Free Republic

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced on Wednesday that he would step down from the nation’s premier law enforcement agency in January.“After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down,” Wray told agency employees at an internal town hall. “My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day. In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the...

The left is at war with reality and is always busy constructing a fantasy world in which its delusions are true. The construction of these fantasies has become a veritable cottage industry, and that industry is booming in Britain even more than it is in the U.S. A new play shows how it works, and how far from reality the left has really strayed.Saturday, The Spectator reviewed a new play called “Expendable,” which you can catch, if you have the stomach, until Dec. 21 at London’s venerable West End theatre, The Royal Court. According to The Spectator, “Expendable” is “an...

John Bolton’s jeremiad against Kash Patel in The Wall Street Journal this week is a case study in how the Washington swamp is panicking over the incoming Trump administration, especially President-elect Trump’s plans to drastically reform the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department.Like the recent barrage of attacks against Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Defense, the panicked opposition to the nomination of Patel for FBI director has nothing to do with Patel himself and everything to do with undermining Trump’s second-term agenda.A quick glance at Bolton’s argument bears this out. Bolton — the perfect...

On Wednesday, Christopher Wray announced that he is resigning as director of the FBI. "After weeks of careful thought, I've decided the right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down," Wray announced. "My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you're doing on behalf of the American people every day. In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how...

Pope Francis has cited the Gospel while calling for migrants to be "welcomed, encouraged and integrated" as Europe and the United States struggle to cater to unprecedented levels of global mass migration. The pontiff, a steadfast advocate for asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants, said that many migrants are faced with the "drama of forced migration" and make treacherous journeys by sea in search of better lives which can sometimes lead to tragedy. "The migrant must be welcomed, accompanied, encouraged and integrated. This generosity, this industriousness is in harmony with the Gospel, which invites us to do good to everyone,...

Mysterious drones have been spotted flying around one of the U.S.'s most sensitive military areas, leaving defense officials and local authorities stumped as to who is behind the unknown uncrewed aerial vehicles zipping across the sky around a major U.S. air base.U.S. military personnel reported drones appearing in restricted airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, shortly after sunset during a period of more than two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal. Officials haven't determined if the drones belong to enthusiasts or are operated by countries such as Russia or China, according to the report. U.S. officials...

The Safeway supermarket chain has announced that it will close down one of its key locations in San Francisco in February due to concerns that customers and employees were at risk from rampant theft and threats to their safety. The closure, which had been put off for 11 months, will affect the Safeway store on Webster Street in the Fillmore section of San Francisco, which had been operating for the last 40 years. The company said that the store will close for good on Feb. 7, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Advertisement

The new fifth column of Democrat and RINO resisters to all things Trump is emerging. Medical care “experts” begin taunting Trump about his never offering an alternative to ObamaCare in his first term. They are incorrect. The American Health Care Act (AHCA) of 2017, often called "TrumpCare," was a well-reasoned proposal aimed at repealing and replacing ObamaCare. The AHCA, by significantly changing the way health insurance is regulated and funded in America primarily focused on correcting flaws in the individual mandate, providing tax credits based on age rather than income, and allowing states more flexibility in designing healthcare plans… essentially...

FBI Director Chris Wray’s resignation .. as FBI whistleblowers Kyle Seraphin and Steve Friend emphasized, he leaves a legacy of abuses, weaponization of federal power, and political bias behind. ... Chris Wray's announced departure from the FBI represents a tacit acknowledgment of his failure to lead the Bureau ... His tenure will mark the fastest and most public decline in respect for the storied institution... Wray will be synonymous with J6, politically charged investigations, FISA abuse, and the weaponization of federal law enforcement. .... Wray was appointed by Donald Trump during the latter’s first term but has become infamous under...

New research at indigenous Alaskan archaeological sites dates the origins of human-canid friendship in the Americas to 12,000 years ago, 2,000 years earlier than previous evidence. Food sharing is a universal custom of friendship, reflected in how modern humans share their homes and food with dogs like our ancestors did millennia ago. Large canids such as dogs, coyotes, and wolves commonly form bonds with human populations in cold, northern environments such as Alaska. Ancient Human-Canid Friendship While the deeper origins of human-canine companionship remain to be discovered, the new study published in Science Advances illuminates the early period of that...

Over 1,000 people have unsurprisingly received a get-out-of-jail-free card thanks to Joe Biden just a month before he leaves office. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Biden has decided to commute the sentences of about 1500 convicts who were released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic and placed on home confinement. In addition, Biden also announced he was pardoning 39 people convicted of “non-violent” crimes. This marks the largest single-day act of clemency in modern American history. Barack Obama previously held the record at 330 right before leaving office in 2017. Biden argued in a statement that he is...

FBI Director Chris Wray may have read the writing on the wall in terms of his tenure but he has a scheme that could hamper President Trump and his FBI Director pick Kash Patel’s plans to overhaul the broken agency. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Wray announced his resignation on Wednesday after seven years in charge of the FBI. He will still serve until the end of Biden’s term in January. This news of Wray’s departure comes after reports emerged this week he was preparing to step aside to avoid getting sacked by Trump. Once Wray officially steps down, Deputy...

Middletown Mayor Tony Perry needs answers. The constituents of his northern New Jersey township want to know what is going on with the strange lights that have been hovering in the night sky for weeks. “I’m not sure how I can go back to my residents and say that I’m satisfied from this meeting, when now I know that I have 180 drones that have been flying over the state of New Jersey,” Perry said following a briefing Wednesday with a representative from the Department of Homeland Security. “We have no more information as to where these drones are coming...

World Man identifying himself as American Travis Timmerman found in Syria after being freed from prison By Haley Ott Updated on: December 12, 2024 / 9:31 AM EST / CBS News A man identifying himself as an American from Missouri, Travis Timmerman, was found Thursday in Syria after he said he was freed from a prison earlier in the week, when longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was forced from power by a shock rebel offensive. Timmerman told CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer that he had been trying to make his own way out of the country after walking out...

[Catholic Caucus] Nancy Pelosi's Communion ban to be resolved by VaticanThe former speaker is challenging the archbishop of San Francisco's 2022 order prohibiting her from receiving the Holy EucharistFormer Speaker Nancy Pelosi has quietly turned to Rome to resolve her two-year-old dispute with the San Francisco archbishop over her receiving Holy Communion.Pelosi for the first time has revealed that Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's order that she be banned from receiving Communion now is pending a final resolution at the Vatican. She did not say and it is unclear when she sought Vatican intervention."My understanding, as long as Rome has the case,...

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that subjugates parental rights to school politics.The ruling that had come out of the 7th U.S. District Court of Appeals in a Wisconsin fight claimed that parental rights were not affected when schools secretly encouraged children to be transgender, so the parents had no standing to bring the case.Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas would have granted the petition, according to the court announcement, as it's an issue that is coming up more and more.Alito explained, "This case presents a question of great and growing national importance: whether...

Donald Trump has said he “vehemently” disagrees with the decision to permit Ukraine to strike targets within Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles. The president-elect said the policy switch by Joe Biden’s administration had escalated the war between Russia and Ukraine, and “made things worse”. “I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Mr Trump told Time in an interview to mark being named the magazine’s person of the year for a second time. “Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done.”...

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said that he “vehemently” opposes Ukraine using U.S.-supplied missiles inside Russian territory but insisted he would not abandon Kyiv once he enters the Oval Office. In an interview with Time Magazine published on Thursday, Trump discussed policy shifts he plans to implement once he takes office on January 20. The interview was carried out on November 25. The Republican was asked whether he would abandon Ukraine upon taking office, to which he replied: “I want to reach an [peace] agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship for those born on U.S. soil by illegal migrant parents could put to rest a hot-button constitutional debate that’s loomed over the country for decades. The incoming president has repeatedly vowed to end birthright citizenship immediately upon entering office, one of the more ambitious agenda items within his immigration enforcement platform. While the proposal has divided border hawks and immigration advocates, both sides generally agree the debate boils down to interpretation of the 14th Amendment, the conclusion of which will likely fall to the Supreme Court.“Our position is that the 14th Amendment...