since they passed a law that said I can’t fly my old [LGBT] + weed flags from my office balcony, I figured new, bigger better ones would be legal,” Fetterman said on Twitter along with a photo of the new flags.

First Happy Birthday (if I'm not mistaken) USSC Assoc. Justice Clarence Thomas. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has weighted in on (6-3 Decision) the 2nd & 14th Amendment, it's time for National Reciprocity. Ask your representative's local & national about National Reciprocity.

WASHINGTON — The latest front line in the free speech war is a balcony in the Pennsylvania state Capitol — and it's being fought over marijuana and rainbow flags. The flags belong to Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a tattooed 6-foot-8 Democrat considering a run for Senate next year, who hung the pro-legalization green leaf and LGBTQ rights flags from the balcony of his office, which overlooks the state Capitol’s front steps and much of downtown Harrisburg.

During presidential remarks on COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years old, President Joe Biden alarmed Twitter users when he spoke of the government preparing for a "second pandemic."A reporter prompted Biden’s head-turning remarks with a question on what spending the U.S. government is still prepared to do in order to manufacture and distribute more vaccines and maintain the infrastructure necessary to combat COVID-19 as it lingers throughout the country.Last week, the CDC and FDA authorized emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine for kids as young as 6 months old."I know you’re looking for more money from Congress for this...