Free Republic

What's with this "us" bit, David? New York Times "conservative" columnist David Brooks claimed on Thursday that "Trump Has Made Us All Stupid." Brooks admits that liberals are now acting really really stupid (as well as loony) but that the fault lies with President Donald Trump. The weird thing about Brooks' column is that he also gives as close to high praise to Trump as you can at the Times without getting a pink slip (although that could still happen).

You will only hear about this here, because it doesn’t fit the establishment media narrative of Muslims being subjected to wholesale discrimination and harassment by Christians in the U.S. “Alleged Tire Slasher Had Hate Motive Against Christians: Police,” WBBM, January 9, 2020: PALOS HILLS (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Charges have been upgraded against a man who allegedly slashed tires of multiple vehicles at churches in Palos Hills last year because he didn’t like Christians. Osama E. El Hannouny, 25, was initially arrested Nov. 17, 2019, and charged with 14 counts of criminal damage to property, according to Palos Hills police. The...

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Special Operations forces on the ground in Iraq were following a convoy carrying Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani when it was struck by an American drone last week, killing Soleimani and nine others, Fox News has learned. The soldiers following Soleimani's convoy as it left Baghdad International Airport were about a half-mile behind when it was hit by a missile fired from a Reaper drone. They were on the scene within a minute or two and performed a so-called "bomb damage assessment," taking pictures of the scene and confirming that the drone had picked out the right car --...

President Trump on Saturday described Democrats as being “unhinged” and accused them of "defending the life" of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani -- who was taken out by a U.S. strike last week in what the Trump administration has described as an act of self-defense against an “imminent” attack. “Where have the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats gone when they have spent the last 3 days defending the life of Qassem Soleimani, one of the worst terrorists in history and the father of the roadside bomb? He was also looking to do big future damage! Dems are ‘unhinged,'" he tweeted. He...

In a speech at the US House of Representatives, Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) railed against “religious fundamentalists who are trying to manipulate state laws in order to impose their beliefs on an entire society. Their horrifying effort to restrict access to abortion will, if successful, coerce millions of women into bearing children against their will. This is but another chapter in their quest to trample the rights of those who disagree with them.” “They cite their religious belief in the sanctity of life as if respecting the right to life is some sort of absolute,” Omar complained. “There are other religions...

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused Fukushima's nuclear plant to melt down prompted the Japanese goverment to evacuate a huge area as dangerous radiation spread. The evacuated region, which was carved up into several zones based on how the radiation spread, has become home for a wide range of wild animals that apparently found a way to thrive amid the desolation despite the radiation. “Over time, some wildlife species have responded favorably to the absence of humans, even in the presence of high radiation levels, resulting in a rewilding of the evacuation zones,” Thomas Hinton, a radioecologist at the...

Michael Bloomberg’s plan to field a massive shadow political party could significantly undercut key financial and organizational advantages President Trump might otherwise enjoy against his Democratic challenger. The former New York City mayor is investing hundreds of millions on a ground game and digital operation as part of his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination. But Bloomberg, 77, is promising to put his campaign to work for whoever wins the party’s 2020 nod, immediately bridging a huge resource gap with Trump the Democratic National Committee is too depleted to handle. Federal law prohibits Bloomberg’s organization from coordinating with, or being...

Ukraine’s president is insisting that Iran issue a full apology and pay the country after it shot down a Ukrainian airliner and killed all 176 people on board. The demands come a day after Tehran admitted that it "unintentionally" downed the airliner down with a surface-to-air missile. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the news on Saturday and said that his country must receive compensation. “Iran has pleaded guilty to downing the Ukrainian plane. But we insist on a full admission of guilt,” Zelensky said, according to RadioFreeEurope. “We expect from Iran assurances of their readiness for a full and...

Protesters in Iran called for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down after the country admitted to shooting down a commercial airliner accidentally. Video on social media shows demonstrators in front of Amirkabir University in Tehran chanting, “Commander-in-chief resign, resign.” Breaking: People in #Iran have just begun the protest against de regime. Students of Amirkabir university in Tehran chant slogans against the supreme leader!#IranProtests#IranPlaneCrash pic.twitter.com/rzr7w6Oaju — Alireza Azami (@Alireza__Azami) January 11, 2020 The protest came a day after Iran said it “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian airliner and killed all 176 people on board. The downing came just hours...

Play Video Virginia Democratic Del. Dan Helmer filed a bill Wednesday that would give the commonwealth’s attorney general, Mark Herring, discretion over which states’ carry permits Virginia would continue to recognize. Virginia’s current concealed carry reciprocity law recognizes every out-of-state concealed carry license, but the new proposal from Helmer could limit the number of out-of-state concealed carry permits Virginia recognizes if Herring deems their carry permit requirements insufficient. “This is certainly more restrictive than the current process, which recognizes everyone's permit. He can start saying, well, for this reason or that reason, I'm not going to recognize their permit now,”...

British Labour candidate Keir Starmer, 57, has promised to work to end anti-Semitism within his party, if he is elected its leader. Speaking on BBC One, Starmer said his party "should have done more on anti-Semitism." "If you are anti-Semitic you shouldn’t be in the Labour party. What I would do is lead from the top and say it's my responsibility to deal with it. I wouldn’t say it's for somebody else. I want the files, I want to know the numbers on my desk so that I can monitor this." Starmer also said he argued for automatic expulsion. "It...

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of AMERICA, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. Separately, TRUMP angered some American Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation’s mosques. Quote: ‘IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT… Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. ‘This culture has been developed over...

BERN, Switzerland—Hours after a U.S. strike killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the Trump administration sent an urgent back channel message to Tehran: Don’t escalate. The encrypted fax was sent via the Swiss Embassy in Iran, one of the few means of direct, confidential communication between the two sides, U.S. officials said. In the days that followed, the White House and Iranian leaders exchanged further messages, which officials in both countries described as far more measured than the fiery rhetoric traded publicly by politicians. A week later, and after a retaliatory Iranian missile attack on two military bases hosting American...

From the Tuscaloosa News: Pickens County EMA director Lakitha Bell says three people have died and two more, including adults and children, are injured after a tornado touched down near Carrollton. As predicted storms are rolling across Alabama from the west. A series of suspected tornadoes has killed at least three about 3 miles from Carrollton in Pickens County, the National Weather Service confirms. Aldotcom's Leigh Morgan has the forecast and will keep it updated with the latest information. .

Have you been tirelessly researching potential travel destinations for 2020? Maybe you need a little inspiration. Google is listing the top trending places to start off 2020. Some of the cities may surprise you. The sandy beaches in Da Nang, the night life of São Paulo, and Korean barbecue from Seoul are all top of mind for people planning vacations this year. According to global hotel search data, people from around the world are interested in traveling to these destinations in 2020

So what is the question to which measuring wealth distributions and a wealth tax are the answer? To briefly review, in Part I we met the fact that "wealth is measured as "capitalized income," Y/r. But only some kinds of income and with r choices that blew up measured wealth inequality. In Part II we learned that a big reason wealth inequality widened is that interest rates fell. If r falls, Y/r rises, but it's the same Y. In Part III we noted the distinction between consumption, income and wealth inequality. Wealth is beyond badly measured as a measure of...

The popular Jupiter Shield theory proposes that the planet acts like a giant space shield due to its huge mass causing it to suck in or deflect dangerous debris. However, this shield theory is slowly falling out of favor and one of the leading critics is space expert Kevin Grazier. [Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D.] He's published several papers explaining why he thinks Jupiter is a "sniper rather than a shield". Recently, he's been aiming to prove how this 'sniper-like' process works. Grazier's extensive work could put the Jupiter Shield theory in jeopardy. He told Gizmodo: "Actually, I wouldn't say that...

That didn't take long. A day after Jake Fromm announced that he'll be foregoing his senior season at Georgia, the Bulldogs moved quickly in added coveted Wake Forest graduate transfer quarterback Jamie Newman. He will enroll at Georgia in the coming days and participate in winter workouts and spring drills. The dual-threat quarterback announced his decision via Twitter on Thursday, likely filling a major void for the Bulldogs in 2019.

The US Navy said a Russian navy ship "aggressively approached" its destroyer in the Arabian Sea on Thursday while it was conducting routine operations.

A Florida security guard is accused of threatening to kill President Trump in retaliation for a US airstrike that killed Iran’s top military general last Friday. Chauncy Lump, 26, from the Fort Lauderdale area, faces federal charges of threatening to kill the president and remained jailed Thursday with bond set at $100,000, according to court documents filed Wednesday by the Secret Service. Agent Lucas White wrote that shortly after Trump announced last week that a US airstrike had killed Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in retaliation for plotting numerous terrorist attacks, Lump, under the name “BlackMan vs. America,” began livestreaming a...