Free Republic

For decades, Paul Zimmerman was Sports Illustrated’s “Dr. Z,” the analytical and opinionated football guru who penned erudite and insightful columns, picked games, wrote mock drafts, knew everybody and was known by everybody. But before Zimmerman worked his word magic for SI, he did so for The Post from 1966-1979 — covering the Jets, writing general sports columns with an emphasis on the NFL and becoming an early pioneer of in-depth analysis using the then-new technology of videotape. He even wrote a wine column.

The closing campaign strategy of President Donald Trump and Republicans is often depicted as mainly an effort to galvanize the GOP's blue-collar white base through fear-mongering about immigrants and incitement of racial-cultural tensions around imagery of angry Democratic mobs and protesting African American athletes. But there's a second piece to the strategy that's also crucial: Trump and Republicans want college-educated white voters, particularly suburban women, to ignore all that unpleasant racial and cultural demagoguery entirely - and focus only on the economy. It is widely observed that Democrats are favored to take back the House because of a backlash against...

The man suspected of sending at least a dozen parcel bombs to high-profile critics of U.S. President Donald Trump is a 56-year-old registered Republican in Florida with a lengthy criminal history, according to public records. Public records showed Cesar Sayoc has been arrested numerous times over the years for domestic violence, theft and other charges. In one case, court records showed he was accused of threatening to use a bomb, though details were not immediately available. Court records in Florida listed Sayoc’s birthplace as Brooklyn, New York. He filed for bankruptcy in Miami in 2012, according to court records. At...

More than 200 journalists, mostly retired and semi-retired, released an open letter decrying Trump's press attacks. More than 200 journalists, most of them retired or semi-retired, accused US President Donald Trump of a "sustained pattern" of attacking media in an open letter published a day after a spate of suspected pipe bombs were sent to CNN and several prominent Trump critics. "Trump's condoning of political violence is part of a sustained pattern of attack on a free press - which includes labeling any reportage he doesn't like as 'fake news' and barring reporters and news organisations whom he wishes to...

Authorities are responding to suspicious packages sent to several Democratic figures, several of which contain crude but functional low-ordnance explosive devices. Aside from party, these politicians share another important distinction: they have been publicly criticized by President Trump. The motive behind the attempted attack remains a mystery. However, the president has often targeted the intended recipients of the packages in rally speeches and on Twitter. Mr. Trump has been especially critical of Waters in recent months, after Waters suggested at a June rally that protesters harass Trump cabinet members. In a retaliatory tweet, Mr. Trump called her "an extraordinarily low...

U.S. Democratic leaders in Congress said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s call for unity after suspicious packages were sent to leading Democratic figures “ring hollow” because of his past statements that condone acts of violence. “Time and time again, the president has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives top Democrat Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. They cited the Republican president’s “support for the congressman who body-slammed a reporter, the neo-Nazis who killed a young woman in Charlottesville, his supporters at rallies who get...

CAIRO: Egypt has arrested an economist and his publisher over a book that challenged President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s economic policies, a lawyer said Tuesday, the latest in a wave of detentions in recent years targeting all forms of dissent. Prize-winning economist Abdel-Khaleq Farouq and his publisher, Ibrahim el-Khateib, were detained Sunday. Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, a lawyer for the author, said the two are accused of spreading “fake news,” which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. The book — entitled “Is Egypt Really a Poor Country?” — was posted online by activists. Authorities seized 185 copies of an initial 200-copy...

President Donald Trump wasted no time celebrating the Supreme Court confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. But with Kavanaugh on the bench, some of the stories that were momentarily buried during the confirmation chaos are bubbling back to the surface. The New York Times’ bombshell report exposing what appears to be massive fraud perpetrated by the Trump family is one of these stories. According to the Times, Trump’s father Fred spearheaded a complicated con using “dubious tax schemes” and “instances of outright fraud” to evade hundreds-of-millions of dollars in tax payments to the IRS. Cheating on your taxes may not seem...

President Donald Trump insulted a female reporter for ABC News on Monday during a Rose Garden news conference, telling her that she “never” thinks even before she had a chance to ask her question. As the reporter, Cecilia Vega, turned to retrieve a microphone to ask Trump a question, Trump joked “she’s shocked that I picked her. Like in a state of shock.” Vega responded, “I’m not, thank you Mr. President.” Trump appeared to misunderstand her. “That’s OK, I know you’re not thinking, you never do.” “I’m sorry?” she responded. “No, go ahead. Go ahead,” Trump said. Vega tried to...

....."When we release our series of stories, we’ll give you the names and show the faces of those who choose to “resist” while being sustained by patriotic taxpayers. When the subject of our next video, an employee in the Executive Branch, says, “Resist everything. Every level. F*** s*** up;” you’ll be able to see his name and his face. You’ll also see his title, direct employer, the movement of his lips, the cadence in his voice, his demeanor, his arrogance, his lack of introspection, and ultimately, him bragging about how nobody will ever hold his comrades nor him accountable."

In the battle for control of Congress, President Donald Trump's weapon of choice is fear. At a rally for Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale in Billings, Montana, on Thursday night, the president warned his faithful that Democrats would raise their taxes, take their guns, block his wall, abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, open U.S. borders, end Social Security and cut Medicare. He's also warned supporters this summer that the outcome in November could spell trouble for freedom of speech and religion and the First Amendment - and that if the GOP loses, violence could follow. The overwhelming majority...

In recent conversations with confidants, President Donald Trump has added FBI Director Christopher Wray to his list of key members of his administration about whom he has complaints, three people familiar with the discussions tell NBC News. Trump has criticized Wray as another figure in the Justice Department who is not protecting his interests - and is possibly out to undermine his presidency, these people said. Trump is "in the worst mood of his presidency and calling friends and allies to vent about his selection of (Attorney General Jeff) Sessions and Wray," said one person familiar with the president’s thinking....

Sexist attitudes in the United States are most prevalent in the Southeast and least prevalent on the West Coast and in New England, according to a new study that highlights how sexism and gender attitudes affect earnings and job prospects for women. Researchers analyzed responses to decades of statistics and survey questions about women's roles in society and found that where a woman is born affects how much she works and earns. The study, which focused on the U.S., found that women from states where sexism is more widespread tend to get married and have children at a younger age...

NBC NEWS ANALYSIS: Two of the president's former associates were in court Tuesday. Both guilty of multiple felonies. What happened to draining the swamp? There hasn't been a darker moment for a president - or for the presidency - since Richard Nixon resigned on the verge of impeachment in 1974. On Tuesday, Michael Cohen, the president's longtime fixer and former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to felony crimes that included illegally paying women hush money to help Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016. Most important, he said he did so at Trump's direction. In other words, Trump cheated to win...

Lanny Davis, the attorney for former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, said President Trump's team of lawyers are "witnesses against him" and prove that his client was directed to make payments on Mr. Trump's behalf to keep his alleged affairs quiet. "It's not about evidence. It is definitive, indisputable that Donald Trump's lawyers said in a letter to the special counsel that Donald Trump directed – the same word that Michael Cohen used in court yesterday under oath – directed Michael Cohen to make illegal payments. It's not a dispute. It's not about credibility. His own lawyers used the word directed,"...

Woman killed in apparent alligator attack would be first in South Carolina in decades originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A Baltimore man at the center of a viral police-beating video was charged in a previous encounter with the police officer who was filmed punching him while on duty earlier this month, ABC News confirmed Monday. Dashawn McGrier, 26, was charged with a string of criminal offenses, including second degree assault, in a June 26 incident with ex-Baltimore Police Officer Arthur Williams, who was indicted in an unrelated case last week after video showed him beating McGrier and throwing him to the...

For those of us who still love getting our news from newspapers, those inky, crinkly, thin sheets of wood pulp you hold in your hands and read, these indeed are sad times. Print newspapers, thanks in large part to the meteoric rise of smartphones and online and social media, are in serious decline. [Snip] Many media analysts believe it won’t be long before print newspapers disappear. If it happens, they in large part will be devoured by a voracious horde of online and social media, many of which have little respect for the notion that the first function of news...

More than 300 news outlets have launched a campaign to counter US President Donald Trump's attacks and promote a free press. The Boston Globe made the call last week for a nationwide denouncement of the president's "dirty war" against the media, using the hashtag #EnemyOfNone. Mr Trump has derided media reports as "fake news" and attacked journalists as "enemies of the people". And he tweeted on Thursday: "The fake news media is the opposition party." "It is very bad for our great country... But we are winning!" https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030074380397752320 UN experts have warned that Mr Trump's comments about the media raise...

About 350 newspapers in the United States will have editorials Thursday decrying President Donald Trump's description of the media as the "enemy of the people." Here are some of the newspapers blasting Trump's anti-press rhetoric.

It’s time to put aside blowhard journalists of the mainstream and social media and anarchy-seeking Antifa Without ever blinking a jaundiced eye, 100 newspapers will follow the Boston Globe’s directive on Thursday with a collective hit job on President Donald Trump. At press time, not a single newspaper had stepped forward to state that this is proof positive that there is no such thing as an objective free press; that what the Boston Globe is calling for is nothing less than a coordinated hate attack.