Free Republic

What do the Iranian regime, the New York Times and Sen. Rand Paul have in common? “I believe Mr. Trump does not seek war. But Mr. Bolton and Netanyahu have always sought war.” Thus spoke Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, at a Monday press conference in Tehran. It’s not the first time Mr. Zarif has tried to drive a wedge between President Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton—or between the president and his most steadfast international ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But for Mr. Bolton, Mr. Zarif implies, we could have peace in the Middle East tomorrow....

Facebook has targeted politicians around the world – including the former UK chancellor, George Osborne – promising investments and incentives while seeking to pressure them into lobbying on Facebook’s behalf against data privacy legislation, an explosive new leak of internal Facebook documents has revealed. The documents, which have been seen by the Observer and Computer Weekly, reveal a secretive global lobbying operation targeting hundreds of legislators and regulators in an attempt to procure influence across the world, including in the UK, US, Canada, India, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia and all 28 states of the EU. The documents include details of...

The unfitness of Rep. Ilhan Omar for the House Foreign Affairs Committee has already been brought up based on her persistent anti-Semitism, her strange habit of repeating Russian propaganda, and her apparent abuse of U.S. immigration law. Now a new and very big reason has come up: Her cringe-inducing ignorance of actual foreign affairs.  In a hearing on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Omar got her big moment to show her foreign policy chops, and started in by misstating the actual name of the State Department's grizzled old special envoy for Venezuela, the well-known Elliott Abrams, calling him 'Adams.' Then, sneering and smiling weirdly, she brought...

Sims, unlike many others who have left the White House and gone on to attack the president in books or public comments, remains loyal to Trump and is trying to out leakers–or sleeper cells, as they are called–in the West Wing. One alleged leaker exposed in another excerpt in Sims’ book is White House counselor KellyAnne Conway, who, Sims recounts in an excerpt published by Vanity Fair, asked him to write a statement on her computer saying she was not disloyal or leaking–while he watched messages appear on her screen between her and media figures in which she allegedly trashed...

It appears that the leadership of the Democratic Party has gone completely anti-Israel and is warming up to Jew-hatred. The appointment of Rep. Ilhan Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee – and the welcome extended to her by the chairman, (former) Israel-supporter Rep. Eliot Engel – confirms that the Democrats' big tent now extends to those who believe that Jews in Israel wield magical power to "hypnotize" non-Jews into acquiescence to their "evil." Omar was triumphant yesterday on her appointment to the plum committee: Ilhan Omar ✔@IlhanMN I finally have committee assignments and I am excited 1st choice- House...

If President John F. Kennedy had pulled out of Vietnam, the way President Trump is leaving Syria, we might not have had the bloody Vietnam War that tore apart the United States. But he didn’t. He was killed Nov. 22, 1963. As a result, we stayed in Vietnam for 12 miserable years halfheartedly fighting a losing war that only the politicians and the generals wanted to wage. From the less than one thousand or so military advisors that Kennedy had sent to help train the South Vietnamese Army, the U.S. military presence ballooned to more than 500,000 troops. We trashed...

There's so many great tweets out there; Let's create a thread to collect them! Most of the following is about the corruption of gov't, DJT and his Plan; "what's happening"!

Twenty-eight-year-old socialist sensation Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't all that, you know, ummm, up on the news. Good thing she never met Bill Buckley, because on PBS's current version of his old show, Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, she came out looking like an idiot. Seriously, watch this: Video at link: New York socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacked Israel in a recent interview on PBS's "Firing Line," calling them the occupiers of Palestine and later admitting that she has no idea what she is talking about regarding Israel. Ocasio-Cortez's remarks came in response to a question from host Margaret Hoover, who asked her...

By any reasonable account, the historic meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, resulting in an agreement pledging to work toward a stable and enduring peace (over six decades after the Korean armistice was signed at Panmunjom) was an incredible achievement. In fact, had Obama or Clinton achieved as much, we would expect a ticker-tape parade down Fifth Avenue. North Korea has agreed to completely denuclearize and has begun the process, according to reports of satellite imagery , and has agreed to return the remains of U.S. military who perished in North Korea. China, long rightfully considered the muscle behind...

Full title: Newt Gingrich: Trump has accomplished more than Clinton, Bush, and Obama combined - this is just the beginningWith his historic summit Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, President Trump has once again done something astounding and unpredictable. Yet, the surprise over the sudden summit should not have come as a surprise at all. By now we should be used to President Trump surprising us. Consider his record over the last four years. Four years ago, in June 2014, almost no one would have dreamed Donald J. Trump would be a serious candidate for president. Then, nearly...

Late last week, reports began to surface that Saudi Arabia has made a deal with the Vatican to construct churches for Christian worshippers. Sadly, that appears to have been #FakeNews. The Vatican has denied making a deal with Saudi Arabia to build churches for Christian worshippers in the Arab country. However, it does appear real news from the desert kingdom shows signs that it is moving to modernize. Perhaps the most dramatic of these is that Saudi women are learning to drive motorcycles. The Crown Prince is also strengthening ties with a key regional power: Egypt. A recent bilateral economic...

The May/June 2018 edition of Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), issued a series of articles themed “Is Democracy Dying?” While the authors of the articles do not reach any conclusion to their question, they do make it quite clear that they view President Donald Trump as an impediment to the type of society they want for our world. The articles appear to contradict the mission statement found near the beginning of each magazine, in which the writers pledge to “tolerate wide differences of opinion," and state that its articles "will not represent...

Was the latest round of airstrikes in Syria a one-time hit to restore deterrence and stop the future use of chemical weapons, or was it part of a slippery slope of more interventions in the Middle East? President Donald Trump was elected in part because he promised an end to optional wars, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the Libyan misadventure. But Trump also guaranteed an end to perceived Obama-era appeasement. Trump said he would no longer put up with false red lines in Syria, or complacence about North Korea's new generation of nuclear missiles....

Among the several ways to judge a person's fitness for office are the enemies he has made. In the case of John Bolton, President Trump's choice to become national security adviser, those who oppose his appointment -- liberals, neocons and some Republicans all with differing worldviews and questionable foreign policy experience -- appear to say more about his qualifications than those who support him. A New York Times editorial said that at least Bolton speaks his mind, though it also said it didn't like what was on it. The Times and their ideological sister publication, The Washington Post, have spilled...

Whether or not George or others agree with it, the president has done his best to enact the program the voters approved when they elected him. He has appointed judges who believe they should carry out the law and not the current political reinterpretation of what that great paragon of modern liberal jurisprudence Eliot Spitzer described as “a flexible constitution.” . . . snip The Iran agreement was insane: It gave Iran ten years to become a nuclear power, if it chooses to honor the porous and ineffectual monitoring program the treaty provides. But the agreement covers only fissile material,...

Today is the 3rd and final day of the government-sponsored conference for pro-Israel online activists, that is being referred to as #DigiTell18. Last week, 4IL, a project of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, announced that the conference would be held this week, but offered few details apart from the following, general description: “A Global Gathering of Pro-Israel Social Media Experts” 4IL, made the following anticipatory tweet in advance of the conference, “Participants from 15 countries & with over 20 million people in social media reach will gather next week in Jerusalem for a one of a kind event.” [See tweet...

I have long believed that success leaves clues. It makes sense to pay attention to those clues in order to duplicate that success. When most of us think about Switzerland, we think of great cheese, fine chocolate, and excellent time pieces. They are also famous for their neutrality. Maybe we Americans should take a closer look. They do a number of things right and we might learn something from them. Yes, they make excellent cheese, chocolate and watches. They produce some pretty good wine as well. But, did you know that they spend 30% less than we do on...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson canceled scheduled events on Saturday on the second day of a visit to Kenya because “he is not feeling well”, a State Department spokesman said. no futher info

The euro has recovered some lost ground and is trading at $1.232 so it’s looking like a bit of score-draw for the single currency so far. It’s a bit of a different picture for the Italian stock market which seems set to fall sharply later today. Futures trading points to a 1.3% drop in the Italy 40 index of leading companies, according to online trader IG. ...Italy’s ruling centre-left Democratic Party has admitted it had suffered a “clear defeat” in a general election after coming in third according to projections. ...More than 50% of Italians voters supported populist parties. ...The...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday called it “sad” that President Trump did not make human rights a priority during his meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. The White House said the two leaders “briefly” discussed human rights in the context of Duterte’s drug crackdown, but the Philippine president’s spokesman said the issue was not discussed. Since taking office in 2016, Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs,” which has led to thousands of killings of suspected drug dealers and users, according to Human Rights Watch. Trump praised Duterte at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, saying the...