Free Republic

BASHAR al-Assad has broken his silence to claim Vladimir Putin forced him into a cowardly escape from Syria - but he wanted to stay and fight. The ousted tyrant released a statement from Moscow, insisting he had to flee after the Russian base he was hiding in began to be bombed. Assad dished out fighting talk from the safety of his bolthole in the Russian capital, saying the only course of action had been to stay and fight - before he then left. The statement was published today on the Syrian presidency's Telegram channel and was Assad's first public comment...

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) said that if President-elect Donald Trump had his Department of Justice go after political enemies, it would be “banana republic stuff.” When asked about January 6 committee members potentially being prosecuted, Goldman said, “Donald Trump’s entire purpose with his selection for the FBI is to do just that and to jail his political enemies, that’s banana republic stuff. It’s not just bad for the political enemies and for a political system, is undermines our entire rule of law. It undermines the credibility of every single prosecution that’s out there, and you...

A piece of conceptual art consisting of a simple banana, duct-taped to a wall, sold for $6.2 million at an auction in New York on Wednesday, with the winning bid coming from a prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur. "Comedian," by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was a phenomenon when it debuted in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach, as festivalgoers tried to make out whether the single yellow piece of fruit affixed to a white wall with silver duct tape was a joke or cheeky commentary on questionable standards among art collectors. At one point, another artist took the banana off the wall...

An art installation of a banana duct taped to a wall that was previously hailed as a 'defiant work of pure genius' has sold at Sotheby's in New York for $6.2 million. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's 'Comedian' piece was snatched up by Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who outbid six other offers on Wednesday. 'After over 6 minutes of heated bidding, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby's and Chairman of Sotheby's China, Jen Hua, placed the winning bid for 'Comedian' on behalf of, Chinese collector and founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, Sotheby's announced on X.

The Biden Justice Department has decided to go out the way it came in: as a blunt weapon wielded against perceived political enemies. That, at least, is what the FBI raid against Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan looks like. At 6 a.m. Wednesday, agents stormed his home to demand his phone and other devices. Why? Officially, as part of a criminal probe into the platform for allowing US users to bet on politics via VPN, in contravention of a previous agreement Polymarket made with regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That’s pretty deep in the weeds for a predawn raid....

A killer disease turns up out of the blue. It moves by “stealth transmission”, spreading before symptoms even show. Once it takes hold, it is already too late to stop it – there is no cure. ..."Tropical Race 4" (TR4) is a disease that affects bananas. Also known as Panama Disease, it is a fungus that has been rampaging through banana farms the past 30 years...within the last decade the epidemic has accelerated, spreading from Asia to Australia, the Middle East, Africa and more recently Latin America, where the majority of the bananas shipped to supermarkets in the global north...

PITTSBURGH — An employee at a Sunoco gas station is facing charges after an altercation inside the store Monday night. Pittsburgh police were called to the 100 block of North Craig Street for reports of a fight. The fight started when a man threw a banana at employees and they threw it back. Court documents say several bananas were thrown back and forth between the man and the employees. The man punched one of the employees in the face. One of the employees, Yubaraj Budhathoki, allegedly chased the man into the parking lot and hit him in the head repeatedly...

Legal experts analyzed what they called "breathtaking" civil penalties against former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, former Trump Organization Comptroller Jeffrey McConney and ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg – warning other corporations based in the Empire State may realize they could suddenly be put out of business by the state on a political whim. New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable for more than $350 million in damages in the fraud suit brought against him and his company by New York State Democratic District Attorney Letitia James. Trump Sr., the Trump Revocable Trust and Trump Organization...

A South Korean art student ate a banana that was part of an installation by artist Maurizio Cattelan, saying he was "hungry" after skipping breakfast. The artwork called "Comedian", part of Cattelan's exhibition "WE", consisted of a ripe banana duct-taped to a wall at Seoul's Leeum Musuem of Art. After eating the banana, the student, Noh Huyn-soo, taped the peel to the wall.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr called Democrat District Attorney of New York Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Donald Trump on Thursday an “abomination.” “Based on the news reports if they’re accurate, this is an abomination,” Barr said Friday on Fox Business. “It’s the epitome of the abuse of prosecutorial power to bring a case that would not be brought against anyone else. They are going after the man, not a crime. And the legal theory, frankly, is pathetically weak.”

Bananas on Table The scientists believe there are at least three wild ‘mystery ancestors’. Scientists are peeling back ancient layers of banana DNA in order to find the “mystery ancestors” before they go extinct. It is believed that humans domesticated bananas for the first time 7,000 years ago on the island of New Guinea. However, the history of banana domestication is complicated, and the distinction between species and subspecies is often unclear. A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science reveals that this history is significantly more complicated than previously imagined. The findings show that the genomes...

MSNBC host Al Sharpton said on this week’s broadcast of “The Sunday Show” that the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi shows America was becoming a “banana Republic.” Anchor Jonathan Capehart asked, “Let’s talk about those armed vigilantes in Arizona. A federal judge refused to issue a retiree restraining order to block people from guarding drop boxes in the state. Are you concerned that this will inspire voter intimidation further?”

The New York Attorney General's office has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, several of his family members, as well associates and businesses, alleging "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" regarding financial statements. Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference Wednesday morning after the complaint was filed in New York Supreme Court that Trump "inflated his net worth by billions of dollars," and that his children Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric helped him.

During Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said that “banana Republicans” and the events of January 6, 2021 had contributed to the inflation underway in the U.S. economy. Summers said, “We should focus on what’s important, not raising input prices for American producers, so they’re less competitive, which is what much of those tariffs do. Instead, we should be focusing on things that allow the leakage of key technologies to China and the like. We should pass at long last some kind of legislation, ideally, on a bipartisan basis that would raise the...

A man fed up with a private road in poor condition near his southwest Florida business has a novel solution: plant a banana tree in a pothole to warn motorists away. Last week, Bryan Raymond planted the tree in a stubborn pothole along Honda Drive just off U.S. 41 in south Fort Myers. Raymond, who owns Progress and Pride Fitness Group, said the idea of planting a banana tree ripened in his mind after having to fill holes in the street with cement multiple times. Because Honda Drive is a private street, county officials said, it’s up to the business...

Ready to crawl into bed after a long day of "normal human" cosplay? Hoping to fall asleep fast instead of staring at your ceiling for hours? You probably already have the ingredients you need for a dietitian-approved bedtime snack that'll help you drift off. s a strong case for a banana with peanut butter as the best snack for better sleep. What a dietitian wants you to know about eating before bed: What you eat before bed and how soon before bed that you eat it can affect both sleep and your digestion. If your food isn't digested before you...

Nothing says, “This was a perfectly normal election, and now it’s time to come together as a united nation,” like having your swearing-in behind 12-foot-high razor wire surrounded by 25,000 troops whose loyalty you doubt. That’s what we witnessed at President Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday: a grim testament to the fundamental insecurity and fragility of the re-ascendant liberal elite.Democrats no doubt hoped that the optics of this military-heavy presidential installation would convince ordinary Americans that the republic is in peril from the populist ferment that sent Donald Trump to the White House in 2016 and garnered more votes four years...

As far as a chair umpire at the Australian Open was concerned, it was a slip of tennis etiquette. During a qualifying round for the Grand Slam event, Elliot Benchetrit of France was rebuked by the official when he asked a ballgirl to peel his banana, News.com.au reported. Benchetrit, 21, was handed the banana during a break in his match against Dmitry Popko and asked the girl for help in peeling the fruit, indicating his heavily taped fingers prevented him from doing so, Nine.com.au reported. Chair umpire John Blom interrupted and told Benchetrit to peel his own banana, according to...

Georgian-born American artist David Datuna has eaten a banana used in an art work by Maurizio Cattelan, which had sold for $120,000 (£91,000). The artwork, titled Comedian, was on display at Art Basel in Miami, one of the world's most high-profile art fairs.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Arguably one of the most talked-about works of art at this year’s Art Basel was a banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $120,000. It’s Maurizio Cattelan’s latest work of art. It’s called ‘The Comedian’ and it is entertaining art lovers from around the globe. Some of those same art lovers’ conversations swirled around his 2017 golden toilet. The $6-million throne was stolen from England’s Blenheim Palace over the summer. Art lover Weezie Chandler said, “You can do anything and once you’re established you can get away with it.” Many believe this more ‘a-peeling’ piece represents...