Free Republic

There's a reason why Donald Trump is stirring up the Republican race. The Republican Party has become a resistance movement, and Trump is leading the resistance. What it's resisting is the rise of the New America. That's the coalition of groups that were historically marginalized: immigrants, racial and religious minorities, gays, working women, single mothers, young people and "unchurched" Americans with no religious affiliation. It's a coalition united by a commitment to diversity and inclusion. And deeply opposed to symbols of exclusion like the Confederate flag, hostility to immigrants and homophobia. The coalition is growing in numbers as the U.S....

Overall, what do you think about the Army down- sizing in Hawaii: 1,400 fewer troops and loss of the Stryker Brigade?

"On the 5th of the month he is supposed to have his EBT deposit," said Moline. But earlier this week those calls turned into trying to figure out why the money he depends on for food wasn't there. When he couldn't get answers from the processing center or the Department of Health Services, he contacted Hawaii News Now. "The reason I called was not just for me or my friend. It was how many people like us are going through this same situation that don't speak up. That give up," said Moline.

The U.S. Army will reduce the number of soldiers stationed at Hawaii bases by 1,443 over the next two years, a reduction of 8 percent, rather than cutting most of the troops currently stationed on Oahu, Defense Department officials said Thursday. The cuts are part of a nation-wide cost-cutting move that will reduce the number of soldier positions by 40,000 by 2017.

The Trump Hotel Collection, a string of luxury hotel properties tied to business magnate and now Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, appears to be the latest victim of a credit card breach, according to data shared by several U.S.-based banks. Contacted regarding reports from sources at several banks who traced a pattern of fraudulent debit and credit card charges to accounts that had all been used at Trump hotels, the company declined multiple requests for comment. But sources in the financial industry say they have little doubt that Trump properties in several U.S. locations — including Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas,...

‘Puerto Rican citizens — U.S. citizens — ought to have the right to determine whether they want to be a state,” Jeb Bush said this week. But they have had the right to determine that several times, and they seem to have determined the answer: No. The former Florida governor also said he thought statehood was a good idea on the merits, which it plainly is not. The most recent occasion for Puerto Ricans to weigh in was 2012, when they technically did end up voting for statehood — in a ballot process that would make Vladimir Putin blush. Voters...

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii —On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters forced construction crews for the Thirty Meter Telescope to come to a halt, but it didn’t come without sacrifice.In total, 12 people were arrested for obstructing the path, but after a six-hour attempt to make it to the top of the summit, TMT crews only reached about a mile and a half up from hale pohaku before turning back. It’s been a long haul for those for and against building what will be one of the world's largest telescopes on land held sacred by many Native Hawaiians, a divided image that has...

Hawaii’s governor has signed a bill to make his state the first to raise the legal smoking age to 21. The measure aims to prevent adolescents from smoking, buying or possessing both traditional and electronic cigarettes. Gov. David Ige signed it into law Friday. Dozens of local governments have similar bans, including Hawaii County and New York City. “Raising the minimum age as part of our comprehensive tobacco control efforts will help reduce tobacco use among our youth and increase the likelihood that our keiki will grow up tobacco-free,” said Ige, using the Hawaiian word for children. In Hawaii, 86...

Adolf Hitler started World War II by attacking Poland on September 1, 1939. Nazi Germany moved only after it had already remilitarized the Rhineland, absorbed Austria and dismantled Czechoslovakia. Before the outbreak of the war, Hitler's new Third Reich had created the largest German-speaking nation in European history. Well before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese government had redrawn the map of Asia and the Pacific. Japan had occupied or annexed Indochina, Korea, Manchuria and Taiwan, in addition to swaths of coastal China. Attacking Hawaii, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia was merely the logical 1941 follow-up...

Wailuku, Maui (HawaiiNewsNow) - One man is dead after an officer-involved shooting in Wailuku Saturday afternoon. Police say a traffic stop was conducted by a patrol officer on an SUV along Lower Main St. and Hookahi St. at approximately 4:30 p.m. One witness who lives near the incident said he saw everything. "They got pulled over by two cops, and one of the guys walked away from his car…and then the cops started telling him to stop, and then he pulled out a gun and he shot at them," said Alfred Ayers. The investigation revealed that the passenger got out...

The Defense Department announced in April that the remains of up to nearly 400 unaccounted for service members tied to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor will be exhumed. That process began on Monday. “This was the first set of remains from the USS Oklahoma to be disinterred,” said Jim Horton, the director of the Punchbowl cemetery. Disinterment ceremonies were held when the bones of Korean War veterans were exhumed for identification. Now, hundreds who served on USS Oklahoma during World War II may also be identified. The attacked happened at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. But many bodies...

Republicans in Congress are worried the Supreme Court will hand them a major headache this month if it rules against the federal health insurance exchanges in more than 30 states, ending subsidies for millions of people. While the Affordable Care Act remains broadly unpopular, two new polls show a majority of Americans don’t want to do away with its subsidies, a core component of the law. This poses a conundrum for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner. They are under pressure from colleagues up for reelection in swing states and districts to extend the subsidies, at...

Last week Americans For Tax Reform released new information showing that during Hawaii's special Obamacare enrollment period, zero people enrolled. The total state cost for the exchange sits at more than $200 million. While Hawaii enrolled zero individuals and is the worst performing state, it is not alone. Vermont signed up only 97 households, while Rhode Island enrolled just 25 households. Hawaii’s dismal performance should not be surprising. The website cost taxpayers $205 million but could only enroll 8,592 individuals in year one. Cost to taxpayers per enroll: $23,899. The state legislature recently rejected a $28 million bailout for the...

As the Supreme Court decision in the Burwell case nears, the collapsing beast known as Obamacare is already expiring: Hawaii is taking its troubled ObamaCare insurance exchange off life support, the governor’s office announced Friday, the latest addition to a growing number of state exchanges forced to close after operations became unsustainable. The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a statement.The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) informed the exchange last week that federal funds were no longer available to support long-term operations....

Cue up the Queen soundtrack… another one bites the dust. Hawaii is throwing in the towel and shutting down its state Obamacare exchange. $200M in federal taxpayer cash has essentially disappeared down a rat hole. Customers will instead be directed to the federal system. Hawaii is taking its troubled ObamaCare insurance exchange off life support, the governor’s office announced Friday, the latest addition to a growing number of state exchanges forced to close after operations became unsustainable.The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a...

After months on life support, the Hawaii Obamacare exchange will shutter operations due to the site being economically unsustainable. The state sought more cash from the federal government - after spending more than $200 million - but when that option fell through, Hawaii had little choice but to close it down. Fox News:The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a statement. The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) informed the exchange last week that federal funds were no longer available to support long-term...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Mike on the Big Island in Hawaii. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello. CALLER: Good morning, Rush. Great to talk to you. I just was wondering, you know, with so many things being turned on its head like the Jenner transformation and all of that, I'm just wondering, how long do you think it's gonna be before a man who has chest implants who still considers himself a man asking society to allow him to walk around without a shirt, because he's still a man? RUSH: Fascinating thought. Fascinating thought, Mike. How long have...

China has begun dispatching surveillance vessels off the coast of Hawaii in response to theNavy's monitoring activities of disputed islands in the South China Sea, according to the Taiwan newspaper Want China Times. The purported surveillance comes on the heels of raised tensions between China and the United States late last month. A Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane was flying over the Spratly Islands near the Philippines and Malaysia when a Chinese radio dispatcher warned it several times to depart the airspace. China has been enlarging some of the uninhabited atolls by dredging up sand from the sea bottom, claiming...

HONOLULU, Aug. 28 — Researchers said Wednesday they found a Japanese midget submarine sunk more than an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Discovery of the 78-foot vessel could provide the first physical evidence to back U.S. military assertions that it fired first against Japan in World War II and inflicted the first casualties.>p> THE SUB was sunk by a Navy destroyer on Dec. 7, 1941. Two Japanese crewmen are believed still inside the submarine. “It’s the shot that started World War II between the Americans and the Japanese,” said John Wiltshire, associate director of the Hawaii Undersea Research...

Hawaii Island police report that a 47-year-old fisherman died Friday in Kailua-Kona during a fishing accident. Responding to a 10:48 a.m. call, police learned that a swordfish had been observed in Honokohau Harbor and that fisherman Randy Llanes of Kailua-Kona had jumped into the water with a spear gun. The fish was then seen thrashing about, leaving a puncture wound to the man’s upper chest. Hawaii County Fire Department personnel responded to the scene and attempted CPR. They took Llanes to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m. Acting Sgt. David Matsushima of the Kona patrol...