Free Republic

Progressives will make political gains when they stop assuming voters respond to nuanced arguments and ideas Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon recently told the audience at a rally for theocratic loon Roy Moore, who just won the Republican primary for Jeff Sessions’ vacated Alabama Senate seat, that “they” — meaning the Republican establishment — “think you are a pack of morons.” Accusations of "elitism" against Republican leadership are the newest incarnation of a trademark conservative attack on Democratic politicians and liberal media commentators — all of whom, we are to assume, squeeze their nostrils together whenever they walk...

‘We didn’t win the election, but we won the hearts of young people,’ says the Vermont senator’s wife, who visits Ireland next week It’s late September in the picturesque city of Burlington, in Vermont, and the famous New England fall is not yet in its full autumnal glory. Along the shores of Lake Champlain the sun is beating down, the leaves are beginning to turn, and the atmosphere in this hipster student town is unmistakably laid back. This is Bernie Sanders territory. The veteran left-wing US senator and presidential hopeful moved to Burlington, an hour south of the Canadian border,...

The former Green Party presidential candidate explained her presence at a dinner alongside Vladimir Putin and disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn in Moscow. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein denied a rumored connection to Russia and Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, brushing off a photo of her at dinner with Putin in 2015. A much-circulated photograph of Stein — criticized for acting as a spoiler to the Democrats during the 2016 election — showed Stein seated at a dinner table at a conference in Moscow, alongside Putin and fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, who left the White House after...

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) on Wednesday harshly criticized Donald Trump, writing a letter to express his “utter disgust” with how the president has handled race relations in the United States. In an acerbic letter to Trump, Richmond—who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)—slammed the president’s attack on NFL players, his “use of profane, sexually derogatory language in addressing American citizens” and his employment of “racist dog whistles” in everyday speech. “I write today to express my utter disgust with your handling of race relations in America in general and, more specifically, your calculated, divisive response to nationwide demonstrations against police...

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) has said she feels like she’s an outsider in her own party due to her aversion to play into identity politics, while also noting the underreported empathy problem Democrats are facing. They don’t care about the working class. They haven’t for a long time—and it was simply because, in her opinion, Democrats stopped talking to them. Over time, the insufferable legions of the professional left, urban-based, overly educated, and condescending as hell, took over the party. They don’t care about the economic hardship in rural America. To them, these people are leeches, vestiges of the old...

This week Jill Abramson, the estimable former executive editor of The New York Times, whom I’ve always admired and never criticized, contended that I had been “stoking” the idea that the NYT had a vendetta against Hillary Clinton. That is false. What I have argued, repeatedly during the campaign and most recently nine days ago in an item about Hillary Clinton’s new book, is that the Times very badly erred in its wild over-coverage of the Clinton email “issue,” and that this distorted coverage was, in turn, one of many factors leading to Donald Trump’s elevation to the presidency. Here’s...

Hillary Clinton weighed in on President Trump's controversial comments about NFL players kneeling for the national anthem. Clinton said it is "quite telling" that Trump is "willing to attack black athletes" but not white supremacists, the Klan, or Putin. "He attacks black athletes as he did starting with his rally in Alabama. Continued on Twitter. And he attacks them for protesting peacefully for equality, for standing up for what they believe. And he does it once again to dog whistle to his base and to try to detract attention from other things that are going on. But it's quite telling...

If you are upset about President Donald Trump's position on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem -- an opinion he colorfully expressed in a speech in Alabama and in a series of follow-up tweets -- take a deep breath and listen. There's good reason to believe that public opinion is on his side. Understanding this doesn't mean that you are wrong or that your feelings are not valid; it just means that the President has again found a winning cultural issue with which to solidify his standing in Middle America. Last September, Reuters conducted a survey in the...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) kneeled on the House floor Monday night to show solidarity with NFL players defying President Trump to protest police brutality. Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, blasted Trump for attacking NFL players who kneel during the national anthem at games to draw attention to the treatment of African Americans by law enforcement. Then she took a knee herself. "I kneel in honor of them. I kneel in front of the flag and on this floor," Jackson Lee declared. "I kneel in honor of the First Amendment. I kneel because the flag is...

Weiner cannot be incarcerated for long enough to punish him for what he's done. Former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D – HELL), was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sexting an underage teen and asking her to perform sexual acts on Skype and Snapchat. The New York Daily News published a fairly arresting courtroom sketch of his sentencing: While “crying and grabbing tissue after tissue,” Weiner asked for probation for his crimes. From the NYDN: “I victimized a young person who deserved better,” Weiner said in court. “I am not asking that I be trusted … I ask you for...

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09/unreal-nfl-players-stand-god-save-queen-kneel-us-national-anthem-london/

Sen. Thom Tillis will introduce his “conservative Dream Act” on Monday that would provide a pathway to citizenship for as many as 2.5 million young undocumented immigrants, but one that is long and involves “extreme vetting.” The North Carolina Republican and cosponsor James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, will pitch the plan as “merit-based” relief that must be earned — and, critically, not “amnesty,” according to Republican talking points obtained by McClatchy. But unlike other merit-based immigration proposals that limit new immigrants from entering the country based on their job skills, this proposal would limit who can remain in the country...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Saturday declared that the Statue of Liberty will continue to stand as the nation's iconic symbol of American immigration, "not that damned wall." "We are going to continue to have the Statue of Liberty be our symbol, not that damned wall," the Democratic lawmaker said during the Global Citizen Festival in New York City, seemingly referring to President Trump's proposed border wall. During the event, Schumer stressed that the importance of protecting foreign aid funding after Trump proposed a 30 percent cut to the foreign assistance package in his fiscal year 2018 budget. "We welcome...

Hillary Clinton called out the Trump administration Sunday for its response to the devastation in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. "President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens," Clinton said in a Sunday morning tweet, referring to the Department of Defense, Secretary James Mattis and a US Navy ship that serves as a medical facility....

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Sunday said it helps President Trump politically when NFL players protest during the national anthem. "This may be unpopular but it is a political reality," Scarborough tweeted Sunday. "Every NFL player refusing to stand for the national anthem helps Trump politically." His comments come after President Trump on Friday attacked players who refuse to stand....

Malpractice cost Clinton the election, but her ambivalence on big issues was produced by big structural factors that affect all Democrats. Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen Penguin Hillary Clinton’s tragic 2016 campaign faced withering criticism in the press, social media, and now, in Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’s inside account, Shattered. From my vantage point as lead pollster for the Democratic nominees in 1992 and 2000, part of the closing clutch of pollsters in 2004, and invited noodge in 2016, I have little quarrel with the harshest of these criticisms. Malpractice and arrogance contributed...

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is calling for President Trump to preemptively strike North Korea. Hunter on Thursday warned that North Korea could have a nuclear missile aimed at naval bases in the U.S., including San Diego. “Why would they not aim here, at Hawaii, Guam, our major naval bases?” Hunter said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “The question is, do you wait for one of those? Or two? Do you preemptively strike them? And that’s what the president has to wrestle with. I would preemptively strike them. You could call it declaring war, call it whatever you want.” Hunter...

Unemployment is down, wages are up and to many Americans, the financial crisis may feel like a memory. But for those in rural America and regions tied to industries on the decline, joblessness remains a huge problem. Hillary Clinton says there is one possible solution to joblessness — but it's a tough pill to swallow. In "What Happened," Clinton writes that the possible solution is one few people want to discuss. "As hard as it is," she writes, "people may have to leave their hometowns and look for work elsewhere in America." While she advocates for local governments, employers and...

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins all but said she would vote “no” on an Affordable Care Act repeal bill on Friday morning at an event in Portland. “I’m leaning against the bill,” the Maine Republican said after listing a series of serious deficiencies in the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill. “I’m just trying to do what I believe is the right thing for the people of Maine,” Collins said. She said Graham-Cassidy undermines pre-existing conditions, a major flaw in the bill. “I’m reading the fine print on Graham-Cassidy,” Collins said. She said insurers could charge sky-high rates to people with pre-existing conditions. “The...

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland will be the keynote speaker at an upcoming event organized by a group called Duty to Warn. Duty to Warn has called for President Trump’s removal from office under the 25th Amendment on the grounds that he is not psychologically fit to serve. From the Hill: Raskin is expected to discuss legislation he introduced earlier this year to establish an Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity that can determine if the president is incapacitated. His bill currently has 31 co-sponsors, all of whom are Democrats. Under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, the vice president and a majority...