Free Republic

The Pacific Palisades house that 65-year old local resident John Carr lives in is one of just a handful of properties that's still standing, after the Palisades wildfire ripped through the neighborhood this week, leaving the community virtually unrecognizable.

It was Philadelphia in the winter of 1776. In the few years prior, the colonies' faraway owner, Britain, had imposed taxation without representation and the so-called Intolerable Acts; colonists had convened at two Continental Congresses; and British and American troops had battled for the first time at Bunker Hill.Revolutionary sentiment had been brewing throughout the American colonies for some time and was near boiling in the Northeast. Still, many colonists had not seriously considered separating from the mother country—until a history-making pamphlet was published in the City of Brotherly Love on January 10, 1776.Thomas Paine's Common Sense, "addressed to the...

Fatemeh Mohajerani, the spokesperson for the Iranian government, announced that a 20-year cooperation agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia will be signed soon. She stated, “We hope to witness the signing of the comprehensive cooperation document between the two countries on January 18th of this year.” On Wednesday, January 8th, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Fatemeh Mohajerani confirmed detailed discussions about this cooperation document had taken place. While the details of the agreement have not been disclosed, it is believed that Iran has accepted the changes Russia requested in the agreement. Ismail Baghaei, the spokesperson...

DanielFireCopter @DanielFireTruck #PalisadesFire FD is Requesting Law Enforcement to Viewridge/Topanga Canyon, Possible Arson subject on a Trail.

Surging US Treasury yields are the main driver of global markets, depressing stock prices, pushing up the US dollar exchange rate, and threatening homebuilding and other rate-dependent economic activity in the United States. As rates rise, moreover, the US Treasury deficit – already above 6% of GDP – will increase. Interest payments on the federal debt rose to $1 trillion from $400 billion in 2021, adding to the blowout federal borrowing requirement of $1.8 trillion. Foreign central banks meanwhile have cut their holdings of US government debt, adding to upward pressure on yields – by a painful 0.8 percentage points,...

Los Angeles' water chief reportedly knew about an empty reservoir and broken fire hydrants months before the deadly wildfires now spreading across the city that have left some communities in ashes. The Daily Mail reports the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones was hired by Mayor Karen Bass on a $750,000 salary in May. Now, LA Fire Department insiders are blaming Quiñones for a nearby reservoir disconnection and broken fire hydrants, the outlet reports, claiming this has led to firefighters running out of water. The Mail reports that Quiñones' past employer was linked to fire...

Variant Bio, a small biotech company based in Seattle, is using genetic information from Indigenous people to develop drugs for obesity and diabetes.When Stephane Castel first met with a group of Māori people and other Pacific Islanders in New Zealand to talk about his drug company’s plans for genetic research, locals worried he might be seeking to profit from the genes of community members without much thought to them. Instead, Dr. Castel and his colleagues explained, they were aiming to strike an unconventional bargain: In exchange for entrusting them with their genetic heritage, participating communities would receive a share of...

California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed his gratitude to the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum. This is for the support provided in the face of the devastating wildfires that affect Los Angeles County and other areas of the southern part of the state. Newsom highlighted Mexico's collaboration on social networks, El Universal declared. The governor ended by noting that Mexican firefighters are already on their way to join the more than 10,000 fighters facing the flames in the Eaton Fire.

As a second Donald Trump presidency approaches, President Joe Biden extended protections for about 1 million immigrants Friday, allowing them to legally remain in the U.S. for another 18 months. The Temporary Protected Status applies to people already residing in the country from embattled Venezuela, El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine. That includes an estimated tens of thousands of immigrants living in Albuquerque. While there aren’t accurate counts for refugees and others with protected status in Albuquerque, the city estimates that there are 20,000 undocumented immigrants in Albuquerque. Biden extended TPS for about 600,000 Venezuelans and 230,000 Salvadorans across the U.S....

The LA fires are unprecedented in the number and size of the fires that have broken out in and around the second largest city in the US. Over 1000 structures and 45 square miles are destroyed. More than 380,000 people have been under warnings or orders to evacuate. Over 450,000 people are without power. More than 24 school districts are partially or totally closed. Fire hydrants have run dry. Arsonists in Santa Monica have been caught on camera setting fires. The LA County Sheriff says some areas look like ‘a bomb was dropped.’ President Biden commented on the fires while...

Los Angeles' municipal utility lacks a common safety procedure that may have kept water pumping to fire hydrants during an intentional power shutoff, though President Biden said the outage caused the problem. Republicans, including President-elect Trump, have blamed Democratic officials — at least in part — for the water shortage, which has hampered efforts to fight devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County. Democrats have rebuked these claims, and on Thursday, Biden suggested the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) bore responsibility for shutting off power to pumps that fuel the hydrants. "What I know from talking to the...

Mindy MF Robinson 🇺🇸 @iheartmindy This sh*t is low, even for a Democrat.....and that's saying a LOT. (Elizabeth Warren gives link to Act Blue - a Dem advocacy group to "support the communities around LA...")

Space travel has always hit a wall with slow speeds and massive fuel needs. Gravitic propulsion systems offer a game-changing solution by using gravity itself as a driving force. This blog breaks down 10 major advances in gravity-based space tech, from T. Townsend Brown's early work to today's cutting-edge research at aerospace labs. Ready to explore how we might zip through space without burning tons of rocket fuel? Scientists started exploring gravitic propulsion back in the 1920s through wild experiments with high-voltage capacitors and electromagnetic fields. T. Townsend Brown's work at the Gravity Research Foundation sparked major interest when he...

Pretty darn interesting realistic 3D generated beginning of WW3.

An estimated 100 million Apple users are at risk of falling victim to malware. Cybersecurity software company Check Point issued an urgent warning to the millions of Mac users around the world who may be preyed on by malicious actors evading the devices’ built-in antivirus systems. According to the company, cybercriminals have developed malware, dubbed the “Banshee macOS Stealer,” which secretly steals credentials and other sensitive data while operating undetected for more than months. The malware first emerged last year in what Check Point calls “underground forums” and was called a “stealer-as-a-service” that was available to purchase for just $3,000....

President-elect Donald Trump caused quite a stir this week with his comments about the wind industry during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. Trump compared wind farms to “dropping garbage in a field” and said wind developers are “getting rich” off of government subsidies that the projects receive. Trump also argued that wind energy is the most expensive form of energy, far more expensive than “clean natural gas.” Experts doing full analyses of all the costs associated with putting wind and solar farms on the grid tell Just the News that Trump is correct. Electricity ratesThe New York Times called the...

Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the Department of Justice following the completion of his cases against President-elect Donald Trump. Smith resigned on Friday, according to a court filing that was submitted Saturday. Officials at the DOJ urged U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon not to extend the court order issued by her to block Smith's final report, according to Politico. The two cases that Smith oversaw were the so-called classified documents case and the federal election interference case.

They've been ordered to submit to a DOT inspection in Sacramento that's scheduled for 4:30 pm today. If they clear the inspection, they'll THEN be able to drive 400 miles to Pacific Palisades. Talk about "looking a gift horse in the mouth." Then, on the way home, they get inspected again, and if they get red tagged, it's "fix it before you can return." Does liberal stupidity know no bounds? (I'm still waiting for a return call from @OSFM to explain this nonsense)

This 1962 documentary film produced by the Los Angeles Fire Department, describes the historic Bel Air / Brentwood wildfire that started on November 5, 1961 in the Bel Air community of Los Angeles. Over the course of three days, the wind-driven fire destroyed 484 homes, damaged 190 others, and burned over 16,000 acres. Amazingly, there was no loss of life attributable to the blaze. The then $30 million disaster led to new laws in the City of Los Angeles to eliminate wood shingle roofs, and to clear dry brush away from homes. The film is narrated by actor William Conrad.

The same conditions that allowed rape gangs to run rampant in the U.K. are already in place in some U.S. jurisdictions.The United Kingdom’s “grooming gangs” scandal has reentered the public spotlight, largely thanks to X posts by Elon Musk showcasing court transcripts.They detail how groups of men, mainly Pakistani Muslims, groomed and raped thousands of English girls across the country over a decades-long period. The simultaneously infuriating and blood-curdling descriptions of the violations those girls suffered are only compounded by the British authorities’ complicity in and cover-up of the abuse.The first reports on these crimes came out in the early...