Free Republic

Apple’s iPhones are expensive bits of kit. So when we see one pulverized in a blender we can’t help but feel a little sad. However, in this case, it was for science. And good science as well: scientists were blending the blower in order to conduct a chemical analysis of what it contains. A team at the University of Plymouth carried out the blending in order to show the quantities of rare or so-called ‘conflict’ elements in the phone. Here’s a smartphone in a blender, thanks to the University of Plymouth (PA) It’s part of a plan to encourage greater...

Facebook’s top executive ranks underwent another change on Thursday, with the loss of the company’s chief product officer and the head of its WhatsApp messaging service. The departures follow two years of scandals for Facebook around data privacy and disinformation. The issues have buffeted the Silicon Valley company, causing internal turmoil and a redirection in strategy. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, announced that Facebook would shift away from public sharing of posts and focus on private conversations across the company’s messaging services — WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. The decision, which involves knitting together three of the world’s...

Beto O’Rourke is a loser. In 2016, he ran against Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race, and lost. He didn’t lose by much, just 2.6% of the vote in fact. But he still lost, and in the brutal world of US politics that usually means the last anyone hears from you for the rest of your natural life.

Sephora announced on Thursday afternoon that it has ended its partnership with Lori Loughlin's YouTube star daughter Olivia Jade following a bitter backlash on social media in the days after her parents were charged in the college bribery scandal. 19-year-old Olivia, who is widely known as a social media and YouTube star with millions of followers, has worked with Sephora for some time now, and last year even released her own palette as part of a collaboration with its in-house label Sephora Collection. But the popular beauty retailer has now terminated its partnership with the teen, after it was revealed...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that he would shield President Donald Trump’s tax returns from Congress, during remarks that could signal the administration’s approach to an expected request from congressional Democrats. … “I’m not aware if there’s ever been a request for an elected official’s tax return,” Mnuchin said in response to questions from Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. “But we will follow the law and we will protect the president as we would protect any individual taxpayer under their rights.”

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page not only didn’t express remorse for taking part in what can only be described as an attempt by members of our government to sabotage a legitimate presidential candidate and then depose him once he was elected, she said her only regret is that she got herself busted. During her closed-door testimony last year before a House committee, Page told a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees last July, “And certainly, if I had this to do over again, I wouldn’t write this shit down in my personal – in a work-related text...

As I write, I happen to be next door to the Canadian House of Commons - which is far from my favorite place. But, at its lowest and most contemptible, Ottawa's House has never screwed over the Commoners the way that of its imperial mother just has in London. Last night, sixteen days before Britain supposedly leaves the European Union in accord with the people's vote of three years ago, their elected representatives voted by 312 to 308 to rule out a "no-deal" Brexit - ie, a straightforward walkaway - ever. So the EU now has no incentive ever to...

RUSH: The hot-to-trot news of the day. Beto O’Rourke, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, after saying he wasn’t gonna run for the presidency, today went to Iowa and flailed around with his arms gesticulating, wildly claiming he is gonna run. He’s got the craziest agenda. I hope these people keep talking. Every time these Democrats open their mouths, they are creating more Trump voters. Do not doubt me on this, folks. Do not doubt me. We have not become a socialist nation yet. These people are not appealing to a mass or majority of people in this country.Only in the Democrat Party...

The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, a nationally known nonprofit that monitors hate organizations, said Thursday it had fired co-founder Morris Dees, who once won a lawsuit that bankrupted a leading Ku Klux Klan group. A statement by Richard Cohen, the president of the law center, said Dees' employment had been terminated, but it did not give a specific reason. "As a civil rights organization, the SPLC is committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world. When one of our own fails to...

Rosario Dawson's all in on Cory Booker for President in 2020, but she might be a little biased ... because she just confirmed with us ... they're in a serious, loving relationship!!! The actress was at the Reagan National Airport in D.C. Thursday when our guy quizzed her on what's been widely rumored -- she's the woman Booker referred to last month on the Breakfast Club when he said he was dating someone very special, while adding, "I got a boo." It didn't take much prodding before Dawson said it was true and began gushing over her man, calling him...

Hallmark announced Thursday that it will no longer work with actress Lori Loughlin after she was charged in a college admissions scandal, The Associated Press reported. Loughlin was among the roughly 40 people charged is what officials have called the “largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”

A new climate activist group is solemnly pledging not to have any children because our planet has "no future." #BirthStrike has about 90 members, and, judging by their spokesperson, they are a really, really depressed bunch of crazies. Blythe Pepino is founder of the group: We are either going to commit some kind of species suicide......

(CNSNews.com) -- Democratic Congress members reintroduced the Ammunition Background Check Act on Wednesday, legislation that would require people to undergo an instant, universal background check through the federal NICS databaseeverytime they purchase gun ammunition. The lead sponsors of the bill are Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). The proposal is known as 'Jaime's Law," in honor of Jaime Guttenberg, one of the 17 victims of the shooting at the Marjory Stonemen Douglas High School in February 2018. "Ammunition sales should be subject to the same legal requirements that should govern firearm sales: universal background checks," said...

Just announced on Fox News.. Air Raid Sirens in Tel Aviv

President Donald J. Trump ‏ Verified account @realDonaldTrump 6m6 minutes ago More VETO!

Purim and the MEMORY of Amalek Parshat ZachorThis being the Shabbat before Purim, on which we celebrate the foiling of Haman the Amalekite's plot to destroy the Jewish people, the weekly Parshah is supplemented with the Zachor reading (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) in which we are commanded to remember the evil of Amalek and to eradicate it from the face of the earth.https://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=3/16/2019 Deu 25 17. Remember [zachor! זכור] what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt: 18. How he met you by the way, and struck at your rear, all who were feeble behind...

Republicans in Name Only say they will vote with the Democrats in the U.S. Senate Thursday to block President Donald Trump’s plans to build a border wall. Almost-Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and even Kentucky’s quixotic Rand Paul have already pre-announced their plans to vote with the Democrats against President Trump. This author’s news analysis here as opinion after more than 30 years in conservative politics is the author’s opinion and not necessarily that of everyone at Big Leage Politics. Once again border security will be blocked by the D.C....

‘MAKE NO MISTAKE: AN EMERGENCY ABSOLUTELY EXISTS ON THE BORDER, AND IT IS A NATIONAL AND HUMANITARIAN DISASTER’ March 14, 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today issued the following statement regarding his vote in favor of President Trump’s national emergency declaration: “Today, the National Emergencies Act required the Senate to answer one question: whether there is an ongoing emergency at our southern border. I voted to support the President’s declaration because, as Texans realize all too well, there is one. “This was a difficult vote. I understand my colleagues’ real concerns regarding the vast emergency powers...

TEDx Talk: Michael Shellenberger explains why nuclear power is cleaner, safer, cheaper, more reliable, and more environmentally friendly than solar power and wind power This 18 minute TEDx Talk by Michael Shellenberger is one of the best pro-nuclear power, anti-solar power, anti-wind power arguments that I have ever heard.He cites a huge number of statistics to show that compared to solar power and wind power, nuclear power is far better for the environment, far cleaner, far better for animals, far safer for humans, far more reliable, far cheaper, and has a far smaller environmental footprint.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-yALPEpV4w

A former contestant on "The Apprentice" who accused President Donald Trump of unwanted kissing and groping can move forward with her defamation lawsuit against him, a state appeals court ruled Thursday, raising the prospect that a sitting president could be called for sworn questioning. A panel of judges on the Supreme Court Appellate Division said in their ruling, in a case brought by Summer Zervos, that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution doesn't require trials in state court to be delayed until the president is out of office. Citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two decades ago in a...