Free Republic

When Gen. Sergey Surovikin was appointed the overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine a month ago, the Kremlin’s cheerleaders in the media lauded him as exactly the kind of severe warrior needed to bring order to the stumbling invasion. “General Armageddon,” some called him. The general appeared on national television in a rather different role on Wednesday: He was the designated bearer of bad tidings, announcing that Russia should abandon the southern regional capital of Kherson in order to preserve the lives of its soldiers there. President Vladimir V. Putin, who in a belligerent appearance in Moscow’s Red Square...

Perhaps it was the way he carried himself in an unassuming and humble manner, but day after day hundreds of Air Force Academy cadets would pass this janitor in the hall oblivious to the greatness that was among them. In the mid-1970s, William Crawford might spend one day sweeping the halls and another cleaning the bathrooms, but it was a day approximately 30 years prior that would create for him a special place in the history of war. In 1943 in Italy, the only thing Private William Crawford was cleaning out was German machine gun nest and bunkers.

The Pentagon announced another $400 million weapons package for Ukraine on Thursday as Russia ramps up attacks on critical infrastructure with winter getting closer. The new aid includes four Avenger air defense systems, missiles for HAWK air defense systems, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, artillery rounds, and hundreds of grenade launchers. It comes one week after the Pentagon announced a separate $400 million package, bringing the total aid that the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine to over $19 billion.

As an analyst and long-time election observer who has watched too many red states turn blue, I can see exactly how the midterms played out. After watching the debacle on Tuesday night, I did my own post-mortem of what happened. I lay the blame on three major factors: The Republican elites, the American public, and early voting. The Republican ElitesBy far the most important factor is the Republican elites. In 2020, the GOPe was almost as glad as the Dems to be rid of Donald Trump, so they ignored and denied the massive vote fraud that swept Joe Biden into...

Informant Likely to Testify as Defense Witness in Oath Keepers Sedition Trial A man who served as No. 2 to Stewart Rhodes, the group’s leader, is said to have secretly reported to the F.B.I. in the months leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. WASHINGTON — An F.B.I. informant who was embedded for months in the inner circle of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, is likely to testify as a defense witness at the seditious conspiracy trial of Mr. Rhodes in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The informant, Greg McWhirter,...

Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter Inc. two weeks ago and immediately pushed out almost all of its top executives, has started to assemble a new group of senior leaders atop the social network. The company started reshuffling teams this week following a massive round of job cuts that eliminated roughly half of its 7,000-plus workers on Nov. 4. Among managers who remained after the dust settled, a few have begun to emerge as stewards of some of Twitter’s most important internal divisions as Musk seeks to rapidly overhaul the struggling business. The rise of new leadership under Musk has provided...

All of the talk of the midterms, I thought it would be important to pause and remember the tragedy of November 10 1975. Any thoughts or memories welcome, sorry this is a day late.

Friday is Veterans Day. Originally designated as Armistice Day, it marked the end of hostilities in World War I. (The 1918 ceasefire with Germany was actually called for 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, or 11/11.) In 1954, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day to celebrate the service of all members of the Armed Forces and was formally made a federal holiday. Restaurants and other businesses may offer veterans and active-duty service members free meals, discounts and other deals on Veterans Day -- many requiring military ID or other proof of service. Below, check out the latest info on businesses saluting...

The head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee pledged Wednesday to raise whatever money he can and begin an advertising blitz this week for Herschel Walker’s runoff in Georgia against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. But there’s one aspect Sen. Rick Scott of Florida won’t weigh in on: whether former President Donald Trump should stay out of the Dec. 6 runoff. GOP insiders faulted Trump, who has had a toxic relationship with popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp even though he endorsed him the day before his re-election, for costing the party control of the Senate in two simultaneous runoffs last year,...

The Mississippi Democrat Congressional candidate said that the incident 'invoke[d] historical acts of terrorism' Police in Mississippi arrested a 23-year-old old suspect thought to be associated with seven fires across Jackson, with two of them being at churches, in what one Democrat Congressional candidate called an attempt to suppress votes. Among the two churches set on fire, one of them was destroyed in the fire. All the fires took place around Jackson early Tuesday morning. Shuwaski Young, a former candidate for Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District, said that the fire was an attempt to suppress votes in the area and said...

The Wonder (15, 108mins) Verdict: Compelling period drama Rating: **** The 2017 film Disobedience received oodles of critical acclaim without ever quite getting the audiences it deserved. It was about a woman, played by Rachel Weisz, ostracised by the strictly orthodox Jewish community in which she’d grown up in London after falling romantically for another woman. Disobedience was an auspicious English-language debut by talented Chilean director Sebastian Leilo, and in The Wonder, his third film in English (the second was another corker, Gloria Bell, with Julianne Moore), Leilo tackles some of the same subjects: religious intensity, a woman’s refusal to...

A Georgia man faces up to 20 years in prison after more than $3 billion in stolen Bitcoin was found stashed in a popcorn tin at his home in what authorities call the second largest seizure of cryptocurrency. James Zhong, 32, pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing the Bitcoin a decade ago from the illegal Silk Road marketplace, which the FBI shut down in 2013. The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that authorities raided Zhong's Gainesville home in November 2021 where they found 50,676 Bitcoin with a value of $3.36 billion at the time.

Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to negotiate with Vladimir Putin if Kyiv’s forces can recapture all its territory seized during the invasion.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Security officers at a South Florida airport have reported finding a handgun hidden inside a raw chicken packed in a traveler’s luggage. The Transportation Security Administration posted photos of the gun and poultry, with a pun-filled caption, Monday on its official Instagram account. The weapon was recovered at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Mila Kunis, Debra Messing and Mayim Bialik are among more than 200 celebrities and entertainment executives who have signed an open letter calling on Amazon and Barnes & Noble to remove the antisemitic documentary and book, “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” from their respective platforms.

The Antonovsky bridge and the pontoon bridge are gone. Russians seem to have “ended” their withdrawal in that sector. Whoever didn’t flee until now is now stuck, though I suspect that most Russian troops are gone. #Kherson #Ukraine LINK >>>> https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1590998400002330624

Russia laying mines to make Kherson a ‘city of death’, Ukraine warns Marc Bennetts, Mykolaiv | Tom Parfitt Thursday November 10 2022, 4.30pm, The Times Russia is trying to turn Kherson into a “city of death” as President Putin’s forces lay mines in buildings and sewers across the city, Kyiv said today. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Zelensky, said Russia hoped to stall the Ukrainian advance in the city, then shell it from the other side of the Dnipro river. “RF [Russia] wants to turn Kherson into a ‘city of death’. The Russian military mines everything they can:...

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Unconfirmed reports on social media late on Thursday, November 10, claimed that explosions had occurred near the Antonovsky bridge. Some, again unconfirmed, even suggested that the bridge had been destroyed. Similar explosions were also reported on the left bank of the Dnieper river. Others reported explosions occurring in the area of ​​the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. Various Telegram channels were posting about these incidents, with Ukrainian channels insisting that it was the Russian military firing at the bridge, while Russian ones claimed it was Ukraine targeting the structure. “It is possible that both sides are firing”, the Politika Strana Telegram...

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