Free Republic

Fears about the 'Kraken' Covid variant might be overblown, experts warned today as data showed it's not spreading as quickly as first feared. XBB.1.5 — a spin-off of Omicron — is thought to be the most transmissible strain yet. Its emergence stoked concerns that it was getting through vaccine-induced immunity after it triggered a 'stunning increase' in cases in the US, where it was first detected.

Justin went to Ukraine to fight shortly after the war started. He served with the infamous Azov battalion. (3 hour video interview)

PRZEMYSL, POLAND – As Russian bombs rained down on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in early March, Zoya Mamatkulova and her mother packed up their bags, put their cat in a pet carrier and headed for Poland. But after traveling across three countries, shuttling between refugee shelters and a relative’s house, the pair decided to go home — joining a growing number of Ukrainian refugees who are choosing to return as the war drags on. Their story highlights the risks, however, especially in eastern areas, where Russian forces have focused their offensive after abandoning an assault on Kyiv in...

On October 8, a group of new conscripts from the Moscow region recorded an understated but still urgent video, in which they hoped to tell the civilian audience about their circumstances. Their platoon of 30 was about to be sent to Lyman, to take part in a Russian offensive there. The soldiers, dressed in rag-tag uniforms each of them had to put together around retail shops, said that they were going to the front without any training, and with weapons that were “rusty, stuck, or jammed.” With only a day’s worth of firing practice, and no acquaintance at all with...

Massive explosions have been seen hitting a key naval port in annexed Crimea that Russia claim was targeted in a major Ukrainian drone assault. Russian Black Sea warships were reportedly having to fight the attack off in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014. According to Ukrainian sources, several of the Russian ships from the fleet were blown up. Local media are reporting that rescuers this morning are still attempting to put out a fire on one of the ships. Residents claimed that the huge explosions 'shook' their homes and windows while black smoke...

He said if they don’t win, the socialists and communists will...President Trump went on to praise Loeffler and Perdue. He called them the “last line of defense” for democracy in America. “These seats are the last line of defense to save America and protect all that we have accomplished,” the President said. “You know we’ve accomplished things that no other President has accomplished and I did it with these two people.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. - His message is uninspiring. His ground game is flawed. After Iowa and New Hampshire, they’re no longer convinced he can beat Donald Trump. Interviews with two dozen South Carolina lawmakers, consultants and voters here suggests there are deep cracks in Joe Biden’s firewall state, where his campaign expects to turn his misfortunes around with a robust victory that highlights his broad-based support - particularly among African Americans. **SNIP** But his advantage has gradually eroded. In a state where African Americans cast 61 percent of the primary vote in 2016, a February Quinnipiac poll showed Biden's support among...

The crack discovered Tuesday in a steel beam that supports the roof garden of the new, $2.2 billion Transbay Transit Center — forcing the terminal’s abrupt closure just as rush-hour was getting going — is the latest headache for the 2 1/2 block long transit hub.

  The latest left wing media darling is Alexandra Ocasio Cortez. She defeated incumbent Joe Crowley in the democrat primary by approximately 16,000 to 12,000, which, given that each House district represents about 700,00 people, is what you might call a very low turnout. Let's take a look at the new media sweetie. Her platform reads like this: a call for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Ocasio-Cortez championed a single-payer, Medicare-for-All health-care system, declared that housing is a right, and called for sweeping criminal-justice reform. And she identified as a proud member of Democratic Socialists of America. She's not...

WASHINGTON -- I have in my office a framed note from President Donald Trump. It says, "Bob, Now We Really Did It. Thanks For All Of Your Help!" The note is dated Jan. 13, 2017. He was responding to my congratulatory email to him earlier acknowledging that indeed he "did it." He won the election and was then gearing up for his inauguration and what would follow. Today he has been president for almost a year and a half. What has he done? He has realized more of his conservative campaign promises than anyone since President Ronald Reagan. Perhaps he...

Edgy comedy website, Cracked, has silently let go “a lot” of its staff after various writers and some senior staff were let go from the site, which has been confirmed by various writers let go and the executive editor, David Wong, confirmed the news. Across Twitter various individuals caught wind of former Cracked writers who have been laid off in the process of Cracked trimming the financial fat...one of those individuals let go is former managing editor, John Cheese. So Cracked had no qualms about getting rid of its upper management. This was further corroborated by executive editor, David Wong......

As I watch another passive-aggressive hit on Trump by McCain, his latest being his remarks about the Kushner-Russian back channel fake news story, I see a shrinking and increasingly butt-hurt man. A man who was once a hero and has since been corrupted and minimized by the swamp in which he now comfortably resides. But all you have to do to know John McCain is to consider something. As one of the most powerful Veterans and senators in Washington, it was under his watch, spanning several different administrations, that the VA crumbled into one of the most shameful and embarrassing...

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump decided his campaign team wasn't Legion of Doomy enough, so he added Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon. Now, a presidential candidate forming an alliance with a media website in itself is pretty weird, but Breitbart isn't just any media outlet. Breitbart makes Fox News look like the BBC. If websites were people, Fox News would be your friend who's casually thinking of voting for Trump because they can't stand Hillary Clinton, and Breitbart would be Donald Trump when he went on the WWE.

Sun Tzu, generally considered a reliable source on Good War Ideas, said something along the lines of, "You've got to know your enemy in order to beat him, because some dudes hate being kicked in the junk and others seem to enjoy it." The difficulty we've had defeating ISIS suggests that, maybe, we don't really understand who and what the [censored] they are. Everything we hear is filtered through politicians and pundits, each with their own agenda ("You know what ISIS is afraid of? Me, Donald Trump!"). Fortunately, it turns out that finding out what ISIS wants is like finding...

#6. There's a Whole Industry Dedicated to Just Making Weed Pretty #5. The "Safe, All-Natural Drug" Could Actually Be Full of Serious Toxins #4. Weed Can Be Fairly Dangerous to Handle #3. Even Where It's Legal, It's Not Legal #2. The Legal Pot Industry Is Hurting the Environment #1. The Growers Don't Want It to Be Legal

The ancient Greeks believed that inspiration came from the Muses, goddesses who came down from Olympus to help common mortals create great works of art. But nowadays we know that creative minds get their ideas from pretty much whatever random s*** comes their way.This even goes for some of the most famous characters in recent pop culture history ...

Look, we here at Cracked aren't cockeyed optimists (or cockeyed anything, for that matter). We've lived in this world long enough to understand that some folks just aren't "on the level" and the things they say should be "taken with a grain of salt" because they're "completely full of $%^&." But even jaded, cynical @*#&$@$ like us should expect more from reputable news organizations. Shouldn't we?Nope! Just take a look at a few of the more blatant lies that once passed for journalism.

What do you imagine when you hear the word "welfare"? Most of us think of a minority living in a filthy house with five kids running around while an alcoholic dad sleeps it off face down on the couch ... if there's even a dad at all. I talked in another article about the things politicians will never understand about poor people, but it's not just Washington elites who treat the poor like an alien species. Hell, I find myself thinking in "welfare queen" stereotypes, and I grew up among them. The problem is that everyone -- from the news...

When you think of the Middle Ages, chances are you picture gallant knights sitting astride brilliant destriers galloping through a sea of plagues, ignorance, and filth. And you can hardly be blamed for that, when everything from the movies you watch to your high school history teacher (who was mainly the football coach) has told you that ...

Islam believes in freedom of speech, because freedom (from hell) is part of Islam. Other kinds of freedoms have to have limits. When the true profit is denigrated, three billion Muslims are offended, so there must be consequences. Islam is a revealed religion, so it must be protected and honored, none more deserving than the Profit (saw). As believers in the Allmitey and in religious decency, we must instigate riots and kill those who share the same citizenship as those who perpetrated the crime against Islam. I hope we all unite and go KABOOOM!