Free Republic

Nineteen years ago, during a northeastern storm, Matt Lauer was at the height of his public fame and private infamy. While hosting the Today Show, Lauer cut to a field reporter named Michelle Kosinski who was doing a "live" shot. She was in Wayne, New Jersey reporting on the storm. Perhaps Kosinski was looking for some stolen valor or an Emmy, or maybe she just lacked self-awareness—in any event, the shot showed Kosinski sitting in a canoe with a paddle in hand. The rest became an internet legend.

On the surface, Trump supporters are “well-educated and successful” professionals, but underneath that veneer we’re monsters… who want to make America great again.At least, that’s what Michelle Kosinksi thinks, because a first hand experience enjoying dinner with supporters of the president has left a permanent impression that will “haunt” her.Here’s the story, from Fox News:Ex-CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski wrote in a Sunday social media post that she was surprised by how ‘normal’ a group of ‘closeted’ Trump supporters seemed at a dinner she attended, which she said continues to ‘haunt’ her.‘All were well-educated and successful in careers. They seemed great!...

Ex-CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski wrote in a Sunday social media post that she was surprised by how "normal" a group of "closeted" Trump supporters seemed at a dinner she attended, which she said continues to "haunt" her. "All were well-educated and successful in careers. They seemed great! On the surface. For like an hour. But slowly, over a few drinks, they began to let slip their true MAGA natures," Kosinski wrote....... "The others-- when they realized that a few in their presence came armed with (gasp) actual facts (NO!)-- quickly changed the subject and nervously said they don't want to...

Ex-CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski wrote in a Sunday social media post that she was surprised by how “normal” a group of “closeted” Trump supporters seemed at a dinner she attended, which she said continues to “haunt” her. “All were well-educated and successful in careers. They seemed great! On the surface. For like an hour. But slowly, over a few drinks, they began to let slip their true MAGA natures,” Kosinski wrote. Kosinski, a former correspondent for both CNN and NBC News, wrote that one couple in the group wouldn’t allow their kids to apply to Ivy League universities, but were...

John Wayne won a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor. Upon accepting his Oscar, Wayne said, "Wow! If I'd known that, I'd have put that patch on 35 years earlier." The title song sung by Glen Campbell, who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe.

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — New polling results are in … … the polling data in the U.S. Senate race with Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic frontrunner, shows she is tied with somebody who has not even formally announced their candidacy. James Craig, former Republican candidate for governor and former Detroit Police Chief, has not spent a dime in this race, but yet he’s at 39% and she’s at 40%. And in mid-Michigan, where Slotkin is a Congresswoman, she is actually losing to Craig: 37% for her, 44% for Craig. But in an equally interesting twist for Slotkin, she is leading Craig...

Over the past few months, we’ve asked Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) questions about how they spend ratepayer dollars on advertising and sponsorships. Stay tuned for a future Springs Taxpayers United article about sponsorships. Right now, we’ll focus exclusively on the CSU advertising budget. We wondered why a monopoly utility needs to advertise at all. No one in their service area has a choice on which utility to use. The local advertising company Vladmir Jones handles the advertising account for CSU. Through a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request, we asked for all of the 2022 advertising expenditures. Vladmir Jones invoices...

As she seeks re-election, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is spending more than $1 million in taxpayer dollars on statewide TV commercials that will boost her image. Why it matters: The money comes from an account that covers the cost of election equipment and software upgrades — a move that is generating questions and criticism. County clerks — the elected officials who administer elections in Colorado — wanted to spend the money on improving voting access, but they say they were rebuffed. What's happening: The commercial in question features Griswold and her Republican predecessor, Wayne Williams, asking voters to...

At the risk of spoiling a 50-year-old film, the most efficient way to introduce The Cowboys, a 1972 western produced and directed by Mark Rydell, is that it's the one where John Wayne gets killed. To be sure, Wayne died in more than just one film, but of the ten where he does, five of the deaths are offscreen and one of them is so early in his career that his unfortunate character doesn't even have a name (1933's Central Airport). But The Cowboys was notorious for Wayne's death, one full act before the film's finale, as it had been...

John Wayne is an American Hollywood icon every bit the equal of James Dean or Marilyn Monroe. He is also a man from another era, a man whose conservatism came as naturally as walking down the street. Affectionately known as “The Duke,” he spent three decades as a top box office draw with 179 film and television credits to his name His story is as American as his values. Born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa at a whopping 13 pounds, his family relocated to Southern California. His family first arrived in America from Ireland in 1799 and his grandfather was...

WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. (WXYZ) — After initially being deadlocked on a vote to certify election results, The Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted unanimously to certify election results Tuesday evening. The motion to hold another vote came following hours of public comments condemning Republican canvassers' decisions to vote against the certification. The board of canvassers vote initially tied 2 to 2 along party lines. But just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the board filed a motion and voted to certify the results under the stipulation that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson does a comprehensive audit of the election in the county.

The Michigan State Court of Appeals on Nov. 16 denied an emergency appeal filed by a group that sought a court order to audit the 2020 election. Michael Riordan, the presiding judge on the appeals court, wrote that the appeal request “is DENIED for failure to persuade the Court of the existence of manifest error requiring reversal.” The Great Lakes Justice Center on Monday appealed a Wayne county judge’s order that denied a request for an audit of the 2020 election and called to block the certification of the election results. Center filed the appeal with the state of Michigan...

Things are heating up in Detroit, where Republican poll watchers are being barred from entering the facility. There is absolutely nothing to see here, folks. Just official poll watchers being shut out from a facility that's been pumping out hardcore Biden numbers all day. It's not like the guy in this video tells all the "Republican challengers" to get out.

I've been talking about this on my national radio show for months. Don't believe a single poll. They're all fake. Trump is winning. I don't even think it's close. I keep saying President Trump is on his way to an electoral landslide. But that was before President made the most brilliant chess move in the history of politics over the weekend. Trump signed Executive Orders to defer payroll taxes for middle class Americans for the rest of the year...and defer student loan payments for the rest of the year...and to offer eviction protections to both renters and homeowners...and if all...

In a few days, many of our great states will begin to re-open local businesses again in an attempt to restart the economic engine of our wonderful nation. I felt a few words from a great patriot would help all of us prepare for the task ahead. Click on link for John Wayne's inspirational message:

DUDLEY, N.C. (WNCN) – Neighbors in Wayne County are still shaken but hoping for answers after an explosives bust earlier in the week. “At one time years ago, we would deal with people finding dynamite in old pack houses, but what we found Sunday I’ve had very few experiences like that,” said Maj. Richard Lewis of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office. “They had enough explosives over there to blow Dudley off the map,” said Linda Jones. After raiding a Dudley trailer, deputies arrested Corey Bernard Manuel and Monica Lynn Hunt on felony charges of manufacturing and possessing a weapon of...

VALRICO, Fla. — A Florida man is charged with threatening to open fire inside a Walmart, one day after a gunman killed 20 inside a Texas store. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office arrested 31-year-old Wayne Lee Padgett of Valrico late Sunday. He is charged with calling the Walmart Supercenter in Gibsonton, Florida, on Sunday afternoon and telling managers he planned to shoot up the store. About 1,000 people inside were evacuated. Investigators said they traced the call to Padgett. No gun was found at his house near Tampa. Padgett is charged with filing a false report of using a firearm...

VIDEO A brief look at two very interesting people: Wayne LaPierre's intern and Beto O'Rourke's road manager. This video also includes an historical film clip of Louisiana Governor Huey Long's typist.

Group’s longtime leader says Oliver North, president of the NRA, wants him out Longtime National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre has told the group’s board he is being extorted and pressured to resign by the organization’s president, Oliver North, over allegations of financial improprieties, in an extraordinary battle roiling one of the nation’s most powerful nonprofit political groups. In a letter sent to NRA board members late Thursday afternoon, LaPierre, the group’s CEO and executive vice president, said he refused the demand. Instead he called on board members to “see this for what it is: a threat meant to intimidate...

On a Sunday morning at Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, N.J., a bearded pastor named Jonathan Cahn stood on an elevated platform, gazing over a full house. Stage lights shifted from blue to white as the backing band played a drifting melody. Two men hoisted curled rams’ horns and let out long blasts. Sitting at the end of a sleepy drive an hour from Manhattan, Beth Israel may look like any common suburban church. But the center has a highly unusual draw. Every weekend, some 1,000 congregants gather for the idiosyncratic teachings of the church’s celebrity pastor, an entrepreneurial...