Free Republic

CNN's Harry Enten explained that the government shutdown is HELPING President Trump's approval ratings. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. Do you agree with TYT's take?

WASHINGTON — Thousands gathered in the nation’s capital on Saturday, rallying and repeating one refrain: “No kings.” They joined thousands of other gatherings around the country organized by Democratic groups and activists to protest President Donald Trump and his administration with a second round of “No Kings” rallies following an initial nationwide day of protest in June. While many protesters spoke to NBC News about their dissatisfaction with Trump, a plethora of left-leaning and liberal protesters also made one more thing clear: They’re not happy with their Democratic leaders, either. “I don’t have a lot of faith in the Democrats...

Some Democrats skeptical about their leadership’s hard-line stance against reopening the federal government privately acknowledge that they fear getting “hammered” by their liberal base if they vote for a Republican funding bill. Grassroots Democrats frustrated with the Trump administration have been demanding a fight, and on Saturday millions showed up at “No Kings” demonstrations across the country to protest the president’s government. In that context, Democrats know they will get hit hard by a number of voices on the left if they do not get something for opening the government. “People are going to get hammered” if they vote for...

The analysis said the median estimate is that 5.2 million people took part, while the upper approximation is 8.2 million people. Newsweek has produced a map showing which states saw the highest turnout based on the crowdsourced estimates. It shows that New York had the highest estimated attendance, with almost 380,000 people estimated to have been at events in the state, followed by California and Illinois, where about 260,000 and 250,000 people are estimated to have attended events, respectively. States with the lowest turnout include Nebraska and South Dakota, with each of those two states estimated to have had only...

MSNBC contributor Jonathan Alter said while many people are "traumatized" by President Donald Trump, Saturday's anti-Trump protests show the Republicans are "not on the winning side." STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC: I want to share how the White House spokesperson describes supporters of the Democratic Party right now. Watch this. KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE: The Democrat Party's main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals. That is who the Democrat Party is catering to, not the Trump administration and not the White House and not the Republican Party, who is standing up for law abiding Americans, not...

Before you add John Bolton’s indictment to the growing pile of specious prosecutions of Donald Trump’s enemies, stop and read the Justice Department’s allegations that the former national security adviser systematically shared classified information with people who weren’t authorized to read it, all in the service of writing a tell-all book. The 18-count criminal indictment, filed yesterday, was compiled by experienced prosecutors, not political lackeys. It is detailed and precise, and relies on Bolton’s own words to implicate him. You should question whether these charges would be brought if Trump weren’t president. Officials in Joe Biden’s administration passed on the...

WASHINGTON — In recent months, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has hosted private virtual briefings with social media influencers, equipping them with information on key policy issues and Democratic messaging to disseminate on their large global platforms. On these calls, dubbed “creator briefings,” the senator and her staff answer questions from content creators on how to craft strategic messages that reach people outside of the political sphere. (snip) Since July 2024, Warren has hosted six creator briefings as part of a long-term initiative to reach audiences who don’t regularly consume political news or follow elected Democrats, like Warren, on social media....

Zohran Mamdani was not asking for an endorsement. This seemed wise. Because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not offering. But sitting last year, at Mr. Mamdani’s request, at a kebab house in Queens — where he shared that he would like to be mayor of New York City — the nominal very-long-shot hoped that the national very-big-shot might at least think well of the idea. “It all started in a similar way that my race had started,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez recalled at a joint rally many months later. “We don’t have an entire political establishment behind us. But we know that running is...

Vendors were selling a variety of colorful national flags in downtown L.A. on Wednesday, but Axel Martinez settled on one with with Old Glory on one half and the Mexican flag on the other.

On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) stated that large tariffs won’t bring back steel or auto plants to his state “in less than five or ten years. And the costs of competing, of manufacturing here in the United States are still too high.” Coons said, “There was a 100-year-old steel mill in Claymont, Delaware. We worked hard to try and save it, but, ultimately, it closed. There were two auto plants in Delaware. Ultimately, they closed. High tariffs won’t bring those plants back in less than five or ten years. And the costs of competing,...

PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump is reportedly becoming fed up with his new pal Elon Musk with the tech mogul being too "clingy". Musk has spent the past few days going on fiery online tirades against the British government with UK politicians now even said to be urging Trump to ditch the Tesla chief. Billionaire Musk has been Trump's biggest fan over the past few months and even helped propel him into the White House. The pair have been inseparable since the Republicans swept to a landslide election win in November. Musk reportedly joined the future president on an important phone call...

Billionaire Trump surrogate Elon Musk endorsed a post on Thursday which suggested Americans were too “retarded” to be hired for skilled jobs. After the South Africa-born CEO of X, SpaceX, and Tesla found himself embroiled in an argument over H-1B visas and the importation of foreign labor over American workers, a pro-Musk account wrote: So basically the right split into two factions, tech right and right right, and the tech right is like “hey we need h-1b visa people to do the jobs,” and the right right was like “no you need to hire americans,” and the tech right is...

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House on Friday evening passed a short-term bill to avert a government shutdown, just hours ahead of a deadline that would force U.S. troops, border patrol agents, air traffic controllers and millions of other federal workers to work without pay during the holidays. The vote was 366-34, with one member voting present, capping a tumultuous week in the House that foreshadowed how the new Congress in January might deal with a mercurial Donald Trump back in the White House. A two-thirds vote was needed because the bill came to the floor under a fast-track process. The...

There have been a thousand warnings about former President Donald Trump. If polls are to be believed these warnings have fallen on deaf ears. What accounts for this imperviousness despite clear evidence of his dangerous and egregious flaws? This question has stumped many. As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has long worked with complexities of mind, let me offer psychological explanations then suggest remedies that could help permeate this apparent impenetrability. He offers a sense of omnipotence. Trump makes it seem like nothing is hard, meaning it's easy to be all powerful....... He helps people deny painful realities and threats,...

ussian spies have developed an artificial intelligence tool that Moscow is using to meddle in elections in Britain and the United States on a scale “exponentially greater” than ever before, Ukraine’s national security adviser has warned. In an interview with The Times, Oleksiy Danilov said that AI had enabled Russia to substantially ramp up its disinformation campaigns, designed to sow division and influence public opinion, and that Moscow now had specific units dedicated to every country holding an election in Europe. He said: “Artificial intelligence is a huge step forward for Russia and it makes the impact [of their meddling]...

The 10 Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors for President Donald Trump in 2020 even though he had lost the election settled a lawsuit against them Wednesday, acknowledging their actions were part of an effort to overturn the election results. The lawsuit was filed last year by two of the state’s rightful electors, alleging the 10 false electors had engaged in a plot to defraud Wisconsin voters. The lawsuit had sought up to $200,000 from each elector, but no money is being exchanged as part of the settlement. Wisconsin was one of several swing states in which groups of Republicans...

The towering Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv — one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks — lost its hammer-and-sickle symbol on Sunday as officials replaced the Soviet-era emblem with the country’s trident coat of arms. The move is part of a wider shift to reclaim Ukraine’s cultural identity from the Communist past amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Erected in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing the national World War II museum, the 200-foot (61-meter) Mother Ukraine monument stands on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, facing eastward toward Moscow. Created in the image of a fearless...

When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida convened a round-table discussion about the news media this week, he spared no effort to play the part, perching at a faux anchor’s desk in front of a wall of video screens while firing questions to his guests like a seasoned cable TV host. But the panel’s message was as notable as its slick presentation: Over the course of an hour, Mr. DeSantis and his guests laid out a detailed case for revisiting a landmark Supreme Court decision protecting the press from defamation lawsuits. Mr. DeSantis is the latest figure, and among the most...

St Petersburg outfit hijacks discussions on Twitter, TikTok, world leaders’ social accounts and media websites, as well as manipulating opinion polls ...Online operatives were found to be ordering followers to target western media outlets and politicians The headquarters is allegedly located in rented space in St Petersburg’s Arsenal Machine-building Factory, a company that manufactures military equipment and technology. The study details how the Russian president’s regime is trying to manipulate public opinion on social media, as well as in the comments sections of major media outlets. Targets include the social media accounts of Boris Johnson, the British prime minister; the...

A coalition of House committees is asking the White House and 16 other agencies to turn over a trove of documents from the Trump administration related to the electoral vote count and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The request includes the Office of the Vice President, and seeks all White House communications between Dec. 1 and Inauguration Day, specifically asking to relay "communications, if any, with participants in the events of Jan. 6" or their associates. The documents could provide an insight into how a number of Trump administration officials prepared for and responded to the attacks. The...