Free Republic

President Trump’s personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, whose office sits in front of the Oval Office and who has served as the president’s gatekeeper since Day 1 of his administration, resigned on Thursday, two people familiar with her exit said. Ms. Westerhout’s abrupt and unexpected departure came after Mr. Trump learned on Thursday that she had indiscreetly shared details about his family and the Oval Office operations she was part of at a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near Bedminster, N.J., during the president’s working vacation, according to one of the people, speaking on the condition of anonymity...

A San Bernardino school counselor was arrested Monday morning after she brought a weapon onto the campus of Paakuma’ K-8 School, according to police and school district officials. “It was locked in the employee’s personal vehicle, which was in the parking lot, which is school property,” said Linda Bardere, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino City Unified School District. “At no time was the weapon brought out or shown.” At a community meeting Tuesday evening, the school’s principal and the school district’s police chief said no direct threat was made to a student or staff member. “We don’t believe that person...

Ted Cruz said that he won't humble himself before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to smooth over the rough relationship he has developed with colleagues. "[Cruz] tells me he won't go 'on bended knee, with my hat in hand' to Mitch McConnell to unify GOP against [Trump]," FOX News's James Rosen tweeted Wednesday morning. CNN published a report Tuesday quoting Sens. John Cornyn, John Thune and Orrin Hatch as saying that Cruz should work to repair his Senate ties, and that he has work to do to earn the goodwill of his cohorts. "I think he's got some bridges to...

BALTIMORE (WJZ)– Maryland’s highest court has ruled that Baltimore City police officer William Porter must testify in the trials of five fellow officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Investigator Mike Hellgren breaks down the court’s ruling and what it means. In a huge blow for his defense, Maryland’s highest court ruled Officer William Porter must testify against all five of his co-defendants and that the remaining trials in the death of Freddie Gray can proceed. “This is a unique situation and it’s not like any other situation that we’ve seen,” said one of the judges. The ruling comes...

Did anyone else notice how badly Rubio, Bush, and Christie mangled the question of women registering for the Selective Service tonight? They all three demonstrated that they apparently don't understand what that means. Either that, or they're all heartless bastards who think that young women should be able to be forced to enter military service and die in combat. I've skipped some of the non-relevant chatter, but I've done my best to capture each candidate's response to the question. Radditz: Senator Rubio...should young women be required to sign up for Selective Service in case there's a draft? Rubio: ...I have...

Okay, so I have a high school classmate who is a leader in the black community who posts things like this all the time. He might as well come out and use the words "Uncle Tom" when he discusses Ben Carson, but memes like this are all he's got. I read this, and of course it immediately struck me that this is likely a hoax of some kind. The only "evidence" that I can find that Carson actually said this is a page from the Daily Kos website that says he did, and then a bunch of other websites that...

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was suspended after making headlines this week with some controversial comments that have set off a firestorm. During his afternoon broadcast on Tuesday, Mr. Limbaugh, responding to a caller's question, opined about the color of the sky. "Look, the daytime sky is blue. Countless books and poems have been written with references to the blue sky, and until recently, there wasn't much debate about this. Sure, there are people today who want to convince you that the sky is yellow, but all you have to do is walk outside on a sunny day, and...

“I demand justice for Trayvon Martin! Sanford PD should be ashamed of themselves.” On March 19, 2012, those were the first words I ever vocalized in regard to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. I had been driving home that day from a long day on the road, and while listening to my satellite radio, I heard for the first time the story of this young, 17 year old, unarmed kid who was walking home from the store, minding his own business, carrying nothing but a can of iced tea and some Skittles that he’d bought for his younger brother...

On the evening of February 26, 2012, at approximately 7:16PM, a white vigilante named George Zimmerman, fueled by racial animosity, called police to report that he was suspicious of an African-American child based entirely on his skin color and the hoodie sweatshirt he was wearing. George ignored clear instructions from police and chased down Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed and had been on his way back from a trip to the store to purchase iced tea and Skittles for his younger brother. Zimmerman held Trayvon at gunpoint and allowed him to scream for help for 42 seconds before Zimmerman pulled...

Lost in the gun rights debate, much to the detriment of American freedom, is the fact that the Second Amendment is in fact an "AMENDMENT". No "Articles in Amendment" to the Constitution, more commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights, stand alone and each can only be properly understood with reference to what it is that each Article in Amendment amended in the body of the original Constitution. It should not be new knowledge to any American the Constitution was first submitted to Congress on September 17, 1787 WITHOUT ANY AMENDMENTS. After much debate, it was determined that the...

I'm looking for a recommendation for a gun for my son for Christmas. Just to lay out the basics - he just turned 15 and is about 6'3" and weighs 235. Yes, he plays high school football. His mother and I have been divorced for many years, and she absolutely forbids him to have anything to do with guns in or near her home. His cousin recently received a .22 pistol, and my son's mom wouldn't let him hold it. I don't know whether she knows (but I assume she does) that he has shot my HK .40 USP along...

Raw data show Obama can’t honestly claim a good record as a job creator, but they also suggest that the wild spending growth Romney and company decry has already begun to subside under the influence of the Republican House. The outcome of the upcoming electoral battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will depend on public perceptions of the president’s economic stewardship, with particular emphasis on his performance on the all-important issue of jobs. At a May 24th campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa the president declared that “federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace...

I was watching an episode of Kitchen Nightmares last night, and I had an epiphany about this presidential election that led me to believe that Barack Hussein Obama is destined to be a one-termer. I just wanted to share my observation with you. This episode was about a restaurant called Park's Edge, in Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood. The two owners were good friends, Richard and Jorge, I believe, who found themselves with some money to burn, so they decided to open a restaurant together. Neither had any experience in the restaurant industry, although Jorge had gone to culinary school. Both...

A treasure trove of evidence was released today in the Zimmerman case. Please make special note of the embroidery on the back of Zimmerman's sweatshirt. Love it!

Talk about snail mail! The nearly 60-year journey of a postcard through at least four states is finally winding down, although the little Georgia boy whose parents wrote him during a trip to Chicago is now 71 years old. The postcard, with a picture of the Windy City's Shedd Aquarium on the front and a 2-cent stamp on the back, landed in the mailbox of Elizabeth Fulcher, of South Daytona, Fla., last week.

"Fear Factor" producers' plans to serve fresh glasses of donkey semen to contestants on the next episode had NBC execs so concerned ... they gave serious thought to killing the stunt, TMZ has learned. Sources involved in the production tell us the stomach-churning stunt was shot last summer -- but NBC honchos were having a tough time swallowing this one as the air date approached. We're told the challenge involved teams of twins drinking the full glass of donkey semen -- with a glass of urine thrown in for good measure. Contestants had to drain both glasses in order to...

Last night, I had an opportunity to go see the new movie The Undefeated at the Pleasure Island theaters near Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I was flying out this morning to go to Chicago, so it was a perfect fit for me to see the movie, then stay at my hotel near the airport for an early morning flight. Let me tell you - I am SOOOOOO glad that I took the time to see this movie! The movie is presented in three acts, and it goes into detail about Sarah Palin's rise as a small-town mayor in Wasilla,...

Like most of you, I have been defending Sarah Palin against baseless accusations since the shootings a week ago in Tucson. I have struggled to come to grips with how this guy could reach the point that he would commit such a horrific act, and how people that I considered to be friends could defend those who were so quick to attribute blame to Sarah for what the guy did. In the course of offering up a defense on my Facebook page, where I have almost 700 friends, I made this posting on Wednesday evening: If you want to see...

Overview - New Currency Institute The New Currency Institute aims to promote a deeper understanding of money and its power to reconfigure the global economy and markets for the betterment of all of humanity. It has long been a truism that money makes the world go ’round. But the quality of world we build is directly a function of the values and mindsets that humans collectively hold about money. At the New Currency Institute we see money as a function of consciousness and therefore a qualitative variable in the global financial system. By changing how we hold money, we literally...

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