Free Republic

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) is urging President Donald Trump to help reduce “shootings and homicides” in Chicago by increasing federal investment in housing, economic development, job training, education, public health and “community policing.” “As you prepare your Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request, I urge you to use this budget framework as an opportunity to support efforts to help reduce gun violence in Chicago, rather than scapegoating the city’s challenges to promote ideological political agendas,” Durbin told Trump in a letter sent on Dec. 13. “I urge you to prioritize federal support and resources that will help Chicago reduce...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D.-Texas) took to the House floor on Dec. 12 to explain why, especially in the Christmas season, a shutdown of the federal government should be avoided. “This is a season where many in our Nation draw together with families and worship and celebrate,” Jackson Lee said. “It is a very honored time,” she said. “People of the Christian faith are engaged in the recognition and acknowledgment of the birth of baby Jesus. It is a holy time. It is a time when families need resources. Government workers need to ensure that their families are provided for,...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is prepared to spent upwards of $100 million should he mount a 2020 bid for the White House, according to CNBC. Howard Wolfson, the billionaire business magnate's top political advisor, told the news outlet that Bloomberg spent more than $100 million in his last campaign for New York City mayor in 2009. "Last time I looked, NYC is a fraction of the size of the country as a whole," Wolfson said in an email to the outlet. ADVERTISEMENT Wolfson added that Bloomberg would spend "whatever is required" on his own campaign if he...

Here we go again with another partial government shutdown. The fact that “government shutdowns” are so regular, and annoying to some — but never a catastrophe — tells you something. The fact that the vast majority of the federal government is “nonessential” enough that the vast majority of Americans can get by just fine without it tells you something. Basically, it’s national security and defense — including border protection, by the way — that are considered essential. Gee, that’s interesting. That’s basically what the U.S. Constitution mandates for the federal government. Everything else was left to “the people” and the...

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown helped make his party even more powerful in California during the last eight years and now, less than a month before leaving office, he predicts that dominance will make it difficult for his successor to control Democrats’ hunger for spending and regulations. The leader of the most populous state has kept Democratic lawmakers in check by limiting spending on social programs in favor of saving it to protect against a future economic downtown. He sometimes butted heads with legislative leaders, warning spending too much now could hurt taxpayers or require budget cuts later. Democrats hold all...

The Yellow Vests are planning protests with specific sites given in Paris as the Champs-Elysees at 930am tomorrow (330 am Eastern US). Protesters are set to be at the Palace de l'Opera between 1030am and 1230pm. Another gathering for protest set at the Port Maillot-Gare Saint Lazare at 10am. Protests are set in other cities like Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Nantes. A protest is set for the Mont-Blanc tunnel and there are other locations listed. BFM-TV in France reports that fewer buses have been chartered to bring protesters to Paris tomorrow. 24 journalists in France have filed complaints against police...

THE yellow vest protests which caused havoc in Paris have hit the UK with London Bridge at a complete standstill. The group of yellow vest protesters, believed to be pro-Brexit, completely blocked Westminster Bridge. The group have now moved down the river and blocked traffic at Tower Bridge, causing havoc in the capital. They are seen on Facebook Live chanting: "What do we want? Brexit. "When do we want it? Now?"

Of all the possible "should I?" questions, the one Californians are typing into the Google search engine the most is "Should I move out?" This probably isn't surprising when you consider all your friends who are priced out of California's sky-high housing market and constantly talking about moving to Oregon, where they can buy a sweet bungalow in Portland for $300,000. (Admit it, you have thought about this too.) Using Google Trends data, AT&T's All Home Connections identified the most popular "Should I?" questions each state Googled in 2018 - and the results are fascinating, and at times hilarious. Texans...

After weeks of spreading riots and demonstrations in Paris, socialist French President Emmanuel Macron has had an epiphany or sorts. Not only is he not going to put a new global warming tax on fuel, he's going to let financially-strapped French families keep more of their money from the taxman. At least this year. "No mercy"? Sounds like total surrender for someone who, just days earlier, arrested 1, 939 people across the country, more than a thousand of those in Paris. The truth is, Macron has lost control both of the people and of the narrative. His 18% approval rating...

The end is near, we’re all going to die. Unless, that is, we empower government to control more of the economy and our lives. It’s a standard trick of the left – predict doom and gloom in the future in an attempt to scare the Hell out of people while promising to avoid it if we let them get their way. While this could apply to nearly anything Democrats are pushing on any given day, this week it’s about global cooling. I mean, global warming. Er, scratch that, climate change…for now, at least.The government issued another climate report on Friday,...

Mark Robbins gets to work at 8:15 each morning and unlocks the door to his office suite. He switches on the lights and the TV news, brews a pot of coffee and pulls out the first files of the day to review. For the next eight hours or so, he reads through federal workplace disputes, analyzes the cases, marks them with notes and logs his legal opinions. When he’s finished, he slips the files into a cardboard box and carries them into an empty room where they will sit and wait. For nobody. He’s at 1,520 files and counting. […]...

The total debt shouldered by Americans has hit another record high, rising to $13.5 trillion in the last quarter, while an unusual jump in student-loan delinquencies could provide another signal that the U.S. economic expansion is growing old. Flows of student debt into serious delinquency - of 90 or more days - rose to 9.1 percent in the third quarter from 8.6 percent in the previous quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported on Friday. That propelled the biggest jump in the overall U.S. delinquency rate in seven years. Total household debt, driven by a $9.1 trillion in...

AFGE calls recent actions by the VA ‘the latest overreach in their quest to bust unions’ and remove rights at workWASHINGTON – The country’s largest federal employee union filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block recent union-busting actions by the administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs.  The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 250,000 workers at the VA, filed the lawsuit along with the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Association of Government Employees in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Wednesday, hours before the orders were to be...

Let’s say you and some of your friends decide to gather your young children together a couple of days a week for a few hours of free play. Maybe you switch off who leads the gaggle of kids each week, allowing for some shared free time and flexibility. Sounds like a great arrangement for all, right? Your kids get to play freely with their friends, and you get some occasional free babysitting. According to government officials in Washington, DC, arrangements like this are violations of the law. They are cracking down on what they call an illegal “child development facility”...

The legal fight over a 2016 lower court ruling upholding Obama-era net neutrality regulations aimed at ensuring a free and open internet - rules that have since been repealed by President Donald Trump’s administration - came to a formal end on Monday, with the U.S. Supreme Court declining to take up the matter. The Trump administration and internet service providers had asked to justices to wipe away the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that had temporarily preserved the net neutrality regulations championed by Democratic former President Barack Obama. But the justices refused...

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Sunday that she changed her mind recently and took a DNA test proving her heritage because Americans’ trust in government is “at an all-time low” and she wanted to help rebuild it by being transparent. The incumbent Massachusetts senator spoke at her second debate against Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl in the U.S. Senate race. […] Ultimately, she said, she took a DNA test because she believes one way to rebuild trust in government is by posting her full family history online “so anybody can take a look. … I believe one way that...

Astonishingly, today’s Americans expect government to care for us from cradle to grave, the way commoners once expected a benevolent king to care for his subjects. We treat people as members of groups rather than as individuals, insidiously devolving into the very class system against which the Founders rebelled. Americans are voluntarily surrendering the very freedoms that millions fought and died to establish and protect. President James Garfield once said the most common form of death in politics is suicide. After a noble 225-year history, is the American experiment dying at the hands of its own people? Many of the...

While everyone’s eyes were on now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings and votes the Republicans grew government. Again.President Donald Trump signed into law the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 – a law which regulates everything from airline seat sizes to whether people can make cell phone calls on flights (something Jazz wrote in favor of earlier today). The bill also defined exactly what a Lactation Area is (they can’t be in restrooms) and includes money for studies looking at the design specifics of aircraft oxygen and on allergic reactions on board airlines. There’s also a study on what...

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is right that Senate’s confirmation process is "a national disgrace." The damage done to Kavanaugh’s family is horrific. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was clear: “What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020.” The threats and vicious messages that his family and Christine Blasey Ford have received are a national embarrassment. Hopefully, everyone other than the most partisan Americans wants to fix this and stop it from ever happening again. But the question is how? What went wrong? The problem has been getting worse...

Judicial confirmations have become a blood sport. Wasn’t it just weeks ago at John McCain’s funeral that Democrats were calling for more civility in politics? We never used to fight so much over Supreme Court nominations.