Free Republic

A Mexican drug cartel known for gruesome public slaughtering drained $40 million from Americans, and stole many elderly victims’ life savings without a drop of blood in 2022, according to FBI stats. It’s part of a rapidly evolving timeshare scam run by the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) that is becoming more intricate, and is now estimated to be stealing hundreds of millions from Americans each year. It started as a small operation in the Puerto Vallarta area and expanded to popular tourist spots like Cancun, according to the U.S. Treasury, which issued sanctions against seven fugitives and 19 Mexican...

A riot broke out on Sunday evening at a police station in a multicultural suburb of Paris following the killing of an 18-year-old man during a police chase. Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and other makeshift projectiles were thrown at the La Courneuve police station, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the home to one of the largest foreign-born communities in France. Trash fires were also set ablaze by the agitants. Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez announced on Monday morning that nine people have been arrested in connection to the riot, Le Figaro reports. Nuñez added that two police officers were injured by projectiles during the...

More than 140 House Democrats are demanding that the ability to bar veterans from gun purchases/ownership under certain circumstances be added back to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. For decades, the VA has been reporting veterans to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for mental issues, and such issues include using a fiduciary to manage one’s VA benefits. But this year, the Clinton-area gun ban was rolled back in the Senate by an amendment put forward by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the United States should not send additional aid to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “war machine.” Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: You have long been a critic of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The other night, President Biden was heard on a hot mic after the State of the Union address saying he has to have a come to Jesus talk with Netanyahu about letting humanitarian aid into Gaza. Have you spoken to President Biden about whether he’s had this conversation? If he hasn’t, what is he...

MSNBC launched another WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE ASSASSINATE TRUMP? dog whistle this week by directly comparing the former president to Adolf Hitler. On Wednesday, while discussing the results of Super Tuesday, Morning Joe regular, fabulist, and plagiarist Mike Barnicle talked about how he’s “rereading” some books about World War II and discussed the famous D-Day climb made by the Second Airborne Battalion up a cliff called Pointe du Hoc. Then he said this: A straight-up cliff, 125 feet to a German pillbox. And he went right at the Germans, right at the Germans. Fifty percent casualty rate. Why did they do...

Far-left Democrats are livid with President Biden for apparently not being politically correct enough during his State of the Union address. Biden called an illegal migrant an “illegal” and failed to use the word “abortion,” two alleged mistakes that caused the far left to lash out. Biden used the word “illegal” as a noun in reference to the illegal immigrant who allegedly killed Laken Riley. Noting Biden’s use of the word “illegal,” Las Americas Executive Director Marisa Limon Garza told Politico Playbook, “It was painful. And likely off-script.” “At best, it’s like when my father, a septuagenarian, makes an unintentional...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans Affairs secretary has reversed a department memo that aimed to ban VA displays of the iconic “V-J Day in Times Square” photograph of a Navy sailor kissing a strange woman on the streets of New York at the end of World War II. Secretary Denis McDonough acted hours after a copy of a memo from a VA assistant undersecretary requesting the photo’s removal from all VA health facilities was shared on social media. The memo had said the photo “depicts a non-consensual act” and is inconsistent with the department’s sexual harassment policy. McDonough on Tuesday...

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) slammed former President Trump’s Thursday speech at the southern border as “disgusting” and “racist.” Murphy, a member of President Biden’s campaign advisory board, ripped Trump’s remarks given during an Eagle Pass, Texas, visit, calling them “xenophobic,” and went after the former president for his role in tanking bipartisan legislation that included border provisions last month. “I just think it’s disgusting,” Murphy said during an appearance on “CNN News Central” on Friday, when anchor John Berman asked him about Trump’s speech. “I think it’s racist and xenophobic.” Trump visited the southern border Thursday, touring the area with...

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that President Joe Biden’s presidency has been a “masterclass” in how to run the United States. Anchor Kristen Welker said, “There are some pretty stark numbers you are facing. Seventy-six percent of voters say they have real concerns about President Biden’s ability to serve a second term. Do you think it is responsible for Democrats to put him at the top of the ticket given these concerns?”

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said Wednesday that the Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden has been demolished by new revelations that Russia might have played a role in drumming up false allegations about the president’s finances. “The impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday, in substance if not in form, with the explosive revelation that Mr. Smirnov’s allegations about Ukrainian Burisma payments to Joe Biden were concocted along with Russian intelligence agents,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told reporters in Washington. Republicans have leaned heavily on the declarations of Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who alleged that Biden...

President Biden has expressed growing frustrations behind closed doors over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his refusal to scale back Israel’s military ambitions in Gaza, according to a NBC News report. Biden, in private conversations, has said Netanyahu is “giving him hell” as the White House seeks to broker a ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and negotiate a longer-term plan for peace in the Gaza Strip, NBC News reported Monday, citing five people “directly familiar” with the president’s comments. Biden reportedly said Netanyahu is impossible to work with and called the Israeli leader an “&&&—-” on at...

CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour said Monday on CNN’s “News Central” that she believed former President Donald Trump’s comments on NATO were “literally insane.” At a rally, Trump said, “One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said you didn’t pay, you’re delinquent? He said yes. Say that happened, no, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You have to pay. You have to pay your bills.” Amanpour said, “People are...

Political commentator Scott Jennings said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump is an “&-+$#@$” for asking where his competitor, Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Nikki Haley’s (R-SC) husband was when he was serving overseas in the U.S. military. At a campaign rally, Trump said, “Where’s her husband? Oh, he’s away. He’s away. What happened to her husband? what happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone.”

Senate Democrats’ lead negotiator announced that a border deal has been struck, but the cabal crafting it will continue to hide the details until the last minute. “We have a deal,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) announced on X on Friday morning, forecasting that the Senate will continue withholding the details despite barreling forward with a vote. “This weekend we will release the bill and vote next week,” he said. Republicans said the border is a priority and we should craft a bipartisan bill to help control the border. We did that. We have a deal. This weekend we will release...

President Joe Biden gained a “reputation” during his first three years in the White House for reportedly using curse words when speaking about former President Donald Trump. Although Biden vowed to restore “decency” to the White House, he failed to make good on his promise, according to Politico’s Jonathan Lemire, Lauren Egan, Myah Ward, and Ben Johansen, who acknowledged Biden’s habit of cursing his political opponents: The president has described Trump to longtime friends and close aides as a “sick fuck” who delights in others’ misfortunes, according to three people who have heard the president use the profane description. According...

ROME — Long before the industrial revolution and fossil fuels, “climate change” was wreaking havoc on the health of ancient Romans, Smithsonian magazine contends. Citing a study published in the journal Science Advances, Smithsonian underscores a correlation between cold, dry periods in ancient Rome and “devastating bouts of fatal illness” between 200 BC and 600 AD. Whereas Rome enjoyed stable weather from 200 to 100 BC, it later suffered “three very cold periods,” all of which “line up with documented plagues,” states Smithsonian writer Sarah Kuta.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) on Wednesday criticized the House impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a partisan detour from Congress’s important work. Asked about the merits of trying Mayorkas on impeachment charges in the Senate, Murkowski said lawmakers need to focus on funding the government instead. “Oh my goodness. We’re busy, right? To have to take a detour from the important work that’s going on,” she said. The Alaska senator, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, cited an upcoming meeting on legislation to fund the government through 2024 and the need to fund national security needs...

<p>If Donald Trump is right that presidents have immunity, then why did Richard Nixon need a pardon?</p><p>Trump was in a Washington, D.C. federal courtroom Tuesday, Jan. 9 where his attorneys argued before an appeals court that the four-count indictment against him for 2020 election interference should be dismissed. Their position is that Trump, as president at the time, is immune from prosecution because he was carrying out official duties.</p>

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) got the better of CBS moderator Margaret Brennan — and perhaps CBS editorial “standards” — in an interview that aired Sunday. “Back in 2021, you were the lawmaker who circulated the legal brief known as the Texas amicus brief, challenging the 2020 election outcome in a number of states, which by CBS editorial standards makes you an election denier,” Brennan said to Johnson on Face the Nation. “That’s nonsense,” Johnson calmly replied. Brennan persisted, “Can I get you on the record on that?”

conflict with Russia if the Kremlin succeeds in its war against Ukraine. Biden's statement follows Russia's massive aerial attack across Ukraine on Friday. Kyiv air force officials said that about 110 missiles struck Ukraine, hitting hospitals, residential buildings and a shopping center. At least 31 citizens were killed in the attack and another 120 wounded, according to Ukraine officials cited by Reuters.