Free Republic

A Democratic congressman is publicly refusing to back his party’s leading U.S. Senate candidate in Maine, warning voters to reject Graham Platner over a tattoo critics say resembles a Nazi-era symbol. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., told CNN on Monday he considers Platner’s tattoo and his explanations about it disqualifying. “I’ve been clear about Graham Platner. I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying,” Auchincloss, who is Jewish, told CNN’s Boris Sanchez. “I hope Maine voters agree with me,” he added. “I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham...

Seven former and one current Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MTBA) employees have been charged with a federal superseding indictment alleging that they falsified records and reports and then fraudulently collected overtime pay. The MTBA, although it collects fares, is heavily subsidized by tax dollars. According to the Department of Justice, defendants Brian Pfaffinger, Ronald Gamble, Magda Trinh, Jensen Vatel, Nathalie Mendes, Danny Barbosa, and Matthew Leonard have been charged with various crimes, including conspiring to commit wire fraud, falsifying records, and wire fraud. The defendants were all former Red Line Maintenance of Way employees, per the DOJ. Pfaffinger, Gamble, Vatel,...

Wednesday on MS NOW’s “On the Line,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said he has authored a bill to “expand the Supreme Court by 4 seats, up to 13.” Host Alicia Menendez said, “I do have to ask you, in light of this week’s rulings from the Supreme Court, about court expansion. I know it’s an idea that you have supported in the past. You still have a lot of Democratic colleagues who are not there. Is this a conversation you’re having inside the caucus?” Markey said, “Yes, I am the author of the court expansion bill. The Republicans stole two...

The list: Connecticut Illinois Maine Massachusetts North Carolina Oregon Rhode Island Vermont Washington Pennsylvania

The coddling of Jew haters in our public schools has reached a new low. A Boston-area middle school principal sought to address growing antisemitism in the community by hosting a lesson on the Holocaust. But when Arab students were offended by the lesson about the historic Jewish genocide, he wrote a lengthy apology expressing contrition that they felt “left out or erased.” “The email message from William Diamond Middle School Principal Dr. Johnny Cole, of Lexington, Massachusetts, was sent to families following a presentation that connected Holocaust education to contemporary antisemitism — at a time when hatred of Jews has...

The Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren has warned that corporate mergers approved by the Trump administration – including a pending deal that would put two of America’s largest news outlets under the control of a family sympathetic to the president – could be undone by a future administration. “After 2028, we’ll have new players in Washington, and everyone who’s engaged in this merger frenzy right now is aware of that,” Warren said in an interview. “The deals that are being cut today are occurring in the shadow of a coming political tsunami of anger against these giant corporations that think they...

The bar staff at the Sam Adams brewery in Boston have seen busy weekends. They had not seen anything like the Tartan Army. Over four days in June, kilted Scotland supporters drank the place through seventy kegs of America’s most patriotic lager, sang until their voices frayed, and turned a craft brewery taproom into a slice of Glasgow with better weather. … The numbers from Boston read like a tall tale. Seventy kegs of Sam Adams emptied in four days at the brewery alone, never mind the bars across the city that filled with tartan from morning until well past...

Watching those videos of the Scottish soccer fans inspired this. Yes, it's AI created.

The parent company of Sam Adams said its Boston Taproom ran out of the brand's flagship Boston Lager over the weekend because Scotland soccer fans in Boston for the 2026 World Cup drank four times as much as the bar usually sells. Boston Beer Co. said in a news release that from Thursday to Sunday, the Tartan Army -- Scotland's supporters organization -- drank four times what the company normally stocks during a typical four-day holiday stretch like the Fourth of July, adding that it had to schedule an emergency delivery of beer Saturday morning and are adding extra deliveries...

With Scottish football fans in Boston, bars are saying their beer is getting drunken faster than on St. Patrick’s Day or a sports championship — the Dubliner had its biggest week ever! But first, fans of Iraq and Norway were partying ahead of Tuesday’s game, and what travel on the MBTA trains to Boston Stadium was like.

Slàinte! The Scottish national team kicks off World Cup play in Boston Saturday, but their fans treated their transatlantic flights like a bottomless pub crawl — and drained every drop of booze before touching the tarmac. The kilt-clad Scots entered Logan International Airport ready to rumble — “been drinking since one o’clock in the morning when I got up,” said David Wood as he arrived on US soil. “We ran out of beer.” A flight from the UK to the US usually lasts around seven hours, so when the beer ran dry, the Scots switched to wine, the pilot told...

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) reportedly assaulted a reporter who did nothing more than ask if he endorses his party’s Graham “Nazi tattoo” Platner, the Democrats’ nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine.“Do you endorse Graham Platner in Maine?” the unnamed journalist asks.Mouton’s face immediately goes hard and he appears to stalk right up to the questioner. “Who are you to ask this question?” Moulton asks angrily.Then the video goes topsy-turvy and Moulton says sarcastically, “You need to do a better job of hanging on to your phone.”This is likely because the frustrated Moulton knocked the phone out of the guy’s...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into an apparent close call at Logan Airport in Boston over the weekend. They said an American Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff around 11:30 a.m. Saturday on the same runway where a Delta flight was landing. The Delta pilots saw what was happening and were able to abort the landing and pull up in time to avoid hitting the American plane. The jets were an estimated 300 feet apart, according to CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. The FAA said an American Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff around 11:30...

A nationwide welfare fraud crackdown reached Massachusetts this week, as federal authorities announced the arrests of 15 people — 11 of them illegal immigrants — accused of stealing more than $1.4 million in American taxpayer-funded benefits. The defendants are accused of fraudulently obtaining benefits through programs including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food assistance, MassHealth, Social Security disability payments, housing assistance and unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Justice. "Alarmingly, 11 of the 15 charged defendants are suspected illegal aliens, some of whom assumed stolen identities to steal these taxpayer-funded benefits and avoid detection," Acting Assistant Attorney General Colin...

“The pitchfork was erected into the air, anchored into his head,” police said.A Fall River man is facing murder charges in connection with the deaths of two men Wednesday night, after victims were fatally beaten with cobblestones and one was found with a pitchfork impaled in the back of his head, authorities said. Vitor Francisco Gomes, 28, is charged with two counts of murder for the double homicide, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn announced in a press release. Shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to 90 Aetna St. in Fall River after receiving reports of three shots fired....

What do a plastic surgeon with links to Al Qaeda, an oyster fisherman with a Nazi tattoo, a former bandmate of a child sex offender, and a Lutheran minister who took part in a satanic wedding have in common? They’re all Democrat candidates for Congress in this November’s midterm elections. Undoubtedly the most notorious Democrat this cycle is Graham Platner, the first-time candidate in Maine’s U.S. Senate race who defeated establishment favorite Janet Mills and is set to take on incumbent Republican Susan Collins this November. Platner first made headlines after it was revealed that he had a chest...

MR. SPEAKER: Some time since a Senator from Massachusetts allowed himself, in an elaborately prepared speech, to offer a gross insult to my State, and to a venerable friend, who is my State representative, and who was absent at the time. Not content with that, he published to the world, and circulated extensively, this uncalled for libel on my State and my blood. Whatever insults my State insults me. Her history and character have commanded my pious veneration; and in her defence I hope I shall always be prepared, humbly and modestly, to perform the duty of a son. I...

A Bristol County man will stay behind bars after disturbing cries against children. According to the Parole Board, in 2003-2004, then 43-year-old Paul Hawksley of Mansfield was one of the leaders of a youth group affiliated with the Fellowship Church in Easton. During this time, Hawksley repeatedly raped a 12-year-old boy (hereinafter the victim), who was a member of the youth group. The victim moved to Easton in 2003 and became involved in the youth group to meet new friends. Hawksley groomed the victim over a period of time-calling him multiple times a day, inviting him to sleepovers, and singling...

Graham Platner, Maine’s likely Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate, was hand-plucked by a pair of socialist political operatives who sought him out after catching wind of him through the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) network. After being accused of abusive behavior by women he has dated, wearing a Nazi tattoo for 18 years, sexting several women while married, and a host of other scandals, Platner is now being criticized for the Ivy League-educated radicals behind him. Daniel Moraff of Yale Law and his fiancée, Leanne Fan of Harvard and University of California-Berkeley, met while working for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)...

The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure -- and from a mythological salamander.The term, originally written as "Gerry-mander," first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette -- a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry.Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations.Gerry, in fact,...