Free Republic

• One more thing about Bloomberg: He isn’t merely trying to buy the Democratic nomination; he’s also starving the Democratic Party into submission. The Intercept notes that Bloomberg is hiring so many Democratic political staff people, with guaranteed salaries through November whether he gets the nomination or not: Bloomberg’s spending is having a shockingly disruptive effect on Democratic politics throughout the country: He is hiring armies of staffers and canvassers in nearly every state in the country at eye-popping salaries, poaching talent from other campaigns and progressive organizations that are now struggling to fill jobs. In just three months, the...

Bloomberg is rising in polls and just qualified for the debate stage in Nevada, but a question nags: who really wants Bloomberg to be president? Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s massive campaign spending—hundreds of millions of dollars and counting—appears to be paying off. One poll this week showed Bloomberg tied with Sen. Bernie Sanders in Virginia, each with 22 percent, and after garnering 19 percent in a national poll released Tuesday, Bloomberg has qualified for the Democratic presidential debate tonight in Las Vegas.At first glance Bloomberg’s poll surge suggests the New York billionaire has a real shot at...

Poor Paul Krugman. He’s been reduced to using zombie metaphors to illustrate his disdain for certain “centrist” Democratic presidential candidates. Krugman wrote Feb. 17 that “sometimes zombie ideas also manage to eat centrists’ brains,” in an op-ed headlined “Have Zombies Eaten Bloomberg’s and Buttigieg’s Brains?” This appears to be an obvious play on his recently released book “Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future.” To be clear, Krugman assured his readers that the “most important zombie ideas are on the right, kept undead by big money from billionaires who have a financial interest in getting...

President Donald Trump granted clemency to eleven people Tuesday in what mainstream media outlets are calling a “clemency spree,” but many are ignoring the several women — including women of color — who were granted relief from long prison sentences, in pursuit of headlines tying Trump to “corruption” and “white collar crime.” Trump did, of course, grant commutations and pardons to several high-profile individuals, including former governor Rod Blagojevich, former New York police comissioner Bernard Kerick, financier Mike Milken, and pro-football Hall of Famer Edward DeBartolo, Jr. But while media focused on creating a common thread tying these commutations and...

I explore Surah 96, and debunk some Muslim claims about early persecution, the alleged divinity of the Koran and explain why you can't necessarily trust Islamic historiography.

The FBI not only gave ex-British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele classified information, they paid him to show up to accept the information, according to the Inspector General report released late last year. The information about Steele received little media attention, but Eric Felten at RealClearInvestigations (my former employer) has now brought that information into the light. Remember, Steele is the one who compiled the infamous Steele Dossier filled with salacious information about President Donald Trump. He was paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. “The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz details how a team of FBI...

A seminary president has warned The Episcopal Church's leadership that with the current rate of decline, they will cease to have any Sunday worship attendance in 30 years.Kristine Stache, interim president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America-affiliated Wartburg Theological Seminary, gave a presentation Friday before the denomination's Executive Council.Stache drew from the most recent parochial report data which found that, from 2008 to 2018, the denomination experienced a 24.9 percent decline in average Sunday attendance and a 17.5 percent decline in baptized members.“It depicts a church that appears to be dying,” said Stache, as reported by Egan Millard...

There’s “far apart on the political spectrum,” and then there’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Meghan McCain. On Wednesday morning, those opposing political views came to a head during Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance on The View, where she sparred with McCain on everything from the 2020 Democratic primary to Bernie Bros. While the two remained relatively civil for the entire interview, there were a few moments of tension when McCain grilled Ocasio-Cortez on socialism and progressive policies. “To conservatives like me, it is like the apocalypse,” said McCain. “It’s a huge ask for people like me, this seismic shift from capitalism to socialism.”...

A historic desert locust infestation in East Africa could cause the next major famine as people in the region are already struggling with hunger after droughts were followed by cyclone flooding, one of the world’s leading evangelical charities has warned. A growing spread of city-sized swarms of locusts has reached seven East African countries in recent months. The invasion has been described as something similar to an account from the book of Exodus as the grasshoppers have torn through crops, grass and other green vegetation. Experts say the crisis might be the result of exceptionally wet weather from rare cyclones...

A Kobe University doctor touched off a furor with a firsthand account of a virus-stricken cruise ship in which he said the protections against infection were so weak he was scared he would get sick himself. Kentaro Iwata, who made the allegations in widely circulated YouTube videos after spending Tuesday aboard the Diamond Princess, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the crew should be removed as soon as possible because of the danger of catching the novel coronavirus on the ship.

Microphones and cameras lurk everywhere. You may want to slip on some privacy armor.Last year, Ben Zhao decided to buy an Alexa-enabled Echo speaker for his Chicago home. Mr. Zhao just wanted a digital assistant to play music, but his wife, Heather Zheng, was not enthused. “She freaked out,” he said. Ms. Zheng characterized her reaction differently. First she objected to having the device in their house, she said. Then, when Mr. Zhao put the Echo in a work space they shared, she made her position perfectly clear:“I said, ‘I don’t want that in the office. Please unplug it. I...

If anyone is watching his press conference it will make Dem HEADS EXPLODE! Calling the Dems racist, being gracious, giving Trump props for being a problem solver, not a normal politician not getting anything done. And the Black guy next to him nodding yes about Trump being the real deal!!!

In an article in “The Christian Post” on whether the Flood of Noah covered the entire globe, Hugh Ross contended that the Flood was not global in extent but regional. Taking Genesis as straightforward history, the reader of the text should have little difficulty understanding the account of the Flood in chapters 6–8. We are told that “the fountains of the great deep” burst open and poured out water onto the earth's surface for 150 days. The “floodgates of heaven” were open, producing torrential rainfall. These passages express a flood of global geographical extent. This view is confirmed by the...

A former health care consultant pleaded guilty today to mail fraud and tax evasion relating to her scheme to be employed under false pretenses as a highly paid health care consultant, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.According to court documents and statements made in court, Sonja Emery, using several aliases including “Sonja Lee Robinson,” “Sonjalee Emery-Robinson,” and “Sonjalee Emery,” resided in Georgia, New Jersey, New York, and California.  From 2011 through 2018, Emery falsely represented her professional status, educational background, and work experience to secure and maintain highly paid consulting...

“More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William P. Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend Roger J. Stone, Jr.,” The New York Times reported on Sunday—if you can call it reporting.Not once in the 800-word article did the Times address the overwhelming evidence that the thousand-plus signatories were politically motivated critics of President Donald Trump. In fact, to the contrary, the Times claimed “the former Justice Department lawyers” “came from across the political spectrum” to...

Two former executives of the Indonesian subsidiary of the French power and transportation company Alstom S.A. and a former executive of the Japanese trading company Marubeni Corporation have been charged in a superseding indictment unsealed today for their alleged participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials in Indonesia.Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney John H. Durham of the District of Connecticut and Assistant Director in Charge Paul D. Delacout of the FBI’s Los Angeles Office made the announcement.Reza Moenaf, 63, the former president of Alstom’s subsidiary in...

A Metamora, Michigan, business owner pleaded guilty today to tax evasion and conspiring to steal from an organization receiving federal funds, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.According to court documents and statements made in court, Anthony Sereno co-owned and operated several businesses in Michigan, including USA Direct LLC (USA Direct), which advertised on behalf of health care providers and solicited individuals for medical and personal injury legal services. During 2013, Sereno diverted funds from USA Direct’s business account for his personal use, but did not include those funds on his...

A Georgia man is being praised for his good timing after he was caught on video using his grocery cart to help police nab a shoplifting suspect in a Walmart parking lot. The quick-thinking Good Samaritan appeared to time the exact moment the suspect would run past his cart before pushing it in front of his path in a video the Peachtree City Police Department released last week. The video shows the cart knocking the suspect to the ground, allowing officers to catch up and apprehend him. One officer pats the unnamed do-gooder on the shoulder as others help pick...

The Chinese regime is using “non-traditional collectors,” such as professors, researchers, and front companies — as opposed to traditional undercover spies - to acquire sensitive technology from the US. The Chinese regime is 'very proactive' acquiring U.S. research BEFORE it becomes classified,keep in mind with western democracies and in the U.S. in particular a lot of information that’s of use is not classified. This is 'a vulnerability that’s significant'...So essentially they’re obtaining vast amounts of data/information essentially legally, but because they are being very active and proactive, they access it either before it becomes classified or they access obscure information...

Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a Mexican citizen residing in Singapore, was arrested based on a Complaint charging him with acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government (Russia), without notifying the Attorney General, and conspiracy to do the same.John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Ariana Fajardo Orshan, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; George Piro, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Diane J. Sabatino, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Miami Field Office, made the announcement. According to court...