Free Republic

Perhaps the word “swoon” in the headline strikes some of my amigos as unnecessarily hyperbolic?—as typical “click-bait?”Fair enough. Let’s have a closer look at the issue for a more accurate evaluation. Here’s indignant Trump SOTU boycotter Barbara Lee (D-CA) explaining her indignation and boycott:“On January 20th, I will not be celebrating or honoring an incoming president who rode racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry to the White House."Now here’s Lee upon “copping a backstage pass” (so to speak) upon one of her frequent red-carpet visits to Cuba to “meet and greet” the jailer and torturer of the most and longest suffering black,...

The 68-year-old son of Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro has died in Havana after taking his own life, according to Cuban state media. Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart was found on Thursday morning and is said to have suffered from depression.

HAVANA (AP) — The oldest son of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro killed himself on Thursday after months of treatment for depression, state media reported. He was 68. Official website Cubadebate said Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart had been in a "deeply depressed state." A brief note read on state television said his treatment had "required an initial hospitalization then outpatient follow-up." The oldest son of Cuba's late revolutionary leader was known for his resemblance to his father, earning him the nickname Fidelito or Little Fidel. (please see full article at link)

The son of late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, committed suicide on Thursday after being treated for months for depression, Cuban state-run media reported. “Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1. Findings. (a) Consistent with long-standing law of war principles and applicable law, the United States may detain certain persons captured in connection with an armed conflict for the duration of the conflict.(b) Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and other authorities authorized the United States to detain certain persons who were a part of or substantially supported al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, or associated...

CIA chief says China 'as big a threat to US' as Russia Chinese efforts to exert covert influence over the West are just as concerning as Russian subversion, the director of the CIA has said. Mike Pompeo told the BBC that the Chinese "have a much bigger footprint" to do this than the Russians do. As examples he cited efforts to steal US commercial information and infiltration of schools and hospitals - and this extended to Europe and the UK. Mr Pompeo was a hardline Republican congressman before becoming CIA chief. In his BBC interview, Mr Pompeo also said: He...

“I offer my deepest condolences to you and the entire Cuban nation over the death of your brother, the leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro. The name of this remarkable statesman is rightfully viewed as a symbol of a whole era in modern history. Free and independent Cuba built by him and his fellow revolutionaries has become an influential member of the international community and serves as an inspiring example for many countries and peoples. Fidel Castro was a sincere and reliable friend of Russia. He made a tremendous personal contribution to the establishment and progress of Russian-Cuban...

President Trump is planning to keep the detention center at Guantanamo Bay open with an executive order that will reverse his predecessor's directive, according to a report. Trump is expected to make an announcement about his plans sometime next week, according to Politico. Trump, who campaigned as the “law and order candidate,” has repeatedly attacked the legacy of former President Barack Obama, who signed an executive order to shutter the facility in 2009.

“For the first time in the course of his duties, a U.S. President, Donald Trump, declared his solidarity with members of the March for Life, and officially declared that for the U.S. January 22 stands as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. For that humanitarian gesture in defense of moral-ethical values and the sanctity of life starting at conception the institutions International Center for the Defense of Human Life and the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights have the honor of awarding President Donald Trump their highest award: “The Medal of Life.” Don’t bother looking for this in the Mainstream Media,...

Radical left-wing icon former California Democratic Rep. Ron Dellums was a hired lobbyist for Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. June 9, 2016, the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned. Dellums, who represented liberal San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., is a long-time darling of left-wing political activists. He served 13 terms in Congress as an African-American firebrand and proudly called himself a socialist. He retired in 1996. The former congressman is one of several high-profile Democratic partisans who was on Veselnitskaya’s payroll, working to defeat a law that is the hated object of...

A Scarlet Letter (A) once marked a harlot (OK, OK!… by Puritan New England 1650 standards!) In 1944-45 a French woman with a shaved head meant she was guilty of much the same –but with the added onus of having “slept-in-sin” with the enemy (Germans.)(Please, amigos! Let’s argue about the morals and merits of these designations another time! My point is that these “brands” were a way to let the world know—easily and without going into a long inquiry--what these women had been up to.) Well, without a long inquiry, all you really need to know about a news network’s propensity...

The progressive billionaire speculator George Soros has said he will ‘fight back’ against the “dominant ideology” of nationalism, whilst admitting that favoured globalist project the European Union is “on the verge of a breakdown”. Wistfully writing that Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) once ‘epitomised the optimism about the spread of Western-style democracy’ after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Financial Times described the scrutiny the global progressive body is experiencing amidst a wave of patriotism and populism and the ‘wilting’ attraction of the leftist agenda. Soros, alluding to the collapse of the USSR, told the left-liberal newspaper: “It’s déjà...

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a proverb that has long, and apparently mistakenly, been attributed to Bedouins. It’s unfair to them, as it contains the false-dichotomy fallacy. Sometimes the saying is correct, as when the Allies decided in World War II to side with Josef Stalin against Adolf Hitler. Other times, both options are equally bad. This is, however, the way many people insist on reacting to George Soros and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two men currently going toe-to-toe for control of much of the globe’s hearts and minds. You either side with one or...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is considering joining French President Emmanuel Macron at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week in what could turn into an epic clash of competing world views with U.S. President Donald Trump. Merkel, who has been struggling to put together a government since a German election in September, had been expected to skip the annual gathering of leaders, CEOs, bankers and celebrities in the Swiss Alps for a third straight year. But after clinching a preliminary coalition agreement with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) on Friday, German officials said Merkel could travel...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s trade tsar has no idea what Donald Trump will tell his audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, but she is clear what the EU’s message to the U.S. president will be. America is shooting itself in the foot by withdrawing from global leadership on trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, the 49-year-old Swede who has served as Europe’s trade commissioner for the past three years, told Reuters. Under Malmstrom’s direction, the EU has juggled a dizzying array of trade talks over the past year. In July it clinched a preliminary deal with Japan....

WASHINGTON, DC — Attendees at a protest Thursday expressed frustration over former U.S. President Barack Obama’s failure to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, which he promised to do on the first day of his presidency. The protesters also denounced President Donald Trump. An imam calling for Gitmo, as the facility is commonly known, to be shut down also urged authorities to detain U.S. President Donald Trump in a similar facility for refusing to give into the demonstrator’s demands. Many demonstrators placed the blame on the fairly new U.S. President Donald Trump for keeping the detention center, ignoring his predecessor’s eight...

I do believe Cuba’s responsible. I do believe that. And it’s a very unusual attack, as you know. But I do believe Cuba is responsible.” (President Trump regarding strange attacks on U.S. diplomats in Cuba that resulted in brain damage.)“What we’ve said to the Cubans is: small island, you’ve got a sophisticated security apparatus. You probably know who is doing it. You can stop it. It’s as simple as that.” (Secretary of State Rex Tillerson regarding same attacks.)Recently brain-damage was confirmed on the U.S. diplomats who served in the U.S. embassy in Cuba. So to most reasonable people, the KGB-founded...

Sen. Marco Rubio pushed back Sunday against comments from a Republican colleague that the United States has found no evidence of “sonic attacks” in Cuba. The Florida Republican charged the attacks were a “documented fact.” In a series of tweets Sunday, Rubio dismissed comments by Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a longtime advocate for improving ties with Cuba, stating that any U.S. official briefed on the mysterious events in Havana “knows full well that while method of attack still in question, that attacks and injuries occurred isn’t.” “It’s a documented FACT that 24 U.S. govt officials & spouses were victims...

The leader of the Liberal group in the European Parliament has slammed the bloc’s Foreign Minister and top diplomat for failing to raise human rights concerns on a trip to Communist Cuba. High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini used the trip to boast that the EU is now Cuba’s most important trading partner, and also met with dictator Raúl Castro. She also made a subtle dig at President Donald J. Trump, saying the EU would continue the approach to Cuba championed by predecessor Barack Obama “regardless of the...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Behind the scenes, the U.S. military is planning for nearly a half-billion dollars in new construction during the Trump administration, including a Navy request to build a $250 million, five-bed hospital here that has been singled out for study by a Senate committee. Despite President Donald J. Trump's campaign promise to reduce costs at the remote U.S. Navy base -- at one point he mused that his new Cuba policy might import cheap, local labor from across the minefield -- the Pentagon's appetite to spend at this outpost of about 5,500 residents and 41...