Free Republic

Special Counsel Mueller has empanelled a grand jury with respect to his investigation into collusion between members of the Trump Campaign and Russian agents. At least that’s the premise. It would not be beyond the realm of possibility that what is presented to this grand jury has little to do with the 2016 election and much to do with whatever he has found looking into all aspects of President Trump’s life and business dealings going back to before the election of Barack Obama. We already know he has been asking questions about a real estate deal from 2008 where a...

DENVER — Jim DeMint brought bad news from Washington. Republicans run every branch of the government, but it was “no longer possible for the federal government to avoid a disaster.” “We have accomplished little more than to slow the growth of spending, debt, and regulations,” the former senator from South Carolina told a breakfast audience at the American Legislative Exchange Council’s policy conference on Thursday. “It’s very unlikely, after all the promises, that we’re going to repeal Obamacare and eliminate the federal control of health care.” For members of ALEC, a 45-year-old think tank that helps state legislators craft libertarian-leaning...

The movie Zuckerberg is a highly credible character, a computer genius located somewhere on the autistic spectrum with minimal to non-existent social skills. But that’s not what the man is really like. In real life, Zuckerberg was studying for a degree with a double concentration in computer science and – this is the part people tend to forget – psychology. People on the spectrum have a limited sense of how other people’s minds work; autists, it has been said, lack a ‘theory of mind’. Zuckerberg, not so much. He is very well aware of how people’s minds work and in...

Civil rights groups on Saturday announced their intent to file suit against Donald Trump’s “mean-spirited and discriminatory” attempt to ban transgender people from serving in the US armed forces. Trump announced the ban on Twitter in July. Top US military leaders have not implemented it, since no formal guidance was provided. But after a report published late on Friday said the White House had approved guidance on the ban, Lambda Legal and OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (Outserve-SLDN) announced an intent to file suit. Sasha Buchert, a Lambda Legal staff attorney and transgender military veteran, said the ban was “capricious, irrational...

Stephen Miller, the Trump senior policy adviser who just tangled on-camera with CNN's Jim Acosta, is under consideration for White House communications director, top Trump sources tell me. The effort to find a Mooch successor is still in the name-gathering process, and Miller is not the top contender, the sources said. But Steve Bannon likes the idea of Miller for the job, and Miller was the hero of the West Wing after he attacked Acosta as a "cosmopolitan" for his views on immigration. When Miller finished that press briefing, his colleagues high-fived him, according to Sebastian Gorka, a national-security aide...

Senators Tom Cotton and Ben Sasse have already been to Iowa this year, Gov. John Kasich is eyeing a return visit to New Hampshire, and Mike Pence’s schedule is so full of political events that Republicans joke that he is acting more like a second-term vice president hoping to clear the field than a No. 2 sworn in a little over six months ago. President Trump’s first term is ostensibly just warming up, but luminaries in his own party have begun what amounts to a shadow campaign for 2020 — as if the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue weren’t...

It’s getting easier to snap up red snapper. The sought-after game fish has been at the center of a years-long debate between environmentalists who want to protect the iconic species while it continues to rebuild from overfishing and recreational anglers who contend years of economically crippling restrictions have paid off and it’s time to go fishing again. After eight years of policies under President Obama that emphasized protection, there’s now a rising tide of momentum under the Trump administration to loosen restrictions in the federal waters off the Southeastern United States. Already: • Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in June expanded...

In July, the White House and Pentagon requested authority from Congress to build further “temporary intermediate staging facilities” inside Syria in order to combat ISIS more effectively. This request, it must be noted, comes in the wake of devastating ISIS defeats in Syria, mostly by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allied forces. Shortly afterward, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency revealed previously unknown details and locations of ten U.S. bases and outposts in northern Syria, several of them with airfields. These are in addition to at least two further U.S. outposts already identified in southern Syria, on the...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - When the total solar eclipse hits in a couple weeks, you'll need to have legit glasses to view it to protect your eyes. But what about our animals' eyes? Dr. Wendy King of Spears Creek Veterinary Clinic says, “The short answer is nothing because animals have an inherent knowledge of not looking at the sun and they just don't look up at the sun and stare. So they don't need special glasses.”

On March 8th, AG Jeff Sessions ordered all 94 federal prosecutors to prioritize violent crime, using the statutory tools at their disposal.  The first two offenses listed by the Attorney General were 18 U.S.C section 922 (firearms offenses including possession and straw purchasing) and 18 U.S.C. section 924(c) (possession of a firearm during and in relation to a violent crime or drug trafficking offense). The United States Attorney's Offices were urged to identify and target the criminals responsible for violent crime in their districts, and to coordinate with the state and local counterparts.  It appears to be having some...

I received this email message from a long-time, trusted friend. The individual who sent it to him admitted there was no way to vet the document or its authenticity as a message from President Trump. One thing, however, is certain—it’s the sort of fix Donald Trump would propose and heartily endorse. Ed. Please scroll down to read this important message about NO TENURE and NO Pension for Congressman under the Congressional Reform Act of 2017. URGENT that all read and this is circulated. I'm asking everyone to forward this email to a min of 20 people, & to ask each...

Registered Voters 144% of Eligible The Election Integrity Project California provides a list of 11 California counties that have more registered voters than voting-age citizens. In addition, Los Angeles County officials informed the project that “the number of registered voters now stands at a number that is a whopping 144% of the total number of resident citizens of voting age.” The Election Integrity Project California, Inc. has joined Judicial Watch, Inc., a non-partisan organization in Washington, D.C., in sending a National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”) Section 8 notice of violation letter to California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla.

The Ninth Amendment, also known as the “silent” Amendment, says “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” What does this mean? What makes the Ninth Amendment unique is that it guarantees protection of all our rights even though they may not be specifically mentioned in the Constitution. Just because the document is silent on some natural rights does not mean they do not exist. The Ninth Amendment closes the loophole. James Madison was concerned that any attempt to enumerate fundamental liberties would be incomplete and might...

China is using Doklam as yet another laboratory to test its salami slicing policy of territorial expansion. India is resisting this attempt while the world leaders have generally maintained silence over Doklam. Commenting on the Doklam standoff between the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese foreign affairs spokesperson yesterday said, "Right now, I can tell you that there are 48 Indian military guards in our territory of Donglang (Doklam)." "It has already been more than a month since the incident and India is still not only illegally remaining on Chinese territory, it is also repairing roads in...

A new adhesive device that attaches to bras or underwear can detect when an article of clothing is forcefully removed. Inventors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hope it can help prevent rape and sexual assault. Conceived by MIT researcher Manisha Mohan, this garment add-on can sense violent removal, and sends a prompt to the wearer asking her to confirm consent. If the owner doesn't respond within a set time, the tape uses a Bluetooth connection to alert five pre-selected phone contacts to the danger. It also sends a GPS location to them and begins recording audio. This device,...

On July 25, Pakistani-American IT specialist Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport for bank fraud while he was allegedly fleeing to Pakistan. The reports predictably produced some press coverage before the story died. Yet the speed at which the news vanished has prompted some observers to suggest that there might actually be something more to the disappearance than the operation of the normal media-reporting cycle. A number of conservative websites, including Breitbart, have been sounding the alarm over a possible cover-up that just might even be linked to what we are now calling Russiagate. To be sure, the tale...

The UN Security Council is voting on new sanctions against North Korea.

To the surprise of no one who’s ever listened to a single Donald Trump campaign speech, the Attorney General made an announcement last week in which he signaled that “sanctuary cities” were going to lose access to some federal grants and DoJ funding. The howls of outrage immediately followed, including various claims from the left that he can’t do that and all the usual protests over the limits of federal power. Among the cities under discussion was Chicago, famous for needing a lot of help in the law enforcement arena, but not willing to do anything to support immigration law...

Cal State plans to drop placement exams in math and English as well as the noncredit remedial courses that more than 25,000 freshmen have been required to take each fall — a radical move away from the way public universities traditionally support students who come to college less prepared than their peers. In an executive order issued late Wednesday, Chancellor Timothy P. White directed the nation’s largest public university system to revamp its approach to remedial education and assess new freshmen for college readiness and course placement by using high school grades, ACT and SAT scores, previous classroom performance and other measures...

The latest news regarding the ongoing Russia investigation is that special counsel Robert Mueller impaneled a grand jury in D.C., affording him the power to subpoena documents, put witnesses under oath, and seek an indictment should there be any evidence of criminal activity. From the beginning, Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin has said that this investigation — which began as a counter-intelligence investigation and has yet to produce evidence of criminal activity — is being used by Democrats to politically damage President Trump and set him up for impeachment, should the DNC take Congress in 2018. “It is a process...