Free Republic

A few weeks ago David Cameron made contemptible warnings over Brexit and its implications for UK security. He even went so far as to suggest the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “might be happy” if the country votes to Leave the EU. It is rather telling that since this intervention the PM has chosen to focus on prophesising economic collapse and hardship rather than discussing this vital issue of Britain’s national security. It is not surprising – considering the recent interventions and revelations concerning how the UK’s membership of the EU impacts on our security. A report by the...

It’s been two weeks since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with leaders of conservative media to “calm down” accusations that it was censoring conservative news and opinion. After the meeting, one of the attendees, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell, characterized the meeting “between Zuckerberg and conservative leaders as generally positive and ‘cordial’ – but, also expressed a cautious wait-and-see reaction to Facebook’s promises of reform, citing the social media giant’s loss of public trust.” He also said “We’ll see how the [internal] investigation turns out.” Bozell’s caution was well-founded. The internal investigation took only a few days, and Facebook...

Cruz Control - Cruz helped to breed his own nemesis. And what does he have to show for it? Is his style of “true” conservatism now the more popular, the more compelling, the better understood? For someone so intelligent and so renowned as a debater, it’s hard to remember any of Cruz’s arguments. Admittedly, he was debating legions of opponents—a case where party leaders really did let the good candidates down, as mentioned above. Partly, however, his fluent arguments lacked a center, a focus. He had two rhetorical modes—the preacher and the debater. One was earnest and revivalist, summoning ultimate...

Hamburg, Germany — WE Germans can never escape the trauma of our recent history. That has rarely been clearer than today, as we look around our Continent and across the Atlantic. There are almost too many differences to mention between what happened in the 1930s over here and what is going on today. And it goes without saying that Donald J. Trump and Austria’s Norbert Hofer are not Adolf Hitler. Still, Germany’s slide into a popular embrace of authoritarianism in the 1930s offers a frame for understanding how liberal democracies can suddenly turn toward anti-liberalism. Setting aside debate about whether...

Bill Kristol and other Never-Trump Republicans have done extensive polling and talked to potential candidates and financial backers about how to stop Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with those efforts. Their continued work to halt Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, comes as Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a prominent GOP congressman from Illinois and Iraq War veteran, has decided to pass on an independent bid.

<p>CRUZ said it is his "hope" that the Republicans nominate a conservative, SIGNALING THAT THE NOMINEE HAS NOT BEEN DECIDED. "What I hope is that we have a Republican nominee that will actually defend conservative principles," Cruz said.</p> <p>Cruz ... is still working to elect delegates, "even though Donald has the delegates to get the nomination." "One of the reasons that we are continuing to work to elect conservatives to be delegates, ... we intend to do everything we can to fight for conservative principles to prevent Washington forces from watering down the platform."....</p>

For nearly 100 years, Vocatura’s Bakery has been a New England staple. The family business was started in Westerly, Rhode Island, in 1919 and moved to its current home in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1956. There, the family bakes bread using its six-decade-old industrial oven and serves up pizza—square, but not sicilian—and sandwiches—including one “as long as your forearm”—to members of the community. The bakery has been family-owned and operated since its opening in 1919, and today, it’s run by David Vocatura, Larry Vocatura, Frankie Vocatura, and Richard Vocatura. The foursome still remembers being pushed around the bakery in a hand...

Plans to move towards the creation of a European army are reportedly being kept secret from British voters until the day after next month’s referendum. Drawn up by the EU’s foreign policy chief, the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy foresees the formation of new European military and operational structures. This first step towards an EU army is supported by Germany and other countries, The Times reports. In 2011, similar proposals were vetoed by Britain, although there were concerns that a loophole could allow nine states to group together to bypass opponents. In an effort to avoid derailing the...

Truncated title. Full title:Glenn Beck Blasts Conservative Critics as ‘Progressives on the Right’; Says Facebook Leans Left Because Conservatives Don’t Use Social Media Glenn Beck fired back today at conservatives who criticized his full-throated defense of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The radio talker dismissed his critics as “progressives on the right” and argued that Facebook skews left simply because more leftwingers use social media. Last week, Beck and 16 other conservatives met with Zuckerberg at a damage control meeting the tech billionaire called following reports from several Facebook whistleblowers that the site’s news curators actively suppress conservative stories in their...

Facebook announced Monday it was sending employees out for retraining and would discontinue some of its practices as it sought to defend itself against charges of political bias against conservatives. The online giant denied that it’s shown “systematic political bias,” but admitted employees played a bigger role than previously acknowledged in determining what news is highlighted in the trending topics section. Facebook also acknowledged that rogue employees may have unintentionally discriminated against conservative stories or even acted with malice in “isolated improper actions.” In one instance Facebook rejected a story this year about the opening of the annual Conservative Political...

A self-identified IRS employee admitted he would go after, target and try to end conservative groups who wanted to abolish the IRS, to Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing those groups, on a Washington Journal segment on C-SPAN. Mitchell, a political law attorney who has represented conservative groups during the IRS targeting scandal since 2010, was a guest on C-SPAN to discuss the possible impeachment of the IRS commissioner John Koskinen. The first caller was a self-identified IRS employee who said he would go after the groups Mitchell represents if their goal was to abolish the IRS. “I am a lowly...

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's comments on banning Muslims from entering the United States were "very dangerous", adding to his criticism of the presumptive Republican nominee. "It's a very dangerous thing to say ... as well as a divisive and wrong one," Cameron told ITV's "Peston on Sunday" show. However, he said he would be prepared to meet Trump if he came to Britain ahead of the U.S. election.

David Cameron has made Britain a “semi-pacifist” nation more interested in protecting “welfare and benefits” than adequate defenses, one of the country’s most senior retired generals has warned. General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, said the UK had “shrunk in to itself” and carries an “increasingly impotent stick”. He said the country now risked losing its post-Falklands global reputation for military might. …

Tucker Carlson said Friday he expected Glenn Beck to "cry [and] rend his garments while quoting James Madison" during a meeting this week between conservatives and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, not "suck up" to him. "He began the most extended assiduous suck-up I think I've ever seen a grown man commit," Carlson, editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller and a Fox News contributor, said in an interview, reports Politico. "He acted like he was auditioning to be Mark Zuckerberg's manservant — it was awe-inspiring."

Daily Caller editor-in-chief and Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson is not happy with how Glenn Beck acted at the Facebook meeting for conservatives this week. In an interview, Carlson blasted the radio and television host, saying he was sucking up to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "I went to that meeting expecting Beck to cry, rend his garments while quoting James Madison, but that's not at all what happened. He began the most extended assiduous suck-up I think I've ever seen a grown man commit. He acted like he was auditioning to be Mark Zuckerberg's manservant — it was awe-inspiring,' Carlson...

Surprising no-one, Glenn Beck, after joining the recent conservative delegation to Facebook, has defended the social network and its progressive CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, while attacking fellow conservatives for being too demanding of the company. It’s unclear if he’s gunning for a role in their PR department in the wake of The Blaze’s financial difficulties, but even if he isn’t, it’s hard to tell the difference. He’s written a post on Medium as well as his own personal website, given an interview to TIME, and appeared on his own syndicated talk radio show to defend the social network.

What do Glenn Beck, Carly Fiorina, S.E. Cupp, Dana Perino, Zac Moffett (Romney Campaign), and Arther Brooks have in common? They are all avowed members of the Never Trump coalition.  And according to recent media reports, they are also the names scheduled to meet with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to discuss Facebook’s ideological censorship of political views. […] “I want to have a direct conversation about what Facebook stands for and how we can be sure our platform stays as open as possible,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post last week. “The reason I care so much about this is that it...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said after a meeting with a group of conservatives Wednesday that he values their point of view and that people on the right are important to the social network. […] Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey was among the group who met with Zuckerberg and told Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” that the meeting was a “positive step.” But Matt Schlapp, chairman of American Conservative Union, declined the invitation, saying that Facebook had no interest in talking to him when he asked them how he could best use the platform in conjunction...

“A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania,” wrote Fox News’ Todd Starnes in 2013. It was reminiscent of how the British government banned radio host Michael Savage from entering the UK, placing him on a list with terrorists and criminals. It just seems as if Western statists must have had trouble with those primary school categorization questions and now, even as adults, could think that “bomb, cannon, mortar, rifle, pistol, and pen” all belong together....

The election of a Muslim as London mayor 'illustrates the need for Europe to rediscover its capacity to integrate', the Pope told La CroixPope Francis has hailed the election of London’s first Muslim mayor in a wide-ranging interview with a French newspaper. Discussing the migrant crisis with French daily La Croix, Pope Francis said “the worst form of welcome” for migrants is “to ‘ghettoise’ them”. “On the contrary, it’s necessary to integrate them,” the Pope said. “In Brussels, the terrorists were Belgians, children of migrants, but they grew up in a ghetto. In London, the new mayor (Sadiq Khan) took...