Free Republic

Over the course of the past year I have opined that HRC would have to drop out of the race due to an unspecified illness. That speculation was previously based on the multiple criminal/security issues of Benghazi, classified emails, selling access, etc. finally catching up with her. Now, with actual physical ailments of a neurological or vascular nature manifesting on a regular basis (in addition to her criminal behavior...) I am wondering... Who at the DNC keeps the hourly spreadsheet of what the excuse of the hour is? Previously, it was kept on a daily basis, which the Apparatchik media...

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. "Hopefully Hillary Clinton will be elected president," Schultz told CNN's Poppy Harlow in a Facebook Live interview. Schultz has long been outspoken about his political and social views, but this is the first time he has weighed in on the 2016 presidential race. Rumors surfaced last year that Schultz himself was considering a campaign for the White House. He put an end to the speculation with an op-ed in the New York Times last August announcing that he wouldn't run. Schultz had landed in hot water earlier in the year...

YOU WOULDN'T think that a black gay man living in heavily Democratic Philadelphia would be a big Donald Trump supporter. So, imagine my surprise when over lunch recently, Saleem Khalil Vanderpump who belongs to all of those groups, told me he had every intention of voting Republican this fall. I was, like, whaaat? Vanderpump, co-owner of the Bellargo Boutique in the 500 block of South Street, explained that he is a huge fan of the self-described billionaire. I mean huge. He admires Trump's success as a businessman and has bought into the Republican candidate's campaign promise to "make America great...

I have been asked "the question" so many times regarding Trump or Hillary. By way of background, I have followed every national convention—Republican and Democrat—from the time I was age 9, and have attended most of the GOP Conventions from 1984 to the present. I have watched the news virtually every day from the age of 8. I have never seen anything like what we are observing. In spite of the unprecedented nature of this election cycle, I will attempt to respond to "the question." I am not demanding that anyone else share my view. But I was asked. Here...

Dr. King, who was actually a very woke radical, said in a March 1968 speech that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” I want to lead with Dr. King, in part because his words are so often bastardized by enemies of the Black Lives Matter Movement, to explain why our modern day concerns and methods are all wrong. Daily, I see some conservative say, “Dr. King would be turning over in his grave” if he knew this, that, or the other about black folk today. That's garbage. There's nothing new under the sun. Everything we are dealing with...

Two months before U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson found himself in hot water for comparing Jewish settlers in the disputed West Bank to “termites,” the Lithonia Democrat and his wife embarked on a six-day trip to the territory funded by a pro-Palestinian group. MIFTA, an organization that advocates for an independent and democratic Palestinian state, and the nonprofit American Global Institute picked up the more than $13,000 tab for the five-term congressman and his wife, DeKalb County Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson, to travel to Ramallah and Jerusalem in late May along with a handful of other House Democrats. As we wrote...

Federal data released Aug. 9 shows that Americans’ wages are dropping again, seven years after President Barack Obama declared the economy had recovered from the property-bubble — and three months before the 2016 election. The dramatic drop was buried in an Aug. 9 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which said that officials have radically revised their prior claim that wages grew 4.2 percent in the first quarter, from January to March. “Real hourly compensation decreased 0.4 percent after revision, rather than the previously-published increase of 4.2 percent,” the BLS admitted. Compensation also fell another 1.4 percent in the...

CAMBRIDGE — He was a year younger than most of his classmates, a state-school graduate and devout Catholic from the Midwest suddenly surrounded by Ivy Leaguers on a secular East Coast campus. It was clear, when Tim Kaine arrived at Harvard Law School in the fall of 1979, that he was not exactly in his natural element. And it didn’t take long for him to lose faith in his chosen field on the cutthroat campus of career-minded law students. Nearing the end of his first year, he walked into the dean’s office and announced that he was going on a...

Hillary Clinton took the Democratic National Convention stage in a crisp, white and well-fitted pantsuit. Her perfect Florence Henderson hair was freshly cut, frosted, styled and feathered. Her pearls sparkled. She seemed happy. She sounded excited. She appeared hopeful. And that was all reflected in her clothes. And most importantly, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman nominated to vie for the position of America's commander in chief by a major political party, looked presidential.

Prosecutors in Baltimore have failed for the fourth time to secure a conviction in the Freddie Gray case, with Circuit Judge Barry Williams acquitting Lt. Brian Rice of all charges related to Gray's arrest and death. Williams cleared Rice, 42, of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office in a downtown Baltimore courtroom on Monday morning. The judge had dismissed a second-degree assault charge at the trial's midpoint, and prosecutors dropped a second misconduct charge at the start. Rice selected a bench trial rather than a jury trial, putting his legal fate in Williams' hands. He was was fourth...

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is wildly unpopular among young adults, in particular young people of color, and nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 believe the presumptive Republican nominee is racist. That's the finding of a new GenForward poll that also found just 19 percent of young people have a favorable opinion of Trump compared to the three-quarters of young adults who hold a dim view of the New York billionaire. Trump's likely general election opponent, Hillary Clinton, is also unpopular with young people, but not nearly to the same extent as the real...

Starbucks Corp. SBUX, +0.04% said Monday it will give raises of at least 5% to all partners and store managers in U.S. company stores, starting Oct. 3, in response to what Chief Executive Howard Schultz called a "tragic week of violence" in the U.S. In a letter to employees posted on Starbucks' website, Schultz said it will double the "bean stock" award for employees who have reached two years of continuous service with the company. Coupled with the pay rise, the new bean stock program will result in total compensation for employees increasing between 5% to 15%. The coffee seller...

A standard brain scanning technique is showing promise for helping doctors distinguish between patients in a vegetative state and those with hidden signs of consciousness. A study released Thursday is the latest to investigate using technology to help meet the challenge of making that distinction, which now is generally based on a doctor's bedside exam. Patients in a vegetative state have open eyes and show periods of sleep and wakefulness, but they are unaware of themselves or others and unable to think, respond or do anything on purpose. Patients in a minimally conscious state show only intermittent and minimal signs...

An Atlanta-area woman who called for black people to “rise up and shoot every white cop” apologized for her Facebook post Friday. Prosecutors charged Ebony Dickens with terroristic threats and inciting a riot after they said she wrote, “I condone black on white killings. Hell they condone crimes against us,” and “death to all white cops nationwide” under her Facebook name Tiffany Milan last April. Yet they dropped the rap in exchange for her offering of remorse while surrounded by law enforcement officials at a news conference Friday, WSB-TV reported.

BEIJING — A judge ruled on Wednesday against a gay couple who had sought the right to marry, in China’s first court case addressing the issue of same-sex unions. The couple, Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang, filed a lawsuit against a civil affairs bureau in Changsha, Hunan Province, in southern China, after the office refused to grant them the right to marry when they tried to register in June 2015. In a surprising move, a district court accepted the case early this year, the first time a Chinese court had agreed to hear such a lawsuit. An initial hearing scheduled...

Most of us recognize the value of science in dealing with complex problems that pose significant risks to public health and well-being. Thus we expect reputable science to be reported and used in helping us make difficult policy choices, such as what to do about climate change. Scientific findings and associated uncertainties should be scrutinized carefully and debated vigorously within the scientific community and among the public. However, denying the best scientific evidence we have is neither smart nor safe. It could lead to greater societal harm than if we had taken sensible action when reliable knowledge was first available....

WHITE — The only thing bigger than his grin was that car. The wife and kids ran out to look. What a sight they beheld: 3,000-plus pounds of steel and iron and glass. And chrome! Chrome on the bumpers, on the hood, along the side and coming to an exquisite point on those finned rear fenders, chrome! In 1957, the Bel Aire was one of Chevy’s marquee machines. The family that sat in its plush seats had arrived. For untold years — a decade maybe, or perhaps longer — their four-door behemoth did it all. Trips to Panama City, church,...

I don't remember if the AJC is on the banned list for FR posting or not. Just pointing out yet another vile deposit from the AJC editorial cartoonist Lukovich. You will find it prominantly displayed on their front page in the current PlaySkool style tiles that many have now gone to. I just washed myself and do not want to return to his direct page again. How does an angry 13 year old get to continually publish this bilge? Will post it below...

I have been observing this eagle couple since they were first noted in 2012. Berry College has a great set of live cams for observation. Both eaglets hatched today. Wonderful distraction!

Two key and prominent leaders of the influential Black Lives Matter movement, DeRay Mckesson and Atlanta’s Shaun King, publicly sparred via Twitter Sunday night and shortly thereafter starting trending. The disagreement apparently stems from a financial matter. “I’ll keep this brief, but I’ll begin by saying that Shaun King blocked me when I asked questions re: planning/money re: JusticeTogether,” Mckesson posted Sunday evening, referring to a now-shuttered charitable organization.