Free Republic

Washington Post music writer Emily Yahr was tapping her foot on Thursday...waiting for the country music industry to abandon its entertainment mission and end its shameful silence on gun control, after dozens of country music fans were murdered by shooter Stephen Paddock in Las Vegas: “Country music avoided politics this year. Then Las Vegas happened. Will anything change?” The mood of the annual event, which the network declared “a night of hope and healing” instead of the usual lighthearted trophy ceremony, was compassionate and somber -- and, unlike nearly every other award show in 2017, completely devoid of politics. In...

DreamWorks and Universal/Comcast Corp.’s Thank You for Your Service is struggling this weekend, despite solid reviews and an alleged hunger for serious adult dramas about worthwhile subject matter. The film made $1.505 million yesterday for a likely $4.1m debut weekend. The Miles Teller drama, about a group of marines returning home from Iraq, is suffering the same fate that greeted the likes of The Lucky Ones, Lambs for Lions, Valley of Elah and Rendition a decade ago. Hollywood made a go at confronting the post-9/11 realities a decade ago, but nobody showed up. Sure, it’s easier to get audiences of...

Excoriated as cold-hearted for his (reported) comments to the widow of a fallen soldier, President Trump responded to his latest critic -- a Florida Democrat -- via Twitter on Wednesday morning: "Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!" Trump wrote. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) says she was listening on speakerphone to part of Trump's conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was one of four American soldiers killed during a recent ambush in Niger.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) says the federal “assault weapons” ban that lapsed in 2004 would have prevented the Las Vegas attack, had that ban still been in force today. This claim shows a deep misunderstanding of the “assault weapons” ban, which did not ban the possession or purchase of “assault weapons.” Rather, it limited importation and mandated types that could be manufactured in the U.S., thus driving up prices. For a man of means like Stephen Paddock, paying the higher price for an “assault weapon” would have been no problem.

The NFL's players and owners find themselves trapped in a collapsing pocket of their own creation — and at risk of getting sacked by millions of fans across the country. Two weekends ago, many team owners appeased their players by participating in national anthem demonstrations after President Trump's rather profane demand on Sept. 22 that owners fire any players who kneel. These demonstrations didn't go over well with many NFL fans — millions of whom are white, older, and conservative, and see any demonstration during the national anthem as fundamentally unpatriotic. So last weekend, some teams tried to innovate solutions...

Sports Las Vegas Police: Video Undercuts NFL Star’s Racism Claims [VIDEO] Chuck Ross Reporter 09/30/2017 The Las Vegas police department released video footage on Friday which it says contradicts NFL star Michael Bennett’s claim that he was detained by officers last month because he is black. Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, was detained early on the morning of Aug. 27, after reports of shots being fired outside of the Cromwell casino. Bennett was in town for the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing match. After the incident, in which police were looking for a person who fired a gun,...

The chaos of an incredible NBA offseason behind him, LeBron James returned to center stage. As usual, he didn’t disappoint. Speaking for the first time since losing in the NBA Finals, James discussed topics ranging from his future in Cleveland to a possible reunion with Dwayne Wade to a deep distaste for President Donald Trump on Monday during a free-wheeling, 45-minute news conference that served as the three-time champion’s State of the Game address....

"I want to reach out to you, the members of the Steelers Nation based on what I believe is a misinterpretation about our players' intention in not taking the field for the National Anthem in Chicago."

In a fractured media environment where award-winning scripted dramas compete for the public's attention along with goofy cat videos, one of the few things that multibillion dollar media and entertainment conglomerates could count on to attract millions of viewers -- and generate the ad revenue that keeps them in business -- was the National Football League. These days, however, the most popular U.S. professional sport isn't such a sure bet. According to Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser, viewership for the NFL was down 14 percent on a year-over-year basis during the first week of the 2017-18 season. That's the lowest...

With a single tweet, Donald Trump Jr. unequivocally owned Michael Moore and social media went wild. The #Resistance filmmaker asked in a tweet, on Friday, if the president had opened his Mar-a-lago resort as a shelter for Florida residents. Has he opened up Mar-a-Lago as a shelter yet? — Michael Moore (@MMFlint) September 8, 2017 Moore is apparently not an expert in geography, but Trump Jr. was happy to help him. “It’s on an island on both the ocean & intercostal and in a mandatory evacuation zone,”he tweeted on Sunday. “Probably not the best idea, but you know, narrative!”

A teacher at a Los Angeles school that counts singer Adam Levine among its alumni has been arrested after allegedly engaging in an affair with a 16-year-old student.

Chelsea Handler has just achieved heights of “Liberal Idiocy” that even the most ardent anti-Trump celebrity has failed to reach. She Tweeted on Friday that there should be a military coup carried out to remove the president from office. What is more amazing is that she seems completely unaware of the lunacy she’s calling for. “To all the generals surrounding our idiot-in-chief…the longer U wait to remove him, the longer UR name will appear negatively in history,” she wrote. So she wants the United States military to actively remove an elected President from Office and doesn’t seem to care about...

Former Vice President took aim at President Trump’s comments that “many sides” led to violence at a white supremacist rally Saturday. “There is only one side. #charlottesville,” Biden tweeted. There is only one side. #charlottesville — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 12, 2017 Trump had refused to single out the white supremacists who held the rally in Charlottesville, Va. in his condemnation of the violence there. A car struck a crowd of counter-protestors at the rally, leaving one dead. Two others were killed during the protests after a helicopter crashed. Those victims were Virginia State Police Department officers who were in...

Full headline: HAWK AND DOVE Stephen Hawking fears Trump could ‘push Earth over the brink’ and start chain reaction which wipes out humanity. In recent years, Hawking has become something of a doom-monger who is determined to sketch out a variety of grim fates which await the human race. In his latest prophecy, the professor suggested our planet could be destined to become totally uninhabitable. “We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and...

To hear him tell it, Jon Ossoff — the Democrat vying to fill a House seat here in next Tuesday's special election — isn't even thinking about the seismic implications of what many consider the first major referendum on Donald Trump's presidency. "I think this race is about who can deliver for this community more than it’s about national politics," Ossoff told NBC News heading into the campaign's final weekend. "There are many in the community who do have serious concerns about the direction the administration is taking us in and I’m one of them and those concerns have only...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday evening in an interview with the Washington Post that President Trump’s behavior as described by former FBI director James Comey in a prepared statement ahead of his testimony was “certainly evidence of interference or obstruction.” “It is certainly evidence of interference or obstruction,” Schiff said adding, “the question I think is where does this action fit in with other actions of the president and what does the complete picture that emerges look like.” Comey's statement says Trump told him he hoped he could “let go” of the...

Cardinal: Stop Anti-Muslim Hate Cardinal Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato, Mindanao/Philippines, emphasized in a statement on May 27th the need to educate Christians to stop anti-Muslim hate. "Intolerance and discrimination against Muslims are not new, but signs of these phenomena seems to be on the rise in recent days." The statement came in the wake of the Marawi crisis during which an Islamic group burned down Marawi Cathedral, taking a priest and several churchgoers hostage. Quevedo was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in April 2014.

Remember Howard Dean? He was once the head of the Democratic Party as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Governor of the State of Vermont. He was considered a viable contender for the Democrats’ nomination for president in 2004 until he uttered the scream that will live on forever:

A Washington state father was arrested for allegedly attempting to hire someone to kill his wife and daughter. Jeffery Lytle, 42, allegedly intended to send a text message to a hitman named “Shayne” for help in killing his wife and daughter, but instead texted his former boss, KIRO reported. “Hey Shayne hows it going. You remember you said that you would help me kill my wife. I’m going to take you up on that offer,” the Monroe resident allegedly wrote the person. Lytle promised to share his wife and daughter’s $1.5 million life insurance policy with Shayne, according to court...

Bruce Springsteen, a once proud American with his song “Born in the USA” said at a concert in Australia he's embarrassed to be an American. The 67-year-old addressed the crowd as "embarrassed Americans" referring to President Trump in the White House in a newly-surfaced clip from his show in Melbourne Monday night. He sang a cover of "Don’t Hang Up" mocking Trump’s phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.