Free Republic

  William ShakespeareCurrently Venezuela, like Obamacare, is in an accelerating death spiral due to Hugo Chávez’ Andean socialism experiment, 1999-2013, the year of his demise. He managed to destroy an otherwise robust  economy in 13 short years. When Nicolás Maduro  took over he had little to work with but instead of reversing the policies that led to the collapse of the Venezuelan bolivar and the entire economy he doubled down. As his people make do without basic necessities - like food and toilet paper – he continues to consolidate power and control.  According to Bloomberg Venezuela is sliding “closer toward...

Sorry Dems, it's not working 80% is a yuge number. In polling terms, that’s almost astronomical. 80% of the American people almost never agree on anything. Yet that’s the number of respondents who want to end sanctuary cities in favor of local law enforcement reporting illegals to the feds. That’s the top line of a new Harvard–Harris Poll, which contains some very good news for Trump and some very bad news for Democrats.

If Morning Joe had a hook, they would have yanked presidential advisor Stephen Miller off the set of the Sunday shows he appeared on yesterday. Today's Morning Joe devoted a long segment to eviscerating his performance. The essence of the criticism was two-fold. First, that Miller spoke too much about his personal views rather than those of the president he serves. Second, that in declaring that the powers of the president to protect the country "will not be questioned" he was expressing an undemocratic view running counter to the principle of judicial review. View the video.

Wait a second: was that Sean Hannity on Fox News? Nope, it was Chris Matthews on MSNBC last night, expressing surprising skepticism over the 9th Circuit’s decision to uphold the stay of President Trump’s executive order on immigration.Matthews made a multi-pronged attack on the ruling. Matthews suggested political motives on the part of the Court:”so much of this court ruling is based on what they think about Trump.” He called it “an odd ban on Muslims if it doesn’t include 95% of Muslims.” Matthews suggested that the ruling would not have gone 3-0 against the order if it had been...

Morning Joe came down with a bad case of the vapors this morning, clutching its collective pearls [to mix metaphors] over President Trump’s comments about the court currently hearing the case on the executive order on immigration. Jon Meacham said that Trump was “messing with the Magna Carta,” of all things! Joe Scarborough upped the anxiety ante, saying “the historical precedents are chilling. I don’t even want to mention their names, but some of the dangerous autocrats of the 20th century, their two goals were to, first, undermine an independent judiciary and, second, to undermine a free press.” Gee, wonder...

On CNN this morning, David Gregory, speaking of President Trump’s tweeting—and specifically, those from this weekend criticizing the judge who blocked his executive order on immigration—said: “he sounds like an old man sitting on his porch yelling at somebody to get off his lawn.” Added Gregory: “you’ve had in the first 18 days, successive weekends where he has completely derailed what his administration is trying to do with a kind of personal indulgence by attacking people personally, launching an attack on the separation of powers. But what it really comes down to is this obsession with himself, and I think...

Day Deux of Joe Scarborough's tirade against the Trump admin's handling of the executive order on immigration. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough condemned the admin's accusation that acting AG Sally Yates had "betrayed" the Justice Department by refusing to enforce the executive order. Scarborough repeatedly called the use of the word "frightening," suggesting it was worthy of an "autocrat" in a country like Venezuela. Scarborough then turned the tables, saying that Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and Trump himself had "betrayed" Defense Secretary Mattis, DHS head John Kelly, and others by failing to provide them details of the order before it...