Free Republic

While talking about the Supreme Court during the third presidential debate Wednesday night, Donald Trump mentioned comments made about him by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, using it as an example of why the next president’s ability to appoint justices will be so important. Trump was referencing comments made by Ginsburg in July during an interview with CNN. You can watch the CNN report above. “He is a faker,” the 83-year-old justice told CNN. “He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. … How has he gotten away...

Let's get a little tactile input on the vagrancy problem.

Morning "I remember thee." Jeremiah 2:2 Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church, and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love; we desire always to have our precious things in our sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity "His delights were with the sons of men;" his thoughts rolled onward to the time when his...

"Blowout" was how one UK newspaper described the decisive victory of Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party in last week's election. How decisive was it? Not only did conservatives win an 80-seat majority in Parliament, a constituency in Blythe Valley in Northeast England elected a conservative member for the first time since its creation 40 years ago. Pundits leading up to the election were wrong, as usual. They predicted a very tight race. What is it about pundits that they are so often wrong, including in the U.S., but they get to keep prognosticating anyway? The election was viewed as...

Today’s Cryptogram QTABQ QMKCEMQN BN ECANQN BUJ XLNMAN BN VMLDJTAU. —VMLUANA NBSLUE You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you might give the group on how you solve these puzzles as...

NASA's incredible X-plane that is shaped to muffle the sound of its sonic boom has been cleared for assembly by a management review ahead of test flights in 2021. Dubbed the 'son of Concorde' after the Mach 2 airliner, the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) is NASA's first large experimental plane in three decades. The X-59 will cruise at Mach 1.42 (1,090 mph/1,754 km/h) and is designed for supersonic flight while preventing its sonic boom from being heard on the ground. If successful, the craft could one day travel from London to New York in just over three hours, while...

The greatest significance in last week’s decisive and seminal British election is the victory it contains for the solidarity of the English-speaking peoples and the strength, coherence, and legitimacy of what Europeans frequently refer to as the Anglo-Saxons. Of course, broadly, the English-speaking advanced democracies have much in common with Western Europe, and to a slightly reduced degree with Eastern Europe and westernized nations in other regions, most conspicuously Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, South Africa, the Emirates, and parts of Latin America. But the substantial detachment of the United Kingdom from an integrated Europe so it may retain the...

The last time Democrats gave America a present around Christmastime, it was a giant lump of coal that’s come to be known as Obamacare. Within months, millions lost their insurance plans and found themselves paying far more for less. Many people lost access to their doctors. Healthcare premiums lurched upward, and they’re still lurching. Merry Christmas. This time around, Nancy Pelosi’s elves have cooked up a pot o’ impeachment soup that they want to pour down our throats quickly so voters forget it by November 2020. The impending House vote is sending a thrill up the legs of Washington journalists,...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 59 Psalm 59[a] For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam.[b] When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him. 1 Deliver me from my enemies, O God;     be my fortress against those who are attacking me. 2 Deliver me from evildoers     and save me from those who are after my blood. 3 See how they lie in wait for me!     Fierce men conspire against me     for no offense or sin of mine, Lord. 4 I have done no...

Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead the race for the Democratic nomination, the December IBD/TIPP Poll shows. Biden garnered 26% support, down slightly from 29% in November but the same reading as in October. And in head-to-head polls, only Biden among major Democratic candidates still leads President Trump, who moved ahead of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as the Dow Jones industrial average moved to record highs.

Many in the media fawn over the actresses and celebrities who regularly promote abortion. But one Miss Universe contestant is breaking that trend – with her personal pro-life testimony. On December 8, Gazini Ganados of the Philippines lost the title of Miss Universe 2019 to Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa. But she was still a winner: the 23-year-old made headlines for winning the National Costume competition. Ganados should be in the headlines for something else, too: sharing her own story as a witness to life. In preparation for Miss Universe, Ganados appeared on The Bottomline on November 30. The host,...

A 19-year-old student went on a shooting spree at Construction and Housing Services School in Blagoveshchensk, the Amur region of Russia. One person - aged 19 - was killed, the attacker shot himself. Three people were wounded, all the injured have multiple gunshot wounds. The three injured are 17, 19 and 20 years old. Two young people were rushed to the regional clinical hospital for children. One of them is in serious condition, the second person remains in condition of moderate severity. The attacker was identified as a fourth-year student of the school, Daniil Zasorin. He was told to leave...

As the U.S. presidential race began roaring to life in 2016, authorities in the former Soviet republic of Latvia flagged a series of " suspicious" financial transactions to Hunter Biden and other colleagues at a Ukrainian natural gas company and sought Kiev's help investigating, according to documents and interviews. The Feb. 18, 2016 alert to Ukraine came from the Latvian prosecutorial agency responsible for investigating money laundering, and it specifically questioned whether Vice President Joe Biden's younger son and three other officials at Burisma Holdings were the potential beneficiaries of suspect funds. "The Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds...

Schumer is not trying to convince all 53 Senate Republicans to support his proposal. He just needs four. There are 47 Democrats in the Senate. If Schumer can persuade four GOP senators to join Democrats, they'll have a majority of 51 and can force the calling of new witnesses. Of course, Schumer is counting on Democrats voting as a bloc against the president, which is probably a good bet. If Schumer gets what he wants, it seems hard to believe that will be the end of it. The request for more witnesses appears designed to lead not to closure but...

In a recent New York Times opinion essay, drawn from their new book, Professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, advisors to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign, advanced a startling claim. In 2018, the 400 richest Americans paid a lower effective tax rate (23.0%) than the bottom 50% of Americans (24.2%). That claim furnishes a juicy soundbite for all the left-of-center Democratic presidential candidates – “American voters, you pay more tax than a billionaire!” The soundbite will resonate once President Trump’s tax returns are leaked and it turns out he paid less than the average billionaire. But is the soundbite accurate?...

Where did the Trump impeachment go? When House Democrats began selling tickets to their President Donald Trump Impeachment Theater -- shouting their outrage, preening on those late-night talk shows -- it was much meatier business. It would be full of collusion with Russia, blackmail of Ukraine. It would contain extortion and go heavy on bribery. The way the Democrats sold it, Americans were to expect some giant roast, bone in, with a rich, thick gravy, to feed a nation longing for justice from Orange Man Bad. At least that's what Democrats promised. But that's not what they delivered for consideration...

President Trump is leading his potential 2020 Democratic rivals in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups, according to new polling that shows a degree of “candidate loyalty” among the Democratic contenders that could cap their potential voter pools in a general election. Mr. Trump held a 3-point, 44% to 41% lead over former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and led Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont by about 5 points, 44% to 39%, according to the USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Monday. Mr. Trump led Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts by about 8 points, 45% to 37% and he led Mayor Pete Buttigieg of...

Fresh from his triumphal "Get Brexit Done!" campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson anticipates a swift secession from the European Union. But if Britain secedes from the EU, warns Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland will secede from the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, which voted in 2016 to remain in the EU, could follow Scotland out of Britain, leaving her with "Little England" and Wales. Not going to happen, says Boris. His government will not allow a second referendum on Scottish independence. Yet the Scottish National Party won 48 of Scotland's 59 seats in Parliament, and Sturgeon calls this a mandate...

The definitive answer to the question “Will Obama endorse Joe Biden for President?” comes from Obama himself, and I guess the answer is no: “If you look at the world and look at the problems it’s usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way.” Barry expanded on the problem cause by “old men.” “I’m absolutely confident that for two years if every nation on earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything … living standards and outcomes.” I guess nobody has advised him that “old man”...

So there we have it. It turns out that the British working-class was not, in the end, willing to throw its weight behind a London-centric, youth-obsessed, middle-class party that preached the gospels of liberal cosmopolitanism and class war. Who’d have thought it? Well, me for a start. And plenty of others who had been loyal to the party over many years and desperately wanted to see a Labour government, only to be dismissed as ‘reactionaries’ who held a ‘nostalgic’ view of the working-class. It barely needs saying that these election results are an utter catastrophe for Labour. Labour’s meltdown in...