Free Republic

No two athletes of color have been more in the news this past week than the amiable, biracial Kansas Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Los Angeles Lakers basketball great Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash Sunday. What the two shared was an independence of spirit that has apparently made leftists uneasy. In both cases, this spirit manifested itself after the 2013 trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Said Mahomes at the time, "This case was an absolute horrible tragedy, however there was no criminal activity that occurred." While alive, Kobe Bryant caught...

The Document Foundation announced today the general availability of the LibreOffice 6.4 open-source and cross-platform office suite for all supported platforms.LibreOffice 6.4 has been development during the past five months, but the final release is now available to download for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows systems. This is a major release that introduces several new features, multiple performance improvements, especially when working with presentations and spreadsheets, as well as better compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. “LibreOffice 6.4 is the first new release available in 2020. During the year, the community will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the best free office suite...

"I've covered a lot of campaigns but I've never seen a candidate predict his own death or say so clearly, 'I may not make it to the end of my first term,'" Carlson said on the Wednesday edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight. "It's disturbing at that moment."

Bernie Sanders is a survivor, but can he survive the orchestrated media onslaught that seems determined to bring him down? At 78, Sanders has survived a heart attack, and the loathing of the Democratic Party establishment and its compliant media wing. He survived that recent vicious and shameful CNN takedown accusing him of sexism for allegedly saying a woman couldn't be elected president. Sanders denied it. CNN didn't much care. Now his supporters are being shamed as dangerous and angry by other media and also as tools of President Donald Trump. But guess what? It's all backfiring. Sanders is surging,...

The Facts:By comparing traits of psychopaths, as determined by experts, to those of people in corporate or political positions of power, we can see a clear link. Reflect On:Psychopaths feel no remorse, guilt or empathy for their actions. When we look at the many inhumane acts that are currently taking place on our planet, it begs the following question with judgement aside: Are psychopaths running our world? Editors Note: We felt this was important to discuss, not from a place of judgement and fear but one of observation so we can ask important questions as to whether or not we...

In two seconds, this guy proved that he should never be allowed to handle a weapon.   A media personality for Vice News recently broke one of the essential rules of gun safety: never let a gun barrel face anything that you are not willing to destroy. While doing a piece on “smart guns”, the reporter pointed a weapon at his own cameraman and pulled the trigger. While the “smart gun” worked as it was intended to, that had to be one of the most flagrantly dangerous manners to handle and treat a firearm, and further exposed the ignorance of...

Six thousand people on board a cruise ship in Italy have been barred from disembarking, after a Chinese passenger developed symptoms of coronavirus. The 54-year-old and her travelling companion are being held in isolation on the ship while tests are carried out. -excerpt- The Costa Smeralda cruise ship has docked in the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome. The woman who is receiving treatment had reportedly flown from Hong Kong to join the cruise, and broke out in a fever while on board. The ship has taken on medical experts from Rome's Spallanzani hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases. Initial...

The homeless problem in San Francisco is out of control. Also, the poop problem is huge. San Francisco residents reported more than 30,000 cases of poop to authorities in 2019, city records show. What was once a hub for newcomers is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of its former residents as more and more citizens of the San Francisco Bay Area are jumping ship at a record-breaking pace. This is what happens when one party has been in control for TOO many years. Also, their ‘diversity’ appointments are not doing the city any favors. Another official in feces-ridden...

The tedium of the impeachment trial has at least allowed me to catch up on my reading. Apparently, there was a peaceful gun rights rally in Virginia last week that had the media in a panic. Today, I will explain how their hysteria about the gun rally is directly related to their hysteria about the Russians throwing the 2016 election with Facebook ads -- or, as MSNBC's Brian Williams put it, using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter "to turn Americans against one another, psychological and information warfare, that didn't stop with the election." First, the moral panic on guns: “Virginia's capital...

Even in our era of politics without precedent, few things are as inexplicable as the Democratic Party's decision to take increasingly extreme positions on abortion while so much of the country moves in a different direction. The March for Life, held annually in Washington, D.C., around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, is one visible example of the country's mood on the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The number of participants in the march continues to grow each year. Last week's March for Life was notable not only for its size (no official numbers are available, but video footage...

Failed presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris used her occasion to ask a written question during the Senate impeachment trial on Wednesday to feature the old Access Hollywood video of President Donald Trump. “President Nixon said, quote, ‘When the president does it that means that it is not illegal.’ End quote. Before he was elected, President Trump said, quote, ‘When you’re a star they let you do it, you can do anything,’ end quote,” the Harris note read.

I'm afraid that many are missing the massive significance of this peace deal reveal.  The fact that the Palestinian Authority has already rejected the deal was to be expected.  As a matter of fact, Abbas had "pre-rejected" the deal.  Ever since U.S. recognition of Israel's right to Jerusalem, Abbas has said any American peace plan would be dead on arrival.  That's a given—from the Palestinian side.  Here are some of the key reasons the reveal is a game-changer: 1. The international community has attempted to negotiate a settlement since 1949.  Since that time, the basis for every agreement has...

Hillary Clinton has now twice snubbed a process server attempting to deliver the defamation lawsuit filed against her by Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, according to Gabbard’s attorney. “I find it rather unbelievable that Hillary Clinton is so intimidated by Tulsi Gabbard that she won’t accept service of process,” the congresswoman’s attorney, Brian Dunne, told The Post. “But I guess here we are.” Dunne said their process server first attempted to effect service at Clinton’s house in Chappaqua on Tuesday afternoon — but was turned away by Secret Service agents. The agents directed the server to Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall,...

ATHENS/MADRID - With sorrow, some support for Brexit and even hope of a return, Europeans from across the EU’s 27 remaining members bade farewell to the United Kingdom on the eve of its historic departure. The United Kingdom leaves the European Union an hour before midnight on Friday, casting off into an uncertain future that also challenges Europe’s post-World War Two project of forging unity from the ruins of conflict. “Farewell, bye bye my love!” said Rudolf Stockey, speaking to Reuters in German. From across Europe, EU citizens wished the United Kingdom the best after 47 years of membership. Some...

If you or one of your children are heading off to get a degree from Yale, you’ve missed out on the last chance to enroll in their course called “Introduction to Art History: Renaissance to the Present” because this semester is the last time it will be offered. It’s not that the course wasn’t popular. It was always full. Unfortunately, the curriculum was simply too full of the work of straight, white, European men. Katherine Timpf at National Review has the details. According to an article in the Yale Daily News, “Introduction to Art History: Renaissance to the Present”...

Just what role did the Ukraine-Gate whistleblower play in the quid pro quo? Not the one allegedly committed by Donald Trump in 2019, but the one openly admitted by Joe Biden that took place in 2016. Senate Republicans asked defense counsel Patrick Philbin whether Adam Schiff’s coordination with the whistleblower interfere with due process in the impeachment process.Yes it did, Philbin replied, but that’s not the only potential problem with the whistleblower and Schiff’s case. His reported work for Biden raises questions whether he had any role in Biden’s decision to withhold aid from Ukraine to get Viktor Shokin...

Up to this point, the coronavirus outbreak has been primarily confined to China. Yes, there have been isolated cases all over the globe, and that has mostly been from people flying from China back to their home countries. But overall, the vast majority of the confirmed cases have been in urban areas inside China. However, that could potentially now be changing. Alarming reports are starting to come in from all across the world, and the number of “potential cases” in the United States is definitely quite startling. As you will see below, all testing for the coronavirus is currently being...

With the president as a speaker, online media generously covered the March for Life this year – but many reports left much to be desired. The March for Life annually celebrates life and challenges abortion around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide. Each year, tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Americans travel from around the country to Washington, D.C. to serve as a voice for the voiceless, despite the often harsh weather conditions. This year’s theme stressed that “Life Empowers: Pro-Life Is Pro-Woman.” But Americans wouldn’t know that by reading...

The helicopter that crashed Sunday killing basketball star Kobe Bryant and eight others was owned by a charter company that only operated under visual flight rules, and its pilots were not permitted to fly solely based on their cockpit gauges if they encountered weather that limited visibility, a former pilot for the company told Forbes. The pilot of the doomed flight, Ara Zobayan, was licensed to fly by cockpit instruments, but he likely had little real-world experience in doing so given the operating limitations of Island Express Helicopters, says Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for the company who flew Bryant...

Yes, I know that as of last night, Chuck Schumer was saying that he doesn’t believe he has enough Republican votes in the Senate to allow witnesses to be called and new evidence admitted in the impeachment trial. And Cocaine Mitch is looking more and more confident that he can keep enough of his caucus inside the corral to make sure it doesn’t happen. But nothing is written in stone until the vote actually takes place once the Q&A portion of the trial is complete.The Democrats would need four GOP votes to make it happen, getting them to 51....