Free Republic

Rep. Matt Gaetz stood by his move to sport an enormous gas mask to protect himself from coronavirus — even during a House floor vote on funding for the public health emergency. “Look, members of Congress are human petri dishes,” Gaetz (R-Fla.) told TMZ, “We fly through the dirtiest airports, we touch everyone we meet, so if anyone’s gonna get coronavirus, it’s totally gonna be Congress.” Walking toward a congressional office building, the Florida Republican offered the outlet more examples of the risks politicians face because of their exposure to constituents. “We shake hands, we kiss babies, we touch everybody’s...

America is at a crossroads. I realize we say this nearly every election cycle, but I truly believe this time it is very real. The rise of Bernie Sanders and the ensuing chaos in the Democrat party is indicative of this opinion. Watching second amendment rights getting squashed under the boot of state government in Virginia is indicative of this opinion. Watching California descend into the hell that comes from a one-party super majority is indicative of this opinion. We are now faced with deciding how we want this nation to proceed – as a nanny state in which a...

A Bangladeshi national formally residing in Tapachula, Mexico, pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to smuggle aliens from Mexico into the United States.Mohamad Milon Hossain, 39, admitted that from March 2017 to June 2019, he conspired to bring, and brought, Bangladeshi nationals to the United States at the Texas border in exchange for payment.  Hossain operated out of Tapachula, Mexico, where he maintained a hotel that housed aliens on their way to the United States.  Hossain provided plane tickets and other assistance for the aliens to travel from Tapachula to Monterrey, Mexico where co-conspirator Moktar Hossain assisted...

Two former executives of EarthWater Limited (EarthWater), a Dallas-based company, were charged in a superseding indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud and obstruction of justice.Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox of the Northern District of Texas and Inspector in Charge Delany DeLeon-Colón of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group in Washington, D.C., made the announcement.Beth Ellen DeGroot, 60, and Harley E. “Buddy” Barnes III, 61, both of Plano, Texas, were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and...

Mental health professionals who have expressed concern over what they see as Donald Trump’s declining faculties say that similar fears about Joe Biden’s are overblown. “A few stumbled words are not the same as the extreme danger that result from a list of signs that Donald Trump has shown,” Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist on the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine, told Yahoo News, “and none of them apply to Joe Biden.” Yet since Biden’s reemergence as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Lee has been flooded by requests to assess the former vice president’s string of stumbles...

The founder of a Russian bank was arrested last week in London in connection with an indictment charging him with filing false tax returns, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson for the Northern District of California, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter.  The Sept. 26, 2019, indictment was unsealed today. According to the indictment, Oleg Tinkov was the indirect majority shareholder of a branchless online bank that provided its customers with financial and bank services.  The indictment alleges as a result...

President Donald Trump and a group of GOP senators quickly rejected a DACA amnesty deal pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday afternoon – but left the door open to future negotiations. They will now wait until after the Supreme Court decides on the legality of Barack Obama’s work permit giveaway to 800,000 younger illegals, says multiple media reports. The quick amnesty pitch by Graham (R-SC) was rejected when GOP Senators urged Trump to wait until the court releases its decision, due by June. The court’s decision may give Trump more leverage as he tries to get an immigration reform...

"Miracles" is a song written by Marty Balin and originally recorded by Jefferson Starship, appearing on its 1975 album Red Octopus. "Miracles" peaked at number 3 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest-charting single the band ever recorded under the name Jefferson Starship or its previous incarnation Jefferson Airplane. Jefferson Starship - "Miracles"

The country has called upon Washington to pull back and stop infringing upon its sovereignty after the unprecedented action. China is disputing the missile destroyer USS Wayne E Meyer’s presence within 12 nautical miles of two reefs it has laid claim to. Fiery Cross and Mischief reefs are the two biggest artificial islands in the disputed Spratlys. This was the first time a US warship had challenged Chinese outposts at the same time. Spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command, Colonel Li Huamin, accused the US of “acting as a hegemony in ignorance of the international laws and...

Time magazine has chosen 100 "Women of the Year," selecting one trailblazing woman to represent each year from 1920 to 2019. It's a distinctive way to celebrate Women's History Month, but it's also an acknowledgement that for many years, women's contributions were systematically overlooked. For 72 years, Time's most anticipated cover was called "Man of the Year" — until 1999, when the magazine changed the title to "Person of the Year." Still, the male trend continued, and most of the people chosen for "Person of the Year" have been, in fact, men. So, as a reparation of sorts, Time is...

YAROSLAVL, Russia — The mayor of Burlington, Vt., wrote to a Soviet counterpart in a provincial city that he wanted the United States and the Soviet Union to “live together as friends.” Unbeknown to him, his desire for friendship meshed with the efforts of Soviet officials in Moscow to “reveal American imperialism as the main source of the danger of war.” That mayor was Bernie Sanders, and the story of his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union has been told before. But many of the details of Mr. Sanders’s Cold War diplomacy before and after that visit — and the...

Sequoia Capital, a top Silicon Valley venture capital firm, issued a "black swan" warning on Thursday about the Covid-19 outbreak. In a memo to Sequoia founders, employees, and CEOs of its portfolio companies, it provided "guidance on how to ensure the health of their business while dealing with potential business consequences of the spreading effects of the coronavirus." Time - Sequoia - Warning - RIP - Good The last time Sequoia sent out a warning like this, it was titled "RIP. Good Times," and sent to its portfolio companies with some tips for surviving the 2008 financial crisis. Sequoia calls...

ICE announced Friday that it had defied a California sanctuary law and arrested a repeat-felon illegal immigrant outside of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice this week, prompting angry denunciations from local officials. The arrest is the latest escalation between the Trump administration and California over immigration enforcement, with the feds pushing back hard on the state’s sanctuary policies through lawsuits, subpoenas, and now flouting the state’s own laws. ICE said it had tried eight times to get local authorities to turn over the man, who was not identified by name, but each time those “detainer” requests were rebuffed. So they...

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of StatePress Briefing RoomWashington, D.C.March 5, 2020 SECRETARY POMPEO:  Good morning, everyone.  I know you’re happy to see me twice in two weeks.  (Laughter.)QUESTION:  More.  More.SECRETARY POMPEO:  More, yes.  (Laughter.)MS ORTAGUS:  You never say that about me.QUESTION:  All the time, Morgan.SECRETARY POMPEO:  I just returned from Doha.  I’ll talk about that in just a minute.  Then tomorrow I’ll be in New York at the United Nations.  I wanted to give you an update on a number of situations where America is once again serving as a force for good around the world.Let’s start with our efforts,...

VIENNA - A three-year honeymoon between OPEC and Russia ended in acrimony on Friday after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus and OPEC responded by removing all limits on its own production. Oil prices plunged 10% as the development revived fears of a 2014 price crash, when Saudi Arabia and Russia fought for market share with U.S. shale oil producers, which have never participated in output limiting pacts. Brent has lost about a third of its value this year, tumbling towards $45 a barrel, its lowest since 2017, putting oil-dependent nations and...

The coronavirus outbreak’s effect on airlines threatens to become as severe as the blow dealt by the Great Recession. Already, travel demand is dropping, and airlines are drastically reducing flight capacity while offering new waivers to passengers. If the virus spreads more extensively, the plunge in air travel could amount to $113 billion in lost revenue for the world’s airlines, about one-fifth of their annual total, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Thursday. That’s on par with the effect of the 2008-09 recession and worse than the SARS outbreak in 2003. “The turn of events as a result of COVID-19...

Today, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber authorized an investigation into the alleged activities of the Taliban and U.S. and Afghan personnel related to Afghanistan. This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body. It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan – the best chance for peace in a generation. Indeed, the Afghan government, itself, pleaded with the ICC to not take this course. But the ICC politicians had other goals. The United States is...

It’s the punch you don’t see coming, goes the boxer’s adage, that knocks you out. Hypersonic missiles are that latest military punch. Fast, yes. But more importantly, unpredictable, slipping past the digital eyes of military tech that watches for ballistic haymakers swinging out into space, not for glide vehicles skipping along the edge of the atmosphere. Pentagon officials said on March 2 they are setting up a “hypersonic war room” to ensure that the U.S. industrial base is up to the task. The same day, the Secretary of the Army said they will test-fire two missiles this year as the...

Leave it to the liberal media to take the good news of the February jobs report and try to throw cold water on it as quickly as possible by pounding on coronavirus fears. MSNBC's Maddow Blog, NBC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post all wrote liberal spin stories on the latest jobs report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job numbers showed that the economy added a whopping 273,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, smashing expectations. MSNBC's Maddowblog headlined their March 6 report “Great jobs report doesn't fully reflect coronavirus outbreak,” while NBC News went with, “Ahead of...

An Italian politician on Wednesday gave 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg some fatherly advice to go back to school. Pietro Fiocchi, a member of the European Parliament, said Thunberg should consider going back to school during a meeting of the Environment Council at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The Italian politician began by thanking Thunberg for her “important role in raising public awareness on this fundamental topic.” “At the same time, I would like to give an advice as a father gives an advice to a daughter — go back to school and go back to a normal...