Free Republic

...towards 51st state. A group called (“New California”) has taken its first step towards carving the Golden State in two – issuing a “declaration of independence” which would incorporate most of the state’s rural counties – while coastal counties from the northern San Francisco Bay Area to the southern tip of Los Angeles would remain part of the existing state.[snip]One of New California’s pamphlets reads: “The current state of California has become governed by a tyranny, which rivals those stated above. It is time to take action. The Duty of the People who are suffering the long train of abuses...

FULL TITLE: Sprawling Greek monuments built 4,500 years ago on 'the world's oldest maritime sanctuary' reveal the impressive engineering skills of Bronze Age islanders Excavations around Keros show the technological prowess of Bronze Age Greeks Researchers found the remains of terraced walls and giant gleaming structures The structures were built using 1,000 tons of stone dug up six miles away Together they turned a tiny islet near Keros into a single, massive monument A remote Greek island known as the 'world's oldest maritime sanctuary' was once covered in complex monuments built using stone dug up six miles (10 km) away....

In each of my daughters’ lives came the day in fifth grade when we had to sit on her bed and practise. I pretended to be the boy in class who was making her sick with dread. She had to look right at me and repeat the words until they felt possible, if not easy: “Don’t say that to me. Don’t do that to me. I hate it.” As much as I wanted to knock heads around, I knew the only real solution was to arm a daughter for self-defence. But why was it so hard to put teeth into...

We are getting word via journalist Byron York that Congressional investigators have compiled a classified FISA Abuse report, likely linking Barack Obama and his cronies to illegal wiretapping of … who knows how many people. You can bet President Donald Trump is on that list of spied-on Americans. But you’re not allowed to see it. It’s all a big secret. You’re too unimportant to be “read in” as they say in D.C. circles. You just pay the bills and keep your mouth shut. Major development in House Intel Committee *after* vote to release Glenn Simpson transcript. Rep Peter King offered...

Husband just lost job. We're looking at health sharing ministries as a lower cost way of saving on premiums compared to COBRA. What has been your experience with health sharing ministries? Which one would you recommend? Which ones don't make processing medical bills/claims a hassle? What should I look out for?

White House attorney Ty Cobb said he anticipates President Trump will be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the ongoing Russia probe. Trump is “very eager” to appear before Mueller and “active discussions” are underway to set up an interview, Cobb was quoted as telling CBS News for an episode of its "Takeout" podcast, which will be released in full on Friday.

One week after Senate Democrats warned that U.S. elections in 2018 and 2020 could still be vulnerable to meddling by Moscow, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., on Wednesday detailed how a new bipartisan bill aims to deter Moscow by imposing punishing sanctions in retaliation for future mischief. “If you’re Vladimir Putin, and you’re thinking about interfering once again in the U.S. elections, you’re going to have to think long and hard,” Van Hollen said in an interview with Yahoo News on the SiriusXM show “Politics of the United States.”Van Hollen and Sen. Marco Rubio, R.-Fla., co-authored the Defending Elections from...

On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee quietly voted to make available to fellow House members “a memo documenting abuse of the FISA program,” reports Fox News’ Chad Pergram. With 435 House members, the likelihood of details from the memo leaking are high. And so are the stakes. "Fox is told that while the Intel Cmte voted in favor of the Simpson transcript, Democrats blocked the release of other documents. The committee has also voted on a motion by Rep. Pete King (R-NY) to make available to all House members a memo documenting abuse of the FISA program." Washington Examiner‘s Byron...

Deep in China’s Sichuan mountains, miners are chipping away at complex mathematical puzzles in hopes of unlocking one of today’s most prized assets, bitcoin. Currently, more than 60 percent of all bitcoin is mined in China, and these miners have picked their location wisely. The remote Sichuan mountains enjoy a cool year-round temperature and cheap electricity provided by small-scale hydro-electric facilities, averaging from $0.05 to $0.08-cents per kWh. Recent rumors, however, suggest that this could all come crashing down. First reported on Reuters, the People’s Bank of China outlined a plan behind closed doors aiming to curb the high energy...

Take Advantage of the US tax cuts if you can. Some of you will but not as much as you could. You who have reached the goal of 15% going into Retirement, Debt Free but the mortgage and 3-6 months expenses saved, you can now focus on kid's college funds and paying off that Pesky Mortgage. The tax rate of !5% going down to 12% may help. But If the new Standard Deduction and increased Child Tax Credits are in the picture, increase your Federal Exemptions (W-4 Form) now! Increase the amount payed on Principle or set up Tax Free...

Once again, we are left scratching our heads at just what standards Facebook actually has. We know they write a bunch of gobbledygook, through it together and enforce it rather, shall we say, biased? The latest example of this comes as conservative blogger Elizabeth Johnston, also known as “The Activist Mommy,” discovered a group on Facebook that is pro-homosexual that is named, “I will find The Activist Mommy and burn whoever runs it alive.” Right there, isn't that a threat? Isn't it open harassment? Doesn't it imply the desire to murder a woman who has not physically attacked anyone in...

LOS ANGELES — French actress Brigitte Bardot has criticized the #MeToo movement and said that she has never been a victim of sexual harassment. In an interview with Paris Match magazine, Bardot asserted that for actresses specifically, "not women in general," "the vast majority of cases" are "hypocritical, ridiculous, without interest." The 83-year-old added that the topic takes away from "important themes that could be discussed." Bardot became an international sex symbol after her starring role in 1956's "And God Made Woman." "I thought it was nice to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice...

Nearly a year after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Harvard University professor says 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could still become commander in chief. Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School, penned an essay for Medium in October outlining a series of hypothetical scenarios that could take place should the ongoing probe find that the Trump campaign actually conspired with Russia to influence the results of the election. If Trump did conspire with Russia, the president “should resign, or, if he doesn’t, he should be impeached,” Lessig wrote in his essay. Vice...

WASHINGTON -- Last week the headlines should have abounded with the year's good news. It was the economy: gross domestic product was up some 3 percent and, for the last quarter, nearly 4 percent; unemployment was down to a 17-year low, with black unemployment at the lowest level since such statistics were compiled. The stock market was soaring, up some 40 percent since Donald Trump was elected, and inflation was low. It was the best Christmas season in years. President Trump has -- true to his word -- presided over a genuine economic recovery, as opposed to President Barack...

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants may not look on paper like a mass deportation, but for many people it feels like one. Statistically Trump’s sweep of immigrants, while up from last year, doesn’t compare to the deportations done in the early years of President Barack Obama’s first term. But the administration’s attempt to return to the peak deportation levels under Obama or surpass them, combined with Trump’s rhetoric and his drive to slash legal immigration, have whipped up enough fear to make some feel a mass roundup is underway. “At any moment I feel I could just...

President Trump is throwing his weight behind a fellow Republican's battle to keep an open House seat in GOP hands Thursday, in what could be a key bellwether for the November midterm elections. Rick Saccone will face off against Democrat Conor Lamb on March 13 in a push to succeed former Republican Rep. Tim Murphy’s 18th Congressional District seat. Murphy resigned in October over a sex scandal in which his mistress claimed the pro-life conservative congressman pressured her to have an abortion. “Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for...

“Their behavior mirrored a ‘classic method for insiders to exfiltrate data from an organization'” Congressional investigators released a report indicating, “Democrat IT aides made unauthorized access to congressional servers in 2016, allegedly accessing the data of members for whom they did not work, logging in as members of Congress themselves, and covering their tracks, according to a presentation summarizing the findings of a four-month internal probe,” reported the Daily Caller Tuesday.The report continued, alleging Democrats misrepresented the entire scandal: Their behavior mirrored a “classic method for insiders to exfiltrate data from an organization,” and they continued even after orders to...

For decades, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has been touted by American leaders as a moderate man of peace. U.S. leaders from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, and from Condoleezza Rice to John Kerry, all insisted that Abbas is the Palestinian leader who will make an historic deal with Israel. President Donald Trump has met three times with Abbas since taking office. On Sunday night, Abbas showed them what he really thinks. He cursed Trump saying that the U.S. President’s “house should be destroyed.”

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...