Free Republic

An institute that studies election security criticized the Nevada Democratic Party for planning to use a digital tool for its caucuses, arguing that Nevada was likely to run into many of the same issues that Iowa did with its voting app last week. The Open Source Election Technology (OSET) Institute began its Twitter thread Sunday with a link to a story from The Nevada Independent, which detailed how the Nevada Democratic Party (NDP) will be using a digital "tool" on the day of that state's caucuses on February 22. The Independent reported that NDP staffers made a distinction between its...

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., reacted on Monday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leaving the door open for more investigations into President Trump despite his acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial last week, saying “I’m not sure that they [Democrats] actually know how to do anything else.” […] “I’d say that old habits die hard,” Nunes said on Monday. “They’ve done nothing else for their entire time that they’ve controlled Congress and don’t forget the Democrats on the intelligence committee started this right after Trump was elected so that’s going over three years.” He went on to...

en. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday backpedaled on his promise to release comprehensive medical records, saying his doctors have confirmed he’s in “good health.” “You can start releasing medical records ― it never ends,” Sanders told NBC’s “Meet The Press” when asked whether he planned to release additional medical records after having a heart attack in October. “We have released a substantive part of all of our background,” he added. “We have doctors who are cardiologists who are confirming that I am in good health. I am in good health.”

BBC Studios is making a TV show with 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. The project was announced at the BBC Showcase trade show on Monday. No network, release date or number of episodes have yet been set. Here is the description for the series, which comes from the studio’s science unit. “The series will follow Greta’s international crusade, which takes her to the front line of climate change in some of the most extraordinary places on earth, as she explores what actions could be taken to limit climate change and the damage it causes." "As she travels Greta meets not...

Sinn Féin has declared victory in Ireland’s general election and called for talks with other main parties to form a coalition government. Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, urged Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to start negotiations with the republican party as the scale of its breakthrough confirmed a realignment of Irish politics. Irish general election: who won and what happens now? Read more “Sinn Féin has won the election. We have won the popular vote,” McDonald said, as counting of votes to fill seats in Dáil Éireann, parliament’s lower house, continued in constituencies across the country. With full results expected...

The Defense Department, under White House pressure, is expected to announce this week that billions more in Pentagon funds will go toward the border wall, according to an administration official. A senior Defense official also told CNN that a major announcement about the border will made this week... Last year, President Trump declared a national emergency, allowing him to unlock billions of dollars in federal funds to mount additional barriers along the US-Mexico border. While efforts to pull from several government accounts has been met with legal challenges, the administration has pressed forward. In January, the Pentagon received a request...

Today’s doozy CG is from The Arkansas Gazette. HCLR MPP VMRBPLD FL EGY, MPP VMYD FL NQLJ. —ZECR CLJHEEB 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...

There is at least one issue a divided electorate can come together on this election year: A recent poll finds 90% of those surveyed agreed on the importance of making health care more affordable. Millions of Americans remain uninsured. As Meg Oliver reports in partnership with ProPublica, some people are even going to jail because they're squeezed by a system that's putting new demands on overburdened incomes. Tres and Heather Biggs' son Lane was diagnosed with leukemia when he was five years old. At the same time, Heather suffered seizures from Lyme disease. "We had so many — multiple health...

Voatz, the company behind a mobile app that’s been used by several jurisdictions to collect ballots from overseas voters in recent elections, defended on Friday recent warnings from officials and election security experts about adopting the new technology. Responding to a letter in which Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked officials in his home state to reconsider using Voatz this year, the company said such a notice “increases the fear of technology” being used in the democratic process. In his letter, which was first reported Thursday by the Washington Post, Wyden wrote to Oregon Secretary of State Bev Clarno of his...

Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell has decided to stay with the program, according to sources familiar with the situation. Fickell interviewed with Michigan State officials at his home on Sunday morning and has widely been considered the favorite to replace his mentor, Mark Dantonio, as the Spartans’ head coach. Fickell was never formally offered the job. But when State officials left the meeting near noontime on Sunday, there was an understanding that if Fickell wanted the job, it was his. MSU officials flew back to East Lansing on Sunday facing a search that’s appearing to be destined to be defined by...

As of 7 Feb: 119 miles completed, 220 miles under construction, 237 miles in pre-construction.

Former President Barack Obama played a direct role in the hardships of the workers featured in American Factory, the Oscar-winning documentary his new production company produced. But as Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the former mayor of nearby Dayton, Ohio, wrote last year, the movie leaves out President Obama’s own role in making life worse for the GM workers who lost their jobs. Obama’s auto bailout, he recalled, helped force the plant’s closure and made it harder for the workers to find new jobs because his administration was dealing political favors to its favored union allies — and they were in...

More offices and stores in Beijing and other parts of China finally reopened Monday after the Lunar New Year break was extended to discourage travel and contain the new coronavirus, but many workers and shoppers appeared to stay home. Public health authorities are watching closely to see whether the return to business worsens the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 40,000 people globally and killed over 900, with the vast majority of cases in China. Even before the slow and cautious reopening, China on Monday reported a rise in new cases, dimming optimism that the near-quarantine of...

Another unhinged leftist! Share Tweet Flip Suspect Roger Hedgpeth, 25, was apprehended outside of the White House on Sunday while allegedly holding a knife and muttering about how he wanted to assassinate President Donald Trump. A Secret Service officer reported that Hedgpheth told him: “I am here to assassinate President Donald Trump… I have a knife to do it with.” Hedgpheth is from Florida and the police report describes him as a “critically missing/endangered person” and “mental health consumer.” He was armed with a 3.5-inch blade that was attached to his left hip while there was an empty pistol holster...

Question: Mark 16: 17-18 of the NIV translation reads: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” My question about this passage is since we don’t see many christian believers performing in these manners, what did Jesus mean by this if we should be taking this literally? Answer: Actually, this is a somewhat...

AND NOW... amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke... it is time for... that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-The-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies.

Everyone knows that we live in a time of constant acceleration, of vertiginous change, of transformation or looming disaster everywhere you look. Partisans are girding for civil war, robots are coming for our jobs, and the news feels like a multicar pileup every time you fire up Twitter. Our pessimists see crises everywhere; our optimists insist that we’re just anxious because the world is changing faster than our primitive ape-brains can process.

There have been many spectacular jobs reports over the past three years, but the January 2020 jobs report is really quite exceptional. It’s one of the most encouraging jobs reports I’ve seen in some time. The topline figures are plenty impressive on their own. The country added 225,000 new jobs in the first month of 2020, blowing away economists’ projections, which called for a mere 164,000 new jobs. Wage growth also remained strong, at 3.1 percent, which is particularly impactful in light of the low, stable inflation that we’re currently enjoying. Pay raises aren’t just offsetting increases in the cost...

It’s been said by those who know Fred Smith well that when the visionary FedEx founder is asked about the U.S. Post Office, he’s known to say that in a competitive market he could put the government-created monopoly out of business in a matter of months. Smith’s confidence shouldn’t surprise readers, conservative readers least of all. That’s the case because at least in their rhetoric, conservatives preach the gospel of market discipline. The Post Office would be extraordinarily vulnerable to competition precisely because it’s never faced the kind of competition and investor pressure that conservatives at least rhetorically deem so...

A Democratic strategist listed off a series of accomplishments President Trump has achieved that will help him with African American voters. "I'm gonna send this flag up so the Democratic Party — people need to understand this," Jamal Simmons, a political analyst for CBS News, said Sunday on Face The Nation. "We talked to Terrance Woodbury, who's a young African American pollster. He has been saying for months that President Trump has been going very hard at African American men." Simmons, who worked on campaigns for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, cited Trump's public friendship with celebrity power couple...