Free Republic

Should we be forced to trust our future to a Supreme Court ruling on Ted Cruz’s eligibility? Should we be made to stand by helplessly while John Roberts is blackmailed into voting against America again? On its face there seems to be no question about Senator Ted Cruz’s eligibility to serve as president. Nevertheless, the matter has not ever been litigated anywhere; so characterizing it as settled law is not accurate and may be fraught with danger. Those who support Senator Cruz want this question to go away. That’s very understandable; but wanting something to go away and seeing it...

New York City is taking no guff from Sen. Ted Cruz. At least that is the case for the New York Daily News, which used the front page of its Friday issue to slam the conservative Texas senator, who in turn blasted wealthy businessman and Republican front-runner Donald Trump over his so-called New York values. The paper's cover delivers a graphic of the Statue of Liberty making an obscene gesture with one finger and this headline: "Drop Dead Ted." The cover, a riff on the paper's famous "Ford to City: Drop Dead" headline from 1975, came after Republican contenders locked...

Foreign operatives and foreign-owned businesses changing America by changing the people Posted by Ann Corcoran on January 13, 2016 The Wall Street Journal’s Miriam Jordan gives us a peak inside the employment services that the nine major refugee resettlement contractors offer American businesses. I just want to scream when I see stories like this—what about Americans who might like to own a small business or need work? Everyone working in ‘pockets of resistance’ must begin to expose the businesses in your city and state that work with refugee contractors to displace American workers. And, don’t forget the Chamber of Commerce!...

'This Is Embarrassing': New York Daily News Blasted for 'Disgusting' Cover Attacking Ted Cruz The New York Daily News was blasted online for a cover set to hit newsstands Friday targeting Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz."DROP DEAD, TED," read bold letters on the front page of the liberal newspaper - directly next to an image of the Statue of Liberty giving the senator the middle finger. Stop the presses! A new Page 1... DROP DEAD, TED: https://t.co/68hKgqmjBx pic.twitter.com/veDsxLYDTN- New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 15, 2016 The cover was a response to comments the Texas senator made about "New York...

resident Barack Obama's State of the Union address gave him the opportunity to highlight his achievements and push forward with his last goals. Depending on what side of the aisle you're on, you could find much to laud or disparage. I'll focus on the President's comments about climate change and energy. He began: "Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You'll be pretty lonely, because you'll be debating our military, most of America's business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world...

Critics of Republican presidential primary front-runner and billionaire Donald Trump, not having encountered his type of self-reliant, self-funded, brash and blunt candidacy, have taken to lobbing challenges to his ballot access to oppose him. Unsuccessfully, so far. But analysts do point out that getting the GOP nomination actually is a laborious process of lining up dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of delegates who are party faithful, and they wonder if the earthquake-generating candidate can establish the foot soldier network to do that. One of the complaints to Trump's ballot status happened in New Hampshire, where a former state Republican...

Republican pollster Frank Luntz asked a South Carolina focus group who won Thursday night’s GOP debate — and the members “overwhelmingly” chose one candidate. “We got 26 South Carolinians and they are very clear about what happened tonight,” Luntz said on Fox News. “Normally I do a show of hands. This time, I’m going to count down and you’re going to tell the American people who won this evening,” he told the focus group. “Are you ready? Three, two, one—.” The audience unanimously shouted

People often say being the middle child is hard. Well, according to most Americans, it also is getting hard to be in the middle class. While a whopping 88% of Americans view themselves as being in the middle class, 80% say it is harder being in the middle class today than it was just 25 years ago. "The American middle class is not weakened or weakening-it is weak," said Patrick Inglis, an assistant professor of sociology at Grinnell College. "Even the idea of it is weak. The middle class no longer can rely on the kind of job security that...

Watching Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, I kept trying to figure out how to grade Jeb Bush's performance. He clearly wasn't winning the debate since he was largely a bystander in the dominant fight between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But, he also wasn't losing -- he made serious and nuanced points about immigration and foreign policy, and demonstrated deep knowledge on almost every issue. Then, I realized what it was I was feeling about Jeb: I just felt bad for him. Feel bad for a two term governor of a state and the scion of the first family of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama today banned private ownership of more than a quarter ounce of gold, saying the move was necessary to revive the economy. "Wealthy Americans are bailing out on the economy by taking their money out of circulation and hoarding gold," Obama said as he signed an executive order reminiscent of Depression-era President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ban on the possession of gold. "The wealthy are violating their trust and abusing their position by investing in gold," Obama said. "My order will put an immediate end to this practice, which threatens to hijack the good efforts of...

Who speaks for the dead? The victims of black on white violence? In Baltimore, the answer is "what victims?" The locals don't even remember them: In December the Baltimore Sun ran a glowing portrait of Marin Alsop, the symphony conductor who had recently explained to the BBC that riots in Baltimore were necessary because racist white people did not listen to black people.

The German government appears to be in full damage-control mode post-Cologne sex attacks, with the official journal of the state propaganda bureau publishing an editorial claiming Mohammed was a feminist, and that as of yet there has been no evidence the increase in sex attacks in Germany has been caused by refugees.

(English translation) United States Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew will visit Puerto Rico next Wednesday to meet with government and civic leaders. It was reported that they will discuss the island's fiscal and public-debt crisis. According to Treasury's spokesman, among the people Lew is scheduled to meet with are Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, and legislative, community, labor, and business leaders.

Democrats are optimistic about the future. They may have gotten pasted in 2014, but they expect great results in the next decade based on favorable trends in the population. "The Republican party is in a death spiral," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg warns in his new book America Ascendant. It is in a "pitched fight" with what Greenberg calls the "new American majority," which is composed of "African Americans, Hispanics, Millennials," who "will constitute 54 percent of the electorate in 2016." If one includes "seculars with no religious affiliation," then this group amounts to 63 percent of the electorate that is...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush struggled to get speaking time during Thursday's Republican debate and was consistently slammed by GOP front-runner and real estate mogul Donald Trump. Bush has been sliding in the polls ahead of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primaries in February, sparking fears that his campaign is slowing to an end. "We don't need a weak person being president of the United States," Trump told Bush Thursday, using the type of personal attack he has leaned on in previous debates. Bush was the Republican frontrunner earlier in 2015, garnering sizable contributions from donors, only to slip...

Amarillo, TX being destroyed by refugee overload Posted by Ann Corcoran on January 14, 2016 “Small ghettos” of competing ethnic groups have developed! We have been writing about Amarillo, Texas (a ‘pocket of resistance’) for a couple of years (see our complete archive by clicking here). Like so many meatpacking towns in America, federal refugee resettlement contractors*** got a foot hold there years ago (mostly working as ‘head hunters’ for the meatpacking industry) and have continued to pour third-worlders into Amarillo despite pleas by elected officials to STOP! (See our post just yesterday, here, about BIG MEAT). ***Update*** See more...

Were Russian Combat Robots Used in Syria? January 15, 2016 By Aric Toler According to Sputnik and multiple Russian-language blogs, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) recently deployed ten Russian combat robots in a battle in the Latakia province, leading to “about 70” dead rebel fighters and no dead SAA soldiers in fighting. Per the reports, these ten robots included six “Platform-M” systems and four “Argo” robots, which were controlled from a Russian command post. This news — if true — would warrant significant coverage, as it would mark the first successful use of combat robots in actual warfare, bringing about...

Dateline gets a rare glimpse into life under sharia law in Indonesia - on patrol with police in Aceh as they hand out harsh punishments to anyone breaking Islamic law. For more on Patrick Abboud's story, go to the SBS Dateline website... http://bit.ly/1oN22n5 SHOW MORE

With a little more than two weeks until the Iowa caucus, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush plans to make a stop in New York next week to talk about foreign affairs and raise money for his campaign. Bush spent less than 48 hours this week in Iowa, making four public campaign appearances and meeting briefly with state GOP lawmakers. He isn't scheduled to be back in the Hawkeye State until closer to the the Jan. 28 Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, scheduled to be hosted by Fox News Channel. -snip- There's a big-dollar fundraiser scheduled in New York on...

Scripture’s Sober Assessment of the Hardness of Many Human Hearts and What It Means for Evangelization Msgr. Charles Pope • January 14, 2016 • It is rather a typical assumption of the modern Western mind that differences and hostilities are due mainly to misunderstandings or a lack of proper information; that if we would discuss ("dialogue"), share information, respect pluralism (diversity), and overcome misunderstandings, all would be well and there would be peace.Missing in this approach is the more sober notion of the hardness of human hearts. Information alone does not usually bring peace and an end to trouble....