Free Republic

Let’s say computers come for most of our jobs. This may not seem likely at the moment; computer scientists and economists offer wildly varying ideas for how deeply automation will affect future employment. But for the sake of argument, imagine that within two or three decades we’ll have morphed into the Robotic States of America.

Mayor de Blasio rips Donald Trump, calls him a 'racist' promoting 'proto-fascism' Mayor de Blasio took a big swing at Donald Trump Saturday — calling out the huckster as a “racist” promoting “proto-fascism.” De Blasio ripped into the Republican front-runner after a string of rallies devolved into bloody spectacles, with supporters and protesters clashing over Trump’s provocative rhetoric.

Pamela Anderson wants to cut the cheese - and meat - out of New York prisoners' diets. The Baywatch beauty wrote an open letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday, on behalf of PETA, suggesting that he make all prison meals vegan. The famous vegetarian says that the diet switch could save the state millions, and she even offered to visit a penitentiary to cook for the inmates if he takes up her offer, as she did last year for a prison in Arizona.

Donald Trump’s fired-up New York backers predict that a victory by him in November would set the stage for defeating Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018 — and lead to the ouster of their own GOP leader next year. They also predict that if the Manhattan developer becomes president, he’d work from the White House to turn New York away from the anti-business, tax-and-spend, “progressive’’ Democratic politicians, including Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who now dominate City Hall and the state Capitol. The Trump supporters, who lost out Friday in an effort to convince state GOP Chairman Ed Cox to...

Go ahead and pop the champagne: the NYPD will no longer arrest most people who are caught drinking alcohol in public in Manhattan, the city announced today—but they can still get a summons. Unless it’s “necessary for public safety reasons,” the NYPD will no longer arrest people for certain low-level offenses in Manhattan, including public consumption of alcohol, public urination, littering and riding between subway cars or taking up more than one subway seat—and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. will no longer prosecute those infractions, his office said today. Offenders can still receive summonses, which require them to pay...

New York City's former top cop said Sunday that the Obama administration cut funding to fight terrorism in the city to retaliate against Sen. Chuck Schumer for opposing a nuclear deal with Iran. "There's a certain amount vindictiveness on the part of Washington aimed at Sen. Chuck Schumer," Ray Kelly, New York City's police commissioner under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York. "Apparently they remember very well that Sen. Schumer did not support their Iran deal," Kelly said, arguing the proposed cut "was aimed at getting a reaction from...

Will Black Voters Leave Hillary's Plantation? Keeping them on the plantation is the only way she can win. February 22, 2016 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. In her desperate scramble to the top every Hillary victory is accompanied by a setback. The corrupt Democratic machine that has kept her going this far eked out a victory in Nevada, but took down her minority firewall.  In earlier primaries, Hillary had lost women and young voters. In Nevada, she lost Latinos. The last and only element...

A New York lawmaker has proposed a bill that would ban iPhones from being sold in the state, unless Apple provides special "back doors" that would allow law enforcement to spy on users. That's a double dose of the Nanny State: setting rules for what can be bought and sold, while giving the government an easier way to spy on residents' everyday activities. The bill is sponsored by State Assemblyman Matthew Titone, D-Staten Island, and it would mandate that iPhones and other cell phones sold in New York be "capable of being decrypted and unlocked." The bill has support, perhaps...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Rep. Peter King is calling out presidential candidate Ted Cruz amid controversy over the senator's comments on "New York values." On Saturday, King tweeted that Ted Cruz was lying when he said he supports New York's firefighters and police. "Not true," the Republican said, adding that Cruz did not co-sponsor or vote in favor of the Zadroga 9/11 Health & Compensation Act. King went on to call Cruz "a fraud." @tedcruz can't tell truth. Says he fights 4 cops & firefighters. Not true. Didn't cosponsor or vote 4 Zadroga 9/11 health bill. What a fraud -...

Fire, brimstone and... tacky high-end luxury properties? The New York Daily News fired a new salvo in its ongoing war of words with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, calling the real estate magnate "ANTI CHRIST" on its front page. An image of Trump was also doctored to surround him with flames and to give him devilishly red and scaly skin.

De Blasio? Sharpton? Nope. The biggest blowback will be against the “reforming” Kentucky senator, because Republicans back cops, period.After New York City Police Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were gunned down in a retaliatory ambush on Saturday afternoon, the collateral damage was immediate. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio relationship with the police went from horrible to horrendous. Rev. Al Sharpton’s campaign to cleanse his race-baiting past grew more difficult, and Sen. Rand Paul—who had gone out of his way to break bread with Sharpton and to criticize police militarization—may now be facing an even more difficult task...

Police are investigating a second anti-white bias incident in Brooklyn where the attacker called his victim "cracka," the Daily News has learned. A 51-year-old white man told cops he was on Nostrand Ave. near Glenwood Road in East Flatbush when a black man ran up and knocked him to the ground about 5:40 p.m. Monday. "This is for Malcolm X, cracka," the brute said before storming off

Although the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," constitute "grave depravity," and can never "be approved," the Catholic bishops of New York State "have not taken a position" on past bills and "do not foresee taking a position" on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new order banning private and public health insurers from covering gay conversion therapy for minors. Cuomo, a Catholic who supports homosexual marriage and abortion, made his announcement about prohibiting health care coverage for conversion (or reparative) therapy on Saturday, Feb. 6. In a press release, Cuomo's office said, "Multi-agency regulations announced today ban public and...

Hillary Clinton loves black people. And black people love Hillary—or so it seems. Black politicians have lined up in droves to endorse her, eager to prove their loyalty to the Clintons in the hopes that their faithfulness will be remembered and rewarded. Black pastors are opening their church doors, and the Clintons are making themselves comfortably at home once again, engaging effortlessly in all the usual rituals associated with “courting the black vote,” a pursuit that typically begins and ends with Democratic politicians making black people feel liked and taken seriously. Doing something concrete to improve the conditions under which...

New York is taking steps to stop therapists from trying to change young people's sexual orientation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday, joining a number of states that have acted against what's known as gay conversion therapy. The Democratic governor's move, announced Saturday, comes as gay rights advocates have campaigned state by state with mixed results to try to ban a practice that major mental health organizations have repudiated. Using executive power in a state where legislative bids to ban the therapy have stalled, Cuomo announced planned regulations that would bar insurance coverage for the therapy for minors and prohibit mental...

I understand that Bernie is surging in the polls. I would like to take this opportunity to present what the country is likely to look like after 4 years under his Democratic Socialism. You can already see it taking shape in some of America’s largest cities. Let’s look at New York since they elected their Democratic Socialist Mayor. (trigger warning: culturally appropriated behavior on display) Mark-Viverito in April announced plans to decriminalize public urination along with five other low-level offenses: biking on the sidewalk, public consumption of alcohol, being in a park after dark, failure to obey a park sign...

NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio loped into a Brooklyn homeless shelter one day late last month, eager to demonstrate his command over a mushrooming homeless crisis that had already forced out two of his top advisers. Folding his 6-foot-5 frame in half, the Democratic mayor crouched down to hand out gifts to children, praised his team for “extraordinary work” and then faced a pack of reporters, one of whom asked why it took “so long” to make homelessness “a top priority.” “It’s been a priority from the beginning,” de Blasio insisted before adding, “No administration has cracked the...

A proposed bill in New York seeks to require that all smartphones sold in the state can be decrypted or unlocked and proposes hefty fines for vendors failing to comply.The proposed law marks the latest effort by lawmakers to make it easier for law enforcement to access and read encrypted data stored on smartphones. Should the proposed bill successfully pass through New York's state assembly and senate, Apple and Google could face fines of $2,500 per device sold in the state after January 1, 2016, if a retailer knowingly sold a smartphone that could not be unlocked or decrypted by...

HOUSTON, Texas - Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today responded to demands from liberal politicians including Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio to apologize for his criticisms of the liberal progressive values embraced by the New York elites.Ted Cruz on the Sean Hannity Show January 15, 2016 (Video)Cruz’s comments from the Sean Hannity Show are below, followed by a full statement.Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have all demanded an apology. I’m happy to apologize:I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by liberal politicians in that state.I apologize to the...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes that pro-life activists, along with anti-gay activists and supporters of the Second Amendment, are not welcome in his state. During a radio interview on Friday, Cuomo pointed out that Republicans were in the midst of a schism, where conservatives worked against moderate Republicans. "Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves," he said. "Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that's who they are and they're the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of...