Free Republic

President Trump said Sunday that it could take “sometime into next year” until his ObamaCare replacement plan is ready, a slower timetable than he and other Republicans have put forward in the past. Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly asked Trump in an interview before the Super Bowl if Americans can “expect a new healthcare plan rolled out by the Trump Administration this year.” “Yes, in the process and maybe it’ll take till sometime into next year but we’re certainly going to be in the process,” Trump replied. “You have to remember Obamacare doesn’t work so we are putting in a wonderful...

Washington Senate Republicans are taking aim at organized labor. They’ve scheduled a series of public hearings beginning Monday on measures designed to reduce the influence of labor unions. One of the proposed bills would prohibit unions that collectively bargain with the governor’s office from making political contributions to gubernatorial candidates. The sponsor, state Sen. Dino Rossi, said it’s about eliminating any “appearance of corruption.” On Wednesday, Republicans will hold a public hearing on a so-called right-to-work bill to make union membership and dues not compulsory.

German news magazine Der Spiegel sparked controversy Saturday with a cover depicting US President Donald Trump holding the severed head of the Statue of Liberty in one hand and a bloodied knife in the other. The weekly used for its front page an image by US-Cuban artist and political refugee Edel Rodriguez with the Trumpian slogan “America first” next to it. “On our cover the American president beheads the symbol which has welcomed migrants and refugees to the United States since 1886, and with democracy and freedom,” Spiegel’s chief editor Klaus Brinkbaeumer told German news agency DPA. […] Liberal conservative...

“Build the wall” The chant that resonated in arenas and airplane hangers throughout the country over the course of the presidential campaign is on the brink of becoming reality, despite the fact that there’s a growing argument over who will pay, when they will pay, and how it will be paid for. Many of those now troubled about a congressional appropriation for its construction are losing site of the fact that the heroin trade through our southern border is arguably costing more in lives, money and potential than any amount the 115th Congress could approve....

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that she would work toward securing a “fair” free-trade deal between the EU and Mercosur, the South American economic bloc. Her comments, posted in her weekly video message, came ahead of a visit by Uruguay’s President Tabaré Vázquez to Berlin on Wednesday. “We are fundamentally in favor of international trade agreements, which is why we are very happy with the effort in the Mercosur countries” to reach a deal with the European Union, Merkel said. “It’s a matter of reaching a fair deal, where Europe’s interests are taken into account just as are those...

Flemish Father Daniël Maes (78) lives in Syria in the sixth-century-old Mar Yakub monastery in the city of Qara, 90 kilometers north of the capital Damascus. Father Daniel has been a witness to the “civil war” and according to him, Western reports on the conflict in Syria are very misleading. In short: “the Americans and their allies want to completely ruin the country.”Interviewer: You are very critical of the media coverage on Syria. What is bothering you?Father Daniel: “The idea that a popular uprising took place against President Assad is completely false. I’ve been in Qara since 2010 and I...

Democrats don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep up the pace of protests against President Donald Trump — and they’re worried Trump and his team are counting on them to run out of energy before the White House does. Two weeks into the Trump administration, party leaders have already reached a frantic, fevered pitch, throwing around talk of constitutional crisis and raising the specter of impeachment. “The thing that we don’t want to do is anesthetize the public with dozens and dozens of press conferences and marquee events,” said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. “Then it’ll just become background...

The Trump administration is exploring ways to break Russia’s military and diplomatic alliance with Iran in a bid to both end the Syrian conflict and bolster the fight against Islamic State, said senior administration, European and Arab officials involved in the policy discussions. The emerging strategy seeks to reconcile President Donald Trump’s seemingly contradictory vows to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and to aggressively challenge the military presence of Iran—one of Moscow’s most critical allies—in the Middle East, these officials say. A senior administration official said the White House doesn’t have any illusions about Russia or see Mr....

An internationally-recognized Somali-American nonprofit has declined to accept a federal grant in protest of President Donald Trump’s restrictions on refugees and travel. Ka Joog, which counsels and mentors young people in Minnesota, has turned down a $500,000 federal grant to show opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies that the nonprofit says targets Somalia and six other predominately Muslim countries. Ka Joog Executive Director Mohamed Farah told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that as much as the organization does not want to turn down such a significant grant, the board has decided it cannot ethically accept the money in light of Trump’s...

One thing I don't think conservatives truely recognize and appreciate,(and I include myself in that - I always do) is that after the Woodrow Wilson era, how utterly devastated progressive ideology was. They were so annihilated, that a decade later they were forced to re-appropriate the word "liberal" and take it for themselves. In many ways, the 1920's is a "lost decade" for American tyranny aka progressivism. They were completely routed, and after the way Wilson abused regulatory and other powers, the American economy and American life suffered for it. There were no excuses. There was nobody to blame. Progressives...

The Catholic Archbishop of Erbil has denounced the hypocrisy of those protesting President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration, wondering aloud where all of the demonstrators were when Islamic State fighters were slaughtering Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. In an interview with the online journal Crux, Archbishop Bashar Warda said that from his perspective in Iraq, he couldn’t help but ask “why all of these protesters were not protesting in the streets when ISIS came to kill Christians and Yazidis and other minority groups.” Warda also criticized the policies of the Obama administration, which offered no financial...

More than 100 supporters showed up to a rally in a small Mississippi town Saturday to fight back after being forced to remove a Christian flag flying over Veterans Memorial Park. One organization stepped in and threatened to sue if the flag wasn’t taken down. But the Christian supporters say they’re not backing down. “There just comes a point in time when you’ve got to be politically incorrect and take a stand,” said organizer Kevin Nelms. They rode from the VFW in Corinth, 12 miles, to the Veterans Memorial Park in Rienzi, proudly waving their Christian flags. The same flag...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The former St. Gerard Roman Catholic Church, a vacant Catholic church on Buffalo's east side, is answering a second calling. The Diocese sold the building for for $120,000 and it will be converted into a mosque. Former pastor Father Butch Mazur says even with the current political and social climate around the country, the community should embrace the new place of worship. "People should not be uncomfortable with having a mosque in this community. The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has a long-standing, healthy, great relationship with the Muslim community for almost 40 years," Mazur said. Some of...

<p>People always knew that RINOS were present in Washington, but reports from OpenSecrets.org just revealed that some of them were BIG traitors.</p> <p>“The non-profit, non-partisan research group based in Washington, D.C., that tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy, revealed that while George Soros is responsible for funding Democrats and progressive causes, he has also bankrolled Senator John McCain and a small but select group of other Republicans.</p>

Click " Not Now" and listen to this contractor's video about the Iraq situation for US citizens, who are resident in Iraq.

A Christian evangelist was accused of a hate crime and locked up in a cell after preaching from the Bible to a gay teenager. Gordon Larmour, 42, was charged by police after telling the story of Adam and Eve to a 19-year-old who asked him about God’s views on homosexuality. The street preacher referred to the Book of Genesis and stated that God created Adam and Eve to produce children. Within minutes he was frogmarched to a police van, accused of threatening or abusive behaviour 'aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation' - despite not swearing or using any form...

It's reported Muslim children outnumber Christian children at over thirty church schools in England. A study by the Sunday Times found that one Church of England school had a 100 per cent Muslim population. St Thomas in Werneth is reported by its diocese to have no Christian pupils while another school in West Yorkshire had 98% of pupils from a Muslim background. The Church of England says around 20 of its schools have more Muslim pupils than any other while the Catholic Education Service has 15. Many schools now include Islamic prayers in services while teacher training days are often...

President Donald Trump has very strongly criticized the decision of a federal judge in Seattle who issued a temporary restraining order [TRO] covering his new executive order [EO] regarding immigration. This order, and others like it relating not only to refugees but also, for example, to Obama’s order granting semi-permanent residency status to millions of illegal aliens (halted by the 5th Circuit), raise several legal concerns which cry out for correction since they are likely to get even worse in the future. ...snip.. Here’s why I think Robart’s ruling is wrong: FIRST, it’s doubtful that a state (in this case...

Construction company 84 Lumber seems to be deliberately looking to provoke controversy with its Super Bowl ad, which depicts a Mexican mother and daughter embarking on an arduous journey, apparently to leave their country of origin.

Hey everyone. Just in case you've been wondering . . . Well, I bought a brand new computer at a good price. But it is so blasted different from anything I'm used to that it's running me nuts. First I couldn't figure out how to hook the thing up (being unused to these contemporary power cords) and wound up taking the thing back to the store the very day I bought it. Okay--that's one hurdle. Then I had trouble turning it on. Then I couldn't increase the text size in my browser without increasing the size of the tab as...