Free Republic

The ball python was removed Wednesday from the Herrick Lake Forest Preserve in Wheaton after a woman who had been walking at the preserve noticed a large snake under her car and called police.

Ron Watkins in a video said he would be running for Congress in Arizona as a Republican. Watkins has long been rumoured to be the man behind the QAnon movement. A statement of intent to run was filed with state authorities using an email address associated with Watkins.

Massachusetts health officials on Tuesday reported nearly 4,000 new breakthrough cases over the past week, and 46 more deaths. In the last week, 3,741 new breakthrough cases -- infections in people who have been vaccinated -- were reported, with 125 more vaccinated people hospitalized, Massachusetts Department of Public Health officials said Tuesday. Their report brings the total number of breakthrough cases to 40,464, and the death toll among people with breakthrough infections to 300.

For almost as long as he can remember, Mathieu’s father had been a provocateur, with a penchant for inappropriate jokes and borderline remarks. But when he started dipping his toes into conspiracy theories, things quickly got out of hand. “When he told me to ‘look out for the FBI report’ proving Hillary Clinton tortured babies and drank their blood to live forever, I knew with 200 percent certainty that I had lost him,” Mathieu* recalled. “It was finished. I would never again see the person he was before.” As is often the case, the father’s cross over to “the other...

Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn appeared on Christian YouTube channel "Truth Unveiled TV" to refute claims he worships Satan following a prayer he led at Nebraskan church, The Daily Beast reported. During its "Opening the Heavens" conference in mid-September, Flynn led a prayer at the Lord of Hosts Church in which he referenced "legions" and "rays," according to The Daily Beast, which convinced many QAnon believers that he was praying to Satan. Following an ad from voter fraud conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell's MyPillow, Flynn told "Truth Unveiled TV" host Paul Oebel that people were reading into things and...

Get It Off Me Researchers at Caltech have opened the doors to hell and allowed a creepy robot that can walk on two spindly feet and even fly to enter our world. The terrifying biped, called LEONARD (LEgs ONboARD drone), or LEO for short, is basicically the bottom half of a humanoid robot strapped to a flying drone. The researchers’ goal wasn’t to come up with the next mass-marketable invention, but to test new ways of locomotion for robots meant to complete dangerous jobs and explore hard-to-reach places. Did we mention it can skateboard and slackline as well?

A Lithuanian man has had more than a kilogram of nails, screws, nuts and knives removed from his stomach by doctors, local media report. He had been swallowing metal objects for a month after quitting alcohol, doctors said. Some of the objects retrieved during a surgery in Klaipeda University Hospital were 10cm (4in) long, according to Lithuania's LRT public broadcaster. Surgeon Sarunas Dailidenas called it a "unique case". In its article (in Lithuanian), LRT published a KUH photo showing a surgical tray full of metal objects after the emergency three-hour operation. The man was brought by ambulance with severe abdominal...

Liberal media outlets issued bizarre “fact-checks” after the Polish government revealed migrants have videos of executions and illegal sex acts on their phones. Poland declared a state of emergency on its border with Belarus, governed by Alexander Lukashenko, after the quasi-Stalinist regime began pushing migrants from Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia into Poland and Lithuania earlier this year. Lukashenko is accused of engineering the crisis to punish Poland and Lithuania for offering refuge and moral support to Belarusian dissidents as a form of “hybrid warfare”, but Poland, in particular, has been resolute in guarding its border, leading to...

In a live-action remake of King Kong – perhaps a miniature version – rescuers in Malaysia freed a stray puppy from the clutches of a monkey, after it was kidnapped for three days. The first sighting of the ‘abduction’ in Selangor was on Sept 15, when social media user Zeirie Zack Mzy posted photographs in a Facebook group, showing a primate carrying the black-and-white pup, while perched dangerously on utility lines. Three days later, another user shared photographs of the same monkey cuddling its tired but otherwise unharmed victim. In the comments, concerned netizens wondered which brave soul would step...

Epik long has been the favorite Internet company of the far-right, providing domain services to QAnon theorists, Proud Boys and other instigators of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — allowing them to broadcast hateful messages from behind a veil of anonymity. But that veil abruptly vanished last week when a huge breach by the hacker group Anonymous dumped into public view more than 150 gigabytes of previously private data — including user names, passwords and other identifying information of Epik’s customers. Extremism researchers and political opponents have treated the leak as a Rosetta Stone to the far-right,...

Police officers were dispatched to the Kinloch Volunteer Fire Department in Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania, shortly after 6 p.m. for a shooting inside the fire hall. "This was not an active shooter event, but rather an isolated family incident during a baby shower," he said. A preliminary investigation showed the incident began as a family argument about gifts at the baby shower. It escalated into a physical fight and then gunfire when the "suspect introduced a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun" and fired three shots into the crowd of about 25 friends and family, the chief said. At the time of the press...

It's not yet time to break out the champagne, but cautious optimism seems warranted. The elements for conspiracy charges against the really big names are lined up. I am cautiously optimistic over the indictment handed down yesterday, accusing attorney Michael Sussaman, then of Perkins Coie, representing the Hillary Clinton campaign, of lying to the FBI. It has been very easy to despair that anything would ever come of Durham’s Special Counsel probe, especially after the slap on the wrist delivered to Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI lawyer who lied to a court by changing evidence 180 degrees in order to facilitate...

On Dec. 21, 2020, QAlerts, an aggregator of drops from the anonymous poster known as Q, called on his tens of thousands of followers on Gab to head to Washington, D.C. to protest the 2020 election. “When the President of The United States requests your presence, you show up,” it wrote, calling on “patriots” to show up on Jan. 6. Around the same time, the head of the Oath Keepers, a militia steeped in far-right conspiracy theories, demanded the same of its members. “It is CRITICAL that all patriots who can be in DC get to DC to stand tall...

A popular catch-phrase among pro-Trump patriots is: “Nothing can stop what is coming.” This is based on the theory that there are things quietly going on behind the scenes, that President Trump still has a hand in what is happening today. Perhaps he is laying a giant trap for Democrats and the deep state establishment. Or perhaps the military is in control under the theory of devolution. Or perhaps, this is all delusional wishful thinking.

An apparently unhinged Texas man allegedly attacked a couple — killing the wife and shooting her husband — because they were Biden voters, according to a report. Joseph Angel Alvarez, 38, who ranted in emails about satanic rituals and abortion, claimed he targeted Georgette and Daniel Kauffman in part because of the Biden flag in their yard and a “doll of Trump” hanging there, local television station KDBC reported. Georgette Kauffman’s body was found inside her garage, a criminal complaint revealed. Daniel Kauffman told KDBC he was shot at five times, but managed to crawl out of his home and...

Riley had told acquaintances he was headed for Hurricane Ida relief work and the friend offered the kit for the purported trip. A short distance away, Riley saw Justice Gleason mowing his lawn with his 11-year-old daughter in the yard, Judd said. That provided the trigger that led to the slayings, Judd said: Riley saw the girl, believing she was an imaginary child named Amber who was suicidal and being held by a supposed sex trafficking ring that God had told him to confront. In fact, no one named Amber lived at the home and Gleason repeatedly told Riley that...

Right wing extremists frequently use national and international conflicts as platforms for their bigoted narratives. Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and in the face of ongoing humanitarian and military crises, extremist online spaces have been rife with racist, Islamophobic and antisemitic tropes. The August 26, 2021, attack in Kabul by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), refugee and evacuation efforts and the growing mainstream criticism of President Biden presented myriad opportunities for extremists to further elevate racist, xenophobic sentiments via cries about “the Great Replacement,” a white supremacist conspiracy theory that envisions the intentional replacement of white majorities at...

Bali monkeys are raiding people's homes for food after not receiving the normal amount of treats from tourists due to the coronavirus pandemic. Macaque monkeys have begun hanging on residents' roofs and waiting for the opportunity to strike as they have been missing out on the bananas and peanuts normally provided to them by tourists, The Associated Press reported. The Sangeh Monkey Forest sanctuary, located close to the villagers, is home to 600 monkeys who normally get plenty of food from the 6,000 visitors a month; however, pandemic travel restrictions have proven detrimental to Bali's tourism industry with the monkeys...

Tens of thousands protested in Switzerland on Saturday for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the Alpine country. The protests came ahead of a national referendum on Sept. 26 on the legalization of gay marriage, which has already been introduced in many other European countries including Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands. Public broadcaster SRF reported that tens of thousands participated in the Zürich Pride parade, which had the slogan “You can do it. Marriage for everyone now.” …

Robert David Steele, a former CIA officer turned conspiracy theorist who claimed to be the first person to call COVID-19 a hoax, has died from COVID-19. Steele, who was among the earliest QAnon promoters and helped the conspiracy theory move from the fringes of the internet into the mainstream, was hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19 earlier this month. But he continued to spread anti-vaccine and COVID-denial conspiracy theories until the end. “I will not take the vaccination, though I did test positive for whatever they’re calling ‘COVID’ today, but the bottom line is that my lungs are not functioning,” Steele...