Free Republic

“The future is female.” It’s a favorite slogan of the identity left that has now gone mainstream. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted it on Wednesday, adding that the future is also “intersectional” and “powered by our belief in one another.” But if the future is female, what happens to our boys? And what message are we sending our present-day girls? Gillibrand is one of about 30 Democrats considering running for president in 2020, and the tweet suggests she’s seizing some strategic left-wing ground (in a primary field crowded with lefties) by appealing to the Dems’ identity-obsessed base. Her mentioning “intersectionality” is...

Some 252 million years ago, Earth almost died. In the oceans, 96 percent of all species became extinct. It’s harder to determine how many terrestrial species vanished, but the loss was comparable. This mass extinction, at the end of the Permian Period, was the worst in the planet’s history, and it happened over a few thousand years at most — the blink of a geological eye. On Thursday, a team of scientists offered a detailed accounting of how marine life was wiped out during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. Global warming robbed the oceans of oxygen, they say, putting many species...

Democratic Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the “Green New Deal” plan she supports would be used to achieve liberal “economic, social and racial justice” goals along with fighting global warming. “[W]e can use the transition to 100 percent energy as the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a Tuesday panel discussion alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and environmental activist Bill McKibben. The soon-to-be New York representative has spent her time in Washington, D.C. promoting a “Green New Deal” to transition the U.S. to 100...

So now we have combat ready armored vehicles with the EU flag which are being used against unarmed European protesters who are demonstrating against a pro EU authoritarian regime.

I thought Emmanuel Macron was asking for trouble when just after his 2017 election victory he staged a victory celebration in which he walked, alone and floodlit, across the courtyard of the Louvre, the old royal palace. Who does he think he is, I thought, the King of France? Since the Bastille fortress was stormed by the people of Paris on July 14, 1789, the country has got rid of three kings, two emperors and several presidents, and has worked its way, often violently, through 15 constitutions. Every time there has been a major uprising, it has taken everyone by...

President Emmanuel Macron is to deliver an apologetic address on television and announce further tax cuts following a day of violent protests across the country on Saturday. Cities including Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux exploded into violence on Saturday, during the fourth weekend of demonstrations in a row by Yellow Vest protesters. Burned-out cars dotted the streets in several neighbourhoods in Paris on Sunday morning as cleaners swept up the broken glass from smashed shop windows and bus stops. Throughout Saturday, Macron skulked behind the majestic walls of his presidential palace in Paris while outside, his city – and his country...

All day long Emmanuel Macron skulked behind the majestic walls of his presidential palace while outside, his city – and his country – once again erupted in fury. Not only was the Elysee Palace guarded by hundreds of riot police but also armoured cars bearing machine guns and grenade launchers. Excessive perhaps, but few who spent any time in Paris yesterday would doubt that but for this formidable ring of steel, the mob would have surely tried to storm inside. It was a day of reckoning, a day of insurrection. And this time the revolutionary spirit was catching. There were...

Attempts to incorporate a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland have failed. The IPCC report on the impacts of a temperature rise of 1.5C, had a significant impact when it was launched last October. Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting "welcoming" the report. Instead they wanted to support a much more lukewarm phrase, that the conference would "take note" of the report. The dispute dragged on as huddles of negotiators met in corners of the plenary session here, trying to agree a compromise...

BRUSSELS - Belgian police detained more than 400 people on Saturday after “yellow vest” protesters inspired by riots in France threw rocks and firecrackers and damaged shops and cars as they tried to reach official buildings in Brussels. In the second violence of its kind in the capital in eight days, a crowd which police estimated at around 1,000 faced riot squads who used water cannon and tear gas to keep people away from the European Union headquarters and the nearby Belgian government quarter. Calm was restored after about five hours. The movement in Belgium, inspired by the “gilets jaunes”,...

President Trump suggested Saturday dissolving the “ridiculous” Paris climate agreement after another weekend of rioting in France, chaos sparked by the Macron government’s attempt to reduce emissions by hiking fuel taxes. “Very sad day & night in Paris,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!” Mr. Trump’s comment came after Paris police deployed tear gas, armored vehicles and...

More than 1,700 people were arrested across France during the latest "yellow vest" protests, which left 135 people injured and caused widespread damage. Of the 1,723 detained on Saturday, 1,220 were ordered to be held in custody, according to the interior ministry. Despite the security clampdown clashes broke out in several cities across the country, including Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon and Toulouse, during a fourth weekend of protests against rising living costs and the embattled French President Emmanuel Macron. Paris again saw the worst of the of the violence as protesters, wearing their distinctive yellow safety jackets, set fire to...

Wow!

At least 700 people were arrested in Paris as 5,000 demonstrators faced off against 8,000 police in another violent demonstration by "yellow vest" protesters.Riots broke out all over France despite the supposed cause of the violence being eliminated earlier in the week by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. The government had been claiming that a fuel tax increase was to blame for the protests, but the government rescinded the increase on Wednesday.Donald Trump believes it was Macron's climate change policies: The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do...

Putin and Trump are both promoting the violent protests against Macron. This is the risk of being a centrist leader today: you will incur the wrath of the Illiberal International. My latest in @PostOpinions:

...Bundy naturally just disavowed the militia movement in solidarity with the migrant caravan, suggested that nationalism is actually the opposite of patriotism, and said that Trump’s America resembles nothing so much as 1930s Germany. Last week, Bundy posted a video to Facebook in which he criticized President Trump for demonizing the Central American migrants who were traveling in a caravan to seek asylum in the United States. “To group them all up like, frankly, our president has done — you know, trying to speak respectfully — but he has basically called them all criminals and said they’re not coming in...

Experts decry 'pie in the sky' environmental plan Since sweeping into Congress atop a wave of far-left support, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) has been very clear what her number one goal is: a Green New Deal for America. The freshman congresswoman first attracted attention to the proposal when she joined more than 200 protesters staging a sit-in in support of a GND in Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D., Calif.) office. Since then and with Ocasio-Cortez's backing, the idea has swept through left-leaning media, attracting fawning reviews. It also has the support of a number of prominent left-wing environmental activists:...

The question above is often asked rhetorically in response to Twitter posts by the embattled freshman congressman, who has become something of an ideological lightning rod since her emergence on the political scene. ... So how did this utterly unspectacular creature, who previously worked as a bartender and a waitress in a taqueria, win a seat in Congress at the tender age of 28? A lot can be construed from census data on New York’s 14th congressional district, which she clutched away from a veteran Democratic congressman.

Full title: CRIMINAL ACT: Democrat Ocasio-Cortez Broke 42 US Code § 1983 By Threatening Donald Trump Jr. with Retaliation Over Snarky Meme It appears Ocasio-Cortez broke federal law by threatening a US citizen with retaliation for snarky tweets. You can’t use the power of the law to get back at people for their Instagram memes, Alexandria! According to — 42 U.S. Code § 1983 – Civil action for deprivation of rights Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected,...

One of the most comforting talking points in politics is to claim that your political opponents are irrationally obsessed. I'm sure this is as old as time, but I first noticed it in the late 1990s. Many of Bill Clinton's most ardent supporters responded to every new criticism by claiming the president's enemies were twisted by hate for the man. During the George W. Bush administration, thanks in part to a phrase coined by my late friend Charles Krauthammer, conservatives deflected criticism of the president by claiming his foes suffered from "Bush derangement syndrome." The term caught on, and Obama...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just violated House Ethics rules when she threatened to use her Congressional power of subpoena against someone who criticized her According to this news article that was just published by CNN, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted the following:I have noticed that Junior here has a habit of posting nonsense about me whenever the Mueller investigation heats up. Please, keep it coming Jr – it’s definitely a “very, very large brain” idea to troll a member of a body that will have subpoena power in a month. Have fun!Ocasio-Cortez is threatening to use her power as a federal lawmaker to punish someone...