Free Republic

In the last 24 hours violent leftist mobs and Open Border thugs smashed police cars, bloodied Trump supporters, mugged Trump supporters, harassed Trump supporters, spit on Trump supporters, and stormed the GOP California Convention. National Review Washington Editor Eliana Johnson blamed the Trump supporters for this mob violence. Eliana Johnson: Well, one really important thing, Neil, is not to confuse where the bad behavior is coming from. Mr. Trump and his campaign have behaved badly in encouraging and fomenting violence inside their rallies. And, these protesters are behaving badly fomenting and encouraging bad behavior outside the rallies. The fact that...

During an era of headline-grabbing advances in medicine, the United States is experiencing a health cataclysm. The latest straw in the wind is last week’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that life expectancy for white women declined slightly from 2013 to 2014.

Cruz is doing a decent job of talking to political junkies, and a terrible job of talking to everyone else. Some of that is the media’s fault and much of it is Ted Cruz’s fault. Find a friend of yours who doesn’t pay much attention to politics. Ask those people what Trump wants to do. Don’t ask them about their opinion of Trump. Ask them what actual government actions the Trump wants. They will definitely tell you that he wants to build a wall, ban Muslim immigration, and deport illegal aliens. They will tell you that he will negotiate better...

In what is likely an unconstitutional state action seemingly calculated to ensure that the purple state of Virginia goes blue in the November election, Governor Terry McAuliffe (D.) signed an order on Friday restoring the voting rights of 206,000 ex-felons in Virginia, including those convicted of murder, armed robbery, rape, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. The order also restores their right to sit on a jury, become a notary, and even serve in elected office. McAuliffe believes that ex-felons can be trusted to make decisions in the ballot booth and the jury box but apparently not to own a...

When I was a lad, I very much enjoyed the comedy of Cheech & Chong. Tonight, at the Novo by Microsoft theatre in downtown Los Angeles, I got to see them live. Their humor comes from a gentler, and now rather distant, time in our nation’s history, but only one of the many bits actually felt dated. Amid the drug-related and social-observation material came a genuine political surprise. An anti-Trump joke in the opening act fell a little flat, and a few minutes later, when the main act got under way, Cheech asked the audience, “Are there any Donald Trump...

Before we begin debunking, let’s start with the obvious: It was undoubtedly a good night for Trump and unsurprisingly so, as NR’s Henry Olsen predicted on election eve. Trump looks to have taken 90 delegates and 60 percent of the vote, somewhat better than projections, although most election-eve forecasts had him taking at least 85 or so of New York’s 95 delegates (Olsen had him pegged for 87). But despite his victory, Trump got only a very modest bump from New York last night. And despite the breathless TV and print commentary from our New York–centered media, he still faces...

Ted Cruz’s team knew that Donald Trump would run away with his native New York Tuesday. And they expect he’ll win the lion’s share of delegates at stake next week when a slate of northeastern states votes. So they’ve spent the last two weeks looking ahead, quietly laying the groundwork for a kitchen-sink campaign in a state they can’t afford to let Trump win: Indiana. The Hoosier State doesn’t vote until May 3, and Cruz certainly isn’t ignoring the contests in between. He spent time this week in both Maryland and Pennsylvania, the two states his campaign is confident will...

A new study released last week included new evidence that links and further authenticates two holy relics that millions of Christians believe offer physical proof of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But before we explore the research and the relics, let us recall a New Testament passage concerning faith in Christ and the need for physical evidence. I mean the familiar story of “doubting Thomas” (John 20:24–29). The apostle Thomas was absent when the resurrected Christ appeared to some of the apostles. On hearing the astonishing news, Thomas declared, “Unless I see the nail marks in...

Carol's boyfriend is a mercurial figure -- a potentially nice guy, but unreliable, dangerous, and married to someone else. Exactly who he is can be hard to make out amid his capriciousness, his lying, and his occasional descents into violence... But he can change. What else to expect from someone who reflects the baser passions? It'll be different when Carol fixes him. It'll be different when he leaves his wife. It'll be different when he kicks the habit. It'll be different when he gets back on his feet again. The therapy will change him. And Carol can learn to stop...

... It looks like the Trump body snatching virus I wrote about last month is spreading again. For a moment, after Wisconsin, it seemed like it might be going into remission. Nope, it’s actually spiking. Last night the New York Post endorsed Donald Trump. After I criticized the editorial on Twitter, a Trump supporter tweeted at me “No Goldberg, you are wrong. Support the front runner and stop trying to burn the party. Unite it.” ... On the drive in to my office this morning, I heard Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn, one of the wisest and gentlest souls I’ve...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, we opened yesterday talking about Syria, and I'm not gonna spend much more time on it. I do want to share with you a fascinating quote. To me, this is really fascinating. It's not surprising, but to have it said is momentous. I didn't see this on TV. I didn't have the TV on last night. I was reading John Fund today at National Review Online, and the title of his piece is, "The World Turned Upside Down, Indeed." His point here is about Obama and the Democrats ignoring Congress, in whatever they do with Syria....

Give Donald Trump credit for planning ahead. He is preparing to be a sore loser. Trump’s complaints that he is being undone by a rigged system crafted by a corrupt Republican Party is the dress rehearsal for his campaign’s closing argument should it come up short in Cleveland. Trump will, in his telling, have been stabbed in the back by insiders and be fully justified in wreaking a terrible revenge on the party that he briefly sought to lead. Facts and logic don’t particularly matter to Trump or his mouthpieces, yet the “rigged” charge is absurd even by the standards...

As a contested Republican convention grows increasingly likely and the rift between Donald Trump and mainstream Republicans widens into a chasm, the possibility that the losing faction at the convention could mount an independent bid for the presidency remains very real. Such a split in the Republican electorate would normally prove disastrous in a general election, and even the threat of such a run could provide Trump with convention-floor leverage. In a recent article, I proposed that the only way to ensure that such a split does not guarantee Democratic victory would be for Republican-controlled states to change their selection...

This is probably just the right balance for Ted Cruz: Senior Republicans have been asking Cruz to apologize to [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell so they can unite behind his bid to defeat Donald Trump. But Cruz did offer some kind words for McConnell Thursday. “Now I will tell you this, I am happy to praise Mitch McConnell and praise him effusively for his stand, along with (Senate Judiciary Chairman) Chuck Grassley, saying we are not going to hold hearings on a replacement” to the Supreme Court, Cruz told Bash. “Mitch McConnell’s doing the right thing, Chuck Grassley’s doing the right thing,...

WOW! On Wednesday night Politico reported that Donald Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski will not be charged for a hoax assault on reporter Michelle Fields. She made it up. Unfortunately, a lot of Cruz supporters stood with the hoaxer Fields. Tonight Megyn Kelly blamed the Trump Campaign for Michelle Fields filing a fraudulent police report against Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski.

The conventional wisdom is that though Ted Cruz can excite the conservative-activist base of the Republican party, he can’t beat Hillary Clinton in a general election. But the recent head-to-head polling tells a different story. Unless your name is George W. Bush, it’s tough to win 270 electoral votes without winning the popular vote. And Cruz is hanging in there against the Democratic front-runner. The RealClearPolitics average puts Clinton at 46.4 percent and Cruz at 43.9 percent; the most recent McClatchy-Marist survey has it a tie. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, the current Republican front-runner, hasn’t led Clinton in any national poll...

Full Title: AWFUL! 16 Cruz-Supporting Female Reporters Sought to Destroy Trump Campaign Manager=> APOLOGIZE NOW YOU WERE WRONG — APOLOGIZE NOW! Cruz Supporters Endorsed an Awful Hoax – They Sought to Destroy an Innocent Man. DISGUSTING! On March 30, 2016 a group of self-righteous Ted Cruz supporters released a prepared statement demanding Donald Trump fire Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski for the media hoax that he assaulted Michelle Fields by walking past her at a Trump event in Jupiter, Florida.The group of “guilty until proven innocent” included S.E. Cupp, Mary Katharine Ham, Dana Loesch, Katie Pavlich and Meghan McCain.These “conservatives” do...

<p>White elites are the main reason Donald Trump’s campaign hasn’t sputtered and failed.</p> <p>Why do the angry white poor and working class support the unlikely populist Donald Trump — a spoiled bully who made and lost fortunes in part by gaming the system, who seems to take gratuitous rudeness and cruelty as a birthright, whose lifestyle is symptomatic of American excess, and who for the last half-century has embraced no ideology other than Trump, Inc.?</p>

Donald Trump is right: The system is rigged. It’s rigged in favor of front-runners. That’s why Trump, who is leading the Republican nominating contest, has a larger percentage of delegates (46 percent) than of votes (37 percent). Unsurprisingly, Trump never mentions when the rules have helped him. He much prefers to whine and peddle conspiracy theories when they don’t. Trump’s latest tantrum is over Colorado, where Ted Cruz just swept all 34 of the state’s available delegates. Trump is calling the results “totally unfair” and on Twitter he asked: “How is it possible that the people of the great State...

Michigander Charlie LeDuff has produced an amazingly good boots-on-the-ground video which shows how insufferably connected the chattering class of Vichy Republicans have become. LeDuff showcases the disconnect by highlighting a series of articles in National Review, and then actually going to the locales belittled by the NRO staff and talking to the ordinary, hard-working middle class people who live within them. Driving to New York – LeDuff actually interviews the people that NRO is figuratively writing about, the resulting contrast speaks volumes: “Shocked by their support of Donald Trump, some elitist conservative thinkers are calling places like Garbutt, NY pockets...