Free Republic

No amount of growth or good intentions will change this fact. [Cut] Furthermore, it’s not what Biden says in prepared remarks that’s problematic, it’s what he says off the cuff and under pressure that to me reveal an antiquated view on racial matters and racial sensitivities. It was the way he advocated for the 1994 crime bill, a bill that contributed to America’s surging mass incarceration, which disproportionately affected black and brown people in this country. The bill did some good, but the harm it did cannot be overlooked or understated. Rather than fully owning up to to the disastrous...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources. The letter, the second Trump received from Kim last month amid stalled denuclearization talks between the two countries, pre-dated North Korea's latest launch of short-range projectiles a week ago. In the second letter, which was passed to Trump in the third week of August, Kim spoke of his willingness to meet Trump for another summit, one source reportedly told the Joongang Ilbo newspaper. The White House, the U.S. State Department...

There’s a bit of news in the case of Jeffrey Epstein. He’s the convicted sex offender who somehow managed to commit suicide in a New York jail last month while he was supposed to be under close watch. My public information request about his death— has been formally denied. Shortly after Epstein died in August, I filed a Freedom of Information request for public documents about his injuries and medical care for both the day he died and earlier, in July, when he reportedly attempted suicide. Member of the public and press are entitled to review documents and communications generated...

The leftstream media characterization of Joe Biden is that he is moderate, likable, and the most electable Democrat candidate.  He is affable Uncle Joe, the self-made lunchbox-toting common man of the people. In truth, he is none of the above. Joe the Moderate The "Biden as moderate" canard is getting increasingly hard to defend.  On the economy-, car-, and cow-killing $93-trillion Green New Deal, Biden was asked if it goes too far or is unrealistically promising too much. He answered, "No, no it's not." When previously asked if there would be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in his administration, Biden answered,...

Back in 2016, California passed a new law (Assembly Bill 1887) establishing a naughty list of states that don’t conform to their high moral standards. The bill created a travel ban, forbidding state-funded or endorsed travel to states that failed to provide “protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” They quickly began adding states to the list, including Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky. (Clever readers are probably noticing a pattern already.)This week, California’s woke Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, broke out his sharpie and added another name to the list. This time it was Iowa,...

Has anyone seen the new commercial for the HIV drug Truvada? The commercial states they are doing it for prep. However it later goes on to say it helps lower the risk of contracting HIV in high risk people. So basically it is a drug for people who cannot control their sex drive and have dozens of sex partners per year.

A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as the U.S. released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had reason to believe it knew who was behind the attack — his secretary of state had blamed Iran the previous day — and assured his Twitter followers that “we are ... locked and loaded” depending on verification and were waiting to...

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ric Ocasek, lead singer of the rock band The Cars, died Sunday in New York at age 75. Police said they received a call around 4 p.m. for an unconscious male at a townhouse on East 19th Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Law enforcement sources confirmed the deceased was Ocasek. Ocasek and his band were inducted into the Rock Hall in 2018. The institution described the band as "hook-savvy with the perfect combo of new wave and classic rock." The band had 13 top-40 singles, including radio staples like "Good Times...

Is the New York Times "airbrushing" history again? It would seem so. On Saturday, November 22, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko presided over a commemoration in Kiev of the 75th anniversary of the famine genocide of 1932-1933 that took the lives of 7-10 million Ukrainians. Known as the Holodomor (Ukrainian for "murder by hunger"), it is one of the greatest mass murders in history, and one of the cruelest ... The New York Times prides itself on being the national "newspaper of record" and still carries its longtime motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print" in the upper left-hand corner...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope admits: Traditional Latin Mass is the Future Ok, he did not say that exactly... What he did say on September 12, however, would certainly lead to that logical conclusion: "To be modern, some believe that it is necessary to break away from the roots. And this is their ruin, because the roots, the tradition, are the guarantee of the future,” Pope Francis said Sept. 12 ...[i]n an a audience with nearly 200 members of the General Chapter of the Discalced Augustinians, the pope explained that “true tradition” is like the roots that bring a tree sap that...

PLANO — Beto O'Rourke on Sunday said Democrats should be bolder in their approach to issues related to gun control, immigration, criminal justice and climate change. "I'm a lifelong Democrat," O'Rourke told about 300 people outside of Artcentre of Plano. "For too long Democrats have played defense ... but just like Lucy with the football, every single time that we put our best foot forward and move forward in the spirit of consensus and comprise and start in that middle position, we lose it." O'Rourke called for a different, less compromising approach, noting that attempts at consensus building have led...

September 13, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — There has been a campaign to “infiltrate” the Church “that goes back centuries,” Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said in a new interview with Dr. Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican. This campaign can be traced “in particular, to the creation in the middle of the 1700s of freemasonry,” said Viganò. “But of course this project was very deceptive, and oriented, or even included in some way, the forces of some members of the Church.” “This is described in the book Infiltration by Dr. Taylor Marshall, so you may find some indication of this process there,”...

ROME — Pope Francis has banned plastic in Vatican City State to stand in solidarity with environmentalists. He made the announcement from aboard the papal plane during a long-haul flight back from his recent trip to Africa. The pope said he had been disturbed by a conversation a couple months ago with sea chaplains and fishermen who recounted how they had gathered six tons of plastic from the ocean over the course of a few months. “In the Vatican we have banned plastic,” Francis told journalists. “We are working on that.” The pope went on to explain that his prayer...

Ric Ocasek, founding member and lead singer of The Cars, has died in New York City, the NYPD confirms. He was found unresponsive at his East 19th Street residence in Manhattan and pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

My latest at PJ Media: Eighteen years after the September 11 jihad attacks that murdered nearly three thousand people, this is where we are: the Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church in Michigan has canceled an event called “9/11 forgotten? Is Michigan surrendering to Islam” under pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. And so the answers are clear: yes, 9/11 has been forgotten, and Michigan is indeed surrendering to Islam. The event was to feature an ex-Muslim, Shahram Hadian, speaking on “How the Interfaith Movement is Sabotaging America and the...

It would astonish most people to learn that many news stories are connected in some way. Such is the case with two seemingly disparate major stories that dominate the news: the effort to tag President Donald J, Trump as having colluded with Russia and the matter of abortion-in particular the Center for Medical Progress' 2015 undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood's involvement in the illegal trafficking of aborted baby tissues and organs. Those two stories are intertwined in surprising ways.

Former first lady Michelle Obama is coming to Newark Nov. 3 and fans are shelling out big bucks to hear what she has to say. The cheap seats for the “Moderated Conversation” at the Prudential Center were going for $144 on Ticketmaster. Want face time? Prime seats and a “meet and greet” will cost you $2,500. Floor seats are priced as high as $1,300 and the most expensive ticket currently available is $4,200 for a suite-level ducat.

9/11 Commission Chiefs Say 'Terrorism Needs to Be Prevented at the Source,' While Ignoring Its Source BY ROBERT SPENCER SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 9/11 Commission Chiefs Say ‘Terrorism Needs to Be Prevented at the Source,’ While Ignoring Its Source SEP 15, 2019 5:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER My latest at PJ Media: Former New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean and former Indiana Congressman Lee H. Hamilton were chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the 9/11 Commission. On Tuesday, they published an op-ed in USA Today calling for a bold new approach to the global problem of jihad terrorism. Their innovative new idea?...

Rio Rancho mayor says "zero tolerance" for anyone who displays violence or aggression RIO RANCHO, N.M. — We're only hours away from the gates opening at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho. KOAT spoke with Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull about what people should expect Monday when President Donald Trump is in town. This will be the biggest event Rio Rancho has ever hosted, and as you would expect, a lot of planning has gone into it. “We’re dealing with a sitting president of the United States here, so there’s going to be high security all over,” Hull...

President Trump on Sunday announced he had authorized the use of the U.S.'s emergency oil reserve in response to a series of drone attacks in Saudi Arabia that have disrupted the Gulf country's crude output. "Based on the attack on Saudi Arabia, which may have an impact on oil prices, I have authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, in a to-be-determined amount sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied," Trump said in a series of tweets. "I have also informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process...