Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Campaigning in Iowa this year, Donald Trump said he was prevented during his presidency from using the military to quell violence in primarily Democratic cities and states. Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.” Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the...

The 26th official James Bond film is unlikely to be in cinemas before 2025, according to the series’ producer, Barbara Broccoli. Speaking at a dinner to honor Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G Wilson after the presentation of their BFI Fellowships, the gatekeeper of all things 007 (and daughter of Cubby Broccoli) said they had not yet cast the actor who will replace Daniel Craig in the tux. “Nobody’s in the running,” she said in a speech first reported by Deadline. “We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through. There isn’t a script and we can’t...

The White House has contradicted Dr. Anthony Fauci on mask mandate decisions, saying that the judiciary plays an "important role" and simply made an "incorrect decision." "Obviously, the judiciary has an important role to play," White House COVID Coordinator Ashish Jha said on Sunday’s "State of the Union." "What you heard out of the administration, out of the Department of Justice, is the assessment that this is an incorrect decision and the DOJ is now appealing this decision." A U.S. district court judge in Florida this week struck down the travel mask mandate for mass transit, leading to the Transportation...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has braced himself against America First Republicans who oppose renewing his Senate leadership position after the 2022 midterms. While at least two GOP Senate candidates have publicly stated they will oppose McConnell’s leadership bid in the new Congress, McConnell told CNN on Tuesday he will wait to “see what happens” after the midterms before crowning himself leader.

First Lady Jill Biden has given an interview to mark the end of her first year in the White house, detailing the tough tasks demanded by her self-defined role of “healing” the nation while at the same time giving hugs, love and understanding to those she can reach out to. The community college teacher told the Associated Press she found herself taking on a role of universal caring that “I didn’t kind of expect, which was like a healing role, because we’ve faced so much as a nation.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday addressed his GOP critics who believe he could have moved to decertify the election results on January 6, stating there is “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American President.” Speaking at the Reagan Library in Southern California as part of “The Time For Choosing” series, Pence laid out a vision for the future of the Republican Party, which he said must be devoted to the Constitution of the United States.

Input from First Lady Jill Biden will form part of the Biden administration’s long-proposed task force aimed at reuniting parents and children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, it was claimed Thursday by various reports. Biden is tasking her East Wing with taking an active role in the reunification project, according to CNN, drawing on her legal background.

What is the role of a parent? Child: May I play in the street? Conservative parent: No, it’s too dangerous to play in the street. Liberal parent: No, it’s too dangerous to play in the street. Child: May I stay up past my bedtime? Conservative parent: No, you need your rest to grow strong and healthy. Liberal parent: No, you need your rest to grow strong and healthy. Child: May I play outside after dark? Conservative parent: No, it’s not safe to play outside after dark. Liberal parent: No, it’s not safe to play outside after dark. Child: May I...

n a year when some of the most exalted public figures in the United States distinguished themselves by advancing unjust causes or cowardly refusing to seriously resist them, a pregnant mother imprisoned in Sudan with her 18-month-old American son set a standard for saintly courage. Meriam Ibrahim is the role model of the year. When a Sudanese court told Meriam she must renounce her Catholic faith and convert to Islam or be hung by the neck until dead, she gave a non-negotiable answer: No. Meriam was born in Sudan to a Christian mother and a Muslim father — who abandoned...

Michelle Obama, also known as @FLOTUS on social media, sent a birthday tweet to her role model and friend, Beyoncé, this afternoon. Happy Birthday, @Beyonce! You´re an incredible role model, a phenomenal mother, and a wonderful friend. Hope you have an amazing day! –mo — The First Lady (@FLOTUS) September 4, 2014-The duo are reportedly ´BFFs,´ or ´Bigtime Famous Friends.´ The "Drunk in Love" star sang at President Obama´s first inaugural ball and also serenaded guests at the first lady´s 50th birthday celebration earlier this year. "FLOTUS" even took her daughters to a Jay Z concert in July, following a...

Francois Hollande’s trysts with his French actress mistress took place in a Paris flat, registered to a convicted criminal with mafia links, it has been revealed. The 59-year-old president has reportedly been seeing Julie Gayet, a 41-year-old actress who has been conducting a secret affair with the Socialist head of state since last year. The revelations come as France's first lady Valerie Trierweiler is expected to leave hospital today, where she was admitted after collapsing with 'shock and exhaustion' upon discovering the affair.

Dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man — who was killed by the FBI on Wednesday — murdered three people in Massachusetts after a drug deal went wrong in 2011, law enforcement sources tell NBC News. Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them. Todashev was killed by a federal agent while giving a statement on his role on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla. The man who was shot, Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a...

A choice for all of you....

On Sunday, Rev. Al Sharpton gave his version of what happened 20 years ago in Crown Heights. But although he purports to have reflected on and learned from the riots, the truth is his recollection is egregiously distorted and sanitized. Sharpton's motivation for expressing his opinion at this time is unimportant; the fact that he has chosen to do so bestows a responsibility on us all to ensure that the truth is not sacrificed in the telling of our history. Sharpton says that with the virtue of hindsight, he would have done some things differently - stating that "we," meaning...

Beirut - Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, chairman of the Arab Thought Foundation (ATF), has urged Arabs to play an effective role in the making of human civilization. Addressing ATF’s annual conference here, he commended the innovative initiatives made by Arabs in various fields that include modern technology. Prince Khaled also emphasized the importance of interfaith and cultural dialogue initiated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. (Snip) Speaking about Arabs’ role in civilization, the prince said: “Arabs have an important role to play in planning the world’s future in the light of its role in the past.”

<p>WELLESLEY — Wellesley’s school superintendent apologized today for allowing middle school students to participate in a prayer service during a field trip to a Roxbury mosque last spring. The apology to parents came after a group critical of the Islamic Society of Boston Community Center — New England’s largest mosque and Muslim cultural center — released a 10-minute long video featuring footage of Wellesley students bowing their heads during a prayer service.</p>

In 1969, John Wayne played Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit" -- a grizzled, drunken U.S. Marshal hired by a 14-year-old girl to track down her father's killer. The role ended up winning the aging Western star his first and only Oscar, prompting him to make a rare sequel -- "Rooster Cogburn" -- opposite Katherine Hepburn in 1975. The image of Wayne's craggy, eye-patched visage from "True Grit" has become a cinematic icon. So film mavens everywhere were taken aback when it was announced last year that Joel and Ethan Coen would been making their own version of "True Grit." But...

A role reversal comedy shown on Saudi television in which a woman marries four husbands has hit the very nerve it satirised - male pride and double standards.The comedy was an episode in Saudi Arabia’s most celebrated satirical series, Tash Ma Tash or No Big Deal, a take-off of social prejudices shown annually during the holy month of Ramadan. The central character takes four husbands, explaining herself using the conventional arguments Saudi men use to exercise their legal and religious privilege of marrying four times. When she remarries for the first time she complains that her existing husband has...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums doesn't seem to do much on the job these days -- but he went into meltdown Monday when veteran KTVU political reporter Randy Shandobil had the temerity to ask why he's been missing in action as one of the most crime-challenged cities in the nation faces a devastating layoff of a quarter of its police force."Who the (blank) are you to decide what my role is?" a raging Dellums told Shandobil in a phone call Monday, after the Oakland-based reporter showed up at City Hall to ask why Dellums has been seen at high profile boxing...

Tensions were rising inside Goldman Sachs. It was late 2006, and an argument had broken out inside the Wall Street bank’s prized mortgage unit — a dispute that would reach all the way up to the executive suite. One camp of traders was insisting that the American housing market was safe. Another thought it was poised for collapse. Among those who saw disaster looming were an effusive young Frenchman, Fabrice P. Tourre, and his quiet colleague, Jonathan M. Egol, the mastermind behind a series of mortgage deals known as the Abacus investments. Their elite mortgage unit is now at the...