Free Republic

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asked a question pertaining to an issue that came up quite a bit during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing but had yet to come up during Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing: whether the Supreme Court nominee had ever sexually assaulted someone. Citing a statement from Chief Justice John Roberts in 2017 in which he acknowledged that the judiciary “is not immune” from the problem of sexual misconduct, Hirono said it is her duty “to ensure the fitness of nominees” for positions that have lifetime appointments.

the impact of mandated shutdowns ... In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, widespread lockdown restrictions were imposed, ostensibly to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and medical resources from being consumed to exhaustion. Whether policymakers purposely or out of ignorance disregarded them, the tradeoffs of stay-at-home orders were immediate and severe: a massive spike in unemployment, rivaling the Great Depression ... Among Mideast states, New York’s GDP declined the most: 39.3%. .. long-lasting nature of lockdowns on New York City. Yet compared against all other U.S. states, Hawaii and Nevada’s GDP plummeted the most: both by 42.2%. ... artificial economic slowdown...

the U.S. is still far from a full reopening. Many states have put a temporary pause on moving to the next stage of reopening, or have even reversed course and closed certain businesses again due to surges in the disease. In order to determine the states with the fewest coronavirus restrictions, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 17 key metrics. Our data set ranges from whether restaurants are opened to whether the state has required face masks in public and workplace temperature screenings. Read on for the state ranking, additional insight from a panel of...

On 24 September 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal heard the oral arguments in a virtual en banc panel to re-hear the case. The three-judge panel had held the Hawaii law violated the Second Amendment of the Constitution because it did not allow ordinary citizens a way to bear arms outside of the home for self-defense.Screen shot of virtual hearlng of the en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit in Young v. Hawaii. Cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten The Ninth Circuit has established a tradition of re-hearing cases favorable to the Second Amendment and not re-hearing cases which...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii Democrat, has gained support from Republican colleagues in calling for the U.S. government to abandon its criminal cases against Julian Assange and Edward J. Snowden. Along with Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, she introduced a resolution Friday urging the U.S. to drop all charges and efforts to extradite Mr. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, joined the Democrat days earlier by co-sponsoring a similar resolution asking the U.S. to drop its case against Mr. Snowden, who is also wanted for leaking. Mr. Assange, who launched the WikiLeaks website in 2006, and Mr....

Two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they will not meet with Amy Coney Barrett -- President Trump’s pick to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Sen. Blumenthal said he refuses 'to treat this process as legitimate.'

Two former Republican lawmakers wrote an op-ed on Friday explaining why they are supporting Democrat Joe Biden instead of President Trump in November, arguing Trump is "an ill-formed man who lacks basic self-control and shows no semblance of inner character." Former Reps. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) and Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.) in an opinion for Roll Call condemned Trump's "childish name-calling, crude behavior and immature narcissism.".... Djou and Edwards said the Democratic presidential candidate is "not a perfect man, but he is a man of humble decency."

Tulsi Gabbard is back, looking splendid as ever. And she's got a cause any sane voter interested in free and fair elections can support, sponsoring a bipartisan bill targeting the odious practice of ballot-harvesting. The Hawaii repreentative's bill, co-sponsored with Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, calls for a witholding of federal funds for states that refuse to ban the practice, where sleazy political operatives target vulnerable voters in their homes and "helpfully" collect their ballots for them, doing what they need to do with make sure the vote goes in the direction of their party with the broken chain of custody before turning the ballots...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has put forward a bipartisan bill aiming to improve the security of vote-by-mail. It proposes to incentivize states to ban ballot harvesting.

The Hawai'i Federal District Court has issued an opinion in Teter v. Connors that guts the Second Amendment. The opinion holds that even if butterfly or “balisong” knives are protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution, a state law banning any possession, manufacture or transport of such knives is constitutionally valid. From the opinion: The popularity of an all-encompassing class of weapon (the knife, or even the folding knife)is immaterial when only one narrow subset of the class (the butterfly knife) is banned here.The Court declines to treat the ban on butterfly knives—a relatively obscure weapon—the same way the...

By now, you've heard that streaming video giant Netflix is presenting a film featuring 11-year-old girls in a highly sexualized way. The details of the film are so gross .. ... what do we call the people who defend, promote, or even profit from this garbage? Which brings us to Barack and Michelle Obama. In 2018, they signed a huge, multi-million-dollar production deal with Netflix. Their pal and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice sits on the Netflix board. So far, they are silent on the "Cuties" controversy. And, make no mistake, the controversy has been with us for weeks,...

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- A heavy presence of fire trucks and police could be seen at the Daniel K. Inouye airport just after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5. Residents nearby have reported hearing sounds of explosions. They said that they saw bright flashes of light that may have been fire coming from an aircraft. Video: Heavy police, HFD presence at Honolulu airport after reports of explosive sounds coming from aircraft According to the Department of Transportation, the aircraft is a military chartered jet that flew out of Hickam Air Force Base. Officials revealed that there was an in-flight emergency aboard...

A lake the size of five football fields growing in the belly of a volcano sounds fantastic, but the facts just keep getting stranger in the case of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. A study released this month by the U.S. Geological Survey has found the mysterious lake is one of the world’s hottest bodies of water. Its deadly waters range from 176 to 185 degrees, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. To put that in perspective, water at 154 degrees “instantaneously” scalds human skin, according to Hotwaterlab.com. “Globally, only a few volcanic lakes have surface temperatures greater than ... 176...

During her speech Monday night, Haley also lambasted Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for his “record of weakness and failure.” “Joe Biden is a very good guy. I know him, I mean he’s just as nice as they come,” Haley told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday. “But that's just the problem.” NIKKI HALEY AFTER RNC SPEECH SAYS SHE IS OPEN TO REJOINING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION “We saw what happens when you try and be nice at the United Nations,” she continued. “Basically everybody was running over America when Obama and Biden were in there.” She went on to say that Biden...

Remember when parsley was served as garnish at every restaurant meal in America? Nikki Haley is the parsley of the GOP. No matter what Republican voters order, the GOP tries to add Nikki Haley to the meal.

Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday pushed the theory that the US government is actively covering up Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11. The Hawaii congresswoman sent a campaign email with the subject line “We deserve all the information on 9/11” — which hinted at a conspiracy to prevent the public from fully knowing the role Riyadh played in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, according to The Huffington Post. “The American people still don’t have access to the truth about Saudi Arabia and who helped Al Qaeda carry out these deadly attacks,” the email said. “It is absolutely...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the United States will lose its credibility on human rights if it does not take action against Saudi Arabia after the apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should not attend an upcoming investment conference in Saudi Arabia amid an ongoing investigation into the country's possible involvement in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing earlier this month in Turkey. "I don't think he should go," Rubio told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," adding that he doesn't think any US officials should continue with their usual business in Saudi Arabia until Washington gets to the bottom of Khashoggi's disappearance. "I don't think any of our government officials should be going and pretending...

Former CIA operative arrested in Honolulu, charged with helping China spy on U.S. [Video] HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) -- A Honolulu resident who spent years working for the Central Intelligence Agency and as a contractor for the Federal Bureau of Investigation was charged Monday with spying on the U,S, and selling state secrets to China. Authorities say 67-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma -- who moved to Honolulu from Hong Kong in 1968 and began his CIA career in 1982 -- had become ‘a compromised asset’ of the Chinese Ministry of State Security by at least early 2001. In a press conference...

Tulsi Gabbard eviscerates Kamala Harris.