Free Republic

It’s no secret that many of today’s students are ignorant of American history and of how American democracy works. According to a 2018 survey conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, only 1 in 3 Americans would be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test. Clearly, the current education system—at the K-12 and college levels—has failed to do its job. And that includes the University of North Carolina system schools. According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), none of the UNC system schools require students to take “a survey course in either U.S. government or history...

More Americans now identify as Republicans than they do as Democrats, according to new polling regarding party affiliation conducted by Gallup. According to the polling, conducted on January 16th-19th, 30% of American identify as Republicans. 27% identify as Democrats.

Its Swingin' Monday and we feature Leon McAuliffe with his Blue Guitar Stomp (1951).

... Skid Row is the epicenter of L.A.’s addiction crisis. More than 12,000 homeless meth and heroin addicts pass through here each year, with thousands living in the vast network of tent encampments that line the sidewalks. For decades, L.A. has centralized public services in this tiny city-within-a-city. The result: it’s become an iron cage of the social state, with the highest concentration of homelessness, addiction, and overdose deaths in Los Angeles County. Fire Station 9, which covers Skid Row, is now the busiest firehouse in America, responding to 35,518 calls for service last year, including a record-high number of...

Make no mistake, Michael Bloomberg is buying off opposition with money, usually in the form of charitable (and therefore tax-deductible) or political contributions to voices that otherwise would oppose him. It’s totally legal, but also totally corrupt, for it corrupts the words and actions of important political figures...But is what he is accomplishing really that different from what the “oligarchs” of Ukraine and Russia accomplish? Grabbing control of the apparatus of the state with money is the name of the strategy, only the tactics differ.

... Reducing incarcerationPete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders propose to reduce by 50 percent the number of people incarcerated in the United States at both the federal and state level. This would be quite the lift. If by “incarcerated” they mean every prison (as opposed to jail) inmate, they would have to persuade the states (responsible for 88 percent of 1.5 million prisoners) to reduce the sentences for some very serious crimes, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, and maybe even sharply curtail the use of recidivism as a sentencing criterion. Since over half of all state prisoners are in for murder, rape,...

Today’s doozy CG is from The Arkansas Gazette. 10 minutes or less is an achievement worth celebrating. Author well known. XNKDTLP, EFKGNDF NDK ZLFJYXNJO GHNJ, YHJJTD MF IJRNCFE, XTZFCFL, NS SHYFE ZNDX YTILHOF, JFFE JTD MF RNCFE HOHNJ. - WHPH HJOFRTI 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....

A New York City man who’s now been arrested 139 times thanked Democrats for guaranteeing his immediate release despite repeatedly swiping hundreds of dollars from unsuspecting subway commuters since the state’s new bail reform law went into effect Jan. 1. Charles Barry, 56, has been arrested six times since the start of this year. He’s been released each time without having to post bail under New York’s new bail reform law since his alleged offenses were nonviolent, the New York Daily News reported. In the past, Barry’s served several stints in state prison and has a lengthy record, including six...

Rev. Al Sharpton's unsuccessful presidential campaign had nearly $1 million in debt at the end of 2019 ⁠— more than 15 years after his 2004 presidential bid. Sharpton's former campaign treasurer Andrew Rivera is responsible for paying off the $925,713.78 in debt. "I have asked Andrew Rivera, the finance chair of my 2004 campaign, to set up a meeting with the Federal Election Commission so that I can resolve any campaign debts related to Sharpton 2004,” Sharpton told the New York Post. “I am willing to work out a settlement for all claims with my own money to the degree...

Only in the weird world of ‘woke’ would Michael Bloomberg come under such intense fire for arguably his most significant accomplishment while serving as the Republican mayor of New York City - managing to keep the densely populated city’s crime rate in check. Well, it’s not so much the accomplishment itself that’s causing quite the stir, but rather the, er, less than ‘woke’ tactics he used to get the job done. Political correctness being what it is, of course, the billionaire businessman had to apologize and back off the whole stop-and-frisk business early in his campaign. It was a ‘mistake’...

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I want you to tell me, without bursting into laughter, that I am still supposed to respect our federal law enforcement institutions. I keep hearing about these wonderful keepers of norms and rules and stuff deserve our awe, and then I see the tawdry, self-serving and scummy way they operate, and gee – there’s a disconnect. A big one. If the price of our society is submitting to these corrupt and incompetent people of garbage, well, then I say burn it all down.That’s the only way to save it: to level it and start over.Let’s review how our guardians of...

[Intro by poster topher] Two bodies still trapped under wreckage after 4 months... NEW ORLEANS — Four months after the Hard Rock hotel construction site on Canal Street collapsed, the mangled concrete and twisted steel still looms over downtown New Orleans. On the border of the collapse zone, a memorial for the three men killed in the collapse continues to grow. Advertisement The site has become a landmark, with visitors and locals stopping to take pictures and write messages on ribbons for the families of Anthony Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola and Quinnyon Wimberley, who died when the building fell Oct....

A New York City environmental organization called “BK ROT” violates OSHA safety regulations by forcing its employees to dangerously use their feet as brakes, “Fred Flintstone style,” on a bicycle, while hauling “almost eight hundred pounds” down “substantial hills” * A New York City environmental organization called “BK ROT” violates OSHA safety regulations by forcing its employees to dangerously use their feet as brakes, “Fred Flintstone style,” on a bicycle, while hauling “almost eight hundred pounds” down “substantial hills.”* Sandy Nurse, the organization’s founder, is running for political office.* Nurse also thinks she shouldn’t have to pay back her college...

“Civil war,” wrote Algernon Sidney, “is a disease, but tyranny is the death of the state.” The aftermath of war extends beyond physical destruction. Not just PTSD in individuals, but rarely does war leave the combatant societies unaffected. The victors of our 1861-1865 conflict imposed their will on an upended South, and subsequently opened their arms and welcomed back the vanquished on condition that they incorporate the 14th Amendment into their state constitutions. Big changes. But, upon curing the disease, the division over slavery, the US grew to new heights in prosperity. During the war, and less well-known, government for...

Left-wing protesters have ambushed a Joe Biden Wall Street fundraiser with a coffin for his campaign and chants of 'drop out Joe.' Following dismal results in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden was attacked by the New York Communities for Change organisation as he left the bash in Manhattan on Thursday night. 'Things are looking pretty grim,' said one of the protesters as he gave a mock eulogy, 'The campaign is pretty much done. The people have spoken. Young people have spoken.' Biden was in midtown hoping to drum up around $1million from 250 big donors but was heckled on his...

A group of protesters blew their tops — literally — as Sen. Bernie Sanders was campaigning in Carson City, Nev., on Sunday. The Democratic presidential hopeful had just finished introducing his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders as “the next First Lady” when a woman walked up to the mic and started rambling about subsidies for the dairy industry, video posted to social media showed. “Bernie, I’m your biggest supporter and I’m here to ask you to stop propping up the dairy industry and to stop propping up animal agriculture. I believe in you,” she exclaimed before the sound was cut. Two...

Prager University [PragerU] founder Dennis Prager shot back at comedian Samantha Bee’s criticism of the nonprofit saying on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday that he takes the criticism as “a compliment,” adding that it’s also “a bit depressing.” Prager made the comments reacting to the late night host saying on Wednesday on TBS' “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” that PragerU “is actually dangerous.” “They’re reaching a new, younger audience with [expletive] conservative propaganda,” she said. “They trick kids into thinking they’re videos are educational even though PragerU is as much of a real college as Monsters University.”

Check Your Voter Registration StatusAs a voter registered with the American Independent Party you can ONLY vote for that party's presidential candidates in the March 3, 2020, Presidential Primary.If you want to vote for the Green, Peace and Freedom, or Republican Parties' presidential candidates, you must re-register with that specific party.You can re-register to vote online at registertovote.ca.gov. If you need to re-register after February 18, 2020, you may need to register to vote in person at a polling place, vote center, or your county elections office.Republican Delegate List (PDF)Presidential Primary Election - March 3, 2020 Election Date Voter Registration...

February 17 2020 Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jas 1:1-11 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings.Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he...