Free Republic

Obama Speech at Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago. Go to the 38-minute point.

Why is Theresa May rushing to Brussels on Wednesday when she has a fair few political headaches to contend with back home, and when she's due back here in just a few days for the seal-the-deal Brexit summit of EU leaders? The answer: the Prime Minister wants to show she is fighting until the very last moment to get the best Brexit deal possible out of the EU. Her Wednesday afternoon visit to see Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, provides her with a floodlit platform to do so. Now the plan had been for the two leaders...

A forged signature swapped for $1 — or sometimes a cigarette. The crude exchange played out hundreds of times on L.A.’s skid row during the 2016 election cycle and again this year, prosecutors said Tuesday as they announced criminal charges against nine people accused in a fraud scheme. Using cash and cigarettes as lures, the defendants approached homeless people on skid row and asked them to forge signatures on state ballot measure petitions and voter registration forms, the district attorney’s office said. The defendants — some of whom were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday — face several criminal charges, including...

Ohio Governor John Kasich said Tuesday that we’re in danger of seeing our moral standing in the world eroded, thanks in part to the news that the U.S. would move forward with an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. “I just want to tell you that we're in danger of seeing our moral standing in the world eroded,” said Kasich during an interview Tuesday. “I happened to meet a tremendous prisoner of conscience a man by the name of Anatoly Sharansky who sat in the Soviet gulag for many years and was defiant about his seeking freedom and not caving to...

You might not have heard the news overnight, but our national government has been shut down. Yes, that long-dreaded government shutdown is upon us. No, there was no appropriations lapse of 18 percent of the bureaucracies, nor was there a three-inch snowstorm in the nation's capital. A single district judge thinks he can violate all rules of standing, 130 years of Supreme Court precedent on sovereignty up to and including Trump v. Hawaii, and shut down any effort to secure our border, including the administration's half-baked plan on bogus asylum. Despite spending $892 billion on the military and defense, we...

In an update to a March report, the US said China had failed to alter its "unreasonable" practices. The US has, along with other countries, long criticised Beijing over its trade policies. The move raises tensions ahead of a high-stakes leaders meeting this month. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina. Their meeting will be closely watched for any progress on resolving the bitter trade dispute. But the latest comments from the US could make negotiations more difficult. Please read full article at the link....

In a note to Judge Michael Aloise in Queens Supreme Court on Tuesday night, the jury wrote: “After deliberating for the entire day we are split. It doesn’t seem like we can make progress. We feel that we have exhausted all of our options.” Lewis’ attorney then moved for a mistrial and Aloise granted it. “I’m inclined to agree even though it’s only been a day and a half,” Aloise said. “There were extensive deliberations. They covered issues central to the debate.” Aloise then wished members of the jury a happy holiday before dismissing them.

November 21, 2018 Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Reading 1 Rv 4:1-11 I, John, had a vision of an open door to heaven,and I heard the trumpetlike voicethat had spoken to me before, saying,"Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards."At once I was caught up in spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat onewhose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian.Around the throne was a halo as brilliant as an emerald.Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other throneson which twenty-four elders sat,dressed in white garments and...

This doesn’t happen anywhere else on the planet,” said California’s Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. “We stand alone in the world in the number of mass shootings," echoed U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. These were typical comments after an alleged shooter murdered 12 people in Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. People have been acting for a long time like the United States is the world’s hotbed of mass public shootings. Following a 2015 mass shooting during his administration, President Barack Obama declared: “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in...

John Huber, the Special Prosecutor tapped by Sessions will testify at a GOP-led Congressional hearing on December 5th on the DOJ’s probe of the Clinton Foundation.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow referenced the “House popular vote” in an effort to explain how the Nov. 6th midterm elections really did represent the “blue wave” many Democrats had been hoping to create. “As of this morning, the Democratic lead in the US House popular vote is up to 7.3%, from 7.2% yesterday. For comparison purposes, note that in 2010 – which was widely seen as a GOP ‘wave’ cycle – Republicans won the US House popular vote by 6.6%,” Maddow tweeted. (TWEET-AT-LINK)What Maddow was saying was that overall, more nationwide votes were cast for Democrats in House seats than for...

FULL TITLE: Trump slanders (Muslim Brotherhood member and terror apologist) Khashoggi and betrays American values PRESIDENT TRUMP on Tuesday confirmed what his administration has been signaling all along: It will stand behind Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman even if he ordered the brutal murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a crude statement punctuated with exclamation points, Mr. Trump sidestepped a CIA finding that the crown prince was behind the killing; casually slandered Mr. Khashoggi, who was one of the Arab world’s most distinguished journalists; and repeated gross falsehoods and exaggerations about the benefits of the U.S. alliance...

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Stephanie Parker isn't quite sure how her family of six would have managed the last two months without the help of Michael Jordan and the American Red Cross following Hurricane Florence. So when Parker met Jordan on Tuesday she couldn't hold back giving the owner of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets a big hug and a thank you. "It means he hasn't forgotten," Parker told The Associated Press about Jordan's visit to Wilmington, North Carolina. "It means we are important." Jordan returned to his hometown wearing North Carolina Tar Heels blue and met with some hurricane victims, many...

SALINAS, Calif. — As a boy, Abel Montoya remembers his father arriving home from the lettuce fields each evening, the picture of exhaustion, mud caked knee-high on his trousers. “Dad wanted me to stay away from manual labor. He was keen for me to stick to the books,” Mr. Montoya said. So he did, and went to college. Yet Mr. Montoya, a 28-year-old immigrant’s son, recently took a job at a lettuce-packing facility, where it is wet, loud, freezing — and much of the work is physically taxing, even mind-numbing. Now, though, he can delegate some of the worst work...

Buffy rebuffed! Instagram users are lashing out at a “thinspiration” post Sarah Michelle Gellar shared ahead of Thanksgiving. The 41-year-old uploaded the inciting Instagram on Sunday, November 18, posting photos of herself from Maxim’s December 2007 issue. In the portraits, she poses in black lingerie, baring her svelte physique. “I’m just going to pin these up all over my house as a reminder not to overeat on Thursday,” Gellar wrote in the caption, adding the hashtag #thanksgivingprep. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum’s photos garnered praise from other celebs, with Debra Messing commenting, “Are you KIDDING ME!?!” and Tiffani Thiessen...

Fifty years separate us today from 1968 and the two momentous legacies of the then failed presidency of Lyndon Johnson: The declaring of war on America's supposed domestic ills in the form of the "Great Society" programs, and the aggressive military intervention in a real war in Vietnam. Both of these "wars" reflected the arrogance and hubris of the social engineer who believes that he has the power and ability to remake and direct society in his own preferred image.... A part of the Vietnam War tragedy was due to the fact that it was managed by "the best and...

By Selwyn Duke Truly great disasters come like a thief in the night. How many foresaw Rome’s sacking in 410 A.D., her collapse 66 years later, WWI or WWII? As for today, how many see that the United States is at what some call a tipping point, what others may call a Fourth Turning? Whatever you call it, the American republic is in its last days. This is too scary for many to contemplate, but there’s something far scarier: playing ostrich and not being prepared for things to come. The so-called Left, ever violent since its French Revolution birth and...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

Much has been reported in the past few days on the decision by the European Court of Human Rights that the designation of the Prophet Mohammed as “pedophilic” in the context of a 2009 seminar led by the Austrian Islam-critic Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is not legally covered by the right of free expression of opinion. The waves caused by this decision were detectable even in the USA, where the popular Fox show, “Tucker Carlson” dedicated a full segment to the case. Independent of whether this was a “scandalous decision,” it indicates a disturbing trend: a re-clericalization of public space in which...

Hundreds of migrants have showed up at the U.S.-Mexico border. They’re part of a “caravan” that includes about 5,000 people from Central America. The rest of the caravan, as far as we know, is still in central Mexico. But make no mistake. They’ll show up at the border any day now. And no one can agree on what to do with these people. Some say we should just let them into America. Other people, including President Trump, think we should keep the migrants out. In fact, Trump recently called the caravan an “invasion.” Not only that, he deployed thousands of...