Free Republic

President Trump entered the Commander-in-Chief ball with first lady Melania Trump to a thunderous ovation as the inaugural events continued late into the night on Monday. The 54-year-old first lady dazzled the crowd as she walked out in a striking black-and-white strapless gown, white high-heeled shoes and black choker with an elegant broach resembling a floral bouquet affixed to it. The dress was reportedly designed by Hervé Pierre, the same couturier behind Melania’s 2017 Inauguration ball dress. Trump, wearing a black tuxedo and bow tie, promptly began dancing with his wife at the event aimed at military service members. The...

Hey Free Republic! Calling all old-timers, ones that go back 25 years on the forum! In the 2000 election, FR was a lot more active, especially during the election and afterwards. We protested Al Gore during the horrible recount period, and then on January 20, 2001, the DC Chapter put on an awesome Inaugural Ball right there in Washington DC. Arkansas Governor (now: Ambassador to Israel) Mike Huckabee had a rock band, and they played for us all night. It was quite an event! I often do "360 degree" panoramic photography, so I thought I would document the night that...

Words to the wise. I pulled out two brand new sealed boxes of canning jar lids today. Both had black mold on them. Both the same brand. A brand with the same name as a round object used in sports.

At least five people have reportedly been injured after a car plowed into New Year's Eve revelers near Madison Square Garden in New York City. A mass casualty incident was said to have been declared following the horror crash on West 34th Street and 9th Avenue. Three NYPD officers are among those who were injured. Police were called to the scene around 1:40am local time, as crowds would have been departing nearby Times Square after watching the ball drop to ring-in 2024. The vehicle mounted the sidewalk and ran down civilians and cops before coming to a stop, reports suggest....

The stone shows two people playing a Mesoamerican ball gameImage: Lorenzo Hernandez/REUTERS The piece displays Mayan hieroglyphic writing surrounding two players standing next to a ball. The Pok Ta Pok ball game was a traditional practice of Mesoamerican peoples. An apparent stone scoreboard has been discovered at the Chichen Itza archaeological site in southeastern Mexico, archaeologists have said. The piece measures just over 32 centimeters (12.6 inches) in diameter and weighs 40 kilograms (around 90 pounds). It dates from between A.D. 800 and 900. It displays Mayan hieroglyphic writing surrounding two players standing next to a ball, according to Mexico's...

ATLANTA - A fight over a bowling ball ends with one woman shot to death in southwest Atlanta, police say. Officers responded shortly after 11:30 p.m. Thursday to reports of shots fired outside the Metro Fun Center at a shopping center on the 1900 block of Metropolitan Parkway. Investigators say the night started as a celebration, but quickly turned into a fight that spilled into the parking lot. "We will work this case through the night. We will find the person responsible," Woolfolk said. "You know who you are. Go ahead and turn yourself in. We assure you that we...

When Desi Arnaz first set eyes on Lucille Ball in the commissary of RKO Pictures in Hollywood in early 1940, it was not an auspicious beginning to their relationship. The Cuban bandleader-turned-fledgling actor made a derogatory remark about the then-B-movie actress’ appearance. “He wasn’t impressed at all, calling her a ’10-cent whore,’ a ‘p–a’ — the Spanish word for prostitute,” author Darwin Porter told The Post, noting that the 28-year-old Ball, five years older than Arnaz, was dressed for a role as a cheap burlesque dancer in the film “Dance, Girl, Dance” with Maureen O’Hara.

Luke Ball is exiting his position as communications director for Rep. Matt Gaetz as the Justice Department inquiry into Gaetz’s possible connections to sex trafficking continues. Ball started out in Gaetz’s office as an intern in 2017, and in addition to serving as his press secretary, was deputy campaign manager in the representative’s 2018 re-election campaign and deputy digital director for Ron DeSantis for Governor, according to Ball’s LinkedIn profile. He is also the founder of Rightlife Media, a video production and website design company. The New York Post said that Ball had scrubbed any mentions of Gaetz, from his...

My colleague Bonchie wrote an excellent article about a very long, detailed piece in TIME magazine which exposes what many of us already knew: Democrat elected and unelected officials, Corporations, Big Tech, and legacy and social media colluded to turn the election in their favor.I recommend you read both: Bonchie focuses more on how we knew it all along, and how the Left just cavalierly used this manipulation and collusion to disenfranchise the other side. The TIME piece is a view into the mind of how people who feel they are on a righteous mission to save the world for...

The great-granddaughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Desiree S. Anzalone, died Sept. 27 at 31 following a battle with breast cancer. Anzalone, Ball and Arnaz’s first great-grandchild, had been receiving treatment at Smilow Cancer Center in Connecticut, according to People. SNIP Desiree, who worked as a photographer, had battled breast cancer since the age of 25; it was initially diagnosed as stage 2. She elected to undergo a double mastectomy and subsequently went into remission, though two years ago, doctors determined that the cancer had returned, spread elsewhere in her body and progressed to stage 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA9Tpf5Uuxs Posted yesterday, the interview was done yesterday too.

The job requires experience "in disarmament affairs, political analysis or in national military or paramilitary service" The United Nations is now accepting job applications in New York City, New York for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration officers to "contribute to security and stability in post-conflict environments." UN DDR forces operate under the intergovernmental organization's Department of Peace Operations to "assist" the Member States, including the United States, in a boots on the ground capacity. *[https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/department-of-peace-operations?fbclid=IwAR2hBOgH2C3SGU0FCqIASFyEFDgBm9psLFFoJ59Mhs4VEQazW1Wo9-8gzvo]* The job listing describes the UN's core values as "Integrity, Professionalism, [and] Respect for Diversity." Applicants eager to conduct DDR "field missions" are required to have...

CLEVELAND -- American League All-Star Game starter Justin Verlander told ESPN on Monday that the balls used in Major League Baseball games this season are "a f---ing joke" and that he believes "100 percent" that the league has implemented juiced balls to increase offense. "It's a f---ing joke," said Verlander, an eight-time All-Star who is starting his second All-Star Game on Tuesday. "Major League Baseball's turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you've got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f---ing company. If any other $40 billion...

Not long after learning his son Lonzo Ball will be part of a blockbuster trade for Anthony Davis, LaVar Ball made his thoughts clear on what he felt the Los Angeles Lakers had just agreed to do. "I guarantee: Like I say again, it will be the worst move the Lakers ever did in their life and they will never win another championship," LaVar Ball told ESPN while at the Drew League on Saturday to watch his son LaMelo play. "Guarantee it. "They're going to regret it. I'm going to have fun with it. Because I told you all, it...

An 80-year-old regional dance for high school girls and their dates in southwestern Connecticut will start allowing all-male same-sex couples next year and will remove the requirement that boys wear a tuxedo. The annual County Assembly Charity Ball — known as “the Counties” — has traditionally been for high school junior girls and their escorts. That has traditionally meant that a girl has gone to the dance with a boy. Organizers have been allowing girls to bring another girl, but had not been allowing boys to go with another boy. No one is allowed to go unaccompanied by an escort....

LaVar Ball has another message for the Lakers: If you want to keep Lonzo, you’ll need to take his brothers, too. The outspoken, media-seeking father of the rookie point guard is adamant about seeing Lonzo’s lesser-talented younger brothers, LiAngelo and LaMelo, join him in the NBA, and seems willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. “I want all three boys to play for the Lakers,” LaVar told Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas. “But if that does not happen, I’m telling you the story [of] what’s gonna happen first. If they don’t take Gelo this year, I bring back...

The Big Baller Brand website is jammed with $50 T-shirts and $60 hats, the cornerstone of a business that outspoken founder LaVar Ball says is competing with big-name athletic apparel brands. But the Chino company responsible for screen-printing and embroidering the hats, T-shirts and other high-priced apparel sold by Big Baller Brand claims it hasn’t been paid.

One cannot overlook the irony of a business which shares the initials of the Better Business Bureau, getting an “F” rating from the nation’s premier advocate of marketplace trust. However, that’s exactly what happened to LaVar Ball’s Big Baller Brand.

Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball bought his parents a Rolls-Royce for Christmas, which I’m pretty sure fulfills a Christmas wish LaVar Ball made when he and wife Tina had their first son 20 years ago.