Free Republic

Hillary Clinton is on the cusp of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, and could move closer as Puerto Rico's primary results are announced Sunday night. The former secretary of state is competing with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to win a majority of Puerto Rico's 60 delegates. Clinton began the day 60 delegates shy of the 2,383 she needs to win the Democratic nomination -- with 1,776 pledged delegates and another 547 superdelegates. Sanders, meanwhile, started Sunday with 1,547 delegates total: 1,501 pledged delegates and another 46 superdelegates. Clinton is closing in on a historic nomination as the first female presidential...

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo gave police stand down order during anti-Trump riots So why was San Jose’s police department so bad in controlling the anti-Trump riots this week? Turns out Mayor Sam Liccardo gave the police a stand down order during the riots. Sam Liccardo is a card carrying Hillary Clinton supporter and far left nut job. San Jose is a shit hole, so now it all makes perfect sense. LIccardo had the nerve to blame the victims of mob attacks after a Trump speech, a lot of whom were waving Mexican flags. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo gave...

I am not normally one to use Facebook politically, but I am so pissed about the un-American thuggish mobs that I decided to change my Facebook profile picture to one of the girls who had been beaten with the caption: "I stand for the victims of the Democrat party's violent intolerance of dissent." Please join me and do the same. Find a compelling picture of a victim and post it as your profile picture in protest of the violence in the Democrat party and support for their victims. If asked how long my friends and family must see these profile...

Donald Trump has a new message for Susana Martinez, the Republican New Mexico governor he slammed in front of a home state crowd for not doing her job: Actually, he thinks she's pretty great. Trump would now like Martinez's endorsement, he said Thursday in a phone interview with a New Mexico newspaper reporter, signaling a truce in a public spat with the country's only Latina governor and chairwoman of the Republican Governor's Association that had raised questions about Trump's desire to unify the party. “I respect her. I have always liked her,” he told the Sante Fe New Mexican. The...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez may be planning to meet with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump just days after insisting she wouldn't be bullied into voicing her support for him. Reps for Martinez recently revealed she hopes to soon chat with Trump, presumably in hopes of determining if the two might be able to work together for the benefit for the party. "Governor Martinez is encouraged by Mr. Trump's commitment to protect New Mexico's labs and bases, which are not only important to our state but also our national defense," Martinez's press secretary Mike Lonergan said in an email....

About a dozen pastors, including the Rev. Jim Velazquez of Temple Baptist Church of Santa Fe, complained during a gathering outside the state Capitol this week that under the Obama administration some Christians are being forced to comply with transgender-friendly policies that go against their religious beliefs. Baptist Pastor Franklin Raddish of Capitol Hill Independent Baptist Ministries in South Carolina helped lead what was billed as a Bible study session Thursday morning that drew about 13 people, most of them clergy. The event was a shot at President Obama’s May 13 order that directs public schools nationwide to allow transgender...

An Afghan national with ties to the Taliban — and a plot to carry out a terror attack somewhere in North America — was caught last fall after being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, an incident sure to further inflame the debate over national security risks at the border. The Afghan national’s alleged terror ties were not initially flagged in a terror database – and as a result, not initially reported – when the incident first came to light last November, according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who obtained Homeland Security documents on the incident. It was only later...

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson won the 2016 Libertarian Party nomination for president on Sunday, as expected, winning on the second ballot with 55 percent of the vote. A former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, he sought the Republican nomination for president in 2012, before deciding by the end of 2011 to seek the Libertarian Party nomination instead.Ordinarily, the Libertarian Party and its candidates attract little attention in a presidential race. Johnson got the Libertarian Party nomination in 2012 and went on to garner a little over a million votes, falling just short of one percent of the...

Via the Free Beacon, this is the guy I’m stuck with this fall, huh? *ffffaaaarrrrtttt* Second look at NRO Contributor 2016? A few months ago I would have laughed at Johnson for pandering to a left-wing movement that’s purportedly all about economics by emphasizing his common ground with them on everything but economics. After reading this, I’m not so sure. There’s a convincing case out there that a good chunk of Berniemania is twentysomethings and independent white men who disdain the Democratic label, relish the spirit of Sanders’s movement, but … aren’t terribly invested in the ultra-left platform he’s running...

Now that we know former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is going to be the Libertarian Party nominee after this weekend’s convention, much of the talk has centered around how Johnson could be a spoiler for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. Conventional wisdom would say that Libertarians and Republicans have a closer ideology than Libertarians and Democrats, and therefore, conservatives dissatisfied with Trump will vote for Johnson. The problem with this conventional wisdom is that 2016 isn’t conventional, and the candidates representing their parties don’t hold the usual ideologies of their parties. At this point, it appears there are more...

A candidate for the Libertarian Party’s chairman position stripped off his clothes and strutted his stuff on stage at the party’s national convention Sunday, instead of simply making a speech. He did not win the position. The lumberjack-looking candidate tried a laissez-faire approach to campaigning at the Orlando event: He cued a dance song, clapped, and then slowly removed his tie, shirt and suspenders, all for the live C-Span cameras.

The Huffington Post has uncovered a fact that thousands of Biblical scholars and theologians have missed: Jesus was the first transgender man. To HuffPo writer Suzanne Dewitt Hall, “the current flap in conservative Christian circles about bathroom access is a bit baffling.” She claims that God created transgenders in Genesis, after all. […] “The Holy Spirit comes upon the second Eve, and the child takes flesh from her and is born… with XX chromosome pairing. Born genetically female, and yet trans-formed into man.” …

Many observers were mystified when Donald Trump attacked New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. But the story was really very simple: Martinez hit Trump, so Trump hit back. *snip* The Trump-Martinez bewilderment focused on four factors: Martinez is Hispanic, she's a woman, she's a Republican (head of the Republican Governors Association), and she's popular. "I think it sent all the wrong signals," said Newt Gingrich, who has generally been pro-Trump. "You particularly don't want to see your candidate who needs to...get stronger with Latinos, and stronger with women, attack a Latina woman Republican governor." *snip* Trump has made a principle...

Orlando, Florida (CNN)Libertarians on Sunday selected a presidential ticket headed by former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who lit into presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on immigration and a range of other issues. At the party convention in Orlando, Florida, Johnson got his preferred running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, in a weekend gathering that drew sharp contrasts with the major party candidates -- Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. Johnson described the real estate mogul's immigration policies as "just racist," particularly the Republican's call to deport 11 million undocumented people currently in the country. Libertarian activists...

Libertarians on Sunday selected former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson as their party's presidential nominee, at their party convention in Orlando, Florida. "At a minimum, I think we're in the presidential debates," Johnson said to cheers. Sarwark said the party had established a "back channel" to the Koch brothers, in the hopes the wealthy libertarian-leaning funders donate to the Libertarian Party. Sarwark also said he had been speaking to Matt Kibbe, former president of conservative advocacy group Freedomworks, about supporting the party's nominee. Johnson received almost 1 percent of the general election vote in 2012 A recent national poll had...

Progressives and others on the radical Left are not very intelligent people. This is something we should be very thankful for, because were they actually competent, they would have completely overwhelmed the spineless, feckless Republican Party and established total control decades ago. As it stands, because progressives in the United States have so little foresight and self-control, they end up damaging their own cause through their own foolish behavior and inability to moderate themselves for the sake of more broadly appealing to the masses. This was shown most recently in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a crowd of left-wing hooligans –...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Hispanic voters in Florida, New Mexico and California have waved Mexican flags and bashed Donald Trump piñatas — clashing with police, at times — to protest the Republican presidential contender's hard line approach to immigration. Yet far from the protests, an increasingly vocal Hispanic minority is speaking out in favor of the brash billionaire. They are backing Trump even in the face of resentment and suspicion from friends and family, who are among the overwhelming majority of non-white voters opposed to the New York businessman's candidacy. "I'm not ashamed to vote for Trump. I'd just rather...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Hispanic voters in Florida, New Mexico and California have waved Mexican flags and bashed Donald Trump piñatas - clashing with police, at times - to protest the Republican presidential contender's hard line approach to immigration. Yet far from the protests, an increasingly vocal Hispanic minority is speaking out in favor of the brash billionaire. They are backing Trump even in the face of resentment and suspicion from friends and family, who are among the overwhelming majority of non-white voters opposed to the New York businessman's candidacy...

Yikes. I’m probably as surprised as anyone else to hear myself saying it, but the producers might want to start cranking up the music and offer a subtle hint to Mitt Romney that it’s time to get off the stage. We’re busy getting ready for the convention in Cleveland and the pieces are pretty much set up on the board, yet it seems that the winner of the 2012 GOP primary can’t bring himself to step back and let somebody else get on message. This pattern of behavior was on display yet again this week when Mitt let everyone know...

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said Monday he "absolutely" stands by his preferred running mate's comment comparing Donald Trump's immigration plan to Nazi Germany. "Absolutely, absolutely. In New Mexico here, is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson, who served as New Mexico's governor for two terms, when asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead." Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld -- who is expected to be picked alongside Johnson to run on the Libertarian Party ticket at a nominating convention this weekend -- told The New York Times on Thursday...