Free Republic

CRESCO, Iowa — It wasn’t long after Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic presidential nomination that Laura Hubka realized how little excitement there was for Clinton among Howard County residents. “I went out and started knocking on doors for Hillary Clinton, and making phone calls,” Hubka, who leads Howard County’s Democratic Party, said when I met with her in late June. “I got hung up on, some guy chased me out of his yard with a rake, the unions complained a lot. There was a lot of yelling at doors.” Iowa and Howard County, with fewer than 10,000 people, had never...

The Trump administration announced the U.S. will impose financial sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The move comes after Venezuela held a weekend election that will give Maduro's ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Maduro in a brief statement on Monday. As a result of the sanctions, the statement read, "all assets of Maduro are now subject to U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and all U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with him." "Yesterday's illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the...

Washington (CNN)New White House chief of staff John Kelly was so upset with how President Donald Trump handled the firing of FBI Director James Comey that Kelly called Comey afterward and said he was considering resigning, according to two sources familiar with a conversation between Kelly and Comey. Both sources cautioned that it was unclear how serious Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security, was about resigning himself. "John was angry and hurt by what he saw and the way (Comey) was treated," one of the sources said. Comey learned of his dismissal on May 9 from televisions tuned to...

Move over Hadid sisters, you’re no longer the only ones with upfront assets to flash. As evidenced by recent splashy, sexy looks sported by Harry Styles, a number of preening professional athletes and models at recent fashion shows, male cleavage is busting out on the studliest stars. Shirts unbuttoned to the sternum and undone jackets allow well-built men to show off nicely sculpted chest muscles. And women in the rag trade are not complaining. “I am absolutely into it,” gushes stylist Calyann Barnett, who dresses elite athletes such as Usain Bolt, Rajon Rondo and Victor Oladipo. “When you decide to...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visited Bunkerville, Nevada over the weekend and spoke with reporters of his support for the national monuments. In April, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary to review all monuments since 1996 that included more than 100,000 acres. Zinke visited the Gold Butte and Basin and Range National Monuments as part of his review. Zinke told reporters that he is an advocate for monuments. “I am an advocate for public access,” he said. Zinke also said that he is in favor of the traditional uses, specifically citing ‘ranching’ as a part of the culture...

One of the more amusing aspects of life as a conservative Christian is reading liberals writing about conservative Christians — especially writing about conservative Christian political causes. There’s a formula. First, you’re told there are “dog whistle” or “hidden” reasons for the use of common terms. Second, these hidden reasons trace back to racists and Christian dominionists. Third, and finally, if you use this common language and advance mainstream conservative Christian ideas, you’re actually advancing racism and theocracy. The plot is revealed. The true agenda is laid bare.

Author and CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley says the Trump White House is in "utter disarray" and concludes that the president is "unfit for command."

Revitalizing American manufacturing has been a hot topic for some time, gaining prominence as a talking point in last year’s election. Donald Trump’s victory led many to speculate about the future of manufacturing in the U.S., particularly whether it’s possible to bring manufacturing back to America. The latest piece of advice on this topic comes from a rather surprising source: Walmart. The retail giant recently convened a meeting of representatives from governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to present a Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing. “As we’ve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal...

Those Republicans who failed to keep their promise to repeal Obamacare, a promise that they repeatedly made over a span of some seven years, will get their comeuppance. Given their failure, as well as the obscene moral posturing in which Democrats are engaging at present, now is as good a time as any for Americans to remind themselves of the castle of lies on the basis of which Obamacare was originally sold by its namesake and his ilk. Courtesy of the laborious efforts of some, we can see that these lies are as egregious as they are legion.In 2008, Obama...

I've been trying to find a logical reason for the Congressional vote for the extreme action of imposing sanctions on Russia. Sanction supporters talk about what they call "fake news",but the term is just another word for propaganda which governments produce all the time. We didn't impose sanctions on the British government for its "fake news" stories about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Russian spying on candidates cannot justify sanctions because spying on political figures is a common government activity. Besides the CIA had already infiltrated the Russian hackers who were the alleged spies. The only significant difference in...

Norfolk, Va. — The Navy’s search for a possible diver who was trespassing in the waters surrounding the piers at Naval Station, Norfolk, will likely continue for some time, a Navy official said. “They are still searching for the possible diver,” said Kelly Wirfel, spokeswoman for Naval Station Norfolk in an email around 2:30 p.m. Monday. “It will most likely take some time until they can clear the entire area,” Wirfel said. Norfolk’s piers and ships were put on lock down Monday morning after reports of a possible diver in the water. “At 9 a.m. this morning a shipboard watch...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A group called Indivisible Kentucky is garnering attention for the billboard it put up in Louisville. The billboard sent a loud and clear message to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): “You make us sick. #DitchMitch2020.” According to WDRB, the sign went up on the side of I-65 and can be seen from the southbound side. The message went up at a time when Republicans in the U.S. Senate attempted and failed to pass a so-called “skinny repeal” of Obamacare under the majority leadership of McConnell, this after years of preparation time and Obamacare opposition. McConnell called the failure “a disappointment.”

There has been shift in the language that the U.S. Department of Justice is using in its press releases, and it’s not sitting well with some. The DOJ, under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has now begun using the term “illegal aliens” to refer to immigrants who do not have the proper paperwork to be in the United States. Advocates for immigration reform contend that the term “illegal” is a “racial slur” and believe it is dehumanizing. Instead, they prefer if the term “undocumented immigrant” is used. “They’re using a legally inaccurate term that’s deployed to unfairly label...

NEW YORK -- They're the New York Yankees. They're worth billions. They're built on a foundation of championships stretching back more than a century. There is just no way they don’t go for it when another title is possible. This is the mandate any year, but it's even truer when they've only played in one playoff game since 2012. So the Yankees had to acquire Sonny Gray. The Yankees, under Hal Steinbrenner, are a scary organization for the rest of the baseball. Steinbrenner has handed the player personnel keys over to his GM, Brian Cashman, and the results have been...

This might be the most racist commercial any company has ever produced. A more than two-minute video produced by Procter & Gamble, the company that manufactures Cascade, Febreze, Mr. Clean, Tide, Swiffer, Downy and a plethora of products, shows various scenes of black parents talking with their children about racism. The ad, titled “The Talk,” shows scenes of black parents, spanning generations, telling their kids about how the system is stacked against them, how racist white people are and teaching them to fear the police.

Salaries have risen in places like South Asia, making outsourcing there less of a bargain. In addition, as brands pour energy and money into their websites and mobile apps, more of them are deciding that there is value in having developers in the same time zone. For years, U.S. companies have been saving money by “offshoring” jobs — hiring people in India and other distant cubicle farms. Today, some of those jobs are being outsourced again — in the United States. Nexient, a software outsourcing company, reflects the evolving geography of technology work. It holds daily video meetings with one...

Having just watched the WH presser led by Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who is doing an outstanding job BTW) and having watched John Roberts report to Neil Cavuto on Fox about said presser, it appears that ALL White House personnel report to General Kelly.I think this is a wonderful development.

The Yankees are officially all-in. The team acquired Sonny Gray from the A’s an hour before the trade deadline, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The Yankees sent heralded prospects Dustin Fowler, Jorge Mateo and James Kaprielian for the 27-year-old.

Idaho's insurance regulator blasted the Trump administration's unwillingness to pay Obamacare insurers as the reason premiums couldrise by up to 38 percent next year. The state's Department of Insurance posted proposed rates for 2018 Monday. The state's six Obamacare insurers are calling for an average 38 percent rate hike, including a 50 percent increase for the silver plan, which is the most popular of Obamcare's three plan options. Idaho said the proposed increase for silver plans was because of "the potential refusal by the federal government to fund the cost share reduction mechanism." Insurers are required under law to lower...

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), said if President Donald Trump attempted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, it “could be the beginning of the end of his presidency” Feinstein said, “Well, Chairman Grassley has put the bit between his teeth and said that there will be no hearings, Mr. President, if you go ahead and fire Jeff Sessions. I think there has been sufficient opposition for the president not to do so, unless of course what he really intends is to end up firing Mueller, which could well be the beginning of the end of...