Free Republic

My wife is a wonderful woman, but she has horrible taste in television. She, at times, will acknowledge this shortcoming as “guilty pleasures.”One of her favorite streaming “programs” is the hospital drama “New Amsterdam.” It’s god-awful. More unreal than reality TV. This woke piece of soap opera pabulum is utterly unwatchable. Every once in a while, perhaps to punish me for crimes I am not aware I have committed, she will turn “New Amsterdam” on the bedroom TV before we go to sleep. When the latest overwrought episode mercifully comes to an end, I ask the love of my life...

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke issued a statement this week celebrating news that seven pro-life activists would spend time in prison for attempting to stop abortions from taking place. Clarke, who heads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, painted the pro-life activists as violent radicals in her remarks: “Violence has no place in our national discourse on reproductive health.” The activists’ actions were nonviolent, and the DOJ’s release on the matter even notes that they “passively” resisted “their anticipated arrests.” “Using force, threatening to use force or...

The state's election office on Monday began proceedings against an advocate for wolves in Colorado over allegations of illegally lobbying during the 2024 session at the state Capitol. ... The complaints, filed in March by John Williams, who operates Colorado Wolf Tracker, claimed Stephen Capra and his organization, Bold Visions Conservation, lobbied multiple legislators on behalf of a paying client, all without registering and without disclosing the client’s identity as required by law. The Elections Division of the Secretary of State launched the proceedings against Capra ... The bill Capra was lobbying on was House Bill 1375, which was sponsored...

A new poll revealed young registered voters trust former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden when it comes to reducing prices and securing the border, two defining issues of the 2024 general election. The polling released on Thursday by Democratic-aligned public opinion research group Blueprint found most young voters trust Biden over Trump to handle most things, except for two concerns that “may be the defining issues of the 2024 election.” The poll found 52% trust Trump more when it comes to lowering prices and that 53% trust Trump more to secure the border, statistics that gave pollsters pause....

President Joe Biden issued an executive order early in his presidency that effectively compels federal agencies to mobilize historically Democratic groups to vote. After investigating Executive Order 14019, its origins, and its application, the Heritage Foundation's government watchdog Oversight Project concluded it constitutes "election interference" and could be greatly consequential in November. "The last election was decided by less than 40K votes in the determinative swings," Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News. Howell highlighted further how Demos — a leftist think tank whose 2020 recommendations to the Biden administration appear to have helped inspire EO...

Just what is former Gov. Andrew Cuomo up to these days? It sure seems like he’s gearing up for another run — but under which political party? The first clue is his bid at massive COVID revisionism. In a recent interview, Cuomo claimed he hadn’t forced anyone to close their business or wear a mask, and in fact had no power to do so. Indeed, to hear Cuomo tell it, people all did it voluntarily. Please. For those of us who lived through Cuomo’s New York in 2020 and haven’t somehow had our memories erased, the truth was quite different.

Sometimes we wonder if the Biden Democrats secretly admired some of Donald Trump’s stunts in the White House and decided that they could do them too when they were back in power. The latest example is President Biden’s dubious claim of executive privilege regarding his interview with special counsel Robert Hur. Mr. Biden sat for an interview over two days with the special counsel about his mishandling of classified documents. A pair of House committees sought the transcript and audio recordings of the interview, and the White House turned over the transcript. But on Thursday the President asserted executive privilege...

Vice President Kamala Harris has joked about returning to California to run for governor in 2026 when incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ends his second and final term. Politico reported on Thursday, in an overview of potential gubernatorial candidates, that the former California Attorney General and U.S. Senator could make a run: Vice President Kamala Harris has joked to friends that she may return to California to run for governor if Democrats lose the White House this fall, taking a page from Richard Nixon, two people familiar with her remarks said.

Millions of Texas residents are without power after massive storms tore through the state on Thursday and toppled transmission towers. The National Weather Service of Houston wrote on X: “Severe thunderstorms moving across the Houston metro area have a history of producing damaging winds!” “This destructive storm will contain wind gusts to 80 MPH! A tornado is possible!” Shocking footage of the toppled transmission towers was shared by users on X. Over a million Texans are without power, mainly in the eastern part of the state, poweroutage.us reported. AOL.com reported: Thunderstorms have killed four people and knocked out power to...

Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now. In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation. That, at least, was the plan. Instead, Smith is ingloriously hiding from...

A committee hearing descended into chaos as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Marjorie Taylor Greene a 'baby girl' and the pair traded personal insults in a fiery debate. The fight broke out on Thursday night as the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena. Greene started the fight by making a snide personal comment about Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, criticizing her 'fake eyelashes'. AOC then stepped in and the pair traded jibes before AOC said to Greene: 'Oh girl, baby girl... don't even play.' Chairman James Comer...

"I did not ask for any names, IDs, addresses, anything that would breach privacy, nor did I ask for any law enforcement sensitive information," Fox News reporter Bill Melugin wrote in a post on X. "I simply requested *only* the nationalities of people arrested on the list, so the public can have an understanding of where in the world they are coming from." The Department of Homeland Security declined to share the nationalities of people on the terror watchlist who entered the United States illegally with a reporter on Wednesday, claiming their right to "privacy" outweighs the public's right to...

In a Wednesday statement, California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia wrote: “On Tuesday evening, Sonoma State University President Mike Lee sent a campuswide message concerning an agreement with campus protesters. That message was sent without the appropriate approvals ... because of this insubordination and consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave.” ... Among the four “points of agreement” he described was for the school to disclose university vendor contracts and seek “divestment strategies.” In another section, under the heading “Academic Boycott,” Lee detailed how the school will not pursue formal collaborations that...

The Georgia Court of Appeals has given a green light to Donald Trump's case to remove Fani Willis from his election fraud trial in the latest blow to the Fulton County DA. Willis has courted controversy while prosecuting the county's election interference case against Trump after it was revealed she had a past relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. She escaped with just a slap on the wrist after Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dramatically ruled she could stay on the Trump election interference case if Wade removed himself. Trump and eight of his co-defendants charged in the Georgia state...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), the prosecutor linked to billionaire George Soros who is currently prosecuting former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts, has offered plea deals to six of the nine migrants accused of attacking two New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in January. On January 27, a mob of Venezuelan migrants were caught on surveillance and police body cam footage attacking a pair of NYPD officers outside of a taxpayer-funded migrant shelter in midtown Manhattan. .....

So Joe Biden has publicly agreed to two debates with Donald Trump, one in June and another in September. Frankly, I'll believe it when I see it, but I suppose we should take him at his word for now. However, assuming they happen, these will be different than the presidential debates we've witnessed in the past. The candidates have bypassed the Commission on Presidential Debates and opted to allow CNN and ABC News to host the events without an audience being present. So is this an aberration or will it become a trend going forward? The Associated Press suggests that...

Based on the latest available data and an enhanced version of a stress-tested methodology from a scholarly journal, a new study by Just Facts has found that about 10 percent to 27 percent of non-citizen adults in the U.S. are now illegally registered to vote. The U.S. Census recorded more than 19 million adult non-citizens living in the U.S. during 2022. Given their voter registration rates, this means that about two million to five million of them are illegally registered to vote. These figures are potentially high enough to overturn the will of the American people in major elections, including...

Here we go....

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has found loaded rocket launchers during its operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, now in its second week. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, which was nearly constant in the days following the October 7 terror attack, has largely subsided. However, in recent weeks, Hamas terrorists have fired rockets at the Keren Shalom crossing, where humanitarian aid enters Gaza near Rafah, and at the city of Sderot, near northern Gaza.

At long last, National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China in the months and years before the COVID-19 pandemic. “Dr. Tabak,” asked Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?” “It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak answered. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”