Free Republic

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg slammed President Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh at a CNN town hall Tuesday night. Last week, Limbaugh came under fire for making homophobic comments about Buttigieg and his marriage, something he has said he won’t apologize for, according to Limbaugh, because Trump told him not to. But between Limbaugh’s comments and Trump telling the conservative radio host not to apologize, Trump said he’d vote for a gay presidential candidate, and Buttigieg isn’t buying the contradictory stories. Asked if he’d take Trump at his word about voting for a gay candidate, Buttigieg responded, “Well, not if...

1.Blonde: What does IDK stand for? Brunette: I don’t know Blonde: Why doesn’t anyone know! 2.Why can't a blonde dial 911? She can't find the eleven. 3.How come it takes so long to build a blonde snowman? Because you have to hollow out the head. 4.What did the blonde say when she saw the Cheerios box? "Omg, donut seeds!" 5.Two blondes fell down a hole. One said, 'It’s dark in here isn’t it?' The other replied, 'I don’t know; I can’t see.' 6.What can strike a blonde without her even knowing it? A thought. 7.Why did the blonde stare at...

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) recently told a progressive audience at Howard University that, “Public transit should be free.” This is just the latest call for free transit; the issue has been bubbling up around the country in the past few months, started in large part by some misreporting of events in Kansas City, Missouri. ... A 2002 study authored by Jennifer Perone and Joel Volinski of the Center for Urban Transportation Research concluded: "Based upon the findings of this synthesis, it is concluded that a fare-free policy might be appropriate for smaller transit systems in certain communities, but is ill-advised...

Von Drehle has taken the trouble to watch Bloomberg’s performances in debates held in 2001, 2005, and 2009 when he was running for mayor of New York City. Perhaps Bloomberg has lost a step or two in the more than 10 years since his last encounter. . .Based on the record, though, expect to see a disciplined, efficient debater. Bloomberg doesn’t swing for the fences. To borrow from another sport, he’d rather jab than throw haymakers. He never looks as though he’s shuffling through a mental file marked “zingers,” but he’s deadly with the subtle eyeroll. Bloomberg’s style projects the...

Rapper Pop Smoke, an up-and-coming artist born in Brooklyn, was shot and killed Wednesday in a Hollywood Hills, California, home, multiple law enforcement officials confirmed to ABC News. Multiple suspects broke into the home with at least one wearing a black mask, sources said. The suspects then shot the victim, who was transported to a local hospital where he died, according to the sources. "We are devastated by the unexpected and tragic loss of Pop Smoke," his record label, Republic Records, said in a statement. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans, as we mourn...

An anonymous group calling itself "P.U.T.I.N." said they released pigeons wearing MAGA hats into downtown Las Vegas.  According to an email from the group's apparent leader "Coo Hand Luke," PUTIN -- which stands for Pigeons United To Interfere Now -- released the birds purposely on the eve of the Democratic debate set for Las Vegas on Wednesday. The group included video of the pigeons' release in their media alert. One of the pigeons was attached with a small orange hairpiece. The rest wear "MAGA" (Make America Great Again) hats, synonymous with supporters of President Donald Trump.

Billionaire George Soros has once again taken shots at Facebook, this time calling for the removal of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. According to Soros, Zuckerberg and Sandberg are “helping Trump get re-elected.” The Daily Mail reports that leftist billionaire George Soros has called for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg to be removed from their positions at the company as he believes they are “helping Trump get re-elected” by refusing to fact check political ads.

A social media post spread through the Barnard College and Columbia University campuses on Manhattan's Upper West Side, quickly garnering hundreds of comments and shares earlier this month. In it, a Chinese student at Barnard who had self-quarantined herself as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak was warned by a college official not to leave her dorm room. The student, Sylvia Su, had received an email from a deputy dean at the college, Natalie Friedman, asking why she had not been present when a meal was delivered to her room, warning that "a conduct charge" may be warranted. Su posted...

Sharing threats made by someone else could soon become a punishable offense in Germany, after the government approved a bill Wednesday designed to crack down on hate speech and online extremism. Following a regional politician’s slaying and an attack on a synagogue last year, German government ministers announced plans to require companies like Facebook and YouTube to report certain forms of hate speech to the police and to provide the users’ IP addresses. Firms already have to delete such posts. Under the bill that won Cabinet backing, internet companies would have to report a wide range of hate speech to...

TOKYO—A Kobe University doctor touched off a furor with a firsthand account of a virus-stricken cruise ship in which he accused Japan of doing a worse job protecting people than African nations and China. Kentaro Iwata, who made the allegations in widely circulated YouTube videos after spending Tuesday aboard the Diamond Princess, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the crew should be removed as soon as possible because of the danger of catching the novel coronavirus on the ship. The charges by Dr. Iwata, an infectious disease specialist who has worked to tackle the Ebola disease and...

A Pennsylvania Democrat endorsed by a local committee to run for the state's seat in the House of Representatives is facing backlash after the contender she defeated dredged up old posts made on social media indicating she bashed Hillary Clinton and expressed her support for President Trump instead. Heather Kass, of Pittsburgh's Carrick neighborhood, apologized for the resurfaced Facebook posts, in which she slammed recipients of ObamaCare, saying "THESE LAZY NO GOOD IDIOTS SUCKING THE SYSTEM DRY AND I STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM." She also wrote in the post from 2015, "GO TRUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!" with 12 exclamation points, according...

Bernie Sanders had to pause his speech for a moment as a boat drives by with a massive Trump sign and a super loud horn. Just listen to that horn go!! Very clever! (video on source, the horn is LOUD)

"Services are valued at prevailing commercial rate" Sanders packs venues because he has major corporate entertainers play for free. See for example: "Move Over Coachella, Bernie Sanders' Caucus Rally Is The Hottest Line Up This Season" https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/01/9261165/bernie-sanders-concert-bon-iver-vampire-weekend-iowa-rally

Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign is reportedly hiring hundreds of people in California to post on their personal social media accounts and send text messages to contacts in support of the Democratic presidential candidate. More than 500 deputy field organizers will get paid $2,500 a month to promote Bloomberg in weekly text messages and daily social media posts. The effort, which could cost the campaign millions of dollars, is focused on California's primary on March 3, but could expand nationwide. The Bloomberg campaign says deputy field organizers are sharing their own content, not ads, and that there are no requirements around...

LAS VEGAS — The crowds remain small. The message is the same. The schedule is still light. Joe Biden is campaigning in Nevada in much the same way he did in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he suffered back-to-back losses that transformed him from frontrunner to underdog. It’s a testament to the campaign’s sense of confidence — or its state of denial — that it continues to operate as if Nevada, the first diverse state to vote this year, will be different for Biden than the two heavily white states where he was crushed. One advantage here is that African...

A national poll released Wednesday shows Sen. Bernie Sanders is currently leading the Democrat presidential primary field by 15 points. Sanders is now at 32 percent support while former Vice President Joe Biden is only at 17 percent, down 11 points from a month ago, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll. In January, Biden was leading Sanders by four points, 28 percent to 24 percent. Sanders is easily leading Biden among whites, and non-whites but falls short among black support, where the former vice president is clinging to a five-point lead. The sense that Biden would be the strongest...

WASHINGTON - Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg’s decision to back a tax on trades marks a blow for Wall Street lobbyists which had seen the moderate Democrat as a potential ally, said analysts and lobbyists. On Tuesday, the former New York mayor and Wall Street investment banker, who made his $60 billion fortune in finance, proposed imposing a 0.1% tax on trading stocks, bonds and derivatives as part of a broader financial services agenda. Bloomberg’s decision to back the tax is likely to bring him into conflict with Wall Street firms that are fighting the policy, many of which are the...

US scientists announced Wednesday they had created the first 3D atomic scale map of the part of the novel coronavirus that attaches to and infects human cells, a critical step toward developing vaccine and treatments. It came as the death toll from the COVID-19 virus jumped past 2,000, almost all of them in mainland China where 74,185 cases of infection have been confirmed since it first emerged in late December. The team from the University of Texas at Austin and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) first studied the genetic code of the virus made publicly available by Chinese researchers,...

Two more New Zealanders on the Diamond Princess cruise have tested positive for the covid-19 coronavirus, as one Japanese infectious disease specialist who visited the quarantined ship describes the scene there as "chaotic" and "scary". ... "Bureaucrats were in charge of everything" without a single professional infection control specialist on board, he said. ...

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, whose campaign was sidelined last fall when he suffered a heart attack, says he won't release his full medical records -- going back on a promise he made four months ago. At a town hall event in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night, Sanders said he doesn't intend to publicize any more of his health records -- adding that he has so far released more than any other Democratic candidate. "I think we have released a detailed medical report and I'm comfortable on what we have done," he said. When asked if he will release more, he...