Free Republic

On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said that her disagreement with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over his rhetoric about oligarchy was just over the word and “It’s not that I disagree on the concepts or on the principles, and he’s right.” She also stated that the debate in the Democratic Party isn’t “about moderate versus progressive and whatever all of that means.” Co-host Geoff Bennett played a clip of Sanders saying, “I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are. I think they understand very well, when the top 1% owns...

President Donald Trump defended his use of the power that comes with the presidential office, denying that he is “expanding” it while maintaining that he is “using it properly” in an interview on his first 100 days as the 47th president with TIME. Trump, who will have served 100 days of his second term on April 30, gave the extensive, bombshell interview to the outlet from the White House on Wednesday. The interview started off with a pointed question from TIME senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, who asked, “Why do you think you need more power?”...

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” host Larry Kudlow said that he doesn’t really think using trade deficits to calculate tariffs is a good idea and that if the Trump administration gets tax cuts and deregulation, it will spark growth and “We will grow faster than almost anybody. Therefore, almost by definition, by growing faster than the rest of the world, we’re always going to have a trade deficit.” While speaking with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Kudlow said, “I don’t know if you heard Art Laffer in the prior interview, but Art doesn’t believe that the trade...

President-elect Trump will use a Bible that was given to him by his mother, as well as the Lincoln Bible, for his swearing-in Monday. Trump’s late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, gave him the Bible in 1955 to mark his Sunday Church Primary School graduation at First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, N.Y., according to the Trump Inaugural Committee. The inside cover of the Bible is signed by church officials and inscribed with Trump’s name and details of when it was gifted to him. He will also use the Lincoln Bible, which was first used for President Lincoln’s 1861 swearing-in and...

Women and children captured by Russians in Ukraine are being sold into sex slavery in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the Daily Mail, American officials confirmed that there are “lost” women and children that were targeted at either Polish refugee camps or taken from Ukraine directly to Russia where they are bartered into UAE servitude. The revelation comes from a report titled “Modern Slavery In Dubai,” published by the Washington Institute For Defence And Security and the New York Center For Foreign Policy Affairs.

Over 100,000 beds were recalled this week following reports that they were breaking and collapsing during use...the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada issued a recall announcement for the Lucid brand "Platform Beds with Upholstered Square Tufted Headboards...The recalled beds can sag, break, or collapse during use, posing fall and injury hazards to consumers." ...there have been at least 245 reports "of the beds breaking, sagging or collapsing during use, causing 18 injuries, including contusions and bruises." Additionally, there were 11 reports of "bed failures" in Canada during use, while no further injuries were reported. The U.S. Consumer...

Ostensibly, White House party crashers Tareq Salahi and his wife could facilely be dismissed as another pair of publicity infatuated cretins. Commentators have been quick to compare them to the deranged Balloon Boy parents, desperate for fame at any price. Obamanutz devotes an entire chapter to the putrification of our pop culture that has spawned and enabled this kind of narcissism. Two strangers getting access to the President of the United States is disturbing enough by itself. We were told early on that Salahi is “half Palestinian.” That’s not the half of it. The Salahi’s are deeply in debt as...

Health authorities in England have announced that not a single case of influenza has been detected this year, with one professor suggesting that mask wearing should be kept in place during winter to drive down flu deaths to “zero.”

Can you visualize Biden strengthening America’s allies in the Middle East? The U.S.-brokered peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which is scheduled to be finalized this week at the White House, strikes a major blow to the twin forces of Islamic imperialism and terror in the Middle East: the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and the Shi’ite regime in Iran. The tripartite alliance between the United States, Israel and the UAE, openly supported by Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, gives an institutional structure to a pro-American regional bloc of moderate, anti-jihadist governments all with proven track records...

United Auto Workers President Gary Jones is going on leave amid a federal probe into corruption at the top of the union. Jones “has asked for a leave of absence,” the union, known as UAW, said in a statement on Saturday.

The world’s largest vertical farm is coming to Dubai. The indoor farm is a $40 million joint venture between Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering, who say it’s a way of producing pesticide-free crops while using a fraction of the water that traditional farming does. The produce will feed passengers of Emirates and other airlines at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport. The farm will be built near the airport, eliminating trucking costs and emissions. But is vertical farming really as green as it seems? HOW DOES IT WORK? To feed a growing global population, which could reach 9.1 billion...

Sheikha Latifa - the daughter of the Emirate's ruler - is said to have tried to flee in March in order to live a freer life abroad. But witnesses say the luxury yacht she was travelling on was intercepted off India, and she was returned to Dubai. She has not been seen since. Dubai's authorities say they cannot comment for legal reasons. Sheikha Latifa, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was snatched while trying to escape the country, according to reports. A BBC Newsnight investigation, which was broadcast on Friday, claimed she had received the help of...

Federal officials may not use private email accounts to get around public records laws, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a lower court decision in which judges dismissed claims from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank that attempted to obtain correspondence from a top White House official through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Google book scan copyright challenge lawsuit dismissed - deemed Fair Use.

Summary: When did humans really begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs? Scientists discovered in the Qesem Cave, an archaeological site near present-day Rosh Ha'ayin, the earliest evidence -- dating to around 300,000 years ago -- of unequivocal repeated fire building over a continuous period. These findings help answer the question and hint that those prehistoric humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.

The majority of Americans have now filed their taxes. And the majority of Americans have done so incorrectly. There is one mistake, in particular, that lots of people made: They bought tax-free things online or in another state — and they failed to pay tax on their purchase in their home state. It's called a use tax. As far as I can tell, accountants and tax lawyers are some of the only people who pay it. Forty-five states have a use tax. About 1.6 percent of the taxpayers in those 45 states actually pay the use tax. So I figured...

Considered an Effective Witness to the Sanctity of Human LifeWASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 9, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Following Vatican approval, the “Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb” is now available for use by dioceses in the United States. The text of the blessing in English and Spanish is posted online and is being published as a booklet addendum to the Book of Blessings/Bendicional. The blessing will be included in future editions of those liturgical volumes. “We hope the use of this blessing will provide not only support and God’s blessing for expectant parents and their child in the...

Republicans used a procedural move Wednesday to halt hearings in the Senate and force Democrats to vote on a series of politically dicey matters relating to the health care "fixes" sent over by the House this week. Senate Republicans said they would insist that no committee meet after 11 a.m., two hours after the Senate gaveled in on Wednesday. The objection was used as part of the "two-hour rule," a formality that requires unanimous consent for the Senate to meet two hours after the chamber has come into session.

JERUSALEM – Restrictions on access to abortion would turn women's bodies into vessels to be "used" by fetuses, according to President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein. "A restriction on access to abortion turns women's reproductive capacities into something to be used by fetuses. ... Legal and social control of women's sexual and reproductive capacities has been a principal historical source of sexual inequality," Sunstein wrote in his 1993 book "The Partial Constitution."

Some Muslims have refused to use alcohol-based hand gels to combat the spread of swine flu because they claim it is against their religion. Some of those employed by St Albans Council in Hertfordshire have complained about the antibacterial lotion, which is considered a key strategy in containing the virus.