Free Republic

Author Michael Wolff bolstered President Trump's effort to discredit the new book “Fire and Fury” on Friday when he acknowledged in a “Today” show interview that he had been willing to say whatever was “necessary” to gain access at the White House. Wolff's admission does not directly undermine the veracity of his reporting, but it creates the appearance that he might have approached some members of the president's team under false pretenses, leading sources to believe that when they opened up they were speaking to a sympathetic ear. That's a bad look — one which the White House can use...

I am going to risk a prediction: 2018 will be the year we see an end to the fighting over Amoris Laetitia.This might seem rather presumptuous, given that just this week five bishops have underscored the Church’s traditional teaching on the reception of Communion by the divorced and remarried. The bishops’ statement is a positive delight to read for its clarity of thought and expression – especially after some of the tortured sophistries we have had to endure of late.The document unflinchingly reminds us that some things are just wrong, and no amount of personal reflection or mitigating circumstances can...

The transfer of fetal tissue from an Albuquerque abortion clinic for research at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center violated no state law, according to a letter from New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office to a congressional committee. The AG’s letter dated Thursday comes more than a year after the now-disbanded Select Investigative Panel of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent criminal referrals to Balderas’ office alleging potential criminal violations in the collaboration between university researchers and Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque. The special committee, which ended its work a year ago, was created to...

President Donald Trump heads to Camp David this weekend to discuss 2018 GOP legislative priorities with Republican members of Congress and White House officials. Infrastructure, immigration and welfare reform are among the issues the officials will likely discuss. President Donald Trump will be at the Camp David retreat this weekend where he will meet with top officials in his administration and Congress to plan out the upcoming year. "We're going to Camp David with a lot of the great Republican senators and we're making America great again," the president said as he left the White House. On Friday, the White...

Roy Moore accuser Tina Johnson lost her home Tuesday in a fire that is now under investigation by the Etowah County Arson Task Force. Tina Johnson, who first came to public notice for accusing Senate candidate Roy Moore of grabbing her in his office in the early 1990s, said her home on Lake Mary Louise Road in Gadsden caught fire Tuesday morning. After neighbors and some utility workers called 911 shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday, the Lookout Mountain Fire Department responded to the scene. By the time the flames were extinguished, Johnson and her family had lost everything they owned....

RUSH: On the Today show today, Savannah Guthrie, who, by the way… Here’s another thing: When they announced that Matt Lauer has been fired for sexual harassment, all these people on the Today show said (sobbing), “Oh, my God! Oh ho! Oh, I feel so bad! Oh, I didn’t know!” They all knew. They probably all knew that Bannon was the leaker. They all knew about Matt Lauer. They are acting like, “Oh my God, it’s such a shock! We didn’t know.” He had a button in his office that locked the door from the inside from the desk! Anyway,...

The White House got some help last night in fending off Michael Wolff’s dishy, gossipy book on Donald Trump — Tony Blair. The former prime minister blasted Wolff’s reporting as “a complete fabrication” on a claim made that Blair warned about British intelligence surveilling the Trump campaign. Blair expressed consternation that the uncorroborated allegations in Fire and Fury have been embraced so unquestioningly: Speaking of unexpected sources, the best White House response to Wolff comes from the spokesperson who got run out of the West Wing months ago. Sean Spicer calmly dissects the credibility issues in this appearance on ABC’s...

The number of United States-born children who were given birthright citizenship despite at least one of their parents being an illegal alien living in the country now outnumbers one year of all American births. A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report the booming number of U.S.-born children to illegal aliens who are given automatic citizenship, forever anchoring their families in the U.S. These children are commonly known as “anchor babies,” as they are able to eventually bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. through the process known as “chain migration.” Every two new immigrants to the U.S....

Check out what happened to this crew on a photoshoot for the EcoBubble washing machine. They were near Manning Park, BC. See video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAhI2mJHhDo

Yup, the walls are closing in. In a brilliant move of strategery, Senate Judiciary Chairman, Chuck Grassley, and Senate Judiciary member, Lindsey Graham, send a criminal referral of Christopher Steele to the DOJ for investigation. But things are not what they seem… Today Senators Grassley and Graham sent a letter of criminal referral to the Department of Justice, based on information -provided by the FBI- their investigation has uncovered. However, the actual motive for the criminal referral is not exactly what it appears.

It is, for now, a pipe dream that Giants fans can’t help but smoke: Bill Belichick in a blue hoodie standing on the sidelines at MetLife Stadium, chants of “Dee-Fense” erupting everywhere, reminding him of the way it was at Giants Stadium when Harry Carson owned the point of attack and Lawrence Taylor roared around the edge to terrify quarterbacks, providing cover for Eli Manning or Davis Webb or rookie Josh Rosen. SNIP But if you are the Giants … you damn well should throw it.

Prominent Bridgewater Associates executive Bruce Steinberg and his family were among 10 Americans killed when a charter plane crashed into a mountain in Costa Rica on Sunday........ Ex-FBI Director James Comey was a top executive at Bridgewater.

The embarrassment a federal judge dealt to government prosecutors last month in the Cliven Bundy case could be set to resume Monday, at a hearing to determine whether the cattle rancher who became a folk hero long before he beat the feds can be retried. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro on Dec. 20 declared a mistrial in the high-profile case. It was only the latest, stunning development in the saga of the Nevada rancher, and served as a repudiation of the federal government. Navarro accused prosecutors of willfully withholding evidence from Bundy’s lawyers, in violation of the federal Brady rule,...

My friends Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, opined on Thursday that the time has come for a new person to serve as attorney general. I disagree with their opinion. I believe Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the right man in the right place at the right time to restore respect in America for the Rule of Law. In fact, I assert that he is already making a positive difference. In measuring Sessions’ performance in office to date, it is important to remember two things: 1) the political climate he faced within the Department of Justice upon accepting...

 In a recent interview, James Martin, S.J., clearly implied (by repeating gay-advocacy talking-points) that language in “The Catechism of the Catholic Church” directly contributes to the high level of teen suicides among LGBT young people. [Interviewer] Well the people who’ve seen your book or know something about you are complaining that you want to rewrite some of the Catechism to differently ordered, can you speak about that. [Martin] Yeah, well part of the Catechism says that homosexual people are objectively disordered; their actions are objectively disordered and they themselves are intrinsically disordered. And so basically what I’m saying in the book is you...

The following comments about President Reagan are enlightening because they are so similar to what is said about Trump today. Maybe journalists could just substitute "Trump" for "Reagan" on old material using Microsoft Word and head to the bar. It would be a lot easier than saying the same things in different ways every day. "Prepare yourself for some bad news: Ronald Reagan's library just burned down. Both books were destroyed. But the real horror: He hadn't finished coloring either one of them." –Gore Vidal "For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community. For...

1) Devin Nunes January 4th, 2018 Letter to Rod Rosenstein documenting their conversation and agreement. 2) Nunes secured the critical FD-302's and FD-1023's that relate to the Steele Dossier! 3) FD-302 is an FBI form that is used to document interviews/interrogations. It details questions asked and answers given as well as who was present during the interview....

Not too hot, not too cold - but just right. Goldilocks' requirements for the perfect bowl of porridge are similar to the requirements of an attractive economy. Not too hot - growth busting out the lights raising fears about sustainability and rampant inflation. And not too cold - economic slowdowns and recessions pulling down business profitability and weighing on equity valuations. Market investors certainly sense that 2018 will see a continuation of a global "Goldilocks economy". Why?

An escalation in immigration enforcement over the past year has brought a new level of anxiety for the several thousand migrant farm workers living in Vermont. For the first time since 2010, arrests and detentions by the U.S. Border Patrol increased in Vermont, New Hampshire and northeastern New York last year. The workers – many of them undocumented – are critically important to the state’s farm economy. To give you a sense of how important, consider that twice a year the Mexican government comes to a Vermont farm community to help hundreds of its citizens with financial and legal advice,...

Based on Wolff’s reporting, it can now be said that the Trump administration mishandled the ridiculous Russian collusion canard in the crucial early days at least in part because its chief strategist believed it. Heckuva job, Stevey.