Free Republic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that European Union (EU) member states must be prepared to transfer powers over to Brussels at a debate on the ‘tensions’ between globalisation and national sovereignty. “Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty,” Merkel said, speaking at an event organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin on Wednesday. “In an orderly fashion of course,” Merkel said, explaining that — while Germany had given up some of its sovereignty in order to join the EU, national parliaments were in charge of deciding whether to sign up to international treaties. Trust...

Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, delivered pizzas to Secret Service members on Friday, calling for lawmakers "on both sides" to end the ongoing partial government shutdown.

A New Mexico rancher speaks with the Washington Examiner about migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally... "There’s a lot of people coming in not just from Mexico," the rancher said. "People, the general public, just don’t get the terrorist threats of that. That’s what’s really scary. You don’t know what’s coming across. We’ve found prayer rugs out here. It’s unreal. It’s not just Mexican nationals that are coming across." The rancher, who lives with her family in a remote, southwestern part of the state, said the discoveries raise questions about how many people who illegally entered the U.S. in Hidalgo...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer don’t have a script for their rebuttal to President Trump’s prime-time speech on border security Tuesday — because they’re unsure what the unpredictable commander-in-chief plans to say. “Both Pelosi and Schumer know their foundational argument but will firm up their rebuttal in real time because of uncertainty surrounding where President Trump may lead the American people,” a source close to the preparations told The Post.

For the third year in a row, Hempstead, New York sponsored a "Toy Gun Buyback” that encouraged kids to give up their toy guns in exchange for toys which Leftists deem to be “safer.” In the spirit of equality some children were given a toy gun so they could trade it in for a “safe” toy. Hempstead Village Trustee LaMont Johnson said, “The purpose is to offer a safe alternative to toy guns. We don't want the kids playing with guns. Guns are dangerous.” Mayor Don Ryan of Hempstead Village agreed, “Saying no to guns is important, even toy guns.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) stood by her pledge to “not appropriate a single dollar for a border wall” contending that “building such a wall would be immoral.” “Look, building an impermeable barrier would block the natural migration patterns of the herds of immigrants and the predators that depend upon them for their sustenance,” the Speaker said. “The more hospitable conditions on the American side benefit both the predators and their prey. The prey can qualify for numerous government payments that will enable them to support more offspring. The monetary stipends increase the rewards for predators who rob...

Head of online hate speech monitoring group “Näthatsgranskaren” Tomas Åberg receives tax funds for mass reporting pensioners and others who write critically about migration on Facebook. And now he claims that his reports to the police have resulted in almost 150 hate speech convictions. “1,218 police reports 2017-2018. 144 hate speech sentences, from 214 notifications. Many are waiting for prosecution!”, writes “Näthatsgranskaren” (The Online Hate Speech Monitor) on Twitter. The group also states that its state-financed operations have led to a tenfold increase in the number of hate speech convictions in Sweden, reports Fria Tider.

[snip] ...he presided over some of the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration and security policies. In the phone interview Friday, Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side. It was only after Kelly’s departure was confirmed Dec. 8, for example, that Trump abruptly announced the pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria and half the 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, two moves that Kelly had opposed. Kelly’s supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small....

People are having fun lampooning Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's selective exploitation of Scripture to support the Democrats' advocacy of open borders, but let's not allow this mirth to distract us from larger questions. The incoming congresswoman tweeted: "Joy to the World! Merry Christmas everyone -- here's to a holiday filled with happiness, family, and love for all people. (Including refugee babies in mangers + their parents.)" Let's put aside that Ocasio-Cortez is conflating the Nativity story described in Luke's Gospel, in which Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census, with Matthew's description of the couple's fleeing to...

After some indecision, President Trump has decided to roll the dice and embrace a government shutdown in order to put pressure on Congressional Democrats to fund a “Great Wall” on the border with Mexico. Bravo, President Trump! Conservatives and patriots have watched with consternation over the past two years, as Trump has repeatedly given way on the issue of wall funding. The time has now come for Republicans to put up or shut up. As Trump observed himself, upholding the sovereignty of our nation, and protecting the safety of the American people, is the first responsibility of any elected...

Helpless: Police in California are growing increasingly angry and frustrated over the state’s “sanctuary” law after several criminal incidents committed by illegal aliens, but the supermajority of Democrats who passed it seem oblivious to the death and destruction. Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said he personally was “very frustrated” with the law following a day-long “reign of terror” that ended with the death of Gustavo Garcia, 36, an illegal immigrant who had twice been deported from the U.S., Fox News reported, citing local California media. Garcia stood accused fo stealing a truck, robbing a convenience store, shooting and killing one...

Remember the old saw about the salesman who loses money on every sale but thinks he can make up the shortfall by selling in volume? That's what comes to mind every time I hear people say that President Trump is being shrewd by pandering to his base. Consider last week's remarkable Oval Office meeting between Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Trump. (There is photo evidence, but no audio, to suggest that Vice President Mike Pence was also in the room.) What was supposed to be a brief photo-op turned into a dramatic confrontation when the president...

Imagine this: You are a parent, and a homeowner. Your home is modest. You worked ceaselessly, at a job full of frustrations, humiliations and disappointments, frittering away the best years of your life, to put your home together. You love the color scheme. You love the carpets. You love the couch, even though you may have bought it at the Salvation Army. You like your neighbors. After years of walking on eggshells and negotiations, you've hammered out a modus vivendi with the folks next door and in back. You love your pets, with a walk schedule worked out where...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul blocking codification of Obama-era military deal with Israel. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is blocking U.S. military aid to Israel. Paul, who has previously called to cut defense assistance to Israel, recently put a hold on the U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018, which codifies into law the $38 billion defense aid package for Israel over 10 years that was negotiated in the final days of the Obama administration. A hold is a parliamentary procedure that allows senators to prevent a motion from reaching a floor vote. The Senate passed the act in early...

A sad picture of the world we live in, especially onlineThe BBC has reported Wednesday on an American man killed on North Sentinel Island. “Tribespeople shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach.” He may have been a Christian missionary, according to the BBC: “Local media have reported that Chau may have wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them.” The people of North Sentinel Island are one of the last isolated ethnic groups on earth. The Indian government forbids any visitors to the island, and natives routinely greet strangers with violence. Cruel HatredBe that...

The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States was lower in 2016 than at any time since 2004. This decline is due mainly to a large drop in the number of new unauthorized immigrants, especially Mexicans, coming into the country. The origin countries of unauthorized immigrants also shifted during that time, with the number from Mexico declining and the number rising from only one other region, Central America, according to the latest Pew Research Center estimates. Here are five facts about the unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S.: 1. There were 10.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S....

Although Democrats routinely deny that they’re for open borders — dismissing the very suggestion as an outrageous slur — their reaction to Sunday’s violence by some of the Central American illegal aliens in Tijuana suggests otherwise. If Democrats criticize DHS for trying to prevent storming of the border, and for responding to attacks on its agents with non-lethal crowd-control measures like tear gas, then what border-control measures can they possibly be for? The border clash was the culmination of a series of policy choices by Democrats over the past several years, asymptotically approaching open borders. Although things are lousy in...

<p>An American tourist was killed by arrows shot by protected tribesmen living in one of the world's most isolated regions tucked in India's Andaman islands, police said Wednesday.</p> <p>John Chau, 27, had taken a boat ride with local fishermen before venturing alone in a canoe to the remote North Sentinel Island where the indigenous people live cut off completely from the outside world.</p>

A victory for Democrats this midterms, President Donald Trump warned before the election, is a victory for a terrible, dangerous idea: open borders. Trump is entirely making this up, to be clear, but he’s hammered this point repeatedly. “The Democrat platform is a 2018 socialism, open borders edict,” he declared at a rally in Cleveland the night before the election. In October, he informed a Kansas crowd that “Every single Democrat in the U.S. Senate has signed up for the open borders, and it’s a bill, it’s called the ‘open borders bill.’” (No, they haven’t, and there’s no such bill.)...

Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border! -- Donald J. Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Twitter, 31 Oct 2018