Free Republic

Days after considering the implementation of universal background checks, President Donald Trump has sidelined the issue. Three days after a pair of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas that left 31 people dead, President Donald Trump was preoccupied with visions of a Rose Garden ceremony. His daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, had proposed the idea of a televised Rose Garden appearance as a way to nudge her father toward supporting universal background checks. The president had recently suggested he was open to the gun-control measure, tweeting, “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying...

A US MQ-9 drone was shot down over Yemen on Tuesday by a surface-to-air missile, a US official tells CNN. The US believes the missile was provided to Houthi rebels by Iran, said the official, who added that it was not immediately clear if the drone was being operated by the US military or the intelligence community. The official said the Trump administration will publicly call out Iran for the incident, which was first reported by Reuters. Houthi rebels claimed its air defenses shot down the drone south of Yemen's capital, Sanaa. A Houthi spokesman said the missile was "developed...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and their medical contractors do not administer influenza vaccines to migrants being held at detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border, reports said Tuesday. “In general, due to the short-term nature of CBP holding and the complexities of operating vaccination programs, neither CBP nor its medical contractors administer vaccinations to those in our custody,” the agency told The Hill in a statement. Children receive the flu vaccine once they are transferred from CBP to Health and Human Services (HHS) custody, the CBP spokesperson said. Earlier this month, doctors from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and other medical...

The risky mortgage is making a comeback. More than a decade after home loans triggered the worst financial crisis in a generation, the strict lending requirements put in place during its aftermath are starting to erode. Home buyers with low credit scores or high debt levels as well as those lacking traditional employment are finding it easier to get credit. The loans have been rebranded. Largely gone are the monikers subprime and Alt-A, a type of mortgage that earned the nickname “liar loan” because so many borrowers faked their income and assets. Now they are called non-qualified, or non-QM, because...

Was it a gun-control spiel from a Democrat presidential candidate? A TV ad from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence? Nope. It was Alisyn Camerota, an ostensibly objective CNN news host, telling viewers on Wednesday morning's New Day that if you want more gun control, you're just gonna have to vote Democrat in 2020. Camerota was reacting to some reports that President Trump doesn't intend to push for further background checks (in fact, the White House is saying that expanded checks are still on the table. But Camerota insisted that "this is as good as it gets" with Republicans on...

President Trump thanked a supporter for comparing him to the “second coming of God” for Jews in Israel. Newsmax TV host Wayne Allyn Root, said Tuesday that Trump has been the “greatest president for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world.” “Not just America,” he continued, “Trump is the best president for Israel in the history of the world. And the Jewish people love him like he is the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God."

‘Violation’: Michigan Says The City Of Flint’s Mayor Hasn’t Bothered To Do Basic Tests Of Its Water For Lead.. ( Full title). ... Michigan’s environmental agency said Flint has failed to do basic testing of its water and ignored a previous warning. It slammed the city for blocking contractors from using “hydrovac,” the cheapest and least-disruptive technology for testing lines. The prohibition was widely viewed as intended to steer contracts to a politically connected firm that lacked the proper equipment, at the expense of residents. National Democratic candidates have used Flint to criticize Republicans and environmental policies. Mayor Karen Weaver’s...

Sinogene plans to sell cloned cats for £29,000 A Chinese company has announced it is planning a mass sale of cloned cats to the general public. Sinogene, China's first biotech company to create cloned pets, is planning to sell the cats for around £29,000. It is planning to target bereaved pet owners who have lost their feline. The announcement comes after a scientist from the company cloned their first kitten named Garlic, born a month ago at the company's laboratory in Beijing. Sinogene only revealed its existence this week after the animal got stronger. The original cat, which supplied the...

Ahead of the 2020 election, the Obamas are set to release a documentary via Netflix that has been described by Politico as anti-Trump. The movie, scheduled to be released this week, titled American Factory, focuses on the economy in the heartland of the US. The documentary, which debuts on Netflix on August 21, never mentions President Donald Trump by name—but its message is clear: Trump’s promise to reinvigorate the industrial heartland is going to take a lot more than a campaign slogan. There are no easy solutions. And if some manufacturing jobs do come back, they’re going to look nothing...

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it would move to scrap a major court agreement in order to allow for migrant families to be detained longer as their cases are being considered, instead of having to release them after 20 days. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, in a press conference detailing the decision, claimed that the long-standing court order known as the Flores agreement has incentivized illegal immigration and represents a "loophole" in the immigration system. That agreement prohibited children from being kept in detention for more than 20 days. As a result, officials were releasing entire families to keep...

PORTLAND, Ore. – In the summer of 2019, Fox News embarked on an ambitious project to chronicle the toll progressive policies have had on the homeless crisis in four West Coast cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. In each city, we saw a lack of safety, sanitation and civility. Residents, the homeless and advocates say they've lost faith in their elected officials' ability to solve the issue. Most of the cities have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem only to watch it get worse. This is what we saw in Portland. He doesn't know...

I just purchased Andrew McCarthy's Book, BALL OF COLLUSION. It's a riveting account that no one will be able to refute. I know the answer is in the book, and I'll find it, but I'm impatient, so I have two questions. 1. HOW WERE THEY ABLE TO COLLECT THE TEXT MESSAGES OF PAGE AND STRZOK? YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, ALL OF OUR TEXT MESSAGES, PHOTOS ETC ARE ON SOME CLOUD, SOMEWHERE? OR WAS IT BECAUSE, THE PHONES WERE FBI PHONES, AND THEREFORE, ALL TEXTS, PHONE CALL ETC ARE SAVED SOMEWHERE? If, these text messages between them, are not stored...

The Trump administration on Wednesday said it would unveil a new rule that will allow migrant families to be held indefinitely, ending a procedure known as the "Flores Agreement" that had required children to be held no longer than 20 days. The decision is a momentous change in detainee policy that the administration has sought to make to provide a disincentive for people crossing the border. “This rule allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress,” acting DHS secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement. Under the terms of the 1997 consent decree which eventually led...

Prince Andrew flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet — at least twice — with the disgraced money manager’s alleged 17-year-old sex slave Virginia Roberts on board, the pilot claimed. The royal flew on the late financier’s private jet — which has also played host to VIP guests including former President Bill Clinton, model Naomi Campbell and sex-scandal-plagued Hollywood star Kevin Spacey — a number of times, according to a deposition by pilot David Rodgers, 66. On two of those trips, Roberts — who now goes by her married name Giuffre — was also on board, according to the June 3,...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Donald Trump. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. You know who Donald Trump is already, so no bio needed here. 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 squares on the bottom half (answer grid) belowEach letter must stay in...

This video was posted by YouTube user "A Life of Thoughts." I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to CollegeThis video on the Electoral college for kids is probably considered just as racist as Sambo restaurant ads by now. So rub your Democrat frenemies in the genius of this installment from Schoolhouse Rock.

LONDON/BERLIN Aug 21 (Reuters) - Germany sold 30-year bonds with a negative yield for the first time at an auction on Wednesday, a milestone for a fixed-income market where the entire curve now yields less than zero. The euro zone’s benchmark bond issuer sold 824 million euros of the new long-dated bonds against a target of 2 billion euros, with an average yield of -0.11%. The coupon on the bond was set at 0% earlier this week.

It’s there in plain sight. Spelled-out in its mission statement, the New York Times’ 1619 Project seeks to “reframe” American history to mark the year 1619 as the “true founding.” By doing so, the project will “[place] the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center” of the American story.The year 1619 was chosen for the Times’ “re-founding” to mark when the first slaves arrived in the English settlement of Jamestown. For the Times, this moment irredeemably tainted the nation. Yet viewing the centuries-old actions of men through a 21st-century lens will not solve...

Researchers discovered what they believe is evidence of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem that is detailed in the Bible. Layers of ash, arrowheads, Iron Age potsherds, lamps, and jewelry from the period were uncovered on Mount Zion by a team led by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “For archaeologists, an ashen layer can mean a number of different things,” UNC Charlotte professor of history Shimon Gibson explained in a statement. “It could be ashy deposits removed from ovens; or it could be localized burning of garbage. However, in this case, the combination of an ashy layer full of...

CNN political analyst April Ryan refuses to comment on an altercation that took place during a speaking event in New Jersey earlier this month leading to her bodyguard being charged with harassment, assault and theft. Ryan’s bodyguard–Joel Morris, 30, of Illinois–was charged with the crimes after violently ejecting a journalist from the New Jersey Parent Summit on Aug. 3. Videos posted online show New Brunswick Today editor Charlie Kratovil being roughed up by Ryan’s goon after spending two hours inside filming other guests and speakers without any problems. Kratovil’s video shows Ryan taking the stage and Morris approaching the podium,...