Free Republic

For Nancy Pelosi (regarding illegal aliens): Families that deport together stay together.

Going on vacation and want some extra security around your home? Someday you may be able to call Amazon's surveillance drones. The Seattle tech giant is moving closer to making that scenario a real possibility after winning approval from federal officials this month for a patent for "home surveillance" drones. Company officials stress that the plan is still in its infancy, but the patent papers describe a future in which Amazon customers order drones to hover around a home and scan for things such as a garage door left open, a broken window, graffiti or a fire. As Amazon envisions,...

DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would impose fresh sanctions on Iran but that he wanted to make a deal to bolster its flagging economy, an apparent move to defuse tensions following the shooting down of an unmanned U.S. drone this week by the Islamic Republic.On Thursday, an Iranian missile destroyed a U.S. Global Hawk surveillance drone, an incident that Washington said happened in international airspace. Trump later said he had called off a military strike to retaliate because it could have killed 150 people. Tehran repeated on Saturday that the drone was shot down...

The US carried out a cyber attack on Thursday night, just after Iran downed an American surveillance drone, The Washington Post reported. According to the Post, the targets were computers and systems responsible for missile attacks. The attacks were planned for weeks, if not months, but proposed only after the attack on two oil tankers earlier this month. The White House and US Cyber Command refused the Post's request for comment, but Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith said, "As a matter of policy and for operational security, we do not discuss cyberspace operations, intelligence or planning." .....

President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States would impose “major additional sanctions” against Iran on Monday, after calling off military strikes against the Islamic Republic over concerns about the loss of life. Trump said he would discuss tensions between the U.S. and Iran at Camp David this weekend. “We want to be proportionate,” Trump told reporters Saturday. However, the president also said he has not ruled out using military force against Iran in the future. “It’s always on the table until we get this solved,” he said. “We have a tremendously powerful military force in that area.”

Abusive behavior pushes good people away from participating in public policy and getting involved at a local level. We’ve heard from many who have either given up or are considering quitting politics because it’s become so toxic in our state. People involved in Idaho politics on a volunteer basis are forced to choose between standing up and taking the abuse or leaving in silence to avoid further nastiness.

In Idaho, policy which is dictated by politics is a passion for many of us. In a state where Republicans maintain a majority of the population, Republicans and Democrats are fighting off Socialist and Libertarian factions attempting to take over the parties as they have no real base of their own to win elections. This war within the parties has led Idaho down a dangerous path of ideological supremacy and people are being silenced through abusive behavior used by those who seem to think that their political beliefs justify their atrocious actions. It’s time we speak up and shed some...

SALEM -- A “possible militia threat” is shutting down the Oregon statehouse amid an ongoing walkout by Republican lawmakers who are blocking a vote on landmark climate change legislation with their absence. A spokeswoman for the Senate President confirmed late Friday that the "Oregon State Police has recommended that the Capitol be closed tomorrow due to a possible militia threat."

Trammell Crow Co. (TCC) filed details of a proposed one million-square-foot, four-building office campus in Plano, TX’s Legacy business park. If approved, the 18.5-acre project will boast office buildings measuring between 12 and 25 stories on Legacy Drive, near the Dallas North Tollway. The proposed project plans are in the hands of Plano’s planning and zoning commission. While the property is zoned for high-rise office construction, TCC would like minor changes, which would allow buildings to be placed closer to Legacy Drive. Local brokers told the Dallas Morning News that TCC is already scoping out potential tenants for the first...

Evidence Iran has offered to ‘prove’ that an American RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was in its airspace when it was shot down this week is completely fraudulent. In particular, a photo Iran has published supposedly showing the drone tumbling from the sky in flames to indicate where it was when it was targeted destroys any remaining credibility the Islamic republic had. The state-run Islamic Republican News Agency published a photo of what the outlet claimed was the RQ-4 tumbling from the sky...

U.S.A. -(Ammoland.com)- Large, powerful, political organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) are seldom transparent or without internal struggles. The internal struggles at the NRA have been enlarged to engulf Christopher W. Cox, head of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). Christopher Cox has been suspended from his position at the head of the NRAILA.

The House Armed Services Committee is preparing a budget mark-up statement that would restore funding for planned upgrades to Army Chinook CH-47F helicopters at Boeing Corp.'s Ridley Township military aircraft factory for at least a year, and urge Army leaders to commit to the program in the long term. In a statement, obtained by The Inquirer, the committee complains that the military’s Future Years Defense Program doesn’t fund “Block II” Chinook upgrades, as the previous year’s budget did. So it is asking for an extra $28 million to keep the upgrade program active during the next five years, adding that...

A Fraserburgh piper is looking forward to sharing his passion for music in the classroom after the summer. Former Fraserburgh Academy and Dyce Music School pupil, Andrew Buchan, was “delighted” yesterday as he graduated with a bachelor in music and education. The 23-year-old has secured a probationary teaching position at Banff Primary School and meantime is looking forward to jetting off to Tenerife on a “much-needed” holiday today. A piper in his spare time, the rest of his summer will be taken up with piping championships as part of the Highland Granite Pipes and Drums band. “I have played the...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The microphone gave out Saturday as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden prepared to defend his record on abortion rights. Biden, the vice president under former President Barack Obama, was responding to a question from Kelley Robinson, national organizing director for Planned Parenthood, who asked how he could convince voters that he was sincere about his commitment to abortion rights "given your mixed record" on sexual and reproductive health. "First of all, I'm not sure about the mixed record part," Biden said. "I've had, I have had 100% voting record —" before the mic dropped.

In a move that some are calling “defiant,” delegates at the annual meeting of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church last Saturday declared themselves a “One Church Plan Conference in spirit.” The One Church Model, which was voted down by the UMC General Conference in February, would have allowed individual churches and regional annual conferences to decide whether to ordain and officiate at the marriage of LGBT members. The General Conference instead endorsed the Traditional Plan, which bans the ordination of gay pastors and forbids pastors from officiating at same-sex marriages. During its 75 years, Grandview UMC...

The Trump administration is dangling a $50 billion carrot as the opening gambit for its long-awaited Mideast peace plan.

Conservative lawyer George Conway — the spouse of White House Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway — has long been a thorn in President Trump’s side as a rare Republican who always holds the president accountable for his actions. Conway’s thorn was more like a switchblade today as he penned a blistering editorial in The Washington Post that compared the recent rape allegations against Donald Trump by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll to the furor over a similar incident involving Bill Clinton back in 1978. Add your name to the millions demanding accountability of the president. The long-time Republican attorney begins his...

President Trump announced Saturday that a planned mass roundup of illegal immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is being delayed for two weeks, in the hope that a bipartisan solution to the border crisis can be reached. “At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,” he tweeted. “If not, Deportations start!” he added.

Fraction of Suicides with Firearms – Orange; Per Capita Firearms in the US – Blue When people want to believe something, they tend to fit the data to their pre-conceived ideas. This is known in scientific circles as confirmation bias. Others may call it rationalization. It is on full display in an article written by Katie O'Conner in the Virgina Mercury. The article is piece promoting more restrictive gun laws in Virginia, in advance of the special session called by Democrat Governor Ralph Northam.  The article is premised on false assumptions and the irrational attribution of volition to inanimate...

SARDIS, Miss. (AP) — A Florida company that makes organic fertilizer supplements will open a north Mississippi factory, investing $8 million and hiring 25 people. Humic Growth Solutions says it has bought a building in Sardis and plans to begin making and distributing products there by February. The Jacksonville, Florida, company has bought a 65,000-square-foot (6,000-sq. meter) building, planning a 6,000-square-foot (550-sq. meter) addition....