Free Republic

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican fixture in California who represented Orange County for 15 terms, has lost his bid for re-election. His defeat underlines the party’s setbacks in a part of the state that was long a symbol of its political dominance. The Associated Press called the race on Saturday, with Harley Rouda receiving 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Rohrabacher’s 48 percent. Mr. Rouda, 56, is a former Republican turned Democrat who became a symbol of the Democratic efforts to win back Congress this year. Mr. Rohrabacher, 71, was viewed as particularly vulnerable because he defended Russia in...

So, after all this talk about dialing down the rhetoric, letÂ’s be clear about something: thatÂ’s never, ever going to happen. As long as there is a Democratic Party, it wonÂ’t happen. You cannot reason with these people. We said the same thing after the assassination attempt of former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ). It didnÂ’t take. Why? ItÂ’s because Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, red states and blue states are different. We have different cultural attitudes, different views on patriotism (Democrats hate outward displays of national pride), and DEEP differences on how government should run the country. We...

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s closing argument is now clear: Build tent cities for migrants. End birthright citizenship. Fear the caravan. Send active-duty troops to the border. Refuse asylum. Immigration has been the animating issue of the Trump presidency, and now — with the possibility that Republicans could face significant losses in the midterm elections on Tuesday — the president has fully embraced a dark, anti-immigrant message in the hope that stoking fear will motivate voters to reject Democrats. In a rambling speech on Thursday afternoon that was riddled with falsehoods and vague promises to confront a “crisis” at the border,...

The latest report from the world’s climate scientists has made clear the size of the challenge if the world is to stay below the global warming limit hoped for in the Paris climate agreement. Unfortunately, with current trends we are likely to cross this threshold within the next two decades because we are already two-thirds of the way there. But how do we know what is driving these climate trends? It comes down to the same kind of detective work that typifies a crime scene investigation, only here we are dealing with a case that encompasses the whole world. Let...

The New York Times is under fire for a fictional account of President Trump being gunned down by a Russian assassin with a Glock belonging to his own Secret Service in a short story dubbed “assassination fantasy” by critics. The Times Book Review section noted that its puts a spotlight on “books and stories, but also on how the books being written and read reflect the world outside of books.” Editors said that the Mueller probe and Trump’s relationship with Putin is “one of the biggest stories out there,” therefore the paper enlisted “today’s most talented spy and crime novelists”...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. ... the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times. The department argued in its memo that key...

Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the field’s research in the name of white supremacy. “Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult,” said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the group’s social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction. But the specter of the field’s ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large...

Last week, a trolling campaign organized by right-wing internet users spilled over onto Twitter. The campaign, which was born in the fever swamps of 4chan and Reddit message boards, involved creating hundreds of fictional personas with gray cartoon avatars, known as NPCs. These accounts posed as liberal activists and were used to spread — among other things — false information about November’s midterm elections.

Michael Kelly, the legendary journalist who died covering the invasion of Iraq in 2003, once wrote that the “animating impulse” of modern liberalism was to “marginalize itself and then enjoy its own company. And to make itself as unattractive to as many as possible.” “If it were a person,” he added, “it would pierce its tongue.” [snip] t pierced its tongue on CNN this week, when Hillary Clinton told Christiane Amanpour that “you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” And when former Attorney General Eric Holder said...

Get Angry, and Get Involved The midterm elections are the smart way to make your influence felt. By David Leonhardt Opinion Columnist Oct. 7, 2018 If you’re not angry yet, you should be. Let’s review: Decades ago, a businessman built a fortune thanks in large measure to financial fraud. His corrupt gains helped him become famous. He then launched a political career by repeatedly telling a racist lie, about the first black president secretly being an African. This lie created an audience in right-wing media that made possible a presidential campaign. During that campaign, the candidate eagerly accepted — indeed,...

WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh sat in the anteroom of Room 216 in the Hart Senate Office Building, a sterile, living-room-like space with a couch and a couple of armchairs and a large television on the wall. His chances of joining the Supreme Court seemed to be vanishing. “Disaster,” read the text message from one Republican. Christine Blasey Ford had just finished testifying that he had tried to force himself on her as a teenager, and nearly everyone in both camps found her credible, sincere and sympathetic. President Trump called Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, and they agreed...

A federal appeals panel seems poised to reinstate a defamation lawsuit Sarah Palin brought against The New York Times. A three-judge panel found it unusual that a judge tossed the lawsuit last year after hearing testimony from a single witness. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel heard oral arguments Friday.

And the Democratic Party has not actually become a band of radical leftists Conventional wisdom says that the middle is disappearing from American politics: The Republicans have moved far to the right, the Democrats far to the left, and woe to any moderate voters looking for politicians to represent their views. Well, the conventional wisdom is wrong. The Democrats have not actually become radical leftists, or anything close to it. You keep hearing this story partly because Republicans have an obvious interest in promoting it and partly because large parts of the news media find it irresistible. It’s a “both...

'This is a clear and present danger to the country.... a soft coup aided and abetted' by the mediaSean Hannity joined President Trump on Friday in urging federal authorities to identify the author of the anonymously written op-ed responsible for rocking the White House this week, calling their conduct a crime worthy of being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. Discussing the opinion column during his Fox News program, “Hannity,” the conservative commentator and adamant Trump supporter urged the agency responsible for protecting the president to find its author for the sake of national security. “This is a clear and...

I grew up reading the New York Times as the paper of record because my social studies teachers in high school and college mandated it. I stopped reading it years and years ago as it became overtly biased and predictably liberal. The last few days, I have been in Asia and the hotel only had the NYT, so I had a quick read. WOW! This is not a real newspaper — it is a propaganda organ for the anti-American, post-modern radical who loathes Trump, any traditional values, the family, and what used to be referred to as, good taste. The...

For the clusters of onlookers, besuited power players and three former presidents who had all traveled to Washington National Cathedral, the muggy day was a historic opportunity to memorialize the life of Senator John McCain, who was remembered as a deeply patriotic war hero, a former Republican presidential candidate and a scrappy, humanly flawed, ultimately idealistic lawmaker. For President Trump, it was Saturday. In the many discussions about how to mark his life that Mr. McCain had with his staff and family before he died, he had made clear he did not want Mr. Trump to participate in anything they...

The New York Times’ Frank Bruni really upped his game this week. In an atrociously brutal piece, he called Vice President Mike Pence a “holy terror,” claiming he’s multiple degrees more sinister than President Trump, the otherwise most sinister person on the planet. Bruni actually warns the best case against impeaching Trump is the much greater danger of Pence. Think about that a moment though. For all the venom and apocalyptic hysteria being spewed at everything Trump has ever said, done or probably even thought — and there is plenty there of concern — there is someone even “worse” than...

The New York Times said it vetted her social-media history before Sarah Jeong was hired last week, which means the newspaper was presumably aware of her “Trump is Hitler” tweets. In addition to firing off anti-white and anti-cop missives, Ms. Jeong, the latest member of the newspaper’s editorial board, repeatedly equated Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler on Twitter leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Her account included declarations such as “Trump is Hitler,” “Trump = Hitler,” and “trump is basically hitler,” as well as “Was Hitler as rapey as Donald Trump?”

The rising star host of the New York Times’ hit podcast “The Daily” is now dating the show’s executive producer, Lisa Tobin.

I can smell Donald Trump’s fear from here. His panic. His anxiety. And yet, I don’t have a full picture of what is causing it. The only people who know what has been discovered in the Russian election meddling probe are Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team, and they aren’t talking. But President Trump no doubt knows far more about it than the rest of us, and what he knows — or what he fears — appears to be a consuming preoccupation. He tweets about the investigation constantly. Part of this is an overt play to bend public opinion,...