Free Republic

A Chicago activist turned down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday prior to the annual White House Black History Month reception. Aislinn Pulley, who co-founded Black Lives Matter: Chicago, was among about 20 people invited to what the White House billed as an intergenerational meeting of black leaders to discuss criminal justice reform throughout the U.S., according to a White House official. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch also was expected to attend the event Thursday afternoon. Other invitees included the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Cornell Brooks, University of Missouri student organizer DeShaunya Ware and DeRay...

CHICAGO (CBS) — In a symbolic gesture to urge the governor and state lawmakers to come up with a budget, a group of community activists on Monday purchased Illinois Lottery tickets, and pledged to donate any winnings to the state. A week after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed stopgap legislation to resume payouts for Lottery winners – most of which had been halted due to the state’s budget impasse – a group of community leaders bought Powerball and scratch-off tickets on Monday.

Al Gore .. has levied his global warming activism from a net worth of $700,000 in 2000 into an estimated net worth of $172.5 million by 2015. He is not alone in his financial endeavor. Funding of science, in this particular case, climate change science, is dominated by the federal government. We assert that this will cause recipients of [government] grants to publish findings that are in-line with government policy preferences (i.e., do not bite the hand that feeds you ... Studies that receive financial support from the public sector do not have to disclose it as a conflict of...

Black Lives Matter and pro-illegal alien Latino activists were forcibly removed by Virginia State Police officers after disrupting a rally held Wednesday evening in Richmond by leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. There were reports that ‘small fights’ had broken out between the protesters and Trump supporters. A cellphone video shows an apparent Trump supporter arguing with and then spitting on a protester. One report said the disruptions lasted for around thirty minutes. When the protesters first made their presence known in the capacity crowd of about 5,000, Trump responded by saying, “That’s why we have freedom of speech, folks!”,...

"Priest attacked by activists, media, and even his diocese for calling homosexuality a ‘disorder’ - but he won’t back down" After being viciously attacked by media last June for saying homosexuality is a “psychological disorder,” Mexican priest Fernando Ovalle, chancellor for the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi, has recently confirmed he stands by his previous comments and is not backing down. “I didn’t say any lies or anything false,” he said, according to media reports. “That is my stance, it is a disorder, because I’m sharing my view as a pastor from people that come, that ask for help and...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump said it was "disgusting" how Sen. Bernie Sanders let a protester take over the Democratic presidential candidate's rally in Seattle – and vowed "that will never happen to me." "I don't know if I'll do the fighting myself or other people will," he said at a campaign event in Michigan. (Watch video at link) -snip- "I would never give up my microphone," Trump declared when asked about the incident. "I thought that was disgusting. That showed such weakness, the way he was taken away by two young women." -snip- #BlackLivesMatter tweeters immediately jumped on Trump's challenge,...

A national women's organization is challenging Gov. Bruce Rauner's appointments to the Illinois Tollway, saying he is violating state law by creating an all-male board. Over the past three months, Rauner has named five male directors and re-appointed another to the nine-member Tollway board, which already included three men. In addition, Rauner backed Greg Bedalov as the agency's new executive director. Bedalov replaced Kristi Lafleur, who had held the post under the tenure of former Gov. Pat Quinn. The National Council of Women's Organizations is charging that Rauner is violating the Illinois Gender Balanced Appointments Act. The 1991 law is...

RAW VIDEO: Activists disrupt rally featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders

Walker handled it pretty much perfectly. During the summer of 2013, we began to see immigration amnesty activists use the Why do you want to deport my daddy? tactic against Republicans. The tactic involves sending children to confront candidates — with the video rolling. It all was a set up, in the hope the candidate would do something stupid or mean. Most famously, Speaker John Boehner was confronted by well-coached children while eating at his usual breakfast spot: (video at source) A similar confrontation just happened to Scott Walker, and it was all a set up by a “social justice”...

Michelle serving up her trademark malicious menu of malcontent Okay, we get the picture the mainstream sends. First Lady Michelle Obama is so much in demand as a celebrity that she gets to sip tea at will with Prince Harry at Kensington Palace and merits “an affectionate reunion” with Barack “bro” Prime Minister David Cameron and his Mrs. on the steps of Downing Street. Oh, the powers protocol bestows on the wife, daughter and even the mother-in-law of a president. Just as the rarified gentry of the Victorian era, when matrons waited at home for other mavens to come calling,...

The president of the Louisville police union caused a backlash when he issued an open letter calling unspecified activists “sensationalists, liars and race-baiters.” Dave Mutchler is the president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police and a sergeant in the Louisville Metro Police Department. He distributed the two-page letter six days after a police officer shot and killed 35-year-old Deng Manyuon, a Sudanese refugee who attacked him with a flagpole. …

Modern progressive college students have become so militant they’re frightening their own like-minded professors, according to an account posted by one such professor on the website Vox. The professor, using the pseudonym Edward Schlosser, claims to have taught for nine years and currently works at a midsize state college. Over that time, he says, students have decisively shifted to become so protective of their fragile emotions that defying their sensibilities can be “suicidal” for one’s career. “Things have changed since I started teaching,” Schlosser writes. “The vibe is different. I wish there were a less blunt way to put this,...

The arrival in Seattle Thursday of an oil rig Royal Dutch Shell is outfitting for oil exploration in the remote Arctic Ocean marks a pivotal moment for an environmental movement increasingly mobilized around climate change. Activists paddling out in kayaks to meet the rig off Seattle's picturesque waterfront said it's their moment to stand against opening a new frontier of fossil fuel exploration. "Unless people get out there and put themselves on the front lines and say enough is enough, than nothing will ever change," said Jordan Van Voast, 55, an acupuncturist who was going out on the water to...

After I write a column that rips Barack Obama up one side and down the other, talks about our debt or the fact that we essentially don’t have borders any more, there are usually conservatives who show up in the comments section or email me something like, “I agree with you 110%, but what’s the solution? What policy do we put in place to fix everything that’s going wrong? When are we going to have another Ronald Reagan ride in on a white horse and fix what’s wrong?” Here’s the problem with that: It’s the wrong mentality. It’s sort of...

Oh my goodness, the 2014 election victories didn’t end the war! You mean the progressives are still out there dreaming of a future full of hugs and goosestepping? You mean the GOP Establishment hasn’t just given up its power and knelt before us, begging to be forgiven for its craven crony corporatism? You mean the fight’s not over? No, the fight’s not over. So stop whining that you can’t go back to sitting on your rear end – we have a long campaign ahead. I know you’re tired. I know you’re frustrated. And I don’t care. Some people want to...

#BlackLivesMatter Activists Shut Down Emeryville Home Depot; Demand Surveillance Tapes Of Fatal Police Shooting EMERYVILLE (CBS SF/KCBS) — Dozens of #BlackLivesMatter protesters forced Home Depot in Emeryville to close its doors for several hours Saturday. The group was demanding answers about the February 3 shooting death of Yuvette Henderson, an Oakland woman shot and killed outside Home Depot by two Emeryville officers. Henderson was accused of shoplifting and trying to carjack motorists. Police said Henderson pointed a gun at them, but protesters don’t believe that. They want the store to release security tapes of the incident.

Actor James Woods, who might or might not know he’s been nominated along with Rob Lowe to run for Barbara Boxer’s seat in the Senate, wasn’t pleased to hear that a CNN correspondent on Friday referred to the Islamist terrorists who killed 12 staff members of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo as “activists.” James Woods ✔ @RealJamesWoods CNN actually described the Paris jihadist murderers as "activists." So the police who finally killed these scum would be..."reactionaries?" 5:06 p.m. - 9 Jan 2015

White is right — in activists’ book.  That is, the right color to ignore when it comes to stories of people shot by police.So says American Thinker editor Rick Moran while reporting on the shooting of a pellet-gun wielding white man on Sunday by San Francisco police. The Washington Post describes the incident: The shooting occurred in the parking lot of the San Francisco Police Department’s Mission Station [at 5:20 p.m. PT]. In a statement, the department said that the confrontation began when police sergeants asked a man in the station’s restricted lot to leave. Instead, the man stood in...

Multiple far-left groups are using Ferguson as a pretext to rehearse widespread civil disobedience when the Welfare State taps the brakes. The scaling down of the Welfare State in America is not a question of “if,” but “when.” The status quo is unsustainable. “Unsustainable” is one of those Washington D.C. words with a history of meaning little -- like Foggy Bottom’s use of “unacceptable.” But unlike unacceptable, unsustainable, when applied to the Welfare State, is a derivative of mathematics -- a major determinant of the wealth of nations. The American Welfare State is unsustainable -- destined for significant downsizing by...

A core of community organizers is behind the 45 organizations placing demands on the policing agencies in St. Louis County. As the Grand Jury’s decision concerning Officer Darren Wilson is awaited, Don’t Shoot Coalition (DSC) is preparing its role in street demonstrations likely to come in the wake of an anticipated No True Bill. The sub-culture of progressive social activism is organic. Its alliances evolve and dissolve, only to reconstitute under changed names, but with unchanged ideologies. The internet facilitates the proliferation of evolving variations of front groups. Many of their websites have on-line donation solicitation capability. The larger, more...