Free Republic

But in recent years, conservatives have found playing the victimhood card to be equally profitable for their own causes. ... Donald Trump is a successful businessman. His residences and modes of transit are plated with gold. He has married three gorgeous women. He claims to have a multibillion-dollar net worth. He has mocked the disabled, women, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, even prisoners of war.... Yet he constantly rationalizes his bad behavior and political setbacks as the inevitable consequence of unfair systems and anti-Trump persecution. Disapprove of his pro-violence rally rhetoric? He’s just protecting his beleaguered voters against those “big, strong, powerful”...

The reparations movement, which calls for compensating the descendants of generations of enslaved Americans going back 250 years, has failed to gain traction in this country for a variety of reasons. Most Americans see slavery as an artifact of the distant past that has no bearing on the nation’s present. And even people who are sympathetic to the reparations idea — and who acknowledge the continued imprint of slavery on society — have often argued that there is no way to distinguish descendants who have provable claims to compensation from those who do not, partly because enslaved people usually went...

NORTH BEND — For one North Bend High School student, the “American Dream” is over. At least, that's the fear Schalk Badenhorst has for his grandson, who is being deported back to South Africa in July. But 18-year-old Jaun Erasmus seems to have accepted his fate, even though he'll be leaving so much behind.

In an appearance on CNN in March, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Will Bunch said that "too much of our, at least, mainstream elite media news coverage is driven by columnists and pundits who aren't out in the field. They're talking to the consultant class at places like the Capital Grill and [with] consultants who are fighting the last war, who expected Trump to collapse. Bunch chided the media for having a blindspot to the places where Trump was receiving support. "The truth is if they'd gone out to places like Kentucky … these people are happy to talk, and what...

We're all familiar with Godwin's Law: in an argument, the first person to mention the Nazis automatically loses. We're going to have to come up with a companion concept for the Washington Post: call it the Cambodian Corollary. Wapo's editorial of yesterday, Softening on Trump? Remember this reflects the paper's apparent worry that people will take a second look at Trump in light of his moderated tone in recent days. We can't have any of that! With Hillary as unpopular as she is, the high negatives of her likely opponent must be preserved! So WaPo runs through a list of...

resident Obama argued that the US does not have more people in prison than any other developed country “because we have more criminals. It’s because we have criminal justice policies, including unfair sentencing laws, that need to be reformed.” He added “simply locking people up doesn’t make communities safer” because “It doesn’t deal with the conditions that lead people to criminal activity in the first place, or to return to prison later.”

Putin’s Attack Helicopters and Mercenaries Are Winning the War for Assad Taking advantage of a ceasefire, the Russian strongman is doubling down in Syria — not withdrawing. BY JAMES MILLER MARCH 30, 2016 “The notion that somehow Russia is in a stronger position now, in Syria or in Ukraine, than they were before they invaded Ukraine or before he had to deploy military forces to Syria is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of power in foreign affairs or in the world generally. Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence,” the U.S. president said....

DO YOU remember when Donald Trump crudely mocked the disability of a New York Times reporter, and then lied about having done so? No? That’s just as the Republican candidate might hope. Now that he is nearing the Republican nomination, he says he will become more “presidential.” After winning the New York primary, he referred to “Senator Cruz” instead of “Lyin’ Ted.” You can expect multitudes of office-seekers and sycophants to follow Chris Christie’s craven path to believing, or pretending to believe, in a presidential Trump. So it is important to remember. Remember that Mr. Trump said that Mexicans crossing...

At the White House today, Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended Saturday night’s “private” concert with Prince. Although rumors had surfaced about the concert, the White House was silent about the event that brought up to 500 people to the event and did not inform the press about it. News of the event quickly leaked on social media – including posts from Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Rev. Al Sharpton. Earnest indicated that the Obama family paid for the event at the White House, telling reporters that the first couple “did it on their own dime.” When repeatedly questioned about

Administration officials are remaining tight-lipped on a private party featuring Prince and Stevie Wonder at the White House over the weekend. During Monday's daily briefing, reporters drilled White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest for details on the star-studded event, which was not included in the President's public schedule, but was documented by guests on social media. "The President and First Lady did hold a private party at the White House over the weekend, but given the private nature of that event I don't have a lot of details to discuss from here," Earnest said.

In subsequent questioning, Earnest said that "the president and first lady paid for the event," although he did not detail the exact cost. The concert audience included prominent business leaders, celebrities, senior administration officials and fashion heavyweights close to the Obamas, according to The New York Post's Page Six. Among them were American Express chairman Ken Chenault, D.C. philanthropist David Rubenstein, fashion designer Naeem Khan and ABC stars Connie Britton and Tracee Ellis Ross. The Wall Street Journal's Carol Lee, who will assume the presidency of the White House Correspondents Association next month, questioned why the administration decided to treat...

A weird thing to do during a pending case for an officer of the court who’s already been accused, and not just by police, of ramping up the charges against the Baltimore cops who arrested Gray for political reasons. Maybe save the pop-star grandstanding until after we figure out whether Mosby was right or wrong when she told the universe Gray was arrested unlawfully, no?On the other hand, how could a young aspiring mayor/governor/senator resist a photo op like this? The audience spanned a wide range of ages and backgrounds, much like Prince’s fanbase. Many were surprised to see...

Prince released his much-anticipated protest song about “Baltimore” on Saturday — one day before his scheduled “Rally 4 Peace” concert in the troubled city.

Prince will share his feelings on the unrest in Baltimore in the way he knows best -- in song. The legendary artist has recorded a “tribute to all of the people of the city of Baltimore,” a spokesperson tells Billboard. Though release plans haven’t been announced, it's understood the track will address Freddie Gray's death in Baltimore police custody, and the socio/political issues around the nation following a spate of killings of young black men.

In a portion of an interview with Manu Raju that aired on CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday, Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)56% discussed his tenure as House Speaker and what he’s doing, including how he is handling the job differently from his predecessor John Boehner. But also, he vowed there would be no government shutdown. “I think I would do it better,” Ryan said. “Not to knock John, but I spend more time with all of our members on a continual basis. And so, because I was a person that wasn’t looking for this job, what I’m...

The State Department official who issued visas to many of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists is still employed by the federal government, according to J. Michael Springmann, the author of Visas for al-Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World. Springmann, former head of the visa section at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told PJM that Shayna Steinger approved 11 of the visas granted to the 19 9/11 hijackers. Fifteen received their visas at the Jeddah consulate. Page 7 of the 9/11 Commission report states that “one consular officer issued visas to 11 of the 19 hijackers.” Those visas...

Two women allegedly broke into an apartment in Southeast Washington, D.C. recently and brutally beat two young children and their mother in what police described as retaliation for the arrest of a man who shot a little girl. The two women allegedly invaded the home of an unidentified women and assaulted her. One of the attackers then pulled the woman’s 11-YEAR-OLD SON from his bedroom, senselessly beating him in front of his mother, reports Fox5. Police say the unhinged woman screamed at the boy, calling him a snitch and claiming he ratted out her brother, who police arrested in connection...

The Obama administration’s hint that it was considering allowing Iran to access directly or indirectly U.S. dollars drew furious, negative reaction from both sides of the aisle. On Monday, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) denounced the effort and called for the administration to reaffirm definitively its explicit promise that barriers to Iran’s accessing dollars would remain in place. “Our concern is that there are at least four workarounds to provide Iran with access to the dollar, including dollar-denominated transactions, dollar-clearing, dollar-based conversions, and dollar-related foreign currency transactions,” he said. “Here’s the bottom line: The administration should definitively rule out any potential...

How bad was Cruz’s night? He’s losing to Ben Carson in some places — a guy who hasn’t been in the race in weeks. Cruz can still win the nomination on the first convention ballot, mind you, but he needs to win about 88.5 percent of the outstanding delegates, bound or unbound, per Daniel Nichanian’s excellent calculations. That's not likely to happen either. Trump isn’t the only big winner tonight! Congratulations to John Kasich, who will almost certainly end up with his first delegate in more than a month. Can Kasich pull off a come-from-behind victory? No. The end.

House Republicans are aiming at the Internal Revenue Service this week, taking up four bills to ensure integrity in hiring and better customer service. “We have recently learned…that IRS employees that have been fired for misconduct have been rehired” in the last several years, Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) told a news conference on Tuesday. “Now some of this may involve falsifying documents — they failed to pay their own taxes. They may have been fired for accessing sensitive taxpayer information without permission. In fact, one employee had missed up to eight weeks of work without permission, had actually stamped on...