Free Republic

A retired history professor from Grinnell College and feminist announced that she wishes that “all men were dead” in a column for the Washington Post over the weekend. Retired history professor Victoria Bissell Brown published a bizarre column in the Washington Post on Friday in which she detailed an outburst she had at her husband that included her wishing for the death of all men. I yelled at my husband last night. Not pick-up-your-socks yell. Not how-could-you-ignore-that-red-light yell. This was real yelling. This was 30 minutes of from-the-gut yelling. Triggered by a small, thoughtless, dismissive, annoyed, patronizing comment. Really small....

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from adult film actress Stormy Daniels in which she claimed that President Trump defamed her when he suggested her allegation that she was threatened to stay quiet about their relationship was a lie....... ....... The ruling ordered Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, to pay Trump’s legal fees..........

One of the most influential Arab journalists in the world, Jamal Khashoggi, went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. Turkish authorities have blamed the Saudis, but Riyadh has denied harming the veteran reporter.Jamal Khashoggi, 59, was born in Medina, Saudi Arabia, one of the holiest cities in Islam. Like many Saudis at the time, Khashoggi left to study abroad. He earned a business administration degree in 1983 at Indiana State University in the United States.Career in journalismKhashoggi began his career as a reporter for the English language newspaper Saudi Gazette. He went on to work for...

CNN reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia is preparing a report in which they will admit that Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who went missing earlier this month, was killed in an “interrogation gone wrong.”

During a two part interview with President Trump aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Lesley Stahl asked “what’s the biggest surprise” he's learned as President? Trump cited the duplicity of Washington politicians, but when he relayed how “the other thing I’ve really learned is I never knew how dishonest the media was and I really mean it. I’m not saying that as a soundbite. I never knew how dishonest,” Stahl cut him off: “I’m going to change the subject again.” Referring to an earlier exchange, Trump pointed out: “Well, no, even the way you asked me a question, like,...

The government of Saudi Arabia on Sunday vowed to retaliate with "greater action" if the Trump administration punishes the country for the apparently preplanned murder of a dissident earlier this month inside its Turkish Embassy. Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote columns in the Washington Post critical of the Saudi government, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul October 2 and disappeared. Trump has said the U.S. would be “very upset and angry” if the Saudi government was behind it and, in an interview with "60 Minutes," he clarified that there would be "severe punishment." "The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any...

Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should not attend an upcoming investment conference in Saudi Arabia amid an ongoing investigation into the country's possible involvement in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing earlier this month in Turkey. "I don't think he should go," Rubio told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," adding that he doesn't think any US officials should continue with their usual business in Saudi Arabia until Washington gets to the bottom of Khashoggi's disappearance. "I don't think any of our government officials should be going and pretending...

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said President Trump must respond with more than “just words” if Saudi Arabia is found to be behind the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi or it would undermine the United States’ reputation as a champion of human rights. “I’m glad the president didn’t tie his hands in terms of exactly what we are going to do. But it needs to be very strong and meaningful, it can’t be symbolic, it can’t just be words,” the Florida lawmaker said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Trump has threatened “severe consequences” against Saudi Arabia but hasn’t gone...

The Palestinian Authority President delivered his statement on Sunday as pressures mount on Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement on Sunday in which he voiced "full confidence" in Saudi Arabia and praised its leaders for their support for the Palestinians. The statement, which was published by the PA president's office, quoted Abbas as saying he has "absolute confidence" in Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. "Palestine was - and shall remain - on the side of Saudi Arabia," Abbas said....

A story broke last week that an Arabic journalist named Jamal Khashoggi who was working for the Washington Post had disappeared and was presumed dead. The official story is that Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on the afternoon of October 2. Immediately (and suspiciously) media stories that appeared to be coordinated appeared, pointing the finger of blame for Khashoggi’s disappearance at Saudi Arabia, in general, and at the country’s Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, in particular. It was alleged by anonymous sources for several days that Khashoggi had been abducted and then killed at...

Donald Trump is responsible for all manner of things, particularly if you ask anyone at MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times or the Washington Post. He’s caused unrest around the world using nothing more than tweets, sparked riots in the streets and I’m pretty sure at least a couple of people have blamed him for global warming. But perhaps his greatest trick of all has been to increase the rates of alcohol consumption in America. Or at least that’s the opinion of WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker. Amid hurricanes, a vanished journalist, the recent Supreme Court hearings, midterms and “mobs,” it...

The worst of Hurricane Michael’s remnants were supposed to track south of tiny Charlotte County in southern Virginia, but a desperate 911 call Thursday night told a different story: A car had been washed away in a torrential flash flood. When sheriff’s deputies raced to the scene on Mount Harmony Road after 11 p.m., county administrator Daniel Witt said they heard the screams of a 17-year-old boy clinging to a guardrail. The sheriff’s deputies and some bystanders linked arms and waded into the raging water, before tossing the teen a rope. He was pulled to safety, but his father and...

An activist group has filed a Title IX complaint against Georgetown University Professor Christine Fair, who came under fire earlier this month for calling for the deaths and castration of several GOP senators. “Look at [this] chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement,” Fair wrote in the tweet on September 29. “All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes.” Since then, Fair’s Twitter account has been briefly suspended and reactivated. Now, the National Coalition for Men has filed...

Khashoggi never had much time for western-style pluralistic democracy. In the 1970s he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, which exists to rid the Islamic world of western influence. He was a political Islamist until the end, recently praising the Muslim Brotherhood in the Washington Post. He championed the ‘moderate’ Islamist opposition in Syria, whose crimes against humanity are a matter of record. Khashoggi frequently sugarcoated his Islamist beliefs with constant references to freedom and democracy. But he never hid that he was in favour of a Muslim Brotherhood arc throughout the Middle East. His recurring plea to bin Salman in his...

Was Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and then his body cut up with a bone saw and flown to Riyadh in Gulfstream jets owned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? So contend the Turks, who have video from the consulate, photos of 15 Saudi agents who flew into Istanbul that day, Oct. 2, and the identity numbers of the planes. Supporting the thesis of either a murder in the consulate or a "rendition," a kidnaping gone horribly bad, is a Post story that U.S. intel intercepted Saudi planning, ordered by the prince, to...

Dear Professor Christine Blasey Ford, Like millions of women, I watched you testify about the worst day of your life. Millions of us identified with your fear and wondered if we would be brave enough to wrestle ourselves past that grip of terror if we were in your shoes. Millions of us watched how you held onto the tears that wanted to come up; we know where that place is in the body — the place that pushes down on the rising tide of remembered pain. We know how hard that is. We’ve been holding onto our tears for a...

Bump [Philip Bump, WaPo] quotes Ford as telling the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I did see Mark Judge once at the Potomac Village Safeway after the time of the attack, and it would be helpful with anyone’s resources if – to figure out when he worked there if people are wanting more details from me about when the attack occurred.” Now Bump announces his Eureka moment. He can pinpoint Ford’s timeline thanks to Mark Judge himself. Bump quotes from Judge’s 1997 book “Wasted.” Judge wrote, “It was the summer before senior year, and by now, even though I wasn’t drinking every...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — A strong earthquake has hit Papua New Guinea and raised the possibility of a tsunami. The magnitude 7.0 quake struck Thursday morning about 118 kilometers (74 miles) east of Kimbe, West New Britain, on the Pacific island nation. It was followed by aftershocks of magnitude 5.7 and 5.9. Just over an hour later, a magnitude 6.3 quake hit farther northeast on the island. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center oceanographer David Walsh says any tsunami from the earthquake would only affect areas immediately around the epicenter. But scientists don’t have any tide gauges close to the...

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Wednesday referred more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints filed recently against Brett M. Kavanaugh to a federal appeals court in Colorado. The 15 complaints, related to statements Kavanaugh made during his Senate confirmation hearings, were initially filed with the federal appeals court in Washington, where Kavanaugh served for the last 12 years before his confirmation Saturday to the Supreme Court. The allegations center on whether Kavanaugh was dishonest and lacked judicial temperament during his Senate testimony, according to people familiar with the matter. Last month, a judge on the U.S. Court of...

Here's a sampling of headlines today from what are generally respected outlets: Buzzfeed: "Taylor Swift's Instagram Post Has Caused A Massive Spike In Voter Registration" Daily Beast: "Taylor Swift: Voter Registration Spike Follows Star’s Political Awakening" Washington Post: "Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Democrats causes spike in voter registrations" Variety: "Taylor Swift’s Political Comments Lead to Spike in Voter Registration" I'd give the Daily Beast a little credit for hedging some, but then there's the lede: "Taylor Swift’s first foray into politics appears to have produced impressive results." All the outlets made the same argument: that, a.) there was an increase in voter...