Free Republic

Street artist Sabo lampooned Pete Buttigieg with Mad Magazine Cartoon only days after President Donald Trump laughed off the candidacy of “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg by comparing the former Indiana mayor to the cartoon character Alfred E. Neuman of Mad Magazine fame.

Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to Russia with an unusual and thankless task -- standing firm against the rival power even as his boss, President Donald Trump, reaches out to reconcile. Pompeo will meet Tuesday with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, in the highest-level US engagement with the Russian leader since a July summit in Helsinki after which Trump faced wide scorn at home for his trustful embrace of the Russian leader. The top US diplomat's trip comes less than two months after Special Counsel Robert Mueller wound up an investigation...

Orbán believes that Western countries are in decline, and that they are in decline because of “liberalism,” which in his political vocabulary is a slur. He uses the word to describe the contemporary process of creating neutral social structures and a level playing field, usually in the name of rights. This project of creating neutral institutions has two problems. First, it is destructive, because the bonds of affection out of which communities are built are—by definition—non-neutral. Second, it is a lie, because someone must administer this project, and administration, though advertised as neutral, rarely is. Some must administer over others....

**SNIP** Trump made his money in the private sector. That’s none of my business. Trump took huge tax deductions. Who cares? They were legal. If they weren’t legal, how come the IRS never had him prosecuted? But if politicians get rich while in office, that’s something we all should investigate. How did Harry Reid retire as one of the richest senators on a salary of $175,000 - or less - per year? Can anyone explain how anyone gets rich on $175,000 per year, after taxes, after kids in college, after keeping homes in both Nevada and D.C.? I can’t make...

Thomas Quine, Flickr // CC BY 2.0 When something unexpected happens during a sewer system project, the news is not usually pleasant. But when workers installing pipes in Seymour, Indiana stopped due to an unforeseen occurrence, it was because they had inadvertently dug up a few pieces of history: mastodon bones.According to the Louisville Courier Journal, workers fiddling with pipes running through a vacant, privately owned farm in Jackson County happened across the animal bones during their excavation of the property. The fossils—part of a jaw, a partial tusk, two leg bones, a vertebrae, a joint, some teeth, and...

TEHRAN, May 12 (MNA) – Recent polls in the state of New Hampshire indicate that former Vice President Joe Biden is leading the Democratic Party's other candidates. After the Biden official announcement of the 2020 presidential election, many Democrat voters prefer to vote for Biden from him and other party candidates. That's what Biden has made clear to his victory in the Democratic primaries. He is now focusing on the final competition with President Donald Trump of the United States. What are the latest polls? As noted, Biden is leading in the latest polls in the United States compared to...

One of history’s greatest “what ifs” is the question of what would have happened had the Germans been able to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. The Wehrmacht’s effort to do just that, called the Uranverein, or “Uranium Club,” began in 1939 when German Army physicist Kurt Diebner began to research the potential military applications of nuclear fission. By year’s end, the renowned German physicist Werner Heisenberg had expressed his belief that nuclear fission chain reactions, and thus, eventually, nuclear bombs, might be possible, but only if he had access to enough of a singular substance known as...

... Purdue and a few other universities have come up with I.S.A. programs that could point the way forward. They assess different rates and repayment durations depending on the borrower’s major. If you’re a chemical engineering major at Purdue, you enjoy better terms than if you study English: Under its I.S.A. schedule, chemical engineers are expected to repay $33,000 at the rate of about 8.5 percent of their income for seven years and four months, while for English majors it’s almost 15 percent for nine years and eight months. But these university I.S.A.s are meant to supplement rather than replace...

Not just a lie—a scurrilous slander. On her MSNBC show today, Joy Reid claimed that "during the Bush era, we were . . . starving people in Guantanamo."The truth is precisely the opposite. During the Bush era, Guantanamo officials took forceful measures to prevent people from starving. A number of prisoners had gone on hunger strikes to protest prison conditions. Among their complaints: "the prison authorities broadcast the call to prayers only four times daily, rather than the required five for religious obligations and . . . many of the detainees resented when women GIs broadcast the call to prayer."...

(CNN) - Joe Biden's campaign has offered its first response after President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said he would make a now-canceled trip to Ukraine to urge the country to investigate the Democratic presidential candidate. "It's great to see all these strong progressive voices stand up to this attempt at a blatantly political smear which in and of itself reflects the urgent need for change and to restore the soul of the country," a Biden campaign official told CNN. Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke were among the 2020 Democratic contenders to express concern about...

Baltimore is about to be lit! Recently, the annual AFRAM Festival announced their lineup, which boasts headliners Rick Ross, Teddy Riley, and Dru Hill. The city has recently been going through some political tension since the mayor stepped down from office, so it seems the live music might help. The mayor’s office’s senior director of public affairs Tonya Miller-Hall states the scandal surrounding former Mayor Catherine Pugh will not threaten this year’s festival, slated to take place on August 10 and 11 at Druid Hill Park. “The festival is a huge deal to the city, it’s 20-plus years old and...

“Those manufacturers who mainly sell to Europe and the United States need to start taking pain killers again,” said exporter Liao Yu, who produces bags and suitcases in Dongguan. “The cost of relocation is very high for small factories of our kind. But if you don’t move, how do you digest the tariffs? A 25 per cent [tariff] will kill everyone. Meanwhile, European and American customers are now using more suppliers in Southeast Asia to replace us. Trump is just a killer.” “We thought our products would be safe and excluded from the list [subject to US tariffs]. But Trump...

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has stamped his name on virtually every product and property in his business empire, plans to leave his mark on the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo, which began May 12. He will present a custom-made trophy called the "Trump Cup" to the winner. The president, who will visit Japan from May 25 to May 28 as a state guest, is expected to watch the final day of the tournament on May 26 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in the capital. He plans to stay to the awards ceremony afterward to climb in the dohyo and...

YERUSHALAYIM - The “deal of the century” peace plan authored by the U.S. administration will not be revealed until mid-June at the earliest – after the upcoming Yom Tov of Shavuos. The date was named by U.S. envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt in a weekend interview with Fox News. Revelations of the plan, about which many rumors have been circulating for months, has been postponed several times, with the most recent proclaimed date after the recent Israeli election. Few details have been revealed about the plan, and in the interview, Greenblatt held to that stance. With that, he...

The United States announced that designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). There were some opinions about new events. Some have argued that there is going to be an escalation of relations between the United States and Iran because of the Trump administration’s decision to designate the IRGC. However, this may not be the case at all when we consider past events and how Iran responds to different kinds of pressures and policies. History teaches us some lessons on this. We need to study the history of these mullahs to find out some facts...

More Cowbell - SNL When rock band Blue Oyster Cult records "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" producer Bruce Dickinson (Christopher Walken) insists Gene Frenkle (Will Ferrell) play more cowbell. With Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon. [Season 25, 2000]

Department of Justice Files Statement of Interest in Vermont First Amendment Free Exercise Case United States Supports Parochial High School Students’ Claim that State Improperly Barred Them from College Course Program The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont supporting parents and parochial high school students who claim that the State discriminated against them in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution by barring them from a state program paying tuition for high school students to take up to two college courses. The case, A.M....

Full Title: Member of Sophisticated China-Based Hacking Group Indicted for Series of Computer Intrusions, Including 2015 Data Breach of Health Insurer Anthem Inc. Affecting Over 78 Million People FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, May 9, 2019 A federal grand jury returned an indictment unsealed today in Indianapolis, Indiana, charging a Chinese national as part of an extremely sophisticated hacking group operating in China and targeting large businesses in the United States, including a computer intrusion and data breach of Indianapolis-based health insurer Anthem Inc. (Anthem). Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice DepartmentÂ’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler...

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. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.