Free Republic

Trump rally tonight, 7 pm eastern!!!

Riyad Malki, the Palestinian Authority (PA) “foreign minister”, on Wednesday submitted a request to The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) for legal action against the US over the relocation of its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Ramallah claims the US relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem was “in clear violation of international law”, reported the Turkish Anadolu news agency. “One year after the Trump administration carried out its provocative and illegal action, the State of Palestine continues to seek justice and accountability through the tools and mechanisms available to law-abiding and respecting states within the international system,”...

Pennsylvania's unemployment level has plummeted to its lowest point in 43 years. Here's what that could mean for 2020. Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is at a near record low, dropping to just 3.8 percent, the lowest its been since 1976, according to statistics published by the state on Friday. That hovers just over the national rate of 3.6 percent. That number is down a half a percentage point from April 2018, when the unemployment rate sat at 4.3 percent. The total number of Pennsylvanians who are employed — 6,222,000 — is an all-time record, the state says. With Pennsylvania once again...

President Trump, who already has had a mammoth impact on America’s judicial system by appointing over 100 judges and flipping the Pennsylvania-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals to majority Republican appointees, is posed to flip another Circuit Court of Appeals: The Second Circuit. There are 13 Circuit Courts of Appeals in the U.S.

Out Pennsylvania representative Brian Sims opened up on Instagram about his own use of PrEP, the highly effective prescription that prevents HIV. Alongside a picture of a Truvada pill, the state lawmaker wrote about pre-exposure prophylaxis, but made clear he had no interest in discussing why he personally uses the treatment. “Starting this day off smart, proactive, and in control!” Sims wrote in his social media post. “Think this is an invite to talk about my sex life? It’s not. Think it’s an invite to shame me or anyone else? Grow up.”

A Springfield, PA elementary school principal will stop saying “God Bless America” after leading students in the Pledge of Allegiance. Sabold Elementary School principal Peter Briggs would say the phrase each morning after students said the pledge. At least one parent complained to the Freedom for Religion Foundation, claiming the language violated the U.S. Constitution WLSAM reports: The district says it will end the practice, but says students are not prohibited from saying the words if they so choose. The foundation says elementary students shouldn’t be “coerced into affirming God’s name every morning.”

Arab leaders are pressuring the Palestinian Authority to accept the peace plan drawn up by the Trump administration, which is expected to be released this June, a source within the Palestinian Authority claims. According to a report over the weekend by the Qatari Alkhaleej Online outlet, a member of the Central Committee of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah party said that Arab leaders are applying “political and financial pressure” on the Palestinian Authority to accept the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ – a framework for a final status agreement between Israel and the PA drawn up by the White...

A senior Palestinian Authority official condemned the results of Israel’s general election Tuesday, calling them a ‘vote against peace’. In a statement released Tuesday night, shortly after the polls closed in Israel, PA spokesman Saeb Erekat said the exit polls showed the vote had been in favor of the “status quo”. "Israelis have voted to preserve the status quo. They have said no to peace and yes to the occupation.” “They want us to live under a deeper apartheid system than that existed in the darkest hours of South African apartheid,” Erekat added. Earlier on Tuesday, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas...

Please see link... There a special election in the PA senate and we need all to get out and vote. Raja is a pro 2a candidate and the Democrat is another radical against the 2a...

Gun control advocates have long claimed that a comprehensive registry would be an effective safety tool. Their reasoning is straightforward: If a gun has been left at a crime scene, the registry will link the crime gun back to the criminal.

We all saw the rumblings of this for years. Democrats want to destroy the Second Amendment, create gun registries, and eventually confiscate firearms. It won’t happen in a couple of years, of course. This is the long game. Emboldened by their state-level victories in Vermont and Florida, in which the anti-gun Left was able to increase the age to purchase all firearms to 21. In Vermont, they even got Republican (and at the time pro-NRA) Gov. Phil Scott to sign off on magazine limits. As you all know, 18 years of age was the minimum for a long gun. In...

Secretary-General Saeb Erekat of the Palestine Liberation Organization has called Israel's offsetting of half a billion shekels from the tax revenues it transfers to the Palestinian Authority "pure piracy". Writing on Twitter, the PA's chief negotiator explained, "This is not Israeli money to start with but our own funds. Once again Israeli politicians are campaigning based on who inflicts more suffering to our people. Once again the Israeli government, with the full support of the Trump administration, takes a step to further destabilize our region, strengthening extremists, collectively punishing..."

Two years after it first went into effect, the negative fallout from Philadelphia's controversial soda tax continues to pile up. Here's a short summary of the news that has broken since we last reviewed what has perhaps become the most unpopular tax in the City of Brotherly Love. A Philadelphia ShopRite convenience store will close, with the owner citing lost business related to the city's soda tax as the primary reason for its closure. The store is located near Philadelphia's city limits, where local residents appear to have taken a good portion of their business across the border to avoid...

A Philadelphia-area community is pushing back against a library's plans to host a drag queen story hour, saying the event is hostile to Christianity in part because the performer's stage name is "Annie Christ." The drag name Annie Christ is a play on words for AntiChrist. What is being called the "Drag Queen Story Fun Time with Annie” is scheduled for Saturday at the Lansdale Public Library. “Lansdale, Pennsylvania, is bringing perversion from the nightclubs and sexually charged pride parades into the library with children,” a Facebook event page for a protest and prayer rally says. “Trusted officials and library...

US aid to the Palestinian Authority’s security services will end this week at the PA’s request, senior PLO official Saeb Erekat said Wednesday, according to AFP. The move is meant to preempt lawsuits over alleged support for terrorism. The PA has demanded the funding stop at the end of January for fear it could expose the PA to costly lawsuits under the US Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), which comes into force on February 1. "The money will be cut off," Erekat told AFP, adding, "We don't want to receive any money if this will take us to court." .....

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured another diplomatic victory for Israel with the dramatic announcement that Chad and the Jewish State would be reestablishing diplomatic relations. The Muslim majority nation had severed ties in 1972 following intense pressure from Libya, its menacing neighbor to the north, which at the time was led by the dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi. But following a visit by Chad’s President Idriss Déby to Jerusalem and a reciprocating visit by PM Netanyahu to N’Djamena, forty-seven years of animosity instantly vanished. Israel’s historic diplomatic achievement occurred despite intense efforts by the Palestinian Authority and Iran to torpedo the...

Another prominent Democrat is urging former Vice President Joe Biden to run for president in 2020. California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said on Thursday that she believes Biden has the best chance to defeat President Trump. (RELATED: Dianne Feinstein Signals She May Be Running For Re-Election- She’ll Be 91) “Joe was chairman of the Judiciary [Committee] when he came to this place. I’ve watched him as vice president, I’ve seen him operate, I’ve seen him perform,” Feinstein told Politico. “He brings a level of experience and seniority which I think is really important.”

A former Lehigh University student from China who was already facing ethnic intimidation charges against a black dormitory roommate is now accused of attempted homicide by trying to slowly poison him.

A former Marine working as a bartender in Altoona, Pennsylvania, tackled an armed suspect Tuesday and foiled a robbery. Fox News reports that the incident occurred at Ajay’s Bar around 1:00 a.m. The first of two surveillance videos shows the former Marine calmly retrieving money from the cash register while the suspect has him at gunpoint. Seconds later, the former Marine is seen bum-rushing the suspect, driving the suspect to the floor, and wrestling for the gun:

Assuming the Mayor of Pittsburgh gets his way, tomorrow the City Council will vote on enacting several new gun bans, all of which face immediate questions in terms of their legality. The new laws include a ban on various types of “assault weapons” including rifles, handguns and shotguns. There are also bans on a variety of firearms accessories and the introduction of a new “red flag” law. As our friend Jeff Duntez points out, even if they didn’t face significant Second Amendment issues, most of these laws aren’t permitted under existing state law.