Free Republic

It’s a wrap. After more than three long years, the public health emergency for COVID-19 in the United States is ending. The Biden administration in February announced that the measure, first invoked in March 2020, would expire today. Alongside the US decision, the World Health Organization (WHO), similarly ended its public health emergency of international concern designation for COVID. By many measures, the impact of the virus—both in the United States and around the world—is receding, but experts warn that could change if and when a new immune-evasive variant crops up. COVID deaths have been dropping steadily this year. Between...

The idea that the attorney general and the Department of Justice are independent from the president is a modern misconception with no basis in the Constitution. This is clear just from Article II of the Constitution, and it is even clearer in Federalist Paper 76, which discusses the appointment of officers in the executive branch. If we are ever going to put the genie of the unconstitutional fourth branch of government back into its bottle, we have to bust this myth. The administrative state, especially after the astonishing revolution that the New Deal era accomplished, is now strangling our republic.Let’s...

CNN chief Chris Licht reportedly scolded far-left ‘journalist’ Oliver Darcy for being too emotional in his coverage of the network’s town hall event with Trump. Darcy released his Reliable Sources newsletter, whining about the debate 15 minutes after CNN released a statement essentially bragging about the event. Darcy was reportedly ‘visibly shaken’ over this exchange. Prior to joining CNN, Darcy worked for conservative outlets like The Blaze and the Daily Caller, but since joining CNN, has become a major mouthpiece for the far left in pushing lies about Russian collusion and focusing his attention on smearing Trump and conservatives.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) doesn’t seem very interested in hearing from constituents who live near public land. On Wednesday, the agency released its schedule for a tour of Western high mountain states during which BLM officials will present sweeping new regulations on public lands. The proposed Public Lands Rule, published at the end of March, threatens to undermine the multiple use mandate and jeopardizes grazing rights for ranchers. The bureau, which manages 245 million acres primarily across 12 Western states, is preparing to implement conservation leasing and cut off ranchers’ access to public lands.The states to entertain a...

Despite an audience that was friendly to the candidate, CNN’s recent town hall hosting Donald Trump was anything but an effort to inform independent and Republican voters about the candidate’s position on the substantial issues faced by struggling Americans. It was a hedonistic exercise to satiate its left-wing producers’ and viewers’ desire to emphasize all the criticisms that CNN talking heads have been levying against him since 2020. CNN certainly didn’t expect that Trump would simply concede to all the nonsense that they’ve been unsuccessfully peddling to Americans these past few years. He wasn’t going to say that he’s really...

It is time we face it: we live in an era where our leaders manufacture crises. This week, with the eclipsing of Title 42, the U.S. southern border has gone from a hot mess to a full-blown emergency. We were pushed into the conflict with Ukraine and Russia as well. Before that was the debacle in Afghanistan. Our leaders killed drilling for oil and terminated pipeline projects which led to elevated gas prices and fueled inflation. If inflation was a concern, you’d never notice it from our leaders. They pumped trillions of dollars into the economy to make inflation worse...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

An eight-year-old girl was rescued after her brother shot a 17-year-old kidnapper with a sling shot in Michigan. The girl, who has not been identified, was on a mushroom hunt near the woods just outside of Alpena Township in the northern part of the state, police say. The victim's uncle posted on Facebook that the 17-year-old male suspect had a 'black mohawk' and had come out of the woods, covered the young girl's mouth and then tried to drag her away. Her 13-year-old brother saw the tussle from inside the family's home and took action, grabbing his slingshot and firing...

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, May 11, 1863. The following order has been issued by Major-Gen. HOOKER: HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, May 6. 1863. GENERAL ORDERS No. 49. -- The Major-General Commanding tenders to this army his congratulations on its achievments of the last seven days. If it has not accompliseed all that was expected, the reasons are well known to the army. It is sufficient to say they were of a character not to be foreseen or prevented by human sagacity or resources. In withdrawing from the south bank of the Rappahannock before delivering...

As of this morning, I am on my last cartridge razor from the plastic dispenser thingy. I am considering changing my shaving habits after a lifetime of disposable and cartridge razors to wet shaving using a safety razor. Expense is one factor. Another is buying razors from woke big business, i.e., Gillette. Ideally, I’d like a high quality, American made, non-woke, and inexpensive shaving solution. I think I may have found the solution in Western Razor Company. It’s American made and I assume it is quite a small business. They don’t seem the least bit woke. As for cost, there...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.” John 15:18–19This is a sobering thought: “the world hates you.” That is, if you are among those who have been taken by our Lord out of the world. In that case, Jesus says that the world will hate you.No one wants to be hated. No one...

In an effort to make diets and agriculture “sustainable,” urban bureaucrats make policy based on industrial agricultural data, completely ignoring experience and practices coming out of holistically managed operations. Some green activists have come to the conclusion that agriculture itself is necessarily destructive to the climate, biodiversity, and soil health. Thus World Economic Forum–adjacent thinkers call for a “farm-free future” with food primarily manufactured via precision fermentation and other scientific processes that result in products like lab grown meat. This idea, that we could simply eradicate the entire class of farmers, the land stewards who produce the world’s food—84 percent...

In New York City, everybody but the richest few percent rides the subway, and they know how bad things have gotten in the wake Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg treating arrests as inequitable since African Americans are disproportionately arrested. Jordan Neely died in a hospital after being subdued by Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny with the help of two other passengers (who have not been charged). Uncredited photo via The New York Post Neely “avoid[ed] prison for allegedly slugging a 67-year-old woman in November 2021 during a psychotic episode” by agreeing to a plea deal. Despite a record of more than...

Toe-tally gross. An evening manager of a Tennessee hotel was arrested after he snuck into a man’s room and sucked on his toes, according to police. David Neal, a 52-year-old manager at the 4th Avenue South Hilton Hotel in Nashville, allegedly crept into a male guest’s room while he was sleeping on March 30 and got intimate with his feet. According to Nashville Metropolitan Police, Neal made a key card to get into the room and entered around 5 a.m., WKRN reported. The guest told police he woke up to Neal’s mouth around his toes and immediately confronted him. He...

Only an actual border can stop illegal immigration — preferably a border with a really high wall. Whatever your view of immigration, there can be no doubt that the Biden administration’s border policies have been an abject failure. This is especially true of Title 42, the pandemic-era public health order that for the last three years, under both the Trump and Biden administrations, allowed border officials to expel illegal immigrants quickly back to Mexico. Title 42 came to an end on Thursday when the Covid public health emergency officially ended, and its ending has coincided with what can only be...

So much for that whole ‘banning books’ talking point, Lefties. For YEARS now, the Left has been accusing the Right of banning books, calling them fascists and authoritarians, and all because parents don’t want adult-themed content in public school libraries. Asking that a book that provides directions for various sex acts not be available to a child at school is nothing like banning books, but we suppose they found a talking point that works for them so they’re sticking with it. Except you know, we have this thread with so many receipts proving them wrong. The next time one of...

Black Chicago residents ripped a proposed migrant center Friday, citing a depletion of city resources for their community by accommodating the migrants, as well as the potential of non-citizens voting in local elections.

During his CNN "town hall" last night, Donald Trump claimed he never asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes necessary to reverse Joe Biden's 2020 victory in that state. Trump also said he had "the absolute right" to do whatever he wanted with presidential documents when he left the White House in January 2021. Both of those statements are false, and both go to the heart of potential criminal charges against the former president. In a notorious phone conversation with Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, Trump pressed him to validate one bogus election-fraud claim after another....

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemLuke 7 Jesus and John the Baptist 18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” 20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” 21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many...

In modern elections, the candidate who can turn out the bigger base is usually the winner. Put differently, the campaign with better voter data holds the trump card. For more than a decade now, Democrats unquestionably have owned that trump card and used it to carve deep inroads into once solidly red states such as Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia, while Republicans have looked on in bafflement. It’s no secret why the Left is winning elections despite shrinking in the polls: They register new voters in droves, and conservatives do not. More than 160 million people cast a ballot in...