Free Republic

What is conservatism? It is a question that could be answered a thousand different ways. On the modern American political scene, conservatism is often portrayed as outdated, offensive, and inconsistent with the rapidly changing times. Yet, at its core, conservatism is still a practical, applicable, and logical political philosophy — a philosophy deeply concerned with maintaining what is good in society while rejecting dangerous and idiotic pipe dreams from the Left. The most convincing argument for conservatism was presented by 20th-century British philosopher Michael Oakeshott. Oakeshott presents a conservatism that seems easy to accept and understand. The basis of Oakeshott's...

The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has apologized after a fashion show held by graduating students featured accessories meant to depict exaggerated facial features that at least one model said were racist. Critics including one model at the show, Amy Lefévre, said that accessories handed out to models at the school's Feb. 7 show mimicked historically offensive caricatures of black people, and should not have been handed out to models, some of whom wore the accessories onstage. “I stood there almost ready to break down, telling the staff that I felt incredibly uncomfortable with having to wear these pieces and...

Feb. 20 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump has named U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as acting Director of National Intelligence. Trump named Grenell the new DNI on Wednesday, saying he represents the United States "exceedingly well." "Ambassador Grenell was confirmed to his role as ambassador by the Senate in April 2018, and he has years of experience working with our intelligence community in a number of additional positions, including as special envoy for Serbia-Kosovo negotiations and as United States spokesman to the United Nations," the White House said in a statement Thursday. "He is committed to a non-political, non-partisan...

President Trump earned a standing ovation during his State of the Union Address this year when he recognized Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó in the audience. For many, it was an electrifying moment – Guaidó is a symbol of courage and of freedom pitted against a bad and destructive anti-American dictatorship. President Trump said, "We are supporting the hopes of Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to restore democracy. The United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, a tyrant who brutalizes his people. But Maduro’s grip on tyranny will...

Key Points Morgan Stanley will acquire brokerage firm E-Trade for $13 billion, the companies announced. The investment bank will pay $58.74 a share in stock for E-Trade in a deal bringing together $3.1 trillion in client assets. The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, follows last year’s $26 billion all-stock purchase of TD Ameritrade by Charles Schwab. ================================================================== Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley will acquire E-Trade for $13 billion, the companies announced Thursday, the latest in a consolidation wave for the brokerage industry that collectively lowered trading commissions to zero last year. Morgan Stanley will pay $58.74...

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenaed a sheriff’s office in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday for information about two Mexican citizens wanted for deportation, a move that is part of a broader escalation of the conflict between federal officials and local government agencies over so-called sanctuary policies."

LUCKNOW - U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to “drain the swamp” of lobbyists and elites in Washington D.C. Now, one Indian city is racing to clean up a stagnant river as he prepares to visit. Trump arrives in India on Feb. 24 on a maiden two-day trip that aims to repair bilateral relations hurt by a trade spat. He plans to visit the western city of Ahmedabad and India’s capital New Delhi, as well as Agra, where he will view the famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal, at sunset. In the city, authorities are on a clean-up drive, including...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told a Presidents Day audience of investors and money managers that it’s time for a return to civility in the nation’s politics. And the man who was ousted early from the Republican primaries of 2016 gave a decidedly mixed review of the first term of President Donald Trump, who bruised him often on the campaign trail. Bush spoke Monday to an audience of several hundred investors in Hollywood at a conference sponsored by the financial firm Noble Capital Markets of Boca Raton. During a speech and onstage interview with author Brant Pinvidic, Bush likened the...

Wisconsin's second-largest school district won't back off a policy of keeping minor students' transgender experimentation secret from their parents despite a new lawsuit filed Tuesday. Wisconsin’s second-largest school district so far won’t back off a policy of keeping minor students’ transgender experimentation secret from their parents despite a new lawsuit filed Tuesday.A group of parents represented by Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty sued after the Madison Metropolitan School District refused to alter its policy of concealing childrens’ transgender behavior and related medical records from parents, no matter how young the child is. The district oversees children as young as...

U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia will resign from the bench effective April 1, 2020. In a resignation letter addressed to President Trump, Murguia wrote, “I have been honored to serve in this position since 1999, and my tenure on the Court has been the highlight of my professional life. In recent months, it has become clear that I can no longer effectively serve the Court in this capacity.” Murguia, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, was publicly reprimanded Sept. 30, 2019, by the Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit. The Council found that Murguia “gave preferential treatment and unwanted...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won the endorsement of a top Muslim political group Thursday. Emgage PAC, which calls itself the biggest Muslim political action committee in the country, says it is backing Sanders because of his “inclusive” presidential campaign, and it hopes that its endorsement spurs Muslims to the polls. “More than any other presidential candidate, Senator Sanders has built a historically inclusive and forward-thinking movement: one that represents America as a set of ideas grounded in the belief that all humans are equal and worthy of a dignified life,” Wa'el Alzayat, Emgage PAC’s CEO, said in...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. defense agency responsible for secure communications for the U.S. president and other high-level officials said social security numbers and other personal data in its network may have been “compromised”, in a letter seen by Reuters that was sent to potential victims. The Defense Information Systems Agency, which calls itself a combat support agency of the Department of Defense on its web site, employs 8,000 military and civilian employees. The letter says that between May and July 2019, personal data may have been compromised.

... History suggests that Sanders' plans for a system of "free" education, "free" health care, a federal paid leave program, government control of energy production, the Green New Deal, nationwide rent control, and a federal guaranteed-jobs program are only the beginning. These plans rest on massive government interventions into people's lives, intense redistribution, and a level of coercion that Americans have never before endured. When people resist, the government's grip becomes firmer and more oppressive. If you think I'm exaggerating, think about it is this way: The people of Venezuela asked for their current crisis state when they voted for...

Lower migration is driving up blue collar wages, and those extra wages are stabilizing the U.S. economy, says the Economist magazine, which serves as a community newspaper for globalist elites......The admission of rising prosperity comes in a sour-toned February 13 article, and 'is buried' under multiple warnings about future disasters. The Economist article is headlined “Delayed reaction: Immigration to America is down. Wages are up.” ....It provides more good news — that President Donald Trump’s Hire America’ policy is even boosting wages in the midwest. Even the warnings were full of good news about how higher wages are forcing companies...

SUBTITLE: "He's toast," said Dwight Clarke, 70, of Los Angeles, who viewed the event at The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, California. LOS ANGELES -- One after another, Democratic presidential candidates took turns at the start of their latest debate to take shots at former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. And each time, the crowd at The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, California, reacted with uproarious cheers. They cheered when Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., criticized Bloomberg for having spent his way onto the debate stage, and when Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana,...

“This morning, as part of a search ordered by the Promoter of Justice, Gian Piero Milano, and the Adjunct Alessandro Diddi, documents and computer equipment were seized from the office and home of Bishop Alberto Perlasca, former head of the Administrative Office of the First Section of the Secretariat of State,” Tuesday’s statement reads. The communiqué said that the raid was part of an ongoing investigation into “financial investments and real estate of the Secretariat of State.” Tuesday’s operation was the second such raid conducted on officials of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and makes Perlasca the sixth and highest...

Ever since Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, political spectators have been wondering how it happened. She was supposed to win by a landslide. Now Democrats are debating which of their candidates is most "electable." They're afraid to nominate another Hillary Clinton. But no one can agree on why she lost. Was it because of globalization, sexism, populism, or Russian interference? Eighty-four years of electoral history show that Trump's victory was not at all surprising. In fact, it was entirely predictable. In our forthcoming book, Personality Wins: Who Will Take the White House and How...

Pity the poor liberal media. The Democrats staged a nasty debate last night, and the man who emerged the "big winner" was none other than... President Trump! So said Joe Scarborough and Donny Deutsch on today's Morning Joe. Willie Geist said "They tore the skin" off of Michael Bloomberg. Making matters much worse, Donny divined that Bernie Sanders is "rolling" toward the nomination, yet has "no shot" at beating Trump. That left poor Donny upset, that "two-thirds of this country thinks we're going in the right direction, and you have a guy who wants to burn it down? To me,...

The Vegan Society said that vegans should be given their own shelf in refrigerators at work and employers should 'protect them' from offensive jokes about their dietary choices. The document was written following a judge in an employment tribunal declaring last month that ethical veganism is a “philosophical belief”, like a religion, which should be protected against discrimination by workplace law. The Vegan Society’s document recommends that staff requiring a uniform or special equipment, such as leather safety boots, should be offered non-animal alternatives. It also says that vegans should have their own isolated shelf in the work refrigerator —...

In a cri de coeur for the ages, Attorney General William Barr said in an interview last week that President Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Days later in a moment of introspection, Mr. Trump said: “I do make his job harder. I do agree with that.” Historians someday will identify the current period as the moment something snapped in American politics. The moorings have broken, and we are floating free of any guide ropes. How else to explain not merely disagreements over the term of Roger Stone’s sentence but the mass hysteria it has...