Free Republic

Far-left billionaire kingmaker George Soros has funneled more than $15 million since 2016 to groups behind this month’s pro-Palestine protests, where demonstrators openly cheered Hamas militants’ craven terrorist attacks on Israel. ... Soros’ grant-making network gave $13.7 million of the money through Tides Center, a deep-pocketed lefty advocacy group that sponsors several nonprofits who’ve justified Hamas’ bloody attacks while claiming Palestinians obsessed with the eradication of the Jewish state are the real victims. Tides’ beneficiaries include Illinois-based Adalah Justice Project, which on the day of the Oct. 7 massacre posted a photo on Instagram of a bulldozer tearing part of...

This spring, athlete and women's rights advocate Riley Gaines spoke at the University of Pittsburgh. When Gaines asked an anthropology professor, the “expert” in the room, if you could dig up a skeleton and tell if the person had been male or female from the bone structure, Professor Gabby Yearwood said no, of course not. Yearwood, whose research focuses on "the social constructions of race and racism, masculinity, gender, sex, Black Feminist and Black Queer theory, anthropology of sport and Black Diaspora," was laughed at by the rest of the audience. Colin Wright is now reporting that the American Anthropological...

While Moscow is protected by one of the world's best air defense networks capable of shooting down ICBM's incoming MIRV warheads, satellites and other space-based weapons, this doesn't make it immune to sabotage attacks invoving drones and drone swarms. Air defense is one of the key modern military capabilities that provide adequate protection for ground units, helping them retain their combat capabilities. In recent decades, these systems have become increasingly networked and multilayered, giving the defenders a plethora of other options to shoot down hostile jets, missiles, drones etc. More recently modern militaries have started relying on swarms of well-coordinated...

The electronic strike zone will be used in all 30 Class AAA parks in 2023, sources told ESPN, seemingly another significant step toward the implementation of the technology at the big-league level in the near future. The Automatic Balls and Strikes system, commonly referred to as ABS, will be deployed in two different ways. Half of the Class AAA games will be played with all of the calls determined by an electronic strike zone, and the other half played with an ABS challenge system similar to that used in professional tennis.

oadside robber masquerading as a stranded motorist killed a University of Central Florida student when he fought back, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama. The 22-year-old victim was identified as Adam Simjee of Apopka, Florida, and he was traveling with his girlfriend, Mikayla Paulus, 20, who witnessed the killing, the sheriff’s office said in a press release. It happened around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, as the couple were driving through Talladega National Forrest, a mile from Cheaha State Park, officials said. The park is about 80 miles east of Birmingham, Alabama. The two were flagged down...

Gas prices went up again on Wednesday, setting a new record for the 12th straight day even after resident Joe Biden’s unprecedented release from the nation’s emergency petroleum reserves began on Sunday. According to AAA’s gas tracker, the nationwide average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $4.56, surpassing the prior day’s high when prices passed $4.50. Diesel fuel, used for tankers, trains, trucks, farming machinery, and other industrial equipment, also reached a new high at $5.577 per gallon on Wednesday. The daily consecutive records come weeks ahead of Memorial Day, when prices traditionally reach their spring peak. In...

Artist's concept of a ship-mounted laser weapon The US Navy has shot down its first drone representing a subsonic cruise missile using an all-electric high-energy laser. At the US Army’s High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the Lockheed Martin Layered Laser Defense (LLD) weapon disabled the engine on a drone, which then parachuted to earth. Sponsored by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) and conducted in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) and Lockheed Martin, the February 2022 test was intended not only to...

Israeli agents assassinated Al Qaeda's No. 2 official in a shooting in Tehran three months ago, eliminating a mastermind behind the deadly 1998 attacks on American embassies in Africa. Intelligence officials confirmed to The New York Times that two Israeli agents were acting at the behest of the U.S. when they shot Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah from a motorcycle on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the embassy bombings. His daughter Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden, was also killed.

A viral TikTok out of Oregon shows a tow truck driver for the American Automobile Association, or AAA, apparently refusing to tow a customer’s car because it sported a bumper sticker supporting President-elect Joe Biden. The driver was working for River’s Edge Automotive and Towing, a Dalles, Oregon-based company that works with AAA, the Oregonian reports. The TikTok, uploaded by user Nate Estes (@estesnate), shows the driver glowering in the direction of the camera and shedding his reflective safety jacket as he enters his truck. Estes and a friend get a shot of the truck’s license plate before the driver...

Actress Heather Locklear pleaded no contest Friday to eight misdemeanor counts related to two confrontations with deputies and an emergency medical technician at her Thousand Oaks home last year and received a 120-day jail sentence, which she can avoid by completing a treatment program, authorities said. The “Melrose Place” star pleaded no contest to five counts of battery on a peace officer, one count of battery on emergency personnel and two counts of resisting or obstructing police, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said in a written statement. “Locklear was sentenced to 120 days in the Ventura County Jail, stayed...

This thread is a friendly collaborative place for FReepers to analyze information and share opinons. FReepers have a wide variety of reasons for investigating Q Anon content; this is not the appropriate place to criticize or badger those who choose to use some of their time in this manner. I plan to post one thread at a time and ping new drops posted to it. When I post each (new) thread, the prior thread is retired and all new posts occur on the newest thread. If you are new to Q Anon, the three links below provide overviews to...

Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist who recently raised an uproar for her open support of rock-throwing terrorism against Israel, has been awarded over $500,000 by the City of New York. The activist, who is a longtime ally of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and has helped him get votes, has led the Arab-American Association of New York based in Brooklyn since 2005. […] Sarsour is the daughter of Palestinian Arab immigrants. Last October she exposed her blatant anti-Israel bias during a Twitter debate with Queens Councilman Rory Lancman, who is Jewish. …

One of the nation’s top traffic safety organizations is issuing an urgent warning about driving while high. AAA says that in some states that have legalized marijuana, fatal accidents involving drivers who’ve consumed pot are on the rise. “Marijuana-linked traffic fatalities on the rise, AAA warns”...

Russia is developing a new mobile air defense system for its elite airborne troops that will be based on the BMD-4M armored vehicle. The new weapon system—which is designed to be parachuted down to ground forces—will be able to protect paratroopers from enemy aircraft operating at high or medium altitudes. “Work is underway on the on the creation of an air-droppable anti-aircraft missile defense system based on the BMD-4M airborne combat vehicle. The experimental design work is codenamed Ptitselov,” a Russian defense ministry spokesperson told the Moscow-based TASS news agency. The Russian report does not describe the system in detail....

Exxon Mobil has been rate AAA by S&P since 1930 according to Bloomberg. Today that ended as the global crude explorer with sales that dwarf the economies of most nations was cut to AA+ (Outlook stable). Having been put on notice in February (negative watch), citing concern that credit measures would remain weak through 2018. Credit measures will be weak for a AAA rating due, in part, to low commodity prices, high reinvestment requirements and large dividend payments, S&P says. Maintaining production and replacing reserves will eventually require higher spending, S&P says. Greatest business challenge is replacing co.’s ongoing production, S&P says....

Indonesia is currently mulling the purchase of an air defense system from China, a senior defense official said Monday. According to Air Vice Marshal M. Syaugi, the director general of defense planning at Indonesia’s defense ministry, the country is currently evaluating the purchase of the Chinese-made AF902 Radar/Twin 35 mm AA Gun/PL-9C Missile Integrated Air Defense System (AF902 FCS/35) to bolster its aerial defense capabilities. The evaluation, Syaugi told state-run news outlet Antara News on March 1, is being done in line with the Indonesian Armed Forces 2015-2019 strategic plan. Syaugi made the remarks after a recent visit to China...

<p>The U.S. military airdropped 50 tons of ammunition to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS on Sunday — the latest maneuver in the United States' attempt to help turn the tide of a chaotic civil war.</p> <p>The airdrop, consisting of AK-47 rounds, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds, targeted rebels in ISIS-held territory in northern Syria, senior defense and military officials told NBC News.</p>

The term air defense is associated more with interceptor aircraft and missile and radar systems than tanks bristling with barrels. But the Shilka is the air defense system closest to the troops, having followed Soviet and Russian motorized infantry and tank battalions for five decades in which it also made its mark in ground engagements. There is a joke in the Russian military that air defense troops are failed pilots who donÂ’t like anyone else flying. But not even these zealous forces could keep the skies completely clear in the post-war period. Anti-aircraft weapons available in the 1950s were not...

Just because you can talk to your car doesn’t mean you should. Two new studies have found that voice-activated smartphones and dashboard infotainment systems may be making the distracted-driving problem worse instead of better. The systems let drivers do things like tune the radio, send a text message, or make a phone call while keeping their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel, but many of these systems are so error-prone or complex that they require more concentration from drivers rather than less, according to studies released Tuesday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the...

Rush-hour commuters could pay nearly $5 a day in tolls to travel back and forth on a seven-mile stretch of express toll lanes set to open next year along Interstate 95 east and north of Baltimore, according to proposed pricing approved Thursday by the board of the Maryland Transportation Authority. The new lanes, scheduled to open late next year, would offer a quicker travel option for commuters willing to pay. The suggested tolls vary by the time of day and the type of vehicle, but a car traveling on the toll lanes during peak hours would pay between 25 cents...