Free Republic

Conservative outrage is brewing after Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s pick for Deputy Attorney General, was spotted having a “deep conversation” during a lunch meeting with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, a known critic of President-elect Donald Trump. Collins, who has built her career on relentless attacks on Trump, appeared both relaxed and engaged, wearing a yellow top paired with black pants. Meanwhile, Blanche chose a more casual look with a button-up shirt and slacks, as captured in photos shared by journalist Raheem Kassam.

The election is a month in the rear-view mirror, but all the votes have yet to be counted, and Democrats are still picking up seats with mysterious improvements in their ballot counts. It's a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. A sixth grader could get the votes counted in some of these elections in less time than it takes California to tabulate the ballots, and in places like Minnesota we are still finding out about ballots that mysteriously disappeared into trash cans, with the result being that a Democrat flipped a state legislative seat. 20 ballots weren't counted in a...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has avoided a snap election so far but sooner or later his time is going to run out and when it does, polls suggest he and his party are going to face a big loss to the conservatives. Today the Free Press published a story helping to explain why so many young voters have turned on Trudeau. As the saying goes, it's the economy, stupid.At University Hospital in London, Ontario, Amanda Vanderley, 25, works grueling 12-hour shifts as an emergency room nurse. Each day includes not just providing critical care and assisting doctors with emergency...

If a country’s average doctor visits are high, it could be easy to assume the population isn’t healthy. At the same time not going enough may seem like there’s an accessibility issue.As with most sociological data, the devil is in the details. And differences in payment systems, insurance plans, and how healthcare is delivered all play a part into why going to the doctor is more common or not.This chart, via Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao, tracks the number of in-person doctor visits per year by country. Data is sourced from the OECD, as of 2021, or the latest year available....

OpenAI’s newly-released o1 model tried to avoid developer oversight and attempted to copy itself when it thought it was at risk of being shut down, the company has said. Safety evaluations conducted on the model by Apollo Research, a third-party evaluator, found that: “When o1 was led to believe that it would be shut down when acting on its goal and that its actions were monitored, it attempted to deactivate this ‘oversight mechanism’ in 5% of the time.” “When o1 found memos by its ‘developers’ that describe how it is misaligned and will be superseded by a new model, it...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, hot cocoa, conversation and music.How about some homemade eggnog? A hot toddy? Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. Remembering Pearl HarborNo worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Pull up a chair. Grab a cup and start a conversation.You never...

2024's Flaming Feculence Awards go to Charles P. Pierce and Ana Navarro-Cárdenas.Today’s post is not about politics but, rather, about contemporary journalism’s compulsion to besoil itself in the service of politics. The excess and carelessness engendered by political servility plopped squarely this week upon the heads of Charles P. Pierce (Esquire magazine) and Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (ABC’s The View). Both sought to justify Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon of Hunter Biden by pointing to peculiar antecedents. Pierce cited George H. W. Bush’s pardon of his son Neil, and Navarro-Cárdenas cited Woodrow Wilson’s pardon of his brother-in-law Hunter deButts. Their examples were peculiar...

The CDC is 'standing ready' amid an outbreak of a mystery disease in Africa. There are rising concerns about the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where dozens of people have died from a flu-like respiratory illness. A source at the CDC told DailyMail.com they were 'aware' of the outbreak and were in contact with health officials there 'and stand ready to provide additional support if needed'. The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed a team to the southwestern province Kwango where the outbreak is being reported to take samples and test for the virus. DRC health minister...

Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) cornered one of the ladies of The View on Thursday after he stunned co-host Joy Behar by pointing out the political warfare against President-elect Donald Trump. "Those kinds of charges would have never been brought unless one side realized that they could weaponize that," Fetterman said. The pardon of Hunter Biden was warranted because he believes it was politically motivated, the senator claimed. Still, he also thinks the New York case against Trump was politically motivated. However, Fetterman chose the worst possible person to say such words to. Behar’s reaction was so intense; it was...

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) on Thursday said Kash Patel will be confirmed. “People I trust speak well of him, and I’m looking forward to meeting with him,” Cornyn said on the Hugh Hewitt show.

To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.Nicholas dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.This development puzzled Dames...

An unbelievably explosive exchange erupted in the House of Representatives this morning involving disgraced acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe and a Texas Republican congressman. As the New York Post reported, Rep. Pat Fallon read Rowe the riot act during a hearing on the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump. After slamming Rowe for waiting multiple days before visiting the Butler, Pa., the site where Trump was nearly gunned down by a Democrat donor named Thomas Crooks in July, things then took an even uglier turn when Fallon displayed a picture of Trump and Biden at Ground Zero. “Do you...

President-elect Donald Trump is set to attend the Army-Navy football game, which will take place on December 14 in Landover, Maryland, according to a source familiar with the plans. The highly anticipated game is a traditional rivalry between the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy. Joining Trump at the game is expected to be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who served in the United States Navy as a JAG officer. While it is not confirmed if their trips to the game are related, it is noteworthy that DeSantis is reportedly being considered as a potential replacement for...

In this important role, David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas. He will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship. He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the

President Joe Biden toured the National Museum of Slavery in Angola’s capital of Luanda on Tuesday, delivering a speech in which he described slavery as America’s “original sin” and claiming it still taints American public discourse. “The United States is founded on an idea, one embedded in our Declaration of Independence, that all men and women are created equal. It is abundantly clear today we have not lived up to that idea, but we have not fully walked away from it either,” Biden said.

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) stated that he has told members of President Joe Biden’s staff that the President ought to preemptively pardon President-Elect Donald Trump and Liz Cheney, Jack Smith, and Dr. Anthony Fauci because “we are trying to run a government on behalf of all the people of this country, and if we spend all of our time going forward pursuing Trump or Trump pursuing” those people, it would be detrimental and the air needs to be cleared. Host Mike Viqueira asked, “Have you specifically urged President Biden to pardon — preemptively...

A sick tribute appeared outside the New York City hotel where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down by an assassin on Wednesday. A balloon with a sign taped to it reading 'CEO DOWN' over the image of a smiling star and party poppers was found outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan after Thompson, 50, was gunned down there Wednesday morning. The balloon was spotted as many Americans have joked about the CEO's death due to his company's track record of rejecting medical claims. The same image on the balloon was also shared on former Washington Post reporter Taylor...

AVietnamese court has upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, rejecting her appeal against convictions for embezzlement and bribery in a fraud case involving over $12 billion. This amount represents nearly three percent of Vietnam's 2022 GDP, marking the country's largest recorded financial fraud. Lan, 67, served as chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group. Between 2012 and 2022, she illicitly controlled the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), orchestrating approximately 2,500 loans that resulted in losses exceeding $27 billion. The Ho Chi Minh City court noted that if Lan repays at least three-quarters of the...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A youth pastor in West Virginia has been arrested on dozens of sex charges involving children in three counties, some involving relatives dating back more than three decades, state police said. John W. Radcliff II was arrested last week on 190 counts including sexual assault, sexual abuse and incest, state police said in a news release. His wife, Kathy Radcliff, is charged with knowing the alleged abuse occurred, the statement said. The alleged crimes occurred in Braxton, Lewis and Harrison counties. State police said the investigation “remains ongoing with more victims coming forward” and that additional...

Watching Frosty the Snowman on NBC. I was very excited about it. During the scene where the kids name their newly made snowman, one of the kids was obviously talking, but there was no sound. I went to YouTube to see what was cut and couldn't believe it. Christopher Columbus. Yep. Christopher Columbus has been deleted from Frosty. Italians everywhere should be pissed.