Free Republic

Martin Amis has suggested that Donald Trump, who the author speculated could be suffering from dementia, is preparing for the possibility of an untimely end to his presidency by “trying to stock up an army of neo-Nazis”. Comparisons between Trump and Hitler are wrong, Amis argues, because the US president actually resembles a different fascist: Hitler’s ally Mussolini. Speaking to Guardian Weekend in New York, the novelist recalled seeing the slogan “Mussolini Is Always Right” on Italian bridges in the 1970s. “Trump is that crazy, and that boastful, and that deluded,” Amis said. “Even Mussolini had a few good years...

"Bernie would've won" has become something of a mantra among American leftists. Partially, it's just a pithy way to troll establishment Democrats. But it also suggests that Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign represented a different form of politics: one that put ambitious ideas and a sense of public solidarity ahead of expertise and qualifications. And this alternative strategy would've beaten Donald Trump. It turns out Hillary Clinton is having similar thoughts. Her new memoir, What Happened, has set off a wave of takes and counter-takes on whether Clinton is helping the Democratic Party move forward, and whether she's taking enough personal...

A few weeks after the election, I was hit by a sickening realization. Not only would my children have to learn about Donald Trump in school, but by the time they are old enough for college, there will probably be whole academic departments devoted to the study of him. (That is, assuming we still have colleges, and America, by then.) Before Trump was elected, the United States was a deeply imperfect democracy. Afterward, it became a sh*tty kleptocracy, run, against the will of the majority of the American citizenry, by a cruel, gaudy, grandiose lunatic. Overnight, the very texture of...

A federal judge has found California resident Gary Hunt, who published the names of confidential FBI informants in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, in contempt of court. U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown gave Hunt until noon Wednesday to remove the articles on his blog that reference the informants and destroy all government documents he received on the informants. If he doesn't, he'll face more "coercive sanctions," the judge wrote in her 23-page ruling. Hunt, on his online blog, alerted readers of the judge's order. But he also urged others to download the material before he...

I'm looking for recent videos of white people looting. I can't find any. Somebody posted white people gathering jackets at the Boston Marathon bombing, but they seem to have taking those to the injured and shocked.

<p>Distinctions about who is more “deserving” or “patriotic” are invidious—all migrants are rights-bearing human beings.</p> <p>The announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the Trump administration will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is a devastating blow to those who are currently protected by it. (For more on how the rollback and six-month deadline works, see this piece by Julianne Hing.) We need to defend DACA while also pushing for permanent and legal protections for all migrants.</p>

What are the chances that Donald Trump’s presidency could be brought to a halt by a military uprising? At first glance, it seems like a strange question, and the idea of a military coup in a developed and seemingly stable Western democracy feels far-fetched. But then again, memories are short: in May 1958, France faced a military revolt in Algeria that threatened to spread to the French mainland. Without it, General Charles de Gaulle would never have been president, and the Fifth Republic would never have been born. It may not be necessary to start preparing for military takeover in...

Ma Rongrong's labour pains were unbearable. For hours she had begged for a C-section to ease her agony. After multiple requests were refused, she jumped five floors from a hospital window in northern China to her death. Ma's family and her doctors have blamed each other for denying her the surgery that could have eased her suffering. The tragedy has attracted intense attention in China, with many wondering how Ma could be denied such a common procedure.

The Left can't allow itself to be consumed by debates about antifa. We need a proactive program and patient organizing. The events in Charlottesville have remained in the headlines for the last few weeks for a variety of reasons. Surprise at the audacity of a torch-light procession of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan sympathizers, and “alt-rightists” in an American city, coupled with the murder of social justice activist Heather Heyer during a counterdemonstration, fueled the initial coverage. President Trump’s abhorrent response to the tragedy and local struggles against Confederate statues kept it alive. And frequently dimwitted debates about the merits of...

Republican congressmen, Mark Meadows chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, played down reports… “Nobody does policy better than Ryan, but we do have to transition” to the place where action follows on. There is one obvious replacement for Ryan,… former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who does not hold office, as a possible replacement. Speakers do not have to be congressmen. // Snipp // House Freedom Caucus, played down reports that he wanted to oust Ryan.

This is a skeptical interrogation of the widely-accepted belief that white working-class voters elected Trump. A careful analysis of Rust Belt counties that voted for Obama in 2012 demonstrates a strong correlation between recent plant closures and the collapse of the Clinton vote, but shows only a limited movement toward Trump. Several hundred thousand white, blue-collar Obama voters, at most, voted for Trump’s vision of fair trade and reindustrialization, not the millions usually invoked. The mogul’s real election “miracle” was retaining the Romney vote and avoiding the widely predicted defections of Republican women and conservative minorities. He achieved this surprising...

Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department and the FBI. The subpoenas commanded select documents related to the DJT dossier and information related "to Doj / FBI involvement in its production and manipulation. "The subpoenas, served on Aug. 24, for service by 1, Sept… Both DoJ & FBI demurred, Devin, extended the deadline to Sept. 14. “further stonewalling… House Intell, will direct A. G.. Sessions and FBI-D. Christopher Wray, to testify… “All available legal options, to compel testimony or hold Sessions and Wray in contempt.” Rep. Adam Schiff, “It was uncalled for in my...

The president is behaving like a candidate again, which is bad news for his political opponents Here is an unpopular observation about Donald Trump's latest assault on immigrants: It might work, politically. Delivering the odious message through his feckless, oft-humiliated Justice Department subordinate, Jeff Sessions, Trump this week announced that the Department of Homeland Security would stop processing applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Begun under Barack Obama's administration in 2012, DACA allowed undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive work permits and renewable exemptions from deportation. Sessions delivered the news with...

Contrary to the furious spin from Hillary Clinton’s adversaries in the media and Republican Party, FBI Director James Comey did not undercut Hillary’s truthfulness on her State Department emails. In fact, his statement and testimony affirm that Hillary has been honest about the email issue from day one. Here are the facts, not the spin. “We have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI.” — James Comey On various occasions over the past fifteen months, Hillary has said that she did not send or receive emails containing classified information or any material marked as classified. This, to the...

There seems to be an insatiable appetite among the punditry class for the “antifascists are as bad as fascists” argument, a subset of that orthodoxy of the moderate which argues for peace in the face of violence and love in the face of hate. In the last week alone, The Guardian published “Step Aside, Antifa. You Undermine the Trump Resistance,” Truthdig published Chris Hedges’ “How Antifa Mirrors the Alt-Right,” and Trevor Noah devoted an entire segment of his show to the issue of the “Punch Drunk Left” in which he referred to Antifa as “vegan ISIS.” The Department of Homeland...

The Labor Day message from First Lady Melania Trump that was posted to social media was about 18 words long, but that didn’t stop Melania’s detractors from letting their feelings be known to Mrs. Trump. As seen on the Instagram page of FLOTUS, Melania passed on a message about honoring workers in the U.S. for contributing to the prosperity of the country. ““On this #LaborDay2017 we honor American workers for their many contributions to the prosperity of these United States.”” Within a short time, Melania began receiving all sorts of replies from her Instagram followers. Whereas some of Melania’s Instagram...

Thanks to cheap sex, marriage may be doomed. The share of Americans ages 25-34 who are married dropped 13 percentage points from 2000 to 2014. A new book by sociologist Mark Regnerus blames this declining rate on how easy it is for men to get off. Regnerus calls it “cheap sex,” an economic term meant to describe sex that has very little cost in terms of time or emotional investment, giving it little value. Regnerus bases his ideas, in part, on the work of British social theorist Anthony Giddens, who argued that the pill isolated sex from marriage and children....

As the waters in Houston and surrounding areas begin to recede in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, there's no doubt looters are getting ready to take advantage of empty homes. Some looting has already started. But one Texas Sheriff has a stern warning for those who seek to prey on victims: You do so at the risk of your life. "We've heard of looting around the greater Houston area, specifically Harris County. But as far as Fort Bend County, we haven't," Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls told Fox News Saturday. "I made a comment the other day that we...

Numerologist David Meade, the author of the conspiracy book Planet X – The 2017 Arrival says that planet Nibiru is going to smash into Earth in a matter of weeks. According to Meade’s theory, the apocalypse will take place between September 20-23, and the clues are written on the pyramids and in the Bible.Nibiru, sometimes referred to as Planet X, is a hypothesized planet on the edge of our solar system. Nibiru has been predicted to end the world several times since 2003. Scientists have refused to acknowledge the existence of Nibiru, and NASA has repeatedly assured the public that...

Televangelist Jim Bakker has warned that Christians would begin a second civil war if President Trump were ever impeached. “I predict if it happens there will be a Civil War in the US,” he said on the Jim Bakker Show in May, in a segment highlighted by Right Wing Watch that recently began making the rounds once again. “The Christians will finally come out of the shadows, because we’re going to be shut up permanently if we’re not careful, and God says that faith without works is death, we have to do things.” The televangelist’s proclamation is one of many...