Free Republic

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking Glass,” 1872Although appearing in a satirical novel nearly a century and a half ago, this statement by Humpty Dumpty in many respects describes the post-factual world in which we now live.  “Reality shows” are anything but; substantive courses of study like history and civics increasingly are overshadowed by such drivel as “transgender studies”; and “fake news” has become the common currency of those who make news just as for...

Republicans pretend that they are powerless to do more about the great ship Obamacare than to change the fuel on which it runs and rearrange its deck chairs — never mind to sink it. Because they lack 60 votes to stop “unlimited debate,” they claim to be unable to vote even on whether to allow health insurance to be sold across state lines. They pretend to believe that fidelity to unlimited debate in the Senate trumps the importance of our health care system. But the reason why they prop up Obamacare rather than tearing it down is that they are...

Judicial Watch Sues Veterans Affairs for Violating Protester’s Constitutional Rights Sanders’ Wife Tried Evicting a Disabled Group after Shady College Deal Judicial Watch Sues Veterans Affairs for Violating Protester’s Constitutional Rights The VA is a mess of a government agency and too often abuses the rights and interests of veterans it is supposed to protect. This is highlighted in new our lawsuit against several Veterans Affairs police officers and officials for violations of the constitutional rights of Robert L. Rosebrock, a 75-year-old Vietnam era veteran, who for nearly a decade has protested misuse of a 388-acre parcel of prime...

Full title: Media Ignores Virginia Gov. McAuliffe’s Role in Green Car Scandal that Fleeced Taxpayers out of Millions An electric car company that folded after taking millions of taxpayer dollars was founded by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, but the mainstream media is ignoring this pertinent fact. The Mississippi-based company, GreenTech, shut down in January but is back in the spotlight because this week the state’s auditor demanded the firm repay $6.4 million in public funds. Only a small Richmond, Virginia newspaper prominently reported McAuliffe’s ties...

When former Attorney General Loretta Lynch testified last year about her decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information, she swore she never talked to “anyone” on the Clinton campaign. That categorical denial, though made in response to a series of questions about whether she spoke with Clintonworld about remaining attorney general if Hillary won the election, could come back to haunt her. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has launched a bipartisan investigation into Lynch for possible obstruction of justice, recently learned of the existence of a document indicating Lynch assured the political director of Clinton’s campaign she...

Mayor Bill de Blasio is jetting off to Germany on Thursday to protest President Trump and other world leaders attending the G20 Summit meeting. The day after a cop was assassinated in The Bronx, de Blasio skipped an afternoon swearing-in ceremony for 524 new NYPD recruits ahead of his flight overseas. snip The cost is being paid for by organizers of “Hamburg Shows Attitude,” said mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips, who’s among the aides joining de Blasio on the trip.

A federal judge in New Jersey on Thursday rejected a Florida doctor's motion to postpone his and Sen. Bob Menendez 's (D-N.J.) September corruption trial, New Jersey Advance Media reported. Attorneys for Dr. Salomon Melgen, an eye doctor who was convicted in a federal court in Florida last month of 67 counts of Medicaid fraud, asked U.S. District Judge William Walls last week to delay his and Menendez's trial until October. Melgen is scheduled to be sentenced in August for the Medicare fraud charge. The sentencing, his attorneys argued, would be "heavily litigated" and could unfairly burden his legal...

“Sanctuary cities” across the country are pledging to make one million immigrants into U.S. citizens this year, partly as a response to the policies of President Donald Trump. According to the Washington Examiner, the initiative is being pushed by a group called “Naturalize NOW!”—which is tying its campaign to patriotic American holidays like the Fourth of July. Announced on Flag Day, the Examiner reports: [t]he ‘Naturalize NOW!’ campaign, which includes liberal and progressive groups and elected officials, heralded the mayors of the cities in joining the national effort. Among the cities cited in an Independence Day notice from Mi Familia:...

Total capitulation by Governor Bruce Rauner is in the works. The taxoholics wore him down. In the emergency session, Rauner has agreed to hike the personal income tax rate to 4.95% from the current 3.75%. The corporate income tax rate will rise to 7% from the current 5.25% rate. For what? Nothing. Reforms are nonexistent. Another Deadline Come and Gone {..snip..}

The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have failed to adequately track the more than $30 billion they spend annually on foreign aid, according to a government watchdog report released Friday. The report released by the State Department's Office of the Inspector General noted that the department has failed to build infrastructure for tracking billions of dollars in foreign aid despite being ordered to do so in 2015. "Because the Department had made such limited progress in building the capacity to centrally track foreign assistance data, [the Office of Inspector General] strengthened and reissued the recommendation...

Judicial Watch Sues VA Again for Docs About Misuse of a Veterans’ Facility Judicial Watch Sues for Info on Obama’s War on Coal EPA Breaks Law on Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda? Judicial Watch to Trump Administration: End Congress’s Obamacare Exemption! Judicial Watch Sues VA Again for Docs About Misuse of a Veterans’ Facility As you may know, Judicial Watch has taken the lead in trying to highlight the government’s misconduct and misuse of a 388-acre parcel of land in Los Angeles, originally intended to serve the needs of veterans. In fact, we just filed a second Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)...

The Associated Press is at it again, pushing more fake news. Sadly, the once-great news wire service is trying to cover up its mistake—nearly the exact mistake that cost three editorial staffers at CNN their jobs in a scandal that first exploded a week ago today. A Breitbart News investigation has led to the correction by the Associated Press–which originally resisted–of the fake news it printed as deeper questions of responsibility, accountability, and journalistic ethics consume the AP heading into Fourth of July weekend. This time, the Associated Press invented an imaginary meeting between EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Dow...

<p>The Office of U.S. Special Counsel, the government’s main whistleblower agency, is investigating whether FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s activities supporting his wife Jill’s Democratic campaign for Virginia state senate in 2015 violated the Hatch Act’s prohibition against FBI agents campaigning in partisan races. The agency’s probe was prompted by a complaint in April from a former FBI agent who forwarded social media photos showing McCabe wearing a T-shirt supporting his wife’s campaign during a public event and then posting a photo on social media urging voters to join him in voting for his wife. “I am voting for Jill because she is the best wife ever,” McCabe put on a sign that he photographed himself holding. The photo was posted on her social media page a few days before the election, in response to Dr. Jill McCabe's plea to “help me win” by posting photos expressing reasons why voters should vote for her, according to the complaint.</p>

LONDON — The rest of the planet bears a warning for President Trump’s plan to lean heavily on private business in conjuring a trillion dollars’ worth of American infrastructure: Handing profit-making companies responsibility for public works can produce trouble. In India, politically connected firms have captured contracts on the strength of relationships with officialdom, yielding defective engineering at bloated prices. When Britain handed control to private companies to upgrade London’s subway system more than a decade ago, the result was substandard, budget-busting work, prompting the government to step back in. Canada has suffered a string of excessive costs on public...

Though belated, the recent ordinance empowering the Reserve Bank of India to ensure recoveries from wilful defaulters is a step in the right direction. However, a lack of legal authority was never a barrier in the government’s ongoing war against corruption, black money and bad debts. Be that as it may, it is imperative for the government to demonstrate tangible results that would carry conviction with the masses. If only it were to examine the anatomy and modus operandi of national highway projects, it would discover a large-scale plunder of public money waiting to be booked. The usual contractor-engineer-politician troika...

Trump did not obstruct a valid FBI investigation; he demanded the exposure of a false one. The “collusion” narrative was a fraud, plain and simple. We know that now. Hopefully, it won’t take another six months to grasp a second plain and simple truth: Collusion’s successor, the “obstruction” narrative, is a perversion. The Left loves narrative. The ever-expanding story manipulates time, space, and detail to fit a thematic framework. Political narrative has some surface appeal, but it is deeply flawed. It obscures plain and simple truth. So let’s stick with the plain and simple: The essence of obstruction is to...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his wife, Jane Sanders have hired prominent defense attorneys, amid an FBI investigation into a loan Jane Sanders obtained to expand Burlington College while she was its president, CBS News confirms. Politico Magazine first reported the Sanders had hired lawyers to defend them in the probe. Sanders top adviser Jeff Weaver told CBS News the couple has sought legal protection over federal agents' allegations from a January 2016 complaint accusing then-President of Burlington College, Ms. Sanders, of distorting donor levels in a 2010 loan application for $10 million from People's United Bank to purchase 33...

The Senate Judiciary Committee has opened a probe into former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s efforts to shape the FBI’s investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the committee’s chairman announced Friday.

H. R. 1628 To provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2017 . Referred to the Committee on _________ and ordered to be printed Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed AMENDMENTb IN THE NATURE OF SUBSTITUTE intended to be proposed by ________ Viz: Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the fol- 1 lowing: 2

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced that the National Security Council (NSC) on May 23, 2017, informed it by letter that the materials regarding the unmasking by Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice of “the identities of any U.S. citizens associated with the Trump presidential campaign or transition team” have been removed to the Obama Library. The NSC will not fulfill an April 4 Judicial Watch request for records regarding information relating to people “who were identified pursuant to intelligence collection activities.” The agency also informed Judicial Watch that it would not turn over communications with any Intelligence Community...