Free Republic

It may not have been the most exciting debate. The September debate was filled with more swipes at one another, but the Democratic debate Tuesday night once again showed how insane this party has become. One could see why impeachment is on the minds of Democrats; it may be the only way to beat Trump in 2020. Trump has an agenda of fewer regulations, tax cuts, a booming economy, over three million new jobs, bigger paychecks, and record unemployment across the board. The Democrats want to increase taxes, wreck capitalism, torch the economy, confiscate guns, give illegal aliens health care,...

Everyone who already thought the case for President Trump’s impeachment was a slam-dunk went berserk Thursday, claiming that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had just admitted to a quid pro quo with Ukraine. Except that what Mulvaney “admitted” is that the administration was doing what it should — pushing a foreign government to cooperate in getting to the bottom of foreign interference in the 2016 campaign. Virtually every media outlet in America — certainly all those that jumped on Mulvaney’s remarks — has spent most of the last three years painting such foreign interference as the blackest...

In a since removed tweet, actor Tom Arnold tweeted a thinly veiled assassination reference to President Trump after he landed in Dallas, Texas for his campaign rally on Thursday. Trump tweeted that he had just arrived at the American Airlines Center and would be taking the stage shortly. In a reply, Arnold tweeted, "Don't get too cocky traitor. They showed up for JFK too." Arnold was referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when he was driving through Dallas in 1963.

Abortion has been a surprisingly popular topic on television this week. New Amsterdam, Bull, and Empire have all openly referenced, debated, or supported the right to kill an unborn child. Now NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is joining the pack with a plot focused entirely around abortion. The October 17 episode “The Burden of Our Choices” follows the SVU investigating a 13-year-old runaway named Evangeline (Kira McLean). Evangeline comes from a fundamentalist Christian family (because, of course) in Ohio, but after her stepfather rapes her (another easy trope), she escapes to New York to have an abortion due...

No one has yet provided an adequate answer as to how Hunter Biden got a job on Burisma’s board, having absolutely no experience in either energy or Ukraine, apart from having a father serving as Vice President of the US. Reuters tries to unravel another mystery today — just what did Biden fils do on the board once he got the job? “He was a ceremonial figure,” one of their sources at Burisma tells their reporting team, one who never bothered to come to Ukraine at all in the five years he worked as a director for the Ukrainian...

The hopeful caveat comes right up front: This is a Democratic poll and there’s fully a year to go before Coloradans vote.But the caveat comes with its own caveat. An independent poll of the state conducted by Emerson in August found Gardner trailing John Hickenlooper by a similar margin. Emerson had it 53/40. Today’s Democratic poll has it 53/42. Normally it’d be implausible for any incumbent senator to trail by double digits in a swing state, but … Colorado’s not much of a swing state anymore. It’s blue enough that Hillary managed to win it in 2016 when virtually...

Full title: State Department official told Congress he raised concerns about Hunter Biden's Ukraine dealings in 2015 but was ignoredA State Department official focused on Ukraine policy told Congress this week he raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm in 2015, but was rebuffed by former Vice President Joe Biden’s staff, Fox News has confirmed. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, who testified behind closed doors before committees spearheading the formal House impeachment inquiry, told congressional investigators that he had qualms about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of the Ukrainian...

If you aren’t freaking out about something, then… well, then I’m freaking out that you’re not freaking out. Tell the rest of us: what’s your secret? Because the rest of us are pretty sure the world is going to hell in a flaming handbasket. And not only do we not know why, but we don’t know what to do. We live in a strange and contradictory time. On the one hand, the economies of the world are doing great! On the other, unless you’re wearing $2,000 Prada shoes and brush your teeth with truffle toothpaste, you’re not benefiting much from...

The hopeful caveat comes right up front: This is a Democratic poll and there’s fully a year to go before Coloradans vote. But the caveat comes with its own caveat. An independent poll of the state conducted by Emerson in August found Gardner trailing John Hickenlooper by a similar margin. Emerson had it 53/40. Today’s Democratic poll has it 53/42. Normally it’d be implausible for any incumbent senator to trail by double digits in a swing state, but … Colorado’s not much of a swing state anymore. It’s blue enough that Hillary managed to win it in 2016 when virtually...

A career State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy told congressional investigators this week that he had raised concerns in early 2015 about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company but was turned away by a Biden staffer, according to three people familiar with the testimony. George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified Tuesday that he worried that Hunter Biden’s position at the firm Burisma Holdings would complicate efforts by U.S. diplomats to convey to Ukrainian officials the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest, said the people, who spoke on the condition...

The diet helped Andrew Flinders Taylor lose weight—but is it safe? “Make your food boring and your life interesting.” That’s one lesson Andrew Flinders Taylor points out in a Youtube video he posted last December, where he detailed all of the things he learned after eating potatoes for every meal, every single day, for nearly a year. That’s right: Potatoes all day, every day. The potato diet sounds absolutely crazy, but for Taylor, who weighed in at 334 pounds when his experiment began, it led to noticeable results. The Australian native dropped 117 pounds after one year of the “Spud...

[Catholic Caucus] Famous modern Jesuits totally disagree with Jesuit pope on importance of dogma October 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — As reported earlier at this site, Pope Francis in his weekly general audience of October 9 made the following remark: “Do I belong to the universal Church — with the good and the bad, all of us — or do I hold a selective ideology? Do I love God or dogmatic formulations?” Apart from the false opposition and sentimentality implicit in the second question, more reminiscent of the Woodstock “summer of love” than of Christian charity for God and neighbor...

Politico is so anxious to destroy President Donald Trump’s presidency that it has contradicted itself. On October 18, 2019, Politico’s Quint Forgey wrote:

Power in the palm of your hand

...NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT FINDS THE SYSTEM STRONGER... ...DANGEROUS STORM SURGE AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXPECTED ALONG PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN GULF COAST LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT...

As a long time fan, I find myself consuming less pro football then ever before. The product is becoming unwatchable. It wasn't always like this. No one knows that a catch is. No one knows what PI is. QB's are off limits because of their brand potential.I fear we're witnessing the death by a thousand cuts in real time. It's turning into my personal salsa nightmare. Okay, let me explain. I used to frequent a little Mexican joint here in LA - they had this amazing black salsa. Over time, I noticed the salsa losing it's kick, as if they...

[snip] “But look at all those cameras. That’s like the Academy Awards used to be before it failed. You know why it failed? You know why it failed?” Trump asked his supporters. “Because they came after us. That’s why it failed. It failed because they had stupid people saying horrible things about us. Stupid, stupid people,” Trump continued, noting that their ratings have “dropped like a rock” — something he loves seeing. “They are stupid people, and their ratings have dropped like a rock and I love seeing it, I’m telling you. Love it,” Trump said. “But no matter how...

A US fast-food chain will cease trading at its first UK outlet amid a row over donations to anti-LGBT groups. Gay rights campaigners called for a boycott of Chick-fil-A, which opened its first branch at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading on 10 October. A spokeswoman for the centre said "the right thing to do" was to not extend the restaurant's lease beyond the "six-month pilot period". Chick-fil-A said its donations were purely focused on youth and education.

A homeless woman has been found living in a van alongside 320 rats that burrowed their way into its seats in San Diego. Authorities found that the rats had clawed into upholstery, burrowed into the seats and gnawed the engine wiring, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. After receiving several complaints about the rats, the Humane Society stepped in and offered to help rehouse the rodents. The woman, known only as Carla, started with just two rats. But the rodents give birth every four weeks and produce a dozen in a litter so multiply in no time.

In what appears to have been a routine patrol, 30 members of Mexico's National Guard were caught off guard and ambushed from an unsuspecting local house. After repelling the initial attack, authorities soon discovered Ovidio Guzmán López, son of "El Chapo" and suspected co-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, hiding inside the home. Chaos quickly ensued as gunmen blocked streets with burning vehicles. The scenes that unfolded were reminiscent of a war zone.