Free Republic

Pinboard and other users have observed Twitter running ads from China's state-backed media outlet Xinhua attacking the Hong Kong protesters opposed to both a (since-suspended) extradition bill and broader dissatisfaction with the government. The ads try to portray the protests as "escalating violence" and calls for "order to be restored." Other ads have highlighted alleged supporters of the Chinese "motherland" and have pointed out Hong Kong's economic troubles from earlier in the year. The Chinese government has been clamping down on critics who voice dissent on Twitter, even though the service is blocked beyond Hong Kong. The country has been...

In a textbook case of burying the lede, the Detroit News on Saturday reported that Representative Rashida Tlaib was “surrounded… Friday evening during Shabbat” by Jewish supporters “in the wake of her refusal to visit Israel under restrictions imposed by that country's government.” It took 14 paragraphs for the News to mention that Tlaib’s supporters, JVP Action (Jewish Voice for Peace), “openly supports BDS, which is fairly marginal in the Jewish institutional world, and is widely seen as anti-Israel in that world.” In other words, BDS supporters show their support for another BDS supporter. Nothing to see here. Nor is...

Shareholder value is no longer the main focus of some of America’s top business leaders. The Business Roundtable, a group of chief executive officers from major U.S. corporations, issued a statement Monday with a new definition of the “purpose of a corporation.” The re-imagined idea of a corporation drops the age-old notion that corporations function first and foremost to serve their shareholders and maximize profits. Rather, investing in employees, delivering value to customers, dealing ethically with suppliers and supporting outside communities are now at the forefront of American business goals, according to the statement....

Due to the declassification and release of a trove of documents late in the week, the Hillary email story has gone hot again. As I shared a few days ago, we now have confirmation of what we heard from sources several months ago, namely that every email on her illegal server was being forwarded to a Chinese email account. This account was setup by Paul Combetta, Hillary’s IT specialist who was given immunity by the FBI for no justifiable reason. Why Combetta chose to add an email account associated with a Chinese company and whether the emails were actually going...

Given the choice of choosing between human genius or human stupidity for someone being caused harm, you are almost always better off selecting stupidity. That’s a truism, and it underlies the argument that, as a result of an unfortunate string of irresponsible and negligent actions by the MCC federal jail in New York City, accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was able to kill himself in custody. However, “almost always” is not the same as “always”, and in this case logic, both legal and practical appears to point otherwise. At the very least, in investigating Epstein’s death, federal authorities should pursue the...

A very small number of people know exactly what happened to Jeffrey Epstein on the morning of August 10. The rest of us only know what the government and media tell us. These two are sources of increasingly dubious credibility. When their accounts don't agree, or don't make sense, "conspiracy" theories flourish. "Conspiracy theorists" are routinely dismissed as being on the fringes of society. However, in this case it will be difficult to dismiss the large number of well-respected individuals on the left and right who find the official account unbelievable. Everything the government did with Epstein from his arrested...

China’s “export-led economic strategy and lack of regulatory oversight” are responsible for most illicit and synthetic fentanyl in the United States, think tank Rand Corporation recently testified to Congress.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been rising in the Democratic primary polls as progressives drift away from Bernie Sanders as old news and Joe Biden as, well, just old, resembling more the two cranky Muppet gentlemen in the balcony than the political wave of the future. Warren’s more subdued demeanor seems to have positioned her as the new adult in the room in contrast to those who, for example, think live streaming their teeth cleaning is the road to the White House To further distinguish her from Spartacus, Willie Brown’s girlfriend and the other Lilliputians in the field, and well aware...

Michigan State University informed student employees to refrain from using terms like "I apologize" and "no problem" and addressing customers with gender-specific “sir or ma’am,” in a mandatory August training. MSU Service Center employees witnessed an hour-long “Inclusive & Culturally Sensitive Service to Residents & Guests” presentation during their mandatory fall training, covering everything from identity wheels and utilizing pronouns to misgendering. "If I’m saying ‘no problem,’ that’s leading a customer to believe that they could be a problem..." Tweet This MSU Facilities Manager Sheena Ballbach claimed during her presentation that saying “no problem” could be a trigger.

The health of Europe's largest economy is in trouble as Germany teeters on the edge of a recession. A decline in exports dampened the German economy, which shrunk by 0.1 percent in the second quarter of 2019. Concerns over a recession have the German government reportedly under pressure to ditch its self-imposed balance budget, or Black Zero rule, and finance more fiscal stimulus with new debt. The country’s 10-year Bund yield, which hit an all-time record low earlier in the day, responded to the stimulus, bouncing up slightly. “In Europe, its crisis mode,” Brenner said. “And even you had one...

Maryland school officials are developing curriculum standards for history classes to include lessons about the fight for civil rights for the LGBT community and Americans with disabilities. If the changes are approved, Maryland would join at least four other states that have taken steps to require public schools to teach lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, which advocates say has long been absent from textbooks and classroom lessons. Last month, dozens of state lawmakers signed a letter calling on Maryland school officials to craft new curriculum standards addressing the rights of LGBT and disabled communities. The letter specifically mentioned the...

President Trump is accused on a minute-by-minute basis of being a tyrant, but his accusers remain free. Nothing has been taken from them, not their property nor their personal liberty. Their rights remain intact in every respect. They can speak without fear of retribution. They can assemble without fear of arrest. They can say and do the most vile and corrupt things, knowing that because the president is not a tyrant, nothing will be done to them for their crusade to erode and destroy our current social and political systems. While the president correctly identifies the propagandists in the leftist...

AUG 17, 2019 4:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER 96 COMMENTS Note TellMAMA’s headline: they claim that this man made a “racist slur” against a Muslim. What race is Islam again? In reality, there are Muslims, and Islamic jihadis, of all races. But TellMAMA wants to intimidate Britons into believing that anyone who makes a rude quip to a Muslim is a racist, and thus deserving to have the book thrown at him. But that’s all this was: a quip. Say anything you want: the guy was rude, or his joke was tasteless, or whatever. But an arrestable offense? That’s insane....

The dutch have suffered some brutal occupations, from the Roman empire and Viking raids to Spanish and Nazi rule. But now they face an even larger army of invaders: tourists. In the era of cheap flights and Airbnb, their numbers are staggering. Some 19 million tourists visited the Netherlands last year, more people than live there. For a country half the size of South Carolina, with one of the world’s highest population densities, that’s a lot. And according to the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, the number of annual visitors is projected to increase by 50 percent over the...

When Bill Clinton successfully unseated sitting President George H.W. Bush in 1992, Clinton’s campaign manager James Carville coined the phrase, “It's the economy, stupid” as a campaign theme. Despite a 90 percent job approval rating just a year earlier after a successful ground war in Kuwait, Bush squandered his political capital by reneging on his own campaign promise from the previous election: “Read my lips, no new taxes.” Bush signed on to a Democrat tax bill, raised taxes, watched his job approval drop faster than Bill Clinton’s pants, and lost reelection in 1992. In the Trump era, it’s still the...

A Florida man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after climbing on top of a playground full of children and yelling about where babies come from. A police officer said Otis Dawayne Ryan, 30, climbed to the top of the playground equipment at a park in Clearwater, Florida, Sunday afternoon and began shouting at the children, telling them "babies come out of women," according to court documents. "He then yelled, 'They come out of their [expletive deleted],'" the officer wrote in an arrest affidavit. "At that time parents were rushing to the area to remove their children."

FOUR POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE HEADING UP FOR BLACKTAIL DEER - I'm not one of those dudes who have been hunting for 30 years. I don’t have a ring of racks in my garage or an elegant mount in my living room. I don’t have epic stories of 400-yard shots. My hunting career is littered with chaos. I shot my first deer in the leg. I was with my high school basketball coach and his daughter. She put one through the neck of a fork-in-horn at 150, and then dropped a 4-point at 250 to set up my...

As the 2019-2020 school year begins this fall, millions of high schoolers and college students will be heading into an academic rife with politicization and heated classroom discussions. But, how do students truly feel about issues such as socialism, free speech, health care, and illegal immigration? Do these kids aged 13-22, known as Gen Z, feel comfortable sharing their true opinions? Do they even know the basic concepts of what they are discussing? To find out, Young America's Foundation, "the nation’s premier organization for inspiring students on high school and college campuses with conservative ideas," teamed up with Echelon Insights...

Morning "He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord." Micah 5:4 Christ's reign in his Church is that of a shepherd-king. He has supremacy, but it is the superiority of a wise and tender shepherd over his needy and loving flock; he commands and receives obedience, but it is the willing obedience of the well-cared-for sheep, rendered joyfully to their beloved Shepherd, whose voice they know so well. He rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness. His reign is practical in its character. It is said, "He shall stand and feed." The great...

Fake Science: Where did it come from? Well as they say, follow the money:Also contributing to the emergence of Fake Science is the use of science as a cudgel in policy wars, a primary tactic of what is known as Post-Normal Science. Think of it as sociology on steroids, identifying as science.And there will be no more questions because the science is settled.Ooh ooh ooh! Do Fake News next MOTUS!Posted from: MOTUS A.D.