Free Republic

The U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was recommended for termination in 2001 for abandoning his post in the Speaker’s Office for a card game in a nearby cloakroom, then lying about it to Internal Affairs Division investigators, Blaze News has learned. The 2001 investigation of Michael L. Byrd, 56, was the first known disciplinary case brought against the lieutenant who crept from his blind near the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021, and shot Babbitt to death. The 2001 incident is the fourth such disciplinary case...

From the moment of Joe Biden’s coup d'état “victory,” in 2020, Democrats, who had spent years telling everyone our elections were vulnerable to manipulation, suddenly began telling us it was the most secure election in American history. Not long after the inauguration, adding insult to injury, Molly Ball wrote a long piece in TIME describing all of the maneuvers and manipulations Democrats had used to steal the election, and their preparations for “protests” – read violence – if their coup didn’t succeed. But it did, and they were, gloating about it. Since that time, we’ve all come to see exactly...

Israel has closed its embassy in Dublin as it accuses Ireland of having 'extreme anti-Israel policies' and of crossing 'every red line'. Gideon Saar - Israel's foreign minister - declared the closure of the Irish residence of its ambassador whilst claiming Ireland had an 'anti-Semitic rhetoric'. Irish premier Simon Harris said he was 'deeply disappointed' by the move, whilst 'utterly rejecti[ng]' allegations that Ireland was against the Middle Eastern state. Despite Saar's most recent move, deputy premier Micheal Martin has made it clear there are no plans to close the Irish embassy in Israel. The closure of the embassy comes...

A former soccer star is set to become president of Georgia on Saturday as the ruling party consolidates its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s European aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. The ruling Georgian Dream party retained control of Parliament in the South Caucasus nation by winning 89 of 150 seats in an Oct. 26 vote widely seen as a referendum on integration into Europe. The opposition has accused Georgian Dream of rigging the vote with Moscow’s help. It has boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded new elections. In the meantime, former...

A bronze cannon used by Spanish conquistadors in the 1540s and unearthed by archeologists in Arizona is the oldest firearm ever found in the continental U.S. — and more than 200 years older than the first guns ever in Wyoming. The 42-inch-long, 40-pound piece survived as long as it did only because it was made of bronze, Wyoming historical firearms expert Dick Blust told Cowboy State Daily. Back in the 1500s, many firearms were made of iron, but not this one. “I have no reason to doubt it (being the oldest firearm ever in the U.S.),” he said. “The reason...

“‘This is the way the world ends,” T.S. Eliot famously wrote. “Not with a bang but a whimper.” He might have been talking about Joe Biden’s presidency. As he prepares to slink out the door, Biden’s final days in the Oval Office offer a perfect metaphor for everything that was wrong with his tenure. He pardoned his convicted-criminal son after vowing not to and his mass commutations included one for a judge convicted of taking kickbacks to send juveniles to for-profit detention facilities. The judge was in Scranton, Pa., meaning Biden even betrayed distraught parents in his hometown.

VIDEOYes, they have good reason to be terrified of Kash Patel. Not because he will go after innocent people but because he understands in detail the many many abuses by the FBI and he knows how to uncover the secrets they want to keep hidden as well as the perpetrators of the many abuses. That is why Kash Patel so completely TERRIFIES them.

It was the middle of Jenna Gerwatowski’s workday at the local flower shop in Newberry, Michigan, when she got a call from an unknown number. The now 23-year-old doesn’t usually answer unknown calls, but says she decided to pick this one up in May 2022. To her surprise, it was a detective from the Michigan state police. “He was like, ‘Have you heard of the Baby Garnet case?’” Jenna told CNN. Jenna had heard of it. In 1997, a deceased infant was found in a campground pit toilet at the Garnet Lake Campground – right where Jenna grew up. …The...

The threats to Israel from Syria remain despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday, amid military moves by his country to counter such threats. "The immediate risks to the country have not disappeared and the latest developments in Syria increase the strength of the threat - despite the moderate image that the rebel leaders claim to present," Katz told officials examining the country's defense budget, according to a statement. Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said on Saturday that Israel was using false pretexts...

What if someone were publicly murdered in cold blood in the middle of Manhattan and President Trump shrugged it off with this statement? “You can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands.” But it wasn’t Trump on TV ranting out that vile hate speech. That insurrection-fomenting diatribe was spewed out by the fakest of fake Indians – Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She’s as phony and as morally bankrupt as her comrades in regime-controlled media. So her Democrat fellow travelers say as one: Nothing to see here folks, move along. Being a fake...

How Israel’s Syria Strike Is PRELUDE to IRAN Nuclear Sites Attack

Ukraine's military leadership has replaced the commander overseeing defenses in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces are making swift advances, a military official said on Saturday. General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, 54, was appointed to head the operational and tactical group Donetsk, replacing General Oleksandr Lutsenko, the official at the General Staff told Reuters. Lutsenko was criticized by Ukrainian military bloggers and some lawmakers for failing to stop Russian troops' relentless push toward the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. The battles around Pokrovsk, a key logistic hub for Ukrainian military and civilians in the eastern Donetsk region, come at a critical...

Wyoming Highway Patrol posted a photo on Instagram of a Ford Mustang decked out in multi-colored Christmas lightbulbs. “As the holiday season approaches, we would like to remind you of a Wyoming statue [sic],” the post reads, “no person shall drive or move any vehicle or equipment upon any highway with a lamp or device theron capable of displaying a red or blue light visible from directly in front of center or thereof.”

A New York financial consultant and son of a Florida judge allegedly barged into the office of an Upper East Side optometrist and knocked him out cold, then fled to New Jersey where he sucker-punched two other health-care workers — breaking one’s jaw and nose. Dr. Ron Goldstein, 63, not only suffered a bloody head injury requiring eight stitches, but is dismayed that detectives classified the attack as only a misdemeanor — a decision critics call an attempt to keep NYC’s crime numbers down. The NYPD never arrested the disturbed suspect, who was identified thanks to swift actions by Goldstein’s...

President Joe Biden leaves office in 36 days not with a bang but a resentful whimper, an opinion piece in the Washington Post argued Sunday. The op-ed by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. is headlined “Biden touts his legacy, but frustration seeps through.” It looks back over Biden’s years in office and posits that for all his ambitions, the Biden legacy will be shallow and marked more by bitter disappointment than overarching achievement made evident since his defenestration at the hands of his own Democratic party.

U. Iowa Paid MSNBC Host Joy Reid $55K to Speak on Campus “An Afternoon with Joy Reid” .. I think I can speak for everyone when I ask… Why? ... A contract signed by Reid and the University of Iowa outlines the financial terms of the agreement which includes the flat rate fee of $55,000, as well as deems the university liable for various other non-essential accommodations. “In addition the Fee, [the University of Iowa] shall provide ground transportation via University Car Service and pay for first-class hotel accommodations, meals, and incidentals for Speaker and one other person.” Reid is...

A New Jersey state senator has bluntly accused the government of hiding the truth about the mysterious drones flying over the Garden State, saying the feds are too “fearful” of how people will react. “Whatever these drones are doing, the government really doesn’t want us to know,” Sen. Jon Bramnick told NewsNation on Saturday, calling on the Department of Defense to “come clean with the American public” about what was really happening. “What that must mean is they’re more concerned with us getting knowledge and being afraid of that information than having no knowledge and having all these questions,” claimed...

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A Weston resident, who reported spotting roughly five drones flying overhead to local police Friday night, shared the “surreal” experience with the Herald on Saturday morning. Around 8 p.m. Friday, the resident said she had been cooking dinner for her family, while her husband had taken their dog outside and texted her to come outside. “My immediate thought was ‘We’ve got drones,’” the resident told the Herald. “When I came out he was filming probably five of them, and it was freezing cold, we just stood there in awe.” ... Harwich Police Chief Kevin M. Considine alerted his town Friday...

"Today, as a result of a storm in the Black Sea, two tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank," Russia's federal sea and inland water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot, wrote in a statement.