Free Republic

Here’s another black eye for the Justice Department’s Obama-era leadership: The case against Gen. Michael Flynn is in full collapse. Federal prosecutors just backed down from their demand that Flynn — President Trump’s first, short-lived national security adviser — serve jail time for lying to FBI investigators, telling a court Wednesday that probation would be a “reasonable” sentence. In fact, Justice had long wanted leniency, since Flynn cooperated fully with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations. But last month it started seeking up to six months of confinement — mainly because he’s no longer taking responsibility for his crime. “I am...

A record-shattering tab for TV ads, $12 million for a self-created tech firm to rival Donald Trump’s digital operation and nearly $250,000 on swank office furniture for his sprawling Manhattan headquarters — that was just a fraction of Mike Bloomberg’s budget for the first five weeks of his young, self-funded presidential campaign. Bloomberg’s top two campaign lieutenants, chair Patti Harris and manager Kevin Sheekey, are on track to earn annual salaries of $375,000, according to a campaign aide. And that doesn’t account for the vintage Bloomberg staff bonuses, which totaled $1.5 million the year of his 2005 mayoral race alone....

The impeachment coup shows how desperate the Dems are. Their “witch hunt” is destined for failure. They know that this “witch hunt” will not change anything, so they use the spotlight to create media fuzz by using lies! They even tried to stage a huge protest in front of the Capitol. A coalition of progressive advocacy groups descended on the U.S. capitol Wednesday with plans to engage in “mass non-violent civil disobedience” aimed at pressuring senators to allow witnesses in President Donald Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial. The “Swarm the Capitol” event was organized by Center for Popular Democracy Action, Public...

Does it get discouraging? Do you feel like you want to pull the covers over your head? Yes. But it's just not how I'm made, and it's not what I think this country that I love and I've tried to serve should stand for,” she told the interviewer. “So, I get back in the fray.” At the premiere of “Hillary” at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend, Hillary made sure to make news on Facebook, likening the platform to a foreign power and calling Mark Zuckerberg’s policy of permitting lies in political ads “Trumpian,” and “authoritarian.” Zuckerberg, Clinton said, has...

We can see the basic outline of how a fraudulent impeachment scheme was constructed through an alliance of operatives in the National Security Council (NSC) and staff in the House committees. Our nation is currently dealing with the consequences. However, if we go back to Nancy Pelosi’s December 2018 rule changes, there is clear forethought. It now looks like the Lawfare network constructed the ‘whistle-blower’ complaint aka a Schiff Dossier, and handed it to allied CIA operative Eric Ciaramella to file as a formal IC complaint. This process is almost identical to the Fusion-GPS/Lawfare network handing the Steele Dossier to...

Just last week I told you how Illinois’ new automatic voter registration system led to a possible 545 non-U.S. citizens being registered to vote. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s office said the data of 574 people who self-identified as non-citizens was erroneously forwarded to elections officials to be registered to vote. Election officials confirmed that 545 of them were ultimately registered. No worries though as demorat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims the system has been “fixed!”

UK: Islamic jihadi says it’s clear in Qur’an that pregnant women are “fair game” “if they’re not Muslim JAN 31, 2020 4:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER One hopes that Pope Francis, that most learned of imams, will hurry to Britain to explain to Mohiussunnath Chowdhury that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” “Buckingham Palace sword attacker said killing pregnant women is ‘fair game’ if they weren’t Muslim, court hears,” by Lizzie Dearden, Independent, January 27, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): The Buckingham Palace sword attacker told his sister...

The Democratic National Committee has opened the door to allowing former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York to participate in the presidential debate it will sponsor in Nevada next month, a change from its practice that demanded candidates demonstrate grass-roots fund-raising support. The D.N.C. announced Friday that in order to participate in the debate, set for Feb. 19 in Las Vegas, a candidate must win at least a single delegate in either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary or meet polling requirements. It has eliminated the requirement that candidates must have received donations from hundreds of thousands...

Medics refusing to board ships arriving from China? STEPAN KOTCHERGA News January 30, 2020 11:31 am Strange news, or rumors, from Greece – mega container ship YM WARRANTY can’t enter Piraeus port on arrival from China, via Singapore and Suez, because medical facilities can’t provide proper and reliable medical check of ship’s crew. It is said, that port’s medics refused to board the ship, to carry out crew health screening. With that said, there were no alerts from ship’s Master, that there’s anyone ill on board, or having virus-like symptoms. What’s going on, yet unclear. Container ship YM WARRANTY, IMO...

Chinese pair isolated in infirmary, 6,000 people locked in COSTA cruise ship, Italy Mikhail Voytenko News January 30, 2020 10:53 am Chinese family pair, husband and wife, are reportedly isolated in hospital on board of Costa Cruises cruise ship at Civitavecchia, Italy, on Jan 30. Both are suffering from fever and respiratory complications, both are presently undergoing medical checks, coronavirus suspected to be the case. Some 6,000 people on board are banned from disembarking, understood both passengers and crew. The ship wasn’t identified by Italian sources, but there’s only one Costa Cruises ship at Civitavecchia at present, it’s a brand...

Mitt Romney is stoking suspicions that he is eyeing a third White House bid in 2024 after the Utah Republican broke with his party and insisted on witnesses at President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. A second Republican strategist neither affiliated with nor opposed to Trump agreed that Romney’s maneuvering during the four-month impeachment process was calculated. This veteran operative predicted the senator would be active after the November elections, trying to restore the internationalist, “Chamber of Commerce” Republicanism that dominated the GOP before the elevation of Trump, a populist and a nationalist. “He is cynically betting on an...

You could smell the desperation right through the TV. It seems as though it was for the last day that democrats saved the most colossal stupidity. Mazie Hirono let slip that democrats have no use for the Constitution "I don't care what kind of nice, little, legal, constitutional defenses that they came up with" Constitution be damned. I thought that if we waited long enough democrats would reveal themselves. Hakeem Jeffries appeared to be a Trump plant. He argued that the Steele dossier wasn't foreign interference because it was "purchased." Joe Biden drifted off into some distant ethereal world when...

Mitt Romney is a good friend and an excellent Senator. We have disagreed about a lot in this trial. But he has my respect for the thoughtfulness, integrity, and guts he has shown throughout this process. Utah and the Senate are lucky to have him.— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) January 31, 2020

A group of moderates, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), met with McConnell Friday afternoon to hash out strategy to end the trial. In response to the concerns of moderates who want to follow the model of the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial, which set up 25 hours of closed-door deliberations, Senate GOP leaders floated the idea of having time for deliberations starting Monday. But under one proposal senators would have gotten 10 minutes each to speak on the articles of impeachment against Trump.

Belgian journalist and former pro cyclist Sven Spoormakers posted a screengrab on Twitter that has caused outrage on social media after making a crude comment referring to a young female reporter covering the Vuelta a San Juan.

Across a frightened nation divided by politics and culture, a fragile harmony is ascendant, as Americans in small towns and large cities alike cry out in trembling unison: Hey, where did all these Californians come from? Talk of a “California Exodus” is sweeping the country—and so are anxieties about its effects on the rest of the West. In October, the Boise mayoral candidate Wayne Richey proposed at an election forum to build a $26 billion wall to keep out people moving from the Golden State. (His backup plan to stop the invasion of Boise? "Trash the place.”) A viral Wall...

A new Rasmussen poll shows black voter support for President Trump has doubled in the last year to an astonishing 42%. In November, polls by both Rasmussen and Emerson showed Trump had a remarkable 34% approval rating among black voters, compared to the 8% he received from blacks in the 2016 election. An analysis by the Washington Examiner in November showed the dramatic rise in support by blacks could make the difference in the 2020 election.

At the impeachment trial of President Trump being conducted in the Senate, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Roberts refused to carry out his duty to read a question posed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken). Paul tried to ask what involvement Rep. Schiff's staff might have had with Obama Administration holdovers in efforts to oust Trump from office. Roberts, as had Schiff before him during the House impeachment investigation, said he "blocked the question because it might lead to the disclosure of the whistle blower's identity. The government often relies on confidential informants to build a case against...

John Andretti, a longtime competitor in NASCAR, IndyCar and sports-car racing, died Thursday. He was 56. The Andretti Autosport team confirmed his passing after a long battle with colon cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2017. “We will forever carry with us John’s genuine spirit of helping others first and himself second,” a statement from the Andretti team read in part. “John Andretti embodied the spirit of a champion and inspired an entire fan base through his courageous battle with cancer,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said in a statement. “He was a fierce competitor throughout his life, and we...

**SNIP** House impeachment managers argued that failing to hear from people with first-hand accounts in this case will set a dangerous precedent for future trials. "We agree with the president's counsel on this much: This will set a new precedent," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead impeachment manager, said on the Senate floor. "You can bet in every impeachment that follows - whether it is a presidential impeachment or an impeachment of a judge - if that judge or president believes that it is to his or her advantage that there shall be a trial with no witnesses, they will...