Free Republic

It may be early days in the Democratic primary race, but Bernie Sanders is now the favourite to win the party’s nomination and set up a Trump-Sanders presidential election. As the prospect of Sanders winning becomes ever more real, some commentators are downplaying his socialist credentials, painting the veteran Senator as no more than a moderate social democrat. “Memo to left-wing Americans who adore Sanders’s radical ‘socialism’…” says Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan, “in most other Western/European countries, Sanders would be considered a pretty mainstream, centre-left social democrat.” His view is shared by the economist Paul Krugman. Dastardly Republicans might have...

A federal judge appeared unwilling to delay a sentencing hearing scheduled for Roger Stone later this week, amid an effort by Stone to secure a retrial in his case. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Tuesday at a teleconference hearing that it would not be “prudent” to further delay the sentencing hearing, but said she’d delay the execution of the sentence until after the retrial request was resolved.

No one should be above the law, Republican or Democrat. Nor should our elected leaders undermine equal justice under the law.Okay, now that these obvious statements have been made, what should we make of the 1,100 signatures to a letter calling on Attorney General Barr to resign amid all the debate regarding the Department of Justice (DOJ)? As someone who served, albeit briefly, as a federal prosecutor, this question is of particular interest to me.First, consider that the DOJ resides in the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Department of Justice Building. Bobby Kennedy was his brotherÂ’s closest political ally and...

Remember that giant gavel that Nancy Pelosi carried in triumph across Capitol Hill after the House voted for Obamacare in 2010?   You know, the one that looked like a croquet mallet? During the State of the Union address last week, she looked bereft without it as she chewed her lip, gauging the distance between her and Mr. Trump.  It would have been so quick and easy. And who could have blamed her? Certainly none in the media. They would instantly have discovered all sorts of mitigating circumstances.But, not having her mallet handy, she settled for ripping up her copy of...

Border Patrol agents apprehended five migrants and an alleged American citizen human smuggler during an attempt to move the men into the U.S. interior. The bust occurred on the 'outskirts' of Tucson, Arizona. Agents conducted a traffic stop at the Tucson city limits .... As the agent approached the vehicle, he observed a person lying on the floor of the rear seats. The agent determined that person to be an illegal immigrant, according to Tucson Sector officials. The agent carried out a search of the vehicle and found four additional migrants packed inside the trunk. The agent arrested the driver,...

Over twelve minute long video report by Prof. Kentaro Iwata of the Division of Infectious Disease Therapeutics, Kobe University who visited Diamond Princess cruise ship. Diamond Princess is COVID-19 mill. How I got in the ship and was removed... https://youtu.be/vtHYZkLuKcI @YouTube さんから Diamond Princess has completely inadequate infection control, and there is no professional ID person in charge. Diamond Princess has completely inadequate infection control, and there is no professional ID person in charge. Passengers, crews, health care professionals... Youtube link

NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie, who hit Ryan Newman's car during the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Monday and sent him spinning into a fiery wreck, has recalled the horrifying impact and said he did not know who he'd hit because he was going so fast. Newman remains in the hospital in a serious condition. According to a NASCAR statement released on Monday night, he is expected to make a full recovery. He was leading the famous race in his No. 6 Ford Mustang when he first hit the wall at 195 miles per hour. It sent his car...

SADDLE RIVER, NJ – As part of a fair housing settlement with Saddle River, a 5-acre estate once owned by Rosie O'Donnell will be redeveloped into affordable units. An agreement was reached Monday that calls for the development of 139 housing units to help satisfy Saddle River's obligation to provide housing for low-income people and individuals with disabilities, according to a press release from the Fair Share Housing Center. Under the settlement, O'Donnell's former home on East Allendale Road, along with two adjacent lots, will be converted into eight affordable homes, the release said. The one-time home of the comedian...

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was recently hit with criticism over his past remarks on “Stop and Frisk” and the policing of Black neighborhoods. Now, his alleged discrimination against women has come to light. Documents from a 1998 lawsuit reported by The Washington Post reveal the vile remarks the Manhattan billionaire said to a female saleswoman at the financial data company he founded. According to the lawsuit, when Bloomberg heard that the woman was having trouble finding a nanny, he snapped and told her to hire any random Black person to care for the child, The Huffington Post reports. “It’s...

While I am very sorry to hear of the painful divisions your denomination has been experiencing since the General Conference in 2019, I am writing to assure you that there is hope for the future through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Delegates and bishops pray before a key vote on church policies about homosexuality during the 2019 United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis. | Photo: UMNS/Mike DuBoseAh, but what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Does it, perhaps, change with time or is it — like Jesus himself — the same; yesterday, today, and forever?The Anglican ministers who founded your...

The Boy Scouts of America said Tuesday that the national organization has filed for bankruptcy protection in a bid to ensure equitable compensation for thousands of sexual abuse victims who were harmed while participating in their programs and ensure they can continue to carry out their mission for years to come.The BSA also noted as a part of the Chapter 11 process, it has created a Victims Compensation Trust that would provide equitable compensation to victims.“The BSA cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting. We are outraged...

Here is what Democratic candidate for president Michael Bloomberg said in 2016 at Oxford, in what he apparently offered up as an ad hoc history of labor, agriculture, and industry, leading up to his own sophisticated era, as reported in the New York Post: “I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg told the audience at the Distinguished Speakers Series at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School. “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.”...

The View‘s Meghan McCain recently sought a clearer answer from Mayor Pete Buttigieg about his position on late-term abortion. She asked him where he drew the line and whether his position included a baby actually being born: Buttigieg: We live in a country where it is extremely important that no one person should have to be subject to some other person’s interpretation of their own religion.” I wondered whether Mayor Pete thought religious freedom equally applied to say, Jack Phillips’ right not to be forced to create a custom cake for a gay wedding. Sure enough I found a piece...

By 2013 the composition of the Court had changed. Texas passed a law that required doctors who performed abortions have hospital admitting privileges. Also, the law imposed greater restrictions on abortion facilities. As a result many abortion clinics were no longer in compliance with the new law. When Whole Woman’s Health was decided Justice Scalia had died a few month earlier. The Court struck down the Texas law based on their decision in Planned Parenthood. Since Chief Justice Roberts would have upheld the law, he was not part of the majority and according to tradition the most senior member of...

It's nothing new for American mainstream media outlets to unabashedly slobber all over their chosen Democratic candidates -- that kind of overt bias is commonplace. Covert bias -- not talking about a politician and thereby giving him or her a free pass -- is a far more insidious thing. It is also essentially the current business model for Bloomberg News and its myriad media offerings. When a media entity is avoiding reporting about a candidate seeking his party's nomination for president because said candidate is the company's namesake and founder, we're getting into some Inception levels of bias. Let's be...

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new bill into law this month that changes the way voters can register their party affiliation for primary elections. Under this new measure, residents of the Golden State will be able to change parties at any time during the final two weeks before the vote, including on the day of the election. The stated purpose of this law is to boost election turnout, but what it will really do is make it easy for “Operation Chaos” maneuvers to crop up in congressional races around the state. (The Hill) California’s governor signed a bill...

Since the prosecutor debacle, which has shaken current and former attorneys across the Justice Department, the jury forewoman from Stone's trial publicly defended the four prosecutors. Right-wing commentators then accused her of bias against Trump. Stone is asking for no prison time. He has already lost one bid for a new trial after he challenged a juror for his or her employment with the IRS and for reading about his case in the news.

What was supposed to be a display of sportsmanship turned into an all out BRAWL at a college basketball game in Texas ... when things got violent in the post-game handshake line! Prairie View A&M had just defeated the Jackson State Tigers in a home game in Waller County -- but things had been chippy between the teams during regulation.

When we looked at the new DNC debate qualification rules yesterday, the only outstanding question was whether Michael Bloomberg would get the last poll he needed to make it onto the stage or if we’d just wind up with the same five candidates we saw last time. That question was answered last night when a new Marist poll saw Mayor “Throw Them Up Against the Wall” surging to 19 percent nationally, pulling into second place behind Bernie Sanders. That was the fourth poll in the past month showing Bloomberg in double digits, leading to the Nevada debate invitation since...

First of a sequence of 4 new "landscape as abstract art" music videos of satellite views of earth. Done to Johann Friedrich Fasch - Trumpet Concerto in D, 2nd movement Largo. Some of the colors are created as "false color" but each image has been cropped by Earthview into a spectacular piece of modern art. If I found these in a museum, I'd sit in front of them for hours. My new Landscape and Earthview Playlist lists all 4, as well as the 2 earlier earthview videos of more recognizable landscape features, and another 4 older landscape videos of mine.