Free Republic

The star of 'The Marriage of Maria Braun' and 'Lilli Marleen' says the anti-harassment movement has led to "people touching each other less” and recalls being slapped by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Iconic German actress Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lilli Marleen) has become the latest prominent figure to push back against the #MeToo movement. Schygulla revealed that she herself had been the victim of violence while shooting a movie with late German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but appeared to side with #MeToo critics. “When I started making films, Fassbinder slapped me in the face and said I...

It’s happened. We saw this coming. In fact, unlike Obamacare, it was almost guaranteed to happen: the GOP bill is becoming more popular . It’s now split 44/44 percent supporting and opposing the legislation. That’s a 21-point jump from December when it was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump. The polling was dismal on the bill then, but Republicans held firm and passed it via reconciliation. Not a single Democrat voted for the bill; a bill that provides middle and working class tax relief. It was even asked back then: what will Democrats do when his tax...

White nationalist provocateurs, a pair of fake news sites, an army of Twitter bots and other cyber tricks helped derail Democratic Senator Al Franken last year, new research shows. While everyone has been focused on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to support Donald Trump, the Franken takedown originated in—and was propelled by—a strategic online campaign with digital tentacles reaching to, of all places, Japan. Analysts have now mapped out how Hooters pinup girl and lad-mag model Leeann Tweeden's initial accusation against Franken became effective propaganda after right-wing black ops master Roger Stone first hinted at the allegation.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania's high court issued a new congressional district map for the state's 2018 elections on its self-imposed deadline Monday, all but ensuring that Democratic prospects will improve in several seats and that Republican lawmakers challenge it in federal court. The map of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts is to be in effect for the May 15 primary and substantially overhauls a congressional map widely viewed as among the nation's most gerrymandered. The map was approved in a 4-3 decision. Most significantly, the new map likely gives Democrats a better shot at winning seats in Philadelphia's heavily populated and...

[snip] The aim of the factory’s work was either to influence voters or to undermine their faith in the U.S. political system, the 37-page indictment states. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that while the indictment focuses on “Russian nationals,” it gives “no indication that the Russian government was involved in this in any way.” Peskov reasserted that Moscow did not interfere in the U.S. election. Mindiyarov, who failed the language exam needed to get a job on the Internet Research Agency’s Facebook desk, where the pay was double than the domestic side of the factory. The sleek operation...

One of the revelations in Friday’s indictment handed down by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was that alleged Russian attempts to sow disunity in 2016 included the organization of both pro- and anti-Trump rallies in New York City on the Saturday after Election Day. A check of their November 12 coverage showed both CNN and MSNBC gave enthusiastic coverage to the Russian-organized anti-Trump rally that day, with live reports every hour. Correspondents celebrated the idea that it was “a love rally,” and repeated the marchers’ anti-Trump mantras, such as: “We reject the President-elect.”

An Alabama representative, Lynn Greer (R), has filed a bill to clarify Alabama law to include churches with dwellings that have protection under the law to use deadly force to protect the people inside from attack.  On 15 February, 2018, the bill was passed with overwhelming support, 40 to 16, in the House.  39 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted for the bill, 2 Republicans and 14 Democrats voted against it. From montgomeryadvertiser.com: The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, would add houses of worship to the state’s 2006 law, allowing a person to use physical force against anyone...

Sen. John McCain, Ill With Brain Cancer, Tells Western Allies 'I Am Counting on You... to Never Give Up' Cindy McCain accepted an award on behalf of her husband John McCain, who is ill with brain cancer, on Saturday night at the Munich Security Conference. She read a letter from her husband in which the Republican Senator and longtime foreign policy hawk urges America’s allies to stand by the values that won the Cold War. Letter: To my dear and cherished friends, and to my worthy adversaries: It breaks my heart that I cannot be with you. But as Cindy...

Two Mexican opposition candidates on Sunday vowed to take a tougher line against U.S. President Donald Trump’s border wall, at events where they were selected by their parties to seek the presidency in a July 1 election. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 64, of the leftist Morena party holds a double-digit lead in recent polls although right-left coalition leader Ricardo Anaya has recently gained traction. Former finance minister Jose Antonio Meade, 48, nominated on Sunday by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), trails behind Lopez Obrador by as much as 20 points. Lopez Obrador told several hundred Morena supporters gathered at...

Plenty of national media have weighed in on whether Gov. Charlie Crist will be Sen. John McCain's running mate, but what about the Republican candidate himself? Asked Thursday while Crist campaigned with him in West Palm Beach, McCain demurred. "I know one thing about Gov. Crist," McCain said. "And that is that he is a great governor. He does a great job. And I think that ... there are many ways for him to serve the country."

Cindy McCain accepted an award on behalf of her husband John McCain, who is ill with brain cancer, on Saturday night at the Munich Security Conference. She read a letter from her husband in which the Republican Senator and longtime foreign policy hawk urges America’s allies to stand by the values that won the Cold War. The Ewald Von Kleist Award is given for service to international peace and conflict resolution. It is named for a German who volunteered to wear a suicide vest in the attack on Adolf Hitler, and who founded the conference conference in Munich.

The president (Trump), who has been dismissing this attack on our country as a “hoax” and “fake news” for over a year, leapt to defend, not the country, but himself. “Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President,” he tweeted, dodging the point. (By 2013, Trump had already spent $1 million exploring a potential bid.) “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” Maybe yes. Maybe no. More indictments will come, and we’ll see who among Trump’s inner circle, or Trump himself,...

How Immigration Turned California into America’s Poverty Capital California is a land of untold opulence and splendor. Hollywood’s glitter dazzles the gawking masses, while the world’s most profitable companies, Google, Apple, and Facebook, funnel cash into the Golden State from every corner of the earth. It is the apotheosis of decadence. And yet California is also desperately poor. One-in-five Californians live in poverty, the State’s income inequality is worse than Mexico’s, and untold thousands live on the streets. It is dystopia. How can so much wealth and poverty coexist? This is the California Paradox. It was not always this way....

Aaron Feis was the right man in the right place at the right time, but he was legally prevented from using the right, constitutionally protected tool to do the job. Mr. Feis was shot on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, shielding students from a killer with his own body. Ultimately, he and 16 other people, mainly students, died. Mr. Feis was truly a remarkable and courageous man. Most media reports have focused on his after-school job as a Stoneman Douglas High football coach (here, here, here, here, and here) – but, on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Feis was...

Did you know that the Russian trolling during the 2016 election was so horrible and transformative that it compares to...the attack upon Pearl Harbor? While you chuckle over that observation, keep in mind that the absurd comparison was made by Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post.   Tumulty's hostility towards the president comes out in the very title of her laughable February 18 premise, We’ve just hit a new presidential low:

WASHINGTON — Hoping to counter waves of Russian Twitter bots, fake social media accounts, and hacking attacks aimed at undermining American democracy, state election officials around the country are seizing on an old-school strategy: paper ballots. In Virginia, election officials have gone back to a paper ballot system, as a way to prevent any foreign interference. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolfe this month ordered county officials to ensure new election equipment produces a paper record. Georgia lawmakers are considering legislation to replace a touch-screen voting system with paper. Top election officials around the country are growing increasingly alarmed about this fall’s...

Al Hoffman Jr. is a Palm Beach County Real Estate Developer and prominent (i.e., deep pocketed) GOP donor. Mr. Hoffman has issued a public ultimatum on the Florida Republican Party . . . “For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing’s been done?” “It’s the end of the road for me.” Mr. Hoffman, also a former ambassador to Portugal, has donated millions to GOP candidates like Jeb Bush and former President George W. Bush. He’s also opened his wallet...

Did Robert Mueller’s office withhold other evidence in Michael Flynn’s prosecution, either from the FISA court or from Flynn’s attorneys? There is reason to believe so. -------------------------------------------------------- On Friday, Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order in United States v. Flynn that, while widely unnoticed, reveals something fascinating: A motion by Michael Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea based on government misconduct is likely in the works. Just a week ago, and thus before Sullivan quietly directed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team to provide Flynn’s attorneys “any exculpatory evidence,” Washington Examiner columnist Byron York detailed the oddities of Flynn’s case. The...

On Sunday’s “Face the Nation,” Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman John Podesta was rattled after CBS host Nancy Cordes asked him how the Russians knew to focus on Michigan and Wisconsin and Hillary didn’t. BRUTAL. Nancy Cordes referenced Robert Mueller’s indictment which revealed the Russians targeted swing states such as Michigan and Wisconsin for their disinformation campaign. “But it does beg the question, how is it that these Russian operatives knew to focus on purple states like Michigan and Wisconsin and your campaign didn’t?” Nancy Cordes asked. Podesta was visibly flustered. Cordes quickly shot back and said, “Hillary Clinton herself...

Congressional Republicans failed to repeal or replace Obamacare. But one state has come up with a way to get around it. Idaho is dealing with Obamacare by just blowing it off. If it works, other states seem likely to follow. Idaho’s Republican governor, Butch Otter, signed an executive order last year paving the way for non-Obamacare-compliant health insurance plans to be sold in his state, and Lt. Gov. Brad Little has since cobbled together what is sure to be the nation’s most controversial healthcare initiative. Obamacare’s spiraling premium increases have especially hurt middle-income consumers, In Idaho, at least, they will...