Free Republic

One of the highlights of Sunday night was a clearly stunned Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) fleeing the count in Manchester after realising that his hope of becoming an MEP was shattered. He polled just 2.2%, taking only 39,000 votes in the north west and lost his deposit. When he first announced his candidacy, it seemed inconceivable that the man who had founded the English Defence League could become an MEP. Yet we also knew that he was the best-known far-right activist since the second world war, and better known than most of our politicians. Over half the British...

MacKenzie Bezos has promised to give at least half of her fortune to charity, just months after finalizing her divorce from the world's richest man. The newly minted billionaire has signed the Giving Pledge, which encourages the world's richest people to dedicate a majority of their wealth to charitable causes, either during their lifetimes or in their wills. The initiative was launched by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010 and has so far attracted the support of 204 individuals and families. MacKenzie Bezos became one of the richest people in the world following her divorce from Amazon...

General Motors, America's largest automaker, and Bechtel, the country's largest construction company, are teaming up to build thousands of electric vehicle fast-charging stations across the United States. The two companies have agreed to create a new company that will build the charger network. Adding more fast charging stations should provide a boost to sales of electric cars. One of the biggest concerns Americans have about electric cars is whether there will be enough places to charge them, according to a recent survey by AAA. This network will not only help GM (GM), which plans to introduce 20 new electric vehicle...

With many projects standing stagnant for over 30 years, it is time to change the way we approach infrastructure project funding. The solution lies with the greatest wealth generation machine ever invented -- capitalism. Corporations and private investment funds have amassed trillions of dollars over the course of the Trump economy, and they’re looking to invest in infrastructure that offers low-risk and decent long-term returns on investment. Hence, there is no imperative for the government -- federal, state or local -- to finance and maintain revenue-producing infrastructure projects when private capital is available. The concept is known as BOO (build,...

Joe DiGenova yesterday on Mornings on the Mall DiGenova believes that the NSA database contains the 30,000 emails that Hillary Clinton deleted from her server, and that the two US attorneys tasked with investigating the scandals will access those emails in the course of their investigations. Recall that US Attorney for Utah John Huber is supposedly investigating the handling of the dropped prosecution of her violations of national security law with her home brew server and possible crimes related to the Clinton Foundation, including presumably, the Uranium One acquisition of US uranium reserves by Russian interests and the massive donations...

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher In full deference to the Iron Lady, that’s not the only problem. That is a functional reality of socialism’s practical doom. But at its core, socialism is a violation of elemental human nature that desires to build, innovate, expand and improve life — the same nature that drives parents to be always working towards a better future for their children. Socialism denies that elemental nature and so not only dooms itself to eventual self-destruction, but creates enormous misery en route. This has been...

I-Derby-ER missile will replace Russian R-77 in the Indian Air Force fleet. NEW DELHI: In two years from now, the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters may be re-armed with Israeli Derby air-to-air missiles after the jet's Russian-made R-77 missiles were found wanting in air combat operations over the Line of Control on February 27 this year. Sources in the Indian Air Force told NDTV, "We already have the missile as part of the SPYDER (Surface-to-Air Missile) system. Integration (with the IAF's Su-30s) is the next step.'' Retaliating to the IAF strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training facility in Balakot on...

While speaking at a meeting of Japanese business leaders in Tokyo, Trump said the stock market would be anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 points higher if the U.S. central bank had chosen to keep interest rates steady. He also suggested that the growth rate in the U.S. would have exceeded 3 percent. "But they wanted to raise interest rates," he said. "You’ll explain that to me." Trump, despite hand-picking Chairman Jerome Powell more than a year ago, has been a frequent critic of the Fed, often urging policymakers to cut interest rates from the current target range of 2.25 percent...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up a case on whether border patrol agents can be sued in U.S. federal court over the shooting and killing of Mexican citizens on the southern border. The case stems from the cross-border shooting of a 15-year-old boy who was playing a game that involved running over the U.S.-Mexico border. The boy's family alleges that he was shot and killed from across the border by a patrol agent while he was playing the game. His family members are seeking damages. The justices will hear the case during their next term, which starts...

Each year, millions of Americans pay their taxes. We suffer through the nightmare of unfathomable IRS forms, spend tens of billions of dollars on tax experts so the IRS won’t audit us … and yet watch as other people slip through the cracks.Those cracks are pretty large. The IRS has concluded that approximately 16.3 percent of taxes simply don’t get paid. This was the case in 2001, 2006, and 2008-2010.In 2018, this meant that almost $643 billion in federal taxes simply went unpaid, based upon the $3.3 trillion pulled into federal coffers– what the IRS and Government Accountability Office...

Ka-52M ‘Alligator’ combat helicopter © Artur Lebedev/TASS MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. The upgraded Ka-52M ‘Alligator’ combat helicopter will get more capabilities for using weapons against targets in the air and on the ground, the press office of Russian Helicopters rotorcraft maker said in a press release circulated on Tuesday. "Work is underway to further increase the range of detecting and identifying targets and, correspondingly, to boost the capabilities of employing weapons against both ground and air targets," the press office quoted Russian Helicopters CEO Andrei Boginsky as saying in a comment on improvements in the upgraded version. On the instruction...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an order that will allow Indiana to enforce a law mandating the burial or cremation of fetal remains following an abortion. The order marks the first case under the more conservative Supreme Court makeup to challenge the parameters of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The Indiana case was closely watched since the Supreme Court began discussing it in January. The justices met about it more than a dozen times. The order by the Supreme Court overturns an appeals court decision from the 7th Circuit that held Indiana’s stated interest...

Actor Jussie Smollett, who faked an anti-black, anti-gay hate crime against himself in the dead of the Chicago winter, and then escaped charges on likely political connections for filing a false police report, is starting to inspire copy cats looking for the same sweet deal. Here's one from New York from the New York Post: A Manhattan straphanger who claimed to have been attacked by two men yelling gay slurs was actually the one doing the attacking, according to police. Cops say the 25-year-old, who has not been identified, set upon the two men at the Chambers St. station in Tribeca...

Former US Attorney Joe diGenova says that the Huber investigation into the Clinton Foundation is a farce. Huber hasn’t even interviewed the top witness in the case whom diGenova represents! John Huber is the special prosecutor tapped by former AG Jeff Sessions to investigate FISA abuses by Obama’s DOJ/FBI. Sessions nominated Huber to perform this investigation after numerous calls for a special investigation into the Clinton Foundation and the Deep State. But months ago we reported that nothing was getting done. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee say John Huber still has not interviewed key witnesses and they want answers....

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a lower court's decision invalidating part of Indiana's abortion law on the disposal of fetal remains, allowing it to go into effect. But the court declined to take up a challenge to a provision blocking abortions on the basis of sex, race or disability, avoiding a major ruling on abortion for the time being. The fetal remains law — signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence (R) — required that the remains from abortions or miscarriages be buried or cremated. The court reversed a ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law...

You won’t be seeing this on the mainstream media TV channels. As President Trump’s motorcade traveled through central Tokyo – it looks to me as though he was on his way to the Imperial Palace for the state dinner with the Emperor and Empress, chants of “We love Trump! We love Trump!” can be heard from bystanders. Twitter video screen grab This does not appear to be a parade-style motorcade, for the sidewalks are not jammed with people, but rather people who, perhaps aware of the likely motorcade route – or perhaps noting the extensive police presence – paused...

PARIS (AP) — This was one mistake too far for Serena Williams. Sure, the bad backhand put her behind only 15-30 at the outset of the second set of her opening match at Roland Garros on Monday. What made the miscue so bothersome? She’d already dropped the first set against 83rd-ranked Vitalia Diatchenko — and Williams’ unforced error total already was at 15 on a windy evening. So she reacted by throwing her head back and letting out a scream. Then she stepped to the baseline to serve and stomped her right foot.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up a challenge to a transgender bathroom policy for a Pennsylvania school district, allowing it to go into effect. The court's unsigned order means that students in the Boyertown district will be allowed to use the bathroom or locker room aligned with their gender identity. DEVELOPING

Not phishing for Doxing so if you are not comfortable don't reply or fudge the numbers by a few. There is such a wealth of history held by the posters on FR. I was thinking how my own father was alive when Lindberg crossed the Atlantic and when the Hindenburg burned and My grandfather was teen when the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. My grandfather would be 129 years +- today. How about yours?

Acting Texas Secretary of State David Whitley (R) resigned on Monday after his office wrongly questioned the U.S. citizenship of nearly 100,000 people, The Houston Chronicle reported. The embattled official who oversaw the state’s elections penned a resignation letter to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who nominated him for the job in December. “Working alongside the employees in the secretary of state’s office, county election officials, and representatives of our #1 trading partner, Mexico, has been my distinct honor and privilege,” Whitley wrote in the letter obtained by the newspaper. “And to have your trust in doing so goes beyond what...