Free Republic

If House Democrats are unsure how to move forward post-impeachment, President Donald Trump's unhinged performances last week at the National Prayer Breakfast and in the East Room of the White House should provide some clarity. Trump unleashed a stream-of-consciousness tirade Thursday, using inflammatory words like "scum," "sleazebags" and "crooked" to describe his perceived enemies. This was Trump uncensored and uninhibited, seemingly liberated from the confines of impeachment and determined to exact revenge on his public list of enemies. It was a demonstration of remarkable pettiness but also a warning that if he is left unchecked, there are few boundaries he...

Some will argue that Birds of Prey was never meant to be a big pic like Suicide Squad with its lower-than-DC-budget (around $97M gross, $84M net). Hogwash. It’s a brand, and that’s a lot of money to spend, according to finance sources, on a movie that’s intended to be an event film in the offseason. While spinoffs in their grosses have traditionally shown to be down in their grosses from the core franchise (i.e., Hobbs & Shaw‘s $60M opening was off 39% from Fate of the Furious’ first weekend, and Fantastic Beasts was off 56% from Harry Potter and the...

Actress and left-wing activist Jane Fonda wore an old gown she had in her wardrobe to this year’s 92nd Academy Awards to fight climate change. At the Oscars on Sunday evening, Fonda presented the award for Best Picture in an Elie Saab gown that she wore in 2014 to the Cannes Film Festival — a decision she made after being inspired by teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

I won’t say much about the Oscars as I didn’t watch them again this year. All I know of the baboons and baboonettes (not racist as I understand the Academy once again snubbed POC) speechifying is what I read in the fake news.But if the “acceptance” speeches were especially good this year - i.e. anti-Trump, pro-progressive causes - you can thank Obama’s former homeboys, head speechwriter Jon Favreau and Tommy (“Dude, that was like two years ago...”) Vietor. They’ve followed the natural career progression from D.C. policy wonk and propagandist to Hollywood PR wonker and propagandist. Barack Obama’s former head...

“The Communist Manifesto” got a shoutout during the 2020 Oscars. Julia Reichert, the co-director of best documentary winner “American Factory,” which was produced by former President Barack Obama’s new film company, apparently quoted from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ infamous book during her acceptance speech on Sunday night. “Working people have it harder and harder these days — and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite,” Reichert said. The quote appeared to be a riff on the last lines of the 1848 political document, which are frequently translated from German as “Workers of the...

MANCHESTER, NH -- Elizabeth Warren isn’t struggling like Joe Biden. But she isn’t soaring, like Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders. Instead, the Massachusetts senator enters a critical stretch of the campaign relegated to the murky middle. She has to convince voters she has a viable path to the nomination, even if that path is unclear. Her campaign has spent millions of dollars flexing organizational muscle throughout the country, but she’s lagging in her own backyard ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. “I think it’s going to be tough if she doesn’t do well,” said Neil Levesque, executive director of the...

MANCHESTER, N.H. —Democratic leaders have edged toward the brink of open war with one another in recent days after a series of jarring setbacks that could jeopardize the party's chances against President Trump, who continues to solidify his iron-fisted control over the Republican election apparatus. The infighting focuses largely on the failed caucus process in Iowa, with state and national Democratic leaders at odds over who deserves blame, as well as an increasingly bitter dispute over the rules governing who gets into future nationally televised candidate debates — a process that could allow billionaire Mike Bloomberg to make the stage...

REALLY ?

If anything is certain this election season, it’s that everything is uncertain. Should the strong economy continue and nothing too crazy happens, it’s conceivable that Republicans could hang onto the executive, the Senate, and even regain the House. President Trump will be on the ballot in all those districts Democrats swiped from Republicans, and now they’ll also have their own record, or lack thereof (impeachment, anyone?), upon which to run. The Senate will come down to a few key races in Maine, Arizona, Colorado, and North Carolina, but Democrats will have to win them all in order to gain the...

BRUSSELS - The European Commission had to apologize again on Monday for a comment by foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who had questioned young people’s commitment to the fight against climate change, referring to it as “Greta syndrome”. Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Borrell said he had doubts about young people’s genuine engagement to tackling climate change, and questioned whether they were ready to change their lifestyles by measures to cut carbon emissions. “It is fine to demonstrate for climate change as long as you are not asked to contribute to pay for it,” Borrell said, calling this attitude “Greta...

BEIJING - People across China trickled back work on Monday after an extended Lunar New Year holiday as the government eased restrictions imposed to counter the coronavirus, but the World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of cases outside China could be just “the tip of the iceberg”. The death toll from the epidemic rose to 908, all but two in mainland China, on Sunday as 97 more fatalities were recorded - the largest number in a single day since the virus was detected in the city of Wuhan in December. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been...

Ten years ago Democrats chose not to use their 60-vote Senate majority to pass card-check legislation letting unions avoid secret-ballot elections. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to bring up the bill for a vote. How political times have changed. House Democrats last week passed the PRO Act, 224-194, that would impose a back-door card check and gut the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act in the most sweeping pro-union legislation since the 1935 Wagner Act. The bill codifies Obama -era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings that overturned decades of labor law. Employers would have to hand over workers’ private information to...

You’ve successfully conducted adoptions since 2005. But suddenly, in 2019, prosecutors come after you, claiming you are engaging in human trafficking. What drastically changed over 14 years? This is the nightmare that has happened to Paul Petersen, who until January 7 was the Maricopa County Assessor in Arizona. Petersen was pressured into resigning his position after prosecutors got him indicted for bringing women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. to give birth, then give their babies up for adoption. The prosecution says it’s illegal human trafficking. Prosecutors in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas are seeking federal and state charges against...

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you" (Phil. 1:3). A key to Christian joy is to recall the goodness of others. Though Paul was under house arrest in Rome when he wrote to the Philippians, his mind wasn't bound. Often he reflected on his experiences with the Philippian Christians. As he did, his thoughts turned to prayers of praise and thanksgiving for all that the Lord had done through them. I'm sure Paul remembered when he preached in Philippi and God opened Lydia's heart to believe the gospel (Acts 16:13-14). Subsequently everyone in her household was saved...

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 113 Psalm 113 1 Praise the Lord.[a] Praise the Lord, you his servants;     praise the name of the Lord. 2 Let the name of the Lord be praised,     both now and forevermore. 3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,     the name of the Lord is to be praised. 4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations,     his glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God,     the One who sits enthroned on high, 6 who stoops down to look     on the heavens and the...

He’s locked up on murder charges — but still has a rent-regulated apartment. A deadbeat tenant who allegedly killed a man in his Bronx apartment beat an eviction proceeding while in jail on Rikers Island thanks to a controversial new state rent law, The Post has learned. Charles Votaw’s landlord first slapped him with a 10-day notice demanding more than $7,000 in unpaid rent on June 6 last year, the first step to boot him from his federally subsidized Section 8 apartment in Fordham Heights. But on June 14, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act...

After watching the Academy Awards, it seems to matter little whether an honored movie affirms our culture or our traditional values. In fact, many of the winners involve stories and/or characters who run counter to established American values. In fact, many of the films honored are more popular with Hollywood critics and insiders than movie goers. As a result, more and more Americans don't watch. After attending the launch of the first Republican Values Center in Simi, California, I was reminded of the importance of our core American values and why they ought to be central in determining how citizens...

... What would fear of Sanders in the White House mean for the economy, even before the election? If he enters office with a Democratic Congress, he could accelerate the national transition from a relatively free market to a planned economy, with direct and indirect state control of the means of production. His Marxist views have altered little in the last five decades. Both Main Street and Wall Street would price in these potentials, and if Sanders runs away with the Democratic nomination and leads in general election polls against Trump, the economic results would be frightening. Money would flee...

Instead of self-examination and taking stock of their copious failures, many in the media have chosen to blame Trump and suggest his supporters are victims of 'disinformation' instead of winning back readers' trust. Over at The Atlantic, McKay Coppins has a lengthy new article that’s raising a lot of eyebrows in D.C., “The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President.” Coppins is a good journalist and makes a good effort to get inside the online and social media efforts in the Trump organization. It didn’t get a lot of public credit in 2016, but as Coppins notes in the article,...