Free Republic

Newly revealed information about how hackers broke into a company conducting millions of background investigations on national security employees shows the lengths to which attackers are willing to go to steal U.S. secrets. There is a systemic effort underway by China and other adversaries to crib sensitive data on powerful people and covert operators in Washington, intelligence analysts say. Hacks at employee vetters USIS, KeyPoint, and the Office of Personnel Management, as well as major federal health care provider Blue Cross Blue Shield, are cases in point. At USIS, cyber snoops deployed spyware custom-designed to capture screenshots only when a...

RUSH: Another story about kids here, folks. "A woman in Baltimore is being praised for what she did after she spotted her son taking part in the rioting in the streets of Baltimore. A news crew from WMAR videotaped her berating her son for taking part in the violence. "The woman can be seen repeatedly slapping her son and yelling at him. She recognized him even though he was wearing a black face mask. Witnesses say she saw her son throwing rocks at police." The police commissioner of Baltimore praised this mother. It's audio sound bite number five. His name...

Responding to social media rumors about another planned "purge" on Tuesday afternoon, police guarded shopping centers and malls around Baltimore City and Baltimore County, but the threats were unfounded. Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson had said early in the afternoon that his agency deemed none of the threats as credible, but deployed police around the county just to be sure. Given the frustration still simmering across West Baltimore, one young man walking through the parking lot of Security Square Mall in Woodlawn said the threat was still serious. "It could happen at any time," said Alex Winfield, a 22-year-old...

RUSH: Okay, now, wait a minute, ladies and gentlemen, the police chief of Baltimore is telling parents to keep their kids at home. The police chief of Baltimore -- let me get this -- I want to get the exact words. What did this guy say? Here it is. I got it. "Take control of your kids." Okay? What do kids have to do with this? Hang on. Now the mayor of Philadelphia has spoken up. And the mayor of Philadelphia says: "Parents are responsible for their kids. Parents need to keep their kids in line," something like that. And...

Fox News is reporting that the same social media accounts which were active during the most violent days of the riots in Ferguson Missouri were active on Monday as the violence in Baltimore began to spike. According to the report, that may be an indication that "professional protesters" may be trying to incite the violence. The information comes from "a leading data mining firm that shared its findings exclusively with Fox News." The firm, which asked to remain anonymous because of its government work, found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were also tied to the...

To cleanse the palate, I paraphrase “Spinal Tap”: It’s like how much gayer could this be? And the answer is none. None more gay.The logo is to celebrate oral arguments this morning at the Supreme Court, which is funny because as recently as a year ago Hillary didn’t even want the issue in front of SCOTUS. She told an interviewer at NPR in June 2014, fully a year after the Windsor case was decided and with today’s case already a very real possibility, that she thought the legality of gay marriage should be left up to the states. In other...

There is a stark contrast between civil disobedience – principled defiance which Henry David Thoreau advocated in the face of foolish and intrusive authority – and the manufactured exploits of opportunistic anarchy for the sole purpose of selfish gain. One seeks to spiritually transcend or liberate man from unnecessary and ill-conceived government, the other merely uses misfortune and blind inference as a catalyst to steal, destroy, and incite endless chaos. And this is what happens when millions of Americans are taught to have no respect or regard for God, the rule of law, or their fellow man. This is what...

Senators on Tuesday blocked a Republican push to require a final deal on Iran's nuclear program be submitted to the Senate as a treaty. Senators voted 39-57 on Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) amendment, which was subjected to a 60-vote threshold. It was the first vote in a series of politically tricky amendments senators are expected to take on a deal reached by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Their agreement gives lawmakers 30 days to pass a resolution of disapproval on any final Iran deal. Corker suggested ahead of the vote that if the Wisconsin Republican's push was...

Please pray for my six year old daughter. On April 16th she suffered a stroke which left her paralyzed on the left side of her face and her left arm. While hospitalized she suffered an additional stroke which paralyzed her left leg. We were flown to Texas Children's Hospital and are receiving excellent care but the doctors still do not know what is the root cause of the strokes. Sophia is my everything. She has suffered through medical issues her entire life and now we can see depression setting in on her. Her personality is drastically changed and we are...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — April 28, 2015 … Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon at his Jerusalem office, held a consultation on Israel’s rescue efforts in Nepal. Israel Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan, Foreign Ministry Director General Nissim Ben-Shetrit, GOC Home Front Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and MDA Director General Eli Bein, as well as representatives from the Justice and Public Security ministries, were also in attendance. “We are focusing on two efforts,” said Netanyahu. “Our first effort is to locate and rescue Israelis who are in distress in Nepal and enable their...

An inspector general investigating the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups has found thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the agency official at the center of that controversy, according to committees involved in the probe. Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said it found roughly 6,400 emails either to or from Lerner from between 2004 and 2013 that it didn’t think the IRS had turned over to lawmakers, the congressional committees said. The committees have yet to examine the emails, aides on Capitol Hill said. The IRS said last year that Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, leaving it...

Freddie Gray had a pre-existing spinal and neck injury and had severe damage and scar tissue from an accident that Allstate Insurance was paying him a large structured settlement. Freddie had several unsuccessful spinal fusion surgeries, he most recent spinal/cervical operation was a week and a half before he was arrested. Freddie should have been at home in bed resting and recovering from recent major operation instead of manufacturing and distributing drugs on the streets and resisting arrest. Freddie has a criminal record pages long for manufacturing and distributing controlled dangerous drugs that were cocaine crack heroine etc. along with...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sidestepped a question on whether he would apologize for the sexual enslavement of women by Japan’s army during World War II. Abe instead said he was “deeply pained” by the suffering of “comfort women.” He was using a euphemism for tens of thousands of Asian women who were forced to serve Japanese troops. …

House Republicans unveiled legislation on Tuesday to sharply curb the Obama administration’s recent moves to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba. The provision by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American from Florida, would block new flights and cruise ship travel to Cuba. The provision was attached to a must-pass transportation spending bill that the House will consider next month. Diaz-Balart’s move comes in response to new rules issued by the administration in January that would significantly ease travel restrictions to Cuba and permit regularly scheduled flights for the first time, the result of a rapprochement after a half century of Cold...

John Maynard Keynes obit 21 April 1946 Franz Kafka obit 03 June 1924 Here’s an astonishing statistic; more than 30pc of all government debt in the eurozone – around €2 trillion of securities in total – is trading on a negative interest rate. With the advent of European Central Bank quantitative easing, what began four months ago when 10-year Swiss yields turned negative for the first time has snowballed into a veritable avalanche of negative rates across European government bond markets. In the hunt for apparently “safe assets”, investors have thrown caution to the wind, and collectively determined to pay...

The United States is poised to flood world markets with once-unthinkable quantities of liquefied natural gas as soon as this year, profoundly changing the geo-politics of global energy and posing a major threat to Russian gas dominance in Europe. "We anticipate becoming big players, and I think we'll have a big impact," said the Ernest Moniz, the US Energy Secretary. "We're going to influence the whole global LNG market." Mr Moniz said four LNG export terminals are under construction and the first wave of shipments may begin before the end of this year or in early 2016 at the latest....

Video from the Progress 59 spacecraft showed it in a dizzying spin, with the Earth and sun rapidly coming into and then out of frame. Russian flight controllers abandoned plans to attempt to dock the cargo ship with the International Space Station on Thursday (April 30), NASA spokesman Rob Navias said in a NASA TV update. That docking — originally scheduled for this morning, then pushed to Thursday — is now "indefinitely postponed," Navias said. The problems began shortly after Progress 59 launched into space atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff occurred at 3:09 a.m....

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TASS news agency quoted an unnamed space official as saying the Progress, carrying supplies such as food and fuel, had missed its intended orbit and could be lost if it is not corrected. Other officials told Russian news agencies there had been a problem opening two antennae on the craft.

A wanted man was arrested on a variety of charges after he fled from sheriff’s deputies earlier this week in Camino and Placerville. On Sunday, an El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputy spotted Abram Sassenberg, who had a felony warrant out for his arrest, driving in Pollock Pines. Sassenberg also had a suspended drivers’ license so he should not have been behind the wheel.