Free Republic

A separation of science and politics might be called for. Once upon a time, science evoked enthusiasm. Yes, cinematic mad scientists went overboard with body parts and lightning, but real-life researchers brought us innovations, insights, and improved standards of living. But, like many institutions, science got political and cult-y. Thin-skinned narcissists with government jobs hijacked the systematic pursuit of knowledge and rebranded it as an unassailable body of Truth with a capital T. They cast out as heretics well-informed critics who interpreted evidence differently. In the process, they lost the trust of a public which saw insights replaced by bossy...

Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy announced his campaign has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demand upon the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to a June 12 Tweet. Former President Donald Trump’s indictment relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents was unsealed Friday. He is to be arraigned in Miami on Tuesday. Ramaswamy’s request asks for any records held by the DOJ in relation to Trump’s indictment. He calls out U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and DOJ Special Council Jack Smith. My campaign just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demand to uncover *exactly* what...

There’s a growing divide between the rank-and-file officers of the FBI and upper management, according to FBI agent-turned-whistleblower Steve Friend, and it’s those at the top who are pushing a political agenda.“I spent close to nine years in the FBI, spent a good chunk of my time just keeping my head down and working the cases in front of me,” Friend noted in a March 14 interview with NTD News, The Epoch Times’ sister outlet.“There are a lot of agents that sort of share that sentiment and just want to drive the mission forward. Unfortunately, there’s a big disconnect between...

Revelations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s involvement in social media censorship have raised voter concerns. A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and Miranda Devine’s Laptop From Hell finds that 63% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Congress should investigate whether the FBI was involved in censoring information on social media sites. Only 22% oppose such an investigation, while 15% are undecided ... Twitter has released files showing the FBI’s communications with the popular social media platform. Last week, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who is set to take over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,...

A new guide on 'inclusive communication' by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote 'health equity' has published a long list of words and phrases such as elderly, smokers and poor for les 'dehumanizing' language. The guide includes a list of guiding principles and preferred terms to use rather than seemingly dehumanizing ones such as 'poor' and 'elderly' to foster 'an ongoing shift toward non-stigmatizing language.' 'Long-standing systemic social and health inequities ... have put some population groups at increased risk of getting sick, having overall poor health, and having worse outcomes when they do get sick,' the...

Associate Justices of the Supreme Court Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said they are concerned the court’s legitimacy could be undermined if it is viewed as politically divided. What did they say? “We don’t have an army, we don’t have any money, the only way we get people to do what we say that they should do is because people respect us and respect our fairness,” Kagan said in an NJ.com report. “Part of the court’s legitimacy depends on people not seeing the court in the way that people see the rest of the governing structures of this country now....

<p>Globalism, the tech boom, illegal immigration, campus radicalism, the new racialism . . . Are they leading us toward an 1861? How, when, and why has the United States now arrived at the brink of a veritable civil war?</p> <p>Almost every cultural and social institution — universities, the public schools, the NFL, the Oscars, the Tonys, the Grammys, late-night television, public restaurants, coffee shops, movies, TV, stand-up comedy — has been not just politicized but also weaponized.</p>

The chair of the House Intelligence Committee accused the FBI and Department of Justice of stonewalling a sprawling investigation into claims the Trump campaign colluded with Russia with the hope of running out the clock until the November elections, when they anticipate Democrats will regain control of the House and dissolve an ongoing probe that has uncovered evidence U.S. officials sought to cripple Trump's campaign. Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), in a wide-ranging audio interview with his House colleague Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.), accused top officials at the FBI and DOJ of "putting all their chips on the Republicans...

An FBI agent who quit his top position over the bureau’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation is heading to Congress to testify. John Giacalone, who led the Clinton investigation for the first seven months, will reportedly expose former President Barack Obama and fired FBI Director James Comey for corruptly helping Clinton. There’s a massive media blackout on this because Giacalone is expected to testify that top brass at the FBI rigged the investigative process so that Clinton could skirt charges for clear violations of the law. Exposing Comey also shines a big light on Obama, who many believe...

I find it odd the FBI can stage an international coup against a sitting US president, catch political enemies in process crimes, but they can’t stop a psychopath with declared intent from mass murdering children. Ever. Have they ever stopped one? Bueller? Bueller? Follow me... Good citizen notices threat to mass murder in Sept., reports to FBI. He gets interviewed, FBI leaves. Cruz is all over the internet posting motive, intent and method. FBI? <> Cruz commits mass murder. (silence) The FBI is politicized. They gain by pushing the global overthrow of America as founded out of the news cycle...

Creating a fan base I borrowed the title for this essay from a very popular weekly radio show (over 400 episodes) of the exact same name, broadcast during some of my growing up years 1945-1953. Before television became the focus of our attention we listened to radio, usually as a family gathered around the one piece of furniture providing our in-home entertainment. The show cited above was a favorite because it was exciting and reinforced our teachings from other sources (parents, schools, churches, the friendly constable on the beat) about distinguishing right from wrong. We came to accept the FBI...

The most obnoxious spin of the 2016 campaign came this week, as Democrats, their media allies and even President Obama accused the FBI of stacking the election. It’s an extraordinary claim, coming as it does from the same crew that has—we now know—been stacking the election all along in the corridors of the Justice Department. This is the true November surprise. For four months, FBI Director James Comey has been the public face of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server. He played that role so well, putting the FBI so front and center, that the country forgot about Mr....

Attorney General Lynch abdicated her duty in the Clinton probes. Fewer than three of 10 Americans trust government to do the right thing always or most of the time, Gallup reports, and the years since 2007 are “the longest period of low trust in government in more than 50 years.” The details emerging about the multiple investigations into Hillary Clinton explain a lot about this ebbing public confidence in institutions such as the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. *** Start with Attorney General Loretta Lynch. A cavalcade of former Justice heavyweights are now assailing FBI director James Comey...

The Comey-Lynch confrontation unfolded on Thursday, some time after Comey was fully briefed on the existence of the trove of emails uncovered by agents investigating Anthony Weiner's sexting of a 15-year-old girl. Lynch made it known that she thought his decision violated department policy, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. As Comey and Lynch aides debated last Thursday whether alerting Congress about the emails would comply with longstanding Justice Department policy against announcing overt investigative steps that would influence an upcoming election, Comey asked whether he was being explicitly directed not to do so. Lynch never...

Embattled U.N. envoy Susan Rice is dropping out of the running to be the next secretary of state after months of criticism over her Benghazi comments, she told NBC News on Thursday.

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah. They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned. When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came...

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2008 – If the U.S. military lost its politically neutral footing, the armed forces would surrender the public’s trust, a senior U.S. military officer who explained a new Defense Department directive on troops’ political activity said in an interview. “If we do appear to be influenced by our own views or our own understanding of how things should be, we’re going to lose the public trust,” Army Col. Shawn Shumake, director of legal policy within the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, told the Pentagon Channel. “We’re going to lose the...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, often extolled by conservative Republicans as their ideal model of a judge, said Monday the confirmation process was too politicized and that he wouldn't want to experience it again. When asked whether he thought he could be confirmed again by the Senate, Scalia said: "I don't know. I wouldn't want to go through it today, I'll tell you that much." Scalia, who was confirmed by the Senate on 98-0 vote in 1986, was interviewed by NBC's "Today" show. He was thought at one point to be a candidate for chief justice when William...

The unearthing of documents directly linking Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization to Saddam Hussein this weekend may have hermetically sealed the Bush administration's case that dismantling Iraq's Baathist enterprise was in part necessary to undo terrorism's dynamic duo. But closing that case may reopen a Pandora's box for ex-Clinton administration officials who still believe their policy prescriptions protected U.S. national interests against the growing threat of terrorism during the past decade. The London Telegraph's weekend revelations raise deeply disturbing questions about the extent and magnitude to which President Clinton, his national-security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, and senior terrorism...