Free Republic

Last month, shortly after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio reached his seventh anniversary in office, I had a post giving him a “report card” on his achievements, or lack thereof. As you may know, de Blasio is term-limited at eight years, so he is now in his last year. In fact the contest to replace him is well under way, with the primary (that will likely determine the result) scheduled for June 22. My February post on de Blasio covered subjects like taxes, spending, crime, schools, and rent regulation. On all of those, his performance has been abysmal, if...

In a recent item for The Federalist, David Harsanyi considered the M16 rifle one of the five most innovative firearms in American firearm development history. Yet something equally significant can be said about the semi-automatic AR-15 derived from the M16. Second to the muskets used in our revolutionary and civil wars, the AR-15 may be the most important firearm in American political history. All told, more Americans have fired more rounds from more AR-15s for personal defense, defensive firearm training, marksmanship competitions, individual practice, and hunting than from any other rifle. For that reason, the AR-15 is the primary firearm...

@glennbeck The Boulder mass murder was terrible and tragic. But guns are NOT the problem. Clip...

So much of the angst over re-opening schools in the Covid era comes down to one issue: individual parents have very little say in school district decisions. This stems from the government having a near monopoly on K-12 education. No other area of life operates like this—not even other levels of education like pre-school or college. The result is that unions and district bureaucrats wield more power than parents or individual teachers. This imbalance has left millions of students unable to attend school this year. Yet every district includes a sizeable number of parents who want full-time school for their...

Michael Moore called the suspected Colorado shooter Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa as “American as apple pie” in a series of tweets in which he suggested it would be wrong to classify the suspect as “Middle Eastern” and “Islamic,” even though he immigrated from Syria.

(CNN) President Joe Biden is tasking Vice President Kamala Harris with overseeing efforts with Central American countries to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border, senior administration officials said on Wednesday, the first major issue Biden has assigned directly to his No. 2. The assignment mimics Biden's own efforts in 2014 and 2015, when he was asked by then-President Barack Obama to lead diplomatic efforts in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador after a surge of unaccompanied minors from those countries began arriving in the US. Migrants are again arriving at the border at increased levels, causing a...

Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday on “CBS This Morning” that Congress needs to act in the wake of the Atlanta and Boulder mass shootings. Harris said, “It is time for Congress to act and stop with the false choices. This is not about getting rid of the Second Amendment. It’s simply about saying we need reasonable gun safety laws. There is no reason why we have assault weapons on the streets of a civil society. They are weapons of war. They are designed to kill a lot of people quickly.” She continued, “Let us all agree that we need...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Fox News Channel Wednesday that he hasn't spoken with President Joe Biden 'since he was sworn in' - nor has he received an invitation to the White House. McConnell was trying to make the point that Biden's bipartisanship talk was just that, telling Fox's Bill Hemmer 'there's been no efforts whatsoever by the president or the administration to do anything in the political center.' A spokesperson for McConnell later clarified to DailyMail.com that the Kentucky Republican had spoken with Biden and Secretary of State Tony Blinken about Burma on February 1.

The Spectator’s Amber Athey reports that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says she’s the victim of “conservative cancel culture” over her opposition to a bill making its way through the state legislature to “promote continued fairness in women’s sports”

As an uptick of migrants, including unaccompanied children, arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, the most immigrant-populated state in the nation is “likely to be affected more than other states by what’s going on at the border,” according to Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law. “Many want to come to California,” he said. “Many have family members here. So, we as a state are more impacted than some other states.”

This week there is the likelihood that we will be presented with a new spending proposal from the Biden administration, meant to cement his overreaching agenda. This will be the effort to both spend heavily on infrastructure and domestic economic plans, as well as establish the green energy pipe dream Biden and his cohort Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have planned. This new spending plan will be divided into two prongs as it promises to be so large that the term "omnibus" will be rendered quaint upon its reveal.This is a proposal, unseen at the moment, that already is being veiled with euphemisms,...

Gila Bend Mayor Chris Riggs has declared a state of emergency due to the ongoing border crisis, saying the blame rides on the Biden administration for sending migrants to his town by bus.Mayor Riggs expressed his concern that his town is not equipped to handle the number of people coming in, especially in the middle of a pandemic.“Border Patrol let us know that they were going to be dropping migrants that had been detained for 72 hours in our town, which we really didn’t understand because we have nothing here,” Riggs said. “We have no charity organizations that can help,...

<p>DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — With restaurants and bars all closed due to pandemic restrictions, a Duesseldorf brewery found itself with 6,000 liters (1,585 gallons) of its copper-colored "Altbier" unsold and nearing its expiry date.</p><p>But with trying times come novel solutions. Fuechschen Brewery brewery paired up with craft bakers already using leftover grains from the brewing process to produce loaves of "Treberbrot," or "Spent Grain Bread."</p>

More than 40 African American intellectuals are asking Smith College to end the “forced, accusatory ‘anti-bias’ training” that was mandated for campus service workers after a student falsely accused some workers of racially-profiling her. The letter, obtained by National Review, was sent on Monday to Smith College president Kathleen McCartney by Bob Woodson, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement and founder of “1776 Unites,” and 44 fellow black intellectuals. The signatories ask McCartney to “rethink how you have handled” the fallout over an alleged incident of racial profiling in the summer of 2018, and urge her to “publicly apologize”...

CNN's John Berman must stay up nights, devising outrageous remarks aimed at winning attention for his ratings-crashing network On today's New Day, co-host Berman came up with a particularly vile attention-getter. He flatly accused lawmakers who oppose additional gun control measures of intentionally choosing mass shootings, like the recent ones in Boulder and Georgia. Said Berman: "This morning, lawmakers face a choice. It’s a choice they have faced before. Will they choose to take action, do something, anything, to try to stop these mass shootings, or will they choose the status quo? "Which means looking at what happened in Boulder...

Ex-governor of Vermont and former presidential candidate Howard Dean compared the GOP to destructive fascists Tuesday while claiming former President Donald Trump uses the same techniques dictators such as Adolf Hitler used in order to successfully convince citizens to trust him and be able to “take over.” The statements were made in a recent interview on the left-wing MeidasTouch Podcast, where the Meiselas brothers hosts have referred to the GOP as the “GOP terrorist party” or “GQP” in reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Natural flood plains form where floods spread silt and mud in river valleys. Being flat, fertile, picturesque, and usually supplied with surface and underground water, they attract farms, orchards, and gardens. These are inevitably followed by roads, houses, and businesses. Despite the all the planners with their rules, the pressure of people plus a bit of corruption has always resulted in population clustering on fertile flood plains and deltas beside scenic rivers. There is no point trying to stop or reverse this tide of history, but those who choose to build on flood plains must bear the costs of the...

Amazon’s decision to hire one of President Joe Biden’s donors to head up Amazon Web Services (AWS) sunk the company into hot water. The AWS division became notorious after it nuked free speech social media site Parler in January. Open Secrets records showed that Tableau Software CEO Adam Selipsky — who’s expected to take over AWS May 17 — made the then-maximum donation allowed ($2,800) to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2019. But that’s not all. Records showed that Selipsky also donated $3,700 to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) between 2017-2018 and $2,700 to — wait for it — former Democratic Secretary...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - A Fayetteville man said his last paycheck from his former employer came in the form of over 90,000 oil- or grease-covered pennies dumped on his driveway. Andreas Flaten said he left his job at A OK Walker Autoworks in November 2020. He said he was supposed to get his final paycheck, but was having difficulty getting it.

The United States and countries around Europe are closing ranks to respond to “aggressive and coercive” behavior by China, days after the U.S. and its allies launched coordinated sanctions against Chinese officials accused of rights abuses in the far-western Xinjiang region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that he wants to work with the U.S.'s partners on “how to advance our shared economic interests and to counter some of China’s aggressive and coercive actions, as well as its failures, at least in the past, to uphold its international commitments.” Blinken spoke after talks in Brussels with NATO foreign ministers....