Free Republic

Could Danny Cevallos’ days at MSNBC be numbered? The question arises because he has–twice by my count–had the temerity to confound liberal thinking on Joy Reid’s show. Back in February, we noted Cevallos gently explaining to Reid that her suggestion that payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal could be “bribes” was wrong. If that was a gutsy thing for Cevallos to do, he took things a giant step further today. For many liberals, abortion is the ultimate issue, and Roe v. Wade the sacred cow. But Cevallos had the audacity to flatly assert: “Anyone–people on both sides would agree...

Xanax for patient Karem—stat! Make it a double. . . Brian Karem, then a Playboy reporter, made his liberal-media bones by haranguing Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the White House press room last year. CNN rewarded Karem for his outburst my naming him an “analyst.” This morning, Karem put on the kind of performance that CNN is paying him for, waxing apocalyptic about the future of the environment and the EPA under Scott Pruitt and his successor, Andrew Wheeler. Excerpts from Karem’s wery, wery scared statement: “[Pruitt] destroyed the EPA . . . People I’ve known in the EPA for 20...

Punctuated by a massive ground barrage and numerous air strikes late Wednesday (July 4th) the Assad regime forces of the Syrian Arab Army and supporting militias relaunched their offensive in the Deraa region. Today (July 5th) pro-government sources say the town of Saida was taken back from opposition forces enabling the government troops to move southwards towards the Jordanian border including the Nassib crossing on the M5 highway. But intense fighting continues to the northwest of Deraa city at Tafas, where an ISIS affiliated force is resisting the government offensive. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that there must...

High Court Judge Brian Leveson has cancelled the hearing of Tommy Robinson's appeal that was set for next Tuesday at the Royal Courts of Justice. Government lawyers say they are not ready and the judge has agreed. There was already controversy because Judge Leveson had told a media interview he objected to the kind of live stream video reporting Robinson did and thought it was wrong. Robinson remains in solitary at HMP Onley by his own choosing for safety with a mat to sleep on confined 23 and a half hours a day.

Opposition forces in the town of Bosra al-Sham, southeast of Deraa city, laid down their arms over the weekend and Russian military moved in as part of a 'reconciliation' agreement. The Syrian government media says that at least 10 other villages, mostly southeast of Deraa city, were close to signing agreements with the government with jihadist opposition forces set to lay down their arms. The number of refugees said to have been displaced by the Syrian government offensive continues to increase. A UN official (Mohammed Hawari) in Jordan says there are now 270-thousand refugees, last week the number was said...

(LATE WORD FROM THE DARAA REGION TONIGHT IS THAT A TRUCE BEGINS AT MIDNIGHT LOCAL TIME, 5PM EASTERN USA, THIS IS BEING CALLED 'FOR RECONCILIATION'. AFTER THAT THE OFFENSIVE RESUMES) There have been 20 or more air strikes by Syrian and Russian aircraft this morning in the Daraa region as the offensive continues. Meanwhile, the Syrian government has opened up three corridors for civilians to leave areas while military operations are underway with aid and ambulances available. Syrian Army units have opened up attacks on the western side of the Daraa region west of the M5 highway supported by the...

In Iowa, criminals who use imitation guns are not treated as harshly under the law as are criminals who use real guns. It seems an obvious policy decision. When criminals use imitation guns, the vast majority of the risk is on the criminal. They are more likely to be shot. They are not able to shoot back. They are relying on the power of bluff and image to coerce people who they are attempting to victimize. It seems like a win-win for law and order.In a recent AP article, a county attorney and a police chief want to change...

For my sins, I was looking online at the Opinion page of the New York Times this morning. Here’s a sampling of column headlines going back to February, reflecting the paper’s obsessive Trump-hatred: The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius The True Damage of Trump’s ‘Fake News’ The Art of the Flail Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late? Trump’s Approach to Syria Is No Way to Run a War Trump, Driven by Fear Trump’s Irrational Border Plan How to Serve a Deranged Tyrant, Stoically Will Trump Crash the Farm Economy? The Trump Administration Sabotages the Census...

If this is the kind of lawyer Harvard is turning out, it could be time to close up shop in Cambridge . . . CNN legal analyst and Harvard Law alum Areva Martin argued this morning that Stormy Daniels is not bound by her agreement with Michael Cohen not to discuss her alleged affair with Donald Trump, because Trump, per his statement of yesterday, was unaware that Cohen had paid Stormy $130,000. Martin’s reasoning was so transparently flawed that co-host Alisyn Camerota had no trouble demolishing it: Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

No matter how many folks & fools today participate in the "March for Our Lives", at the end of the day. it will accomplish nothing. Sad to say these young folks and their so-called "1984" adults should be marching in Broward County, Florida, calling for the heads of every Broward County administrator, teacher, police officer that failed to highlight the oncoming (murder, slaughter) of so many innocent children and their teachers, and the removal from office, of Governor, Rick Scott, Congresswoman, Debbi Wasserman Schulz, Senator, Marco Rubio and the immediate dismissal and firing of Broward County, Sheriff, Scott Israel, for...

As automation and AI destroy millions of middle-income jobs, permanently forcing (primarily male) workers from the workforce, Americans are beginning to reconsider their attitudes toward a radical policy tool that’s popular among some segments of the left: Universal Basic Income. According to CNBC, a recent poll conducted by Northeastern University and Gallup found that 48% of Americans support the measure. In an association that’s hardly a coincidence, the poll also showed that three-quarters of Americans believe machines will take away more jobs than they’ll generate… Unsurprisingly 65% of Democrats want to see a universal basic income and 54% of people...

CLOVIS, N.M. — New Mexico state police say there has been a shooting at a public library in the eastern New Mexico community Clovis. The Eastern New Mexico News reports that multiple people were killed and several others were injured in a shooting. Officer Carl Christiansen said Clovis police responded to the library this afternoon in response to a report of an active shooter. He could not immediately confirm whether there were any fatalities or injuries.

Montclair State University's food pantry is tucked away down a maze of hallways in the student center. Like the hunger problem on campus itself, the pantry is not quite out in the open. It opened on the New Jersey college's campus in April, after administrators started hearing from students who said they were hungry and didn't have enough money for food. They surveyed students, finding that more than half said they or someone they know experiences "food insecurity" -- the lack of access to affordable, nutritious food. On one Thursday in December, 33 students visited the food pantry, taking what...

With Hillary Clinton sidelined by pneumonia, U.S. President Barack Obama took up the Democrats' fight against Donald Trump on Tuesday, trying to quash the Republican presidential candidate's bid to appeal to working-class voters.Obama, whose 50 percent job approval rating could help improve the climate for the Democratic ticket in the Nov. 8 election, rallied party faithful against Trump, a 70-year-old New York real estate developer, at an outdoor event in Philadelphia."This is a guy who spent 70 years on this earth showing no concern for working people. He spent most of his life trying to stay far away from working...

Explanation: The majestic Lagoon Nebula is filled with hot gas and the home for many young stars. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebula is so big and bright that it can be seen without a telescope toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago. The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the right of the open cluster's...

Thousands of hareidim protested Thursday at the entrance to Jerusalem and in Bnei Brak over the sudden freezing of funding for all yeshivas, which was ordered retroactively by Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday. […] Hareidi MKs have responded with fury to the ruling and freeze; MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) accused the High Court Wednesday of “declaring war” on the hareidim, while MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) decried the “ongoing campaign of persecution. The government is attacking everything connected to religion or to the Torah world.” …

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A video has gone viral after a Long Island man recorded a police officer who threatened to ticket him if he washed his car in the driveway. As WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall reported Friday, the incident happened on Hawthorne Road in Garden City. The 24-year-old said he was washing his 1997 Volkswagen in his driveway when a police officer told him he wasn’t allowed to do that. The officer said although the car wasn’t going to be washed in the street, which is illegal, washing it in the driveway would still be in the public’s view,...

Nearly 2 million New Yorkers who rely on food stamps will have less to spend at the supermarket starting Friday — and it may only be the beginning. The average family of four on food stamps is expected to lose $36 each month, according to the Department of Agriculture, because funding added to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in 2009 under the federal stimulus program ran out Thursday.

Starting Friday, Joyce Lewis and her family will lose $44 from their monthly food stamp benefits. The food stamps buy a lot of economical rice-based meals for the family -- four adults and a grandson who live with Lewis in Spring Hill, Florida. Occasionally, when her grocery store is running a deal, Lewis indulges the family with spare ribs or chicken. The benefit -- totaling $800 for four adults -- never lasts Lewis and her family a full month. "When I get to the end, we always run out. I try to go to all the food pantries," Lewis said....

Yoko Ono tweeted a photo of John Lennon’s bloody glasses this week. Why? Well, she was celebrating her 44th wedding anniversary to the late Beatles singer. Ono sat down to reflect about Lennon’s life and death this week and she came to the conclusion that there have been far too many gun deaths in the world in the 33 years since Lennon was assassinated. Ono wrote on Twitter: “Over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980.” The singer / artist sent out several more messages about...