Free Republic

Donald Trump is responsible for all manner of things, particularly if you ask anyone at MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times or the Washington Post. He’s caused unrest around the world using nothing more than tweets, sparked riots in the streets and I’m pretty sure at least a couple of people have blamed him for global warming. But perhaps his greatest trick of all has been to increase the rates of alcohol consumption in America. Or at least that’s the opinion of WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker. Amid hurricanes, a vanished journalist, the recent Supreme Court hearings, midterms and “mobs,” it...

In Cinncinatti, President Donald J. Trump rankled the mainstream media yet again this weekend with seemingly complimentary comments regarding Confederate General Robert E. Lee as a "great" military leader. Yet, a full tale of the tape reveals that the commander-in-chief only made such comments as a preface to heralding Union General and United States President Ulysses S. Grant as a truly exceptional leader who was finally able to help President Abraham Lincoln defeat the South.First, NBC News tweeted an edited clip without context that made it appear as if President Donald J. Trump were discussing only Robert E. Lee. In the...

Some time ago, Kyle S. Reyes, CEO of a company called the Silent Partner Marketing, got sick and tired of dealing with prospective employees who were a poor match with his business philosophy. “We get hundreds and hundreds of people reaching out to work for us,” he said. “I … realized it was a time suck on my staff and me to be weeding through endless piles of paper trying to find the handful of people who actually want to hustle for a living and would be a great fit for our company. So I’ve implemented something that is going...

The Little Sisters of the Poor took their fight to not have to pay for abortions in their health care plan all the way to the Supreme Court and won. So that should be the end of the battle right? Not so much. Last year, pro-abortion attorneys general in Pennsylvania and several other states filed lawsuits to overturn new religious protections issued by the Trump administration. The new rules protect the nuns and other religious employers from having to pay for drugs that may cause abortions in their employee health care plans. A federal judge blocked the rule in response...

Francis’ glowing send-off of Wuerl signals he’s ‘not the Pope to clean out the stables’: scholar WASHINGTON, D.C., October 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis’ praise of Cardinal Wuerl for his “nobility” and “docility to the Spirit” in his letter accepting the Cardinal’s resignation signals that Francis is “not the Pope to clean out the stables” of the abuse crisis that is rocking the Church, a Catholic scholar said.  Oxford University’s Dr. Joseph Shaw told LifeSiteNews that Pope Francis’s Oct. 12 letter accepting Cardinal Wuerl’s resignation “makes it very clear” that he doesn’t want to punish his subordinate.  “In...

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 (excepted) My fellow Americans: Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen. Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with...

Former President Barack Obama resurfaced on Friday and took a shot at Fox News viewers, saying they’re “living on a different planet” than people who consume mainstream media. Obama made the remarks on the premiere of the new monthly Netflix series “My next guest needs no introduction with David Letterman,” which hit the streaming service on Friday morning. Early in the episode, Obama asked Letterman about his retirement but the veteran talk show host quickly let the former president know who was boss. “Now here’s how this is gonna work. I’m gonna ask you stuff, and then you respond to...

President Trump chalked up his announcement on boosting ethanol for farmers in Iowa to his record of "promises made, promises kept," while speaking in Iowa Tuesday night. "I made that promise to you during the campaign," Trump said. "I made that promise to you during the primaries. Promises made, promises kept." "We're going with E15 year-round," Trump said early in his speech, admitting that the full announcement would come later in his remarks. The plan would relax Environmental Protection Agency rules that restrict the sale of 15-percent ethanol fuel blends to eight months of the year. The EPA waiver for...

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday signed a bill that adds a third gender category on birth certificates issued in New York City. The new non-binary identity category, known as X, is for those who don’t consider their gender to be male or female. A letter from a physician or an affidavit by a licensed health care provider will no longer be provided. Residents can now submit their own affidavit requesting a change in gender identity. “New Yorkers should be free to tell their government who they are, not the other way around,” de Blasio said. “This new legislation will...

Human beings might have to cope with an increasing amount of venomous bites, stings, and other brush ups with poison due to climate change. That’s according to a new study, coming at the same time that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report warning that negative impacts from a warming world are coming faster than expected. According to a massive new analysis of poisonous or venomous aquatic animals, dangerous species might become increasingly common in new ranges. Species whose ranges might shift polewards due to warmer water include lionfish, sea snakes, crown-of-thorns starfish and a number of...

Amazon has approved funding for an Islamic extremist British charity called The Muslim Research and Development Foundation, through its Amazon Smile programme, The Times reports. The charity (MRDF) which according to the government’s counter-extremism commissioner Sara Khan, is the “main Salafist organisation in the UK”. It was founded and formerly chaired by Haitham al-Haddad, a 52 year old Saudi Islamic scholar. Khan also stated, “Haitham al-Haddad’s views are misogynistic, racist and homophobic. They promote a supremacist ‘us versus them’ world view that wrongly makes Muslims feel that they can’t be fully British.” In addition he has also been described as...

Let me start by cautioning constitutional conservatives on being giddy, gloating, and excessively celebrating over the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. College football head coach emeritus Lou Holtz once admonished his players that when they end up in the end zone and score a touchdown, act like you have been there before. Yes, a good man survived, withstood, the most vile, vicious, and vitriolic of assaults and character assassination from the progressive, socialist left. Already the left has evidenced that they are not done. They now want to investigate and impeach Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The question to be asked: why?

Fan Bingbing, one of China's most famous actresses, mysteriously disappeared for three months after being accused of tax evasion. On Wednesday she broke her silence, offering a simpering apology to Beijing and swearing to change her ways. Her fall from grace serves as a powerful warning shot from China to show that nobody can escape their scrutiny. Tax authorities in China's Jiangsu province on Sunday found that the 37-year-old actress and her companies evaded 248 million yuan ($34 million/£28 million) in taxes, but gave no further details on the companies or this figure. The state-run Xinhua News agency, a prominent...

Earth is on track to face devastating consequences of climate change – extreme drought, food shortages and deadly flooding – unless there’s an “unprecedented” effort made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a new United Nations report warns. The planet’s surface has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius – or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit – and could see a catastrophic 1.5 C — 2.7 F — increase between 2030 and 2052, scientists say. “This is concerning because we know there are so many more problems if we exceed 1.5 degrees C global warming, including more heat waves and hot summers,...

The world stands on the brink of failure when it comes to holding global warming to moderate levels, and nations will need to take “unprecedented” actions to cut their carbon emissions over the next decade, according to a landmark report by the top scientific body studying climate change. With global emissions showing few signs of slowing and the United States — the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide — rolling back a suite of Obama-era climate measures, the prospects for meeting the most ambitious goals of the 2015 Paris agreement look increasingly slim. To avoid racing past warming of 1.5...

A United Nations special climate report suggests a tax on carbon dioxide emissions would need to be as high as $27,000 per ton at the end of the century to effectively limit global warming. For Americans, that’s the same as a $240 per gallon tax on gasoline in the year 2100, should such a recommendation be adopted. In 2030, the report says a carbon tax would need to be as high as $5,500 — that’s equivalent to a $49 per gallon gas tax. If you think that’s an unlikely scenario, you’re probably not wrong. However, it’s what the Intergovernmental Panel...

LONDON - Society would have to enact "unprecedented" changes to how it consumes energy, travels and builds to meet a lower global warming target or it risks increases in heat waves, flood-causing storms and the chances of drought in some regions as well as the loss of species, a U.N. report said on Monday. The report is seen as the main scientific guide for government policymakers on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement during the Katowice Climate Change Conference in Poland in December. To contain warming at 1.5C, man-made global net carbon dioxide emissions would need to fall by...

A stark new report from the global scientific authority on climate change calls on individuals, as well as governments, to take action to avoid disastrous levels of global warming. The IPCC's models emphasize the need for people to change their lifestyle and consumption patterns to more sustainable alternatives, specifically in areas they can control, like modes of transportation, the buildings they inhabit and their dietary preferences. Here's what consumers can do: Transportation: In order to meet the 1.5C goal, the IPCC envisages a future where people travel less, and that generally consumer preferences shift to more sustainable choices like car...

Taylor Swift has broken her long-held public political silence in an Instagram post encouraging her followers to vote in the November midterm elections and slamming Republican Tennessee representative Marsha Blackburn. “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift began the post, which was accompanied by a moody, black-and-white photo of the superstar. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the...

The people who want to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) don't understand the biosphere. Carbon and oxygen are two of the most important elements for biological life. 65% of the human body is oxygen and 18.5% is carbon. Plants are carbon structures with the percentage of carbon varying according to the type of plant. The CO2 oxygen cycle is critical to the functioning of the biosphere. Animals exhale CO2 which plants then use to produce the molecules such as sugars and starches that animals use for food. Plants release oxygen into the air which animals inhale and combine with the carbon...