Free Republic

The United States is committed to ensuring the exit of Kurdish forces from the area of northern Syria west of the Euphrates river, and will work with Turkey to do so as soon as possible, senior officials from the U.S. State Department have said. The officials’ statements to press officials seemed rather vague compared to the precisely described plans announced by Turkish officials, however, particularly on the time frame for the withdrawal. The two unnamed U.S. State Department officials held the press briefing via teleconference on Tuesday, covering in depth the U.S.-Turkish Working Group on Syria and the agreement announced...

I know this might turn into an uncomfortable thread. First off, i'm in my mid-40's. I don't even really know why i'm posting this. However, i have this "pull" to construct my final resting accommodations. OK, let me flash forward a little bit... I loved my grandfather dearly. He was a man of very few words, and a lot of hard work; he was a sharecropper. I was always in awe of him. When i was a very young man, 7-ish, he started to teach me woodworking. He taught me; he made things with his hands with me. He showed...

SACRAMENTO — California has permanently scrapped its high school exit exam under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday. The California High School Exit Examination was a requirement to receive a diploma in the state, but the legislature voted in 2015 to drop it for the high school classes of 2015 to 2018. Diplomas were retroactively awarded to anyone who met all other graduation requirements after the test became a mandatory must-pass exam in 2004. That resulted in an estimated 40,000 former high school students receiving their diplomas. The bill signed by Brown, AB830 by Ash Kalra, D-San Jose,...

https://youtu.be/Wc0Sdn-NPIE This is an interesting showcase of LEFTIST thought. Emotional, not thought through, and enslaving of others. This is one of the first times I have seen something that I have been thinking of for a long time, has been said out loud: That the Elite in the Western world and California in particular want to restructure society on a medieval framework of Elites and Serfs (slaves). First Things Journal this month also has an author mention this in an article called "The Age of Concentration By Eugene Voldoazkin. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/06/the-age-of-concentration On Carlson's show this man dismissed the middle class and...

Exit, the Switzerland-based organization that helps those with incurable illnesses to end their lives, has commissioned a working group to look into the possibility of extending its remit to help elderly people who are still in good health but want to die. At the moment, Exit offers its services to those who have a terminal illness, a debilitating disease that brings intolerable suffering, or multiple age-related debilitating disabilities. On Saturday Saskia Frei, president of the German-speaking arm of the organization, announced it would fund a working group to look into extending Exit’s services to healthy elderly people who wish to...

Bill Introduced To Leave The United Nations The Republicans are wasting no time helping President Donald Trump deliver on his promises that he made will campaigning to be President of the United States.Recently a bill was introduced by Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers called the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017 which is in response to his call earlier this month for the United States to sever all ties ties from the United Nations. As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2016 From The Business Insider: The bill, titled the American...

George Stephanopoulos’ Wife Tells ‘The View’ Their Daughters Are Scared After Election BY: Nick Bolger December 13, 2016 4:09 pm Ali Wentworth, the wife of ABC host George Stephanopoulos, said Tuesday on “The View” that the couple’s teenage daughters are scared following Donald Trump’s election victory. While discussing the 2016 presidential election with the hosts of ABC’s show “The View,” Wentworth described how her daughters were handling Hillary Clinton’s loss. “I have an eleven-year-old daughter who doesn’t really understand what ISIS is but she knows that she is scared and she is now sleeping in bed with us every night,”...

After announcing her ambitions to join the presidential race earlier this year, Le Pen used the UK’s June decision to leave the European Union to her advantage, promising to hold a similar ‘Frexit’ referendum if elected. “The British had the courage to choose independence despite all the prophets of doom,” she said. “This referendum on France belonging to the European Union, I will do it. Yes it is possible to change things. Look at the Brits, they chose their destiny, they chose independence,” Le Pen said. “We can again be a free, proud and independent people.” Quoting: [link to www.rt.com...

British politicians, including strong advocates of the Leave campaign, say there’s no rush in starting the process to exit the European Union. The people had their say Thursday, voting 52 percent to 48 per cent in favor of parting ways with the EU, giving the British government the green light to begin ‘divorce’ proceedings. However, there is a sense of reluctance on the part of many, including Brexit-backer Boris Johnson, even to consider invoking Article 50 for some time yet. Johnson, who was vocal on what he called the “anti-democratic absurdities of the EU” during the campaign, says there’s no rush...

BRUSSELS: EU chiefs on Friday told Britain to start negotiations to quit the bloc "as soon as possible", after outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron said he would leave the negotiations to his successor. "We now expect the United Kingdom government to give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible, however painful that process may be," said a joint statement after Britons voted for a Brexit . "Any delay would unnecessarily prolong uncertainty." The statement was issued by EU president Donald Tusk, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Parliament leader Martin Schulz and Dutch premier Mark...

Who turned out in today's South Carolina Republican primary and what motivated their votes? For all the answers, bookmark this page or save it in the ABC News app now and come back shortly after 5 p.m. ET for the first wave of South Carolina primary exit poll results. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET. The ABC News Analysis Desk will be updating this page with live analysis of the exit polls.

Passengers arriving at Kennedy Airport on an international flight were allowed to exit the busy hub without going through Customs -- for at least the second time in recent months, the Daily News has learned. Bumbling airline and security officials let travelers on American Airlines Flight 1223 from Cancun, Mexico, out of the airport on Monday morning without having their passports or bags checked, sources told The News. The security lapse mirrored a similar incident involving another American Airlines flight in November. A 34-year-old man who had been in Cancun to attend three Phish concerts told The News he was...

In unmistakable ways over the last two weeks, whether he has intended to or not, Donald J. Trump has started to articulate a way out of the presidential race: a verbal parachute that makes clear he has contemplated the factors that would cause him to end his bid. It is a prospect that many in the political establishment have privately predicted as the actual voting grows closer. In three separate television interviews, Mr. Trump, who has made his standing in the polls a central facet of his campaign message, spoke about what would prompt him to quit a race in...

About a year ago news headlines announced that vast numbers of Mormons were leaving the Mormon Church. While that is perhaps considered old news today, for Mormons who are struggling with their faith it is very relevant. This 9-minute video, “Leaving Mormonism,” looks at some of the struggles and triumphs of Mormons who asked themselves some hard questions and...found peace in the answers. Leaving Mormonism from Andy Poland on Vimeo.

One of the most fascinating characteristics of government borrowing - whether at the local, state, or federal level - is that debts contracted over time are obligations tied to specific geographical boundaries but not to the citizens living there when those debts were incurred. For example, while it's customary to say that each of the 210,000 residents of Stockton, California, are on the hook for their share of the bankrupt municipality's estimated $700 million in unpaid bills, the day one of them picks up and moves, personal responsibility for that debt drops to zero.

ON THE EVE OF HER DEPARTURE FROM CONGRESS, WE ASK LYNN WOOLSEY ABOUT HER 20 YEARS AS ONE OF THE MOST LIBERAL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRESS, AND HER ROLE AS LIGHTNING ROD FOR RIGHT-WING CRITICS... "My colleagues say, 'You know Lynn Woolsey--she believes in a perfect world!' I say, if we don't believe in a perfect world, and don't strive to attain it, we won't get close to a world that's safe for our children and our grandchildren," Lynn Woolsey says incredulously. She's sitting in an unused conference room at the Marin Civic Center, lit only by the dim...

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After a Spanish exit from the euro, there would be nothing left to exit from. I’ve never actually heard the term “total emergency” before, at least not in the context of global economics. It sounds like the title of a disaster movie. When it is uttered in sober tones by the elder statesman of an advanced democracy to describe his country’s financial condition, the effect is rather startling. The man who delivered this apocalyptic judgment, former Spanish prime minister Felipe González, being a socialist, might be expected to detest austerity programmes that require cuts to government spending. But there seemed...

In what many would say is a parallel to the “Wise Men of Chelm," Knesset Members in 2005 said it is “ridiculous” to think terrorists will hit Ashkelon after the exit from Gaza. Arutz Sheva now presents a video of an Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) television in 2009, when the IDF entered Gaza in the counterterrorist Cast Lead campaign against terroroists, aired a Channel Two program, in which Amit Segal viewed promising speeches in 2005 on behalf of the “Disengagement” program to exit Gaza. VIDEO

People are still voting. Polls don't close for another hour. Please, refrain from posting any exit polling data.