Free Republic

I’m starting to become concerned about President Joe Biden’s ability to pass a climate bill. They’re speaking sotto voce, but still: In the past few days, Democrats on the party’s left and right flanks have started to hint that, well, in some circumstances, given some contingencies, they might prefer no bill to a negotiated compromise with the rival flank. The most worrying signs so far have come from Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who has received more donations from the coal, gas, and oil industries in the current election cycle than any other senator. Manchin was never going...

Sen. Lindsey Graham slammed the Biden administration for its approach towards the Taliban. Graham argued on "Fox & Friends," Monday, that if the White House "embraces" the "terrorists," it will leave "Americans all over the world at risk" and "set in motion a disaster."

Democrats rush to pass their cradle-to-grave entitlement agenda with little debate or scrutiny. .....snip..... Congress is back in session, and don’t blink or you may miss the plan to transform America in 17 days. Never mind Sen. Joe Manchin’s “strategic pause.” Democratic leaders are moving to ram into law their $3.5 trillion plan for cradle-to-grave entitlements with the narrowest of majorities before Americans figure out what they’re doing. As Nancy Pelosi famously said about ObamaCare, Congress will pass the bill so people can find out what’s in it. ......snip...... Industry lobbyists are feverishly trying to parse the hundreds of pages....

Joe Biden is not a leader, and Democrats know it, but he is their human autopen that will sign off on their radical policy fantasia.In case you were wondering what President Joe Biden has reportedly been up to lately, besides letting the Taliban take over Afghanistan, here are a few headlines:“Biden ‘checking‘ if he can overrule states and order universal masks in schools”“Biden to press private businesses to require COVID vaccinations for employees”“Biden extends eviction ban”“Biden calls for half of new cars to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030”“Biden notches big win as Senate passes $1 trillion infrastructure bill”A...

Sacramento -- The California legislature is set to return to the state Capitol from summer recess next Monday to make final decisions on more than a dozen bills harmful to California communities. The California Family Council opposes 17 bills threatening the unborn, parental rights, freedom of speech and religion, and encourage racism, drug abuse, sex trafficking, and assisted suicide. Earlier in the year, the legislature killed bills promoting religious liberty and providing sex education transparency, and pushed off until next year a bill to protect children from sex abusers. Most of the 17 bills CFC is opposing made it through...

LINCOLN, New Hampshire — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) announced Friday at the North County Republican Dinner in New Hampshire that he will introduce legislation to stop military officers from teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). “I’m about to demand all these generals and admirals that want another promotion to commit that they are not going to be teaching anything like this [CRT] in their commands,” Cotton announced to a loud applause. He went on: CTR is the anti-American idea that the most important thing about you is your skin color; that some people are inherently privileged and oppressive because of the...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 14, 2021 Contact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the Travel Mask Mandate Repeal Act of 2021, legislation to prohibit the imposition of mask mandates on public transportation. U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-5) will be introducing companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives later this week. The Senate version of the bill is currently cosponsored by Senators Mike Braun (R-IN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Roger Wicker (R-MS). “The federal government forcing the American people to continue to wear masks despite the fact that we’ve already reached herd...

Texas Democrats demanded Tuesday for the Texas House journal clerk to lock the state house voting machines, thereby denying the GOP majority a quorum needed to proceed with election integrity legislation. Chair of the Texas House Democrat Caucus and State Rep. Chris Turner (D) stated, “Minutes ago, at least 57 letters were delivered to the house journal clerk directing the [Texas] House to lock our voting machines and not unlock them until we provide express permission to do so upon our return to the [Texas] capitol.” “It takes two-thirds of the body present to constitute a quorum, so 100 members,”...

Baltimore has its Highway to Nowhere, a road that gobbled up communities before the project was abandoned. Wilmington, Del., had neighborhoods wiped out by Interstate 95. Thousands of Detroit residents lost their homes — and surviving communities were scarred — by the construction of Interstate 375. The Overtown neighborhood in Miami, a majority-Black community, was “flattened,” also by I-95, forcing 10,000 people to leave their homes. In Nashville, bulldozers demolished 620 houses, 27 apartment buildings and six Black churches to make way for the I-40 expressway. All across the nation, American communities bear the scars of the headlong rush to...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released a statement Tuesday opposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) backwardly focused January 6 commission legislation due to bad-faith negotiations. McCarthy explained Republicans have been hoodwinked by Pelosi “falsely” claiming “in the press that she had delivered Republicans a counterproposal, when in reality her proposal would not surface until weeks later.”

A bill passed nearly unanimously in the Tennessee legislature this week requires absentee ballots in the state to include a watermark as a measure of election security. SB1315, titled the Tennessee Election Integrity Act, mandates that absentee ballots there “include a watermark approved by the coordinator of elections.”

Two months ago, I first warned about a screwball amendment (HB 3195) to the “Equitable Restrooms Act,” which has now been passed by the muck-making bureaucracy we call the Illinois House of Representatives by a vote of 63-43 and is now being considered by the Illinois Senate. Here’s a section of that screwball, privacy-denying amendment: The purpose of this Section is to promote the privacy, safety, and gender inclusivity of all Illinois residents and visitors. … Any multiple-occupancy restroom may be converted into an all-gender multiple-occupancy restroom. If a multiple-occupancy restroom is to be converted into an all-gender multiple-occupancy restroom...

HONG KONG, April 28 – Hong Kong’s legislature passed on Wednesday a controversial immigration bill, which lawyers, diplomats and right groups fear will give authorities unlimited powers to prevent residents and others from entering or leaving the Chinese-ruled city. The government has dismissed those fears as “complete nonsense,” saying the legislation, which will come into effect on Aug. 1, merely aims to screen illegal immigrants at source amid a backlog of asylum applications and does not affect constitutional rights of free movement.

There may finally be movement on getting to the bottom of exactly what role the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — which has reportedly received $600,000 in U.S. tax dollars via grant money awarded by a unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) via the EcoHealth Alliance to study coronaviruses in bats — played in the COVID-19 pandemic.If Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Braun of Indiana are successful in a new legislative proposal called the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2021, President Joe Biden will be directed to declassify American intelligence already collected examining those links —...

As Republican legislatures across the country try to push back on encroaching and questionable practices regarding children coming out of the LGBTQ activist community, they are finding themselves up against governors of their own party who seem determined choose other priorities above the will of the people. Noem in South Dakota, Hutchinson in Arkansas, and now Ducey in Arizona.The Arizona Republican-led legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that would require an opt-in for parents before their students could participate in pro-LGBTQ oriented sex ed studies and HIV and AIDS education. It would also require the school to alert parents of instruction...

Please excuse the vanity post. Please encourage State Senator Kel Seliger (R-31), who represents the Texas Panhandle, to get on board and support HB-1927. The bill passed the house and now it needs to get support from state senators to bring it to the senate floor for a vote. Also, call Lt. Gov. Patrick and urge him to bring this bill forward.

Three GOP senators announced that they are sponsoring a bill that aims to abolish Major League Baseball’s (MLB) unique antitrust exemption. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are moving forward with the measure as a response to the MLB’s decision to move their All-Star Game out of Georgia in protest to the voting reform bill that was signed into law by Republican Governor Brian Kemp. The voter reforms require photo ID for absentee voting, mandatory dropbox security, and expands early voting dates, among other measures. “If they’re gonna play partisan enforcer, they shouldn’t expect to...

Some of the more restrictive measures to further tighten Hawaii’s already stringent gun laws are among dozens of bills failing to pass as the Legislature gets ready to wrap business in three weeks. Bills that would have banned rifle magazines greater than 10 rounds and any gun that could fire 50-caliber rounds or more have stalled for this legislative session. Most police reform measures have also failed this session, as have efforts to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Even more bills could die between now and April 29, the day lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn the 2021 session. The gun...

SACRAMENTO – Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) is seeking to make all abortions in California free, whether paid for by private or public insurance. The proposal, called SB 245, will be heard in the Senate Health Committee next week. The bill forces all private insurance policies to cover abortions with no co-pays and no deductibles, despite the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determination that California was already breaking federal law by forcing private health insurance plans to include coverage for abortion. Last December, HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced his department would withhold $200 million from California unless...

TEXAS The Texas Legislature kicked off the new year with an attempt to roll back the state’s ill-advised law granting in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens. While Texas has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that immigration laws are enforced, and has sued to stop unconstitutional policies by the Obama and Biden administrations, the state was the first to grant in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens in 2001. Bills in both houses of the legislature have been introduced to repeal the 2001 law. The timeline for repealing this expensive benefit for illegal aliens, however, is short as the...