Free Republic

NEW: White House Counsel’s Office will again manage selection, confirmation process for Pres. Trump's next Supreme Court nominee, White House says. Raj Shah "will take leave from his role as Principal Deputy Press Secretary to work on the Supreme Court nomination full time."

CLEVELAND — Officials say a man has been arrested for an alleged plan to attack downtown Cleveland on July 4. FBI agents said Monday they began investigating the suspect, identified as Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts, back in 2017. Investigators say they received tips that Pitts, also known as Abdur Raheem Rahfeeq, had made statements in support of Al-Qaeda. Pitts, an American citizen with an extensive criminal background, also expressed a disdain for the U.S. military. Officials say Pitts spoke to undercover agents about the impact an explosion would have on Cleveland's upcoming July 4th parade. Anderson says the Pitts was arrested...

Call it the summer of ‘68. Rioters in the streets. Communists on the ballot. Radical leftists threaten to kidnap, rape and torture political enemies. Even the children of political enemies. The only thing we are missing these days are political assassinations. So far, these lunatics have mostly stuck to executing police officers. Of course they sure tried to assassinate dozens of Republican congressmen last summer. Luckily, that plot was thwarted but not before the ardent supporter of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders shot Rep. Steve Scalise, a Capitol Police officer and two others.

(snip)According to The Daily Caller, this confrontation happened Saturday at the “Families Belong Together” rally in the District’s Lafayette Square, across from the White House. In the video, the woman can be seen confronting the reporter, calling her out repeatedly for working for The Daily Caller and saying the reporter was a “racist” because of that. The protester went even further, however, putting her middle finger in front the camera and telling the reporter to get her tubes tied at Planned Parenthood. She went even further with a pro-life protester with anti-abortion banners, telling him, “Let’s put your n*** in...

Many believe that assurance of eternal salvation is neither possible nor even to be sought. To claim such assurance is considered a mask of supreme arrogance, the nadir of self-conceit. Yet if God declares that it is possible to have full assurance of salvation and even commands that we seek after it, it would be supremely arrogant for one to deny or neglect it. In fact, God does command us to seek certainty about our salvation: “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never...

By KrisAnne Hall, JD Right up front, there are some things that I need to tell you about myself. I want you to know where I came from and how I got to where I am today — my walkaway path. I don’t want to ever be accused of deception or dishonesty. So, in full disclosure: I was not born a Constitutionalist. I did not live my life with an inherent understanding of Liberty and what is necessary to defend it. I was not raised a Christian. For some, these things will be a stumbling block, so you need to...

Type 218SG submarines. (Photo: MINDEF/Facebook) SINGAPORE: More than 30m under the waters around Singapore, where light hardly penetrates the murky depths, noise is perhaps the last thing you would expect. But the Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) latest submarine, the Type 218SG, hears and senses a cacophony of chatter. Not of people, but of the 2,000 ships that sail through the Singapore Strait every day. “Many of the boats in the world are not designed for such environments: Warm, shallow, noisy, crowded,” RSN’s head of naval operations Cheong Kwok Chien told Channel NewsAsia in an exclusive interview on Saturday (Jun...

Apple has announced a new “midterms election” feature for its official News app, which will feed users election content from a cherry-picked group of left-leaning and establishment news outlets that the tech giants considers “trusted sources.” Instead of letting users decide what news they want to see on their phones, Apple confirmed that it intends to deliver exclusive news and opinion to their users that have been “curated by Apple News editors from trusted publishers.” “Today more than ever people want information from reliable sources, especially when it comes to making voting decisions,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News....

As the list of possible SCOTUS picks narrows to rumored likelies, what about the women? Who will Trump pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy? We have some clues: “It will be somebody from that list,” the president said Wednesday, referring to the 25 names he published in November. Reports since then have narrowed down these top contenders to five insider favorites. “We have to pick one that’s going to be there for 40 years, 45 years,” Trump also said, suggesting a judge’s relative youth may be a deciding factor. There are six women on the list, and one in...

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is overhauling its arsenal, adding new warplanes, submarines and warships as it gears up for a future with fewer soldiers. High on the agenda is the replacement for the ageing F-16 fighter jets, with Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen saying on Friday (Jun 29) that a decision will be made in the coming months. “F-16s would face obsolescence beyond 2030,” Dr Ng said of the 30-year-old jets. “To plan for a replacement is not as if you are going to buy a new car, you actually need a lead time of eight to 10...

A man was arrested on Saturday on charges of starting a forest fire in Colorado that has destroyed structures and forced hundreds to evacuate their homes in one of dozens of wildfires raging across the drought-hit U.S. southwest. Jesper Joergensen, 52, was taken into custody last Saturday for the suspected arson that started the Springs Fire, according to Costilla County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. Joergensen is not a U.S. citizen and will be handed over to ICE once he has faced arson charges, said a Costilla County detention officer. The officer could not immediately say what nationality Joergensen held. The...

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom star Daniella Pineda says her character in the film is gay - not that you would know from watching it. She told Build that the line with the reveal was cut from the movie "for the sake of time". In the scene, she's talking to Chris Pratt's character. "I look at Chris and I'm like: 'Square jaw, good bone structure, tall, muscles - I don't date men, but if I did, it would be you'," she said. Daniella continued: "I love that I'm looking at Chris Pratt, like the hottest guy in the world and I'm...

A train pulls into the station roughly 3/4s of the way through video but leaves in time for the nice finish.

Two Versions: *The ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER* OLD VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE OLD STORY: Be responsible for yourself! MODERN VERSION . . . . ....

Comedian Michelle Wolf on Sunday compared President Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump to herpes during a segment on her Netflix show. Wolf also compared Ivanka to vaginal mesh, an implant used to treat pelvic organ prolapse that has recently come under fire for causing significant medical complications. “Ivanka, you’re like vaginal mesh,” Wolf said in a segment about how to insult Trump administration officials in public. “You were supposed to support women but now you have blood all over you and you’re at the center of a dozen lawsuits.” Wolf's remarks are just the latest inflammatory comments from a...

As an experiment, I replaced the dominant seventh chords in a blues with major sevenths. Dear G-d, what have I done? ​ For a free download of "Harlequin" click here, click on Buy Now, and choose $0.

A week ago this was recognized as a fringe idea even among staunch Democrats, the fringiest fringe around, but then something happened: One Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the Democrat establishment by defeating the favored 20-year incumbent, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), in last Tuesday’s Democrat primary in New York’s 14th district. She ran, in part, on abolishing ICE, so now this has become the “[n]ew rallying call for 2020 Democrats,” as the AP put it. Now, I really shouldn’t say this — I mean, I really shouldn’t. I want nothing more than for the Democrats to continue marching toward...

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has declared that the crisis facing the EU is not mass immigration, but European resistance to importing large numbers of migrants from the third world. “This isn’t so much a migrant crisis as it is a political crisis,” the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) said of disagreement within the EU over how to deal with illegal immigrants arriving to the continent. “Europe needs migration,” he insisted, claiming the belief that hundreds of thousands of migrants from the world’s poorest countries arriving in boats and storming the EU’s frontiers is a problem that has been invented by...

Former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne has filed a mega-RICO civil lawsuit against Bill and Hillary Clinton, their foundation, John Podesta, Media Matters, David Brock and even George Soros charging they are involved in an epic criminal conspiracy against him because of his role in the impeachment and his authorship of a tell-all 2016 book called “Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate.” But he’ll have his work cut out for him. The judge assigned to the case in D.C. District Court, Paul L. Friedman, is a...

Democrat hate speech targeting deplorables has always worked -- on their own voters. Libeling Republicans as racist, homophobic morons has kept Democrat voters in line. President Trump laughs at their insults, and just gets stronger. Suddenly, one more Trump success. The Democrat line is breaking. Our minorities are breaking free. President Trump’s off the charts achievements on jobs and security are improving the lives of every single Democrat identity voting bloc. A small, but increasingly significant number are noticing. With his MAGA gains on the economy and foreign affairs, President Trump is slowly chipping away at the Democrat Party’s foundations....