Free Republic

Right-wing factions convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, deciding to establish a "right-wing bloc" headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, that will work for the establishment of the next government. It was decided to form a joint coalition negotiations team for all factions in the bloc. In addition to Netanyahu, the meeting saw the participation of Minister Yariv Levin and faction heads: Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Bezalel Smotrich. Minister Aryeh Deri met with Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this morning, as he was unable to attend the meeting due to the memorial ceremony...

Maisy was having a severe reaction to her allergies this season and was having difficulty breathing. We called her doctor and he recommended we bring her in to the office. After the examination and a shot that gave her some relief, we went to the front desk, where the doctor wrote a prescription that was immediately filled by his staff at that moment. We paid for the prescription and went home to start her course of medication. Maisy is a 5 year old boxer that lives in Texas, and her veterinarian is allowed by Texas law to dispense prescription drugs...

The American Founding generation fought a long, bloody war to free themselves from a tyrannical government, only to see the people eventually embrace the very system they struggled to throw off.That may seem like a stinging indictment, but careful examination of U.S. governance today reveals that it rests on essentially the same philosophical foundation as the 18th century British system Americans rejected.The founding generation developed a brand new conception of government, resting it on the consent of the governed and the idea that governing institutions must operate within constitutional constraints. Today, we still see the vestiges of those founding ideals...

This is a great website that can be used as a resource by FReepers to debate wind energy. They lay out the damage to our environment and how gov't ignores the very people who supported "green" power.

The United States is the freest, wealthiest, most tolerant society the world has ever known. Even today’s poor live lives undreamed of by royalty less than a century ago. Yet in what seems like a major disconnect from this reality, we have major politicians calling for a transformation of society. Why is this? Well, other than pandering for votes and power, which is a large part of it, there is another more basic and more dangerous process at work. And that is success breeds failure. This is a common and accurate theme in management thinking. Success breeds complacency. Success can...

Church attendance in the United States is at an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll released in April 2019. This decline has not been a steady one. Indeed, over the last 20 years, church attendance has fallen by 20 percent. This might not sound like cause for concern off the bat. And if you’re not a person of faith, you might rightly wonder why you would care about such a thing. Church attendance is simply a measure of something deeper: social cohesion. It is our position that civil society – those elements of society which exist independently of big...

Healthcare is the single biggest issue affecting voters this election cycle. Understandably, the crown jewel of political debate during the campaigns is the aspect of the ACA that protects consumers from limitations associated with pre-existing conditions. The ACA, or Obamacare, provided for those in the individual markets to have the same benefits of those participating in group insurance without fear of their past medical history preventing them from participating. The multiple attempts to repeal or change this hotly debated law has caused the issue of pre-existing condition repeal to come to the forefront of the discussions related to healthcare. https://www.houstoncourant.com/houston-voices/2018/10/29/pre-existing-conditions-fix-them-or-eliminate-them-altogether

... [However], there are currently 22 airports -- including San Francisco’s and Kansas City’s -- which have been allowed to participate in what the federal security agency call its “Screening Partnership Program.” In fact, since 2004, all commercial air facilities falling under federal security oversight (they’re known as “federalized airports”) can apply to privatize their security screening services. .... How effective is private security screening versus the screening provided at airports by TSA? The answer is difficult to determine, but several government or government-sponsored studies say that private screeners, when properly supervised, are at least as efficient and possibly less...

President Donald Trump promised he’d get rid of bad rules. “Remove the anchor dragging us down!” he said when campaigning for president. “We’re going to cancel every needless job-killing regulation!” Trump was a developer, so he knew that the thicket of rules government imposes often makes it impossible to get things done. But would he keep his deregulation promise? I was skeptical. Republicans often talk deregulation but then add rules. People called President George W. Bush an “anti-regulator.” But once he was president, he hired 90,000 new regulators! Trump has been different. When he took office, he hired regulation skeptics....

A New York airport security worker is without a job because of a two-word message she wrote on a piece of paper. In the security video of the incident Neal Strassner requested himself, as he passes through a metal detector, the TSA agent hands him a note. Not thinking much of it, Strassner continues to go about boarding his flight when the agent calls back to him to open it. Strassner says the note read, "You ugly." "You never really know where somebody is in their day or their head. The more you think about it the more you realize...

PITTSBURGH - Workers at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh voted to join the United Steelworkers union on Wednesday. According to a press release, the workers voted "overwhelmingly" to join USW. Library workers began organizing their campaign in June and are seeking a collective bargaining agreement that would cover employees across 19 branches and the library support center.

Face it. The U.S. government no longer belongs to the people and it no longer represents them. This causes a rage, an anger because Americans feel helpless. You see, there is absolutely nothing they can do about anything. Nothing. Americans are absolutely powerless, and the ballot box is simply a facade. It is no longer possible to redress grievances in America. At best you will be ignored. At worst you will be shot dead and killed. Take note, this uneasy feeling is not misplaced. It reflects the real state of affairs. It’s a very sad thing to say. But, yes....

All you crazy kooks who doubt our accomplished and selfless elite and the institutions our elites manage are crazy kooks, willing participants in crazy kooky conspiracy theories that are both crazy and kooky. Also, Donald Trump was totally a Russian agent who did lines of emoluments off a hooker’s tummy alongside Putin in Moscow. You look at something like America’s most notorious prisoner, Jeffrey Epstein, suddenly gacking himself in federal custody after having tried to do it a couple weeks ago, and you’re not wrong for wondering if maybe there’s a bit more to the tale than some short eyed...

BERLIN, New Hampshire — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told a packed breakfast crowd at the White Mountain Chalet Caterers that the goal of his campaign was “transforming the economy and the government of the United States, so that it works for all of us and not just the one percent.” Sanders spoke just moments after a new Gravis poll suggested that he had taken the lead in what is largely a three-way race in the Granite State, surpassing former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Not only is the U.S. Postal Service delivering less mail – it is now delivering fewer packages Opens a New Window. after it warned Congress Opens a New Window. it could run out of cash in the not so distant future. In the agency’s latest quarterly statement, it reported a net loss of nearly $2.3 billion as it delivered 3.2 percent fewer packages. Revenue from packages, however, increased due to higher prices. But the decline in package volume – the first decrease in nearly a decade – could spell even more trouble for the financially-stricken agency, as its courier competitors...

Wal-Mart vs. Polit - Morons 1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day. 2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! 3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. 4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined. 5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English. 6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world. 7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined,...

The wife and I got into a discussion today. Here's the topic. If you were a prison guard at MCC where Epstein was being held and knew the truth (and could back it up), how would you get the truth out? Go to your supervisor who may be in on it? Go to the Feds? If so, who? Who would you go to and how would you do it? Obviously we are living in a different era where many Feds can't be trusted unfortunately. I concluded that I'd try the six degrees of Kevin Bacon approach and use all my...

The Congressional Budget Office and other such experts of public finance routinely severely underestimate the cost of major government programs such as Medicare, Social Security, student loans, government pensions, lifetime health benefits for government employees, and Obamacare. They also miss estimates on "smaller" government projects (we're still talking billions here) such as the "big dig" in Boston and the bullet train in California. They're always underestimating these costs. Why are we always so broke at most government entities? Why do these costs always overshoot their budgets? The short answer is that politicians and bureaucrats routinely underestimate the costs of all...

A booming economy should help people make good financial decisions since more money can be directed to other needs. That is why savings rates normally go up as the economy improves. People naturally tend to take advantage of better days especially after bad or slow times. This is not happening now. Many Americans are spending more on consumer goods, but they are not saving their money or accumulating wealth. No Emergency Funds Nearly a quarter of households, for example, do not have any available emergency funds according to a survey conducted by the SSRS research firm. Another third do not...

Just stop calling for government, just stop. Video games are no more responsible for shootings than guns are. Children learning to use guns to defend themselves is a good thing and government regulation is a bad thing. Kids have always played "cops & robbers", "cowboys & indians" and "war", there is nothing wrong with it and it is healthy.