Free Republic

First they came for our plastic grocery bags. Then they came for our plastic straws. Now they’ve come for our plastic water bottles at SFO. Yes, you read that right. Starting Tuesday, the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned at San Francisco International Airport, one of the few places they actually make sense. California has many dumb laws and statutes and bans, but this one is especially brainless—spurred by futile self-righteousness. After running late for your flight after a 30-minute security line only to have TSA confiscate your Fiji water bottle, you’ll now have to stop at a...

Miss Nevada says she was banned from competing in the upcoming Ms. America beauty contest because of her refusal to hide her support for President Trump. “I was officially disqualified from competing in the Ms. America pageant for 2019,” said Katie Jo Williams in an Instagram video. She says organizers told her she was “too political” to be involved.

Behind the scenes, some major events were set in motion last autumn that could soon change the tenor in Washington, at least as it relates to the debunked Russia collusion narrative that distracted America for nearly three years. It was in September 2018 that President Trump told my Hill.TV colleague Buck Sexton and me that he would order the release of all classified documents showing what the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other U.S. intelligence agencies may have done wrong in the Russia probe. About the same time, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, under then-Chairman Devin...

It is 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time on the 21st August 2019. In approximately 30 minutes, the Victorian Court of Appeal will hand down its verdict in the appeal of Catholic Cardinal George Pell against his conviction for historical child sexual abuse. There has been considerable discussion on this on FR and elsewhere as a significant number of people believe there has been a miscarriage of justice in this case for various reasons. I will be monitoring various Australian media as the verdict is delivered and thought I would post here to keep people informed and updated.

PORTLAND, OR—In a press release earlier this week, Portland police chief Danielle Outlaw (her actual name), appearing somber and exhausted, said she just wishes there were some kind of group with the firepower and authority to fight back against Antifa. In a candid moment, Outlaw (seriously, her actual name) said there was just nothing the police could do, as they'd need to have some kind of organized, armed force specifically created to protect and serve the people. "Like, what if we took money from everyone to fund a force that could then defend them in a time of need?" she...

Energy recommendations from a government-backed program have gone viral after suggesting that people should keep their home thermostats at least at 78 degrees for cooling. Energy Star, which works with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department to set efficiency benchmarks for appliances, electronics, building materials, lighting and other products, recommends that Americans program their thermostats to at least 78 degrees from 6 a.m. The program then recommends temperatures be raised to at least 85 degrees from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at which point it recommends again setting temperatures to at least 78 degrees. Thermostats should be then...

President Trump called National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre on Tuesday to tell him that universal background checks for gun purchases are off the table, The Atlantic reported. The decision to oppose an initiative that has strong support in public polling signals an apparent backtracking by the president from initial comments he made following two mass shootings earlier this month in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 dead. Trump at the time indicated support for legislation on “meaningful background checks,” saying the issue was not a question of the NRA or political partisanship. “On background checks,...

Leader Of Jihadi Military Contractor Malhama Tactical (MT) Killed In Syria; August 20, 2019 The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. On August 16, 2019, jihadi military contractor Malhama Tactical (MT) posted a Russian-language statement on Telegram announcing that the group's leader, Abu Salman Al-Belarusi, had been killed at the front south of Idlib, and was succeeded by Chechen jihadi 'Ali Al-Shishani. MT operates in Syria and has worked with Jabhat Fath Al-Sham (formerly Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria), as well as Ahrar...

Walmart on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Tesla, accusing the company's solar-energy subsidiary of gross negligence after multiple stores experienced fires they say stemmed from solar panels on their roofs.

When Attorney General William Barr said he was "appalled" and "angry" after Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, you'd almost have thought Barr himself bore no responsibility. He spoke of "serious irregularities" and "demanded" an investigation -- as if he were some outside observer incapable of simply ordering an investigation himself. Listening to him pour fire and brimstone on the rank-and-file who run the jail, you almost have to wonder: Has Barr taken a look at his org chart recently? Because the Metropolitan Correctional Center is part of the Bureau of Prisons, which is part...

Amid Italy’s political fracas, speculation abounds on a papal ‘white coup’ ROME - For Italians who are heirs to the legacy of centuries of theocracy, and for whom clerical involvement in politics is so natural they even have a specific word for it (ingerenza, roughly meaning “interference” or “meddling”), it’s axiomatic that if something is happening on their local political scene, the Vatican must be involved.Thus it is that amid the crisis triggered in mid-August by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s announcement that his “League” party would abandon a left/right populist coalition government and press for new elections, the Italian...

on a humor thread today, I raised the subject of how the number of comments and the number of views were recorded for each thread. I miss that. Does anyone remember when that change was made and why? Thanks

Aug 20 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc sued Tesla Inc , saying solar panels supplied by the electric car maker were responsible for fires at about seven of its stores, according to a lawsuit filed in a New York court on Tuesday. The fires destroyed significant amounts of store merchandise and required substantial repairs, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket losses, Walmart said in the lawsuit.

A Nebraska teen who was just a kid when her father died from an IED explosion in Afghanistan more than a decade ago found a way to honor him in her high school graduation pictures. Aurora High School senior Julia Yllescas sent her pictures to a photographer on Saturday to create an "angel picture" of her and her father, Army Capt. Robert Yllescas. The photos showed Yllescas with a faint shadow version of her father. One showed them sitting down on a bench. In another, Yllescas held a folded American flag while standing next to him in uniform. Julia Yllescas...

On the eve of World War II, the Republican Party was a shell of the one that had dominated presidential politics from the Civil War through the onset of the Great Depression. Two individuals saved the GOP and made it relevant again. Dwight Eisenhower ran on an internationalist platform in 1952, favoring foreign aid to Europe, the new military alliance called NATO and an aggressive stance against Soviet Communism, thereby asserting U.S. world leadership. He vanquished his isolationist foe, Sen. Robert Taft, for the GOP nomination in 1952 and then won the first Republican presidential victory in 20 years. In...

PORTLAND ANTIFA ATTACK MAN AND HIS YOUNG CHILD large antifa mob chase & attack a man & a young girl who got separated from the others. No police. #PortlandProtests https://t.co/erceCRVnad

Louisiana State University Reports Armed Intruder, Police on the Scene © Sputnik / 00:22 21.08.2019 No shots have been fired, and there are no injuries, as Louisiana State University advised to avoid the area or remain in a safe place. Louisiana State University has reported an armed intruder, saying that there is the police on the scene and advising people to "Run, Hide or Fight".

Coca Cola billionaire Alki David is making an unusual offer to disgraced comedian Bill Cosby. The Greek heir to the soda fortune said in a video to Cosby that he would pay $10million for the 81-year-old's hologram rights in order to 'remove [Cosby's] penis and turn it into a vagina' and then 'see how the hologram feels.' 'Bill - my name is Alki David, I'm known as the eccentric billionaire,' David says in the selfie video. 'I would like to offer you $10million to buy your digital likeness rights so I can remove your penis and turn it into a...

Boris Johnson faced embarrassment last night after his girlfriend was barred from visiting the United States. Carrie Symonds, 31, applied for a visa to go to America in the next few days as part of her job with a US-based environmental group, but the American authorities have blocked the request. It is believed the decision stems from a five-day visit made last year by Miss Symonds to East Africa, a region riven by civil war.

President Trump said Tuesday that a decision on whether to try to suspend certain foreign aid funds would likely be coming within a week. "We’re looking at it, and we’re looking at it in different ways," Trump told reporters during a meeting with the Romanian president in the Oval Office. "We’re talking to Republicans and Democrats about it, and certain things we could save." "We have some things on the table very much and we’ll let you know over the next, probably sooner than a week," he added. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been working...