Free Republic

If Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus no longer pass woke muster in Boston, then it’s time for the Kennedys to go. And everything with their names plastered on it — the JFK Library and JFK federal building, his statue at the State House, the Kennedy School of Government across the river, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the Edward M. Kennedy Whatever They Call It, etc. Everything must go! Profiles in Courage? The Kennedys were more like Profiles in Caucasity, as that woke Harvard gal said this week before she too got canceled. Let’s start with President Kennedy. Just for starters, he...

The editor of The Boston Globe plans to give reporters and other staff members “the necessary time to look back six months and assess their work through a racial lens,” according to a memo he sent the newspaper’s staff earlier this week. Brian McGrory, the editor, wants reporters, columnists, editors, photographers, and video producers to count “how many people of color were subjects, how many were quoted as experts, how many were depicted in photographs and videos, and in what fashion?” It’s not a witch hunt, he said. “This exercise is not meant to embarrass or penalize anyone. It’s to...

Michael Dukakis, the former Democratic Massachusetts governor who lost his 1988 White House bid to then-Vice President George H. W. Bush, is warning Joe Biden not to take polls showing him with a double-digit lead over President Trump too seriously. A recent Fox News poll has Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, leading Trump 50-38 nationally as concerns grow over the coronavirus pandemic, racism and unemployment. He also leads Trump by 8.8 percentage points in an average of the latest national polls compiled by Real Clear Politics. By comparison, in late July 1988, a Newsweek/Gallup poll showed Dukakis with a 55-38...

At the tail end of a City Council meeting last week, so quickly and quietly that you could have easily missed it, a left-leaning Massachusetts city expanded its notion of family to include people who are polyamorous, or maintaining consenting relationships with multiple partners.

Senators aim to limit Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 06/29/20 03:19 PM EDT A bipartisan group of senators is trying to place limits on President Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany unless the administration is able to meet a slew of requirements. The proposal, spearheaded by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), would prohibit the administration from reducing the number of active-duty troops in Germany below 34,500 unless the Pentagon can certify to Congress that it is in the national security interest of the United States and would not negatively undermine European alliances or NATO....

House panel votes to constrain Afghan drawdown, ask for assessment on 'incentives' to attack US troops BY REBECCA KHEEL - 07/01/20 11:24 PM EDT House panel votes to constrain Afghan drawdown, ask for assessment on 'incentives' to attack US troops © Getty The House Armed Services Committee voted Wednesday to put roadblocks on President Trump’s ability to withdraw from Afghanistan, including requiring an assessment on whether any country has offered incentives for the Taliban to attack U.S. and coalition troops. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment, from Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), would require several certifications before the U.S. military...

The Harvard graduate who said in a TikTok video that she would “stab” anyone who told her “All Lives Matter” revealed in a new pair of recordings that she has lost her job over the perceived threats and ensuing furor. “Standing up for Black Lives Matter put me in a place online to be seen by millions of people,” a teary Claira Janover said in a new video posted Wednesday afternoon. “The job that I’d worked really hard to get and meant a lot to me has called me and fired me because of everything.” Janover’s LinkedIn account lists her...

U.S. officials believe as many as 20 million Americans have contracted the coronavirus, suggesting millions had the virus and never knew it. That’s nearly 10 times as many infections as the 2.3 million cases that have been confirmed and comes as the Trump administration works to tamp down nationwide concern about the COVID-19 pandemic as about a dozen states are seeing worrisome increases in cases.

Leaders of civil rights organizations spoke out Tuesday night after a reporter from a Portland TV station tweeted anti-Palestinian sentiments from a professional account while covering a protest. Jenny Young, a reporter with KOIN, was at a rally at Peninsula Park in North Portland, and tweeted about a speaker who praised the BDS movement. BDS, which stands for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, is a Palestinian-led movement, which upholds the principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. Young described the speaker, who was not identified, as “openly anti-Zionist”, and the BDS movement as “an anti-Semitic...

Twitter video at link. Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's claim that Detroit Police Department officers abused peaceful protesters is "totally inaccurate," Detroit Police Chief James Craig remarked Tuesday. ~snip~ "I know that the congresswoman is making claims that they were peacefully marching when we intersected and intentionally hit peaceful protesters. [That is] not the case," the chief added. "They [surrounded] the vehicle, they began to pelt the vehicle –­ not just one of our police cruisers but two of them –­ and in one instance the rear window of one of our SUVs was broken out. And, the information I...

The Boston Arts Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to remove a public monument depicting President Abraham Lincoln standing before a freed slave. The Emancipation Memorial in Park Square — a replica of the original standing in Washington, D.C. — will be taken down with an art conservator “to document, recommend how the bronze statue is removed, supervise its removal and placement into temporary storage,” the motion reads. “As we continue our work to make Boston a more equitable and just city, it’s important that we look at the stories being told by the public art in all our neighborhoods,” Boston...

Provo police have confirmed that one person was shot during a protest Monday night near the police department. The victim, a 60-year-old Provo resident, remained hospitalized Tuesday but was “stable,” according to police. The man was not part of the protest or counter-protest that had been going on, but was just driving in the area, said Provo Police Sgt. Nisha King.

Four House Democrats have written to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the United States to cut assistance to Israel should it proceed to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, JTA reported on Monday. The letter was initiated by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Betty McCollum of Minnesota. The letter to Pompeo is circulating among Democrats in a bid to add signatures. “Should the Israeli government move forward with the planned annexation with this administration’s acquiescence, we will work to ensure non-recognition as well as pursue conditions on...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional, determining that its head must be removable at the will of the president. The decision reduces the power of the agency, the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, and is a victory for business groups. The court stopped short, though, of eliminating the bureau, as sought by conservatives. "The agency may therefore continue to operate, but its Director, in light of our decision, must be removable by the President at will," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 5-4 majority. The decision agreed with a California-based...

COVID-19 peak dates for every state Wake Forest coach to isolate from wife for entire season The Boston Globe logoThe prosecution of Michael Flynn is not over yet On Wednesday, two accounts of the Department of Justice — one grounded in fact, the other in fiction — were on display in the nation’s capital. The first occurred before the House Judiciary Committee, where Andrew Zelinksy, a career prosecutor currently working at the Justice Department, took the extraordinary step of testifying about political interference in criminal cases from “the highest levels of the Department,” namely by Attorney General William Barr. Zelinsky...

<p>NEW YORK — In a posthumous memoir, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy writes of fear and remorse surrounding the fateful events on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969, when his car accident left a woman dead.</p> <p>"True Compass" is to be published Sept. 14 by Twelve, a division of the Hachette book group. The 532-page book was obtained early by The New York Times.</p>

Tom Brady appeared to have a message for those criticizing him for working out with his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates while coronavirus cases spike in Florida and the NFLPA cautioned players against workouts. Brady used a quote from former President Franklin D. Roosevelt to thumb his nose at the noise around his sessions. TOM BRADY WORKS OUT WITH BUCCANEERS TEAMMATES DESPITE NFLPA'S ADVISORY OVER CORONAVIRUS CASES “’Only thing we have to fear, is fear itself’ – FDR,” Brady wrote on an Instagram story.

The Minneapolis City Council on Friday unanimously approved a measure to abolish the city’s police department — a radical proposal amid nationwide efforts by activists to defund local law enforcement agencies.

Edward Markey appears headed for a bruising defeat unless he can turn around his struggling campaign in the next two months — a difficult ask for a 73-year-old incumbent running against a well-funded young heir to a political dynasty. The latest developments are not good for Markey — and we’re not even talking about his staggeringly stupid decision to pose on his porch with an American flag on the floor. Democratic sources say two new polls in separate congressional districts show Markey trailing U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III by double digits. One of the polls was from a Democratic...

Problems at a Massachusetts veterans home -- where 76 deaths were linked to a coronavirus outbreak -- began when patients from two dementia units were combined into one, a 174-page state report says. “This decision was catastrophic,” the report on the Holyoke Soldier’s Home says, according to FOX station WFXT-TV in Boston. “Staff described the move as ‘total pandemonium,’ ‘when hell broke loose,’ and ‘a nightmare.’’’ “This [is] the most insane thing I ever saw in my entire life,” one staff member said, according to the report, the release of which was followed by the firing of the home's superintendent.