Free Republic

By my draft research, which I’m opening up for crowd-sourcing on GoogleDocs, Soros has funded, or has close relationships with, at least 56 of the march’s “partners,” including “key partners” Planned Parenthood, which opposes Trump’s anti-abortion policy, and the National Resource Defense Council, which opposes Trump’s environmental policies. The other Soros ties with “Women’s March” organizations include the partisan MoveOn.org (which was fiercely pro-Clinton), the National Action Network (which has a former executive director lauded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett as “a leader of tomorrow” as a march co-chair and another official as “the head of logistics”). Other Soros...

Donald Trump plans new deal for Britain as Theresa May becomes first foreign leader to meet new president since inauguration Donald Trump is planning a new deal for Britain this week as Theresa May becomes the first foreign leader to meet him since the inauguration... The new relationship - which comes with both countries redefining their roles in the world - is due to be cemented with a state visit for Mr Trump in the summer. The US President’s team has made clear he wants a “full Monty” visit that will eclipse the trips of his predecessors in pomp and...

The tragic fallout from the horror rampage in Melbourne continued on Saturday with a three-month-old boy succumbing to his injuries, becoming the fifth person to die in the attack. Dimitrious Gargasoulas, 26, has been identified as the man who drove an allegedly stolen maroon Holden Commodore along Bourke Street on Friday afternoon, ploughing through people on the packed sidewalk as they desperately ducked for cover. Four people died at the scene, and police said on Saturday 37 were rushed to hospital. At least ten of them are still in a serious condition, and there are fears the the death toll...

SIERRA VISTA, AZ (Tucson News Now) - The City of Sierra Vista has received designation as a Great American Defense Community member by the Association of Defense Communities. The Arizona city is one of eight across the U.S. that received the designation for 2017. “Our community has always supported and welcomed the soldiers and families who call Fort Huachuca home. It’s just part of who we are,” Sierra Vista Mayor Rick Mueller says. “This honor celebrates the efforts of the entire Sierra Vista community and the many local organizations that ensure our service members and their families have all their...

"The worst human being ever to enter the presidency, and I include all the slaveholders."

The US came very close to stepping in to help Argentina take the islands after they invaded in 1982. US security bosses were ready to offer Falkland Islanders the option of moving to British territory, with Scotland being touted as a potential new home, or being allowed to stay on the Islands. However, if they opted to stay they would automatically become Argentinian citizens. The option of moving abroad would have been sweetened with the promise of a $100,000 grant per person. The proposed plan, entitled ‘Solution to the Falkland Islands crisis’, was put together by Henry Rowen, the then...

Norwegian bank Storebrand is offering new ‘halal loans’ based on Islamic principles. The bank recently created a website promoting ‘ethical loans’ for home financing without interest.    The bank writes that it is testing the idea of interest-free loans in part to appeal to Muslim home buyers who may not want to accept a traditional loan because of their faith. Islam prohibits charging interest or fees on financial loans.    “We wanted to find out if there could be another way to enter a housing market with rising prices. The product could appeal to young people, new graduates or people...

Wiith three days left in his presidency, Barack Obama made his final appointments to administration positions, including adding 10 members to the Holocaust Memorial Council. Most notable on that list is Ben Rhodes, a long-time Obama aide and speechwriter who managed the White House messaging on selling the Iran deal and explaining the US decision to abstain on a United Nations Security Council resolution last month that condemned Israeli settlements as illegal. Rhodes, whose official title is deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, was a source of controversy after a New York Times Magazine profile portrayed him as bragging...

Organization of Islamic Cooperation rejects actions that could undermine PA's ability to claim Jerusalem for a state. Foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday indirectly condemned plans by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to move the embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, reports The Associated Press. A statement issued after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur did not specifically mention the United States or Trump by name, but said the OIC rejected any actions that could undermine the ability of Palestinian Arabs to claim part of Jerusalem in a future state. It also called on governments...

Not since 1980 — or perhaps 1932 — has such a political revolution hit the banks of the Potomac River. Donald Trump comes into the White House with a bright, clear mandate to make wholesale changes to every aspect of the federal government. From the darkest corners of the bloated federal bureaucracy to the bright marble columns of the Supreme Court, Mr. Trump’s mandate is as broad as it is dramatic. Illegal immigration, international trade, education, Obamacare and America’s war against terrorism are all on the table for complete overhauls. Refreshingly, Mr. Trump’s mandate is not a partisan one. He...

“Don’t make any sudden moves” is the advice offered to the new president by Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations, which has not traditionally been known as a beer hall of populist beliefs. Haass meant the president should bring his National Security Council together to anticipate the consequences before tearing up the Iran nuclear deal, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem or shooting down a missile being tested by Kim Jong-Un. In arguing against rash action, Haass is correct. Where the CFR and the establishment are wrong, and Donald Trump is right, however, is in recognizing the new...

On Nov. 16, 2014, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took the unusual step of designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim American Society (MAS) – as terrorist organizations.They were among 83 groups named for their connections to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.This outraged CAIR officials, who immediately began efforts to get their organization removed from the list. They found a powerful ally in Secretary of State John Kerry, who authorized State Department officials to meet regularly with UAE officials to lobbying on behalf of CAIR and MAS .CAIR already had a sympathetic ear in the Obama administration, including...

Sean Spicer, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for White House Press Secretary, told reporters Thursday to expect an announcement soon on the incoming administration's intentions regarding the relocation of the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Billionaire investor George Soros said Thursday he views President-elect Donald Trump as an “impostor and con man and a would-be dictator” who will rattle financial markets. Soros, a big supporter of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, said he is confident Trump will be checked by Congress and the Constitution. […] “I personally am convinced that (Trump) is going to fail,” Soros said. “Not because of people like me who would like him to fail, but because the ideas that guide him are inherently self-contradictory.” …

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was arrested last January after almost six months on the run following his escape from a maximum-security prison in MexicoThe convicted Sinaloa cartel boss had been held most recently at a prison near Ciudad Juarez. He was recaptured a year ago after escaping from a second maximum-security prison through a tunnel dug to his cell. The 2015 escape was highly embarrassing for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto, and Mexican officials were seen as eager to hand the headache off to the United States afterward. Guzman's lawyers have fought extradition since his recapture. Guzman, who...

The war on drugs continues to enjoy popular support in the Philippines despite condemnation from many outside the country. Recent opinion surveys show 85 percent of Filipinos approve of the violent crackdown on illegal drugs but at the same time 78 percent are fearful they, or someone they know, may become a victim of the increased violence. Despite that 89 percent of people have noted a decline in crime since the anti-drug campaign began and find that overall they are safer.

ROMA, Texas — Four family members who ran one of the largest cartel smuggling operations in south Texas had their life in prison sentences commuted and will likely be returning to this border city from where they ran their criminal empire. One of the main destinations that the criminal organizations delivered drugs to was Chicago, Illinois. This week, outgoing President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 209 convicted criminals and pardoned 64 others. The majority of the convictions were from drug trafficking or production offenses. Four of those convicted criminals who had been sentenced to life in prison will be...

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday introduced yet another bill targeting United Nations funding, this time including a special focus on the U.N. Human Rights Council’s heavily anti-Israel agenda. […] It calls specifically for U.S. funding to be withheld until the president certifies that no U.N. agency or affiliated agency grants official status or recognition to any organization promoting or condoning anti-Semitism. American taxpayers account for 22 percent of the regular budget of the U.N., plus almost 29 percent of the separate peacekeeping budget. The U.S. additionally provides billions of dollars more each year in “voluntary contributions” to a spread of U.N....

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki was killed in a plane crash on Thursday, raising questions about who will take over his investigation into dozens of politicians in the country's biggest ever corruption scandal. Rescuers found three bodies in the wreckage of the small, twin-prop plane that crashed off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state amid heavy rains, firefighters said. Zavascki, 68, had in recent weeks been reviewing explosive testimony from executives at engineering group Odebrecht, expected to implicate hundreds of politicians in a scandal involving kickbacks on contracts at state-run enterprises. The dual-propeller Hawker Beechcraft C90GT carrying Zavascki...

Fake news outlet CNN’s top executive, Jeff Zucker, is threatening the incoming president of the United States Donald J. Trump. “It’s just unfortunate that the most powerful person in the world is trying to delegitimize journalism and an organization that plays such a vital role in our democracy,” Zucker, CNN’s president, said in an interview with NY Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, when asked about how Trump denounced CNN as “fake news” at his press conference last week in New York City....-snip- ... Zucker specifically noted that Trump’s “adversarial relationship” with a network seen in foreign capitals is “a mistake.” “I think...