Free Republic

It’s Week 0. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means you don’t get a spreadsheet to start the season. There wouldn’t be much point as there’s only one game in each time slot. You also don’t get my picks for your best viewing options throughout the day (for the same reason). But what you do get is... football!!! Sort of. And a prime opportunity to mock the state of college football in the state of Florida. Which is nice. Here’s one way you could choose to spend your Saturday:

President Trump went after purported congressional watchdog Elijah Cummings recently, slamming the Democrat congressman for failing to improve his troubled Baltimore, Maryland, district despite the inflow of billions of dollars in federal aid during and in the years leading up to Trump’s administration. Cummings came to the attention of conservatives as he zealously defended the IRS throughout the Lois Lerner saga. Lerner is the corrupt IRS tax-exempt division executive who engineered the tax agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofits during the Obama administration. Cummings also apparently conspired with Lerner to sabotage True the Vote, a leading grassroots electoral integrity group. In...

The New York Times officially announced its new 1619 Project to “to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.” Constantly now, Americans are called upon to reflect on European villains and indigenous victims. However, the story of European civilization reaching the North American continent did not begin with the first arrival of slave ships at Jamestown in 1619.Let’s take a brief recess from the 1619 Project to explore another project....

Sen. Elizabeth Warren faces an uphill climb in winning support from African American voters, say Democratic strategists and other political observers. While Warren (D-Mass.) has been moving up in recent polls, she has struggled to lure black voters to her campaign. A Fox News survey released last week showed Warren receiving 8 percent among black voters, a grim statistic if she is looking to win the nomination. A separate poll by the Pew Research Center found that while former Vice President Joe Biden received 29 percent of support among African Americans, only 4 percent were throwing their support behind Warren....

Likely will not be edited or removed any time soon       Wikipedia, the online Encyclopedia, which has been routinely accused of left wing bias, has a list of ICE facilities under a section titled “concentration and internment camps,” and is keeping it there despite critics requesting it be removed.The list of ICE facilities reappeared on the concentration camps page after Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, used the rhetoric to describe US holding centers on the border with Mexico.Editors of the Wikipedia page cited the Democrats’ use of the term “concentration camp” to justify the inclusion of the ICE centers on the...

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now aware of 153 possible cases of severe lung disease in 16 states that could be caused by vaping, the agency said Wednesday in an update to a multi-state investigation. The cases -- reported from June 28 to August 20, 2019 -- have popped up in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. They have primarily affected adolescents and young adults. This is an increase from Saturday, when CDC announced it was looking into 94 possible cases...

Prince William, his wife Kate and their children have been spotted getting off a £73 budget flight to Scotland, amid a row over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's private jet trips. The Duke of Cambridge and Duchess of Cambridge took the 8.45am flight from Norwich International Airport to Aberdeen Airport with their children this morning. The royal couple and their family can be spotted being escorted from the budget FlyBe plane and getting into waiting vehicles, where they are expected to be whisked away to visit the Queen and Prince Philip at Balmoral. The Cambridges appearance on the cheap flight...

A Florida man is behind bars after what police say was an attempted castration at home that went terribly wrong. Highlands County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the Sebring home of 74-year-old Gary Van Ryswyk this weekend, according to a post on their Facebook page, after a call was placed to their office. When deputies arrived, Van Ryswyk told them he had just performed the medical procedure on the man inside a room at his home that had been set up like a surgical center. Van Ryswyk told deputies he had met the victim on a website and had performed...

When one listens carefully to policy debates these days, it is somewhat shocking how often death is introduced as a solution for human problems. Abortion comes to mind immediately. Actor and activist Alyssa Milano released a podcast two days ago in which she revealed that she had two abortions just a few months apart back in 1993. Despite describing herself as having been breathlessly in love at the time, Milano insisted that the two back-to-back abortions were the "right choice." She argued that she could not have had her career as an actor and an activist had she carried either...

If you’re looking to see some friendly faces, you apparently shouldn’t head to The Empire State. In a survey conducted by travel website Big 7 Travel, 1.5 million people weighed in on the “friendliest states in America” — and New York ranked dead last. Though Big 7 Travel tried to soften the blow with an explainer — “locals might seem a bit gruff at first (even upstate!), but it’s a melting pot of many cultures and the neighborhoods in each borough of NYC have a community feel if you manage to stick it out for long enough” — it was...

At least eight jail staffers were aware that strict instructions had been given not to leave Jeffrey Epstein alone in his cell — but the order apparently was ignored in the 24 hours before he hanged himself, according to a report. Investigators looking into the apparent failure to follow instructions were shocked that so many Federal Bureau of Prisons staffers — including supervisors and managers — were aware of the directive, people familiar with the matter told the Washington Post. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to identify the eight staffers. Investigators suspect that at least some...

Harry Reid: 'Decriminalizing border crossings is not something that should be at the top of the list' Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in an interview published Tuesday that decriminalizing border crossings "is not something that should be at the top of the list" for 2020 Democrats. “There are so many more important things to do,” the Nevada Democrat told Vice News, saying that the decriminalization of crossing the border illegally “should be way, way down at the bottom of the list.” He added: “People want a fair immigration system. They don’t want an open-door invitation for everybody...

Greg's guest today is the founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center, John R. Lott, Jr. He is an economist and a world-recognized expert on guns and crime. They discuss recent mass shootings and the calls for stricter gun laws.

In the decade prior to President Trump taking office, the decline of America’s patent system seemed inevitable and irreversible. Years of bad public policy championed in the halls of Congress, disastrous Supreme Court decisions, and misguided administrative rulings emanating from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had accelerated the erosion of intellectual property rights and jeopardized America’s position as the global innovation leader.The United States was the undisputed beacon of innovation until its recent, marked and alarming slip. Now, less than three years into the Trump administration, the tide is turning. With key administration positions being filled with pro-patent...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Kurt Schlichter. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Kurt Schlichter is a conservative opinion writer and author of several post-Constitutional America books. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the bottom half (answer grid) belowEach letter must...

Slavery in the United States began 400 years ago. This month in 1619, Africans were sold as slaves to colonists. Tragically, our nation which was founded by many God-fearing Christians gave into the ways of the world when it came to embracing the institution of slavery and taking over the new world from the indigenous peoples.For some people, their rejection of Christianity and the Bible is a direct result of this dark history.Those who have used the Bible to promote racism or slavery have manipulated the meaning of the Scriptures for their own evil intentions and have not actually looked...

Centuries from now, when archaeologists unearth the long-buried cities of the United States of America, they may find artifacts of what by then will be the forgotten craft of journalism. Just as we look today at the medical practices of antiquity and wonder how our forebears could have been so backward, those archaeologists of the future will marvel, as they sift through a newly unearthed newsroom amid the ruins New York, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles, that American journalists were once burdened by such quaint notions as objectivity, fairness, and devotion to the truth. “Imagine,” they will say, “being so...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Old Testament) 2 Kings 19 Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall 20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: “‘Virgin Daughter Zion     despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem     tosses her head as you flee. 22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?     Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride?     Against the Holy One of Israel!...

The latest school to officially ban mobile phones has revealed its students have been transformed and are happy they made the change. Lakes Grammar, located north of the NSW Central Coast, implemented the ban in May due to concerns about students playing video games at school. Teaching and Learning Director Michelle Smith said there had been an noticeable increase in interactions, with students far more likely to go out onto the oval or play games together, the Daily Telegraph reported. 'Board games are coming out, cards are out and they are all interacting. We're even seeing them play hopscotch and...

Atlanta became the first city in the country to install contextual markers around its Confederate monuments a month ago, but the local branch of the NAACP says the explanations on the signs aren’t good enough. In a Tuesday letter to the Atlanta City Council, Atlanta branch president Richard Rose said the markers don’t “counter the notion of white supremacy.” On Wednesday, Rose went further, accusing members of a council committee of being “complicit on compromising on racism.” “It’s such a profound disappointment,” Rose said of the language on the markers. “It doesn’t give the story of why these monuments were...