Free Republic

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has pledged to unite Europe’s far-right into an international alliance of populists, and the European Parliamentary elections will be the first test of whether his strategy is bearing fruit. Leading political scientist Ivan Krastev has argued that Bannon’s form of populism is “likely to be the major alternative to liberalism in the coming decades.”

Three modelers are predicting President Trump will win reelection in 2020 based on a combination of economic data and incumbent advantages, according to a column in The New York Times. Steven Rattner wrote that Ray Fair of Yale favors Trump to win based on a model that combines incumbency and gross domestic product growth rates. The model predicted Barack Obama’s 2008 popular vote margin within a fraction of a percentage point and got within two-tenths of a point for his 2012 vote share, Rattner, who served as a counselor to the Treasury secretary during the Obama administration, added. The model...

President Donald Trump said on Monday a deal with Iran on its nuclear program was possible, crediting economic sanctions for curbing activities Washington has said are behind a spate of attacks in the Middle East. "I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal, and I think that's very smart of them, and I think that's a possibility to happen," Trump said during a news conference with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. "It has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership," Trump said. "We aren't looking for regime change -- I just...

The Duchess of Cambridge visited the home of the Second World War codebreakers who helped decipher the German Enigma machine. Middleton went to see an exhibition on the team’s role in D-Day ahead of the 75th anniversary of the landings in June. But Bletchley Park is of particular significance to Kate as her grandmother Valerie Glassbow was one of the codebreakers who helped crack Nazi military messages. The team were crucial in helping Allied forces stay one step ahead as they planned their invasion of Normandy. Kate, 37, re-wore a £1,750 polka dot dress as she mingled with the crowd...

I hope everyone has a meaningful, reflective Memorial Day. The following is a repost, originally published May 30, 2016.... Christian Jacobs hugs the headstone of his father U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Christopher Jacobs as mother Brittany, wipes away a tear in Arlington National Cemetery A friend recently posted this iconic 2007 photo of Christian Golczynski: His father, Marine Staff Sgt. Marc Golczynski, was shot and killed while on patrol during his second tour in Iraq. This photo is all over the internet and is heartbreaking because of the 8 year old's strength in holding back tears during a formal...

Secret FBI tapes that accuse Martin Luther King Jr of having extramarital affairs with '40 to 45 women' and even claim he 'looked on and laughed' as a pastor friend raped a parishioner exist, an author has claimed. The civil rights hero was also heard allegedly joking he was the founder of the 'International Association for the Advancement of P***y-Eaters' on an agency recording that was obtained by bugging his room, according to the sensational claims made by biographer David Garrow - a Pulitzer prize-winning author and biographer of MLK. Writing in British magazine Standpoint, Garrow says that the shocking...

https://daytona.craigslist.org/hsh/d/new-smyrna-beach-deplorable/6898531223.html if someone could post the pics that would be cool I lost the code img Deplorable Refrigerator works very good was in our garage (new smyrna beach) This is the DEPLORABLE refrigerator for you, if you: "Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" If you love America and the opportunity you are given by the sacrifice of those who have perished in the fight to preserve our republic YOU ARE GOING TO JUST LOVE THIS REFRIGERATOR....

......the Obama administration was engaged in a widespread effort to thwart the media. The full extent of Obama’s actions against the press are only now coming to light. The Columbia Journalism Review reports on a newly released government document showing that Obama's DOJ (headed by Eric Holder) engaged in a far more sweeping effort to spy on the AP than previously believed. “In 2013, Obama's Justice Department launched a brazen attack on press freedom,” the CJR notes, “issuing sweeping subpoenas for the phone records of The Associated Press and several of its reporters and editors as part of a leak...

LONDON (Rooters) – Britain’s two main parties set the stage on Monday for a battle over a no-deal Brexit, hoping to win back voters who abandoned them for a new movement led by eurosceptic Nigel Farage and other smaller parties in European elections. After a punishing night when acrimonious divisions over Britain’s departure from the European Union were plain to see, contenders for the leadership of the governing Conservatives said the results were a demand to deliver Brexit no matter what. Taking a different tack, the opposition Labour Party said a public vote – a new national election or second...

The AP recently ran a story on how racism was gaining traction again in North Idaho after a local GOP group hosted Brittany Pettinbone and issued a resolution supporting her request for help in getting her fiancee's travel ban lifted. (He was a donor to the Christchurch shooter.) The media had a field day with this and used this to link Republicans to racism. Idaho Conservatives has a very different take on the situation, one that better explains what is really going on with Idaho Republicans. https://idahoconservatives.com/editorial/martyrs-north-idaho/

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has lost a confidence vote in parliament, removing him from office over a political scandal that brought down his coalition government. The no-confidence motion on May 27 was backed by lawmakers from the Social Democrats and the far-right Freedom Party, which was in coalition with Kurz until the chancellor ended their alliance last week. The political crisis was triggered last week by a 2017 video purportedly showing his vice chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, offering contracts to a potential Russian benefactor in exchange for political donations. Strache, with the Freedom Party, announced his resignation from the government on...

A privately funded organization called "We Build the Wall" began work this weekend on a project to erect a section of border wall in the El Paso sector. Former Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, said on "Fox & Friends" Monday that the project was undertaken because there is a "ridiculously large gap" near Mount Cristo Rey that drug and human smugglers are taking advantage of. The barrier will be built on private land. Authorities in the El Paso Sector - which provides support for the counties of El Paso and Hudspeth in the state of Texas and the entire...

Sen. Lindsey Graham has always been a defense hawk, so it comes as no surprise that he’s hawkish on Venezuela. But he might be just a tad too hawkish, judging by an interview he gave on “Fox News Sunday.” Probably frustrated by the U.S.-backed failed coup attempt in Venezuela in April, the South Carolina Republican pretty much recommended to POTUS Donald Trump that he launch a Grenada-style invasion of Venezuela, despite obvious differences in the forces we would likely encounter. “Trump said rightly, [current President Nicolas] Maduro’s not the legitimate leader of Venezuela. The entire region supports the Trump approach,...

President Donald Trump’s state visit to the U.K. next month will be dominated by events with Britain’s royal family, according to a new schedule released Friday by Buckingham Palace. The schedule was released just hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Friday that she will resign effective June 7, just two days after the president, first lady Melania Trump and Trump’s adult children depart the U.K. The high number of events with the royal family in part reflects the fact that the president’s visit this time is his first official state visit, and Queen Elizabeth II is the head...

Social media companies, whose base of operations are on the Left Coast and operated by staff who are almost universally left wing, are squeezing conservatives. There have been some pretty glaring examples of bias, specifically the whole notion being accounts being suspended on Twitter for entirely arbitrary reasons. Yes, Facebook banned Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam for his long history of bigoted remarks, like calling Jewish people termites, but his account wasn’t suspended on Twitter. Oh, and even without using examples of bias, Twitter itself admits that the environment is so left wing that conservative employees cannot speak...

Some six months after the Great War of 1914-18 ended, Arthur Eddington travelled at the head of a team on a scientific expedition to the island of Principe off the coast of Equatorial Guinea in West Africa. He headed one of the two teams of astronomers assigned by a Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Britain to observe and record photographically the full solar eclipse scheduled to take place on May 29, 1919. At the time under Portuguese rule, Principe was selected as one of the two sites – the other was...

The town of Hasankeyf, Turkey, will soon be only a memory. From her front door, Fatima Salkan has a sweeping view of the fruit trees, historic ruins and tidy stone compounds that run along this stretch of the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey. She tries her best not to look off in the distance, to the right. The town on the horizon, still under construction, is where she will move when the valley is flooded by a downstream hydropower dam. “Do you see all these old places?” she asks in Kurdish. “We are the owner, but today we are homeless.”...

The U.S. Army’s newest tank in the summer of 2019 should enter service with the first large unit to use the type. The Army in late 2017 accepted the very first M-1A2C Abrams tanks. Nearly two years later the service has enough of the new vehicles to equip an entire brigade. “We’re in the throes of getting that together,” Hank Kennedy, a manager at General Dynamics’ tank plant in Lima Ohio, told Lima News.

In the U.S., apparently not every dollar is equal. The value of $1 varies depending on where you go. According to new data compiled by 24/7 Wall Street from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), a dollar goes the furthest in America's "poorest states," such as Mississippi and Alabama. Overall, purchasing power is nearly 35 percent greater in The Magnolia State compared to New York, Forbes reported last year, citing 2016 findings from the BEA. In New York, $100 is worth only about $86.51, while $100 in Mississippi is valued at $115.74, the publication stated.

A convergence of policy ideas between two of the 23 Democratic presidential candidates has progressives giddy over what some are calling a “dream ticket” pairing that could revive the flagging fortunes of two contenders mired in low single digits in the polls. One of these candidates is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) who unveiled a proposal that would require insurance companies to provide fertility treatments. She explained her idea would “usher in full reproductive freedom rights for everyone. As it now stands, persons who cannot conceive are blocked from enjoying the right to abortion. It is fundamentally unfair that those who...