Free Republic

In August 2018, Eminem announced the surprise release of his new album, Kamikaze, in a tweet, delighting his fans with 13 fiery new raps, just eight months after he dropped his last album, Revival. Kamikaze’s lead track, “The Ringer,” immediately attracted attention on social media due to lyrics in which Eminem, a fierce critic of President Donald Trump, claimed he was visited by the Secret Service: ‘Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him Or ask if I’m linked to terrorists I said, ‘Only when it comes...

A new national poll indicates that Sen. Elizabeth Warren enjoys a widening lead over former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination — though another recent survey showed Biden holding the top spot. Warren, the progressive senator from Massachusetts, grabs the support of 28 percent of Democrats and independent voters who lean toward the Democrats in a survey released Thursday by Quinnipiac University. Biden stands at 21 percent in the poll, with populist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont at 15 percent. In Quinnipiac’s previous survey – conducted prior to the Oct. 15 fourth round Democratic...

Trump’s critics appear to believe that backing a Marxist splinter group aligned with the anti-American, pro-Iranian axis in its war against a NATO ally is sound policy. The U.S. foreign policy establishment has gone into meltdown mode since President Trump announced last week a withdrawal of several dozen troops from a corridor in northern Syria. American forces had been there since 2014, joined with a Kurdish splinter group to fight the notorious Sunni Arab terrorist organization, the Islamic State (ISIS).Trump made his decision after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but it was a long time coming....

If you want a window into the crisis the Catholic Church faces, look to the Amazon Synod now underway in Rome. The synod made headlines this week when two anonymous operatives entered the Santa Maria in Traspontina Church near St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome early Monday morning, removed at least three pagan fertility statues from the side altars, and threw them into the Tiber River. They videotaped the whole thing and issued a statement saying faithful Catholics “are being attacked by members of our own Church.”Why were pagan fertility statues—idols, really—on display in a Catholic Church in the first...

F ormer CIA director John Brennan calls the Justice Department’s widening probe into Spygate’s origins “bizarre.” It has no “legal basis,” he bleats. What’s bizarre is that the expanding inquiry didn’t happen earlier. Brennan’s responsibility for criminal leaks during the Obama administration’s investigation of Trump has been obvious for at least two years. Even Trump hater Peter Strzok, the FBI liaison to John Brennan, couldn’t believe the leaks coming out of his shop. Referring to Brennan’s agents as “sisters,” Strzok said to his mistress Lisa Page, “our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they’re kicking...

The current impeachment debate is being framed in terms of whether or not there was a “quid pro quo”— as if that is the bar that will determine whether or not President Trump did something egregious. There are big flaws with this framing, as well as with the use of the term. Diplomatic quid pro quo — requiring certain actions, behavior or “conditions” in return for U.S. aid — is common, according to current and former diplomats I spoke with, and foreign policy guidance. “Under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the President may determine the terms and conditions under...

A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a block against the Trump administration’s religious exemption to the HHS’s contraceptive mandate. In January, Judge Haywood Gilliam of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an injunction against the new rules on contraception coverage, which allowed employers to opt out of providing birth control and abortion-inducing drugs in their health insurance plans if it violated their religious or moral beliefs. In a 2-1 decision released Tuesday, the majority decided to uphold Gilliam’s injunction banning enforcement of the religious exemption...

Freeper Madness "Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness" -Thucydides

WASHINGTON – Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) rejected the notion that the Democratic Party needs another candidate for president such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) or former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "As Vice President Biden’s campaign shows growing signs of weakness, people are fretting about the current frontrunners trying to convince people like Sen. Sherrod Brown or Secretary Clinton or Michael Bloomberg that there is something to be gained from having maybe 20, 21 or 22 people running for president instead of today's 18 or is it 19? I'm not sure. I am...

John Durham, the U.S. attorney tasked with investigating the origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016, is expected to seek an interview with former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper following an expansion of his investigation. It was reportedly the meetings Durham and Attorney General William Barr recently had in Rome—where they obtained new evidence—that were the impetus for the broadening of the scope of the probe. According to Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, her sources told her that Durham is now “very interested to question” Brennan and Clapper.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump urged Republicans to "remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching." Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans rushed to condemn the president's use of the term.#NeverTrump Republican Joe Walsh said this was evidence that Trump is a "horrible human being." Julián Castro called the lynching comparison "beyond shameful." Kamala Harris accused Trump of invoking "the pain and trauma of lynching" to "whitewash [his] own corruption." Elizabeth Warren called Trump's tweet "beyond disgraceful."Most notoriously, former Vice President Joe Biden called the comparison "abhorrent" and "despicable.""Impeachment is not 'lynching,' it is part of our Constitution," Biden tweeted. "Our country...

When Ed Morrissey wrote about the story of seven-year-old James Younger in Texas, the outrage among readers was immediate and palpable. That’s completely understandable, given the circumstances. A jury recently decided against his father, Jeffrey Younger, in his attempt to gain custody of his twin sons to prevent their mother from “transitioning” James into a girl. This would be done through a process of administering dangerous puberty-blocking drugs, female hormones and eventual chemical castration. The story made national headlines and people were up in arms. The judge in the case has postponed the final ruling and perhaps there is...

The Biden campaign made a rookie mistake in launching its latest Latino voter outreach program—a mistake that Team Trump capitalized on in a heartbeat. Prior to rolling out the new outreach initiative, “Todos Con Biden,” his campaign failed to purchase www.todosconbiden.com or even reserve the Twitter handle, @TodosConBiden. Naturally, the Trump campaign stepped in and trolled the former vice president. Best line in this story: "How the hell are you Joe Biden's campaign and you don't lock up the URL before you announce stuff?" They also didn’t claim @todosconbiden on Twitter, so we grabbed that too. Give it a follow,...

Democrats used to argue that once felons had served their time, they had paid their debt to society and should be able to vote. Now, after Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) earlier this year argued for felons to vote while they are in prison, even for those who have committed the most horrible crimes, other Democrats have picked up the cause.

Hank Thompson's 1956 version of Whoa Sailor is another one from our pre-YouTube days. THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Chicago's top cop won't be in attendance when President Donald Trump addresses the International Association of Chiefs of Police at their annual conference in the city next week. Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said he looks forward "to hosting America's police chiefs and collaborating on the best ways to keep our cities safe in the upcoming week," but he will not hear the president's speech. "I will not be attending the president’s speech because the values of the people of Chicago are more important than anything the he [sic] would have to say," Johnson said in a statement. Trump is...

Voters in one of the reddest states are unhappy with their two United States senators, for completely different reasons. Utahpolicy.com has asked, “Do you approve of the way xxx is handling his job?” about both Republican senators and found that both men are underwater. Here are the results for both expressed graphically: The patterns of dissatisfaction are completely different for the two men. - 50 percent of women like the job Romney is doing, but only 43 percent of men do. -- Lee is not a hit with women, only 36 percent approve of the job he’s doing, not...

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a Missoula judge's decision upholding the city of Missoula's gun ordinance, which would have required background checks on all transfer of firearms, including gun show purchases. The high court ruled 5-0 in favor of Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, who voided in 2017 the Missoula City Council's ordinance adopted the year earlier, arguing the council did not have the authority to infringe on gun ownership rights in the state and U.S. constitutions. […] In its Tuesday ruling, the Supreme Court said the ordinance went too far beyond keeping guns away from convicted felons,...

Republican House Leadership should announce today their intention of Impeaching the next Democrat President. Fight Absurdity with Absurdity

There's a better way to get rid of them. This man took matters into his own hands and put fire to what appears to be an ant nest in his backyard. Not surprisingly, this didn't go well. He blew up more than just ants in this DIY-gone-wrong (though luckily no humans—or dogs—were injured). To correctly get rid of those pesky ants, we've got a Popular Mechanics guide. When those irritating little ants start showing up in the house, raiding the kitchen for crumbs and making cozy homes in your walls, the natural reaction is to set an ant trap or...