Free Republic

Just one month after Mariposa County Supervisors voted to give themselves a $30,000 pay raise, there is an active effort afoot from community members to reverse it. On Jan. 7, the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors voted to increase the supervisors’ annual salary. The board passed an ordinance which increased the base salary for the supervisors from 25 percent to 40 percent of the salary of a Mariposa County Superior Court judge’s salary, which is about $200,000. That percentage change boosts the supervisors’ salaries from approximately $50,000 to around $80,000, not including benefits.

A new chapter in the college political conversation on campus opened up at the beginning of this semester when a student organization called America First Students announced its conception on social media. The new organization’s constitution says: “America First Students is a student organization that believes in putting America and its people first. We stand in defense of Christian values, strong families, closed borders, the American worker, and the preservation of tradition.”

Paranoia and fear about an epidemic are often worse than the disease itself. If you want to get a taste of the insanity provoked by the new coronavirus, look no further than US Republican Senator Tom Cotton. As I discussed on Sunday, there has been a conspiracy theory circulating in social media and fringe media groups in the United States claiming the virus was bioengineered as a weapon by the Chinese but was accidentally leaked into the population. This is because the epicentre of the outbreak is near the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is certified to handle the world’s...

Baylor, a private Christian university located in Waco, Texas, is known as the largest Baptist university in the world with approximately 17,200 students on its 1,000-acre campus and is affiliated with the Texas Baptist Convention, which is subsequently connected to the Southern Baptist Convention. Reformation Charlotte previously reported that Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) had attempted to invite Native American new age occultist, Kaitlin Curtice to preach to the students. Fortunately, she was unable to make the appearance at the time. However, Cru leader, Matt Mikalatos had defended his invitation to her seemingly ecstatic that he was almost able...

“Ray Donovan” will return to give fans a proper ending after being unceremoniously axed by Showtime, sources have exclusively confirmed. The Liev Schreiber drama will either come back for a few final episodes or a movie to lay the characters to rest, Page Six can reveal. Fans were left fuming after Showtime canceled the show a week ago — denying them a proper ending after the Season 7 finale finished with a cliffhanger. Series showrunner David Hollander admitted that he and the show’s creative team had been blindsided.... And a source confirmed to Page Six: “There was an outpouring of...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Louie Gohmert. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Louie Gohmert is a conservative congressman and Freedom Caucus member from Texas. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the bottom half (answer grid) belowEach letter must stay in...

You tell me. Open primary. A large black electorate could save Biden but Bernie will be 'easiest' to beat. Blacks have a problem with Mayor Pete so what to do? I say Republicans push their buttons and vote for Pete. Alabama Democrats did the same recently-remember? 2 can play this game. If we give Pete too much momentum the answer is simple: It's Super Tuesday in a couple of weeks.

Washington, DC  ~  Wednesday, February 12, 2020 Remarks as Prepared for DeliveryThank you for the introduction, Dean Morrison.  I’d also like to thank ACUS for inviting me to speak, and Deputy Attorney General Rosen for his important remarks and leadership on this issue. As Dean Morrison mentioned, I am the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Policy at DOJ.  I am grateful to be here to discuss the Department of Justice’s position on nationwide injunctions. Across administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has taken the position that nationwide injunctions are improper.  The Obama Administration argued forcefully against them,...

Washington, DC  ~  Wednesday, February 12, 2020 Remarks as Prepared for DeliveryThank you, Dean Cass.  Thank you also to the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), George Washington Law, and the ABA Section of Administrative Law for inviting me to speak today.  I also want to thank ACUS Vice Chair and Executive Director, Matt Wiener, who also recently spoke at the Department of Justice’s Summit on Modernizing the Administrative Procedure Act.Today’s topic of nationwide injunctions is both important and timely.  Many observers have commented on this issue with a focus on legal and policy concerns, and you will hear...

A mother-of-two has appeared in court accused of describing a transgender woman as a 'pig in a wig' alongside a number of offensive and upsetting tweets. Kate Scottow, 39, was arrested by three police officers at her home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, late last year as her then ten-year-old daughter and 20-month-old son looked on. Her arrest followed complaints from transgender campaigner Stephanie Hayden who told St Albans Magistrates Court today that Scottow - who was subsequently charged - had in a number of tweets referred to her using 'he' or 'him' during a period of 'significant online abuse'.(snip) In the...

This is a video of the Iowa Democrat Party chair Troy Price resigning and trying to answer questions about problems with the caucus ...

Beijing’s purge of officials in Hubei province picked up pace with the removal of the top Communist Party leaders in the region as the central government responded to public anger over what is seen as the botched handling of the deadly coronavirus outbreak. China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that Hubei party secretary Jiang Chaoliang had been replaced by Shanghai mayor Ying Yong, 61, a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Communist Party leader of the city of Wuhan, Ma Guoqiang, 56, also lost his job, Xinhua said. He will be replaced by Wang Zhonglin, 57, the party...

I will say, opposition to voter ID laws is strange. If the problem is that not everyone can afford an ID or has easy access to the DMV, states should work to ameliorate those issues. Free IDs for those who can’t afford one, full online registration. I say this because too many illegals end up voting in our elections. No debate on Election Security should go forward without first agreeing that Voter ID (Identification) must play a very strong part in any final agreement. Without Voter ID, it is all so meaningless! The democrats are getting ready for 2020 and...

McClatchy Co. filed for bankruptcy Thursday, a move that will end family control of America’s second largest local news company and hand it to creditors who have expressed support for independent journalism. The Chapter 11 filing will allow McClatchy to restructure its debts and, it hopes, shed much of its pension obligations. Under a plan outlined in its filing to a federal bankruptcy court, about 60 percent of its debt would be eliminated as the news organization tries to reposition for a digital future. The likely new owners, if the court accepts the plan, would be led by hedge fund...

It appears that the U.S. military is taking this coronavirus outbreak extremely seriously. An executive order has been issued which has initiated the implementation of “the Department of Defense Global Campaign plan for Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Diseases 3551-13”. We don’t know all of the details of the plan, but we do know that it instructs U.S. military officials “to prepare for widespread outbreaks”. Many in the mainstream media continue to try to convince us that this virus is not much more dangerous than the common flu, but if that is true then why is our military taking such a...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X’s, he misses the action & just can’t keep his mouth shut,. ...which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do. His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside & said strongly that “John respects you greatly. When we are no...

All great human rights efforts of every era have been anchored in the stories and faces of their victims and survivors, giving them meaning outside of an abstract concept, and awakening the human mind to truth through the voices of survival. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. literally “gave face” to the Civil Rights movement; Elie Wiesel humanized the inhumanity of Auschwitz in a way that could no longer be ignored. The list of “faces” is exhaustive. When a victim – a survivor – stares you in the eye and tells you their story, a paradigm shift takes...

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - China's Communist Party has replaced the party heads in the coronavirus stricken province of Hubei and its capital Wuhan, state media said on Thursday, reporting the most high profile officials to be dismissed in the wake of the epidemic. The removal of Jiang Chaoliang, the leading Communist Party official of Hubei province, and Ma Guoqiang, his counterpart in Wuhan, follows the dismissal of two provincial health officials on Tuesday, and is part of a wider effort by Beijing to remove bureaucrats it accuses of shirking their duties. The central government has set up a special...

p>Right now scientists are trying to accomplish something that was inconceivable a decade ago: create a vaccine against a previously unknown virus rapidly enough to help end an outbreak of that virus. In this case, they're trying to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that has already infected tens of thousands of people, mainly in China, and given rise to a respiratory condition now known as COVID-19. Typically, making a new vaccine takes a decade or longer. But new genetic technologies and new strategies make researchers optimistic that they can shorten that timetable to months, and possibly weeks —...

Posts Posted on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 How Does Pride Grow in Our Life? Pondering a Teaching by St. Bernard of Clairvaux So you think the idea of the “Twelve Steps” is new? Well, if you think you’ve got a new idea, go back and see how the Greeks put it, or in this case how the Medieval Latins put it. St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified twelve steps up the mountain of pride in his work Steps of Humility and Pride.In today’s post, we focus on the Twelve Steps of Pride. Tomorrow, we’ll tackle the Twelve Steps of...