Free Republic

The future may be female, but critics say Kirsten Gillibrand's role may be limited. The Democratic U.S. senator from New York was widely mocked Wednesday after saying the future is “female” and “intersectional,” in a wink to the progressive wing of her party. “Our future is: Female, Intersectional, Powered by our belief in one another. And we’re just getting started,” Gillibrand wrote in a tweet. Critics claimed Gillibrand was trying to pander to progressives ahead of a likely run for president in 2020, looking to portray herself as a feminist firebrand. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for one, fired back...

PARIS -- The "yellow vests" in France are worrying greens around the world. The worst riots in Paris in decades were sparked by higher fuel taxes, and French President Emmanuel Macron responded by scrapping them Wednesday. But taxes on fossil fuels are just what international climate negotiators, meeting in Poland this week, say are desperately needed to help wean the world off of fossil fuels and slow climate change. Macron said the higher tax was his way of trying to prevent the end of the world. But the yellow vest protesters turned that around with the slogan: "it's hard to...

since siding with those who support gun control, business has gone down at Dick’s Sporting Goods and the company may have to close Field & Stream: Edward Stack, chairman and CEO of Dick’s, said during the event that the sporting goods chain’s recent 3.9 percent drop in same-store sales was the result of a mix of factors beyond their control as well as some he called “self-imposed.” Specifically, he said, “the decisions we made on firearms” negatively affected their bottom line but the drop in sales was something they expected. They did not, however, regret their decision to change a...

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and his allies are taking new steps toward launching a presidential campaign, including interviews with dozens of potential staffers and hiring a pollster and national fundraiser, according to a person close to the Democrat.He’s already launched a political action committee that allows him to raise money nationally and hired his 2014 campaign manager, Brad Komar, to run it. Since the PAC was formed in September, Komar has done 80 interviews with possible campaign staffers, the person said. Of those, Hickenlooper has conducted or participated in 30 interviews. The operation has hired Democratic veteran Anna Greenberg as...

Democratic Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the “Green New Deal” plan she supports would be used to achieve liberal “economic, social and racial justice” goals along with fighting global warming. “[W]e can use the transition to 100 percent energy as the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a Tuesday panel discussion alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and environmental activist Bill McKibben. The soon-to-be New York representative has spent her time in Washington, D.C. promoting a “Green New Deal” to transition the U.S. to 100...

Uber, Lyft, Via, and Gett/Juno must pay on-demand drivers of their services a minimum of $17.22 an hour after expenses starting in mid-January 2019, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) announced Dec. 4. The commission claimed this will result in an average nearly $10,000 rise in earnings for 96% of drivers. About 80,000 people regularly drive for ride-sharing firms. The commission set a formula that will result in a gross hourly rate of up to $28 an hour to cover the average per-mile expenses drivers incur so that a driver’s effective freelance wage should net out to $17.22...

Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday night confirmed she will pay her interns at least $15 an hour. “Time to walk the walk,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Very few members of Congress actually pay their interns. We will be one of them.” Her message came after The Washington Post confirmed with her chief of staff that she intended to pay her interns the amount. Her tweet comes the day after Ocasio-Cortez called for lawmakers to increase pay for their interns and staffers. The rising Democratic star, a self-described democratic socialist, tweeted Monday that she visited a restaurant in Washington where she met...

A letter written in German by Albert Einstein in 1954 is going under the gavel on Tuesday. Experts at Christie's auction house in New York estimate the so-called "God letter" could sell for up to $1.5 million (€1.3 million). "This remarkably candid, private letter was written a year before Einstein's death and remains the most fully articulated expression of his religious and philosophical views," said Christie's in a statement. The missive is referred to as the "God letter" because it addresses how Einstein felt about the characterization of God and Judaism in a then-recently published book on the subject by...

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and implied she’s a liar for no reason at all. On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez compared her election victory to “establishing civil rights” and the United States landing on the moon. “We went to the moon. We electrified the nation,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We established civil rights. We enfranchised the country. We digged deep and we did it. We did it when no one else thought that we could. That’s what we did when so many of us won an election this year.” In response, former Arkansas Gov. Mike...

Crime is an affliction that plagues all major cities. In the District, the past three years have seen an ebb and flow of violence ... But a close look at DC police crime stats reveals ... One veteran DC police officer is blowing the whistle on what he calls years of corruption and crime reclassification by the department. "If it's a burglary and someone enters the home, but nothing was taken they'll have us re-classify it as Unlawful Entry which brings the crime down from a felony to a misdemeanor ... Felonies are reported to the FBI – the Uniform...

Paul Manafort, the embattled former campaign chief of President Donald Trump, attempted to broker a deal between Washington and the government of Ecuador over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the New York Times reported. During meetings with incoming Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in May 2017, Manafort suggested he could help negotiate an agreement for the South American country to hand over Assange to the U.S., the Times said, citing people familiar with the talks.

Democratic Socialist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hasn't even been sworn into office yet and she's already shaking things up in Washington, D.C. Scratch that. She hasn't even been sworn in as a Congresswoman yet and she's already making demands of her fellow legislators...before meeting and working with them.First, she complained that she couldn't find adequate housing that she could afford. Then, she complained about health insurance as a means of advocating for Medicare For All. And who could forget her crazy comparisons between the Central American caravan and the Holocaust? Or that she didn't know what the three branches of government are?Now, she's...

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday the Trump administration will end subsidies for electric cars and renewable energy sources, Reuters reports. Kudlow said he expected subsidies for electric cars would end by 2020 or 2021, according to the report. The remarks were made in response to a question about what the administration would do about General Motors' plans to layoff 15,000 people and shutter five plants across North America. The company's plans have sparked outrage in Washington from both parties. Trump last week floated cutting GM's subsidies for electric vehicles and raising auto tariffs to punish the...

Before we delve into her new "argument," I'd like to make a point about why the conservative commentariat sometimes seems fixated on Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  First, she entered the national spotlight as a media fascination and darling -- a young woman of color who shook up the Democratic Party from the left by defeating an establishment fixture.  She wasn't randomly plucked from relative obscurity by right-wing writers or pundits for sport; she was elevated by a mainstream media that loves covering, and sympathizes with, rising liberal stars.  And please recall the DNC Chairman referring to her as "the future of...

Prominent Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli has been sentenced to 28 months in Federal prison along with a $500 thousand fine for his conviction on charges in connection with the 'Buffalo Billion' program. Ciminelli is out on bail pending appeal. Ciminelli was sentenced Monday in federal court for a pay-to-play conspiracy in which his firm won a development job worth a half billion dollars. Ciminelli and three others were convicted over the summer. Prosecutors say the scheme involved state-funded contracts worth more than $850 million. Prosecutors say Ciminelli and others in his company contributed nearly $100,000 to Cuomo's campaign. The Democratic...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a challenge by three conservation groups to the authority of President Donald Trump’s administration to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a victory for Trump who has made the wall a centerpiece of his hardline immigration policies. The justices’ declined to hear the groups’ appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California rejecting their claims that the administration had pursued border wall projects without complying with applicable environmental laws. The groups are the Center for Biological Diversity, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Defenders of Wildlife. Their...

A 43-year-old immigration attorney from Queens, New York was found guilty of asylum fraud, making false statements to immigration authorities and aggravated identity theft in a federal court on Nov. 19.An investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Andreea Dumitru Parcalaboiu operated a scheme to submit fraudulent asylum forms. She knowingly submitted more than 180 applications in which she lied about the applicants’ personal narratives of alleged persecution, criminal and travel histories. Parcalaboiu deliberately fabricated detailed personal stories of purported mistreatment of her clients,...

In the aftermath of last week’s devastating losses for Republicans in the state Senate, as well as losing three House seats in New York, some in the party have begun calling for a change in leadership in both the state Senate and in the state GOP. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday the conference is discussing leadership changes after last week’s election, while The Buffalo News reported yesterday of mounting calls for new statewide party leadership. But changing leadership just for the sake of having someone new may not be the best path forward for the party, and laying the...

Very few people took notice when far left Governor Jerry Brown signed the changes in AB1921 into law two years ago. As a result, California lost 7 of its 14 Republican House seats this election cycle. Ballot harvesting is illegal in most states. In Texas, New York and Pennsylvania they arrest people for ballot harvesting. Orange County, traditionally a conservative enclave in Southern California turned all blue after Democrats found hundreds of thousands of votes post election day. Republicans such as Mimi Walters, Dana Rohrabacher and Young Kim were all ahead election night only to lose their races after late...

The agreement reached by President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China to effectively pause their trade war and work toward a pact appears to be aimed at giving the two leaders some political breathing room after an escalating fight has begun inflicting economic damage on both sides of the Pacific. The temporary truce, forged over a working dinner on Saturday night in Buenos Aires, does little to resolve the deep differences between the two nations and is more a political agreement than a substantive one. Both sides immediately positioned the cease-fire as a domestic victory while staking out areas...