Free Republic

The American Bar Association will vote on the controversial notion that being and acting LGBT is a human right protected in international law. The resolution will be considered by the ABA House of Delegates at their annual meeting this August in Boston. The resolution, proposed by James J.S. Holmes, Chairman of the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, cites a number of international treaties as justification, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Holmes resolution relies on a broad reading of all the cited documents because none of them mentions LGBT, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Holmes claims,...

Emmanuel Macron has said funding should be withdrawn from pro-sovereignty nations reluctant to hand more power over to Brussels, and that countries which refuse to welcome third world migrants must be thrown out of the Schengen area. “Europe is not a menu à la carte, it’s a political project,” the French president declared, speaking at the end of an EU mini-summit on migration in Salzburg Thursday evening. “Countries that do not want more Frontex or solidarity [in housing and feeding third world migrants] will leave Schengen. Countries that don’t want more Europe will no longer [get access to] structural funds,”...

<p>3:05 p.m.</p> <p>The president of Poland is telling President Donald Trump that he'd like the U.S. to create a permanent American base in Poland that would be named Fort Trump.</p> <p>Trump says that he's considering the idea and that Poland has offered more than $2 billion to the U.S. to pay for such an effort.</p>

The United States' commitment to global development does not look good compared with that of other wealthy countries — and it's likely to get worse. According to an annual index released Tuesday by the Center for Global Development that ranks 27 of the world's wealthiest countries, the U.S. scored dead last on foreign aid contributions and quality — despite being the largest donor in dollar amount. That's because in 2017, it allocated a mere 0.18 percent of its gross national income for development assistance. That is well short of the 0.7 percent that wealthy countries have committed to strive for...

LONDON - Carbon prices in major advanced economies are too low to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst effects of climate change, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Tuesday. Carbon pricing, via taxes or emissions trading schemes, is used by many governments to make energy consumers pay for the costs of pollution, and to spur investment in low-carbon technology. The OECD examined carbon pricing between 2012, 2015 and 2018 in 42 OECD and G20 economies, which represent around 80 percent of global carbon emissions. It found the average pricing level across the countries...

The fundamental problem facing the global trading system today is that since the turn of the century China has behaved like an outlaw at the center of world commerce. China has, through theft and forced taking, grabbed U.S. intellectual property worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year. This has, with justification, been called the biggest theft in history.

In 1999 at the UN, Walter Cronkite declared his support and allegiance to a one-world government. He blamed the refusal of the U.S. Congress to ratify one-world-government treaties on “a handful” of obdurate senators who “pander” to the Christian Coalition and the “religious right wing”. Identifying Pat Robertson as the leader of the Christian Coalition, Cronkite quoted Robertson, that “any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil.” Cronkite then mocked Robertson by declaring, “I’m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.”

BOSTON — For some, it’s the best four years of their lives. For others, it’s a period of constant struggle, whether academically, socially, or both. College brings about new experiences and challenges for young adults that can be difficult to adapt to and overcome, so perhaps it’s no surprise that a new study reports high rates of stress and mental health conditions among students.

From a pure economic/financial perspective this Nike branding campaign doesn’t make sense…. unless, you realize a much bigger picture. A hidden bigger picture. On its face, it just seems absurd. Why would any major corporation intentionally stake out a branding position that is adverse to their financial interests? I’ve spoken to some very excellent business actuaries on this late today; and one specific conversation finally helped to make it all make sense. During that conversation a good ally shared: “a multinational corporation would never make a branding decision adverse to their financial interests. Unless there is a hidden risk unrelated...

US President Donald Trump said in an interview on Thursday that he was thinking about pulling the United States out of the World Trade Organization if “they don’t shape up.” Speaking with Bloomberg News, Trump said that the WTO had treated the US “very badly.” The president has often complained that the United States is treated unfairly in global trade, and has blamed the WTO for allowing that to happen. This coincides with several nations threatening to take legal action against the US through the WTO over the White House’s trade wars. The US and Russia have also launched competing...

French politicians have reacted with anger after Emmanuel Macron asserted that “true” Frenchmen and Danes “do not exist”, and attacked the people he rules over as stubbornly resistant to change while on an official visit to Denmark. The French president made the remarks while on a three-day tour of Denmark and Finland, where he is hoping to establish a “progressive arc” of nations supporting his vision of a globalised EU superstate, which would revolve around a liberal conception of human rights, ahead of European Parliament elections next year. Speaking before a gala lobster dinner on Wednesday, at which Denmark’s Queen...

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” campaign strategist for former President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Steve Schmidt said, “40 percent of the country has surrendered their intellectual sovereignty to Donald Trump.” Schmidt said, “He’s pursuing the only strategy he can pursue, which is try to incite his base. As he incites that base, that base gets smaller, and the majority grows in opposition to Trump, but the smaller base is a harder more intense one. If you go back to inauguration day, Trump has less support today than he did then. His base is smaller. The Republican party...

Full title: Family say they have been forced to close their cafe after complaints over the Union Jack flags they stuck in their fry-ups A family cafe is being forced to close down after the owners were repeatedly abused and called 'racist' - all because they put Union Jack and England flags in their food. Tiny toothpicks with the flags have been inserted in fry up's since Cafe 164 opened in Hornchurch, east London, in 2016. But Carol Brown and daughter Candy Merrett faced a wave of abuse - mainly from people who had never eaten there, recently. ... On...

The globalist, progressive leaders of France and Germany are seeing record low public approval as patriotism and conservatism grows across the European Union. France’s President Emmanuel Marcon has seen yet another drop in the polls, with his approval rating falling to its lowest level since he was elected in May 2017. The former Socialist Party member saw his support drop by five points to 27 percent approval versus 62 percent disapproval, according to a Yougov poll released Friday. During this time last year, Macron had a 50 percent approval rating with the French people, his falling popularity being helped in...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson dismissed on Monday an immigration attorney’s argument that all American residents should be given the right to vote, saying he was from a country “controlled by conquistadors.” Cesar Vargas, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico illegally, appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," where he argued that the right to vote should be expanded to include anyone who lives in America. "I think it goes to the concept of citizenship. As a nation, we have matured from only free, land-owner, white people — to now women and African Americans," said Vargas, who is able to remain...

“Make America Great Again” will, given the astonishing victory it produced for Donald Trump, be recorded among the most successful slogans in political history. Yet it raises a question: how did America first become the world’s greatest economic power? In 1998, in The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, this writer sought to explain. However, as the blazing issue of that day was Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, it was no easy task to steer interviewers around to the McKinley Tariff. Free Trade Shouldn't Be a Litmus Test...

- President Trump sharply criticized the Federal Reserve this week, saying interest rate increases are hurting the economy. - Trump will have the opportunity to fashion the central bank in the image he would like as he has four vacancies to fill on the board of governors.

History somehow isn’t moving toward its predetermined end, and this has driven Western liberals completely mad. The theatrical overreaction to Donald Trump’s joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki is just the latest proof. Before the Trump-Putin summit, pundits warned that Trump might recognise Crimea as Russian territory. He did nothing of the sort. But he did give Putin the benefit of the doubt when the Russian leader, in a carefully chosen phrase, said the ‘Russian state’ had not interfered in the 2016 election.

As Donald Trump abdicates U.S. leadership and dismantles the democratic international order, prospects for global cooperation look bleak. Fortunately, America is more than Washington and the United States is more than the federal government. Around the nation, governors are going global. In states both red and blue, they are engaging governments abroad, partnering with foreign provinces, and promoting cross-border trade and action on climate change. The White House may be in retreat, but statehouses are not about to turn their back on globalization. At the forefront of this activism is the National Governors Association (NGA), which begins its annual summer...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday called NBC News’ report that said the Pentagon was in “damage-control” mode to reassure NATO allies after President Trump’s visit “fiction.” Mattis, during a press gaggle on the way to Oslo, Norway, brought up the report, which claimed that “hours” after Trump departed NATO, U.S. military leaders embarked on a “full-scale” damage-control operation across Europe. The report said U.S. military leaders were “directed by the Pentagon leadership” in response to Trump threatening to reassess U.S. commitments in the region. “That was fascinating. I love reading fiction, so it was stimulating to read it,” he...