Free Republic

The cost of housing has gotten so expensive that Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) thinks that a monthly subsidy of $2,500 would help ease the burden — for members of Congress. He told The Hill on Monday that "I really do believe Congress would be much better served if there was a housing allowance for members of Congress," given that "Washington, D.C., is one of the most expensive places in the world." He said that "a $2,500 housing allowance would be appropriate and a real help to have at least a decent quality of life in Washington." $2,500 a month comes...

US Ambassador Nikki Haley has called for international action to address the crisis in Venezuela, after a US-backed proposal for regional mediation failed to win support at the Organization of American States. (The US-backed proposal failed to overcome opposition from the 14 similar national jurisdictions that benefit from turmoil and discounted Venezuelan oil.) "The tragic situation in Venezuela calls out for action. The Venezuelan people are starving while their government tramples their democracy". //Snipp// The Judiciary has sold out and military command is wavering as the country, pummeled by the plunge in oil prices and the Hugo Chávez, legacy of...

; In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". DREK/DRECK [drek]hear it pronounced noun something that is of very bad quality : trash or rubbish

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declined to announce her retirement, once again, on the last day of the session on Monday. Also, Justice Anthony Kennedy declined to his announce his retirement, though he could do so over the summer. The 84-year-old Ginsburg — the “Notorious R.B.G.,” to her fans — has been on the Court since 1993, when she was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Since then, she has been a reliable liberal vote for 24 years....

It was many years ago, but the memory lingers of the first time I was embarrassed to be a journalist. It was a steamy summer afternoon and reporters and photographers were shoe-horned into a small Manhattan apartment for a civic group’s announcement. As we waited, a photographer wearing a “press” card in his battered fedora picked up a bud vase from a table, pulled out the rose and drank the water in one gulp. The hostess was horrified and shrieked, “What are you doing?” He looked at her as if she were nuts and said simply, “It’s hot in here...

The Malyshev Factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine rolled out an Oplot main battle tank (MBT) and conducted a mobility test of it on Friday, June 23 with Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Secretary of the National Security Defence Council Oleksandr Turchynov in attendance. Ukrainian news outlets, such as Depo Harkiv, claim – citing Malyshev Factory employees – that this specific Oplot MBT – dubbed “Oplot-P – will be sent to Pakistan. This comes following recent reports from Ukrainian media of the Oplot MBT drawing Pakistani interest. In April, Delovaya Stolitsa interviewed Pakistan’s Ambassador to Ukraine Maj. Gen (retired) Athar Abbas,...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin building prototypes for President Trump's proposed wall along the Mexican border this summer, authorities said on Tuesday. Agency officials said at a news briefing that the department is ready to begin testing designs on land that is already owned by the government. Four to eight designs will be built and tested, but officials didn't say when the process would actually begin. “We own that land, have access to it and it’s a good place to start testing in a real-world environment,” acting deputy commissioner Ronald D. Vitiello told reporters at the briefing....

Watch as Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells everybody to watch Project Veritas CNN video.

The government is considering equipping cutting-edge F-35 stealth fighters with air-to-surface missiles, which are capable of striking remote targets on land, and plans to deploy these fighters to the Air Self-Defense Force, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. It will become the first introduction of such missiles for the Self-Defense Forces. The government hopes to allocate relevant expenses in the fiscal 2018 budget, according to sources close to the government. The main purpose of the introduction is to prepare for emergencies on remote Japanese islands, while some experts believe the government is also eyeing possession of the capability of attacking targets...

Joe Biden should announce he’s running for president in 2020. Right now. Democrats need a singular voice representing the party. And as we saw in the recent Georgia special congressional election, that voice should not be Nancy Pelosi. Cut the coy. Cut the Mario Cuomo routine. Just throw down Joe. You know you want to. If you announce now, the next two years become a debate between you and Donald Trump. You become the shadow president. You’ve earned it. You deserve it. You regret you didn’t run last time. Because you’d probably be president right now. Beating Hillary in the...

It is perhaps somewhat ironic that the last time Americans were informed this incessantly of the threat Russia posed to the United States, it was called the Soviet Union and the Left was insisting that everything was being overblown. This time, in spite of a glaring lack of evidence, it is the Left that is announcing from its perch in the mainstream media that Donald Trump is Vladimir Putin’s puppet, and that Russia is the evil puppet-master pulling the strings of American democracy. The sinister Russian bear is growling in the East, we are told, and we should all be...

Some groups today, such as the Seventh-day Adventists, teach that keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is a perpetual moral law meant for all people, and that not keeping it is a sign of apostasy and disloyalty to God. They base their belief on Genesis 2:1–3, which tells of God resting after His creative work and then sanctifying the Sabbath day, and on the fourth commandment. They also argue that the New Testament teaches the continuity of seventh-day Sabbath observance by Christ’s followers, even after Christ’s death. These beliefs, however, are misguided. There is no universal moral obligation given in Genesis 2...

Mexico filed an affidavit Monday in support of a lawsuit against the implementation of a Texas law to punish sanctuary cities and allow police officers to inquire about the immigration status of someone they have arrested or detained. The Mexican government said in a statement that the law could increase racial discrimination and create an environment of persecution. The statement said that the number of calls to the center for information and assistance for Mexicans in Texas in May and June increased 678 percent compared to the year prior. This is reflexive of the uncertainty and “anguish” that the Mexican...

In his first opportunity to preach after receiving the cardinals’ request for an audience, the Pope warned against resisting the Holy Spirit and fearing “novelties of the Church.” Although Pope Francis has not officially responded to the dubia — nor to the four cardinals’ wish for an audience — the homily he gave in Santa Marta residence shortly after he received their request for a meeting could point to how he sees the issue. Given in the morning of Monday, May 8 — the first opportunity the Pope had to preach freely after the cardinals’ letter requesting an audience was...

CHICAGO, Illinois, June 27, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Facebook communities can fill the void left by decreasing religious participation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested last week. Zuckerberg wants groups formed on his social media platform to fill the role in people’s lives once held by churches and groups such as little league teams. People are in need of purpose and support, the millennial social media mogul said, and Facebook groups can provide that meaning. "It's so striking that for decades, membership in all kinds of groups has declined as much as one-quarter," Zuckerberg said. "That's a lot of people who now...

A new Rasmussen poll reports that a majority of voters think so, and it certainly feels that way. Since Donald Trump’s election in November, the pace and intensity of deeply divisive rhetoric has accelerated. Antifa and the Alt-Right are literally fighting in the streets. Combative talking heads on cable news, vicious social media exchanges, riots at universities, a bitter special election in Georgia, and even the shooting of a congressman have both sides rethinking the entire political process and talking about abandoning the “rule of law.” It is an uneasy time, a time for hard questions. Can politics really provide...

Has CNN found their new Sandra Fluke poster child for “free” birth control? On Monday, CNN posted a real “tear jerker” tale about a married couple fearing they would not longer be able to get prescriptions for birth control if the GOP’s health care bill passed in the Senate because it would shut down their local Planned Parenthood clinic. Ariana and Kevin Gonzalez told CNN that they would have to resort to going to Mexico to get the contraceptives they need, since the new bill would likely shut down their local clinic because of slashed government funding. Instead of taking an...

In a recent video posted to YouTube, Dallas city councilperson (we don’t want to accidentally misgender anyone) Sandy Greyson can be seen ranting about how upset she (oops, we assumed its gender) is that the city can’t just claim eminent domain over a man’s land. “This is an eminent domain case for a much needed water line” Greyson starts off. She continues with “And the Council is being asked today to go to settle this case with a man who has fought us for years and has cost Dallas taxpayers millions of dollars and intends to cost us millions more...

Sorry, everybody. We’re just not that special. In more than five decades of scanning the heavens, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has found no sign of alien life. Yet now two American astronomers, in the scientific equivalent of a back-of-the-envelope calculation, are estimating that over the course of its history the universe has seen at least half a trillion technologically advanced species. Remember, 420 billion intelligent civilizations is the “pessimistic” estimate. But sadly—or happily, depending on your view of aliens—it doesn’t make us any less alone.

Sarajevo, 06.24.2017: How can Israel ever have peace with her Muslim neighbors when experience shows that in any instance in which a non-Muslim state is bordering on a Muslim state, the likelihood of war is high — because Muslim aggression cannot be contained by agreements? Israel, Armenia, Serbia, Greece, Ethiopia all have learned the truth the hard way. Whoever believes in peace with Muslim neighbors has another thing coming for him. In the Balkans, there are these Muslim majority mini-states and provinces from the scrapheap of failed states of former Yugoslavia that are swarming the crowded neighborhood. And this is...