Free Republic

One of the recurring ideas of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new book, We Were Eight Years in Power, is that he hates being asked to offer white people hope of a better future in which America might become a post-racial utopia. But when Coates appeared on The Late Show Monday night, Stephen Colbert asked him to offer that hope — and appeared to be almost offended when Coates refused. In his book, Coates writes that he hates being asked to talk about a future he doesn’t believe in, and he simply does not believe that America is going to “get over” racism....

If Donald Trump was a start-up, he’d be the perfect disruptor. I spoke yesterday about his Twitter exploits. A tool he uses to great effect in this regard. And whatever you think about him and his policies, there’s no question he ran a brilliant election campaign. Of course, years of railing against the ‘Washington elite’ from the Republican Party sowed the seeds of voter discontent. Seeds Trump happily cultivated. Who can forget the images of enthusiastic crowds — complete with MAGA baseball caps — chanting ‘drain the swamp’ in unison? But the campaign was a lot smarter than a simple...

ANTIFA Planning a “Civil War” to Overthrow the US Government Antifa, a violent far-left group demands the Trump “regime be removed from power” Far-left militants plan to “gather in the streets and public squares of cities and towns across this country” in the hope of building momentum for civil unrest that leads to nothing less than domestic regime change. “Our protest must grow day after day and night after night—thousands becoming hundreds of thousands, and then millions—determined to act to put a stop to the grave danger that the Trump/Pence Regime poses to the world by demanding that this whole...

I wanted to design a table-top war-game for the current fight against the NFL. But alas, I could not make it work in the interface that FR offers. It will not work without a collaboration chat applet and the ability to choose teams. More importantly, FR doesn’t operationally own the ground troops and capability. Without that….there is no game. I tried writing it with FR heavily influencing events, but that is just a bridge too far. But to hasten the destruction of the NFL, I didn’t want to NOT post the war-game (like my double negative?). Some of the readers...

For many who want to #resist against the alt-right and white supremacy, Antifa has emerged as an acceptable counterweight to neo-Nazis. They were lauded by some after they stood up to Nazis in Charlottesville, Va., in August. This mostly white radicalism only concerns me in the ways in which it might affect Black people. My first and last priority is always what is in the best interest of Black people. Antifa has a mystique that is attractive to some of our sisters and brothers who are actively engaged in struggles for freedom and liberation. This mystique might grow as we...

The American flag, drenched in the blood of American Indians and enslaved Africans, has been romanticized as a symbol of guardianship for all citizens of this nation. One of the main centerpieces of patriotism encapsulated in the flag’s meaning is military service. Be it the Revolutionary or Civil War, World War I or II, or any other battle in which America has fought, the argument is that the men and women who fought for this country took on a sacred sacrifice to protect American liberty and freedom from foreign enemies that would dare to endanger it. That the American flag...

This is the problem of privilege. It skews our ability to grasp what the world looks like outside our view. The absence of white athletes kneeling for the anthem Sunday was a particularly illustrative moment in white privilege. See, for white athletes the anthem and American flag do represent freedom, liberty and whatever other amorphous American values one might ascribe these symbols. So, from their view, kneeling would be disrespectful to the privileges a white supremacist nation affords them. We’ve all heard the typical argument against kneeling. “Kneeling during the anthem disrespects the flag and the soldiers who fought for...

A lot of celebrities have reacted to president Donald Trump’s recent comments against those in the National Football League who have been taking a knee during the National Anthem as an act of protest. One such celebrity is writer and actress Lena Dunham, who continued her streak of speaking out against the president on Twitter with some incredibly harsh words of her own. In response to a thread from comedian Travon Free on Twitter, Dunham lashed out at Trump and drew a comparison between him and Dylann Roof, the mass murderer who targeted and killed nine African Americans during a...

Hillary Clinton hoped to wear white on election night, a tribute to the suffragettes and the sweep of political history. Instead, as she wrote in her new book, the white suit stayed in her garment bag as she donned the gray and purple garment she had intended for her first trip to Washington as president-elect. Given the opportunity to make history by electing the first female president, women didn’t take it. And ironically, the women who bore the most resemblance to Clinton – white, heterosexual and married – were less likely to vote for her. Many had expected Clinton to...

Make no mistake, President Donald Trump's spat with some of the most prominent sporting stars in America is not about patriotism, or even sport. Despite his protestations, it is about race. American football is essentially a game played by black men for the entertainment of white men: 70 per cent of the top tier NFL players are African-American, 83 per cent of NFL fans are white and two-thirds of them are men. None of the multi-millionaires and billionaires who own NFL franchises are black. And while most of those black NFL players are paid handsomely, it is becoming increasingly clear...

A message for white people: I know how jarring it may be to hear a non-white person, or maybe anyone, even say the words “white people,” as it can take on a pejorative connotation. That’s fine. This isn’t always comfortable to have to say, but that doesn’t make it any less true, necessary, or timely. Before I get started, I want to be clear, this is for all white Americans. To my friend, to my foe. To my colleagues, my contemporaries, and my competitors. To the professional athlete and the pee-wee league coach. To my family members. From late night...

At a political rally in Alabama, President Donald Trump encouraged American football fans to “leave the stadium” when they see “those people” taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem. The predominately white crowd chanted “U-S-A” in affirmation, and Trump urged NFL owners to “Get that son of a bitch off the field” for “disrespecting” the flag. Again, we see that President Trump is stoking white prejudice and fears to position himself as the heavy-handed authoritarian who can reclaim order - even in the NFL. Trump threw down the gauntlet and the NFL needs to decide: is it...

Primatologist Jane Goodall has made her name studying chimpanzees for over half a century. So, if anyone can deduce a distinct correlation between a brash chimp and the egoistic hubris of, say, the president of the United States, it’s Goodall. Pre-election, last October, Goodall made a comparison between then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and the primates she has devoted her life to understanding. “In many ways the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals,” she told the Atlantic. “In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: Stamping,...

One of the more interesting facts in Esther Perel’s new book, State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity, comes near the beginning. Since 1990, notes the psychoanalyst and writer, the rate of married women who report they’ve been unfaithful has increased by 40 percent, while the rate among men has remained the same. More women than ever are cheating, she tells us, or are willing to admit that they are cheating — and while Perel spends much of her book examining the psychological meaning, motivation, and impact of these affairs, she offers little insight into the significance of the rise itself. So...

When Boca Raton lawyer James Herb filed legal papers last year to have President Donald Trump declared mentally unfit, he had no inkling his personal crusade would earn him a spot in a book that longtime liberal political pundit Bill Moyers said should become “an instant best-seller.” Along with more than a dozen of the nation’s top psychiatrists and mental health experts, Herb was invited to write a chapter in “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” a 360-page call to action that is to be released Tuesday by St. Martin’s Press....

September, 23, 24, & 25, 2016, Twenty-five potentially corrupted leaders of Congress, linked closely to the Awan, family considered their options. Behind closed doors, the briefing and consideration into, closely held Awan Group data control; working their Capitol Hill covert opperation, for over ten years. In and under the nose of…. All. //Snipp// U.S.A. Inspector General’s Office tracked Awan Group (Aw G). They were alarmed by what they saw. The AwG had full and free access to 25 congressional servers. Encryption and interface networks. Routing “Pay to Play” as well as extracting, manipulating, selling, and mastering blackmail options on participant...

You could be forgiven for thinking the movement has gone quiet. But you’d be wrong. On June 1, the right-wing blogger and avowed white supremacist Jason Kessler and other alt-right activists met for dinner on the patio of Miller’s Downtown, a popular burger joint in Charlottesville, Virginia. The dinner was two weeks after white nationalists had gathered in the city’s Lee Park, wielding torches as a kind of dress rehearsal for the mid-August “Unite the Right” rally that left counterprotester Heather Heyer dead and dozens more injured. According to local reports, members of the white-led group Showing Up for Racial...

Authorities in Bilbao are under fire for distributing advice on how to safely snort cocaine.The cards were distributed to people singled out as users or potential users during week-long festivities last month, a spokesman for the department told AFP. "We didn't hand them out to just anyone," he said, adding that each recipient was warned about the dangers of drugs. News of the controversial campaign emerged this week, sparking criticism from the conservative Popular Party in Bilbao.

Do I smoke too much pot? It’s a question I’ve asked myself over the years, and it raised its uncomfortable head this week as I absorbed the results of the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The first thing to note about the report is the good news. One of the major and legitimate fears of those who have opposed legalization is that teen use would increase. Weed is genuinely harmful to the developing adolescent brain and those of us who passionately advocated legalization argued that making it legal would actually make it harder for teens to get...

<p>Yes, the press secretary is better at her job. But that is bad news for the rest of us.</p> <p>The face of the White House press operation has already undergone several iterations, with each embodying the administration in their own special way. First was Sean Spicer, who exemplified the administration’s comfort with telling bald lies and being openly hostile toward the news media. Then came Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci, who was Donald Trump’s vulgarity incarnate. Now we have Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose style as press secretary is less shrill than Spicer, and less pelvic-thrusting bravado a la The Mooch. But that’s what makes her the most insidious of them all.</p>