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Unnamed employees at the Badlands National Park in South Dakota were lifted to hero status by the mainstream media recently when they defied a presidential blackout on social media by using the park’s Twitter account to tweet climate change facts. After President Donald Trump issued a ban on social media use by the Department of the Interior, which runs the park system, someone from the national park went to Twitter to warn people about the dangers of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time...

The acting attorney general on Monday ordered Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending immigration from seven majority Muslim countries—a remarkable move that will likely lead to a showdown between the incoming Republican White House and the holdover appointee from the Obama administration.

Michelle Obama delivered her final remarks as first lady of the United States on Friday, telling a room of educators that the role has been “the greatest honor” of her life. It was an emotional end to a White House event honoring the 2017 School Counselor of the Year, where she also urged young people to embrace diversity and empower themselves through the education. “As I end my time in the White House, I can think of no better message to send to our young people,” Obama said. “For all the young people in this room and that are watching,...

President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush will attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration this month. In a statement Tuesday, the former president’s office said the Bushes are “pleased to be able to witness the peaceful transfer of power — a hallmark of American democracy — and swearing-in of President Trump and Vice President Pence.” The decision makes Bush the second living president to attend Trump's inauguration ceremonies. President Jimmy Carter announced his decision to attend last year. President George H.W. Bush, 92, is not expected to attend. His spokesman cited his advanced age in a statement to Politico...

Julie BortDecember 20, 2016 There's an awful lot of angst in the tech industry about what a Donald Trump administration will do, and if he'll follow through on some of the more divisive promises he made on the campaign trail. On Tuesday, an Oracle employee working on the company's all-important cloud business publicly quit the company via a letter posted to LinkedIn. George Polisner was protesting Oracle CEO Safra Catz's decision to join Trump's transition team. Catz was part of a room full of tech industry leaders that met with the president-elect last week at Trump Tower in New York....

The Energy Department said Tuesday it won't provide the names of staffers who worked on climate policy or other issues to President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, even as it pledges to cooperate with the incoming administration.

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,”...

Muslims working in the State Department, Defense Department, and intelligence agencies like the CIA wonder if, with the election of Donald Trump, they should quit their jobs. The employees are on edge about everything from retaining their security clearances to the possibility of discriminatory treatment under Trump, whose top aides include known peddlers of conspiracy theories about Islamists infiltrating the U.S. government. "I feel apprehensive," a Muslim intelligence official told POLITICO. "I fear that – whatever white power movement or equivalent all of a sudden feels empowered by the president-elect, whatever tidbits of that community make their way into...

An enthusiastic House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told a news conference on Wednesday, “Donald Trump pulled off an amazing political feat, and he deserves tremendous credit for that. It helped us keep our majorities, but it also showed the country that people don’t like the direction we were going. We need to change direction.“And what I’m excited about is, we in Congress, along with our nominee who is now the president-elect, offered a very specific and clear and coherent agenda on which direction we should take the country, and that is now the direction we are going to go. And...

Actor Bryan Cranston says he will “definitely move” out of the United States if Republican Donald Trump wins the presidential election. “Absolutely,” Cranston told The Bestseller Experiment podcast when asked if he’d take an extended vacation to Vancouver if Trump wins. “I would definitely move. It’s not real to me that that would happen. I hope to God it won’t.” A constant critic of the GOP White House hopeful, Cranston has called Trump a “narcissist” who lacks the “qualities we want in a president.” In a promo for an upcoming appearance on BBC’s Newsnight, Cranston predicted Trump will lose the...

Almost eight years after Barack Obama’s election as the nation’s first black president –an event that engendered a sense of optimism among many Americans about the future of race relations1 – a series of flashpoints around the U.S. has exposed deep racial divides and reignited a national conversation about race. A new Pew Research Center survey finds profound differences between black and white adults in their views on racial discrimination, barriers to black progress and the prospects for change. Blacks, far more than whites, say black people are treated unfairly across different realms of life, from dealing with the police...

A 59 year old man was arrested Sunday evening as he punched a swan in front of two off-duty police officers. According to Orlando NBC affiliateWESH-TV, two members of the Orlando Police Department were watching a swan and her babies along Lake Eola. At that point, Sor Velez walked between the officers and the mother swan. The swan reached up toward Velez in what officers describe to be an effort to defend her babies. Velez then walked away, only to turn back around and punch the swan in the head before trying to run away. He was caught by the...

Obama decided to commemorate Memorial Day (after denouncing the US military from Vietnam to Japan) by calling for "good healthcare" for veterans. President Obama called for veterans to receive better healthcare and good-paying jobs during a Memorial Day speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. “We have to be there not only when we need them, but when they need us,” Obama told the crowd of survivors who have lost loved ones in battle.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the resignation of Dr. Kent Paredes Scribner, Superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District. Patrick says Scribner placed his own personal agenda ahead of students by adopting transgender student guidelines. In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Patrick said: “After less than a year as superintendent, Dr. Scribner has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD. He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting ‘Transgender Student Guidelines.’ Without any...

Don't expect Oscar De La Hoya to be supporting Donald Trump's presidential campaign any time soon. The former boxing champion is making some serious claims and taking a shot at Trump's golfing integrity, saying he cheated on his own golf course. "It shows something about his character," De La Hoya told The Associated Press. "Golf is a gentleman's sport. You don't lie about your score, you don't lie about moving your ball. It goes to show what we're dealing with."

For all the talk about the security risks of Muslim “refugees” coming from Syria, little is said about another refugee program that has been delivering thousands of Muslims annually to U.S. cities for 33 years. That country is Somalia, which, just like Syria, is a hotbed of Sunni jihad terrorism and warring factions of Shariah-compliant tribal clans. Every president since Ronald Reagan has his fingerprints on the Somali refugee program, but it really found its footing under President Clinton and hasn’t slowed down since. President Obama has, during his more than seven years in office, approved the resettlement of 47,500...

An Italian bishop has clashed with a pair of priests who want to invite Muslims to pray inside their churches in a bid to promote tolerance in a diocese in Tuscany. “The deserved, necessary and respectful welcome of people who practice other faiths and religions does not mean offering them space for prayers inside churches designed for liturgy and the gathering of Christian communities,” Bishop Fausto Tardelli of Pistoia said in a statement reported on Saturday (March 19). “They can very well find other spaces and places,” Tardelli said. The bishop was responding to pledges by two local priests, the...

Since Obuma was elected to POTUS, I have been coming to Free Republic to get news, opinions and a few laughs. Most of the serious posts were bemoaning the out of control government and what could be done about it. "Oh Whoa is Me!". Then along comes a constitutional conservative. For the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a constitutional candidate running for the GOP nomination. This man was elected by conservatives to go to Washington and stand up to the elites that no longer listen to the American people. He didn't go to Washington and "fall in" with...

Exactly 100 days after Ayad Mohammed left his native Iraq to begin a better life in Germany, he packs his backpack in a refugee hostel in a forested area of the Swabian Jura mountains in southern Germany and begins his journey back home. His hostel is on a hill, surrounded by spruce and beech trees. The air smells like moss, and if you're quiet you can hear the goldfinches warbling. The only thing Mohammed is thinking about is that he wants to get out of there. Three days later, he sits in a travel agency in a shopping arcade in...

Holy Mitt, what a meltdown. Add this one to Donald Trump's lengthening list of firsts: He's forced a Republican Party reckoning overdue for years, all in a few days. It took the Trump-dominated Super Tuesday contests to awaken Republican leaders to the fact that the darkest elements of the party's base, which many of them have embraced or exploited, are now threatening their party.... At one point, Mr. Romney said: "Mr. Trump is directing our anger for less than noble purposes. He creates scapegoats of Muslims and Mexican immigrants"--with absolutely no sense of self-awareness. Mr. Romney himself played to the...