Free Republic

DES MOINES — A Democratic presidential field that has struggled to precisely define its general election indictment of Donald Trump appears finally to have found it. In the wake of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas — the latter of which was tied to a suspect whose anti-immigrant sentiments led to the killing of 22 people — candidates are road-testing a withering argument that draws a direct line between gun violence and the president’s racist rhetoric. “We are living with a toxic brew of two different things, each of which is claiming lives and each of which represents a national...

Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he was “appalled” by Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide over the weekend, but urged that the millionaire pedophile’s co-conspirators “should not rest easy.” “This sex trafficking case was very important to the Department of Justice and to me personally,” Barr said during a speech before the National Fraternal Order of Police in New Orleans. “Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein. Any co-conspirators should not rest easy.” Epstein died early Saturday morning after he seemingly hanged himself in his jail cell at Metropolitan Correction...

Maryland Democratic Party Chair Maya Cummings, the wife of House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), reached out on Twitter over the weekend for help identifying a suspect in a break-in at the couple's house last month. “Has anyone in the Twitterverse ever seen the symbol on this hat? It was the only distinguishing feature of the man who recently broke into our home. I’m showing it to you to crowdsource the logo. Please let me know if you’ve seen it (or him) before,” Cummings tweeted on Saturday. The following day she crowdsourced information on the images by posting an...

... Under California’s red flag law, enacted in 2014, a law enforcement official or immediate family member can ask a judge to issue a Gun Violence Restraining Order if a gun owner is feared to be a danger to himself or others. If the order is issued — and it almost always is — the gun owner’s weapons will be seized by law enforcement for up to a year. After a year, the restraining order can be renewed. Elliott was the first to create a restraining order program. So far, she has obtained roughly 300 orders and 400 firearms have...

Defense attorneys pushed for Jeffrey Epstein to be taken off suicide watch ahead of his death on Saturday, an unidentified source told ABC News. The financier, who was jailed on federal sex-trafficking charges, had been on suicide watch after an apparent earlier suicide attempt, but was taken off ahead of his death. Sources told ABC News that Epstein had to undergo multiple psychiatric evaluations before officials decided to take him off suicide watch. There is likely no video showing Epstein’s apparent suicide death, as sources told ABC News it does not appear that cameras are trained on individual cells in...

Did Jeffrey Epstein commit suicide or was he murdered? This is a question that is being debated by millions of Americans right now, and without a doubt this is the biggest story of this news cycle. Unfortunately, the mainstream media is already dropping the ball. Instead of going wherever the evidence leads them, there already seems to be a tremendous effort to marginalize any explanations for his death other than “suicide”. And it may turn out that “suicide” is where the evidence takes us, but while things are unclear we should not be afraid to ask the hard questions. The...

For Glenn Martin, founder of JustLeadership USA, a prison reform group, all that came to a head in 1995, when he was detained in the Tombs for almost three months before moving to Rikers. Back then, he said, the violence was coming not only from the inmates, but also the officers tasked with maintaining law and order. While not as hellish as Rikers, where US Attorney Preet Bharara last year found a "culture of violence," the Tombs of the mid 90s was a dangerous place. Martin described the environment as a "microcosm of society, but very perverse." White inmates would...

Shortly after the Chinese New Year holiday in February, the People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, reported with a celebratory tone that domestic retail and restaurant spending during the festival had topped 1 trillion yuan ($145 billion) for the first time. Against the backdrop of the trade war with the U.S., this result "defied doomsayers," the paper said, and continued a string of annual gains in consumer prowess that showed China's sustained economic strength. Foreign media reports this year, however, have been portraying a starkly contrasting picture of Chinese economic slowdown as seen in declining gross domestic product growth...

Democrats are panicking. In the wake of his many gaffes and shaky debate performances, many view front-runner Joe Biden as unable to go the distance, and unlikely to beat Donald Trump if he succeeds in winning the Democratic nomination. Which of the more than 20 other candidates in the race would be a better bet, they wonder? This is where the angst sets in. Elizabeth Warren is too radical, Bernie Sanders too angry, Beto too absurd, Mayor Pete too young, Cory Booker too annoying, which leaves….Kamala Harris. She’s tough, she can debate, as a woman of color she checks numerous...

Clint Eastwood Reads Praise Song Lyrics Mr. Eastwood doesn't much care for your vague, sappy, and repetitious worship music.

Using the two latest mass shootings as fodder, rank-and-file Democrats and chest-puffed Presidential candidates alike have began using these two tragedies to stump for more gun control. Here are the top players and what each is advocating for: Trump, McConnell Want Universal Background ChecksThe President has called upon Congress to act on “intelligent” and “meaningful” legislation, specifically requesting that the House pass a federal, universal background check for all firearm sales. One senior White House adviser says Trump is actively pursing an expansion of background checks for gun buyers. Trump and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell are reportedly also considering...

Two rare white lion cubs have been unveiled by a conservation charity in north-western France. Nala and Simba's parents were rescued from the circus by Caresse de Tigre. White lions are native to South Africa, but only a handful remain in the wild.

WELCOME To The Howie Carr Show!

NEW YORK (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said Monday that there were “serious irregularities” at the federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein took his own life as he awaited trial on charges he sexually abused underage girls. The 66-year-old financier was found Saturday morning in his cell at the chronically short-staffed Metropolitan Correctional Center, in a unit known for holding notorious prisoners under extremely tight security. “I was appalled, and indeed the whole department was, and frankly angry to learn of the MCC’s failure to adequately secure this prisoner,” Barr said at a police conference in New Orleans. “We are...

New York Times London-based reporter Ceylan Yeginsu reported on the abortion debate in Belfast under a flawlessly biased headline: “Can Northern Ireland Cling To Its Draconian Abortion Laws?” Which put in mind Barack Obama's condescending reference to working class Midwesterners who "cling to guns or religion." The online headline was also awful, albeit in a different way: "Climate of Fear: When Part of a Country Bans Abortion.” (“Bans abortion” is an odd way to describe a law that has been in place in Northern Ireland since 1861)(click "expand"): It was one of the warmest days of the year, and Ciara...

It's"deplorables" all over again, but even worse.  Remember, Hillary Clinton only smeared half of Trump supporters are irredeemably bigoted. O'Rourke appears to slime all Trump voters here, stating that it's "really hard" to see a 2020 Trump vote as anything other than a racist act.  CNN's Jake Tapper poses the question -- which strikes me as a natural one, given Beto's nonstop racial rhetoric -- and after pausing for a beat or two, the candidate launches headlong into a vast slander:"President Trump won your home state of Texas by nine points," host Jake Tapper said. "Almost 63 million Americans voted...

The late Saul Alinsky, the legendary left-wing community organizer, must be looking up from wherever he is and smiling. The direction lately taken by the Democratic Party shows they’ve bought into his tactics, hook, line and sinker. In his most famous book, “Rules for Radicals,” he opens with the following observation: “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. ‘The Prince’ was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. ‘Rules for Radicals’ is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it...

Apparently, the pro-abortion left holds animals up to a higher moral standard than human beings. On August 8th, The Huffington Post reported that two lion cubs were eaten by their mother two days after their birth in a German zoo. Reporter David Moye called the deaths “tragic.” This is ironic coming from HuffPo, which supports abortion even after the baby is born. According to Moye’s report, the Leipzig Zoo announced the deaths of the newborn cubs on its Facebook page on Tuesday. Translated from German, the post revealed that the lioness was taking good care of the cubs before she...

While President Donald Trump attended big-money fundraisers for the Republican Party and his 2020 re-election campaign at mansions in Southampton and Bridgehampton on Friday, many of his East End supporters are eschewing the spotlight — especially after last week’s calls for boycotts of billionaire Stephen Ross’s fitness chains SoulCycle and Equinox because he hosted the president. “We are all in the closet,” said a boutique owner in Southampton who fears reprisals from his customers — most of them moneyed Democrats — if he speaks openly about his allegiance to Trump. “It’s like you have this disease and people want to...

Suicides and attempted suicides among inmates have been rare occurrences at the New York federal detention center where alleged sex offender Jeffrey Epstein apparently killed himself. Published reports tally only one suicide and three attempted suicides in the past 40 years at the Manhattan Correctional Center, which came under fire after Epstein's death early Saturday. The 66-year-old financier was being held on charges of sex trafficking young girls and conspiracy and had been on suicide watch after an apparent attempt to kill himself last month. Officials said Epstein wasn't on suicide watch Saturday. Lefty lawyer Ron Kuby, who once represented...