Free Republic

Former "Good Times" star Jimmie Walker is supporting President Trump. At least most of the time, said the veteran comedian, who considers himself "a logical Independent." Of Trump he said, "I'm for probably 90 percent of the things he does." He clarified, "That means I'm not against Trump, but he makes mistakes, too." Walker, who shot to fame with his "Good Times" sitcom catch phrase "Dynomite!" in the 1970s, said he differs greatly from his fellow Hollywood comedians when it comes to politics. “There's not one positive Trump joke out here,” he explained. “No President has been attacked in recent...

DETROIT (AP) - Half of Detroit’s eight mayoral candidates have been convicted of felony crimes involving drugs, assault or weapons. Three of the contenders on next Tuesday’s primary ballot were charged with gun crimes, and two of them were charged for assault with intent to commit murder, a Detroit News analysis shows . Some of the offenses date back decades. The most recent was in 2008. Political consultant Greg Bowens says there are candidates in every election cycle with past hardships. “ Black marks on your record show you have lived a little and have overcome some challenges,” Bowens said....

MGM Pictures released the first trailer for its remake of the 1974 vigilante classic Death Wish on Thursday, featuring Bruce Willis taking over the lead role — but some critics and commentators have already branded the unreleased film “racist,” “alt-right,” and “nakedly fascist” over the short clip’s content. Willis stars as Paul Kersey, a surgeon on a brutal quest for revenge after his wife is murdered and his daughter is raped (Charles Bronson’s Kersey was an architect in the original five-film series). The remake also trades out the original film’s gritty New York City environment for contemporary Chicago. The trailer...

The Senate moved unanimously to block President Trump from making appointments during the August break this evening. Democrats had said they'd make such a move after reports emerged that Trump was considering replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the recess. The Senate agreed to hold pro forma sessions throughout the recess. This procedure was also used to block appointments during the Obama administration. Worth noting: the announcement was made by moderate Republican Lisa Murkowski, who split from Trump over health care. The Senate also made a slew of confirmations and passed several measures before shutting down for the summer. Another...

The Senate blocked President Trump from being able to make recess appointments on Thursday as lawmakers leave Washington for their summer break. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), doing wrap up for the entire Senate, locked in nine "pro-forma" sessions — brief meetings that normally last roughly a minute.

Sara Carter at Axios broke the story that McMaster, the NCS's master of disaster, had written a letter protecting Susan Rice's access to classified information ... Why does Susan Rice, who is alleged to have participated in the Obama eavesdropping on Trump people, need access to classified information? What national security purpose is served by it? The answer given in Carter's article is that it's an effort to provide cover for Susan Rice over the unmasking allegations. In a June tweet, Trump called the revelation that Rice and other Obama senior officials were unmasking members of his team the “big...

RUSH: It’s making me revise my thinking just a little bit. One thing is for sure. The Drive-By Media is populated with people who are not just biased and bigoted and prejudicial. It’s obvious that they are also the victims of an absolutely pathetic education system. I think we have to now conclude, after what we saw yesterday in the White House, that some of these people are just idiots. They’re just ignorant. They just don’t know anything. They have not been taught truth. They have not been taught history. They’ve not been taught fact, which is one thing, but...

A talk with Fr. Job (Gumerov) on the new martyrs of the Russian ChurchFather Job, an experienced confessor of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery, speaks about the factors preventing some faithful from recognizing Nicholas II as a saint, the relationship between the Tsar’s abdication and the Russian people’s renunciation of the Church, how mass unbelief impedes the comprehension of the podvig [spiritual exploit] of the new martyrs, and the proper understanding of the people’s repentance for the sins of their ancestors.The Russian Revolution, with its “Red Terror” that ruined the lives of millions of families, is still an uninteresting event of...

The United States won't officially elect its next President until 2020. Between now and then, we should all be focused on local elections, essential congressional races, and pushing for meaningful reforms addressing voting rights and criminal justice every chance we get. I'm all about that. However, here's what I know — the next presidential race has already started. Donald Trump has already begun political fundraising and potential opponents, including some from within his own party, are already having private discussions on what it would look like to beat Trump. This next campaign will be the longest, most expensive campaign in...

Waring's Pennsylvanians "I Heard"

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and rival Mazda Motor Corp are expected to announce plans on Friday to build a $1.6 billion U.S assembly plant as part of a new joint venture, a person briefed on the matter said. The plant will be capable of producing 300,000 vehicles a year, with production divided between the two automakers, and employ about 4,000 people when it opens in 2021, the person said on Thursday. A new auto plant would be a major boost to U.S. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on promises to boost manufacturing and expand employment for American...

The recently opened House of European History in Brussels offers an account of Europe described by one writer as “both typically modern and emphatically French and socialist.”Looking at things from this side of the Atlantic, it is easy to think of Europe as a single, united entity. Seen up close it’s not so clear. National identity keeps getting in the way. French, German, Italian, Polish, and so on—those ancient identities still matter to many people. As arguably they should. National identity bestows a sense of rootedness and continuity that the new European institutions apparently haven’t been able to supply up...

The government watchdog organization Judicial Watch has worked to get more information from the federal government about Bill Clinton’s shady meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch on an airport tarmac in Arizona. The Justice Department has released talking points developed by the Obama administration, except much of the material is redacted: (snip) Washington Examiner ✔@dcexaminer DOJ claims "deliberative process" privilege to redact talking points on Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting http://washex.am/2u4cfiM   11:21 AM - Aug 3, 2017 36 Replies 72 Retweets 28 likes (snip) If everybody is to believe the Team Clinton and Loretta Lynch explanation, what would there be to...

ROME, Italy August 3, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The Pontifical Academy of Science (PAS) has announced another population control conference. “Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health” will be held November 2-4 at the Vatican. The conference’s benevolent title obscures the questionable personal ideologies and professional objectives of a number of its slated participants. Participants include: Professor John SchellnhuberJohn Schellnhuber is founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). He is considered one of the world’s leading climate scientists...

Researcher finds that feeding pets creates the equivalent of 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year Date:August 2, 2017 Source:University of California - Los Angeles Summary: US cats and dogs cause 25-30 percent of the environmental impact of meat consumption in this country. The nation's 163 million cats and dogs eat as much food as all the people in France. People should keep their pets -- and keep feeding them meat -- but there may be steps pet owners can take to reduce their environmental impact, says a researcher.

“MDZhB” has been broadcasting since 1982. No one knows why. In the middle of a Russian swampland, not far from the city of St Petersburg, is a rectangular iron gate. Beyond its rusted bars is a collection of radio towers, abandoned buildings and power lines bordered by a dry-stone wall. This sinister location is the focus of a mystery which stretches back to the height of the Cold War. It is thought to be the headquarters of a radio station, “MDZhB”, that no-one has ever claimed to run. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the last three-and-a-half...

Ashton Brum is a runner, dancer and member of the school marching band, but she is sidelined by an active lifestyle and bad genetics. "A lot of pressure. Walking was, it hurt, but it wasn't painful. It was uncomfortable to walk and uncomfortable to start running,” Ashton Brum said. At 16, she was ready for that uncomfortable pressure to go away for good. "When I bent down, it sounded like a plastic bag inside my knee was crackly," Brum said. "And it was popping all the time." She turned to Dr. Zak Knutson at Oklahoma Sports and Orthopedics Institute. He...

A group of fishermen in a boat off of Maine’s coast recently found a bald eagle struggling to swim in the Atlantic Ocean. The encounter and subsequent rescue was caught on video and shared via social media.

There are concerns that new US immigration laws will make it more difficult for undocumented Irish to secure visas. TDs and senators who have been campaigning on behalf of the undocumented Irish in America are worried by new restrictions announced by US President Donald Trump. While Mr Trump has consistently campaigned against illegal immigration and has pledged to build a wall on the border with Mexico, he has now moved to restrict the number of legal immigrants. The bill would cut legal immigration by half in the next 10 years and introduce a points-based system prioritising those who speak English,...

We engineers like to solve technical problems. That’s the way we think, that’s why we chose our major, that’s why we got into and stayed in engineering. There are several other reasons why we got into engineering. One of them was the absence of what I describe here as “social engineering,” where the professor/instructor is interested not so much in solving technical problems as in setting the world right—in his or her opinion. A second and related reason is that engineering (and the sciences generally) should be, like the scales of justice, blind. Engineering does not care about your color,...