Free Republic

The wall will be begun and nearly completed by the end of 2020.Legal challenges to the construction of the wall will fail.President Trump's popularity will grow the more the wall is completed.Impeachment will either never make it to the Senate due to Pelousy's fascistic tactics, or it will arrive and be a) shredded item by item or b) called up for a vote and rejected on a bipartisan basis.President Trump's popularity will grow the longer the hoaxpeachment totters on.In Venezuela, there will be a civil war between factions of the military, one of which will initially support Maduro, then...

A tenacious Brit convinced that missing flight MH370 is in the Cambodian jungle says he will resume his search - even though a previous attempt nearly proved deadly. Ian Wilson believes he spotted the Malaysia Airlines plane when looking at Google Maps. He travelled to the area with brother Jack last year - and Jack was lucky to survive a sudden fall after ground gave way underneath him. Despite this Ian is keen to return to the mountainous terrain... However the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) is certain that the aircraft was captured mid-flight. Evidence is mounting that the crash, which...

Mike Exner, a prominent member of the Independent Group, has studied the radar data extensively. He believes that during the turn, the airplane climbed up to 40,000 feet, which was close to its limit. Exner believes the reason for the climb was to accelerate the effects of depressurizing the airplane, causing the rapid incapacitation and death of everyone in the cabin. The cockpit, by contrast, was equipped with four pressurized-oxygen masks linked to hours of supply. Zaharie was often lonely and sad. His wife had moved out, and was living in the family’s second house. By his own admission to...

Microsoft is bringing back its popular Flight Simulator game. It’s just announced a new instalment to the Flight Simulator series, and the new iteration looks absolutely stunning. Microsoft hasn’t shared many details about the game, but it will be available for the PC when it launches in 2020. The game will be available in 4K, and it is powered by Microsoft Azure AI. “Coming 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator is the next generation of one of the most beloved simulation franchises. From light planes to wide-body jets, fly highly detailed and stunning aircraft in an incredibly realistic world. Create your flight...

The first image of a black hole has been captured by astronomers, heralding a revolution in our understanding of the universe’s most enigmatic objects. The picture shows a halo of dust and gas, tracing the outline of a colossal black hole, at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, 55 million light years from Earth. The black hole itself – a cosmic trapdoor from which neither light nor matter can escape – is unseeable. But the latest observations take astronomers right to its threshold for the first time, illuminating the event horizon beyond which all known physical laws break down.

Pretty much any subject, stupid humor is fine, general stupidity not so much, and please no snarking, that's directed at you snarky SOBs. Someone used to do a thread like this every year, but, alas, he got banned. The good news (for me, anyway) is I just noticed that a really big butthole (not the same FReeper) got banned for NeverTrumping back in 2016, and I hadn't missed the ******* at all. That got me thinking, because the predictions thread guy also got booted for NeverTrumpism, if memory serves (not sure, I think I'd already been kicked out for something...

There is a link to a video at the top of this story, saying that China now has two aircraft carriers, and two more under construction, right now. This article also says that a Chinese admiral, has threatened two American aircraft carriers. "Rear Admiral Lou Yuan has told an audience in Shenzhen that the ongoing disputes over the ownership of the East and South China Seas could be resolved by sinking two US super carriers." America, we need to stop building up China. We are rapidly building China into a very significant threat. We really need to bring production, back...

Mere days after Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to “resolutely” defend China’s security interest – a veiled reference to maintaining its domination of the South China Sea – News.au has published details from a speech delivered two weeks ago by one of China’s leading military commanders where he outlined a strategy to rebuff the US Navy should it take an even more interventionist posture within the nine-dash line. Rear Admiral Lou Yuan told an audience in Shenzhen that the simmering dispute over the East and South China Seas could be decisively ended by sinking two US aircraft carriers.(Admiral Lou Yuan,...

The missing MH370 flight has been captured by Google Maps on multiple occasions since it disappeared in March 2014, according to tech expert Ian Wilson, who is planning an expedition to confirm his findings... But Mr Wilson, told Dailystar.co.uk exclusively he believes he has spotted the aeroplane crashed in the Cambodian jungle on Google Maps and the company's time stamps may reveal when the pictures were taken. The latest copyright data is listed as the year 2018, with recent imagery data listed as March 2017. However, last week the app listed the imagery data as December 2015. The same image...

Tech expert Ian Wilson is to be airlifted to an area three miles from where he claims he has pinpointed the Malaysian Airlines flight using Google Maps. He will then need a guide to lead him through the two-day jungle mission through the mountainous terrain west of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. It comes after Andre Milne – who previously declared Wilson's spot "significant" – called an earlier helicopter mission to find the missing MH370 flight "useless" because it wasn't on foot. Milne – a private investigator and founder of Unicorn Aerospace – exclusively told Daily Star Online: "Flying over in a...

Chinese power is expanding. Chinese claims to the South China Sea are not going to go away in a hurry. At the moment, American power represents a restraint on Chinese expansion. It is not clear how that will hold into the future. In his landmark foreign policy speech in April 2016 candidate Trump said, “……our resources are totally over extended. ……. the U.S. must be prepared to let these (European and Asian) countries defend themselves. We have no choice.” My unique country, Australia, a predominantly European nation on the edge of Asia, does have very deep emotional, cultural and historical...

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released Monday, more than four years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, highlighted shortcomings in the government’s response and raised the possibility of “intervention by a third party.” The report, prepared by a 19-member international team, reiterated Malaysia’s assertion the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications. Chief investigator Kok Soo Chon said the cause of the disappearance cannot be determined until the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes are found. He said there was no evidence of abnormal behavior or stress in the two pilots...

The four-year hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has ended with the latest, privately funded search coming to a close. US-based Ocean Infinity had been using a deep-sea vessel to survey a vast area of the southern Indian Ocean. But it found nothing and Malaysia's government says it has no plans to begin any new searches. The plane disappeared on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Official search efforts ended last year and there are still fierce debates about what happened to the flight.Grace Nathan, whose mother was on MH370, said...

Global airlines are obeying Beijing’s demands to refer to Taiwan explicitly as a part of China, despite the White House’s call this month to stand firm against such “Orwellian nonsense.” The Associated Press found 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, that now refer to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers Chinese territory, as a part of China on their global websites. There are just three days left for dozens of foreign airlines to decide whether to comply with Beijing’s orders, or face consequences that could cripple their China business, including legal sanctions. Many have already sided...

Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian political veteran who helped build the Pakatan Harapan coalition that swept to power in elections last week, has been freed after being jailed during the tenure of the scandal-haunted deposed premier Najib Razak. The 70-year-old, who was granted a full pardon by the country's King Muhammad V. Anwar, had been serving a five year jail term -- his second prison sentence in two decades -- for a sodomy conviction he says was trumped up... "He is not a member of government, therefore his role will be in the party," Mahathir said, referring to the ruling Pakatan...

Now, based on two slight clues, experts have a new theory about what doomed the flight: the pilot was committing suicide. From The Washington Post: All but one of the 239 people on the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had probably been unconscious — incapacitated by the sudden depressurization of the Boeing 777 — and had no way of knowing they were on an hours-long, meandering path to their deaths. Along that path, a panel of aviation experts said Sunday, was a brief but telling detour near Penang, Malaysia, the home town of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. On two occasions,...

All but one of the 239 people on the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had probably been unconscious — incapacitated by the sudden depressurization of the Boeing 777 — and had no way of knowing they were on an hours-long, meandering path to their deaths. Along that path, a panel of aviation experts speculated Sunday, was a brief but telling detour near Penang, Malaysia, the hometown of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. On two occasions, whoever was in control of the plane — and was probably the only one awake — tipped the craft to the left. The experts believe Zaharie,...

The captain of doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 selected a route that would effectively render the plane invisible on radar in order to commit suicide, experts said Sunday. The suspicion that MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was attempting suicide was agreed upon, aviation experts said in a panel discussion on 9 News Australia. Investigators believe MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was attempting suicide when the plane disappeared. (Facebook) "He was killing himself; unfortunately, he was killing everybody else on board, and he did it deliberately," Larry Vance, a former senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said. Shah...

The search consists of a 65-man vessel Seabed Constructor equipped geared to scouring the depths of the Indian Ocean for any sight of plane debris from the MH370 aircraft. But, four years after the plane went missing, the latest searches through the Indian Ocean has revealed nothing -- after 16,000sq km of the planned 25,000sq km area was combed through. The search location was pinpointed by an Australian Oceanographer as the most likely spot the plane would be. The Malaysian government paid Ocean Infinity $20 million for 5,000 square km of a successful search, $30 million for 15,000 square km,...

CHINA is waging a “campaign of psychological warfare” against Australia, an Aussie academic has warned. Professor Clive Hamilton, author of the controversial book Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, gave a talk to US Congress overnight in which he warned of dire consequences if Australia gives too much leeway to the rising superpower. “Beijing knows that it cannot bully the United States — in the current environment the consequences would be unpredictable and probably counter-productive — so it is instead pressuring its allies,” Prof Hamilton said. “Last week the PLA Navy challenged three Australian warships sailing through the South China...