Free Republic

Analysis: The former South Bend mayor's momentum moment renews nagging questions about experience and ability to represent people of color. MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Pete Buttigieg came into Friday night's Democratic presidential debate here riding a wave of momentum from Iowa. He walked out facing a new round of nagging questions about his inexperience and his ability to represent the interests of a diverse party. The first could have more of a direct impact on his chances in this state — where he is running neck and neck with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in recent polling — while the second threatens...

Both Pelosi and Romney – and probably almost all political figures and analysts of politics in America – have continually grossly underestimated Donald Trump. It became clear at his East Room event in the White House on Thursday that despite his meager experience, this man is a shrewd, steely gladiator of the political arena. Romney was looking to the post-Trump era when he cast his impeachment vote with the Democrats, betting that the GOP and the country will be pining for a washing away of Trumpism. It’s more likely Romney will soon find himself an ostracized, impotent legislator whose phone...

A good majority of New Hampshire Democrats are feeling existential right about now. According to a poll from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, 64 percent of Democratic voters would rather see "a giant meteor strike the Earth, extinguishing all human life" than President Trump re-elected. The poll, conducted Jan. 28–31, also shows about half of Independent voters would say the same extreme thing. How New Hampshire voters feel about the death of humanity does coincide with how well they're materially doing on this planet. While 69 percent of respondents making under $50,000 a year say they'd be cool with...

So-called “deaths of despair” in rural areas — from drug overdoses and suicide — have become so common that they have even affected our national life expectancy figures. Life expectancy in the United States has fallen for three years in a row. That is a reversal not seen since 1918 (during a pandemic) or in any other wealthy nation in modern times, as Nobel-prize winning economist Angus Deaton has pointed out. What should be done? Small town woes in many areas can be traced to the erosion of manufacturing jobs. A typical example is Lordstown, Ohio (population 3,300) which revolved around a...

Department of Water Resources and Fish and Game were using Cal-Fed (bond) funds to backfill their state budget deficits.

In the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, President Trump vowed to protect Second Amendment rights. President Trump gave an epic State of The Union (SOTU) speech on 4 February 2020. He touched on numerous themes, highlighted multiple successes of the Trump Administration, and recognized numerous exceptional individuals. President Trump honored radio talk show icon Rush Limbaugh with the highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The speech started near 9 p.m. Eastern time. About 69 minutes into the speech, President Trump spoke of freedom of religion, and his administration's commitment to protecting First Amendment rights.Then he...

For 68 years the National Prayer Breakfast has been a political oasis, a chance for Republicans, Democrats, national and world leaders to assemble and pray for each other and the nation. Not this year. One could tell where things were headed when President Trump arrived later than most other presidents and held up two newspapers with the headline "Acquitted," a reference to the vote by the GOP majority in the Senate the day before, which refused to convict him of articles of impeachment written by the Democratic majority in the House. The president then shook hands with only half of...

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who testified in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, was “escorted out of the White House.” A federal appeals court dismissed one of several lawsuits against President Trump alleging he violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by illegally profiting from his presidency.

LUSAKA, Zambia -- At a Chinese-run hospital in Zambia, some employees watched as people who recently returned from China showed up with coughs but were not placed in isolation. A doctor tending to those patients has stopped coming to work, and health workers have been ordered not to speak publicly about the new virus that has killed hundreds around the world. The virus that has spread through much of China has yet to be confirmed in Africa, but global health authorities are increasingly worried about the threat to the continent where an estimated 1 million Chinese now live, as some...

The wind industry claims a virtuous, moral superiority, but the millions of birds and bats that it slaughters each year, no doubt, think otherwise. If wind power proponents weren’t so arrogant and sanctimonious, the fact that their beloveds slice and dice countless birds and bats and crush millions of tonnes of beneficial insects each year would probably pass as the natural and justifiable incident of an important power source. But, starting from the position that these things are not only clean and green, but couldn’t harm a fly, leaves them wide open to a slam dunk charge of hypocrisy. Then...

Hat tip to Motzilla at The Conservatice Treehouse:

Today’s Caturday feature is getting a bird’s eye view of the world:Don’t worry, it’s a photoshop. My question: is this supposed to be the adult version of the cat who thought he was an owl…or is he serving as the  Democrat’s beacon, scanning the horizon for global warming, racism, sexism and other social injustices in order to sound the alarm? Or blow a dog whistle.And speaking of dogs, we gave short shrift to Cursday this week so I’m rolling this in as well:The Backyard Bark-o LoungerHave a great weekend. A big pot of soup is about all I’ve got on...

If you missed our livestream Clubland Q&A on Friday afternoon, here's the action replay. Simply click above and settle back for an hour-plus of my answers to questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet. This latest edition began with a Friday-night droning and ended on a musical note with Matt Monro and "Rule, Britannia!" - not the former singing the latter, alas. In between came a variety of topics from impeachment and Iowa and the State of the Union to Boris and Greta and climate change via Wodehouse and Waugh and woeful stand-up. You don't have to be...

All Chinese citizens who arrived in Yekaterinburg will be taken to a health center for two weeks of observation, Interfax reported on February 7, citing a source. According to the Agency, several dozen Chinese arrived from Beijing at the Koltsovo International around 10: 00 (8-00 Moscow time). From the airport, foreigners will go to the Yekaterinburg health center "Cheerfulness". According to Rospotrebnadzor, as of February 7 in the Sverdlovsk region, 22 people who arrived from China showed signs of SARS. None of them is diagnosed with coronavirus yet. "Cheerfulness" is closed to new reservatuons since yesterday. A medical center has...

"To the saints . . . including the overseers and deacons" (Phil. 1:1). Faithful spiritual leaders are worthy of your appreciation and esteem. Paul's salutation includes the "overseers and deacons" at Philippi. That probably is not a reference to elders and deacons as we know them, but a general reference to all the Philippian saints, which included spiritual leaders (overseers) and those who followed (servants). That implies unity and submission within the church, which brings joy to leaders and followers alike. Hebrews 13:17 emphasizes that point: "Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls,...

Back on January 21 last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a gathering of senior officials that they must be on guard against “black swans” and “grey rhinos” which could threaten the rule of the Communist Party amid a slowing economy. One year later, Xi’s wildlife metaphors about the dangers facing the country have proved prophetic on a more literal level. Scientists and medical experts have pinned down bats as the probable source of the coronavirus outbreak originating from a wet market which has stalls for trading wildlife animals in Wuhan of Hubei province. The country’s current public health crisis...

Last year, Eric Trump was asked about Secret Service protection at Trump Organization properties. “If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free,” he said. “So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like $50.” You will be stunned to learn this is not remotely true. Instead, as the indefatigable David Fahrenthold and three colleagues at The Washington Post...

(snip) ...one writer about a year ago wrote a piece asserting 15 similarities between Reagan and Trump. That thing has been sent to me more often than I could count. It practically went viral. Enough is enough. Yes, it’s time. I can hear Trump supporters protesting me writing this now, insisting that it’s time to unite against Hillary and support their Donald. But Trump’s status as the presumptive nominee is a separate issue from the comparisons to Reagan, which seem to be picking up steam. The constant claims of Trump being “another Reagan” must be addressed and must be stopped,...

Capping off on of the most incredible weeks of uniterrupted WINNING in U.S. presidential history, both Vindman brothers serving as anti-Trump spies at the National Security Council and smarmy Ambassador to the EU Gordan Sondland were removed from their respective posts late Friday. Very predictably, leftists, #nevertrump nitwits and their corrupt media toadies went absolutely nuts in response, especially over the dismissal of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the guy who played such a crucial role in dummying up the fake impeachment scam through which the Democrats have held our country hostage for the last 5 months. This, of course, is...

A 60-year-old diagnosed with coronavirus in Wuhan, China, has reportedly become the first U.S. citizen to die of the novel virus. The patient died at Jinyintian Hospital in Wuhan on Thursday, The New York Times reported. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed the patient’s death Friday night but gave few other details. “We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a spokesman for the embassy said, according to the Times. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.” On Friday, the Chinese government reported 86 fatalities on the mainland in the viruses' deadliest...