Free Republic

In my weekend column I offered a concrete plan to undermine President Obama’s atrocious Iran deal. It is an easy one, because all that the Republican-controlled Congress has to do, if it really wants to derail this thing, is follow the law that they wrote and Obama signed, the Corker law — the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, sometimes also known as “Corker-Cardin,” after Senate sponsors Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D., Md.). Sadly, in another iteration of the anger that is the wind beneath Donald Trump’s wings, many readers insist that GOP leadership has no...

On June 25, a representative from the Shanghai Gold Exchange announced that they are planning on establishing a new physical gold price mechanism by the end of the year that will compete with London and the U.S. Comex. Expected to be denominated in Yuan, this new gold price platform comes less than 10 days after China became the first Asian country invited to be a part of the London gold fix, and unlike the U.S. Comex, will deal in direct physical gold sales rather than in paper futures and derivative contracts. When the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) opened in 2014,...

The long-range plans of the Air Force and the Pentagon to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt took another hit Thursday from a non-partisan government report questioning Air Force projections on the savings from mothballing the fleet. The Air Force estimate of $4.2 billion in savings over five years was unreliable and "may overstate or -understate the actual figure," the Government Accountability Office said in a preliminary report to Congress on the decision to retire the fleet. Air Force leaders have said the service must retire the A-10 due to budget cuts in order to pay for the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter....

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Concerns about the global economy battered commodities and kept Asian equities subdued on Wednesday, while the euro was pinned near nine-year lows as investors bet the European Central Bank was just a week away from launching a new stimulus campaign. Copper futures suddenly plunged 6.3 percent to $5,489 a tonne as major chart support cracked. The industrial metal is often considered a weathervane of world demand. Not helping the mood was news that the World Bank had cut its 2015 global growth forecasts to 3 percent from 3.4 percent because of sluggishness in the euro zone, Japan...

People who weren’t even born in America are taking significant advantage of one of Obamacare’s single-most expensive benefits, the expansion of Medicaid, a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows. In fact, immigrants have accounted for 42 percent of the growth in Medicaid enrollment since Obamacare began being implemented in 2011, the report finds. “The high rate and significant growth in Medicaid associated with immigrants is mainly the result of a legal immigration system that admits large numbers of immigrants with relatively low-levels of education, many of whom end up poor and uninsured,” report co-author Steven Camarota...

NEW YORK – She's an under-the-radar contender to become the first black woman to head the Justice Department. Loretta Lynch rarely holds news conferences, does interviews or gives speeches in her current job as U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. But the lack of a paper trail on Lynch hasn't kept her from emerging in recent weeks as one of only a handful of people still under consideration by the White House to replace the outgoing Eric Holder as attorney general. The buzz over the 55-year-old Harvard Law School graduate was apparent as she sat next to Holder for his appearance at...

WILLISTON N.D. (Reuters) - Harold Hamm, the chief executive of North Dakota oil producer Continental Resources Inc , has stunned a bearish crude market by scrapping all of the company's hedges - a bold bet that prices will recover soon after sliding some 25 percent. Related Stories [$$] Saudi Oil Price Cut Scrambles Market The Wall Street Journal Saudi price cuts send New York oil prices to 3-year low AFP [$$] Saudi Price Cut Upends Oil Market The Wall Street Journal Gulf oil producers seen riding out price plunge AFP [$$] Occidental Petroleum’s Profit Falls 24% The Wall Street Journal...

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, whom the Obama administration has considered enlisting in the fight against the Islamic State, blamed the growing threat of the jihadist group on the West’s involvement in the Middle East. During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Rouhani said, “Today’s anti-Westernism is the offspring of yesterday’s colonialism; today’s anti-Westernism is a reaction to yesterday’s racism,” according to a live translation. “Certain intelligence agencies have put blades in the hands of madmen who now spare no one.” “All those who have played a role in founding and supporting these terrorist groups must acknowledge...

Japan launched a twenty-seven-thousand ton “destroyer” (the Izumo, DDH 183) on August 6th that looks exactly like an aircraft carrier. Actually it looks like an LPH (Landing Platform Helicopter) an amphibious ship type that first appeared in the 1950s. LPHs had no (or relatively few) landing craft but did carry a thousand or more troops who were moved ashore using the dozen or more helicopters carried. The first American LPH (the USS Iwo Jima) was an eighteen-thousand-four-hundred ton ship that entered service in 1961, and carried two-thousand troops and twenty-five helicopters. Until Izumo showed up, several nations operated LPHs, and...

President Obama on Tuesday nominated two major campaign bundlers to two of the most prized ambassadorships available anywhere – London and Rome – part of a pattern that has seen him reward at least 18 top fundraisers with plum diplomatic positions since 2009. The White House said the post of ambassador to the United Kingdom will go, subject to confirmation, to Matthew Barzun, an Internet pioneer and investor who served as the Obama campaign finance chairman in 2008, as ambassador to Sweden from 2009-2011, and then again as finance chairman for the president’s 2012 campaign. The ambassadorship to Italy will...

The U.S. Navy believes that China has already begun deploying the DF-21D ballistic missile, which was designed for use against the U.S. Navy, particularly aircraft carriers. In response the Americans are developing defenses and countermeasures against the DF-21D. Details of this effort are, for obvious reasons, kept secret. The basic DF-21 is a 15 ton, two stage, solid fuel missile that is 10.7 meters (35 feet) long and 140cm (4.6 feet) in diameter. Range varies (from 1,700-3,000 kilometers) depending on model. The DF-21D is believed to have a range of 1,500-2,000 kilometers. While the 500-2,000 kg (.5-2 ton) warhead usually...

Video - One guy says, "How is he suppose to memorize an hour and a half debate?"

On September 18th Russia told India that delivery of the refurbished Russian carrier Admiral Gorshkov (since renamed the INS Vikramaditya) would be delayed ten months. The problem is that seven of eight steam boilers in the carrier power plant failed during recent high-speed trials. The Russians blame India for this, as the Indians refused to allow the Russians to use asbestos to insulate the steam boilers. Instead the Russians had to use firebrick which, as some engineers suspected, was not adequate. Now extensive work has to be done on the engines to rectify the problem. India is not happy with...

A new survey by Quinnipiac University found that New York City residents are more likely to vote for a gay, lesbian or Muslim president than a born-again Christian, Mormon, or atheist. 30% of New Yorkers said they would turn an atheist down, 27% said thumbs-down on a born-again Christian, 24% nixed Mormons, but only 19% would vote against a Muslim and 10% against a gay or lesbian.

Why are so many young Americans too stupid to be soldiers. A fourth of potential American military recruits can't join because they are too fat. That got some media attention. But the fact that a quarter of high school graduates who tried to join failed the written exam attracted less attention. The main reason for this is that fact that most of the uneducated high school grads are minorities (mainly blacks and Hispanics) from urban schools. Those schools are failure factories controlled by teachers unions, bureaucrats who are willing to sacrifice education for jobs and more benefits. You do not...

Everybody loves a good mystery, so Robert Woodward’s new book ‘Obama’s Wars’ should be a big hit. “Wait,” you may say. “I thought this was a factual account of the deep division in the Obama administration over Afghanistan war policy.” You would be correct, and it is well documented, detailed, and devastating. But, what is the mystery? The title. Yes, the title says ‘Wars’ but it is really about just one war, Afghanistan, and specifically about the decision to increase troop levels—the surge. So why did Woodward call it ‘Wars’? The book reveals a wide chasm between the core of...

NORFOLK -- The U.S. Second Fleet, which trains and certifies all strike groups before deployment and employs 348 active and reserve military personnel, civilian employees and contractors, is in jeopardy as the Department of Defense continues to trim its budget. If the Second Fleet were to be shut down, hundreds of jobs could be lost in the Hampton Roads area. Retired Navy Captain Joe Bouchard says that any potential cost savings would come at a big price. Captain Bouchard is the former commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk and now a board member of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal...

When the US Government acts to undermine federal law, it can take awhile for information to surface. After some media ran stories about Immigration and Customs officials’ intent to ‘make detention centers more humane,’ a new story is making the rounds. Officers and agents have issued a ‘no confidence’ vote in assistant secretary of Homeland Security for ICE John Morton and Office of Detention Policy and Planning assistant director Phyllis Coven. Janice Kephart at the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies wrote, “In an unprecedented move within the Department of Homeland Security, the detention and removal officers and agents responsible for...

I had a long conversation this weekend with a young woman who is sharp and educated, but held firmly in place by Democrat politics. This is partly a result of history taught in public schools. As we chatted, it became apparent she believed a number of myths Democrats love to promote. Among them: •JFK eagerly promoted civil rights legislation from the time he was in the Senate. [Not.] •There are no legislators with past ties to the Ku Klux Klan in the Democrat Party. All the racists joined the Republican Party [Not.] •Democrat policies are consistent with increasing job opportunities...

No one reporting on the Global War on Terror has done a more effective or honest job than Michael Yon. For one thing he knows the military, having served in U.S. Army Special Forces. With his camera and his pen, he enabled readers to see aspects of war corporate media could or would not divulge. On Saturday, April 10, Yon posted a message on his magazine-style website. “[A] message came from military that this embed has ended.” He headed off to pack his bags. On his Facebook page where fans comment daily, more than 135 of his more than 21,000...