Free Republic

On Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) praised the Washington, D.C. Metro, apparently oblivious to the fires and horrific management problems the Metro faces. "DC Metro is pretty good, especially when compared to the MTA lately," Ocasio-Cortez said in a Facebook "moment," contrasting the D.C. Metro to the New York subway. "It's clear they are investing in public infrastructure w/modernized train cars, etc." She responded to criticism shortly afterward. "Lots of folks begging to differ on DC metro being better," the congresswoman added. "I just got here so taking the train on a Sunday without a delay or track change or...

California Rep. Eric Swalwell is officially in the running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Swalwell made the announcement during a taping Monday of CBS’ ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The congressman says, “I see a country in quicksand, unable to solve threats from abroad, unable to make life better for people here at home.” He says, “None of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer and do good in the way that we govern.” He says:...

As the presidential campaign heats up, so too has the movement to abolish or otherwise neutralize the electoral college. Some advocates argue that the electoral college was originally established to help less-populated states retain power, or to have every part of the country heard from in electing a chief executive. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) claims the system was designed to help the slave states. But these are modern interpretations of what really happened at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The electoral college was designed with two purposes: to separate the branches of government in an attempt to avoid “cabals” and...

The headline of Jonathan Zimmerman's article in the Washington Post, "How Trump finally turned Republicans against McCarthyism," alerted me to the possibility that Zimmerman has never spoken to a Republican in the wild. The subhead, "After nearly 70 years, Republicans have stopped defending Joe McCarthy," confirmed my suspicions. Zimmerman insists that the "new consensus" among Republicans is that "McCarthyism was, in fact, a massive, unpardonable assault on freedom, fairness and the rule of law." This is nuts. In reality, McCarthy's status among Republicans is higher now than it has been since his untimely death in 1957.

In the feverish heyday of the “birther movement,” conspiracy-hungry readers swarmed to a website called WorldNetDaily for the latest on the specious yet viral theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The site’s founder, Joseph Farah — a former newspaperman with a dense, jet-black mustache and a cloak-and-dagger mystique — boasted in 2010 that he was well on the way to generating $10 million a year in revenue. His Northern Virginia-headquartered news site, known by the acronym WND, was having its moment by stoking rumors about Obama. But Farah — a conservative Internet pioneer who’d...

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews offered his take on the Democratic Party’s drift to the far-left, which he warned could have an impact on the 2020 presidential election. Matthews reminded voters of the 1972 presidential election between incumbent President Richard Nixon and then-Democratic presidential nominee Sen. George McGovern (D-SD). Nixon won in a landslide, taking 49 states and 60% of the popular vote. He suggested such a scenario could be possible in 2020 if Democrats nominated a far-left candidate to go up against President Donald Trump in 2020. ~snip~ “What’s hard is to identify a leading candidate that...

<p>Six states and the District of Columbia sued the Department of Agriculture on Wednesday, saying it weakened nutritional standards in school breakfasts and lunches when it relaxed the requirements affecting salt and refined grains last year.</p> <p>The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court asked a judge to overturn the changes, saying they were carried out in an arbitrary and capricious manner.</p>

President Trump on Tuesday incorrectly said his father was from Germany while expressing frustration about the country’s payments toward NATO. "Germany, honestly, is not paying their fair share," Trump said at the White House before noting that he has "great respect" for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and "great respect for the country." "My father is German, was German," he continued. "Born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a great feeling for Germany." The Washington Post said it as least the third time Trump has made this particular claim about his father, Fred Trump, who was born...

The editor of the Washington Post said that Erdogan who failed in the local elections has now refused to make concessions on Russian missiles or Syrian Kurds. Trump's administration will have no choice but to treat him as a rival. The editor wonders how Erdogan will react to the people's rebuke to him,The editor of the Washington Post talks about the results of local elections in Turkey, which he sees as a referendum on Erdogan's increasing authoritarian leadership.The editor notes that Erdogan used all his cheap tools that would have led the country to explosion in an attempt to rally...

It's amazing how similar middle-class and well-positioned African Americans are to white elites in their perspectives on US politics. They continue to play in the sandbox of respectability politics and civility, as if only since the election of Donald Trump as president has racial and socioeconomic progress been in jeopardy. Take Washington Post columnist Colbert I King's reaction to US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement last month. The "honor - or from, my point of view, blame" for strengthening the right-wing hold on the Supreme Court

Whole Foods will slash prices on hundreds of items starting Wednesday, extending its focus beyond enticing Prime shoppers. The specialty grocer's last major price cut for all customers was in Nov. 2017. In the interim, it has been rolling out more perks catered to members of Amazon Prime, like offering them an extra 10 percent off discounted products. Amazon, which acquired Whole Foods in July 2017, had hoped to convert more Prime members into Whole Foods shoppers. The better Whole Foods is able to sync in-store shopping with Amazon Prime, the better it will be able to target its ads...

“Our next guest needs no introduction,” Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) told the crowd gathered in the atrium of the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday night. “A former first lady …” Excited murmurs start growing in the audience gathered to celebrate the museum’s newest exhibition, “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence,” ahead of next year’s 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. A younger girl turns to her friend. “Oh, my God. … Do you?” “A former secretary of state,” the Democratic congresswoman from California continues. “Hillary?” another guest excitedly whispers, eyes widening. Then Matsui hits the nail on the head:...

President Donald Trump on Friday called for the New York Times and the Washington Post to have their Pulitzer prizes rescinded for their coverage of the special counsel's Russia investigation. “So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia - And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!” Trump tweeted. Trump has lashed out at the media in recent days after a synopsis of special counsel Robert...

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again—or just hide your idea in a giant piece of legislation, where you hope it won’t get noticed. The National Popular Vote campaign hopes that Minnesota voters won’t see its sneaky maneuver until it’s too late. Perhaps National Popular Vote supporters feel desperate. They’ve been trying to get their controversial interstate compact approved in Minnesota since 2009, but the legislation always flounders. This year, National Popular Vote is trying something new in Minnesota. Its compact has been introduced as standalone legislation, just as it normally is. Meanwhile, the compact also has been...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been mocked with another billboard after zero senators voted for her socialist Green New Deal this week. The Job Creators Network scorched Ocasio-Cortez with two gigantic billboards in New York City after the Senate voted down the Green New Deal bill,

Race was front and center on Wednesday night during a meeting coordinated to garner support for just one black candidate in Savannah’s mayoral election. With signs stating “Black press only” on the doors of the church where the meeting was held, white reporters were barred from entry, while black reporters for at least two television stations were permitted inside. The event was coordinated by the Rev. Clarence Teddy Williams, owner of the consulting firm, The Trigon Group, who declined to discuss the entry policy. Former Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson declined to comment before going inside, as did Chatham County Commissioner...

An adviser to failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Wednesday evening ripped former Vice President Joe Biden for his “entitlement” for wanting Abrams “to save his ass” in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. In a BuzzFeed report that details the blowback from Abrams’ supporters that even surprised Abrams after various outlets reported that Biden was considering naming Abrams as his vice presidential pick when he announces his candidacy, an Abrams adviser told the outlet that the stories were “particularly exploitative” because “Biden couldn’t be bothered to endorse Stacey in the gubernatorial primary.” “Now he wants her to save his...

Even as the New Zealand government was condemning the Erdogan regime for using mosque shooting footage in its election rallies, the Washington Post decided to give the Islamist tyrant a platform. It was the second time in six months that The Post had given Erdogan a platform. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has prisons full of political dissidents. He has silenced the media and has tortured opponents. His brutal Islamist regime has been described as the world’s biggest jailor of journalists. It’s been estimated that a third of the world’s imprisoned journalists have been locked up by his regime. But that didn’t...

was first elected to the Senate in November 1974, just three months after President Richard M. Nixon resigned. Congress and the nation were both shaped and scarred by the Watergate scandal, by the strain it placed on our democratic institutions, and the mistrust in government that ensued. Those years serve as a reminder that a democracy hidden from the people is no democracy at all. The parallels between then and now are many. In both sagas, a politically motivated theft — one a burglary, the other a hacking — led to an investigation described by the president as a “witch...

Very little was surprising about the conclusion of the special counsel’s investigation. For one thing, it wasn’t surprising that Robert S. Mueller III’s probe prompted great commotion — a federal investigation involving a sitting president is a momentous event, and concluding it, a historic moment. And most, but not all, of the details in the attorney general’s letter of “principal conclusions” were unsurprising as well. Let’s start with question of “collusion.” It was never precisely clear what that nonlegal concept meant. If it means what Mueller reasonably took it to mean — an “agreement,” “tacit or express,” with the Russians...