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Immediate Release Statement by the Department of Defense on Domestic Travel Restrictions March 13, 2020 Today, the Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approved new travel restrictions for service members, DoD civilians, and their families assigned to DoD installations, facilities and surrounding areas within the United States and its territories. This restriction will halt all domestic travel, including Permanent Change of Station, and Temporary Duty. This restriction will also pause civilian hiring at DoD installations and components for persons who do not reside within the hiring entity's local commuting area. Additionally, service members will be authorized local leave only,...

Business software maker Salesforce is telling gun retailers they must stop selling AR-15s if they want to continue using the company’s business applications. The Washington Post reports that Salesforce is a $120 billion San Francisco-based company whose “skyscraper…towers over the city as the tallest building and a major landmark.” They are now telling customers who sell firearms that they are barred from using Salesforce “technology to market products, manage customer service operations and fulfill orders” unless they cease selling AR-15s. Salesforce’s “Acceptable Use Policy” goes beyond a ban on AR-15s, to include any semiautomatic firearms “that have the capacity to...

Currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 won’t be valid from midnight, PM Narendra Modi says in an address to the nation. “Currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 will be just paper with no value,” the PM says. Modi says the citizens’ money will be safe as they can deposit the notes in the bank before December 30, 2016. “People can deposit notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 in their banks from November 10 till December 30, 2016,” says PM. All other coins and notes to be continued.

Ten years ago Friday , Anna Politkovskaya, Russia’s most famous journalist, was murdered in Moscow. Her death serves as a window to Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin autocrat whom many Americans are looking at for the first time — his name now in U.S. election headlines as a result of alleged hacking of Democratic National Committee servers by Russian actors and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s praise of Putin’s strongman rule. ... Politkovskaya understood that there was a connection between Putin’s sudden rise to power in 1999 by inflaming anti-Chechen passions and the horrible violence that followed. In her book “A...

In 2008 Debbie Wasserman Schultz was Hillary's campaign co-chair. Hillary lost. What could possibly make sure the Hillary won the next nomination? How about her co-chair becoming the DNC chairman? That aught to do it. But how do you get the sitting chairman to vacate AND recommend Debbie Wasserman Schultz? What could you possibly promise to make that happen? Would it help to know that Tim Kaine was the DNC chairman in 2008? I picked up on this and thought, no way. Too simple to verify. So I googled. Danged. He was. He did. She was. She did. He's looking...

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin told an MSNBC panel on Thursday that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is "killing us" in terms of preventing gun violence. Mr. Manchin, a Democrat, referred to due process as an inconvenient "firewall" when it comes to denying Americans firearms. Money quote: "So can't we say that if a person is under suspicion, there should be a five-year period of time that we have to see if good behavior, if this person continues the same traits?"

REDMOND, Ore. — B.J. Soper took aim with his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and fired a dozen shots at a human silhouette target. Soper’s wife and their 16-year-old daughter practiced drawing pistols. Then Soper helped his 4-year-old daughter, in pink sneakers and a ponytail, work on her marksmanship with a .22-caliber rifle. Deep in the heart of a vast U.S. military training ground, surrounded by spent shotgun shells and juniper trees blasted to shreds, the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard was conducting its weekly firearms training. “The intent is to be able to work together and defend ourselves if we need to,”...

Some years ago, when I moved overseas, someone very kindly showed me how to change a setting for the forum that allowed me to display the article post times in the overseas timezone. Now I'm back in the US, but have lost the set of instructions for changing it back. Can someone help?

The current Stratfor Carrier status chart:

Has there been any word yet from Bill Whittle on when his MrVirtualPresident.com virtual State of the Union will be available? The Libertarians have already gotten theirs up, so I was wondering if anyone knew when Mr Whittle's would be. I would have thought he would've had it ready within hours of the Zer0 making his.

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is threatening to impose sanctions on India over its continued economic ties with Iran amid disagreements between Washington and New Delhi over how much and how soon the latter is reducing oil imports from the (in US eyes) pariah nation. India has "failed" to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil and if it doesn't do so, President Barack Obama may be "forced" to impose sanction, unnamed administration officials were cited as telling Bloomberg wire service. A decision in this regard could come as early as June 28, they added, implicitly offering New Delhi a ten- week...

So I live overseas, and due to the vagaries of my employer, I wasn't able to file my taxes until late last year. I filed the 1040A, and due to a brief period of work in the US before moving here, I did have some taxes withheld. I completed my form, ignoring the "other credits", including the so-called "Making Work Pay" credit (which I figured I didn't qualify for, and didn't really want anyway), and mailed it in. I was expecting a refund of about $1400 for the taxes I had had withheld, since I was withholding for a high...

With the political waters getting increasingly muddied by various candidates' positions on the current president, as well as differing takes on various aspects of his life, I'm trying to sum up the conservative position to the extent possible as of April 2011. First, the birth certificate. As I understand it, there are currently two schools of thought on this: One, it's fake or doesn't exist. He's been perpetrating a vast ego-driven and ideology-driven fraud to elevate himself and push his radical agenda, and has been desperately trying to hide the fact that he isn't who he says he is (more...

My sister-in-law, who is an Indian national, has been visiting the US for the past several months. She got back about two weeks ago. She had been given a 10-year visa, because one of her other sisters is married to an American, and she was there visiting them. She got a call today from the U.S. embassy that they wanted to talk to her since her name is the same as a terrorist. The actual terrorist is about 15 years older than my SIL. My SIL will be going to the embassy in Delhi for the interview. So, what can...

Given the horrendous monetary policies currently being pushed by the Fed, the national debt situation, and the disastrous economy, is there any point now in buying Savings Bonds as a long-term investment instrument? If not, what other instrument might be better? I'm looking into an investment instrument I can purchase now for an infant child that will provide a return on investment in the future.

Dear Freepers, I come to you today to ask for your help in bringing the Tea Party revolution to a far corner of the world. I currently live in India, in the state of Orissa. I work at a local technology university here, called the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology. Today, a delegation from WASITRAC, the Washington State/India Trade Relations Action Committee, visited the institution as part of a trade mission to Orissa to strengthen ties and try to set up a sister-state relationship between Washington State and Orissa, particularly in terms of a port-to-port relationship, though other areas were...

The current administration has now been in power for one year and four months, give or take. To date, it has together with Congress conducted a gradual but escalating campaign to subvert or transform numerous elements of American society. This has included major components of the American financial sector, American manufacturing, the American health care sector, telecommunications, and parts of the American legal system. In addition, the administration has significantly changed the foreign relations posture of our nation, including several well-known incidents where allies were treated poorly or even all but disregarded, and nations with known malicious intentions towards America...

I am calling on the legislative analysts here to see if you can help me answer this question: How does the healthcare bill affect those working overseas? I am specifically referring to the requirement that all persons must have health insurance. When working overseas, people often don't have access to the wide range of doctors and clinics that persons here in the US do, much less places that take health insurance of any kind. Does the bill require persons in that situation to purchase insurance that they cannot use?

So I've been weighing things in my mind for a little while now, and I have decided to seriously look into re-joining the Military. I was in the Army for four years from 1990-1994. I now have a Master's degree and lots of real-world experience under my belt. I am looking at joining the Air Force, specifically the newly-forming 24th (possible) Air Force, which will be the new Cyber Warfare command. My Master's is in Information Assurance (computer security). I have been having a hard time recently finding new jobs (who hasn't). I have been doing contracting, but the economy...

The election was bound to impact stock markets worldwide tomorrow. Now that it's becoming evident that the next president will be a Democrat, it's almost a sure bet that the US market will be down tomorrow, whereas the Euro markets will be up.