Free Republic

Because the Ukraine appropriation was rescinded by Congress -- legally what happened earlier is largely moot. This undermines the accusations n the impeachment hoax, Democrats are illegally using taxpayer funds to manipulate the 2020 election. We are watching a Democrat Party campaign event set in the U.S. Capitol. This is the best version of a Trump rally Democrats can manage. Yet it requires a scramble to handle the latest surprises. I hate last-minute “bombshells” because the timing deprives the accused of the time and ability to properly respond. Springing last-minute surprises is fundamentally unfair. On January 16, 2020, just as...

There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more common name is “the Tank.” The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for the wrenching decisions that have been made there. Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with President...

BREAKING THIS FRIDAY MORNING– Ken Starr, Robert Ray and Democrat law professor Alan Dershowitz were selected to defend President Trump at the Senate impeachment trial starting next week.

New birthrate figures show that China has so far failed to reverse the effects of its longtime one-child policy — a change that policymakers say is necessary to forestall the long-term economic consequences of an aging and shrinking population. The National Bureau of Statistics of China released the new data on Friday, the same day it announced that the country's GDP growth has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 30 years. Last year, there were 10.48 births per 1,000 people, the lowest birthrate since 1949, the year the People's Republic of China was founded. The number was down from...

No excerpt allowed, story here. It refers to a blog post Creating ‘Gainful Employment Equivalent’ Thresholds for the New College Scorecard Data.

Michael White didn’t deny killing Sean Schellenger. He admitted to police and at his trial that he plunged a knife several times into Schellenger’s back during a July 2018 scuffle in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. Numerous witnesses and a cellphone video confirmed what happened. Yet in October 2019 a jury acquitted Mr. White, a 22-year-old college student, of voluntary manslaughter. Many, including the victim’s family, blame Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s soft-on-crime district attorney. Mr. Krasner is one of a new crop of “progressive prosecutors” who have won election in liberal cities. They include San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin, who was raised by Weather...

In 2016, Donald Trump received a slightly higher share of the black vote than did Mitt Romney in 2012 or John McCain in 2008. But he still received just 8 percent.Now black support for Trump is in the mid-30s. While a 30 percent approval rating doesnÂ’t necessarily translate into a 30 percent vote-share from black Americans in 2020, 30 percent approval is significant. Even if black support for Trump were in the mid-teens on election day, that could swing states like Michigan, Florida, and even Minnesota solidly into TrumpÂ’s camp.Some of this increased black support is due to a...

Those switching between coverage of the impeachment proceedings on Fox News and the signing of the Phase 1 China trade deal saw the stark election choice between the two parties and their priorities, between President Donald J. Trump and those Lilliputian Democrats who would remove him from power. Trump offers continued growth and prosperity freed from the power of government and the shackles of a command economy. The comedy team of Pelosi, Nadler, and Schiff offer a palace coup to undo the hopes and free choice of the American people and lead to economic collapse and a Third World justice...

Many questions remain regarding how the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump will be conducted. Among the points of contention is whether or not witnesses should be called. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., joins Lisa Desjardins to discuss why he believes “you can’t have a trial without witnesses and evidence” and how it’s “no surprise” that most Americans are not following impeachment closely. Read the Full Transcript -snip Thank you, Senator, for joining us. As you just heard, I asked Senator Barrasso, why not plan on calling witnesses now? I want to ask you the reverse question. Why should you plan...

Was it just me or did the march of the ‘peachment remind anyone else of the bar scene in Star Wars?Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Garcia, Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff, Val Demings, Zoe Lofgren and Jason Crow: just as diverse, nearly as weird as the original Cantina patrons. Four men - 1 Muslim, 2 Jews, 1 white guy who could pass as a Native American if need be; Three women - 1 black, 1 Hispanic, 1 suburban white mom. How Democrat of them: much more representative of the Dems victim group patronage than their Presidential debate panel earlier this week.And speaking of Star...

If the Trump era has taught us anything, it's that large numbers of white people in the United States are motivated at least in part by racism in the voting booth. Donald Trump ran an openly racist campaign for president, calling Mexicans rapists and criminals, regularly retweeting white supremacists and at least initially balking at repudiating former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Trump made it clear in his campaign that "Make America Great Again" meant that America was greater when white people's power was more sweeping and more secure. White voters approved of that message by a whopping 58...

Streamed a few hours ago.

Yet another narrative-setter from the NYTimes’s deep state mouthpiece hack, Adam Goldman. – Honestly, this is getting to be almost as frequent as the stock market closing at new record highs, something that also happened yet again on Thursday. Goldman posted a piece yesterday designed to set the narrative for the Times’s Deep State managers, this time in favor of our National Teenage Drama Queen, former FBI Director James Comey. Goldman gets down to his cover business right from the start, with this headline: Justice Dept. Investigating Years-Old Leaks and Appears Focused on Comey Oh, hey, it’s just more leaks...

The three stooges of the House just tried to tie Russia to the re-election of President Trump! They invoked the Constitution in their comments too. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! The impeachment coup continues with a press conference this morning where Pelosi announced her 7 impeachment managers: Impeachment managers for US Senate trial are Reps. Nadler, Schiff, Crow, Demings, Jeffries, Lofgren and Sylvia Garcia. What is more important is the fact that the three Democrats who spoke inferred that this was an “urgent” matter because Trump is “cheating in the next election”…Does anyone believe this??? Pelosi: “This is about the Constitution of...

Democrats and journalists were excited Thursday when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a legal opinion that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had violated the Impoundment Control Act by withholding congressionally appropriated aid to Ukraine last summer. The non-binding opinion was disputed by the OMB, which released a memo last month arguing that the “programmatic” delay sought to fulfill, not oppose, congressional intent. The GAO decision, which had been requested by Democrat Senator Chris van Hollen of Maryland, disagreed, concluding that the delay had been for “policy reasons,” not “programmatic delay.” Speaker of the House Nancy...

In the early morning darkness of Jan. 8, several thousand U.S. troops huddled in Saddam Hussein-era bunkers in western Iraq as 11 ballistic missiles rained destruction on parts of the sprawling al Asad air base — Iran's promised "harsh revenge" for the killing of its top general, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. drone strike five days earlier. The night sky lit up, and the bunkers shook as two waves of missiles struck over an hour and a half, sending a shockwave through the air and rattling some American troops who were above ground standing watch. Even with the benefit of...

The world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.1% in 2019, making last year China’s worst economic performance since 1990, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. The figure is within Beijing’s official target of 6.0% to 6.5%, but down from 6.6% in 2018. The economy faces “downward pressure” and “instability sources and risk points” abroad are increasing, the government said in a statement. […] The World Bank said in a report this month that weakening exports in China had compounded the impact of its ongoing slowdown in domestic demand. But analysts noted that China’s slowdown is...

Military strongman Khalifa Haftar's reluctance to sign up to a Turkish-Russian orchestrated ceasefire accord underlines the complexity of Libya's conflict and pressures exerted by key foreign players, analysts say. He left Moscow on Tuesday without signing a permanent truce aimed at ending nine months of fighting against the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Sarraj. His abrupt departure was a setback for an international diplomatic push, after Sarraj had signed up to halting Haftar's offensive to seize Tripoli from the GNA. For Emad Badi of the Washington-based Middle East Institute, there are two plausible explanations for Haftar...

I circle around UCLA’s Moore Hall for the third time. Security officers block each entrance. Police in riot gear patrol the streets. Metal fences wall off the building from protesters, and barricades separate protesters on the left from those on the right. Everyone prepares for Donald Trump Jr.’s arrival to promote his new book, “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.” As a trauma therapist who works with women and refugees — and who practices on Canada’s west coast — I admit that I live in a progressive bubble. I’ve never met a Trump supporter...

President Trump scolded CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta for attempting to cut in during a news conference in the Oval Office on Thursday. Many of the media's questions involved the articles of impeachment being delivered to the Senate earlier in the day as well as the various claims made by Lev Parnas, an associate to Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. "I don't know him. I have never had a conversation that I remember with him," Trump said about Parnas. It was then that Acosta tried to squeeze in his own questions,... ~snip~ "Quiet," the president told Acosta, and...