Free Republic

So here we are. In a campaign that has featured many unexpected blockbuster developments, here comes a massive moment that has been expected all along: the first actual debate between the two major party nominees. From the time it became clear that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would be the two candidates on this stage, the narrative has been that it was her election to lose, and that Trump would need a stellar performance to have the remotest shot at beating her November 8. Then real voters, and real events, intervened. Plenty of real Republican voters have shed their NeverTrump...

THE EDITOR, Sir: Aren't you just tired of all our government leaders making all these promises that they will 'make Jamaica great again', but has never made good on it? I have lived long enough to see more than seven elections, and Lord knows I have had it with all the promises of a paradisiac condition, a crime-free country, great health-care facilities, excellent schools with affordable, if not free, education. Equality for all. No corruption. Transparency in government and state businesses. When will I see any radical changes? Since Jamaica always emulates other First World countries, like the United States,...

The Sunday before the first presidential debate of 2016 was filled with analysis and speculation about how the candidates were going to perform. It was the same on CNN’s Inside Politics were their panel touted Hillary Clinton’s ability to debate.  Host John King played a clip of Clinton leaving Senator Bernie Sanders speechless after slamming his questions about her speaking fees as a smear, saying it was a clue about how Monday’s debate might turn out. CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson seemed almost in awe of Clinton’s counter of Sanders, noting his lack of a response wasn’t good for him. “One of...

Ever wonder why there are so many Muslims and Muslim countries in the world? Over the millennia many countries were conquered, but didn't remain Persian or Greek or Roman as the case may be. You see, the countries conquered in the name of Islam, became and remained Islamic. For example Pakistan, part of India, and Malaysia both were Hindu; Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and N. Africa were Christian; Afghanistan was Buddhist. They are all Islamic now. This transformation was not by chance but by design. All these countries were conquered by force then shorn of their wealth and many of...

Playing Gabrielle Union Wants to Talk With Kate Upton About Racial Inequality Gabrielle Union wants to use her platform to educate and inspire. The Birth of a Nation star has already been vocal about her director and co-star Nate Parker’s rape allegations, but she recently told XoNecole that she has no plans to boycott the buzzed-about film. “Some people have said, ‘If you’re a feminist, you should boycott the film.’ And I was like, ‘But wait, my role in the film and the reason I signed on was to talk about sexual violence,’” she explained. “So it feels a** backwards...

The anxiety is palatable. The question will not be made audible, but it remains: is she losing this election? Is it really slipping away? To put it in the words of Hillary Clinton: "Why am I not winning by 50 points?" 1. Epistemological poisoning. The depth of public outrage has been the consistent misunderstanding of all pundits trying to explain the current election. Why is the public so mad? Why do people seem to love Trump so much? Those charged with telling us the truth – journalists, the federal government, politicians, academia, Hollywood, and the Church – do not. The...

From childhood, we have had ingrained in us that in order for interactions between people to work, especially competitive interactions, everyone has to “follow the rules”. The reason we have rules is that we have people, and people are sometimes dishonest cheats. The rules are put in place to prevent the dishonest cheats from winning unfairly, because they are despicable thieves who would steal what rightfully belongs to someone else. Nobody likes a cheat, except perhaps other cheats or those who stand to share in what the cheater steals from the honest participant. That is, nobody with an ounce of...

Tomorrow night we’ll see the much-awaited matchup one-on-one “debate” between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Her staff is working with the debate commission to erase height and stamina advantages of her opponent. They asked that the debate be by seated opponents which was refused as was their effort to allow her to stand on a hidden stool. Her podium will be lowered though so when the camera sweeps from candidate to candidate viewers might not notice he is considerably taller than she. Outside of the debate hall in Charlotte, North Carolina, another drama is taking place. Apparently "Black Lives Matters"...

People magazine’s interview with Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in the October 3 issue carried the usual hard-hitting questions from Sandra Sobieraj Westfall: “Here’s one you probably won’t get in the debates: What emoji best describes you?” Clinton replied “All the happy emojis, the heart eyes, the hug ones. I use them with family.” Back in April, People asked Trump about comparisons to Hitler, and found an expert to suggest Trump could end America. The story was headlined with a quote from Kaine: “She’s the Boss.” People sought to play down her pneumonia (with no reference to the “overheated” lying...

It’s often said, “There is only one race – the human race.” While the phrase has become almost cliché in repetition, it happens to be 100 percent accurate, both scientifically and theologically speaking.From Ferguson to Baltimore, Tulsa to Charlotte – and on college campuses from coast-to-coast – a great divide is sweeping America. It is fueled largely, if not entirely, by half-truths and outright lies. Truth is irrelevant. Only the narrative matters. When “Hands Up Don’t Shoot™” can do so very much to further “the cause,” it matters not that it represents a holocaust-denial-level of detachment from reality.Which tells you...

Tomorrow night’s first presidential debate moves the race into a head-to-head match-up between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton — since the private, two-party controlled Commission on Presidential Debates decided to deny voters an opportunity to hear from Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.Mr. Trump seems happy to have Hillary Clinton mano a mano — or hombre contra la mujer (man against woman). Should he be?Observe that Trump’s debate success throughout the Republican Party primary contest was mostly against a crowded field — and never once one-on-one.Moreover, months of polling have demonstrated repeatedly that Trump gains ground against...

Having to ask parents to sign a consent form should not be considered a burden -- and yet activists have put Proposition 58 on the November ballot so that they can relieve themselves of that pedestrian challenge. In 1998, 61 percent of Californians passed Proposition 227, which replaced bilingual education with English immersion classes. Prop. 227 allows parents to opt their children out of immersion classes, if they sign a form. "We have to get waivers from every family every spring," San Francisco school board member Emily Murase told The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board. She talked as if asking...

In 1999 Hillary Clinton played a crucial role in obtaining presidential clemency for 12 members of the infamous Puerto Rican terrorist group, FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation).Between 1974 and 1983 the FALN claimed a decade long terror war against the US for Puerto Rican “independence” but planned to transform Puerto Rico into a Cuban bases Marxist state.   Nine people were seriously injured in 28 Chicago area bombings.  Six were murdered in NY, including four (60 injured) in the horrific January 24, 1975 lunchtime bombing of historic Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan.  My father, Frank Connor, only 33, was murdered...

Editor's Note: This piece is satire.In a breaking story, Julian Assange released secret emails that disclose if Hillary Clinton becomes president, she plans to propose that the Clinton Foundation become the 16th cabinet department of the U.S. government. The report details how the Clintons will propose that the work of the Clinton Foundation has become vital to the nation and that the services it provides are not being done by other cabinet departments. Reaction was swift from the Clinton campaign. Brian Fallon, the press secretary for the campaign, stated “We cannot believe that the Russians tied to the Trump campaign...

PSP is a terminal degenerative brain disease which robs those affected of their ability to walk, talk, eat and see. Quotes from Nigel Dempster in the video... "I wont die of PSP. But I will die of an ancillary illness like pneumonia.  Its often mis-diagnosed as Parkinson's, without a cure anyway." "My body is packing up. I used to play squash once a week, or twice a week. I can't do it anymore.  And I joined the golf club, which I can't do anymore, because I can't stand still.  A long walk for me is 20 or 30 yards....

Local officials in Colorado acknowledged "very serious" voter fraud after learning of votes cast in multiple elections under the named of recently-deceased residents. A local media outlet uncovered the fraud by comparing voting history databases in the state with federal government death records. "Somebody was able to cast a vote that was not theirs to cast," El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman told CBS4 while discussing what he called a "very serious" pattern of people mailing in ballots on behalf of the dead. It's not clear how many fraudulent ballots have been submitted in recent years. CBS4 reported...

After voting to proceed to a bill that didn’t exist earlier this week, the Senate has finally produced text of the continuing resolution, a short-term government spending bill. The bill, written behind closed doors by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was brought to the floor late Thursday afternoon, and for the majority of Senate Republicans, represented their first opportunity to see the text. According to McConnell, senators will have four days (two of them on a weekend) to review the bill before having to cast their votes next week. As far as conservative priorities go, the bill is a failure....

<p>Seattle Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger tweeted something someone didn’t like. He lost his job because of it. Colin Kaepernick kneels for the national anthem and he pockets $16 million a year for sitting on the bench (He sits for the song for free). Welcome to America, 2016.</p>

Jerika Bolen, a 14-year-old girl with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2, has been allowed to end her life— her own decision—by having her ventilator disconnected. She died Thursday. Jerika had told her mother that her chronic pain, along with her very significant physical limitations (including relying on a power wheelchair), made her welcome the idea of death. Jerika clearly was no coward. She had endured more than 30 surgeries for her condition since being diagnosed at eight months of age. Her family made it possible for her to enjoy movies, fireworks, sleepovers and a community-wide “last dance” prom this summer,...

The New York Times and Gannett news have been trying to gain access to Donald Trump’s sealed divorce records on the grounds that they are of public interest now that he is running for President. Politico reports that New York judge Frank Nervo has rejected that argument: “Were the court to make the confidential records available for journalistic, and thus public, scrutiny, it would impermissibly inject itself into the political process by making the value judgment of what information is useful in determining the present candidate’s, or any other candidate’s, fitness for office,” Nervo wrote. “The court’s role in the...