Free Republic

Anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled on a sign featuring Ruth Bader Ginsburg at a subway station in Brooklyn earlier this week. The words “Die Jew Bitch” and a swastika were first spotted scribbled in black marker over the face of RBG on Tuesday on an ad pushing a new book about the Supreme Court justice at the Nassau Avenue subway stop on the G line. The vandalism was reported to the NYPD on Wednesday morning via social media. Responding on Twitter, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea called the incident “abhorrent.” “As always, NYC has no place for hate,” Shea said.

Sen. Jeff Flake on Sunday did not rule out launching a Republican primary challenge to President Trump in 2020 and said he does hope a GOP alternative to Mr. Trump emerges for the next presidential election.

Donald J. Trump tried to quash the latest controversy engulfing his campaign, suggesting on Friday that he was not serious when he said that President Obama and Hillary Clinton were the “founders” of the Islamic State terrorist group. After making the suggestion at a rally on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump doubled-down on the assertion on Thursday, insisting in multiple interviews that he really did mean it when he said that the president and Mrs. Clinton were responsible for ISIS. But in an early-morning Twitter post, Mr. Trump said that he was just being sarcastic.

<p>California's monumental budget crisis has been languishing for months, with Capitol politicians seemingly too stunned by its political and financial dimensions to make the tough spending and tax decisions required to resolve it.</p> <p>But this week, with state revenues continuing to plummet and the crisis growing worse by the minute, there were signs that politicians were getting serious about it.</p>