Free Republic

Democrat state senators in Oregon have introduced legislation to pay black Oregonians $123,000 in reparations. The bill would have the Department of Revenue establish a reparations payment program to residents “who can demonstrate heritage in slavery” and have identified as “African-American” for at least ten years. The Daily Wire reports that “according to a copy of the state Senate bill, the government will pay six figures to any person who can demonstrate that they are a descendant of American slaves and have “identified as African-American” on legal documents.” In order to qualify for the reparations, a person must live state...

Democrats and far lefties have been so desperate for a president that’s not Donald Trump that they were literally crying tears of joy during the first presidential address to the nation by a mushmouth, low-energy, septuagenarian dinosaur named Joe Biden. Biden might actually be driving the country into the ground. But his fans are talking him up as if he is an American messiah, rescuing us from a time of Trumpian darkness and incivility. The level of Biden butt-kissing done by Hollywood during the president’s speech was extremely high, so high that celebrities like Rob Reiner referred to the sluggish,...

A white Georgetown Law professor was fired Thursday after getting caught on video belittling black students during a Zoom call with a colleague, saying they “usually” perform “just plain at the bottom” of her classes. Georgetown Law Dean Bill Treanor said he was “appalled” by the conversation between now-terminated adjunct professor Sandra Sellers and another faculty member, David Batson, who was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. “I informed Professor Sellers that I was terminating her relationship with Georgetown Law effective immediately,” Treanor wrote in a statement released Thursday afternoon. “During our conversation, she told me that she had...

Imagine yourself a Democrat seeking elective office in a competitive district, the kind of place with a reassuring plenitude of Unitarian churches and vegan bistros, but just a few too many tax-weary entrepreneurs and stodgy evangelicals lurking about to let you breathe easy. You calm yourself by sitting back and rereading an old favorite poem, Bertolt Brecht’s “The Solution,” and you wonder if the author was onto something when he reckoned it could make sense “to dissolve the people and elect another.” (Brecht was being sarcastic, but you, being a Democrat, cannot sense this.) You desire some extra voters who...

Let's face it: Joe Biden is not totally in control of his mental faculties.You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. The problem we are now faced with is not what should be done about it, because we know what should be done... the problem is: if we were to do what should be done, will we actually be much worse off?In other words, as frightening as it is to have a mentally debilitated Commander-in-Chief, is it still better than a competent and empowered President Kamala Harris?As #DementiaJoe trends on social media following President Biden's shaky performance Thursday night...

Once again, Pennsylvania lags behind other states, as we see more and more mask mandates lifted and indoor dining capacities increased. It is time for us to follow suit and begin to reopen our economy. It has been a year since the COVID pandemic brought things to a halt across the nation and the world. We have learned a lot throughout that year, but we have also seen a great deal of hardships imposed that have negatively impacted small businesses and in turn, individuals, families, and our overall economy. To quote Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, “We know what we need...

<p>When humans flooded their zoo in South Africa, after months of lockdown, the African penguins couldn't have cared less, according to a new study. Meanwhile, the bubbly meerkats at a zoo in the U.K. seemed uplifted by their bipedal visitors.</p>

As President Biden wrapped up his first primetime performance Thursday night, his pronouncements served their predictable and short-term political ends, of course. More interesting, they dually serve as rhetorical choices, choices that feed into the natural process of historicization as COVID-19 loses its monopoly on our attention. What are the elements he stressed in his framing, and what lessons can we take away from the pandemic as the end potentially draws near? President Biden makes several mistakes in his first primetime performance that allow us to explore what these lessons are. They are worthy of note not because this speech...

This is insane! The city of Minneapolis reached a $27 million settlement with George Floyd’s family on Friday. The City Council unanimously approved of the settlement on Friday as jury selection for officer Derek Chauvin’s trial continues. George Floyd died last spring after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 8 minutes during an arrest.

The California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife said they used DNA analysis to link the attacks to the animal, which was euthanized and will be tested for rabies. The attacks began last summer in the town of Moraga, which borders Oakland. Five people, two children and three men, were bitten in a 2-mile area in Moraga and neighboring Lafayette. The searchers laid traps and used coyote urine to lure the aggressive animal. Several other coyotes were caught and euthanized before authorities trapped the target. The coyote approached and bit people without warning. Last month, it bit a 3-year-old girl as...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order that will eliminate all fines issued by local government officials over the past year to people and businesses in the state who violated restrictions related to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The order (pdf) was signed after the Board of Executive Clemency approved DeSantis’s proposal on March 10 to categorically remit all fines related to local government CCP virus restrictions. “I hereby remit any fines imposed between March 1, 2020, and March 10, 2021, by any political subdivision of Florida related to local government COVID-19 restrictions,” DeSantis confirmed in the order,...

Joshua James was arrested this week and is being charged in connection to the violent events of January 6th in Washington D.C. Joshua James is an Iraq War veteran. He was wounded in a bomb blast in Iraq. And Joshua is being held by the FBI without bail. Joshua is the breadwinner in his family. He has three young children including a 3-year-old. ....... Snip...... The FBI lured him out of his home in Alabama by pretending to be a customer needing a pressure washing. Then an Army armored vehicle with a turret on top, 2 FBI vans, 6 FBI...

MINNEAPOLIS — The city of Minneapolis has reached a $27 million settlement with George Floyd's family just weeks before the trial is scheduled to begin for the former officer charged with murder in his death. The City Council unanimously approved the settlement Friday after adding the matter to its agenda for a closed session Floyd's family filed a federal lawsuit in July against the city and the four officers involved in the arrest that led to his death. The lawsuit took issue with neck restraints and police policies and training, among other things. It sought compensatory and special damages in...

Joe Biden’s decline has change into so painful to see and so embarrassing to observe that it feels merciless to say it. But it’s much more merciless that Biden’s crew act as if it’s not taking place, and most of America’s media look the opposite manner. On Thursday night time, Biden marked the primary anniversary of the Covid-19 shutdowns and his fiftieth day within the White House by giving the primary televised tackle of his presidency. He hadn’t been seen in public for 3 days, which is what he appears to require if he’s to not unravel before the cameras....

Some 20 million Americans received unemployment benefits last month and another 10 million remain unemployed. But actor Jason Alexander is sleeping better these days. The Seinfeld star was relieved following President Joe Biden’s primetime address on Thursday, telling his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers he “slept with a sense of ease and hope” that he had “not known” during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a veteran prosecutor overseeing a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump, said Friday that he won’t seek reelection, opting against a primary fight with progressive candidates who say he’s a relic and not a reformer. Vance made the announcement in a memo to staffers, ending months of speculation about his future and almost certainly guaranteeing it’ll be a brand-new D.A. who sees the Trump case through. His term expires at the end of the year. Vance, a Democrat, counted Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction a year ago among his crowning achievements but faced withering...

Rep. @AOC "There's so much more work to be done." Video...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The construction worker stood on his tiptoes and tried to arrange a crown of thorns on a statue of Jesus while architect Jorge Rigau fired a flurry of directions from beneath the ladder. “Grab it like this and move it just a bit,” he said, motioning with his fingers. “Move it to the right, but don’t lower it.” It was one of the final touches on a detailed restoration of the second oldest surviving Spanish church in the Americas, whose construction had begun by 1532 on land donated by famous explorer Juan Ponce de...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) voiced his support for a union-organizing drive at an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in Alabama, accusing the e-commerce giant of waging a culture war that hurts its workers and the economy. In an op-ed article in USA Today on Friday, Mr. Rubio said that adversarial relations between workers and companies could harm the country’s competitiveness. But he said he would support employees “when the conflict is between working Americans and a company whose leadership has decided to wage culture war against working-class values.” “The days of conservatives being taken for granted by the business community are...

Piers Morgan isn’t bothered by the commotion following his public criticism of Meghan Markle, sources confirm to Page Six. The bombastic Brit revealed he was forced to leave his job on “Good Morning Britain” because he wouldn’t apologize to Markle for disbelieving her claims about her mental health, but a source who knows him tells Page Six he isn’t concerned and “thrives on the uproar.” Morgan, 55, stormed off the set of the British talk show earlier this week following an on-air clash with colleague Alex Berenson over Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. UK broadcaster ITV later...