Free Republic

Donald Trump's rhetoric on immigration has sparked his surge in the polls. But it is his economic critique of the GOP, and his attack on the financial corruption of the Republican donor class and leadership, that is a mortal threat to the party. Over the weekend, Byron York reported on Donald Trump's efforts to form a "comprehensive" plan on tax reform. He has signaled an interest in raising taxes on the richest Americans, and he has set his targets on the carried-interest loophole favored by hedge fund managers. He has said repeatedly that hedge funds pay too little in taxes,...

Ten years have elapsed since one of the most amazing cases of Republican-bashing media bias in the television era began. The media elites laugh when preachers say immorality causes God to send hurricanes, but they suggested with straight faces that Hurricane Katrina was a death sentence President George W. Bush and his cronies brought to the less fortunate. In the early spin, race-baiting rapper Kanye West and "objective" anchors like Brian Williams were in rhetorical sync: George Bush didn't care about black people. On "The Daily Show," Williams told Jon Stewart "everyone" knew Bush would have done better if white...

You won’t read about it in the New York Times or the Washington Post. But this week’s arrest of four Palestinian terrorists who were plotting to attack a Jewish holy site tells you everything you need to know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today. The reason you won’t hear about it in the American news media is because the terrorists were caught before they struck. Apparently intentions don’t count. No casualties, no news coverage—and even when there are casualties, there isn’t always news coverage. Did your daily newspaper report about the 2-year-old Israeli child who was recently hit by Arab rocks?...

Koran teaches the concept of "Tiqqiya," strategic lying As the debate concerning the merits of the Obama Iran deal becomes ever more animated, may I suggest that we consider the moral basis upon which the Iranian negotiators predicated their every statement When I was a child attending the New York City public school system in an America that believed in the theory of the “melting pot,” I recall reading a book about a genteel, well mannered, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant family living in a white frame house surrounded by a beautiful garden edged with a white picket fence. The family consisted...

People have long lists of things they think the market can't possibly do -- from building subways to fighting wars. Sometimes, the market does them anyway. War, for example. Even conservatives, who often praise markets, assume that only government can fight terrorists. Tell that to Matthew VanDyke. VanDyke and his group, Sons of Liberty International, spent the past months in Iraq training the Nineveh Plains Protection Unit, several thousand Christians willing to risk their lives fighting against ISIS's brutal forces there. I don't know if Sons of Liberty are as competent (or more competent) than the U.S. military, but they're...

Health Reform: Workers across the country will soon learn just how big President Obama's "keep your plan" lie was when ObamaCare costs them their beloved Flexible Spending Accounts.

"The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans believe people are fundamentally bad, while Democrats see people as fundamentally good." With that philosophical premise, former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts (R) isolated the differences between members of the two political parties in the clearest manner I've ever heard, and the implications of his statement are considerable, as it explains many Republican policies for at least a generation. Watts made the remarks in Pella, Iowa, while stumping for Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) presidential bid prior to the Iowa caucuses. Watts drew the nation's attention first as the quarterback who led the...

Can a Christian be a county clerk in the United States? This is a question it now appears may ultimately be decided by five Supreme Court justices. With it, too, will ride such questions as: Can a Christian be a doctor? A nurse? A public-school teacher? In June, when five justices declared that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment creates a right to "same-sex marriage," Justice Clarence Thomas issued a warning. "In our society, marriage is not simply a governmental institution, it is a religious institution as well," Thomas wrote in his dissent. "Today's decision might change the...

RUSH: Couple of Trump sound bites from yesterday that I asked to be held over to today. He was in Nashville on Saturday, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies Presidential Preference Endorsing Convention, that's a heck of a name for a meeting. The National Federation of Republican Assemblies Presidential Preference Endorsing Convention. Trump spoke and we have two from this event. So here are the first two. TRUMP: My opening statement that I was running for president, I talked about illegal immigration. I was killed by the press. Rush Limbaugh, who I think is a terrific guy, said, Rush Limbaugh...

RUSH: Mrs. Clinton -- apparently, obviously clear here -- is gonna get away with violating all kinds of national security. The latest thing that she's guilty of here -- and it's a felony. Andy McCarthy wrote about this today at National Review Online. (shuffling papers) Let me find it here. What it is, Obama issues an executive order, number 13526. "In the first year of his administration (December 29, 2009, to be exact), President Obama issued Executive Order 13526, entitled 'Classified National Security Information.' It explains that information is deemed classified if its disclosure would cause 'damage to the national...

RUSH: Okay, folks, I have figured out this e-mail scam. I know exactly what's going on here. I know exactly what the strategy is 'cause it's working on me. Ah, this is so predictable. We've seen it before. Greetings, and welcome back. Great to have you. Rush Limbaugh here behind the Golden EIB Microphone. Telephone number is 800-282-2882. And e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. Here's what's happening here, folks. I'm going through the latest news accounts of the latest dump of Hillary e-mails, and about halfway through the story, I say, "You know what, I don't care anymore. I'm getting bored. Nothing's...

“I should say a few words about politics too … Then I would talk about how Muslims are flooding, occupying, in clear verbs, destroying Europe, and how Europe relates to this, the suicidal liberalism and the stupid democracy … It always ends the same way: civilization reaches a certain stage of maturation where it is not only (un)able to defend itself, but where it is in a seemingly incomprehensible worship of their own enemy.”

Tie her tubes, or we’ll sue you for sex discrimination, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told a Catholic-affiliated hospital in California. So after first declining to do so, Mercy Medical Center in Redding has now slated a tubal ligation for a woman after her scheduled C-section to deliver a baby in late September. The ACLU’s demand is cut from the same cloth as the Obama Administration’s order under Obamacare to the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their beliefs and provide contraceptives and abortifacients or pay crushing fines. That case is still in litigation. The latest manifestation of...

... While 26 percent of Republicans say they would never vote for Trump, only 11 percent of Democrats say they would never vote for Clinton. Democrats don’t have the same kind of ideologically pure wing that has hurt GOP presidential candidates in the past. Democrats, it seems, are more practical. They may prefer Bernie Sanders, or one of the others, but when push comes to shove, almost all of them will vote for Clinton. Why? They want to win. I recently received an e-mail from someone named Carl who described himself as a conservative Christian, and he wrote, "I have...

Every once in a while a politician says something that you think can’t possibly be correct… until you find that it is. This happened earlier in the month (better late than never) when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 92% was asked about sugar subsidies: “I’m ready to get rid of the loan program for sugar, as long as the countries that export sugar into the U.S. get rid of theirs as well, and here’s why: Otherwise, Brazil will wipe out our agriculture and it’s not just sugar.”“I’m prepared to say, absolutely, we should change the law so that as soon as...

Ooouuuch. My sides are still aching after last week's comical announcement by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush that he had snagged the coveted endorsement of notorious electoral reject Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader kicked to the curb by disgusted voters in Virginia's 2014 primary election. Newsflash to GOP elites: Getting Cantor's support is not like landing a prized marlin. It's like hooking one of those hideous bottom-feeding blobfish named the world's ugliest creature. Inside the Beltway, The Washington Post reported, "Cantor remains well-liked and respected in the Virginia business community and among the Republican donor class in the...

It’s over. Hillary Clinton is not going to be the next President of the United States. It’s not because she demanded skim milk for her tea, though any discerning tea-drinker would always insist on at least semi-skim. It’s not because she couldn’t work out how to watch ‘Parks and Recreation’ or ‘The Good Wife’ on catch-up TV, though coupled with her general apparent ignorance of all new technology this does little to negate the nagging sense that she’s simply too old for the top job in America. It’s not because her aides sometimes go 100 hours without sleep, though this...

People are tempted to blur moral lines when it comes to feel-good things like immigration. Last year, President Obama wanted us to support his views so desperately he pulled the Christianity card out of his back pocket, attempting to tie a moral equivalent to his immigration policies and the Mary and Joseph story. Obama's version included a made-up scripture: "The good book says don't throw stones in glass houses" and a couple other choice misquotes. It would be swell to allow every Tom, Dick or Harry into the U.S., or any Mohamud, Osman, and Abil -- in the case of...

Another week, another Palestinian protest in the West Bank. Arabs, Leftists, and Anarchists try to tear down fences and throw rocks at IDF soldiers. The purpose isn’t just to riot, but to provoke IDF soldiers into action that makes them look bad. Welcome to “Pallywood” – the term given to Palestinians who deliberately spark these situations to spread anti-Israeli propaganda. They are very good at it, and it’s time the world knows how they operate. The video making the rounds, picked up by irresponsible and anti-Semitic media outlets around the world, appears to show a mean IDF soldier chasing down...

In the past week, two television reporters in Roanoke, Va. -- Alison Parker and Adam Ward -- were murdered by a black man who hated whites, and a white police officer in Houston -- Darren Goforth -- was murdered by a black man. Neither crime has been labeled a hate crime. And no mainstream media reporting of the murders attributes either to race-based hate. For the mainstream media, the Roanoke murders were committed by "a disgruntled former employee," and regarding the Houston policeman, the media report that, in the words of The New York Times, "a motive for the shooting...