Free Republic

Dear Larry: Geez, I cannot fathom the polls that have Donald Trump leading. Either a lot of Republicans are just frustrated or stupid, or both -- and they want a bomb-thrower. Or it is pro-Hillary Clinton Democrats voting in those polls. Trump is ruining the race for the serious Republican candidates and thereby helping Hillary immensely. Democrats must be loving his clown act. It deflects attention from Hillary's emails. Over time, Trump has donated more money to Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. Does he have any positions other than the one on immigration? At least from the news clips I've...

Syrian-born Mohamad al-Halabi finds common cause with messengers of hate. Since Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan made his call for 10,000 of his followers to volunteer to murder white people, last month, it is important to expose those in positions of influence who champion him and other messengers of hate. One of these individuals is the Imam of the Boca Raton, Florida-based American Islamic Center of Florida, Mohamad al-Halabi, who recently went out of his way to publicly praise Farrakhan. Farrakhan began his leadership within the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1978 and took over the entire organization in...

On paper, Donald Trump offers a lot as a candidate. He’s able to command a room, he is decisive, confident, unapologetic for what he believes, doesn’t need to kiss rings and make promises to raise money, and he stands up to an activist media. But campaigns aren’t run on paper, they’re run in life. And in life, Donald Trump appears to have an out-of-control ego in need of constant feeding, which is coupled with no ability to control himself. Nothing about Donald Trump’s life requires constraint. Worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 billion, there is nothing he can’t afford...

To support his insane interpretation of the post-Civil War amendments as granting citizenship to the kids of illegal aliens, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly is now taking job applications for the nonexistent — but dearly hoped-for — Jeb! administration, live, during his show.(Apparently my debate with O’Reilly will be conducted in my column, Twitter feed and current bestselling book, Adios, America, against the highest-rated show on cable news.)Republicans have been out of the White House for seven long years, and GOP lawyers are getting impatient. So now they’re popping up on Fox News’ airwaves, competing to see who can denounce Donald...

On August 18, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker became the first leading Republican presidential candidate to release a full-fledged Obamacare alternative. Walker’s alternative would fully repeal Obamacare and provide the sort of real reform for which Americans have long been waiting. But there has been a fair amount of misreporting in the wake of Walker’s announcement, and it’s worth setting the record straight. It’s not Burr-Coburn-Hatch (or Burr-Hatch-Upton). A couple of outlets, most notably the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, have erroneously suggested that Walker’s proposal is pretty much the same as the one released last year by senators Richard Burr,...

The GOP is panicking. And it should be. Conservatives are sending an angry unambiguous message to the party. The message can be read not only in the rise of Donald Trump, but also in the rise of Ben Carson. Republican voters are choosing candidates who don’t talk or seem like politicians. They have lost all faith in the Republican Party. And it’s hard to blame them. Conservatives poured time, energy and money into a party that promised to counter Obama and take back America. The GOP controls both houses of Congress and conservatives have nothing to show for it. Support...

WASHINGTON -- Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a snarling face on conservatism, any Republican nominee will face a dauntingly steep climb to reach even the paltry numbers that doomed Mitt Romney. It is perhaps quixotic to try to distract Trump's supporters with facts, which their leader, who is no stickler for dignity, considers beneath him. Still, consider these: The white percentage of the electorate has been shrinking for decades and will be about 2 points smaller in 2016 than in 2012....

Donald Trump might not have paid for that microphone, but he sure as hell owned it. At a press conference in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump had barely reached the podium before Jorge Ramos, superstar anchor for Spanish-language network Univision, began interrogating him about his immigration platform. Trump, who already had called on a different journalist for the first question, told Ramos to be quiet and wait his turn. Ramos refused: “I have the right to ask a question,” he declared. At a nod from The Donald, security escorted Ramos from the room. (video at link) Jorge Ramos may be the...

You should know that last night, during Donald Trump’s press conference in Dubuque, Iowa there was a confrontation between Univision reporter Jorge Ramos and US Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. After watching that interview, I believe that Jorge Ramos’ actions were an embarrassment to Hispanics, immigrants, reporters and to Univision. We all know that Donald Trump has become #1 in the polls because when he talks about immigration, he stirs a sentiment that resonates with many Americans who think that immigrants come here to take cover, be macho men, and enjoy the rights without respect, and do whatever they want to...

ITHACA, N.Y. — A 20-month waiting period for a pistol permit in Tompkins County is too long to wait for a gun and doesn't keep anybody safer. That's how long it will take me — a person with no criminal history and no mental illnesses — to get a permit. I probably come to the table with a perspective different than most New Yorkers. I'm a Texas girl from a primarily conservative family who considers going to a gun range and grabbing lunch a wonderfully spent Saturday with my relatives. I don't think my background, however, changes the fact that...

Turkey's geo-political maneuvers may urge reconsideration of its NATO membership. While the threat from Daesh grows, Ankara is more focused on the continuing fight with the Kurds. The Erdoğan government is undermining the core values of what NATO stands for, and its anti-Kurdish policy spells problems for its role in the region. NATO has to make a statement and also work behind the scenes to engage Erdoğan to prioritize the war against Daesh. Under the pretext of an anti-Daesh (ISIS) campaign, Turkey's government since late July 2015 is harshly repressing the Kurds, playing the ‘anti-terrorism' card towards NATO. But the...

RUSH: Polling data shows that Trump is just continuing to skyrocket in most places. Hillary still beats Trump head-to-head in Wisconsin, I think I saw that. But Hillary man, oh, man, oh, man, I'll tell you the catcalls on the Democrat side among Democrats and media are for her to just get out. Last week it was one supporter writing in the UK Telegraph, I think, that we quoted, who said, "Please, Hillary, I love you, but please get out before you embarrass yourself. Please get out. Please." Many more people have now joined that refrain. And now the popular...

RUSH: Let me grab the phones, quickly, and get started with this. Houston, Texas. Umberto, it's great to have you on the program, sir. Hello. CALLER: Yes, hello. Hi, Rush. RUSH: How are you doing, Umberto? CALLER: Not bad, not bad. It's a privilege to be able to be on your show. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: Okay, no problem. Listen, this thing about this Jorge Ramos from Univision. The guy was really out of line. The guy had no... If I were Univision, I would fire him in a minute, because this represents, I hope, what Univision stands for,...

RUSH: Folks, I have to tell you. This was funny. Monday I wake up and there's an e-mail from Snerdley. He said, "I love the first two paragraphs of this." And he gave me the Web link. I said, "I wonder what this is?" Snerdley does not bother me with e-mail because he knows so many other people do. So he tries to go judicious. When I get an e-mail from Snerdley, I know it's something, and the link was to the New Yorker. It was a story on Hillary and her e-mail server and problem. And I read the...

RUSH: You know when I first heard about the shooting in Virginia this morning, I thought it had to be a lovers thing. The original reports were that the reporter and the cameraman were engaged, and they are, but not to each other. But the original report had them engaged to each other. So the shooting happens and I thought it had to be a lovers triangle. Turns out that's not what it was. It's a racist, I should say racial incident, perhaps. It's gonna be a big, big conflict for the media here as this goes forward. Greetings, my...

Terrorists rely on concealment in order to launch surprise attacks. Last week's attempted attack on a high-speed train traveling from Holland to Paris via Belgium involved successful concealment, up to a point. At that point, the passengers surprised the terrorist. Islamist terrorist Ayoub El Khazzani managed to evade security agency surveillance in at least five countries. Despite strict Belgian and French gun- and ammunition-control laws, not only did Khazzani acquire an AK-47 assault rifle, but when the moment came to wage armed jihad, he successfully evaded rail station security and slipped his AK with 200 rounds of ammo on board...

Last week, Internet criminals responsible for hacking the adultery website Ashley Madison released full records of those who registered to use the service. The media began perusing the list -- and naturally, the first major name to hit the media was Josh Duggar. The media busted Duggar several months ago, too, when they released information that the former "19 Kids and Counting" reality star had molested children as a teenager. What makes Duggar's infidelity noteworthy? The fact that he purported to be a religious Christian. In his adulthood, Duggar became executive director of Family Research Council Action, the legislative...

The woefully misnamed American Civil Liberties Union is launching a crusade to force Catholic hospitals to act against Catholic moral teachings and the natural law. This is an un-American attack on religious liberty. The ACLU's intentions came to light this week after it threatened to sue Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California, which is operated by the Sisters of Mercy. The hospital is a part of Dignity Health, a nonprofit that operates 40 hospitals -- 22 of which are Catholic -- in California, Nevada and Arizona. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, Elizabeth Gill, an ACLU lawyer,...

Before taking the stage at a campaign event in Mobile, Alabama last Friday, Donald Trump had his private jet circle the venue -- a college football stadium packed with 30,000 screaming fans, some waving signs that proclaimed, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, for President Trump"; and everyone waiting breathlessly to see the man who repeatedly tells us he “tells it like it is.” It was a “rock star” move even President Barack Obama did not have the moxie to pull-off in 2008. But, for Trump, it is all a part of the show. Flamboyant gestures. Brash statements. No apologies. This is...

When a heavily armed man emerged from the bathroom of a European train and began what was clearly intended as a massacre of innocent, unsuspecting civilians, six men ranging in age from 22 to 62 sprang into action. A banker and a middle-aged academic, both French, were first on the scene. The sound of gunfire awakened three young American tourists: Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler. In a moment evocative of the Flight 93 passengers' shining courage on 9/11, Skarlatos saw Ayoub El-Khazzani struggling with one of his guns and leapt up, saying simply "Let's go" to his friends....