Free Republic

There's no doubt Team Trump is delighted by Carrier's decision to keep in Indiana roughly half of the 2,100 jobs that the maker of heating and air conditioning equipment had planned to shift to Mexico. As Steven Mnuchin, Trump's pick for treasury secretary, told CNBC yesterday, "This is a great first win without us even having to take the job." Actually, it's their second win. Trump also lobbied/nudged/cajoled Ford into changing its mind about shifting a sport utility vehicle production line to Mexico from Kentucky, not that doing so actually would have cost American jobs. But Carrier, especially, had become...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Have you seen Mitt Romney being trashed by Newt Gingrich? You haven't seen this? Man, oh, man, this is... it's funny, it's fascinating, it's curious, it's a number of things. Newt Gingrich is really, really bugged that Trump is paying any attention to Romney whatsoever. Newt is calling Romney a suck-up. He's ripping Romney for sucking up to the president-elect. Newt was on the radio the other day with Laura Ingraham. He said: "There's a scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere goes up to the salesman on Rodeo Drive and says: 'We need a little sucking...

Every sane person expects Green Party candidate Jill Stein's attempt to overturn the election with her vote recount effort to crash and burn. Given this, why would the Hillary Clinton campaign file a motion in support of a Stein-initiated request for a hand vote recount in Wisconsin? Under the reasonable assumption that what's good for the Clintons is good for the Clintons, one is left with but one conclusion. Hillary Clinton's political death is premature. After the election, Donald Trump analysts, having seen the Clintons pull a raft of rabbits out of a hat, should know better. There is no...

Those of you who know me know that fall is always my favorite time of the year. I am one heckuva college football fan. Sadly just last week, my Tennessee Volunteers went down to our in-state rivals, Vanderbilt. But that is what you have to love and admire about college football - the odds NEVER make sense, and the passion of young men on the field can win the day over the statistics. Many of you enjoyed a blessed Thanksgiving last week, and a huge part of that was the final week of rivalry football games, which often pit...

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering seriously at least two men for the critical position of secretary of state. One, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has divided the Trump team between those who think it is a good idea and those who think Romney's severe criticism of Trump during the campaign disqualifies him. The other is retired general and former CIA Director David Petraeus. A major problem for Petraeus is his mishandling of classified documents, which he reportedly leaked to his biographer-mistress, Paula Broadwell. After Trump hammered Hillary Clinton for her "extremely careless" handling of classified material when she was...

Have you noticed how in the wake of an attack by radical Islamists, the first response of Democrats is to remind Americans not to round up the boys, jump in a pick-up truck, and search the streets for a Muslim to beat up? Even before they condemn the attack or the perverted ideology behind it, they accuse innocent people of being just on the cusp of bigotry and violence toward anyone who has anything in common with the perpetrator. In essence, the political left thinks you live your life just this side of being a horrible person. ItÂ’s a major...

ANALYSIS/OPINION:President-elect Donald Trump would be best served by selecting a secretary of State who understands the national security challenges our country faces, can literally “hit the ground running,” has a proven track record of successful negotiations, and most importantly, not only protects but projects the greatest attributes about America’s ideals of freedom and democracy. Remember that President Obama spent the first part of his administration on an apology tour. His disdain for American leadership in the world was communicated aboard and broadly.

Well, look what’s back: the instantly compelling and ultimately confounding parlor game of “What do we do about flag burning?” Dormant for years, largely because this is something virtually no one ever does, the flag burning issue is back. You could hear it knocking lightly when several idiotic pro athletes decided to lodge their concerns over policing issues by showing public disdain for the flag that is a symbol of the nation that has made them free and wealthy. Throw in the Donald Trump victory, which has dredged up some of the most hateful and juvenile reactions in election history,...

President-elect Donald Trump is clear: Starting Day 1, he wants to renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA, the free trade deal among three countries: America, Canada and Mexico. Trump's pledge begs the question: Where do you start? Trump could begin with a controversial chapter of NAFTA that some experts believe gives corporations an incentive to create jobs across the border by giving them too much power to skirt and battle foreign government laws. It's in Chapter 11 of NAFTA and it''s called the investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS. It gives U.S. corporations the power to sue the Canadian or Mexican government...

Why did Hillary Clinton join Jill Stein, the Green Party’s oddball presidential nominee, in asking for a recount of the votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania when everyone knows that such a recount won’t change the outcome of the 2016 election? Part of the answer is that people close to Hillary—Huma Abedin, Chelsea Clinton, and Sidney Blumenthal—encouraged her to ask for a recount as a way of lifting her spirits. “She is weepy, looks ten years older and is very whiny,” said one of Hillary’s closest friends. “She has been drinking wine pretty heavily, much more than usual. She mopes...

Trolling is a true pleasure to watch when a master is at work, and no one – no one – trolls like the man Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds has dubbed the “Grandmaster,” our President-elect Donald Trump. Hell, even his title is a troll. President-elect Donald Trump – just having to say it makes pointy progressive heads explode. But look on the bright side, suckers. This time come January, you won’t have to call him “President-elect” anymore. Because then it will be President Donald Trump.Cue the giant sad trombone. Look, I had some serious beefs with Trump during the primaries, and...

As U.S. president-elect Donald Trump begins to formulate his Middle East foreign policy, he will be wise to assess what areas of the world have become strategically important to America’s ally, Israel. One of those areas is the Balkans region. Israel has strong diplomatic and security cooperation with Balkan states, sharing mutual threats such as the rise of radical Islam. The Balkans route is a path for arms, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. It has also been traveled by tens of thousands of Middle East migrants hoping for a better life in Europe. Some migrants have been radicalized fighting in...

To shed some light on the death of Fidel Castro, I did an interview with Senator Ted Cruz's father Rafael, who lived under the oppressive regime of the Cuban dictator. Have you ever had experiences in which you felt as though your government was taking unfair advantage of you, and it seemed as though you had no power to do anything about it? Have you written your congressman, senator, or county commissioner several times and only received form-letter responses? I suppose that everyone has felt that way from time to time. On the other hand, after you've finished complaining, did...

As we contemplate what the next 5, 10, and 25 years will look like for our U.S. Naval Forces, we need to keep in mind why we have a naval force and what we ask of it. The true power of our naval capability is derived from a synergistic combination of Carrier and Expeditionary Groups. We should not rob Peter to pay Paul here. We need them both. While we certainly need to protect our homeland from foreign enemies, our more likely engagement is away from our homeland. We have to be able to project force when required. We want...

It appears former president Jimmy Carter, now 92 years old, has yet to meet a tyrant he doesn’t admire. His continuing embrace of terrorist regimes makes some wonder when we will see the cessation of his continual self-exhumations from political burial in order to once again resume his prophetic declamations on behalf of odious regimes, past and present. Carter’s latest declamation on the demise of the pitiless tyrant Fidel Castro reveals once again his lifelong empathy for totalitarian regimes: “Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We...

For most American Jewish liberals, November 8 was not only a watershed election, but a day in which the music died. They have been left speechless and silent, unwilling to fathom the implications. These liberal Jews have become disoriented and unsure about what to do and what to say; they seem to be suffering from a bad case of PTSD (Post Trump Stress Disorder). For many of these liberal Jews, they are slowly waking up to a new reality of losing their political clout, being left out of the multiple loops of power and access to the White House. They...

It’s not uncommon for a Republican to be pro-business. But President-elect Donald Trump showed Tuesday night he’s pro-worker, too, by saving 1,000 jobs at the Carrier plant in Indiana. His standing up for the blue-collar workers who helped get him elected is no small feat, even for the very accomplished billionaire, who has a long record of delivering under budget and on time. Sure, it’s unusual for a president-elect to interject himself in the economic mechanizations of a specific company — let alone the economy writ large — but everything about Trump being the next president is unusual... The brutally...

Democrats Must Dig Faster and Use Bigger Shovels Things the Democratic elites should do in order to live up to their party principles. The biggest media topic of the day, apart from how president-elect Trump is Hitler, is how the Democratic party can dig its way out of the sinkhole in which it woke up on November 9th.  In the meantime, perpetual panic attacks among Democratic elites result in uncontrollable anger, projections, verbal incontinence, hallucinations, and outright lunacy. Amidst alarming reports that her own party is being consumed by crisis, chaos, and infighting, Elizabeth Warren all of a sudden decided...

It’s Time for Honest Talk about Muslim Immigration Some immigrants from jihad zones will be involved in murdering Americans. Is this an acceptable price for compassion? By David French — November 30, 2016 At 9:52 a.m. on Monday morning, a silver Honda jumped a curb at Ohio State University and plowed directly into a crowd of students, sending bodies flying through the air. As students rushed to help, a young Somali immigrant, Abdul Razak Ali Ratan, got out of the car and began attacking horrified students with a butcher knife. All told, eleven people were wounded before a university...

After taking white working-class voters for granted in November, the Democratic Party seems poised to do the same for Jews – and that could have important implications for the already troubled U.S.-Israeli relationship. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who lead the party's progressive wing, are backing Rep. Keith Ellison, an African-American Muslim with a long history of anti-Semitic leanings and anti-Israeli positions, as the party's next chairman. So too is the incoming Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, who is considered one of Israel's strongest Democratic backers. Ellison's bid and high-level backing reflect the party's increasing...