Free Republic

With the passage of the GOP tax bill this week, the Trump administration has scored 81 major achievements in its first year, making good on campaign promises to provide significant tax cuts, boost U.S. energy production, and restore respect to the United States, according to the White House. And along the way, President Trump even outdid his own expectations and slashed at least 11 major legacy items of former President Barack Obama, including cracking down on the open border, slowing recognition of communist Cuba and effectively killing Obamacare by ending the mandate that everyone have health insurance or face a...

The acquittal of an illegal immigrant charged with murdering Kate Steinle in San Francisco two years ago has led to cries on social media for a border wall and now. The handle #KatesWall has exploded on Twitter and comes after President Trump and several of his top aides have demanded Congress to react by funding a border wall. It is also popular on Facebook. What’s more, it has led to anti-immigration advocates to push for funding of the wall and defunding of sanctuary cities like San Francisco in the upcoming spending bill. Democrats have vowed to fight the added money...

More voters than not find the Big Three network newscasts and the nation’s three largest liberal newspapers "untrustworthy," continuing a trend that started long before President Trump hit the scene, but one that has escalated since he moved into the White House. The latest Zogby Poll found that 48 percent believe the media biggies - CBS, ABC, NBC, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post - are untrustworthy while 45 percent said they could trust them. The rest were unsure. [Snip] Trump voters are the most distrusting of the top six news outlets, but there are many other differences,...

Congress was warned Thursday that North Korea is capable of attacking the U.S. today with a nuclear EMP bomb that could indefinitely shut down the electric power grid and kill 90 percent of "all Americans" within a year. At a House hearing, experts said that North Korea could easily employ the "doomsday scenario" to turn parts of the U.S. to ashes. In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, the experts testified that an explosion of a high-altitude nuclear bomb delivered by a missile or satellite "could be to shut down the U.S....

Over just one month of player, coach and owner protests of the flag and National Anthem, the National Football League has gone from America's sport to the least liked of top professional and college sports, according to a new poll. From the end of August to the end of September, the favorable ratings for the NFL have dropped from 57 percent to 44 percent, and it has the highest unfavorable rating -- 40 percent -- of any big sport, according to the Winston Group survey provided exclusively to Secrets. Worse for football, which was already seeing lower TV ratings and...

Most of the top political polls that got the 2016 presidential race dead wrong are continuing to use a flawed methodology in rating President Trump's approval ratings that favors Democrats, women and younger voters, according to a new analysis. The report shows that the mainstream polls oversample an average of 29 percent more Democrats than Republicans and the results skew anti-Trump. The result is that it robs Trump of about 8 points in his approval ratings, from 46 percent to 38 percent, it said. And, said the report from Bombthrowers.com, one outfit, the Economist, used 58 percent more Democrats than...

A survey of over 65,000 seniors has found that virtually all -- 99.2 percent -- believe the media wants President Trump to fail, the latest condemnation of the president's coverage. A Survey Monkey poll also found that most, 71 percent, back Trump's reelection and many believe that he is making good on his campaign promises. The survey by the same company that conducts polls for major media outlets was done for the Association of Mature American Citizens, a more conservative alternative to AARP. The survey asked members 10 questions and found wide support for the president and his policies. It...

The Alabama GOP Senate runoff, now less than one month away, has turned nasty, with incumbent Sen. Luther Strange and front-runner former Judge Roy Moore throwing off the gloves for a bare knuckled brawl. This week, Strange, appointed to the seat vacated by Attorney Jeff Sessions and backed by the GOP establishment and President Trump, threw the first punch in a blast at Moore as "another hypocritical politician." ... During the recent GOP primary, won by the conservative Moore, outside groups led the attack with the blessing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Now Strange is directing the fire against...

During the Obama era up to 200,000 deportation cases were "administratively closed" without action, a move that left tens of thousands of illegal immigrants free to roam America, sometimes indefinitely, according to a new report. When added to those cases still pending court action, it brings the backlog of cases to about 800,000, far more than previously known. In the report for the Center for Immigration Studies, former immigration judge Andrew R. Arthur said that there are some 100,000 cases that were closed, but told Secrets that it could be as high as 200,000. "My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest at least...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's actions before and after the deadly weekend race clashes in Charlottesville are coming under fire amid calls for an independent review to determine if politics played a role. Former Republican Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore on Tuesday raised new questions about Richmond's involvement in the riots the claimed three lives and said the public "needs to know" if the state and city had taken the proper precautions to avoid the clashes and if police were told to stand down. The ACLU said McAuliffe was using the group as a scapegoat. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner) In an interview with...

President Trump has a higher approval rating than virtually every other leader in Washington, a little reported fact that emerged in a new survey of the nation's political officials. According to a Zogby Analytics poll, the president's approval rating is higher than for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. It's even better than for Congress. Only Defense Secretary James Mattis has a higher rating than the president, 43 percent to Trump's 41 percent in the Zogby survey. The full approval rating list: President Trump - 41% Defense...

Amid warnings that North Korea and Iran have plans to take out parts of the U.S. electric grid through a cyber attack or atmospheric nuclear blast, the Pentagon is taking steps to both protect the nation's communications and power lifeline. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has charged BAE Systems to map a system that can detect a cyber attack and gin up an alternative communications network for military and civilian use if the grid is fried, according to Defense Systems, the online newsletter. Former CIA Director James Woolsey has been warning for years that the grid is extremely vulnerable,...

A group known for its successes fighting digital wars, notably net neutrality, is offering $15,000 to activists who quit their jobs and form "A-Teams" to jump into a war on President Trump's agenda. Fight for the Future, started in 2011 as a digital activist group, on Monday issued the offer with this eye-catching opening: "Terrified about Trump? Quit your job, start an A-Team. We'll fund it." "We're currently taking applications for an initial launch of the project, and will be providing a few select teams with funding, guidance, and support," said Evan Greer, campaign director for Fight for the Future....

President Trump has succeeded in picking the most conservative Cabinet of the modern era, and possibly ever, even besting the team put together by former President Reagan, according to a scorecard from the American Conservative Union, host of the annual CPAC convention. ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp told Secrets that Trump's team, made up in part with House and Senate lawmakers graded by the group over the years, has a 91.52 percent conservative rating, significantly surpassing Reagan's by 28 points.

They're wealthy and they are among the biggest age groups to fill movie theaters, but many seniors have had it with Hollywood's political hate speech and they are threatening a boycott if the Oscars, as expected, turn into a Trump bashing affair Sunday.

President Trump's agenda, which is winning public support, is doing wonders for congressional approval ratings, now at the highest level since Barack Obama was in his first year in office. A new Gallup survey revealed a one-month 12 point surge to 28 percent and a massive 50-point approval rating among Republicans apparently satisfied with House and Senate efforts to back up the president.

The queen of conservative talk radio, Laura Ingraham, is eyeing a Senate run in Virginia and a challenge to Hillary Clinton's running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine. Knowledgeable sources said that several party insiders have approached the media giant to run and that she is considering it. In preparation for a bid, her business partner, Peter Anthony, has begun buying website domains for Ingraham to use should she decide to move forward. It includes: ingrahamsenate.net, ingrahamsenate.com, ingrahamforvirginia.com and ingraham2018.com. Ingraham wouldn't comment on any run. While it would be considered an uphill fight, Ingraham brings her well-known personality and several influential...

President-elect Donald Trump is set to blow up the White House briefing room, ending the cozy relationship and practices of the past as he seizes on new ways to communicate with his nearly 45 million social media followers, according to incoming Press Secretary Sean Spicer. "Business as usual is over," he said.

Foreign ministers of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras met this week to address concerns about President-elect Trump's plan to deport illegals, mostly those with criminal records. Their goal: Calm the fears of illegals, help them avoid deportation, and keep the flood of money they send home going. Mexico and Guatemala announced plans to expand immigration services at their dozens of offices in the United States.

Obama sets new record for regulations, 527 pages in just one day By @SecretsBedard) • 11/17/16 12:14 PM President Obama has just set a new record for rules and regulations, his administration spitting out 527 pages worth in just one day, as he races to put his fingerprint on virtually every corner of American life and business. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the administration has just shattered the old record for pages of regulations and rules published by the in-house journal, the Federal Register. At 81,640 total pages for 2016, it ranks first and 235 pages more than all...