Free Republic

A Saturday Washington Post report offered some details on the legal defense team taking shape to oppose congressional Republican investigations into Hunter Biden that are expected to start once the GOP majority takes over the House in January. The article noted that the Biden defense team is "almost frantically" assembling, "not fully coordinating" and running the risk that it will "not share a unified approach" when the investigations begin. The piece, composed by reporters Matt Viser and Michael Scherer, began by detailing "a strategy session last September" where Hunter Biden’s lawyer Kevin Morris pushed "Hunter Biden’s camp to be more...

Deputy in California slayings killed self with service gun yesterday Authorities say that a Virginia sheriff's deputy who police say traveled to California to kill several family members of a 15-year-old girl he tried to sexually extort online killed himself with a government-issued firearm. RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A Virginia sheriff’s deputy who police say traveled to California to kill three family members of a 15-year-old girl he tried to sexually extort online killed himself with a government-issued firearm, authorities said Saturday. Austin Lee Edwards, 28, drove across the country and on Nov. 25 killed the girl’s mother and grandparents...

December 9, 2022 PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Four people in Maine have filed lawsuits with claims that they were sexually abused by Catholic priests as children. Three men sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland on Thursday in Cumberland County Superior Court. The men allege they were abused by priests as children decades ago. Another lawsuit is from a woman who sued the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Eastern Province in U.S. District Court in Bangor. Her lawsuit alleges that she was sexually abused by priests in the 1950s at a Maine seminary and retreat house run by the order,...

Vancouver’s Sir Matthew Begbie Elementary School has a new name. It’s now called wək̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm, which in English means “the sun rising over the horizon.” The name is written in the Musqueam language hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, which uses the North American phonetic alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet used for English. It was selected in collaboration with the Musqueam language and culture department in recognition of Vancouver’s Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood where the school is located, according to a news release Friday from the Vancouver school board. As for the pronunciation of the new school name, the Musqueam Nation prefers not to...

It began decades ago, with a few hardy pioneers slogging north across the tundra. It’s said that one individual walked so far to get there that he rubbed the skin off the underside of his long, flat tail. Today, his kind have homes and colonies scattered throughout the tundra in Alaska and Canada — and their numbers are increasing.... ...Scientists have come to view their landscape engineering as beneficial, and even critical in some vulnerable ecosystems. In many places south of the tundra, conservationists have moved to protect and reintroduce beavers to restore stream and wetland habitats. But in the...

OZARK, Mo. (AP) — Two men who were facing felony charges alleging they abused boys at a private Christian boarding school in southwest Missouri have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and the case against a third was dropped. Scott Dumar, 46, the medical coordinator at the Agape Boarding School near Stockton, pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanors and was placed on two years probation. Everett Graves, 40, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor. The case against Chris McElroy was dropped after the alleged victim did not appear at a preliminary hearing Thursday, The Kansas City Star reported. They were among five staff...

Prayers up. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the support of God,...

WASHINGTON, Kan., Dec 10 (Reuters) - Residents near the site of the worst U.S. oil pipeline leak in a decade took the commotion and smell in stride as cleanup crews labored in near-freezing temperatures, and investigators searched for clues to what caused the spill.. ....Pipeline operator TC Energy (TRP.TO) said on Friday it was evaluating plans to restart the line, which carries 622,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil to U.S. refineries .. ...

“A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter” (Proverbs 11:13 KJV).

Part 3

Part 2

21,706 views Dec 9, 2022 Michael Vlahos and Douglas Magcregor meet in the library of the Army-Navy Club, Washington, D.C., to reflect on the war in Ukraine: Past, Present, and Future. Part 1 There will be two more parts to this presentation in follow on posts. Col. Douglas Macgregor, bio: https://douglasmacgregor.com/biosketch.htm Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant. He was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of...

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said $5.7M worth of illegal drugs were taken off the street in Operation ‘Santa's Naughty Lil Sellers'A massive undercover operation focusing on locking up drug dealers in Flagler County, Fla., successfully came to a close after nearly a year in action. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office said $5.7 million worth of illegal drugs are off the streets thanks to the department's ‘Santa's Naughty Lil Sellers' operation. During the investigation, which began in January 2022, FCSO said its Special Investigations Unit seized enough heroin and fentanyl to "potentially kill over 2.3 million people."

Philadelphia's mayor said he is "disappointed" that a court ordered the city to remove a plywood box covering a statue of Christopher Columbus. A spokesperson for Jim Kenney said the office believes the statue should be removed from Marconi Plaza.... ...Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt handed down her ruling on Friday, telling the city that if it disagrees with the statue's "message" it can add a plaque..."More to the point, the City accepted the donation of the Columbus statue in 1876. It has a fiduciary duty to preserve that statue, which it designated an historic object in 2017," the judge wrote.

Insider and several other news organizations have identified 76 members of Congress who've recently failed to properly report their financial trades as mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act. Congress passed the law a decade ago to combat insider trading and conflicts of interest among their own members and force lawmakers to be more transparent about their personal financial dealings....

Material from this blog regularly reposted to "Free Republic" and this quarter's fundraising for FR continues... Well five years ago President Donald Trump did the Sword Dance with the Saudis but the Man of the Hour this week in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is Xi Jinping President of China.. Xi calling for oil to be purchased in Chinese currency instead of the US dollar... We have these Twitter Files but needless to say the FBI collusion with Big Tech carries on. They are in bed censoring with Facebook and Google-You Tube etc. etc.... The Higher Power has a "Top...

<p>Blondie recalled their close call with a gun-toting Phil Spector in 1977, reflecting that they were fortunate to avoid working with the notorious producer.</p><p>The rising stars were still a year away from the big time, which arrived with the launch of third album Parallel Lines. On the other hand, Spector – who died in 2021 – had been a celebrated name for nearly two decades. Once known as the “first tycoon of teen” after forming a record label at the age of 21 and developing the “wall of sound” production technique, he’d soon enter semi-retirement and spend the last years of his life in jail for shooting actress Lana Clarkson dead in 2003.</p>

In the 14 months since joining DeSantis's staff, [Christina Pushaw] has transformed the typically button-down role of gubernatorial press secretary into something like a running public brawl — with Twitter as her blunt-force weapon.

Transgender Americans face rising hatred and violence in a year that has seen 35 of them murdered. Last month, a gunman entered an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado and started firing, killing five and injuring 19. In that context, the last thing that should be happening in Sacramento is for a notorious transphobe to have a platform at one of the city’s most prominent venues. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. On Monday, the Golden 1 Center will feature comedian Dave Chappelle, giving a powerful platform to a transphobe who has purposefully misgendered transgender people and publicly sided with the famously transphobic...

Hundreds protested in Tunisia Saturday against President Kais Saied ahead of parliamentary elections that represent the latest consolidation of a power grab he began in July last year. The protests were organised by political parties that have been marginalised by Saied -- first by him firing the government and suspending parliament last year, then by a new constitution. "Freedoms, freedoms -- the police state is finished!" protesters shouted. Demonstrators marched in central Tunis holding aloft banners with the words "resign" and others complaining that people have become "poorer and hungrier", AFP correspondents saw.