Free Republic

House Republicans stormed a closed-door hearing Wednesday to protest Democrats' impeachment inquiry process, breaking up the deposition of a top Defense Department official who was testifying about President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. "They crashed the party," said Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.), a member of the Oversight and Reform Committee, one of three House panels leading the impeachment probe. Dozens of Republicans, including some members of leadership like House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), barged into the secure hearing room in the Capitol basement where Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, was set to...

Democrats are hailing testimony from senior State Department official Bill Taylor on Tuesday as their “smoking gun” to prove that President Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine unless they investigated former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO) tweeted, “I was in the room. Jaws dropped, heads shook in disbelief, this president and his enablers willfully put #NationalSecurity at risk to benefit his political campaign. This wasn’t just a smoking gun, it was a smoking cannon.” Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) told reporters it was his “most disturbing day in the Congress so far.” However,...

In September, our friends at Twitchy noticed that ex-CIA Director John Brennan seemed a bit “anxious” over the latest Trump impeachment nonsense that has engulfed the Hill. In July, President Trump had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where it has been alleged that the U.S. withheld aid to the country unless a corruption probe was opened into Hunter Bide, son of former Vice President Joe Biden. This was all detailed in a whistleblower report from a reported CIA agent assigned to the White House, who is a registered Democrat, had worked with a 2020 Democratic candidate, and...

Brig. Gen. Dave Hodne: 'Those impossibilities are on the floor here today'U.S. Army leaders are one step closer to deciding on a supplier for its Next Generation Squad Weapon system after a who’s who in weapons makers unveiled their progress. The 2019 Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting impressed officials with prototype 6.8mm rifles and automatic rifles by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems inc., Textron Systems, and Sig Sauer Inc. Each company is vying for the opportunity to replace the 5.56mm M4A1 carbine and the M249 squad automatic weapon used in combat units. Military leaders essentially want...

Posts Posted on October 22, 2019October 22, 2019 An Image for the Kingdom and the Beauty of Inner Silence in a Tango At a past parish gathering there was a demonstration of different dance styles. One of our young adults, Lola, is a student of classical and ballroom dance. She, along with her dance partner, danced a modest tango in a most elegant way.What was most fascinating to me was that Lola kept her eyes shut during the entire dance; I wondered how it was even possible to dance with closed eyes. So I asked her why she did...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, October 23, 2019 United States Files Lawsuit Against State of California for Unlawful Cap and Trade Agreement with the Canadian Province of Quebec The United States today filed a civil complaint against the state of California, several of its officers, the California Air Resources Board, and the Western Climate Initiative Inc., for unlawfully entering a cap and trade agreement with the Canadian Province of Quebec.“The state of California has veered outside of its proper constitutional lane to enter into an international emissions agreement.  The power to enter into...

Katherine Herridge reported at mid-day on Wednesday that Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte testified under oath that he had approved meetings between Italian Intelligence agents and U.S. Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham. Here is a clip of Herridge’s report (transcript follows below): Donna Willett @mizdonna Breaking Italian news. Italian PM testified to Parliament that he set up the Barr meeting with Italian officials. And that meeting expanded the Durham probe Embedded video 1,881 12:48 PM - Oct 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 1,330 people are talking about this For those of you who still...

Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are attacking each other in increasingly pointed terms as House Democrats burrow deeper into their impeachment inquiry. But if the top two congressional leaders can’t find a way to come together soon, the government could plunge into a shutdown and any last hopes for legislating before the presidential election will vanish. The speaker and Senate majority leader have been trading grievances increasingly over the past several months. Pelosi is lashing McConnell for sitting on House-passed legislation addressing gun violence and ethics reforms; McConnell says Pelosi has done nothing to follow through on her claims that...

Dick's Sporting Goods CEO is considering launching a third-party presidential bid, which could pull votes away from Donald Trump in 2020. Ed Stack, a longtime Republican donor, is testing the waters for a run, a participant in a southern Wisconsin focus group told Politico.

The left’s enthusiasm for Third World immigrants isn’t only because they vote 8-2 for the Democrats. It’s that Latin American peasants seem uniquely amenable to idiotic socialist schemes. You probably think it’s beyond silliness for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to keep promising FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL! NO PREMIUMS! NO CO-PAYS! ILLEGAL ALIENS, TOO! EVERYBODY GETS A PONY! No one could be gullible enough to fall for that. I refer you to the economic powerhouse that is Latin America. Based on hundreds of years of indigenous people voting for politicians who made similar promises, Latin America has become the...

The social media giant is out of control. Facebook has unpublished the “Bikers for America” page, citing alleged scam concerns as an excuse to remove the popular patriotic page from their social media platform. The group made the announcement in a Twitter post on Sunday: pic.twitter.com/LUZP9GzClj — Bikers for America (@Bikeramerica) October 20, 2019 They are considering legal action as well as planning a rally in favor of free speech against Big Tech monopoly platforms at war with the 1st Amendment. We can organize a rally but it doesn’t necessarily have to be all bikers! Patriots for free speech! And...

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker may have legalized recreational marijuana and ushered in a massive capital plan in his first year, but a Morning Consult poll finds he’s the eighth most unpopular governor in the country. While Pritzker’s approval rating has remained relatively steady, his disapproval rating has climbed, the poll found. Earlier this year, a Morning Consult poll found his favorability at 44%, with the latest poll clocking him at 43%. His disapproval rating has grown from 35% earlier this year to 42%. Unsurprisingly, the disapproval is coming from Republicans, who watched the political newcomer rush in a bevy of...

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Joe Biden cast President Donald Trump on Wednesday as a fraudulent populist whose tax policies, economic stewardship and erratic leadership have hurt U.S. workers and betrayed voters in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania. After scrapping with fellow Democrats for weeks, Biden returned to his hometown of Scranton to focus on his ultimate foe: Trump. The former vice president sought to dent Trump’s argument that regardless of what working people may think about him personally, the actions of his administration have helped them. “This administration has no idea what hard-working, decent, ordinary Americans are going through,”...

I recently came across a quotation by Vincent van Gogh, and it triggered something in me. “There may be a great fire in our soul, but no one ever comes to warm himself by it, all that passers-by can see is a little smoke,” van Gogh wrote, in an 1880 letter to his brother, Theo. The line haunted me for days; I was struck by this concept of the fire within. How many people do we pass every single day who are carrying around raging fires — who have a passion or a pain inside that is so great they...

Donald J Trump: The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum! Never Trumper Republican John Bellinger, represents Never Trumper Diplomat Bill Taylor (who I don’t know), in testimony before Congress! Do Nothing Democrats allow Republicans Zero Representation, Zero due process, and Zero Transparency... ....Does anybody think this is fair? Even though there was no quid pro quo, I’m sure they would like to try. Worse than the Dems!

*Update, 23 October, 5:40 a.m.: A study from Google claiming quantum supremacy, accidentally leaked online last month, has now been published in Nature. The Google group reiterates its claim that its 53-qubit computer performed, in 200 seconds, an arcane task that would take 10,000 years for Summit, a supercomputer IBM built for the Department of Energy that is currently the world’s fastest. But IBM appears to have already rebutted Google’s claim. On 21 October, it announced that, by tweaking the way Summit approaches the task, it can do it far faster: in 2.5 days. IBM says the threshold for quantum...

NYT just stealth edited the original story about Hillary Clinton to claim that she didnt say the Russians were grooming Tulsi But that Republicans were There is no correction, no notice, this was done quietly original story - https://archive.is/4K5cX

GOP House member Matt Gaetz is condemning Democrats for concealing their impeachment proceedings from Republicans. In a fiery speech Wednesday, Gaetz was joined by a number of his Republican colleagues who attempted storm into a facility where Democrats were looking into classified materials as part of their inquiry. Gaetz said if Democrats plan to pursue their inquiry, Americans have a right to a transparent investigation. He added, that investigation has been anything but straight forward so far. His comments comes as Senator Lindsey Graham finalizes a resolution to formally condemn the House impeachment inquiry.

Jeff Flake has speculated that 35 or more Republican senators might vote in an impeachment trial to remove Trump from office, but only if the vote were held in secret. Whatever the real number is, the senators face a collective-action problem. Politically, their safest bet is to move as one, announcing their openness to removal as a bloc. The president can say what he wants about this or that senator. But he wouldn’t be able to claim—with any credibility beyond his most cultlike followers—that a group composed of 10 or more Republican senators is just a cabal of dishonest, no-good...

A good pantsuit is important.