Free Republic

Kyrsten Sinema has decided to make her unofficial status official, as Beege wrote earlier. The Arizona senator becomes the third independent in the upper chamber, but perhaps the only truly independent figure in the chamber. Both Bernie Sanders and Angus King identify as independent, but have rarely if ever bucked Chuck Schumer’s leadership during their entire tenures — especially to the center, as Sinema has done.That raises another question about the only other member of Schumer’s caucus to follow that same pattern. And that question will only grow more acute for Joe Manchin as his own re-election date approaches. Manchin...

Former president Donald Trump often said he was "the best thing to ever happen" to the Washington Post and other mainstream news outlets.He was right.The Wall Street Journal reports that the Jeff Bezos-owned publication has lost 500,000 subscribers since Trump left office in January 2021, which amounts to a decline of roughly 20 percent. The Post is on track to lose money in 2022 after years of profitability. The New York Times reported in August that the Post‘s business has "stalled" since President Joe Biden was sworn in, and layoffs are being discussed amid management's frustration with "numerous low performers...

In Arizona Republican candidate for Governor Kari Lake filing suit... Italy allowing two ships with some 500 migrants to dock in Italian ports... When a 16-year-old girl died from a fentanyl overdose at a Vancouver, Washington high school parents and police were kept in the dark about what happened... A week of deliberations with no verdict at the Los Angeles trial of former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein... Protesters on the streets and highways of Peru in support of ousted Leftist President Pedro Castillo... The Ukrainian drones that attacked Russian strategic bomber bases earlier this week guided by the US GPS...

The murder rate has fallen by two thirds since 2018, and crime has fallen by 75%, in El Salvador as it has imprisoned large numbers of criminals. The country has put nearly 2% of its adult population in prison. This is due to the anti-crime policies of its current president, Nayib Bukele. … Harsher penalties discourage crime. Crime in California fell significantly after California voters adopted Proposition 8, which mandated longer sentences for repeat offenders who kill, rape, and rob others. A study found those longer sentences deterred many crimes from being committed. Similarly, a 2008 Santa Clara University study...

Prosecutors asked for jail time — but Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block said placing Katz on the sex offender registry was harsh punishment. “It will impact his ability to find employment and travel,” Block said. “[The] sex offender registry would cause enormous collateral damage.”

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.As the Republican Party’s internecine war continues on all fronts, the battle among House Republicans over the Speaker of the new Congress, which will convene on January 3, just grew more intense.Seven GOP Congressmen disillusioned by Kevin McCarthy’s leadership on Friday released an open letter, addressed to “Dear Colleague,” with a list of demands — presumably with the caveat that any candidate for the speakership must meet their demands or their votes will go elsewhere.“As we form the 118th Congress,” the letter begins, “any...

(The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)The lopsided trade that sprung basketball player Brittney Griner didn’t include U.S. Marine Paul Whelan—because the Kremlin demanded convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov be freed from a German prison in exchange, according to the New York Times and multiple other outlets. The murderous Krasikov was once a colonel in the notorious Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the KGB.After Germany refused to take part in a three-way deal to free Krasikov, the United States instead settled on swapping Griner for “Merchant of Death”...

Evidence for the earliest known Maya calendar has been found in San Bartolo, Guatemala, by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. While excavating murals at a site in San Bartolo, two fragments were found and pieced together to form the notation "7 Deer," which dates back more than 2,000 years to 300 B.C., several centuries older than previously obtained evidence..."The Maya calendar is one of the most distinctive and well-known features of the culture and of traditional Mesoamerican peoples. It was in use for centuries before the arrival of Europeans, and some of it is still being used...

*Warning: Explicit photos* A secret group of “pups” and “pup handlers” in the US military have been exposed after some soldiers spoke out and didn’t want a coverup anymore. The identity of “PupRavage” is Col. Brian Connelly (ret) of INDOPACOM. Connelly is heavily involved in the “pup kink” community in Hawaii and had a relationship with a subordinate who also engages in “pup kink.”

A massive group of 704 migrants — including unaccompanied [?] children — crossed over the southern border into Texas Thursday morning, US Border Patrol said. The group flooded over the Rio Grande River illegally, making their way into a ranch near Eagle Pass just after 3 a.m., according to the agency. Border Patrol took 535 Cubans, 74 Nicaraguans, 49 Colombians, 31 Dominicans, nine Peruvians, three Ecuadorians and three Mexicans into custody. The sheer size of the migrant mob stunned Border Patrol agents, who have become accustomed to so-called “large groups” — or more than 100 migrants.

My TOR browser updated to 12.0. After that, it wouldn't connect to the internet. I push "Connect" and it says "Connecting..." but minutes pass and nothing.I tried changing my VPN's point of origin. I tried rebooting. But it doesn't help.I'm running Windows 7 64 bit Pro.

From the video's description:"Glen aces an instrumental composition by Mason Williams. With acknowledgement to the wonderful musicians with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra who are performing here with Glen Campbell.

The proponents of antitrust laws are famously zealous in their desire to eradicate "the curse of bigness." To them, big is always bad. Except, of course, when it comes to the size and scope of government. These antitrust activists tried to rush legislation through the Senate that would give government more power over the economy. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act wouldn’t just give government more power, it would also be bad for consumers. I stood up and stopped it. The same people who supposedly fear the concentration of power in the marketplace celebrate the concentration of power in a...

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is taking a victory lap after standing in the way of legislation that would increase fees on large company mergers, saying “antitrust zealots” are getting in the way of free market activity even as they hoard federal power. “To them, big is always bad. Except, of course, when it comes to the size and scope of government,” Mr. Paul wrote in an op-ed for Fox News. “These antitrust activists tried to rush legislation through the Senate that would give government more power over the economy.” Mr. Paul, a Republican and well-known libertarian, said he blocked...

Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) claimed Friday on MSNBC’s “All In” that Republicans were “not concerned about being successful” because they got elected to Congress to “destroy” the Democratic Party. Discussing the COVID aid bills, host Chris Hayes said, “Are you confident that a House Majority under Kevin McCarthy can do that? Should there be a national emergency like that? When the chips are down, to deliver on a bipartisan basis that kind of thing?”

People who have received COVID-19 vaccines express discriminatory attitudes toward unvaccinated people, a new study of over 15,000 citizens of 21 countries across the world suggests. “Individuals who comply with the advice of health authorities morally condemn the unvaccinated for violating a social contract in the midst of a crisis,” two Denmark-based scientists wrote in their paper, published Thursday in Nature. “Those who refuse vaccines report that they feel discriminated and pressured against their will.” To measure COVID-19 vaccination status-based prejudice, researchers asked some 15,233 people how they feel if a close relatives of theirs are going to marry a...

When the War of 1812 broke out, the Town of Billerica, Mass., was in the middle of an extraordinary baby boom. Twelve other families in the town had 13 children. Five had 14 offspring and one had 15. Twenty-six families each had 10 children, 20 families had 11 children and 24 families had 12 children. The largest family had 21 children by two wives. That meant 90 families accounted for 1,043 children. The average Billerica family had an average of 11.6 children per family. The town’s population grew almost exclusively because of its fecundity. In 1810, the population of the...

Did Twitter start its meetings related to the Election Integrity Project in October of 2020 and did they just get caught admitting that their focus was to censor conservative free speech with the help of the US government? We know that Twitter was a big part of the focus of the Election Integrity Project (EIP). We’ve written about this project previously. Tonight (Friday night), Twitter released some more information regarding its activities during the 2020 election up to the time period when Twitter removed the President of the United States from its social media platform. But first, remember what we...

@TomFitton Breaking: @ElonMusk @Twitter Files show Twitter activist employees, without basis, suppressed and censored the President of the United States, @realDonaldTrump in the days before the 2020 election. This is damning evidence of election interference. @elonmusk Unequivocally true. The evidence is clear and voluminous.

Sir Elton John has become the latest celebrity to leave Twitter since its acquisition by Tesla boss Elon Musk. The singer, a headline act for next year's Glastonbury Festival, blamed the platform's "change in policy" around misinformation without elaborating. Twitter stopped taking action against accounts spreading misleading information about Covid-19 last month. In response to Sir Elton's announcement, Mr Musk said he hoped the star would be back. In what could be his last ever tweet, the Rocket Man singer wrote: "All my life I've tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how...