Free Republic

President Trump’s acquittal on impeachment charges is welcome, but hardly the best news of the week. For, unnoticed until recently, another court proceeding advances, and win or lose, this matter can shake the globalist, deep state swamp off its here-to-now protected foundation. The case in question is Lawrence W. Doyle and John F. Moynihan (Petitioners) v Internal Revenue Service (Respondents), a case where allegedly corrupt actions of the Internal Revenue Service itself may fall under the microscope. It likely involves as yet unprosecuted crimes by “charities” that are still corruptly directed by household names. For history of this case, and...

Our gospel tune today is John, John, John by Anita Carter (1964). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

The “Palestinian people” is a propaganda fiction. It’s time to stop playing along. President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” was a brilliant illustration of his mastery of the art of the deal. This extravagantly generous proposal, and the Palestinians’ contemptuous rejection of it, severely damages the international Left’s claim that the Israelis are the obstacles to peace, and exposes the Palestinian leadership for the genocidal warmongers they are. Now it is time to take one more crucial step: end the recognition of the “Palestinian people” altogether!! There is no such nation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or culture, and never was! Returning...

Iain Murray grew up reading and writing by candlelight, not because he lived in premodern times but because he lived under democratic socialism. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other contemporary American advocates of democratic socialism lean heavily on the democratic part, which is at least in part a matter of marketing. To take their talk of democratic principle seriously requires forgetfulness and credulousness: During the last great uprising of democratic socialism in the English-speaking world — in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, where young Iain Murray, now a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was doing his homework...

Presidential historians will note that the re-election of President Donald Trump was not secured in November of 2020, but nine months earlier in February. In a span of two days, Democrats displayed to the country why their party should not be given political power. In Iowa, Democrats could not conduct a simple presidential caucus with relatively few voters participating. The totals were not announced on Monday night due to “irregularities.” The embarrassment even caused liberal media outlets to denounce the Democratic Party’s ineptitude. By the next day, only 71% of the vote had been released. Clearly, the bungling leads many...

After suffering a drubbing in Iowa and bizarrely conceding he will likely lose New Hampshire's Democratic primary next Tuesday, Joe Biden is under immense pressure to turn his floundering US presidential campaign around. The popular former US vice president has been the national frontrunner for more than a year, but his enviable position is increasingly under threat, and rivals -- including a socialist-leaning senator and a small-city mayor -- smell blood in the water. The 77-year-old moderate is being eclipsed on the campaign trail by mostly younger candidates with sharper stump speeches, more hustle, and telegenic debate performances. An average...

Eleven years ago, the writer Michael Walsh wrote (under his penname David Kahane) “Think of the Democratic Party as it really is: a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.” After the Democrats’ Russia, Kavanaugh, Mueller, and Ukraine fiascos, the Iowa caucus debacle, and Friday’s bizarre Democratic debate, I think we need to update it: It’s a Criminal, Insane Posse masquerading as a political party. The following day, the Senate voted down the House’s absurd impeachment effort, after which the President gave a heartfelt address to all those in the House and Senate who had helped him in exposing the...

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who has played a leading role in investigating the Trump-Ukraine scandal, is facing questions about his own connection to a Soviet-born businessman who has raised money for his campaign and whose company has received lucrative defense contracts from Ukraine's government. That man is Igor Pasternak, the founder and CEO of Worldwide Aeros Corp., which makes blimps for military and commercial customers. His business has also been involved in weapons manufacturing, working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to produce a modified version of the M4 and M16 rifles, according to reports. PELOSI DEFENDS SCHIFF AFTER BEING...

he Democrats’ takeover of the Virginia statehouse includes advancing legislation that would give driver’s licenses to as many as 300,000 illegal immigrants in the state. The local Fox News affiliate reported that critics say the law would reward this demographic, which has already broken the law by being in the country illegally. Those who support the bill say it would “increase the state’s revenue and decrease the level of fear existing in the immigrant community.” “There’s 17 other states who have done it and the other states have removed the legal presence requirement, the number of collisions have gone down,”...

Looks can be deceiving. As you watched the president deliver what may have been his best speech ever, you thought you saw Democrats acting like a pack of disrespectful juveniles. While President Trump recited a long list of economic successes, Democrats appeared to be wearing pained expressions on their normally cheery faces. They were unable to rise to their feet, let alone applaud in acknowledgment of the litany of great news for our nation. The self-described champions of free speech openly groaned as the man who reinvented talk radio was recognized for his contributions to our ongoing national debate. Some...

PLYMOUTH, N.H. - In a perfect world, Susan Stepp, a 73-year-old retiree, would be voting vote for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, she says. But that won’t be happening. “I am not sure a woman is the best candidate to go up against Trump,” Stepp said recently as she stood in the back of a conference room listening to tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang as part of her hunt for the best candidate to challenge the Republican incumbent. Stepp’s concern has coursed through the Democratic primary for months, registering in polling, interviews and, now, the...

It didn’t take long to find out what an unleashed Donald Trump looks like — and I’m not referring to his petulant, un-Christian comments at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning or even his toxic, stream-of-subconsciousness victory lap in the East Room of the White House early that afternoon, during which the leader of the free world introduced “top scum” and “bullshit” to the public presidential lexicon. Sure, both performances offered disturbing glimpses into Trump’s very scary emotional state, as if his Twitter feed weren’t enough. But even as he debuted the latest iteration of his angry-victim performance art,...

Just a few weeks ago, Orson Bean appeared on The Mark Steyn Christmas Show, and delighted both the audience in the room and the far larger crowd who watched the broadcast. All of us who worked on the show were devastated to learn that last night Orson was killed by a car while crossing the street in Venice, California. As Orson said on stage, he was born during the last year of the Coolidge Administration, which would make him ninety-one years old, which is, as he put it, "not bad". (Silent Cal was a maternal second cousin once removed.) In...

“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (Proverbs 9:8 KJV).

"It is said that the people are revolting." "You said it! They stink on ice!" Substitute "deplorables" for "people" and you have the attitude of not only "the resistance" in western Pennsylvania desperately trying but failing to convert Trump supporters but of Campbell Robertson in his New York Times article which chronicled the futility of their efforts. It is obvious upon reading the article that liberal political conversion therapy is just not working.You get the sense of the futile nature of their task by reading the Thursday article title, "In Trump Country, the Resistance Meets the Steel Curtain," as well as the...

Two words leaped to mind just before Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced that he would vote to convict President Donald Trump on one article of impeachment: frog's legs. Frog's legs were on the menu as then-president-elect and Romney dined at Jean-Georges, a high-ticket eatery inside the (where else?) Trump Hotel in November 2016. After having refused to endorse Trump and calling him unworthy of the Oval Office, Romney nonetheless publicly auditioned for the prestigious secretary of state post. It was a public humiliation for Romney, the GOP 2012 nominee, who had to eat swamp meat and his own words while...

Today’s CG is from The Arkansas Gazette. WXI TEW KP RAJAMQ RAIN RINN AM IRAUAMTWAMQ KBE WEKBZRIN WXTM AM QEKSAMQ SAWX WXIU. —ZIEMTEV ZTEBHX 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...

The Talk Shows February 9th, 2020 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, NOPE*. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Buttigieg; Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Two NOPEs*.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Buttigieg, Sanders, Same two NOPEs*; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.THIS WEEK (ABC): Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Buttigieg, THREE NOPEs*.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Buttigieg, Sanders, Same earlier Two NOPEs*; Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES (FNC): Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf. *NOPE...

It’s pearl-clutching Democrats who got massacred by Trump impeachment trial: Goodwin Pearls clutched, hair on fire, heads exploding — pick your favorite image to describe the left’s latest reaction to President Trump. Once again, the end is near, he’s gone too far, this time we got him. His outrage against all that is good and pure was to pink-slip star impeachment witnesses Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland. “Friday Night Massacre” screamed the usual suspects, a not-very-subtle reference to Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.” The difference, unmentioned, is that Trump was already acquitted, whereas the Nixon impeachment...

This was the week everything broke. First the DesMoines Register poll, an important bellwether for the crucial Iowa Caucuses, broke. Then the vote-counting process in Iowa broke. Then Democrats at the State of the Union broke. More fantastically, though, after the historic address to Congress, the elite media broke. When President Trump gave his State of the Union speech we were told it would be “low key.” Instead, it was a show for the ages, replete celebrations of heroes like Tuskegee airman, General Charles McGee, and Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Hake who was killed during his second tour of Iraq.