Free Republic

FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau spent nearly a year investigating a social media post that led to Tuesday’s indictment of one of his predecessors, James Comey. Comey was charged over an Instagram post he made in May 2025, which he later deleted after conservative uproar. The post showed an image of seashells on a beach arranged in a way that read “86 47.” The former FBI director wrote, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” President Donald Trump is the 47th president, while “86” is slang in the service industry and typically means to refuse service to someone...

'Silent assassin Residents in Ontario, Canada, are warned to watch out for the toxic hammerhead worm, a non-native species .. According to the Hamilton Conservation Authority, hammerhead worms are a toxic, non-native species that first appeared in Ontario in 2017. They are believed to have arrived in North America via the introduction of plants from Southeast Asia.The term hammerhead worm encompasses various species of flatworms, also known as shovel-headed garden worms, which is a fitting description of their shape. They can grow between 5 and 10 centimeters in length and may exhibit multiple colors.They are also toxic, releasing a neurotoxin...

A California Democrat is facing backlash after hosting a Hamas-associated group at his office on Capitol Hill last week. Rep. Derek Tran welcomed a group of leaders from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as part of the "National Muslim Advocacy Day," an annual lobbying event organized by Muslim advocacy groups. CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, was recently designated as a terrorist organization by the state of Texas and Florida following accusations that the group supported funding for Hamas. The group has since filed defamatory lawsuits against Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis. Among those in attendance...

A wave of party switching in West Virginia is reshaping the state’s political landscape, with tens of thousands of voters — including more than 16,000 Democrats — registering as Republicans since early 2024, according to new data released by the secretary of state. West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner reported that 68,235 voters have changed party affiliation since Jan. 31, 2024, signaling a significant shift ahead of the state’s May 12 primary election. Among the biggest changes, 16,910 voters switched from Democrat to Republican, while another 20,003 unaffiliated voters also moved to the GOP, according to the data. At...

We have recently relocated from another state to Kentucky. We're in Owensboro and would like some insights about differing candidates. Thanks!

The shock announcement Tuesday comes after the UAE was the target of missile and drone attacks for weeks by fellow OPEC member Iran. Tehran’s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has also severely constrained the UAE’s ability to export oil, threatening the foundation of its economy. The UAE has played an influential role in OPEC’s decisions over nearly six decades. It was the group’s third-largest oil producer in February behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The UAE’s OPEC membership originated with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967, seven years after the organization was founded. The UAE came to...

CalGuard is working with federal, state, and local agencies to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the state, and break up drug-trafficking networks as part of Newsom’s border security and public-safety plan. March...the task force seized 633 pounds of fentanyl and 268,679 fentanyl pills worth more than $5 million. During a recent narcotics task force operation in San Bernardino County, officials seized 188 pounds of fentanyl, 16.8 pounds of heroin and 4.4 lbs of cocaine, worth an estimated $1.5 million. The bust helped to “significantly disrupt” a major drug-trafficking network operating in Southern California, according to California Military Department...

[From Grok, after my prompts] Here is a simple, ready-to-use formula for your "Work Life Hours" metric, expressed directly in average taxpayer lifetimes: Taxpayer Lifetimes = (D × 1.104) / 2,960,000 Where: D = dollars funded to the project 1.104 = overall multiplier for government overhead/efficiency (IRS collection cost ≈ 0.36% + typical agency/program administrative overhead ≈ 8–10%) 2,960,000 = dollars of tax revenue that one average U.S. taxpayer generates over a full 40-year working lifetime (based on current data) Why this formula works. It first calculates the total taxes that must be collected to deliver D after overhead: D...

Philanthropy among the world's wealthiest is under renewed scrutiny as donors debate what meaningful generosity looks like…difficulty comes from trying to ensure donations create real impact rather than good publicity, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said. "The biggest challenge I find with my foundation is trying to give money away in a way that is truly beneficial to people," Musk said on the "WTF is" podcast, hosted by Nikhil Kamath. He added that it is easy to give money away "to get the appearance of goodness" and much harder to reach "the reality of goodness." The Musk Foundation's philanthropy — roughly...

When I look at the faces of those eight young Iranian women about to be hanged for the “crime” of wanting freedom I think of their grandmothers. Their very own grandmothers -- who enjoyed wide-ranging individual freedom and wore bikinis, miniskirts, and smoked cigarettes -- are sadly the root cause of their grandchildren’s demise. Decades ago, they welcomed the revolution with open arms. At its core, they are the reason it succeeded. And now, 47 years later their grandchildren are being slaughtered for wanting the same freedoms their grandmothers had, yet foolishly gave away. They are the reason women are...

A superyacht linked to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's key allies has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ongoing blockade of the critical shipping channel. The 142m-long (465 ft) multi-deck luxury boat, named Nord, is linked to sanctioned Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov. It travelled from Dubai to Muscat, Oman, over the weekend - one of few private vessels to transit through the strait in recent months. Iran held high-level talks with Russia this week as its standoff with the US over the strait's re-opening continues. Approximately one-fifth of global oil and LNG supplies normally pass through the...

Dr. David M. Morens, a former top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, was arrested and charged Tuesday with conspiracy and destruction of federal records in one of the first cases to allege a cover-up in the COVID-19 pandemic. The charges – brought by the FBI, Justice Department and the U.S. Health and Human Services inspector general – allege the former senior scientific adviser at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci led for 38 years, committed conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal or mutilation of records; and...

Explanation: They're like mountain peaks, but they are forming stars. Bright-rimmed, flowing shapes gather near the center of this rich starfield toward the borders of the nautical southern constellations Puppis and Vela. Composed of interstellar gas and dust, the grouping of light-year sized cometary globules is about 1300 light-years distant. Energetic ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars has molded the globules and ionized their bright rims. The globules also stream away from the Vela supernova remnant which may have influenced their swept-back shapes. Within them, cores of cold gas and dust are likely collapsing to form low mass stars whose...

** DRUDGE POLL** WILL JIMMY KIMMEL BE FIRED BY ABC? •NO•YES

Charlie Weimers of the Sweden Democrats said other European Union countries should do the same. Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Friday that her government will no longer use the term ‘Islamophobia,’ describing the concept as “problematic”—not least because it “brings to mind the irrational fears of individuals.” The announcement was music to the ears of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, whose MEP Charlie Weimers on Monday said “Islamists exploit ‘Islamophobia’ to advance their agenda and secure EU funding.” Weimers celebrated that the government was “FINALLY scrapping the made-up concept” for good, as well as the fact it...

Teens who use marijuana may be at greater risk of permanent brain damage later in life, a study has revealed. About 18 million Americans report using marijuana daily or nearly every day, and use is on the rise, largely due to recent decriminalisation across the US. From 1992 to 2022, for example, daily and near-daily use saw a 15-fold increase. About one in seven of those users are teenagers, whose brains are still undergoing rapid changes in areas responsible for judgement, decision-making and memory. Now, the largest-ever study of American teenagers has found regular cannabis use restricted vital growth in...

The Federal Communications Commission is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses as the ABC owner faces backlash from the Trump administration over Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial monologue, according to a report. The FCC, which is led by chairman Brendan Carr, may choose not to trigger the process, known as early license review, according to Semafor, citing anonymous sources. Carr noted recently that the FCC has a number of investigations into a host of broadcasters, including NBC, ABC, PBS and National Public Radio.

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the panel rode to the defense of Jimmy Kimmel, embracing his claim that his “expectant widow” line about Melania Trump was merely an age-gap “joke”— then turning on Donald Trump and the First Lady for objecting. [snip] Kimmel insisted the remark was harmless: “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am… It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” Morning Joe bought that framing wholesale. Co-host Willie Geist dismissed the backlash as “so much bad faith,” suggesting critics were...

I’ve been convinced for quite some time that the political polarization of America has passed the point of no return. At this stage there seems to be no political solution to the problem. To be blunt about it: there is no voting our way out of this. Where political matters are concerned, the hard Left — which seems to occupy a larger and larger portion of the Democrat Party — has all but cornered the market on violent, incendiary rhetoric. If you disagree with them, you should be beaten up and imprisoned. If you oppose the Narrative, you need...

The U.S. conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of MT Tifani (IMO: 9273337) late Monday, according to a Pentagon post on X. Tifani sails a Botswana flag, while Majestic X sails a false Guyanan flag. The International Maritime Organization considers both ships to be stateless.On Tuesday, following the Monday interdiction of Tifani, Iran said it fired upon and seized two ships – MV Epaminondas (IMO: 9153862) and MV MSC Francesca (IMO: 9401116). MV Euphoria (IMO: 9235828) was also damaged on Wednesday near Iran, although it is unclear whether Iran also targeted the ship for seizure.The U.S. has right-to-visit stateless...