Free Republic

Billionaire plutocrat and GOP mega-donor Charles Koch says President Donald Trump’s tariffs on aluminum, steel, and thousands of Chinese-made imports are “ridiculous” and “unfair” to foreigners. Koch, who funds a network of organizations with his brother, David Koch, told the media during a conference with donors over the weekend that Trump’s ten percent tariff on imported aluminum and 25 percent tariff on imported steel was not fair to foreign countries and foreign workers. The Trump administration has said the tariffs on imported goods are necessary to protect American jobs and industries from foreign competition where foreign-made products are sold much...

Portland’s mayor violated the Constitution by ordering his police officers to stand down, allowing protesters to menace ICE employees over the last six weeks, according to agency employees who sent a cease-and-desist letter to the city Monday. The Oregon city has been at the forefront of nationwide anti-ICE protests this summer, after Mayor Ted Wheeler encouraged Occupy ICE, saying he supported their cause and didn’t want Portland’s police to interfere with their demonstration. That left protesters free to shut down the building leased by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, build an encampment on nearby land, and mount a harassment campaign...

"...Some changes were uncovered when reviewing the GDP numbers from Friday.  The major change being that the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) put through some revisions this quarter that reduced the amount of actual GDP reported in 2017 by a quarter of a trillion dollars but increased the amount of GDP in the Obama years.   A comparison of the GDP previously reported by the BEA with the current amounts follows..."

Four days after seemingly defying the NFL and letting the world know about his team’s zero-tolerance policy regarding standing for the national anthem, Jones is now not talking about the issue because he has been told not to by the league. Jones informed several local television stations who had booked him for interviews on their Sunday night show from training camp in Oxnard, Calif., that questions about the national anthem and his team’s policy were not permitted because the NFL had told him to stop

The new ad is narrated by DeSantis’ wife, Casey, who starts by reminding viewers that Trump has endorsed her husband in the Aug. 28 Republican primary. “But he's also an amazing dad. Ron loves playing with the kids,” she says, adding — with tongue firmly-in-cheek: “People say Ron's all Trump, but he is so much more.”The 30-second spot continues sprinkled with funny lines and images — all reinforcing that DeSantis is 100 percent Trump. The candidate teaches one of his two children to “build the wall” — a reference to Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S. border with Mexico —...

A pair of fake Russian soldiers stood guard at the remains of President Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star, days after a man destroyed it with a pickax. The two stonefaced men, dressed in olive green uniforms and thick hats, were spotted “protecting” the star on Hollywood Boulevard this week. The guards also reportedly braved the 90 degree California heat in their heavy outfits and were also seen carrying a Russian flag.

rest of title....."Rather Than 'Die in Prison' Video:Alan Dershowitz said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is hoping that Paul Manafort will opt to testify against the president, rather than face a lengthy prison sentence.

This weekend on WHAS Radio, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said border wall funding would “probably” have to wait until after midterms. Sunday President Donald Trump’s tweet threatening a government shutdown if a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was not funded. his weekend on WHAS Radio, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said border wall funding would “probably” have to wait until after midterms. Sunday President Donald Trump’s tweet threatening a government shutdown if a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was not funded.

When Beyonce and Jay Z are performing, all eyes are glue to the stage. Unless, that is, Barack Obama is rocking out behind you. Fans were delighted to spot the former U.S. president unleashing his best dad moves with wife Michelle beside him in a private booth at the FedExField in Landover, Maryland on Saturday. Throwing their arms in the air during Jay's track N****s in Paris, the former first couple were on their feet and clearly loving every moment as their old friends lit up the stage. They weren't even put off by the multiple cell phones pointing in...

An analysis of students in the US has found that those who have a certain type of brain parasite are more likely to be majoring in business studies. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite carried by cats. It can infect people through contact with cat faeces, poorly cooked meat, or contaminated water, and as many as one-third of the world’s population may be infected. The parasite doesn’t make us feel sick, but it forms cysts in the brain where it can remain for the rest of a person’s life. Some studies have linked infection with the parasite to slower reaction...

Tuesday’s decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals means that people in the western U.S. will now be able to openly carry a handgun in public. The decision only applies to districts under the 9th Circuit’s jurisdiction, but it will likely soon affect the rest of the country. It is a huge ruling that strikes down existing state prohibitions in Hawaii and California.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Once regarded by conservatives as the country’s sole red, white and blue national television news network, Fox News is increasingly showing its rainbow colors.

A vandal used a pickax to destroy President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame early Wednesday morning, authorities said. According to witnesses and police, a man removed the pickaxe from a guitar case about 3 a.m. and began swinging it at the star on Hollywood Boulevard, leaving chunks of concrete strewn across the sidewalk. A description of the vandal was not available.

Yoko Ono on Tuesday announced that she is releasing a new album at age 85, saying that her lifelong message of peace was sorely needed in 2018. "Warzone," which will come out on October 19, will revisit songs penned by Ono since 1970, concluding with "Imagine," her seminal pacifist anthem with her late husband John Lennon.

A six-month old baby boy was kidnapped, set on fire and dumped near train tracks in Louisiana last week. Baby Levi Cole Ellerbe was kidnapped on July 17 after two people came to mother Hanna Barker's trailer door just after 9pm and sprayed her in the face with what she believed was mace. Instinctively, the Barker ran to get away, a statement from Natchitoches police said, and when she went back home, found her infant son was missing. Police said the search for baby Levi began immediately, with additional officers from surrounding precincts called in to help. Unfortunately, less than...

VideoA teenager in Seattle, Washington was harassed by a man and a woman on the street for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. In a YouTube video of the encounter, Ashton Hess told the man who allegedly spat on his hat, "That's my property, dude. Come on." The video then shows the man telling Hess to "get the f*** out [of] this city." Hess said that he was with his family waiting for a ride outside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery when the incident occurred.

Falon Griffin, was already in labor, and the Chick-fil-A was closed, but Falon desperately had to go to the restroom. The couple banged on the restaurant’s glass doors around 10:30 p.m., and staff members cleaning up for the night let Falon, who was 38 weeks pregnant at the time according to KSAT, and her husband inside. When Falon began to scream, the night took a sharp turn for everyone involved. “I’m about to dial 911, I open the door and she’s just screaming,” Brenda Enriquez, the Chick-fil-A store director, told KSAT. Robert came running. There was no way the ambulance...

Microsoft disclosed Thursday that it identified and helped thwart hacking attempts on three congressional candidates earlier this year, marking the first publicly known hacking efforts targeting candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. "Earlier this year, we did discover that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks," Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for security and trust, said at the Aspen Security Forum. "And we saw metadata that suggested those phishing attacks were being directed at three candidates who are all standing for election in the midterm elections," he added. Burt said that Microsoft and...

Millennials may have only a little saved for retirement, but they still want to retire early. A recent Bankrate.com survey asked millennials, classified as Americans ages 18 to 37, what the perfect time to retire would be. Their answer: 61 years old. “Early retirement is something that seems very appealing,” Bankrate.com analyst Amanda Dixon tells CNBC Make It. If only wishing made it so. Of those millennials already saving, the median retirement account balance is about $19,100. But overall, roughly two-thirds of millennials have nothing saved so far, according to a February report by the National Institute on Retirement Security....

The nation's top voting machine maker has admitted in a letter to a federal lawmaker that the company installed remote-access software on election-management systems it sold over a period of six years, raising questions about the security of those systems and the integrity of elections that were conducted with them. In a letter sent to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April and obtained recently by Motherboard, Election Systems and Software acknowledged that it had "provided pcAnywhere remote connection software … to a small number of customers between 2000 and 2006," which was installed on the election-management system ES&S sold them....