Free Republic

In an election that seems to not want to focus on the issues of the campaign, let us at least focus on important matters regarding this election. Ms. Clinton, who has disappeared from the Mainstream Media, has asked Americans to support her while she has consistently displayed attributes no one would want in a Girl Scout leader -- let alone a president. Leadership means something. We all know that there are times when our leaders have fall guys; i.e., people who fall on their swords to protect the top leader or, in this case, our president. Going into a voting...

Aleppo, Syria, has lately been the focus of much world attention, with some people even hearing in it the first rumblings of WW3. It is not really possible to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the torrents of information and opinions pouring daily through every conceivable communication channel, without asking the locals for their insights. Dr. Nabil Antaki is one of the brave hearts that chose to remain in Aleppo despite the tragic loss of his brother, killed by 'rebels', to care for the war-wounded, mostly without charging a fee. He is also a member of a small,...

Let us give credit where it is due: She is polished, refined, well-rehearsed, and expert at hitting all of the focus group-tested notes. Her performance in the third debate was a masterful culmination of forty years of preparation for such a time as this. We conservatives and Alt-Right deplorables are acutely aware of the appalling corruption of the Clintons, from the pay-to-play Clinton Foundation money laundering scheme to the tens of thousands of deleted emails, and from the anti-Islam video as pretext for a riot in Benghazi, Libya to the trail of mysterious deaths of dozens of people who ran...

As the election nears, the media hype designed to affect the results, demoralize and demonize Trump and his supporters, and confirm the bias of its elite coastal consumers continues. Saturday’s opinion-posing-as-news lead in the Washington Post says the end is near for Trump -- the polls have him down everywhere and he was booed for crass attacks at the Al Smith dinner in New York. What do you expect from media whose reporters are literally in bed with the administration? Not only are reporters feeding debate questions to the Clinton campaign, we have a video of one of them, Andrea...

Many politicians have a skeleton in their closet. Hillary Clinton has a cemetery, with a sign reading “Waco.” The 1993 Waco showdown began when federal authorities rushed the communal home of a religious group, killing six of them, and losing four agents in return. The FBI then besieged the place with tanks and other armored vehicles, and ended up with the armored vehicles punching holes in the building, and injecting massive quantities of CS “tear gas.” When that didn’t work, the tanks began to demolish the building, eventually smashing about a quarter of it and damaging the remainder. A fire...

Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in three debates. She leads in many preference polls of the most competitive states. Barring a significant shift in the next two weeks, she is in a strong position to become the first woman elected U.S. president. But Clinton will end the campaign still struggling to change the minds of millions of voters who don’t think well of her, a glaring liability should the Democratic nominee move on to the White House. While many see her as better prepared to be commander in chief than Trump, she is consistently viewed unfavorably by more than half...

1. Call a Black person “articulate.” Instead: Because of a long history of oppression, degradation, and dismissal of the talent and skills of Black people, understand that such a statement coming from a white person is often construed, and meant, as meaning “articulate-ness” is something unusual in a Black person. 2. Say “one of my best friends is [black, Latino, person of color, etc.].” Instead: Ask yourself first: Do you know where that person shops for groceries? Where they go to church? Where they get their hair cut? What their children’s/granchildren’s names are? Have you ever been to their home?...

Donald Trump is no legal scholar, but at Wednesday’s presidential debate he showed a superior grasp of the U.S. Constitution than did Hillary Clinton. Amid the overwrought liberal fainting about Mr. Trump’s bluster over accepting the election result (see below), Mrs. Clinton revealed a view of the Supreme Court that is far more threatening to American liberty. Start with her answer to moderator Chris Wallace’s question about the role of the courts. “The Supreme Court should represent all of us. That’s how I see the Court,” she said. “And the kind of people that I would be looking to nominate...

These are turbulent times. More and more Americans express frustration and disillusionment today with the political institutions that govern the nation. They clamor for an alternative to the incestuous and pernicious atmosphere dominating the capital. They see a vast array of lobbyists, elected officials and entrenched interests manipulating the levers of power for their own enrichment at the expense of ordinary citizens. The discontent isn’t confined by ideology or political philosophy. As Donald Trump confounded the pundit class in ignoring convention and protocol on his way to securing the Republican presidential nomination, a long-time socialist generated throngs of enthusiastic supporters...

Another gushy movie about President Obama will surface a month after the election. The Root reported that Netflix will be releasing an original movie, Barry, documenting Obama’s early college years. The teaser trailed released Thursday featured a brazenly inspirational message that read, “Before he gave hope, before he created change, before he made us believe ‘we can,’ he was Barry.” This gushy movie probably doesn’t resemble anything like the 2006 movie portraying the fictional assassination of George Bush, Death of a President. According to Entertainment Weekly, the official description for the move states, “In a crime-ridden and racially charged environment,...

While polls show that more Hispanics prefer Hillary over Trump to occupy the White House those Hispanics need to take a close look at what Hillary’s party has done for -- and more importantly, to -- Hispanics in the U.S. The Hispanic population has grown so rapidly that it is difficult to believe that the 1970 Census questionnaire did not include a racial or ethnic category called “Hispanic.” But this was not because Hispanics did not live in the U.S. in significant numbers. The musical West Side Story from the 1950s featured several Puerto Rican main characters, and cities like...

The Trump campaign has announced that the candidate will deliver a major speech in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, October 22. He will present his closing arguments for American voters, outlining the steps he will take in his first 100 days to make America great again. I hope it’s his best speech yet. For all his gaffes and misstatements, the fact is this: The race is not over until it’s over. (Even when he means it’s over.) So, as Trump heads into his Gettysburg address, I want to emphasize what he should replay from last week’s debate, and what...

“Strengthening families” is big in Hillary Clinton’s immigration platform—not American families, but families of undocumented Democrats. To that end—and “within her first 100 days in office”—Hillary has vowed to “introduce comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to full and equal citizenship.” These newly minted Democrats will be speedily naturalized (likely in time for Hillary’s second term). “All families” will be granted “affordable health care,” a privilege very many Americans are without. Yet another political grant of privilege Americans don’t have, unless pigmentally endowed, is affirmative action. The throngs of immigrants and refugees—whose entry into the US Mrs. Clinton will accelerate,...

In 49 states, when you order breakfast in a restaurant you might be asked if you would like pancakes or an omelet. In Wisconsin, you are asked if you would like pancakes with your omelet. Ron Johnson would, thank you. This Republican U.S. senator, who is burning prodigious amounts of calories campaigning for a second and final term, really does represent the hearty eaters who were fueling up at a Perkins Restaurant here on a recent Sunday morning. In 2010, Johnson left his plastics manufacturing company that made him wealthy enough to try, against his preference for the private sector...

Though a lawsuit’s revelation that Thomas Reed, the director of the FCC’s Office for Communications Business Opportunities, had sex with a Washington Post reporter in his office is salacious, that’s not what should get Congress’s attention. The far more serious revelation involves the FCC’s official legal response to a female employee’s allegation that she was subjected to a hostile work environment due to management inaction when a male coworker repeatedly invited other male coworkers to watch porn with him in the cubicle adjacent to hers.... In today’s environment of heightened concern regarding gender issues, these allegations should have raised red...

The Obama administrations’s regulatory assault on Florida’s premium cigar industry appears tailor made for an election season rife with populist indignation. Newly approved federal regulations are on track to decimate Florida’s historic and culturally distinct manufacturing industry, while paving the way for legalized Cuban cigars to obtain a competitive advantage. Affected business owners and manufacturing workers at places like J.C. Newman’s Cigar Co. in Tampa would rather avoid politics altogether, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has premium cigars firmly in its crosshairs, citing concerns about youth access to tobacco and improving public health. . .

Donald Trump made headlines this week when he questioned whether Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan wanted him to prevail over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “Maybe not,” Trump told Good Morning America on Tuesday. “Because maybe he wants to run in four years… or maybe he doesn’t know how to win. I mean, who can really know?” Trump said. The view that Ryan “doesn’t know how to win,” however, neglects the reality that both Ryan and Clinton share a progressive, globalist worldview, which is at odds with Trump’s “America first” approach. Indeed, both Clinton and Ryan have said that they see...

Pastor Terry Amann of Des Moines, Iowa, is no stranger to politics. He’s been involved in politics and pro-life activism for decades. Most recently, he was a formidable influence in the last three presidential races. One Iowa State Senator just last week remarked that he is the “most influential pastor in politics in the state of Iowa.”Politics aside, Pastor Amann has a heart for ministry, as evidenced by the single most important issue he addressed when he first met Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Below are his remarks to me about the presidential race, in which he describes how...

In the early 70’s there was no internet. In those days a reporter had no cell phone. Typing on a computer was decades away. If somehow the letter E got in front of the word Mail it was simply a typo. The tools of the trade for an Investigative Journalist were pencils and paper, a typewriter, a little bribe money and sources inside the Halls of Power. When these tools were mixed with aggressive follow up, perseverance and old fashioned sweat of the brow it often led to the disclosures about war, spying, corruption and the men and women who...

Rank politics and baseless health scares are driving anxiety, North Carolina election campaigns, civil rights claims and plans for class action lawsuits, all of which could bring electricity rate hikes that will cause real job, health and civil rights problems for families – for no health or environmental benefits.As I noted in an earlier article, North Carolina state toxicologist Ken Rudo has publicly disagreed with the US Environmental Protection Agency and other NC “tox” experts, who say levels of chromium-6 detected in some NC waters are safe. The contaminant comes from coal ash deposits and other sources.Not surprisingly, Erin...