Free Republic

After years of trying to mine the wealthy around here, and instead hitting themselves in the face, the Seattle City Council has finally fixed on a potent way to tax the rich. Seattle’s latest corporate tax scheme will almost certainly run into some familiar obstacles, such as a skeptical mayor and a possible legal challenge from big business. But politically, this one is nothing like the failures of the past. It’s the work of Council member Teresa Mosqueda, and the premise is simple enough: Instead of tilting at windmills to try to tax wealth or high incomes, which is legally...

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, one of millions of conservatives fed up with the left-wing extremism overwhelming the country, pointed to just a single example Wednesday of the deadly violence that this Democrat Party- and media-endorsed extremism has wrought. The example he cited from radio station WINS concerned just New York City, yet it involved a startling 112 shooting victims (some still alive, others dead) who’ve been harmed within the past nine or so days alone.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) urged residents Thursday to continue following the social distancing guidelines ahead of Independence Day to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the police department in Los Angeles posted a photo of a crowded protest taking place in the city. What the mayor said: Garcetti praised the coronavirus measures the city introduced at the beginning of the pandemic and called on residents to avoid large gatherings and wear face coverings in public places or places where they cannot keep a recommended distance this July 4th because “COVID-19 has taken control.”

A group of about a dozen armed veterans in Lebanon, Tennessee have started watching over the Wilson County Veteran’s Memorial to avert potential looters and vandals from desecrating the site. Veteran Keith Sikora said they are not there to fight and simply want to send a message to those seen on TV rioting and destroying public and private property during the Black Lives Matter protesters. “A show of force can be a very powerful deterrent. We’re not here to fight, unless we have to,” Sikora said.

As my RedState colleague Bonchie reported earlier, the story about how President Trump had supposedly been briefed about Russia allegedly putting bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan is quickly falling apart. This is in large part thanks to former NSA John Bolton being caught in a lie about the story, and because numerous named and unnamed sources have stepped forth to state that the intelligence was not substantiated to a level that would require the information to be included in a Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB). Nevertheless, the Usual Suspects are still running wild with the story in an effort to...

New York City's famous George Washington Monument in Washington Square Park was defaced with red paint on Monday as protesters gathered further downtown outside City Hall ahead of a controversial vote that could slash the city's police budget by $1billion - 16 percent of its total - despite escalating crime and chaos. In the latest symbol of police defiance and unruliness across the city, the vandals tossed red paint at the famous George Washington monument on Monday then fled the scene, leaving city workers to try to power wash it off. President Trump tweeted on Tuesday: 'We are tracking down...

School officials at Union College in New York recently exposed the personal contact information of student members of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) Union College chapter, resulting in a deluge of harassing comments and attacks from progressive students and activists. The story: Samuel Levit, chairman of the YAF Union College chapter, said the group has “been bombarded and slandered with hateful rhetoric, labeling, and vile mischaracterizations” after the university revealed the contact information, according to The College Fix. Union College exposed the YAF students after the group recently took to Twitter and Instagram to condemn the “violence, looting,...

A pair of vandals launched an attack on Washington Square Park’s famed arch early Monday — tossing balloons filled with red paint at its two statues dedicated to George Washington. The two suspects — a woman dressed in all white with a white bow in her hair and a man in a black shirt and black shorts — fled on Citi Bikes, law enforcement sources said, noting there was surveillance video of the 3:20 a.m. incident.

Governor Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot: I write to you today to call your attention to and urge action on the devastating violence in Chicago. I have been horrified by the continued violence in this great American city. The American people (hardworking taxpayers) send you millions of dollars in Federal funding each year to support public safety in Chicago. In 2018 and 2019, Chicago benefited from $136 million in funding from the Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program, and another $68 million was recently announced for Chicago from this important program. The Department of Justice awarded and is in the process...

Former Fox News and NBC News anchor Megyn Kelly slammed NBC on Thursday for removing several episodes of shows featuring actors in blackface but firing her in 2018 for defending blackface makeup for Halloween. The story: Taking a hit at former NBC chairman Andy Lack, Kelly wrote, “So it turns out that when Andy Lack said ‘there is no place on our air’ for my discussion of blackface, it was b/c NBC was already chalk-full of shows and major stars actually wearing blackface…on the air…at NBC.” Her tweet comes after Variety reported about several “30 Rock” episodes where actors wore...

Florida State University’s student government Senate president was ousted from his position after he referred to transgenderism and abortion as “grave evils” in a private chat room. What he said: Jack Denton, the former president of the Student Senate at FSU, pointed out in a Catholic Student Union group chat that the Black Lives Matters organization, the ACLU, and Reclaim the Block promote issues that are “explicitly anti-Catholic,” after a student urged members to donate to several organizations and charities following the death of George Floyd. He pointed out that the BLM organization and the ACLU support transgenderism and abortion,...

Seattle Fire took one person to the hospital and a possible second shooting victim was rushed by private vehicle to Harborview as Tuesday began with another bout of gun violence on the edges of the Capitol Hill protest camp at Cal Anderson. Seattle Police confirmed they were responding to a shooting at 11th and Denny early Tuesday and confirmed one person had been shot and taken to the hospital. UPDATE: SPD has posted a brief on the incident saying the victim is a man in his 30s who was not cooperative with police and provided no details of what led...

Twitter has permanently banned the account of a prominent pro-Donald Trump meme creator, citing violations of copyright infringement. Twitter’s statement: “Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives. The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of this policy,” the company said. Carpe Donktum issued a statement in response to the suspension, claiming he complies with DMCA rules. “Twitter has not provided me with any avenue to get my account back, so I assume they intend this to be final and permanent. I have ALWAYS complied with...

Reports surfaced Sunday night that NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was the apparent victim of a hate crime, after a “noose” was found hanging from the driver’s garage. In the midst of the reports, before the results of an investigation, The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill appeared on MSNBC airwaves to slam NASCAR and its fans for being what she suggested are anti-black racists. “This reminder is [a] very stunning, shocking, appalling, disgusting reminder of who, again, this sport is for,” Hill told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday, as noted by The Hill. “I’m very curious to see how NASCAR handles this, because...

A rope found in the garage stall of Black driver Bubba Wallace at the NASCAR race Sunday was a garage door pull, not a noose, and had been there since 2019, federal authorities and NASCAR said Tuesday. Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Jay Town on Monday announced his office had launched an investigation along with the FBI and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Town said they were looking to see whether there are violations of federal law. No federal crime was committed, his office said.

The University of Chicago has determined an economics professor who came under scrutiny over tweets critical of the “defund the police” movement did not engage in “discriminatory conduct on the basis of race in a University classroom.” The statement Harald Uhlig, who has taught at UChicago since 2007, was temporarily removed as editor of the Journal of Political Economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago cut ties with him, and he came under investigation over alleged classroom “discriminatory behavior” a series of tweets earlier this month where he took aim at the growing movement to defund police departments following Geroge...

During his opening monologue Monday, Tucker Carlson said Americans should stop pretending the November election is a contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden because, as he put it, "there is no Joe Biden." "The Joe Biden you remember no longer exists," Carlson said. "The babbling husk you see may have the same name and similar features, but behind the mask there is nothing but a jumbled collection of talking points from the 70s. 'Turn on your record player, no malarkey'. The candidate has no independent thoughts of his own." Carlson claimed that Biden's actual function is to serve as...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired back at his New York counterpart Andrew Cuomo on Saturday after the New York governor said he was considering quarantining Florida residents visiting the Empire State. Cuomo’s statement On Thursday, Cuomo said he was considering imposing a 14-day quarantine for people visiting from states like Florida, which have seen a spike in new Covid-19 cases. “I have experts who have advised me to do that,” Cuomo said. “I am considering it now in some ways.” “You want to talk about a full 180 for those people,” he added. “Florida and other states imposed quarantine on...

🚨DEMOCRATS MAY BE TRYING TO STEAL OUR ELECTIONS AND YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY REQUESTED🚨 It was announced that the Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s bill (SB-4) to force through an all mail-in ballot election in 2020 would only get one committee assignment and it would be on the fast-track thanks to the Democrats’ dark-room deals and closed-off Legislative Session from the public. The Senate Rules Committee added a critical amendment to the bill redacting language forcing through the dangerous option for county clerks to automatically send absentee ballots to every voter in their county — stopping language that may have opened...

The University of Florida announced Thursday that it’s putting an end to the “Gator Bait” chant at sporting events, citing the racist history behind the phrase. The change was announced by the University of Florida President Kent Fuchs who said the phrase invokes “historic racist imagery,” while acknowledging that there’s no evidence linking the chant to racism. The chant involves fans shouting “gator bait” and mimicking the chomping jaws of an alligator with their arms, accompanied by music. “While I know of no evidence of racism associated with our ‘Gator Bait’ cheer at [University of Florida] sporting events, there is...