Free Republic

Don’t go, Boss! That’s my strong advice to President Trump as he prepares to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday at his alleged “think tank,” the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).Yes, it is important for President Trump to have a well-credentialed stable of policy experts capable of both building a 2024 platform and finding solid MAGA talent to populate a new Trump Administration. But the AFPI Trojan Horse—whose leadership is now bragging about how it will staff Trump’s “shadow cabinet”—is decidedly not that.Most comically, the AFPI roster features the author of a poison pen White House memoir who...

The bulk of her book is a brag fest about how she kept subverting the White House’s push to open up the economy – that is, allow people to exercise their rights and freedoms. Once Trump turned against her, and eventually found other people to provide good advice like the tremendously brave Scott Atlas – five months later he arrived in an attempt to save the country from disaster – Birx turned to rallying around her inner circle (Anthony Fauci, Robert Redfield, Matthew Pottinger, and a few others) plus assembling a realm of protection outside of her that included...

If the legacy media had their way, your front door would explode and seconds later you’d be hip-deep in armed gun-grabbers delivering butt-strokes to your noggin until you surrendered the combination to your gun safe. That’s the level of anti-gun bias today’s legacy media uses whenever they report on anything related to guns or the Second Amendment. Their recent stories on developments in the Senate are no exception to this rule. “The Senate has finally reached an agreement on guns,” a CBS news actor breathlessly announced Monday morning. Except the Senate hasn’t reached any agreement. Ten Republican Senators have agreed...

Democrats registered in the 3rd Congressional District are being asked to change their voter registration to “unaffiliated” in a growing campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in the Republican primaries in June. Indivisible Durango, which bills itself as a nonpartisan organization but promotes progressive ideals, floated the idea to members who are registered Democrats in a Feb. 1 newsletter. “If you are a Democrat or a Libertarian, you can change your party affiliation to ‘unaffiliated’ in order to vote (on) the Republican primary ballot,” the newsletter read. “If you are already unaffiliated or a Republican, we encourage you to...

You asked ​​Please can you advise on deaths purely from covid with no other underlying causes. We said Thank you for your request. We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is derived from death certificates in the process of death registration. For mortality figures where COVID-19 was the sole cause of death, please see: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19, this dataset can be found in section 8 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin. This dataset provides a greater insight into the leading pre-existing cause...

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury of 4 felonies related to her purchase of a home in Florida. Mosby was among the first law enforcement officials supported by left-wing billionaire George Soros in his quest to remake the criminal justice system in the United States. Federal prosecutors allege that Mosby lied to falsely obtain a withdrawal from her savings account based on a policy related to the coronavirus pandemic. She is also accused of lying on a mortgage application for the home purchase. Investigators subpoenaed financial records from Mosby and her husband, City...

The myth that January 6 was an insurrection that aimed to “overthrow the government” must not be allowed to stand. The time to counter the Big Lie is now.Most people, I believe, think that the age of myth-making lies in the past. Myths are the things that Ovid wrote about, or Robert Graves cataloged. Their home is in the ancient world, primarily. They live on today mostly in books or in quips. Jack Worthing, in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, provides a good illustration of the latter when he exclaims that Lady Bracknell is a Gorgon and...

Newly released filings for the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) reveal how the infamous Chicago-based nonprofit funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to local elections offices in an effort to privatize the 2020 election and put Joe Biden in the White House.For over a year, CRC has been on the cutting edge of reporting on this “dark money” behemoth, which used the COVID-19 pandemic to support an unprecedented flood of mail-in ballots with unaccountable drop-boxes in critical Democratic cities.The group’s IRS Form 990 filing for 2020 reveals thousands of grants to elections offices across the country. We’re still...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a regulation aimed at “Small Off-Road Engines” on Thursday that will ban the sale of portable generators in the state — which includes generators mounted in recreational vehicles. The ruling bans the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers in the state beginning in 2024. Portable generators will be required to meet more stringent standards in 2024 and meet zero-emission standards starting in 2028. In the 2024 model year, portable generators will have to improve their efficiency by somewhere between 40% and 90%, which seems unrealistic in such a short period of time,...

A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America, by Scott W. Atlas How could public officials vowing to “follow the science” on Covid-19 persist in promoting ineffective strategies with terrible consequences? In a memoir of his time on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Scott W. Atlas provides an answer: because the nation’s governance was hijacked by three bureaucrats with scant interest in scientific research or debate—and no concern for the calamitous effects of their edicts. ... A veteran medical researcher and health-policy analyst at the Hoover Institution, Atlas, a...

The battle rages on between point shooters and those who rely on sighted fire. Is there a true winner in that contest? What are the pros and cons of each and which parts of each, if any, are utilized by professional lead slingers who carry a gun for food? ... Rather than spend valuable time arguing one side or the other, I'll ask a different question: How can we take the best that both sides have to offer and use it to become a better shooter? ... Instead of looking at it as two sides of a separate argument, what...

WASHINGTON — Scores of former Trump political appointees gathered at a GOP social club Wednesday night to hear Steve Bannon detail how they could help the next Republican president reconfigure government. "If you’re going to take over the administrative state and deconstruct it, then you have to have shock troops prepared to take it over immediately," Bannon said in a telephone interview with NBC News. "I gave 'em fire and brimstone." ... Trump often railed publicly about career civil servants and Obama administration political appointee holdovers whom he saw as obstacles to his agenda, referring to them collectively as the...

Animal rights groups are working to save dozens of helpless service dogs left behind when the U.S. military completed its withdrawal on Tuesday local time from Afghanistan. Dr. Robin R. Ganzert, CEO of Washington, DC,-based American Humane, said on Monday dozens of contract dogs have been left behind to be “tortured and killed at the hands of our enemies.” “As the country’s first national humane organization and largest certifier of animal welfare in the world, it sickens us to sit idly by and watch these brave dogs who valiantly served our country be put to death or worse,” Ganzert said....

I'm greatly saddened to hear of the passing of L. Neil Smith, the estimable science fiction author and lifelong lover of liberty. Neil was probably one of the most ardent and tireless advocates of the individual right to keep and bear arms in my lifetime. A literal brother-in-arms to all of us who believe in the supremacy of the individual, rather than the State. A man who greatly and positively influenced a generation or more of libertarians. I extend my condolences to his wife, Cathy, who is Neil's equal in her love and pursuit of individual freedom, and as strong-willed...

A crowd of several hundred people, many carrying American flags and holding signs that read, “No jabs for jobs” and “Stop the medical tyranny,” gathered near Santa Monica’s pier Sunday to push back against proposed COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Held in a park off a busy stretch of Ocean Avenue, the gathering — billed as a “worldwide rally for freedom” — appeared half political rally and half religious gathering. Organizers led the group in prayers and attendees milled at booths to learn about recall attempts of several Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascon. A...

In June, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would make nearly all firearms configured with a pistol stabilizing brace subject to the National Firearms Act, requiring taxation and registration of millions of lawfully acquired firearms. The proposal represents a dramatic shift in ATF treatment of pistol-stabilizing braces. The new rule would implement a points system akin to the method used for determining the legality of imported handguns. Brace-equipped firearms would be required to weigh more than 4 lbs. and measure between 12" and 26". Braces installed on firearms meeting those parameters...

County health officials across Montana are grappling with a new state law that says they can’t treat vaccinated and unvaccinated people differently. Health officials and school districts working to keep students in the classroom could face a difficult choice: Follow Montana law, or follow recommendations from federal health agencies. The debate boils down to how health officials respond when someone who has been exposed to COVID is vaccinated or unvaccinated. Montana legislators this spring passed House Bill 702, which says businesses, employers and governmental entities can’t treat people differently based on their vaccination status. That means if an unvaccinated person...

North Texas doctors have quietly developed a plan that seeks to prepare for the possibility that due to the COVID-19 surge the region will run out of intensive-care beds. If that happens, for the first time, doctors officially will be allowed to take vaccination status of sick patients into account along with other triage factors to see who gets a bed. A copy of an internal memo written by Dr. Robert Fine, co-chair of the North Texas Mass Critical Care Guideline Task Force, was sent to members of the task force -- and leaked to The Watchdog. It summarizes the...

The push for vaccine passports is primarily driven by the thought that it will hurt Donald Trump supporters the most. Liberals seem to relish the idea of seeing deplorables kicked out of restaurants and forced to beg for food. They especially like the idea of all of them being placed alongside terrorists on the no-fly list. Former Homeland Security assistant secretary Juliette Kayyem made this case in The Atlantic last week, arguing that “flying is not a right.” (The original headline for the op-ed said unvaccinated people “belong on the no-fly list.” The revised title merely says they should “bear...

... While the pistol was manageable, even comfortable to hold and fire, the rifle was a different beast altogether. Everything about it — its weight, tactical scope and overall lethality — was downright intimidating. The fact that the first magazine refused to click into place didn't help either, further unnerving me. What if I just broke a $3,500 rifle? A fresh magazine worked just fine, though, and after loading it, I sent the target out to 15 yards. When ready, I lined up the target in the cross hairs, pulled the stock onto my shoulder, squeezed the trigger and —...