Free Republic

On the menu today: The cover piece in the newest issue of National Review has Ron DeSantis fans grumbling that it’s far too early for such a gloomy assessment of his campaign because not a single vote has been cast yet. Fine, but to believe that DeSantis has a shot of winning Iowa, we need to believe that his support is at least 15 percentage points higher than his highest numbers in recent polling and that Donald Trump’s support is at least 15 percentage points lower than his lowest numbers in recent polling. (If you simply take DeSantis’s best number...

On the menu today: No, the news isn’t in reruns; Donald Trump has been indicted again, this time over the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Interestingly, federal prosecutors are pursuing the case in south Florida, which is likely to be much friendlier territory for the former president than Manhattan or Washington, D.C. Are federal prosecutors way too overconfident about their ability to persuade a south Florida jury? Or do they have so much evidence and such a slam-dunk case that they’re confident they can win a conviction, even in the jurisdiction most likely to be sympathetic to Trump? [cut] The most...

A great irony that I believe went unobserved and unmentioned, in the recent controversy surrounding Disney, and its fight with Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Republicans in general . . . In the 2020 cycle, America First Action committee was a super PAC dedicated to supporting federal candidates who back the policy agenda of President Donald Trump. When you add up all of the PAC’s donations received in the cycle, and sort the donations by donor employer, the single biggest employer is . . . the Walt Disney Company, at $10.5 million.

On the menu today: I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears someone is attacking the electrical power grid of the Seattle area, which comes after a series of similar incidents elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest as well as in Florida. And the FBI never caught the guy who attacked the electrical grid down in North Carolina earlier this month. Shooting up a power substation is apparently the latest fad. Electric BoogalooPicture it: It’s Christmas, you’re about to prepare a big meal for the whole family, and the power...

The increasing ridiculousness of the stance of the supervisors in Cochise County, Ariz., appears to be another hard lesson of, “Don’t elect lunatics to positions of serious public responsibility”: Cochise County officials may go to court Thursday without an attorney to represent them against charges that they broke the law by failing to certify the results of the Nov. 8 election. County supervisors on Tuesday voted to hire attorney Bryan Blehm to defend them and the county government against two lawsuits, even though they had not discussed the matter with him. On Wednesday, they were caught flat-footed when Blehm declined...

On the menu today: Well, that was awful. The much-touted red wave felt more like a red splash in a kiddie pool. Don’t Let Anyone Tell You It Was an Okay Night for RepublicansNo excuses, Republicans. Everyone thought you had just about the ideal issue environment for a midterm election, and the exit polls verified it. Seven in ten Americans said they were “dissatisfied” or “angry” about the state of the country. Around three-quarters of voters nationally characterized the state of the economy as “poor” or “not good,” and the same amount said that inflation has caused them severe or...

If significant numbers of Republican voters choose to not participate in the January 5 runoff elections for both Senate seats, and that leads to victories by Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, that will do nothing for Donald Trump, Trump’s legacy as president, the Republican Party, and the cause of conservatism. It will, however, do a lot for Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, who would instantly become major power brokers in the Republican Party. They could take their “your vote was stolen by rigged machines” conspiracy-theory schtick to any state in the union and hold don’t-get-out-the-vote rallies for any race, telling...

One party stands for life, freedom, and unalienable rights. The other stands for raw power. NRO’s Jim Geraghty in his daily column indulged one of the NeverTrump favorite rhetorical devices: That the president is just as bad for the Republic as the radical Democrats, and neither side “wants to solve real problems.” Apart from the common mistaken notion that the Founders created our political order “to solve problems” rather than protect the liberty of states, towns, civic society, families, and individuals, this tic often obscures an unwillingness to identify clearly those guilty of creating conflict and disorder by equally apportioning...

Former governor of Ohio John Kasich will speak at the Democratic National Convention tonight. With the ongoing — and frequently overwrought — worries that the U.S. Postal Service will collapse upon the waves of ballots in the mail, it is a near-certainty that Kasich will remind us, for what seems like the millionth time, that his father was a mailman. Way back in 2014, our John J. Miller wrote, “If Kasich had a dollar for every time he mentioned his father’s job, he might be able to retire with the equivalent of a generous postal-service pension.” Almost every candidate mentions...

On the menu today: California drops a bombshell, confirming that the first American death from coronavirus occurred February 6, not February 28; a long look at the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019, weeks before the known start date of the virus outbreak; and a good proposal for accountability in U.S. policies regarding China.Maybe the Coronavirus Was Floating Around America Earlier Than We ThoughtThis discovery out in California is pretty significant. This doesn’t verify all of the “I had a bad flu in November or December — I’ll bet I had coronavirus” self-assessments, but it does remind us...

Several weeks ago, we detailed how American mainstream media outlets were intent on parroting communist propaganda talking points coming from disinformation ministers in Beijing. At first glance, it would be easy to write this disturbing surrender of journalistic integrity to advanced stages of Trump Derangement System. It would be reasonable to suspect that reporters, producers, anchors and editors held such an intense zeal to oppose, resist and damage President Trump that they'd even stoop so low as to hand their bylines over to propagandists supporting the totalitarian murderers at the top of the Red China food chain. However, something even...

The upcoming twelve-candidate Democratic presidential primary debate is probably going to be another mess, but one highlight will be the return of Tulsi Gabbard to the stage — good news not just for Michael Brendan Dougherty, but for everyone who wants to see an actual debate. In a series of prime-time meetings that have included a lot of repetitive platitudes and all-too-convenient anecdotes about an American everyman that candidates met on the trail, one of the few genuine bits of drama comes from the question of who Gabbard will go after and why. The Hawaii congresswoman’s debate performances haven’t done...

Hailed and renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz took pictures of Chelsea Manning for Vogue in September 2017. Manning is back in jail after refusing to testify before a grand jury about Julian Assange. Leibovitz photographed Kirsten Gillibrand for Vogue in November 2017. Her presidential campaign has stumbled out of the gate and Gillibrand is at the tail end of a large pack of candidates; earlier this month the New York Times wrote that her campaign is “struggling.” Leibovitz photographed lawyer Michael Avenatti for Vogue, October 2018. Avenatti now faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, embezzlement, 36 additional financial-crime charges, including...

Does it seem you hear a little bit less about political controversies in the sports world than you did a year or two ago? Do you find yourself grumbling at your television, “I just want to enjoy watching the game” less frequently? Today’s Los Angeles Times profiles ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro, who took over running the network in March 2018. Deep in the article: Pitaro has also satisfied ESPN’s more traditional fans by steering commentators away from political discussions on-air and on social media, which heightened during President Trump’s criticism of NFL player protests against social injustice during the playing...

Every presidential primary ends with one winner and a lot of losers. Some might argue that one or two once-little-known candidates who overperform low expectations get to enjoy a form of moral victory. (Ben Carson and Rick Perry might be happy how the 2016 cycle ended, with both taking roles in Trump’s cabinet. Bernie Sanders might be, too.) But running for president and flopping is a deep disappointment, and while the occasional figure can emerge from a failed bid to move on to different victories — Lamar Alexander and Elizabeth Dole became senators, Jerry Brown became governor again, Howard Dean...

Virginia’s ongoing scandals of racist yearbook photos and resignation demands are starting to have repercussions on the state’s taxes and spending. The 2017 federal tax cut signed into law by President Trump capped the amount of state and local taxes that could be deducted, which could add up to a higher tax bill to some Virginians. This year, Virginia Republicans wanted to cut taxes to offset that by raising the standard deduction on state income taxes.

Virginia’s ongoing scandals of racist yearbook photos and resignation demands are starting to have repercussions on the state’s taxes and spending. The 2017 federal tax cut signed into law by President Trump capped the amount of state and local taxes that could be deducted, which could add up to a higher tax bill to some Virginians. This year, Virginia Republicans wanted to cut taxes to offset that by raising the standard deduction on state income taxes. This morning Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and Republicans in the state legislature announced they had worked out a deal on tax cuts. In addition...

Charlie Kirk, responding to a report that Senator John McCain, battling brain cancer, does not want President Trump to attend his funeral: “He wants Obama there. That tells you everything you need to know about McCain.” Really? You think everything you need to know about a man’s 81 years on this earth can be nullified or reaffirmed by your approval of his guest list at his funeral? Twenty-three years of military service, 23 bombing missions, a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, a Distinguished Flying Cross, five and a half years as a prisoner of war, solitary confinement...

Donald Trump, a Manhattan real-estate mogul who had traveled with his own personal security for years, had never really been a “gun guy.” In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, he wrote, “I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.” Even in his remarks accepting the (NRA) endorsement, Trump made comments that suggested he found owning a lot of guns . . . kind of worrisome. “My sons are members,” Trump declared. “They have so many rifles, so many guns, that...

The billionaire brothers are pulling out all the stops in support of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Pity the interns who answer the phones in Colorado senator Michael Bennet’s office. Concerned Veterans for America estimates that as of March 2, it had connected with 80,000 Colorado supporters, urging them to phone Bennet’s office in an effort to convince him that he should support Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. CVA is leading the Koch brothers’ network of libertarian-leaning advocacy groups in its effort to maximize pressure on senators to confirm Gorsuch.