Free Republic

What do you do when the biblical text is against your position, explicitly so? What do you do when not one single verse supports your viewpoint? It’s simple. You create new verses out of thin air. You rewrite the Bible to your liking. That’s exactly what biblical scholar Idan Dershowitz has done. In his New York Times op-ed piece, Dr. Dershowitz summarizes his 2017 academic article published in the journal Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel. (Is it any surprise that the Times decided to publish his piece?) Dr. Dershowitz claims that, “Before Leviticus was composed, outright prohibitions against homosexual sex...

According to new research released by Charles Varner, associate director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, California lost an estimated 138 high-income individuals following passage of the Proposition 30 income tax increase championed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and approved by Golden State voters in 2012. This new research by Varner updates a previous paper released six years ago that looked at domestic migration to and from California following a 2004 income tax hike. “One reason we wanted to update our previous paper is that this tax change in 2012 is the largest state tax change that we...

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed an extension of California’s production tax credit program for five years beyond its 2020 expiration with $1.6 billion in credits. The Entertainment Union Coalition, a coalition of California IATSE Council, Directors Guild of America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 399, LiUNA Local 724, and SAG-AFTRA, made the announcement Wednesday. Brown approved the legislation as part of signing the state’s overall 2018-19 budget. “As a coalition that represents working men and women of the entertainment industry, we are elated that the California film and television production tax credit program has been extended through 2025. Our...

FULL TITLE: New California Law Limits How Much Water People Can Use – Including Monitoring Toilet Flushes, Showers California Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that would severely restrict the amount of water people can use inside of their homes. The government of California will now be monitoring people’s toilet flushes, showers and laundry use. Under the new water use limits, each person will barely have enough ‘daily water allowance’ to do one load of laundry and take an 8 minute shower. This also covers outdoor use so no watering your lawns or gardens, peasants. There will soon be...

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday defended his decision last month to pardon five criminal illegal aliens facing deportation, saying he makes “no apologies.” ... Brown pardoned two Cambodian refugees - one of whom was convicted of domestic violence and the other for drug possession. He also pardoned Daniel Maher, who was convicted of kidnapping and robbery using a firearm; Sergio Mena, who was sentenced in 2003 for drug possession; and Acevedo Alaniz, who was served five months for vehicle theft. Trump criticized the move in a March 31 tweet, saying, “Governor Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown pardoned 5 criminal illegal aliens...

California Governor Jerry Brown blamed “low-life politicians” for a growing backlash against the “sanctuary state” policies he has enacted in his state during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

California has rejected the federal government’s initial plans for National Guard troops to the border because the work is considered too closely tied to immigration enforcement, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The state informed federal officials it will not allow its troops to fix and repair vehicles, operate remotely-controlled surveillance cameras to report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol, operate radios and provide “mission support,” which can include clerical work, buying gas and handling payroll, according to officials with knowledge of the talks who spoke condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. Talks...

Senator Booker, pursuant to your questioning of Secretary of State candidate Mike Pompeo, I’d like to ask you some forthright questions. I understand you might never read this article. Or, if you do read it, you might choose not to respond. At the least, though, we can put these questions on public record. When interviewing Secretary of State candidate Mike Pompeo, you asked him about his views on same-sex “marriage,” which he had previously opposed. I very much appreciate the fact that Mr. Pompeo did not back down on his conviction that marriage is reserved for members of the opposite...

Read Gov. Brown's full letter below. Dear Secretary Nielsen and Secretary Mattis: Pursuant to your request, the California National Guard will accept federal funding to add approximately 400 Guard members statewide to supplement the staffing of its ongoing program to combat transnational crime. This program is currently staffed by 250 personnel statewide, including 55 at the California border. Your funding for new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state. Combating these criminal threats...

President Trump on Saturday called out California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) over immigration policy, marking further escalation in the dispute between the Trump administration and the Golden State. Brown signed "sanctuary state" legislation last October in a rebuke of Trump’s increased immigration restrictions. Trump has repeatedly blasted the state as hosting immigrants in the country illegally who commit crimes, a charge he repeated on Saturday. “Governor Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown pardoned 5 criminal illegal aliens whose crimes include (1) Kidnapping and Robbery (2) Badly beating wife and threatening a crime with intent to terrorize (3) Dealing drugs,” he tweeted. “Is this...

As the nation commemorates the life of Linda Brown Thompson – the public face of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case – Brown is being celebrated as a heroic young girl from Topeka who “brought a case that ended segregation in public schools in America.” But the story behind the historic Supreme Court case, as I plan to show in my forthcoming book, “Blacks Against Brown: The Black Anti-Integration Movement in Topeka, Kansas, 1941-1954,” is much more complex than the highly inaccurate but often-repeated tale about the case.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to use a Virginia car dealership on Tuesday as the setting to tout its rejection of the Obama administration’s landmark vehicle fuel efficiency rules, a move that could put automakers in the middle of a battle between the Trump administration and California. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt plans to sign a declaration by Sunday that the Obama administration’s vehicle efficiency rules for 2022 through 2025 are “not appropriate” and must be revised, Reuters reported last week. Pruitt is expected to speak at an event at a Chevrolet dealership in suburban Washington and will joined...

President Trump broke from his inspection of border wall samples on Tuesday to castigate California's Democratic state government, saying that Gov. Jerry Brown is "doing a terrible job running the state." Trump's first visit to the nation's most populous state is to be brief — just one day — but long on symbolism. He spent about an hour inspecting border wall prototypes built at his direction in San Diego, and plans to speak at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and travel to a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that is expected to raise $5 million for the Republican National Committee.

California is reeling from its most destructive wildfire season ever, exacerbated Governor Jerry Brown says, by the effects of climate change. Brown says the fires show President Trump is making a mistake by ignoring the facts of global warming. Governor Brown speaks to Bill Whitaker for a report to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, Dec. 10, at 7:00 p.m., ET/PT. Brown told Whitaker that President Trump is wrong to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and misguided for calling it a bad deal for America. "That's a preposterous idea, not even a shred of truth in that...

California's Economic Forecast is Dismal Despite so-called “progressives” promising their policies will create a Soviet-style worker’s paradise, California’s leftist Democrats have turned the once Golden State into a sh*thole through decades of leftist policies penalizing and demonizing employers, businesses, property owners, innovators, entrepreneurs—and really, anyone who wants to work hard and get ahead. These hard working people are responding by fleeing liberal California for conservative red states. The perception across America is that California is the state people are leaving. And that perception is accurate.

NORFOLK The Democratic candidate for the 2nd Congressional District in 2016 was indicted Wednesday on charges she lied to the state about feeding needy children. Businesswoman Shaun Brown, who has already announced plans to seek her party’s nomination next year for the same seat, faces two counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property. The federal indictment alleges the fraud is in excess of $439,000. Brown, 58, referred questions to her attorney, who said she plans to plead not guilty and defend against the allegations. “Shaun’s goal is that every child is fed,” attorney Jimmy Ellenson...

In a Tweet from Casina Pio IV, the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican called the California governor a “true leader,” singling him out for his views on global warming November 27, 2017 by Admin Leave a Comment Argentinian Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, who runs The Pontifical Academy for Science, sits next to Governor Jerry Brown at a meeting earlier this month at the Vatican on climate change. (image: Pontifical Academy of Science) The Vatican gave a shout-out to California Gov. Jerry Brown Sunday, praising him for his war against climate change and his defense of human “dignity...

Ferguson, Missouri, has paid about a half-million dollars to the monitor team overseeing its police and court reforms, but city leaders question what they’ve gotten for their money, especially after the departure of the original lead monitor. […] Concerns over the cost of monitoring were detailed in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press. The money spent on monitoring is costly in Ferguson, paid for entirely with city funds. The community of 20,000 is much smaller, with far less money, than most cities subject to Justice Department consent agreements. Money is so tight that Ferguson voters twice in 2016 approved tax...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A tearful Corrine Brown made her plea to the court Thursday afternoon, asking the judge to consider all she has done in her life and to show “mercy and compassion.” Brown, 71, was convicted in May of 18 counts of conspiracy, fraud and filing false tax returns. She said those charges run contrary to everything she's ever done in her life, and that she considers her decades of public service an honor and a privilege. Corrine Brown Headlines Corrine Brown with her attorney, James-Smith Corrine Brown's attorney: People 'deserve second chances' After tears, tough questions, Corrine Brown...

BRUSSELS Gov. Jerry Brown, arriving in Brussels after collegial events in Germany, sparred publicly with British politicians when confronted over his climate change record at the European Parliament on Wednesday. Steven Woolfe, a British politician on the parliament, was first to pierce the pleasantries, accusing Brown of supporting state intervention “at a huge scale” and spending and increasing taxes “like it’s going out of fashion.” Brown’s climate change policy, he argued isolates the state from much of the U.S. Woolfe dismissed California’s cap-and-trade carbon market a “tax-and-spend” policy. And he teased the governor as potentially being interested in joining the...