Free Republic

It was supposed to be the best state government money could buy, bought and paid for by Mike Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety for the purpose of overturning the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms in Patrick Henry’s Virginia. Bloomberg overwhelmed the NRA in spending during the Virginia state election campaign. As CNBC reported last November: A gun-control lobbying group funded largely by billionaire Michael Bloomberg just helped Democrats take over the state government in Virginia -- right in the National Rifle Association’s backyard. In Tuesday’s elections, the Democrats tipped the Virginia House and Senate in their favor,...

President Trump granted clemency to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr. for his conviction more than two decades ago in a gambling fraud scandal, the White House announced Tuesday. DeBartolo, 73, gave up control of the 49ers in 2000 over his involvement in a gambling fraud case with former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. Rice, who won three Super Bowls with the 49ers, told reporters at the White House that “I take my hat off to Donald Trump for what he did.”

LINK ONLY per FR guidelines. Drain the Swamp!

Moscow (AFP) - Gripping a scalpel, Vladislav Zaitsev makes an incision in the fold of skin between his client's thumb and index finger and pushes in a small glass cylinder. Alexei Rautkin, a 24-year-old programmer in a hoodie, is having a chip inserted in his hand so he can open the door to his office without swiping a card. "It's something I decided a long time ago," he says. "Mainly because it's convenient but there's also a kind of exclusivity, because practically no one else has this." Rautkin and Zaitsev are among a growing number of Russians interested in biohacking,...

President of Ukraine invited US President Donald Trump to Kyiv. At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky has informed on what he expects from his upcoming visit to the White House. He stated this at a security conference in Munich, UNN reported. “I’m sure that this will happen (Zelensky’s visit to the White House - ed.), it's just you are very far from us. The last time I had a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, we talked about this and I said that I would really like my visit to America to be something personal for the two...

A federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay Roger Stone's sentencing amid the fallout over the Trump administration's decision to intervene in the case against the president's longtime ally. The sentencing will move forward on Thursday at its originally scheduled time, the judge said, despite a new effort from Stone's defense team to get a new trial. "I think that delaying this sentence would not be a prudent thing to do under all of the circumstances," U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said during a telephone conference with the two sides. The original team of prosecutors...

VIDEO There is a lot of competition for the exalted role of World's Worst Entertainer. It takes a special lack of skill sets. Most people lack those skills but as you can see, Mike Bloomberg lacks them best in all departments: singing, dancing, and general acting.

A pamphlet published in 1849 offers a guide to Philadelphia’s ‘gay houses’ and brothels, including reviews rating ‘the best madams and working girls’ who can ‘make a man happy.’ The pamphlet is titled A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy, Containing a List of the Gay Houses and Ladies of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. It offers a ‘correct list and description of the greater portion of the Houses of Ill-Fame in Philadelphia.’ According to Flashbak, the pamphlet contained reviews of brothels as well as bed houses, or rooms rented by...

The Pretenders founder and songwriter Chrissie Hynde issued an open letter to President Trump on Monday, urging him to work to secure the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Hynde tweeted Monday that Assange had been "duly punished" for his role in the leak of documents provided by Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier and whistleblower, and urged Trump to pardon Assange. Assange, who previously was holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for years, was arrested last year and now faces extradition to the U.S. Manning remains imprisoned for contempt of court over her refusal to testify...

The inevitable cratering of Joe Biden’s campaign, accelerated by the impeachment fiasco orchestrated by Nancy Pelosi and the inexorable rise of Bernie Sanders, has caused the Ruling Class to turn their lonely eyes to a hoped-for savior, Michael Bloomberg. But along with Bloomberg comes his de facto business partner and long-time close ally: China, a nation determined to destabilize American security, prosperity and freedom while growing more tyrannical and secretive internally and more dangerous than ever externally as it faces a potential economic and societal cataclysm. In a September 2019 interview with PBS’s Firing Line Bloomberg said: “The Communist Party...

Since Mitt Romney became the first senator in history to defy his party with a vote to convict in an impeachment trial, he's been called a "disgrace" by President Trump. He's been pilloried as a traitor each night on Fox News. And he's been formally censured by GOP organizations as far away as Louisiana.

We voting Americans need to sort out our thinking and do so before next fall. I am so tired of hearing reasonable, intelligent people express anti-Trump attitudes based on truly flimsy grounds. A relative said to me that she’d never vote for Trump because “he’s an a**hole.” I have had other people voice similar concerns in more genteel terms -– they don’t like his tweeting, his braggadocio, his unpredictability. Okay, okay. At first, I didn’t either. Now, it’s true that Trump can be a jerk. But so was Julius Caesar. So was Winston Churchill. So was George Patton. For that...

The highest profile casualty of the raging Covid-19 outbreak might yet be the 2020 Summer Olympic Games set to open in Tokyo, Japan on July 24, and Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo is moving heaven and earth to ensure this disaster doesn't occur. Since the end of January, PM Abe has gone on a high-profile media blitz to ensure countries, athletes and millions of Olympic tourists of their safety from Covid-19 in the Summer Games, which start July 24 and ends August 9 at different venues around the country. Abe's consistent message: the Tokyo Olympics won't be postponed. On February...

Two radically different approaches for how to mitigate the potential negative impacts of climate change have been advanced recently. On the left we have The Ahuman Manifesto—a tract authored by Patricia MacCormack, a professor of continental philosophy at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom. The Professor argues for human extinction as the best solution to the perils of climate change. "My interest in feminism and queer theory led me by a process of logical deduction to the conclusion that the human race must be exterminated in order to save the planet for other species," she said. "Humankind is currently...

Bernie Sanders rallied thousands of supporters in Washington state three weeks ahead of its presidential primary, calling for the grassroots movement that led to his win in the state’s 2016 caucuses to continue through the broader primary that takes place March 10. “We may not have billions of dollars to throw around, but we have hundreds of thousands of people in every state in this country knocking on doors,” he said. “And that’s why we’re going to win here in Washington and why we’re going to win all over this country.”

Posted on February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope On the Need for Moderation, Even in Learning. A while back on this blog we reflected on the puzzling truth that we can endure more pain than pleasure. We seem to be able to endure a lot of pain, but we can endure only a little pleasure at a time. In fact, too much pleasure actually brings pain: sickness, hangovers, obesity, addiction, laziness, and even boredom. You can read more of that HERE. But the point is that pleasures and good things are only enjoyed in moderation.Something similar...

NEW YORK - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday outlined a sweeping financial services policy proposal to rein in Wall Street trading, boost consumer protections, increase Americans’ access to banking services, and crack down on financial crime. The left-leaning platform marks a striking turnaround for the former Republican New York mayor who made his $60 billion fortune in financial services and who in the past has criticized reforms introduced following the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Among the most eye-catching proposals is a tax of 0.1% on transactions in stocks, bonds and payments on derivative contracts, bolstering the “Volcker Rule”...

Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly gave us a good indication of the state of the Democratic Party this weekend now that Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) is the bonafide frontrunner in the 2020 presidential primary. Kelly, who's running to unseat Republican Sen. Martha McSally in November, can't give a straight answer as to whether he'll support a democratic socialist for president. CBS 5 Arizona's Family reporter Dennis Welch first tried to get an answer out of Kelly on air on Friday. "Bernie Sanders wins," Welch said, giving Kelly a hypothetical. "Are you going to support someone who describes himself as a...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Edwin Meese. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Edwin Meese was Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan. With whiz kid Mark Levin serving as his chief-of-staff, Meese restored the integrity of the Justice Department, which had been badly damaged since the Watergate scandal and throughout inept GOP and Democrat administrations in the 70's. 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...

Margaret Cudia thought her Ring doorbell camera was "the best thing since sliced bread." She loved watching the world pass by through her suburban New Jersey neighborhood, guarding vigilantly for suspicious strangers and porch pirates from the comfort of her phone. She hadn't expected the camera also might capture awkward moments closer to home, like the time it caught her daughter grabbing a beer and talking about how controlling her mother was. "I never told her about that one," she said with a laugh. Amazon's Ring, Google's Nest and other Internet-connected cameras - some selling for as little as $59...