Free Republic

News flash: The revolt against elites is real in the UK and America and it's only getting started. Maybe there will always be an England. In a surprise, Leave won the Brexit referendum on whether to stay in the European Union by an equally surprising amount. British sovereignty won. David Cameron lost. Jeremy Corbyn lost. The EU lost. Bureaucrats lost. Angela Merkel lost. Barack Obama lost. Globalism lost. Authority figures almost everywhere lost. And, most of all, unlimited immigration lost. So what happened to the vaunted British betting market that is almost invariably correct and was predicting by 80 percent...

A corruption probe at the New York Police Department has cast a harsh light on how people get handgun permits in a city that boasts some of the nation’s toughest gun laws. Federal prosecutors say a shady fixer’s cash bribes induced officers working in NYPD’s licensing division to rubber-stamp dozens of gun applications, circumventing stringent background checks intended to weed out candidates with criminal records, mental health problems and other red flags. The potential public safety breach comes amid a national debate over whether easy access to weapons fueled the Orlando massacre and other mass shootings. …

FBI agents have questioned employees at a Florida mall in an attempt to trace the steps of homegrown terrorist Omar Mateen after he killed 49 people at the gay nightclub Pulse. Investigators visited CityPlace in West Palm Beach, Florida, about 170 miles south of Pulse, and asked employees at a movie theater along with two restaurants whether they had seen Mateen. WSVN also reported Mateen had visited the mall as recently as five days before the mass shooting. Mateen had visited the shopping mall five times between February 25 of this year to June 6, less than a week before...

The world’s richest nations have long been fueled by oil, coal and natural gas, but President Obama warned Friday that less affluent countries trying to take the same path will put the planet “under water.” In an interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Mr. Obama said he hoped social-media “connectivity” will help convince developing nations to eschew fossil fuels, which contribute to rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere but are also less expensive and more reliable than green energy alternatives. “In terms of the problems we have to solve, energy is a classic example, the issue of climate change,” Mr....

Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Hampshire are proposing pilots to figure out how they might charge motorists a fee for the miles they travel — rather than taxing their gas, as state and federal officials do today. The I-95 Corridor Coalition, which represents transportation officials from 16 states and the District of Columbia, applied for a federal grant last month to test the idea. Officials would stitch together the policies and technologies needed to count the miles driven by 50 recruits from each of the four states, including state legislators, transportation officials or other willing guinea pigs. They would send...

TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday. TransCanada submitted a notice for an arbitration claim in January and had then tried to negotiate with the U.S. government to “reach an amicable settlement,” the company said in files posted on the pipeline’s website. “Unfortunately, the parties were unable to settle the dispute.” TransCanada said it then filed its formal arbitration request under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provisions, seeking to recover what it says are costs and...

From GOP leaders jumping on the Trump train to joining the #NeverTrump movement, here's the Washington Examiner's running list of where Republican members in Congress stand when it comes to supporting the party's probable nominee...

Donald Trump welcomed Rupert Murdoch and his wife Jerry Hall for dinner at his luxurious golf course in northeast Scotland on Saturday, the final event of a two-day tour of his properties there. Murdoch, 80, arrived at around 5:15 with wife Jerry Hall, 59, a former model who was previously married to Rolling Stone rocker Mick Jagger. The pair rode up the road to the clubhouse in an SUV with Trump himself. The MacLeod House, a restored 15th Century mansion on the grounds of the Trump International Golf Links Scotland, was the site of the meal. After a visit to...

Hawaii’s governor signed a bill making it the first U.S. state to place its residents who own firearms in a federal criminal record database and monitor them for possible wrongdoing anywhere in the country, his office said.The move by gun control proponents in the liberal state represents an effort to institute some limits on firearms in the face of a bitter national debate over guns that this week saw Democratic lawmakers stage a sit-in at the U.S. House of Representatives.Hawaii Governor David Ige, a Democrat, on Thursday signed into law a bill to have police in the state enroll people...

It’s not only illegal aliens who are escaping enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws. Under the Obama administration’s expansive interpretation of executive authority, legal immigrants seeking citizenship through the nation’s Naturalization process are now exempt from a key part of the Oath of Allegiance. Immigrants seeking to become citizens no longer have to pledge to “bear arms on behalf of the United States.” They can opt out of that part of the Oath. Nor do they have to cite any specific religious belief that forbids them to perform military service. ----------------------------------------------- This radical change was announced a year ago, in...

Many oil companies succumb to the pressure from environmental activists and the media and join the fight against ‘climate change,’ or at least make motions to appear to do so. Not Exxon Mobil. In a previous column, I applauded CEO Rex Tillerson for refusing to climb on the climate change band wagon and for focusing on producing energy from fossil fuels—on which all of us depend—instead. Tillerson and Exxon have not lost their integrity: they are steadfastly holding on to the principles they know their existence and successful value creation depend on, such as the right to liberty, and more...

From Michael Goodwin writing at the New York Post: As the Brexit results poured in, I caught myself humming a tune from Broadway’s “Hamilton.” The song follows the decisive Battle of Yorktown in 1781, after which the Redcoats surrender and America is free. It’s called a drinking song, and there’s not much to it except these words: “The world turned upside down.” It certainly has. The world is also coming full circle because now it’s the Brits who are free. It took them a while, but they finally had their own Tea Party and their own revolution. I salute them...

'Computers accessing the internet can -- and eventually will -- be hacked,' says Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. The FBI did not need a warrant to hack a US citizen's computer, according to a ruling handed down on Tuesday by Senior US District Court Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. If the decision is upheld, it may have ripple effects that essentially allow government agencies to remotely search and seize information from any computer in the US without a warrant, probable cause or suspicion, the EFF argues.The ruling relates to a worldwide FBI sting dubbed Operation Pacifier that targeted child pornography...

I posted this under activism because that's what it is. Considering king obama has publicly stated the courts ruling on immigration will have absolutely NO effect on his policies, and thus he's giving the finger to the court, how about some of our Arizona Freepers implore their state government to do much the same and start enforcing SB 1070??

Johnny Manziel's father, who predicted earlier this year that his son wouldn't live to see his 24th birthday if he didn't get help, says the troubled quarterback is "a druggie" and that he's done talking about him. "If I have to bury him, I'll bury him. That's the fact," Paul Manziel told ESPN's Josina Anderson on Friday in a phone interview. "So if not, if he calls me and needs help, I'll go get him. Until then, he's on his own. I've done everything I can do. There is nothing [else] I can do as a father. Nothing. ... It...

A veteran U.S. diplomat who pushed for the nuclear deal with Iran, which allowed Boeing to sell $25 billion worth of planes to state-owned Iran Air, did not disclose that he was paid by Boeing during the time he advocated for the agreement, The Daily Beast reported Wednesday. Thomas Pickering, a former ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, and the United Nations who served under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was an employee of the Boeing Corporation from 2001 to 2006, after which he continued his association with the company as a...

For the weak-minded among us who continue to believe in polling data, the Brexit vote shows – yet again – what a biased absurdity the polls have become. But delusions and obfuscation runs deep in the mainstream trenches. Nate Cohn at the New York Times writes that "[i]t was not a cataclysmic polling failure[.] ... [I]t's hard to argue that this was a big polling failure." Sure it wasn't. Once you are done rolling around on the floor in laughter at claims that this wasn't a massive polling failure, read on.

Police in Washington, D.C. arrested a 17-year-old who plotted to kill his ex-girlfriend, her family and shoot up her school because she broke up with him and refused to get back together. The Metropolitan Police Department executed a search warrant at the teen’s house last week after threatening messages were sent to the girl. The teen told the girl he would go to her home in Greenbelt, Maryland and kill her whole family, even saying he would bring friends to watch. Police found an AK-47, 180 rounds of ammunition, marijuana and a fake ID at his home. The teen also...

AmeriCorps has been embroiled in an abortion scandal. A special congressional panel has referred the University of New Mexico and an abortion business nearby for criminal investigation and possible charges following a review triggered by last year’s release of undercover videos investigating Planned Parenthood’s baby body-parts trade. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., chairwoman of the House Select Investigative Panel assigned to investigate abortion providers’ medical practices, on Thursday wrote to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Baldera Jr. The document, nearly 300 pages long, includes evidence the panel discovered regarding the body-parts trade and more involving the school and the Southwestern Women’s...

When Independent Journal Review asked Donald Hense, Chair and CEO of Friendship Public Charter Schools in D.C., if he felt that Common Core’s way of solving math problems is working, he said “give it time” :We’re no longer saying 2 + 2 = 4; it has taken some time and it’s going to take some time for teachers to become proficient.”et, I’ve met two teachers’ assistants, who make less than 12K a year, one who had been on the job for 20 years. Through tears, she said, “we were there to help these confused students after the lessons, with their...