Free Republic

Amidst the backdrop of escalating tensions and mounting security concerns, the recent statement by the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, echoes a growing sentiment of alarm regarding a series of terrorist attacks targeting the nation. These incidents, characterized by their profound impact on critical infrastructure and civilian populations, have reignited suspicions of foreign interference, with Russian officials squarely implicating the United States. As allegations of U.S.-sponsored covert aggression against Russia continue to proliferate, the State Duma’s call for heightened vigilance underscores the imperative for transparency and accountability in confronting these significant security threats. The gravity of the situation...

Ukraine has blamed a “shortfall in foreign assistance” as it suffers a shortage of munitions, forcing it to make operations “smaller” in its Western-backed war against the Russian occupation. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi cited shell starvation “across the entire front line” — what he called a “very big problem” – and what Reuters paraphrased as “the drop in foreign military aid” as being major factors in the reduced combat readiness of Ukrainian troops. Speaking to the wire service in interview, the Ukrainian military leader said the volumes of artillery “are not sufficient for us today, given our needs”, so ammunition was...

Hundreds of illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations have been popping up across Maine over the past three years.A criminal marijuana growing operation in Henryetta, Oklahoma. Illegal grow operations are a nationwide problem, responsible for billions in revenue. (Picture courtesy Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics)On Tuesday, Nov. 28, local law enforcement shut down an illegal marijuana grow that was being operated in a building located behind a licensed marijuana cultivation facility in Franklin County.Officers from the Wilton Police Department were assisting investigators from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) during a routine follow-up inspection of a licensed facility in Wilton when...

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), the Democrat nominee for governor in Florida, continued to send out fundraising emails while parts of the state were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, despite claiming he would be “ceasing campaign operations.” During a virtual press conference on Friday to discuss Hurricane Ian’s impact on the state, Crist announced his campaign would be temporarily “ceasing campaign operations.”

ANTIFA COMMAND STRUCTURE: Solid S2 coming from one of our readers. They’re better organized than they’re given credit for and the real commissars have a lot of training. ANTIFA COMMAND & CONTROL STRUCTURE IN FIELD ACTION. STRUCTURE, INSIGNIA AND OTHER IDENTIFIERS. Antifa tactical units are organized into standard ‘company sturctrure’ of up to 20 individual soldiers under the immediate control of a comany commander. While there are ‘special units’, most notable the ‘reconnaissance & coordination’ teams of bicyclists, the base of the C&C structure for Antifa is the company. Company commanders are ‘first lieutenants’ and may be idenfied in...

Operations, situation update, Update : 11/04/2018 Read this week's update on operations. Armed Forces of French Guiana (FAG) CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF VISITS ARMED FORCES OF FRENCH GUIANA France's Chief of Defence Staff, General Lecointre, completed his trip to French Guiana this week. During his visit, the General visited the 9th Marine Infantry Regiment (9th RIMa) and the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3rd REI), Air Base 367, and went aboard Guyanese light patrol vessel La Confiance. He also went to Saint-Elie Lake to meet sappers of the Engineers Regiment involved in Operation Harpie as they worked on dismantling primary gold-mining...

German hospitals and doctors are potentially endangering their patients’ health by talking them into expensive treatments and unnecessary operations, according to a new study by the SOCIUM research center at Bremen University. The study, based on around 60 interviews with doctors and hospital directors across the country, found that Germany was struggling to cope with the more complex illnesses that come with an aging population. The researchers found that while the number of patients is increasing in the country, the length of hospital stays are shortening, as doctors have a financial incentive to admit more people to hospital, and staff...

When a relative of mine who lives in Congressman Bergman's district in Michigan called his D.C. office to ask them why he was one of only 24 Republicans who voted against the amendment to stop funding for transgender surgeries in the military, a staff member for Congressman Jack Bergman, retired United States Marine Corps Lieutenant General, and the current U.S. Representative for Michigan's 1st congressional district (Northern Michigan - Bart Stupak's old seat), said that both President Trump and Bergman's friend and fellow retired Marine, Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis, both advised Congressman Bergman to vote against that...

<p>Theranos, the biotech company started by a 19-year-old Stanford dropout, has another hurdle to cross in its whole "we're totally a legit blood-testing company" campaign. This time, it turns out that tens of thousands of blood tests were voided, making them totally invalid. Whoops!</p>

We haven't really written much about the insane Theranos scandal, though we discussed it on our podcast. The whole story is pretty crazy -- involving a heavily hyped up company that appeared to basically be flat out lying to everyone about what it could do. The company still exists, but barely. The company's founder and CEO, who was plastered across magazine covers and compared frequently to Steve Jobs, has been banned from running a lab for two years, and the company is now facing a $140 million lawsuit from its biggest partner, Walgreens, who claims that Theranos repeatedly lied to...

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Boies, 75 years old, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Those efforts included threatening to take legal action against The...

Litigator David Boies and the law firm he founded, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, have stopped doing legal work for Theranos Inc. after disagreeing about the strategy for handling ongoing government investigations of the blood-testing company, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Boies, 75 years old, has been one of the country’s best-known litigators since the late 1990s. He became Theranos’s outside counsel after being approached in 2011 by two investors in the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. He fiercely defended Theranos against questions about its technology and operations. Those efforts included threatening to take legal action against The...

It's worth asking why Elizabeth Holmes is still leading the embattled blood testing company Theranos Inc. But there may be a good reason why she still is in charge, one that has little to do with the scandal-ridden company's performance to date. Forget what venture capitalist Tim Draper — one of the first to invest in the Palo Alto company — implied this week that Holmes is being attacked because she's a young, female entrepreneur. The simple fact is that Theranos has not been able to deliver on its technology from a commercial, scientific or regulatory standpoint, and that falls...

2016 has not been too kind to Elizabeth Holmes, the Steve-Jobs wannabe in charge of fraudulent Theranos. She has thus far been banned for 2 years from operating labs, removed from hosting fundraisers for Hillary and lost her entire net worth. And now, the Wall Street Journal has published the "tell-all" story of the whistle-blower, 26 year old Tyler Shultz, who brought the the whole Theranos farce crashing down. It's a sordid tale complete with all the expected twists and turns of a Jason Bourne thriller including intimidation, coercion and private detectives. Tyler Shultz is the grandson of George Shultz,...

Hospitals are to cancel thousands of operations and appointments in a desperate bid to stop the NHS "buckling" this winter, under Government plans. Health officials are drawing up contingency measures to attempt to safeguard emergency care by diverting senior doctors from operating theatres into wards and Accident & Emergency departments as winter sets in. The national plan, detailed in evidence to the Commons health select committee, comes amid concern that the NHS is already in the grip of the worst bed-blocking crisis on record. Last night, Britain’s most senior A&E doctor said hospitals were under such strain that a bad...

[...] This transaction in northern Mali shows what might seem an unusual preoccupation for a terror group: Al-Qaida is obsessed with documenting the most minute expenses. [...]

React To Contact, Break Contact and Insurgent Operational Planning I talked about Battle Drills awhile back. Recently Max Velocity talked about Reacting to Contact. We label the steps differently but basically do the same thing. I will get into it a bit but do not feel the need to write it from memory or get fancy paraphrasing FM 7-8. Either you know how to do it and I'm wasting my time or you don't and me writing about it for a couple paragraphs will not fix the problem so I'm wasting my time. For those without an Infantry or Special...

Posted at 9:09 pm on August 31, 2012 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments Barack Obama ✔ @BarackObama A promise kept: pic.twitter.com/m7iLA3eF 31 Aug 12 Reply Retweet Favorite We’re certainly aware the president isn’t sitting in front of a copy of Photoshop putting these tweets together personally, but are we the only ones noticing a peculiar trend? The Obama campaign recently honored the late astronaut Neil Armstrong by posting a photo of … Obama. So what better way to mark the anniversary of the end of combat operations in Iraq than by posting another photo of Obama?

The NHS has begun rationing common surgical procedures such as hip replacements and cataracts removal in an effort to save money, it was revealed yesterday. New figures have found one in three Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England are reducing access to treatment for “non-urgent” operations. Examples of rationing include knee operations only being allowed to go ahead where patients are in severe pain, overweight patients being made to lose weight prior to procedures, and cataract patients being denied treatment until their sight problems seriously affect their ability to work. Chris Naylor, a senior researcher at the health think tank...

Hawaii, USA — Members of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (G Coy, 2 RCR) joined the US Marines for six weeks in a unique training environment. G Coy, which holds the non-combatant evacuation operations (NEO) task, came to the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) to participate in Exercise RIMPAC. No Club MedThe PTA is located on the Big Island of Hawaii between Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and the Hualalai volcanoes. The extremely rough, austere area is made of old lava fields and hills where, even in the heat of the Hawaiian summer, the morning temperature is around 8ËšC...