Free Republic

Welcome to our ongoing coverage of the Minnesota murder trial of Derek Chauvin, over the in-custody death of George Floyd. I am Attorney Andrew Branca for Law of Self Defense, providing guest commentary and analysis of this trial for Legal Insurrection. As a reminder, I am “LIVE Parlering” the trial in real-time over at my Parler account, which you can find using my Parler handle: @LawofSelfDefense. Today the court moved through six prospective jurors: #42, #43, #44, #46, #48, and #49. Two of these essentially took themselves out of the running when they professed exceptional difficulties in being able to...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is quietly maneuvering to field a slate of GOP Senate candidates in critical battleground states, attempting to avoid a repeat of election cycles a decade ago when candidates emerged from primaries only to implode and deny his party the chance to take back the majority. This time around, the wily Kentucky Republican has a high-spending super PAC and he’s prepared to use it. With 20 GOP seats to defend — including five open seats where Republican senators are retiring — compared with 14 seats that Democrats have to defend, McConnell is making clear he’s not...

"Jane" is a 1979 song by Jefferson Starship from the album Freedom at Point Zero. The song peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 14, and spent three weeks at No. 6 on the Cash Box Top 100.Jefferson Starship - "Jane" (1979)

In 2017, I published a Harvard Business School report with Professor Michael Porter that addressed the unhealthy competition in politics created by party primaries and plurality voting, and first proposed this combination of open primaries and instant runoff general elections. The report made its way to Alaska and to Republican political operative Scott Kendall, who had worked for both Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and independent former Gov. Bill Walker. Inspired, Kendall wrote a bold ballot initiative around Final-Four Voting, a close sibling to Final-Five. It passed. No more party primaries in Alaska. The effect is already evident. As one of...

For a revolutionary, the world is worthless and merits annihilation. Someone who thinks so must loathe life. “There is no greater joy, there is no better music than a crushing sound of smashed bones and lives,” a Bolshevik poet echoed in a hymn to obliteration. The Nazis “were destroyers,” argued psychologist Erich Fromm. “They hated not only their enemies, they hated life itself.” A zeal for annihilation is at the core of extremism, no matter what the orientation. Remarkably, emotional rejection of the world almost always precedes the destroyers’ ideological justification of a plan for its ruin. Nihilists at the...

On Thursday, CNN political commentator [and Self-Avowed Communist] Van Jones praised President Joe Biden’s address on the coronavirus pandemic as a calling to a “deeper patriotism.” [Self-Avowed Communist] Jones said, “I just think that he is the guy we need right now. When he talked about I’m going to heal the soul of America, a lot of people thought that was some corny stuff. But to see the president of the United States standing up there, he didn’t say you need me. He said I need you. I mean, my God, that is —isn’t that it? We need each other....

California’s proposed ethnic studies curriculum urges students to chant to the Aztec deity of human sacrifice. Next week, the California Department of Education will vote on a new statewide ethnic studies curriculum that advocates for the “decolonization” of American society and elevates Aztec religious symbolism—all in the service of a left-wing political ideology. The new program, called the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, seeks to extend the Left’s cultural dominance of California’s public university system, 50 years in the making, to the state’s entire primary and secondary education system, which consists of 10,000 public schools serving a total of 6 million...

A year into the pandemic, a lot has changed. And we're reminded of that every time we go outside (if we go outside). Masks have joined the traditional don't-leave-home-without-them trifecta of keys, wallets and phones - and they are here to stay. There are folks who hate them, who can't breathe through them, or who think they're a sign of political oppression. But for others, the widespread use of masks has made the past year one of liberation. With a mask, you can sing in the grocery store, talk to yourself on a walk, grimace in the gym, leave the...

The massive Interstate 70 construction project in central Denver is not only going to take almost a year longer than planned to complete, the state highway agency has now indicated that it’s also going to end up costing between $100 million and $150 million dollars more than the originally-planned $1.2 billion price tag. Taxpayers are only on the hook for $12 million in extra costs, thanks to a refinancing arrangement between state and federal highway agencies and the construction company working on the project that will cover the rest. Colorado Department of Transportation officials refuse to provide the precise cost...

Today, the city of Minneapolis announced a $27 million settlement with the family of George Floyd. The family had sued the city for the alleged wrongful death of Floyd. The announcement comes as the trial of Derek Chauvin proceeds through its early stages. The court is in the midst of selecting a jury. Given its timing, the announcement looks to me like an attempt to prevent Chauvin from getting a fair trial, assuming there was ever any chance of him getting one in Minneapolis. But even if I’m wrong in saying that this is the city’s motive, it is almost...

The Trojan Horse of the Amazon SynodDevolving Christianity to paganismHere in America, the ill-famed Amazon Synod may not have had the repercussions that were felt in Latin America — most especially in Brazil, whose territory includes most of the Amazonian forest. Traditionally, the largest Catholic country in the world, Brazil today is being bled white with the eruption of tens of thousands of evangelical groups, sects and megachurches. Pachamama in the Vatican The loss of faith is also a result of the loss of piety among the faithful, caused by modernist clergy.Church Militant has reported on the idolatrous, pagan rituals...

Anyone my age will remember the delightful stories of Paul Harvey, who used to explain the 'unexplained' facts of history in a very colorful way. This story was passed on to me from a dear friend, who knew my interest in how the United States and Britain were able to overcome the Germans in the 'Battle of Britain' and other critical World War II aerial battles. Here is the story, exactly as written: World War II - Aviation Gasoline It seems that the German and British aircraft both used87 octane gasolinein the first two years of the war. While that...

Every month 30 million people use Gab’s services to get access to the free flow of information online. Gab is the home of free speech in a world where Big Tech oligarchs have censored, deplatformed, and demonized tens of millions of good, honest, and decent people with whom they disagree politically. Tonight Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a “Republican,” issued a despicable and false statement smearing Gab as an “anti-semitic platform that quote “has no place in Texas.” This is the same Gov. Abbott who just five days ago said he was “taking a stand against Big Tech censorship.” Gov. Abbott’s...

We must not capitulate before this world, but recapitulate all things in ChristAn interview with the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X on the pontificate of Pope Francis.DICI: Reverend Father, it has been eight years since Pope Francis ascended the throne of Saint Peter, and on the occasion of this anniversary, you have kindly granted us this interview, for which we are truly grateful.For some observers of the pontificate of Pope Francis, particularly for those who are attached to Tradition, it seems that the battle of ideas is now over. According to them, it is now...

Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec BREAKING: Prosecutors strike Iraq War veteran from serving on the George Floyd jury 3:17 PM · Mar 12, 2021·

With the United Methodist Church’s recently announcing its General Conference would be rescheduled, further examples of the denomination’s rift over human sexuality are rising to the surface. The implementation of the church’s teachings and official doctrine, or lack thereof, continues to cause discomfort as camps with vastly different beliefs await an expected separation. One such case comes from the Illinois-Great Rivers Annual Conference (IGRC), which covers the state except for its northernmost portion. IGRC’s Vermillion River District Committee on Ordained Ministry (DCOM) has recently unanimously approved Isaac Simmons, an openly gay man and publicly practicing drag queen, as a candidate...

Explanation: One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The sharp, detailed telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. Some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary to other prominent spiral features though. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering...

78-year-old Joe Biden on Friday mumbled through a 20 minute speech from the Rose Garden on the American Rescue Plan. The nearly $2 trillion Covid relief bill Joe Biden signed into law this week has nothing to do with Covid. Joe Biden on Friday falsely claimed that the $1400 stimulus payments are “what he promised.” Then he attacked wealthy, hardworking Americans. "We don’t have anything against wealthy people. You got out and make millions of dollars, that’s fine. I have no problem with that. But guess what? You gotta pay your fair share–you gotta pay somethin,'” said Biden. Biden said...

Philadelphia’s murder rate continued its record-setting pace Thursday, with three more people killed, including a 2-year-old girl found unresponsive in her Tacony home, a 16-year-old boy gunned down at a West Philly rec center, and a 24-year-old man among four victims shot in an Overbrook Park parking lot. As of midnight, there had been 96 murders recorded in the city this year, up 37% from the 70 slayings through the same span last year, according to the police department. The rash of shootings drew city officials to the rec center Friday afternoon, where they pledged new efforts to combat the...

In mice genetically predisposed to glaucoma, vitamin B3 added to drinking water is effective at preventing the disease, a research team reports in the journal Science. The vitamin administration was surprisingly effective, eliminating the vast majority of age-related molecular changes and providing a remarkably robust protection against glaucoma. It offers promise for developing inexpensive and safe treatments for glaucoma patients. Conducting a variety of genomic, metabolic, neurobiological and other tests in mice susceptible to inherited glaucoma, compared to control mice, the researchers discovered that NAD, a molecule vital to energy metabolism in neurons and other cells, declines with age. The...