Free Republic

Morning "Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work." Psalm 92:4 Do you believe that your sins are forgiven, and that Christ has made a full atonement for them? Then what a joyful Christian you ought to be! How you should live above the common trials and troubles of the world! Since sin is forgiven, can it matter what happens to you now? Luther said, "Smite, Lord, smite, for my sin is forgiven; if thou hast but forgiven me, smite as hard as thou wilt;" and in a similar spirit you may say, "Send sickness, poverty, losses, crosses, persecution,...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently sought advice from former White House adviser Steve Bannon on entering the Kansas Senate race next year. The talk between the nation’s top diplomat and Trump’s former campaign chairman was described to the Washington Examiner by a source who spoke with Bannon and by a second source briefed by two people close to Pompeo. The former White House strategist “claimed that Pompeo was leaning towards a run,” said the source who spoke with Bannon. The source briefed by people close to Pompeo said one of them was uneasy about Pompeo speaking with the outcast...

Moody's Capital Markets Chief Economist John Lonski on the U.S. trade tensions with China and concerns about the U.S. economic outlook. The yield curve is blaring a recession warning. The spread between the U.S. 2-year and 10-year yields on Wednesday turned negative for the first time since 2007. Such a development has occurred ahead of each and every U.S. recession of the last 50 years, sometimes leading by as much as 24 months.

This is interesting; did you know that Mexico has specific financial criteria for obtaining residency?  If you plan to live, work, or retire in Mexico, Mexican Immigration Law stipulates that applicants for residency must fulfill certain criteria, including financial criteria.  The financial criteria are intended to ensure that people applying for residency have the means to sustain themselves in Mexico. Seems reasonable enough: the financial criteria are intended to ensure that people applying for residency have the means to sustain themselves in Mexico, rather than live off the benevolence of the people of Mexico. Reasonable of course unless Trump applies...

Shirley Skipper-Scott, a graduate from Alabama State, was warden of the Metro Correctional Center in New York City. She was reassigned today following the death of the most important inmate of this century, Jeffrey Epstein. She was obviously not the woman for the job. Under her watch she allowed the highest profile prisoner in the US got “suicided.”

Being a white college graduate makes you much more likely to believe that President Trump is a racist, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released last month. In fact, 46 percent of survey respondents who are white and have a college degree said they believe “the main motive behind President Trump’s immigration policies” is his "racist beliefs.” Meanwhile, only 31 percent of white people without a college degree found that Trump's immigration policies are mainly influenced by "racist beliefs." Could it be that colleges are conditioning their students to hate Donald Trump? In my opinion, it’s no coincidence. Take a...

BOSTON — A Massachusetts judge charged with helping an immigrant escape a federal agent waiting to arrest him will be paid while her legal battle plays out, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday. Reversing course in a closely watched case that has showcased official resistance to the Trump administration’s tough immigration policy, the Supreme Judicial Court said Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph would resume collecting her annual salary of $181,000.

Two undocumented immigrants are accused of raping an 11-year-old girl on different occasions, the common denominator being a friendship with the victim's older brother. Montgomery County Police have arrested Mauricio Barrera-Navidad, 29, of Damascus, and Carlos Palacios-Amaya, 28, of Gaithersburg, and charged each with second-degree rape. Last month, the victim — now 12-years-old — spoke with a social worker at her middle school in Germantown. Talking through tears, the girl shared the painful details about what both men allegedly did to her. WHAT HAPPENED In September 2018, the victim was introduced to her older brother's friend, Palacios-Amaya. Over the course...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Oh, noes, not Stacey!!!! – Because I know all you readers have been sitting around fretting, wondering when, oh, when will the stellar, awesome, brilliant, and indeed heroic Stacey Abrams jump into this race for the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination, I am oh, so sad to report the following news: She ain’t running. Yesterday, the insufferable loooooooooser from Georgia, in whom Democrat Party leaders invested gobs of time, energy and money, trying desperately to build her into a national thing, announced that, after long contemplation of whether or not she wanted to...

Have you volunteered to be an organ donor? I did. I just clicked the box on the government form that asks if, once I die, I'm willing to donate my organs to someone who needs them. Why not? Lots of people need kidneys, livers, etc. When I'm dead, I sure won't need mine. Still, there are not enough donors. So, more than 100,000 Americans are on a waiting list for kidneys. Taking care of them is so expensive, it consumes almost 3% of the federal budget! So why not allow Americans to sell an organ? People already legally sell blood,...

All the gun control zealots out in full force last week have apparently gone to the beach. An alarming shooting took place at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in San Antonio on Tuesday. Local media reported that "multiple shots were fired on two floors targeting ICE officials." But the Second Amendment saboteurs were AWOL. Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Federal government workers are under literal fire for enforcing our immigration laws and protecting America. But the left-wing Moms Demand Action ignored the story. So did the anti-gun Brady Campaign agitators. And the usual stampede of camera-hogging Democratic presidential candidates...

As reported by Breitbart, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility was attacked by a gunman yesterday afternoon. This latest move follows a pattern of escalating violence, shifting from mostly vocal protests to direct action. The last attack on an ICE facility, from self-described Anarchist and John Brown Gun Club member Willem Van Spronsen, firebombed vehicles. Spronsen was killed early in the attack with no casualties taken by the ICE agency. Viewed from an insurgency perspective, the shift is significant in that the open borders communists have shifted from talking points to more brazen attacks and do not appear to...

In January, 2018, I published some original research on the efficacy of pistols in stopping bear attacks. It started with this observation: On the Internet, and in print, many people claim that pistols lack efficacy in defending against bear attacks. Here is an example that occurred on freerepublic.com: “Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after using a handgun on a bear. Even some of the vaunted magnums.” OK, give us a few examples. As you claim “legions”, it should not be too hard. I never received a response. I believe the claim was made in...

Facing an international outcry, thousands of emails and celebrity opposition to the June decision to destroy a historic school mural, the San Francisco school board reversed course Tuesday, voting to obscure the art with panels or similar materials rather than painting over it. The decision, in a 4-3 vote, means the mural depicting George Washington’s life would survive, but be obscured, at least semi-permanently, from public view. The compromise was a disappointment to both sides in the debate, with critics saying the art was an outdated relic and preservationists saying the removal from public view is censorship. The tense meeting...

Guards at the jail where Jeffrey Epstein is believed to have killed himself last weekend are suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates in his unit every 30 minutes when they were in fact not, according to The Associated Press. A person familiar with the investigation into Epstein’s death told the AP surveillance video reviewed after the incident showed guards never made some of the checks they noted in a log. Epstein was found dead early Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City while he awaited trial on charges he sexually...

LONDON (Reuters) - A campaigner who wanted to prosecute British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for allegedly lying about the benefits of Brexit before the 2016 European Union referendum, has lost his bid to take the case to Britain’s top court, Sky News reported. Marcus Ball, 29, wanted to bring the crowdfunded private prosecution against Johnson for misconduct in public office over a claim emblazoned on his bright red “Leave” campaign bus that Britain would be 350 million pounds ($445 million) a week better off outside the EU.

Germany's economy shrank in the second quarter as global uncertainty and the trade war took a toll on its manufacturers. GDP for the three months ended June contracted 0.1% compared to the previous quarter, in line with analyst expectations. That's down from 0.4% growth in the first three months of the year. "Today's GDP report definitely marks the end of a golden decade for the German economy," said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist in Germany at the Dutch bank ING. The world's fourth largest economy, and Europe's biggest, has been hit by what analysts have described as a "perfect storm" of...

Even Siri is trolling Fredo.

There is discrimination of all sorts, and that includes racial discrimination. Thus, it's somewhat foolhardy to debate the existence of racial discrimination yesteryear or today. From a policy point of view, a far more useful question to ask is: How much of the plight of many blacks can be explained by current racial discrimination? Let's examine some of today's most devastating problems of many black people with an eye toward addressing discrimination of the past and present. At the root of most of the problems black people face is the breakdown of the family structure. Slightly over 70% of black...