Free Republic

What can one person do?I wish Jack Gargan were here to answer that question — I can almost hear his characteristic chuckle, see the glint in his Irish eyes, in preparation for his answer. But sadly, Jack passed away last week in Thailand, where he had retired. He was 88 years of age.The loss of this man, coming on the cusp of last week’s election, transported me back 28 years ago — to the 1990 election, when the anti-incumbency, pro-term limits movement was only in its infancy.I had worked all that year in Illinois on my first-ever ballot initiative campaign,...

Many people I know enjoy watching movies multiple times: from Gone With The Wind and Jurassic Park to Field of Dreams or La La Land, if it comes on TV they’ll watch it. A harmless vice…time-wasting but no lasting damage, However, across America—and around the globe—we are all facing the prospect of a rerun we don’t want to experience: yet another stupid, protracted, over-lawyered “election recount” drama in the state of Florida. Unlike watching Batman Forever a few too many times, this rerun will “Make America UNgreat Again” by turning Florida and the USA into an international joke. Three statewide...

I always tell the raw truth. I don't back down. I just say what's on my mind and let the chips fall where they may. Here's the raw truth about Tuesday's election, the winners and the losers. Winner No. 1: President Donald TrumpTrump pulled off a miracle. He became only the fifth incumbent president to add Senate seats in the past 105 years. He picked up new seats in Florida, Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota. Blue wave? There was no blue wave. Senate victories look more like a red wave ... but not for the GOP. Specifically for Trump....

Broward County, Florida is the absolute worst part of America. Their sheriff hid from a mass shooter instead of taking him out. They literally tried to steal a Presidential election in 2000. And the woman now in charge may have a slow drawl but she is a repeat offender in manipulating elections. She chalks it up to the “aw shucks” “we not very fast with our voting” shtick that no one is seeing through.She complained that they had “a large number of write ins, that they had a large number of early votes, and a large number of day-of votes.”The...

If you don’t like the Left, you can probably come up with many reasons you believe they don’t measure up in their intellectual capabilities, some of those may be questionable. Over the years, the reason I have found most egregious and irrefutable rests with my involvement with this publication. Recently, I was working on background for a panel discussion on California propositions prior to the election. I found the director of the Public Policy Institute of California's Water Policy Center. PPIC is clearly a left-of-center think tank. I was researching information for a proposition to commit another $8.89 BILLION in...

We were told that civility would return once Democrats regained the House of Representatives. In fact, we were told that was the only way civility would return to a world of angry liberal mobs assaulting and shouting down anyone who dare not agree with them. We were lied to.Being lied to by liberals is not a surprise. What is a little surprising is how quickly, boldly, and proudly they broke their word as if no one would remember the promise.After winning the House, as expected, Democrats immediately turned the thermostat up to 11 by promising to investigate everything Donald Trump...

Live stream of Trump in France at Suresnes Cemetary.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Poland is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its rebirth as an independent state on Sunday with a multitude of events across the country, including marches, Masses, and the national hymn being sung in more than 600 public places. The national white-and-red flag fluttered from buildings and buses, dignitaries and regular citizens placed flowers and wreaths at memorials to the father of Polish independence, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, and the historic Sigismund Bell, reserved only for the most important national events, rang out over Krakow. Poland regained its independence at the end of World War I in...

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is treason,” Macron said, according to a Euronews translator. Macron defended organizations like the European Union and the United Nations, hailing their ideals despite their “setbacks” over the years. He called for a new era of science-built progress.

Five months after killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz registered to vote from Broward County Jail. Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack, one of the 14 students Cruz confessed to murdering on his Feb. 14 rampage, Tweeted his fury Saturday morning, referring to Cruz by his Broward County court case number. I'm sick to my stomach. 18-1958 murdered 17 students & staff, including my daughter Meadow. Yet in July, Broward Sheriff @ScottJIsrael let people into the jail to get him & other animals registered to vote.The Despicable Democrats have no...

Staunch anti-Trump Republican strategist Rick Wilson claimed Friday night that President Donald Trump nearly called April Ryan the “N-word” during his contentious exchange with the reporter earlier this week. The panel on Friday’s “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon” consisted of Wilson, Nina Turner, and Alice Stewart. They were discussing the president’s heated remarks towards journalists of color this week.

US President Donald Trump was forced to cancel his attendance on Saturday at a commemoration in France for US soldiers and marines killed in World War I because rain made it impossible to arrange transport. “[The attendance of the president and first lady] has been canceled due to scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather,” the White House said according to Reuters, adding that Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a former general, went instead. While the president was scheduled to attend the ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, rain and low clouds prevented his helicopter...

Globally, wildfire size, severity, and frequency have been increasing, as have related fatalities and taxpayer-funded firefighting costs (1). In most accessible forests, wildfire response prioritizes suppression because fires are easier and cheaper to contain when small (2). In the United States, for example, 98% of wildfires are suppressed before reaching 120 ha in size (3). But the 2% of wildfires that escape containment often burn under extreme weather conditions in fuel-loaded forests and account for 97% of fire-fighting costs and total area burned (3). Changing climate and decades of fuel accumulation make efforts to suppress every fire dangerous, expensive, and...

The size and swiftness of this weekend's deadly Valley Fire in California was startling. But could it (and the other fires currently raging out west) have been smaller if fires in previous years had been allowed to burn? The authors of a new paper published today in Science certainly think so. In looking at forest fires in the United States, the researchers found that the vast majority of wildfires were kept extremely small, with 98 percent limited to less than 300 acres. Keeping fires small has been a goal for decades, as firefighters tried to preserve the forest the best...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham took aim at the vote count confusion taking place in Florida, tweeting on Friday that — just like during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process — Democrats don’t allow the law to stand in the way of the desired outcome. Graham began his thread by quoting a tweet from current Gov. (and, for now, Senator-elect) Rick Scott about the ongoing drama along with his own assessment. He said, “When it comes to confirming judges and counting votes, Democrats are amazingly consistent — The law is NO obstacle to the outcome they seek.”

Scientists at the cutting edge of ecological research, Dr. Hanson among them, argue that the century-old American practice of suppressing wildfires has been nothing less than a calamity. They are calling for a new approach that basically involves letting backcountry fires burn across millions of acres. In principle, the federal government accepted a version of this argument years ago, but in practice, fires are still routinely stamped out across much of the country. To the biologists, that has imperiled the plants and animals — hundreds of them, it turns out — that prefer to live in recently burned forests. “From...

The Queen and senior royals attended a remembrance concert at the Royal Albert Hall on the eve of Armistice Day. It came ahead of Remembrance Sunday on 11 November, which this year marks 100 years since the end of World War One. The dukes and duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex, and Prime Minister Theresa May were among the audience. The royals stood as thousands of people in the audience held up photos of World War One soldiers - including Mrs May and husband Philip who held pictures of two of her ancestors. Poppies fell from the ceiling of the iconic...

        DON'T BLAME CHANGING TIMES Most of us have learned to cope with, if not exactly embrace, the technological revolution that has completely restructured our world over the past two decades. Words like "Internet", "e-mail" and even "distance learning" may not be in your dictionary yet, but they soon will be. And that dictionary probably won't be paper like the ones most of us learned to use; instead, it will be part of the "spellchecker" on a computer hard drive, or perhaps on a single "CD-ROM" that contains thousands of pages of information. Despite my RELATIVE...

We’ve covered plenty of stories coming from the ongoing corruption trials of donors to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio, but the most recent one is turning into a highlight reel for Page Six. We previously noted how de Blasio had been subpoenaed to testify in the trial involving campaign finance violations and bribery with City Hall donor Jeremy Reichberg and NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant. Many of the details of those charges were routine, boring allegations of political malfeasance. Promises were made, donations were solicited and “favors” were done.But not all of the...

We want journalists to ask questions and seek truth. But Jim Acosta’s encounter Wednesday at a White House press conference was less about asking questions and more about making statements. In doing so, the CNN White House reporter gave President Donald Trump room to critique Acosta’s professionalism. In this time of difficult relations between the press and the White House, reporters who operate above reproach, while still challenging the power of the office, will build credibility. This is in no way a defense of Trump’s suspension of Acosta’s White House press credentials. Rather, it’s a caution to not hand your...