Free Republic

The corrupt regime has violated every basic principle of decency, every premise of self-government, and every standard of justice for so long and so often that the public has become largely inured to the latest outrage. And yet the Colorado Supreme Court’s recent decision to exclude Trump—the front-runner in the 2024 presidential race, mind you—from the ballot stands out for its stupidity, shortsightedness, and maliciousness even in this environment. The 200+ page decision is a work of such slop that it makes Roe v. Wade look like a paragon of principled and coherent legal reasoning by comparison. The theory of...

Half a century ago, George Orwell, writing on literary censorship, wrote that “unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban.” That dynamic now broadly extends to an opaque network of government agencies and self-proclaimed anti-misinformation groups that have repressed online speech. There’s no official ban on discussing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines or criticizing American involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war, but editors and journalists have realized that writing on such topics can come at a cost. News publishers have been demonetized and shadow-banned for reporting dissenting views and the bureaucratic means...

Shortly after the New Year, I was fired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory after urging fellow scientists to take action on climate change. At the American Geophysical Union meeting in December, just before speakers took the stage for a plenary session, my fellow climate scientist Peter Kalmus and I unfurled a banner that read “Out of the lab & into the streets.” In the few seconds before the banner was ripped from our hands, we implored our colleagues to use their leverage as scientists to wake the public up to the dying planet. Soon after this brief action, the A.G.U.,...

Tom Ridge on #TrumpTaxReturns: "Is anybody surprised when we find out that he probably hasn't paid any taxes at all? Why are we surprised?"

---SNIP--- I actually consider it a point of personal pride that I’m recognized for being among the first Republicans to reject Donald Trump. It was way back in December 2015. I told NBC’s Chuck Todd that day that I could never support Trump. I said then that he was an embarrassment to the Republican Party and our country. I said he belittles, demeans, and ridicules people who disagree with him, and that I’ve never thought that loud, obnoxious, and simpleminded solutions to complex problems are the kind of qualities we want in a president. I believe that earned me my...

The divide between President Trump and local leaders in places where he has deployed federal agents is widening. This week, 15 mayors asked Trump to withdraw federal forces from their cities, citing “fundamental constitutional protections.” Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss why he disavows Trump's action.

"The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president’s personal militia," Ridge said, alluding to the department's creation after the 9/11 attacks. Ridge did say he would "welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in the cities" if he were governor. But "it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities," he added, specifically calling out how the federal authorities were unwelcome in Portland.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge suggested in an interview that aired Friday on "Rising" that he did not believe President Trump's move to slap new tariffs on Mexico would solve the immigration issue at the U.S. southern border. "I'm not quite sure tariffs on Mexico are going to solve the problem for us," Ridge, who served under former President George W. Bush, told Hill.TV. "I have a great deal of support for the notion about securing the borders, but I think we politicize the issue instead of solving the problem," he continued. The Hill obtained a draft document on...

George Conway, a conservative attorney whose wife is Donald Trump's senior White House counselor, has formed an organization whose goal is to push back against the president. Charter members of the group, called Checks and Balances, include former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former acting Attorney General Stuart Gerson, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and former Deputy White House Counsel Phillip Brady. Missing from its mission statement is any mention of Conway's wife, who helmed Trump's White House quest and became the first woman to successfully bring a presidential campaign across a November finish line. 'We believe in the...

An Albany area farm which rebuffed efforts by a same-sex couple to hold their wedding at the site has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay the women $1,500 each for their mental anguish. In New York State Division of Human Rights v. Liberty Ridge Farm, 10157952/ 10157963, Administrative Law Judge Migdalia Pares of the Bronx rejected the owners' argument that the farm, which is their home, is not a place of public accommodation and is therefore not subject to the anti-discrimination provisions of the Human Rights Law. the Giffords are considering their next step, including a possible appeal based...

Jon Ostendorff @JonOstendorff Workers at Pisgah Inn forced to throw out food today as #shutdown lingers. #avlnews #ncpol The Pisgah Inn sits on federal land on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. When the government shut down, the inn was forced to close right in the middle of the fall foliage tourism season. Federal workers are likely to be paid retroactively, but the Pisgah Inn is losing money. And now, several days into the shutdown, the kitchen is tossing out food.

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman will announce the endorsement of former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Gov. Tom Ridge Friday in an event at St. Anselm College in Goffstown. Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania, plans to attend a press conference with Huntsman at the college’s New Hampshire Institute for Politics. In a statement by the Huntsman campaign, Ridge said Thursday that Huntsman is “a serious, insightful leader.” Huntsman, 51, a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, said he’ll be counting on Ridge for help and counsel.

“GOP veteran Ridge says Bachmann not ready,” The Washington Times reports. Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said Tuesday that fellow Republican Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who has been surging in the 2012 GOP presidential sweepstakes in recent weeks, was unelectable and unqualified to be commander in chief. “Our ability to connect for both security and prosperity reasons now and forever more, I think, requires a set of experiences that she just doesn’t have in her portfolio,” Tom Ridge complains. “I think she obviously has great appeal to certain members of the party. I’m looking for a winner,” he...

Tim Pawlenty isn’t the only Republican blasting Rep. Michele Bachmann as unqualified for the presidency. Former Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge bluntly told the Washington Times today that Bachmann has little chance of winning a national election and compared her lack of experience to President Obama’s when he first took office: “We have a pretty inexperienced president right now,” Mr. Ridge said. “You see the range of issues in the 21st century world: We are interconnected, we are integrated. Our ability to connect for both security and prosperity reasons now and forever more, I think, requires a set of experiences...

[ . . . ] In last year's campaign, Republican candidates across Minnesota ran on a very clear message: We have too much government; it is time to reduce its size and impact on our daily lives, liberties and economic freedom. We need to shrink the size of the bureaucracies, streamline government regulation and reduce taxes to jump-start our private economy. Mark Dayton campaigned on a different message: We must raise taxes to continue to grow government, and I will tax only the richest Minnesotans. DFL candidates across Minnesota campaigned on the same message: We must raise taxes, but don't...

WASHINGTON – As an aide in the Clinton White House, Elena Kagan steeped herself in details of the Ruby Ridge controversy, an issue that Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania had zeroed in on as he sought the Republican presidential nomination. Kagan's handwritten notes from 1995 track Specter's hearings, according to some of the Supreme Court nominee's records released Friday from her days as a White House lawyer. The wife and son of white separatist Randy Weaver had been shot to death in Idaho at the hands of federal law enforcement agents and Specter was looking into a possible FBI coverup...

Not since Whorealdo got all excited about that vault and got humiliated on national TV has there been such an epic failure by a "News" host. I think Maddow was under the impression that since Tom Ridge had agreed to be on her show, and since he made the "political pressure" comment, that he was going to lend credence to what she and Olberman had been talking about for years. Maybe he was going to trash republicans on MSNBC to try and pimp his book. NOT!!!!LOL Ridge shot down every conspiracy nutroots talking point she threw at him. Ridge totally...

Hard work by U.S. government officials has made the country safer now than before the Sept. 11 attacks, but luck has also played a big part in preventing another terrorist attack, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday. "It's primarily due to a lot of hard work by literally hundreds of thousands of people," Mr. Ridge told The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show on the release day of his new book, "The Test of Our Times." "But at the end of the day," he added, "Maybe we're just lucky." Mr. Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania,...

His back might be sore from all that twisting.

Former DHS secretary Tom Ridge exposed himself as a weasel nearly two weeks ago when he allowed his publisher to gin up bogus book buzz with a false claim about the Bush administration pressuring him to alter homeland security alerts for political purposes.