Free Republic

The issues underlying the months of protest at the Dakota Access Pipeline and the unfortunate way in which the DAPL issue was brought to a resolution has resulted in a Constitutional issue that was heartily debated and weighed in upon by the likes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington being reduced to the level of something we might see on The Simpsons. In summary here is what occurred: a pipeline was intended to cross land that was identified as Lakota land via the Treaty of 1851. The Lakota argued that this was a violation of Article I and Article VI...

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office was expected in court Tuesday to argue millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst should not be allowed to delay the start of his murder trial. Prosecutors have also asked to record the testimony of several more trial witnesses -- including one more "secret" witness -- in order to preserve their statements in case they were unable to testify at the trial.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) says he won't completely rule out launching a presidential bid in 2020. Asked Monday during a CNN town hall whether he would run for the White House in 2020, Kasich responded: "Very unlikely that I will run for public office."

There's an easy way to tell when the pro-crime lobby's defense of a murderer is utterly baseless. They play the "intellectual disability" card. Intellectual disability is to today's pro-crime lobby what mental illness used to be back in the day. It's easy to fake stupidity. It's much harder to fake innocence. They claimed that Ledell Lee was intellectually disabled. The truth is that Ledell Lee was a monster. They claimed that more time was still needed for more evidence. But Ledell Lee committed his crimes in the early 90s. The only thing that the vultures of the pro-crime lobby were waiting for was for Arkansas' stock...

When Hillary Clinton was campaigning and on the trail to win the 2016 elections, a female-run distillery in Washington D.C spent months creating something worthy of celebrating the first female President of the United States. When the election happened and everything went topsy-turvy, releasing the spirit made no sense. Rachel Gardner and Pia Carusone of Republic Restoratives have decided to move forward and release their specially concocted whiskey named Rodham Rye. It will go on sale today in a limited batch of 4,652 bottles. This whiskey honours Hillary Rodham Clinton in all her glory. According to Grub Street, Carusone said...

At the Starbucks on Fort Campbell Boulevard in Clarksville, Tenn. -- two miles from the U.S. military base -- store manager Shannon Feltz pours hot coffee for a group of veterans seated at a communal table. On a shelf next to the register are rows of green-and-white mugs reading: "Proudly serving those who serve." On Tuesday, the Clarksville store became one of 37 around the country designated by the coffeehouse chain as "Military Family Stores" -- stores staffed primarily by veterans and military spouses as part of a larger effort to employ service members and their families nationwide. "Seventy-five percent...

Obama Denounces “Special Interests” At The University of Chicago . . . And Then Quietly Accepts $400,000 For First Speech From Wall Street Special Interests President Barack Obama was at my alma mater yesterday and used his first public statements to decry how “special interests dominate the debates in Washington.” Then will now be setting off for his first speech . . . to Wall Street special interests at Cantor Fitzgerald, which will pay him $400,000. This is the same politician who called such banks “fat cats” who exercise undue influence over our leaders. Cantor Fitzgerald, a bank, has been...

For Westerners, North Korea is perennially on and off of the headlines. This year, the confluence of a new US president, the US missile attack in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and an apparently in-your-face program of missile and nuclear tests on the part of North Korea has returned the world’s last Stalinist state to comment threads and coffee-room speculation. Military professionals obviously follow these events even more closely, and Maj. ML Cavanaugh’s recent thoughtful pieces for MWI serve as an example.

An Islamic State flag in Gaziantep on the Turkish-Syrian border. An Islamic State (IS) suspect has said he met regularly with former Justice and Development Party (AKP) minister and current Gaziantep mayor, Fatma Sahin, during the height of the jihadist group’s assault on Kobani in 2014.According to a report in the Turkish daily Evrensel, Bahaa Alden Najeep, who is accused of involvement in the Gaziantep wedding attack killing 57 civilians, told police that he had set up the Association for Educating and Developing Syrian Youth in border city Gaziantep upon the request of Free Syrian Army (FSA) officials and that his responsibility was to transfer...

FULL TITLE: United is rated as the WORST large airline in the US - even before the company courted scandal over doctor who was dragged off a plane United Airlines has been rated as the worst among its peers for customer satisfaction even before the scandal over a doctor who was dragged off a plane. Those responding to an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) study ranked United lower than all large airlines in the survey, which analyzed data from across all sectors. Last month, Dr David Dao was violently dragged from his seat on a United flight after the airline...

Sorry for the vanity, but I'm dealing with a financial situation that is apparently a very unusual one and isn't easily addressed through traditional means. Long story short ... I'm looking into some options for opening a self-directed IRA (which is different from a self-managed IRA). The tax rules about these accounts are complicated, but I've determined that I can navigate them with minimal outside help. The issue I'm facing is that the IRS requires a third-party custodian to be involved in the process to file the necessary paperwork and annual tax forms. For the life of me, I cannot...

That’s not unheard of, according to Pew, but it’s awfully rare over the last 40 years polling. And it doesn’t seem to be a fluke result in light of yesterday’s NBC poll. That survey found 57 percent saying that government should do more to solve problems and meet the needs of Americans, a 20-year high. Pew asked a different question along the same lines: Do you prefer a bigger government that offers more services or a smaller one that offers fewer services? Result: 48/45. The last time that metric was evenly split was 2008.Pew drilled down and asked people...

“Mayday, mayday.” That’s the message that Hampton Roads’ ship-repair industry is sending to Congress as it gets back to work this week. A minimum of 1,000 layoffs are projected in the region’s ship-repair yards in the weeks and months ahead, some of which have already begun to unfold. They’re largely the result of a stopgap spending measure the government has been operating under for roughly seven months and the failure to approve a new national budget with adequate funding to maintain Navy ships, said Bill Crow, president of the Virginia Ship Repair Association, a regional trade group. The meter on...

President Trump on Tuesday insisted he's fully committed to building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, one day after saying he was open to waiting until the fall to get funding for the wall. "Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL," Trump tweeted. "It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc." Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017 Trump on...

While Democrats and Republicans go for each other’s throats on domestic problems, the nation's defense is one thing they absolutely have to get together on and allocate whatever funds it will take to recruit the best and the brightest, and bring defensive hardware up to and past anything any other nation on the planet has in their arsenal.

NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson set the endurance record for time in space by a U.S, astronaut today, Monday, April 24, during her current stint of living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) along with her multinational crew of five astronauts and cosmonauts. Furthermore Whitson received a long distance phone call of exuberant congratulations from President Donald Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump, and fellow astronaut Kate Rubins direct from the Oval Office in the White House to celebrate the momentous occasion. “This is a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight!” said President Trump during the...

Well, The real Obama & Clinton have been exposed for what they both really are....enemies of these United States Of America!!! The recent Jon Allen, book on Clinton, and the Politico expose of Obama and his release of violent, killer Muslim terrorist servants of Iran is quite revealing and informative!!! IMHO....neither of them should ever be publically shown again!!! Both of them are true "Satans & Traitors to the USA!!! And...the same goes for the entire Democrat Party that supports this human vermin!!!

Turkish airstrikes on Tuesday morning targeted Kurdish positions in Syria and Iraq killing dozens of fighters and civilians according to first reports.Fighter jets hit Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions in northeaster Syria’s Derik city (Al-Malikiyah) and Kurdish Yazidi positions in northern Iraq’s Shingal (Sinjar) at around 02:00am local time, according to reports.Information gained by Kom News suggests at least eighteen YPG members were killed in an airstrike on the group’s headquarters in Derik, which is on the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.A radio station and villages were also hit, however the number of civilian casualties has not been confirmed. Turkish warplanes...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will retire at the end of the season, Hendrick Motorsports has announced. Voted the sport's most popular driver for the last 14 seasons, Earnhardt began his career with a start at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 1999. He has since accumulated 26 career wins, including two in the Daytona 500. He also captured a win in the All-Star Race as a rookie.

Facing bi-partisan opposition to including funds to build a wall along the US southern border in the spending bill to keep the government operating past this weekend, President Trump told a group of conservative media representatives that he may drop his insistence for the wall funding if it will help pass the legislation. Bloomberg: "On funding the border wall, Trump said he could get it this week or the administration could come back to it in September," Trey Yingst, a White House correspondent for One America News, reported in a tweet. A White House official who asked for anonymity confirmed what...