Free Republic

California has met the future, and it really doesn’t work. As the mounting panic surrounding the drought suggests, the Golden State, once renowned for meeting human and geographic challenges, is losing its ability to cope with crises. As a result, the great American land of opportunity is devolving into something that resembles feudalism, a society dominated by rich and poor, with little opportunity for upward mobility for the state’s middle- and working classes.

The West Memphis NAACP has legitimized and inflamed the war on cops by urging blacks to arm up against them. “Law enforcement has to understand, you cannot do what you please when you see us,” Crittenden County NAACP head Shabaka Afrika said in a news conference. The deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown had really roiled angry black activists and street thugs who make up their army. But the killing of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD and the shooting of Walter Scott in South Carolina have pushed them over the edge. Nation of Islam leader Louis...

Jonathan Crombie, a Canadian actor who was known to a generation of fans as Gilbert Blythe in the mini-series “Anne of Green Gables,” died on Wednesday in New York City. He was 48. The cause was a brain hemorrhage, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said. Mr. Crombie rose to fame as a teenager when he was cast as the handsome and confident love interest in the 1985 Canadian television adaptation of “Anne of Green Gables,” Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 novel about an orphan (played by Megan Follows) growing up on Prince Edward Island. It was shown in the United States on...

First it was Net Neutrality; will the demise of FM radio come next ? Norway will be switching off FM radio as of 2017 as part of its transition to digital airwaves, DAB. Norway will save $25 million without the FM spectrum making it possible to add 20 or more "national" stations to its digital offerings. Other Scandinavian countries as well as the UK are planning to abandon FM by 2022. For the consumer it means having to buy a new DAB radio which will no doubt soon be given free by Dear Leader along with your phone, toaster and...

Dr. Peter Pry (Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security) warns that the consequences - of not being prepared for this event - are much more severe than one may think: “within a year of an EMP event at least 2 thirds or the us population will perish from starvation, disease and social collapse” Former CIA double agent (Reza Kahlili) who spent time in the Iranian Army confirmed that the Iranian have conducted missile tests of ships in the Caspian See that are consistent with an EMP attack: “They are going to get to the Gulf...

U.S. support is "crucial" to Latvia amid concerns over an increase in Russian troop activity near its borders, the Baltic nation's defense chief said Monday. Lt. Gen Raimonds Graube said that "Russian communication warfare and Russian troop build ups" are continuing along the Russia-Latvia border. "The people of Latvia are scared because of this activity," he said after a meeting with the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges in Wiesbaden, Germany. Increased Russian military activity in the Baltic region in recent months has prompted a display of U.S. and NATO deterrence capabilities against any Russian...

Someone was pounding at her front door. It was early in the morning — very early — and it was the kind of heavy pounding that meant someone was either fleeing from — or bringing — trouble. “It was so hard. I’d never heard anything like it. I thought someone was dying outside.” She ran to the door, opened it, and then chaos. “People came pouring in. For a second I thought it was a home invasion. It was terrifying. They were yelling and running, into every room in the house. One of the men was in my face, yelling...

Legislation to set standards for cities that wish to regulate the oil and gas drilling within their city limits passed the Texas House Friday with more than two-thirds approval. House Bill 40 heads to the Texas Senate Monday, where, if it can sustain the momentum that’s carried it this far, could soon become law. And that’s got some special interests groups in a tizzy. “If some Austin lawmakers are successful, oil and gas drilling could be coming to a school, playground of daycare center near you,” wrote Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas in an opinion piece published in the...

The Random Darknet Shopper was let go after being held by police for three months. A robot given $100 a week in bitcoins to buy whatever it wanted from the deep web, has purchased a Hungarian passport, a baseball cap fixed with a hidden camera, fake Diesel jeans, a stash can, 200 Chesterfield cigarettes and 10 yellow pills containing 90mg of MDMA each.

Standardized testing in Florida is once again on hold due to technical glitches. The Department of Education told school districts early Monday that the testing company's servers were down. They were supposed to be back up by 8:30 a.m.

Psalm 112:1-4 Blessed is the Man that Feareth the Lord, and Delighteth Greatly in His Commandments. His Seed shall be Mighty upon Earth: the Generation of the Upright shall be Blessed. Riches and Treasures shall be in his House, and his Righteousness Endureth Forever. Unto the Upright Ariseth Light in Darkness: he is Merciful and Full of Compassion, and Righteous.

Via C-Span coverage, some thoughts on the state of the 2016 GOP primary race after the two-day Republican Leadership Summit in New Hampshire: 1) Marco Rubio is clearly enjoying a moment. He is relaxed and funny in front of crowds, flying high after a well-received campaign announcement. In addition, Rubio appears to be winning growing support among some GOP establishment figures and opinion makers — the ones who worry about Jeb Bush's dynastic problem, fear Scott Walker is not ready for prime time, and have given up on Chris Christie. But Rubio has to convince other Republicans who worry that...

It is a general rule of negotiations that you don't negotiate with yourself. This advice is intended to prevent one side from being the only party that offers bridging proposals or compromises, and continues to offer more even after every offer is rejected as inadequate by the second party. In such cases, the negative party simply waits to see how far the offering party will go, and whether it will eventually come around to fully accepting every demand. The offering party proves, by its succession of improved offers and its unwillingness to give up on the negotiations, to be the...

Target shooters at the 27 1/4 Road range could find themselves with military company about four times a year. Soldiers with Company C of 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, headquartered in Grand Junction, will qualify at the range in the use of small arms, under an agreement with the Colorado National Guard and the Bureau of Land Management. Charlie Company soldiers now qualify on arms smaller than an M 240 Bravo — a machine gun — at a range in Fort Carson. “It’s a five-hour bus ride in good weather and a $5,000 round-trip proposition,” said Lt. Col. Brey Hopkins,...

As of this morning, the arrests seem rather mysterious, except for the context of missing young men from the Twin Cities Somalian ex-patriate community. The FBI rounded up a half-dozen suspects in Minneapolis and in San Diego in a Joint Terrorism Task Force operation, but otherwise the feds have been mum about the specifics of the threat or threats: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The FBI arrested several people in Minneapolis and San Diego on Sunday as part of a joint terrorism task force investigation, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger confirmed Sunday evening. A Somali woman who...

TEL AVIV – While U.S. government agencies have strongly denied a Judicial Watch report claiming there are ISIS camps near the U.S. border with Mexico, lawmakers have expressed fears the global jihadist organization is linking up with deadly Mexican drug cartels. Such a partnership would not only help to facilitate the smuggling of jihadists into the U.S. but could ultimately translate into a devastating terrorist attack on American soil, such as an Electro Magnetic Pulse, or EMP, catastrophe. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Northern Command and the Texas Department of Public Safety all have denied the...

There is plenty of blame to go around for both McHenry and Advanced Towing. People should not be demanding her firing unless and until the complete and unedited tape is released. As everyone knows by now, ESPN’s Britt McHenry gained a lot more fame than she ever had on the sidelines when she had a recent run-in with a woman clerk at a towing company. McHenry showed up to get her car that had been towed from the parking lot of a northern Virginia Chinese restaurant. She had left the vehicle in the parking lot all night. A security tape...

Let’s begin this one with a disclaimer: I detest the current presidential primary process. I consider it an unfair and anachronistic approach that should have long ago been corrected. That being said… it’s the method we have, so for the time being at least, the games begin in Iowa… Our major-party presidential nominees are selected through a time-honored tradition. Based on the theory that the people best suited to select a president are those who know him best, our system relies on aspiring candidates moving into Iowa and New Hampshire for months at a time, visiting small towns throughout these...

Republicans have a plan if the Supreme Court guts Obamacare this summer by stripping the government of the ability to provide to the states that declined to set up insurance exchanges with federal subsidiesÂ… and it looks quite a bit like Obamacare. If the Court does interpret the Affordable Care Act literally, then it will compel the federal government to withdraw subsidies from millions of Obamacare beneficiaries. That will make the health coverage those individuals obtained through the ACA in recent years prohibitively expensive, and many will find themselves once again uninsured. This is a double-edged sword for Republicans....

Cuba: Utterly failed economic and social system that can only stay in power by jailing or executing anyone who resists We are told we need to feel sympathy for the Cuban people who have suffered from a U.S. embargo and lack of diplomatic recognition. That ignores a long history of oppression in Cuba no matter who was in charge. Prior to Fidel Castro, Cubans were in the grip of Flugencio Batista who overthrew the existing government in September 1933 and then dominated Cuban politics for the next 25 years until Castro’s revolutionary movement took control of the capitol in January...