Free Republic

Baltimore residents in Federal Hill say Mayor Brandon Scott owes them answers after revelations that his new city-issued SUV cost taxpayers $163,495 – including nearly $65,000 in upgrades including police lights, sirens and a security microphone. “Not the taxpayers’ money! If he wants it for himself, yeah. But not with our money,” said Christian Heath as she was celebrating her birthday with friends in Federal Hill Park. She didn’t know about the mayor’s luxury Jeep Grand Wagoneer until speaking with Spotlight on Maryland. “Our money should be for the city, the schools, the kids. Just to ride around? We don’t...

There is growing evidence that city officials knew, or should have known, about dangerous living conditions inside a South Shore apartment building long before federal immigration agents raided it last week. Wells Fargo, has been pressuring its owner to “re-assert control over the building.” In a recent court filing, the bank claimed “the building is unsecured, which allows non-tenants to access the interior. There has also been increased criminal activity and shootings at the property, which is located across the street from an elementary school.” While recent coverage framed the raid as the breaking point, Head’s videos show the building...

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate. We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops

I simply don't trust the MSM to tell us what Putin actually said (shades of Russia!Russia!Russia!). Below is the link to the video and the YOUTUBE auto-generated TRANSCRIPT. The video and TRANSCRIPT are long; if you want to skip to the comments, I recomment you return to the forum and click on the comments link there.[H/T Delta7]WATCH: Putin Full Speech at Valdai Forum in Sochi | Gaza, Ukraine & EU Relations | AC15DWS News88.6K subscribersOct 2, 2025 ransomnote: The transcript is an computerized interpretation of the spoken word. The translator in the video speaks with an accent so there are...

Oct 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Joe Biden exceeded his authority by withdrawing large areas along U.S. coastlines from future offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled on Thursday.U.S. District Judge James Cain in Lake Charles, Louisiana, sided with Republican states and oil and gas industry groups that sued to block Biden's move to protect all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.Biden, on one of his final days in office, used his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf...

The Trump administration has threatened to inflict maximum pain on Democrats during the shutdown. OMB chief Russ Vought told House Republicans on a private call Wednesday that the administration will start mass reduction in force moves, or firings, of federal workers “in a day or two,” according to four people granted anonymity to describe the call. Vought and President Donald Trump have both threatened to inflict maximum pain on Democrats during the shutdown as Senate Republicans hope to peel off additional Democrats in the coming days to vote for the GOP-led stopgap to end the standoff. A bipartisan group of...

Co-host (of CNN’s The Situation Room) Wolf Blitzer said, “I want to play something President Trump said last hour as he addressed senior U.S. military officers at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. Listen to this, then I’ll get your reaction.” […] Johnson said, “This is absolutely appalling. This president is an unstable human being, and it’s right for this moment to check him. We’re calling on Congress to do its job. There’s no way that anyone in this country should be OK with armed militarized troops being sent to cities. These individuals, these brave women and men who sign...

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara released a spicy YouTube video of his own on Friday, a video he recorded while standing in front of the mayor’s home, which is protected 24/7 by multiple CPD units. “Three squad cars blocking it, patrolling it, protecting it for him and his family,” Catanzara said. “Yet, he calls law enforcement a sickness. What a hypocrite. Piece of garbage.” Catanzara told viewers that Johnson’s words were no mistake. “He has always hated us. He still hates us. He just can’t say what he wants to publicly. But two days ago, the...

Federal agents deployed tear gas and pepper balls Friday to disperse an unruly mob of anti-ICE protesters — including a Democratic mayor — attempting to blockade an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside Chicago. More than 100 protesters surrounded the ICE Broadview Processing Center as they “assaulted law enforcement, threw tear gas cans, slashed tires of cars, blocked the entrance of the building, and trespassed on private property,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement. (snip) Daniel Biss, the Democratic mayor of Evanston, Ill., was among those taking part in the demonstration. “We. Will. Not. Be. Intimidated,”...

In a bid to stave off an infusion of law-enforcement assets into his city by President Trump, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared that "the idea that law enforcement is the solution to reducing crime is a sickness. Folks commit crimes because they are desperate. Sending armed cops after them just accelerates that desperation leading to more death and destruction." Johnson went on to praise Gov. JB Pritzker's (D) "Peacekeepers" initiative, saying "rather than give up on folks with criminal records we are going to give them a chance to refocus their efforts in ways that will help the community become...

Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno has opened up about Jimmy Kimmel following his “indefinite” suspension from ABC. despite the pair having a contentious history. Speaking to journalists at Chris Wallace’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Thursday (September 18), Leno was asked about ABC pulling Kimmel off the air after threats from Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr related to comments Kimmel made about the Charlie Kirk shooting on Monday’s (September 14) show. “ I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side on that one,” Leno told reporters. “I’m a huge proponent of free speech. Please. I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side.” He...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is deliberately slowing its economic growth in order to suppress inflation. "As for the decline from more than 4% GDP growth: this is not a decline, it is a deliberate action. It is a slowdown in growth in exchange for curbing inflation and maintaining macroeconomic stability," Putin said during a televised meeting with top lawmakers. A graph published in Russian central bank's report earlier in September showed two consecutive quarters of gross domestic product (GDP) decline in quarter-on-quarter terms, aligning with the common definition of a technical recession.

He retired late and has a mortgage not set to be paid off until just after his 100th birthday. Some might say that's not the best of financial planning. And as he struggles to find his post-presidential feet there seems little prospect that Joe Biden, 82, will get any help from some of his Democratic friends. Many of them are still seething at the octogenarian's decision to attempt a reelection bid in 2024, and have little appetite to invite him to make lucrative speeches, or to contribute funds to his presidential library. 'There isn't a whole lot of goodwill for...

At least five people have been killed and 30 others injured in shootings across Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a drive-by attack that left seven victims wounded late Saturday night, according to police. The violent holiday weekend came as President Donald Trump renewed threats to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.Trump on Saturday sent a warning to the Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a post on his social media platform, referencing recent crime in Chicago and saying Pritzker "better straighten it out, FAST,...

“Many of the things I worked so damn hard, that I thought I changed in the country, are changing so rapidly,” Biden complained.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that President Donald Trump was “trying to eliminate black existence from this country. Johnson said, “Governor Abbott spent over $220 million to ship people across America. Instead of working with Congress to actually pass substantive immigration reform policy. They wanted to create division, but we’re not going to allow that to happen in the city of Chicago. Much like we fought for civil rights 60 years ago, we’re going to continue to make sure that whether you are black, brown, Asian, white, young, old, working people deserve to...

Republican senators lashed into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s effort to end the Ukraine war by drawing in Russia, thrusting a glaring ideological divide within the party into public view.Sen. Mitch McConnell — one of three Republicans to oppose Hegseth’s confirmation — led the criticism at a Senate budget hearing. “America’s reputation is on the line,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Will we defend democratic allies against authoritarian aggressors?”The former Senate majority leader — who now chairs the panel that controls defense funding — leveled some of his strongest warnings yet at the Pentagon chief during...

Chicago’s radical, progressive, Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson told the media on Wednesday that the Trump administration is “what our country would look like had the Confederacy won.” The race-obsessed, left-wing mayor railed against the Trump administration after hundreds of protesters flooded the streets of the Windy City in opposition to the president’s lawful immigration enforcement policies. Johnson by turns called Trump a “terrorist” and a “racist” in his comments to the press. The mayor with the single worst approval rating in the entire country also reminded the media that he recently said that Trump’s immigration policy is “what terrorism looks...

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally intended for Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East, in an interview with ABC News published on June 8. Zelensky said Ukraine had counted on the missiles to help counter relentless Russian drone attacks, which include swarms of Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones. On June 1, Russia launched a record 472 drones in a single night. "We have big problems with Shaheds… we will find all the tools to destroy them," Zelensky said. "We counted on this project — 20,000 missiles. Anti-Shahed missiles. It was not...

The recent drone attack on Russian nuclear bombers doesn’t mean much strategically, in military terms. Bomber aircraft are an early 20th century technology used to deliver and drop bombs on targets, only because the bombs couldn’t get there themselves. Today, Russia has hypersonic missiles that are entirely self-directed; and they are up to ten times faster than any aircraft that could deliver them. Fighters and bombers are antiquated last-generation relics. They create some symbolic prestige and that’s about all.Moreover, even if all of Russia’s bombers were disabled, how would that stop them from launching weapons from submarines, ships, or silos?...