Free Republic

If some fifty years ago you happened to find yourself in one of the small villages in the Dutch countryside, you could hardly get lost. The only thing you needed to do was look up, find the church tower and you would always find your way back. Because the church - literally - was at the heart of the village. In the rural communities the church was a central point of life as well. Sunday Mass, the Catholic feast days, weddings and funerals: The church was the place where everyone met each other and shared the day’s news. The parish...

St. Seraphim of Sarov is one of the most beloved saints of not only the Russian Church, but the entire Orthodox Church. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia traveled to the Sarov and Diveyevo Monasteries for the celebration of the feast of the uncovering of the great saint’s relics (August 1) this year, which was augmented by the spiritual joy of the consecration of a new place of worship. His Holiness arrived to the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis on the eve of the feast, accompanied by a number of other hierarchs and clergy, and was greeted at the...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told me yesterday that he’d advised President Trump it would be a huge mistake, substantively and politically, to withdraw all U.S. military members from Afghanistan by the 2020 election. What he's saying: "When it comes to the election of 2020. I think it would be very easy for the president to defend leaving a counterterrorism force that was recommended by our military and intelligence community, to protect the homeland after the debacle in Iraq." "It would be hard, in my view, and a high-risk strategy, to reject such advice for political reasons," Graham added. "As to...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday night after a photo surfaced on social media, showing a group of young men “groping and choking” a cardboard cutout of the freshman congresswoman — while wearing shirts that say, “Team Mitch.” “Hey @senatemajldr – these young men look like they work for you,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping & choking members of Congress w/ your payroll,” she asked, “or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch?” The picture in question was posted on Facebook and then...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department labeled China a currency manipulator Monday after Beijing pushed down the value of its yuan in a dramatic escalation of the trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies. The decision, which came hours after President Donald Trump accused China of unfairly devaluing its currency, marks a reversal for Treasury: In May, it had declined to sanction China for manipulating its currency. The U.S. has not put China on the currency blacklist since 1994.The designation could pave the way for more U.S. sanctions against China.Earlier Monday, China had allowed its currency to weaken...

Most people only think of our "Founding Documents" as comprising two things: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Some, or perhaps many, might correctly also say that the Articles of Confederation is a (third) founding document. There was actually a fourth. The Continental Congress passed on October 20, 1774 the Articles of Association, sometimes also called the Continental Association. (full text) In it, it contains this following text: 2. That we will neither import nor purchase any Slave imported after the first day of December next; after which time we will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will neither...

[Catholic Caucus] What Benedict XVI Would Say To the Synod For the Amazon The forward march toward the synod for the Amazon is increasingly construed as a pitched battle with its epicenter in Germany and with very high stakes: the essence of Jesus' mission, and therefore of the Church as well.Of German language and stock, in fact, are the leaders of both formations. On one side Cardinal Cláudio Hummes and Bishop Erwin Kräutler, the biggest promoters of the synod. On the other cardinals Gerhard Müller and Walter Brandmüller, very severe critics of how the assembly has been set up. With...

Former Vice President Joe Biden pushed back Monday evening on President Trump’s characterization of mental illness as the cause of an El Paso, Texas mass shooting over the weekend. “Hatred is sick, but it's not a mental illness,” Biden said in a Monday interview on CNN. "White supremacy is wrong. But it's not mental illness." The suspect in the shooting, which killed at least 22 people on Saturday, has been tied to a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto that was posted online just before the attack began and speaks of a Hispanic “invasion” of the U.S. Although President Trump condemned white supremacy...

But taxpayers now on the hook for 26,000 government pensions over $100,000, a 13-fold increase from 2005

Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke compared the rhetoric of President Trump to Nazi Germany Monday, before declaring, “Well, Jesus Christ, of course he’s racist.” O’Rourke joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss his thoughts on the tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio when host Joe Scarborough criticized Republicans who don’t condemn rhetoric used by Trump. “I mean the president has not been shy. He’s not been saying this behind closed doors. This is out in the open. All people of one religion, inherently defective ... should be banned from the shores of this country,” O’Rourke said on...

Are there foreign forces interfering in Hong Kong affairs and fomenting unrest? Of course, there are. Just because local opposition figures laugh it off and ridicule such claims doesn’t make them untrue. And I am not even talking about long-ago, on-record funding of local anti-China groups by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is financed by the United States Congress. Just consider two incidents from last month, a lively period of anti-government protests. Riding on her high horse, but acting in the most irresponsible way possible, the British Labour Party’s shadow Asia minister, Helen Goodman, released the names of...

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended years ago for compiling a "hit list" and a "rape list," and questioned how he could have been allowed to buy the military-style weapon used in this weekend's attack. The accounts emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Connor Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing an AR 15-style rifle with an extended ammunition magazine that he used to open fire outside a crowded bar early Sunday. Police on patrol in the entertainment...

Saw John Rich of Big & Rich fame on The Five mention this Made in America Trade Show. Thought I would look up the website and post it for visibility.

Two New York Times writers tried to use the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton to condemn not just Donald Trump and his rhetoric, but the policies of the Republican Party in general. The online headline deck to Charles Blow’s Monday column said it all: “Terror and Policy: 2 Sides of White Nationalism: The white supremacist terrorists and the white supremacist policymakers share the same mission.”

US counties where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally saw a 226% increase in reported hate crimes over similar counties that did not hold a rally, political scientists at the University of North Texas said in an analysis published in The Washington Post. According to a study done by University of North Texas professors Regina Branton and Valerie Martinez-Ebers, and PhD candidate Ayal Feinberg, the scientists found that Trump's statements during the 2016 campaign "may encourage hate crimes" in the respective counties. The study measured the correlation between counties that hosted a 2016 campaign rally and the crime rates...

El Paso, Texas, Mayor Dee Margo told reporters on Monday that President Trump will visit the city on Wednesday, even as several prominent Democrats indirectly blamed the president for Saturday's mass shooting there -- with some warning him, in frank terms, to stay away. News of Trump's planned appearance teed up a potentially bitter national political moment just four days after suspected gunman Patrick Crusius, 21, allegedly opened fire at a Walmart and killed 22 people while injuring more than two dozen others. "He is president of the United States," Margo, a Republican, told reporters. "So in that capacity, I...

[Catholic Caucus] The Bride of Christ, caught in adultery? Wait for the punchline. The Lord is purifying his Bride and converting all of us to himself. He is letting us be put to the test in order to make us realize that without him we are simply dust. He is rescuing us from hypocrisy, from the spirituality of appearances. He is breathing forth his Spirit in order to restore the beauty of his Bride, caught in adultery.“Pope” Francis, letter to priests, 4 August 2019. HERE Except they got the translation wrong. Here is the Italian: sorpresa in flagrante adulterio. Caught in flagrant...

Former Texas congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke gave a furious response to a reporter last night when asked what President Donald Trump can do for the country to make the situation better after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.

(Reuters) - China has approved wheat imports from the Russian region of Kurgan, the Chinese customs office said on Friday, bringing Russia a step closer to its goal of dramatically increasing grain exports. It also approved soybean imports from all parts of Russia, the General Administration of Customs said in a separate statement on its website, having all but halted U.S. soy imports as the trade dispute between Beijing and Washington deepened. China was the top buyer of U.S. soybeans until Beijing slapped a 25% tariff on shipments last year in response to U.S. tariffs on a range of Chinese...