Free Republic

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker and ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump is launching a “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election, demanding cooperation from counties and mimicking a widely criticized partisan effort in Arizona. Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, issued letters to three counties Wednesday, giving officials there a sweeping information request, with the threat of subpoenas for holdouts who do not respond affirmatively by July's end. The effort is facing strident opposition from Democrats, and any Senate-issued subpoenas for a partisan Arizona-style “election audit ” will almost certainly be challenged in Pennsylvania’s courts. Arizona's audit was widely criticized...

Declaring their independence from British rule 245 years ago, the American colonists held "these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They went on to announce, "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely...

A judge in Texas earlier this year effectively denied a U.S. citizen her constitutionally protected due process rights, choosing instead to order her to appear before an Islamic tribunal where her testimony is considered inferior. And when her lawyers sounded the alarm — the judge doubled down. What are the details? In March, Collin County District Judge Andrea Thompson ordered a Muslim woman seeking a divorce from her husband to undergo arbitration not through regular channels but through an Islamic court, also known as a Fiqh Panel — a move that the woman’s lawyers argue is an obvious and unconscionable...

If a history professor asserted that black holes don’t exist, would anyone pay any attention to him? What about an English professor who advocates Lamarckian evolutionary theory over Darwin? How about a sociologist who believes in alchemy? What if these folks didn’t just have weird beliefs, what if they taught these ideas in their classes? What if they wrote articles and books and gave public speeches extoling them? The answer is obvious. They would be dismissed as kooks. And much more. On a typical university campus, the physics department would probably demand that the history professor stop spouting fake physics...

Former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday sued three tech giants — Facebook, Twitter and Google — and the firms’ chief executives after the platforms took various steps to ban him or block him from posting. Mr. Trump, speaking from his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, announced that he would serve as the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, arguing that he has been censored wrongfully by the tech companies. Speaking about “freedom of speech” and the First Amendment — which applies to the government, not to private-sector companies — Mr. Trump called his lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in...

But that’s the data we have and the pros are paying attention. “To me, the conventional wisdom that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) is favored just b/c she won a write-in campaign back in 2010 and Alaska has a new top-four system has never been that compelling,” tweeted Dave Wasserman in response to the Change Research numbers. “AK’s a red state, and GOP voters now view her as a Dem.” Another explained the difference between Murkowski and the recently reelected Susan Collins well: “Maine Republicans know Collins is about the most conservative Senator they can get from their state. Alaska Republicans...

Question my sanity, but I'm considering running in this election to recall California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Here's a big reason why. No one doubts that bad K-12 public school teachers exist. There is a phenomenon known as the "turkey trot," in which bad teachers wind up in the worst schools. Why? There is a connection between bad schools and lack of parental involvement. When you have strong parental involvement, parents pressure their schools to remove such teachers. Because of strong, protective teachers unions, these teachers are rarely fired, merely shuffled from school to school, until they land in one...

HSQHJO LU JUIP WKOV. QEHV JUI TSHCV CUQ, JUI QZSS EHPRKOV SHVKP. —UY XHCLZCU

I was curious about who would come after Pelosi if Biden and (for some reason) Harris are out. Holy Crap!!!! It's scary!!!! Below is the current line of succession for the President of the United States: 1 Vice President Kamala Harris 2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi 3 President pro tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy 4 Secretary of State Antony Blinken 5 Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen 6 Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin 7 Attorney General Merrick Garland 8 Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland 9 Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack 10 Secretary of Commerce...

I don’t know how to put this delicately, but I don’t give a damn what happens to Afghanistan after our troops leave. Maybe that’s controversial to say, I honestly have no idea, but I don’t care either. They’ve had 20 years and a fortune spent on them by us; if they can’t get their act together after that, they get what they deserve. I know it’s not fashionable to say among the “intelligentsia,” those who love war, and many think tank conservatives who’ve never held a job not dependent upon who their parents are or some rich guy cutting a...

The world may be increasingly baffled by 2021 America, and its sudden scapegoating of “white supremacist” hobgoblins for problems it cannot or will not solve. Roughly 400 Americans were shot over the past July 4 holiday weekend. About 150 of them were killed. The majority, both of the shooters and the victims, were inner-city, African-American males. The level of violence approaches the bad casualty days of the recent Afghan and Iraq wars. Meanwhile, during the carnage, progressive black leaders, from Representatives Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to Cori Bush (D-Mo.), blasted America’s foundational holiday and the country at large for its white...

The pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics will take place under a coronavirus state of emergency, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshide Suga confirmed Thursday. Speaking at the start of the government's Covid-19 task force meeting, Suga said he had decided to declare a new state of emergency for the capital from July 12 to August 22 -- covering the 16 days of the embattled Games in its entirety. "The number of infected cases in the area including Tokyo has been increasing since the end of last month," Suga said. "The number of severe cases and bed occupancy rate continues to be on the...

The Gay Men’s Chorus’s song is meant to be a joke but, aside from its lack of musicality, it’s not funny. One of the real sticking points for American parents is the left’s insistence on forcing sexuality onto kids. In leftist world, kids must be exposed as early as possible – in preschool is best – to all 52 or 76 or 103 (or whatever) different “genders” and sexual practices the LGBTQ community is currently claiming. Parents understand that, when leftists refuse to allow children a long, innocent period in which to develop their own sense of self free of...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a new executive order this week declaring a disaster emergency over gun violence in his state. “Gun violence is a public health crisis, and we must treat it like one,” Cuomo tweeted. Cuomo saying anything about public health crises or how to handle them is well, laughable, given his colossal and deadly mismanagement of the Wuhan coronavirus in New York. But beyond that, declaring a public emergency over gun violence is a transparently partisan and anti-gun move aimed at getting gold stars from leftist Democrats who never rest in their attempts to undermine the...

Click on link

The assault against the United States of America is entering a new phase. The anti-American left, with its impoverished vision of the human soul, constantly bemoans the United States as a villainous nation founded on hatred and prejudice, crime and thievery, murder and imprisonment. The anti-Americans assert the entire American experiment is flawed, from the Mayflower Compact to the American Revolution itself. How, then, should patriotic Americans respond? Narratives are power. This is something that conservatives have failed to grasp. For all the good of policy programs like lower taxes, deregulation, encouraging a spirit of entrepreneurship, and so forth, such...

On June 15, the White House issued a "Fact Sheet: National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism." This fact sheet is strangely devoid of facts and is vacuous in the extreme, but it communicates that the present administration sees a connection between defeating terrorism and having a government-controlled economy. Is it not true that vacuous thoughts presented as though they were serious and careful are almost always dangerous? Based upon this principle of understanding, the "national strategy" is one of the most dangerous documents I have read in my lifelong study of U.S. history. The shift from domestic terrorism to much...

Recently we’ve been seeing stories in the news about average Americans pushing back against liberal initiatives. Taken alone, these stories are entertaining, though not particularly earth-shattering. But observed together, do they form a pattern? Are we seeing the beginning signs of a cultural realignment? One recent story is that of women protesting a California spa allowing “perfectly normal women with penises” to use the female facilities. The protesters were quick to point out that they are Democrats and support LGBTGFNB rights. But it turns out there is a limit to the amount of leftist baloney that even Democrats can accept....

Last week President * went out for ice cream again, and the media was on it, quizzing him on what flavor he selected, the kind of cone, whether it was yummy. It seemed to be yummy, according to the flashcards that he uses to help him survive these intense journalist grillings. It’s great to know that our alleged president is capable of licking an ice cream cone. Unfortunately, besides watching “Matlock'' reruns, that’s about all this crusty old weirdo can do. He’s senile, and he’s a mess. That’s not open to debate, because we aren’t allowed to debate it –...

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday pushed for more Americans to get vaccinated amid growing concerns about the delta coronavirus variant. "There's no good reason not to get vaccinated. We need to finish the job. And I know there's some skepticism out there, but let me put it his way: It may not guarantee you don't get it but it almost guarantees you don't die from it if you get it," McConnell said at an event in Kentucky. McConnell has long publicly advocated for Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine, but his latest comments come as a USA...