Free Republic

I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Wait… you still need a hint? It rhymes with “rump.” Yes, Virginia Senator (and failed Vice Presidential candidate) Tim Kaine sat down yesterday with CNN’s John Berman to talk about the recent attack on a major Saudi Arabian oil refinery. Given all of the finger-pointing that’s been going on, surely he would be able to shed some light on things and offer a bit of clarity, right? Of course. And he quickly did, pinning the blame on Donald Trump for creating an atmosphere of war by continually “provoking” Iran...

China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is ready to massively boost its coal-powered energy supply with the total of future projects now standing at 226.2 gigawatts (GW). That is more than twice the amount of fresh capacity planned for India, according to data published Thursday by environmental groups.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia is poised to pass a new penal code that criminalizes consensual sex outside marriage and introduces stiff penalties for insulting the president’s dignity - a move rights groups criticized as an intrusive assault on basic freedoms. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim majority country and has substantial Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities, but has seen a recent trend towards deeper religious piety and conservative Islamic activism. The new criminal code is due to be adopted in the next week after parliament and the government agreed a final draft on Wednesday, four parliamentarians told Reuters. Lawmakers...

This is a dangerous time for comedians who make inappropriate remarks, putting Stephen Colbert in an especially precarious position. On Tuesday Mr. Colbert welcomed presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass) to his “Late Night” television program on CBS. Mr. Colbert then engaged in a conversation which many journalists find deeply offensive when he pressed their favorite “ideas candidate” to explain how taxpayers will bear the cost of her ideas. After a pleasant several minutes of discussion Mr. Colbert told the senator that the “most radical thing that you’re proposing is Medicare for All.” The comedian then continued where friendly...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Devin Nunes. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Devin Nunes is a Republican member of Congress and ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 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...

OK, the wife and I are planning a week long vacation in early October. We're flying into Orlando, spending a few days there and then heading eastward and then north along the Atlantic Coast. I don't think we'll go much further than Saint Augustine. Yeah, there's the obvious places to go - like Kennedy Space Center. Saint Augustine looks very interesting too. There's a few national parks I wanna check out along the way too. I'd even settle more good recommendations that are even a bit inland from the coast. I'm up for anything in the way of recommendations -...

As Democrats continue to call on President Trump to put forward sweeping gun control legislation, the commander in chief said his administration will do nothing to hurt the Second Amendment, during an exclusive interview Thursday with Fox News' Ed Henry at the southern border. Henry asked Trump if he would "stand up" to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the president said he would, so long as constitutional gun rights are not infringed upon. "I am [going to stand up to the NRA] if it's not going to hurt a good, solid great American citizen from keeping his weapon because...

Does the Religious Left Know What Lenin Said About Christians and Socialism? There's no escaping it: Socialism is anti-Christian. “If someone calls it socialism,” said Rev. William Barber at the August meeting of the Democratic National Committee, “then we must compel them to acknowledge that the Bible must then promote socialism, because Jesus offered free health care to everyone, and he never charged a leper a co-pay.”Barber’s statement brought secular progressives to their feet in thunderous applause. That included DNC chair Tom Perez, who says that democratic socialists like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represent “the future of our party.” That’s a...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, a U.S. government official told CBS, adding that the approval had been granted on the condition that Iran’s involvement could be denied.

... The 1970 Clean Air Act prohibits states from regulating tailpipe emissions, but it allows California to request a waiver to “meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.” This waiver authority was intended to help California reduce tailpipe pollutants such as NOx and sulphur that contribute to smog. The LA haze in those days could be as thick as San Francisco’s fog. Yet the Obama Administration in 2009 issued California a waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions despite the lack of legal or environmental justification. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act pre-empts state regulations of fuel economy, and CO2 emissions don’t cause...

Once upon a time, America was founded on principles that all people are created equal, have equal rights under the law, and are free to think, say, and express themselves without facing official repercussion. But thanks to the hard Democrat Left, intolerance of other people’s views is now considered “tolerant.” Punishing others for holding opposing political opinions is now required. In short, modern-day Democrats have become old school tyrants just like those generations of Americans have shed blood and lost lives to defeat. That said, not all liberals have lost their minds. Not all of them have lost track of...

Facebook (FB.O) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg met with a half-dozen U.S. senators on Wednesday for dinner as the company seeks to boost its reputation in Washington. The social media giant has been under fire on a number of fronts for more than a year and faces antitrust investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and a number of state attorneys general as well as numerous legislative proposals that seek to restrict how it operates.

Darwinism, Judaism and the clash between science and religion Yale University professor of computer science David Gelernter has renounced his previous belief in Darwinian evolution.Writing that he was sad to give up on “a brilliant and beautiful scientific theory,” he said he had concluded that it couldn’t explain the big picture—not the fine-tuning of existing species, but the emergence of new ones.Whether or not his argument is well-founded is a discussion for another time. The point here is that it’s unsayable by anyone who isn’t prepared to risk professional and social suicide.Darwinism, said Gelernter, had passed beyond a scientific argument....

President Trump said in an interview broadcast early Thursday that bipartisan gun reform legislation is moving "very slowly," partly due to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's comments supporting mandatory buybacks for assault-style weapons. The president told "Fox & Friends" that his administration is doing "a very careful job" when considering legislation and compromises between both parties. "We're not moving on anything," he said. "We're moving very slowly in one way because we want to make sure it's right." Trump added that O'Rourke's comments at last week's Democratic presidential debate are "part of the problem," adding they are making other lawmakers...

COMMENT: You have no proof that the extreme weather from hot to cold is normal. It is humans who have created this with pollution. REPLY: You seem to WANT to believe whatever the people say and demand proof from me but not from them.

Joe Scarborough still occasionally claims to be a conservative. But based on his rant this morning, it sure sounds like Joe would prefer Supreme Court appointees in the mold of RBG/Sotomayor rather than Gorsuch/Kavanaugh.On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough fretted that if President Trump and Mitch McConnell are successful, they will "shape the judiciary for the next 50 years." Scarborough expressed his concern in the context of criticizing Joe Kennedy for launching a Dem primary campaign against incumbent Sen. Ed Markey in Massachusetts. Scarborough worried that money spent on that campaign will divert funds that could be used to defeat President...

For centuries the Royal Navy defended Britain from invasion and turned this island nation into a global superpower. Now the Senior Service’s role in our history is being celebrated by the Royal Mail – even if the navy and our place in the world are rather less grand than they used to be. A set of eight stamps, covering 500 years, will commemorate some the navy’s key ships, starting with Henry VIII’s Mary Rose of 1511, and concluding with the giant aircraft carrier, the Queen Elizabeth.

Thursday, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough reacted to President Donald Trump touting the wall to be built at the southern border in California the day before. Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski after playing a series of clips of Trump speaking at the border laughed at Trump’s “ridiculous” and “sick” comments regarding the wall, calling his remarks and the wall itself “all show biz.” “It’s all show biz, that’s really all it is,” argued Scarborough. “It’s all show biz because if you even talk to his first secretary of Homeland Security, General Kelly, he said, you know, physical structures, there...

President Trump made a whirlwind tour through San Diego, exuding optimism, vim and vigor.He was in full command at his press conference at the border wall, and the local press coverage, at least as seen on television, was strikingly positive. I watched the live coverage on the local stations here in San Diego. They just let him talk - a fairly long version is here and a shortened shareable form is here: A local Fox News affiliate has a great second segment: ABC's KGTV local affiliate's television coverage, including the post-visit analysis, was even better, but it's not on the web, so...

George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt. When you hear their names what comes to mind? The White House? Possibly. Mount Rushmore? Probably. How blasé. What ought to come to mind are tariffs. Yes, tariffs. Despite the mainstream media’s copious efforts to cast President Trump and those who support tariffs as economically illiterate at best — and as wannabe-Stalinists at worst — in reality most of America’s Founding Fathers and former presidents favored tariffs. In fact, America’s first major piece of legislation was the Tariff Act of 1789. Why? Tariffs are the form of taxation most consistent with the...