Free Republic

The Department of Justice Inspector General revealed this week that an unnamed former FBI Deputy Assistant Director [DAD] illegally disclosed sealed court information to the media in addition to a number of other violations. "The OIG investigation concluded that the DAD engaged in misconduct when the DAD: (1) disclosed to the media the existence of information that had been filed under seal in federal court, in violation of 18 USC § 401, Contempt of Court; (2) provided without authorization FBI law enforcement sensitive information to reporters on multiple occasions; and (3) had dozens of official contacts with the media...

If I have to choose between sneaky radical leftists who pretend to be small-d democratic activists and honest ones who admit they would stop at nothing in punishing people like me should they gain power, I would always choose the honest ones. Like radical jihadists, they believe that their cause is so righteous that opposition is immoral, and the evil people who oppose them deserve no constitutional protections once they are in power. In fact, the Constitution itself is an obsolete document, written by evil white slave-owners, and a hindrance to the utopia they believe is in reach if only...

Sen. Bernard Sanders‘ grassroots activists fear a repeat of 2016 in next year’s Democratic primary — this time, instead of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they see the party establishment rallying around former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in an effort to deny their candidate the nomination. For hardcore Sanders supporters, Mr. Biden’s early domination of the race smacks of 2016, when the Democratic National Committee attempted to sabotage Mr. Sanders and clear the way to the nomination for Mrs. Clinton. “The mainstream media and the DNC are colluding against the American people. That’s what it feels like....

SPRINGFIELD -- The state of Illinois is one step closer to legalizing recreational marijuana. The Illinois Senate voted Wednesday to pass the bill, sending it to the House for consideration in the final two days of the session this week. The fast vote was 38-17, with two Republicans joining 36 Democrats in supporting it. "This bill is going to set the model, I believe, the gold standard for how to approach social equity issues, relating (to) cannabis legalization," Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, the bill's chief sponsor, said in her closing statement on the Senate floor. The action Wednesday came just...

laus von Bülow, who has died aged 92, was the central figure in one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century. The case, among the first to be televised in the United States, had all the ingredients of soap opera — adultery, drugs, murder and fabulous sums of money. Its principal characters included the heiress to a $75 million fortune, a wicked stepfather, two mistresses, minor European nobility and a daughter who stood by the father accused of attempting to kill her mother.

Maybe they’re just the fools to try it, though. Despite Robert Mueller’s poking and Donald Trump’s goading, Nancy Pelosi hasn’t changed her mind on impeachment. A “top ally” of the House Speaker told Axios that Pelosi considers it a “fool’s errand,” and that she won’t change her mind based on Mueller’s slightly extended remarks yesterday: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, brushing off new comments by Robert Mueller and 2020 Democratic hopefuls, feels as strongly as ever that impeaching President Trump would be a “fool’s errand,” a top ally told Axios.Why it matters: Pelosi remains defiant, despite growing calls from fellow...

Vatican’s Jesuit university in Rome hosts anti-Catholic exhibit featuring homosexual couple, witch ROME, May 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A new photo exhibit on atheism and unbelief — featuring a homosexual couple, a transhumanist and a witch who advocates “human extinction” — opened today in the main atrium of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Readers will recall that, despite its rich history, the Jesuit-run pontifical university has in recent years been the site of key events including a secret meeting that sought to sway the 2015 Family Synod to accept same-sex unions, and a public lecture by then newly-appointed Pontifical Academy for Life member, Fr. Maurizio Chiodi, undermining Humanae Vitae. ...

On Monday, May 20, the Supreme Court decided in favor of an American Indian man, Clayvin Herrera, in Herrera v. Wyoming. Essentially, Herrera was found guilty of off-season hunting at Bighorn National Forest. Herrera believed he had the right to hunt there, citing the Treaty of Ft. Laramie. The treaty states that the Native Americans can "hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon, and as long as peace subsists among the Whites and Indians on the borders of the hunting districts." The Wyoming lower courts convicted Clayvin Herrera, a Crow...

Sophie Turner was included in the legions of outspoken A-Listers who rallied to criticise the American states of Alabama, Georgia and more in the wake of them passing a near total ban on women accessing an abortion. Two weeks ago, Alabama's senate voted to pass the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States, virtually outlawing a woman's right to an abortion in every circumstance, apart from if the woman's life is in danger. This was then signed by their female governor, Kay Ivey. Turner responded by posting a collage of Republican politicians saying, frankly terrifying, comments about rape. https://www.instagram.com/p/BxiP37rBwAG/?utm_source=ig_embed...

The Transportation for America reported that 45 percent of California’s 394,383 lane miles of roads are rated in “poor condition.” The stated mission of the nonpartisan think tank known as “T4-America” is to assist local government leaders make sure that states and federal government invest in “smart, homegrown, locally-driven transportation solutions.” The World Economic Forum highlights four basic economic pillars that contribute to global economic competitiveness among the 193 nations of the world: 1) institutions; 2) Infrastructure; 3) macroeconomic environment; and 4) health and primary education. The United States' strongest basic pillar has been infrastructure that includes effective modes of transport, electricity supplies free from interruptions...

China is whipping up patriotic furor domestically by allowing the posting of a propaganda video to an internet platform that it controls, castigating the United States’ escalation of tariffs in the economic confrontation underway. The video openly states that military conflict may become necessary --“China must be prepared to fight a protracted war” -- and uses rhetoric invoking violence: YouTube screen grab But keep in mind that there is an element of deniability built-in for the government and communist party, which are not officially the creator or publisher. Bill Gertz of the Free Beacon explains: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR...

The structure is an old tectonic boundary, probably formed during the birth of the Antarctic continent or shortly thereafter. According to new research published May 27 [2019] in the journal Nature Geoscience, this boundary protects the ice shelf's grounding line, the point at which it is thick enough to extend all the way to the sea floor. The geology created by the boundary keeps warm, melt-promoting ocean water away from that part of the shelf. But the ocean circulation driven by that same geology drives intense summer melt along the shelf's easterly edge. "We could see that the geological boundary...

When I was a little girl around the age of 7 in the late 1960s, the most exciting thing in the world was to persuade my parents to take me and my sisters to Sharp Hospital, up the road from where I lived in San Diego, to go see the newborn babies through the hospital window. In my little-kid mind, two things were very important - to see the giant statue of the stork carrying a baby at the hospital entrance, and to see the window with all the newborn babies and find the babies in the incubators, marveling at how tiny they were...

In an interview with People magazine out Wednesday, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek credited the prayers of millions of his fans for helping him in his fight against stage-four pancreatic cancer, now in “near remission.” Yet, while ABC’s World News Tonight touted Trebek’s praise, the CBS Evening News ignored that part of Trebek’s comments and NBC Nightly News edited it out of the quotes read and video clips they aired. Before we can examine what was missing, let’s look at what should have been reported. ABC anchor David Muir recalled how Trebek “vowed to fight it” by playing a soundbite of...

Singer-songwriter Leon Redbone, who specialized in old-school vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley-style music, died earlier today, his family confirmed. He was 69 — although, in characteristically whimsical fashion, the official statement announcing his death gave his age as 127. Although Redbone’s pop-defying predilection for seemingly antiquated musical styles of the ’20s and ’30s made him the unlikeliest of stars, he became one anyway, appearing several times as the musical guest “Saturday Night Live” — including two spots in the inaugural 1975-76 season alone — and landing frequent appearances with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” Later popular successes had him...

A top New York State top business group backs legislation giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants — claiming it will be a boon to the economy. “This is the law in 12 states and its been beneficial to those states’ economies,” Heather Briccetti, CEO of the Business Council of New York, told reporters Wednesday.

The Kyrgyz soldier stepped quietly out of the dark green bushes and swung his Kalashnikov rifle in the direction of our car. Another emerged and did the same. Their checkpoint was a skinny log dragged across a broken asphalt road heading toward an ethnic Uzbek village and the disputed waters of the Kasan-sai, a reservoir that irrigates the agricultural heartland of the ancient Fergana Valley. With a sleepy shake of his head, the special forces sergeant waved his rifle and made us turn our beat-up Mitsubishi around. “There won’t be any fighting here,” the sergeant said. At least not today....

UK pressured to intervene in Indonesia to stop “gross violation” of military virginity tests The most populated Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, is being pressured by human rights groups to stop the degrading practice of “virginity tests” on women applying to the military. Dr Meghan Campbell, deputy director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub recommended that “as the UK seeks to position itself as a global leader it should protect the human rights of women all over the world”. So, the UK is being urged “to make aid and increased trade with Indonesia conditional on an end to degrading...

You'd think they'd be all over this like tabloid papparazzi. Wild and prurient news always sells papers and draws viewer eyeballs, and the scattered reports about how America's first Muslim congresswoman, Rep. Ilhan Omar, reportedly married her own brother in a bid to bring him into the country ahead of the others trying to get in, is quite a doozy. The press certainly got excited about the Stormy Daniels controversy for such a reason, but why the absence of interest in Omar's kinky weird love life. Now the fearless Michelle Malkin has taken up the case, wanting to know why...

At a certain point, it can’t be mere coincidence that every major figure involved in probing Trump’s campaign is linked to Hillary Clinton in some manner. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had a budget approaching $10 billion during James Comey’s tenure as its director. Combined with budgets for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, these agencies cost taxpayers around $30 billion annually. Therefore, one would think that incriminating evidence derived from the FBI, NSA, or CIA could have linked Donald Trump to Russian hackers or Kremlin operatives, if that evidence existed. Instead, almost all the major findings used...