Free Republic

Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi appeared on Fox Business Network and warned progressive groups against $15 per hour minimum-wage hikes. “I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry — it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient [while] making $15 an hour bagging French fries,” Rensi said Tuesday. “It’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across this country like you’re not going to believe,” Rensi added....

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has suspended all city-sponsored travel to North Carolina and Mississippi due to the states’ new transgender laws. Rawlings-Blake made the announcement Tuesday in a letter to city officials, saying she hopes the city’s efforts combined with those of other governments and companies “will push North Carolina and Mississippi” to change. …

A new political action committee has one question for straight white men with political aspirations. "Dude, can you not?" It's a question embedded in the name of the organization. The Can You Not PAC plans to discourage straight white men from running for office in Colorado's diverse districts. The hope is that will clear the lane for female, minority and LGBTQ candidates.

Blacks don't like camping, or visiting parks. Obama thinks white people are to blame. https://t.co/b5v8Ehq9jO— Milo Yiannopoulos ✘ (@Nero) April 29, 2016

April 19, 2016, 10:20 am Biden: I'm not 'Goofy Uncle Joe' By Jordan Fabian Vice President Biden is not a fan of being labeled “Goofy Uncle Joe.” “No, I'm not comfortable with Goofy Uncle Joe,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood. Biden said voters took him seriously when he considered running for president last summer. “And, by the way, the so-called Goofy Uncle Joe — if you notice, I beat every Republican in every poll when they thought I was running,” he said. “You notice that my favorability was higher than anybody that's running for office in...

After much speculation on the possible replacement of Alexander Hamilton’s portrait on the $10 bill, it appears the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury will stay put on the heavily-circulated note. While the high-profile support voiced by the cast and creator of the popular Broadway musical, Hamilton, could not have hurt the founding father’s case to remain on the 10, it seems current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew counts himself among Hamilton’s admirers and was reluctant to replace him from the beginning. This doesn’t mean things will stay as they are. CNN notes that a “mural-style depiction of the women’s suffrage...

I have asked my distributor NOT to book my film in any theater in North Carolina due 2 their bigoted law against LGBTQ ppl. They have agreed

Bono has identified a new weapon in the war on terrorism: “Borat.” The U2 frontman told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in Washington, DC, Tuesday that jokes could combat ISIS. “I think comedy should be deployed,” he said. “I am suggesting that the Senate send in Amy Schumer and Chris Rock and [“Borat” star] Sacha Baron Cohen . . . You speak violence, you speak [terrorists’] language. But you laugh at them . . . and it takes away their power.”

While pandering in New York City, Hillary Clinton joined NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio in a poor effort at a humorous skit: Hillary Clinton performed in a racially tinged skit at an annual New York City press dinner as the controversy surrounding former president Bill Clinton’s defense of his wife’s “superpredator” remark continues to swirl. Clinton took the stage for a surprise appearance at Saturday’s Inner Circle Dinner and proceeded to needle Mayor Bill de Blasio for his belated endorsement. "I just have to say thanks for the endorsement, Bill. Took you long enough,” Clinton told her former campaign manager. “Sorry,...

Musician Stevie Wonder has vowed to stay out of Florida until the state repeals its "stand your ground" law. The law allows people to meet "force with force" if they believe they or someone else is in danger of being seriously harmed by an assailant. "I decided today that until the 'stand your ground' law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again," Wonder told the audience at a concert in Quebec on Sunday night. "As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of...

Gov. Jerry Brown, casting a living wage as a moral imperative while questioning its economic rationale, signed legislation Monday raising California’s mandatory minimum to $15 an hour by 2022, acting within hours of a similar bill signing in New York. The bill’s enactment comes one week after Brown, Democratic lawmakers and labor leaders announced an agreement on the wage increase, averting a brawl on the November ballot. [snip] California political leaders and labor have struck a deal to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next seven years. One excited fast food worker hugged Gov. Jerry Brown...

The leaders of Democracy Spring, a coalition of far-left groups plotting a mass civil disobedience movement to begin next month, told Breitbart News they have already confirmed 2,912 protesters who pledged specifically to risk arrest. Those protesters signed an option on the coalition’s website explicitly stating, “I pledge to be one among thousands who will risk arrest to save democracy in DC between April 11 – 16.” Other pledge options for protests include: •*I pledge to come to Washington DC to support the sit in through legal protest but cannot risk arrest. •*I want to join the march from Philadelphia...

Hillary Clinton ‏@HillaryClinton "Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.

“Last evening, something occurred which has the potential to drive us apart. To divide us. We say, unequivocally, that we do not countenance ad hominem attacks, and we take great offense to those that are levied against the president of the United States of America from our stage,” Pinkus said, reading from a statement. “While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of the president of the United States, and our president, Barack Obama.” As she continued to read, Pinkus began to choke up, visibly angered by Trump’s words, and by the applause they evoked. “There are...

The president of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC rebuked of Donald Trump on Tuesday, scolding him for his harsh comments about President Obama. “Last evening something occurred which has the potential to drive us apart, to divide us,” AIPAC President Lillian Pinkus said during the final day of the organization’s annual policy conference in Washington. “We say, unequivocally, that we do not countenance ad hominem attacks and we take great offense against those that are levied against the president of the United States of America from our stage.” “While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of...

Washington Post‘s Karen Attiah sounded the alarms of sorts this afternoon when she Tweeted out the following cryptic message after a meeting with Donald Trump and the WaPo Editorial Board: As you can see from the user engagement on the Tweet, people were quick to follow up on Attiah’s commentary, asking for any clarification on this newly-emerging behavior from the Republican frontrunner. Then Monday night, Attiah — who serves as the Deputy Opinions Editor for the Post — released her story with the headline “I asked Trump a policy question. Then he called me ‘beautiful.’” Attiah mentioned, and transcribed, some...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren labeled Donald Trump a loser, a bully and a threat on Monday, continuing a fierce war of words between the liberal icon and the front-running Republican presidential candidate that has played out on social media and The New York Times. “@RealDonaldTrump knows he’s a loser. His insecurities are on parade: petty bullying, attacks on women, cheap racism, flagrant narcissism,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote on her campaign’s Twitter account on Monday, part of a rapid-fire burst of eight tweets attacking the billionaire television personality. “But just because @realDonaldTrump is a loser everywhere else doesn’t mean he’ll lose this...

Science! (Is economics really a science? I’ve long felt it should be taught alongside astrology or some related field.) In any event, the continent sized Petri dish which is the American jobs market has been the subject of much speculation since the Fight for Fifteen muscled its way into the presidential campaign debate. It’s a very populist position which the Democrats have been riding like rocket. At the same time, people who actually study such matters have been warning that it would backfire spectacularly, particularly if it was implemented in a rush. Job availability is subject to the same...

Women's group: No Trump or no sex By Jason Russell By Daniel Chaitin(@danielchaitin7)•3/12/16 3:05 PM A new advocacy push is urging women, and men, to refuse sex to anybody backing the businessman-turned-candidate. A group of woman, backed by men supporting them, is urging voters to get behind their "Vote Trump, Get Dumped" campaign, including an online petition and social media movement. The group calls Trump a "sexist who doesn't respect women," and questions if the GOP front-runner is capable of being commander in chief. "Of course he's not politically correct. But for them, it's actually about a lot more than...

Bernie Sanders, the Senator representing the socialist paradise of Vermont, has apparently never seen a poor white person. This is understandable since about 1% of the state's population is black. But Sanders considers himself an expert on the racial divide in poverty. And at last night's debate with Hillary Clinton, the Senator expounded on his theories of race and poverty. Daily Caller: During the CNN Democratic debate Thursday night Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed that if someone was white they don’t know what it’s like to be poor or live in a ghetto. “When you’re white you don’t know what...