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"I'm looking to do background checks," he told reporters. "I think background checks are important. I don't want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate. Sick people. I'm all in favor of it." He indicated there would be little movement on legislation to ban high-powered weapons like the one used in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday and other mass shootings. "You have to have a political appetite within Congress, and so far I haven’t seen that," Trump said.

Australians travelling to Hong Kong have been warned to exercise a “high degree of caution” as China said Hong Kong was facing its worst crisis since the former British colony was handed back in 1997. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) said: “There is a risk of violent confrontation between protesters and police, or criminally linked individuals, particularly at unauthorised protests.” Ireland, the UK, and Japan have all issued Hong Kong travel warnings since July. (please see full article at the link)

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Ronald Reagan. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Ronald Reagan was the first president since World War 2 who was not part of the Washington establishment, and was truly a populist choice. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white...

President Trump’s judicial nominees have faced unprecedented opposition from the Senate in his first two-and-a-half years in office, records show, with Democratic senators voting against potential judges in higher numbers than at any point in American history. Trump’s nominees for the lower courts that feed cases -- and sometimes judges -- to the U.S. Supreme Court contend with far more ‘no’ votes and delay tactics than any past president’s, according to numbers compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation. As the Senate moved last week to confirm 13 more of Trump’s district court nominees, Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted...

Here's what President Donald Trump tweeted about Baltimore's congressman and his city: "Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is far worse and more dangerous. His district is considered the worst in the USA." "As proven last week during a congressional tour, the border is clean, efficient and well run, just very crowded," Trump added. Cumming's "district is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help...

Prayers up for continuing progress and success. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly...

Aides to Bill de Blasio have long observed that he seems to grow happier with each mile of distance from the city he leads, and when the New York mayor arrived in South Carolina one Saturday in May, he had an air of weightlessness about him. run for president, announced two days earlier, came with an overnight makeover that had the City Hall press corps tittering: fresh navy sneakers, de-fuzzed sideburns, pants that fit. A sprig of white chest hair curled skyward beneath de Blasio’s open collar as he patrolled a nearly empty library in Columbia, S.C., looking like a...

Dozens of protesters gathered outside of Mitch McConnell’s home in Louisville Monday night, including one who wished the Senate majority leader would suffer several violent injuries. “I just want him to have a stroke, that is all,” said the woman, who was among around 40 protesters outside of McConnell’s home. The Republican was believed to be inside his house, recovering from a fall he sustained over the weekend that broke his shoulder. “One of those heart attacks where they can’t breath, and they’re holding their chest and they fall backwards,” the woman said later of what she hoped would be...

If there’s one thing everyone on the left, including most of the mainstream media, can agree on it’s that Donald Trump is a racist. We hear it on a daily basis like a drumbeat that never ends. It’s almost as if our cable news betters fear that if they stop repeating it, people will cease believing it. But when pressed to provide examples they fall into a familiar, stumbling pattern. I ran across yet another example this morning in this “think piece” from the Associated Press.While they manage to provide some balance by including people objecting to these characterizations,...

Dude, what if they make this idiot governor?Or senator?Actually, scratch that last one. I dislike Gillibrand enough that I’m basically agnostic about a death match between her and AOC.This new poll of New York State from Siena is newsy because it’s a sequel to a newsy poll they published in March. That was one of the first surveys to test Ocasio-Cortez’s popularity back home after she’d joined Congress and become a national figure, and the early verdict was chilly: She polled at just 34/41 in terms of favorability statewide and did only a bit better, 43/37, in her hometown...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to block a Trump administration policy that fast-tracks deportations of illegal aliens. The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of immigrant-rights groups We Count! and Make the Road New York, argues that President Donald Trump’s expansion of expedited removal has stripped immigrants of due process and has led to wrongful deportations. “Hundreds of thousands of people living anywhere in the U.S. are at risk of being separated from their families and expelled from the country without any recourse,” ACLU lawyer Anand Balakrishnan said in a prepared statement released Tuesday....

While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and other experts routinely underestimate the costs of government spending programs by huge amounts, they severely underestimate receipts and economic results when there are across the board tax cuts.  The data are readily available, and they show that after the Reagan and Bush major tax cuts, the economy improved rapidly — and tax receipts shot up.  Yet in all projections, the CBO assumes that receipts will go down and the economy won't expand much because of the cuts. The CBO said the Trump tax cuts would cost the government $1.5 trillion over ten years, but...

For nearly three years, Democrats were certain they would eat President Trump’s lunch in 2020. The 25 dreamers seeking the party’s nomination are testament to the conviction that one of them definitely would be the next president. Oops. Suddenly, after just two debates, the Nervous Nellies are climbing the walls. Many Dems are worried that the battle is too nasty and too negative, and that the front-runner, Joe Biden, is looking awfully ­wobbly. Equally worrisome, Biden’s strongest challengers, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, are leaning so far left that their appeal could be limited to the most radical elements....

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CN) — The federal judge who temporarily blocked enforcement of Arkansas abortion restrictions extended her order Tuesday while a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the laws proceeds through court. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in Little Rock issued a preliminary injunction hours before her two-week temporary restraining order was set to expire. The July 23 restraining order was issued the day before the new laws were to take effect. Tuesday’s 186-page order found the three laws that include a ban on abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy would cause “ongoing and imminent irreparable harm.” The judge also...

I believe the overwhelming majority of NRA members are good people and responsible gun owners, but I decry the NRA's leadership and direction. I oppose its tactics. I condemn its inability to support its members, and I lament its transformation from a sportsman's organization into a shill for gun manufacturers... I used to be proud of my NRA affiliation. It was a group that brought me together with like-minded people. I have friends and family who are still members; some were even in Indianapolis. But now I'm proud that I left, especially given the leadership meltdown we saw this weekend...

In the wake of two shooting massacres, with China threatening the world economy and Iran threatening nuclear war, are the offenderati really losing their minds over a photograph of schoolboys fooling around with a cardboard cutout? Seems so, because the cardboard cutout depicts Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and she never passes up the chance to play the victim. These are harmless kids engaged in harmless skylarking. So harmless, they even tagged AOC in their initial posts. But they underestimated AOC’s mirthless self-importance and the punitive nature of her followers.

Today’s Cryptogram LG PTM PUORZTBM NGPTSXG YUXG NSXJGX JTAG HJUYMX, UY YGEUBPG NGPTSXG HJUYM NSXJGX JTAG YUXGX. ---TZRJUMXG DTYY Author of today’s quote You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you...

What do the Iranian regime, the New York Times and Sen. Rand Paul have in common? “I believe Mr. Trump does not seek war. But Mr. Bolton and Netanyahu have always sought war.” Thus spoke Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, at a Monday press conference in Tehran. It’s not the first time Mr. Zarif has tried to drive a wedge between President Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton—or between the president and his most steadfast international ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But for Mr. Bolton, Mr. Zarif implies, we could have peace in the Middle East tomorrow....

As the first week of August approaches, retailers are focusing their promotions and expanding their offerings to capture the $27.5 billion families are expected to spend on new clothes, electronics, shoes and other supplies for their kids this back-to-school season. And with one in four kids belonging to Hispanic families, the U.S. Hispanic consumer is a critical driver of how families shop and spend. NRF’s latest back-to-school shopping survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, found that U.S. Hispanic parents are expected to spend $148 more during back-to-school than the average shopper; they also outspend other families on items like...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Old Testament) 2 Kings 13 Jehoahaz King of Israel 13 In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them. 3 So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and for a long time he kept them under the power of Hazael king of Aram and...