Free Republic

ANALYSIS/OPINION: Sen. Bob Corker is leaving office at the end of this term — and, given his ongoing Twitter spat with President Donald Trump, taking a “sour grapes” award with him. What’s happening? Corker, never one to agree with Trump, has come out in disagreement once again, this time over the budget impasse that’s marked the building and funding of the border wall. On Sunday, Corker took to national television to characterize the funding fight and subsequent government shutdown as a “made-up fight” — as in something to occupy the White House’s time. That, despite the fact that Trump long-promised...

A bruising stock selloff continued, erasing more than 650 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to instill calm into a jittery market. Coming off the stock market’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell for a fourth straight session Monday as investors continued to weigh the impact of rising interest rates, slowing U.S. growth, and the ramifications of a government shutdown extending into January. With the selloff showing little signs of slowing, Mr. Mnuchin attempted to reassure investors, saying he had spoken...

COP 24 just concluded in Poland. Nearly 23,000 climate saviors attended this 24th annual climate carnival.Every year, plane-loads of concerned busybodies fly to some interesting new location to spend tax dollars on a well stocked 12-day holiday.Few delegates arrived by bicycle or solar-powered plane – a fleet of at least 100 commercial, private, and charter aircraft brought them at a cost estimated at U.S. $57M. When the costs of hotels, ground transport, food, entertainment, air-conditioning, and office services are added, the bill is likely to top $500M.

Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management (FSO) Subcommittee for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), released his 2018 Festivus edition of The Waste Report, an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government. Dr. Paul’s Festivus Waste Report, now in its fourth year, shines a spotlight on some of the wasteful spending and misplaced priorities that have helped the federal government place taxpayers on the hook for a debt that is rapidly closing in on $22 trillion. Highlights include: providing over $76 million in stipends to...

President Trump on Sunday said deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary of the department on Jan. 1 to cover the accelerated departure of Jim Mattis — after a string of disagreements between Trump and Mattis. The Hill reported that Shanahan wasn’t close with Mattis; however he is liked by the White House. “He’s not a policy or geopolitics guy. He’s a business guy,” a source told Defense News. “But he’s spent the last year learning from the best. And Shanahan is known for having a good relationship” with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The...

Full headline: Trump likely to face a ‘billionaire boys club’ of Dem candidates in 2020 far-Left progressives will HATEDemocrats who are set to take over control of the House in less than a couple weeks have vowed to launch probe after probe into POTUS Donald Trump’s finances because they are just certain that the billionaire real estate mogul could never have achieved his status in life without lying and cheating. They will have an equal opportunity to put a slate of Leftist presidential contenders who are also billionaires under the same scrutiny in the coming months — but will they?...

Albert Einstein's desk can still be found on the second floor of Princeton's physics department. Positioned in front of a floor-to-ceiling blackboard covered with equations, the desk seems to embody the spirit of the frizzy-haired genius as he asks the department's current occupants, "So, have you solved it yet?" Einstein never achieved his goal of a unified theory to explain the natural world in a single, coherent framework. Over the last century, researchers have pieced together links between three of the four known physical forces in a "standard model," but the fourth force, gravity, has always stood alone.No longer. Thanks...

President Trump condemned the Federal Reserve early Christmas Eve as the stock market dipped on Monday’s short trading day amid interest rate concerns and federal government shutdown drama. “The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders,” Trump said in a tweet Monday. “The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch - he can’t putt!” The attack comes after Bloomberg News reported late Friday that Trump had discussed firing Federal...

The House has passed a bill that includes funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall and it’s now in the hands of the Senate, with a partial federal government shutdown looming in the background. Trump adviser Stephen Miller was interviewed on CNN yesterday, and host Wolf Blitzer did his best to defend the Democrats on border security, but it ended badly for him. Watch: (Video) CNN's Wolf Blitzer claims "Democrats support border security" Stephen Miller: "They voted against Kate’s law, they voted against ending sanctuary cities, they voted against deporting MS-13 gang members [and] violent criminals, they voted...against a physical...

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A West Michigan native who recently moved to Colorado said she and her husband got a firsthand look at the effects of the government shutdown. Leeann Sadler, who is originally from Grand Rapids, planned to visit several national parks with her husband. The government shutdown is taking a toll on those plans. Sadler told 24 Hour News over FaceTime that she and her husband planned their trip six months ago. "We didn't know that the governrment shutdown would affect the national parks like this because there is that notion that a federal shutdown doesn't really affect...

Poland took another step towards weening itself off Russian energy supplies on Wednesday by signing a 20-year agreement with San Diego-based Sempra Energy to import U.S. liquefied natural gas. In the coming years, Warsaw plans to replace Russian gas with pipeline supplies from Norway and shipments of LNG, or gas super-chilled to liquid from for transport by sea. This is a big deal," said Assistant Secretary Francis Fannon, who heads the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources. Fannon told CNBC's "Power Lunch" that Poland is "stepping up and answering the call on energy security" for Europe.

A Delta plane flying from Beijing to Seattle Monday was diverted to Shemya, Alaska. According to a statement from Delta Air Lines, flight 128 had a potential engine issue. The diverted plane is a 767-300ER with 194 customers. The airline sent another aircraft to pick up the passengers in Shemya and take them the rest of the way to Seattle. The new flight is expected to arrive in Seattle at 9:15 p.m. Pacific time, according to Delta.

Thank You, Almighty Lord God, for sending Your Beloved Son Jesus, arriving in the flesh as a little baby boy created and born through the Power of Your Holy Spirit! The Angel of the Lord and the angelic hosts brought the news of Christ's birth to the most humble yet strong of those who dwelt on the Earth at that time--shepherds, who watched over their flocks of sheep by night. May we humble ourselves under the Mighty Power of God, and give praise and worship to Him and to His Beloved Son Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, Who came...

A man was arrested outside the White House early Sunday morning after a police officer saw him pull down his pants while facing the White House to take a photo with friends. According to police, a group of four people were getting their photo taken by a fifth person outside the White House just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday. An officer witnessed the incident and placed the man under arrest. The man, whose name was not released, was charged with indecent exposure and later released.

Withdrawing from Syria Implements the Trump Doctrine That’s what it takes to actually win. December 24, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. “We need to be more unpredictable to adversaries," President Trump had declared. In the spring of the year, he pounded Syria with air strikes after chemical weapons were used, obliterating Obama’s red line disgrace, and restoring American deterrence and credibility. But the day before the strikes happened, he had tweeted, “Never said when an attack on Syria...

In September, Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive and Alphabet chairman, said that in the next 10 to 15 years, the internet would most likely be split in two — one internet led by China and one internet led by the United States. Mr. Schmidt, speaking at a private event hosted by a venture capital firm, did not seem to seriously entertain the possibility that the internet would remain global. He’s correct to rule out that possibility — if anything, the flaw in Mr. Schmidt’s thinking is that he too quickly dismisses the European internet that is coalescing around...

Putin won another term in March with 77 percent of the vote, but, as in every election in the Putin era, researchers have found statistical evidence of vote rigging. Although the fraud worked for Putin, it failed to produce results in a series of gubernatorial elections this year...Voters are finding it easier to resist manipulation and cheating. The discontent developed in large part because of Putin’s decision to raise the retirement age to 63 from 55 for women and to 65 from 60 for men, a step that successive Russian governments haven’t had the courage to take since the Soviet...

WASHINGTON – Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen announced historic action to confront the illegal immigration crisis facing the United States. Effective immediately, the United States will begin the process of invoking Section 235(b)(2)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), individuals arriving in or entering the United States from Mexico—illegally or without proper documentation—may be returned to Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings. “Today we are announcing historic measures to bring the illegal immigration crisis under control,” said Secretary Nielsen. “We will confront this crisis head on, uphold the rule...

"The release of United States President Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will be postponed until the summer to enable Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party to win the April 9th Knesset election, according to Channel 2 News" "Arutz Sheva"-Israel National News Report 11:41 AM Eastern Time US 12/24/2018- "Anticipating the Trump administration's rollout of its peace plan< Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told the "Jersualem Post Diplomatic Conference" on Wednesday that it will be a waste because the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians are too great to bridge" "Jersualem Post" Report...