Free Republic

A leading Latino political organization is launching its first-ever incumbent protection campaign, designed to prop up five Hispanic representatives who flipped formerly Republican districts. The Latino Victory Fund (LVF), which played an important role in fundraising and promoting the members in 2018, launched Wednesday the "Our Champions" campaign to protect the seats held by Democratic Reps. Gil Cisneros (Calif.), Mike Levin (Calif.), Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Fla.), Xochitl Torres Small (N.M.) and Antonio Delgado (N.Y.). Mayra Macías, executive director of the Latino Victory Fund, called the five lawmakers "our community’s voice in Washington." "Now more than ever, we need their diverse backgrounds...

Norwegian authorities are warning shipowners and operators about the dangers associated with lithium-ion battery systems after a fire and subsequent gas explosion on board a diesel-electric ferry in Norway.

The White House is launching a new effort to slow the speeding Democratic impeachment push, but its noncooperation strategy is being constantly thwarted by a daily stream of explosive secrets being spilled behind closed doors on Capitol Hill. Current and former officials are painting an ever more damning picture of a wider than originally perceived scheme by President Donald Trump and his crew to pressure Ukraine that they warned could amount to a trampling of US law. Vice President Mike Pence launched a new effort Tuesday to bolster White House hopes of stalling the House inquiry long enough for Trump...

In a long-awaited decision, federal trial judge Allison Burroughs has ruled that, while Harvard does consider a student’s race in determining who gets in and who doesn’t (“the use of race in and of itself is admitted”), nonetheless Harvard is not breaking the law. That outcome was not surprising, and the judge’s opinion is unlikely to change many minds or alter the case’s expected trajectory to the Supreme Court. Judge Burroughs found that “Race is only intentionally considered as a positive attribute.” But if race is a positive attribute for favored groups, then does it not follow that it is...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed a measure Wednesday permitting New York state to press charges against those who have received presidential pardons. The measure was passed to prevent President Trump's ex-aides facing prison time or potential sentencing from receiving pardons and avoiding criminal punishment, NBC News reported. The network added that the legislation was a direct response to the president's consideration of giving his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a pardon. Manafort is serving in a federal prison after being convicted on bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has also indicted him on state...

Sen. Ted Cruz slammed LeBron James for “kissing up to Chinese communists and tyrants” — amid the backlash the Lakers superstar faces for his recent comments on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, according to a report. “I got to say LeBron James, he’s a hell of a player, but it sure seems his comments were more interested in money and making bucks and I get it, Nike is a big sponsor of his and he makes a whole lot of money, but kissing up to Chinese communists and tyrants and apologizing for murderers, that’s not a good look for the NBA,”...

President Trump said Wednesday that Turkey’s offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria is “not our problem,” defending his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the region amid criticism. "If Turkey goes into Syria, it is between Turkey and Syria. It’s not our problem,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Trump also downplayed the U.S. alliance with the Kurds, calling them “no angels” and saying the U.S. “paid a lot of money” for the Syrian Kurdish forces to fight alongside U.S. troops against ISIS. Trump’s remarks came as a U.S....

We interrupt our worries and fret-filled daily programming for a brief respite.Remember when President Trump had the boys and girls Little League champs at the White House last week?…~ click the pics to enlarge ~ There’s a whole lot of fun happening there….Come to think of it, President Trump has a remarkable ability to focus on the big picture amid circumstances that would likely overwhelm most people. His ability to live in the moment and compartmentalize challenges is a very significant strength.It would be challenging for anyone to face complex global issues and geopolitics, while simultaneously battling domestic political...

Key Points The deal is likely about two weeks away from being finalized. It still needs approval from local union leaders and GM’s 48,000 UAW members, who’ve been on strike since Sept. 16. The monthlong work stoppage is the UAW’s longest strike against GM since 1970. DETROIT — General Motors and union leaders have reached a tentative deal on a new labor contract that could end the United Auto Workers’ monthlong strike against the automaker, the UAW said Wednesday. Details of the proposed deal were not immediately available. However, the union’s roughly 48,000 members with GM are expected to receive...

Former Gov. Christie Whitman says she stands by a tweet she deleted in which she compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. The Republican tweeted Hitler "has nothing on" Trump. Whitman's tweet was in response to reports that a violent parody video depicting a likeness of Trump shooting and stabbing opponents and members of the media was played during a conference at his Miami golf resort. Whitman tells WNBC-TV in New York the comparison was "inflammatory", but she hoped the shock value would make people realize the severity of the situation. Whitman says she is "really frightened for the country."...

There's one Democrat idea that clearly has Joe Scarborough very worried about the potential harm it could do to the eventual Dem candidate: Beto O'Rourke's proposal of a mandatory "assault weapon" buyback, aka, gun confiscation. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough scalded the proposal as "a stupendously bad idea," calling it "radical" and likely to be found "unconstitutional." Joe fretted that O'Rourke's gun-confiscation proposal, along with his support for stripping tax-exempt status from religious groups that don't support same-sex marriage, would be "be repeated around the clock between now and next November by whoever is the Republican nominee." And so it...

I read this description in a comment on another site. It struck me as the perfect summation of what we dealing with.

An hour with one of the brightest, most down to earth men in America today speaking at Hillsdale College about America's future and why, if we don't clean things up, we may not have one. Put up a few days ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1o4BAyd7GU

Full title: Gregg Jarrett: Latest Pelosi-Schiff impeachment ‘witch hunt’ is venomous affront to constitutional principlesThe quixotic quest to impeach President Trump is not only anathema to the fundamental principles of due process, but constitutes a full-frontal assault on the procedural protections inherent in the “due process” clause of the Constitution. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her chosen marionette, Rep. Adam Schiff, are operating in the shadows of secrecy. Their authority does not derive from the House of Representatives itself upon a full majority vote. Instead, they have commandeered impeachment power by anointing themselves as the sole determinants. They alone have chosen...

In America, if you play by the rules, working to earn a living and saving to provide for the future, taxes take a piece of your earnings. If you win a state lottery, you owe tax. But if you get lucky in the lottery of life and land an inheritance, you owe no federal tax. That isn’t fair, is it? Extending the federal tax code to include inheritances would end that inequity. Inheritance taxes — regulated differently in the states that have them — are a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who...

If Hunter carries himself publicly as he did in this interview, people will neither like him nor trust him—and that may spell trouble for Joe. The fourth Democratic primary debate offered yet another opportunity for former vice president Joe Biden to dodge questions about his son Hunter’s shady business activities. While his father was running the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, Hunter was serving on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company, earning up to $50,000 per month despite zero experience in the energy sector.In Tuesday night’s debate, when Anderson Cooper questioned Biden about the impropriety of this dynamic, Biden...

NBA superstar LeBron James says Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey was “misinformed” and “wasn’t educated on the situation at hand” when he tweeted in support of Hong Kong’s freedom demonstrations. Morey’s sin was sharing an image of a slogan that read, “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” Even though the GM, regrettably, deleted his tweet, one strongly suspects his grasp of China— where the state is running “re-education” camps filled with Uyghurs—is considerably stronger than any of the NBA’s leading apologists.Only last year, James, a purported champion of social justice, came out in support of former quarterback Colin...

The partisans at The Washington Post pretended in a front-page Sunday "news" article that somehow, President Trump was losing his marbles in rage, going "beyond his often-untethered bounds." Readers were supposed to be highly disturbed about his mental state after learning he held a raucous rally in Minneapolis and said supposedly crazy things like how the Democrats are carrying out "a brazen attempt to overthrow our government." What is this attempt to impeach and remove Trump, if not overthrow him? Democrats might argue that even if Trump were removed, Vice President Pence would remain and, thus, there would be a...

Please send your donations in early and let's wrap this baby up early. Drain the swamp, baby, and Make America Great Again!! Prayers up for continuing progress and success. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the...

The federal government has been trying for decades to save the northern spotted owl, a native bird that sparked an intense battle over logging across Washington, Oregon and California decades ago. After the owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, earning it a cover on Time Magazine, federal officials halted logging on millions of acres of old-growth forests on federal lands to protect the bird’s habitat. But the birds’ population continued to decline. Graphic showing the differences between a barred and northern spotted owl. (AP Graphic/Peter Hamlin) Meanwhile, researchers, including Wiens, began documenting another threat...