Free Republic

U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued six Haitian nationals attempting to cross the Rio Grande River near the Del Rio Port of Entry. Two of the six rescued were children under the age of one. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says that Border Patrol agents in the nearby area observed a group of individuals struggling to cross the Rio Grande River. The agents maneuvered a patrol vessel towards the group and helped pull the six people from the water. The Haitian nationals were then taken to the Del Rio Border Patrol Station for processing. According to a press release from...

The national media blasted President Trump’s withdrawal of 50 US military advisors from the Syrian border with Turkey as a “sellout,” a “betrayal” and a “huge strategic blunder.”Let’s be clear: None of them truly care about the Kurds. Otherwise, they would have been sending correspondents and camera crews to Rojava, as the Kurds call northern Syria, on a regular basis.[....]I have met with Kurdish political and military leaders in the region, including the PYD, the political arm of the Kurdish YPG militia. And while they were thrilled to have US backing in the fight against ISIS, none of them had...

Incredibly, several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, recently called for the repeal of laws meant to protect innocent people from potentially contracting the deadly AIDS virus. These laws currently require HIV-positive individuals to disclose their status to sexual partners. It is illegal for someone to expose another person to the virus without the latter knowing about it and having the opportunity to give informed consent. Doing otherwise would be horrific and should be considered a "hate crime....”

In fact, the two approaches to governing are completely incompatible. Even worse, those inside a powerful administrative state, much like the one we have today with over 430 departments, agencies and sub-agencies filled with millions of career employees, think that they are the decision makers on the domestic and foreign policy fronts. They believe they are entitled to rule us. For those of us who believe in the original meaning of our Constitution, in limited government and natural rights, there is only one choice: break the state. Devolve it, not only in size, but also its purposes. Get it out...

...Me: "Do you know how abortions are performed?" Uber driver: "Not really." Me. "Well, for example, in a second-trimester surgical abortion, the abortion doctor uses what's called a Sopher clamp, an instrument with serrated teeth on the business end. The abortion doctor uses the Sopher clamp to probe inside the patient's womb. When he feels something, he clamps down and pulls hard, and out comes an arm or a —" Before I could finish the sentence, my Uber driver raised his hand and pleaded, "Please, please. I don't want to hear any more!" Shocked by a gruesome fact he'd never...

He is not as stout. He doesn’t wear glasses. He doesn’t work for the Yankees. Those differences aside, there is something about Intel Chairman Schiff that bears a startling resemblance to Seinfeld’s George Costanza. After pondering this matter, it finally dawned on me. They both have perfected the ability to prevaricate. And to do so quite convincingly. They both have the ability to keep a narrative alive, long after most rational people recognize that the air has completely escaped the balloon. George was such a polished liar that Jerry sought his advice on how to defeat a lie detector test....

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State militants and “to help defend Iraq.” On Thursday, Turkey agreed in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to a five-day pause in an offensive into northeastern Syria to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a “safe zone” Ankara aims to establish near the Turkish border with Syria. The truce also aimed to ease a crisis triggered...

One of the shortest, simplest yet deepest books I have read on politics is The Three Languages of Politics by Arnold Kling. .. Kling argues that our political discourse is dysfunctional because we look at the world through lenses that our political opponents do not share. Liberals see the world as a battle between victims and oppressors. Conservatives see the world as a battle between civilization and barbarism. Libertarians see the world as a battle between freedom and coercion. (snip) In this essay I want to add a twist to Kling’s original vision. I want to speculate about the three...

The hypnotic babble of the media beguiles otherwise intelligent people into believing that Russia colluded with President Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton, that Trump forced Ukraine into investigating Hunter Biden and did something, we can’t say what, to be impeached, and that thousands of poor Kurds are being displaced because we pulled some hundreds of our troops from the Syrian-Turkish border. Rational, fact-based analysis shows all this to be untrue, but breaking through this hazy thinking is not an easy task. Maybe because that’s the true aim: eradicating reason totally. In chaos the most nutty rule. I’m far from home...

Hazardous Waste Day: the Saga Continues. This story should have been dead yesterday but it is not.Let me explain.Raj and I left for Hazardous Household Waste (HHW) collection day, which ran from 8:00 am till 2:00 pm,  at 7:55 am. The rear hatch of the Jeep was filled with toxic, hazardous waste materials: mostly stains, strippers and other oil based paint products, some half full 5 gallon pails of latex paint (I know, it can be dried and dumped but do you know how long it takes to dry a half-full pail?), old gasoline, toxic yard chemicals an old monitor...

VIDEO This is probably the worst weekend in the life of CNN president Jeff Zucker. Project Veritas exposed his complete obsession with President Donald Trump to the point where Zucker has taken the "News" out of the Cable News Network and has replaced it with his personal TDS. This was exposed not only by his 9 AM staff calls which were revealed to the world but also by undercover videos of his own employees mocking Zucker for being so completely obsessed with Trump that he has pretty much ditched regular news coverage at CNN. And as bad as it...

FROM ME: It appears that Miss Universe might take place in Las Vegas or Reno. The official date is Sunday, December 8th on FOX. The daughter of a dear high school friend is the current Miss Puerto Rico (Madison Anderson). We are all rooting for her! ARTICLE: It looks like the Miss Universe 2019 beauty pageant has finally found a date and host country. If the social media posts of four Miss Universe 2019 contestants and national directors are to be taken seriously, then the most prestigious beauty contest would be held in the United States on Dec. 8 (Dec....

From the vast right-wing conspiracy to the vast Russian conspiracy — Hillary Clinton has journeyed a long way in her tinfoil hat over the last 20 years, and the road has been all downhill. And now the failed kleptocrat is all in on the blame game, naming names, throwing everybody under the bus, especially liberal females. And the most delicious part is that the accused Russkie assets are firing back. Take it away, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-HI. “Great! Thank you, @Hillary Clinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kdDdMl55c7Q UK PM Boris Johnson sends UNsigned letter to EU asking for delay. Followed by a SIGNED letter asking the EU to NOT approve the DELAY requested in the unsigned letter.

Choke on a Rifle and a Usable Garden Gun – .22 Shot Shells #12 Shot U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The .22 shotshell, made by CCI holds 1/15th of an ounce of #12 shot. Based on minimal testing 40 years ago, I considered it near worthless. In the last few years my brother and a friend reported experiences that caused me to reconsider the round. Varmints up to the size of red squirrels were killed more than 20 feet away. A dedicated smoothbore gun was reported to be useful up to 30 feet. Some Internet reports claimed effective results to 15 yards, or...

Bernie SandersÂ’ tax plan would impose annual tax rates of well over 100% on the richest 400 Americans, according to his economic advisers, mostly through his new wealth tax. The idea that the federal government should take more from the very wealthy than they earn in a year is a policy innovation, one the Democratic candidate has advanced as part of a sweeping anti-inequality platform. Critics, however, argue that it's unrealistic and would harm the economy by reversing billionaires' incentives to innovate and invest. Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the Berkeley economists who've advised Sanders on his wealth tax plan...

You don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to figure out to whom the loser of the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, was referring when she stated on a recent podcast that one of the candidates in the 2020 Democrat primary was being "groomed" by the Russians to be a third-party candidate. The field was narrowed down even more when Hillary stated that "She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far." Therefore she must have been referring to a female candidate. So did she mean Amy Klobuchar?...

Indian PM Narendra Modi has warned Pakistan he means what he said about not wasting a single drop of ‘Indian water’, after Islamabad stated that any attempt to divert rivers would be viewed as an ‘act of aggression.’ “Once I decide to do something, I always accomplish that,” the PM told an election rally on Friday, slamming the opposition party for allowing a portion of India’s river water to leave the country. However, Pakistani Foreign Minister Muhammad Faisal had accused India of not just planning to utilize its water share to the max, but plotting to actually divert the rivers,...

Social media, and Twitter in particular, is President Trump’s version of a “fireside chat” — the tool he uses to speak directly to the American people. President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously used his fireside chats to buoy the nation’s spirits during the Great Depression and World War II — but he also used the weekly radio address to make the case for his policy proposals, allowing him to circumvent a polarized news media and reduce the complexities of government into language that all Americans could understand. Just as FDR found a way to maximize the political utility of radio...

Today’s Cryptogram Courtesy YESTERDAY’S The Arkansas Gazette HXT DLEIW MK ARII LA UGSMPGI HXMJSK OGHMTJHIV DGMHMJS ALE LRE DMHK HL SELD KXGEOTE.---ZTEHEGJW ERKKTII . You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips...