Free Republic

Earth as seen from satellites as abstract art. Images are gentle landscape abstractions. Telemann, Concerto In D Major For 3 Trumpets. 3rd movement, Adagio.

If one overall concept drives national security decisions in Washington, it is that technology in the form of highly complex, and thus massively expensive, weapons along the lines of the F-35 stealth fighter, the B-21 Raider long-range strike bomber, and Ford-class aircraft carriers are needed to accomplish our strategic goals. We saw this with the president’s $705.4 billion defense budget request that includes $2.8 billion for the new bomber and $11.4 billion for the troubled fighter. The advocates of these programs often justify the cost associated with them by saying that their mere existence holds our potential adversaries at bay....

The Republican Party has nearly eight times as much cash-on-hand as the Democratic Party in the heat of the 2020 primary season. According to the latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) data released Thursday, covering Jan. 1 through Jan. 31, the Republican National Committee has $76 million cash-on-hand compared with the Democratic National Committee’s $9.9 million. “Record breaking support for this president and his policies continues to grow as we head full-force into this presidential election year,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to Fox News. “Across the country, Americans are choosing President Trump’s record of results over Democrats’...

LAS VEGAS, NV—Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg took quite a beating in last night's debate and was rushed to a nearby Las Vegas hospital. Of course, a normal-sized hospital and normal-sized ambulance are far too large for the miniature billionaire, so he was rushed to a very tiny hospital in a very tiny ambulance. Bloomberg was quickly wheeled out to a Hot Wheels ambulance on a cute little stretcher where he was then driven to The Las Vegas Center For People Who Need Medical Attention And Want To Get Some Emergency Care Too, which is small enough to be a "hospital...

An FBI affidavit said a Russian government official tasked Hector Cabrera Fuentes, 35, with tracking down a vehicle owned by a U.S. government informantA Mexican scientist accused of spying for Russia in Miami will be detained without bail for now, a federal judge decided Friday. The temporary public defender for 35-year-old Hector Cabrera Fuentes said he agreed to remain in jail while his family works to hire a private lawyer. “If your circumstances change, you could certainly request a bond at a later date,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley told Cabrera at a brief hearing. “We do expect that you...

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern at the number of coronavirus cases with no clear link to China or other confirmed cases.

LAS VEGAS, NV—Local pigeon Claude Beaker was proudly wearing his new MAGA hat in downtown Vegas. "The economy is good, and there's lots of leftover bread crumbs and stuff for us pigeons," Beaker told reporters. "Trump has some personal moral failings, but the economy is doing well, and that's what matters for the fowl members of society." But sadly, just a few hours later, Beaker was brutally attacked in broad daylight by the dreaded domestic terrorist group Pigeon Antifa. Clad in ski masks and bandanas, the pigeons swooped in and threw tiny bricks and adorable little Molotov cocktails at Beaker....

A: Electricity.

President Trump said late Thursday that he is considering Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., for the permanent Director of National Intelligence job, a move that could resolve a mini-crisis in the GOP surrounding Collins' challenge against incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., in Georgia's upcoming special election. Yet Collins told Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo on Friday morning that while he's humbled by the possible offer, he is focused on running for Senate and would not accept the job. "This is not a job that interests me, at this time it's not one that I would accept because I'm running a Senate...

A unique "police chase" unfolded Thursday afternoon at the Sacramento Executive Airport. A coyote spotted on the airfield led a Sacramento police helicopter on a "chase." It appeared like the helicopter was trying to herd the coyote off the runways and back into the surrounding areas.

Gay Marriage Was Always Leading To PolygamyThe Utah state Senate voted this week unanimously to decriminalize polygamy. It is a development every social conservative saw coming.February 21, 2020 By David Marcus The Utah state Senate this week unanimously voted to decriminalize polygamy, knocking it down from a felony to a minor civil infraction. Though not quite legal yet, the practice of having multiple spouses is well on its way there, and let’s face it, now that marriage has already been redefined to suit the nature of our times, what could possibly stand in the way of fully legal and recognized...

Democrats competing for the White House have introduced plans that could offer citizenship for the 2 million undocumented immigrants who call the Golden State home. Some of the proposals would go further than the protections California has already offered, which include health care for young undocumented immigrants and a 2017 “sanctuary” law that limits local police departments’ interactions with federal immigration enforcement officers.

California, Nebraska and Illinois are the only U.S. states that can currently test for coronavirus, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) told Reuters. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week said some of the testing kits sent to U.S. states and at least 30 countries produced "inconclusive" results due to a flawed component and the CDC planned to send replacement materials to make the kits work. The CDC has set up surge testing capacity until new testing kits become available, said Scott Becker, the executive director of APHL, which represents public health laboratories in the...

Japan’s space agency has approved a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday. The Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, spacecraft will attempt to return the first specimens from Phobos for analysis in laboratories on Earth, where scientists hope to trace the origins of the Martian moons to determine whether they were asteroids captured by Mars, or if they formed out of rocky debris generated from an ancient impact on Mars. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and other Japanese government...

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said that the Democratic presidential candidate who has a plurality — but not the majority — of pledged delegates coming into the Democratic National Convention in July shouldn't automatically win the party's nomination for president. "Here is how I feel about this: I do not think that anybody — Bernie Sanders or anyone else — should simply get the nomination because they have 30 percent of the delegates and no one else has that many," the longtime senator told The Washington Post. Continuing, Reid said: “Let’s say that he has 35...

African turquoise killifish can put themselves into a state of suspended animation as an embryo, a process known as diapause African turquoise killifish can put themselves into a state of suspended animation as an embryo (Image: MDI Biological Laboratory) ===================================================================== A fish that can halt the process of ageing and survive out of water for years could help humans track down the fountain of youth, researchers have claimed. African turquoise killifish can put themselves into a state of suspended animation as an embryo, a characteristic known as diapause. The trend is thought to have emerged in response to seasonal changes...

I had a perfectly healthy child a year ago, and that perfectly healthy child has been altered and destroyed for absolutely no good reason,’ Rob Hoogland says. For the past 11 months, Robert Hoogland, a father in Surrey, British Columbia, has been forced to watch as his 14 year-old daughter was “destroyed and sterilized” by court-ordered testosterone injections. After losing his legal appeal to stop the process in January, Rob (previously anonymized as “Clark” or “CD”) is making a desperate attempt to bring his case into the courts of public opinion, even though it breaks a court order demanding his...

Former Vice President Joe Biden defended the nearly 800 unelected superdelegates that will vote in extra rounds of voting that could be triggered if no Democratic presidential candidate wins a majority of delegates, arguing in favor of a brokered convention. The Democratic National Convention in July could feature a contested convention, which features additional rounds of voting past the state primaries and caucuses. The extra voting should take place if no candidate wins a majority of delegates, Biden argued during a CNN town hall on Thursday night. “Say you got to get over 1,900 delegates, that’s the deal,” Biden said,...

If you grew up in the 1980s, Steven Spielberg’s movies articulated the American dream. It has come to this with one of his children. Excerpts: Steven Spielberg’s daughter Mikaela has launched a new career as an adult entertainer, The Sun can reveal. In an exclusive interview Mikaela Spielberg, 23, who was adopted as a baby by the legendary film director and his wife Kate Capshaw, told how she has already started self producing solo porn videos – and says she would love to land a job as a dancer in a strip club once she obtains her sex worker license.

Iran confirmed 13 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total in the country to 18. Seven people with the flu-like virus were diagnosed in Qom, four people in Tehran and two in Gilan. The small outbreak in Iran has been linked to a case in Canada and another infection of a 45-year-old woman in Lebanon after those patients traveled to the Middle East nation. rld health officials still have a chance to contain the virus, he said, but it’s getting less likely by the day. Iran’s health-care system has the “basic capacity” to detect and contain the coronavirus, said Dr. Jaouad...