Free Republic

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with law enforcement in a pair of cases that implicated “qualified immunity,” the controversial legal doctrine that gives police broad protection from lawsuits. In a pair of unsigned summary rulings issued without noted dissent, the justices reversed two federal appeals courts that had permitted excessive force lawsuits to proceed against officers in separate cases arising from California and Oklahoma. The justices ruled the officers should be granted qualified immunity, which shields government officials from liability unless it is proven they violated a “clearly established” right, a difficult legal hurdle. Both lawsuits dealt with police...

Glenn Youngkin Terry McAuliffe Terry McAuliffe Isaac Schorr Fri, October 15, 2021, 8:44 PM·2 min read In this article: Glenn Youngkin College basketball player (1986–1989) Rice Terry McAuliffe Terry McAuliffe American businessman and politician The Trafalgar Group has released a poll showing Republican Glenn Youngkin with a one point advantage (48.4-47.5 percent) over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. The survey of 1,095 voters conducted between October 11 and 13 has a margin of error of three points, and indicates that three percent of Virginia voters are undecided in the contest. On the other hand, Fox News’ newest poll...

MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch on Monday issued a warning to members of the Democratic Party about the far-left wing of the party, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). On “Morning Joe,” Deutsch said that the far-left wing is “suicide” for the Democratic Party. He called on the party to “get some new faces” closer to the center because the socialists pulling the party to the left could spell “disaster.” Host Joe Scarborough stated, “All I have heard over the past year — it’s been remarkable — is I am going to grip my teeth and vote for Joe Biden because...

For every cloud, there really is a silver lining. And in a time of near-universal madness driving scientifically unjustified vaccine mandates, such a silver lining has made itself plain to me; perhaps it has done the same for you… These mandates have forced our hand. They have forced us to choose sides. I know that their pressure has forced many to choose out of fear–that’s the unfortunate part. But choosing–driven by reason instead–is good. The entities and corporations driving the mandates are shortsighted at best, and downright evil at worst. Consider that we have chosen to work for these entities,...

Let's investigate the costs of "free" college education with a look at demographics and incentives to not work.Population Change in Last 5, 10, 15 YearsPopulation Change Details In the last 5 years, the total noninstitutional population age 16 and over rose by 7.68 million. The population change of those aged 65 and older rose by 8.24 million, over 100% of the total increase.The population change of those aged 60-64 rose by 1.39 millionThe 60+ total is 9.63 million.The population of the prime-age workers, those aged 25-54 rose by a mere 219,000.Civilian Noninstitutional Population by Age The above chart highlights the...

The National Theatre of Scotland has banned the word “spooky” over its “racial connotations” despite nobody complaining and despite there being no record of it ever being used as a racial slur in the United Kingdom. Yes, really. “A source at the Scottish theatre told the Daily Record that no one has complained about the term “spooky” but they were concerned the word could become problematic in the future,” reports RT. So based on the prospect that somebody, somewhere, might be offended in the future by a completely non-controversial word, it has to be banned. Apparently, the word “spooky” may...

The California mom accused of encouraging sex abuse at booze-fueled parties she arranged for young teens has long been known as a “liar” who leaves a trail of destruction in her wake wherever she goes, a source close to the family told The Daily Beast. Shannon O’Connor, 47, is accused of a breathtaking array of crimes in Los Gatos, a wealthy Silicon Valley suburb where prosecutors say she lured young teens to “secret” parties, plied them with booze, and encouraged them to engage in “sometimes nonconsensual” sex acts. She was arrested last weekend on a fugitive warrant in Eagle, Idaho,...

Quick someone call Eric Holder and ask him about all the subpoenas he ignored

National food supply shortages and staffing challenges are making it harder for metro Atlanta schools to serve meals to students. Faced with fewer pizza options and scarcity of French toast sticks, school cafeterias have had to rework breakfast and lunch menus... When her schools could no longer order their popular shrimp poppers, they switched to crispy cod nuggets. They’re trying a cinnamon toast crunch bread at breakfast and pizza quesadillas...

Like President Biden, who said in December 2020, “I don’t think it should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory,” I was opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates from the start. Unlike President Biden, I haven’t flip-flopped.In fact, my opposition to mandates is growing stronger with each new anecdote and piece of information that shows not only how futile they are but how devastating these self-inflicted harms will be. President Biden, his administration, corporate media, and social media are denying three realities:1. The effectiveness of natural immunity and how medically unnecessary it is for the previously infected to get vaccinated.2....

White House Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he has become such a polarizing figure during the coronavirus pandemic because he is an advocate for the "truth" rather than "conspiracy theories." "I have stood for always making science data and evidence, be what we guide ourselves by," Fauci told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "And I think people who feel differently, who have conspiracy theories, who deny reality, that's looking them straight in the eye." "Those are people that don't particularly care for me, and that's understandable because what I do, and I try very hard, is...

US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to hold LENR Workshop: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/events/low-energy-nuclear-reactions-workshop Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Workshop October 21-22, 2021 The objective of this workshop is to explore compelling R&D opportunities in Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) [1], in support of developing metrics for a potential ARPA-E R&D program in LENR. Despite a large body of empirical evidence for LENR that has been reported internationally over the past 30+ years in both published and unpublished materials, as well as multiple books, there still does not exist a widely accepted, on-demand, repeatable LENR experiment nor a sound theoretical basis. This has...

Since the start of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been preaching about avoiding crowds, so when football season at the NFL and collegiate level kicked off this year, he feared we could be stuck in “outbreak mode” with thousands of maskless fans packed together in stadiums across the country. “I don’t think it’s smart,” he told CNN last month. “Outdoors is always better than indoors, but even when you have such a congregate setting of people close together, first you should be vaccinated. And when you do have congregate settings, particularly indoors, you should be wearing a mask.”Fauci wasn’t...

Financial reports show that Virginia’s Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe received nearly $500,000 in contributions from Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety. The McAuliffe campaign’s financial report for September shows Everytown gave $400,000 on September 23, 2021.

Authorities in Haiti say that the gang behind most abductions in the Caribbean nation between June and September is also responsible for Saturday's kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries. Haitian police inspector Frantz Champagne told The Associated Press that the 400 Mawazoo gang based in the Ganthier area east of the capital of Port-au-Prince abducted the 17 missionaries with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, 16 of which are American and one Canadian. "The group of sixteen U.S citizens and one Canadian citizen includes five men, seven women, and five children," the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement Sunday. "Join...

“Let’s Go Brandon” has made its way north of the border, where Canadian officials have banned its use by government workers.In a notice written late last week, a [REDACTED] official (see photo below) warned that “the use of the wording ‘Let’s Go Brandon” and any variation thereof under any circumstances is banned.”“Violation of this policy,” the notice concludes, “will be grounds for immediate dismissal without recourse or labour union representation.”The letter was photographed — with privacy-protecting redactions — and posted on several social media accounts.Canadians might prefer to know who would be foolish enough to sign their own name to...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who sadly passed away from COVID complications, will be remembered for many accomplishments and failings. His legacy will have detractors on the right (he was a sellout who endorsed Obama) and the left (he misled us about WMDs), but I can’t help thinking what if he had been the future of the Republican Party? Counterfactuals are always messy, but bear with me. There is reason to believe that Powell was Ronald Reagan’s vision of the Republican Party’s bright future. And Powell might well have defeated Bill Clinton in 1996. That would have made Powell...

Inflationary pressures on the U.S. economy are getting so bad that even The Washington Post acknowledged that media arguments banging the transitory drum are falling flat. The Post economics correspondent Heather Long wrote a damning news piece headlined, “Uncomfortable inflation is here, and it’s changing the economy.” Long wrote: “American families and businesses are altering their habits as they increasingly believe high prices are here to stay.” Long reported that “[n]ews this week that U.S. inflation is running at a 13-year high of 5.4 percent confirmed what many Americans already know as they juggle their budgets: Food, energy and shelter...

On this date in 1749, Bosavern Penlez — surely one of the all-time great names to hang on a gibbet — was put to death to the sorrow of all of England. You know how they say that horse thieves are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses might not be stolen? Bosavern Penlez was hanged that whorehouses might not be torn down by mobs of angry sailors. (Fourteen other less remarkable folk were hanged for less remarkable crimes at the same time. Just another mass execution day at Tyburn.) On the first three days of July in 1749,...

Most of the coverage we provided during Japan’s bungled turn hosting the Olympics this summer dealt with the nation’s spiraling COVID infection rates and lagging mass vaccination efforts. But while they limited the in-person attendance of the actual games, the lockdowns and restrictions the government imposed were fairly mild. People were still allowed to go out to bars and restaurants, albeit with modest capacity limits and the streets were far from empty. The Associated Press described the measures as a series of “relatively toothless states of emergency.” That makes this week’s news all the more puzzling to some medical professionals....