Free Republic

Executives at McDonald's may not be lovin' it if they don't get their full McBonuses in accordance with new company policy. The fast-food company announced on Thursday it would be reducing the bonuses of top brass if they fail to staff more minorities in senior leadership roles. "We’re implementing policies that hold our leaders directly accountable for making tangible progress on our [diversity, equity, and inclusion] goals," McDonald’s Corp. said in a press release titled "Allyship through Accountability." McDonald's, pushing to achieve "gender parity" by 2030, said it "expects to increase representation of historically underrepresented groups in leadership roles (Senior...

A former pro baseball player who built one of the largest Black-owned McDonald’s franchises claims the company forced him to sell stores to white owners in a squeeze play that violated his civil rights.

A host of celebrities are already backing her possible candidacy. "I want her to run for president," Meryl Streep said after Winfrey's speech. Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote Oprah "is eminently qualified to be President. She is a patriot, she has integrity ... she can raise our moral standing in the world." Her possible candidacy also received support from MSNBC's Joy Ann Reid, comedian Larry Wilmore, actor John Stamos, and singer/actress Janelle Monae. But even as Oprah is often portrayed as an unblemished American success story, she would bring to any political campaign significant baggage. Specifically, here are 12 skeletons in...

Rioting continues nightly in Portland. Criminals are arrested, immediately released, and return to the streets. It is hard to see how Portland has a viable future. Likewise with Seattle. A city that cannot maintain order will soon be vacated by normal people who are able to leave, leaving only criminals and those without the means to get away. Minneapolis, with its days of rioting followed by skyrocketing crime and parks turned into tent encampments, is not far behind. Panic is spreading among people who own houses and (worse) condominiums there. Then there is Chicago, where mass looting took place last...

Left-wing activist Rev. Jesse Jackson decried widespread looting in the Democrat-run city of Chicago Monday morning, calling it “humiliating, embarrassing, and morally wrong.” “This act of pillaging, robbing & looting in Chicago was humiliating, embarrassing & morally wrong,” Jackson wrote on social media. “It must not be associated with our quest for social justice and equality. #DrKing, #MedgarEvers & , our martyrs, cry together in shame.” Hundreds of people descended on downtown Chicago overnight after a police shooting on the city’s South Side, with vandals smashing the windows of dozens of businesses and making off with merchandise, cash machines, and...

Federal prosecutors have made a series of requests to the Cook County assessor’s office over the past five months for records regarding the $330,000 property tax break that Gov. J.B. Pritzker got on a Gold Coast mansion — a break he got in part because the toilets were disconnected during a stalled remodeling job. As they continue an investigation prompted by a Sun-Times report in May 2017, they have asked for information including the name of every employee who, under Berrios, “worked, reviewed and/or approved” the tax break for one of the two mansions Pritzker owns on North Astor Street....

On Father’s Day 2008, candidate Barack Obama made his most honest speech on race, maybe his only halfway honest speech on race. The media barely noticed. The site was the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. From the pulpit Obama spoke to the gathered voters -- excuse me, congregants -- with uncharacteristic audacity. He reminded his audience that too many black fathers were missing from “too many homes.” He knew something of the phenomenon himself given that his father “left us when I was two years old.” Yes, that con again. Putting aside for a moment his personal story, however...

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton attacked President Donald Trump and vowed not to let those with agendas use George Floyd as prop during his powerful eulogy for the man who was anonymous in life but sparked global protests for justice in death. Hollywood celebrities, musicians and the politically powerful filed into a sanctuary in front of the golden casket of Floyd for a memorial service on Thursday as mourners began a three-city farewell. The service unfolded at the Lindquist Sanctuary at the North Central University as a judge less than a mile away set bail at $750,000 each for three...

Thursday, Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will visit Minnesota. The civil rights leaders announced their visits in the midst of response to the death of George Floyd. Rev. Al Sharpton shared the news via Twitter. Headed to Minneapolis today! — Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) May 28, 2020 Meanwhile, Rev. Jackson's assistant told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he will hold a press conference to dicuss Floyd's death. That's expected at about 1 p.m. Thursday. A location for the news conference hasn't yet been set.

Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president, the campaign announced Sunday. “A people far behind cannot catch up choosing the most moderate path,” Jackson said in a statement. “The most progressive social and economic path gives us the best chance to catch up and Senator Bernie Sanders represents the most progressive path. That’s why I choose to endorse him today.” Jackson said former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign had not reached out or asked for his endorsement. Jackson said the Vermont progressive answered the concerns of the black community in his support...

How did Barack Obama emerge from Chicago in 2008 untainted by political corruption? His rise to power began at the 2004 Democratic Party Convention when Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was catapulted onto the national stage by the alluring force of his oratory.

WASHINGTON — President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain, and pardoned the financier Michael R. Milken and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, the president announced on Tuesday. “Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich,” Mr. Trump told reporters just before boarding Air Force One for a four-day trip to the west coast where he is scheduled to hold three campaign rallies. “He served eight years in jail, a...

It’s nearly impossible to have even a short conversation with a college administrator, politician, or chief executive without the words diversity and inclusion dropping from their lips. Diversity and inclusion appear to be the end-all and be-all of their existence. So, I thought I’d begin this discussion by first looking up the definition of diversity. Here’s my question to those who are wedded to diversity and inclusion: Are people better off the less they have in common with one another? For example, women are less likely to be able to march 12.4 miles in five hours with an 83-pound assault...

After mass shootings in Southaven, Mississippi; Dayton, Ohio; and Midland, El Paso and Odessa, Texas, public demand for sensible gun reform once more soared. And once more, Republican politicians, led by President Donald Trump, were intimidated into inaction by the gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association. Remarkably, it was America’s largest retailer — Walmart — that exhibited the courage politicians lacked. It was in a Walmart store in El Paso where a gunman armed with an assault-style rifle, roused by the hate-filled rhetoric about a Latino “invasion” of our country, shot 48 people, killing 22. Walmart CEO Doug...

Are you still looking for the one searing illuminated truth from the Democratic presidential debates? That moment telling America what voting Democratic will really mean in 2020? I’ve got it. But it wasn’t Kamala Harris (rhetorically) whipping Joe Biden. That’s what Democrats would rather focus on, because it’s easier than the inadvertently revealed truth that could doom their political chances. It did offer great drama: a tired old white guy reduced to babbling and a younger, smarter black woman putting him in his place and finishing off his political career. He’s toast. Even if Biden squeezes into one of her...

After a week of heated protests and calls for her resignation, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and African-American leaders condemned Chicago’s police union and defended how the prosecutor’s office addressed an actor’s alleged hate crime hoax. Foxx vowed to remain at her post during a Saturday news conference, despite intense controversy sparked in March when her office dropped a 16-count indictment that accused television actor Jussie Smollett of orchestrating a racist and homophobic attack on himself to advance his career. Foxx declined to address “the substance of the case” with reporters gathered at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition...

CHICAGO (AP) – The Rev. Jesse Jackson and other clergy are planning a rally in support of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who’s faced criticism since her office dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett. Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition says the civil rights leader will join fellow clergy, elected officials, attorneys and community activists for a Monday morning rally at the Chicago Temple supporting Foxx. Jackson says in a statement that the criticism of Foxx is “unreasonable, unjustified and politically motivated.”

From the “life imitates art imitates life imitates art” ad nauseam file, I thought this headline was satire, but noooo: “Jussie Smollett is nominated for an NAACP Award.” Of course, Smollett just walked free on 16 felony counts after his hoax hate crime in January. If you ever needed evidence that the NAACP is a race-bait organization run by hoax and scam hustlers, this would be it. Six-time host of Saturday’s festivities, “Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson, said, “I hope he wins. I’m happy for him that the system worked in his favor because the system isn’t always fair, especially for...

I explore why Jussie Smollett was able to get away with character assassination and the "justice" system of Chicago.

The Battle of Brexit with plenty of words from political leaders and talking heads pundits but in the end actions will speak louder than words... Armed gangs of Nicolas Maduro supporters gathered outside Venezuela's National Assembly Tuesday threatening those trying to enter the building to the day's session... There is no cease-fire following a rocket attack Monday from Gaza that wounded seven Israelis in a community 75 miles away north of Tel Aviv.... A prominent mosque leader in New Zealand has blamed Israel's Mossad spy agency for the recent mass murder attacks on mosques in Christchurch..... Austrian authorities raiding the...