Free Republic

Okay, it’s not exactly an apology tour because he spoke the words while on U.S. soil. But it was an apology for America by Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson while standing alongside Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso and Mexican Secretary of Government Miguel Angel Osorio Chong on Thursday during a press conference at the State Department. Speaking about the “illicit drug trade” while holding his hand over his chest for several seconds as a symbol of admitted guilt, Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that Mexico’s organized crime problem is the fault of the Unites States and...

Although she has won three terms in office, Murkowski has never won a majority of voters in her state. Her next election is in 2022. In 2016, Murkowski won 44 percent of the vote. In 2010 she won 39.5 percent of the vote and in 2004 she won 48.5 percent.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says federal borrowing limit must increase by Sept. 29, giving lawmakers little time after recess to act Republicans are leaving town for an August recess after a failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When they return in September, they’ll have just 12 working days to avert another big problem. In a letter to lawmakers Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the federal borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, needed to be raised by Sept. 29 or the government risked running out of money to pay its bills.

After many threads expressing frustration and dismay over Free Republic's responsiveness of recent days, I think it is worth observing that FR is today responding in a manner equal to or better than the best I've ever seen during the nearly twenty years it has been my favorite website. Congratulations, and Many Thanks, to Jim, John, and the rest of the management team of Free Republic, the best website on the internet.

About 200 jobs still need to be filled before school starts in Forsyth County and staff believe they can get it done. "We spend the entire summer just restaffing," said Kathy Furr, with Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools. "We have applicants coming from North Carolina, a lot of people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states having a surplus of teachers." Furr says they need to fill elementary education positions, special education positions and a number of math teachers. "We also need maintenance workers, skilled electricians, HVAC, plumbers, some roofers and groundskeepers." According to the Guilford County school system website, they...

Warren's women staffers earned 71 cents for each dollar earned by men in 2016 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) spoke out on the issue of gender pay equality in a speech on Thursday without noting the equal pay shortcomings in her own senate office, where women earned a fraction of what was earned by men in 2016. In an address to liberal activists of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Warren said that she is continually reminded on Capitol Hill that she needs to push equal pay. "Boy, do they keep reminding me about this on Capitol Hill the need to...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) on Friday called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and the return to senators selected by state legislatures after the Senate GOP's effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare died in a late-night vote. The 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913 and established the popular election of senators. Previously, senators were elected by state legislatures. @GovMikeHuckabee Time to repeal 17th Amendment. Founders had it right-Senators chosen by state legislatures. Will work for their states and respect 10th amid The Senate's "skinny repeal" of ObamaCare failed late Thursday night by a vote of 51-49. The...

On Wednesday, a few hours after President Donald Trump announced, via Twitter, that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military, U.S. Naval Academy midshipman Regan Kibby drove to a nearby gym. In the locker room, he opened his bag and pulled out a T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Navy" and the academy's mascot, Bill the Goat. Then he started to cry. "I might not be able to say that anymore," Kibby, 19, says. "I might not be able to claim 'Navy.' "

Even when there was a note to not rehire an employee on the personnel file, IRS rehired them anyway The Internal Revenue Service rehired employees who were previously involved in agency misconduct such as falsifying documents or having unauthorized access to sensitive taxpayer information, according to an audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Considering that identify theft is a major concern, auditors wanted to inspect the agency to ensure the individuals they hire are of high integrity in safeguarding sensitive taxpayer information. The auditors found there were 200 employees who were rehired between January 2015 and March...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans appeared to be abstaining in massive numbers on Sunday in a show of silent protest against a vote to select a constitutional assembly giving the government virtually unlimited powers. Associated Press journalists toured more than two dozen polling places in neighborhoods across the capital, including many traditional strongholds of the ruling socialist party in southern and western Caracas. Virtually all the polling places saw hours-long lines of thousands of people in past elections over the last two decades of socialist government.

The "wildly inauthentic" names for their dishes is just one of the reasons that restaurant chain, Taco Bell, can't seem to find purchase in Mexico. The first Taco Bells in Mexico closed down fewer than two years "and the chain retreated back across the border," according to the piece, which offers "a history of Taco Bell’s failed attempts to open locations in Mexico." A second foray was equally unsuccessful. The piece is an interesting look at what happens when a U.S. company tries to bring its Americanized versions of a cuisine to that food's homeland. "Today, the idea of a...

Spared jail. This is the madness of the West’s under the spell of Islam. As for the fine, I am sure this Muslims, so deeply contemptuous of the kuffar, will declare bankruptcy. Horrific images taken of the cemetery following the attack showed turned over and smashed gravestones, flowers scattered across footpaths and candles turned upside-down. Teddy bears, trucks and other children’s toys were damaged and littered across the facility, with even religious icons such as cross smashed into pieces.

As the sun went down on Ypres on Sunday, the shale grey stone floor of the old Belgian town’s Menin Gate, the world’s first memorial to those who fell but who were never found during the first world war, was slowly covered by 20,000 blood-red poppies falling from its high arch. A crowd numbering in the thousands, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Theresa May and the King and Queen of Belgium, Philippe and Matilde, watched on as the paper flowers drifted down in the still evening air. The young voices of the national youth choir of Scotland, standing...

One of the most feared hitters of his generation, Lee May is one of only 11 major leaguers to have 100-RBI seasons for three different teams. He also had 11 consecutive seasons (1968-1978) of at least 20 home runs and 80 RBIs. In an 18-year major-league career, the “Big Bopper of Birmingham” played for the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles, and Kansas City Royals. A three-time All-Star (1969, 1971, and 1972), he appeared in the postseason three times, including the 1970 World Series for the Reds and the 1979 Series for the Orioles. (The third was a Division Series...

The fix is in. Did you know, corporations like General Electric Co. (GE) spend more money on lobbyists than they pay in taxes? The federal government currently taxes corporations at 35 percent. While many argue the rate is too high, you don’t hear companies like GE complaining about it. That’s because they aren’t paying it. Over the past 15 years, GE’s federal income tax rate averaged only 5.2 percent. General Electric paid no federal taxes in 2010, despite earning $5.1 billion in U.S. profits. Instead, the company claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. Meanwhile, GE executives awarded themselves more...

It’s the middle of July, and President Trump still doesn’t have a chairman for his Council of Economic Advisers. His nominee, Kevin Hassett, is a world-recognized expert on taxation, but he has been stuck on the sidelines despite tax reform being one of the administration’s big goals this year. He is the one person who could explain how the different parts of the tax bill fit together. White House advisor Gary Cohn has reportedly told associates that time is running out for tax reform. He worries that if tax reform doesn't get done by the end of the year, it...

The New York Times and other news media outlets find it newsworthy that a top U.S. military commander, when asked a far-fetched hypothetical question about a nuclear strike on China, replied that he would comply with an order on the matter if it came from President Donald Trump. “What if Trump Ordered a Nuclear Strike on China? I’d Comply, Says Admiral,” was the title of a highly-cited New York Times article. The newspaper was reporting on a comment made by Adm. Scott H. Swift, commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, who was asked at a security conference in Australia...

Jack Ma is working the White House, with a promise to reduce the number of unemployed workers by 14%. Jack Ma was destined to live an ordinary life. He failed the Chinese university entrance exam several times before being accepted by the worst school in Hangzhou, and he was rejected from a dozen jobs – even selling chicken at KFC. Ma was ready to settle into a quiet life as an English teacher in eastern China, a position with few advancement prospects, when, during a trip to Seattle in 1995 working as a translator for a trade delegation, everything changed....

Oregon has determined it awarded Medicaid health benefits to more than 37,000 people during the past year who earned too much money or otherwise failed to qualify, new figures show. That high number represents nearly half the Medicaid recipients whose incomes the state rechecked this spring and summer. It has come to light as the state health authority works through a backlog of eligibility checks caused by technology problems and the spike in enrollment under the Affordable Care Act. The count surpasses predictions to the Legislature by agency director Lynne Saxton, who pegged the number at 32,000. And it almost...

The Fusion GPS news-for-hire scandal has not only led to the public identification of the source of the “Trump Dossier”—a for-profit company that provides opposition research to whoever could write big checks, which is staffed by four former Wall Street Journal reporters led by Glenn Simpson. The scandal has also lifted the lid off a sewer of corporate information warfare and opposition research that the flailing institutions of the mainstream press now regularly re-package as news, without ever saying where it came from—or who paid for it. While the idea that the products of paid opposition research are being main-lined...