Free Republic

... The visceral, retributive reactions to Mr. Madoff’s petition, including from liberals who claim to want to end mass incarceration, reveal the obstacles to transformational criminal justice reform. The truth is, there is only a small number of entirely “sympathetic” people in prisons who could be released without any scruples by the public or affront to their victims. Those incarcerated for violent offenses compose a vast majority of our prison population, in spite of a false narrative that most people are in there for nonviolent drug offenses. The pain and harm experienced by their victims is real, and that’s also...

The former South Bend Mayor told the illegal immigrant he viewed her as an American, despite her illegal status. “So, first of all, this should go without saying but it’s important to say out loud that I regard you and all DACA recipients as American as I am or anybody else is in this room,” he said. In December, Buttigieg also expressed his desire that he would open up taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegals during a conversation with a voter in Spanish. “So the most important thing for me is that we offer the opportunity for health care to all in...

A new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that tracks carbon emissions worldwide dropped great news for the United States under the leadership of Donald Trump on Tuesday. "The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019 on a country basis – a fall of 140 Mt, or 2.9%, to 4.8 Gt. US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period."Not only is Trump leading the world in economic success but he's also doing exactly what the climate scolds all...

Florida enacted its red flag law in the spring of 2018 and they didn’t lose any time in putting it to use. And I mean a lot of use. But as this report from the Associated Press indicates, use of the law is not consistent from county to county and there are serious questions remaining as to how fairly it’s being applied. The law, supported by legislators of both parties , has been applied more than 3,500 times since, with the pace accelerating during the last half of 2019. Even so, an Associated Press analysis of the law showed...

While Bernie Sanders was speaking at a rally in Nevada, those watching the live feed saw a woman storm the stage and seize the microphone from his hands. She turned out to be an activist from Direct Action Everywhere, an animal liberation movement. After castigating Bernie for daring to support those American farmers who raise animals for milk and meat, the live feed cut off. That’s a shame because it was when the video cameras were gone that the fun really started. What you see watching the video is a young woman with long black hair and scarlet lipstick jumping...

All of their predictions are based on the conventional wisdom and assumptions of an insulted and excluded D.C. intelligentsia, and all are wrong. Media bias is an old constant. It has never and will never go away. A reporter or host can use all the proper, sanitized words he wants, but behind the scenes lie the decisions that went into which stories to pursue and which to drop; where to pull back and where to push forward; who to interview, who to skip; what is most important versus what can be buried or even cut.And then, of course, there’s the...

If you really want to shock leftists, tell them that Europe does not have, and has never had, socialized medicine or, indeed, socialized anything. European nations certainly had government-controlled medicine. They also boasted short work weeks, long vacations, year-long maternity leaves, early retirement, fully-paid-for old-age care, all sorts of other things that made them feel superior to Americans. However, contrary to Europeans’ self-satisfied faux-socialist vision of themselves, Europeans didn’t fund their so-called “soft socialism.” Instead, for the most part, Americans did. During the Cold War, government collected taxes from Americans to pay Europe’s defense costs, allowing Europeans to spend their...

Having discredited itself with utter (and very public) incompetence in tallying up the Iowa caucuses, the Democrats are reportedly on the verge of another disaster in Nevada. Politico headlines, ‘A complete disaster’: Fears grow over potential Nevada caucus malfunction  Anxiety is rising over the possibility of another tech-induced meltdown at the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Saturday. In interviews, three caucus volunteers described serious concerns about rushed preparations for the Feb. 22 election, including insufficient training for a newly-adopted electronic vote-tally system and confusing instructions on how to administer the caucuses. There are also unanswered questions about the security of...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview that if President Donald Trump was a person of faith he would recognize other people of faith like her pray “even for him” While claiming Republican senators did not have the “courage” to vote guilty on impeachment, Pelosi said, “Except for Mitt Romney. God bless him. And then the president criticized him for using his faith.”

Australia’s decision to join the U.S. and ban Huawei from any participation in a national 5G network remains a “sore point or thorny issue” between the two countries, the Chinese ambassador alleged Monday, adding “discrimination against a Chinese company” lies at the core of the dispute. Cheng Jingye dismissed concerns Huawei may pose a threat to Australia’s national security given its known links to the Communist Chinese government, and said Australia’s ban was “politically motivated.” The telecommunications giant was banned in August 2018 from joining Australia’s 5G rollout due to security concerns. The then Turnbull conservative coalition government chose to...

A new video posted on Sunday shows former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg explaining how healthcare will “bankrupt us,” unless we deny care to the elderly.

Key Points Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is coming out in favor of boosting Social Security and creating new ways for American workers to save for retirement. The plans mark the latest addition to the former New York City mayor’s campaign platform, and puts him in line with other Democratic candidates who have called for shoring up Social Security benefits and the program’s long-term solvency. Bloomberg’s proposals also aim to help improve retirees’ lives, from giving low-income workers access to government-provided retirement savings plans to helping to ensure seniors get better access to health care and housing. ===================================================================== Mike Bloomberg...

SHANGHAI—Nearly half of the U.S. companies in China say their global operations are already seeing an impact from business shutdowns due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a poll by Shanghai’s American Chamber of Commerce. Some 78 percent of the respondents also said they do not have sufficient staff at their Chinese plants to resume full production, as public health restrictions make it harder to workers to return to their jobs after an extended holiday. The survey polled 109 companies with manufacturing operations in Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and the wider Yangtze River Delta. Forty-eight percent of respondents said plant shutdowns...

Although we are currently in the dead of winter, summer will be here before we know it. Democrats may be singing the Summertime Blues along with Eddie Cochran, “I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler” when they are forced to nominate a socialist to represent their party in the upcoming presidential election. Or alternatively alienate half of their base. There will also be a bit of fussing and hollering over the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Assuming the coronavirus outbreak doesn’t turn into a science fiction movie leading to a near extinction event, gender politics and intersectionality...

Thanks to Second Amendment supporters around the Commonwealth ceaselessly voicing their opposition to a sweeping gun ban, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-5 to reject House Bill 961 on February 17th. Bloomberg’s House majority in the General Assembly is not going to deliver their most coveted agenda item to their billionaire master. House Bill 961 was a comprehensive ban on many commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms, suppressors, and standard capacity magazines. The original bill sought to impose a licensing and registration scheme for citizens who wish to keep affected firearms they lawfully owned prior to the ban, with felony penalties for noncompliance....

The Suspect by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen is a must-read book.  It details how Richard Jewell was accused of being the bomber at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.  Instead of being a hero for saving many lives, he became the main person of interest by the FBI and the press.  Former U.S. attorney Kent Alexander and former Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Salwen reconstruct all the events leading up to, during, and after the Olympic bombing, showing how much of the law enforcement evidence was ignored, mainly because of tunnel vision. Elise Cooper: Why did you write it now? Kent Alexander: I have wanted...

Les Ouchida was born an American just outside California's capital city, but his citizenship mattered little after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Based solely on their Japanese ancestry, the 5-year-old and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and imprisoned far away in Arkansas.

To describe Canada as a totalitarian state-in-progress sounds like a gross and indeed absurd exaggeration. Yet many premonitory signs are present. In the words of political philosopher William Gairdner, author of The Book of Absolutes, The Great Divide and The Trouble with Canada, Canada “has just crossed the red line between soft-socialism and soft-totalitarianism.” Gairdner has assembled a virtual mountain of evidence for his claim: Bill C-25 seeking to impose “diversity” on all corporations; financial penalties against organizations that do not comply with government programs; a teeming brigade of government surveillance “Inspectors,” that is, spies -- wage spies, speech spies,...

The final vacant judicial seat in Texas is about to be filled by another of many Trump appointees. Houston lawyer Drew Tipton is expected to be confirmed soon to a lifetime appointment to a district judgeship in Corpus Christi. When Trump took office, Texas had more vacant judicial seats than most other states. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, changed Senate procedures to speed the process of filling court vacancies. Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz say the new judges are strict constitutional interpreters.

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Breitbart News Sunday this weekend that billionaire left-wing financier George Soros told then-President Barack Obama to investigate someone. Dershowitz would not identify who, precisely, the target of the investigation was, but said that the name would soon emerge in in a lawsuit that had yet to be filed. “President @BarackObama personally asked the @FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of #GeorgeSoros…” –@AlanDersh on @BreitbartNews Sunday with @joelpollak. For #dershowitz's full commentary on #WilliamBarr, #RogerStone, and the #Impeachment trial, go to @siriusxm OnDemand! pic.twitter.com/KM7szKoH3s — SiriusXM Patriot (@SiriusXMPatriot) February 17, 2020 The revelation...