Free Republic

Self-awareness is not Morning Joe's strong suit. On the one hand, today's panel accused President Trump of acting in an immature manner in his handling of yesterday's short-lived meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. On the other, the panelists themselves unleashed at Trump a string of churlish, middle-school worthy insults. Joe Scarborough claimed Trump "stinks" at deal-making. Mika Brzezinski said the President acted like a "complete idiot." And even the normally level-headed Willie Geist got into the act, referring to Trump as "pathetic." Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. seconded Willie's sentiment, adding that Trump was also "dangerous," surprisingly eliciting a...

(CNN)John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban" whose capture in Afghanistan riveted a country in the early days after the September 11 attacks, has been released from prison, his lawyer said. After serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence, Lindh, the first US-born detainee in the war on terror, on Thursday walked out of a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, and will join the small, but growing, group of Americans convicted of terror-related charges attempting to re-enter into society. Lindh will live in Virginia subject to the direction of his probation officer, his lawyer, Bill Cummings, tells CNN. But...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to unite the country on Thursday after a big election win, with his party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of business-friendly policies and a tough stand on national security. Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 300 of the 542 seats being contested, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament. That would give it the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. “Together...

The I Act On Pledge I pledge to check my bias, speak up for others and show up for all. HOW CAN YOU ACT ON THE PLEDGE? I will check my own biases and take meaningful action to understand and mitigate them. I will initiate meaningful, complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations with my friends and colleagues. I will ask myself, “Do my actions and words reflect the value of inclusion?” I will move outside my comfort zone to learn about the experiences and perspectives of others. I will share my insights related to what I have learned.

“Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee” (Proverbs 23:10-11).

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Old Testament) 1 Kings 2 Solomon’s Throne Established 13 Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. Bathsheba asked him, “Do you come peacefully?” He answered, “Yes, peacefully.” 14 Then he added, “I have something to say to you.” “You may say it,” she replied. 15 “As you know,” he said, “the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the Lord. 16 Now I have one request to make of you. Do...

A series of disasters face art colleges and the art departments of American universities. Their campuses are closing, their freshmen numbers are dwindling, and their graduates are struggling. Getting more students into an art program is a hard sell. To restore their appeal, art schools would do well to de-politicize their programs and focus on turning students into masters of their field who can then harness creativity for their art and their audience. Art colleges struggle with the toxic perception that their graduates are qualified for nothing and have been bankrupted by their education. They take on tens of thousands...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who borrowed $517 million on margin to buy more stock, potentially would be forced to liquidate all his shares and risk bankrupting Tesla if the price falls by 20 percent.

Democratic presidential candidates are seizing on new laws restricting abortion in states such as Alabama and Georgia as an opportunity to propose abortion policies and make pledges to not only preserve abortion access, but to expand it. Some candidates are attempting to set themselves apart from the crowded field with their pledges. Many, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have said that they will appoint only Supreme Court justices who accept Roe v. Wade as settled law and support legislation to codify Roe v. Wade federally in order to preempt state...

Along with resurgent identity politics in the United States and Europe, there is a growing inclination to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of race. According to this narrative, Israel was established as a refuge for oppressed white European Jews who in turn became oppressors of people of color, the Palestinians. As an Israeli, and the son of an Iraqi Jewish mother and North African Jewish father, it’s gut-wrenching to witness this shift. I am Mizrahi, as are the majority of Jews in Israel today. We are of Middle Eastern and North African descent. Only about 30% of Israeli Jews...

Joe Biden may give Donald Trump a run for his money in the race for irreverence.  Trump slaughters sacred cows of propriety like a walleyed abattoir worker with a bolt gun.  But gaffe-prone Biden once again proved that savoir-faire isn't his strong suit, and it may cost him a key Democratic Party demographic. No, I'm not referring to his blue joke about being a politically apathetic college jock, when he and his rakish peers had only two concerns: "jobs and panty raids."  That comment may leave #MeToo adherents miffed, but it's endearing enough to make the Scranton-born V.P. competitive in Pennsylvania. The quip...

Two cardinals, one bishop call on pope to clarify his teachings. Now what? May 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Two cardinals and one bishop have publicly called upon Pope Francis to clarify several of his statements, actions, and public documents in the past few weeks. Cardinal Gerhard Müller asked Pope Francis to respond to the April 30 Open Letter to the Church's bishops accusing Pope Francis of heretical teachings, as well as to clarify some of the “re-formulations of the Church’s teachings” as they are to be found in Amoris Laetitia. Cardinal Willem Eijk has repeatedly asked Pope Francis to clarify...

WASHINGTON — A key congressional committee has already gained access to President Donald Trump's dealings with two major financial institutions, two sources familiar with the House probe tell NBC News, as a court ruling Wednesday promised to open the door for even more records to be handed over. Wells Fargo and TD Bank are the two of nine institutions that have so far complied with subpoenas issued by the House Financial Services Committee demanding information about their dealings with the Trump Organization, according to the sources. The disclosures by these two banks haven't been previously reported. Both TD Bank and...

Let's send some Freeper love. The request on 5/15. "I am requesting Prayers from my FReeper Friends. I am 84 YO and experienced a 10 minute Verbal Lapse on Good Friday. Diagnosed as a 75 % blockage in Left Carotid Artery bifircation. Right at 30%. Physically Normal but Anxious! Surgery will be 1 PM May 23."

At crucial junctures, the Supreme Court has twisted the Constitution that guarantees liberty toward government oppression. Start with The Slaughter-House Cases (1873) and U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876), which blew away the protection of the Bill of Rights with which the 14th Amendment’s framers and ratifiers thought they had clothed freed slaves against depredations by state governments. The result was 90 years of Jim Crow tyranny in the South. “I have a personal interest in this,” Justice Thomas once said. “I lived under segregation.” He grew up in 1950s Savannah, Ga., where the law forbade him to drink out of this...

A line must be drawn. No longer can the phrase "obstruction of justice" be allowed to mean something obscenely different from what any fair-minded, free person knows it was intended to mean. In the minds of most, the phrase refers to blocking the discovery of truth, truth being the only legitimate basis on which appropriate redress can be made for some wrong that has been suffered. Any codified law that uses the phrase "obstruction of justice" to mean something other than precisely this is in jeopardy of obstructing true justice. If a law is needed to insure that an official...

Bear attacks on sheep prompted an emergency meeting between Spain and France Friday, dubbed the “summit of the bear.” Environmental officials from both European countries met after the autonomous community of Navarre, the area in Spain where the attacks have been reported, requested governments come up with a solution to the problem, according to The Independent. ince then, however, Claverina has killed eight sheep in Spain during seven different attacks and one in France, according to Spain's El Pais. Slovenia, which reportedly has more than 500 brown bears, is helping the French National Hunting and Wildlife Agency reintroduce the animals...

Over 10,000 names were submitted, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (now a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York) was selected and assisted in her primary campaign by a candidate-recruiting group. She beat an incumbent in a heavily Democratic district, ensuring that she would win the general election. The incumbent had not been providing his district with great representation and was rarely seen in the district. In fact, he sent a surrogate to a "debate" against Ocasio-Cortez during the primary instead of showing up himself. Note to incumbents: Not showing up is not a way to win. The...

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.,on Tuesday castigated supporters of President Donald Trump by claiming America's problem with ignorance is "pervasive." Omar appeared on the Nation’s "Next Left" podcast with host John Nichols to discuss various issues, including the intelligence of Trump supporters. "So suddenly you’re elected, and you had this teaching moment. It strikes me that, in watching you, you are conscious of teaching moments and of that opportunity to say something that might cause people to think differently about what’s going on," Nichols said. Omar said U.S. voters "have a misconception" about refugees and the process they face getting into...

An accused Somali war criminal who CNN reported last week was working in the US as a driver for Uber and Lyft was responsible for the torture of a man in 1988 and should pay him $500,000, a civil court jury found Tuesday. Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa alleged in court papers that he was beaten and tortured by soldiers under the command of Yusuf Abdi Ali --the man featured in CNN's report. According to Warfaa, Ali's soldiers beat him, took his clothing and used a form of torture called the "Mig," in which they tied his hands and feet behind...