Free Republic

1. Vindman Is the Top Ukraine Expert on the National Security Council 2. Vindman Was Awarded a Purple Heart After He Was Injured in an IED Attack in Iraq 3. Vindman Was Present for the July 25 Phone Call Between Trump & the President of Ukraine 4. Vindman Is a First-Generation American Whose Family Fled the Soviet Union 5. Vindman, Who Has a Twin Brother, Married Rachel Cartman

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) warned the GOP dominated legislature to not waste time passing a bill to ban abortions after the baby's heartbeat can be detected. "I will veto whatever bill they pass," Wolf promised. "Some women don't want to be mothers. They shouldn't be forced to become mothers in order to fulfill somebody else's moral values." Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-McElhattan), sponsor of the bill was distressed that "the governor has rejected any and all limitations on the cruel practice of killing innocent babies. Isn't 'life' one of the inalienable rights that our country was founded to protect? Women...

As Chief Justice, John Roberts appoints the FISA judges, whose fraudulently-obtained surveillance approvals are central to the coup against President Trump. While I remain convinced that the House will not impeach him, if that were to occur it seems inevitable that Roberts would be a material witness and would recuse himself. While normally the Vice President presides over the Senate, he would have an obvious conflict of interest in this instance. So, the Constitution stipulates that the Chief Justice must preside over any impeachment trial of a President, but it is silent about any succession were he to be unavailable....

"The top Ukraine expert at the White House will tell impeachment investigators he twice reported concerns about President Trump’s pressure tactics on Ukraine, acting out of a “sense of duty.”

House Democratic leaders are walking back a planned vote Thursday that would officially endorse impeachment proceedings and say that the resolution would merely address the process of holding public hearings on the matter. “This is not an impeachment resolution,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what an impeachment resolution is.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday that the planned vote was “not an impeachment resolution.” Earlier in the day, Pelosi announced the House would vote on a resolution that “affirms the ongoing, existing investigation,” and “establishes the procedure for hearings that are open...

Do you hear that dull thud sound? That’s the sound of Elizabeth Warren beating her head against reality. Unlike Bernie Sanders, Warren hasn’t been willing to admit that taxes will have to go up to pay for Medicare for All. All she’ll say is that “for middle-class families, for hard-working people costs are going to go down.” Warren wants us to imagine is a system in which taxes go way up on top earners but people in the middle are better off.Monday the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a new estimate of what it would take to...

Contrary to popular misconceptions, All Saints Day and its vigil, Halloween, are not the same as the pagan feast known as Samhain. The feast of All Saints developed independently among Christian churches within the territory of the later Roman Empire. Halloween is merely the vigil of the feast of All Saints -- hence, All Hallows Eve. Samhain, meanwhile, was theoretically a festival of those pagans in Celtic regions outside the Roman Empire, specifically Ireland, about which almost nothing is known prior to the 12th century AD. The two feasts seem to share a common date, but beyond that, their provenance...

Here are some of the messages the Left has been giving America’s young people: ---- Your past is terrible, and your future is terrible. The American past is a story of genocide, slavery, racism, patriarchy, and colonialism. You should be ashamed of it. As regards your future, your very existence is in jeopardy. You may well die at a young age unless society completely shifts from fossil fuels to wind and solar power. In fact, your future is so bleak you should probably not consider getting married and having children. ---- If you are a girl, you should know that...

President Trump will reportedly take in an MMA bout Saturday night at Madison Square Garden — and stay in the city into Marathon Sunday, potentially putting Midtown traffic into a chokehold. Trump be in attendance when the Mecca plays host to UFC 244, headlined by a five-round tangle between welterweights Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, a New York Times reporter tweeted on Tuesday, citing sources. ... Following the contest, Trump will reportedly crash at Trump Tower into Sunday — when the New York City Marathon was already set to snarl traffic across the Big Apple.

Top allies of President Donald Trump are warning him against nominating Uttam Dhillon — an apparent ally of disgraced former FBI Director James Comey — to be the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The warning from Trump’s allies come after Trump briefly recognized Dhillon — the current Acting Administrator of the DEA — at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference and Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday.

Billionaire George Soros, who has spent his fortune promoting leftwing politicians, media, and organizations, said over the weekend that he hasn’t failed in his lifelong quest to put socialism in place in the United States, but has been impeded by his opposition, including President Donald Trump. “Between the election of President Trump and Britain’s ongoing debate over Brexit, the billionaire philanthropist George Soros recognizes that populism is on the rise and that his brand of liberal democracy is faltering,” said Michel Martin, host of All Things Considered on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR). Soros also has supported NPR, including $1.8...

Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones was gifted his seat on the Hill. His Republican opponent during the 2017 special election was marred by sexual misconduct allegations involving girls who were underaged at the time. Roy Moore was a trainwreck—and he could torpedo GOP chances of retaking the seat in 2020 because he’s running again. Pass the whiskey bottle. This is an insanely winnable seat that could be held by Democrats if Moore muddies the waters. Jones was lucky in that the Alabama GOP in some odd turn of events, couldn’t get a sentient being to run for then-Attorney General Jeff...

The White House is reportedly debating whether to let Democrats “pick apart” the transcript of Vice President Mike Pence’s telephone call with the leader of Ukraine as an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump enters a new phase. Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Pence said he had no issue with details of the call being released publicly. “I’d have no objection to that, we’re discussing that with White House counsel as we speak,” the vice president said after wrapping up remarks to supporters at Manning Farms in Des Moines, Iowa.

Far-left billionaire and political donor George Soros lavished praise on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday, calling her the "most qualified to be president." He also predicted a Warren presidency. The liberal kingmaker said he was not endorsing any candidate in the 2020 presidential race, so he could support whichever candidate the Democratic Party nominates against President Donald Trump. In an interview with The New York Times, Soros called Trump "an aberration," accusing the president of "clearly putting his personal interests ahead of the national interests. I think it will contribute to his demise next year. So I am slightly...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson floated the idea Monday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that universities and their large endowments should shoulder the burden of repaying student loans, not students and their families. Carlson opened the segment discussing a recent poll showing communism’s widespread popularity among millennials, calling it a “huge problem” that needs fixing. “Believe it or not, it’s not the main problem,” he added, gearing up for his main point. “The main problem — the reason that capitalism increasingly is discredited and socialism is increasingly popular — is that our current system is making young people poor.” ... Instead,...

A recent investigation from independent news outlet Middle East Eye (9/30/19) uncovered that a senior Twitter executive is, in fact, an officer in the British Army’s 77th Brigade, a unit dedicated to psychological operations (psyops), propaganda and online warfare. Gordon MacMillan, who joined the social media company in 2013, is its head of editorial for the Middle East and North Africa. While both Twitter and the British Army attempted to distance themselves from the implications of the report, it is unclear why MacMillan would have this role if not to manipulate and propagandize the public. (The British Ministry of Defense...

Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have begun pulling back from a town on the front line in eastern Ukraine. The withdrawal comes more than five years since conflict in the east began and months after Ukrainians elected a new president. President Volodymyr Zelensky has backed in principle an agreement to bring elections to the territories controlled by the separatists amid hopes that it will eventually bring the conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives to an end. But Ukrainian opponents see the deal as a "capitulation" to Russia.

Dr. Michael Brown appeared on Monday's CBN Newswatch to discuss the rise of witchcraft in America. He says the rapid rise of witchcraft is very real and frightening. Newswatch is seen weekdays on the CBN News Channel. To view a programming schedule, click here. On Thursday, many little girls around the country will dress up as witches for Halloween. Just last week, it was reported by several media outlets that "thousands of witches" were gathering to cast a spell on President Trump, which they said was to prevent him from "harming the country." Should Christians take witches and witchcraft seriously?...

The remains of ISIS leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi were disposed at sea after he died during the U.S. military raid that targeted his compound in northwest Syria over the weekend, a U.S. official confirmed Monday. Authorities would not reveal details about which U.S. Navy ship was used for the burial or in which body of water it took place, but they told ABC News that the procedure was similar to the one used to dispose of the remains of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. In Islam, people are typically buried in the ground, without a casket, before the...

National Security Council (NSC) official Alexander Vindman showed up to testify Tuesday as part of the Democrats’ closed-door impeachment inquiry into President Trump in full military uniform. This is despite not wearing one to work every day at the NSC, according to several sources. Although Vindman is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, he is serving an assignment at the NSC as the director for European Affairs. According to sources at the NSC, Vindman does not wear his uniform to work at the NSC, where the standard dress is business wear. One source said he donned the uniform “for...