Free Republic

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has adopted in the 21st Century the same interpretation of the Constitution's war power that President George Washington did in the years immediately following ratification of the Constitution. Lee and Washington are right. Those who reject their interpretation are wrong. "Any sustained offensive military operation would require congressional authorization," Lee told me in an interview last week. When the framers of the Constitution convened on Aug. 17, 1787, the issue of the day was language in the draft Constitution that gave Congress the power "to make war." Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, according to notes...

Joe Biden decisively won Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president’s victory there, as well as in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho, dealt a serious blow to Sanders and substantially widened Biden’s path to the nomination. Biden again showed strength Tuesday with working-class voters and African Americans, who are vital to winning the Democratic nomination. Sanders won North Dakota and awaited results from Washington state. Washington’s primary was too early to call, and because all votes there are cast by mail or by dropping them...

Las Vegas resort and casino properties are taking extra precautions and changing policies due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19. MGM Resorts International made the announcement Tuesday that they will be temporarily closing their buffets at their properties including ARIA, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Luxor and Excalibur. The company said that “the safety and health of guests and employees continue to be top priority.” The changes will go into effect on Sunday, March 15.

Three employees with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in California tested positive for the coronavirus, the agency confirmed Tuesday. The employees, who work at Mineta San Jose International Airport in Santa Clara County, and all other workers they came in contact with over the past two weeks are quarantined at home. “Screening checkpoints remain open and the agency is working with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], as well as the California Department of Public Health and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department to monitor the situation as well as the health and safety of our employees and...

A large swath of those casting ballots in Tuesday’s Democratic primary think Joe Biden is the man to beat President Trump — especially women and African American voters, who fueled the former veep’s string of commanding victories. About 80 percent in Michigan and Missouri and roughly 90 percent in Mississippi believed Biden, 77, could trounce the incumbent in November, according to AP VoteCast surveys. And they delivered him wins in all three of those states.

An analysis of the novel coronavirus’ spread inside the United States suggests that thousands of Americans are already infected, dimming the prospects for stomping out the outbreak in its earliest stages. Researchers estimate that by March 1, the virus had already infected about 1,000 to 10,000 people who have not yet been accounted for. At the start of this month, about 80 U.S. cases had been confirmed and officials were still expressing confidence they could contain the new virus. Quarantines, contact tracing and other public health measures have likely tamped down the COVID-19 outbreak here, the researchers said. But from...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder insists that his redistricting lobbying and litigation shop merely wants to make maps less partisan. Responding to our editorial last November on his court redistricting coup, he wrote that he supported “citizens or nonpartisan commissions to draw electoral lines so neither party benefits.” Interesting, then, that he’s not supporting such a reform in Virginia now that Democrats control the Legislature. Last week Virginia’s House of Delegates voted 54-46 to place a referendum on the November ballot to establish an ostensibly nonpartisan citizen commission to draw legislative and Congressional maps after the 2020 Census. A majority...

Looks like another blood bath today.  The Coronavirus hysteria in the media is drving the market down. https://www.cnbc.com/pre-markets/   

The cruise ship industry is reeling. The outbreak of the new coronavirus has made the basic fundamentals of the business medically inadvisable to the point that the State Department has issued a warning to U.S. travelers—chief among them the elderly—to stop taking cruise ships until the threat has passed. And yet, even as thousands of people have found themselves stuck on ocean liners, in close confines with others suffering from a deadly virus, not everyone is ready to bag their cruise ship getaway. Indeed, while some shudder at the prospect of enduring severe flu-like symptoms and a 14-day quarantine, others...

Most conservatives who lived through the Clinton years would not want to stomach all 253 minutes of the new "Hillary" documentary streaming on Hulu, a platform now owned and controlled by Disney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was asked if he would do an interview for it, and apparently, he told the filmmakers he would "rather stick needles in (his) eye than do the interview." I sat through all of it. There's only one Republican in this thing -- former Sen. Bill Frist -- and he was quoted as saying that it "was easy to demonize her." Gingrich knew instinctively...

Dr. Helen Y. Chu, an infectious disease expert in Seattle, knew that the United States did not have much time. In late January, the first confirmed American case of the coronavirus had landed in her area. Critical questions needed answers: Had the man infected anyone else? Was the deadly virus already lurking in other communities and spreading? As luck would have it, Dr. Chu had a way to monitor the region. For months, as part of a research project into the flu, she and a team of researchers had been collecting nasal swabs from residents experiencing symptoms throughout the Puget...

Tuesday during remarks carried live on CSPAN, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the Democrats were worried about President Donald Trump’s “incompetence and lack of focus” regarding the fight against the spread of coronavirus. Now, I’m going to be blunt. We are very worried about the president’s incompetence and lack of focus on fighting the spread of coronavirus. We believe that his lack of focus, his hamstringing efforts to address this public crisis, and inflicting pain on the stock market. One word could describe thus far the administration’s response, incompetence.”

The mainstream media has downplayed another scandal involving former Vice President Joe Biden's family.A new report revealed legal problems and allegations of possible fraud involving former Biden's brother, James, on Monday – but anyone who relies on the mainstream media would have no idea. In the latest instance of the Democratic primary front-runner’s family members’ dealings drawing scrutiny amid his presidential bid, James Biden’s business with medical companies – including Americore Health – led to allegations that he potentially engaged in fraud and traded on his brother’s name, Politico reported early Monday.CNN and MSNBC completely ignored the story on air through Tuesday afternoon. ABC, NBC and CBS skipped the story on their evening...

There’s an old brain teaser that goes like this: You have a pond of a certain size, and upon that pond, a single lilypad. This particular species of lily pad reproduces once a day, so that on day two, you have two lily pads. On day three, you have four, and so on. Now the teaser. “If it takes the lily pads 48 days to cover the pond completely, how long will it take for the pond to be covered halfway?” The answer is 47 days. Moreover, at day 40, you’ll barely know the lily pads are there. That grim...

There was another mass shooting in America. This time at a Molson Coors brewery in Milwaukee on February 26. An employee walked in the plant and, for inexplicable reasons, gunned down five people before committing suicide. This tragedy has once again sparked the discussion of gun control. The usual suspects are making the usual claims - and as usual - stoking demonization of Second Amendment advocates. But much of the public and media discourse about mass shootings, like the public discourse about crime in general, is fact-free. This has led to a political and ideological war. As in all wars,...

From Twitter, cropped by Dean Weingarten Writing in the Atlantic, Aaron Tang, Professor of law at the University of California, creates a profoundly misleading comparison of the Second Amendment with a fabricated entitlement to an education. Tang attempts to make the case that Second Amendment supporters and proponents of a theory the Constitution guarantees a right to an equally funded state education are rough equivalents.There are minimal similarities in the arguments: a basic right implies a level of supporting rights. You cannot have effective Second Amendment rights without access to ammunition and a place to train. You cannot have an...

Washington (CNN)Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, a key voice on gun violence prevention, has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, calling him the "choice for a true gun safety president." "Joe Biden leads with his heart. He has the compassion and toughness to lead on gun safety," Giffords said in a statement Wednesday morning. "I've witnessed him comfort the survivors of gun violence, and I've seen him fight for solutions to gun violence—and win. This is the leadership we need in the White House. Joe Biden is the choice for a gun safety president." Biden thanked Giffords for her support,...

Do you have your "bug-out bag" (BOB) ready for when the "s*** hits the fan" (SHTF), or will you "bug in" for "the end of the world as we know it" (TEOTWAWKI)? This jargon is well understood within niche "prepper" communities, whose members spend their lives preparing for impending Armageddon -- natural disasters, pandemics or financial collapse. And the ideas that drive this culture are becoming increasingly mainstream as coronavirus panic sees people across the world stockpiling rations, sourcing gas masks and self-isolating at home. Now, "civilians" are turning to expert preppers in droves for help in getting ready for...

After years of squeezing ever more workers into tighter office spaces, companies are realizing how efficiently the modern workspace can spread diseases like the coronavirus. Cubicles and private offices have made way for open floors, where a sneeze or cough can circulate uninterrupted. Companies have removed physical barriers between employees, encouraging them to socialize as much as possible. Between 2018 and 2019, the average office space per seat in North America declined by 14.3% to 195.6 square feet, according to brokerage firm JLL’s 2020 Occupancy Benchmarking Report. Many companies also have abolished assigned seating, rotating workers through the office. That...

Anti-Trump NBC pundits Seth Meyers and Nicolle Wallace just mockingly asked if during the Coronavirus panic, it was proper for First Lady Melania Trump to give an update on the construction of the White House tennis pavilion. Long-time President Trump despising talk-show host Meyers condescendingly opined to Wallace: “If people want to play tennis, they should be able to play tennis. I feel very strongly about this. But…our first lady, in the middle of a pandemic, posted a photo about how the tennis pavilion is going. As someone who was in communications, do you think this is a good...