Free Republic

Open Carry often leads to interesting conversations. An ethnic Chinese emigrant approached me as I was openly carrying, as I often do during my daily activities. I will not identify the woman, who is an acquaintance. The reasons will become obvious. She started by asking me if I had been dove hunting. I said I had. She asked if I had been successful. I said I had. It was the start to a conversation on geopolitics, an opening, a subtle approach to ask about gun control in the United States.The lady knows almost nothing about guns, United States gun laws,...

Unless he convinces Israeli lawmakers from outside his party to join him in a national unity government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-and-a-half-year run in office may soon end following inconclusive results inhis country’s parliamentary elections this week that appeared to deprive him of a governing majority in the Knesset. President Donald Trump took a hands-off approach when asked about the elections in America’s foremost ally in the Middle East. “Our relations are with Israel, so we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters while touring California. In Israel, Netanyahu has leveraged his ideological affinity with Trump as a selling point...

Lots of buzz about this in political media this afternoon. But then, there were also many “bombshells” during the course of the Mueller investigation that caused a stir in political media and you know how those turned out.Speculation about the troubling “promise” Trump may or may not have made to a foreign leader has naturally focused on Putin and Kim Jong Un. Did he promise Putin he’d make some startling international concession, like exiting NATO, in exchange for God knows what? Did he tell Kim that he’d withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea if Kim did X,Y, and Z?...

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson expressed concern about "big, hairy men" trying to infiltrate women's homeless shelters during an internal meeting, according to three people present who interpreted the remarks as an attack on transgender women.

Andrew Yang is widely identified as a “hi tech entrepreneur,” leading many people (including me) to assume that he is worth many millions of dollars, and independently wealthy. That made sense considering his plan to give a thousand bucks a month (borrowed, of course) to everyone (and it’s not clear to me if legal or illegal aliens qualify).But according to information in this column by James Freeman in the Wall Street Journal, he isn’t more than middle class, at least by the standards of Silicon Valley.  Julie Bykowicz reported in the Journal in May: Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, a self-described...

Do leftists ever think through the implications of their bright lightbulb poppings?One of their latest stupidities, via Glen Reynolds of Instapundit (who has a fine curation), came a couple days ago from the Presbyterian side of things, with seminarians at New York's Union Theological Seminary offering up their 'confessions' to plants, an act than makes even less sense than trying to talk to a goat. According to the Washington Examiner, they tweeted: "Today in chapel, we confessed to plants," the nation's oldest independent seminary declared Tuesday on Twitter. "Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow...

Facebook has new devices to help you video chat from your couch! Smart speakers are popular these days but Facebook says they’re missing a key feature – the ability to video chat! The company’s new line of gadgets called Portal look like picture frames but let you make video calls, too! There’s even a model that sits on top of your TV so you can video chat from the couch. Portal TV. This device sits on top of your TV and lets you video chat from the most comfortable seat in the house: your couch. It’s much more relaxing than...

KYIV—Ukraine is ready to investigate the connections Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had with the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings, according to Anton Geraschenko, a senior adviser to the country’s interior minister who would oversee such an inquiry. Geraschenko told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview that “as soon as there is an official request from the Trump administration, we’ll look into it,” but “currently there is no open investigation.” “Clearly,” said Geraschenko, “Trump is now looking for kompromat to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison.”...

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish child activist who doesn't know much, but is very certain of what she's saying, is having her heyday in the U.S., fiercely putting on her 'I won't eat those peas' face for the camers, telling the U.S. Congress they're not trying hard enough, leading a giant global protest today, and getting hailed as the child savior of the earth.Just one glitch here. Her home nation of Sweden, yes, you read right, Sweden, isn't buying the global warming claptrap anymore. Mark Morano over at Climate Depot has found a damning survey. An international opinion poll published today reveals that half of...

CNN’s Martin Savidge traveled to the iron range area of Minnesota this week. The Iron Range near Lake Superior is traditionally a Democratic stronghold. Not anymore. Miners and working families are voting for Trump. Democrats and their Socialist promises scare the hell out of middle Americ

The woman who served as the inspiration for Greece's first Barbie doll has been accused of falsely claiming she is a leading scientist who has won awards for her work for Nasa. Eleni Antoniadou, 31, has been described as a specialist in the fields of regenerative medicine, artificial organ bioengineering and space medicine, as well as training astronauts at Nasa, and working as CEO of Transplants Without Donors, which creates artificial organs for transplants. Cited as a "Greek scientist of global calibre" by national media, her accolades include being named in a Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 list for Healthcare,...

(CNSNews.com) – The number of unaccompanied children (UACs) entering the United States during fiscal year 2019 has grown to levels never seen before, Jonathan Hayes, director of the HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), told Congress on Thursday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Michaela Chavez is a former Democrat who says she’s been a supporter of Donald Trump from Day One. She likes how his administration is handling the economy and feels he’s negotiating better trade deals for the country. And when it comes to immigration, the Albuquerque resident supports the president’s desire to build a wall on the Mexican border. “I’m all for immigration, as long as it is done the right way,” she said. Chavez is convinced Trump is building a better future for her family. She is the type of person Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale hopes...

I’ve looked and could find no information on which US steel manufacturers are providing the steel for the wall. Does anyone know?

“A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes” (Proverbs 20:8).

Trump Derangement Syndrome reached its apotheosis on today's Morning Joe, as MSNBC "Republican" Elise Jordan literally called for a Trump adviser to be sent off to die. Commenting on Rudy Giuliani's conversation of yesterday with Chris Cuomo on CNN regarding possible contacts between the Trump administration and Ukraine, Jordan said: "It's simply astounding to watch Drunk Grandpa last night, who just needs to be pulled off to hospice, if not . . . " Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

The Chicoms are using the flag waving as an excuse to accuse us of being behind the protests. I am proud of the American flags being waved. It's American exceptionalism on display. The Red army can put them down but the movement will go on. The world is watching in places like Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Don't forget Moscow. Their biggest fear is the POTUS being a disturber of the excrement. The perfect storm is brewing.

Nationwide exams – with sections on Xi’s political thinking and Marxism – will be held later and press cards will only be issued to those who pass. Thousands of reporters and editors working in Chinese state media will have to sit a nationwide exam to test their loyalty to President Xi Jinping. Some will be asked to take part in “pilot tests” in early October, before the exams are held nationwide, according to a notice late last month from the media oversight office of the Communist Party’s propaganda department... it is an example of the party using tech to strengthen...

Responding Friday on "Fox & Friends," former Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn said the primary reason for Clinton's loss was Trump turning working-class voters away from the Democrats. [Snip] Penn said Clinton could have put herself in a strong position to win the nomination again in 2020, but instead, her poll numbers have steadily declined. "If she had conceded the election cleanly and talked about the issues, she actually would have been in a great position to get back in today ... her ratings are 10 percent below Donald Trump because she goes out and says it was all unfair,"...

Sen. Kamala D. Harris hit the panic button Thursday on her free-falling campaign, announcing an Iowa-or-bust strategy that she hopes will put her on an Obama-like glide to the nomination. She also raised the stakes by vowing to quit the race if she can’t muster a win, place or show in the Hawkeye State’s leadoff caucuses Feb. 3. “We want to make sure that we have a strong top-three finish,” said Harris campaign manager Juan Rodriguez. “I think that will kind of continue to give us a slingshot to go into that early primary state calendar and then make sure...