Free Republic

Melania Trump’s spokeswoman penned an op-ed Monday slamming the media for focusing on “trivial and superficial” matters, like the first lady’s marriage and fashion choices, despite her continued work benefiting children and military families. Stephanie Grisham, Mrs. Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications, took issue with an opinion piece by CNN contributor Kate Anderson Brower, who accused the first lady of throwing herself a “pity party” for lamenting how she’s covered by the media during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week. “This condescending opinion, apparently written in response to a single answer Mrs. Trump gave in...

Liberal opinion writer E.J. Dionne, Jr. of the Washington Post thinks so. He writes that the power and influence of the National Rifle Association has been broken. What he serves up as proof is the 2018 election, the one where the Republicans under the inept leadership of Paul Ryan lost the House of Representatives. It is worth considering Dionne's argument if for no other reason than to gain insight into the liberal mind. After all, he speaks for many on the Left, and to defeat the enemy it is necessary to know them. Before he makes his case that the...

WotW weighs the pros and cons of Western democracy and calls for new ideas to address the unique problems of our time.

It’s a question he has been asked since entering public life, and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker was again forced to address his personal life as he considers whether to run for president in 2020. “I’m heterosexual,” Booker told the Philadelphia Inquirer. The interview took place as Booker decides whether to jump into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He told NJ Advance Media last month that he would “consider running for president" in 2020 and would "take some time during this holiday season to sit with family and close friends and advisers to give it a really good consideration.”...

Seventy-five percent of the federal government is already funded through all of fiscal year 2019, according to the House Committee on Appropriations. That means a total government shutdown cannot happen.

This year’s McKinsey & Company retreat in China was one to remember. Hundreds of the company’s consultants frolicked in the desert, riding camels over sand dunes and mingling in tents linked by red carpets. Meetings took place in a cavernous banquet hall that resembled a sultan’s ornate court, with a sign overhead to capture the mood. “I can’t keep calm, I work at McKinsey & Company,” it said. Especially remarkable was the location: Kashgar, the ancient Silk Road city in China’s far west that is experiencing a major humanitarian crisis. About four miles from where the McKinsey consultants discussed their...

A former Navy SEAL, Ephraim Mattos fought the Taliban and ISIS, and later returned as a volunteer to help civilians in war zones, getting shot by ISIS soldiers in the process. Mattos made it clear he identifies himself as “simply ‘American,’ not as ‘white’ or ‘male’ or ‘Republican.'” So when CNN host Don Lemon declared last week that “the biggest terror threat in this country is white men,” Mattos had something to say... “After surviving three wars, a gunshot wound, a near fatal drowning, a failed parachute, Taliban ambushes, ISIS snipers, mortars, mine-fields, suicide bombers and laying down my life...

Thousands of people marched in Brussels on Sunday against a U.N. pact aimed at fostering cooperation on migration, eclipsing a smaller demonstration in support of the deal, the signing of which brought down Belgium’s government last week. Police said some 5,500 people marched in the bigger protest, organized by Flemish right wing parties in the part of the capital where main European Union institutions are located. A separate counter-demonstration of around 1,000 people, organized by left-wing groups and non-governmental organizations, took place in the city center. Belgian right-wing N-VA, which is the biggest party in parliament, pulled its ministers from...

The nuclear ‘tunnelbot’ would deploy from a lander with a fiber-optic string of data ‘repeaters’ unfurling as it sinks. Any such a Europa ‘tunnelbot’ would be relatively large. And risky to launch. “We didn’t worry about how our tunnelbot would make it to Europa or get deployed into the ice,” says University of Illinois at Chicago associate professor Andrew Dombard. “We just assumed it could get there and we focused on how it would work during descent to the ocean.” Which is the purpose of their mission. Whether or not such a nuclear-powered ‘tunnelbot’ is built and deployed is the...

We all like to see things go kaboom and like shooting a shotgun. So, did you know theres an exploding shotgun round that can satisfy this passion? Well I introduce to you the Frag12 T17 12 GAUGE High Explosive (HE) round. The concept is the same as the 40mm HE round thats fired from the military M-203 grenade launcher. In this case the shotgun slug Frag12 projectile is embedded into the slug. Once the primer is hit the projectile is launched and the warhead arms itself at 3 meters while in flight and detonates upon impact. There are three different...

In a Dec. 6 memo titled, "Space Development Agency Study Team Direction and Tasking," Griffin directed Fred Kennedy, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, to lead a study team and come up with recommendations for the "implementation of the Space Development Agency. … The study team will "inventory the DoD space-based command-and-control capabilities, identify critical gaps, deficiencies and inefficiencies in our existing architectures and develop an agile responsive threat-driven architecture, associated infrastructure requirements and an acquisition construct," Griffin wrote. The decision to assign this task to Kennedy is not surprising given his space expertise and track record attracting commercial space...

Homelessness in the U.S. increased in 2018 for the second straight year after being in decline for 7 years previously, according to the Wall Street Journal. The small 0.3 percent increase from last year comes as the economy is booming and unemployment is at its lowest point in decades. The homelessness rate is included in an annual report given to Congress Monday conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD secretary Ben Carson called the rise in homelessness last year relatively muted, saying that for it “to be relatively flat is actually pretty good” given the rise...

The caravan of people trying to illegally enter the United States is taking steps to vindicate President Trump’s policy of keeping them out. On the one hand, 280 of them have been arrested by Mexican police for burglarizing residences in Tijuana. Meanwhile, another 100 of them have tried their hand at extortion by demanding $50,000 apiece as the price of them ceasing to assault the border and go home. The Trump Administration has flatly rejected this blackmail demand, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) urged consideration of what they termed “a reasonable request.”...

A drunk driver was arrested on Sunday after he lost control of his car and the vehicle slammed into a telephone pole and ended up hanging vertically from the branches of a tree, hospitalizing one of two passengers that were riding with him. The dramatic crash occurred Sunday night on a two-lane road in a rural area outside Shrewsbury, U.K., SWNS reports. Police say the young male behind the wheel failed a roadside breathalyzer test and he was taken into custody at the scene.

Of Weather and Warnings: A Pro-Life Meditation Msgr. Charles Pope • December 16, 2018 • The weather in Washington, D.C. was dismal on Saturday: more than two inches of rain. 2018 has now surpassed 1889 to become the wettest year since records have been kept. So far, more than 62 inches of rain have fallen this year; the annual average is only about 40 inches.On this cold, rainy December morning, a group of us stood in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in northeast D.C, just as we do on many Saturdays throughout the year. We prayed the Rosary...

GEORGETOWN — The city of Georgetown’s bill for wind and solar energy ended up being $8.6 million more than anticipated in fiscal year 2018 because the falling prices of oil and gas meant it had to sell its surplus renewable power for less than forecast, said City Manager David Morgan. The city had budgeted $45 million for renewable energy but ended up paying $53.6 million, he said. Georgetown was able to reduce the $8.6 million unanticipated extra to $6.8 million through savings from lower capital improvement utility project costs, Morgan said. It paid the remaining $6.8 million with reserves from...

Once deemed dangerous, suicide doors are making a comeback on the Lincoln Continental. Ford is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the long-lived luxury Lincoln line by making 80 cars in 2019 with the classic center-opening doors that once served as the signature of the Continental. The doors are not just a gimmick or aesthetic flourish. By opening toward the rear of the car, they allow passengers in the rear seats to enter and exit the vehicle more comfortably. Passengers don't have to lean forward to push the door open or pull it closed, for example. The design was featured commonly...

Here are a few short musings for my faithful readers as we approach the end of the year: The Democrats won the mid-term elections; they took back the House of Representatives. They’ll have the power to launch endless investigations, consider impeaching President Trump, and block his agenda whenever they want. With Republicans having a bigger Senate advantage, we’re guaranteed two years of partisan gridlock in Washington.With an increased U.S. Senate majority, President Trump will be able to appoint and confirm conservative judges to key court positions. If any other Supreme Court Justices leave or pass away, he’ll solidify the...

FULL TITLE: Universities sell emergency contraception Plan B from VENDING machines for just $15 - cheaper than the drugstore Universities across the country are starting to install vending machines whereby college students can obtain emergency contraception from a vending machine. Barnard College in New York said it would soon install a vending machine, months after Columbia University did. Stanford University and Dartmouth College have all added vending machines with Plan B for sale. Scroll down for video

TYPE “TRUMP” TO SEE WHAT HE’S UP AGAINST I saw an article over the weekend that listed the various legal ways President Trump, family, businesses, and associates are being attacked. It’s mind boggling. If they didn’t find something on him, that should be the story, because with the mountains of laws in our modern society, you can find something on anyone—particularly, I’m sure, on the those who are going after Trump the hardest. So I searched for the article this morning, to include its link in this post. I couldn’t remember the title, or even any keywords in it, so...