Free Republic

Trust the experts they say.The government has your best interests at heart.Don’t think for yourself, we keep being told.Yeah, well, the AP says what those of us who have been following the Lahaina wildfire already knew: the people who obeyed the authorities died, and those who said “Screw that!” survived.https://t.co/ydyZUqV9gl— Dr. Benjamin Braddock (@GraduatedBen) August 23, 2023This story confirms what I have been writing for a few days. Not because I am a particularly astute journalist–everything I have reported has been publicly available, either through various news stories, blog posts, or videos on Twitter.I just have no faith left in...

Liberal polices are "reversing" gains made in fighting crime in New York City, former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik .. blamed Mayor Bill DeBlasio and the City Council for a recent spike in violent crime. Murder investigations in 2019 spiked to 9.4 percent this year. "I don't blame the NYPD. I blame the mayor. I blame the City Council. I blame the people that promote this anti-cop rhetoric," Kerik said. "They took stop-question-and-frisk away from the cops. They took enforcement out of law enforcement." ... at the end of the day, the men and women in the NYPD have to have...

San Francisco.. stands as a profound example of the damage ultra-liberal policies can do. After 20 years of envelope-pushing changes to grow government and ease law enforcement, the once-shining City by the Bay has turned into a place where: Property crime runs amok. An online map is needed to track human feces on city streets. Discarded syringes are common sightings. Public urination is so widespread it has damaged subway elevators and escalators, building walls and power poles ... San Francisco has the dubious honor of being at or near the top of numerous national surveys tracking homelessness, the cost of...

Ted Cruz hit back at Donald Trump today for his attack on Cruz, that he won't go along to get along to curry favor in Washington. Of course Cruz accepts this criticism and in turn says that if you want someone who will go along to get along and cut deals with the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, then Donald Trump is your guy. Couldn't have said it better myself. It's clear Trump puts a high priority on his ability to cut deals with people and that's just not something I'm looking for in a candidate....

Mark Levin responded to resident Obama’s concerns over economic globalization and automation, saying that if liberal changes to capitalism were feasible, the most prosperous society on earth would be North Korea. “You can’t impose success. You can’t impose living wages. You can’t do any of those things,” Levin said. “If you could do those things, the most successful, prosperous, paradisiacal society on the face of the earth would be North Korea.” ... We don’t need lectures from leftists who’ve never produced a damn thing and never can produce a damn thing, who are taking this country down the toilet. We...

Watching ESPN is painful these days. What used to be a good sports channel is now a platform for bad pop sociology and “progressive” political commentary. The commentary was in full force recently as I watched a sports commentator try to explain how the riots in Baltimore were a function of socio-economic factors. He had it wrong from the beginning. The cultural disintegration that is happening in Baltimore – and, indeed, all around the country – is not due to a lack of money. It is mainly due to a lack of education – or, to put it more bluntly,...

Though Wal-Mart remains fixed in the American conscience as Sam Walton's business, it is less and less that. Walton was folksy and relatable to the Americans who shopped at Wal-Mart. Everyone could imagine Sam Walton shopping there, too. But over the years, Wal-Mart's management has passed out of the direct hands of Walton's family. A few of the Walton clan remain on the Wal-Mart board of directors, but now its board also includes Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo!, and Kevin Systrom, the CEO of Instagram. One would be hard pressed to imagine either as regular shoppers at Wal-Mart. For...

Is anyone else ticked that we’ve all been forced to know the now-dead-and-in-hell piece of shiitake named Aaron Alexis? However livid we may be, I’m sure it can’t compare to the rage the family members and friends of the ones he mowed down must feel. For those who only watch MTV and have no clue who Aaron Alexis is, well, he’s the dude that shot and killed twelve innocent people at the Navy Yard military base in D.C. last Monday. That would be as in Washington, D.C. It’s the same D.C. that has uberstrict, leftist guns laws in place that,...

If there’s one thing liberals/progressives can’t handle it is being held to their own standards. They support higher taxes but shelter their wealth in trusts and tax havens, which already is earned and no longer taxable as income, so they can avoid the death tax. They claim “the rich” aren’t paying their “fair share” and decry “loopholes” but then avail themselves of every deduction their accountants can find. They will not live the way they seek to impose on others unless and until it is imposed on others, and then only maybe. In the case of Obamacare, Members of Congress...

The 50 year anniversary of Martin Luther King's march on Washington is causing a lot of people in my generation to reminisce. In doing so, it is hard not to be struck by two puzzling facts: (a) the fall of racial barriers to success almost everywhere and (b) the lack of economic progress in the black community as a whole, relative to whites. On the one hand, it would seem that a black in America can achieve almost anything, even being elected president of the United States. On the other hand, if we compare the economic condition of blacks and...

Fifty years of Democrats running the city of Detroit led to it filing for bankruptcy last week. Unsustainable demands from its 48 unions gradually drove out private industry, as government became the largest employer. Its shrinking tax base can no longer support the massive pension debt obligations and still provide a minimum level of city services. Nearly half of the city’s debt is to underfunded pension plans and retirees. Mitt Romney presciently warned in 2008 that if the government bailed out the automakers, it would ultimately destroy Detroit. “Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it,...

Gays serving openly in the military. Voting rights for more ex-convicts. Paid sick days and family leave for most American workers. Those are part of a long wish list that liberal advocacy groups hope will become reality as Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats take full control in Washington. Activists concede that political pragmatism — and the economic crisis — may force them to be patient, but they also don't want to let this opportunity pass without pressing hard for their agenda. "We've been waiting a long time, and we've got a long list," said Kim Gandy, president of the...

Declaring himself a "non-combatant," U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, in remarks at a New Haven press event Friday, raised anew the question of whether his "independent" candidacy will help Republicans hold onto three Congressional seats in Connecticut -- and control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Lieberman -- who after losing an Aug. 8 Democratic primary to Ned Lamont has launched a third-party bid to hold onto his seat in the Nov. 7 general election -- was asked whether he still endorses Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy, three Democrats looking to unseat endangered Republican incumbents Chris Shays, Rob Simmons...

SAN FRANCISCO — The advertisements that showed up on taxis and buses in San Francisco this week are meant to be as provocative as they are purposeful. "Today we rode a cable car, visited Alcatraz and supported a drug habit," reads one featuring a tourist couple at Fisherman's Wharf. Another ad depicting a girl in pigtails reads: "Today I adopted a cat, gave some change and shut down my corner grocer." The attention-grabbing ads sponsored by the Hotel Council of San Francisco are the latest effort to put the squeeze on panhandling. Hoteliers say San Francisco has such a reputation...