Free Republic

The Republican Google engineer who penned an open letter about the company’s “outrage mobs” and “witch hunts” was fired on Friday, The Daily Caller has learned. Last Wednesday, Mike Wacker was put on paid administrative leave and fired two days later. (RELATED: Republican Google Engineer Pens Open Letter About Company’s ‘Outrage Mobs’ And ‘Witch Hunts’)

President Trump’s China policy is starting to resemble a pro-wrestling match where one wrestler manhandles the other, throws him to the ground and has him pinned – for a long two seconds – until he miraculously escapes. It’s good theater, but it’s tough on the audience. Unlike pro-wrestling, however, Trump’s many chances to pin Xi Xinping have been for real. Tarrifs Most recently, U.S.-imposed tariffs are causing real pain on the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s already slowing economy – and indeed are panicking China’s leaders. Back in January, Trump had Xi Xinping down and with both shoulder blades touching...

A 22-year old female University of Utah student reported her business professor to campus administrators for, among other things, assigning too many historical texts written by influential male economists of the past. “I understand the importance of studying the work of those before us and the importance of context,” wrote the student in a complaint to the university’s bias reporting system, where she labeled the professor’s transgressions “derogatory,” “degrading,” and “intimidating,” thereby causing a “hostile learning environment.” The report also accused the professor of frequent sexist language, but the bulk of the complaint centered on his assigned readings for the...

Last week, more than 1,000 immigrants surged through the U.S. southern border near El Paso, Texas — the largest number ever encountered by U.S. Border Control and Protection, with the previous record being set in the month of April, which was 424.

About ten minutes into Mindy Kaling’s “hilarious” comedy Late Night, after about the twelfth pudding-soft joke, I began to have flashbacks. Ah, I thought, so this is why I stopped watching network sitcoms. Cute contrivances, gags beaten to death, weak one-liners, thin characters. I laugh more in any five minutes of Catastrophe or Veep than I did in this entire movie. Kaling spent several years making one of those network sitcoms I’m not sure anybody watched, The Mindy Project, and has brought that housebroken, room-temperature, network-TV spirit to her script for Late Night. Am I meant to grade this movie...

The U.S. – China trade fight was never going to be easy – just like going to the dentist for long overdue root canal surgery. And like an infection complicating recovery from surgery, once resentment takes hold in nation-to-nation disputes things get harder – and more dangerous. And the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has now got a full-blown case of resentment. This isn’t surprising since China always simmers in resentment. But part of the problem is the US Government’s failure to explain itself properly. American foreign policy, often as not, is all about “sending messages” and “signaling.” And it’s...

Parks are New Yorkers’ oasis. They’re where we escape the crowds, the din of traffic, and our often tiny apartments; where we play with our children, walk our pets, and relax in the sun. Parks should be a place where New Yorkers can relax and play without being exposed to dangerous chemicals. So why is a herbicide believed to cause cancer being sprayed in our parks? The New York City parks department is a prolific user of Roundup, a popular weedkiller sold by Monsanto. Yet research by the World Health Organization has linked the active chemical in Roundup, glyphosate, to...

For more than a generation, James Carville's campaign maxim, "It's the economy, stupid," has been held up as an essential truth of American politics. There's no denying that a strong economy is an incumbent president's best friend. Seventy-three percent of voters currently rate the economy as a very important issue. As a result, if the economy remains strong for another 1 1/2 years, many analysts believe President Donald Trump will be favored to win reelection. On the other hand, if a recession hits next year, we will almost certainly have a new president in 2021. However, recent data about the...

The largest invasion in history, and Google just has its logo on the home page. Oh, let's make sure to commemorate the 50th anniversary of some gay milestone a few days ago, but 156,000 men charging relentlessly onto those beaches, under withering gunfire, to literally save the world? Meh. I have thousands of emails on gmail, and I dread the thought of having to switch, but I'm to that point, I think. How do I get started?

On Monday, President Trump learned that CNN was the primary source of news coming out of the United States for the U.K., and he was not happy.Trump tweeted the following after he spent a few minutes watching television during a break with his state visit to the island. Just arrived in the United Kingdom. The only problem is that @CNN is the primary source of news available from the U.S. After watching it for a short while, I turned it off. All negative & so much Fake News, very bad for U.S. Big ratings drop. Why doesn’t owner @ATT do...

"Roe v Wade was an errant ruling by the Supreme Court, and one that has rightfully earned Public opposition because the Court ventured too far in the change it ordered. And presented an incomplete justification for its action.” Those utterances will be condemned as taking reproductive rights away from women. Leftists will tell you that whoever spoke those words should be run out of town after being tarred and feathered. It is interesting to see the reaction from the progressive socialists and rabid feminists when they are told those words were uttered by none other than Ruth Bader Ginsburg in...

Three Things Elitists Simply Can’t Abide While in Verona, Italy on his last “last ever” world tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road, Elton John told fans: “I’m ashamed of my country for what it has done. It’s torn people apart … I am sick to death of politicians, especially British politicians. “I am sick to death of Brexit. I am a European. I am not a stupid, colonial, imperialist English idiot.” An odd comment, that, coming from Sir Elton John.

Joseph DiTonno’s LST transport ship was about halfway across the English Channel to Normandy when the captain’s voice cut through the dark over the speaker. “It’s too rough, we’re going back,” said the captain, to the recollection of DiTonno, now 94 and a resident of a state veterans’ home in Queens, but then the ship’s 19-year-old cook. “We’re going to see what [Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight] Eisenhower wants to do.” It was just after midnight on June 5, 1944, and inclement weather conditions had scuttled the D-Day invasion after months of planning. The next day didn’t bring conditions that...

When Pennsylvania-based aerospace company Astrobotic launches its lander to the Moon within the next couple of years, a four-wheeled robot no bigger than a toaster will be along for the ride. The robotic rover, built by Carnegie Mellon University, will help test just how small rovers can get and still survive on the Moon’s surface.Last week, NASA awarded Astrobotic a contract of $79.5 million to carry up to 14 NASA-sponsored payloads on its lander, named Peregrine. Along with those, the lander will carry another 14 from other commercial companies, research organizations, and space agencies. That’s a total of 28 payloads...

ATHENS -- After Greece temporarily hosted a pair of U.S. military drones, Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Kammenos said last fall that, "It's very important for Greece that the United States deploy military assets in Greece on a more permanent base." Indeed, Greece just took delivery of some 70 military helicopters that it had purchased from the U.S., and there have been discussions about basing American drones, air tankers and other military aircraft on Greek soil. COSCO, a state-owned Chinese shipping and logistics services company, has invested more than 3.5 billion euros in renovating the historic Greek port of Piraeus, which...

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...