Free Republic

Democratic challengers in many of the key Senate races that will determine which party controls the chamber next year have over the past three months outraised the Republican incumbents they’re hoping to unseat in November’s general election. “The green wave of fundraising that helped Democrats take back the House in 2018 is now a tsunami of cash in Senate races for Democrats that could clear the way for them to flip the Senate in November,” said Jessica Taylor, who closely tracks the Senate races for the Cook Report, a leading non-partisan political handicapper. Republicans enjoy a 53-47 majority in the...

A federal judge in Washington has blocked federal executions scheduled for this week, citing concerns that the lethal injection protocol involved is "very likely to cause extreme pain and needless suffering." Judge Tanya Chutkan said the last-minute ruling only hours before executions were set to resume for the first time in 17 years was "unfortunate," but she blamed the Justice Department for racing ahead before legal challenges had been fully aired. The judge said the prison's plan to use a single drug, pentobarbital, could cause pulmonary edema, producing a sense that the condemned men were drowning. That would violate the...

The curfew in Serbia appears to have ended before it could even begin. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić suggested Wednesday that the country would "probably" not reinstate a curfew this weekend, less than a day after its announcement led to bloodshed in the capital. The country's health ministry clarified that officials have yet to make a final decision, even as new cases have surged. Demonstrators gathered overnight in Belgrade to protest the coronavirus-prevention measure, some clashing with police outside parliament and even trying to storm the building. Dozens of people were injured in the violence, which Vučić blamed primarily on "right-wing...

A joint effort by former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to unify Democrats around Biden's candidacy has produced a 110-page policy wish list to recommend to the party's presumptive presidential nominee. Throughout the Democratic primary, Biden stuck to a more moderate platform, while Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and much of the rest of the crowded field courted progressives and advocated for broader structural changes. But as the United States faces a growing pandemic and unemployment rates at the highest levels in generations, Biden has been talking more and more about a presidency that approaches Franklin...

Journalism is just one of the industries hard-hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic. While we reimagine journalism’s structures and funding models, what role might the government play in intervening to support the role of a functioning press—not just someday, but now? In a new report published by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Penny Abernathy—a collaborator on our Cutback Tracker project—underlines the stakes. Since 2005, more than a quarter of the country’s newspapers have disappeared. In the same fifteen-year span, the number of local journalists working in newsrooms has dropped by...

Black Lives Matter activists cite Douglass’s 1852 speech ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’ as proof America is evil. They utterly miss his point. Last week on CNN, as contributor Angela Rye accused White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnaney and President Trump of failing to understand the history of black America, she referred to the legendary Frederick Douglass. “Frederick Douglass said about Independence Day in this country, what to the slave is the Fourth of July?” she said. “And I would invite them to even start there, as a reading principle, to see how different we see...

July 4th is U.S. Independence Day. But D.L. Hughley, the comedian and author, suggests in his new book that all U.S. holidays "be put on a probationary period to ascertain their relevance and value to All Americans, acknowledging that days off are nice and that mattress sales must occur ..." His book, co-written with Doug Moe of the Upright Citizens Brigade, is Surrender, White People! Our Unconditional Terms for Peace. "I used to always tell this joke about, well, today, as we celebrate our Independence Day, well, not all of us," Hughley says. "Some of us weren't free for a...

A new NPR report suggests the global response to COVID-19 may have been reached on a flawed premise. Mounting evidence suggests the coronavirus is more common and less deadly than it first appeared. The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person's blood rather than the virus itself. The tests are finding large numbers of people in the US who were infected but never became seriously ill. And when these mild infections are included in coronavirus statistics, the virus appears less dangerous. "The current best estimates for the infection fatality risk are between 0.5% and...

In an interview with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep, Attorney General William Barr denied that the Justice Department is continually upholding the interest of the president, dismissed concerns about the firing of federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman and said he does not believe an election conducted mainly by mail can be secure. Steve Inskeep: Thank you again for taking the time. I'm appreciative to have this opportunity. Attorney General William Barr: Thank you. I want to note that in the last few days, there have been three acts of yours that have made the news, sometimes not for the first time. The...

NPR has issued a correction on the story we told you about earlier after they were called out for using a photo to depict “right-wing extremists” using their vehicles to ram protesters that actually showed an incident where protesters attacked the driver and were arrested for it . . . And here’s the corrected version: Right-wing extremists are turning cars into weapons, with reports of at least 50 vehicle-ramming incidents since protests erupted nationwide in late May. https://t.co/jM0hx6W3Rs — NPR (@NPR) June 21, 2020 But that photo is from Charlottesville in 2017 and has ZERO to do with the “at...

The Seattle Bike Brigade, a group of cyclists who have provide security for protesters amid local demonstrations, had blocked off an alleyway near 9th Avenue and Virginia Street. The aim was to protect mostly teenage protesters participating in a march for racial justice last Wednesday, June 10, in downtown. A white man, driving a black Honda Civic, reportedly demanded that the cyclists move from his path so he could access his residence at a nearby condominium complex. Part of that confrontation was filmed and shared on Twitter and Facebook by Robert Svercl, a member of the bike brigade. "Get the...

Right-wing extremists are turning cars into weapons, with reports of 50 vehicle-ramming incidents since protests against police violence erupted nationwide in late May. At least 18 are categorized as deliberate attacks; another two dozen are unclear as to motivation or are still under investigation, according to a count released Friday by Ari Weil, a terrorism researcher at the University of Chicago's Chicago Project on Security and Threats. Weil has tracked vehicle-ramming attacks, or VRAs, since protests began.

DDA staffer on leave after Facebook comments about Trump rally attendees By JADYN WATSON-FISHER Greeley Tribune June 19, 2020 The Greeley Downtown Development Authority placed a staff member on administrative leave after expressing ill will toward attendees of President Donald Trump’s upcoming rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to an NPR report shared on Facebook, a judge denied a request to require physical distancing at the rally. Greeley DDA Director of Downtown Experience Alison Hamling commented negatively on that post. “Good. They can give (COVID-19) to each other,” Hamling, who contracted the virus earlier this year, said in the now-deleted thread....

The nation’s largest abortion provider regularly claims that it provides “life-saving” services while highlighting “pro-life” abortionists. But as it continues toying with double entendres, Planned Parenthood’s language appears less as a mere coincidence and more as a blatant mockery of the pro-life movement. The latest example came on June 15, when Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the abortion giant’s political arm, announced its endorsement of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as he challenges President Trump in the upcoming election. According to Planned Parenthood’s acting president, the November election will be a matter of “life and death.” Speaking with NPR, Alexis McGill...

Many of us who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 had serious misgivings about him as a person and a candidate. Yet it was either Trump or Hillary Clinton, so our vote for Trump was effectively a vote against Hillary.Now, in 2020, the stakes are considerably higher. As expressed by George P. Bush, “Trump is the only thing standing between America and socialism.”That’s why many voters will support Trump again, even if they are put off by some of his tweets and public statements. In their minds, it’s either Trump or Antifa, either Trump or chaos on our streets. In...

Mounting evidence suggests the coronavirus is more common and less deadly than it first appeared. The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person's blood rather than the virus itself. The tests are finding large numbers of people in the U.S. who were infected but never became seriously ill. And when these mild infections are included in coronavirus statistics, the virus appears less dangerous. "The current best estimates for the infection fatality risk are between 0.5% and 1%," says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. That's in contrast with...

LinkedIn's CEO has apologized to staff after anonymous employees made "appalling comments" about racism and diversity during a companywide meeting. "We are not and will not be a company or platform where racism or hateful speech is allowed," Ryan Roslansky wrote in an email to staff that was also posted on LinkedIn. Roslansky took over as CEO of the professional networking company this week. The company, which is owned by Microsoft Corp., convened a virtual town hall over video Wednesday. Roslansky said more than 9,000 of the company's 16,000 global employees joined to discuss racial bias following the death of...

Well, Ray Bradbury warned us, didn’t he? Or he tried to, anyway. As this once great land descends even further into this “check your privilege” wokescold madness, the lawless not only want to govern your actions but your thoughts as well. What so many are hailing as a transformative moment in American history is really a dystopian thought-policing nightmare. A recurring theme in history is that the thought fascists like to tightly control what the people it seeks to oppress read. Propaganda doesn’t work well if the masses can read whatever they want. Social justice warriors have been coming after...

National Public Radio (NPR) posted a tweet Saturday urging every reader to begin “decolonizing your bookshelf.” According to NPR, “white voices have dominated what has been considered canon for eons.” The public broadcaster advises fans to begin “decolonizing your bookshelf” by removing the works of white authors.

Earlier Saturday we reported on “the dumbest tweet in history,” credited to a Bernie Sanders adviser. Yes, to commemorate D-Day, Matt Duss took that famous photo of allied forces off the coast of France and called it the “largest ANTIFA operation in history.” He’s not the first to compare World War II veterans to Antifa — CNN’s Chris Cuomo famously did as well — but as plenty pointed out, Antifa defaced the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. this week. Now NPR political Mara Liasson is making the same dumb comparison: Biggest antifa rally in history. https://t.co/ypa46PvYx1 — Mara...