Free Republic

Little do people know that this administration has tried to avert total disaster amid a rail strike set to effect Friday at midnight. Thirty percent of the nation’s freight would be shuttered, and the cost per day to the US economy will be around $2 billion. Most passenger and commuter rail services will also cease operating. Ten of the twelve major railway unions have agreed to the new agreements, though the two largest, which represent engineers and conductors, has not signed off. They still have lingering questions about sick leave and penalties for missing work. Thus far, these two are...

Well, unless something big happens, it looks like Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be the next Associate Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court. The cloture vote, which was covered on our live blog, ended in success. It was a 51-49 vote. Now, 30 hours of speeches from both sides have begun. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) caused a bit of a heart attack when he said he would be out of D.C. for the weekend; his daughter is getting married on Saturday. He will walk her down the aisle but said transportation arrangements had been made. Daines became an accidental key vote...

How I miss Barack Obama. And I say that as someone who worked to defeat him: I was a foreign policy adviser to John McCain in 2008 and to Mitt Romney in 2012. I criticized Obama’s “lead from behind” foreign policy that resulted in a premature pullout from Iraq and a failure to stop the slaughter in Syria. I thought he was too weak on Iran and too tough on Israel. I feared that Obamacare would be too costly. I fumed that he was too professorial and too indecisive. I was left cold by his arrogance and his cult of...

The first meltdown over the Supreme Court was epic. Justice Anthony Kennedy let the Trump White House know shortly after the official end of the 2017 term that he’s out by the end of July. He’s heading into retirement and creating a vacancy that gives conservatives the opportunity to have a solid majority on the Court. Of course, the Left went into full meltdown mode. From liberal journalists to former Clinton officials and strategists, it was a mix of flipping off Justice Kennedy and warning red state Democrats not to cave on whoever President Trump pick unless they’re fine getting...

Well, someone finally said it: Liberals, you’re not as smart as you think—and you’re helping Donald J. Trump win a second term. Gerard Alexander, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, wrote this in The New York Times and he might have to change his name after this. He aptly noted how a) cultural centers are dominated by progressives; b) how they’re causing a backlash against liberalism; and c) how their inability to see that they are causing it will lead to a Trump victory in the next presidential election. The professor noted how the Left is overly...

"Beloved former WWE commentator Jim Ross broke the news of his wife’s death on Twitter Wednesday night, two days after a horrific road accident critically damaged her brain and skull. She was 55. “A Priest gave my wife Jan her last rites tonight,” Ross wrote on Twitter. “My little Angel is gone.” The WWE Hall of Famer had been posting updates and prayers on his Twitter page since Monday night, when Jan was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Jan was riding her Vespa home from their local Oklahoma gym when a vehicle hit her from behind, according to...

“The Vespa 150 TAP is a Vespa scooter modified for use with paratroops. Introduced in 1956 and updated in 1959, it had a U.S.-made light anti-armour cannon. Roughly 800 of these scooters were deployed in the Algerian War.”

The last Vespa PX, with its distinctive waspish engine, came off the production line this weekend. Italian company Piaggio said that tightening emission legislation sounded the death-knell on the 30-year-old, manually-geared bike - and that all models would now be automatic. The 125cc model became a must-have in the Mod revival of 1970s Britain - following on from the obsession with the Italian scooter in the Mod scene of the 1960s. Andy Gillard, editor of Scootering magazine, said it was the end of an era. "It's a shame really because It's the end of a long line of motor scooters....

The classic Vespa scooter which came to symbolise Mod rebellion in Britain has been scrapped after falling foul of European Union emissions rules. The last Vespa PX, with its distinctive waspish engine, came off the production line this weekend. Mods arriving on their scooters as part of the Quadrophenia convention held in Brighton Italian company Piaggio said that tightening emission legislation sounded the death-knell on the 30-year-old, manually-geared bike - and that all models would now be automatic. The 125cc model became a must-have in the Mod revival of 1970s Britain - following on from the obsession with the Italian...

New Vespa Motor Scooter Introduced Tuesday November 18, 1:30 pm ET The Granturismo Is The Fastest, Most Powerful Vespa Model Ever Developed LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time since 1996, Piaggio USA Inc., manufacturer of the world-famous Vespa® motor scooter, has introduced a new model to the U.S. market. The Vespa Granturismo, as its name implies, is a touring vehicle by design. The Granturismo is the biggest, fastest, most powerful and technologically advanced Vespa that Piaggio has produced, offering comfort and performance on even the longest of rides. With a large steel body and 200cc...