Free Republic

Washington (AFP) - The US State Department on Thursday ordered the family members of its embassy staff in Caracas to leave Venezuela and authorized the voluntary departure of its employees as a political crisis appeared headed for a dangerous showdown. Its advisory also warned citizens against traveling to the South American country "due to social unrest, violent crime, and pervasive food and medicine shortages." The move came as the embattled government of President Nicolas Maduro was on a deadly collision course with the opposition, which defied a government ban to hold a nationwide strike ahead of a controversial weekend vote.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has some interesting videos on a range of topics but some of their videos on nuclear deterrence and war fighting are good. Enjoy watching China's Strategy and US Nuclear Weapons.

The China-Vietnam relationship might be less complicated than Washington would wish, despite BeijingÂ’s recent threat to use force against Hanoi to stop drilling in the South China Sea. Interestingly, there was nothing in the 31 May joint statement issued by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that would commit the US to assisting Hanoi in its current dealings with Chinese threats. Those in Washington who see Vietnam as a potential ally against China have quite possibly ignored the powerful and corrupting influence of cross-border trade between China and Vietnam. While attending IMDEX in Singapore in May, a...

A week after the appearance of the Spadaro-Figueroa rant against American conservatives, I am still shaking my head with disbelief, wondering how a semi-official Vatican journal could have published such a harshly partisan and grossly misinformed analysis of American politics. I am not alone. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia was characteristically polite but firm in his critique, describing the already infamous Civilta Cattolica essay as “an exercise in dumbing down and inadequately presenting the nature of Catholic/evangelical cooperation on religious freedom and other key issues.” Archbishop Chaput—who has been a prime mover in Catholic-Evangelical cooperation, and thus implicitly a target...

Unless you have been living in a vacuum these past few years, it can’t have escaped your attention that in heavily Muslim populated areas (especially in Europe), there are “Shariah Patrols” wandering the streets enforcing the Tenets of Shariah and Islam on the non-Muslim population. This is happening in Germany, in Denmark, in Belgium, and the UK. It is getting more and more prevalent, and the European governments will do nothing to stop it. A prominent case in Germany of seven men wearing Hi-Res Vests with “Shariah Police” printed o them took to the streets to stop people drinking, playing...

Pyongyang claims a further breakthrough toward a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach American cities SEOUL—The U.S. warned North Korea that it is ready to fight if provoked, as Pyongyang claimed another weapons-development breakthrough following its launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile a day earlier. The regime, having demonstrated its capacity to reach the U.S. with a missile, on Wednesday touted another achievement of the test launch: It claimed that its missile warhead—the forward section, which carries the explosive—can withstand the extreme heat and pressure of re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. If true—the claim couldn’t be independently verified—that would clear another hurdle...

July 4th, also known as Independence Day, is a much more lighthearted and festive American holiday -- with cookouts, parades, beach and boating parties and fireworks -- than other patriotic holidays such Memorial Day or Veterans Day. Most people forget that when the 56 members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they were in fact signing their death warrants. At the time, Great Britain was the most powerful nation on earth, while the thirteen American colonies were poor and disunited. The British Crown deemed the issuance of a declaration of independence an act of treason,...

Warnings to the United States are being issued by the globalist leech in charge at the UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. On Tuesday, the open borders communist operative cautioned President Trump that we could be replaced. We should be so fortunate and ought to, in fact, work to help guarantee that happens. There must be plenty of countries around the world ready to take on the “developing nations” as national dependents, though they may have to “sweeten the deal” with a little slave labor or territory, something that isn’t presently required. Guterres told reporters at his first press conference since taking...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the country’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over the march to protest against sentencing the party’s deputy leader to 25 years and accused the party of being affiliated with terrorists.“If you are launching a march for terrorists and for their supporters, something which you have never thought about doing against terrorist groups, you can convince no one that your aim is justice,” Erdogan said, as quoted by the state-run Anadolu Agency.On 14 June, a court sentenced CHP’s Enis Berberoglu to 25 years in jail citing his role in leaking classified documents to...

The massive Turkish bombardment of Kurdish-held north-western Syria we reported yesterday has died down now. How did that happen? The Turkish and American defense ministers met in Brussels ahead of a scheduled NATO meeting, but there was no indication this had anything to do with it. Perhaps it was the other way around and the Turks scheduled the bombardment ahead of the meeting precisely to keep their grievances on the agenda in Brussels. In any case, it was also reported yesterday that Russians had evacuated their base in Kurdish-held Afrin enclave, perhaps to give the Turks a free hand against...

US President Donald Trump is wavering between members of his team who want to expand the war in Syria by also targeting Iranian-linked elements and those who say such a step would mean endless conflict in the region. This internal US disarray further complicates already-complex field developments in the Syrian civil war and the battle against the Islamic State (IS). Whichever way US policy in Syria moves, it's clear there will be no changes in its position on the Kurds. Beyond driving IS out of Raqqa, the United States appears to have long-range plans for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in which the Kurdish People’s Protection...

An armed Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in the Baltic Sea on Monday, two U.S. officials told Fox News.

The Russian Defense Ministry blasted the U.S.' shooting down of a Syrian regime fighter jet as a "massive violation of international law" and said it will begin treating U.S.-led coalition jets flying west of the Euphrates River in Syria as targets. The ministry's comments Monday came after a U.S. Navy fighter jet on Sunday shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had dropped bombs on Syrian rebel forces who are fighting ISIS in the country. It was the first time the U.S. has engaged in air-to-air combat in Syria and signaled an escalation of the conflict. The incident is also...

A U.S. warplane on Sunday shot down a Syrian military aircraft that dropped bombs near U.S.-backed fighters in Syria, the U.S. military said. The U.S. Central Command issued a statement saying the plane was downed "in collective self-defense of Coalition-partnered forces," identified as fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces near Tabqah.

Recent acts of terror in Europe are the “new normal” — and surely coming soon to the United States, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton ominously warned Sunday. Evildoers have stepped up attacks on soft targets — such as London Bridge, Manchester Arena and Bastille Day in Nice — in the past 12 months, making a similar terrorist strike on American soil inevitable, Bratton told “The Cats Roundtable.” {..snip..}

A mix of what Jesus wants me to tell you in my videos & one of my favorite places as a child in Chepachet, R. I..

President Trump is keeping a promise, undoing 8 years of bad Obama policy and putting American interests first by withdrawing US from Paris Climate Accord - and of course, the left has a meltdown.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcIG5Bf3__g    

Billionaire financier George Soros said Thursday the European Union is in an "existential crisis" and needs to be reinvented in the face of growing threats. "The reinvention would have to revive the support that the European Union used to enjoy," the Hungarian-born Soros said at the Brussels Economic Forum. Such reinvention would have to review the past and explain to European citizens what went wrong and then make proposals to make things right. Soros welcomed a German idea to cut European funds aimed at reducing income inequalities at the regional level for those countries disrespecting the rule of law. Both...

In Czech, a Russian citizen Yevgenity Nikulin said in court that United States authorities approached him twice to convince Nikulin to falsely testify that he had hacked the DNC emails for Trump and was ordered to do so by the Russian government. Nikulin’s lawyer suggested that the US charges against him are prompted for political reasons to blame him for the DNC leaks. “[They told me:] you will have to confess to breaking into Clinton’s inbox for [U.S. President Donald Trump] on behalf of [Russian President Vladimir Putin],” Nikulin wrote, according to The Moscow Times. The AP reported more on...

A U.S. defense official said Tuesday that-- if left unchecked-- it is "inevitable" that North Korea will develop a nuclear device that has intercontinental capabilities. Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said at a Senate hearing that North Korea is working to produce a device that can be transported on a ballistic missile. "If left on its current trajectory, the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland," Stewart said. Stewart’s remarks are the latest indication of the U.S.’ increased worries about North Korea’s missile and nuclear...