Free Republic

The Senate narrowly confirmed CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State on Thursday, overcoming steep opposition to his nomination. Senators voted 57-42, just over the simple majority needed for approval by the chamber. Pompeo’s was a virtual lock after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) reversed his position and said he would support Trump’s pick. The announcement came amid an intense pressure campaign by the White House, and spared Pompeo the dubious distinction of being the first secretary of State nominee since at least 1925 to fail to win over the Foreign Relations Committee. “After calling continuously for weeks for...

One of the three women kidnapped and held captive in a Cleveland “House of Horrors” -- where she was raped daily for more than a decade -- revealed in an episode of “Dr. Phil” she is happily married years after her harrowing escape. Michelle Knight, 36, who now goes by the name Lily Rose, announced the news in an episode set to air April 24, TMZ reported Monday. “I got really good news for you…Dr. Phil, I’m married!” Knight said as the audience cheered. Knight said she's been married since May 2015, two years after she was rescued from her...

The history of Superman is well documented throughout time in either comics, TV shows or movies. However, the history of his bloodlines has been pushed to the side just a bit, that is until the recent premiere of Krypton. In the new show on SYFY, it chronicles the life of Superman’s grandfather and great grandfather’s studies while on the planet of Krypton before Kal-El was born. While it was interesting to see the beginning of his story, what stood out the most is what may have slipped the eyes of many. While critics have bashed the pilot, there are some,...

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has raised the likelihood with President Trump’s legal team that his office will seek an interview with the president, triggering a discussion among his attorneys about how to avoid a sit-down encounter or set limits on such a session, according to two people familiar with the talks. Mueller brought up the issue of interviewing Trump during a late December meeting with the president’s lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Mueller deputy James Quarles, who oversees the White House portion of the special counsel investigation, also attended. The special counsel’s team could interview Trump very...

An appeals court on Thursday halted a decision that would have allowed a pregnant illegal immigrant teen to get an abortion, just hours after a federal judge ordered the government to "promptly" take her to have the procedure. The unidentified 17-year-old girl, who is being held at a Texas facility after she entered the U.S. illegally, is believed to be about 15 weeks pregnant. Texas state law bans most abortions if a woman is more than 20 weeks pregnant and require them to get counseling from a doctor 24 hours before the procedure. Minors are also usually required to obtain...

An argument broke out at a Delaware restaurant this week after a woman complained to a veteran that service dogs inside eateries are “nasty.” The video shows Ciara Miller standing inside of Kathy’s Crab House arguing with a small group of people, including a man holding a leash of a Great Dane wearing a vest that read: “PTSD service dog.” At one point a woman off camera is heard telling Miller the dog’s owner is a military veteran, the News Journal in Wilmington reported. Miller is heard responding the point is irrelevant and having an animal in a restaurant is...

'That's definitely not a mushroom!' Mortified mother spots a VERY rude drawing on an episode of a Netflix children's TV show A children's TV show has come under fire as it appears to feature a very rude drawing. Mother Chey Robinson shared a clip from the first series of the Netflix show Maya the Bee, which saw Maya fly into a log to hide, after spotting something amiss on the bark. Chey was horrified to discover that the log featured what looked like a drawing of a penis, which she says 'disgusted' her. The clip has since been viewed over...

A federal judge in Las Vegas cut short the testimony of an Idaho gun enthusiast in the middle of his Bunkerville standoff retrial Thursday. Eric Parker was photographed in April 2014 pointing a long gun through a barrier on an Interstate 15 overpass that overlooked a sandy ditch where protesters had gathered to face Bureau of Land Management agents. Prosecutors first objected to Parker’s testimony about 20 minutes after he took the stand and uttered the words “First Amendment.” Before the start of the second trial for Parker, a married father of two, and three other men, U.S. District Judge...

A series of images posted to Imgur document hypocrisy, contradictions, and inconsistencies from left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media outlets.

Many of us are all too familiar with the "beer goggles" effect: friends and strangers alike become more attractive after a drink or two. Undoubtedly, drinking alcohol lowers our inhibitions and makes us more open to experimentation with the same sex. In a new study, published in The Journal of Social Psychology, straight men were found to be more physically attracted to other men after a few drinks. "Most notably, alcohol intake was related to increased sexual willingness of men with a same-sex partner, suggesting a potential shift in normative casual sexual behavior among heterosexual men," wrote the authors in...

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly has signed sweeping new guidelines that empower federal authorities to more aggressively detain and deport illegal immigrants inside the United States and at the border. In a pair of memos, Kelly offered more detail on plans for the agency to hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, expand the pool of immigrants who are prioritized for removal, speed up deportation hearings and enlist local law enforcement to help make arrests. The new directives would supersede nearly all of those issued under previous administrations, Kelly said, including measures from President Barack Obama aimed at focusing deportations...

In the Virginia suburb of McLean, where the local diner is a C.I.A. breakfast hangout, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who ran the agency for George W. Bush, is playing career counselor these days. With President-elect Donald J. Trump attacking the intelligence community, the general says his “old tribe’’ is feeling “a special angst.” In free-spirited Takoma Park, Md., a “nuclear-free zone” since 1983, a left-wing resistance movement is taking shape. Nadine Bloch, an activist and artist, is running pre-inaugural training on nonviolent protest — complete with mock police officers wielding rolled up newspapers as batons. And here in the District...

A Virginia inmate asked a federal court Wednesday to block the state's plans to execute him next month with lethal injection drugs from a secret compounding pharmacy, suggesting even a firing squad would be more humane. Attorneys for Ricky Gray said in a federal complaint that there is a serious risk that Virginia will "chemically torture" the man to death when it uses compounded drugs for his execution scheduled for Jan. 18. Although firing squads aren't permitted under Virginia law, his attorneys argue even that method would be a more humane alternative. "It is both more humane, quicker, more effective,...

Marrakesh (Morocco) (AFP) - Stunned participants at UN climate talks in Marrakesh insisted Wednesday that climate change denier Donald Trump cannot derail the global shift to clean energy, although some called his victory in US presidential elections a "disaster". Trump "cannot prevent the implementation" of the landmark Paris pact, inked in the French capital last December, said Segolene Royal, France's environment minister and outgoing head of the UN climate forum. "As I speak, 103 countries representing 70 percent of (greenhouse gas) emissions have ratified it, and he cannot -- contrary to his assertions -- undo the Paris Agreement," she told...

Obama administration spokesman Josh Earnest snaps at CBS reporter Margaret Brennan, asking: "Why is that relevant?" when questioned about the $400 million cash payment (in Euros and Swiss Francs) to Iran. Earnest faced more than 20 minutes of questions about the suspicious nature of this payment Wednesday after details were reported by the Wall Street Journal. ... EARNEST: But why is that relevant? Why is that relevant?

<p>One of the stars of the reality TV show "Pawn Stars" told a judge on Monday he's taking a plea deal that would spare him jail time in a case stemming from the discovery of guns, marijuana and other drugs at his Las Vegas home.</p>

The general election effort to take down Donald J. Trump through television ads will begin on Wednesday, with the main “super PAC” supporting Hillary Clinton airing its first two attack ads on broadcast television in four important swing states. The effort kicks off a multimillion-dollar campaign that will flood TV screens in those battlegrounds in the months to come. The super PAC, Priorities USA Action, had initially planned to wait until after the June 7 primary contests to introduce TV ads attacking Mr. Trump, but accelerated its effort against the presumptive Republican nominee. The group’s $6 million investment includes two...

President Barack Obama is guaranteeing that evidence, not politics, will dictate the outcome of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails as secretary of state. Obama’s comments came during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, his first as president. Obama said he continues to believe Clinton didn’t jeopardize America’s national security with her private email server, but he added that “there’s a carelessness in terms of managing emails” that she has recognized. “What I also know, because I handle a lot of classified information, is that there are — there’s classified, and then there’s classified,” Obama told Fox...

If you’ve spent any time on social media, particularly in the politicalsphere, chances are you’ve encountered an internet troll or two. This election cycle has been er, um… interesting. I never thought I’d long for the days the so-called Paulbots would troll my feeds lecturing me about liberty and the Constitution and Dr. Paul. At least most of those accounts were real. Alas… Not so in 2016. The Trumpbots, or accounts that seem to exist solely to attack those with unfavorable views of The Donald, are a special breed of vicious. I’ve learned it’s best to ignore, block, and move...

This is my first Vanity post in over 16 years as a Freeper, so cut me some slack. Google, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Fox News and USA Today all say that Trump now has 736 delegates and Cruz has 463. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=republican+primaries+results http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-delegate-tracker/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/2016-election-results/us-primaries/ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2016/presidential-primary-caucus-results http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/elections-results-primaries-2016/#/ NYT says that Trump has 735 and Cruz has 461. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/primary-calendar-and-results.html Here on FreeRepublic, I have seen posts with delegate counts all over the board. Can anyone point me to a definitive site with the actual delegate counts (and not sites that you like best or that show what you want the count to be)?