Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy. FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said. It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections. It’s unclear how long the Torshin inquiry has been ongoing, but the...

Facebook announced on Thursday that it will bring Kenneth Chenault, the CEO of American Express, on to its board. Chenault will become the first African-American board member at the social media giant. His hiring follows a contentious meeting between Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in October, in which Sandberg promised that the company was in the process of appointing a black individual to the board.

Woo hoo!! Our 1st qtr FReepathon is off to a great start!! IMHO, 2017 was a great year and, Lord willing, 2018 should be even greater!! Build the wall, enforce the law, deport them all!! End sanctuary cities!! End anchor babies!! Continue cutting regulations, cutting government, cutting spending and cutting taxes!! Continue bringing back capital, manufacturing, jobs and the economy!! Continue appointing constitutional conservative judges and restoring the constitution and our religious freedom!! Continue rebuilding and strengthening our military!! Prepare for a great election in November, sweeping in even more conservatives to the congress so we can accomplish all of...

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In 1975, 42 years before the comedian Aziz Ansari reportedly brought a date home to his apartment and repeatedly tried to initiate sex with her after she told him “next time” and “I don’t want to feel forced,” Susan Brownmiller published “Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.” “All rape is an exercise in power,” Brownmiller wrote in 1975, “but some rapists have an edge that is more than physical.” Sometimes, the 1975 text suggests, rapists “operate within an emotional setting or within a dependent relationship that provides a hierarchical, authoritarian structure of its own that weakens a victim’s resistance,...

We always knew there would be winners and losers. The depressed mud crab is dealing with a lot right now. There’s climate change, pollution, and a real downer of a name. (Its scientific name, Eurypanopeus depressus, is no more cheery). But its greatest burden is probably the genital parasites. Yes, there’s a particular barnacle that latches onto depressed crab crotches, takes over the machinery therein, and co-opts it for its own reproduction. (And you thought herpes was bad.) But relief may be coming. Ocean ecologist Alyssa-Lois Gehman at the University of British Columbia has modeled how this host-parasite relationship will...

Twenty years ago, no one had heard of either Facebook or Google, neither of which existed yet. For that matter, no one knew much about social media or search engines in general. Cellphones were still simply mobile, small and expensive telephones. There was no concept of a phone as a handheld computer. Today, five companies -- Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet (Google's parent company) -- have a collective worth of more than $3 trillion. Yet such transnational companies remain mostly exempt from the sort of regulations and accountability faced by most other industries.

A well-known conservative lobbyist was sprayed with a “caustic substance” by a masked attacker outside his Arlington home Tuesday, according to local police. Jack Burkman, who made headlines again in 2016 by offering a $130,000 reward for information on the mysterious murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich, was reportedly attacked Tuesday. Local police told The Washington Post they have not yet determined the perpetrator’s identity. Burkman told WaPo he was returning from the grocery store when a man wearing a ski mask jumped out of a black SUV, sprayed him in the face with what appeared to be pepper spray,...

Editor’s note: This column was co-authored by Emmett McGroarty.Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a bit of a puzzle. Every speech she gives is a grab bag of praiseworthy philosophical statements combined with dismaying practical proposals. Her recent presentation to the American Enterprise Institute is a good example.She began with remarks about the Common Core national standards. Especially in her home state of Michigan, conservatives were discouraged by DeVos’s nomination because of her past support of Common Core and her efforts (through organizations she founded and/or funded) to thwart the parents who opposed them. She disavowed her previous support and then...

To be forewarned is to be forearmed Hillary Clinton and her crew get a pass for colluding to stack the deck against Bernie. No matter what the evidence revealed the FBI nomenclature predetermined that New York’s sixth crime family was untouchable. Congressional insiders report they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server. Investigators say there is written evidence that the FBI found evidence that some laws were broken when the former secretary of State and her top aides transmitted classified information through her insecure private email server.

David KopelIndependence Institute January 17, 2018 David B. Kopel The House of Representatives recently passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 with bipartisan support. The act would allow people eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to carry in other states, as well.Opponents contend the act violates federalism. Actually, the act is well within congressional powers under the 14th Amendment. That amendment was enacted specifically to give Congress the power to act against state infringements of national civil rights.Section one of the 14th Amendment forbids states to violate civil rights. Section five of the amendment...

In the mountains of western Iran, the province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari is known for mile-high lagoons, flowing rivers and wetlands that attract thousands of species of migratory birds. But years of diminishing rainfall have shriveled water sources. Conditions worsened, residents say, after Iranian authorities began funneling water 60 miles away to the lowland city of Esfahan, sparking protests as far back as 2014. The uprising — in which at least 21 people died and thousands were arrested before authorities reimposed order — had many sparks: rising prices, persistent unemployment, bank collapses, a wide wealth gap, corruption in the theocracy. But an...

Few movie cars are as instantly recognizable as the 1968 Ford Mustang that Steve McQueen drove in "Bullitt." That Highland Green car known now simply as the Bullitt Mustang took on a 1969 Dodge Charger on the streets of San Francisco in one of the greatest car chases captured on film. For decades, the original car was thought to be lost. That wasn't entirely the case. It's simply been kept out of the public's eye. Now it returns to the spotlight, finally taking its rightful place next to its successor, the new 475-horsepower 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt.

Meanwhile the slimy awardees of Fake News have slithered back into their viper pits where you can depend they are now crafting out their next gossip with which to gob-smack the masses So many people wanted to tune in on President Donald Trump’s #Fake News Awards last night that they crashed the GOP.com site where the “winners’ list was published. “Fake News Awards” crashed because it was flooded with visitors after Trump tweeted out the link.” (FoxNews, Jan. 17, 2018)

In the final frantic days before the New Yorker and New York Times exposed his sexual misconduct, Harvey Weinstein allegedly spent his time searching for and deleting sensitive documents, scouring ex-employees’ online communications and hunting for the person who leaked incriminating information to the press. ...Weinstein was determined to find out who was providing reporters with a road map to his personal life, angrily confiding in her [Nicole Quenqua], she said, even as he fished for information: “Somebody is giving The New York Times everything. They’re giving them my drivers’ phone numbers. My entire address book. . . . They’re...

Manmade climate change is now dwarfing the influence of natural trends on the climate, scientists say. The acting director of the UK Met Office, Prof Peter Stott, told BBC News: "It's extraordinary that temperatures in 2017 have been so high when there's no El Niño. In fact, we’ve been going into cooler La Niña conditions. "Last year was substantially warmer than 1998 which had a very big El Niño. "It shows clearly that the biggest natural influence on the climate is being dwarfed by human activities – predominantly CO2; emissions." “The record temperature should focus the minds of world leaders,...

For the news industry to thrive, it has to address their audience's low opinion of their work product and make it better. While the First Amendment provides freedom of the press, it does not address the potential bias of those who work in the press, or what control the press might have. It does not address how that bias might change news into opinion, nor does it address the distinction between news and commentary. The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." So government can't control the press. The press...

The massive rise in the proportion of Muslim migrants in the country has resulted in two-thirds of Belgians feeling their nation is being “increasingly invaded”, according to a new study. This sentiment was especially marked among respondents to the detailed survey aged 65 and over, 84 per cent of whom likened the influx of migrants and refugees to an invasion. Overall, two-thirds of the 4,734 people polled believe there are “too many immigrants in Belgium”, while 77 per cent agreed with the statement, “Today we no longer feel at home as we did before [mass migration]”. Entitled Black Yellow Blues...

Illegal immigrant accused of stabbing stranger in neck at California market had been deported seven times A man accused of an “unprovoked and brutal stabbing” at a market in California last month is an illegal immigrant with a criminal record who had been previously deported seven times, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman told Fox News. Ricardo Velasquez-Romero, 39, who also goes by the name Eulalio Miniz Orozco, was arrested last month after local police say he stabbed a 61-year-old man in the neck at Lola’s Market in Santa Rosa on Dec. 21. Department of Homeland Security databases indicate...

Would you eat venison if there was a chance it could slowly eat away at your brain? If there's a slight possibility, it doesn't bother Patrick States. On the menu this evening for his wife and two daughters at their Northglenn, Colo., home are pan-seared venison steaks with mashed potatoes and a whiskey cream sauce. "We each have our specialty, actually," says States as the steak sizzles. "The girls made elk tamales this morning, but we use [venison or elk] in spaghetti, chili, soup, whatever." The States take pride in skipping the butcher counter at the grocery store. The red...