Free Republic

When questioned by a student yesterday, socialist Bernie Sanders unwittingly illustrated Robert Conquest’s First Law of Politics: “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.”  For the rest of us, Sanders “knows” that we have to stop using fossil fuels entirely, at a (lowball) cost of $16 trillion, within 10 years. But what Sanders “knows best” in this case is his own schedule and needs, both personal and political. That’s why when a student asked him yesterday if he was going to practice what he preaches and stop using fossil fuels in his campaign, mockery was the result:  ...

A seriously fat cat up for adoption in Pennsylvania literally broke the internet after internet users fell in love with him on social media and crashed his shelter's website. On Thursday, Morris Animal Refuge in Philadelphia shared pictures of a 26 pound cat named BeeJay on their Twitter account and told users the big guy was looking for a forever home. 'OMG, big boi Mr. B is a CHONK. He's a chonk of a chonk. He redefines the term', the now viral tweet says.

A Democratic National Committee meeting erupted into a bitter battle Thursday morning over the question of holding a climate-specific presidential debate, with party officials stamping down a resolution calling for a such an event in the face of raucous opposition from activists. In a 17-to-8 vote, the DNC’s Resolutions Committee defeated a resolution that called for the candidates to debate each other about their views and policies on climate change — on a national stage. Young protesters filling the room hissed, jeered and sang the union song “Which Side Are You On?” before and after the vote. The two-hour-plus debate...

As the Democrat Left seeks to circumvent the Electoral College with the National Popular Vote Compact, in which states agree to assign their presidential electors to whomever receives the most votes nationally, even if the other candidate won their state, a federal appeals court has thrown even more shade at voters. As the Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Colorado ruled 2-1 that the then-secretary of state was wrong to remove and replace an elector who wanted to cast his ballot for GOP alternative John Kasich rather than Hillary Clinton, who won in Colorado. [...] You...

In a pair of jaw-dropping interviews yesterday following his resignation from the company that he founded twenty years ago, Patrick Byrne revealed his collaboration with the FBI as an informant, including involvement in surveillance of the presidential campaigns including multiple Republicans … and of the Hillary Clinton campaign, too. In both interviews he fingered Peter Strzok as the person responsible for sending the “men in black” from the FBI who visited him, but in the second, he stated that higher ups, whom he would only identify as “X, Y, and X” – people whose names you would know, directed the...

This week, I've got another article for those interested in "tactical" gunsmithing, and building and shooting black rifles: The Complete Guide to AR-15 Barrels (Twist, Length, Rifling & Type). The barrel is arguably the most important part of your black rifle or pistol. It determines what types of rounds you can shoot, how accurate you can get, and how far you can reach out and touch targets. Picking the perfect barrel can make or break any AR build. Today, we’re going to go over everything with a complete guide to AR-15 barrels. This guide gets into twist rates, barrel length...

Today’s Cryptogram TVML SKWVX NHDQ EWUUWH QZWM UHVMXABVMUWK SMUD VMDUZWH TSMK UZVM SM UZW DMW QZWHW UZWL XAHVMN GA. ---DBSOWH QWMKWBB ZDBTWX XH. You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you...

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Lies beget other lies, and with them come anger and division. That's what has been happening ever since Donald Trump was elected: false witness against the president. The latest is the charge that Trump's policies will bring economic ruin to the country. He's setting us up for economic Armageddon worse than the Great Depression and all that preceded and followed it. Hard to believe that one man could cause such havoc, but that's the Left's contention. There was talk during the 2016 campaign of an economic meltdown should Trump be elected,...

With tensions between the neighbors the highest in decades, South Korea’s delegation to Japan’s 2020 Games raised concerns this week about radiation at Olympic venues near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant and the risk that athletes might consume contaminated food. The protest formed part of a three-pronged attack that suggested South Korea is using the tsunami-induced 2011 nuclear meltdown as another stick with which to poke Japan. The two sides’ dispute over trade and compensation for wartime forced labor escalated Thursday when Seoul scrapped a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact. Seoul has struck at what it knows is a tender spot....

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden said he’d like to raise the capital gains tax rate to 39.6 percent, a near doubling of the current 20 percent. Biden made the remarks on Wednesday, August 21 during an interview with Iowa Public Television: “I believe we should, in fact, the capital gains tax should be at what the highest minimum tax should be, we should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent instead of 20 percent,” Biden said yesterday.Raising the capital gains tax would harm Americans’ ability to build a nest egg and hurt the value of their homes, farms, and businesses.Biden’s comments and his...

China announced Friday it will impose tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, the latest salvo in the year-plus trade war between the world's two largest economies. The country's State Council said tariffs of 5 percent to 10 percent will be imposed on a variety of American goods in two batches, with the first going into effect next month and a second scheduled for December, multiple media outlets reported, citing state-run media. The second batch of tariffs will reportedly include a 25 percent tariff on all U.S. automobiles.

The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was what we call an “originalist” when it came to interpreting the U.S. Constitution. He believed the only way to read the Constitution was in the context of the times when its provisions were written which formed the intent of those who wrote and later amended it. We could only interpret what they meant by reading what they wrote through the filter of the events of their day, not our day. The issue of the 14th Amendment and whether it conveys birthright citizenship just from being born on American soil has resurfaced in...

Who knew a “peace park” could be so contentious? The Pacifist Memorial in the Boston suburb of Sherborn has been forced to take down a United Nations flag after residents objected. Memorial founder Lewis Randa removed the flag and its flagpole last week because residents of the luxury townhome development where it’s now located say the items violated their property agreement. But Randa says he and others were simply restoring a flag, which he concedes was not part of the original memorial but had flown for decades on the grounds. He said it’s “inexcusable” that the UN flag isn’t allowed...

As gun-related violence spikes in Toronto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for adding more “common sense” gun restrictions to the country’s already restrictive firearm laws. Toronto enjoys a relatively low gun-related homicide rate compared to many U.S. cities, but that hasn’t stopped Trudeau from blaming guns for the city’s crime. “Recent shootings have underscored the need for common sense firearms policy,” Trudeau said at a press conference after a meeting with Toronto Mayor John Tory. “We need action. But Mayor Tory and I agree that we can’t simply arrest our way out of this problem.” Seventeen people were...

Multiple contractors working for Microsoft explain how they listened to audio captured by Xbox consoles.Contractors working for Microsoft have listened to audio of Xbox users speaking in their homes in order to improve the console’s voice command features, Motherboard has learned. The audio was supposed to be captured following a voice command like “Xbox” or “Hey Cortana,” but contractors said that recordings were sometimes triggered and recorded by mistake.The news is the latest in a string of revelations that show contractors working on behalf of Microsoft listen to audio captured by several of its products. Motherboard previously reported that human contractors were listening to...

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. “I think it’s evident that this is now a three-way race between Biden, Warren and Sanders, and really it’s a debate about how far left the party should go,” he told The New York Times

He hardly mentions it, while his adversaries are obsessed with ‘whiteness’ and ‘white privilege.’ Long before the El Paso massacre, President Trump’s political opponents accused him of sowing “division” with his “racist language.” Mr. Trump “exploits race,” “uses race for his gain,” is engaged in a “racially divisive reprise” of his 2016 campaign, stokes “racial resentments,” and puts “race at the fore,” the New York Times has reported over the past several months.

CNN has hired fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as a contributor, the network announced Friday morning. (developing)

Bernie Sanders tweeted out today that he wants fossil fuel executives criminally prosecuted over global warming junk science.

Three stories in today’s news–none of them the type of story I would normally write about–illustrate a common theme. The first is from Britain, where eco-crusaders Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are being accused of hypocrisy for repeatedly zipping back and forth to Nice on a private jet. Meanwhile, Prince William booked his family on a £73 commercial flight to Scotland, in what is viewed as a rebuke of his younger brother. But why be hard on Prince Harry? When the world’s leading global warming alarmists gather in ritzy locales to vote on rules that no one will follow, they...