Free Republic

Hillary Clinton will use a customized lectern at Monday’s debate to mitigate the glaring height difference with Donald Trump. New photos from inside the Hofstra University debate hall show two lecterns — a short one and tall one raised internally with plywood. One of the lecterns to be used at Monday’s presidential debate has plywood in the middle to raise it. “Clinton is 5’4” and Trump 6’2” and her team wanted the podium modified or a box added for her to stand on so she won’t look short next to Donald Trump,” WABC radio host Rita Cosby emailed with snaps...

Need more proof that Amazon is big? It came this week. Amazon's U.S. workforce topped 500,000 for the first time, up 43% from the year before and more than triple what it was five years ago, the company said Friday. It gained 150,000 workers last year, more than the size of Apple's entire workforce. When it reported its quarterly performance Thursday, Amazon revealed that another 150 million people had become members of its Prime service, which offers faster shipping and other perks. On Friday, even while the Dow tumbled 600 points, Amazon shares soared passed $2,000 apiece, doubling in price...

A U.K. exhibit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz includes works by an artist more often seen in front of the camera than behind it: Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and an avid amateur photographer. Middleton contributed two portraits to the Royal Photographic Society’s exhibit of photos of Holocaust survivors with their grandchildren... In a statement, Middleton said that she wanted to emulate Anne Frank’s “sensitive and intimate” depiction of the Holocaust. But even more visible in her portraits is the influence of the non-Jewish source from whom she took inspiration: the Dutch Baroque painter Johannes...

The Army's helicopters have a number of names you recognize immediately: Apache, Black Hawk, Kiowa, Lakota, Comanche. They are also known as the names of Native American tribes. This is not a coincidence. According to GlobalSecurity.org, this was originally due to Army Regulation 70-28, which has since been rescinded. Today, while the regulation is gone, the tradition remains, and there is a procedure to pick a new name. The Bureau of Indian Affairs keeps a list of names for the Army to use. When the Army gets a new helicopter (or fixed-wing aircraft), the commanding officer of the Army Material...

UPDATE: February 3, 2020, 11:00 a.m.: Police say the bloodhounds’ last track on the Holmes siblings was near Mahindra Tractors in Putnam County. The sheriff tells us they ran from their adoptive home and allegedly told another child in the home they were going to New York. KCSO says the children have no known connection to New York. CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) – The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office is searching for three runaway juveniles near St. Albans, West Virginia. Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford says Lucas Holmes, 11, Delaney Holmes, 9, Kaylena Holmes, 8, ran away from their caregivers west of...

Manhattan federal court judge Deborah Batts who was slated to oversee Michael Avenatti’s Stormy Daniels-related embezzlement trial, has died. She was 72. The Philadelphia-born jurist, who was the first openly gay member of the federal judiciary, passed away February 2, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The pace of growth in the Russian economy fell by almost half last year, fresh economic data released Monday has shown. Russia’s GDP grew by 1.3% in 2019, the Russian state statistics agency, Rosstat said. That compares with an official expansion rate of 2.5% recorded in 2018, and is the weakest annual growth since Russia emerged from economic crisis in 2016. Despite the slow-down, the economy did pick up in the final half of the year, managing to beat pessimistic forecasts from organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that had suggested Russia would struggle to...

Oh, Happy Day Got rid of cable and found the greatest music on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv5n_eCGkvM

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden kissed his 19-year-old granddaughter on the lips during a campaign rally in Iowa on Sunday, prompting “grossed out” responses on social media. The New York Post reports that the former vice president entered the event at Clarke University in Dubuque, holding the hand of Finnegan Biden, the daughter of his son, Hunter. “I would like to introduce you to my granddaughter Finnegan Biden. The reason I asked Finnegan…grandfathers are always allowed to embarrass their granddaughters — that goes along with the territory. Her other grandma graduated from Clarke College in the mid-60s and talks about...

In 1963, when Sanders traveled to Israel to work on a kibbutz there were scores of American Jewish students who also volunteered. So it is rather strange that Sanders has consistently refused to tell the press about his time there and the kibbutz he worked on. ........... Hashomer’s kibbutz, its members considered themselves Marxist-Zionists, and they held a pro-Soviet orientation which included supporting Soviet foreign policy. ............ they “had a strong admiration for the Communist system in the Soviet Union.” They heard about the Soviet gulags, but considered that news to be false reports from renegades. No wonder they proudly...

While we might switch to a plant-based diet with the best intentions, the unseen risks of vegan fast foods might not show up for years. They might sound like a guilt-free alternative or a gateway for the vegan-curious, but vegan fast food alternatives are often worse for your health than the meat equivalent.

Scotland Yard officers guarding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's have said they are treated 'like skivvies' and forced to do 'menial tasks' like picking up takeaways and groceries, it has been claimed. Highly-trained protection staff have also allegedly been seen buying food from an organic delicatessen, a favourite of Meghan's, and picking up coffees from fast food outlet Tim Hortons. A team of 15 guards has been flown to guard the couple and their nine-month-old son Archie at their secluded Canadian bolthole, after they stood back from royal duties. The Duke and Duchess's security is estimated to cost taxpayers in...

No ordinary citizen can legally carry a gun in New York City, yet shootings are up 59.6 percent over this time last year. On Sunday, a pregnant woman was shot while sitting in her own car in front of her home in Queens. This is becoming the new normal in New York after the memo has gone out to criminals in the city that politicians fear growing the prison population more than they fear crime. According to NYPD crime data, in addition to the 59.6 percent spike in shootings over this time last year, robberies increased 32.8 percent and grand larceny auto crimes were up a whopping...

If so-called "cultural appropriation" is racism, then we're all racist. Racism is real. It exists in the actions of many and the hearts of many more. It exists in some Kansas City Chiefs fans. It also exists in some San Francisco 49ers fans. In fact, it exists in some fans of ever major sports team in the world. The problem is, mainstream media types like NBC and social justice warriors across the land have their selective outrage misplaced if they believe Chiefs’ fans are any more likely to be racist than any other fans. An article that preceded last night’s...

What are Pete Buttigieg’s politics?If you read CBS, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, and a host of their friends, the former mayor is decidedly a moderate. According to The Washington Post and a few more, he’s “a traditional centrist” who embodies “the Democratic primary’s rightward drift.” And if you listen to the left-wing activists trailing him around, he’s “Wall Street Pete” and “will kill us.”His supposed moderation and support (almost solely) among white liberals torments Lucy, a white liberal who graduated high school more than a decade ago but writes for Teen Vogue. “Why I’m Not...

FactCheck.Org points out that Bloomberg’s commercial about instituting gun control in order to keep children safe, with George Kemp’s mom quoted saying, “Mike’s fighting for every child.” However, Kemp was 20 years of age at the time of his death and, therefore, not a child. But Bloomberg’s use of Kemp’s death explains how the ad claims, “2,900 children die from gun violence every year.” FactCheck.Org explains Bloomberg’s “children” moniker does include those who are old enough to vote, join the military, etc. They report, “It does include many 18- and 19-year-olds who also were legally considered adults in most U.S....

As the Big Ben gong struck 11 p.m. GMT on January 31, marking the moment the United Kingdom left the European Union, thousands of people started singing “Rule Britannia” in Parliament Square. Next to the statue of Winston Churchill was a British Army Parachute Regiment flag—apt, given that the EU is German-dominated—and a few large American flags.Churchill was half American, and Americans in London clearly love a good independence party. A world where British people are free to vote and kick out their representatives might be hard in the days to come, but it is far, far better than...

More to the point, Donald Trump doesn’t think Democrats can work with him either. In his Super Bowl interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump complained bitterly about the “damage” done to his family and the country in the impeachment and trial. “I’d like to” work with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Trump told Hannity, but they’re so dishonest and obsessed with winning that he doesn’t think it’s possible.That sounds like exactly what Pelosi and Schumer would say, too: HANNITY: Two hundred and seventy days from now, I guess the ultimate jury –the American people — go to...

HOUSTON, TX—Taking his luxury golf cart from the front door of his Houston mansion down to his mailbox to fetch the paper Friday morning, prosperity preacher Joel Osteen reportedly looked down to see his own shadow, a traditional sign indicating that he will be preaching the Bible out of context for yet another year. “Well, would you look at that. There it is, right there,” Osteen reportedly said as he smiled and pointed down to his shadow on his driveway. Local news teams excitedly gathered around his mansion to witness the annual tradition, wherein the megachurch pastor is said to...

It’s the separation of children from their parents that the lefties are in an uproar about even though it was also happening under Obama at pretty much the same levels. Democrats basically invited people to assault our border and then got them arrested for the crime! Only the really slow ones are still raging on about the cages since most of them have finally gotten the message that the pictures they were all upset about were taken during the Obama administration. That’s when they pivoted their fake outrage to the fact of the separation instead of the optics. Some liberal...