Free Republic

I know it’s racist to call LeBron James dumb, but what about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The New York Democratic congressional candidate got at least some real questions during an interview this week on CNN. If weren’t for Ocasio-Cortez being an attractive minority, the rest of the media would be calling her the next Sarah Palin. Democrats, if they’re ethnic and look good on TV, typically get one question from the press: “Are you running for president?” It’s the sole reason Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey are considered “top contenders” for the 2020 Democratic nomination. Cuomo...

California’s energy regulators effectively cooked the books to justify their recent command that all homes built in the Golden State after 2020 be equipped with solar panels. Far from a boon to homeowners, the costs to builders and home buyers will likely far exceed the benefits to the state. The California Energy Commission, which approved the rule as part of new energy-efficiency regulations, didn’t conduct an objective, independent investigation of the policy’s effects. Instead it relied on economic analysis from the consultancy that proposed the policy, Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. Its study concluded that home buyers get a 100%...

Despite numerous promises from congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama when they passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the health care law has created far more problems than it has solved. Premiums, deductibles, and health care choices have all worsened since Obamacare went into effect, and there’s no sign America’s health insurance system will improve anytime in the near future.President Trump inherited a health insurance crisis when he took office in January 2017, so he and congressional Republican leaders immediately began to work to implement their plan to replace Obamacare with a more market-centered approach to improving the...

The recent utterly unsurprising utter capitulation by the Fredocons to the SJW/tech/media campaign to deplatform and silence any right-wing voice who is not trying to sell you a cruise cabin is a symptom of a bigger problem. It’s not a symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome, though Trump has utterly deranged these pointy-headed geeks. It is a symptom of Conservative, Inc.’s contempt for you.The dethroned conservagimps are angry with you. Donald Trump is not really the issue. He’s just a convenient target for those these establishment sissies. They truly despise you.You.They hate you because you refuse to honor and respect them, to...

Unlike the prior administration who was more than willing to give away America’s wealth and power, President Trump understands US economic power. And he is using the wealth and power of the United States to the country’s full advantage. President Trump knows that since the US is holding all of the aces it is time to use them and really start winning. The US economy is the world’s largest America’s economy is bigger than the combined economies of the rest of the G7. Our total annual output which will exceed $20 Trillion this year, is almost 25% of the world’s...

Everybody ought to have an aide, someone who can help when you need support. Certainly, political leaders must depend on advisors who are able to discern accurately, or pretend to know, what's going on, and speak truth to power. Throughout history, all countries have had figures of this kind. France had Cardinal Richelieu for King Louis XIII and Cardinal Mazarin for Louis XIV, not to mention Mme. Pompadour on the ballroom floor with Louis XV, and Mme. Du Barry, the toast of Paris. British prime minister Harold Wilson had a Kitchen Cabinet, and consultant Alastair Campbell served for Tony Blair....

Who could have predicted back in 1928 that Al Smith's successor as governor of New York would be explaining his advancement of legislation by his "solidarity" with the pope?  Back then, poor Governor Smith was defeated in his run for president in part by anti-Catholic fears that he represented a "Romish Peril," not least by way of a transatlantic tunnel between Washington and the Vatican.  A vote for Al Smith would put America under the dictatorship of the pope. So when Governor Andrew Cuomo, literally on the same day Pope Francis declared that the death penalty is "inadmissible" in all cases, introduced...

Seems there was “interference” in last Tuesday’s special election in Ohio’s 12th congressional district, where Republican candidate Troy Balderson holds a very slim lead over Democrat Danny O’Connor. That is how Seema Iyer, a reporter with Channel 6, the ABC affiliate in Columbus, described it. Was it the Russians? Well, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted that yes, indeed, she thought the result was a clear-cut sign of “Russian meddling.” After all, her candidate lost. All she lacked was evidence. “Actress, Armed Gun Control Activist, and International Security Expert Alyssa Milano Laments Putin Voting in Ohio,” was Red State’s headline on the...

On August 12, 2017, a free speech rally arrived in Charlottesville to stop the removal of the statue commemorating Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Then a group of Neo-Nazis, white knights, alt-right trolls, white nationalists, and other white supremacists showed up. They wanted to protect the statue, albeit for different reasons. Then to counter-protest the white (not “Right”) supremacists, the violent left-wing Antifa hordes with their Black Bloc goons crashed the protest, and all hell broke loose. With protesters fighting to pulverize or protect the statue of a general who had headed one side of the American Civil War, another civil...

It was merely a comment, a reply, not even a full throated post on Twitter.Shannon Bream of FoxNews’ ratings’ dominant prime time line-up had linked a post about a headline of an election related story in Ohio.@ShannonBream: “Well, that’s an interesting headline: 170 Voters in Ohio Race ‘Over 116 Years Old,” World’s Oldest Person is 115.Generating, as you can imagine it would, thousands of replies, I decided to add a simple one. @KMCRadio: “If you oppose voter ID you’re unAmerican.”Simple and to the point.Twitter didn’t seem to think so. The arguments they made in response ran the gamut but the gist...

After his recent passing, Charles Krauthammer was justifiably lauded as a leading commentator on public policy from the conservative point of view. Some said he was the single-most important and intelligent conservative force since William F. Buckley. While the praise for Dr. Krauthammer is well-deserved, I thought these comments were remiss by excluding George Will. Simultaneously, Will published a column that seems to display that his Trump Derangement Syndrome has caused him to suffer an apparent nervous breakdown telling people to vote for Democrats. Mr. Will is justified in his thoughts about the (at times) choice of verbiage by our...

A story is supposed to have  two sides, but there is only  one when it comes to President Trump’s foreign policy. Most American media treat his every effort as a savage assault on a harmonious world order. Whether it’s the trade dispute with China, his pushing North Korea to scuttle its nukes or his demand that NATO members spend more on defense, the headlines sound the same shrieking note: “Trump inflames . . . Trump escalates . . . Trump doubles down . . . Trump risks . . .” The parade of horribles continues to this day, but it will be hard to out-fear-monger a Time magazine...

I hate weeks like this. I’m sitting here, Friday at midnight, trying to think of something to write about. My deadline is Saturday at noon, so I have a little time. But with so many topics to choose from, how can anyone be expected to pick just one? August used to be a traditionally slow time in politics – the month of Congressional recess and vacations when cable news tries out D-listers and new hopefuls desperately seeking fame and human-interest stories become all the rage. It’s still those things, mostly, but in 2018 there is never a dull moment, even...

The first two weeks of the trial of former Donald Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort on 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud charges have failed to implicate Trump or his campaign in any alleged criminal conduct. Prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller – who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election – are expected to call their final witness Monday at Manafort’s trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. If convicted on all counts, Manafort could face a maximum sentence of 305 years in prison. So far we’ve learned that the prosecution’s star...

According to recent media accounts, America is in a population death spiral. Open-borders activists have seized on the narrative to promote ever-looser immigration policies.But the narrative is wrong.In fact, women in the U.S. are more likely to be mothers than in the past, and they are having more children, reports the Pew Research Center.The Pew study found that women have 2.07 children during their lives on average – up from 1.86 in 2006, the lowest on record. Family size is also up. In 2016, mothers at the end of their childbearing years had had about 2.42 children, compared with 2.31...

Editor's Note: This column was co-written by Paul Driessen and David Wojick. Part 1 of a 3-part series. It’s obscene enough when the Multilateral anti-Development Banks do it. But Trump agencies?!? In a prime example of Deep State revanchism, despite the profound change in administrations, the US Agency for International Development is still funding and advancing anti-energy Obama-era climate change dogmas and policies for developing countries. USAID handles tens of billions of dollars a year, roughly half of all US foreign aid, so this climate alarmism puts literally millions of lives at risk.USAID calls its “flagship” program “low emissions development.” Emissions of course...

If CNN’s Jim Acosta spoke to the mass-murdering Stalinist dictator Raul Castro with half the insolence he sputters at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders who could blame him?After all, Jim Acosta’s father fled Stalinist Cuba as an 11 year- old, while Raul Castro destroyed his homeland and shattered his family, same as the Castros — through mass-executions, mass-jailings, mass larceny and exile--shattered practically every family in Cuba. But no. While addressing the mass-murdering Cuban dictator Jim Acosta’s nervous brownnosing outdid both Eddie Haskell upon his every greeting of June Cleaver and The Scarecrow’s upon meeting the Wizard of Oz.Acosta’s...

Is it any of Canada's business whether Saudi women have the right to drive? Well, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland just made it her business. Repeatedly denouncing Riyadh's arrest of women's rights advocate Samar Badawi, Freeland has driven the two countries close to a break in diplomatic relations. "Reprehensible" said Riyadh of Freeland's tweeted attack. Canada is "engaged in blatant interference in the Kingdom's domestic affairs." The Saudis responded by expelling Canada's ambassador and ordering 15,000 Saudi students to end their studies in Canada and barred imports of Canadian wheat. A $15 billion contract to provide armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia...

**SNIP** If there were a debate, you could probably count on Shapiro, a prominent Israel defender, to challenge Ocasio-Cortez on her harsh criticism of Israel. She described the day in May when Israeli troops killed more than 60 Palestinians, mostly Hamasniks, attempting to breach the fence with the Gaza Strip as a “massacre.” Ocasio-Cortez did not have to reply: No one expects a candidate to debate non-candidates, and her from-the-left appeal is based much more on getting out the vote than it is on persuading undecided independents or hostile conservatives. But reply she did on Thursday, and in the process...

Many Democrats running for state and national elections in November are running on a Democratic Socialism platform. These candidates are following the model pushed by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. The candidates offer free health insurance to all Americans, free college tuition, higher taxes on those who contribute most to the economy and government control of many markets. Many millennials may agree. How millennials view socialism was the basis of a study released last November by the research firm YouGov and the Washington DC-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The study concluded that about half of all Millennials said they...