Free Republic

Well… not exactly. Or at least not entirely. But the State Department has ordered all non-essential personnel to leave the country. It’s a move unusual enough to lead to questions and it almost certainly has to do with the deteriorating situation with Iran. (NPR) The State Department has ordered all “non-emergency” U.S. government employees to leave Iraq right away.The travel advisory specifically orders the departure of employees at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and consulate in Erbil, noting that “normal visa services will be temporarily suspended at both posts.”It was not immediately clear what led to the order on...

owa state Rep. Andy McKean announced Tuesday he is leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat due to his misgivings over President Trump. “With the 2020 presidential election looming on the horizon, I feel, as a Republican, that I need to be able to support the standard bearer of our party. Unfortunately, that’s something I’m unable to do,” McKean said at a press conference in Des Moines.

Veteran broadcaster Bob Costas is stepping down from his longtime role with NBC Sports. Costas told the New York Post of the decision Tuesday, which the network confirmed with the paper. “It’s all settled quietly and happily for all concerned,” Costas told The Post. Costas also told The Post he will continue to do work for MLB Network and is considering pursuing a long-form interview show.

FULL TITLE: Ouch! Jeff Flake makes two embarrassing errors on his way out. One was announcing his farewell on Twitter Sen. Jeff Flake made his share of mistakes since taking office, chief among them being to underestimate the intelligence of the average Republican voter, so it’s only fitting that the lawmaker makes two embarrassing errors on his way out the door. The first and perhaps most brutal error was for the moderate Trump-hating Arizona Republican to announce his farewell on Twitter. “Full of gratitude today as I deliver my farewell address in the Senate Chamber at 11:00 EST,” Flake advertised....

New York (CNN Business)The Weekly Standard, the magazine that espouses traditional conservatism and which has remained deeply critical of President Donald Trump, will shutter after 23 years, Clarity Media Group, the owner of its publisher announced Friday morning. It will publish its final issue on December 17. The announcement came after the magazine's editor-in-chief, Stephen Hayes, met privately with Ryan McKibben, the chairman of The Weekly Standard's publisher, MediaDC. "For more than twenty years The Weekly Standard has provided a valued and important perspective on political, literary and cultural issues of the day," McKibben said in a press release. "The...

Actress Amber Tamblyn confessed in a recent public appearance that she considered giving her unborn baby girl away to Canadians following the election of Donald Trump. Amber Tamblyn told attendees at Vulture Fest’s “Feminist AF” panel in Los Angeles Sunday how she felt like giving her baby away on election night 2016. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “When Clinton’s director of strategic communications informed Javits Center attendees that Clinton would not be speaking, Tamblyn came to a grim conclusion: ‘A dark realization swallowed me: I was going to bring a baby into this world. And not just any baby: a...

“At your request, I am submitting my resignation,” Sessions wrote in a letter to Trump.

Singer-songwriter Barbra Streisand said she’s considering a move to Canada if Democrats are unable to retake control of the House in next week’s midterm elections. “I want to sleep nights, if we take the House I’ll be able to sleep a little bit better,” she told the New York Times. If Democrats can’t retake the majority — they need to gain 23 seats to do so — she’s weighing a move. “I’ve been thinking about, do I want to move to Canada? I don’t know. I’m just so saddened by this thing happening to our country. It’s making me fat,”...

udge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is poised for a vote Friday morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee amid high partisan tensions. The Republican-led committee began a crucial meeting to debate and then to vote on whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate — a day after nearly nine hours of emotional and at times wrenching testimony from the judge and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, on her allegation of sexual assault when they were teens. Here's how the day is unfolding: 11:31 a.m.: Red and blue take over the meeting room Hoping to propel Kavanaugh’s...

Four Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee walked out of the hearing room in protest after Republicans decided along party lines to schedule a “time certain” vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for 1:30 p.m. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) walked out of the room, causing a burst of activity from photographers in the well of the hearing room who captured the moment. “I strongly object. This is just totally ridiculous. What a railroad job. My answer is no, no, no!” Hirono yelled out shortly before leaving the room....

Ohio billionaire and longtime Republican donor Les Wexner says he is officially done with the party, and was prompted to leave after former President Barack Obama visited the state. Wexner, the CEO of retail conglomerate L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, announced at a leadership summit in Columbus on Thursday that he “won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party” anymore, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The announcement, made at a panel discussion, came the same day Obama visited Columbus before heading to a rally in Cleveland to support Democrat Richard Cordray’s run for governor. “I...

Madonna uprooted her family from America after President Donald Trump was elected. The superstar revealed she lives in Portugal, telling Vogue Italia she moved her family because they “needed a change.” “I wanted to get out of America for a minute—as you know, this is not America’s finest hour,” Madonna told the magazine during an interview released Wednesday. Madonna isn’t known to play coy about her disdain for the reality TV mogul-turned-president. She’s publicly condemned Trump a number of times since he took office. Along with calling the election a “horror show,” Madonna admitted to having thoughts about “blowing up...

Two days before Marc Short — the former director of legislative affairs for President Donald Trump — begins his paid senior fellowship with the Miller Center at U.Va., History Profs. William Hitchcock and Melvyn Leffler announced their resignations from their professorships at the Center. Both professors will remain in their roles at the history department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Short’s hiring drew widespread backlash from the University community, including over 2,500 signatures on multiple petitions. In their letter to the Center’s Director William Antholis, the two professors wrote that the decision to hire Short “runs counter to...

With never-Trump conservatives bailing on the GOP and crying out for the Party of Pelosi to save us, some painful truths need to be restated. The Republican Party of Bush I and II, of Bob Dole and John McCain, is history. It's not coming back. Unlike the Bourbons after the Revolution and the Terror, after Napoleon and the Empire, no restoration is in the cards. It is over. The GOP's policies of recent decades -- the New World Order of George H.W. Bush, the crusades for democracy of Bush II -- failed, and are seen as having failed. With...

Just hours after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, media legal analysts and commentators began forecasting what this will mean for women’s reproductive freedom. On CNN: “Roe v. Wade is doomed.” Huffington Post: “It’s time to prepare for life without nationwide legal abortion.” Reuters: “a death knell for Roe v. Wade.” Or, as one commenter remarked, invoking Dylan, “looks like it’s all over now, baby blue.” I share the despair, but have we forgotten something? Republicans have a one-vote majority in the Senate. Their number includes two female moderates, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both of whom support...

Personally, I’ve thrown up my hands in despair at the debased state of the GOP. I don’t want to be identified with the party of the child-snatchers. But I respect principled conservatives who are willing to stay and fight to reclaim a once-great party that freed the slaves and helped to win the Cold War. What I can’t respect are head-in-the-sand conservatives who continue to support the GOP by pretending that nothing has changed. They act, these political ostriches, as if this were still the party of Ronald Reagan and John McCain rather than of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller...

Georgie tells Repubs to not re-elect Rep Congress

Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) said that he is leaving Congress in part because all he is ever asked about is President Trump, according to CNN. "No matter what I say or do, I feel all I do is answer questions about Donald Trump rather than health insurance or tax policy," Costello told CNN. Costello announced in March that he would not run for reelection, blaming the partisan political environment, including the actions of Trump. "I feel, increasingly, that if you're a member of Congress, they assume that you're not good," Costello told CNN. "They assume that you're not telling the...

Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told an audience in New Zealand Monday that she gave “some thought” to permanently leaving the United States and settling in that country after Donald Trump scored his upset victory over her in 2016. “I want to thank some of you for sending good wishes a very long way during my campaign and the months that followed. I received a number of invitations from Kiwis to permanently relocate here,” Clinton tells the Auckland, New Zealand audience in a video posted by an organ of the Republican National Committee. “I must say, I really did appreciate...

Springfield Armory® Severs Ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods Springfield Armory announces its decision in response to Dick’s Sporting Goods’ attempts to deny Second Amendment freedoms GENESEO, IL, (05/03/18) – Springfield Armory is severing ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring a group for anti-Second Amendment lobbying. This latest action follows Dick’s Sporting Goods’ decision to remove and destroy all modern sporting rifles (MSR) from their inventory. In addition, they have denied Second Amendment rights to Americans under the age of 21. We at Springfield Armory believe that all law abiding American...