Free Republic

Jon Cooper is blaming the Olympic overtime rules for Canada’s loss to the United States. Unlike the 4 Nations Face-Off and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the overtime period is five-on-five, the Olympics use a three-on-three format. This is designed to make overtime periods quicker and reduce shootouts. It’s also used in the NHL regular season. “You take four players off the ice, now hockey’s not hockey anymore,” Cooper said, via The Hockey News. ”There’s a reason overtime and shootouts are in play — it’s all TV-driven to end games, so it’s not a long time. There’s a reason why...

Jeffrey Epstein secretly stashed computers, photographs, and other items in storage units scattered across the US — and paid private detectives to move the material around as investigators closed in on him, according to a new report. Financial records and emails reviewed by the Telegraph revealed that the dead pedophile rented at least six storage lockers nationwide, some starting in 2003, and paid for them until 2019, the year he died by suicide in lockup. The units were used to house items from Epstein’s homes, including computers and CDs from his private Caribbean island, Little Saint James, the outlet reported....

The State Department has ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel from the U.S. embassy in Beirut, as President Trump has directed a major military buildup in the region for potential strikes against Iran. A State Department official confirmed to The Hill the mandatory evacuations as a “prudent” decision based on the current security environment. “The Embassy remains operational with core staff in place. This is a temporary measure intended to ensure the safety of our personnel while maintaining our ability to operate and assist U.S. citizens,” the official said. Trump has warned he is considering a limited strike on Iran...

Once again, the Radical Left’s favorite Squad member is substituting actual policy knowledge with absolute theatrical melodrama. As The Gateway Pundit reported, AOC delivered one of the most humiliating performances by a U.S. politician in modern history at the Munich Security Conference. She made a host of mind-boggling gaffes in response to simple questions while botching basic geography. In one instance, a moderator at the event asked AOC if the US should commit troops to defend against China, and she turned into a stuttering mess. “Um, you know, I think that, uh, this is such a, uh, you know, I...

Apparently, it's panic time for Democrats in their one-party blue state of California. The Los Angeles Times reports that they are facing armageddon in the upcoming governor's race, whose "jungle" primary is in June. According to the Los Angeles Times: SAN FRANCISCO — Leaders of the California Democratic Party, along with liberal activists and loyal power brokers, are openly expressing fear that their crowded field of candidates running for governor may splinter the vote and open the door to a surprise Republican victory in November.SNIP The bottom line here is that Democrats wouldn't have this problem at all if they...

Text messages obtained by Juliegrace Brufke of 24sight News appear to confirm that Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) had an inappropriate relationship with Regina Santos-Aviles, a former staffer who committed suicide by self-immolation last September. Another former Gonzales staffer who described himself as Santos-Aviles’s “best friend” recently told the San Antonio Express-News that Santos-Aviles had admitted the affair to him, and that she had been battling depression ever since her husband found out about the relationship, causing the congressman to “abruptly cut her off.” He also produced text messages in which Sant0s-Aviles admitted to the affair. Gonzales denied the affair in...

China has seeded the West with thousands of agents pushing propaganda, engaging in espionage, fomenting protests, and silencing domestic dissent. In 2023, the FBI arrested two Chinese-Americans, Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, for operating a Chinese police station in Manhattan. Chen pleaded guilty and faces up to five years in prison for acting as a Chinese agent, while Lu, who has connections to Chinese authorities, pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. He faces 20 years for obstruction of justice. According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), the police station was established to monitor and intimidate Chinese dissidents in the...

Something appears to be laughably missing in Politico's Saturday story about the June nonpartisan gubernatorial primary in California. Namely the front runner is a Republican, Steve Hilton, and another Republican is very possibly the second place candidate, both of whom would be facing each other in the November general election for governor.Is it a mere coincidence that Politico writers Blake Jones and Lindsey Holden completely ignored them because they happen to have the taboo (R) by their names which are completely AWOL in "Why Swalwell and Steyer are surging in California governor’s race"?The focus of the story (to the complete...

"If you tolerate the intolerable, you’re communicating that it’s okay to mistreat you." —Aimee Terese on X. Hillary and Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) at MunichDid you think the American zeitgeist — our collective spirit plus our thinking — could not get crazier? Gird your loins. It’s getting worse by the hour. The Jeffrey Epstein files suggest that people will do anything and that people will believe anything. Pizza, hot dogs, white sharks. . . boys, girls, babies, teens, Russian ---res. . . celebrities by the score. . . billionaires. . . cannibal orgies. . . vivisection parlors. . . adrenochrome....

One of the first tasks that a new Mayor has in New York City after taking office is to present a budget. Given that an annual New York City budget is well north of $100 billion, you would think that this is a serious undertaking. But our new Mayor is the 34-year-old play-acting college socialist Zohran Mamdani. How does he handle the task? Mamdani kicked the process of with a press conference at City Hall on January 28. Here is a transcript and video of his remarks. Excerpt: I want to speak directly to New Yorkers, who have for too...

Click on link

At first glance, Yelets in winter looks like something from a Russian fairy tale. From the embankment I spy the golden domes of Orthodox churches and, down below, ice fishermen dotted along the frozen river. But in this town, 350km (217 miles) south of Moscow, the fairy tale feeling is transient. On the riverbank I spot an army recruitment billboard. It promises a one-off sum equivalent to £15,000 ($20k) to anyone who'll sign up to fight in Ukraine. Close by there's a poster of a Russian soldier taking aim with a Kalashnikov. "We're there where we need to be," the...

SFK ZUYYFQ DMZUID QVD NDMIFYMGXGRGQS FT QFPFNNFA XS DBUCGYE GQ QFCUS. — UXNUVUP RGYZFRY

S’no thank you. The Mamdani administration failed for hours to attract any emergency shovelers at one Queens garage Sunday — while planning to try to dig out New Yorkers with a fourth of the force the city used for its last mega-storm. Despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s widespread attempted promotion of the city’s public-fueled emergency shoveling program, a sign-up sheet at the Maspeth Sanitation garages was empty, city workers told The Post during a visit late Sunday morning. “I haven’t seen anybody sign up yet today. No, no one,” the employee said. There were also no signs of shovelers lining up...

Los Angeles City Hall looked less like the nerve center of America’s second-largest city Friday — and more like an abandoned office complex after a zombie apocalypse. Entire hallways with deserted offices. Corridors eerily silent. Parking garage empty besides the city hall guards. When the California Post visited City Hall Friday, the Office of Finance, a council liaison office, and the Los Angeles Housing Department were closed for business. Over the course of the day, about 50 Angelenos oblivious to the closure turned up to pay their bills or seek financial advice, only to find no staff to help them....

Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was a feared Mexican drug lord and the leader of a ruthless cartel accused of masterminding efforts to push fentanyl into the United States. Once a police officer, Oseguera went on to become one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, with the United States alone offering a $15 million bounty for information leading to his arrest. Oseguera, who formed and led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was an elusive figure who had been considered Mexico’s most powerful cartel boss since Sinaloa kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested last decade. Born in July 1966...

Californians have been trapped in Mexico as cartel violence engulfed a popular tourist city and spilled towards the US border. Americans in Puerto Vallarta were urged to stay indoors as narco gangs went on a bloody rampage after leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed in a military raid on Sunday. Carnage spread up the west coast of the country through Sunday, with reports of attacks getting closer to the States in Baja California while gunfire erupted at Guadalajara International Airport. Cars and businesses were also set on fire further across the country...

Millions of acres of farmland across the country are privately owned, but a small share of it is foreign-owned land sitting idle in many areas. That’s according to new U.S. Department of Agriculture data which shows just how much of the nation’s agricultural land is owned by other countries. The USDA‘s online portal reveals that more than 45 million acres of land are owned by foreign countries, with an original purchase value of over $38 billion. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has the most agricultural acreage in the United States, at 15.35 million acres. John Hewlett, a farm and...

We would like to hear how you are experiencing this historic event.

Archaeologists have excavated a tomb more than 1,000 years old containing human remains along with gold objects and ceramic vessels at El Caño in central Panama. The site sits in Natá district of Coclé province, about 200 kilometers southwest of Panama City. Excavations have taken place there for two decades. Julia Mayo, the archaeologist leading the project, talked today about the discovery. The remains are surrounded by gold objects and ceramic vessels decorated with traditional imagery. These indicate the buried people held high status. “The person with the gold is the highest-status person in the group,” Mayo said. The principal...