Free Republic

Today's post is in honor of U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Taylor Gavin (34, Spokane, Wash.), who passed away one year ago today from wounds sustained in a helicopter crash in Sinjar, Iraq the previous day. Gavin piloted an MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that was returning from an Operation INHERENT RESOLVE counter-terrorism mission, and flew for the 160th "Night Stalkers" Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Gavin had served two combat tours in Iraq, three in Afghanistan, and four during INHERENT RESOLVE.1910: 100 feet over New York City's Sheepshead Bay Race Track, Lt. Jacob E. Fickel becomes the world's first aerial...

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...

A mayor in New Jersey has caused a national uproar after he spoke out against a state law that would require students to learn about LGBTQ history. Alfonso Cirulli, the mayor of Barnegat Township, called the mandate “an affront to Almighty God.” One of the mayor’s most prominent defenders is Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. Graham was a guest on The Todd Starnes Radio Show. TODD: You defended the mayor and I was wondering why you did that. GRAHAM: Well, first of all the mayor is absolutely right. He said this is...

The age of huge, ocean-crossing zeppelins came to an end in 1937, when the Hindenburg — the largest craft of its type ever built — erupted in flames while landing in New Jersey. Dozens died. Now, more than 80 years later, the giant airships may be poised for a comeback — not for passenger service, but as an environmentally friendly means of delivering goods around the globe. As proposed in a recent scientific paper, the new airships would be 10 times bigger than the 800-foot Hindenburg — more than five times as long as the Empire State Building is tall...

Widespread waste and fraud associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been unearthed after the country’s state railway group was forced to admit this month that a significant amount of cargo containers shuttling between Chinese factories and European cities were empty. The admission by the state-run China Railway – the sole operator of the lines – followed an investigation by the Chinese Business Journal, a newspaper supervised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which found that in one extreme case only one of 41 containers on a particular train actually carried goods. The belt and road plan, masterminded...

The Hong Kong anti-government protests have now turned into a flashpoint in an information war between China and the US, after American social media giants Twitter and Facebook struck back at what they said was a state-backed disinformation campaign focused on events in the city. Both companies announced on Monday that they had suspended accounts on their platforms they alleged were part of a Chinese government-backed, coordinated campaign. Twitter said the accounts were meant “to sow political discord in Hong Kong”. The San Francisco-based company also announced, in a separate statement, that it would no longer accept advertising dollars from...

A New York judge has rejected Jeffrey Epstein accuser Jennifer Araoz's request to have a list of his 'recruiters' after his legal team filed a motion to suppress the files and said the case was moot in light of his death. The 32-year-old woman, who claims Epstein raped her when she was 15, sought to have a court order release the name of the woman who recruited her to be abused by the billionaire along with a roster of his employees in on his alleged trafficking ring. But the billionaire pedophile and his legal team refused to name names and...

A mystery brunette seen with Prince Andrew in a bombshell video shot at Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion in December 2010 is Katherine Keating, the daughter of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating, her friends have told DailyMail.com. Keating, now 37, is the woman pictured leaving the Manhattan townhouse and being waved at by Prince Andrew nine years ago. A second photograph obtained by DailyMail.com showed her just minutes after leaving the apartment, standing on the corner of E71st Street and 5th Avenue. Her father Paul Keating's secretary told DailyMail.com he was 'aware of what the enquiry was about, but...

Turning every political conflict into an ethnic battle—no matter how hard one has to squint to see the ethnic element of it—not only corrodes our ability to deal with each other as full-fledged individuals but tends to destroy whatever hope there was of dealing with the more nuanced issues at hand. I remember pitying Iraq a bit a decade ago when observers noted its political coalitions are almost always ethnic or tribal, with people voting for members of their own tribe. It’s getting harder to believe the U.S. will end up any other way, though. Media figures such as CNN’s...

Greenland is where Earth's refrigerator door is left open, where glaciers dwindle and seas begin to rise.... Summer this year is hitting the island hard with record-shattering heat and extreme melt. Scientists estimate that by the end of the summer, about 440 billion tons of ice — maybe more — will have melted or calved off Greenland's giant ice sheet. Helheim glacier, for example, has shrunk about 6 miles (10 kilometers) since scientists visited in 2005.

The St. Louis County Council does not require council members to be sworn in on a Bible, and newly elected 2nd District member Kelli Dunaway chose the Dr. Seuss book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” “I’m proud and excited to get to work for the 2nd District, and to help rebuild trust in our county government,” Dunaway told a reporter after her first meeting.

When Joann Alfonzo, a pediatrician in Freehold, N.J., walked into her office recently she mentally rolled her eyes when she saw her next patient: a 26-year-old car salesman in a suit and tie. "That's no longer a kid. That's a man," she recalls thinking. Yet, Alfonzo wasn't that surprised. In the past five years, she has seen the age of her patients rise, as more young adults remain at home and, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, on their parents' health insurance until age 26. "First it was 21, then 23 and now 26," Alfonzo says. "A lot of them...

300,000 miles on horseback -Francis Asbury, Circuit Riding Preacher "one of the builders of our nation" The King of England was the head of the Anglican Church from the time of Henry VIII. Beginning in 1535, all English subjects, including those in English colonies, were required to the Oath of Supremacy: "I (state your name) do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience, that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm ... in all Spiritual or Eclesiastical things ... So help me God." For most of England's history from 1535 to 1829, not to take the...

In response to recent volatility in the stock market, rising prices (and declining yields) for U.S. Treasury bonds, and difficulties in the trade relationship between the United States and China, some pundits and politicians are forecasting a recession in the U.S., timed to coincide with the 2020 presidential election. The increasing volume of these forecasts is driven partly by partisan hopes that an economic slowdown gives Democrats the best opportunity to defeat President Trump next year. But hopes of this kind do not make for sound economic forecasts. None of the major institutional forecasters is looking ahead to a recession...

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has announced he will resign after his populist government lost the support of a key coalition member. Mr Conte accused Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, of trying to ruin the ruling coalition for personal and political gain, risking financial instability for Italy.

The popular narrative goes that because President Trump launched a trade war against China, China has retaliated by tariffing agriculture products from red states that voted for Trump. False. You’ve all seen the headlines: “China is hitting the U.S. where it hurts: Soybeans,” and “China takes aim at America’s soybean farmers,” and “Soybean farmers are still paying for Trump’s trade war” (all from CNN).The popular narrative goes that because President Trump launched a trade war against China, China has retaliated by tariffing America’s chief export to China—agricultural products—which happen to mostly come from red states that voted for Trump. China...

From 1953 here is Hank Thompson & His Brazos Valley Boys with Yesterday's Girl. THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com

Al Jazeera Bemoans the Celebration, in Italy, of Oriana Fallaci (Part 1) AUG 20, 2019 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD Oriana Fallaci, the celebrated Italian journalist who has been dead for 13 years, is the woman of the hour in Italy. Italian state television has broadcast a documentary about her life and work, in recognition of what would have been her 90th birthday. All of her books are being republished in a collected-works uniform format. The leading Italian politician, Matteo Salvini, repeatedly refers to her in glowing terms. For many Italians, she is both prophetess and patron saint; the woman...

New York (CNN Business)Dick's Sporting Goods considered stopping all gun sales in early 2018. A shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida, had killed 17 people. And the company was shocked into action. "We did have a conversation about that," CEO Ed Stack told CNN Business earlier this year. "At the time we felt it was a part of our DNA and we should stay in it. So many people in the country are law-abiding citizens who use firearms to hunt, to use from a recreation standpoint. We didn't think it was right to exit the business completely." That...

As a “peace ambassador” for a Los Angeles nonprofit funded with public money, it was Wilfredo Vides’ job to steer young people clear of gangs. For those who’d joined one, his role was to convince them to leave, as he had. Vides was one of 22 individuals arrested last month in a federal takedown of MS-13’s Fulton clique, a cell of the transnational gang that claims swaths of the San Fernando Valley as its turf and is accused of murdering and dismembering its enemies in the mountains above Los Angeles.