Free Republic

BUCHAREST, Romania — Government ministers in the former Soviet and communist countries along the Black Sea basin are bracing for President Joe Biden’s meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia next Wednesday in Geneva. But, analysts are warning them to keep their expectations low. They hope the American president will stand for democratic ideals and support their security, but regional analysts say they may be pawns in a broader geopolitical chess match between great power rivals. From Kyiv to Bucharest, government leaders are attempting to influence Biden ahead of the meeting, underscoring that their democracy depends on the United States and...

While the holiday shopping season has already begun, no retail occasion gets more buzz this time of year than Black Friday. If you have a Sam's Club membership, you'll want to keep many deals on your radar before setting foot in the warehouse club. Throughout November, Sam's Club is offering discounts on various products and holding "doorbuster" events each weekend. From Nov. 22 through Nov. 24, the retailer will offer deals on toys and gifts. Then, on Nov. 27 at 9:01 p.m. EST, Plus members will get early online access to Sam's Club's Black Friday deals, which will be available...

Sam's Club offers members an embarrassment of riches regarding food options. From prepared meals to baked goods like fall pies, members can complete their weekly grocery runs at their local warehouse, stocking up their refrigerators and pantries with many items sold in bulk. Equally as impressive is Sam's Club's array of frozen foods, including appetizers, entrées, desserts, and everything in between.

All I have time for today is an update on the 2019 Key Lime Pie situation.The bad news: the bakery department at my local Costco confirmed they do not have them this year and they will not be getting them either. This is a real blow - they were absolutely the best key lime pie anywhere, ever. They were better than the ones you make yourself. They had the perfect crust (not dry and crummy) perfectly balanced filling: creamy, sweet-tart, fresh. And did I mention huge? You could cut them into at least 12 pieces and freeze them to...

Tyson Foods is recalling more than 36,000 pounds of chicken nuggets because they may be contaminated with small pieces of rubber. The U.S. Agriculture Department says there were consumer complaints about extraneous material in 5-pound packages of Tyson White Meat Panko Chicken Nuggets. There are no confirmed reports of adverse reactions. "A small number of consumers contacted the company to say they had found small pieces of soft, blue plastic in the nuggets, prompting the company to issue the recall," Tyson said in a statement. It added that the pieces were found "in a very small number of packages" and...

Hoping to better compete with arch-rival Costco Wholesale (COST, +1.12%) and Amazon.com, Sam’s Club said on Wednesday that it’s now offering free shipping for many items to its premium members as part of a restructuring to its membership programs. The bulk retailer, a unit of Walmart Inc (WMT, +0.35%), says that the bulk of items it sells online will qualify and that there will be no minimum order size for customers who have a “Plus” membership, which costs $100 annually. Exceptions will include merchandise that is only available for curbside pickup such as fresh and frozen food (groceries account for...

Sam’s Club, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, closed a series of stores following a review, the membership-only store chain said in a tweet on Thursday. The tweet came after a series of reports from local news outlets said some Sam's Club stores were closed abruptly on Thursday, with employees learning of the move as they arrived for work.

A ship bound for Syria from North Korea and detained in Cyprus on an Interpol alert for suspected arms smuggling was carrying an air defense system, Cypriot authorities said. The shipment was billed as weather-observation equipment on the freight manifest of the Panamanian-flagged Grigorio 1. The ship was carrying 18 truck-mounted mobile radar systems and three command vehicles. "The radars on the 18 trucks appear to be part of an air defense system," a police spokeswoman said.

Thursday, October 27, 2016 It's a Mad, Mad War Posted by Daniel Greenfield Russia and the West are fighting to decide whether Syria will be run by Sunni Islamists backed by Saudi Arabia or Shiite Islamists backed by Iran. This insane civil war has burned up countless lives, not to mention plenty of dollars, rubles, euros and pounds. The only certain winners of this war, once the dust has settled, will chant “Allahu Akbar” and call for the death of the infidels. Sadly this is nothing new. Russia got the PLO started before Bill Clinton decided to become its sugar...

**SNIP** As early as November 2012, an FBI wiretap request noted that the investigation team’s leader had concerns about the agent. But according to the filing, an FBI “review has not resulted in any formal findings or determinations regarding the credibility of [the agent].” In early 2013, according to the filing, the agent was no longer involved in the case, but there is no clear explanation as to why. Still, the filing said there was a “series of outrageous behavior” on the part of the agent that might explain why he was removed. That behavior included arranging $20,000 or more...

The military tribunal verdict convicting Salim Hamdan of providing material support to terrorism was eminently just. The guy was, after all, Osama Bin Laden's driver, and he was, after all, arrested with two surface-to-air missiles in the back of his car. And there was, after all, the video of a 1998 Al Qaeda news conference for Pakistani journalists that at one point showed Hamdan with a machine gun and at another juncture captured him smiling at Bin Laden. And there were, after all, the undisputed facts that Hamdan fell in with Bin Laden in 1996 and worked with him through...

Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer outraged customers after she admitted to openly discriminating against white males in an interview.Brewer openly admitted to institutionalized racism at Sam's Club during an interview with Yahoo. Mad World News reported: "Rosalind Brewer presides over one of the largest wholesale clubs in America, and apparently, she's a raging liberal, according to Yahoo! Finance. She recently did an interview with CNN and revealed that to her, the color of one's skin is more important than their contribution to the company, and her number one priority is ensuring her corporate team is diverse, rather than the most...

"Elizabeth Drew@ElizabethDrewOH 3H...Admin officials told Bibi that if he's reelected, his egregious ambo to US Ron Dermer, co-plotter with Boehner, has to go"

RUSH: All right. The Israelis have rejected the ceasefire proposal made by the haughty John Kerry, who served in Vietnam. The Israelis reject ceasefire deal. The only thing a ceasefire does is allow Hamas to regroup. I think Hamas is on the ropes and that's why everybody wants a ceasefire. I'm telling you, everything over there is ass backwards. Everything in this conflict is 180 degrees out of phase. They want the ceasefire to give Hamas time to regroup. "Well, we have to make it fair, Mr. Limbaugh, because the Israelis have such an unfair advantage. They're richer and they're...

U.S. officials consider removing Castro regime from terror listU.S. officials are considering removing Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, even as Cuban allies continue to launch military attacks and trade for weapons. As part of President Barack Obama’s announcement in December that he would normalize relations with Cuba, Obama instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to review Cuba’s terror designation and issue a report in six months. While reports indicate that the administration is leaning toward removing Cuba from the terror list, such an action would conflict with the Cuban regime’s support for Colombian militants, Iran, and...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The California State Senate held an "ethics refresher course" for its members after federal indictments were issued against two senators and a third was convicted. Senate leaders are hoping to regain the public's trust. The purpose of the course is to teach members and their staffs to avoid potentially compromising situations. It's the latest in a series of moves by senate leaders aimed at putting political distance between them and their colleagues facing criminal charges. The leader of California's state senate stopped all regular business on Wednesday so everyone could go "back to school" in a...

Over the objections of reputed gang figure Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow's lawyers, a federal judge has ordered that the government's evidence in a sweeping criminal case that includes political corruption charges against state Sen. Leland Yee must be kept secret for now. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer imposed the restrictions Monday on every lawyer and defendant in the case, finding the material should be kept under wraps while both sides prepare for trial. Breyer rejected the free speech arguments of Chow's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, who insisted he should be able to reveal evidence to combat the government's public charges.

(06-11) 14:24 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Friends, neighbors and a former fellow inmate of Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow took turns testifying Wednesday that the onetime Chinatown gang leader had turned his life around and should be released on bail while fighting money-laundering charges. Describing the witnesses as sincere but not fully informed, U.S. Magistrate Nathanael Cousins refused to release Chow from jail, where he has been kept since his arrest in April. While Chow has engaged in "community activities of a positive nature" since his release from federal prison in 2003 after serving time for racketeering, federal prosecutors presented evidence...

**SNIP** At one meeting with an undercover FBI agent, Jackson allegedly told Yee that the agent knew the owner of an NFL team. Yee then told the agent about a pending law that would limit NFL players from filing workers' compensation claims in the state if they played for out of state teams. Yee told the agent that he should "convey this information to the owner of the NFL team" with an offer of help from Yee. Asked about the cost of such a vote, Yee reportedly said, "Oh no...we gotta drag it out, man. We gotta juice this thing."...

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed at a federal court hearing Thursday that the unwieldy criminal case against suspended state Sen. Leland Yee, Chinatown association leader Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and 27 others should be split up before trial. **SNIP** The hearing before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer came two weeks after the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California filed a new indictment in the case, adding violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against Yee and his former fundraiser, Keith Jackson. Yee is accused of conducting a criminal enterprise with Jackson, who allegedly solicited bribes and...