Free Republic

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) said on Sunday that the Biden administration has not reached out to him to discuss voting rights legislation, as the White House works to pass two key Democrat-backed bills. NBC's "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd questioned Romney on attempts to unify the country, noting that there appears to be only a few Republicans willing to work with the Biden administration, with Romney among them.

When she’s not the target of kidnapping plots hatched by FBI operatives, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is burying COVID death counts. Yes, she took a page from Andrew Cuomo’s playbook on the number of COVID deaths from nursing homes. Now, the undercount is not as high as Cuomo’s but it’s significant. It could be between 30-40 percent. At a minimum, Michigan’s nursing home deaths are 30 percent higher than the initial total. I would say that’s an impeachable offense (via Fox News): Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's administration undercounted the COVID-19 deaths in the state's long-term care facilities by 30%, according...

Falsified documents claiming Michigan’s electors voted for former President Donald Trump were given by state election officials to a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot. Sixteen Republicans, including the current co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, signed certificates asserting they were Michigan’s presidential electors and sent the illegitimate documents to the National Archive. The unofficial documents were part of a failed Republican strategy to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in battleground states, which is under new scrutiny from a U.S. House panel and the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Each political party nominates its own slate of electors, but...

The Supreme Court of the United States denied certain military veterans a chance at greater retirement benefits in a nearly unanimous opinion authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday. Justice Neil Gorsuch bucked the 8-1 majority and would have allowed a subset of veterans to recoup more Social Security funds after their service ended. Stylized as Babcock v. Kijakazi, the case turns on the Social Security Act’s so-called “windfall elimination provision,” which is a statute designed by Congress to reduce Social Security payments for retirees who receive separate pension payments. Such retirees would otherwise, in Congress’s view, receive a...

"The criminal cases against the student and parents for their alleged responsibility in the Nov. 30, 2021 Oxford High School shootings returned to court last Friday. "...Ethan Crumbley, 15, waived his right to a preliminary exam and his case moves to the Oakland County Circuit Court." "Parents Jennifer and James Crumbley appeared before Judge Julie Nicholson..." "James worked as a DoorDash delivery driver, while Jennifer’s employment was terminated." “The only ties these two individuals have — other than their son who is awaiting trial — are out of state,” McDonald said. “Both defendants’ families live in Florida. James Crumbley’s other...

Russians secretly mocked Obama for so easily giving them American uranium, nuclear fuel contracts and technology, FBI informant reveals in excerpts from the new book "Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties." The failed Russian reset .. repeatedly gave Russia's nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, assets like uranium under U.S. soil and billions of dollars in nuclear fuel contracts that made American electricity customers reliant on Moscow for years to come. And then Vladimir Putin pulled the rug out from under the Obama administration in 2014, invading the Crimea region of U.S. ally...

To say investors are bullish on oil again would be an understatement. In a year that has begun with serious uncertainty—largely about the path of interest rates and tech stocks — a positive call on oil is as close to a consensus opinion as it gets. In fact, traders are making bets again that U.S. oil prices will rise above $100. It would take a major surge to get there. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, were down 0.2% on Monday to $78.72 per barrel. There are several reasons for the resurgent bullishness. For one thing, oil...

Federal prosecutors say a key FBI informant in the alleged plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan was a “double agent” who was “working against the interests of the government” by trying to destroy evidence and prevent arrests. The confidential informant, Stephen Robeson, played a central role in the investigation that led to the arrest of 14 men for allegedly participating in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020. At the direction of his FBI handlers, Robeson reached out to potential targets, organized meetings, and paid travel expenses for people to attend such events. Now the government...

ANN ARBOR – Michigan’s hockey team tied a program record this year with five players competing at the World Junior Championship, an annual showcase of national under-20 hockey teams from around the world. All five returned to the ice for the Wolverines as they began the second half of their season Saturday with a 4-1 win over No. 10 UMass. But head coach Mel Pearson might not have his whole complement of players available for long. With the NHL opting out of participating in the 2022 Beijing Olympics that begin next month, countries will have to look elsewhere to fill...

The woman who accused former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield of multiple sexual assaults since she was a teenager was revealed to be his own sister-in-law. Rebekah Chatfield, who is married to the politician’s younger brother, claims the former speaker assaulted her “more times than I can count” beginning when she was 15 years old more than a decade ago.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion staff often act as “political activists” and contribute to hostile conditions for Jewish students at universities, according to a study recently published by the Heritage Foundation. Jay Greene, senior research fellow at the foundation’s Center for Education Policy, and James Paul, director of research at the Educational Freedom Institute, co-authored the December report, titled “Inclusion Delusion: The Antisemitism of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Staff at Universities.” The study should help people understand that the “nice-sounding words” of diversity, equity and inclusion are “masking university programs that actually spew hate and division, particularly with respect to Jews,”...

Michigan Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D) on Tuesday said she would not seek another term after serving eight years in Congress, making her the 25th House Democrat this year to announce plans to retire. "This year marks my 30th year in elected public service, and I've had the good fortune of serving Michiganders on the local and national level," Lawrence wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, along with a video announcement. "After reflecting on my journey & having conversations with my family, I'm announcing that I will not be seeking re-election to Congress," she wrote.

So, did this catch any steam because I really haven’t seen much about the local West Virginia effort from the Left that is gearing up to tell Sen. Joe Manchin that he’s a very, very bad man for opposing the Build Back Better bill. The Democratic senator delivered the kill shot to the bill when he announced, after weeks of talks, that he cannot get behind the legislation. It ruined Christmas for a lot of liberals. His fellow Democrats felt he had betrayed them. He didn’t. They just didn’t listen. He told them exactly what nutty items needed to be...

If they both decide to run, two Michigan congressman will be facing off against each other in the August 2022 Republican primary. The new U.S. House map drawn up by the Michigan redistricting committee puts incumbent Republicans Fred Upton and Bill Huizenga both in the 4th District. Huizenga says he is running, while Upton, the longest-serving Congressman in the state, has not made an announcement. The 3rd District would also shift to include Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, and Muskegon and Congressman Pete Meijer plans to run. He made his announcement Tuesday “Michigan’s new Third Congressional District, including my hometown of...

Rep. Peter Meijer said Sunday that the Republican Party has “no other option” than to rally behind former President Donald Trump. “There was no alternative. There was no other path,” said Mr. Meijer, Michigan Republican, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Mr. Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans who voted last year to impeach Mr. Trump over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, said that President Biden’s far-left agenda has kept Republicans in the Trump camp. During the 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden “said he would be moderate and look for bipartisan solutions,” said Mr. Meijer. “But then after —...

Stephen Robeson, an FBI informant who helped stage the phony kidnapping hoax of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, is being hit with fraud charges. Robeson was charged last week for allegedly defrauding a couple out of an SUV by convincing them to donate it to a fake charity. His wife, Kimberly, has also been charged. They will face up to three years in prison with fines up to $10,000 if they are convicted. Court records indicate that Robeson was particularly instrumental in setting up the phony kidnapping plot of Whitmer that was used as an “October Surprise” of sorts before the...

Michigan’s House delegation was left scrambling Wednesday after the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission finalized new congressional maps that eliminated one district while putting eight incumbents in four shared districts and creating three new open seats. In the hours after the map was released Tuesday evening several incumbents – including Democrats Elissa Slotkin and Debbie Dingell and Republican John Moolenaar – announced they would move to run in districts where they faced better odds or to avoid running against one of their colleagues. Democrat Haley Stevens, who has been on Republican target lists for the last two cycles, announced she would...

Ray Eps alive and well, and relaxing at ranch outside Phoenix. Case of "Plot" against Whitmer falling apart. Begins at 19:00.

The U.S. Department of Justice received an unwelcome Christmas gift from defense attorneys representing five men charged with conspiring to “kidnap” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020: a motion to dismiss the case. The Christmas Day filing is the latest blow to the government’s scandal-ridden prosecution; defense counsel is building a convincing argument that the FBI used undercover agents and informants to entrap their clients in a wide-ranging scheme that resulted in bad press for Donald Trump as early voting was underway in the key swing state last year. What began as random social media chatter to oppose lockdown policies...

Defense attorneys for five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) are seeking a dismissal of the indictment, citing "egregious overreaching" by federal officials, who they say invented a conspiracy and entrapped the men. If convicted in the alleged extremist kidnapping conspiracy, the five men – ​​Adam Fox, 38, Barry Croft, 46, Kaleb Franks, 27, Daniel Harris, 24, and Brandon Caserta, 33 – face up to life in prison. "When the government was faced with evidence showing that the defendants had no interest in a kidnapping plot, it refused to accept failure and continued to push its...