Free Republic

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Monday that nearly one-third of employees at his department are not loyal to him and President Donald Trump, adding that he is working to change the department’s regulatory culture to be more business friendly. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, said he knew when he took over the 70,000-employee department in March that, “I got 30 percent of the crew that’s not loyal to the flag.” In a speech to an oil industry group, Zinke compared Interior to a pirate ship that captures “a prized ship at sea and only the captain and the first mate...

The U.S. State Department has backed away from a demand that Israel return $75 million in military aid which was allocated to it by the U.S. Congress. The repayment demand, championed by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was described as an underhanded attempt by the State Department to derail a campaign pledge by U.S. President Donald J. Trump to improve relations with the Jewish state. The dispute is the just the latest example of what appears to be a growing power struggle between the State Department and the White House over the future direction of American foreign policy. The...

On Monday's New Day show on CNN, during a discussion of the letter that Barack Obama gave to Donald Trump as the former President was leaving office, conservative CNN commentator Jack Kingston recalled several of the scandals of the Obama administration. Liberal CNN commentator Bakari Sellers claimed with a straight face that President Obama was "eight years scandal-free." He also took a shot at Fox News for covering Obama-era scandals, dismissing the coverage as "talking points." CNN's Sellers Claims Obama Was 'Eight Years Scandal Free'At 8:54 a.m. ET, after substitute host Dave Briggs read from the letter in which Obama...

What has also received air time? The "Official USA 45th Presidential Hat," for sale by Trump's campaign for $40. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, points out that the president has been pictured wearing the hat, both in red and in white, in two official photos released by the White House. He wore the white version on his trip to Houston Tuesday. "Even removed from the hurricane, it's pretty inappropriate," CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz said. The issue at play here is free advertising for Trump products, according to CREW.

Just after last week’s terrorist attack in Barcelona, a pro-Islamic State website posted video from the scene along with a message in Arabic saying, “Terror is filling the hearts of the Crusader in the Land of Andalusia.” Let’s unpack that. “Crusader” is a term jihadists use, pejoratively, for Christians. More specifically, of course, it refers to the Christian soldiers who fought a series of wars, beginning in 1095, to recover Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land from the Muslim armies that had burst out of Arabia four centuries earlier. Andalusia indicates the territories of the Iberian Peninsula that...

ON NOVEMBER 4, 2017 Take To The Streets And Public Squares in cities and towns across the country continuing day after day and night after night—not stopping—until our DEMAND is met: This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America! A Nightmare: Immigrants living in terror—their next step could mean detention, deportation, being torn from children and loved ones. A Nightmare: Muslims and refugees demonized, banned and cast out. A Nightmare: Millions—children, the elderly, the sick, the poor—denied healthcare, food assistance, the very right to live. A Nightmare:...

Jason Kessler is the man who organized the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. One person is dead and at least twenty were injured when a car smashed into protestors who were on the road. There were some curious facts surrounding this event, so we decided to do some digging. What we found raises serious questions about who Jason Kessler is actually working for… First of all, the ACLU defended Jason Kessler and forced the city to keep his permit in place. This was after the city raised concerns about the ability of Law Enforcement to keep Antifa, BLM,...

The Obama administration “misled” Americans into thinking signing up for Obamacare would be cheaper than it really was, according to an inspector general’s report Thursday that said the IRS dramatically understated the actual cost of enrolling. IRS officials sent the letters to try to prod Americans to comply with the 2010 health law’s “individual mandate” that penalizes them for not holding coverage. But as part of the letters, the IRS said most people could find plans for $75 a month or less once government subsidies were figured in. That was untrue — in fact, the average cost was more than...

NEW YORK — Books of Obama photographs will be in the news this fall. A collection of White House pictures of Michelle Obama is coming out Oct. 17, Ten Speed Press told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Chasing Light” will feature 150 color shots and personal commentary by White House photographer Amanda Lucidon. “Mrs. Obama is a source of light and inspiration in my life,” Lucidon said in a statement issued through Ten Speed, a Penguin Random House imprint. “She was a mentor to me and so many people around the world. The work she has done with young people,...

And no surveillance (including wiretapping) on Trump?

LGBT advocates are questioning the Trump administration’s quiet deletion of questions on sexuality from two federal surveys. Combined with the withdrawal of another planned survey evaluating the effectiveness of a homelessness project for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, the moves have alarmed watchdogs who worry they may point to a manipulation of government data collection to serve the ideology of a government they view as hostile to their causes. “In an age when LGBT rights are such a part of the national discussion, the Trump administration is choosing to not only ignore us but erase us from the discussion,”...

Foreign-policy hawk Bill Kristol Tweeted out his preference for a political victory by “the deep state” above the nation’s laws and over President Donald Trump’s voters and policies, amid an increasing furor over the forced resignation of Gen. Mike Flynn. The “deep state” is jargon for the semi-hidden army of bureaucrats, officials, retired officials, legislators, contractors and media people who support and defend established government policies. Those “deep state” officials include the intelligence, law-enforcement and national security officials who worked in President Barack Obama’s administration but who are still working in permanent or temporary positions in the White House...

I admit it. I’m a night owl. Producing the Hugh Hewitt Show, and for decades well before that, going back to the Johnny Carson era, I’ve had a weak spot for late night television. I can look past the 10:1 ratio between jokes at Republicans’ expense versus Democrats’ expense. That bias, like virtually all mainstream media bias, is chronic and will not go away anytime soon. That said, last night, James Corden on CBS’ Late Late Show took it to a whole new level…by leaving the country in order to “protest” the Trump executive order on immigrant travel. Last week,...

President Donald Trump relieved acting Attorney General Sally Yates of her duties Monday night after she directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend Trump's controversial executive refugee and immigration ban. Yates, a holdover from the Obama Administration, was replaced as acting attorney general by Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Yates had "betrayed the Justice Department" by refusing to enforce Trump's order, which temporarily halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday instructed Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees, CNN reported. The move could result in a clash between the White House and Yates, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama and is set to serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominee for attorney general, is confirmed. "My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all...

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have both come forward to join the growing group of people who have voiced their opposition to President Donald Trump's immigration and refugee ban targeting Muslim-majority countries. On Saturday, the former secretary of state took to Twitter to offer her support for those protesting Trump's executive orders for an immigration ban and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "I stand with the people gathered across the country tonight defending our values and our Constitution," she wrote. "This is not who we are."

WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, ordered the Justice Department on Monday not to defend President Trump’s executive order on immigration in court. “I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right,” Ms. Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers. “At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.”

A California Republican state lawmaker is challenging the legality of a move by Democrats in the legislature to hire former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help in any legal battles with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Assembly member Kevin Kiley has requested a formal ruling from state lawyers on whether the decision by Democratic legislative leaders to hire Holder and his firm, Covington & Burling, for $25,000 a month violated a provision in the state’s constitution that bans hiring outside counsel for work the state’s own lawyers can do. […] Kiley’s request came on the eve of hearings in the...

The world-renown MD Anderson Cancer Center has announced a workforce reduction by 1,000, the CEO of the center said on Thursday. The cancer hospital has had $110 million in operating losses from September through November this year, reported the Houston Chronicle. [Snip] The local publication reported that the financial problems began in the spring when the hospital implemented a new electronic medical-record system. Doctors and staff members at the center spent a great deal of time getting up to speed in using the program and that took time away from their patients.

After eight years of magnanimous humility, servility and deferential governance toward his political opposition, ‘President selfless‘ awards himself the Medal of Distinguished Public Service. Thus, President Obama officially declares himself the greatest public servant during his own tenure. No. Really, not kidding. He did.