Free Republic

Attorney General Merrick Garland implied Hunter Biden’s plea deal with United States Attorney David Weiss did not involve a double standard of justice. While attending the EU/US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, a reporter asked Garland if he thought the Hunter Biden plea deal reflected “a different standard of justice depending on political leanings. Garland replied: As I said from the moment of my appointment as attorney general, I would leave this matter in the hands of the U.S. attorney, who was appointed by the previous president and assigned to this matter by the previous administration,...

As America faces the twin threats of inflation and bank failures, three U.S. congressmen introduced a pivotal sound money bill that would enable the Federal Reserve note “dollar” to regain stable footing for the first time in more than half a century. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) - joined by Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) - introduced H.R. 2435, the “Gold Standard Restoration Act,” to facilitate the repegging of the volatile Federal Reserve note to a fixed weight of gold bullion. Upon passage of H.R. 2435, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve are given 24 months to...

Attorney General Merrick Garland, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, claimed on Monday his department has not applied a double standard of justice to President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal after reportedly agreeing with Biden’s personal lawyers to hide the scandal from the American people. “We do not have different rules for Democrats or Republicans, different rules for the powerful or the powerless, different rules for the rich and for the poor, we apply the facts, and the law in each case in a neutral, non-partisan manner,” Garland alleged to reporters during a press availability at Justice Department headquarters. “That...

Have not posted on here for a long time. My first introduction to FreeRepublic was ironically during the contested 2000 George Bush. No one seems to dispute that Trump handily won the in-person voting. Probably like Reagan won over Mondale. The mail in ballots, and the alleged fabricated ballots, are the only thing that put Biden over Trump. If everything we are told is true, a verification of ballots should show this up, bring a correct count, and Trump should win. We should feel secure in that. Georgia has already stated there is an automatic recount. Arizona reportedly does not...

Fresh from the same Dept. of Energy and EPA that gave us:toilets that don’t flush; light bulbs that don’t light; dishwashers that don’t wash; plant-based fuel that burns like carrots; and paper straws that dissolve in liquid….  Now we get this: […] Energy Star, the federal program from the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, said the coolest you should keep your home is 78 degrees when you’re home.When you’re at work or away, the program recommends setting it at 85 degrees. When you’re sleeping, Energy Star said to set the thermostat at 82 degrees. (link) Setting the thermostat at...

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. ( Psalm 7:9-13)The Judeo/Christian teaching of a God of Holy wrath has by and large been rejected...

The Prime Minister’s Office dismissed as “unacceptable and wrong” uncharacteristically sharp public criticism of Israel’s legal standards leveled Monday by US envoy Dan Shapiro, who said at times there seemed to be one standard of law in the West Bank for Israelis, and another for Palestinians. “As Israel's devoted friend, and its most stalwart partner, we believe that Israel must develop stronger and more credible responses to questions about the rule of law in the West Bank,” Shapiro said during an address at the annual Institute for Strategic Studies (INSS) Conference in Tel Aviv. Noting that the recent indictments in...

Enlarge Image It sounds esoteric, like an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and maybe someday it will be. But even in the fields of physics, supersymmetry is esoteric. What is supersymmetry? What is the calamity? Why should you care?What it is... is an idea: particular superheroes! Here's their story. The standard model is the crown jewel of physics. All you need to know is it describes subatomic particles and the forces that affect them. It has 16 kinds of particles: six quarks, six leptons and four bosons. Lately, headlines tell us add the Higgs. The standard model depicts...

Maybe the Standard Model is even more wonderful than it appears. Maybe we really don't need supersymmetry. Plus, other difficult topics, ouzo and a big Greek weddingIn a somewhat bizarre end-of-the-summer interlude, I just spent two nights and a day in Corfu at a Summer Institute on particle physics. Originally I intended to stay longer, but embarrassingly I agreed to give a lecture here months ago and then forgot. I also didn't realise at the time that it coincided with the end of the school holidays... a tricky time when one of your children is starting a new school and...

Here's something you don't see every day: a newspaper editor suing six readers for $25,000 in damages including “humiliation, mortification and embarrassment,” “sleeplessness and anxiety” and “mental anguish.” The lawsuit was filed last year by Lori Kilchermann, general manager and editor of the Ionia Sentinel-Standard in Michigan, for running a photograph taken two years earlier during a GOP fund-raising event at a barn in Ionia County, along with a story about a methamphetamine bust in the same structure on Feb. 10, 2012. The picture on the Sentinel-Standard website showed Republican candidates Rick Snyder and Brian Calley, along with Kristy Cuttle,...

A New York Times blogger became ensnared in controversy yesterday after asking a Weekly Standard author whether he was a Coptic Christian and if this played a factor in his reporting on anti-American and anti-Semitic activist Samira Ibrahim. Weekly Standard writer Samuel Tadros broke the story of Ibrahim’s support for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Bulgarian bus bombing attack of 2012, resulting in the State Department’s decision to “defer” its plan to honor Ibrahim with a women’s courage award. But Times reporter Robert Mackey speculated on Twitter that Tadros’s religious background, which Mackey believed was Coptic Christian, might...

A shock investigation of possible insider trading at Standard & Poor's has reportedly begun, with the country still reeling from the rating agency's historic downgrade of U.S. debt. Authorities want to know who had prior knowledge of the decision, which sparked a wild week of trading on Wall Street that saw breathtaking losses and rapid rises. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has oversight of credit rating firms, has started asking preliminary questions, the Financial Times reported. However, the regulator is not aware of a leak from an S&P insider,

It is standard procedure for U.S. special operations units, such as the elite Navy SEALs, to be supplemented by Afghan forces during missions against insurgents in Afghanistan, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force-Afghanistan (ISAF). Such forces were in the helicopter that crashed on Aug. 6, killing 30 U.S. soldiers, most of them SEAL members.U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings Jr., a spokesman for ISAF, told CNSNews.com in an e-mail today that Afghan forces were in the U.S. helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Aug. 6 because “the majority of our operations are combined coalition/Afghan missions.”

The leader of a group that marketed a fake currency called Liberty Dollars in the Asheville area and elsewhere has been found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy against the government in a case of “domestic terrorism.” Bernard von NotHaus was convicted Friday at the conclusion of an eight-day trial in U.S. District Court in Statesville. The jury deliberated less than two hours, according to the Department of Justice. Charges remain pending against William Kevin Innes, an Asheville man who authorities said recruited merchants in Western North Carolina willing to accept the “barter” currency, according to court records. Innes...

The ethics cases against Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) highlight an odd paradox: that many other members of Congress do similar things but are not facing charges. On March 4, 2009, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) introduced a witness at a hearing promoting renewable energy interests: Brooks Hurst. Congressman Graves failed to mention that Hurst was an old friend. The congressman also left out that his own wife and Hurst invested money in the same Missouri fuel plants. Congresswoman Waters argues that is the same thing she's accused of: helping a good friend and his company, where her...

The U.S. Senate's proposed Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) would force electric utilities to generate a large and increasing percentage of their power from wind and solar -- rising to 15% by 2021. These goals resemble those of the Waxman-Markey bill that barely passed the House in June 2009. It's disturbing that some Republicans on the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted for ACELA (the American Clean Energy Leadership Act). If the Senate were to take up an energy bill, it is likely that Sen. Brownback (R-KS) will introduce an amendment for RES.

The House ethics committee announced on Thursday that it would bring charges against Charlie Rangel, and the Manhattan Democrat responded by telling reporters that "I look forward to airing this thing." Don't we all. The ethics committee has been investigating Mr. Rangel since 2008 and its formal charges will remain sealed until a public hearing next week. However, the committee is not lost for choices: Allegations include Mr. Rangel's failure to report assets and income totaling at least a half-million dollars that, when he "amended" his reporting last year, doubled his net worth; his use of four rent-stabilized apartments in...

How to Stop USPS Junk Mail By Shelly Schumacher, eHow Contributing Writer The average American receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year. Not only does junk mail clog up our mailboxes, it also wreaks havoc on the environment. Nearly half of the junk mail received annually (44 percent) ends up in a landfill. In addition, nearly $320 million in local tax money is used to dispose of junk mail, and more than 100 million trees are used to create pulpwood for paper products. While the United States Postal Service does not have a one-stop method for reducing junk mail,...

So now it turns out to be Richard Goldstone - author of the notorious Goldstone Report - who is politicizing his grandson's bar mitzvah. Jewish authorities in South Africa didn't "ban" Goldstone from the synagogue at which his grandson was being bar mitzvahed, as Goldstone and his supporters had alleged. A small group of protestors had said they would exercise their right of expression to picket Goldstone. Though they clearly had the right to do so, most Jews in South Africa and elsewhere - including me - were uncomfortable with the idea of picketing a grandfather attending his grandson's bar...

SAN DIEGO - A sailor accused of murdering a fellow seaman on duty at Camp Pendleton committed suicide in the base brig. Jonathan Campos, 32, of Lancaster, was found unresponsive in his cell at about 12:20 p.m., taken to the base hospital and declared dead about 1:15 p.m.,the Los Angeles Times reported. Campos, a petty officer 2nd class, apparently asphyxiated himself with toilet paper. He had been on suicide watch in the brig and was last checked at 11:45 a.m., according to a Navy written statement. Campos was charged with murdering 29-year-old August Provost on June 30 at about 2...