Free Republic

“The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing,” declared George Washington, “is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.” Theodore Roosevelt concurred: “Profanity is the parlance of the fool. Why curse when there is such a magnificent language with which to discourse?” The answer is that profanity is a useful substitute for discourse when one is losing a debate and needs to trump reason with passionate intensity in order to win. That is what is happening in the current degraded state of our national political conversation. I’m not...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has a warning for President Trump: “Donald, you ain’t seen nasty yet.” Warren read aloud from her new book “This Fight is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class” and took questions at a town hall event in New York Friday, HuffPost reported. Warren blasted Trump for his economic policies, saying they are hurting the middle-class Americans who voted for him. “What Donald Trump and the Republican majority in the House and the Senate want to do to us, is they want to deliver the knockout blow to the middle class,” she said. She...

Pollsters had major trouble spotting the surge of support for Corey Stewart in Virginia’s Republican governor’s primary this week, suggesting they still can’t figure out how to successfully survey Trump supporters. Mr. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and onetime Trump campaign chairman in Virginia, ran as the Trump figure in the race, pursuing an anti-establishment message that centered around a tough approach to illegal immigration. Polling — which was strikingly infrequent — showed Mr. Stewart failing to crack 20 percent support, trailing Ed Gillespie, the putative front-runner, by as much as 27 percent. In the...

To talk about the 2018 elections is to hear of a possible Donald Trump backlash carrying Democrats to a House of Representatives majority. While Democrats hope that blue wave washes over Republican districts in Orange County, it’s not yet forecast to reach the Inland Empire, even though the traditionally Republican region has turned purple. “In a remote scenario, we’d have to be talking about a tsunami,” said David Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which studies and handicaps congressional races. With Trump’s popularity at record lows and the party outside the White House typically gaining seats in mid-term elections,...

A few weeks ago the new president of the Florida Democratic Party, Sally Boynton Brown, caught some flak when she told a group of progressives that changes in store for the party include messaging that makes a conscious appeal to emotion, and rigorous script testing, likely through soft polling and focus groups. The problem as many progressives see it is that after losing so much ground, message resurfacing is not the change we need. There is an urgent need to transform the party, to regain relevancy—and that doesn’t come with message tweaks more commonly associated with failed Centrist strategizing. Lucky...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) ripped President Trump for his criticism of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday, saying that if Trump were to try to fire Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller, Congress would “unite to stop him.” "It has become clear that President Trump believes that he has the power to fire anyone in government he chooses and for any reason, including special counsel Robert Mueller,” the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said in a statement. “That is not how the rule of law works, and Congress will not allow the President to so egregiously overstep...

Months after campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Trayvon Martin’s mother is considering running for office herself, Miami news sources reported. “The only thing I can do is try,” Sybrina Fulton told Miami ABC affiliate WPLG. “And, I am not afraid to try.” Fulton spent part of 2016 campaigning for Clinton. In an op-ed she penned for CNN, Fulton explained she endorsed the former first lady because Clinton emphasized the Black Lives Matter movement and backed gun control efforts. George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watchman, killed Martin, Fulton’s 17-year-old son, five years ago in Sanford, Fla. A Florida jury later acquitted Zimmerman,...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/06/14/congress-shooting-alleged-gunman-reportedly-volunteered-sanders-iowa/396055001/

Responding to Wednesday morning's shooting in Alexandria, Va., President Trump offered a reassuring message to the American people. He paid homage to the police officers who risked their lives to save those at the baseball practice. "Our brave Capitol Police perform a challenging job with incredible skill. And their sacrifice makes democracy possible." Trump recognized Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., as an individual, as well as a Congressman. "Congressman Scalise is a friend, and a very good friend. And he's a patriot and a fighter." And Trump called on Americans to respect those in public service. "Always remember those who serve...

The man suspected of opening fire on Republican members of the congressional baseball team early Wednesday morning was distraught over the election of President Trump and traveled to Washington in recent weeks to protest, his brother said on Wednesday. The suspect, James Thomas Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill., died in a Washington hospital after a shootout with the police. “I know he wasn’t happy with the way things were going, the election results and stuff,” his brother, Michael Hodgkinson, said in a telephone interview shortly after he received the news on Wednesday. He added that he was not close to...

The Republican party is giving away a dinner with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. "You have the opportunity to be flown out to D.C., meet President Trump, and have your picture taken with him so you can remember this moment forever," the contest entry form notes. The contest is a fundraiser for the Trump Make America Great Again committee. You can make a donation of any amount to enter, or as noted in the fine print, by filling out your entry form here with no monetary contribution required. Deadline for entry is June 25 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The...

Al D’Amato was once widely known as “Sen. Pothole” for focusing on local issues. Kirsten Gillibrand is earning a different nickname: Sen. Potty-mouth. In recent months, leading Democrats from national chairman Tom Perez on down have been unleashing f-bombs, s-bombs and everything in between as they try to rally their party to “resist.” And New York’s junior senator seems to be leading the charge. “If we are not helping people, we should go the f - - k home,” Gillibrand told the Personal Democracy Forum at NYU last Friday. Of President Trump, she asked: “Has he kept his promises? F - - k no.” Indeed, she...

Democratic lawmakers are suing President Donald Trump over foreign money flowing into his global business empire. Almost 200 senators and representatives are plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging Trump is violating the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution. It's being filed early Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawmakers said. The plaintiffs argue they have standing to sue because the clause says only Congress may approve foreign gifts and payments.....

Hell hath no fury like a woman who won the popular vote yet lost the biggest prize of all: a historic presidency The Democratic 2016 presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, has been making some rounds, at June graduations, women's global forums and some such. She makes jokes about walking in the woods and wishing she had flown from the White House. A growing chorus of opinion has sprung up saying she should go gentle into that good night, coming from corners like Vanity Fair and USA Today. On the contrary. Let's hear from Clinton every day, every move, every outrageous statement...

The party's most reliable voters are older black women. So why do some journalists suggest otherwise? The New York Times on Sunday, in a story titled “Democrats in Split-Screen: The Base Wants It All. The Party Wants to Win,” described a “growing tension between the party’s ascendant militant wing and Democrats competing in conservative-leaning terrain.” The reporters, Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, cited Senator Bernie Sanders as a leader of the former group and Georgia congressional candidate Jon Ossoff as representative of the latter. At one point, the piece referenced “tension between Mr. Ossoff’s message and the appetites of the...

Why are so many people so angry at her? You've seen the headlines, begging Joe Biden to just give it up and get out of our faces already. "Dems want Joe Biden to leave spotlight," says The Hill. "Dear Joe Biden, please stop talking about 2016," says a USA Today columnist. "Joe Biden is back. Should Democrats be worried?" asks The New Republic. "Can Joe Biden please go quietly into the night?" asks a column in Vanity Fair. A Daily News columnist begins his missive with, "Hey, Joe Biden, shut the f--- up and go away already." Folks sure do...

Bernie Sanders' permanent "political revolution" rolled into Chicago on Saturday night, as the Vermont senator called on progressive activists gathered here to beat back President Donald Trump's agenda while remaking the Democratic Party. Speaking to a crowd of buzzing supporters in former President Barack Obama's adopted hometown, Sanders ripped Trump's "incredible hypocrisy" and called the President a demagogue who makes "even a very conservative president like George W. Bush" appealing in comparison. But it was his unsparing assessment of the party whose nomination he sought in 2016 that set off an audience of nearly 4,000 mostly dedicated "Berniecrats." "I am...

Once again, national tension has been raised through volatile stances promoting political violence. Acts like Kathy Griffin’s “artistic expression” that looked like run-of-the-mill ISIS propaganda. One where she’s holding a decapitated Donald Trump head. An attempt to revive her D-list comedic career that ultimately wound up beheading it. It’s not even “if this were (insert person), everyone would flip” anymore. Of course they would and rightfully so. An attack on the head of our nation, no matter who, makes us appear globally weak. This stunt followed President Trump executing numerous meetings in an intense 7-day first foreign trip. The perception...

Key Democratic Party donor Tom Steyer is calling on lawmakers to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, saying that already, the facts "exceed standards for presidential impeachment for obstruction of justice" drafted against Presidents Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998. In his letter to Congress, published through Medium, Friday, Steyer, whose superPAC NextGen Climate Action spent about $100 million in the 2016 election, said the "clear and undisputed" facts being exposed call for an "immediate impeachment inqury" by the House.....

6,000 tourists visit the White House Tourist Center every day. As the seat of the executive branch of the U.S. Federal Government, it is not hard to understand why 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is such a popular attraction. However, very few of those 6,000 tourists get to see the West Wing, but last month four lucky Alabamians took the tour of a lifetime through the nucleus of the President’s home. Riley Roby, the husband of Rep. Martha Roby, invited Donna Horne, Chairman of Pike County’s Republican Party; Elaine Ridenour, Secretary of the Alabama Republican Party; and Sue Neuwien, Second Congressional District...