Free Republic

Why is Joe Biden so warm toward China? Last week, Biden raised eyebrows when he shrugged off concerns over the China threat. “Come on, man,” Biden said. “I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for us.” Perhaps Biden’s insouciant attitude toward the Chinese government has to do with the fact that his family does not consider them competitors but business partners. In 2013, then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden flew aboard Air Force Two to China. Less than two weeks later, Hunter Biden’s firm inked a $1 billion private equity...

FRANCE: Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally Party is beating President Emmanuel Macron’s party in latest polls leading up to EU elections An Ipsos poll released Sunday places Ms Le Pen’s anti-Muslim migration populist-right party on 22%, ahead of Mr Macron’s progressive La République En Marche! (LREM/Republic on the Move) which is at 21.5%. In third place is the right-leaning establishment Republicans at a distant 13.5%. Breitbart Two other recent polls also put Ms Le Pen’s party in the lead: an Ifop-Fiducial survey published Friday puts National Rally on 23 per cent, LREM on 21.5 per cent; and an OpinionWay...

Former Bill Maher writer, Evan Sayet, creates a children's book -- illustrated by AF Branco -- that eviscerates in rhyme an color all of the Leftist doomsday scenarios of the past fifty years.

"I Don't Know Why They Attacked Our Village": Persecution of Christians, February 2019 by During just the first two weeks of February, "[a]t least 10 incidents of vandalism and desecration of Catholic churches have been reported in France." — Catholicherald.co.uk, February 15, 2019; France. "The attack was so terrible that Haroon's kidney was cut into two pieces" from the stabbings....After he was rushed to hospital, "doctors were forced to remove his kidney." As is common in such cases, police and local authorities tried to pressure the family not to press charges against the Muslim youths.... — Persecution.org; International Christian Concern;...

Islamic Terrorists Hit Pakistan Hotel to Target China There’s been a pattern of Islamic terrorists in the region targeting hotels. Here’s the latest attack. Pakistan. Heavily armed gunmen attacked a luxury hotel in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, in an assault in which a Pakistani separatist group claimed to be targeting Chinese interests and warned of further violence. “After more than 10 hours of continuous battle and achieving all their targets the BLA fighters have used their last bullets on them and have left this world,” said a Twitter post by what claims to be the official account of the separatist...

Holmdel high school student Boris Kizenko has a 4.0-grade point average and has racked up 400 hours of community service. He was rejected by the Honor Society for character issues and the reason he says is that he used a quote of Donald Trump’s. It is New Jersey! The problem began when he ran for re-election as class president using the slogan, Make Holmdel Great Again, which he said he used to be different and stand out. He didn’t win re-election, and the administration was greatly displeased with his choice of a slogan. He was the class president at the...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said if she is elected president, she will use executive action to take away gun dealers’ licenses “who fail to follow the law.” When asked if she would support a federal gun license, Harris said, “I like the idea. Jake, I’ll tell you, on this issue of the need for gun safety losses, we’re not at any loss for good ideas. People have been having good ideas for decades on this issue. What we’re at a loss is people in Congress have the courage to do...

Kentucky Imam Offered Mosque Fatwa for Murder Plot The sharia solution to business disputes appears to be not so very different from the mob solution. The imam and president of the Lexington Islamic Center has been arrested, along with two other men, on federal charges related to an alleged murder-for-hire plot. Authorities said 70-year-old Mahmoud Shalash was charged Thursday, along with 34-year-old Abdul Hadi and 31-year-old John Sadiqullah, on charges of conspiracy and using interstate facility in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot. According to an affidavit by the investigator in the case, the three men wanted to have someone...

After a full day of media hysteria, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani announced Friday evening that he has canceled his trip to Ukraine. "I've decided I'm not going to go to Ukraine, Giuliani told Fox News' Shannon Bream. He said that the reason he bailed is because he has discovered that the president of Ukraine is surrounded by political enemies and is convinced that he was about to walk into a trap. Giuliani had planned "to visit Kiev and meet with president-elect Volodymyr Zelensky to ask that Ukraine pursue investigations into two matters," the Washington Examiner reported: ... the origin of...

FBI discovers homegrown jihadi training camp in Alabama, similar to one in New Mexico The FBI has uncovered a homegrown terror training camp in Alabama. “The property, similar to another compound in New Mexico the group is now linked to where federal prosecutors say Wahhaj and four other suspects were training children to carry out deadly terror attacks on American soil.” The children were said to be living under abusive conditions. In mid March, a federal grand jury in New Mexico indicted the five Muslims. The leader of the group, Siraj Wahhaj, is the “son of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a...

The Brexit Party will earn more votes than Labour and the Conservatives combined in the European Parliament elections, and could even beat the Tories in a General election, two extraordinary polls revealed this morning. In an Opinium poll in the Observer, focused on this month's European elections, Nigel Farage's new party is predicted to hoover up 34 per cent of the vote. The same poll gave Labour 21 per cent and put the Tories in a miserable fourth place with 11 per cent But an even more extraordinary poll, commissioned by a Brexit Party donor and published in the Sunday...

Derision becomes classic TV

Amazon destroys millions of brand-new items including televisions, books and nappies it cannot sell, an investigation has revealed. Lorry-loads of goods, many still in their packaging, are dumped in sprawling landfill sites or incinerated. The shocking waste was revealed by undercover investigators who secretly filmed in one of the multi-billion-pound company’s enormous warehouses. Reporters posing as Amazon workers discovered an area called the ‘destruction zone’ where they covertly filmed staff loading pristine toys, unused kitchen equipment and flat-screen TVs into skips to be transported to dumps.

By request, our gospel tune this morning is Will There Be Sagebrush in Heaven, recorded in 1947 by tha Sons of the Pioneers. THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Ever heard of a missile that doesn’t explode? That, the Wall Street Journal reports, is a key feature of a secret weapon adapted by the US military. It’s a modified version of a Hellfire missile that hits pinpoint targets but doesn’t explode on impact, meaning reduced damage and less risk of civilian casualties. The weapon, which the Journal likens to a “speeding anvil” falling out of the sky, is known as R9X. But it also has a nickname, “the flying Ginsu,” inspired by its hidden ring of six blades, which emerges just before impact and shreds anything it meets.

The University of Iowa has earmarked over $2.7 million for its Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for this fiscal year. The budget, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix, spans nearly 70 different activities and spending categories. Formerly known as the “Chief Diversity Office,” the division states as its goal achieving “excellence through diversity, equity, and inclusion” by “providing leadership and resources to advance UI’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, coordinating central diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, advancing recruitment and retention of faculty, students, and staff, enhancing a welcoming, respectful, and inclusive climate for all, and...

The first two production Pontiac Firebirds ever built are currently up for sale, but if you want them, you have to buy the pair, because the seller wouldn’t have it any other way. The 1967 coupe and convertible spent their early days as Pontiac show cars before being released for public sale and have reportedly been together ever since. They didn’t lead a pampered life, however, and by 2014 were in pretty rough shape and not in running condition. That’s when the folks at Gas Monkey Garage of “Fast and Loud” fame heard about them and bought the birds for...

LAS VEGAS — Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., on Saturday directly confronted one of his biggest vulnerabilities as a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination: running as a white man who has led a life of relative privilege at a time when many in his party are eager for a woman or a minority candidate to become their next leader. Speaking at a fund-raiser for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender causes, Mr. Buttigieg drew on his own experiences as a gay man in a predominantly straight society. But he also rejected the idea that “there are equivalencies”...

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A local government communications agency in China recently held a seminar to discuss with Communist Party members the "enormous harm" Christianity is to the atheist nation and identify ways to stunt its growth. According to Chinese Christian persecution watchdog China Aid, the event, titled "Christianity's Enormous Harm on China's Security," was held on April 22 in the city of Hebi in China's Henan province. According to the NGO, the seminar encouraged party members to avoid being persuaded by Christian ideology and to sustain "correct views" when it comes to religion. "The Chinese government often views religions, including Christianity, as foreign...