Free Republic

Most of us have been in lockdown for about six weeks. The objective was to flatten the curve and reduce the total number of victims of COVID-19. Well, the curve has been flattened indeed, but how is it six-weeks later there are 25,375 new cases in a single day? With all the laws and policies implemented to knock out this virus, I expected we’d be on the last leg of the downward curve by now. But, instead of a peak and decline, we’ve had three peaks and shallow valleys between them. If people are staying at home, practicing social distancing,...

Many on the left have accused originalism of being nothing but a cover for conservatives’ preferred policy outcomes, but Vermeule’s proposal illustrates how restrained originalists have been. “The Republic” often alarms first-time readers. Not only is Plato’s dialogic style foreign to us, the character of Socrates makes bizarre and even wicked proposals as he outlines a supposed ideal polity, such as a communism not only of property, but also of wives and children. Many readers, including some philosophers, have taken Plato literally and seriously, and therefore condemned him as a proto-totalitarian. Something similar seems to have happened in response to...

Thousands of foreign workers, many living overseas, are receiving stimulus checks designated for U.S. residents due to an unforeseen glitch that funneled taxpayer dollars to other countries, according to tax consultants and the recipients themselves. College-age workers who spent time in the U.S. in the last two years - some of whom returned home long before the coronavirus pandemic - have been surprised to find $1,200 checks deposited into their bank accounts. And with no clear guidance on how to return it, they’re holding onto the money or racing to spend it before the Internal Revenue Service realizes the mistake....

It is interesting, if nothing else. – One interesting aspect of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s decision to bring the Chief of the violent crimes and narcotics trafficking section for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., Anthony Scarpelli, onto his investigation team is that Scarpelli has been a specialist in RICO-type investigations over the last decade. His job has been to identify domestic and international drug trafficking networks and bring the major players to justice, as he and his team did in the example described at this link. In response to the piece on this that I posted last night,...

Back in WWII, when we were still looking to win wars and solve things, our military and civilian leadership recognized that a certain number of peacetime generals and admirals were going to fail when the bullets started flying. History is replete with leadership failures on all levels when push comes to shove. Even taking out the subversive nature of many of today’s politicians, many otherwise good people are better than others at certain things. TV Streaming Plus Watch Your Favorite TV Channels For Free In WWII when military leaders failed, or didn’t meet expectations, basically two things happened: Culpable inefficiency...

The Bureau of Prisons failed to adequately monitor thousands of communications from more than 500 inmates with ties to terrorism, according to a Justice Department inspector general report released Wednesday. In the nearly 70-page report, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz wrote that the Bureau of Prisons did not take appropriate steps to review the mail, email, phone calls, video sessions and cellblock conversations of domestic and international terrorist inmates. For example, the bureau failed to flag a letter that a high-risk inmate received from his wife detailing her intent to compromise a staff member at his prison. The BOP also...

I am getting vague remembrances of something called The Cloward and Piven Strategy that was making the rounds about 10 years ago. If I remember correctly, the Strategy involved creating as many government dependents as possible so-as to overload the system, foment unrest and ultimately "nudge" people into calling for government to take control of every aspect of their lives. Anybody else remember any particulars?

The Boy Scouts of America have filed for bankruptcy protection. While they may survive in some revised form, smaller and weaker than before, the Boy Scouts of old, as a great institution in American life, may be no more. Frankly, they have been on a downward trajectory for some time. In a world in which consumer-electronics, from cell phones to game consoles, have taken over the entertainment options for children, modernity itself contributed greatly to the Boy Scouts’ decline. But there is a difference between a weakening and a destruction… a difference between the natural loss of popularity and a...

Over 1,000 former justice department officials say AG Barr should resign--which is actually a great sign that he's doing an effective job. When you start draining the swamp, it's only natural that the swamp critters are going to complain.

Boy Scouts bankruptcy filing expected within hours, victims’ lawyers say The Boy Scouts of America, after decades of being crippled by child sex abuse claims, plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by early Tuesday, the Daily News has learned.

... Late last year, US Attorney General William Barr called the growing disrespect for law enforcement a contributing factor to the dangers that cops face. Most important, Barr noted the justice system’s persistent failure to keep dangerous repeat offenders off city streets. The Bronx suspect, Robert Williams, like many attempted cop killers, is no stranger to the justice system. Last week, The New York Times reported that he has multiple arrests dating to the mid-1990s, including a robbery charge when he was just 14. After his sentencing in 1995, he was paroled twice. He subsequently returned to prison for violating...

Think about it… – Michael Avenatti is that coke-head guy in “Die Hard” who sits down in front of the head terrorist and says, “Hans, bubby…I can give ‘im to ya.” Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, sitting, beard and text Get used to hearing the name “Jensen.” – I really really really hate to quote Andrew Weissmann, but, the former lead prosecutor for American Gestapo Chief, er, ‘special counsel’ Robert Mueller basically confirmed what I told you here after hearing the news that Andrew McCabe would not be prosecuted for lying to investigators: That doesn’t mean that McCabe just...

Mayor Pete is actually a well groomed Marxist by his father. Gramsci sought the overthrow of America by the “long march thru the institutions” and especially Christianity. Now we see an emerging Mayor Pete waxing poetic about his Christian ideals.

A bankruptcy filing that could spell the end of the Boy Scouts of America is “imminent,” sources told The Post. Crippled by thousands of child sex-abuse claims in multiple states — and with more victims coming forward every day — the bankruptcy case could reach into the “billions,” said one lawyer who represents 1,800 men who allege they were molested as scouts. The filing, expected in Delaware, could come any day or in the next couple of weeks, sources said.  “It’s going to be a mess. If it takes a long period of time, it’s an open question whether the...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas panned a draft ethics rule that would dissuade judges from formally enrolling in ideological groups like the Federalist Society and its liberal counterpart, the American Constitution Society (ACS). Speaking Friday night at a Federalist Society conference in Florida, Thomas suggested the proposal is an attempt to silence the conservative lawyers group. The proposed rule would also bind law clerks and staff attorneys. “Now I think they’re about to silence the Federalist Society,” the justice said, according to remarks first reported by The Wall Street Journal. “So I guess I can’t come back.”

Judge Katherine Cooper Who Let Panty-Sniffer Go, SEXOffender BF Arrested At Her Home! VIDEO IS 12 MINUTES LONG HAS TO BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED,

A Republican pastor from Arkansas, ignoring Democrats’ growing extremism on abortion, urged evangelical Christians to vote for a Democrat instead of President Donald Trump this week. “Because a deal with Democrats is better than a deal with the devil,” wrote Robb Ryerse, an evangelical Christian pastor at Vintage Fellowship in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His piece in Time magazine this week compared Trump to the devil, and argued that pro-life Christians would better serve the “common good” by voting for a pro-abortion Democrat. “Voters of faith should set aside their personal interests and predilections and instead prioritize the common good for all,”...

You want to see just how screwed up our world has become? Look no further than this story from corn country, Iowa, where a felon, convicted of no less than 15 sexual assaults against children aged 1 to 13, has turned justice on its head by declaring that he is now a woman. That is all the prosecutors and court had to hear. He/she/it/they are now a free man/woman/thing. The message we are hearing from the courts is clear: “Man bad, woman good.” So, I guess the surest route to world peace is the castration of all males at birth....

A Long Island judge intentionally ignored the state’s controversial bail-reform law and refused to release a “menace to society” accused of robbing two banks while awaiting sentencing in federal court, The Post has learned. But the principled stand taken by Nassau County District Court Judge David McAndrews was short-lived, as a higher-level judge promptly reversed his order and released Romell Nellis with an ankle monitor — only to have him cut it off and disappear. Nellis, 40, was busted Jan. 8 in a pair of bank heists in which he allegedly gave tellers notes that threatened, “I have a gun!”...

Since President Trump was inaugurated, leftists have brought a series of lawsuits on behalf of supposedly aggrieved parties–themselves, mostly–seeking to enjoin enforcement of administration policies. District Court judges in venues remote from the issue at hand, like a federal judge in Hawaii who purported to block implementation of the administration’s “travel ban,” have issued nationwide injunctions far exceeding the scope of any case or controversy actually before them (if any). This is a perversion of our legal system that encourages, to put it mildly, judge shopping. As a 41-year litigation veteran, I can tell you that judge shopping happens all...