Free Republic

"Trump has built a diverse working-class coalition. Can he pass it on to his successor?" The Democrats’ defeat in 2024 reflected long-term shifts in the electorate, not merely Kamala Harris’s vulnerability or Joe Biden’s decision to seek re-election. If these trends persist through the 2028 presidential election, the long-predicted realignment of America’s political parties will be completed. The New York Times reported on May 24 that the Republican Party had increased its vote share in three consecutive presidential elections in 1,433 counties, nearly half the national total. The Democratic Party had increased its share in all three elections in only...

"Senior executives are being pushed out and the director, Kash Patel, is more freely using polygraph tests to tamp down on news leaks about leadership decisions and behavior"Behind the scenes, his vision of an F.B.I. under President Trump is quietly taking shape. Agents have been forced out. Others have been demoted or put on leave with no explanation. And in an effort to hunt down the sources of news leaks, Mr. Patel is forcing employees to take polygraph tests.Taken together, the moves are causing worrisome upheaval at the F.B.I., eliciting fear and uncertainty as Mr. Patel and his deputy, Dan...

My chocolate Lab Murphy lost the strength in his back legs and was going blind. I’ve always had dogs, I know how the story ends, but today was the day. I just got home and saw his empty bowls - so I felt like posting.

I'm in Orlando for a business meeting, staying at a resort/meeting hotel. I came down from Central NH on a day when the high temperature was 48. It was 97 in Orlando. It's been very nice to be outdoors when it's this warm, even at night. I like it. But the indoor temperature at this hotel, in public areas, restaurants, and corridors is FREEZING. Like 60F, with AC runnning full blast. Is this normal for you all? Does it mess you up to have a 30 degree temp change when you go in and out of doors? Just asking.

The C.I.A. has said for years that it did not have enough information to conclude whether the Covid pandemic emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan, China, or from an accidental leak at a research lab there. But the agency issued a new assessment this week, with analysts saying they now favor the lab theory. There is no new intelligence behind the agency’s shift, officials said. Rather it is based on the same evidence it has been chewing over for months. The analysis, however, is based in part on a closer look at the conditions in the high security...

Senate Republicans reacted with alarm and dismay to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s decision to nominate Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, for attorney general, and several said they were skeptical...

So, we've heard a lot since 2000, especially from California, about the undemocratic nature of the Electoral College (100% true, it's an anti-democratic institution).Some States have been proposing an (unconstitutional) interstate compact where participating States would give their Electoral votes to the winner of (nonexistent) "national popular vote".My question for FReepers is: Given the results from last night, how fast would California seek to withdraw from such a compact (if it existed) rather than deliver their 54 EV to our 47th President, Donald John Trump?

Embattled Steward Health Care chief Ralph de la Torre said Wednesday that he will not comply with a subpoena to testify at a Senate hearing next week on the collapse of his hospital system, setting up a showdown with lawmakers who are threatening to hold him in contempt.De la Torre did not rule out appearing before Congress eventually, but said through an attorney it would be “wholly inappropriate” to testify before his company emerges from the complex bankruptcy proceedings that have followed for-profit Steward’s spectacular downfall. And that process took a substantial step forward Wednesday, as a federal judge overseeing...

Mark Cuban is issuing a big warning to self-insured employers: If your company receives pharmacy rebates through employee benefits, prepare for an eventual lawsuit. "It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when," he wrote on X on July 22. "The inevitable class action suit will dwarf the tobacco settlements." Mr. Cuban's comments come as large employers are beginning to face lawsuits from their workers over claims of mismanaging health and pharmaceutical benefits and violating their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA requires self-funded employers acting as health plan fiduciaries to make an effort...

I just came back to say farewell to my childhood hero, and in a way also to the wonderful times when there were three teams in the Big Town, my Dad was a young man, and I was born into a mixed marriage (Giants - Dodgers). Farewell, Say Hey Kid. RIP #24. Where does the time go?

May 17, 1998 – June 16, 2024 310 Threads, 68,946 replies All good things must come to an end. I wish all of you the best. Remember, the national government has not one, but two warrants for its existence. 1) The Constitution 2) The Declaration of Independence The Constitution's purpose is "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" The Declaration states, "[men]are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty...

Has anyone seen or heard from FReeper Nathan Bedford? I haven't seen him on the site in quite a while

As America closes in on a major election, mistrust is brewing around the mysterious government entity that’s now denounced in scary-sounding terms — “the deep state” and “the swamp.” What do those words even mean? Who exactly do they describe? We went on a road trip to find out. As we met the Americans who are being dismissed as public enemies, we discovered that they are … us. They like Taylor Swift. They dance bachata. They go to bed at night watching “Star Trek” reruns. They go to work and do their jobs: saving us from Armageddon. Sure, our tax...

Now that the Supreme Court has unanimously destroyed the dreams of Davos to use January 6th as a means to keep him off the ballot, Donald Trump has passed the easiest of the hurdles in front of his returning to the White House. Some things, politically, in the US still function. This ruling was a lay-up. The SCOTUS had to rule decisively here. Trump was never convicted of ‘insurrection.’ He was impeached and character-assassinated, sure, but none of that carries any weight of law. But, even if you somehow believe he was guilty of the crimes the Democrats accused him...

This shouldn’t even be a question. A great party is trying to produce its presidential nominee. Donald Trump is the leader in the contest so far, and looks likely to be the victor. But the cycle has just started (61 delegates allocated, 2,368 to go) and the party isn’t united, it’s split, roughly 50/50 pro-Trump and not. Nikki Haley is right to stay in and fight. No one has the right to shut her down.... “You alone now carry the banner. Speak up for all the Republicans who have been demeaned, diminished and threatened by Trump. He can no longer...

Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and US Navy vessels in the Red Sea threaten the global economy, endangering the vital Suez Canal trade route. As if 14 such attacks in the past month, and against Israel directly, were not enough, Iran has now joined the fray... This marks the first time since October 7 that Washington has directly blamed Iran... Just after Christmas, however, Iran committed the classic “Washington gaffe” – i.e., telling the truth accidentally – when the Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly described Hamas’s barbaric assault as “one of the acts of revenge for the assassination of General [Qassem]...

The predictive power of horse-race polling a year from the presidential election is weak at best. The Biden campaign can take some comfort in that. But what recent surveys do reveal is that the coalition that put Biden in the White House in the first place is nowhere near as strong as it was four years ago... These danger signs include fraying support among core constituencies, including young voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters, and the decline, if not the erasure, of traditional Democratic advantages in representing the interests of the middle class and speaking for the average voter. Any...

Police say they received calls about gunshots around 6:30 p.m. Two men were found injured on the scene, another man found injured a short distance away. Channel Three has confirmed that all three are young men of Palestinian descent. The men were transported to UVM Medical Center where we’re told they’re being treated for non-fatal wounds. Police haven’t identified nor apprehended a shooter. They’ve closed off the portion of North Prospect between Loomis Street and Brookes Avenue. Around 8:30 p.m. a handful of officers survey the area, shining flashlights in yards and between houses. A member of the Burlington Police...

New Hampshire court records reveal that for John Madore, who killed a hospital security officer, guns and mental illness intersected in dangerous ways. John Madore was barricaded in his Strafford bedroom, with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol and an assault rifle next to him, warning the police officers on the other side of the door. He had just allegedly choked his sister until she couldn’t breathe and knocked his mother to the floor, according to court documents. “I have firearms,” an affidavit quotes Madore as saying, “and this is not going to end well.” That was Jan. 11, 2016, inside his...

Why have the October 7 attacks triggered a culture war in the West? Because parts of our Left are anti-Semitic and the Right is calling them out? Absolutely. But this is also psychological displacement: we’re so shocked by the murder of Israelis, distressed by the bombings in Gaza and, unable to comprehend an intractable problem, that we withdraw into the familiar language of domestic politics. The Times of Israel reports (as spotted by Sumantra Maitra of The American Conservative) that Washington ordered officials to permit humanitarian aid in to Gaza: “The Americans insisted,” said the defence minister, “and we are...