Free Republic

As an innovator and early adopter of freeways, California became the symbolic capital of car culture. But the ease of movement conferred by the massive postwar freeway building boom was short-lived, turning the dream of car travel into a nightmare of congestion and long commutes. The story of how Californians went from getting around to getting stuck behind the wheel is deeply entwined with the history of the urban freeway, an enterprise that advanced earlier and on a larger scale here than anywhere else in the country. Half a century ago, there was reason for optimism about cars. Los Angeles...

Democrats who have pushed for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s ouster as House minority leader are standing down — at least until after November’s midterm elections. Republican Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s surprise announcement last week that he would retire at the end of his term boosted Democrats’ hopes that they could wrest back control of the House this fall. The possibility of majority control also gave new life to a looming question: Will Pelosi, or someone else, lead the party? Democrats say they are focused on one task — winning — and have clamped down on talk of replacing Pelosi (D-Calif.), who...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Tired of all this Winning yet? – Hey, Californian’s, you’re in luck! The feds are going to audit Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown’s high speed rail project, and, if the audit is conducted honestly, will likely conclude that it is time to cut off funding for the single biggest boondoggle in American history. Yes, dear readers, it isn’t bad enough that California’s utterly corrupt Democrat political class has already wasted billions of Californians’ dollars on this high-speed rail pipe dream, they’ve also already wasted $3.5 billion federal dollars, and are planning on wasting...

SAN FRANCISCO – “You want the down-low? I’ll give you the down-low. These guys will all tell you something different, but the one thing everyone here has in common is that they all do drugs.” I’m talking to a group of homeless men camped out under Highway 101 in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, where a half-dozen tents are set up on a wide sidewalk across the street from a Best Buy. The thirtysomething guy who’s telling me it’s all about drugs doesn’t want to give me his name. That’s partly because he doesn’t consider himself homeless—he stays with boyfriends, he...

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers swept across Northern California earlier this year, arresting more than 150 undocumented immigrants, the Bay Area restaurant industry watched closely. “Everyone is fearing a day that ICE could show up at their doors,” said Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. For restaurateurs and their staff, it’s more than just speculative anxiety. During the past several months, numerous food businesses in the region have received a notice of inspection from the agency, though no raids have been reported. Such notices require that a business owner provide employment eligibility verification, known...

A federal grand jury has indicted 10 reputed members of a San Francisco Mission District gang for their alleged roles in several murders dating back more than a decade. The indictment was unsealed on Friday a day after the arrest of six suspects according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Three more suspects are already in federal prison. The arrests involved a multi-agency operation of about 200 law enforcement officers which included the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and police from San Francisco, Richmond and Pacifica. According to the indictment, the 10 suspects belong to...

When Andrew Klaven first pointed out that the Left’s preferred way to end an argument was by yelling “Shut Up!” we smiled in recognition. Then the wheels of the train began to roll: the IRS denying non-profit status to conservative groups, college campuses demanding conservatives be “de-platformed,” Facebook, YouTube and Twitter shadowbanning or blocking posts and posters they found to be “dangerous to the community.”  Now they’re back with a new a tactic in the war to get us to Shut Up! – they will vanquish us. In the article The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War they...

Tech titan Jack Dorsey of San Francisco-based social media platform Twitter applauded an article in something called Medium in which some other hipster CEO described how liberals intend to crush Normal Americans into serfdom in a bloodless “civil war.” Here it is. Ready?It will just sort of happen. Why? Because. Americans will simply decide to be like California because of reasons and phew, no more troublesome conservatives and Gaia is saved!So basically, wishing.Well, that’s a kind of war plan. Perhaps by unleashing the power of hoping so they can utterly subjugate the half of America that voted against Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit and drive the...

Tech titan Jack Dorsey of San Francisco-based social media platform Twitter applauded an article in something called Medium in which some other hipster CEO described how liberals intend to crush Normal Americans into serfdom in a bloodless “civil war.” Here it is. Ready? It will just sort of happen. Why? Because. Americans will simply decide to be like California because of reasons and phew, no more troublesome conservatives and Gaia is saved! So basically, wishing. Well, that’s a kind of war plan. Perhaps by unleashing the power of hoping so they can utterly subjugate the half of America that voted...

Well, if there were any lingering doubts about Twitter’s perceived bias against conservatives, look no further than what CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted out last night. Apparently, a “good read” is a post co-written by a Center for American Progress senior fellow that calls for “civil war,” the destruction of the GOP, and the adoption of how California runs everything from sea to shining sea. Yeah, bipartisanship is dead, so mob rule is what’s needed. Now, to be fair, the “civil war” will be won at the ballot box and demographic shifts, namely through the so-called emerging Democratic majority, but the...

Great read. That’s the CEO of Twitter. You know, the dude deciding who American gets to hear from and who America doesn’t. He’s tweeting this: Interesting take: “Why there’s no bipartisan way forward at this juncture in our history — one side must win”

Well, if there were any lingering doubts about Twitter’s perceived bias against conservatives, look no further than what CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted out last night. Apparently, a “good read” is a post co-written by a Center for American Progress senior fellow that calls for “civil war,” the destruction of the GOP, and the adoption of how California runs everything from sea to shining sea. Yeah, bipartisanship is dead, so mob rule is what’s needed. Now, to be fair, the “civil war” will be won at the ballot box and demographic shifts, namely through the  so-called emerging Democratic majority, but the...

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey aroused controversy after labeling a Medium article “great” that claimed there’s no “bipartisan way forward” in the United States and that the country is engaged in a “fundamental conflict between two worldviews that must be resolved in short order.” Dorsey shared the Medium article on his personal Twitter account Thursday night, with the accompanying acclaim that it was a “great read.” Author and media consultant Peter Leyden and political commentator Ruy Teixeira argued in the article titled “The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War” that America is already in the midst of a second major...

Tech titan Jack Dorsey of San Francisco-based social media platform Twitter applauded an article in something called Medium in which some other hipster CEO described how liberals intend to crush Normal Americans into serfdom in a bloodless “civil war.” Here it is. Ready? It will just sort of happen. Why? Because. Americans will simply decide to be like California because of reasons and phew, no more troublesome conservatives and Gaia is saved! . . . snip The liberal plan for civil war does not take into account how prosperous states like Texas went hard right in the 90s and show...

More than 28,000 international gaming professionals recently congregated at San Francisco's Convention Center, where they tested the latest VR tech and sampled hundreds of games. But some attendees, many of whom traveled thousands of miles for the annual convention, found the city streets outside inhospitable, the sights disturbing. "My GDC feedback was simple: Stop hosting it in SF," wrote Emre Deniz, director of game company Opaque Space, in a recent viral tweet that received more than 2,500 likes. San Francisco, Deniz continued, "is a dangerous city and America is not welcome to non western developers." "The city hates us being...

An apparent road rage incident in San Francisco has killed one person and left three other victims with life-threatening injuries. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, citing witness accounts, the driver intentionally ran over five people will with his car before fleeing the scene. The driver has not been arrested. Police said the incident grew out of a fight between the driver and the five people. Hospital spokesman Brent Andrew told the Associated Press that three of the five people run over were still in serious condition Wednesday afternoon with one in fair condition.

The legal battle against oil companies for their purported role in contributing to a climate change crisis is starting to take shape. This past Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco made history, holding the first-ever U.S. court hearing exploring the impact of climate change. Lawyers representing the cities of Oakland and San Francisco as well as five of the largest multinational oil companies named in the lawsuit, participated in a climate change “tutorial,” a chance to explore both sides’ positions on several questions related to climate change. Here’s what we learned from the hearing: future litigation will pit reasoned...

The Wall Street Journal reports that ExxonMobil petitioned the court yesterday to allow it to depose and obtain documents from public officials involved in the various climate change lawsuits recently brought by several California communities against the energy industry, as well as #ExxonKnew campaigner Matt Pawa, who is representing San Francisco and Oakland in their lawsuits. The legal filing accuses the communities of either exaggerating the risks of climate change in their lawsuits against energy companies or downplaying the risks of climate change when issuing municipal bonds to investors. Although the plaintiffs claimed in their lawsuits that climate change poses...

We’re well into the NFL’s free agency period and veteran safety Eric Reid still hasn’t signed with a team, even though he’s proven to be a reliable contributor over five seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. Last week, Reid said his current unemployment stems from the fact that he has continued to protest social issues during the playing of the national anthem, even with former 49ers teammate Colin Kaepernick out of the league in 2017. On Thursday, however, Reid announced that he won’t be taking a knee during the national anthem upon his return to the field, instead promising to...

San Francisco before the nuts took over.