Free Republic

In April, there were 9 Republican mayors in America’s 50 biggest cities. In May, that number fell to 8. Democrats are celebrating Omaha’s mayoral election win as proof that Republicans are out of step with America, when it’s really evidence how the nation’s cities have fallen out of step with America. There was a time when America’s cities were symbols of progress, but they have long since become sinkholes of decline, clinging to a handful of industries that employ a tiny fraction of their population as evidence of their relevance. When Americans think of big cities, they think of tall...

California state lawmakers have rejected a change to state policies that would have required male student athletes identifying as transgender to compete on sports teams consistent with their sex.On April 1, Democratic lawmakers on the state Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism rejected two bills introduced by Republican lawmakers—AB 89 and AB 844. Democrats hold a supermajority on the committee.AB 89 would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school sports, to follow rules banning male students from playing on girls’ sports teams at school.AB 844 would have effectively repealed the 2013 California School Success and...

The Pacific Palisades fire burned more than 6,800 structures, both homes and businesses. Clearly, the rebuilding process is going to take a while for many families even if insurance covers the losses. What should not take a long time are permits for people who lost everything to get started. Indeed, Mayor Karen Bass vowed to streamline the process and made a big show when the first permit was issued.The first permit was issued March 5, less than two months after the Palisades fire destroyed or seriously damaged more than 6,000 homes in Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.“We want this to...

California’s newly elected Assembly members and Senators were sworn in Monday December 2nd… while elections officials were still counting ballots. The first Monday in December has always been swearing-in Day for the California Legislature, from back in the day when California managed to report election results at the end of the Election Day along with all other 49 states. We are not sure how swearing in day is legal anymore… Wednesday, Dec. 5th, one month after Election Day, California wrapped up counting votes. And once again, California lost two more Republican congressional races after the election – one month after...

New Mexico is on the verge of living a real, not imagined, dystopia of one-party rule. The one party is the radical progressive Democrats. The New Mexico House and Senate already have overwhelming majorities of these progressives — many hand-picked and endorsed by my opponent, Martin Heinrich. A dystopia is the opposite of a utopia. In a dystopia, one party rules; the citizens chant slogans, don’t think and don’t connect the dots regarding actions and consequences. It is a society where there is no common sense. Progressives want to ban fracking. Martin Heinrich doesn’t think public lands should be used...

California officials have been working for months on a plan to “Trump proof” the state’s leading edge environmental and climate policies, in the event that former President Donald J. Trump returns to White House and follows through on his promise to gut them.Whether California succeeds could affect more than a dozen other states that follow its emissions rules, and could have global impact because the state’s market muscle compels auto makers and other companies to conform to California standards.The strategy now being crafted in Sacramento includes lawsuits designed to reach wide-ranging settlements with industries that generate greenhouse gases, and new...

COMPTON, Calif. -- More and more stores across the Southland and the country are taking stricter measures to fight a growing epidemic of shoplifting. At least one Rite Aid store in Compton appears to be taking security to the extreme. The store on Long Beach Boulevard installed locked glass cases on every aisle, meaning a majority of items for sale apparently require the assistance of a store employee. It's a sign of a growing and disturbing trend that's been seen in social media videos and news reports of shoplifters taking items from retailers without significant resistance by employees or security....

Justice Department reports show that 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges over the last 10 years. According to an exclusive report from The New York Times, a real estate boom was behind driving the corruption specifically in the city of Los Angeles. The Times report cited Jose Huizar as an example. Huizar, a graduate of Berkeley, Princeton and UCLA law school was on the school board and City Council. He was eventually arrested after FBI agents found out he received about $1.8 million worth of casino chips and other favors from Chinese developers which...

George @BehizyTweets BREAKING: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has officially signed the WORST election overhaul bill into law. This law will stop local officials from conducting recounts to investigate fraud and when fraud occurs, they have to call on the George Soros DAs & Attorney General Cheating in Michigan elections is now basically legal because no one will get caught Republicans should immediately sue because this law is unconstitutional. Michigan's constitution guarantees voters a right to a recount/audit and specifically states that legislative action can ONLY expand voters' rights,

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) argued that “the only way that immigration ever gets solved as a problem is if Democrats are in charge of the House and the Senate,” like they were from 2021 to 2023, and “we change the rules, and we get something passed with a majority vote.” Murphy said, “I think, for the time being, Republicans are never going to compromise on immigration. I think the only way that immigration ever gets solved as a problem is if Democrats are in charge of the House and the Senate, we change...

A new, too-early-to-mean-much poll of Pennsylvania voters shows incumbent President Joe Biden holding a 7.5 percentage point lead over former President Donald J. Trump. But, hey, on this presidential primary day why should New Hampshire have all the fun?

President Biden is running for reelection to save what he calls democracy from Caesar Augustus in waiting: former President Donald Trump. Since “Bidenomics” is as popular as Dylan Mulvaney’s commercials for Bud Light, the president’s reelection team — aka the Suicide Squad — has decided that the road to victory lies in convincing voters that the likely Republican nominee is a sinister figure who would transform the land of the free into a nation of storm troopers, stiff-arm salutes and tax reform. Mr. Biden told a fundraiser in September, “Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled that nearly any candidate in the 2024 field, of either party, would be an “upgrade” over another term for former President Trump. “I’d be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans — maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy] — but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I’d be happy to vote for them,” the retiring senator said Friday in an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell. “I’d be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats too,” he continued. “It would be an upgrade, in my opinion, from Donald Trump...

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney revealed the two GOP presidential candidates he refuses to support under any circumstance in a “Person to Person” interview that aired on CBS News. Romney responded that he would support “anybody” except former President Donald Trump and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy when asked by Norah O’Donnell if there was anybody he liked in the Republican field. “You know, I would uh, I’d be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans. Maybe not Vivek. But uh, but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I’d be happy to vote for them,” Romney...

Former Republican presidential candidate and outgoing Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he would vote for a Democrat if former President Donald Trump or political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy secure the Republican nomination.CBS News host Norah O’Donnell asked the retiring senator for his preference in the 2024 Republican presidential field.“Anybody. I’d be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans, maybe not Vivek, but the others that are running would be acceptable to me and I’d be happy to vote for them. I’d be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats too. I mean, it would be an upgrade...

Talk about being too close for comfort. The 2024 presidential race is all tied up, according to the latest NBC News poll. This survey (unlike some polls), is no outlier. The race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump has been effectively tied for months. Looks like we’re in for another nail-biter. On one hand, this stalemate makes perfect sense. As Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter reminds us, Trump won the 2016 Electoral College by about 79,000 votes in three states, Biden won in 2020 by less than 45,000 in three states, and Republicans won the House by a very narrow...

In the past few days, Democrats have secured majority control of the Pennsylvania House and moved within one seat of ending Republican control of the New Hampshire House. Those wins are not aberrations. They are the latest measures of a nationwide blue wave that has seen Democrats outperform expectations in 24 of 30 special elections for open state legislative seats this year. Legislative contests that were once considered local or regional races are being nationalized, as concerns about abortion rights and voting rights—two issues that are up for grabs in statehouses—are putting Republican candidates in a perilous position. SNIP The...

January 6 political prisoner Ryan Samsel has been held in prison without trial now since January 2021. During his two-and-a-half years without trial Ryan has been moved around to 17 different facilities. Ryan has been beaten, abused, tortured, and neglected since his arrest in January 2021. Earlier this week The Gateway Pundit received exclusive photos from Ryan Samsel’s prison cell at the FDC in Philadelphia. The cell was a size of a closet with a light on all of the time. The cell had a thin blue mattress, no sheets or blankets, no clothing, and he was kept here for...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing increased pressure to use his authority to unilaterally enact proposals that would dole out billions of dollars to Black residents in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery if the state legislature doesn't act. The California Reparations Task Force, which was created by state legislation in 2020, is considering a proposal to give just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion. **SNIP** The committee was created amid the unrest following...

A Chicago reporter who filed a federal lawsuit against Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot for revoking his press credentials accused the city of trying to silence him after a series of contentious exchanges with the mayor's office where he repeatedly questioned her "failures in performance." The suit, filed by journalist William J. Kelly in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in late August, alleges Lightfoot and Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown violated his First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights, saying, "They have done this for the most cynical and contemptible reason that can be imagined, to...