Free Republic

U.S. oil production peaked at over 9.6 million barrels per day in June, 2015: Based on Core Labs' prediction above, U.S. oil production will fall to under 8.3 million barrels per day before the end of this year and will continue fall to under 7.5 million barrels per day sometime in 2017 before it stabilizes. The only thing that will stop U.S. oil production from falling is a sharp increase in oil prices. In my opinion, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) must move firmly over $60/bbl before we will see the increase in capital expenditures necessary to stabilize U.S. oil production....

Why NATO has a ticking time bomb on its hands. On Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that the purge of thousands in the Turkish military – including a third of the serving generals – did not weaken the military.

Stoltenberg told Reuters, “Turkey has a large armed force, professional armed forces and... I am certain they will continue as a committed and strong NATO ally.”
 It would be interesting to know whether the 1,500 US soldiers who have been locked down at Incirlik Air Base along with several hundred soldiers from other NATO countries since the failed coup Friday night...

Incirlik Air Base in Turkey has been placed on lockdown. The base is used by US, UK, Saudi and Turkish forces to run airstrikes against ISIS. The power at the base was reportedly cut off after the coup attempt Saturday morning in Ankara and Istanbul. And flights are grounded.The Erdogan government believes the air base was used to launch attacks during the coup attempt last night.Now this….Turkey is holding the US military hostage at Incirlik.  

In an astonishing and reckless attack on the US the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the country considers itself at war with any nation that stands by the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. He said: "Any country that protects Fethullah Gulen will be an enemy to Turkey." Moderate cleric Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, has been a constant scapegoat for Erdogan who has accused him of trying to establish a “parallel state” to rival his own fiefdom. The statement by Mr Yildirim will be seen as a thinly veiled threat to America to give up Gulen, who lives...

Volume 1: Shariah in American Courts: The Expanding Incursion of Islamic Law in the U.S. Legal System Press Release 5 January 2015 For Immediate Release SHARIAH IN AMERICA COURTS 2.0: CENTER’S NEW CIVILIZATION JIHAD READER SERIES STARTS WITH THE PENETRATION OF OUR LEGAL SYSTEM (Washington, D.C.): Center for Security Policy Press today launched a collection of monographs called the Civilization Jihad Reader Series with the publication of an update to an earlier and highly influential study concerning the insinuation of Islam’s supremacist shariah legal code into the U.S. judiciary. Entitled Shariah in American Courts: The Expanding Incursion of Islamic Law...

The United Arab Emirates urged citizens to avoid wearing traditional clothes when traveling abroad after a businessman visiting the US was handcuffed at gunpoint because a hotel clerk spread false reports that he was an Islamic State suspect. Ahmed al-Menhali, who was wearing a white, ankle-length shirt along with a headscarf and headband, suffered a 'light stroke' when he was detained at gunpoint last week in Avon, Ohio. Al-Menhali was handcuffed and searched in an incident that was widely reported in the Emirates, prompting an apology from a number of American officials.

During the Bretton Woods Conference, in 1944, Lord Halifax is said to have “whispered to Lord Keynes: ‘It’s true: they have the money bags but we have all the brains.’” By “they,” Halifax meant the Americans. His frustration with the American mind—often prosaic and anti-intellectual—during the critical Bretton-Woods negotiations seems as valid today. As odious as Britain’s elites are; boy, are they cleverer than ours. Take the impromptu interview, on June 28, which Richard Quest, CNN’s imported British broadcast journalist, conducted with Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party. Farage had emerged exhilarated from the coven that is the...

NEW YORK – The liberal, Reform, Conservative and secular parts of the American Jewish community may become more distant from Israel as the country’s demography becomes more Orthodox and nationalistic, according to a report presented to the Cabinet on Sunday. Results from the 12th Annual Assessment of the Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People, put together by The Jewish People Policy Institute, were offered by JPPI Co-Chairman Ambassador Dennis Ross and President Avinoam Bar-Yosef. Bar-Yosef explained that while there is significant support for Israel in North America, it isn’t compensating for “the young generation of liberal and secular American...

Iranian regime seeks help from same international court it treated with contempt over taking of U.S. hostages Iran has filed a complaint against the United States with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the seizure of two billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets, which are being held at Citibank in the U.S. The purpose of the seizure was to compensate American victims, their estate representatives, or surviving family members for the harms suffered as a result of Iranian-sponsored terror attacks. The majority of claims were in connection with the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon....

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Thursday said the US was a “selfish friend” that always curried favour with Pakistan when self-interest pressed it and left it in the lurch after having its interests served.

U.S. crude oil exports rose to 591,000 barrels per day in April, up 83,000 barrels from March, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau on Friday. The total figures are the highest since at least 1920, Rigzone reports. A majority of the crude - 324,000 bpd of it - went to Canada, 90,000 more went to Curacao and 36,000 others went to the Bahamas. The figures come almost six months after the U.S. government lifted restrictions on crude exports.

A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay. Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykin’s invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley – leading some to break down in tears. “I have clients of ours weeping on the phone about this,” he said. Weeping? Oh, please. “I sincerely doubt that America can expect to win wars if the people who are tasked to do so are frightened by an old retired general with...

A flesh-eating tropical disease is ravaging the war-torn Middle East, after Islamic State destruction created the ideal breeding conditions.

(Title) Stephen K. Bannon to Obama: Why Don’t You Go to Pearl Harbor and Apologize to the Dead Still Buried There? Breitbart Executive Chairman and SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon opened his Breitbart News Daily radio show on Friday expressing outrage at Barack Obama’s apology tour of Hiroshima. Below is a partial transcript: I had Japanese partners. I was a partner with Nissho Iwa for a while. They financed my merchant bank for a while when I left Goldman Sachs. I have many, many dear friends in Japan. I’ve spent many years in Japan. I have sailed with the Japanese...

President Obama is visiting Vietnam today and paused for a picture with communist party President Tran Dai Quang in front of a bust of Ho Chi Minh. Perhaps it’s just me, but given the nature of the diplomatic relationship this specific optic seems rather inappropriate.

Iranian lawmakers are moving closer to approving a lawsuit against the United States to seek compensation for damage inflicted by Washington’s “hostile moves over the past 63 years”. On Wednesday, 181 of the 290 Iranian lawmakers voted in favor of a bill that would pave the way for the government to take legal action against the U.S. in an international court for actins dating back to the 1953 coup in Iran. The move comes just a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that nearly $2 billion of Iran’s frozen assets be given to American families of the victims...

Burlington College Feels the Bern! Will Close Thanks to Crushing Debt Acquired by Mrs. Bernie Sanders One of the reasons Bernie Sanders is doing well with Millennials is because he’s promising free college for everyone. In an ultimate twist of irony, his wife Jane Sanders was president of Burlington College in Vermont and racked up such large debts for the small school that she led it to ruin. sanders wife Burlington College announced today it will close after it was unable to recover from the crushing debt incurred under during Jane Sanders’ tenure as president of the institution. Heat Street...

The United States on Monday announced a $50 million aid program for Gaza, reports The Associated Press (AP). American officials quoted by the news agency said that the money will be used over five years to provide basic humanitarian assistance and create jobs in the coastal enclave. The money will be distributed by the U.S Agency for International Development in partnership with Catholic Relief Services. The U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, Donald A. Blume, said the effort is meant to address "the dire needs that are obvious in Gaza", according to the AP report. Gaza's economy has sharply declined since...

LONDON — The Dutch chapter of the environmental activist group Greenpeace leaked on Monday what it called a trove of documents from the talks over a proposed trade deal between the European Union and the United States. The proposed deal, which President Obama would like to see finalized before he leaves office, has already received criticism on both sides of the Atlantic. According to Greenpeace, the documents indicate that American trade negotiators pressed their European counterparts to loosen important environmental, consumer protection and other provisions as part of the deal, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The documents,...

One day after declaring there is no military solution to Syria, U.S. President Barack Obama recently announced the deployment of 250 more special operations forces for the fight against Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS). This new troop deployment will be missioned to advise and assist local fighters, and beef up 50 other such troops on a similar mission in the past few months. This move comes after an escalation of violence in the strategic city of Aleppo where the Assad regime has intensified its lethal airstrikes, bringing a drastic end to the UN-brokered cessation...