Free Republic

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday unveiled new travel restrictions to Cuba as part of President Donald Trump's foreign policy position. The Department amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) which now bans all non-family travel to the country. The State Department said the United States will no longer permit visits to Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft. The goal of the restrictions is to significantly hinder Cuba's economy and pressure its government to stop aiding Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. “Cuba...

There was no conceivable reason for border agents to be suspicious when “Charles” flew from Brazil to Chigaco, with a final destination of Denver. But that didn’t stop them from searching his luggage, searching him, and finally searching his phone. Customs and Border Protection has been ramping up their searches of the electronics of travelers to the United States. Over 30,000 people had their electronics searched at a U.S. airport last year while traveling to or from the United States. In this interview, Charles tells me about his ordeal with the United States Customs and Border Protection. He was traveling...

In Dennis Sullivan's photograph above, a landing craft from HMCS Prince Henry carries Canadian troops toward Juno Beach in the early hours of D-Day. Many years ago, I spoke to someone who'd been aboard the Prince Henry's sister ship, HMCS Prince David, who talked about the subtly different dynamic among the guys on those landing craft. The Royal Canadian Navy men at the front are concerned to make their rendezvous on time: They're in the middle of the mission, and they want to complete it. The infantrymen behind them are waiting for theirs to start. As the Prince Henry recedes...

NYC schools training teachers to discriminate against white students A new mandatory, $23 million “anti-bias” program is training New York City school teachers to discriminate against white children, no matter what. The New York Post recently published remarks from one training session, in which the instructor defined ‘racial equality’ as favoring non-white students over white students, regardless of any other circumstances. In another session among NYC school superintendents, attendees were asked to discuss various life experiences that inspired them to fight for social justice. One high-ranking school official– a white, Jewish man, described his family’s experience in the Holocaust and...

Red pill or blue pill? You decide.Twenty years after the Wachowskis’ iconic 1999 film, The Matrix, introduced us to a futuristic world in which humans exist in a computer-simulated non-reality powered by authoritarian machines—a world where the choice between existing in a denial-ridden virtual dream-state or facing up to the harsh, difficult realities of life comes down to a red pill or a blue pill—we stand at the precipice of a technologically-dominated matrix of our own making.We are living the prequel to The Matrix with each passing day, falling further under the spell of technologically-driven virtual communities, virtual realities and virtual conveniences managed by...

It has been 30 years since Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s groundbreaking sitcom Seinfeld first hit the airwaves, and the show is still as timeless and relevant as ever. This is mostly due to the central ensemble of Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer—one of the greatest casts in television history—but they also had solid support from a wide range of minor characters. Of course, as with any show, some of those supporting characters were stronger than others, and, naturally, there were also some weak ones to contrast against the strong ones. So, here is every Seinfeld supporting character, ranked.11. SUSAN...

As presidential candidates promise to refuse so-called “dark money” and Members of Congress decry the role of money in politics, a Special Report from CRC dispels one of the biggest myths in political discourse: the Left doesn’t use “dark money.”CRC’s report by investigative researcher Hayden Ludwig, Big Money in Dark Shadows: Arabella Advisors’ Half-billion-dollar “Dark Money” Network, profiles four nonprofit organizations, all controlled by senior leaders at Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consultancy.Read the full report here and find the executive summary of Big Money in Dark Shadows below.* * *Executive Summary The political Left often criticizes—and the mainstream media frequently report on—the network...

Key players on the To The Stars Academy team—a group with curiously impressive resumes from the military industrial and intelligence complex's highest rungs and darkest corners—are virtually everywhere in the media right now. In what has been one of the most impressive media pushes I have seen in a long time, the group has gone all out in promoting their new show, Unidentified, on the History Channel. At the same time, as if right on cue—which isn't all that surprising—huge UFO-related stories have hit the mainstream media. These have included on the record accounts of Navy fighter pilots recently encountering...

“My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend” (Proverbs 6:1-3 KJV).

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., an advocate for a $15 minimum wage, returned to work as a bartender for one day. Ocasio-Cortez said: "All labor has dignity, and the way that we give labor dignity is by paying people the respect and the value that they are worth at minimum. We have to make one fair wage, and we have to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, nothing less." The issue is simple: Does a government-mandated minimum wage help or hurt the very workers and job seekers that Ocasio-Cortez wants to help? Ask her former boss, who owned...

[link to 24 excellent photos, with captions.]

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Hey, there could be a cause and effect relationship here. – The NBA’s year-over- year ratings are down 22% in 2019. Meanwhile, we can no longer refer to the owners of NBA franchises as “owners.” The reason? Because it makes the largely-black players who these [not] owners have turned into multi-millionaires feel all like ‘slaves’ and stuff. You just cannot make this stuff up. What a coincidence! I preferred life before Madonna! – Aging, vastly overrated pop star Madonna told an interviewer for New York Times Magazine that “I preferred life before...

Fitzgerald CO: Destroyer Repairs at Risk from Poor Shipyard Fire Safety By: Ben Werner May 31, 2019 3:08 PM • Updated: May 31, 2019 7:36 PM This post has been updated with a statement from Huntington Ingalls Industries. Poor fire safety practices in the yard are putting at risk the two-year, $523-million effort to repair USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62), the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer heavily damaged in a deadly 2017 collision, warns the ship’s commanding officer. Cmdr. Garrett Miller, commanding officer of Fitzgerald, noted a series of more than 15 fire safety incidents aboard the ship since it arrived at the...

If you're into competitive shooting but want a little bit of a physical challenge to go with it. Look into the MGM Ironman competition. Its sort of like 3 gun competition with a CrossFit blended in to raise your heartbeat as you settle to shoot. Challenges this year were the same as previous years, but some were slightly different. For instance, instead of having to haul a 150-pound dummy over to and on top of a 5-foot shooting platform, this year the competitors were given three options: a 100-pound, taped-up sack for a 60-second bonus; two steel targets weighing in...

Recent Trends in Active-Duty Military Deaths Summary of Deaths Since 2006—five years after the start of major combat operations in Afghanistan and three years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq—a total of 16,652 active-duty personnel and mobilized reservists have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Seventy-three percent of these casualties occurred under circumstances unrelated to war, a category classified in this report as Non-Overseas Contingency Operations, or Non-OCO. Twenty-seven percent have died while serving in OCO operations—primarily within the territory of Iraq and Afghanistan—during periods of active combat operations. OCO operations related to Afghanistan primarily include Enduring Freedom...

A woman in Palmetto, Fla., told police she stabbed herself in the stomach because she doesn’t want to live in Donald Trump’s America. The distraught woman, whose name is redacted from a police report posted on the Smoking Gun, was covered in blood when cops arrived to her home. “I observed blood all over (her) legs, hands and face,” responding officer wrote. When police asked the victim what happened, she lifted her shirt and showed them three self-inflicted stab wounds on her stomach. “I’m tired of living in Trump’s country. I’m tired of Trump being president,” she reportedly told police. The report...

NORWICH, Conn. (WTNH) - Police responded to a Norwich McDonald's on Friday night after learning on an incident between a woman and the restaurant's manager. According to officials, around 8:20 p.m. at the McDonald's located at 78 Town Street, a 21-year-old woman became upset with staff due to displeasure with her chicken sandwich. Authorities stated that the woman forced her way behind the counter so she could make her own sandwich. She allegedly assaulted the restaurant's pregnant manager during the incident. There has been no word on any specific charges at this time.

Navy Recovers C-2A from Fatal 2017 Crash from 3 Miles Underwater By: Sam LaGrone June 5, 2019 10:20 PM A C-2A Greyhound assigned to the “Providers” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30 on Aug. 18, 2017. US Navy Photo A year and a half after a fatal crash in the Philippine Sea, the Navy has recovered the wreckage of the missing C-2A Greyhound from more than three miles below the surface, USNI News has learned. The aircraft was recovered from near its Nov. 22 crash site about 500 miles from Okinawa in late May, a U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman...

USS Oscar Austin Fire Damage Repairs Will Stretch into 2022 By: Ben Werner June 4, 2019 4:49 PM • Updated: June 4, 2019 6:59 PM 171117-N-VC599-559 The guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) arrives at homeport Naval Station Norfolk. Navy photo. The guided-missile destroyer damaged in a fire in a Norfolk maintenance yard last year won’t rejoin the fleet until at least 2022, USNI News has learned. USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) will undergo repairs caused by the fire at least into the first quarter of 2022, according to an unclassified Navy maintenance summary reviewed by USNI News. The summary included...

“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.” Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984 Standing on a craggy overlook jutting into the English Channel Ronald Reagan delivered those words 35 years ago on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the D-day invasion. By then the “boys” were already boys no more. The few who are still with us are now all in their 90’s. Some have come to today’s anniversary...