Free Republic

Sen. Ted Cruz is out-hustling Donald Trump and looks set to ensure many Arizona delegates will defect to him in a convention floor fight. The Texas senator, who ever since Iowa has played a stealthy ground game in contrast to Trump's chaotic populism, is taking steps to snatch the Republican presidential nomination from The Donald at the convention in July. The New York businessman easily won last month's Arizona primary taking 47 percent to Cruz's 25 percent, scooping up all 58 of the state's delegates. That's nearly 5 percent of the 1,237 Trump needs for the nomination, and they're tied...

US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has accused China of stealing commercial secrets and government information. She accused China of "trying to hack into everything that doesn't move in America", and urged vigilance. US officials had named China as the chief suspect in the massive hack of the records of a US government agency earlier this year. China had denied any involvement, and called US claims "irresponsible".

A North Carolina store owner is fighting to recover more than $100,000 from the IRS. The feds reportedly seized Lyndon McLellan’s life savings under a banking law designed to stop drug dealers and money laundering. The IRS accused McLellan of structuring – repeatedly depositing money in increments just under $10,000. The IRS had said it would no longer target deposits unless the money was involved in a separate illegal activity. McLellan, who owns L&M Convenience Mart in Fairmont, hasn’t been charged with anything, yet he hasn’t gotten his money back. “It took 13 years to get it and less than...

A Canadian documentary has alleged that the Chinese state is aware and approves of the removal of organs from live political prisoners, often without anesthetic. Some 10,000 political prisoners are reportedly killed each year, and at least one former worker is willing to testify to atrocities. The documentary, produced by Australia’s SBS Dateline, purports to show the gruesome details of the multi-billion dollar “organs-on-demand” transplant program, and how these Chinese hospitals remove organs from live patients, in some cases putting the people in incinerators before they had even died. The filmmaker, Leon Lee, in an interview with Australia’s News.com, described...

Somalis living in the Twin Cities are begging Minnesota’s elected officials to help find a way to safely wire money back to families living in the Horn of Africa after a California bank abruptly ceased wiring cash to the troubled country over the weekend. The decision by Merchants Bank to stop that part of its operations last Friday caught Somalis, who use money service businesses to wire money abroad, off-guard in communities across the United States. Of the more than 30,000 Somali immigrants living in the Twin Cities, 80 percent of them use money service businesses to send money abroad,...

Recently Janet Yellen expressed both concern and puzzlement over the rising wealth inequality in America. I found her speech to be disingenuous and disturbing. Why? Because it is the Fed’s very own policies that are driving the expansion of the wealth gap. Read Yellen’s speech. Either Yellen thinks we cannot be trusted with the truth (worrisome), or the Fed is clueless as to how its own policies operate (scarier). SNIP In a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Yellen said steady growth in inequality over the past several decades represents the most sustained rise since the 19th century....

UPDATE, 7PM: Now there is $5,000 more from 2012. Total now $31,000. And now Reid is playing the aggrieved grandfather. Chutzpah: “My granddaughter has been the target of harassing phone calls, strangers tracking her down and knocking on her door and negative, unwanted attention on the internet. This has gone too far and it needs to stop now. I deeply regret any role I had in creating this situation but now, as a grandparent, I say enough is enough. “As I have already said, I am reimbursing my campaign for the amount spent on thank-you gifts produced by my granddaughter,...

In 1971, Franklin H. Frye was accused of stealing a $20 necklace from a woman on the street, and the court found him not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to Saint Elizabeths Hospital, where he has spent almost all of the past four decades, The Washington Times reports. His lawyers have been trying to free him for many years. In 2005, his lawyer asserted in a motion that "Mr. Frye has recovered his sanity and no longer suffers from a mental illness as defined by law." It wasn't the first time he's sought release.

Michelle Obama doesn't want jewelry or chocolates for her 50th birthday later this month. She wants to be alone. President Barack Obama returned to Washington Saturday after two weeks of vacationing with his family in Hawaii. He left with daughters Sasha and Malia. Michelle stayed behind. 'As part of her birthday gift from the president, the first lady will remain in Hawaii to spend time with friends ahead of her upcoming 50th birthday,' the White House explained in a statement. The First Lady turns the big 5 - 0 on January 17. The White House did not say how much...

CBS/Reuters January 5, 2014, 8: 26 AM Obama’s birthday gift to his wife? Time off, alone HONOLULU - President Barack Obama is going to give his wife the birthday present that many parents can only dream of - time off, alone, without the children. The White House said on Saturday first lady Michelle Obama would stay in Hawaii, where the family has been on vacation for the last two weeks, rather than return home with her husband and their two girls. "As part of her birthday gift from the president, the first lady will remain in Hawaii to spend time...

Surveillance video...shows a family of nine reportedly stealing from the Toys "R" Us..... young kids were instructed by their parents to undo security devices as the family walked out of the store....

By now, most Americans realize what they have earned, built and own, no longer belongs to them. It will be taken unlawfully in the blink of any eye. Much like Washington, global parasites now want more of your income and wealth. The international elitists are coming for your stuff and many in our government---Democrat and Republican---are entertaining closed-door schemes designed to, once again, relieve Americans of their property. On October 9, 2013, from its perch in Washington D.C., the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report outlining its recommendations for immediate global wealth confiscation---specifically American wealth---and new capital controls and...

For the three weeks of the ObamaCare exchange rollout debacle, the White House has tried to claim that the issues relate to the overwhelming popularity and web traffic at Heathcare.gov. As late as yesterday, Barack Obama himself claimed that “the number of people who’ve visited the site has been overwhelming, which has aggravated some of these underlying problems,” in a speech that mentioned no other causes to the failure. Last night, the Washington Post reported that the Department of Health and Human Services tested the system just before launch with JUST A FEW HUNDRED concurrent connections — and experienced the...

The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a "capital levy" -- a one off tax on private wealth -- as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability. The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible and there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair). There have been illustrious supporters, including Pigou, Ricardo, Schumpeter, and, until he changed his mind - Keynes. The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be...

After WND report, propaganda plan droppedThe Obama administration is relaunching a strategy to shift vast quantities of money from the United States to Kenya, even though the African nation was stripped of a propaganda plan that was uncovered in a series of WND reports a year ago. WND reported June 20, 2012, that the Obama administration’s spending in Kenya had become so voluminous that the U.S. Agency for International Development was asking for more contractors to oversee the work. The propaganda plan, an addition to the project, explained “targeted opinion leaders” must be used to exert influence on the ideas......

The Illinois Ag Dept. illegally seized privately owned bees from renowned naturalist, Terrence Ingram, without providing him with a search warrant and before the court hearing on the matter, reports Prairie Advocate News. Behind the obvious violations of his Constitutional rights is Monsanto. Ingram was researching Roundup’s effects on bees, which he’s raised for 58 years. “They ruined 15 years of my research,” he told Prairie Advocate, by stealing most of hisstock.

"The State Department says, “Eligibility for access to classified information, commonly known as a security clearance, is granted only to those for whom an appropriate personnel security background investigation has been completed."

The State Department, under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, created an arrangement for her longtime aide and confidante Huma Abedin to work for private clients as a consultant while serving as a top adviser in the department. Ms. Abedin did not disclose the arrangement — or how much income she earned — on her financial report. It requires officials to make public any significant sources of income. The disclosure of the agreement that Ms. Abedin made with the State Department comes as her husband, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat, prepares for a mayoral run in New York City. Politico...

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) accused U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack of knowing that women and minority farmers fraudulently claimed discrimination to receive taxpayer-funded settlements, and they knowingly initiated more programs to facilitate more of these payments. "It is my sense they know what they are doing," King said on "Breitbart News Sunday" on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125. "That's a heavy statement, but they knew what they were doing. They knew these were fraudulent claims." King said as he "watched the actions of the USDA" under Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and the Justice Department under Attorney...

It's not often that I'll write approvingly of an article in The New York Times, but for Sharon LaFraniere's masterful deconstruction of the Pigford Scandal, I'll make an exception. Pigford, you may recall, was first exposed by Andrew Breitbart and because of it he was sued, dismissed and lampooned by the Democrat-Media Complex. The term vindication was invented for situations like this. Ever since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the African-Americans...