Free Republic

I am a proud American who believes that America has held – and still holds – a very sensitive and special place in the affairs of mankind on Planet Earth. I believe that America has been divinely blessed and protected in our two centuries plus of existence. I believe that America has been a counter balance that has cancelled out a lot of tyranny, evil and conquest, and admittedly, we have made a lot of mistakes. But on balance we have exerted a certain Pax Americana in the international affairs of mankind. It took a lot of old fashioned guts...

Advocates for mass-migration are using skewed financial claims to smear Donald Trump’s popular border proposals, which actually would help the near-bankrupt Social Security and Medicare programs. For every illegal migrant household that leaves the United States under Trump’s plan, Americans would recoup nearly three-quarters of a million dollars ($719,350), according to 2010 data collected by Heritage scholar Robert Rector. But business interests want the migrants to stay. That’s because migrants help lower the cost of Americans’ wages, but also because the migrants spend their wages — plus taxpayer aid — at retail stories and rental agencies. For example, the American...

Much to the continued astonishment of the leftwing national media and the DC pundit class, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, the Republican and Democratic “dynasty” candidates that were supposed to run away with their party’s 2016 presidential nominations, are fading in the early state polls. Jeb Bush Hillary ClintonOf course it takes more than being the wife of a President to make a “dynasty,” which implies generation-to-generation continuity, so there really is no such thing as a Clinton “dynasty” unless Hillary is elected. Thus talk of the Clinton “dynasty” is really just wishful thinking on the part of the hard...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday said China's devaluation of the yuan would be "devastating" for the United States as the global currency war entered a new and critical phase. "They're just destroying us," the billionaire businessman, a long-time critic of China's currency policy, said in a CNN interview. "They keep devaluing their currency until they get it right. They're doing a big cut in the yuan, and that's going to be devastating for us." Earlier on Tuesday, China devalued its currency following a series of poor economic data in the yuan's biggest fall since 1994. Some said this...

Republican Donald Trump is pulling away from the pack in the race for the party's U.S. presidential nomination, widening his lead over his closest rivals in the past week, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Friday. Republican voters show no signs they are growing weary of the brash real estate mogul, who has dominated political headlines and the 17-strong Republican presidential field with his tough talk about immigration and insults directed at his political rivals. The candidates are vying to be nominated to represent their party in the November 2016 general election. Nearly 32 percent of Republicans surveyed online said they...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump hosted an event last night in Alabama that saw between 18,000 and 20,000-plus people in attendance. Roll tide, apparently. During his speech, “the Donald” mentioned how he is a big fan of Oreo cookies, but will refuse to ever eat them again since Nabisco plans on moving to Mexico. From The Blaze: “You know, Mexico is the new China,” Trump told the crowd, referencing the recent decision by Nabisco to move its factories there. “I love Oreos. I’ll never eat them again. Okay? I’ll never eat them again,” Trump said. “No, Nabisco closes the plant, they...

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will strike back at anyone who tries to harm the Jewish state. During a visit Tuesday to the IDF's northern headquarters for briefings on Israel's preparedness, Netanyahu, accompanied by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisencot, said Israel is ready for any eventuality. "The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is strong. "We are prepared for every scenario," Netanyahu told reporters. "Anyone who tries to hurt us, we will hurt them." The prime minister's visit comes a week after the IDF conducted a large-scale training exercise...

Critics claim that anyone born in the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen, even if their parents are here illegally. But that ignores the text and legislative history of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to extend citizenship to freed slaves and their children. The 14th Amendment doesn’t say that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens. It says that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens. That second conditional phrase is conveniently misinterpreted by advocates of “birthright” citizenship. Critics erroneously believe that anyone present in...

Al Qods commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, acting on the orders of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this week set up a new Iranian command to fight Israel, DEBKAfile reports exclusively from its military and intelligence sources. It has been dubbed the Eastern Command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.The Al Qods Brigades, which are the external terrorist arm of the Guards, are organized according to sectors, with commands for Hizballah, the Palestinians, Syria, Iraq and the Gulf. Their newest sector is the Eastern Command which, our sources report has been assigned as its first task to start handing out weapons,...

Donald Trump set off yet another wave of anguish and frustration among Republican political elites Sunday with more provocative statements about immigration, along with the release of a Trump immigration plan influenced by the Senate's leading immigration hawk. But there are indications Trump's positions on immigration are more in line with the views of the public — not just GOP voters, but the public at large — than those of his critics. "Donald Trump: Undocumented Immigrants 'Have to Go,'" read the headline at NBC News, where Trump appeared on "Meet the Press." "They have to go," Trump told moderator Chuck...

Establishment Republicans who were hoping that Donald Trump’s battle with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly portended the implosion of his presidential campaign were dealt a severe blow when it was revealed last week that Trump has been consulting Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Chairman of the Senate’s Immigration Subcommittee. Donald Trump Jeff SessionsThe reason this is so important – and really is a game changer – is that no one on the national scene understands the politics of populist opposition to open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens better than Senator Jeff Sessions. Senator Sessions, a principled limited government constitutional...

4:00PM EDT A former Southern Baptist Church has decided all are welcomed in their pulpit, going so far as to ordain gay and transgender ministers. First Baptist of Greenville, South Carolina—the church home of the first Southern Baptist Convention president—has taken a bold move in "embracing the complexities of gender identity." "What I heard was, 'We need to do the right thing, regardless of what anybody thinks or says about us,'" Senior Pastor Jim Dant tells Greenville Online. "There were a few people who said, 'Are they going to start calling us the gay church in town?'" After a six-month...

In the Cleveland debate, Donald Trump refused to commit to support whomever the Republican Party nominates in 2016. Trump would be wise to maintain his freedom of action. For there is a plot afoot in the Washington Post Conservative Club to purge Trump from the Republican Party before the primaries begin. “A political party has a right to … secure its borders,” asserts the Post’s George Will, “a duty to exclude interlopers.” Will wants The Donald “excommunicated” and locked out of all GOP debates until he kneels and takes a loyalty oath to the nominee. “Marginalizing Trump” carries no risk...

“I used to rule the world. Seas would rise when I gave the word. Now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own.” –Viva la Vida by Coldplay The Republican primary is a race against the GOP elite who have enjoyed Viva la Vida for far too long. This is not the time to ask the candidates to swear allegiance to Karl Rove and Reince Priebus. Conservatives forget who the real enemy of a 2016 Republican victory is: the GOP elite. Their goal: to preserve their Viva la Vida. They are betting you will help...

In a recent ABC News article, journalist David Knight writes that two German scientists have proven logician and mathematician, Kurt Gödel’s, theorem for God’s existence is logically accurate [1]. Knight writes, “The details of the mathematics involved in Gödel's ontological proof are complicated, but in essence the Austrian was arguing that, by definition, God is that for which no greater can be conceived. And while God exists in the understanding of the concept, we could conceive of him as greater if he existed in reality. Therefore, he must exist. “Even at the time, the argument was not exactly a new...

Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives certified that they had only 45 employees each in order to sign up for the District of Columbia’s Small Business Exchange. But 12,359 - or 86 percent of the exchange's enrollees - are members of Congress, congressional staff members, and their spouses and dependents, according to an appeal filed with the D.C. Court of Appeals by Judicial Watch. The public interest law firm announced Monday that it is appealing the February dismissal of its lawsuit challenging congressional participation in the Obamacare exchange even though the D.C. Exchange Act limits enrollment to small...

Donald Trump's dominance in the polls shows no sign of abating despite the controversy that has raged for days over his comments about Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly and her treatment of him during the first GOP debate last week. According to a poll by Morning Consult conducted Aug. 7 to 9 of 2,029 registered voters, Trump leads his nearest rival by nearly 3-1 with 32 percent support. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the No. 2 spot has just 11 percent support. Every other GOP contender clocks in with less than 10 percent support: Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson...

There is no sign that Donald Trump's raucous first presidential debate is hurting his support among party voters, with the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showing he still has a big lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump's staying power is defying predictions of political doom and leading some Republicans to explore ways to persuade him not to pursue a third-party bid should he falter in his quest for the Republican nomination in 2016. Trump led the party's 17-strong 2016 presidential field with the backing of 24 percent of Republican voters, unchanged from before Thursday's televised debate, the Reuters/Ipsos...

While most of the media attention after last week’s GOP presidential debate has been focused on Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz has seen a huge jump in his poll numbers, and apparently an explosion in campaign contributions since he took the stage. Check it out! I’d say 225,000 contributions with an average contribution of $68 is quite impressive. It’s important to note that a lot of these contributions are coming from ordinary Americans, making this a true grassroots effort, rather than bowing to the will of corporations in order to get funding. One of the reasons people seem to be...