Free Republic

@paulsperry_ DEVELOPING: The Bushes are running against Trump through "proxy" candidate DeSantis, according to GOP insiders in Texas and Florida. The entire "Bush machine" is behind his campaign, even helping run it

Reports in Japanese media citing an undisclosed health ministry projection said fatalities could reach the 400,000-mark without mitigation measures. It also estimated that as many as 850,000 people could need ventilators.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s exhaustive report on Russian election interference marginalizes its most important finding: There was no Trump-Moscow conspiracy. “The Mueller report continued a pattern evident in the Mueller indictments,” said Jack Langer, spokesman for Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican. “Pack the documents with vague insinuations of collusion while downplaying the actual findings that there was no collusion.” A Washington Times analysis of a redacted version of the Mueller report shows that, among its scores of bolded headlines in the table of contents, none refers to the special counsel’s paramount conclusion. Also, in the 200-page section devoted to Russia-Trump...

Gina Haspel at her confirmation hearing to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. (Screen Capture) (CNSNews.com) - In her confirmation hearing on Wednesday in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) asked Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, whether she had ever been alone in a room with Trump. “You’ve been working with the administration now for fifteen months,” said Reed. “You have had the opportunity to brief the president. Have you ever been alone with the president?” “Senator,” Haspel responded, “I’m usually there with Senator [Dan] Coats...

Federal investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, sources close to the investigation tell CNN. Questions about the possible connection were widely dismissed four months ago. But the FBI's investigation remains open, the sources said, and is in the hands of the FBI's counterintelligence team -- the same one looking into Russia's suspected interference in the 2016 election. One U.S. official said investigators find the server relationship "odd" and are not ignoring it. But the official said there is still more work for the FBI...

Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump late Wednesday declined to attack Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the wake of news that the Texas senator misreported campaign finances, but did acknowledge that it was a "very big thing." "Well, I heard it's a big thing. I know nothing about it. But I hear it's a very big thing," Trump said in an interview on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect." "I hope he solves it. I think he's a nice guy, and I hope he gets it solved." Trump has previously attacked GOP primary rivals for being bought by big donors, flouting his...

NBC29 ‏@NBC29 23m BREAKING: Gil Harrington tells @HenryGraff a forensic link has been made between #JesseMatthew and Morgan.

The collapse of the barrier between popular culture and decadence has released a toxic mudslide of vulgarity into the nation’s family rooms—and just about everywhere else. There is almost no remote corner of this culture that is not marked by the toleration of vulgarity, or the outright celebration of depravity. Lee Siegel has seen this reality, and he doesn’t like it. “When did the culture become so coarse?,” he asks, adding: “It’s a question that quickly gets you branded as either an unsophisticated rube or some angry culture warrior.” Siegel wants us all to know that he is neither unsophisticated...

The FBI has begun examining the relationship between Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen and the chief executive of a nutritional supplements manufacturer that is the subject of a federal investigation, two people with knowledge of the review said Monday. Federal authorities began questioning people close to the McDonnells as an outgrowth of a securities probe of Virginia-based Star Scientific Inc., said the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because their roles in the case preclude them from speaking publicly.

Former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, whose life story is described by the governor's office as "the American Dream come true," has seen a political career with tremendous potential suddenly hit the pause button.

A Latina aide to the lieutenant governor of Florida has been caught up in a sex scandal involving her boss. A former employee of Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll claims the Sunshine State’s second in command had a tryst with top aide Beatriz Ramos, and even caught them in a “compromising position” inside Carroll’s office. The lieutenant governor denies the allegations, which were included in a court filing made late last week by the attorney representing former top aide Carletha Cole. Cole was arrested last October on charges that she gave an illegally taped conversation with another Carroll aide to...

The media circus surrounding Herman Cain just got its third ring. The celebrity gossip website Radar reports that Gloria Allred — yes, that one — will introduce America to a woman who says Cain harassed her in the past.

Herman Cain, a surprise leader in the Republican race for the presidency, acknowledged Monday that he was accused of sexual harassment while chief of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, but he denied wrongdoing in an episode that has consumed his rising candidacy. Facing the biggest test of his campaign just as it was demanding notice from a political world that had not seen him coming, Mr. Cain spent the day in a whirlwind of television interviews and news briefings that were originally supposed to highlight his economic plans but became an exercise in damage control. He maintained that...

The allegations about the former Alaska Governor, who has been pursued by the tabloid press since running for the Vice Presidency in 2008, were originally published in the National Enquirer, which quoted publishing sources close to the book.

Tbilisi, September 27, Interfax - The spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church has sent a letter to Russian Patriarch Kirill expressing concern over a message sent by the Russian Patriarch to the South Ossetian leader. "Reports were circulated claiming that you have sent greetings to the head of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its independence, which caused an extremely negative reaction among our believers and in the whole of the Georgian republic," Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II said in his letter. "This move is regrettable and absolutely not clear, as it...

Rahm Emanuel was quoted as saying “Let no crisis go to waste.” This is a corollary to the long-standing tactic of the left in America to create charges and victims out of whole cloth in order to advance their many agendas. The fake but true narrative is a time-tested formula. In the last few weeks a new crisis seems to be resurrected, that being the threat of armed and violent extremist right wing groups. I say resurrected since the initial attempt to gin up this issue flopped badly when Janet Napolitano, the head of DHS commissioned a smear campaign in...

A week after a high-profile send-up of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live," the NBC comedy show returned to making fun of the Alaskan governor in a skit where New York Times reporters sought to probe the possibility Palin's husband was having sex with the couple's own daughters. "What about the husband?" asked a Times reporter during a mock assignment meeting for the paper. "You know he's doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It's Alaska." The assignment editor for the Times, portrayed by actor James Franco, responded: "He very well could be. Admittedly, there is...

Given that we’re more than halfway to the century mark in Palin smears, I think it’s time to take another brief look at the left’s method of smear dissemination. Yesterday on a blog hosted by the prestigious magazine the Atlantic, a post popped up at 11:49 a.m. with the breathless title, “Here We Go.” The post read in its entirety, “Todd Palin's former business partner files an emergency motion to have his divorce papers sealed. Oh God.” The post linked to the Alaskan court system where you could see the motion if you cared to click through.

This is a lengthy, comprehensive review of McCain's angry behavior. Note, that it is a serious effort and tries to be fair; however, the author makes some common errors in respect to emotions and human behavior. The only quote I will post is the below. The article is at least 5 pages long on my computer, so 300 words would not be an adequate review. ...Since the beginning of McCain's public life, the many witnesses to his temper have had strikingly different reactions to it. Some depict McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, as an erratic hothead incapable...

Interesting essay purports to disclose relationship between Eliot Spitzer and the Bush administration involvement in the sub-prime lending and banking crisis