Free Republic

MUNICH - Speaking during the Munich Security Conference Saturday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called out European leaders and others for claiming the West is “westless,” pushed back on allegations that the United States “rejects the international community” and explained that the NATO alliance has been bolstered, not weakened, by President Trump’s demands on allied countries to properly budget for defense.  "I saw the topic for this weekend’s gathering, this idea of 'westlessness' as the core theme for this year’s conference. And I am sure, too, there are many of you who would call yourself here realists, but let me...

A biologically male marathon runner who identifies as a transgender woman is set to compete in the USA Olympic trials later in February. Megan Youngren “is set to make history on Feb. 29 as the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials,” Sports Illustrated reported. Youngren qualified for the trials after a strong performance on Dec. 8, 2019, in the California International Marathon. “People will try to put it down by saying, ‘That’s too easy because you’re trans.’ But what about the 500 other women who will qualify?” Youngren told the magazine. “There’s probably someone...

Over the course of his public life, Donald Trump has made any number of incendiary, bizarre and flat-out false comments. And since he began his campaign for the presidency in 2015, Trump has kept the quotes coming at an ever-increasing, ever-exhausting pace. “I am a very stable genius.” “I alone can fix it.” “Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?” “Nobody has more respect for women than I do.” (The latter comment came the same night he referred to Hillary Clinton during a 2016 debate as “Such a nasty women.”) As much as they’ve become...

Who decides whether a word is racist? Does it depend on context? That’s what a German state court said after a far-right AfD politician repeatedly used the N-word in a debate. The decision caused outrage — and action.In the Duden online German dictionary, the word Neger (hereafter referred to as the N-word) is defined as a term for “a person of (very) dark skin.” In German, it is considered today to be the equivalent of both the dated and debated English term Negro and also the undeniably racist term n—r. The German word’s definition also includes a warning in red...

The UK's Astronomer Royal, Professor Lord Rees, is the chair of the organisation's international advisory group. He told the BBC that, given that the multi-billion pound Large Hadron Collider had not yet achieved its aim of finding sub-atomic particles beyond the current theory of physics, governments should consider modest funding of a few million pounds for Seti. "I'd feel far more confident arguing the case for Seti than for a particle accelerator," he said. "Seti searches are surely worthwhile, despite the heavy odds against success, because the stakes are so high". Nasa once funded the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence to...

Fan Yifei, the deputy governor of China’s central bank, said on Saturday that banks had been urged to provide new banknotes to customers whenever possible. The central bank made an “emergency issuance” of 4bn yuan in new notes to Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak, before the recent lunar new year holiday, Fan added. The measures are intended to “secure the public’s safety and health when using cash”, Fan said. But it is unclear how wide an impact the central bank’s disinfection work will have, with increasing numbers of Chinese people preferring mobile payments over cash in recent years....

Posts Posted on February 14, 2020 An Amusing Look at Familial Love in a Commercial The commercial below shows a glimpse of the special kind of love that we call familial love. The Greeks called it storge (στοργή), and the Romans called it pietas. Both words refer to familial love, the natural or instinctual affection between parent and child. Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” depicting Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus with tenderness and sorrow, demonstrates beautifully the meaning of pietas.Familial love has some unique qualities. For example, we don’t choose our family; we are born into it. We can choose...

Are there any differences between the standard alert on an alert equipped NOAA radios and the SAME ALert on an NOAA radio? If so, what are the differences? Thanks

CHARLOTTE, NC (AP) President Donald Trump is visiting North Carolina the night before next month's primary elections. Trump's campaign announced on Friday that the president would attend a rally the evening of March 2 at Charlotte's Bojangles Coliseum. The president held rallies a few days before the presidential caucus in Iowa and the evening before the New Hampshire primary. Trump won North Carolina by almost 4 percentage points in the 2016 general election.

For some reason, Donald Trump decided on Saturday to retweet a video of a Texas mayor who was unaware he was still wearing a hot mic when he went to the bathroom. The Twitter user Trump boosted is outspokenly anti-Trump but the President didn’t mind that because the video is hilarious. Well, if you are a conservative you will find this funny and if you are a liberal than you will call this re-tweet gross. Sometime between 7:22 am and 8:04 am Saturday morning — the times of the surrounding tweets — Trump retweeted a video from the account of...

CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday accused President Donald Trump of trying to turn the United States into a banana republic, given that he is “weaponizing the military.” While discussing the Department of Justice is dropping its investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Copper said, “It fits into the larger theme of weaponizing the Department of Justice against perceived enemies or just people the president doesn’t like.” He continued, “There was a transcript released today in which the judge in this case previously told Justice Department attorneys that the handling of the case was disturbing in the judge’s words...

The Iowa Democratic Party will ask a former Iowa attorney general and a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa to investigate the events leading to problems on caucus night and the party's response to them. The party's State Central Committee, which acts as a governing board, approved up to $50,000 to retain attorneys Nick Klinefeldt, who was a federal attorney appointed by President Barack Obama, and former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell to conduct the investigation. Both are Democrats in Des Moines. Party officials hope the review will take 45 days or less. But it wasn't a...

Here's hoping 2020 is the best year yet!! Now that he has been forever acquitted, President Trump should put the failed partisan impeachment attempt behind him, then concentrate on winning the 2020 election with wide coattails. Then bide his time as the cases against the various coup plotters wind their way through the justice system. Highest priority political items: Win the election, hold the senate, take back the house!! And then continue the work of making America great again: Build the wall, enforce the law, deport them all!! End DACA!! End sanctuary cities!! End anchor babies!! Continue cutting regulations, cutting...

France announced Saturday that a Chinese man has died from the coronavirus within its borders, the first death from the disease outside of Asia. French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn announced that the 80-year-old man traveled from China's Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, to France in mid-January and was hospitalized days later. The man’s daughter is also sick with the virus, though her condition is not believed to be as serious. Europe has reported over 60 confirmed cases of the virus, with Germany having the most at 16, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. China has...

Democrats are still wailing about President Trump expressing an opinion about the sentencing of a high-profile criminal investigation into one of his longtime associates, Roger Stone. Democrats are now lecturing the country about the importance of law enforcement remaining independent from the White House and the president. As usual, you don't have to look very far to find examples of Democrats being complete and utter hypocrites on the subject.

Video of confrontation between John Dennis and Antifa thug who treatens him. Retweeted by President Trump

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Friday on CNN that Fox News was “propaganda,” while reacting to the news that the Department of Justice was dropping its investigation into him. Anchor Anderson Cooper said, “Aside from being understandably anger about all of what you’ve been through, has it been in a way surreal? In the past couple of minutes, while you’ve been on with me, on Fox, there’s a banner font calling you a liar. Did you ever expect in any way to be dealing with anything like this?”

According to a new investigation by Swiss media, a cell of jihadists based in Geneva plotted to bomb cisterns full of oil near the city’s airport in a major terror attack. The plot, which was set to take place last year before being stopped, revolved largely around a man named Daniel D., who also went by the Islamic name Abu Ilias al-Swisri, a convert to Islam who went on to join the Islamic State terror group two years later, Le Temps reports. Al-Swisri, now 25-years-old, had attended the Petit-Saconnex mosque where he met two other radicals named “PF” and Ramzi,...

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on Friday at the Munich Security Conference about the importance of international cooperation in meeting world challenges. Kerry, Barack Obama’s top diplomat from 2013 to 2017 and also the defeated presidential candidate of 2004, accused US President Donald Trump of inaction in addressing global issues such as climate change and defense spending. “The president of the US is the most powerful position in the world … but it requires the execution of that power and it hasn’t been happening …” Kerry said while speaking to DW’s Editor-in-Chief Ines Pohl. “Trump has been...

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said it's "very unfortunate" a rule change could allow his fellow presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg into the next Democratic debates. The qualifications no longer include a unique-donor threshold. "That is what being a multi-billionaire is about. Some very good friends of mine who were competing in the Democratic nomination - people like Cory Booker of New Jersey, Julián Castro - work really, really hard. Nobody changed the rules to get them in the debate," he said on "CBS This Morning" Friday. "But I guess if you're worth $60 billion, you can change the rules. I...