Free Republic

Two articles published this week give a stark assessment of Ukraine’s prospects in its war with Russia. One – by the commander in chief of the Ukrainian military – admits the battlefield has reached a stalemate and a long attritional war benefiting Moscow beckons. The other portrays Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as exhausted by the constant effort to cajole and persuade allies to keep the faith. Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, says in a long essay and interview with the Economist that “just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us...

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ The Freeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents: Chill Music! *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time & effort...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishop asks priests to ‘bless’ homosexual unions, citing Pope Francis and Synodal WayBishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer encouraged pastors to conduct ‘blessings’ of homosexual and other sinful relationships and said that no one ‘has to fear sanctions’ for doing so in his diocese.SPEYER, Germany (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of the Diocese of Speyer, Germany, has called on priests in his diocese to grant “blessing ceremonies” for homosexual unions as well as adulterous and sinful relationships outside of marriage.In a November 2 letter to the clergy and staff of the diocese, the bishop invoked the German Synodal...

The “horror” of a field hockey player being struck in the face by a shot from a male on the opposing team has one local superintendent calling on the MIAA to revisit its guidelines that allow boys to play a girls’ sport. Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey is making the push after a male member on the Swampscott High girls’ field hockey team took a shot that hit the face of a female player competing for his regional district. The brutal injury, coming from a corner play in the third quarter during Thursday’s state tournament matchup in Swampscott, caused the D-R...

The U.S Coast Guard is adapting to a workforce shortage by making operational adjustments, aiming to preserve its capacity to fulfill critical missions. The agency has 10 percent fewer enlisted personnel than needed, and it has acknowledged that it cannot continue to operate as before with fewer people. Rather than attempt to run all its vessels shorthanded, it will be idling some of its cutters and transferring crew to fully man the remaining active vessels. “We cannot do the same with less. Conducting our missions is often inherently dangerous, and doing so without enough crew puts our members and the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court temporarily lifted a gag order on Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case in Washington on Friday — the latest twist in the legal fight over the restrictions on the former president’s speech. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision puts a hold on the limited gag order to give the judges time to consider Trump’s request for a longer pause on the restrictions while his appeals play out. The appeals court said the temporary pause “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits”...

The current debate over another aid package to Ukraine and a new one for Israel are exposing the deep ideological problems with both parties and the reason Congress is so unpopular. Americans have long memories. They recall that the initial popularity of our engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also how both ended with ugly withdrawals. Republicans in particular remember how badly their saber-rattling over Iraq came back to haunt them politically just a few years later. Voters don’t want to see a repeat of Americans getting drawn into a foreign war while completely ignoring a bigger national security threat...

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Friday hailed the conviction of one-time cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy as a “victory.” “This verdict is a victory for everyone fighting fraud and scams in crypto. In this trial, we saw how crypto companies like FT think the law doesn’t apply to them, gamble with consumers’ money, and lie to the public,” Brown said in a statement. “Americans continue to lose money every day in crypto scams and frauds. We need to crack down on abuses and can’t let the crypto industry write its own...

Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia is up to Start one more Big Attack on Avdiivka | Ukraine is Ready https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBRO7omaprU Official reveal of 9th Army Corps November 2, 2023 https://militaryland.net/news/official-reveal-of-9th-army-corps/ Invasion Day 616 – Summary Militaryland November 1, 2023 https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-616-summary/ [NOTE: two summaries per week, released on Wednesday and Sunday] *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Armed police officers wave cars off the motorway going from Poland to Germany. They're searching for people-smugglers and their desperate cargo. This is the German government's latest bid to show it is getting a grip on rising levels of irregular migration. But, as we found in a rural border district, there's little sense of control. Altenberg is a small town in Saxony, right by the Czech Republic. Families race down a toboggan run that weaves through the forest and, when winter's here, there's even a small ski resort. The local mayor, Markus Wiesenberg, says that - in this area alone...

Are you in the dark about your vitamin D levels? Experts are shedding light on whether or not you might be lacking an important vitamin when the days get shorter. Vitamin D is important for multiple bodily functions and is most responsible for helping the body absorb calcium, essential for strong and healthy bones, according to the National Institutes of Health. It also plays an important role in the immune system and the health of the body’s muscles and nerves. The ways in which people get vitamin is from food, the sun, or supplements, according to Yale Medicine. However, 35%...

A Connecticut judge's decision to redo a local primary election contest, citing videos showing possible ballot stuffing, has renewed claims about the 2020 presidential election. Connecticut Superior Court Judge William Clark rejected results from a Democratic mayoral primary in Bridgeport, the state's largest city, saying he had seen evidence to order a rerun, even though the general election is in four days, the Associated Press reported. In the wake of the decision, conservative commentators began responding with what they said was evidence of ballot stuffing in the 2020 White House race. Former President Donald Trump is facing 13 charges in...

"A serious obstacle to achieving technological independence is the shortage of qualified scientific, engineering and labor personnel. The total number of personnel engaged in research and development in Russia has decreased by a quarter over the past 20 years," Patrushev said at a retreat in the city of Tomsk, in Siberia, Russia. A large number of scientists and academic staff are believed to have fled the country after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and again after he announced a partial mobilization of the population last fall. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled...

A California cop punched a female suspected shoplifter in the head while arresting her for allegedly stealing $2,000 worth of goods from a mall, according to a now-viral video. The 50-second video, which has more than 780,000 views on TikTok, opens with the end of a car chase in Vallejo on Friday, when officers were attempting to cuff the suspect, who allegedly shoplifted with an accomplice from the Gateway Plaza shopping mall. The officer walks up to the driver, who had not been identified, and pulls her out of the car as she resists him. The officer then slams her...

A lawsuit to kick Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot in Minnesota may be in trouble after the state Supreme Court justices hearing the case appeared skeptical that states have the authority to take the unprecedented action.The case centers around the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically Section 3’s “Insurrection Clause.” Plaintiffs argue President Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, disqualify him from appearing on the ballot.The clause reads:No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken...

'The biggest threat to us as Jews is and has always been white supremacy, not the struggle for Palestinian liberation,' Tulane Students for Palestine says

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Santoria Nichelle Smith, 18, was arrested yesterday and charged with disrupting a school function and battery on a law enforcement officer; she was previously arrested in August for battery on a law enforcement officer, but the charges were dropped. At about 2:00 p.m. yesterday, Santa Fe Police Department officers responded to a reported disturbance in a classroom at Santa Fe College Blount Hall (530 W. University Avenue). The officer reported that when he arrived, he found Smith in a verbal dispute with an office supervisor. When the officer told Smith she was disrupting the operation of the...

DELAND, Fla. - A Florida man was arrested after he was found openly carrying a loaded gun at a DeLand hotspot, according to police. Michael Ribar was arrested and charged with two counts of open carrying of weapons after concerned citizens alerted deputies to Cafe DaVinci just before 9 p.m. on Tuesday. The 22-year-old man allegedly had a visible handgun on his right hip, a black 9mm handgun with three loaded magazines, according to the DeLand Police Department. He was also wearing a bulletproof vest and a tactical belt with two handcuffs, a baton and medical kit. The baton is...

DICKINSON — A Dickinson woman is currently in custody following a tense situation that unfolded inside a local bank on Wednesday afternoon. According to Dickinson Police Department officials, officers were dispatched to Bravera Bank North, located at 1151 3rd Ave. W., at around 2:25 p.m. in response to a report of a female individual exhibiting erratic behavior within the bank's lobby. According to employees present during the incident, 36-year-old Savannah Fahlstrom entered the bank with the intent to close her account and withdraw her funds. Fahlstrom and an employee of the bank were discussing the process when Fahlstrom began...

More than 100 demonstrators and activists gathered at the Port of Oakland on Friday to block the entrance to a ship that they claimed was transporting military weapons to Israel.