Free Republic

Very interesting one hour in depth discussion for those with good critical thinking skills.

Before turning against the U.S. military to command the Confederate army, Robert E. Lee served as the superintendent of West Point, the hallowed military academy that produced patriots like Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower.But in the coming days, the storied academy will take down a portrait of Lee dressed in his Confederate uniform from its library, where it has been hanging since the 1950s and place it in storage. It will also remove the stone bust of the Civil War's top southern general at Reconciliation Plaza. And Lee’s quote about honor will be stripped from the academy’s...

Clayton Morris: Washington's Dangerous Policies Have Put U.S. and Russia on the Brink of Direct Clash - Diplomat. All out war and it sounds from the United States side that they are ramping up this rhetoric instead of trying to tamp it down. What do you make out of these words coming out of Moscow over the past 24 hrs. Scott Ritter: Well, I mean we have to understand where the United States is coming from first. We're losing in Ukraine. We have double downed; we've taken the mortgage, the kid's college fund and everything and we have placed it...

Defense minister announces major expansion of Russian army Sergey Shoigu says the nation’s military should amount to 1.5 million servicemen Defense minister announces major expansion of Russian army Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has announced the need to make a number of structural changes to the country’s armed forces in light of NATO’s attempts to bolster its presence on Russia’s border and expand its membership to Finland and Sweden. During a Russian Defense Ministry meeting on Wednesday, Shoigu proposed a number of measures to strengthen the security of the Russian Federation, including creating a special grouping of troops on the...

The Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers following an emergency landing and fire earlier this month, and none of the strategic aircraft will perform flyovers at this year’s college bowl games. A bomber experienced an in-flight malfunction on Dec. 10, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where it caught fire. The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries. The standdown is significant in that there are fewer than 20 stealth bombers in the entire fleet and the aircraft provides, along with the B-52 Stratofortress, the air...

Dean was convicted of manslaughter for shooting and killing Atatiana Jefferson in her home in 2019. He was on duty as a police officer at the time. Former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean has been sentenced to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison for the manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson. Dean shot Jefferson through her bedroom window while responding to a call about open doors at her home. The last part of his sentence resonates with the date of that call: Oct. 12, 2019. If sentenced to 10 years or less, Dean would have been eligible for...

Virgin Atlantic just announced that it’ll operate a net zero carbon transatlantic flight in 2023. The flight will use 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as part of the airline’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. The science and other stuff to know Virgin Atlantic has secured £1 million of Government funding to fly a Boeing 787 jet from London Heathrow to New York JFK in 2023 using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) instead of kerosene. The airline will partner with Imperial College London researchers, Rolls-Royce, Boeing, and researchers from the University of Sheffield in the project. Boeing...

Douglas Macgregor Dec 20, 2022 12:03 AM During a speech given on November 29, Polish Vice-Minister of National Defense (MON) Marcin Ociepa said: "The probability of a war in which we will be involved is very high. Too high for us to treat this scenario only hypothetically." The Polish MON is allegedly planning to call up 200,000 reservists in 2023 for a few weeks’ training, but observers in Warsaw suspect this action could easily lead to a national mobilization. Meanwhile, inside the Biden administration, there is growing concern that the Ukrainian war effort will collapse under the weight of a...

The Air Force has grounded its entire B-2 Spirit fleet and will inspect each stealth bomber after one of the aircraft caught fire during an emergency landing earlier this month. The multi-role bomber, which was first unveiled in 1989, is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. The 20-aircraft fleet is based out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. A B-2 Spirit experienced an undisclosed in-flight malfunction that resulted in an emergency landing at Whiteman on Dec. 10. No one was injured. …

Alexander: The big news over the last couple of days is that we have had an extraordinarily important sequence of meetings. Now the first one was on Thursday when Putin met with the Security Counsel, which is Russia's top policy making body. We don't know what happened then. That is a regular meeting. On Friday he went to the joint staff headquarters of the Russian military that is engaged in fighting in Ukraine and he was briefed by Surovikin and all his staff. Shoigu, the Defense Minister was there; Gerasimov was there. The meeting went on for a whole day...

Two separate airstrikes were carried out in "collective self-defense," the U.S. military in Africa announced Sunday, with the first occurring on Dec. 14 and the second on Dec. 17, according to a report from Voice of America. The strikes were made at the request of the Federal Government of Somalia in support of Somali National Army forces, with the first strike killing seven militants and the second killing eight al-Shabab fighters. Somali government forces have been supported by air support from the U.S. and other governments, with the U.S. ramping up pressure on the group in recent months. In October,...

The HTMS Sukhothai sank after water flooded its power controls on Sunday night. Images shared by the navy showed some crew who survived in a life raft. On Monday, authorities said they had rescued 75 sailors, but 31 were still missing in rough seas. Officials said the ship went down after it took on water, which flooded its hull and short-circuited its power room. With the power lost, the crew battled to retain control of the ship which listed on to its side before sinking around 23:30 local time Sunday (16:30 GMT). The ship had been on a patrol 32km...

A wonderful look at some special moments Bob spent with the troops during his many Christmas performances. 10 minutes

VIDEO AT LINK.............. PHILADELPHIA (KYW) - Some dark chocolates have been found to contain potentially dangerous amounts of heavy metals. Dark chocolate, loaded with antioxidants, is often called healthier chocolate. But a new study from Consumer Reports said some kinds of dark chocolate contain potentially dangerous amounts of heavy metals. https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/ “All of the samples that we tested had detectable levels of either cadmium or lead,” said James Rogers of Consumer Reports. Rogers said 23 of the 28 samples tested exceeded the safety levels used in the study. The study shared that cadmium found in soil, can infiltrate coco plants...

Promises of war and big profits show us how efficient Washington can be. During his farewell speech on Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered a dire warning about a grave threat to U.S. democracy. The following is a key excerpt from that address: In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.The military-industrial complex is an unholy alliance among war profiteers that includes elected leaders, top bureaucrats, defense contractors, the armed forces, international...

There is a well-known requirement in the United States armed forces that all who serve in it are required to obey the orders of their superior officers. This is only common sense. No military organization could long survive if those in it could choose which orders they would obey, and which to ignore. There is, however, an exception to this rule of obedience, and it has significant ramifications: no one is required to obey an illegal order, such as an order to clearly break the law. Indeed, there is an unofficial doctrine called the “duty to disobey.” This also is...

The Russian Sestroretsk arms factory claims that it has developed a Starlink terminal detection radar called Borshchevik which "is designed to detect and determine the location of Starlink terminals in a 180-degree sector at a distance of up to 10 km." Not only that, but a Russian military blogger boasted on the popular Reverse Side of the Medal Telegram channel that they will soon start testing the Borshchevik Starlink detection system on the field in Ukraine. …SpaceX has been providing satellite Internet and terminals in Ukraine ever since, to the tune of US$100 million that Elon Musk claims will be...

With at least 505 confirmed kills during the Winter War of 1939–40 between Finland and the Soviet Union, Simo Häyhä (1905–2002) has been labelled the deadliest sniper in history. Here, Tapio Saarelainen shares the story of the Finnish sniper and how he achieved his nickname 'White Death'... During his 98-day reign of terror, Häyhä was unseen and unheard, yet was all the while targeting Russian soldiers with deadly accuracy, once even killing 25 men in one day. With snipers presenting such a high-value targets on the battlefield, Simo’s reputation as a marksman soon reached the Russian front lines; they referred...

Poland's top police official told a radio broadcaster that a grenade launcher that was a present from Ukrainian officials accidentally exploded while he was moving it in his office this week. The explosion occurred on Wednesday morning at national police headquarters in Warsaw. Amid media reporters speculating on the incident, the Interior Ministry issued a statement on Thursday saying that a gift from Ukraine had exploded, and that Szymczyk and another person suffered minor injuries. RMF FM, citing police officials, said Szymczyk received two used anti-tank grenade launchers as presents during a recent visit to Ukraine. There were no other...

A particularly good discussion focusing heavily on Zaluzhny's shocking Economist interview. Ritter shares The Duran analysts views (as does Judge Napolitano) that I already posted a few hours ago though goes into it more thoroughly. He thinks that Zelensky is history and that General Zaluzhny will be the one negotiating the terminal settlement (and hopes to be the next Ukrainian president.) One of the most interesting points is why this interview was set up. Clearly Britain and the U.S. wanted these disclosures made at this time. Ritter believes it is because they want this settled before Russia can take Odessa...