Free Republic

A recent article in the Telegraph was republished on Yahoo. The article touted the Finnish government’s decision to open 300 shooting ranges to encourage the development of shooting skills by Finnish citizens, for the purpose of national defense. From the article: “This is because of our defence model, which benefits from people having and developing their shooting skills on their own.”In 2023, Finland’s new Right-wing coalition agreed plans to increase the number of ranges to 1,000 nationwide by the end of the decade, as well as plans to allow diabetics to serve in the army and encourage more women to...

On February 8th, 2024, my brother had started his morning exercise walk. It was 6:27 am his time when I received the phone call; it was still dark in northern Wisconsin. It wasn’t what I expected.Only 200 yards from his home, on a lonely country lane with dense forest and brush on both sides, he was confronting a pack of wolves, their reflective eyes easily visible in the beam of his headlamp. The pack of six was less than 30 yards away. Wolves are common in the area. Common and protected. The brush was fairly thick; the eyes were relatively...

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that, this year, 2024, the U.S. federal government will spend more on interest on the national debt than on national defense. Or Medicare. You read that correctly. The CBO says that the federal government will spend $850 billion on defense, as opposed to $870 billion on debt interest. Moreover, interest payments on the national debt are the fastest-growing part of the preposterously bloated yet still fast-growing federal budget … and are projected to reach a mind-blowing $5.4 trillion by 2053. So, effectively, taxpayers are going to have their hard-earned money confiscated to pay...

On February 15, 2024, the Florida House passed CS/HB 87: Taking of Bears. The bill passed 88 to 29. It will now be sent to the Florida Senate. The bill has been prompted by a burgeoning black bear population in Florida, which has increased exponentially from 300 – 500 bears in 1974 to 2,650 in 2002 to an estimated 4,350 in 2016. No official population estimate has been made for eight years. The bear population increased 60% from 2002 to 2014/15. If the trend continues into 2024, the black bear population will be estimated at over 6,000. Cubs are not...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man reportedly shot at two burglars during a Raleigh home invasion Wednesday, killing one. The survivor is being charged. Fernando Diveney, 29, is charged with first-degree murder during the perpetration of aggravated burglary, and aggravated robbery. His alleged accomplice, Tadarrius Allen, was killed when the resident of the apartment they allegedly broke into opened fire. Wednesday, Memphis Police responded to a shooting at an apartment complex on Cedar Glen in Raleigh. A homeowner told officers he was asleep when he heard glass breaking in one of his bedrooms. Moments later, the suspects, Diveney and Allen, were...

Former President Donald Trump has been discussing the future of the Defense Department with former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, as he plots the future of the branch should he return to the White House. Trump, who went through multiple National Security and Defense advisers in his first term, met with Gabbard at least once in person last year, a source familiar with the conversations told the Washington Post. Gabbard, previously a Democrat, has become a vocal critic of sending resources to Ukraine in its war with Russia. She has faced criticism from both parties over her isolationist approach to foreign...

Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd is back in the hospital after suffering an “emergent bladder issue.” The good news is that Lloyd appears to be okay and that we knew about this visit, unlike Mr. Austin’s previous hospitalization in January, where he was in the intensive care unit for over a week and didn’t tell anyone about it. He also kept his cancer diagnosis a secret, too (via WaPo): Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was taken to a hospital Sunday to be evaluated for symptoms “suggesting an emergent bladder issue,” the Pentagon said, less than a month after he spent nearly...

The tragic murder of three American soldiers by Iranian proxies in Jordan has once again laid bare a fracture within the Republican Party. This fracture once again finds those who advocate for an active American role in international relations through “power projection” locked in a debate with those who believe that the U.S. should take a more isolationist approach. Following the strike, some Republican members of Congress reacted by demanding that the U.S. strike targets in Iran and Iranian leadership directly. The opposite perspective, summarized by Tucker Carlson: “F-cking lunatics.” While both perspectives represent the extreme, there is a growing...

Full disclosure, we typically take bombshells like this with a grain of salt because this is the sort of story that definitely will get lots of clicks and taps and often times, if something sounds like it's too good to be true it probably is. However, coming from Byron York? Yeah ... this is worth covering. Take a look at THIS: Trump lawyer says defense just learned that E Jean Carroll judge was once 'mentor' to Carroll's lawyer. 'This issue is particularly concerning since Plaintiff’s other lead counsel, Shawn Crowley, served as Your Honor’s law clerk, and we were previously...

HOUSTON - The Houston Police Department is investigating a fatal early Saturday morning shooting. According to police, a male suspect approached a man and his girlfriend at the pumps at the "Zip In Zip Out" Chevron Gas Station located at 11095 Ella Blvd. Police say the suspect pistol-whipped the man at the gas station and demanded his wallet. After investigating, police found out that a bystander, unrelated to the victim or the suspect, witnessed the robbery and shot the suspect. The shooter then instructed the robbery victim to retrieve what the suspect had taken before leaving the scene. "I was...

On Monday, January 22, 2024, Carroll County Deputies responded to a call for help. The caller who was at work in Greenwood reported that a knife wielding man was attempting to enter his home in the Gravel Hill area of Carroll County. He further stated that his wife and three children were inside the home hiding in a closet. The caller identified the suspect and gave a description of the vehicle. As deputies responded to the scene, they came upon a vehicle fitting that description. Deputies conducted a felony traffic stop in the parking lot of Acy’s Store, but the...

Abbott knows Texas has a constitutional right to defend itself against the 10 million illegal migrants who took advantage of the open border.More than two dozen states expressed support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after he refused to kowtow to the Biden administration’s bullying about the ongoing border crisis.The Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 22 that the federal border officials could cut razor wire installed by the Texas National Guard along the Rio Grande if they felt it impeded their ability to do their jobs. Abbott announced on Wednesday, Jan. 24, that he would uphold the law by allowing his...

Donald Trump wants his own version of the Russian Wagner mercenary group that is responsible to the president only, a former senior White House official has claimed. Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump presidency, said Trump wanted to create his own mercenary force which he would have complete control over. He said while security officials managed to 'shut down these conversations', Taylor believes that if Trump wins the presidential election in November his attempts to create a mercenary group like Wagner would not be thwarted. Speaking to journalist Robert Moore...

North Korea’s first missile test of 2024, which came on January 15, has renewed fears among Asian and Western military leaders that the Hermit Kingdom may have more advanced missile technologies than previously thought, including hypersonic warheads. Meanwhile, in an alarming parallel development, President Joe Biden has continued to postpone missile defense upgrades for U.S. military bases in the Pacific. South Korean and Japanese military officials reported shortly after the launch earlier this week that the missile flew some 620 miles from Pyongyang before splashing into the sea. After testing five long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in 2023 – the...

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A deadly shooting Monday in South Peoria appears to have been the result of a botched robbery, Peoria police said. According to Semone Roth of the Peoria Police Department, the shooting occurred amid a potential Facebook Marketplace transaction where two people came to Peoria to meet someone about buying a vehicle. The shooting occurred at about 5 p.m. in a nearby alley in the 2100 block of West Lincoln Avenue where the would-be buyers were led by the purported sellers. “The investigation has determined that this was an attempted robbery setup and there was no intention...

The common defence line agreement was signed to block Russian aggression in the region. The Baltic States have signed an agreement to create a common defence line to reinforce NATO's eastern border with both Russia and Belarus. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were once all part of the Soviet Union but are now part of the EU and NATO and are allies of Ukraine, where Russia launched a full-scale invasion in in February 2022. The countries' defence ministers signed the document in Latvia's capital Riga. The three believe constructing "anti-mobility defensive installations" will significantly strengthen their borders, as well as deter...

On January 13, 2023, a conflict occurred at an apartment complex opposite the Ghazipur police station in Indiranagar, Uttar Pradesh state, Lucknow, India. Lucknow is in north-central India, not far from the border of Nepal. The conflict was reported to include two groups of young people in a dispute a bit before midnight. Early reports said the dispute was over a parking spot or possibly a complaint of the lack of a security guard. One of the people in the dispute, Sunil Dutt Tripathi, was attacked and suffered injuries. He fired his licensed “Glock” pistol in the air to stop...

There is only one national command authority.The national command authority is the constitutionally mandated, congressionally required, DoD-directed unbroken chain of command from the president of the United States as our commander-in-chief to the secretary of Defense.Our entire Department of Defense — the brave men and women in uniform, rely on this chain of command every single day to execute the no-fail mission of protecting this great nation. There is no greater national security priority than maintaining its authority, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.Any SECDEF who is absent in his duties and fails to...

I have no idea why the DOJ is putting out a press release about this. It seems more like the sort of thing to never mention again. A U.S. Navy service member was sentenced today to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in exchange for bribery payments. According to court documents, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, aka Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of conspiring with the intelligence officer and...

A video of a polar bear attack which was repelled with a couple of long sticks or pipes has been popping up, on and off, for a few years. It seems to have first appeared in 2020. Some sites claim the event happened in Quebec, Canada. Any help in identifying the location and person/people involved would be appreciated. The video is 12 seconds long.The site in the video seems to be a research station of some type. There is an antenna mast, probably for communication, a rectangular shelter with a door at the corner, and what may be an instrument...