Free Republic

Fox News's Tucker Carlson is nearly doubling the ratings of his predecessor, Megyn Kelly, when compared to the same time period last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" is up 95 percent in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet most compared with the same period in 2016, when "The Kelly File" occupied the 9 p.m. ET time slot. Carlson has averaged 775,000 viewers per night in the category, while Kelly averaged 398,000 during the same time period, Jan. 11–22. Carlson took over the 9 p.m. slot on Jan. 9, shortly after Kelly announced she would...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 24, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted 238 to 183 today to permanently ban taxpayer funding of abortion. The No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act (HR 7), introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, makes the Hyde Amendment permanent. Thus far it has been subject to annual renewal. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal money from being used to fund abortions through Medicaid. The Charlotte Lozier Institute says the Hyde Amendment has saved over 2 million lives since it was enacted in 1976. A January 2017 Marist poll revealed 61% of Americans don’t support using tax...

It was one of the promises Donald Trump made on the campaign trail which drew widespread approbation from conservatives while spurring varying degrees of either anger or depression among the beltway crowd. Trump said that it would be more of an ax than a new broom when it comes to the size of the federal workforce and he would freeze hiring if elected. The pledge led as many as a third of federal workers to say they might walk off the job if he was elected. So would he really do it? Well… that didn’t take long. (Government Executive)...

“I think as an industry, we’re excited about working together with the president and his administration on tax policies, on regulation, and on trade to really create a renaissance in American manufacturing,” Fields told reporters after the meeting, according to the Detroit News. Fields also praised Trump’s decision to kill former President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, pointing out that it failed to address currency manipulation.

President Trump on Tuesday imposed a media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency and barred staff from awarding new contracts or grants. Emails sent to EPA staff since his inauguration on Friday and reviewed by the Associated Press detailed the specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency’s social media accounts.

The Senate has just voted to confirm Representative Mike Pompeo as CIA Director. This represents the third intelligence and security nomination confirmed – General Kelly (DHS) and General Mattis (DoD) receiving earlier confirmations. WASHINGTON – The Senate has confirmed Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, to be President Donald Trump’s CIA director. The vote tally is 66-32, with a significant number of Democrats voting no. Two senators are delayed by weather. (link) Two republican senators Tom Cotton (Yes) and Rand Paul (No) outline the dynamic within the overall DC intelligence outlook from the GOP. Neither are 100% correct; each distinct...

The day before he signed an important executive order to withdraw from the negotiating process for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), President Trump indicated that he will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.Reuters reported that during a swearing-in ceremony for his top White House advisors on January 22, Trump said, "We will be starting negotiations having to do with NAFTA. We are going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border.""Anybody ever hear of NAFTA?" Trump joked at the ceremony. "I ran a campaign somewhat based on NAFTA. But we’re...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee split along party lines Monday to endorse Rex Tillerson as the country’s next secretary of state, setting up a confirmation vote in the full Senate that is all but guaranteed to succeed. Republicans unanimously backed Tillerson in the 11-to-10 vote, after key Republicans who had voiced criticism of Tillerson opted to support his nomination. Chief among them was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a committee member who announced Monday morning that he would support Tillerson despite concerns about how Tillerson would approach Russia and other countries Rubio counts as human rights violators, resolving the final major...

Lou Dobbs just broke in with the report that Mike Pompeo now has 56 votes for confirmation, and has been confirmed by the Senate.

President Donald J. Trump killed the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) once and for all on Monday, signing an executive order officially withdrawing from the trade deal negotiations. It came as a part of series of three separate executive actions that President Trump took on Monday. “The first is a withdrawal of the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said, explaining the first executive action President Trump was taking in the list of three. The other two were one freezing hiring of all federal employees except in the military, and one that restores...

No more tingles. Chris Matthews is clearly missing the tingle. There is no longer a thrill running up his leg. Like a jilted lover, he desperately desires to be wooed once more and, apparently, he was hoping that President Donald Trump would do that in his inaugural address. It seems Trump was too harsh and abrupt in his speechmaking. Tingles was left unsatisfied, and came away disappointed.

UNITED STATES: Bill to withdraw the US from the United Nations has been submitted to Congress as the 'American Sovereignty Restoration Act'

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FULL TITLE: President Donald Trump Will Sign Executive Order Sunday to Defund International Planned Parenthood A new report out today indicates President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to defund International Planned Parenthood. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Most pro-life Americans are anxiously awaiting Congress to pass a bill to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. While that defunding legislation concerns the domestic-based Planned Parenthood abortion corporation, president Trump has the ability to put in place an executive order that would revoke funding for its International affiliate.When pro-abortion former President Barack Obama took office, Obama overturned a policy that prevented funding of...

Donald Trump is ready to take an ax to government spending. Staffers for the Trump transition team have been meeting with career staff at the White House ahead of Friday’s presidential inauguration to outline their plans for shrinking the federal bureaucracy, The Hill has learned. The changes they propose are dramatic. The departments of Commerce and Energy would see major reductions in funding, with programs under their jurisdiction either being eliminated or transferred to other agencies. The departments of Transportation, Justice and State would see significant cuts and program eliminations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, while the...

California has withdrawn its request to the federal government for permission to allow undocumented people to obtain health insurance from the state exchange, with a lawmaker linking the decision to concerns about the incoming Trump administration. State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, called the action “the first California casualty of the Trump presidency.”

Tech Mahindra will continue to invest in hiring more and more local people in the US as part of its efforts to augment competitiveness across locations, CEO CP Gurnani told a TV news channel on Wednesday. “Tech Mahindra is very conscious that not only the US, but the world is about localisation now,” Gurnani said in an interview to ET Now on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos. “Local skills have to be upgraded so that the products continue to be getting delivered,” he said. He was responding to queries on concerns about the US President-elect...

When President-elect Donald Trump replaces Barack Obama on January 20, the Democratic Party will find itself more removed from power than at almost any point since the party’s creation. Scorned by the same voters who once embraced the New Deal, built the Great Society, and put their hope in the nation’s first black president, Democrats are now locked out of power in Washington and out of two-thirds of state legislative chambers across the country...

The New York Times is warning its staff that budget cuts and staff reductions loom as the paper looks ahead to the future, according to a study by the outlet about how the newsroom will operate in the future. Dean Baquet, New York Times’ executive editor, and Joe Kahn, managing editor, said that the outlet’s transformation would require budget cuts and lead to a “smaller and more focused newsroom,” a move that will prompt buyouts and layoffs, which are expected this year. "We view this moment as a necessary re-positioning of The Times newsroom, not as a diminishment,” they said....

German-based Bayer AG has committed to President-elect Donald Trump that it will invest $8 billion in American research and development as part of its deal to acquire Monsanto, Trump's transition team said Tuesday. Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that Bayer will also protect all of Monsanto's 9,000 American jobs while creating an additional 3,000 high-tech positions in the country. That agreement, he added, came after Trump met with CEOs from both companies last week.