Free Republic

Crowd at airport chanting "welcome back" and CNN CNNing.

[snip] For workers regularly making more than $30 a month in tips, employers can currently pay as little as $2.13 an hour. That subminimum wage has been frozen at this level for decades. Should the Raise the Wage Act pass the House, it will mark the first time that either chamber of Congress has moved to eliminate the subminimum wage, which not only deepens economic inequalities but also happens to be a relic of slavery. You might not think of tipping as a legacy of slavery, but it has a far more racialized history than most Americans realize. Tipping originated...

Betrayal. Torture. Escape. An American Woman Inside the Islamic State Samantha Elhassani is the first American woman to face terrorism charges after spending time in ISIS territory. SHANE BAUEJUNE 26, 2019 This is an adapted excerpt from Shane Bauer’s two-part series on American involvement in Syria. Read the full article or listen to this special Mother Jones Podcast episode about this story. In the plains near the Iraq border, I pull up to a refugee camp surrounded by a chain-link fence. For the first time since I’ve been in Syria, I see women with covered faces and flowing black abayas....

Social media companies, whose base of operations are on the Left Coast and operated by staff who are almost universally left wing, are squeezing conservatives. There have been some pretty glaring examples of bias, specifically the whole notion being accounts being suspended on Twitter for entirely arbitrary reasons. Yes, Facebook banned Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam for his long history of bigoted remarks, like calling Jewish people termites, but his account wasn’t suspended on Twitter. Oh, and even without using examples of bias, Twitter itself admits that the environment is so left wing that conservative employees cannot speak...

My policies: 1. Jail time for women who have abortions - This includes young women who are confused. 2. Unrestricted free trade - We need to stop supporting middle aged men in industries that don’t want to compete. Note that trade restrictions related to weapons and to ensure base domestic food supply are ok, but it is not Ok to protect our general industrial capacity. 3. Regulation elimination - I would like a 25 reduction in federal regulations for each of the next 10 years. 4. Reduction in taxes, especially on high income earners 5. Stop passing laws to help...

Does anyone still use calendars to facilitate responsibilities? Nowadays, millennials mostly use phone apps to remind them how to “adult.” After all, life can be difficult. With bills to pay, laundry to wash, and elderly relatives to call, for some, doing grown-up things can be overwhelming. Enter "I Adulted!" It's a 16-month calendar-slash-sticker book, available for $15.99 on Amazon, and it’s a tangible manifestation of that elusive sense of accomplishment that actual adult human beings seem to possess. The goal-oriented success calendar comes with 100 colorful removable stickers, with uplifting phrases such as, “I cooked for myself,” or “I put...

Conventional wisdom of the moment tells us that the great war of 1861—1865 was “about” slavery or was “caused by” slavery. I submit that this is not a historical judgment but a political slogan. What a war is about has many answers according to the varied perspectives of different participants and of those who come after. To limit so vast an event as that war to one cause is to show contempt for the complexities of history as a quest for the understanding of human action. Two generations ago, most perceptive historians, much more learned than the current crop, said...

Waco Biker Dismissals an Attempt to Avoid Millions in Lawsuits. In the interests of justice, on April 2, 2019 all remaining charges related to the May 17, 2015 Twin Peaks shootings in Waco, Texas have been dismissed by the newly elected McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson. These dismissals are a significant victory in the history of motorcycle club culture and the fight against motorcycle profiling and discrimination. Although this concludes the criminal chapter of Twin Peaks, the legal battles are far from over. There are currently over 100 civil rights claims pending and the official press release announcing the...

HOLLYWOOD, CA—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was pumped to attend a taping of The Price Is Right in Hollywood this week. The special guest introduced herself as a U.S. representative and rising star of the Democratic Party. Things got interesting when the game began and every time it was her turn to estimate the price of an item her answer was "free." Items included a set of Italian leather handbags, an all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas, and a brand new 2019 BMW 330i, at all of which Ocasio-Cortez shouted, "FREE!" When host Drew Carey asked if Ocasio-Cortez understood the game's...

Jemitias Denhere shakes his head as he explains why, despite being a specialist in soil management and crop production, he specializes in beef livestock. The district agronomist -- plants specialist -- owns 27 hectares of land in the Mwenezi area of southern Zimbabwe, a particularly arid location. Here, farmers endure extreme weather challenges such as drought and flash flooding -- and, thus, some of the highest food shortages. His cattle can exist on the little grass that remains during dry times, but to produce crops without irrigation is risky -- so he decided against it. "One year, you win; one...

Former Ohio governor John Kasich (R) thwarted Alaska Airlines’ efforts to reassign him to another seat by seizing the first class seat purchased by comedian Julie Klausner. Kasich was liable for seat reassignment because he had paid the lowest price. Kasich defended his actions by asserting his entitlement “as a more important passenger. I think a former state governor, presidential candidate and newly hired CNN commentator has priority over a mere comedian. I made laws. I challenged Trump. I will be guiding CNN viewers toward the correct opinions and attitudes about public policy for the next few years. All Klausner...

It was a rough day for author and CNN legal analyst Areva Martin on Tuesday. Martin accused Sirius XM radio and Fox Nation host David Webb of “white privilege” during a segment on a radio program before he broke the news. “Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped. I’m black,” Webb said. The embarrassing moment occurred during a discussion about experience being more important than race when determining whether or not someone is qualified for a particular job. “I’ve chosen to cross different parts of the media world, done the work so that...

Time for G.O.P. to Threaten to Fire Trump Republican leaders need to mount an intervention. Thomas L. Friedman By Thomas L. Friedman Opinion Columnist Dec. 24, 2018 Up to now I have not favored removing President Trump from office. I felt strongly that it would be best for the country that he leave the way he came in, through the ballot box. But last week was a watershed moment for me, and I think for many Americans, including some Republicans. It was the moment when you had to ask whether we really can survive two more years of Trump as...

On 'America's Newsroom' Senator Rand Paul backed President Trump in the face of harsh criticism from Republicans over his decision to withdraw the 2,000-strong U.S. force from Syria. RAND PAUL: This is a very bold move for President Trump. It is exactly what he promised the American people -- in fact it is one of the reasons he won the election. Because he is different from so many Republicans who want us to be everywhere all the time around the world. They want us to be the world policeman, that every war on the planet we have to have our...

You may have to go all the way back to the late 20th century to recall an article in Harper’s magazine that was worth reading, but the current issue features an article from the controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq that defends Donald Trump (“Donald Trump Is a Good President“) in ways that will drive just about everybody out of their minds But what’s most remarkable about the new American policies is certainly the country’s position on trade, and there Trump has been like a healthy breath of fresh air; you’ve really done well to elect a president with origins in...

Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson thinks crowdfunding may provide a solution to the controversial proposal of building a wall on the Mexican border. And, perhaps more notably, he suggested using a cryptocurrency to do so. During an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, the U.S. lawmaker explained that he has already proposed letting the American public pay for the wall, which is opposed by Democrats but mades up a key aspect of President Donald Trump’s list of 2016 campaign promises. In particular, Davidson told Inskeep, he has suggested a private funding program wherein “the American people, or whomever should choose to donate,”...

To understand how American voters are being driven apart, look no further than two powerful demographic forces: gender and education. Once, the political outlooks of white men without a college degree and white women with one were similar. In recent years, the groups, which represent about 40% of voters, have moved sharply apart. Analysis of the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey shows the division to be at its widest since the poll began measuring it in 1994. The gap is something new in American politics, and it has fundamentally changed how campaigns are waged. Once, white voters as a...

“No taxation without representation!”That was a popular phrase during the decades leading up to the Revolutionary War. Colonists thought it was unfair to be taxed and subjected to English rule without consent.Today Washington DC hands down laws and taxes to every one of the 320 million people living in the United States.And just like under English rule, we are not represented in the federal government.Now I know what you’re thinking… we have the right to vote for our leaders.Our votes send Representatives, Senators, and the President to Washington DC. And they represent our interests in government. US Representatives are...

Gold has gotten a bad rap. Long seen as the investment choice of the cranky and the fearful, the metal yields nothing; as Warren Buffett has said, it just “looks at you.” This year has been especially lackluster for gold. Its price has slumped 8%, to about $1,200 an ounce, and is off more than 35% from its high of $1,900 in 2011. Adding insult to injury, Vanguard will soon rechristen the largest gold-oriented U.S. mutual fund and shift its focus away from the metal. But this out-of-favor asset class now deserves a place in investment portfolios. Compared with stocks...

The trilateral summit in Tehran between the presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia was one of the most unusual parades of international diplomacy yet. It was televised live. Let’s remember the scenes: All who watched it saw how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blundered and how Russian President Vladimir Putin ridiculed him. Then it was a rare — if not unique — case of international diplomacy where a trilateral partnership considered detrimental to the interests of the West displayed signs of failure on a burning international issue.What has had the West — the transatlantic security system — worried for some time is NATO-member Turkey’s partnership...