Free Republic

The stupid Beltway GOP Establishment, but I repeat myself, is finally standing firm on something – unfortunately, what it is standing firm on is its failure to listen to its own base. The base is woke and the Establishment’s a joke. I speak to a lot of conservative groups of various types and flavors: hardcore tea partiers, patriotic vets, loyal radio listeners, besieged students, brass New Yorkers, even rich country club types who you would think were into Jeb! – you know, diversity. And lately, I’ve tended to start off my talks by posing this question:“Okay, who here agrees with...

Democratic Presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke was ridiculed on social media for live-streaming a 'weird' 20-minute video showing him getting a haircut during a campaign stop in Texas. The former Texas congressman, 46, made a stop at Chema's Barber Shop in El Paso as an assistant live-streamed footage of him in a barber's chair as indulged in some personal grooming. And what came next made for awkward viewing as he made chitchat with the barber in Spanish and had to introduce himself to another customer who failed to recognize him.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will declare his bid for the presidency on Thursday, a campaign spokesperson said Wednesday, joining the almost two dozen other candidates already competing for the Democratic nomination. De Blasio will make the formal announcement Thursday morning and then travel to Iowa and South Carolina for multiple stops over four days. His wife, Chirlane McCray, who has been a highly visible presence and close adviser during his six years at City Hall, will join him for part of the trip.

A sculpture by American artist Jeff Koons sold on Wednesday for $91.1 million at an auction organized by Christie's in New York -- a record price for a living artist. "Rabbit", a stainless steel casting of an inflatable rabbit, was the star of the auction house's spring sale and overtook the previous record set by British painter David Hockney's "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)", which sold last November at Christie's for $90.3 million.

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The College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT to try to capture their social and economic background, jumping into the debate raging over race and class in college admissions. This new number, called an adversity score by college admissions officers, is calculated using 15 factors including the crime rate and poverty levels from the student’s high school and neighborhood. Students won’t be told the scores, but colleges will see the numbers when reviewing their applications. Fifty colleges used the score last year as part of a beta test. The College Board plans...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - The governor of Colorado is speaking out saying Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham did not provide a warning before sending migrants there. A group of migrants were bused to Denver with the help of the governor's office. The Denver Post reports that Lujan Grisham's office paid $4,000 for the transport of 55 Central American migrants. The Denver Post states that this was in coordination with a nonprofit, Annunciation House, that helps send migrants to Denver due to the overcapacity of shelters. This is reportedly the first time the organization sent migrants to another state. The Denver Post...

Bob Hawke, Australia's 23rd prime minister and former Labor Party leader, has died at the age of 89. Mr Hawke led the country and his party from 1983 to 1991, and his contribution to public life helped shape modern Australia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is siding with public health groups suing the Food and Drug Administration to begin reviewing thousands of e-cigarettes on the U.S. market. The ruling handed down Wednesday in district court states that the agency shirked its legal duty when it postponed reviewing all U.S. vaping products by several years. The American Academy of Pediatrics, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups filed the federal lawsuit in Maryland last year. The groups say the lack of FDA oversight has led to an explosion in underage vaping by teenagers, threatening to hook a generation of Americans...

At least one person was killed Monday amid renewed anti-Muslim violence in a Sri Lankan town targeted during last month's Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. Police said 45-year-old Fauzul Amir was slashed with a sword as mobs attacked at least five mosques, causing damage and allegedly burning a Koran, in the town of Negombo, north of the capital Colombo. Amir later died in hospital. A nationwide curfew was instituted following the violence, which comes after shops and businesses owned by Muslims were attacked last week in Negombo, which has a large Christian community. More than 100 members of that community were...

On her television show Laura Ingraham reported her ‘sources’ inform her President Trump will execute the declassification directive next week. [Video Tweet Link] If accurate, the timing –in advance of the OIG draft report– makes sense. The declassification of documents central to previous congressional inquiry, that also encompasses the Inspector General review of the Carter Page FISA application, is the subject of great interest and speculation. However, it would make sense for President Trump to authorize the declassification of documents in advance of the IG report release.

All Trump, all the time? Not quite, but three radio stations in Florida have vowed to air President Trump’s speeches every hour of every day until the 2020 election. The stations disclosed the plan after the president spoke last week at a rally in the Florida Panhandle and promised $448 million in relief aid for Florida communities that were devastated by last year’s Category 5 Hurricane Michael. “No games, no gimmicks, no delays,” Trump said to a delighted audience in Panama City Beach. “We’re just doing it.” Three Bay County stations – WRBA-FM, WKNK-FM and WASJ-FM – said they will...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday his agency is still "in the throes of constructing" an aid package for farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs, but he is not prepared to say when it will be ready. Perdue said the Agriculture Department is reviewing feedback from producers about the strengths and weaknesses of last year's relief package, valued at up to $12 billion. This year's package could range between $15 billion and $20 billion, Perdue projected. He also predicted that the relief amount will be enough to offset losses that farmers are facing as a result of lower...

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's latest financial disclosure report is expected to provide a rare glimpse into whether his presidency has helped or hurt his hotels, golf resorts and other parts of his business empire. The report, which is filed with the Office of Government Ethics and set for release Thursday, will be closely studied for changes in revenue at key properties in 2018, including his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, his Washington, D.C., hotel and his Doral golf resort in Miami. Experts say the Trump business has taken a hit from the president's divisive policies and...

(Reuters) - The “great majority” of solar cells being produced at Tesla Inc’s factory in upstate New York are being sold overseas instead of being used in the company’s trademark “Solar Roof” as originally intended, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. The exporting underscores the depth of Tesla’s troubles in the U.S. solar business, which the electric car maker entered in 2016 with its controversial $2.6 billion purchase of SolarCity. Tesla has only sporadically purchased solar cells produced by its partner in the factory, Panasonic Corp, according to a Buffalo solar factory employee speaking on condition of anonymity. The rest...

On Monday, during a rally held by the controversial Sunrise Movement, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY, 14) expressed that she refuses to allow the Democratic Party to nominate a “middle of the road” candidate in 2020. “I’ll be d*mned if the same politicians who refused to act (in past decades) are going to try to come back today and say we need a ‘middle of the road’ approach to save our lives,” Ocasio-Cortez declared. Ocasio-Cortez remarks come just after former Vice President Joe Biden expressed that democrats need to find “middle ground” on climate change policy, as reported by Reuters. The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department said on Wednesday it had awarded a $646 million contract to a construction company to design and build a replacement for the border wall in Arizona. In a statement, the Pentagon said the work by Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Southwest Valley Constructors was expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2020. The work will be performed in the Tucson sector, which includes most of the Arizona border with Mexico. The Pentagon did not indicate the length of the wall to be built.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has suggested that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be the Democratic party’s best candidate to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020 if she were legally able to run. “The key is authenticity,” Luntz told Fox News host Laura Ingraham Tuesday evening. “You want to say what you mean, mean what you say,” he continued. “You want to be able to look straight at the camera and be yourself. And at least half of them [the 2020 Democratic candidates] are trying to be something that they’re not,” he argued. Ingraham then pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez, despite her disagreements...

With the end of the Mueller probe and the news that the U.S. economy is performing far beyond expectations, President Donald Trump has reached an inflection point in his presidency. He has the chance to turn the political tides decisively in his favor, if he takes it. On Friday, we learned that the economy added 263,000 jobs in April — exceeding the 190,000 that economists predicted. This came on top of the news, a week earlier, that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.2% in the first quarter, far exceeding predictions of 2.5% growth. Unemployment is at...

A bigger concern, however, could be the move by the U.S. to add Huawei to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s so-called Entity List. That means U.S. firms will need to get a license from the bureau to sell or transfer technology to Huawei. The Chinese company relies on some components from U.S. companies like Intel and Qualcomm for smartphones and laptops. Some analysts said this could have a large impact on Huawei. “If fully implemented, the Entity List would immediately deny Huawei access to key hardware and software suppliers for its mobile infrastructure and handset businesses,” Eurasia Group said...