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President Donald Trump became outraged back in March after Russian President Vladimir Putin showed a video of nuclear weapons hitting South Florida amid his reelection campaign, a new report says. •South Florida doesn't have a ton of military value, and it's likely that Russia showed the video as a direct threat to Trump, who owns property there. •The news website Axios says Trump snapped on Putin in a phone call, saying that if he wanted an arms race, the US would beat him. •The call was reportedly the same one in which Trump is believed to have congratulated Putin on...

I am a member of the New/Paleo Right, as are many here on Free Republic. And I know many of us wonder: Where are the neocons? Where are those who will force us to engage logically as we, jointly, refine our perspectives of the day? What is YOUR opinion of the events of the last week and what do you think the rest of us are missing? With all sincerity, Mariner

With jury selection slated to start next Tuesday, US District Judge Robert E. Jones suddenly moved today to dismiss two of the five counts against FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita. Astarita is accused of lying about shooting at Oregon Standoff protestor LaVoy Finicum moments before Oregon State Police killed him. Jones dropped one of two counts of making a false statement saying Astarita's flippant remark to a supervisor who asked "Did you shoot?"...

During the July 2018 NATO summit, elements of the USA newsmedia focused on President Trump’s accurate attacks on Western Europe’s contradictory actions and positions in the arenas of defense and commerce. What the USA newsmedia covered much less was how welcome those points were to NATO members from Eastern Europe, whose memories of Russian aggression are much more recent, perhaps, than those of Western Europe, making them as wary of these issues as Mr. Trump is. Delegates from Poland, Lithuania, and Romania, for example, appeared just as happy about Mr. Trump’s comments as delegates from England, France and especially Germany...

It was glorious. Here's the break-up of the meeting, provided you don't have time to watch the "vidya". First spoketh Putin, and most importantly, he thanked God Emperor for taking care of that crazy fat kid Kim Jong-un and trying to solve the North Korea situation. Then, he promised to collaborate with his American brothers and sisters in Syria. Also, the Russian president said the two countries should cooperate more, economically speaking, yet he smacked the Donald regarding the Iran business. Putin acknowledged that Russia and America must be brought together, as per Trump's campaign promises, and, check this out:...

On Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for hacking Democratic organizations and the Clinton campaign, offering the clearest story yet of how the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election. But the other part of the story — which hasn’t been completely told — is how the Trump campaign actively seized on this interference, how it benefited from it, and how its associates communicated (wittingly or unwittingly) with Russian intelligence and WikiLeaks, according to the Mueller indictments, the public record and previous reporting. A Trump campaign associate — presumably Roger Stone — communicated with Russian...

Well into his second year in the Oval Office, President Trump has, by any objective measure of pro-freedom and applied common sense, accomplished more that most Presidents in memory. That is, “more” with respect to moving America positively forward as a successful Nation, rather than allowing it to recede into stagnant oblivion, rushing over the cliff of socialism and into the abyss of communism. Ignore his personality. Look at the powerful results already accomplished.  Unlike too many of the CEOs made abnormally wealthy by Wall Street bankers who focus on thirty day results, Trump has brought an unusual mission to his Administration...

After Caesar Augustus gained complete control in 27 B.C. and became the first Roman Emperor, he established the Praetorian Guard for his personal protection. Over the next three centuries, the Guard exploited its nexus to the seat of power for its own interest and aggrandizement. Most notably, the Praetorians schemed and interfered with Roman politics to the point of overthrowing emperors and proclaiming their successors. In 193 A.D., Emperor Septimius Severus tried to disband the Praetorian Guard, but his reorganization of the Guard did not last as it regained power after his death. In 306 A.D., amidst turmoil among a...

THE government is investigating the source of the tarpaulins that suddenly appeared in several places in Manila proclaiming the Philippines as a Province of China. I don’t think this is a prank but that there are sectors in this country that want to call attention to the possibility that at the rate the Duterte government is handling the West Philippine Sea and Scarborough Shoal issues, this country will truly become a province of China. The idea of the Philippines as a Chinese province should not be seen as an impossibility. Even now the Chinese government is already engaged in clear...

Brennan's post Putin summit tweet: "Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors.' It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???" At what point can a person like this be arrested for sedition? Donald Trump is the duly-elected President of the United States, he campaigned on pursuing friendlier relations with Russia, and now he's following through on that promise, which to many of us who voted for him would be to the benefit...

Mayor Sadiq Khan rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s contention that immigrants from Africa and Asia are responsible for rising levels of violent crime in London and other parts of Europe. “The fact that rising numbers of immigrants happen to coincide with rising levels of violence doesn’t prove that the immigrants themselves are the ones responsible,” Khan argued. “Let me point out that the levels of violence in the countries of origin of these immigrants are higher than they are in London. This leads me to think that to a certain extent we are moderating their behavior and reducing the global...

Tolerance--a word we hear a lot these days--is “the ability to live with people whose opinions and behavior you don’t agree with.” That’s essentially how Oxford defines it, how Merriam-Webster defines it and how we, as a society, have always defined it. You may favor the death penalty while your cousin is against it. Your dad might have voted for Trump, your mom for Clinton and your brother may not have voted at all. Whatever differences we have, tolerating the opinions of another is a prerequisite to a functioning and free society. America itself was built on a foundation of...

Ask just about any diehard atheist what the most dangerous part of human nature is, and they will tell you it’s religion. In all honesty, this used to be me. And to be fair, religion has inspired people to commit some of the obscenest atrocities in human history; The Crusades, the German Peasants’ War, French Wars of Religion, and the Thirty Years’ War, to name a few. But what major acts of violence have been committed by major nations in the name of religion in modern times? There have been sporadic occurrences of religious violence by the underdeveloped world. For...

Public-sector unions have been gaming the political system for decades, bankrupting whole cities and plunging states into massive debt. How did this happen and can it be stopped? Akash Chougule, senior policy fellow for Americans for Prosperity, has the answers in this sobering video from Prager University.

Trump Plans to Undo Obama Rule Letting Unions Skim Dues From Medicaid Payments The Trump administration is taking steps to prevent labor unions from withholding dues for home healthcare workers from their Medicaid payments, an Obama-era innovation that many observers believe is illegal. On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed undoing a 2014 rule allowing states to skim public-sector union dues from Medicaid payments to independent home healthcare providers on the theory that those providers are de facto public employees — a privilege that has netted unions anywhere from $71 million (CMS’ estimate) to $200 million...

Many people believed that President Trump would preside over an era of decreasing firearm sales. Firearm sales dropped a little from the record levels in the 2016 presidential election year. They did not drop much. 2017 had the second highest ever yearly total NICS checks. 2018 is trending higher than 2017. In 2017, at the end of June, the total NICS checks were 12,601,112. 2018 is becoming the second highest year on record. In 2016, the all time record year, they were 13,829,491 at the end of June. In 2018, they have moved up from 2017 and are approaching...

Hillary Clinton may have visions of 2020 — if she can just keep her eyes open. The failed presidential candidate started her speech to the American Federation of Teachers union on Friday in a bizarre way: by telling everyone how tired she was. “Well, I’ll tell you,” she said, “I’ve been back there listening to Randi (Weingarten) and I’m so exhausted, I can barely stand here.” Clinton flashed moments of bitterness and anger to the unionists gathered in Pittsburgh. Receiving the Women’s Rights Award from the union, she railed on how she has been oppressed in life.

The first distinction between Progressives and Constitutional Originalists is their polar opposite emphasis on process. Progressive couldn’t care less for constitutional process. Oh, they’ll utilize constitutional processes if they can arrive at the desired progressive conclusion, but it ultimately doesn’t matter whether they arrive at social justice via popular referendum, statute, administrative regulation, or judicial decisions. Constitutional Originalists cherish proper processes, and the most important process in the American republic is lawmaking, and limited lawmaking, by Congress. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, Originalists sniff out tyranny with every regulation or court decision, regardless of its perceived social justice benefit, which has...

The University of Minnesota is considering a policy to discipline students or professors who refuse to call someone by their preferred gender pronoun, with penalties that could include being fired or expelled. The draft policy under review may change, but as of now it states that “university members and units are expected to use the names, gender identities and pronouns specified to them by university members, except as legally required.” When someone does not go along with a person whose biological sex does not match their preferred gender — such as refusing to call a biological man a woman —...

Syrian government media says that Israel attacked an airbase southwest of Aleppo tonight. The foreign government funded Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says warehouses near the base used by Iranian militias and the Syrian army were hit. The group reports that five were killed in the attack involving multiple aircraft. The attack comes on the eve of a summit meeting between the President of Syria's close ally Russia, Vladimir Putin, and President Donald Trump. Topics like Syria, Iran, Ukraine and other matters.... Meanwhile, there's talk in Washington of an impeachment document being filed this week in the House involving Rosenstein....