Free Republic

Few areas of historical research have provoked such intensive study as the origins of America’s Great Depression. From 1929 to 1933 America suffered the worst economic decline in its history. Real national income fell by 36 percent; unemployment increased from 3 percent to over 25 percent; more than 40 percent of all banks were permanently closed; and international investment and trade declined dramatically. The dimensions of the economic catastrophe in America and the rest of the world from 1929 to 1933 cannot be captured fully by quantitative data alone. Tens of millions of humans suffered intense misery and despair. Because...

Donald Trump’s candidacy raises more urgent issues than the Donald’s sometimes poor choice of words: Trump has sparked a less-noticed but far more important debate about the future of our nation’s economy, the sustainability of American life, jobs, and a decent salary for Americans. This ultimately fuels the economic strength of the United States that makes it possible to defend our nation and its people. It’s about Smoot-Hawley. I am talking about the myth, the ghost, the coat hanging on the back of the door that looks like a monster in the dark, the nightmare that makes uninformed and gutless...

Hawley also called on McCaskill to join him in that call for special counsel. “I know that Sen. McCaskill and Sen. Feinstein are very close. Sen. McCaskill has worked with Sen. Feinstein on immigration and related issues, and, of course, Sen. McCaskill is very closely aligned with Chuck Schumer. However, I call on Sen. McCaskill today to put partisanship aside and support a special counsel to investigate these potential abuses,” Hawley said. “Sen. McCaskill has said they she does not approve of the way the allegations came forward and, quoting her now, she said, ‘It would have been much more...

... A new poll by Remington Research Group found that of the 1,555 likely Missouri voters surveyed last week, 48 percent said they were planning to vote for Republican candidate Josh Hawley while 46 percent were planning to vote for McCaskill...

The poll of 1,555 likely voters in Missouri has a 2.5 percent margin of error... Among female respondents, 47 percent said the confirmation process made them less likely to vote for McCaskill, while 42 percent said it made them more likely. Among male respondents, 50 percent said the confirmation process made them less likely to vote for McCaskill, while 41 percent said it made them more likely.

ST. LOUIS, MO — The mother of a Ladue High School student took her case to the federal courthouse after her son, called John Doe in legal documents, did not make the varsity soccer team and was not allowed to play on the J.V. team. The woman’s attorney said the issue is age and sex discrimination. Friday morning Ladue school officials said if a junior does not make the varsity team, the boy cannot play again on the junior varsity team. The school said this is to allow lower grade students a chance to develop their skills so that they...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is "screwing" over his Democratic colleagues by keeping them in session this October and therefore keeping them off the campaign trail, according to Politico's Burgess Everett. "Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is planning to keep the chamber in session for a significant portion of October if not four entire weeks, costing Democrats key campaign trail days and allowing the Senate to continue its work into the fall, according to five Republican officials," Everett writes . Yet, Republicans say two weeks is plenty of time for their Democratic colleagues to make their case to voters. Burgess Everett...

The Kentucky Republican identifies a large number of toss-up contests The 2018 midterms are setting up to be like a “knife fight in an alley,” according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Republican from Kentucky said he expects to see more of President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama on the campaign trail. But McConnell, asked about whether Trump should be talking about the prospects of Democrats trying to impeach him, said, “I don’t have any advice to give him about what he says at the rallies.” Speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Louisville, McConnell rattled off...

The new NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey, taken six weeks before Americans head to the polls, shows Democrats leading Republicans by 52 percent to 40 percent for control of Congress. If it holds, that 12 percentage point margin would suggest a "blue wave" large enough to switch control of not just the House but also the Senate.

President Trump holds his MAGA Rally in Springfield, Missouri, today, Friday, September 21, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time (That's 7:30 p.m. Eastern and 4:30 p.m. Pacific).Lots of news today, great fodder for the rally, and fantastic Friday live blogging opportunity for us on FR. Join the fun!

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) said on Wednesday night that she will oppose Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.

Two incumbent red-state Democratic senators who have been the targets of some of President Trump's ire are facing increasingly tough odds to win re-election in November, a new poll shows, underscoring the challenges Democrats face in their bid to retake the Senate in November -- as well as Trump's continuing presence in key battleground states. Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill are locked in dead heats with their Republican challengers, according to the CBS News poll, with Tester leading Matt Rosendale by only two percentage points and McCaskill tied with Josh Hawley at 45 percent. Both results...

Mid Continent Nail Corporation says it could shutter its Poplar Bluff plant, which employs about 335 workers, as early as this month without an exemption to tariffs, the site’s operations general manager, Chris Pratt, told reporters in early September. The company previously had said that it might not survive through Labor Day but stayed open. After Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported steel, the company in June cut 60 of 500 positions at the plant in rural Butler County, where the unemployment rate is above the national average and the company is the area’s second-largest employer. Pratt said...

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Republican opponent Josh Hawley faced off in their first debate Friday afternoon. The two spent much of the debate attacking each other, with Hawley finishing several answers by calling McCaskill a "Washington liberal" out of touch with Missouri values. Both candidates emphasized their relationships with President Trump, with Hawley embracing Trump talking points on immigration and other issues, and McCaskill trying to assert her independence from both the president and the Democrats. "I'm the only candidate in this race that has a proven track record of bipartisan accomplishments," McCaskill said. "What Missourians want is a...

Everything wrong with the social justice movement is currently on display in Ferguson. Four years after Michael Brown’s death, a group of protesters are trying to shut down the store Brown visited just before he was killed. They blockaded the store until the police finally made them stop and continue to protest the store and verbally harass anyone who tries to shop there. My wife and I were present at a City Council meeting observing the protesters. Some threatened to burn the store down and to harm the owners, an Indian-American family. Others added a dose of racism, calling the...

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a two-term incumbent, tops her Republican challenger Josh Hawley by a narrow 44-41 percent margin, according to a Fox News poll of Missouri likely voters. Her three-point edge is within the poll’s margin of sampling error. Third-party candidates get six percent. While women back McCaskill by nine, the candidates are tied among white women. Men go for Hawley by four points. Suburban women support McCaskill by 14 points, while white evangelical Christians prefer Hawley by 34.

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has prompted one of the most contentious battles on Capitol Hill since Donald Trump became president. ... Chuck Schumer and the 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee threw every punch at Kavanaugh they could muster, not to mention a few knees in the groin. The party’s progressive wing demanded no less -- a failure to engage in this fight would have made them targets from an array of liberal groups and activists. But Senate Democrats faced another dilemma, too: The prospective justice’s confirmation process is occurring in the heat of a hotly...

When President Trump promised to make America great again, the employees at Mid Continent Nail in Missouri probably didn’t expect he would put them out of work. But the steel tariffs imposed in June have the company hanging by a thread. Mid Continent is the largest nail manufacturer in the U.S. and has been in Missouri for more than 25 years. It had 500 employees at its Popular Bluff plant and was the second largest employer in the small town before the Trump tariffs hit. The trouble for Mid Continent is that foreign producers making nails abroad use low-price steel...

Denver is widely regarded to be among the more liberal major cities in the United States. But it's also home to Colorado Christian University, which the research website Niche just ranked the seventh-most-conservative American college — and it's among the fastest-growing, too. "We've had nine years of record enrollment at Colorado Christian University," says Jeff Hunt, CCU's vice president of public policy and director of the Centennial Institute, the branch that puts on the annual Western Conservative Summit. "And a lot of that has to do with the fact that we're unapologetically Christian and conservative. People know exactly what they're...