Free Republic

Counter-protesters tore down a barricade Wednesday in front of Canadian National (CN) railway tracks near Edmonton, Alberta, after environmental activists erected it. The activists who blocked the tracks are opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia. But the blockade was not up for long as another group soon had the barrier down and in the back of a truck. Environmentalists have brought railway traffic to a standstill now for two weeks across Canada, bringing the threat of food and fuel shortages closer every day. The activists behind the protest are claiming to represent the interests of the Wet’suwet’en...

A look back at Ben Shapirbro debating Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during their college years.

The EU’s post-Brexit budget meeting erupted into rows with poorer countries demanding more aid while their “frugal” peers were determined to rein in spending. Brexit left the EU short of around £62 billion when Britain left the bloc last month. On Friday — after nearly 30 hours of discussions — the 27 remaining EU countries failed to agree on the overall size of the bloc’s 2021 to 2027 budget or how to spend it. Speaking after the talks in the EU’s Brussels hub, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “We have to acknowledge that the differences are too big still to...

Former Vice President Joe Biden has taken to describing his supposed arrest in South Africa at least three times in the past two weeks as he speaks to voters and seeks the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden has been claiming that he was arrested in the 1970s by South African authorities while he sought to visit Nelson Mandela in prison, The New York Times reported Friday. “This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid,” Biden told supporters in South Carolina last week, according to the Times. “I had the great honor of...

Political, legal and ethics expert, former CIA Director John Brennan declared that "President Trump has the backing of a very debased group of people." His evidence, such as it is, was Trump's public criticism of the dual legal standards being applied to liars. "For Trump to imply that the same laws should apply to sainted public servants like James Comey and low-lifes like Roger Stone is outrageous," Brennan said. "What people forget is that law enforcers like Comey are explicitly granted the right to lie if, in their opinion, it is necessary to entrap bad actors. The universal consensus of...

[Catholic Caucus] Is Pope Francis ‘angry’ with pro-LGBT priest Fr. James Martin? U.S. bishops at odds After unnamed bishops claimed the Pope felt 'used' by the priest, an archbishop has come out denying the account. SANTA FE, New Mexico, February 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― A U.S. archbishop is denying a report claiming that Pope Francis expressed anger towards Fr. James Martin at a meeting of American bishops earlier this month. The original report, published Thursday by Catholic News Agency (CNA) based on accounts from unnamed bishops who attended the meeting, sparked considerable discussion given the prominent backing Fr. Martin...

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has sparked a race row after calling for Muslim passengers to be checked at airports in a bid to prevent terror attacks, as he claimed “that is where the threat is coming from”. Mr. O’Leary said terrorists “will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion” — and that families with young children should be let through security as they are less likely to “blow” people up. The 58-year-old added that the only way to “deal with the threat” was to vet “single male” Muslims traveling on their own. The Muslim Council of Britain said the comments...

With a fundraising haul that set a January record, Republicans have a lot of money. New figures show the Republican National Committee raised $27.2 million last month, bringing its total this presidential cycle to $268.3 million, easily outdistancing Democrats’ $103.1 million. For comparison on the GOP side, the last time a Republican president was an incumbent at this stage of the campaign, the RNC raised $107 million in 2004. All this 2020 money makes RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel very happy. The RNC has burned through some money but has a reserve of $76 million. What’s more, the party doesn’t have...

As global concerns over the coronavirus outbreak grow, the U.S. is taking steps to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. ........... "We are reviewing all of our pandemic preparedness materials and adapting them to COVID-19," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday during a media briefing ................... "The materials will serve as a blueprint for the community interventions that we will use here in the U.S." ................ "That means ................."making sure health care workers have enough supplies"

  You have to see this. It just cracks me up. Wired.com was all over Trump for being a Russian agent 2018 Did Russia Affect the 2016 Election? It’s Now UndeniableIn the indictment, Trump campaign officials are referred to as “unwitting” participants in Russian information warfare. This gives the White House an out—and a chance to finally act against what the Kremlin did. But the evidence presented in the indictment makes it increasingly hard to say Russian efforts to influence the American mind were a failure. 2019. The hysteria grows Trump Must Be a Russian Agent; the Alternative Is Too...

Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a blustering dissent in an ideologically split 5-4 Supreme Court ruling released Friday night in which she accused the five conservative justices who voted in the majority of repeatedly favoring the Trump administration. The case involved an appeal by the Department of Homeland Security for an injunction in a ruling against the imposition by the administration of a “public charge rule” regarding immigrants in an Illinois case that the Court has already allowed for the other 49 states. (DHS fact sheet on public charge rule.) Sotomayor’s dissent is in the context of the growing pushback...

Social media platform Twitter said on Friday it was suspending 70 accounts of supporters of billionaire Democrat presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg’s for “spam-like” behavior. The suspension came days after the Wall Street Journal revealed that Bloomberg had hired 500 people to regularly post messages on social media supporting him. Mike Bloomberg also said Friday he would release three women from confidentiality agreements that bar them from speaking about sexual harassment or discrimination lawsuits filed against them. …

[Catholic Caucus] Chinese ‘Catholic’ Church Accepts Contraception, Abortion Government coerces Chinese Catholics to accept Culture of Death BEIJING (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) — the government-run Catholic church — is forcing Catholics to toe the party line on contraception and abortion, according to Population Research Institute President Steven Mosher. Since the Chinese communists brokered a deal with the Vatican in September 2018 — a deal that is still ambiguous and confusing even to Catholic clergy in China — authorities in Beijing have been clamping down on Chinese faithful. Viewing Catholicism as a threat to their own power, officials are demanding that faithful adhere, first...

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...

The Obama White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release December 16, 2016 (The Russians "hacked" the election) This was not some elaborate, complicated espionage scheme. They hacked into some Democratic Party emails that contained pretty routine stuff, some of it embarrassing or uncomfortable, because I suspect that if any of us got our emails hacked into, there might be some things that we wouldn’t want suddenly appearing on the front page of a newspaper or a telecast, even if there wasn’t anything particularly illegal or controversial about it. And then it just took off. And that concerns...

President Trump was furious that 14 Americans infected with the coronavirus returned to the United States without his permission rather than remain in quarantine overseas, according to a new report. Trump had been briefed that the healthy U.S. passengers who spent weeks quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan would be allowed to fly home on two chartered planes -- while those who were sick or infected would stay in Japan to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. The president became "furious" with senior advisers after learning the 14 Americans who tested positive had been put on...

On Wednesday the Bernie Sanders campaign was disappointed to learn that the nearly $6 million in campaign contributions was donated in Bolivars---Venezuelan currency. When converted to US dollars, the Sanders campaign actually raised only $22. The press marveled at how, in just 24 hours after Bernie announced his 2020 bid for president, his contributions reached such high totals. “The Bernie Bros are definitely the most passionate bunch in the progressive party,” said political analyst Doug Parson, “but typically they take other people's money, not voluntarily donating their own." “It was quite the letdown,” said Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir. “That...

 New HHS Rule Threatens Abortion Coverage Provided by ACA Insurance Plans to 20K+ DC Residents WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today joined six other Attorneys General in filing a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from threatening access to safe and legal abortion care for individuals who purchase health insurance through state health care exchanges. This coalition, led by California and New York, is challenging a new rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which unlawfully reinterprets part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The new rule imposes expensive and confusing billing requirements...

Actor Tim Allen used his hit sitcom, Last Man Standing to humorously school Democrat presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren about the dangers of socialism and how capitalism is the “recipe for economic success.” In the episode, “Baked Sale,” Allen’s Mike Baxter teaches foreign exchange student Jen (Krista Marie Yu) about the wonders of capitalism as the teenager begins running a bake sale to benefit her school geology club. In the series, Baxter is the boss of Outdoor Man, an outdoor supplies store. Allen closes each episode of the Fox show with a video blog (vlog) for his store....

WASHINGTON — SpaceX Starlink satellites will play a major role in an Air Force live-fire exercise in April, and a Virgin Galactic (SPCE) sister company is in talks to potentially join in as well. In December, the Air Force tested its experimental Advanced Battle Management System that will connect air, sea, land and space assets. The exercise was deemed an overall success, with SpaceX Starlink satellites used to link to a Lockheed Martin (LMT) AC-130 gunship. As a next step, the Air Force's April 8 event is going to be "massive," Air Force acquisition chief William Roper told reporters at...