Free Republic

Anyway. The main point of the article was a list of four issues where, Friedman says, “Trump has a point.” I assume Friedman is safely sequestered in Martha’s Vineyard this week and beyond the reach of pitchfork-wielding Times readers. (Actually, since most Times readers wouldn’t know which end of a pitchfork to pick up, just what do angry Times readers brandish? An old Smyth & Hawken trowel perhaps?) Heeeere’s Tommy: What issues? Here’s my list: • We can’t take in every immigrant who wants to come here; we need, metaphorically speaking, a high wall that assures Americans we can control...

As President Donald Trump is set to visit New York City next week, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito says he may have the right to come but that his values are “not welcome here” in New York City. And she’s “ready” to join any potential protests that day. On Monday, while on his 17-day vacation at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., Trump announced on Twitter that he is planning to go to New York City next week “for more meetings.” At the time, his spokeswoman said that they would provide more details “in the next day or two.” POLITICO,...

Rahm Emanuel has emphatically denied that politics is behind his decision to file a pre-emptive lawsuit seeking to block U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions from cutting off federal crimefighting funds to sanctuary cities. If that’s true, why did Emanuel play the media like a fiddle by dribbling out details of the lawsuit over a three-day period? And why do the mayor’s own private emails expose his attempts to use his pro-immigration stance to shore up a national media image that took a beating after the November 2015 release of video showing a white Chicago Police officer firing 16 shots at...

One of Donald Trump’s most generous political benefactors is providing a six-figure donation to a super PAC devoted to unseating Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who has been fiercely critical of the president. Robert Mercer, a reclusive hedge fund billionaire who was intimately involved in Trump’s rise and helped to bankroll his 2016 campaign, is contributing $300,000 to a super PAC supporting former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who is challenging Flake in a Republican primary next year. It’s the latest sign that Trump’s political machine is preparing to take on Flake, whose persistent attacks have angered the president. The...

COLUMBIA, SC — Elephants, flamingos, giraffes and gorillas will share top billing with the darkened sky at Riverbanks Zoo during next month’s solar eclipse. Zoo officials plan to study 12 types of animals and birds to see if they act differently before, during and after the Aug. 21 eclipse. The effort is intended to show what impact, if any, the temporary mid-afternoon blackout has on some of the zoo’s 2,000 animals. Little is know about how animals behave during eclipses, zoo officials say. “It’s an opportunity to do a little bit of science instead of relying on anecdotes,” said Ed...

* This may be the most intact primate fossil skull ever discovered. * The fossil comes from a little-known period of primate evolutionary history. Source: Fred Spoor This is Alesi, the skull of the new extinct ape species Nyanzapithecus alesi (KNM-NP 59050). ================================================================================================================================ A group of scientists have found what may be the most intact fossilized primate skull ever discovered, and the find could shed light on the common evolutionary heritage shared by apes and humans. The lemon-sized skull was discovered in Kenya by an international team of researchers, and was dated to the middle of the Miocene era, a...

Nevada Sen. Dean Heller is testing the political perils of opposing President Trump from inside his own party, with the entrance into the 2018 Republican primary Tuesday of Danny Tarkanian. Tarkanian, a five-time failed candidate for public office, is wrapping himself in the mantle of Trump, vowing to be an enthusiastic, loyal soldier for the president in the Senate, where Heller tends to vote with the White House, though not blindly and at times reluctantly. "I am a conservative Republican who supports the policies of President Trump to repeal Obamacare and end illegal immigration," Tarkanian said in a statement. "I...

The White House has an unusual onlooker Wednesday -- a large, inflatable chicken with golden orange hair. The inflatable chicken, situated on the Ellipse facing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is a visual that organizers of the Tax Day March have used in the past to coax President Trump to release his tax returns. Tax Day March events in cities from D.C. to Chicago to San Francisco this year have featured the large poultry prop as they protest Mr. Trump's decision to break with the tradition of recent presidents to release their tax information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are facing a problem as they try to defend a slim majority in the Senate and win races elsewhere: They're spending time and money fending off insurgent primary candidates trying to lay claim to President Donald Trump's mantle and knock out the establishment's choices.

TEL AVIV — The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), where White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has been listed as a member for 11 years, quietly took in about $32.5 million in funding from Bahrain, a country whose constitution explicitly enshrines Sharia Islamic law as the governing doctrine. The funding from Bahrain, a repressive regime with a dismal human rights track record but also an important regional U.S. ally, reportedly amounted to one quarter of the think tank’s total income. A significant portion of this funding reportedly pays for the think tank’s annual conference in Bahrain, the Mamana...

Forced back into court by an act of Congress and faced with tens of billions of dollars in potential civil liability, oil-rich Saudi Arabia is asking a U.S. judge again to throw out a lawsuit brought against it by thousands of 9/11 victims.Lawyers for the kingdom moved last week to dismiss the massive case pending in federal court in New York City, citing “baseless accusations that Saudi Arabia conspired to commit a horrific crime against its longstanding ally the United States by knowingly funding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.”The plaintiffs are survivors of the attacks, family members of...

The Center for Security Policy on Monday called for the firing of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster for “disloyal and subversive behavior.” “If such misconduct is tolerated, Trump voters will have unknowingly elected President McMaster,” the Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney said in the statement. The organization said McMaster was undermining President Trump’s policies on “virtually every important foreign and defense policy issue,” and they commented on his recent purge of staff members who support the president’s agenda while keeping “large numbers of Obama holdovers” at the National Security Council. “No voter in this country – not one – elected...

There are already so many layers of truth involved in government interactions, that adding to them does nothing for either transparency or trust in the people who ostensibly keep us safe. In a 413 page document handed over to Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information request, there are included emails from former AG Loretta Lynch using an alias: “Elizabeth Carlisle”. Apparently this is in no way illegal, and in fact Lynch’s predecessor, Eric Holder, also used an alias; his was “Lew Alcindor,” (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s given name). But if it is not illegal, it is at the very least ethically...

President Frank Gaffney on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily about National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who has been criticized for firing opponents of the Iran nuclear deal and being out-of-step with President Trump’s security policy in several areas. Gaffney said he is “very much of the view that he’s the wrong man in that job at this time.”He argued that a clear case for “rank insubordination to the president” could be made against McMaster, citing his rejection of the term “radical Islamic terrorism,” which the president has repeatedly indicated he thinks is appropriate,” along with “policy differences on everything from...

While many Americans are eagerly awaiting the upcoming total solar eclipse, which will be the first of its kind since 1979, some astrologers are cautioning one person in particular to be wary about the celestial event. And that person happens to be Donald Trump, the President of the United States. Wade Caves, an astrological consultant who published a lengthy analysis of the upcoming solar eclipse in its relation to Donald Trump's presidency, claims that the stars have been in POTUS' favor since the very beginning of his White House run. Caves points out that there was a total lunar eclipse...

TEL AVIV — The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), where White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has been listed as a member for 11 years, quietly took in about $32.5 million in funding from Bahrain, a country whose constitution explicitly enshrines Sharia Islamic law as the governing doctrine. The funding from Bahrain, a repressive regime with a dismal human rights track record but also an important regional U.S. ally, reportedly amounted to one quarter of the think tank’s total income. A significant portion of this funding reportedly pays for the think tank’s annual conference in Bahrain, the Mamana...

What has Donald Trump done since he has been in office!!!   1.Supreme Court Judge Gorsuch    2. 59 missiles dropped in Syria.   3.He took us out of TPP   4.Illegal immigration is now down 70%( the lowest in 17 years)   5.Consumer confidence highest since 2000 at index125.6    6.Mortgage applications for new homes rise to a 7 year high.    7.Arranged 20% Tariff on soft lumber from Canada.    8.Bids for border wall are well underway.    9.Pulled out of the lopsided Paris accord.    10.Keystone pipeline approved.    11.NATO allies boost spending by 4.3%   12.Allowing VA...

A dog was shot in the head and wounded by a Brinks security guard last week, and the dog's owner now is looking for justice. The guard said the 119-pound bull mastiff was lunging at him. The dog's owner, Eric Wafer, said his dog, Betty, just wanted to be petted. Part of the incident was captured on surveillance video, and San Francisco police are investigating the shooting. While bull mastiffs generally can be intimidating, Wafer said Betty is not. Wafer said he took Betty for a walk last Friday morning in the city’s Hunter’s Point neighborhood, and Betty somehow got...

Dutch-German shepherd mix killed; no charges expectedProtests planned for Livonia City Council after fatal shooting of dog in family's yard by contractor Dutch-German shepherd mix killed; no charges expected A utility worker is accused of shooting and killing a Livonia family's dog. LIVONIA, Mich. - The Livonia City Council is holding a scheduled meeting Wednesday evening and protests are planned after a contractor shot and killed a dog in a yard while working outside a neighbor's house. The incident happened at about 9 a.m. on July 28 on Angling Street near 8 Mile Road. The homeowner said his dog was...

A 60-year-old Singaporean could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty of sticking toothpicks into a bus seat in a suspected case of "mischief", police said. Singapore, whose crime rates are among the world's lowest, has tough laws for minor offences such as vandalism, which can be punished with caning. The import and sale of chewing gum is banned except for medical reasons.Police launched an investigation after a bus company in the city-state reported last week that one of their vehicles' passenger seats was perforated with toothpicks. "Through extensive ground enquiries and with the assistance of CCTV...