Free Republic

In the aftermath of the Democrats’ impeachment debacle and the chaotic breakdown of the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic Party establishment has stepped up its efforts to undermine the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the party’s presidential nomination. With Trump’s poll numbers rising, despite the shift to the left among working people and youth reflected in the broad support for Sanders, the Democratic leadership is determined to suppress the issue of social inequality in the 2020 campaign for fear of encouraging the growth of social opposition and anti-capitalist sentiment. The lead role in attacking Sanders from the right has...

[T]he data on the economy are giving [Trump] something genuinely worth boasting about. That was especially evident in the first employment numbers of 2020, released Friday morning. It was about as good a jobs report as an incumbent president could hope for nine months before Election Day — and not just in obvious ways. The big headline out of the latest numbers was that employers added 225,000 jobs in January, comfortably more than analysts had expected. That alone suggests that economic growth is steady at a minimum, and maybe accelerating as the year begins. The seemingly bad news in the...

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg's campaign was mocked Friday for editing a clip from a CNN town hall that included inserting fake applause after a remark made by the 38-year-old presidential candidate. "To me, that is not just a concern for our generation, it's a concern that calls on us to build an alliance among generations to try to make sure that the future really is better than the past," Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., said in answering a question from an audience member in New Hampshire. In the live CNN event on Thursday night, Buttigieg's answer did...

I am an American born citizen, living overseas for the last 45 years. I have never voted in a presidential election but this time I would like to support President Trump. But since the president will win by Electoral College votes, and I don't live in an American state...will my vote actually help him? What happens to the votes of people who don't have a residence in the USA? I was born and raised in NY, lived in Texas, stayed in California a number of times for weeks at a time, but my residence has been overseas in Australia. What...

The basic building blocks of U.S. health care are now under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. -- Chinese President Xi Jinping recently warned of the “grave” situation posed by the “accelerating spread” of the coronavirus in China. Xi’s frank warnings were unusual for the seniormost official of the Chinese Communist Party and reveal the depth of the concern at the highest levels of the country’s leadership. Already, nearly 500 people have died and tens of thousands more have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. It has been found in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Europe and the United States....

Vegans across the country are protesting Starbucks for its "insane" institution of a "vegan tax" against non-dairy drinkers. The controversy, which stems from the fact that the coffee chain typically charges extra for plant-based milk options, has led to sit-ins at Starbucks locations nationwide, Insider reported. PETA, the animal rights group, has organized many of the protests, which have taken place in cities such as San Diego, Queens, N.Y., and Meriden Township, Minn., as well as outside the home of the company’s CEO, Kevin Johnson. **SNIP** The protests began in December 2019, when PETA announced it was purchasing shares of...

The drumbeat for Democratic National Committee boss Tom Perez to be “held accountable” for recent party failures appears to be getting louder. The latest Democrats to criticize Perez include U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., all backers of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Recent party setbacks have included the vote-count fiasco at Monday’s Iowa caucuses and Tuesday night’s disclosure that two officials on the host committee of the party’s upcoming national convention in Milwaukee had been fired over non-specified allegations that they oversaw a work environment where staff members were not being...

MANCHESTER, NH – Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg came under attack at Friday night’s Democratic presidential nomination debate by two of his top-tier rivals over his acceptance of campaign donations from billionaires and his reliance on super PACs to help support his White House bid. Sen. Elizabeth Warren – who’s contributions have almost entirely come from small dollar grassroots donors – slammed the former South Bend, Indiana mayor without naming him. “I don’t think anyone should be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president of the United States, she emphasized, before adding that, “I don’t...

Actor and comedian Orson Bean is dead after being struck by a car while crossing the street ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Bean was allegedly jaywalking in Venice Friday night when he was clipped by one vehicle and then struck by another. We're told Bean died at the scene and both vehicles stayed after the incident. Cops are currently investigating whether the collision was criminal or an accident.

Lead House Impeachment Manager Congressman Adam Schiff of California stated during closing arguments in the Senate trial that he had irrefutable proof President Trump was going to give Alaska back to the Russians. He had learned about it just an hour ago, Schiff claimed, from an anonymous whistleblower who approached him during lunch. He was wearing a brown paper bag over his head with a hand-drawn picture of a whistle on it. The man told Schiff that he had overheard Donald Trump promising Vladimir Putin that he'd give him Alaska if Russia helped him to cheat in the 2020 election....

Thanks to all of y'all for your prayers and support. Your prayers helped a great deal but I am not out of the woods yet. Yesterday the doc did the scoop on me and the cancer has spread, but not very far he says. He took out as much as he felt he could and I will soon be seeing an oncologist for I assume chemo and radiation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) characterized President Trump's State-of-the-Union speech as "a manifesto of lies and misrepresentations" and tore it to shreds as most of the audience loudly applauded his remarks. Her first complaint alleged that "he refused to shake my hand. That's how demeaning he is to those he disagrees with." As it so happens, Trump didn't shake hands with Vice-President Mike Pence either before he stood at the podium to speak. Pelosi also found fault with Trump's invited guests. "Who is he to presume to honor the last surviving Tuskegee airman?" she demanded to know. "The Tuskegee airmen...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq and Russia discussed prospects for deepening military coordination, Iraq's Defense Ministry said Thursday, amid a strain in Baghdad-Washington relations after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian general inside Iraq. The ministry statement followed a meeting in Baghdad between Iraqi army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Othman Al-Ghanimi and Russian Ambassador Maksim Maksimov, as well as a newly arrived defense attache. The meeting comes during an uncertain moment in the future of Iraq-U.S. military relations, following the Jan. 3 U .S. drone strike that killed Iran's most powerful military commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and Iraqi senior...

While panic about a sudden, deadly virus is to be expected, some fears — especially in North America and the West — have been based on something other than health. The panic has exposed a deep-seated xenophobia, and with it, a symptom of its own has surfaced: hostility toward East Asian people.

Meanwhile: China doing 'very professional job' against coronavirus: Trump US President Donald Trump has said China is doing a "very professional job" in combating the coronavirus. Trump said he had discussed the crisis with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a "very good" phone call late on Thursday and added that the US and China were "working together" on the issue.

KYIV — At the heart of the impeachment saga that ended on Wednesday in Donald Trump’s acquittal was $391 million in US military assistance for Ukraine that the president ordered be withheld. But that aid package, which was eventually released last September, wasn’t the only US arms transfer meant for the war-torn country that was held up. Several direct commercial sales of arms and ammunition to Ukraine faced significant delays at the same time — and they remain mysteriously frozen months later, BuzzFeed News has learned. Now, after a lengthy wait and down payments in the tens of millions of...

The cruise line operator Royal Caribbean has said it will refuse any passengers with Chinese, Hong Kong or Macao passports, regardless of when they were last in China. The remarkable statement comes after reports that about two dozen passengers aboard a cruise ship that docked in Bayonne, New Jersey, on Friday morning were screened for coronavirus and four were sent to a local hospital for further screening. (please see link, for full story)

The Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan on 6 February 2020, at 09:12 UTC (15:12 local time), with NASA astronaut Christina Koch, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos. Christina Koch’s 328-day-long mission is the longest single spaceflight in history by a woman and the second-longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut Credit: NASA/Roscosmos

The Michigan diocese of the Episcopal Church is about to welcome its first female and first openly lesbian bishop this weekend. The elevation of the Rev. Bonnie A. Perry to bishop in Michigan comes as some Christian denominations in the U.S. struggle with issues of same-sex marriages and gays or lesbians in church leadership roles. Perry was elected last June at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit and her ordination will be held Saturday in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson became the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop in 2004. Episcopal conservatives opposed...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Healthcare, Government, Family, Military, Business, Farmers, Sanctity of Life, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.