Free Republic

Donald Trump’s appeal is said to be his straight talk. But when it comes to international trade, he sounds like a hypocrite, the classic “Do what I say, not what I do” politician. While bashing companies for investing in foreign countries, Donald Trump’s own company has shown no inclination to invest and build only in America. In fact, a significant percentage of his company’s hotels and major real estate properties are located abroad. “Mr. Trump is either inexcusably hypocritical or inexcusably ignorant of economics,” according to Donald J. Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University. “There is zero...

Hypocrisy is one of the most overused words in the English language. Most people think it refers to any failure to act in accordance with one’s expressed beliefs. But that’s simply inaccurate. Failure to live up to one’s beliefs is called being a human. Being a hypocrite is when a person behaves in ways that are inconsistent with his expressed beliefs because he doesn’t actually believe the things he is saying. At the core of true hypocrisy there usually lies one motive: Power. To put it another way, when people tell you things they don’t actually believe, they are usually...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) pronounced herself appalled by the GOP's stated refusal to confirm anyone President Obama nominates to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia. "The blatant disrespect goes beyond anything I have witnessed in all my years in government," she claimed. Pelosi said she was unaware of any comparable behavior on the part of Democrats toward Republican presidents despite public statements by prominent Democratic senators during the two Bush Administrations. "Statements made by then Senator Biden (D-Del) in 1992 or Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2007 had no taint...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have failed to release their tax returns despite promises to do.</p> <p>Mitt Romney offered Republican presidential candidates this advice about a hard-won lesson: Release your tax returns before the primaries and avoid tough scrutiny later. But the top three Republicans leading in national polls don't appear to be listening.</p>

Donald J. Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach describes itself as "one of the most highly regarded private clubs in the world..." Since 2010, nearly 300 United States residents have applied or been referred for jobs as waiters, waitresses, cooks and housekeepers there. But according to federal records, only 17 have been hired. In all but a handful of cases, Mar-a-Lago sought to fill the jobs with hundreds of foreign guest workers from Romania and other countries.... So what's Trump's excuse? That's he's a businessman and that these are the realities on the ground? That, I'm afraid, won't wash. When...

'And he's got an awfully big wall at the Vatican, I will tell you.' Trump reiterated his months-long contention that 'we're going to build a wall, and Mexico's going to pay for the wall. And that's the way it is.' When Cooper reminded Trump that 'people do come and go through the Vatican, and it's open to tourists,' Trump pounced. 'They're going to come and go through the wall' he will erect on America's southern border, he said, 'but they're going to come and go legally. And that's what I want, and that's what a lot of people want, obviously.'...

If you give Obama a pass when he is dishonest or breaks the rules, because he seems like a good man, or is at least better than those guys; if you argue he had to change the law himself because Congress is dysfunctional and Republicans are unreasonable; if you lambast Bush for starting a war, but give Hillary a pass for both Iraq and Libya; then you are adopting one set of rules for your tribe and another set of rules for everyone else. That shows a lack of respect for people who disagree with you. They notice. They resent...

When Donald Trump heard that Ted Cruz had taken out a loan from Goldman Sachs (against his own investments, by the way), he lashed out at his rival. The loan proved that Cruz was owned by the banks! He could not be trusted! He'd just do Goldman's bidding! Oh my, how terrible! Yes, Cruz was clearly a crony of the big banks. This criticism caused the Cruz campaign to study Trump's own finances a bit. What they've discovered is downright shocking: Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz on Sunday said GOP front-runner Donald Trump owes “hundreds of millions or even billions”...

...Lynch is visiting South Florida over the next two days to discuss policing issues and ways of building trust and cooperation between law enforcement and local citizens. Lynch on Thursday will recognize the Doral Police Department for training officers to have a better community relationship... On Friday, Lynch will host a youth town hall at a Miami high school....

An increasingly geriatric Bill Clinton is upping his attacks on the 74-year-old socialist Bernie Sanders, and is attempting to link anonymous internet "trolls" to Hillary's rival. Holding apparent print outs of internet comments, Clinton escalated his attacks on his wife's opponent in Milford, New Hampshire Sunday night. Bill Clinton Takes Aim at Bernie Sanders "For her, this is not about grand revolution. This is about whether can improve peoples lives," Clinton said with a frail voice. "Vicious trolling," he dubbed apparent comments made towards female Clinton supporters, "that are literally too profane often - not to mention sexist - to...

Canada's Trudeau to DiCaprio: Your climate remarks don't help By Reuters Published: 17:04 EST, 22 January 2016 | Updated: 17:04 EST, 22 January 2016 DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Leonardo DiCaprio to tone down his "inflammatory rhetoric" on climate change saying it was not helping those who have lost their oil-industry jobs. The movie star had told the World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain town of Davos on Wednesday that corporate greed was causing climate change and "enough is enough." At a dinner later in the day, Trudeau, elected in October as...

While Cruz is running for president in 2016 as the consummate outsider, he launched his political career as a Bush administration insider, and his relationship with the GOP establishment is far deeper and more complex than he lets on. On the trail today, Cruz bashes the "Washington cartel," jokes of being so hated in the U.S. Capitol that he needs a "food-taster," and says at nearly every stop, "If you see a candidate Washington embraces, run and hide." But 16 years ago, as a young domestic policy adviser for Bush's 2000 campaign, Cruz himself had sought Washington's embrace. He uprooted...

In his new book, Thank You, President Bush: Reflections on the War on Terror, Defense of the Family, and Revival of the Economy, author Rod D. Martin argues that Bush has not only made America safer and stronger, but that he will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents. At the same time Robert Bryce, author of Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate, looks at President Bush as an integral part of the Texas oil machine out to enrich both him and his "cronies." The book gathers together the leading lights of...

Donald Trump is being accused, along with the entire Republican Party, of being a NAZI who wants to round people up and send them back to their native countries in box cars when all he is doing is promoting a proposal seriously considered by the Senate in 2007. Hillary Clinton equated Republicans with NAZIs Friday. Presidential candidate Clinton, who is facing a possible indictment for violating the Espionage Act, thinks if you want borders and have concerns about illegal immigration then you are a NAZI putting people in box cars. No candidate has proposed putting immigrants in box cars. Trump’s...

Because Cruz kept a repeat offender in prison, Brooks says he's not a good Christian. David Brooks does not like Ted Cruz. In an escalating series of attacks, Brooks has gone from saying that Cruz doesn't "live within the confines of reality" and is "nakedly ambitious" - a "selfish Machiavellian" - to now saying that Cruz's rhetoric is "Satanic" or perhaps "Mephistophelian." But Brooks really tears into Cruz in his latest column, arguing that his speeches are "marked by what you might call pagan brutalism." He claims that Cruz's "career and public presentation" are devoid of "the Christian virtues: humility,...

Proper liberal credentials trump all the usual forms of identity politics. In the 21st century, doctrinaire liberalism is synonymous with hypocrisy. Or maybe it is better seen as career insurance, providing exemption from all the many paradoxes of a leftist worldview. The rich supporter of affirmative action still uses, without apology, the old-boy network to pull privileged strings to get his own son admitted to the proper college. Al Gore flies on a carbon-spewing private jet, saving the planet by getting to conferences more quickly and enjoyably. High-tax proponent John Kerry docks his yacht where he can avoid taxes; how...

Western elites and Third World critics both enjoy Western largesse. Professing dislike of the West and its culture and legacy is an industry on campus. The subtext of “white privilege” is that it consists of unearned status accorded those of European background. To listen to the anti-Westerners, you would think that the inventors of electrical generation, indoor plumbing, and vaccinations were enemies of the planet. Multiculturalism, the orthodoxy of popular culture, and the current bite of the media and the arts are all predicated on the idea that Western civilization is more toxic than admirable. Citing the evils of the...

Liberals are flailing about doing everything they can to attack Donald Trump. The latest effort seems to be removing Trump's name from a $100 million park he donated to New York State - called "Donald J. Trump State Park." Despite the massive donation, Democratic lawmakers are trying to strip his name from the park and replace it with a folk singer, or Revolutionary War hero or something. Fox News is reporting two liberal lawmakers plan to introduce the "Anything But Trump Act," (yes, it's that transparent), which would remove the name - and the signs - from a closed 440-acre...

Donald J. Trump is still coming under fire from Hillary Clinton's campaign and the media, including National Public Radio (NPR), for using the term "schlonged" to describe her defeat in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

UPDATE 9:00 PM ET: The Washington Post has officially yanked the cartoon down, un-publishing it late Tuesday evening after this Breitbart News story. After pulling the cartoon down, the post issued this statement from editor Fred Hiatt: "It's generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it. I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted in this case, but I do not agree." Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate who's currently surging in polls six weeks ahead...