Free Republic

Senate Republicans ended July in humiliating and seemingly final defeat over repealing and replacing ObamaCare, but relentless pressure this weekend from President Trump and reports of yet another potentially winning bill has sparked renewed hope of success within the party. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reportedly has a new overhaul plan for the Senate, where senators will returned Monday because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has revoked the first two weeks of their traditional August recess. Trump also met privately with several Senate Republicans on Friday, according to Politico, which also first reported about the Graham proposal. Sept. 17, 2013: Senate Minority...

PHOENIX — Incumbent John McCain found himself on the defensive Monday over the fact it took months for him to conclude that Donald Trump is not fit to be president. http://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/much-of-mccain-kirkpatrick-debate-is-about-trump-clinton-obama/article_3071ba38-490d-570d-9a8f-9756ab117b75.html

The new US bill on anti-Russian sanctions will affect European countries cooperating with Russia in the energy sector, and, therefore, these restrictive measures can ultimately run counter to international law, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Brigitte Zypries, said in an interview with the newspapers, which are part of Germany’s Funke media group, published on Monday. "We believe this is a violation of international law," the minister said referring to the fact that the fresh sanctions may restrict companies’ activities in the EU. "America cannot fine German companies for doing business in another country," she said. "According to Zypries,...

Scotland has called for Scotch to be defined in U.K. law so its vital whisky industry can be protected after Brexit. Scottish Economy Secretary Keith Brown has written to officials asking for strong legal protections for the industry, which is worth around £4 billion ($5.3 billion) in exports. A European Union definition of whisky currently protects sales from substandard products — but EU laws will no longer apply to Britain after the country exits the bloc in 2019. …

On Thursday, the world was ending. Or at least, that is what you would have thought from watching the news. President Trump made a policy decision without consulting all the right experts and getting the right approvals. Even worse, he tweeted it out (Oh Lordy!). David French is aghast (big surprise), and even though the policy change is remarkable and conservative, he has found a reason to complain. No one knew how to interpret the President’s guidance because it was sent through Twitter. Meanwhile, across town Congress was flailing about in total pandemonium. It was a “wild day in Washington”...

The new house is on the edge of Cape Henlopen State Park, just north of the boardwalk: three stories, six bedrooms, three fireplaces and an expansive view of the Atlantic Ocean. The new owners are Joe and Jill Biden, rich for the first time in their lives, thanks to a three-book publishing deal - two by him, one by her - that allowed them to purchase the $2 million vacation home in this beachiest of beach towns. Red, white and blue bunting hangs from the second-floor balcony. There's a small wooden sign, "A Promise Kept," over the entrance, and two...

Some people don’t know that two dollar bills are real, so when Mike Bolesta used over 50 of them to make a purchase at a Best Buy store, an encounter with the police and Secret Service ensued. VIDEO

Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins said that she would not be swayed by President Donald Trump’s apparent threats to pull the plug on key Obamacare funds, including subsidies for members of Congress and their staff. In a Sunday interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Collins first said that even if Trump cut off Congress’ subsidies, it would not change her mind about opposing the health care repeal. Tapper then asked whether if cuts to cost sharing reduction payments, or CSRs, that the federal government provides for low-income people would affect her decision. “It would not affect...

President Trump's new White House chief of staff has "got to protect" the Russia investigation from "continued assault" by the president, said former Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, who also served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton at the end of his second term. Podesta told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday that Trump's new chief of staff, Ret. Gen. John Kelly, is responsible for safeguarding the Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller, who heads the Russia probe, from interference by the White House. "Maybe the most difficult thing he needs to do is ......

Recently, Barnabas Aid has drawn attention to the increasing hostility to evangelical Christians that has characterised some sections of the media and even some government institutions. Over the past 12 months we have seen Christian politicians asked overtly theological questions and attempts by some mainstream media in the recent UK general election to ”out” parliamentary candidates as Christians, declaring them “unfit” to hold public office because they held mainstream Christian beliefs such as believing in miracles. In other words, a significant parallel is now developing between how gay people were treated by the press a generation or so ago, and...

NEW HAVEN >> Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota tried to be serious when he spoke Sunday at the Shubert Theatre about topics such as health care, but as a former comedian, he couldn’t stop himself from cracking jokes and drawing belly laughs from the partisan crowd. Franken, who is touring to support his book, the satirically titled “Al Franken, Giant of the Senate,” attracted several thousand left-leaning people on a summer afternoon. The event was sponsored by R.J. Julia Booksellers of Madison. During the hour-long, on-stage conversation with Colin McEnroe, who hosts a talk show on WNPR Connecticut Public Radio,...

On Sunday, the day before the 99th anniversary of the brutal murder of the holy Royal Martyrs which the Church celebrates today July 17, a monument to Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexey was consecrated on the territory of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk, according to the site of the Novosibirsk Diocese. The entire square in front of the cathedral was filled with Orthodox Christians. People were also gathered across the street for the youth cross procession, dedicated to the holy Right-Believing Peter and Febronia and the Day of Family, Love, and Loyalty, which was to begin...

The fake news media cable networks have almost completely shut down coverage on one of the biggest scandals from the Democrat Party since former DNC worker Seth Rich was murdered. The media blackout is only fanning the flames as the alternative media continues to bring punishing rounds to the DNC, proving Wasserman Schultz has something to hide! In addition there are suspicions that the Rich murder is somehow connected. The more you learn about Democratic IT scammer Imran Awan — the more you see more and more crimes and corruption. Imran Awan worked for Debbie Wasserman Schultz for thirteen years...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said it is “unimportant” for Democrats to win the midterm elections in 2018. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace asked Pelosi to estimate the chances that Democrats win back the lower chamber back in 2018 and whether she would run again for speaker if they did. “That’s so unimportant. What is important is that we have the lively debate on a better deal,” Pelosi said.

Politicians on Capitol Hill are learning what businessmen around this country already know: don’t cross Donald Trump. This is the kind of President the American people have hungered for. When a group of Republican senators joined Democrats in defeating Trump’s goal to repeal Obamacare, they messed up royally. Now they are dealing with the wrath of President Trump. You’re talking about a president who doesn’t care about political or mainstream media wars, as long as he gets the job done. Trump is not playing the typical game of politics, at least not by the same rules as the Republican and...

orge Bergoglio is the first Jesuit to become pope and may end up the last Jesuit to be pope, in light of the havoc that he is wreaking upon the Church. But who knows? After all, he is stacking the college of cardinals with liberal appointees in the hope that they will elect a modernist clone in the next conclave. In any case, it was exceedingly reckless that the cardinals chose a Jesuit to lead the Church at the very moment that that religious order was at its most corrupt and theologically flaky. This fact alone will give Gibbonian historians...

On Friday the Washington Free Beacon reported that leading members of the House Judiciary Committee and Government Oversight Committee are “interested” in conducting their own independent investigation into the reports of “illicit IT activity,” which could include asking for the on-record testimony of Rep. Wasserman Schultz."In addition to the criminal case that is now underway, Congress needs to get answers regarding the scope of Imran Awan's misconduct and the access he had to sensitive material in the United States House of Representatives, including why he remained on the House payroll for so long," Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), a member of...

President Donald Trump’s outgoing chief of staff Reince Priebus told Breitbart News Satuday SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam that the president’s “amazing” work during his first few months in office includes signing a record number of bills into law. “I could tick of for an entire 10, 20 minutes that facts of what’s he’s accomplished and the amazing amount of work he’s done,” Priebus said. “The amount of bills he’s signed are more than any president in the last 50 years,” Priebus said. Priebus — whose departure from the White House was announced on Friday night — also said that Trump...

At least nine people were injured after a car plowed into a crowd of people in Mid-Wilshire on Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The collision occurred around 3:47 p.m. at 5088 W. Pico Boulevard, the Department said.

Oh, this is almost too much winning… almost. A pearl-clutching op-ed in the New York Times declares the hurt sensibilities within the State Department are leading to multiple people quitting Specifically citing the different managerial strategy of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and the priorities of the entire Dept. of State mission being reset, the career bureaucrats are dropping like flies hitting the T-Rex zapper.