Free Republic

WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Tom Steyer failed to make a splash in his first Democratic presidential primary debate despite spending the equivalent of $109,000 per second he spoke on the stage. The 62-year-old billionaire hedge fund king-turned-impeachment activist had the least amount of speaking time of the 12 candidates during Tuesday's debate, about 7 minutes, while most other candidates got 12 minutes or more to answer moderator questions and make their points. Steyer, who has pledged to spend $100 million of his own money on his presidential bid, gave his campaign a whopping $47.6 million from his July launch through the...

FULL TITLE: U of Michigan “just killed my son,” mother says. Hospital yanks life support hours after judge dismisses case ANN ARBOR, Michigan, October 16, 2019 – Bobby Reyes, a 14-year-old boy from Michigan who doctors declared “brain dead,” died yesterday after a judge dismissed his family’s court case asking he be given more time. The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital removed his ventilator just hours later. The case was heard at 10:00 a.m. and by 3:00 p.m. the hospital had released a statement declaring Bobby to be dead. Bobby suffered a cardiac arrest on September 21 after...

U.S. AmbassadorÂ’s Residence Ankara, Turkey 8:36 P.M. TRT THE VICE PRESIDENT: One week ago, Turkish forces crossed into Syria. Earlier this week, President Trump took decisive action to call on Turkish forces to stand down, to end the violence, to agree to negotiations. And today, IÂ’m proud to report, thanks to the strong leadership of President Donald Trump and the strong relationship between President ErdoÄŸan and Turkey and the United States of America, that today, the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria. The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow for...

FULL TITLE: Kansans for Life announces opposition to pro-abortion and activist applicants for the Kansas Supreme Court The Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission is meeting this week to interview applicants for a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court. In the wake of the Kansas Supreme Court’s recent decision finding a right to abortion in the Kansas Constitution, it is clear that ideology matters when selecting a Justice to the Kansas Supreme Court. For this reason, Kansans for Life opposes Judges Melissa Standridge and Evelyn Wilson in their consideration for a seat on the Court. “Both of these applicants are extreme...

Summary: Erdogan's "invasion" of Syria is not what the media is reporting. Turkey has 3.6 million refugees from the Syrian Civil War, and has prevented them from flooding Europe, causing severe economic hardship. This is the largest number of refugees held by any nation. If Erdogan can be believed, and he has been talking about this for a few years, this "invasion" is about creating 20 x 300 mile zone to create a zone to repatriate Syrian refugees. The Kurds are largely unaffected by Turkey's move. Turkey cannot hold millions of refugees forever. They can send them to Syria or...

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post titled, “What’s happened to former PPFA President Dr. Leana Wen?” How could I have known that Wen’s profile would raise a couple of hundred points because of a tweet she wrote about Tuesday’s 4th debate among Democrats running for President. Talk about stirring up a hornet’s nest! First, some background. Once upon a time—and not so long ago—pro-abortion Democrats took refuge from the charge that they were “pro-abortion” by insisting that they supported the Hyde Amendment (which cuts off almost all federal funding for abortion) and were really, truly, honestly uncomfortable with “late”...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) ripped the administration over the recently announced cease-fire in Syria, calling President Trump's decision to withdraw troops "a bloodstain in the annals of American history." "The announcement today is being portrayed as a victory. It is far from a victory. Serious questions remain about how the decision was reached precipitously to withdraw from Syria and why that decision was reached," Romney said. Romney's Senate floor speech came after Vice President Pence announced a five-day cease-fire. Under the agreement Pence said Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan agreed to halt TurkeyÂ’s offensive in Syria for 120 hours in...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Müller: Bishop Kräutler Will Go To Hell Wherever bishops replace catechesis and pastoral with media and politics, it goes downhill, even if freemasons, oligarch media, abortion lobbyist and homosexualists praise them, Cardinal Gerhard Müller told NCRegister.com (October 16). He mentioned “bishops” who boast that they never baptised a single Amazon native and even reject baptism as a "symbol of colonialism." According to Müller these bishops do “not deserve the salvation of Jesus Christ,” in other words, they are condemned. There is one bishop who publicly claimed that he “has not yet baptised any Indian and will not”:...

Home directories have been a fundamental part on any Unixy system since day one. They’re such a basic element, we usually don’t give them much thought. And why would we? From a low level point of view, whatever location $HOME is pointing to, is a directory just like any other of the countless ones you will find on the system — apart from maybe being located on its own disk partition. Home directories are so unspectacular in their nature, it wouldn’t usually cross anyone’s mind to even consider to change anything about them. And then there’s Lennart Poettering.In case you’re...

Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, has voted against a bill proposed by the Greens that would have introduced a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) on the nation’s highways. Out of the 631 votes cast on Thursday, 498 voted against the proposal. All members of the far-right AfD and the business-friendly FDP parties rejected the bill, and just two members from each of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and conservative parties voted for the proposal. There were only a handful of abstentions. “You’re defending a transport policy from the day before yesterday,” said Cem Özdemir, Green...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican communications chief: ‘Holy Spirit,’ ‘not canon law,’ should provide a solution VATICAN CITY, October 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― The prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications reported yesterday that the Amazon Synod participants had agreed not to narrow their focus to just a few themes.  Paolo Ruffini said that the participants were concerned about missing “the tree for the branches” and therefore were willing to continue to discuss all the ideas presented. They hoped in this way to make room for the Holy Spirit.  “We must give the floor to the Holy Spirit, so His Grace...

Congress fell short Thursday in its second attempt to end the national emergency President Donald Trump declared to secure money for his proposed border wall. Both chambers of Congress have passed measures to block Trump’s declaration twice since the president took the step in March, prompting two vetoes. Lawmakers failed to override the second veto Thursday as the GOP-held Senate could not muster the two-thirds majority needed. The chamber voted by a 53-36 margin to end the emergency. Ten Republicans voted with Democrats in supporting the resolution. Democrats and some Republicans have accused the president of overreaching and disregarding Congress’...

Almost a year to the day after Bloomberg reported that the US government, Apple, Amazon, and others had their servers compromised by China, a security researcher has shown a similar hack can be pulled off with $190 worth of tools and a $2 chip. Citing six senior national security officials and several higher-ups within Apple and Amazon, Bloomberg claimed that the manufacturing facilities constructing Supermicro motherboards had been infiltrated by a branch of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The PLA was reportedly adding a rice grain-sized chip capable of monitoring and altering communications with the motherboard’s BMC (baseboard management controller). The...

If President Trump doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office. Last week I attended two memorable events that reminded me why we care so very much about this nation and also why our future may be in peril. The first was a change of command ceremony for a storied Army unit in which one general officer passed authority to another. The second event was an annual gala for the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) Society that recognizes past and present members of the intelligence and Special Operations community...

Key Takeaways 1. Middle-class incomes, after adjusting for inflation, have surged by $5,003 since Donald Trump became president in January 2017. 2. These surges in income, have occurred at exactly the time when many liberal economists and media talking heads were shouting “recession.” 3. These latest income numbers also squarely contradict the claims by Democratic presidential candidates.

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, October 17, 2019 Southern California Doctor Found Guilty in $12 Million Medicare Fraud and Device Adulteration Scheme A federal jury found a southern California doctor guilty yesterday for his role in a $12 million scheme to provide medically unnecessary procedures to Medicare beneficiaries, upcode claims submitted to Medicare, and re-package single-use catheters for reuse on patients.Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge Paul Delacourt of the FBI’s Los...

Episode 31: Could There Be Infiltrators In The Pro-Life Movement? Could there be people currently infiltrating the pro-life movement? Hosts Mark Crutcher and Renee Hobbs discuss... What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below!

A careful monitoring of the media today confirms that Rep. Cummings died from "complications arising from long-standing ill health." As you wouldn't accept that as a cause of death for a loved one, as a life insurance underwriter would never accept those words to approve a payout, and as a police detective would never accept those inappropriate and vague words from a coroner... What do they mean? "complications arising from long-standing ill health." Like Napoleon? Al Capone? Lenin? Lincoln? Just wondering. Our revered hero who did everything - made so many friends, spoke out, was so corurageous, crossed the aisle,...

The cease-fire established between Turkey and Syria with the help of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence was an "amazing accomplishment," but the situation is not yet fully rectified, Karl Rove said Thursday on "The Daily Briefing." "It's a pretty amazing accomplishment by Pompeo and Pence to get the cease-fire," he said.

Itinerary for a trip to Ukraine in August organized by the Atlantic Council think tank reveals that a staffer on Rep. Adam Schiff’s House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a meeting during the trip with acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, now a key witness for Democrats pursuing impeachment. The Atlantic Council is funded by and works in partnership with Burisma, the natural gas company at the center of allegations regarding Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Taylor has been called by House Democrats to appear next week to provide a deposition as part of the investigation...