Free Republic

Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz has asked SaraACarter.com to post her letter to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in support of her friend and colleague retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who will be sentenced on Dec. 18. In her letter to Judge Sullivan Special Agent Gritz describes an FBI culture immersed in corruption, bias and fear. Gritz is also no fan of Andrew McCabe and describes him s vindictive, power-hungry, aggressive and unethical.

A nation devoid of grace immiserates its people. When you think of the sheer vindictiveness of what happened to Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray, it takes your breath away. On the very night of his greatest career triumph, a reporter dug up his old tweets (composed when he was a young teenager), reported on the most offensive insults, and immediately and irrevocably transformed his online legacy. Now he’s not just “Kyler Murray, gifted quarterback and humble Heisman winner,” but also the man who was forced to apologize for his alleged homophobia. And for what purpose? Which cause did the reporter advance?...

(CBSLA/AP) — Thousands of teachers who may go on strike against the nation’s second-largest school district next month marched and rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday. United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union estimates 50,000 were there. The crowd had relief from overcrowding at the top of their wish list. **SNIP** UTLA teachers and supporters wore red for unity. They are seeing red over LAUSD’s reluctance to part with more green. “I want to see investment in the schools and in the kids,” said LAUSD parent Carmen Montecito. UTLA says if LAUSD would just tap in to its almost $2...

Franciscan Media Image: Virgin and Child with Female Saints | Gérard David | Image designed by Mark Sullivan | Franciscan Media Blessed Honoratus Kozminski Saint of the Day for December 16 (October 16, 1829 – December 16, 1916)  Blessed Honoratus Kozminski’s Story Wenceslaus Kozminski was born in Biala Podlaska in 1829. By the age of 11 he had lost his faith. By the age of 16 his father had died. He studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Suspected of participating in a rebellious conspiracy against the Czarists in Poland, he was imprisoned from April 1846...

DePaul University freshman David Krupa scored an impressive victory in Chicago politics on Saturday: Boss Madigan — the most powerful Democrat in Illinois — backed out of a challenge to Krupa’s candidacy for alderman in the Southwest Side’s 13th Ward. “I am truly humbled to be the first candidate on the ballot to challenge the 13th Ward since 1991,” Krupa, 19, told me at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners offices. A few political guys mumbled privately that Madigan must be so angry that he might as well fill a burlap bag of the severed heads of a few of...

Donald Trump called for courts to test NBC and “Saturday Night Live” in a fiery tweet on Sunday that followed the final airing of the sketch show until the New Year. “SNL” wrapped up a year of political humor directed at the Trump administration with a parody of the Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which it posited a world wherein Donald Trump, played by Alec Baldwin, was never elected president of the United States. The sketch, which featured returning guest stars Ben Stiller as Michael Cohen, Robert De Niro as Robert Mueller and Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh,...

I have had a big bushy gray beard for the last 6 months...my women friends like it (or so they say) and the rest of my friends seem to stand in awe. It is certainly an expression of an inner self...but what is that inner self saying?I have learned to groom this bush without the help of barber. I did go to a beard barber once, but he never asked me where I was headed re: my beard.We need a thread here on FR about beards.Folks who have never had one cannot know the joy...and the pain.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Vice President Joe Biden holds the pole position in the first CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll among likely 2020 Democratic caucusgoers, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke joining him as the only possible candidates in the field with double-digit support. The new Iowa Poll finds 32% of likely caucusgoers saying they back Biden as their first choice, 19% Sanders, 11% O'Rourke, 8% Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 5% California Sen. Kamala Harris, with the rest of the 20-person field testing below 5% support. The top three candidates in Iowa, including O'Rourke's third-place ranking, match...

BENIN CITY, Nigeria — Jude Ikuenobe sensed the car following him before he saw it. Heart pounding, he turned around. Under the Libyan desert sun, the highway stretching behind him was so hot it shimmered in the distance. Nobody’s there, he tried to reassure himself for the tenth time since he had stepped out a few minutes earlier in search of water, along with three of his friends. The sandy side streets were deserted, every shop and café shuttered. It was a Friday afternoon, which meant even the armed militias who ruled Sabha, a sprawling oasis city 480 miles inland...

... New York City has legalized a "third gender" on birth certificates. Not that long ago, over 40 states passed resolutions supporting God's definition of marriage – between one man and one woman. According to the Public Religious Research Institute, a majority of Democrats, Republicans, blacks, whites, Latinos, Catholics, and white mainline Protestant denominations support so-called "marriage" between people of the same sex. The majority of evangelical Millennials support redefining marriage. Years ago, LGBTQ activists claimed that openly homosexual leaders admitted into the Boy Scouts had no intention to change the organization from its founding on Christian principles. As it...

The Supreme Court held long ago in Brady v. Maryland that the Constitution requires the prosecution, which holds all the cards in a criminal case, to give the defense all evidence favorable to the defendant, whether it impeaches a witness, mitigates punishment or shows his innocence. Indeed, the burden is on prosecutors to find anything in the possession of the government that is favorable to the defense. From the minute Judge Emmet G. Sullivan received the case against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, which will be decided on Tuesday, he ordered Mueller to provide the defense with all Brady material Last...

Subtitle: Robert Yates & Alexander Hamilton Debate the Scotus. What happened to the Scotus? In this squib, we’ll find the Framers blameless for today’s runaway federal courts. Background. Under the British system, colonial court judges were appointed by, and served at the pleasure of, the Crown. The ninth indictment of George III in our Declaration charged him with making “judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their Offices, and the amount and Payment of their Salaries.” In a system in which the House of Lords was the supreme tribunal, colonial defendants logically feared political influence against them...

**SNIP** How big is the Climate Change Industrial Complex today? Surprisingly, no one seems to be keeping track of all the channels of funding. A few years ago Forbes magazine went through the federal budget and estimated about $150 billion in spending on climate change and green energy subsidies during President Obama’s first term. That didn’t include the tax subsidies that provide a 30 percent tax credit for wind and solar power —so add to those numbers about $8 billion to $10 billion a year. Then add billions more in costs attributable to the 29 states with renewable energy mandates...

On Sunday, Dec. 9, Julian von Abele, CC ’21, a sophomore in the physics department, made a series of claims perpetuating white male supremacy, especially in science, and further harassed a group of primarily Black women on campus. This incident of racism that occurred on campus showed that science and physics academia blatantly and covertly attacks minorities—and their ability to be a part of the field. His rhetoric further reflected an existing pattern in science academia... A group of undergraduates studying physics at Columbia felt particularly troubled that online comments in forums defending von Abele’s rant used his work in...

Michelle Obama is rockin’ around the Christmas tree with Santa Claus, himself. The former first lady, 54, surprised a special group of families at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver on Thursday. During her appearance, Mrs. Obama answered questions alongside Santa Claus and read the holiday classic, The Night Before Christmas. Also during the event, the mother of two — who was in town for her Becoming book tour stop at the Pepsi Center — was asked about her dancing skills by a young fan. Though Mrs. Obama said she was incapable of doing the floss dance, as reported by The...

In a split decision, a three judge panel at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals effectively ruled the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights is a second-rate right, not entitled to the full protections of other enumerated rights.  The opinion was filed on 5 December, 2018. The case is Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, Inc. v. Attorney General New Jersey, No. 18-3170 (3rd Cir. 2018). The two majority judges followed the trend of other Circuits where the Second Amendment is being degraded and reduced to second-rate status.  Only a month ago, the First Circuit ruled...

There are 94 contestants heading into the 2018 Miss Universe Pageant, but only one of them will walk away a winner. Ahead of the pageant and the results, fans may be eager to hear about some of the favorites or predictions. We've put together a short gallery on some of our top picks, as well as reported front-runners in this year's competition, starting with the above three women.[cut] [#3] Miss Spain Angela Ponce Miss Spain Angela Ponce is the first openly transgender woman to be a contestant in the 2018 Miss Universe Pageant. According to the NY Post, Ponce proclaimed,...

The UK and France have nuclear weapons. We will have to do something about these countries nuclear capabilities before the muslims take over those countries and are able to control them. Its a serious situation, its not minor or imagined.

Washington(CNN)Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to an 8-year-old girl who lost an election for class president, telling the young student that she knows "too well, it's not easy" to run for "a role that's only been sought by boys." "While I know you may have been disappointed that you did not win President, I am so proud of you for deciding to run in the first place," Clinton wrote in her letter to Martha Kennedy Morales, a third grader at a Maryland private school. "As I know too well, it's not easy when you stand up and put yourself in...

Things got heated on the set of ABC’s This Week on Sunday when Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union (and the lone conservative on the panel) clashed with liberal ABC commentator Roland Martin during the Powerhouse Roundtable. And after hearing Schlapp’s opinion about the plethora of investigations into President Trump, host and Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos was so upset he accidentally flung his microphone under the desk. In the lead up to Stephanopoulos’s microphone mishap, an angry Martin unloaded on the President by comparing him to murderous mob boss John Gotti. “But George, the biggest issue for Mulvaney and...