Free Republic

Russian scientists have developed experimental embalming methods to maintain the look, feel and flexibility of the Soviet Union's founderÂ’s body, which is 145 years old today. For thousands of years humans have used embalming methods to preserve dead bodies. But nothing compares with Russia's 90-year-old experiment to preserve the body of Vladimir Lenin, communist revolutionary and founder of the Soviet Union. Generations of Russian scientists have spent almost a century fine-tuning preservation techniques that have maintained the look, feel and flexibility of Lenin's body. This year Russian officials closed the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square so that scientists could...

The Clinton Family Foundation is in Africa, as candidate Hillary "champions" the working-class. The nine-day tour includes 20 wealthy individuals, foundation and campaign donors. After Tanzania, Kenya and Liberia, Moroccan King Mohammed VI hosts an opulent conference paid for by donors including a phosphate company – owned by the government – which donated $1 million, according to Politico. ....many of the high-flying multimillionaires and billionaires along for the ride are Clinton partisans who helped fund 2008 Hillary and will do so in 2016. GAZILLIONAIRE: British socialite Lynn De Rothschild is on trip; a longtime Hillary friend LOBBYIST: Liz Robbins climbed...

HELSINKI – The Finnish military says it has dropped depth charges onto a suspected submarine in the sea outside Helsinki after twice detecting the presence of a foreign object in the area.

Two Russian nuclear-capable bombers intruded into the U.S. air defense zone near Alaska last week in the latest saber rattling by Moscow, defense officials said. The Tu-95 Bear H bombers flew into the Alaska zone on April 22. But unlike most earlier incursions, no U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow them, said defense officials familiar with the latest U.S.-Russian aerial encounter. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), declined to confirm the incursion. But he said no jets were dispatched last week to intercept intruding aircraft. The incident...

Hillary Clinton’s proposal to get money out of politics could allow the federal government to restrict or ban the publication of a book that has embroiled her presidential campaign in controversy, experts say. Clinton called for a constitutional amendment to “get unaccountable money out of” politics in an op-ed for the Des Moines Register published Monday. Her campaign did not respond to requests for additional details, but legal experts say similar efforts over the past two years would have profound effects on Americans’ free speech rights.

China has conducted the first test flight of a new, upgraded version of its J-11 fighter jet. According to Russian media outlets, which cited unnamed Chinese reports, on Wednesday the People’s Liberation Army Air Force conducted the first flight tests of its J-11D fighter aircraft. The plane is an upgraded version of the J-11B fighter jets, which themselves are copies of the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27. According to the reports, the new J-11D incorporates a number of technologies from China’s J-16 fighter jets. Both planes are manufactured by the Chinese company, Shenyang Aircraft Corp, and the J-16 is believed to have...

"...we'd be so much better if we governed ourselves, controlled our borders and gave ordinary workers a chance against the corporate companies who've now basically taken over our political parties..." Nigel Farage of the United Kingdom Independence Party "Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed." Hillary Rodham Clinton "I don't want Alabama portrayed in a negative light because when it's portrayed in a negative light, it doesn't help me to recruit jobs in Alabama.....So I'm hurting families when I can't help people get...

An unprecedented ethics promise that played a pivotal role in confirming Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, amid senators’ concerns about conflicts of interests, was uniformly bypassed by the biggest of the Clinton Foundation philanthropy. The Clinton Health Access Initiative never submitted information on any foreign donations to State Department lawyers during Clinton’s tenure 2009-2013, Maura Daley, the organization’s spokeswoman deemed it unnecessary, except one case she described as an “oversight."....grants from foreign governments increased by tens of millions of dollars to the Boston-based organization. The Clinton health initiative has acknowledged failing only to disclose the identity of its contributors,...

The House voted, as expected, to block a D.C. law banning discrimination by employers against employees who have had abortions. on Thursday night — but the measure is unlikely to have any effect before the law takes effect this weekend. All but 13 Republicans voted for the resolution of disapproval, which passed on a largely party-line, 228-192 vote, while just three Democrats voted in favor of it. The measure got a high-level Democratic opponent on Thursday with Hillary Clinton's campaign weighing in, calling it a move to "overrule the Democratic process" in a statement to CNN. The bill would roll...

Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he is not convinced Hillary Clinton will be the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Clinton faces a primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and potentially Chafee himself. When asked about Clinton being pushed further to the left, Chafee brought up the scandals surrounding the Clinton Foundation and lack of accomplishments. “I would argue that between what’s happening internationally in her tenure as Secretary of State, no real accomplishments, and now these new allegations coming out about the Clinton foundation and the book coming out next week. These are real,” Chafee said.

(Reuters) - Britain has informed a United Nations sanctions panel of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel seen by Reuters. The existence of such a network could add to Western concerns over whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal due by June 30 in which it would agree to restrict sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Talks between six major powers and Tehran are approaching the final stages after they hammered out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing...

Hanoi is the first Southeast Asian nation arming its submarines with land attack cruise missiles. Vietnam is in the process of acquiring 50 anti-ship and land attack 3M-14E Klub supersonic cruise missiles for its burgeoning fleet of SSK Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, Der Spiegel Online reports. According to the article, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently updated data on its website, based on information obtained from the United Nations’ register of conventional arms, indicating that Russia has already delivered 28 missiles over the last two years to Hanoi, although the precise number remains unknown. The Klub is a Russian-made...

Hillary Clinton doesn't play by the rules. That's not a partisan attack. It's not a talking point. It's not a fantasy. It's a fact—an agonizing truth to people like me who admire Clinton and her husband, who remember how Bill Clinton rose from a backwater governorship to the presidency on a simple promise: He would fight for people who "work hard and play by the rules." The evidence is overwhelming and metastasizing: To co-opt a William Safire line, Hillary Clinton is a congenital rule-breaker. "More than 180 Clinton Foundation donors lobbied her State Department." "That's not illegal," writes Vox reporter...

GOP presidential hopeful and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has called on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to return all donations made by foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation amid the growing scandal engulfing the Democratic candidate’s campaign following allegations made in a recent book. "The Clinton Foundation collected tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments including donors who had business interests with the State Department while Clinton was Secretary,” Cruz said in a statement released to the press on Friday. “She made decisions in that capacity that likely benefited the same people who were giving large donations to...

The Clinton Foundation's finance controversies deepened on Thursday, when The Boston Globe reported that a huge affiliate of the charity failed to report its foreign-government contributions to the State Department. When Hillary Clinton, now the leading Democratic presidential candidate, became secretary of state in 2009, she agreed to have her family's foundation submit new donations from foreign countries for State Department review. This was designed to avoid potential conflicts of interest with her new government role.

I'm sure this will go over like a fart in church, but what the heck, video at link: No to Fast Track, No to Trade Treachery,

Position yourself in Me now Completely and cease ALL striving for I have already overcome FOR you ! As you step into the coals of My very spirit I shall paint you into My Portrait of Love and Worship for this is where you belong and you shall find yourself now as part of the very DNA Particles from the building blocks of My Manifold Wisdom completely and entirely of My makeup and knowing, the Eyes of Understanding all that is before you for you have eaten from The Tree of Life and the Salve of My Nectar so that...

Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that Hezbollah has built a runway in the morthern Bekaa Valley to be used for drones, likely Iranian-made UAVs. New satellite images shows the runway in an area 10 kilometers south of the Lebanese village of Hermel.
Jane’s states: The short length of the runway suggests the facility is not intended to smuggle in weapons shipments from Syria or Iran as it is too short for nearly all the transport aircraft used by the air forces of those countries. An alternative explanation is that the runway was built for Iranian-made UAVs, including the Ababil-3, which has been...

The Islamic State seized control of a dam and overran a military barracks in the Thar Thar area in western Iraq over the past several days. Over 120 Iraqi soldiers and a senior general were killed during the Islamic State offensive.In a video released by ‘Amaq News, the Islamic State’s unofficial news agency, the jihadist group claimed to have taken control of the Thar Thar dam, which is located northeast of Fallujah in Anbar province. Islamic State fighters attacked the complex with “explosive-laden vehicles,” or suicide car bombs, before engaging with Iraqi troops in a firefight, Reuters noted. Also, the...

Saudi Arabia said today that it foiled a suicide bombing plot against the U.S. Embassy in the kingdom’s capital of Riyadh. In an announcement carried by the Saudi Press Agency today, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said authorities uncovered the plot by a militant cell involving at least two Syrian citizens and a Saudi citizen to attack the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh in mid-March. The Saudi national, who had a criminal record according to the Interior Ministry, was arrested April 18 when authorities searched his car and found pipes, batteries, mobile chargers and a few electric wires, officials...