Free Republic

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) – one of Governor Ron DeSantis’s most prominent supporters and lay advisers – will vote against efforts to hold Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff accountable for peddling Russia-gate conspiracies which led to countless conflicts in U.S. politics, and millions spent by authorities “investigating” the matter.Massie’s Congressional colleague Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) filed a motion to “censure, condemn, and fine” Rep. Schiff (D-CA) for pushing Russia-gate even after the Durham Report concluded the federal investigation into alleged Trump-Russia links had been baseless and biased..Schiff is renowned for telling outright lies in an effort to destabilize a sitting...

3 submarine cables cut in the Red Sea between Jeddah and Djibouti. AAE-1, EIG and SEACOM/TGN-Eurasia are down. Note: Authorities looking at potential terror link. Confirmed: Submarine cables cut by Houthis in Yemen waters. To repair the cables, need permission from Yemen to enter their waters Insurance companies have canceled insurance for cable ships to ply in Yemen waters No maintenance cable ships willing to do repairs Cable ships cost $60-&100 million each. Who will take the risk?

We live in a world created in 1945. The United States is the world’s dominant political, economic, and military power. We treat those facts as if they are somehow immutable. They are not. We are standing on the brink of losing it all. The Biden administration continues to blunder forward with its reckless policy of escalation in Ukraine treating the entire enterprise as if it were a video game of some sort. There are in the minds of these men and women no consequences for their actions. Only the other side takes losses. Only the other side feels pain. ......

Following McCarthy's ouster, acting Speaker Patrick McHenry ordered Nancy Pelosi to leave the special hideaway office she didn't relinquish following her party's defeat in the 2022 mid-terms. The email notifying Pelosi's office of the order to get out got right to the point, noting that the office will be re-keyed if she doesn't leave. As one of his first acts as the acting speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry ordered former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday, according to an email sent to her office viewed by POLITICO. “Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be...

After the COVID-19 pandemic, we're all a little wary of biosecurity hazards, and the news out of Australia today isn't too comforting. In 2021, 323 vials containing samples of deadly viruses went missing from a lab in Queensland, Australia. The breach wasn't discovered until 2023, and for whatever reason—it sounds like red tape — an investigation is just now underway, over a year later. Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced the news on Monday. [snip] ...a statement: "I want to stress that there have been no public health incidents linked to these materials, so we have no evidence so far of...

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that while President Joe Biden’s move to send a carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean is a good move, it was a mistake to give up military facilities in Afghanistan, and that having bases in a country that borders Iran would be useful to help isolate them.

Many of you may remember my reporting around "Operation Choke Point 2.0" from the spring of 2023; TLDR, Biden's financial regulators, namely the Fed, FDIC, and OCC, launched a crackdown on banks covering the crypto space. The first casualty was Silvergate Bank, which voluntarily liquidated. The standard reporting around Silvergate was that the bank lent to crypto depositors and those depositors were flighty; when rates rose, Silvergate suffered M2M losses on bond portfolios and ended up insolvent. Except that's not true. Silvergate weathered the storm, even though short sellers and members of Congress like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) encouraged a...

One of the benefits of being a Washington insider, from the president of the United States to the lowliest bureaucrat, is never having to admit your policies are wrong. In the case of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) - the nation's 10th largest - the financial policy chickens of this, and previous administrations, have predictably come home to roost. Record debt, massive new spending, and the failure of regulators to see what was coming contributed to the run on SVB. It didn't help that in 2018 President Donald Trump signed the biggest rollback of Dodd-Frank bank regulations since the global financial...

A veteran South African official detailed meeting with an unprepared and “desperate” Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, begging for local help rolling back the popular coup in Niger. The recent BRICS conference might give Nuland even more to fret about. When US Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, traveled to South Africa on July 29, her reputation as a blunt instrument of Washington’s hegemonic interests preceded her. According to a veteran South African official who attended meetings with the senior US diplomat in Pretoria, however, Nuland and her team were demonstrably unprepared to grapple with recent developments...

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, saying that if they are not freed before he is sworn into office there will be “HELL TO PAY.”“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth...

One of the most disturbing scandals of the Hunter Biden saga is the imprisonment without trial of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. The Ukrainian-born Israeli-American, who once told his FBI handler about Ukrainian claims of a $10 million bribe to the Bidens, has been languishing in a Los Angeles prison for nine months on charges that he lied to the FBI. Last week, federal prosecutors slapped new tax-evasion charges on Smirnov, 43, which suggests they know their original indictment is too weak for a jury to convict him when he faces trial beginning Jan. 8. Smirnov was one of the...

President-elect Donald Trump has said he intends to cut government spending by reasserting the presidential power of impoundment, a move certain to spark a court battle and one that could redefine presidential power for decades to come. Impoundment occurs when the president chooses not to disburse funds authorized by Congress; instead leaving them unspent in the U.S. Treasury.This power is not mentioned in the Constitution but has been employed by presidents since Thomas Jefferson. Congress enacted limits on the practice 50 years ago.Now, Trump intends to challenge the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), which he believes is unconstitutional.“I will...

What started as a Texas farmer’s love for exotic chickens has led to armed federal agents storming her farm, killing her prized birds, and a possible 20-year prison sentence for bringing rare eggs into the country. Jennifer Mayo, who owns a chicken farm in South Texas, has found herself at the center of a federal smuggling case that has destroyed her business and left her fighting for her freedom. The farmer’s story begins with a passion project that grew into a flourishing business enterprise. She started with nine birds about five years ago. Her collection eventually expanded into 39 different...

Iran and Qatar behind South Africa’s World Court case against Israel, report claims. Report alleges foreign financial and political support in 'genocide[sic]' case against Israel; ruling ANC, near bankruptcy, reportedly received major donation from foreign states after filing claim in December. A new report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) alleges financial and political involvement by Iran and Qatar in South Africa’s December 2023 case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riots and then was promoted has a lengthy internal affairs and disciplinary record that includes firearm-related incidents, a sweeping congressional investigation has found. The issues in Captain Michael Byrd's background included a failed shotgun qualification test, a failed FBI background check for a weapon's purchase, a 33-day suspension for a lost weapon and referral to Maryland state prosecutors for firing his gun at a stolen car fleeing his neighborhood, according to congressional and police documents obtained by Just the News. Byrd’s record was uncovered during a larger...

A charity led by billionaire and Democratic mega-donor Bill Gates funneled millions of dollars into government departments run by the Chinese Communist Party as well as organizations that collaborate with the Chinese military, newly released tax forms show.In 2023, the Gates Foundation directed roughly $11.7 million into various arms of China’s communist-controlled government, as well as $2 million to a corporation the Department of Defense determined works with the Chinese military and an additional $6.7 million to state-run universities that help prop up Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime. The multitude of six and seven-figure grants from the Gates Foundation to...

Donald Trump might never have become president without them. And his quest to regain the presidency might depend on what they do now to stop him. With back-to-back announcements this week, former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined a swelling roster of Republicans challenging Trump for the 2024 nomination. They are embracing disparate but perhaps equally impactful strategies to defeat the man they were once so loyal to. Pence is seeking a more delicate way around Trump, paired with an effort to reclaim core tenets of the GOP, while Christie charts a path he...

House and Senate conservatives on Wednesday sounded the alarm on a potential move by congressional leadership to extend a deep state surveillance law in a defense bill. “Reauthorization of FISA can’t be hooked to anything. The federal GOV has spied on Americans [who] decided to go to Church or you went to a school board meeting. This needs to end. Reauthorization needs to stand on its own, and have significant reform,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) said during a press conference with the House Freedom Caucus and Senate conservatives. The conservatives held their press conference as congressional leaders...

As turmoil continues within the House Republican caucus, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime” and weighed in on that turmoil and the decisions his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), is facing. According to the former California lawmaker, the beginning of the end for Republicans came when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led his ouster last year.

A teenager allegedly behind hundreds of swatting incidents pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of making interstate threats. Prosecutors claimed that 18-year-old Alan Filion of Lancaster, California, made more than 375 swatting and threatening calls from 2022 through January 2024. Some of the calls included claims that he placed bombs at religious institutions, schools, and government buildings. He also threatened to detonate the bombs or carry out mass shootings, the Justice Department reported. The teenager was mostly underage at the time of the calls, but he faces up to five years for each of the four charges. “This prosecution...