Free Republic

Founder and CEO Mike Grondahl detailed a history of rampant abuse at the company and alleged it misrepresented its financials during a recent interview with controversial right-wing X user Libs of TikTok. This comes after weeks of calls for boycotts of the brand after the company canceled the membership of a Planet Fitness gym goer after speaking out about a biological male in the women's locker room. Planet Fitness's policy allows gym members to use the locker room associated with their gender identity. But this policy has led to a few high-profile cases of women feeling uncomfortable in Planet Fitness...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine has sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea in just over two years of war, the navy spokesman said Tuesday, a heavy blow to Moscow’s military capability. Ukraine’s Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told The Associated Press that the latest strike on Saturday night hit the Russian amphibious landing ship Kostiantyn Olshansky that was resting in dock in Sevastopol in Russia-occupied Crimea. The ship was part of the Ukrainian navy before Russia captured it while annexing the Black Sea peninsula in 2014. Pletenchuk has previously announced that two other landing...

HAMPTON BEACH, New Hampshire — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ big New Hampshire strategy: Don’t bother. Stuck in the single-digits in New Hampshire polls even after a distant second-place finish in Iowa, DeSantis is decamping to what he hopes will be a warmer political climate — throwing himself into campaign events in South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday, a campaign official confirmed. Largely bypassing New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tuesday, is a clear acknowledgment that DeSantis will get thumped by Donald Trump and Nikki Haley here. DeSantis had sunk most of his resources into Iowa and had been criticized...

A total of 77 sailors were on board the large landing ship in the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia when it was targeted by cruise missiles, Russian-language Telegram channel Astra reported. Of these, 33 are missing and 23 people were wounded, with one person killed in the strikes, Astra reported on early on Wednesday... Using Western-supplied cruise missiles and different types of drones, Kyiv has repeatedly targeted Moscow's naval assets, managing to sink the flagship Moskva in April 2022 and taking out a Russian submarine in September 2023. During the course of the all-out war in the country, Kyiv has...

Russia acknowledges a missile attack on warship Novocherkassk, which Ukraine claims to have destroyed in a cruise missile strike in the early hours of Boxing Day. Ukraine appears to have come out of Christmas Day determined to make an impact, as they claim to have destroyed another Russian warship, this time with an air-launched cruise missile strike. Russia acknowledged the attack on the Ropucha-class Novocherkassk, a 1980s-vintage landing ship similar in size to the U.S.-made Freedom-class warship, saying that one person had been killed in the strike. Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk of the Ukrainian Air Force thanks his pilots for...

A majority of registered voters age 18 to 24 in the United States told a Harvard-Harris poll that they want “Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians,” rather than the two-state solution favored by 60% of Americans overall. The shocking result, after a survey of 2.034 registered voters December 13-14, suggested that young people are profoundly more hostile to Israel than any other age group — a result that accompanies a wave of antisemitic protests on university campuses and in large cities.

The Democrat-led city of Chicago is facing skyrocketing crime, homelessness, and drug use, among other problems. As a result, many businesses are fleeing the city. Customers simply refuse to put themselves in harm’s way, which causes sales to plummet. This ultimately results in employees losing their jobs as businesses are forced to close. Ken Griffin, who was the richest man in Illinois at $29 billion, moved his multi-billionaire hedge fund Citadel from Illinois to Florida. Walgreens and Aldi have also shut down stores in Chicago. The Democrats’ refusal to confront crime and appropriately fund law enforcement has ultimately destroyed the...

The huge extent of damage and vandalism caused in nearly a week of nightly riots in France has been dramatically underlined with a summary of recorded burnings so far, with the toll running to thousands of vehicles and buildings. Ministry of the Interior figures taking account of damage to people and property during the now six nights of riots triggered by the shooting death by a police officer of an Algerian heritage teenager in a Paris suburb at a traffic stop reveals there have been 5,662 vehicle fires so far, reports Le Parisien.

The Scottsbluff, Nebraska 5.2 MW Community Solar project was part of the NPPD’s Sunwise program that consisted of an array has over 14,000 solar panels. It’s reported that it had been put into operation in 2019. Surely the project had been ceremoniously put into operation, with dignitaries and proponents proclaiming it would reliably deliver cheap and clean energy, reduce the state’s carbon footprint and contribute to a bright and climate-friendly future. Now it has been just recently reported that the multimillion dollar solar energy park was literally reduced to a heap of rubble as hail literally pummeled it to a...

Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) said Thursday on CNN’s “At This Hour” that the United States giving aid to help Ukraine fight against Russia’s invasion has “destroyed the Russian military without one American soldier being killed.” On Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress, McCaul said, “What I appreciated about his speech, a couple of things. One were the parallels that he made to World War II. That would be my father’s war. When we go to Poland, they talk about 1939 and Hitler, and had we stopped him at that point in time, we would have...

Vandals have destroyed sacred artwork in South Australia thought to be about 30,000 years old. The Nullarbor Plain art, which are designs carved into the chalk limestone walls of the Koonalda Cave, has special significance for the region's Aboriginal Mirning people. The vandals are thought to have dug under a steel gate before scrawling "don't look now, but this is a death cave" on the walls. The authorities are investigating. Individuals found to have damaged an Aboriginal site or item currently face a fine of A$10,000 ($6,700; £5,500) or up to six months in prison under South Australia's Aboriginal heritage...

Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed in recent months... prepare yourselves for food shortages... A derailment in Alberta, Canada has destroyed several tons of fertilizer. Coincidence?

SpaceX has lost dozens of satellites after they were hit by a geomagnetic storm a day after launch, causing them to fall from orbit and burn up.Such solar "storms" are caused by powerful explosions on the sun's surface, which spit out plasma and magnetic fields that can hit the Earth.The company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said up to 40 of 49 satellites from last week's launch were hit.They had been due to join its Starlink satellite internet project.Starlink is Mr Musk's bid to provide high-speed internet using thousands of orbiting satellites. The system is relatively expensive, but can be...

The AR-15-style rifle that Kyle Rittenhouse used to shoot three people during a 2020 street protest will be destroyed by the state of Wisconsin and not returned. The agreement, made among prosecutors, Rittenhouse and Dominick Black — the man who purchased the rifle — was announced Friday morning in court.

The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) team destroyed the last of the 155mm projectiles containing VX nerve agent on May 28. “There are two important milestones to recognize here,” said Dr. Candace Coyle, BGCAPP site project manager. “This marks not only the completion of the second of five destruction campaigns in Kentucky, but also the destruction of all projectiles containing nerve agent in the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile.” With the completion of the VX 155mm projectile campaign, BGCAPP teams will now focus on completing destruction of mustard-filled projectiles and preparing for destruction of nerve agent-filled rockets. ...

If Democrats are in charge of your suburban zoning laws, get ready for the death of your quality of life. His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion “infrastructure” plan includes provisions to annihilate suburban single family housing. This from the far-left USA Today pretty much sums it up:

It was believed to have been left by protesters who suddenly opened the back doors of a van and poured it on around 12.20 a.m., police sources said.

Psalm 64:1–10 (NLT) 1 O God, listen to my complaint. Protect my life from my enemies’ threats. 2 Hide me from the plots of this evil mob, from this gang of wrongdoers. 3 They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows. 4 They shoot from ambush at the innocent, attacking suddenly and fearlessly. 5 They encourage each other to do evil and plan how to set their traps in secret. “Who will ever notice?” they ask. 6 As they plot their crimes, they say, “We have devised the perfect plan!” Yes, the human heart and mind are cunning. 7 But God himself...

He came, he saw, he ate their lunch. Bill Barr, denied a meal break, feasted instead on a gaggle of Democratic amateurs. Another congressional hearing, another Dem disaster. They planned a public hanging of the attorney general and spent weeks constructing their scaffold. He is corrupt, a liar, a toady, they and their media handmaidens assured us, and the House Judiciary Committee will reveal all. Two obstacles quickly became apparent. The first is that the Dems were led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose rabidness is exceeded only by his haplessness. The start was delayed because Nadler was in a minor...

A passenger jet plunged through the air “like a rollercoaster” after it flew into a thunderstorm, dropping thousands of feet as it was bombarded with strong winds, hail and lightning. “Things were flying. Passengers throwing up. Scariest flight of my life,” said Jesse Esparza, who was aboard the American Airlines flight from San Antonio, New Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona. With its nose and windscreen badly damaged by hail, the plane was forced to divert to El Paso for an emergency landing. “I never thought I’d have to buy in-flight WiFi to message my mum goodbye,” Mr Esparza added. Pictures of...