Free Republic

The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is gaining strength, and asserting its power. When Hillary Clinton formally claims the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination this summer in Philadelphia, she will inherit a party in the throes of a revolution — one in which her side seems likely to lose in the long term. The upheaval has been decades in the making, as the party has evolved from choosing relative centrist nominees such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry over more liberal contenders, to Barack Obama, who positioned himself to the left of Hillary Clinton in 2008. Now, even...

Democrats on Capitol Hill have discussed the possiblity of removing Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz from her position prior to the party's national convention this summer in Philadelphia. According to The Hill, some Democrats believe that Wasserman Schultz's ongoing battles with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have made her too divisive a figure to unite the party ahead of this fall's election campaign. "There have been a lot of meetings over the past 48 hours about what color plate do we deliver Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s head on," one Democratic senator who supports frontrunner Hillary Clinton told The Hill. "I...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Bernie Sanders predicted Monday that the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia could be "messy" as he pushed the party to adopt his progressive agenda, but added: "Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle..." Asked if the convention could be messy, Sanders said, "So what! Democracy is messy. Everyday my life is messy. But if you want everything to be quiet and orderly and allow, you know, just things to proceed without vigorous debate, that is not what democracy is about."

The Democratic warhorse Dianne Feinstein is warning that Bernie Sanders’ campaign against Hillary Clinton could turn the party’s convention in Philadelphia into the kind of disaster that erupted in Chicago in 1968. “It worries me a great deal,” she tells CNN. I can understand why. I was there. Covering the Democrats’ 1968 convention for one of America’s greatest newspapers, the Anniston (Ala.) Star, I saw a bitterly divided party, riven by the Vietnam War and Jim Crow, met with violence in the streets. The convention finally handed up, in Vice President Hubert Humphrey, one of the finest liberals in history....

Unlike the butchery that bookended it, it merited no presidential statements, no saturation television coverage. But what took place at 6101 Prentice Street on Aug. 21 may say more about the nature of gun violence in the United States than any of those far more famous rampages. It is a snapshot of a different sort of mass violence — one that erupts with such anesthetic regularity that it is rendered almost invisible, except to the mostly black victims, survivors and attackers (...) “Clearly, if it’s black-on-black, we don’t get the same attention because most people don’t identify with that. Most...

The media narrative for the last six months has been about how the Republican convention in Cleveland was going to be a fight, a mess, a second “mistake by the lake.” Journalists reveled in the prospect of a GOP floor fight and protests in the streets. What was missed, or more likely ignored, was the brawl happening on the left and the mess that could be the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Yes, Cleveland will have protests. Republicans, conservatives, or even average Americans who simply want to be left alone cannot get together without the prospect of a mob of angry...

Any way you slice it, the Democratic National Convention coming up in Philadelphia in late July promise to be tumultuous.Though Hillary Clinton and the party insiders long ago expected the 2016 primary to be a formality (which conspicuously few hopefuls in the race), the grassroots voters are feverishly demanding Bernie, and vehemently against the establishment candidate who is widely known for her duplicity and dishonesty.As California Senator Diane Feinstein makes clear in this short and sweet video below, the establishment fears the riots and backlash that could come from a contested, or at least highly protested, convention as Sen. Sanders...

In a radio interview with a Philadelphia radio station today, former Gov. Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) called GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) a “dumbbell” for her opposition to gun control. Listen to the full interview below.

On the CBS3 health watch, its vertical farming. Philadelphia aims to become an international hub for indoor growing, according to a resolution passed today by city council. When growing produce we usually think of acres of farmland. Some say the next generation of farming will be in urban centers like Philadelphia, and you won’t need soil or the sun, just an old warehouse. Welcome to vertical farming, where produce is grown inside, in specialized shelves that are stacked up vertically....

Bernie Sanders revealed Tuesday that shots were fired into his Nevada campaign office and that an "apartment housing complex my campaign staff lived in was broken into and ransacked." The Democratic presidential candidate did not explicitly blame his rival, Hillary Clinton, for the actions.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Contentious supporters of the two rivals for the Democratic nomination turned the selection of Nevada’s national delegates this weekend into a virtual battlefield, with the chairman gaveling the proceeding to a peremptory close and fleeing the stage while armed guards cleared the meeting venue. The spectacle of Democratic Party officials railroading through a ruling favorable to Hillary Clinton while denying certification to some 58 Bernie Sanders delegates to the state convention comes on top of charges that caucuses and primary votes around the country have been manipulated to beef up Clinton’s much-touted lead in national delegates.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a veteran of Democratic politics, says she never saw anything quite like this before. Loud cursing, shouting, obscene gestures and vile insults, including crude comments about the female anatomy. It was all on display over the weekend as supporters of Bernie Sanders turned the Nevada State Democratic Convention into chaos. "I was not able to stop these people for doing what they did," Boxer, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told CNN. "Apparently they've done it before. .... This group of about 100 were very vocal, and I can't describe it -- disrespectful doesn't even explain it, it was...

A contentious Nevada Democratic convention this past weekend has led to a barrage of threats against the chairwoman of the state party. And it's led the party's lawyer to send a rather remarkable letter to the Democratic National Committee, warning of the risk of violent outbursts at the national convention in Philadelphia.

Boehner's scenario: Clinton may drop out, clear way for Biden The Daily Briefing By John T. Bennett CQ-Roll Call • Sunday May 15, 2016 8:53 PM Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner share a moment as they take the stage for the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony. Both were on hand Sunday to receive the Laetare Medal. Out with Hillary Clinton. In with Vice President Joe Biden. At least that’s what former House Speaker John A. Boehner thinks could happen should federal prosecutors opt to slap criminal charges on the former secretary of state over...

Opening statements are expected Monday in the federal corruption trial of a veteran Pennsylvania congressman. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah is accused of accepting bribes and misusing campaign funds and federal grants to enrich his family and friends. An indictment alleges the 59-year-old Fattah took an illegal $1 million campaign loan for his failed 2007 mayoral campaign and misused federal funds to pay it back. …

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Two state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require Pennsylvania’s high school students to have a basic understanding of American history and civics before graduating. House Bill 1858 would require that students pass a test on 100 basic facts from the United States Citizenship Civics Test, the test all immigrants must pass when applying for U.S. citizenship.

WHAT IF we stopped trying to get guns off the streets and instead started licensing young men in Philly to legally pack heat? Do I have your attention? Yeah, Maj Toure got mine, too, when he suggested the idea, which he's pitching through a campaign he's calling Black Guns Matter. Catchy, right? And provocative. Toure, 29, is a local activist and artist. In many ways, he's also a walking, talking contradiction of what turns out to be an increasingly stereotypical idea of gun owners. Toure is a young African American man who grew up in North Philadelphia watching the destruction...

On Thursday evening, a 40-year-old man — with dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent — boarded a plane. It was a regional jet making a short, uneventful hop from Philadelphia to nearby Syracuse. Or so dozens of unsuspecting passengers thought. The curly-haired man tried to keep to himself, intently if inscrutably scribbling on a notepad he’d brought aboard. His seatmate, a blond-haired, 30-something woman sporting flip-flops and a red tote bag, looked him over. He was wearing navy Diesel jeans and a red Lacoste sweater – a look he would later describe as “simple elegance” –...

My FRiends, congratulations to Mr. Trump on his pending Republican nomination!  And what better way to celebrate than to compare Trump with the so-called "First American" and Founding Father, Ben Franklin. On Google Images, I ran across an amusing New York Magazine portrait of Trump wearing an 18th century hair style.  Then, shortly thereafter I found the splendid painting of Ben Franklin by David Martin.  I said: "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to GIMP those images together?" so Trump and Old Ben could sit together at the same table and shoot the breeze. For the story, I searched Wikipedia...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, lives along so many fault lines of American politics that he is especially sensitive to Trump tremors, which he fears could become an earthquake by November. “I’m concerned,” he said. “Beating Donald Trump won’t be as easy as it might look.” Casey is a pro-life, pro-gun Roman Catholic in a state that Democratic consultant James Carville once described as “Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between.” He is also an old-school Democrat and a new-school one: He's pro-union and wary of global trade; he defends Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and same-sex...