Free Republic

Joe Biden announced a proposed coronavirus team Monday for his new administration — and it includes Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who once wrote that he did not hope to live past the age of 75. Emanuel, the brother of President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is known for his role in designing Obamacare. Once mocked as “Dr. Death” in debates over the rationing of end-of-life care, Emanuel wrote in 2014 that “living too long” was a state to be avoided.

“Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team” offers a unique look at the foreign policy legacy of President George H.W. Bush as told via the George H. W. Bush Presidential Oral History, the historical record and the accounts of the advisers who shaped it. “Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team” reflects on the pillars and strategies of American diplomacy at the end of the Cold War. When George H.W. Bush became president of the United States in 1989, much of the world was in turmoil and it was clear that American diplomacy was entering a new era.

President Donald Trump’s legal defense team is working toward a Monday deadline to submit a defense brief against charges filed by House prosecutors in the Senate trial that is set to begin in earnest next week.https://omny.fm/shows/880-extras/alan-dershowitz-im-not-a-full-fledged-member-of-imAmong the president’s legal team is Harvard law professor and constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz, who says he’ll be making a constitutional argument against impeachment.  Dershowitz was a part of O.J. Simpson’s legal “dream team” and has defended several controversial clients, including Jeffrey Epstein. Despite voting for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, Dershowitz has been a vocal defender of Trump, going so far...

Who says I can't How could someone born without arms or legs, who's never held a football, teach high school players how to throw, tackle or block? Rob Mendez is doing it as head coach of a California JV team. by Wayne Drehs 02/16/19 IT'S THE BIGGEST weekend of the year in Gilroy, California, with more than 100,000 people visiting for the annual garlic festival. But on this late July night, 30-year-old high school football coach Rob Mendez has a taste for sushi. A young boy holds open the door as Mendez approaches his favorite spot. The coach nods and...

I was recently asked to commit to a series of management seminars for new supervisors. When I went on a quest to research current trends in management I can across this TEDx talk by Jocko Willink a former Navy SEAL. Wiki: "John Gretton Willink (born September 8, 1971)[1] is an American podcaster, author, and retired United States Navy SEAL. He received the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his service in the Iraq War.[2] Willink was commander of SEAL Team Three's Task Unit Bruiser during the Battle of Ramadi. Jocko graduated from the University of San Diego in 2003 with...

The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes will start their baseball game Aug. 21 at precisely 9:35 a.m. local time, but will pause after one inning — then, NASA representatives will come out, the home team, visitors, staff and spectators will put on their eclipse glasses, and the stadium will be plunged into darkness. As a total solar eclipse passes across the United States on Aug. 21, activity will grind to a halt as the sky darkens. But in Keizer, Oregon, the minor-league baseball team is prepared — three-day eclipse festival, NASA livestream on the Jumbotron, special uniforms and all. "We ordered thousands and...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has written 275 briefing papers for the incoming Trump administration: nearly 1,000 pages of classified material on North Korea’s nuclear program, the military campaign against the Islamic State, tensions in the South China Sea, and every other kind of threat the new team could face in its first weeks in office. Nobody in the current administration knows whether anyone in the next has read any of it. Less than three days before President Obama turns the keys to the White House, and the nuclear codes, over to President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Trump’s transition staff...

A Missouri school district’s superintendent has apologized to the community after students turned their backs on a rival school’s basketball team in what some are calling a racially motivated display. According to KSHB-TV, during a basketball game between Warrensburg High School and Center High School, Warrensburg students turned their backs on Center’s team as the school’s starting roster was announced. One of the students held up a campaign sign for President-elect Donald Trump. The Kansas City Star described Center’s basketball team as “predominantly black.” “Where it went over the line is when they held up the [Trump] sign,” Warrensburg R6...

Dear Freepers, are any of you volunteering for Team Trump in your state? I did that here in California for the primaries, now I have been invited by Team Trump to volunteer for the general. I am just a bit confused as to the script or template the Team is using. If any of you are also volunteers, is it clear to you how to make the calls and what to ask the caller? It would be great to chat with another volunteer.

Republican presidential candidates Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are teaming up in opposing the Iran nuclear deal. According to NBC News, Cruz has invited Trump to Washington for an upcoming rally against the deal. The two are set to appear at an event organized by the Tea Party Patriots, the Center for Security Politics, and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), according to the Cruz campaign. Mort Klein, the ZOA president, said the rally has been in the works for weeks, though Trump's inclusion is a relatively new development. "I think it's of great value to have a person...

Sen. Cruz Names Mississippi State Co-Chairs Senator Chris McDaniel and Keith PlunkettHOUSTON, Texas – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today announced the beginnings of his Mississippi Leadership Team, consisting of top Mississippi conservative activists and current state senators. Led by Co-Chairs State Senator Chris McDaniel and Keith Plunkett, the group will be in charge of helping to assemble and grow Sen. Cruz’s grassroots network in Mississippi in advance of the March 8th primary.This Tuesday, Sen. Cruz will visit the Magnolia State on his ‘Cruz Country ‘ bus tour to speak at locations across Mississippi, including a “Down Home Breakfast” at...

A new sport has arisen within the fighting universe in Poland: Team Fighting Championship (TFC). If you’ve ever imagined what a professional looking, all out fight between two rival gangs would look like in an arena, this is it. Two teams of five fighters are let loose in the ring, accompanied by five referees, where they punch, kick, and knee the living hell out of each other until just one team is left standing. The only major rules are that “forbid blows to the Adam’s apple, groin kicks, biting and spitting,” but there are no rules that prohibit the four...

<p>Benedict Cumberbatch says he was an “idiot” to refer to non-white actors as “colored.” The Academy Award-nominated actor used the word on PBS talk show “Tavis Smiley” last week while discussing diversity in the entertainment industry. He said that “as far as colored actors go,” there were more opportunities in the U.S. than Britain, “and that’s something that needs to change.” British anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card said it welcomed Cumberbatch’s comments on diversity but felt the term he used was “outdated.” In a statement Monday, Cumberbatch apologized for his “thoughtless use of inappropriate language.”</p>

Ahead of President Obama’s annual picnic with members of Congress, the White House prohibited television cameras and photographer access to the event. Only allowing print pool reporters were allowed to cover Obama’s speech. That annoyed White House reporters including ABC News reporter Jon Karl, who pointed out that it was a change from year’s past. “In a break w/ past practice, the WH is prohibiting TV & photo coverage of today's Congressional picnic at the White House,” he noted on Twitter.

Canada’s public health agency is preparing to bring home a trio of scientists who were helping to combat Ebola in Sierra Leone after three people in their hotel complex tested positive for the viral hemorrhagic fever. A Health Canada spokesman confirmed late Tuesday night that the Public Health Agency of Canada is finalizing plans to pull its mobile laboratory team out of the West African country.

In recent years, I have heard certain military personnel, usually Marines, bragging that they never leave a comrade behind—even a dead comrade.Let’s think about that.For one thing, I call it a “purported” policy because I am not sure it is the official policy of the Marines or any other unit. I even wonder if it is a Marine policy that has been proclaimed by Marine privates without consulting with the Commandant of the Marine Corps. If so, the Commandant has not been quick enough or loud enough at correcting the notion that the Marines never leave a dead comrade behind.The...

If you’ve seen the recent big screen stories of US Navy SEALS in Afghanistan, in Lone Survivor and Zero Dark Thirty, you are no doubt struck by the sacrifices these elite warriors make on the modern battlefield and the impeccable examples of heroism these movies have portrayed — not propaganda but truth. However, there is another US Navy SEAL story from Afghanistan that’s not receiving much attention, simply because its truth is an indictment of failure on the part of the Obama administration, US Congress, and senior military leadership. It is the story of the fate that befell a CH-47D...

President Obama hit the campaign trail again this week in an effort to reboot support for Obamacare as the failed rollout continues with a broken website and broken promises. Speaking from the White House Tuesday, Obama declared "Obamacare is working," and that we "aren't going back." But for Obamacare to truly be "working" for the American people as promised when the Affordable Care Act was passed, it must in fact be affordable. We've seen the opposite. Young people will pay double under the ACA, young women will see their health insurance premiums increase on average by 193 percent and five...

The idea that every town must have a police SWAT team is relatively new. While just a handful of big cities had SWAT teams 30 years ago, now 80 percent of towns with populations between 25,000 and 50,000 have them. Now there is one fewer. Quietly and with no public debate, Framingham’s SWAT team has been disbanded.  Chief Steven Carl gave the order as he and the SWAT commander left the department for other jobs. Carl told me the disbanding of the SWAT team wasn’t just something he did on the way out the door. Two years ago he told...