Free Republic

Although Washington, D.C. is empty at the moment, with key policy makers on holiday, the work of shaping a new narrative goes on. Two new articles this week, one in the New York Times and one in Politico, provide a road map to the Biden Administration’s desperate attempt to prevent the collapse of its Ukraine policy. The New York Times piece is an op-ed from an geriatric former editor, Serge Schmemann — Ukraine Doesn’t Need All Its Territory to Defeat Putin. Serge, despite a long career as a journalist specialized in foreign affairs, has forgotten the meaning of “defeat.” Michael...

There is a full-scale war of intimidation being waged by the far-left, and it has targeted yet another prominent figure on the right. Legal analyst Jonathan Turley was swatted on Friday according to Alan Henney, who reports on various crimes and police responses around Washington, D.C. That follows the swatting of three Republican lawmakers since Christmas. Specifically, Sen. Rick Scott, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rep. Brandon Williams all reported incidents. Jonathan Turley then spoke out against the trend, noting that a lack of prosecutions is leading to an increased number of swatting calls because there is no deterrent.

A new aviation company has developed a type of jet fuel made entirely from human sewage. Chemists at a lab in Gloucestershire have turned the waste into kerosene. James Hygate, Firefly Green Fuels CEO, said: "We wanted to find a really low-value feedstock that was highly abundant. And of course poo is abundant." Independent tests by international aviation regulators found it was nearly identical to standard fossil jet fuel. Firefly's team worked with Cranfield University to examine the fuel's life cycle carbon impact. It concluded that Firefly's fuel has a 90% lower carbon footprint than standard jet fuel. Mr Hygate,...

It took two people 10 months to drive the Nissan Ariya from the North to South PoleChris and Julie Ramsey completed their 10-month road trip from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole, making them the first people on Earth to drive a car, EV or ICE, over 18,500-miles from the top of our planet to the bottom of it. The couples’ Nissan Ariya was upfitted by polar mobility specialists at Arctic Trucks to accommodate the 39-inch tires, but aside from that was completely stock from the battery to the drivetrain and everything in between. The couple started their...

Access to the region by journalists, diplomats and others is tightly controlled by China, as is movement outside the region by Uyghurs, Kazaks and other Muslim minorities.China has said it will impose ban on US research company and two analysts who extensively reported on alleged human rights violations against Uyghur Muslim community in the country’s Xinjiang region. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as announcing late Tuesday night that Los Angeles-based research and data analytics firm Kharon, its director of investigations, Edmund Xu, and Nicole Morgret, a human rights analyst affiliated with the Centre for Advanced Defence Studies, would...

Given the compressed timeframe, the novel constitutional questions involved, the importance of this case, and impending ballot preparation deadlines, Secretary Bellows has suspended the effect of her decision until the Superior Court rules on any appeal, or the time to appeal has expired. A copy of the decision is here: https://www.maine.gov/sos/news/2023/Decision%20in%20Challenge%20to%20Trump%20Presidential%20Primary%20Petitions.pdf

Ozzy Osbourne has always been perceived as a controversial figure, but that’s nothing new for rockstars, who seem to be always met with disdain and controversy. The difference for Ozzy Osbourne is how much he welcomed and encouraged such dispute; whether it was a PR tactic or simply because of a lapse in judgment is unknown. The ‘Prince of Darkness’ has never been a stranger to dividing opinion. His 1982 interview with Night Flight is the pinnacle of this, where, amongst other things, he cites Hitler as an influence. To get straight to the quote, when Ozzy was asked where...

The Black Sabbath frontman received an unpleasant surprise when he found a picture of himself in a YouTube in memoriam video of celebrities who died.Ozzy Osbourne is declaring he’s not dead, despite what online hoaxes claim. During the latest episode of The Osbournes Podcast, the Black Sabbath frontman informed his family that he stumbled upon a YouTube in memoriam video and was surprised to have found himself in it. “I put it on and I died!,” he said. “The thing on YouTube, which goes, ‘Celebrities Who Have Died Today,’ and there’s a picture of me.” Osbourne then referenced Monty Python...

State Republicans are expected to appeal the ruling.. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., on Thursday blasted the Albany Supreme Court's decision to allow New York's new early voting law to take effect ahead of a special election to fill the seat of former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. "The decision to dismiss our request for an injunction to halt the implementation of mass unregulated mail-in early voting is just another example of New York’s lawless and rampant corruption," Stefanik wrote in a press release. "The New York Constitution is very clear, if you would like to request an absentee ballot, there is a...

SACRAMENTO — Agustin Guzman spends hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic and crosses an international border just to get to his college classes. But it’s worth it. Though he’s a resident of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, he pays the same tuition as a student four miles away from Laredo, Texas, thanks to a long-standing state law. “At some point, I stopped believing I could go to college,” said Agustin, 24, a senior at Texas A&M International University. “But now, I tell people that I cross every day — that I do three hours on the bridge just to get a college education.” Soon,...

Tesla’s stainless steel Cybertruck was involved in its first reported accident after finally hitting the road last month — and it wasn’t pretty for the other car. A Toyota Corolla was left crumpled after appearing to collide head-on with the fully electric, bomber-like vehicle on Thursday, according to a Reddit post that showed photos of the accident. The Toyota’s front end was completely demolished, with the sedan’s side airbags deployed as it rested on the side of the road with its hood popped open and a headlight dangling, one photo shows. The 17-year-old driver was not hurt, local police told...

Also ukie "People Snatchers"... The infamous hoho recruitment system....

Three employees at a sporting goods store in Louisiana were terminated from their jobs after attempting to stop a shoplifter who allegedly stole a pistol. Michelle Sutton, along with two other unidentified workers at the Academy Sports + Outdoors in Metairie, Louisiana, said that the shoplifting incident happened Dec. 16. The sales associates said that they thought they were about to make a sale and were showing a customer a pistol, when he took off with the firearm. Sutton, who was working as a team lead at the store, said once she received word on her radio, she immediately dropped...

A painting dated from the 16th century depicting the biblical figures of Adam and Eve, looted from the collection of Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker during World War II, has been returned to Goudstikker’s only living heir. The scene, attributed to Dutch artist Cornelis van Haarlem, was returned after being offered for donation by a private collector to Musée Rolin, a museum in Autun, a city in central-eastern France. According to New York law firm Kaye Spiegler, which facilitated the painting’s return, museum officials raised flags internally over the painting’s ownership record after uncovering a label with Goudstikker’s surname on...

Pierce Brosnan has been in hot water plenty of times as an actor playing the secret agent James BondPierce Brosnan, whose fictitious movie character James Bond has been in hot water plenty of times, is now facing heat in real life, charged with stepping out of bounds in a thermal area during a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park. Brosnan walked in an off-limits area at Mammoth Terraces, in the northern part of Yellowstone near the Wyoming-Montana line, on Nov. 1, according to two federal citations issued Tuesday. Brosnan, 70, is scheduled for a mandatory court appearance on Jan. 23...

DeSantis’ campaign and super PAC have spent more than $160 million to boost him, and he spent the better part of 2023 on the road. “If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff,” he told the Christian Broadcasting Network last week. “It sucked out a lot of oxygen.” “He tried to ‘out-Trump’ Trump among Trump supporters instead of going for the ‘maybe Trump/move on from Trump’ voters, and it was a fatal strategic choice,” Cullen said. Polling shows that his numbers were strongest before he actively began campaigning for president...

Big Fish @BigFish3000 President Trump authorized 10,000 troops to defend the Capitol on January 6th. Jack Smith doesn’t want jurors to know this. Kinda kills the insurrection story.

There's a growing cohort of people who believe in washing clothes less – or not at all. Matilda Welin talks to the 'no-wash' and 'low-wash' believers.Bryan Szabo and his team have spent hours poring over photos of well-worn jeans, including vintage fades with swathes of bleached fabric and high-contrast fades with knee-pit patterns of honeycomb as well as whiskers around the crotch area. Online, the team praises the community's top faders. "This crotch repair is crazy good!" they exclaim. Or: "Subtle and even shades... A near-perfect balancing of... fade patterns with spectacular blue tones." This last one is the winner....

The 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles, a $588 million project known as the "Ribbon of Light," lost its luster for the holidays as about a third of the bridge's lights are inoperable, the Los Angeles Times reported. The bridge and its ten illuminated arches became an instant hit on Instagram and TikTok when it opened in July 2022, and a popular place for families, runners, wedding photo shoots — and copper thieves. In December, copper thieves targeted the bridge, which caused a large portion to go dark. Photos show open boxes with wires on the ground. The FBI has...

Last December, Brigadier General Warren Wells was appointed and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Army’s Lead Special Trial Counsel. The newly created position was part of a sweeping effort by Congress to reform the military justice system to insulate against unlawful command influence in cases involving serious criminal offenses, such as those involving sexual assault and violence. At the time of Wells’s appointment, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth hailed him as “the experienced leader the Army needs to lead the Office of Special Trial Counsel and ensure its independent oversight of the Army’s most complex cases.”...