Free Republic

One of Joe Biden’s handlers should really reign him in. He made a series of remarks today that ranged from head-scratching to anger-inducing. At one point, Fox News’ Peter Doocy pinned him down on his previous statements on vaccinations and masks, noting that the president is now saying the opposite. That led to a flailing claim that he didn’t say what he said while insisting the science on masks has changed when it simply hasn’t.But one comment involving the vaccines may be Biden’s most ill-advised yet. After being asked about businesses and local communities mandating vaccines, the president opened the...

The White House confirmed Thursday that President Biden will allow a federal eviction moratorium to expire on Saturday, but said he wants Congress to pass new protections due to the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s hands are tied by a recent Supreme Court decision that found there would need to be congressional authorization to extend a CDC-imposed ban on evictions beyond July 31. “Given the recent spread of the Delta variant … Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium,” Psaki said...

A Hawaii woman employed by the Department of Defense pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to removing classified material, which were discovered in her hotel room during a dinner party in which two foreign nationals were present, while temporarily assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines. Asia Lavarello, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly removing classified information concerning U.S. national defense or foreign relations and retaining it at an unauthorized location, the Justice Department said. ... ...A search of her workplace at the Indo-Pacific Command revealed a notebook in her desk containing handwritten notes of meetings she...

ox News host Tucker Carlson was mocked on social media this week for stating that he had been told that the National Security Agency was reading his private emails and spying on him. The usual suspects called Carlson paranoid, because there are so many checks and balances to assure the feds would never illegally target a vexatious Biden critic. However, on Tuesday, a dissent by Travis LeBlanc, a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, revealed that one of the NSA’s most intrusive surveillance engines, XKeyscore, may be violating federal law and Americans’ rights and privacy. In...

A federal judge has blocked a Florida law which sought to prevent social media firms from taking down content from political candidates, saying the measure was "wholly at odds with accepted constitutional principles" of free speech. Judge Robert Hinkle, in a ruling late Wednesday, said the law passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis distorted the idea of free-speech protections by placing restrictions on certain social media platforms for moderating content. The measure was approved by the state in response to the "de-platforming" of former president Donald Trump and others by large social media firms which...

A federal judge in Manhattan tossed an indictment against a Bronx shooting suspect because of a lack of racial diversity in the White Plains grand jury pool — the first such ruling since city cases were moved to the suburban county amid the pandemic. Judge Analisa Torres sided with defendant William Scott, who had argued that black and Hispanic people were underrepresented in the grand jury pool that returned an indictment against him in June of last year. Scott was charged with possessing ammunition in connection to a shooting in the Bronx, but was charged in the Southern District of...

A federal judge in Manhattan tossed an indictment against a Bronx shooting suspect because of a lack of racial diversity in the White Plains grand jury pool — the first such ruling since city cases were moved to the suburban county amid the pandemic. Judge Analisa Torres sided with defendant William Scott, who had argued that black and Hispanic people were underrepresented in the grand jury pool that returned an indictment against him in June of last year. Scott was charged with possessing ammunition in connection to a shooting in the Bronx, but was charged in the Southern District of...

Farmers in the United States have reached a breaking point. They now say that what the government has done has been so disastrous that they are willing to stand off with the Feds.Farmers in Oregon are protesting because they own the water in the Upper Klamath Lake, farmer Dan Nielsen told RT’s Ruptly video agency. He stood outside an American flag-colored tent that was set up next to the canal headgates, which control the flow of irrigation water from the lake. “It’s ours and the federal government actually just stole it. No due process of law, no compensation,” Nielsen said,...

Biden signed legislation giving millions of federal employees Friday off to celebrate Saturday’s new federal holiday, Juneteenth. This makes 44 paid days off for the average federal employee annually, which is nearly nine full weeks of paid-time off each year. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The Civil War was America’s bloodiest war, with between 752,000 and 861,000 soldiers dying on the battlefield. 49 states have already recognized Juneteenth as a holiday (South Dakota is the only holdout), though only a handful give it as a paid holiday to state...

The Justice Department is warning Missouri officials that the state can’t ignore federal law, after the governor signed a bill last week that bans police from enforcing federal gun rules. In a letter sent Wednesday night and obtained by The Associated Press, Justice officials said the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause outweighs the measure that Gov. Mike Parson signed into law Saturday. The new rules penalize local police departments if their officers enforce federal gun laws. SNIP President Joe Biden has made gun control laws a priority of his administration, and the House has passed two bills requiring background checks on...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has announced that the House will vote on making Juneteenth a federal holiday on Wednesday. The bill passed by unanimous consent in the Senate on Tuesday night, and it seems likely to pass the House, which would send the legislation creating the federal holiday to President Biden's desk.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) pushed for more federal gun control Tuesday as Chicago gun violence surges and firearm-related homicides continue to increase. Breitbart News reported eight people were shot inside a residence Tuesday, leaving four dead and four wounded while 43 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago and 55 were shot the previous weekend in the city.

The Biden administration has told federal agencies that they generally should not require their employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to work on-site in federal buildings or to disclose whether they are vaccinated. Employees who disclose they are unvaccinated or refuse to answer a voluntary question about vaccination status should be subject to safety requirements such as mask-wearing and social distancing, new guidance says. “The Administration strongly encourages all Americans, including Federal employees and contractors, to be vaccinated,” says a Tuesday posting by an interagency task force overseeing pandemic-related policies for the federal workplace. However, “at present, COVID-19 vaccination...

The federal government warned Americans on Wednesday not to fill plastic bags with gasoline during the ongoing fuel shortage on the East Coast. “Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline,” the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission wrote on social media on Wednesday morning.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is stepping up efforts to combat domestic extremism, increasing funding to prevent attacks, weighing strategies historically used against foreign terrorist groups and more openly warning the public about the threat. Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, at a rally in Portland in September. Its leaders are among the most prominent targets of the sprawling investigation into the attack on the Capitol. Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, at a rally in Portland in September. Its leaders are among the most prominent targets of the sprawling investigation into the attack on the...

Quraishi was appointed in 2019 to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the judges he now seeks to join on the bench. A magistrate judge is not technically considered a member of the federal bench the same way a district court or circuit judge is because the position is not outlined in the Constitution's Article III and magistrate judges are not appointed by the president. Magistrate judges are assigned by statute to oversee some matters and may also be delegated tasks by bona fide district judges. Quraishi, who is of Pakistani descent, got his law...

Okay, people on this forum KNOW by now that I tell the truth. Beware the Ides of March, one once said. I just got a phone call from a "truck driver" in North Carolina. The number is 984-302-1xxx. (Freepmail me if you want the whole number). He wanted a handgun I had posted online. This was a black man who said he was a truck driver. His phone number was from out of state, so I assumed (correctly) that his driver's license was out of state. I told him that it was a state felony to sell a weapon to...

The federal deficit exceeded $1 trillion in the first five months of fiscal 2021, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office released Monday. The deficit through February spiked to $1.048 trillion, a $423 billion increase over the same period last year. Spending this year is up 25 percent and revenues climbed 5 percent compared with the previous year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest order, requiring individuals to wear masks when using public transportation or residing in transportation hubs, will be “further enforced by other federal authorities,” the agency announced in its order, which went into effect this week. Under the order, individuals are required to wear masks while using public transportation, which includes “awaiting, boarding, disembarking, or traveling on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares as they are traveling into, within, or out of the United States and U.S. territories,” per the CDC.

Cue the federal mask cops. Americans are now required to wear masks in planes, trains, buses, subways, taxis, car services, boats, and transportation hubs, per a new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that took effect today. Masks must be of a style approved by the federal government and must fit properly. Failure to comply will result in being prohibited from traveling, booted from the transit in question, and potential criminal penalties. The order will be enforced by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents and "other federal authorities," as well as state and local officials. "To the...