Free Republic

It’s always fascinating to watch a master at work, isn’t it? For some time, House Speaker Pelosi found herself between her party’s nutjobs on one side and the few sanity seekers on the other. She held on to sanity, I suspect, not because it was the right thing to do, but because the stars had not yet aligned to achieve her objective. Recently, the stars moved for her. Here’s what Pelosi did and why. She unleashed the impeachment dogs on a duly elected president of the United States, knowing full well that despite all the rhetoric, nothing would come of it....

While some have suggested that Mayor Pete Buttigieg “won” this week’s Democrat presidential debate, there is no question who, or rather what, was the loser. CNN and New York Times reporters did not ask any candidate any question about climate change and its offspring, the Green New Deal. It was a surprising omission. In the abstract, climate has polled as a very high priority among Democrat voters, so much so that in September, CNN televised a seven-and-one-half hour town hall meeting on climate for the candidates. This week, both Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer briefly protested the lack of attention...

America's September unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, the lowest level since 1969, according to the most recent Department of Labor report.The tight labor market is forcing companies to hire disadvantaged Americans. For example, New Seasons Market, a West Coast grocery chain, is actively recruiting people with disabilities and prior criminal records. Similarly, Custom Equipment, a Wisconsin manufacturing firm, recently hired several prison inmates through a work-release program and intends to employ them full-time upon their release.For the first time in decades, these disadvantaged Americans are finally winning significant pay increases. Over the past year, the lowest-paid 25 percent of...

West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran said Ed Buck once hung an effigy of him in a park. Some municipal employees said they refused to meet alone with him, and he unnerved two political foes so much at council meetings that sheriff’s deputies accompanied them to their cars afterward. **SNIP** Buck’s political influence has drawn intense criticism, especially from black and LGBTQ activists who believe his status as a white Democratic donor initially insulated him from prosecution and that influential people made excuses for a man whose volatility was on public display for years. Jasmyne Cannick, a black political consultant...

[These missiles in Cuba are] “nothing but refugee rumors. Nothing in Cuba presents a threat to the United States. There’s no likelihood that the Soviets or Cubans would try and install an offensive capability in Cuba," said a sneering National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on ABC’s Issues and Answers, Oct. 14, 1962.“There’s fifty-odd-thousand Cuban refugees in this country, all living for the day when we go to war with Cuba. They’re the ones putting out this kind of stuff (about missiles),” said a sneering President John F. Kennedy on Oct. 15th, 1962.“The USSR could derive considerable military advantage from the establishment...

We unfairly give way too much authority and credibility to medical associations. They’re comprised of people who are no more moral or ethical than the rest of the human race. Heinous acts have been committed in the name of “medical science” throughout history: Shark Island, Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Nazi Science Experiments, Gosnell’s Supercoil Experiment, Puerto Rico Birth Control Experiment, Philadelphia Prison Experiments, Children with Cerebral Palsy at Sonoma State Hospital, University of Iowa ‘Monster Study,’ and many more. So why do we accept their blatant political activism disguised as healthcare? The American Medical Association (AMA) just released one of the most...

I have to tell you a remarkable personal story, a story that proves the liberal media are, in fact, out to frame and ruin President Donald Trump and his supporters with lies, distortions and misrepresentation; a story that proves the liberal media are vicious, untrustworthy and sometimes just plain evil. I was in Miami last weekend to speak in front of 1,200 conservatives at a fabulous three-day conference called AmpFest19. Speakers also included Donald Trump Jr., Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Dinesh D'Souza. The event was organized professionally. The speakers were inspiring. The crowd was enthusiastic. And the energy was...

(words mine since the YouTube poster Brainlet offered few written comments) "Local" presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard comes out swinging against Her Heinous, Hillary Clinton after Clinton (and her lackeys at CNN and the New York Times) alleged Ms. Gabbard was a "Russian asset". This bubbled over during the Democrat debate on Wednesday and then came to a boil today when Clinton's comments on a podcast with Obama lackey David Plouffe hinted strongly that Russia was "grooming" Gabbard for a third-party run.

If you want to run for office, political consultants will hammer away at one point: Tell stories. People respond to stories. We've been a storytelling species since our fur-clad ancestors gathered around campfires. Don't cite statistics. No one can remember statistics. Make it human. Make it relatable. Lincoln told stories. FDR told stories. Reagan told stories. Watching the Democrats' fourth debate Tuesday night, you could see the candidates implementing this advice. They'd mention Joe in their state who said X, or Jane who called their office with Y problem. They commonly use techniques like: "The voters I speak to aren't...

The press hates Donald Trump. That's not a newsflash. The bias the press shows toward most Republicans turns to outright hostility when it comes to Trump. Once you've convinced yourself your opponent is an evil racist, it's not hard to justify doing anything you can to stop him. Many in the press corps have admitted this. Most haven't, but it's definitely the prevalent attitude in the dominant liberal media. How can we have a fair election in this environment? That question is coming to a head now with regard to Joe Biden and his son's alleged corruption. The Biden campaign...

The left is becoming more unapologetically totalitarian every day. Every freedom-loving American should be alarmed. From hounding conservatives out of restaurants to spitting on Trump supporters at rallies, from firing employees for politically incorrect statements to fining people for "misgendering" a person, the left is on a path toward absolutism. Even some former and current leftists have recognized this intolerant trend and broken from their colleagues, lamenting their intolerance of opposing ideas and disturbing mission to suppress dissenting opinion. Just the other day, three incidents typifying the left's authoritarianism popped out at me as I was surveying the morning news....

Recently, a deranged leftist (pardon the redundancy) got angry with me for talking publicly about my firearms collection. Apparently, he not only opposes my ownership of guns but also does not want me to discuss them. In other words, he is one of those Beto O’Rourke leftists seeking to eviscerate both the First and Second Amendments. He even decided to write one of my bosses and petition for my termination after I refused to stop tweeting about firearms. So I am going to respond to his demands in the only reasonable way I can: I’m going to start writing about...

RUSH: I’m getting some emails. “Rush, you don’t seem to be taking impeachment seriously enough. I think you’re wrong. I think the House is gonna impeach Trump. It’s gonna they’re gonna do it. I think there’s gonna be a trial. I’m really worried. Why aren’t you?” I’m getting a lot of emails that have that as a basic theme. I’ll go through it again, but let me give you a very simple reason why I think they aren’t going to actually have an official vote and transfer all this to a trial in the Senate. That’s why they’re not gonna...

In the midst of a human rights crisis and violent pro-democracy manifestations in China, Judicial Watch has obtained records that expose a troubling partnership between a public American university and the Chinese Communists at the heart of the abuses. The records show that the University of Arizona (UA), a taxpayer-funded institution with an enrollment of about 44,000, paid $100,000 to launch a Confucius Institute on its Tucson campus more than a decade ago and subsequently dedicated nearly $2 million and other public resources to keep it going. Confucius Institutes were founded by the Chinese government and are managed by China’s...

Everyone who already thought the case for President Trump’s impeachment was a slam-dunk went berserk Thursday, claiming that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had just admitted to a quid pro quo with Ukraine. Except that what Mulvaney “admitted” is that the administration was doing what it should — pushing a foreign government to cooperate in getting to the bottom of foreign interference in the 2016 campaign. Virtually every media outlet in America — certainly all those that jumped on Mulvaney’s remarks — has spent most of the last three years painting such foreign interference as the blackest...

Who could have guessed that the words of Soviet secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria to Joseph Stalin, "Show me the man, and I will show you the crime," would be strangely embodied in American politics and jurisprudence in the 21st century? Moreover, according to Dr. Strangesсhiff — congressman, chairman, and commissar — these wonderful words have recently found their way into the U.S. Constitution. Secret impeachment would seem to be a new idea, but the curious Dr. Strangesсhiff borrowed it from the closed Soviet trials of dissidents, "enemies of the people," and other "undesirable elements." Bravo, comrade Strangesсhiff! Please, continue...

Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley are advising Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign and drawing generous media attention for their assertion that the U.S. tax system is flat—that the middle class and poor pay as great a share of their income in taxes as the rich. They’re wrong, and three huge mistakes underlie their analysis. The biggest mistake is to focus on gross, not net, taxes. They ignore transfer payments, like Social Security, which are disproportionately paid to the poor. In doing so, they mistake language for economics. To see the problem, consider a simple...

Never underestimate the government’s ability to be terrible. Let’s see what’s happening in the great state of New Jersey, shall we?

hen Thomas Paine appealed to “common sense” to make the case for American independence, it probably never crossed his mind that there would ever be a need to make the case for common sense itself, at least not in America. But common-sense thinking has fallen out of favor. Because it has been under attack for a very long time, it no longer gets the respect it once commanded. Deep thinkers have discarded it, elites have learned to disdain it, and many of us have had our confidence in its value badly shaken. The consequences are enormous. Faltering belief in common...

Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano directly quoted the Constitution to say why it’s wrong for President Donald Trump to host the G-7 at a resort he owns, calling it a “direct and profound” violation. “He has bought himself an enormous headache now with the choice of this. This is about as direct and profound a violation of the Emoluments Clause as one could create,” Napolitano told Neil Cavuto on Cavuto: Coast to Coast.