Free Republic

Former Congressman Chris Collins has learned his fate in his federal insider trading case. A U.S. District judge sentenced him to 26 months in prison Friday. He was also fined $200,000. Collins pleaded guilty to securities fraud conspiracy and making false statements to the FBI. He was sentenced in federal court in Manhattan. It’s the culmination of a case that began back in August 2018 when Collins was first arrested and charged with this insider trading scheme. He maintained his innocence and won re-election. Then last year, he reversed course, pleaded guilty, and resigned from his office in Congress. Collins...

Rev. Anna Blaedel, an openly gay United Methodist chaplain at the University of Iowa and “theologian-in-residence” with Enfleshed, gave the invocation in the Iowa Senate chambers on Thursday morning. She was invited to give the opening prayer by Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, and to call her prayer controversial would be an understatement. Caffeinated Thoughts readers may remember that Blaedel was required to take unpaid leave over a settlement with the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church after being accused of violating church doctrine by being a “self-avowed, practicing homosexual.”

Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard was taking questions from town hall attendees in New Hampshire on Thursday when a man in the crowd asked the Hawaii congresswoman and Iraq War veteran about former Vice President Joe Biden. "Former Vice President Biden has randomly challenged people in the audience to a push-up contest even if they're in walkers. Do you think you could take him?" a male attendee asked the candidate, according to video of the moment posted on Twitter. Gabbard replied, "My educated and informed guess would be yes ... But I would take most people to a push-up challenge."...

There are strategic reasons why the Govenor of VA wants to start the ball rolling with the destruction of the 2nd ammendment. Whatever he is allowed to get away with will then be forced up on one state after another until we are all defenseless. President Trump can't intervene in VA's abuses of their citizens. That means it's up to We The people to raise our voices.It's time to write, email, call, and protest in order to stand with Virginians because, truly, what they do to Virginians they will soon do to us. Politicians use a rule of thumb; they consider...

Today there are absolutely no shortages of godless women in our post-Judeo/Christian American culture as we have seen with the Washington D.C." women's" marches. What is the most telling part of all of this is that these female hordes choose to have their "protest, celebration" and high holy day on the anniversary weekend of the legalization of abortion. How evil is that! Celebrating women's rights on the foundation of death and barbarity! These women occupy all of society’s genres from politics to Hollywood, from the music industry to the fashion world, from the faculty lounge to the masses. They are...

In Great Society: A New History, Amity Shlaes revisits the welfare programs of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations to show not only how misguided they were but also what a warning they present to those who wish to resurrect and extend such programs. “The contest between capitalism and socialism is on again,” the author writes in her introduction. Despite the Trump administration’s thriving economy, or perhaps because of it, Democratic Party progressives are calling for new welfare programs even more radical than those advocated in the 1960s by the socialist architect of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, Michael Harrington....

Video of Greenfield: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/greenfield-video-soleimanis-dirty-deeds-frontpagemagcom/

Businesses have predicted price rises after UK chancellor, Sajid Javid, said there would be no alignment with regulations once Britain’s exit was made official. Javid said the Treasury would not lend support to manufacturers that favour EU rules as the sector had had three years to prepare for Britain’s transition. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said: “There will not be alignment, we will not be a rule taker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union – and we will do this by the end of the...

Earlier this month, the North Dakota University system sent a message to students, staff and faculty reminding them about the issues that can arise with suspicious emails or phone calls. That number equates to more than 15 million cyberattacks a month, up from 5 million a month in 2018. But North Dakota isn’t alone, Riley noted. “That’s part of a world trend,” he said. “We’re trending a little higher than certain organizations, but, yeah, pretty substantial increases overall.” Comprehensive numbers are still being compiled for 2019, but in 2018, there were more than 300 million comprehensive attacks. Riley said his...

Political figures have long used their families to route power and benefits for their own self-enrichment. In my new book, “Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite,” one particular politician — Joe Biden — emerges as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefiting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain. In Biden’s case, these deals include foreign partners and, in some cases, even U.S. taxpayer dollars. The Biden family’s apparent self-enrichment involves no less than five family members: Joe’s son Hunter, son-in-law Howard, brothers James and...

FDC 0/4707 ZDC PART 1 OF 3 VA..AIRSPACE RICHMOND, VA..TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS. JANUARY 20, 2020 LOCAL. PURSUANT TO 49 USC 40103(B)(3), THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA) CLASSIFIES THE AIRSPACE DEFINED IN THIS NOTAM AS 'NATIONAL DEFENSE AIRSPACE'. ANY PERSON WHO KNOWINGLY OR WILLFULLY VIOLATES THE RULES CONCERNING OPERATIONS IN THIS AIRSPACE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL PENALTIES UNDER 49 USC 46307. ... 1) UAS FLIGHT OPERATION CONDUCTED IN DIRECT SUPPORT OF AN ACTIVE NATIONAL DEFENSE, HOMELAND SECURITY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, FIREFIGHTING, SEARCH AND RESCUE, OR DISASTER RESPONSE MISSION.

President Donald Trump took aim at Virginia Democrats and their push to stiffen the state's gun laws, saying that the U.S. Constitution was under attack just as thousands of armed militia members began arriving in Richmond for a Monday gun rally. Trump doubled down with his support of gun enthusiasts in the state, which Hilary Clinton won in 2016 and where Democrats took full control of the state legislature for the first time in a generation in November, as candidates made passing stronger gun control laws a central campaign theme. "Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the...

Chancellor Richard Carranza on Thursday night fled rather than face parents’ fury over growing discipline and safety problems at city schools. At a packed Community Education Council meeting in Queens, Carranza took direct fire from two parents whose kids were victims of separate physical and sexual assaults at MS 158/Marie Curie in Bayside. Once a highly regarded school, MS 158 has seen a string of ugly incidents in recent months, including a vicious caught-on-video lunchroom fight last week and a classroom sexual assault last month. Video of the fight shows a relentless assault by one female student on a classmate...

Not much seemed solemn or prayerful about Nancy Pelosi's appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night. In Maher's return from a holiday hiatus, the House speaker spoke gleefully about her colleagues impeaching President Trump and doubled down on her Russian-charged attacks against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. After Maher pointed out that Pelosi was initially "rather reluctant" to move forward with impeachment and waited until "it was inevitable," the California Democrat responded that Trump simply gave his critics in the House "no choice" in the matter. "The president was self-impeaching almost every single day," Pelosi said. "There...

We all died in 2016, and our punishment for our bad decisions is to relive the presidential election every single day, with the exact same cast of characters. The streaming service Hulu released the first trailer Friday for its four-part Hillary Clinton docuseries titled, Hillary. (Although “docuseries” may not be the best word for it. “Hagiography” seems more appropriate.) Director Nanette Burstein reportedly shot more than 35 hours of original interview footage with Clinton and used a total 1,700 hours of footage to create what CNN describes as an “intimate portrait of the one-time Democratic presidential candidate.” 'One-time?' Have we...

Royal Caribbean Cruises has alleged the Indiana grandfather who dropped his granddaughter from the 11th story of the Freedom of the Seas ship knew the window was open, citing surveillance video that shows him holding the 1-year-old outside for more than 30 seconds before she plunged to her death. Toddler Chloe Wiegand was playing with her grandfather, Salvatore Anello, in the “Kids Water Zone” aboard the cruise ship on July 8 when she fell from an open window onto the concrete Pan American Deck in Puerto Rico. Anello, who is facing charges in her death, has repeatedly denied knowing the...

Four people were arrested on sex trafficking charges in San Jose Wednesday after police served search warrants at two locations that were suspected to be brothels, police said.

Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson has secrets. The man who green-lit the Ukrainian whistleblower’s complaint despite zero first-hand knowledge of alleged wrongdoing gave damaging, sealed testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. According to ranking member Devin Nunes, the information Atkinson revealed information that hurts the Democrats’ impeachment case. He spoke to Sara Carter about the investigation into Atkinson’s dealings. Nunes, R-CA, spoke to this reporter for Monday’s podcast. He revealed that transcripts of Atkinson’s secret testimony will expose that the Inspector General either lied or he needs to make corrections to his statements to lawmakers. The transcripts has been...

David was one of the remarkable men of the Old Testament. He was a capable musician and beloved poet. He excelled as a military leader and king. And as “a man after God’s own heart” he was an exceptional religious leader. Yet, in spite of his illustrious achievements, Israel’s greatest king was not without some grievous faults — not the least of which was his shameful conduct with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:1-27). As the Pharisees of Jesus’ day possessed a diabolical skill at twisting the Scriptures to justify their own evil desires, even so, some today are equally adept at...

On February 18, 1762, at Spring Gardens in England, a 19-year-old musician named Marianne Davies gave a concert that introduced the world to a brand new, fascinating musical instrument: a row of delicate tuned glass bowls in a beautifully-finished wooden chest, mounted horizontally on a long spindle, called a glass armonica. As she came from a musical family, Miss Davies herself was already somewhat well known around London’s musical circles. Her father was a composer and flautist, and she and her sister had been performing – both singing and playing instruments – since childhood. But this particular concert was news:...