Free Republic

With the return of John Dean to the witness’s chair in a congressional hearing room yesterday, false analogies between that incident and the current day Russia Hoax are everywhere in the mainstream media. But the one real lesson of that era is still valid today: Don’t trust the government’s Administrative State bureaucracy -- and in particular prosecutors, who are, too often, henchmen using their power and resources unethically, carelessly and ruthlessly. Too often they do not deliver justice; they hunt and destroy and cheat when necessary

HONG KONG—For months now, I’ve been told that Hong Kong’s protests would end soon. They’ll end when school starts, I heard during the summer. School did start, but the protests wore on, only now I saw high-school students in crisp school uniforms joining the protesters’ ranks. Next, the mask ban of early October was supposed to slow protesters down, but the very first day after that ban, I watched streams of protesters in masks and helmets make their way to their usual haunts on Hong Kong Island. The government shut down many of the subway lines that day, a practice...

President Donald Trump approved a series of cyberattacks targeting the systems Iran uses to launch missiles, Yahoo reported. Personnel with U.S. Cyber Command launched the attacks Thursday, the Friday report notes, citing sources within the administration. The sources told reporters that the Pentagon proposed launching them after Iran’s alleged attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. “This operation imposes costs on the growing Iranian cyber threat, but also serves to defend the United States Navy and shipping operations in the Strait of Hormuz,” Thomas Bossert, a former senior White House cyber official in the Trump administration, told...

Vatican spy story takes center stage as fraud trial resumesVATICAN CITY — The Vatican's big fraud and extortion trial resumes Friday after exposing some unseemly realities of how the Holy See operates, with a new spy story taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy.According to written testimony obtained Thursday, one of Pope Francis' top advisers brought in members of the Italian secret service to sweep his office for bugs and commissioned intelligence reports from them, completely bypassing the Vatican's own police force in the process.The reported actions of Archbishop...

he sheriff's office says it was determined that the wires holding up the Coos Mountain Repeater site were cut. The sheriff’s office says that tower is used for emergency communication for loggers, fire personnel and ham radio operators and is an integral piece of infrastructure in the region especially now as fire season begins. The sheriff's office says when the tower fell, it was completely destroyed.

....During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden's political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.The White House record of that call was later stored in the highly secured electronic system

Hillary Clinton's youngest brother Tony Rodham died Friday night, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate announced Saturday on Twitter. "We lost my brother Tony last night. It's hard to find words, my mind is flooded with memories of him today," The cause of death is not immediately known. He was previously married to former Sen. Barbara Boxer's daughter, Nicole Boxer. Rodham and Clinton were a trio of siblings, and he is also survived by his older brother Hugh. Rodham successfully lobbied Bill Clinton to pardon a couple convicted of bank fraud who paid Rodham $245,000 for consulting work, according to a...

July 1 is the 22nd anniversary of the handover from Britain to China. In recent years, this date has been used by democracy activists to protest and communicate their desire for genuine self-government. This year, July 1 could turn into a genuine test of the concept of one country, two systems. If Xi exercises disciplined restraint and allows Hong Kong to evolve, we will be in a vastly different world – and may be able to talk about a long-term evolution from dictatorship toward freedom for China. If, on the other hand, he moves to crush dissent and to impose...

ENTEBBE, Uganda—The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is selling off his country’s gold reserves. Some of it has passed through a secretive operation in East Africa, a gambit that evades U.S. sanctions. On two early-March flights, at least 7.4 tons of gold with a market value over $300 million moved from Venezuela to a refinery in Uganda, say officials in Venezuela and Uganda, a foreign diplomat and Venezuelan opposition lawmakers, who have concluded Mr. Maduro’s government exported the ingots. The gold arrived on a Russian charter jetliner in two shipments at the international airport in Entebbe, says Ugandan national-police...

For my followers: my recent tweets are less for you than they are fir my pursuers. They are shots across the bow .. https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1137799476507217921

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) compared President Donald Trump to his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, for calling off a military retaliation against Iran’s regime. “So I’ll wait to see additional information on it, but I think it’s important that people recognize that the United States is going to keep its word and not go down the path that President Obama went down,” Cheney told a CNN reporter on Friday.

Senators blocked an effort on Friday to restrict President Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran, handing a victory to Republicans and the White House. More than 40 have voted against the proposal from Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.) and Tom Udall (N.M.), which would block the president from using funding to carry out military action without congressional authorization. Though the vote remains open, the opposition blocks the proposal from getting the 60 yes votes it needed to be added as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In a round of unusual procedural maneuvering, senators passed...

Last month, when Trump dispatched the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the Persian Gulf region, it was reportedly the Israeli Mossad that tipped off the U.S. “on an Iranian plan to attack either a US or a US-allied target.”If so, the warning has already been borne out as just a week later Iran—trying to bully and threaten its way out of the Trump administration’s economic chokehold—attacked Norwegian, Emirati, and Saudi oil tankers, and last week attacked a Japanese and a Norwegian oil tanker.It’s not the first time Israeli intelligence has warned of impending attacks by Iran or...

She’s new on the job as White House Press Secretary but Stephanie Grisham has already created headlines of her own. Reporters on the scene of President Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed that Grisham was bruised up during a confrontation with North Korean guards. Grisham suffered bruises when a scuffle broke out Sunday between North Korean security guards and members of the media trying to get close to President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they shook hands at the Demilitarized Zone, the Associated Press reported.The new press secretary was reportedly pushing back...

Iran executed an ex-contract employee on charges of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Reuters reported Saturday. Jalal Hajizavar left his post at the aerospace organization of the Iranian defense ministry nine years ago. He was convicted by a military court after an investigation which discovered documents and spying equipment at his home, according to Reuters, which cited an IRIB news agency report. Hajizavar was reportedly executed at the Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, west of Tehran.

(Gateway Pundit) – Much has happened since our post May 25th – “Rumors Swirling that Fired Italian Spies Were Connected in Plot to Eliminate Trump”. The Gateway Pundit reported on rumors swirling that the recent firings of top Italian spies were related to Obama and a plot to set up candidate and President Trump during the 2016 election. As reported on May 25th==>> Earlier this month Italian Prime Minister Conte asked for the resignations of four top intelligence officials after his call with President Donald Trump. And now another Internet Sleuth has uncovered some shocking news related to the recent...

Presidential week in Provence: Obamas arrive in south of France on private jet for vacation at $60,000-a-week, 18th century farmhouse - just days after Sasha graduated from high school Former US president Barack Obama and his family arrived in Avignon, in south of France on Friday The Obamas are reportedly staying at a luxurious 18th century farmhouse Bathelasse island The seven-bedroom property called Le Mas des Poiriers, was rented at 55,000 euros for the week The main house features seven double bedrooms, a family room with large windows that allow for natural light illuminate the lavishly decorated space. It also...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned that hotly anticipated upcoming decisions by the Supreme Court may be split along 5-4 votes. Ginsburg spoke to the judicial conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York on Friday, noting that while only a quarter of the court's decisions so far have been divided, that pattern is likely to change. "Given the number of most-watched cases still unannounced, I cannot predict that the relatively low sharp divisions ratio will hold," Ginsburg said. There are five conservative and four liberal justices on the Supreme Court, meaning that...

Per Lou Dobbs reporting tonight on his Fox Show. The elusive FBI agent is finally going to be heard from