Free Republic

So much is written about, and talked about, some ambiguous entity called the “Deep State” but nowhere is there any description of the “Deep State”, any real definition of the “Deep State” and, most importantly, any list of members of the “Deep State.” As long as there is no real identification of the entity or its membership it doesn’t really pose any danger to anyone anywhere and no one is forced to defend themselves or their actions. My suggestion is to nominate appropriate individuals for inclusion of their names as charter members of the “Deep State” and see what happens....

The CIA’s involvement in the Steele dossier fraud and its use of college professor agents against the Trump campaign were cartoonish. The dossier reads like it was written late in the evening after a few drinks. The current CIA whistleblower operation is dramatically more sophisticated. The written complaint was obviously put together by teams of experts. It’s all nonsense, but it’s excellent nonsense. There’s sloppiness -- the inspector general got caught altering whistleblower procedures to grease the wheels for this operation, as discovered by Sean Davis at the Federalist. But the CIA is evolving and becoming better at operations against...

The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to vote on the CASE Act, legislation that would create a brand new quasi-court for copyright infringement claims. We have expressed numerous concerns with the legislation, and serious problems inherent with the bill have not been remedied by Congress before moving it forward. In short, the bill would supercharge a “copyright troll” industry dedicated to filing as many “small claims” on as many Internet users as possible in order to make money through the bill’s statutory damages provisions. Every single person who uses the Internet and regularly interacts with copyrighted works (that’s everyone) should contact...

Lawyers, grazing permits, wildlife corridors and beasts on the ballot Attorney’s fees According to a recent memo from Principal Deputy Solicitor Daniel Jorjani the Interior Department will start publicly listing attorney’s fees paid out for legal settlements. The memo says this information will be available on a new page of Interior’s website. Environmental groups have been very successful in filing these so-called citizen suits under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. A 2016 investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that during the Obama administration, “federal agencies paid out $49 million...

President Donald Trump is trying to take an ax to federal advisory committees, ordering that their numbers be slashed. Trump signed an executive order Friday that directs every federal agency to evaluate the need for all of its advisory committees created under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. And it gives agency heads until September to terminate at least one-third of current committees created by agency heads. Federal advisory committees are typically made up of private citizens who offer advice and assistance to the executive branch. The White House did not immediately provide any justification for the order. But it appears...

The Trump Administration’s plan to move two sections of the Department of Agriculture out of DC met with strenuous objections from the American Federation of Government Employees. Union spokesman Peter Winch complained that “they’ve already reduced full-time employees from the peak of 300 under the Obama Administration to 209. Forcing these lucky survivors to move to offices closer to the agricultural communities they serve adds insult to injury.” “In this day of rapid electronic communication there’s no need for government employees to be located near the people they’re regulating,” Winch said. “Directives can be sent from Washington to any spot...

The Swamp is what Sebastian Gorka means the Permanent State, not the Deep State. Gorka's right.  That's our number one enemy.  The Deep State may be more fiction than reality — with the exception of Lisa Strok, Comey, Boobamba, Sleepy Joe, and friends. The easiest way to destroy the Permanent State is to RELOCATE it.  Every large corporation recognizes the value of this strategy. Look at General Electric.  They could see bad times coming and knew they had to lop off a lot of useless executives pulling down deep salaries. What did they do?  They relocated from Connecticut to Boston. ...

It was no coincidence that the current unravelling of the Liberal party was caused by the principled objections regarding SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. by two political newcomers against a concerted attempt to subvert justice. It is also no coincidence that both were female and both from outside the Quebec-Ottawa power centre that has controlled postwar Canada for generations. Clearly, they failed to realize the party’s lengthy tenure in Ottawa is based on putting all things Quebec or Liberal above everything else. Instead, they collided with this coven of Liberal civil servants, corporations, media sympathizers, law firms, lobbyists, and caucus colleagues who...

The federal government shutdown has presented a unique opportunity for President Donald Trump to clear out the deadwood in the federal bureaucracy, saving U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars in salaries, perks, and rented office space for people who aren't doing anything productive. [Snip] A high-ranking Trump administration official wrote four days ago in the Daily Caller that the shutdown enables Trump to get rid of people like this. As members of the Senior Executive Service, many of them can't be fired unless they're convicted of a felony, or of committing some flagrant misconduct. ... SES employees cannot be furloughed (laid...

The terrible reality of how un-free our nation has become was painfully impressed upon me in dealing with the "omnipotent moral busybodies" of my city's public administration, whose charge it is to enforce the legal requirements for home remodeling projects. Although I pay the mortgage, cover the cost of upkeep, buy homeowner's insurance, and send in my annual property taxes, the little Caesars in the Planning, Building, and Public Works divisions made quite sure that I knew who actually owns my home and gets to dictate what can be done with it. In July 2017, my building planner submitted drawings...

The practice of parents with similarly aged children meeting up for play dates is in the cross hairs of the DC bureaucracy. State Superintendent of Education Hanseul Kang has charged that these informal arrangements "are an illegal intrusion on turf reserved for my department. There are public institutions targeting young children and their development. Every hour wasted at some play group run by unqualified parents is an hour that could have been spent in a program run by professionals. It doesn't matter that the play dates are voluntary or that participation seemingly hurts no one. We will levy fines or...

In North Carolina, Tammie Hedges rescued 27 dogs and cats from drowning when Hurricane Florence hit the state. She provided shelter, food, and medicine to animals fleeing the flooding. After the storm ended she turned the rescued animals over to government authorities who promptly arrested her for “operating a shelter without a license.” She is currently out of jail on a $10,000 bond. North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services spokesman, Henry Hoseman explained that “Ms. Hedges lacked the proper credentials to undertake the actions she took. She may have felt that she was doing the right thing, but...

Out of all the departments in the federal government, my favorite is probably the U.S. Department of State. In addition to lying to everybody constantly about the stuff they're doing all over the globe, a few years ago they took the time to lie about little ol' me personally. Back in 2010, a State Department employee operating a State Department SUV made an illegal left turn on a D.C. street and crippled me for life. And as if that weren't bad enough, then the State Department lied about it.They actually blamed me for what they did to me. They...

Democrats in Congress are calling for legislation to reinstate a pay increase that President Trump canceled by executive order. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md) labeled Trump’s pay freeze “an indefensible attack on the hard-working government employees who keep the country going.” The reasoning behind the federal pay freeze is that government workers already earn far more for comparable work than their private sector counterparts. According data from Bureau of Economic Analysis, annual wages for federal government employees is nearly $89,000 vs. $59,000 for similar jobs in the private sector. When fringe benefits are counted, the gap widens to $127,000 vs. $71,000....

In the last several days I've had four different people in discussions about what is going on with cigar regulations. For whatever reason, this story has people talking. On the surface, that's great. The devastation that government regulation wreaks upon our society normally goes unnoticed. But my answer to solve the problem is one that nobody ever considers: Abolish the Food and Drug Administration. And I know what thoughts people have in their minds because I can see the look of surprise on their faces: "But what about our food?" "what about drug safety?" These and other questions just like...

The Trump administration proposes to reform and reorganize government by streamlining food regulation, merging two Cabinet departments, and consolidating housing programs.Combining the Education and Labor departments is among 32 proposals in a plan released Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget in response to a charge President Donald Trump issued 14 months ago.“We wanted to change the dialogue in Washington, to say it’s not acceptable to have things that just don’t make sense,” Margaret Weichert, OMB’s deputy director for management, told The Daily Signal.Weichert did not provide an estimate of savings, but said it would be clear in the...

As people around the world don rainbow swag in celebration of International Pride, the World Health Organization (WHO) has come out with an announcement of its own. For the first time since 1992, the organization issued a major revision to its international manual of diagnoses and, among other things, a major shift in the way transgender people are treated. The 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) reframes “gender identity disorder” as “gender incongruence”, moving it from a mental health disorder to an issue of sexual health. Codes issued by the ICD are used by countries to determine...

The “Taxpayers Right to Know Act” has been passed several times by the US House of Representatives, but has been unable to get to a vote in the Senate due to the 60-vote requirement to end filibusters against it. The Bill would require federal agencies to report on how much programs cost and how effective they have been. While the Bill, sponsored by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla) and Claire McCaskill, (D-Mo), has bipartisan support, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) vowed to block the legislation calling it “unfeasible and unfair. Look, our government has grown too big to be accurately measured in...

Kentucky’s new Medicaid waiver will ask low-income people to jump over hurdles to keep their coverage. Evidence suggests that many will fail. Washington State ..Instead of requiring people to establish eligibility annually, began requiring them to do so twice a year, and added some paperwork. It worked: Enrollment in the health insurance program fell by more than 40,000 children in a year. Louisiana wanted to maximize the number of eligible children who signed up for coverage, so officials simplified the sign-up process. It also worked: Enrollment surged, and the number of administrative cancellations fell by 20 percentage points. In 2006,...

CLEARWATER — The city’s violation letter used bold letters in all caps to describe The Path Bicycle and Ride Shop’s alleged offense. "INSTALLED SPIRAL BICYCLE RACK ON SIDEWALK WITHOUT PROPER PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS," it declared. The Path owner Gary Keener was dumbfounded when his landlord forwarded him the notice last week. Because he didn’t install the brand new bicycle rack on the sidewalk — The city did. "I just thought it was pretty pathetic," said Keener, who has owned the Cleveland Street shop for six years. "We’re kind of an anchor retail business that actually brings people to the downtown...