Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s “Hire American,” low-immigration policy is giving American employees a larger share of company profits, so the federal government should raise the supply of foreign workers, according to a mournful editorial column in the Wall Street Journal. “Corporate profits have been declining as employers increase wages to hire scarce blue-collar workers … corporate profits could soon drop to historic lows, which could reduce business investment and GDP growth,” says the editorial board’s complaint, titled “America’s Disappearing Workers.” “Maybe the only short-term fix is to increase legal immigration—unless Americans want to see their living standards decline and more jobs...

<p>Photo issued Friday Feb. 21, 2020, by London's Metropolitan Police, showing Safiyya Amira Shaikh.</p> <p>LONDON (AP) — A British woman who supported the Islamic State group pleaded guilty Friday to plotting to bomb St. Paul's Cathedral and a hotelin London.</p>

Years before I ever heard of Lake Placid or the Olympics, before I knew the name of a single Russian hockey player, I was a kid in Massachusetts who wanted to be the next Bobby Orr. I grew up skating on Holmes' Pond, which took its name from our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Holmes, who owned it. A man named Phil Thompson, our postman, was the person who told me I should try organized hockey in the Easton Junior Hockey League. He had already been working on it with my mother. He was a fine postman and an even better...

<p>Michael Bloomberg’s campaign office in Knoxville, Tennessee, was vandalized Thursday evening with “Fuck Bloomberg,” “oligarch,” “classist” and “authoritarian” spraypainted on its door.</p> <p>Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey issued a statement Friday saying the vandalism “echoes language from the Sanders campaign and its supporters,” but also saying that they don’t know who’s responsible for the action.</p>

President Trump predicted chaos Friday on the eve the 2020 caucus in Nevada, saying Democrats want to win the White House and revamp health care but can’t even count. “I hear their computers are all messed up, just like they were in Iowa,” Mr. Trump told supporters at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “They can’t count votes.” Mr. Trump was referring to widespread reports that technological glitches will upend the caucus on Saturday, akin to app problems that seriously delayed caucus results in Iowa. Senior Democrats say it’s under control, but Nevada volunteers and operatives are skittish. After significant ribbing,...

Bernie Sanders’ surge in national polls and success in the early-voting states has Democratic Party elders increasingly concerned about the self-proclaimed democratic socialist’s potential to become their nominee -- as he heads into this weekend's Nevada caucuses with a massive lead and aiming to cement his front-runner status. Establishment Democrats inside and outside of Washington have sounded the alarms over Sanders’ success, warning that his nomination would pave the way for President Trump's re-election and potentially hurt Democrats' chances of maintaining the majority in the House and taking the majority in the Senate. Most recently, former Senate Majority Leader Harry...

Bernie Sanders went ballistic at NBC and MSNBC execs ahead of the Democratic debate this week — jabbing one top TV exec repeatedly in the face with his finger and accusing the networks of offensive negative coverage. Surging Sanders stormed through the walk-through for the Las Vegas debate, singling out one top producer at the end and aggressively sticking his finger in his face. One shocked witness said, “Bernie marched right up to NBC and MSNBC’s head of creative production and began jabbing his finger right in his face, yelling, ‘Your coverage of my campaign is not fair . . . Your...

During 2019, many Catholic churches were closed down for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Even state-run churches are suppressed.Torn down as “illegal buildings”On December 29, 2019, the Religious Affairs Bureau of Qishan county, administered by the prefecture-level city of Baoji in the northwestern Shaanxi Province, ordered to demolish a Catholic church in Luojiazhuang village. The church refused to be registered by the state, and was therefore suppressed for “lacking proper permits.” A local believer told Bitter Winter that before Christmas, the church’s priest, having learned that the government wanted to demolish his church, went to negotiate with...

HARRISBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, becoming the first diocese in the state to seek protection from financial claims in the aftermath of a 2018 grand jury report that revealed decades of sexual abuse and cover-up by the church’s top leaders. And, said a lawyer for the diocese, it’s not likely to be the last. Citing the fallout from that probe and recent court decisions that opened new avenues for some victims with time-barred claims to sue, attorney Matt Haverstick said Harrisburg, like each of the state’s eight other Catholic dioceses, faces the prospect...

[Catholic Caucus] Austrian diocese sues father of six for refusing to pay Church tax The father opposes the promotion of homosexuality and gender ideology, which he says is running rampant in his diocese. FELDKIRCH, Austria, February 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — The Austrian diocese of Feldkirch is taking a father of six to court for refusing to pay the Church tax. The father, who remains anonymous, argued that he could not pay the tax in good conscience because of the diocese’s involvement in the promotion of homosexuality and gender ideology. As reported by faithful Catholic news website kath.net, the father...

Ignatius Youssef slams West's 'Machiavellian opportunism' on migrationROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Syrian patriarch of Antioch is calling on Muslim-majority countries to resettle Islamic refugees and is excoriating Western religious leaders for their "political correctness" on immigration and the persecution of Christians. "Since there are Arab countries — with a Muslim majority — that have financial resources in billions and vast uninhabited territories, why not settle the refugees from the Middle East, thereby giving them temporary accommodation pending a political solution which will facilitate their return home?" asks His Beatitude Ignatius Youssef III Younan. "These countries have the space, money and...

COSTA MESA (CBSLA) – Costa Mesa is trying to block as many as 70 confirmed coronavirus patients from being transferred to the city. Federal court papers filed Friday state that the federal government plans to transfer the patients from Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento to the former Fairview Development Center on Sunday.

Hillary Clinton Apologized to FBI Over Emails, But It Was Not Recorded on FBI Interview Document! CIA, DOJ Stonewall on Existence of Eric Ciaramella Records Soros-Tied Group Run by Dem Operatives Promotes Leftist Agenda Prosecutorial Misconduct, Clinton Connection in Duncan Hunter Case Hillary Clinton Apologized to FBI Over Emails, But It Was Not Recorded on FBI Interview Document! We keep digging into the chain of events surrounding the FBI’s non-investigation of Hillary Clinton and her email misconduct. The correspondence between Peter Strzok and his lover Lisa Page is proving to be a treasure trove. We have now received 191...

WASHINGTON — In October 1985, a few months after Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that country's socialist revolution, the Soviet-backed government suspended the civil liberties of its citizens, including the rights to free speech, free assembly and labor strikes. A few days later, Sanders, then the socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermont, received a pointed letter from a constituent. How, the letter-writer wanted to know, could Sanders continue to embrace a "another in a long line of dictatorships, whose only true concern is its length of stay in power"? In a written reply, Sanders —...

The Hollywood actor and director was staying at a hotel owned by Steve Wynn, the casino billionaire. "Steve called me up in the room and said, 'Do you want to go play golf? We're going out with Trump.' I said, 'Who?' and Steve said, 'Trump. You know Trump?' " So Messrs. Eastwood and Wynn ventured out for a morning on the course with Donald Trump. "It was funny," Mr. Eastwood says, "because every time I was together with Steve"—with the future president out of earshot—"he would say, 'You know, Trump is doing those damn casinos. He's going to lose his...

We have taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam,” a Twitter spokesman said. Some of the suspensions will be permanent, while in other cases account owners will have to verify they have control of their accounts. As part of a far-reaching social media strategy, the Bloomberg campaign has hired hundreds of temporary employees to pump out campaign messages through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These “deputy field organizers” receive $2,500 per month to promote the former New York mayor’s candidacy within their personal social circles, in addition to other, more conventional...

Washington Democrats are in full-blown panic over the highly possible nomination of Socialist Bernie Sanders. They ought to be: Sanders represents a relatively small portion of the Democrat voting base, is proposing ideas which are radical and destructive even for the fiscally-irresponsible Democrats, and when pitted against Donald Trump, could win fewer than two hundred electoral votes. Sanders represents everything that would destroy the United States from its very core, but his popularity and threat to Democrats’ viability for years to come rests at the Democrats’ very feet.

Another Friday Night classic! Enjoy FReepers.

A consultant for Burisma Holdings and associate of Hunter Biden reached out to the State Department to meet about "troubling events" in Ukraine. Emails released by the State Department show communications between Sally Painter, a consulting representative for the Ukrainian gas company, and William Russo, the top aide of former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken in 2016. In one email in June, Painter requested a meeting with Blinker to discuss events in Ukraine. “Per my conversation with Tony at the Truman event, Karen Tramontano and I would like to have a brief coffee with Tony at his earliest convenience...

A consultant for Burisma with links to Hunter Biden approached a top State Department official in June 2016 to discuss “troubling events” in Ukraine, according to newly released State Department emails. Consultant Sally Painter of Blue Star Strategies was at the time working with Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company, to quash corruption investigations into the firm. Painter approached then-deputy secretary of state Tony Blinken at an event for the Truman National Security Project, and sent an email to Blinken’s top aide three days later requesting a second meeting with the deputy secretary. “Per my conversation with Tony at the...