Free Republic

The dramatic collapse in US-China talks in May suggested that Chinese negotiators did not have full political backing for the concessions they proposed to reach a deal to end the trade war, according to a veteran US trade official ahead of the resumption of face-to-face negotiations this week in Shanghai. China was reported to have made last minute, large-scale edits to a near-150 page trade agreement draft, which scuppered the prospects for a deal after 11 rounds of negotiations. The changes suggested that Chinese negotiators never “really connected with all the people who needed to be connected to in order...

SOMMA VESUVIANA, ITALY–When 19-year-old Finnegan Elder and 18-year-old Gabe Natale Hjorth were first met by two undercover police officers with Italy’s military Carabiniere police force on a dark street near the Vatican in Rome, they thought they were about to get jumped. According to a 14-page document from the investigating judge, which was reviewed by The Daily Beast, the two Americans had earlier approached Sergio Brugiatelli, a layabout who can always be found on Piazza Mastei in Rome's Trastevere district, for cocaine. Brugiatelli pointed them to a pusher. The Americans allegedly thought they were buying cocaine, but when their €100...

'm tired of the Democratic Party's race baiting. The most recent example is the blatant lie that President Donald Trump's criticism of the four female Representatives on "The Squad" was racist. Pardon my shouting, but REP. RASHIDA TLAIB AND REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ ARE WHITE. The complexions I see on my computer indicate they could have used a whites only restroom in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955. Tlaib is Palestinian and Palestinians, like other Middle East peoples, belong to the so-called "white race". It may come as a shock to those who call themselves "Aryans", but Aryans are Indo-Iranians. AOC is among...

Republicans have reasons for optimism heading into this fall’s elections for governor. All three of this year's races -- in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi -- are being held in the South, a region where the party is already dominant. There’s at least one other factor playing in the GOP’s favor: party registration. Democrats may still have the lead in total voter registration in Kentucky and Louisiana, but Republicans are clearly gaining strength. (Mississippi doesn’t register voters by party.) Republicans are also gaining relative strength in some of the states expected to be competitive in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans have...

WCBM Baltimore's premier talk radio 680AM on the dial. 50,000 watts of power. Sean and Dr. Frank Luber will again be discussing Elijah Cummings, the city of Baltimore , etc. Sean & Frank are early risers so tune in at 5am 'til 9am It will be a good show tomorrow morning as they will be discussing more about Pres Trump , Elijah Cummings and you'll hear call ins to the show

57 prisoners were killed by other inmates during clashes between organized crime groups in the Altamira prison in northern Brazil Monday with 16 of the victims being decapitated, according to prison officials. Para state prison authorities said a fight erupted around 7 a.m. between the Rio de Janeiro-based Comando Vermelho and a local criminal group known as Comando Classe A. “Leaders of the (Comando Classe A) set fire to a cell belonging to one of the prison’s pavilions, where members of the (Comando Vermelho) were located,” the statement read. State prisons chief Jarbas Vasconcelos said the fire had spread rapidly...

NASA has not confirmed why one of their craft was in the area, but online viewers have now spotted that its flight path appeared to show it zig-zagging over the infamous San Andreas Fault. Renowned conspiracy theorist Tyler Glockner… “A registered NASA aircraft was noticed doing zig-zag flying patterns near and over the San Andreas fault line,” he said.” “It’s almost as if it is scanning the ground as if to try and get more data about what is happening underneath. Tyler wasn’t the only person to have linked the sighting of the NASA craft to the Fault. News conspiracy...

The ACLJ has just obtained previously unreleased documents related to the Clinton investigation and immunity agreements given to top Clinton aids. These agreements reveal that James Comey’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Loretta Lynch’s Department of Justice (DOJ) granted immunity to Hillary Clinton’s aids and lawyers, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, from prosecution for anything found on their laptops violating multiple felony criminal statutes governing the mishandling of classified information and/or the removal or destruction of records, including Espionage Act provisions. Further, the DOJ and FBI also agreed to evade the statutory requirements of the Freedom of Information Act...

A good Samaritan possibly saved a woman’s life on an urban trail in Irvine. The Jeffrey Open Space Trail, squeezed between Jeffrey Road and Irvine neighborhoods, is used by cyclists, joggers, and walkers According to police, at around 10 p.m... “There was a man riding a bike, he collided with the woman, knocked her to the ground, and then at that point got off the bike and began to beat her,” said Kim Mohr with Irvine Police Department. According to Mohr, the woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to recover. Mohr said that it’s not uncommon for people to...

Mary Anne Marsh, a political analyst for Fox News, raised concerns on Monday that President Donald Trump appeared to be consolidating his control over the U.S. intelligence community with the nomination of GOP Representative John Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence. "It's more about protecting Trump than America," Marsh, who previously served as a senior adviser to Democratic Senator John Kerry, warned during a segment of Fox News' America's Newsroom on Monday. "John Ratcliffe has been all over the investigate the investigators [probe], who's doing that right now? [Attorney General] Bill Barr, so Donald Trump has...

FairTube is a campaign to get more fairness and transparency for all YouTube Creators. Our proposals Publish all categories and decision criteria that affect monetization and views of videos Give clear explanations for individual decisions — for example, if a video is demonetized, which parts of the video violated which criteria in the Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines? Give YouTubers a human contact person who is qualified and authorized to explain decisions that have negative consequences for YouTubers (and fix them if they are mistaken) Let YouTubers contest decisions that have negative consequences Create an independent mediation board for resolving disputes (here...

Among intelligence professionals, President Trump’s nomination of an inexperienced, partisan politician to oversee America’s spy agencies prompted deep dismay — but also a stolid reaffirmation of the spymaster’s credo: Let’s get on with it.

Unmarked buildings, quiet legal help for accused priests Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground. Neighbors had no idea some of the dressed-down clergymen dining at local restaurants might have been accused sexual predators. They had been brought to town by a small, nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to hundreds, perhaps...

FULL TITLE: BOOM: James Comey is Under Investigation – John Huber Investigating Comey Memos – Memos Possibly to be Released This Week… Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, there’s big news in here. Actual Bombshells! For real Tick Tocks and much much more…. Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker appeared on Fox News to discuss the replacement of Dan Coats with John Ratcliffe as head of the ODNI, and the current status of AG Bill Barr’s ongoing reviews into prior DOJ and FBI (mis)conduct. Whitaker posits the placement of Ratcliffe as looking at the aggregate intelligence apparatus and seeing if there “are systemic...

Despite knowing for over a year that disabled NYC children had to attend a horrifyingly run down, 116-year-old school, a New NYC Dept of Education Chancellor ignored the deplorable situation and focused instead on diversifying schools. ... But when lawmakers tried to draw attention to the deplorable conditions at PS 9 to Carranza, he replied, “We treat everyone the same.”

FiveThirtyEight noticed last week that, very quietly, Biden was recovering from the polling hit he took after the busing exchange with Kamala Harris at the last debate. Harris had zoomed up after that in some polls, even touching 20 percent in Quinnipiac’s June survey, but the trend didn’t continue. It was Biden who was once again on the rise while Harris dipped a bit.Now here comes Quinnipiac’s July poll with even clearer evidence of the trend.What happened?Look back to the numbers from June. After a long slide in early July after the first debate, with Harris nearly passing him,...

I saw this idiotic headline today. 100 Dems on Board for Trump Impeachment. By Chris Wilson of Yahoo News, whatever that is. Gee whiz, only one hundred dems are on board, my God what's happened? When Trump was first elected there were what, 280 dems on board for his impeachment (every dem in both the house and senate). Why have they lost so many!!! Wow, just Wow!!! I tell you, it is just one idiotic headline after another. Meaningless, stupid waste of time headlines and then ridiculous articles that follow. It has nothing to do with news. It's just another...

Saints Peter and Fevronia are patron saints of Christian marriage. Many people ask for their prayers, helping to maintain love and loyalty in the family.Relics of Saint Peter and Fevronia, the patrons of family and marriage in Orthodoxy, were transported to Moscow from the town of Murom on July 14. Pilgrims are being allowed to see the relics and offer prayers at Christ the Savior Cathedral at the end of July. Huge queues formed when St. Andrew's Cross, the Belt of the Virgin and relics of the holy martyr Panteleimon and St. Nicholas were displayed in the cathedral, and the...

A visit to Albania today reminds the traveler of the worst of modernity and the fall of man, but also inspires hope. In 1945, when the communists seized power in Albania, the Church began to be persecuted with a ferocity not seen since the first centuries of Christianity. The despot Enver Hoxha declared Albania the world’s first atheist state in 1967. All religions were banned, churches and mosques were destroyed, and clergy, who had been ministering in appalling conditions, were rounded up and sent to camps. Hoxha had a particular hatred for the Catholic Church, which he viewed as a...

WARSAW, Poland - A Polish archbishop has condemned attacks on a gay pride rally by protesters claiming to be defending his cathedral. Some, however, said his remarks were too little, too late, and that his earlier remarks incited violence against the LGBT community. “Acts of violence and scorn are incompatible with the attitude of a Christian and disciple of Christ,” Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Bialystok said July 22. “At the same time, I encourage prayer and care for the family and its internal purity, so our families, strong in God, can offer an example of beautiful love in the pattern...