Free Republic

The group Take 'Em Down NOLA claims New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu paid a private security firm $750,000 to spy on the organization. Its members held a press conference in front of City Hall on Friday to address what the group calls the city's "unauthorized contract" with the Trident Response Group of Dallas... {snip} Suber said Take 'Em Down NOLA meetings are public, so the city "certainly could have sent spies" to these events as well to monitor their actions. He also questioned why the city would pay this group for surveillance work if the city claims to have resources available...

(CNN)House Russia investigators are planning to call on Brad Parscale, the digital director of President Donald Trump's campaign, as the congressional and federal probes dig into any possible connections between the Trump digital operation and Russian operatives, congressional sources said this week. {snip} Parscale told CNN Friday that he had not been contacted by any investigators -- either federal or Congressional. Senate investigators in particular have been interested in looking for a link between the prevalence of fake news that supported Trump and was pinpointed in key areas of Rust Belt states that ultimately flipped from blue to red --...

In the wake of former FBI Director James Comey's admission that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians to rig last year's presidential election, independent counsel Robert Mueller has initiated a major expansion of his staff. "Inasmuch as it is inconceivable that a person as qualified as Secretary Clinton could be beaten by a boorish amateur like Donald Trump in a fair contest, there has to have been some sort of underhanded manipulation involved," Mueller reasoned. "My good friend James Comey valiantly tried to soldier on before he was improperly dismissed by his obviously guilty target....

Special counsel Robert Mueller could have a tough time making an obstruction of justice case stick against President Trump, according to legal analysts, who said he will have to overcome a number of “unique hurdles” — not the least of which is a decades-old Justice Department ruling that a sitting president can’t be charged. Analysts say it will be up to Mr. Mueller to decide whether to accept the long-standing opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel, which ruled in 1973 and again in 2000 that a president has immunity from criminal prosecution. It’s also not clear that FBI investigations...

FULL TITLE: 'God loves me this way... no part of me is a mistake': Moment a 12-year-old Mormon girl has her microphone CUT OFF at church as she comes out as gay A 12-year-old Mormon girl courageously stood up in front of members of her Utah church to tell them she was gay - only to have officials cut off her microphone and tell her to sit down. Savannah revealed to churchgoers in Utah County, south of Salt Lake City, last month that she was a lesbian and told them she was proud God had made her that way. Standing...

Zagros Rifles, named for the mountain range that runs through the Kurdish heartland, are locally fabricated weapons, constructed from parts of large caliber (12.7, or 14.5 mm) Russian rifles. They have served as long range sniper rifles, and as anti-materiel rifles for Kurdish guerillas. Today, they are widely used in the fight against ISIS.

Join Freepers throughout the world to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE-PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, Health Care Systems and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind

....Foreign entities are barred from providing a campaign with any “thing of value,” such as useful information on a political opponent. In cases that don’t involve a direct transfer of money, there must be proof that a campaign understood the information it exchanged with a foreign entity would be used for the illegal purpose of influencing an election, said Noble, one of the nation’s leading experts on campaign finance law....

Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl died Friday at age 87. His legacy includes reuniting Germany after the Cold War and helping to create the continent's common currency, the euro. US President Donald Trump says Kohl was a "friend and ally" to the United States as he led Germany through 16 pivotal years.....

Indian-American CEOs Indra Nooyi of Pepsico and Ajay Banga of Mastercard along with India's IT major Wipro on Saturday joined scores of US companies in welcoming President Donald Trump's ambitious apprenticeship programme aimed at developing job-related skills among the workforce. . . "We applaud the president's commitment to industry-driven apprenticeships as a powerful tool to build the skilled workforce prepared for the jobs of the 21st century," Business Roundtable -- a group of chief executive officers of leading US companies -- said in a full-page advertisement released in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times today. . ....

....The United States Commission on Civil Rights, a bipartisan agency charged with advising the president and Congress on civil rights matters, unanimously approved a comprehensive two-year probe into the “degree to which current budgets and staffing levels allow civil rights offices to perform” their functions within the administration, said the agency in a statement. {snip} The commission, created under the Civil Rights Act and funded by Congress, expressed specific worry in seven agencies under the president, including the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. {snip} The investigation will also look into the departments of Labor, Housing and Urban...

Cannabis is joining the ranks of the financial, advertising, real estate and alcohol industries with the formation of its first self-regulatory organization. The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) launched Thursday with a powerhouse leadership team and an ambitious plan: Develop and enforce national standards that will increase compliance and transparency, spur growth, and shape future federal regulations. The NACB’s slogan is “Be ready,” in anticipation of federal legalization of cannabis. The cannabis industry is on a historic growth trajectory even as its businesses operate in a fractured regulatory environment and in the face of uncertain federal policy, NACB president...

The Trump administration said Friday it still has not decided the fate of a program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation, despite a statement a day earlier that the program will continue. The mixed signals reflect the political sensitivities behind the Obama administration program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. As a candidate who put tough immigration policies at the core of his campaign, Donald Trump denounced the program as an "illegal amnesty" and said he would immediately end it. {snip} Following news reports that the DACA program would continue, and reactions on both...

A few weeks ago the new president of the Florida Democratic Party, Sally Boynton Brown, caught some flak when she told a group of progressives that changes in store for the party include messaging that makes a conscious appeal to emotion, and rigorous script testing, likely through soft polling and focus groups. The problem as many progressives see it is that after losing so much ground, message resurfacing is not the change we need. There is an urgent need to transform the party, to regain relevancy—and that doesn’t come with message tweaks more commonly associated with failed Centrist strategizing. Lucky...

The chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party's Black Caucus is resisting pressure to resign after she called Republicans' reactions to the shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) "so funny." Chelsey Gentry-Tipton of Omaha, Neb. also wrote on Facebook that she was "having a hard time feeling bad" for Republicans, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Both comments were made Wednesday, the day of the shooting in Alexandria, Va. that injured Scalise and four others. The chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, Jane Kleeb, has requested for Gentry-Tipton's resignation. Gentry-Tipton said "Y is this so funny tho?" in response to...

NEW YORK (AP) — A fiery Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned Friday that President Donald Trump and his Republican allies are preparing to deliver "a knockout blow" to the nation's middle-class. The liberal icon delivered the comments to a packed theater in the heart of Manhattan's Times Square. It was the final scheduled stop in a book tour that featured a half-dozen appearances nationwide over the last two months. She read from the book, "This Fight is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class," before exciting the overwhelmingly liberal crowd with aggressive rhetoric that demonstrated her appeal...

I’m going to give those claiming they want to save President Trump from a potential impeachment the benefit of the doubt, although at times like these I seriously wonder whether such benefit should be extended. I mean, when someone like myself, who didn’t even vote for Trump, seems more earnest in salvaging his presidency than those who shill for him, I have to wonder if some of these people really care about the country. Or do they just want the show (see that as clicks)? Because advising Trump to fire independent counsel Robert Mueller is arguably the single dumbest strategic...

Sweden's answer to the F-35 has taken its maiden flight, maker Saab has revealed. During the 40-minute flight over the eastern parts of Östergötland, the latest Gripen executed a series of maneuvers to test its systems, including extending and retracting its landing gear. The Gripen E 'Smart Fighter' is aimed at markets not yet cleared to buy the troubled Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The latest version of the Gripen fighter jet has been unveiled by Swedish aircraft maker, Saab. The E fighter, the sixth variant in the Gripen family, is slightly bigger than previous versions the $85 million...

Civil right leader Rev. Jesse Jackson paid enormous tribute to the late Martin McGuinness this week in a rousing speech to open the Museum of Free Derry. Comparing the Derryman, who died earlier this year after a short illness, to the likes of Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela, the activist laid a wreath at the Sinn Féin leader’s grave, meeting with other members of the political party to pay tribute. “It was a great honor to welcome the Rev. Jesse Jackson to Derry today, as he laid a wreath at the grave of Martin McGuinness, accompanied by Martin’s...

President Trump and his family will make their first visit to Camp David this weekend, according to the White House. “The first family heads to Camp David. Hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend,” Stephanie Grisham, communications director for first lady Melania Trump, tweeted Friday evening. (TWEET-AT-LINK) Alerts of the president’s visit were issued by the federal government earlier this week, according to The Frederick News Post, which noted a Federal Aviation Administration notice being issued. Similar notifications were sent in March and May but didn't lead to a visit. This is the first visit Trump will make as president to...