Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- When the Consumer Technology Association announced that Ivanka Trump, elder daughter and adviser to President Donald Trump, would be a keynote speaker at CES 2020, some of the very people who had been pushing for more female speakers, and more diversity in general, at the country's premier tech confab actually protested. Some, such as Forbes' Carolina Milanesi, argued that Trump was a bad choice because she lacked tech credentials. "There are many more women who are in tech and are entrepreneurs who could run circles around Trump on how technology will impact the future of work," Milanesi wrote....

Remember the kerfuffle about the end of the decade? Hopefully 2020, regardless of which decade you think it’s in, will see the end of this memeIn an election year it’s always nice to have something irrelevant to argue about, which is why I don’t intend to re-litigate the case between the decade originalists and the living-decade crowd. But if the decade isn’t pragmatically over how could the American Dialect Society  (ADS)  have already selected their “word of the decade,” hmmm? The personal singular pronoun “they” has been crowned the “word of the decade” by the American Dialect Society…singular “they” was...

It was the best of people, it was the worst of people… Osama bin Laden deserved to die. Only the fringe of the fringe disagree with this statement (looking at you, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn), which is why no one seemed to mind when Seal Team 6 invaded Pakistan to upgrade his train ticket to Hell to first class.Make no mistake: the word “invaded” is the correct word. We did not have permission to enter, nor did we tell them we were coming. There was a chance, however remote, of something horrible happening that could have started at...

The story of that week, and the secret planning in the months preceding it, ranks as the most perilous chapter so far in President Trump’s three years in office.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and other backers of New York’s criminal-justice reforms want to pretend that fixing its flaws means fully restoring cash bail. Don’t buy it for a minute. At a pro-reform event last week with Williams, Akeem Browder — whose teen brother, Kalief, spent three years in jail awaiting trial before being freed and committing suicide two years later — insisted the reforms “came too late to help Kalief.” Added Darryl Herring of VOCAL-NY, who spent 18 months at Rikers: “Wealth should not determine one’s freedom.” That’s true — but wealth was never really a big factor: A...

Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., expressed outrage Friday after a report said the Trump administration was considering an expansion of the nation's travel ban to cover more countries. **SNIP** “What do 5 out of 7 of these countries have in common? They are Muslim-majority countries the President already tried to ban,” Omar tweeted. It wasn't clear whether she was referring to the currently banned countries or a potential list. “We need to pass the #NoBanAct immediately to stop this madness," she added. Tlaib called the ban “Straight up racism!” “No more waiting,” she tweeted. “Too many Muslims...

DAVENPORT, Iowa - Rep. Rashida Tlaib said socialist Bernie Sanders made her feel normal for being frustrated with the country's political climate. "He makes me feel - and many of you know what I mean by this - he makes me feel less insane," the Michigan Democrat said in Davenport, Iowa, on Saturday, referring to gripes, for example, with the country's healthcare system. She added, "We're not insane folks. We're actually real. We're humanists." **SNIP** Tlaib is accompanying Sanders on his three-day swing of the first-in-the-nation state. The pair will appear at a "Green New Deal" rally on Sunday in...

Did NYT tried to warn Suleimani? In the 11th paragraph says, What if the former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassim Suleimani, visits Baghdad for a meeting and you know the address? The temptations to use hypersonic missiles will be many.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi waited more than three weeks to deliver the impeachment articles for President Donald Trump -- a seemingly odd move after Democrats spent weeks arguing that removing Trump was urgently needed to protect the integrity of the 2020 election. Even as some Democrats joined Republicans in calling for the articles to move, Pelosi coolly responded that she would do so only when she was good and ready. "It cracks me up to see on TV, ‘Oh, the pressure,'" Pelosi told reporters Friday, just moments before telling her colleagues in a letter that she was ready to send...

KTMX RQH GVR ORQ WFL WMX XR TH RM JQFJRBL. —XRDDO JWFHRM 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 you might give the group on how you solve these puzzles...

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an entire Phoenician family buried together in a tomb in Achziv, an ancient population center on the Mediterranean coast near the northern city Nahariya. In 2017, a joint team from Jerusalem's Hebrew Union College and France's Lyon University uncovered the bodies of a man, woman and small child in an approximately 2,800-year old cist-grave, a burial site surrounded by rocks and covered with stone slabs, the Haaretz daily reported Tuesday. The child was between three and five years old. According to the archaeological team that excavated the tomb, items found buried with the family...

A length of cord found alongside the body of Ötzi the Iceman, the Neolithic hunter who was discovered entombed in ice high in the Dolomites, has been identified as a string for his wooden bow. Experts had long speculated that the two objects were connected but definitive proof has now been obtained by a team of Swiss scientists. The cord, which was found tucked into a quiver used by the 5,300-year-old Iceman for keeping his arrows, is made of animal sinew - ideal material for producing a strong, powerful bow. It is two metres long, almost exactly the same length...

Uncovered outside the Roman fortress in Caerleon by a team of staff and students from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, the port is only the second known from Roman Britain and sheds new light on Wales' role in Roman Britain. The well-preserved remains of the port are located on the banks of the River Usk just north of the city of Newport and include the main quay wall, as well as the landing stages and wharves where ships would have docked and unloaded their cargoes. The team made the find during their on-going excavations of the 'Lost City...

During President Donald Trump’s interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Friday, the president spoke about his positive relationship with Saudi Arabia, including how the country is paying to use American troops. Conservative Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), who until recently was a Republican, responded to Trump’s remarks in a tweet, saying, “He sells troops.” “Saudi Arabia is paying us for [our troops]. We have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia,” Trump said. “I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying...

Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for President Trump, Vice-President Pence, and for America: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (I John 5:14) Religion forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

Please pray that I can find another job soon that doesn't require Shift Wok.

President Trump asks: “Are these “dirty cops” going to pay a big price for the fraud they committed?” However, the only person who can honestly answer that question is the person in the mirror when President Trump brushes his teeth. Perhaps forgotten… In the spring of 2018 a group of congressional reps led by Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Lee Zeldin and Bob Goodlatte, asked President Trump to declassify a series of documents so the public could see how former officials in the DOJ & FBI abused their offices and conducted political surveillance. In September...

The Iraqi Consulate General in Southfield has announced it will be open for condolences for Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and others who were killed in U.S. airstrikes in Baghdad Friday, Jan. 3. According to the consulate’s website, the “opening of a record of condolences for the lives of the righteous martyrs who were killed as a result of the recent American raids in Iraq, ” will be held from 2-5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 7-8, at its office at 16445 W. 12 Mile Road, near Southfield Road.

Grisly photos circulated on social media purport to show the body of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, who was reportedly killed during a US air strike on a Baghdad airport early Friday morning. President Trump took credit for the drone strike Friday, saying Soleimani was planning to attack American diplomats. “Last night, at my direction, the United States military successfully executed a flawless precision strike that killed the number one terrorist anywhere in the world, Qassem Soleimani,” Trump stated. “Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated...

A woman has been charged with murder after her dog was involved in a fatal mauling in Rockcastle County. Police say they were called to a home on Pug Lane Friday morning. According to an arrest citation, a female at the residence had been involved in an altercation with a man at the home and during the struggle she had turned her pit bull loose on the man. Troopers arrived at the home and had to shoot the dog as they were not able to attend to the victim due to the dog's aggressive behavior.