Free Republic

Eric Swalwell has dropped out of the race for California Governor after a series of sexual misconduct allegations. Republicans may be celebrating the demise of the prominent Democrat, but they should hold off on the champagne for now. Swalwell’s exit only increases the chance of two Democrats moving through to the run-off, depriving the GOP of a place on the ticket. However some Republicans still believe that the two GOP candidates in the race – Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco – can make it through California’s jungle primary and face each other in November. While it sounds exciting and makes...

Late last June, CBS Sunday Morning host Jane Pauley acted like a schoolgirl by openly flirting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) during an interview, gushing about him being an eligible bachelor. But on February 28, 2021, after The New York Times reported on a second former aide accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment, Pauley ignored the allegations completely. Meanwhile, inconsistencies abound in the reports from ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Sunday Today. While Pauley was ignoring Cuomo’s scandals, she did have a report about alleged sexual harassment at McDonald’s. And although, Sunday Morning wasn’t a normal newscast –...

The US and Iran have failed to reach an agreement after 21 hours of talks in Pakistan. I can’t say I’m surprised. After all, we didn’t have to wait for the negotiations to finish to make an informed guess of the outcome. We needed merely to consider the shape of things beforehand to know that Donald Trump’s hoped-for new world order would fall into new world chaos. America and Iran agreed on a ceasefire conditional on the Islamic Republic’s complete opening of the Strait of Hormuz. It has so far refused to honour that condition. Earlier this week, President Trump...

TRANSCRIPT: CARVILLE: “I want to be clear on this. I do not want that man to die. I want to — I want to watch him suffer and I can’t watch a dead person suffer. So I want him to be fully cognizant come November so when people tell him.”

U.S. President Donald Trump announced today (Sunday) a dramatic escalation in the confrontation with Iran, declaring a full naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The move comes just hours after reports of the unsuccessful conclusion of a round of talks between the American and Iranian delegations in Pakistan, and after the White House made clear it would not tolerate illegal transit fees being collected in the strait’s international waters. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: "Iran promised to open the Strait of Hormuz, and they knowingly failed to do so. This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many...

Kristen Welker: "I want to start with President Trump because President Trump's threats to take over Cuba come as the United States has removed President Maduro from power, has invaded Iran and killed its Supreme Leader. Do you fear you could be killed or arrested by the United States?" Miguel Díaz-Canel: "That is a very interesting question. Those of us who have leadership positions in the revolution have a strong commitment to our revolution and to our heroic people. In this connection, our responsibility entails the conviction and the commitment that we are willing to give our lives for the...

Environmental groups are legally challenging a permit that Mississippi granted to xAI allowing the company to build a massive, methane gas-burning power plant in the state. The permit application had "deficiencies," like inaccurate air pollution estimates, the groups said, adding that regulators rushed what should have been a careful process. Now part of SpaceX, xAI wants to build the power plant to provide electricity for its data center in nearby Memphis, Tennessee, and another one coming in Southaven, Mississippi. Elon Musk's xAI, now owned by SpaceX, is facing a new legal challenge from environmental groups in Mississippi, where the company...

Hide the sharp objects—at least if you take Nicolle Wallace seriously. On Friday’s edition of Deadline White House, Wallace began by painting an apocalyptic picture of the situation in Iran. Grim enough to have Trump supporters reaching for the Lexapro—if they believed her. After laying out her bleak scenario, Wallace went a step further, warning of: “A full-scale global economic crisis that might actually be even worse than those headlines, and worse than we think.”Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle and Richard Stengel compared the Iranian regime’s “deep belief” and even its use of human shields at power plants and other vulnerable targets favorably to President Donald Trump’s worldview on Wednesday evening. Ruhle and Stengel’s comment came after The Financial Times’ Gillian Tett submitted that “President Trump comes from a background where he assumes that money can buy everything, and money drives everything, and he wants to cut a deal with everyone using money, and he assumes other people will basically fall in line on the back of that.” “So the fact that the Iranian regime...

On April 22, KRON4 will host a California gubernatorial debate airing across the state. On the Democratic side, former Rep. Katie Porter will join East Bay Congressman Eric Swalwell and billionaire activist Tom Steyer on the debate stage. On the Republican side, political commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco will also take part.

'Just shut up!': MAGA allies fed up with Trump's belligerence and war with Iran. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/just-shut-up-maga-allies-fed-up-with-trump-s-belligerence-and-war-with-iran/vi-AA20wRD8?ocid=socialshare#details

Rep. Brandon Gill is picking a public fight with fellow House Republicans over immigration, torching the DIGNIDAD Act as “mass amnesty” and daring its backers to say out loud what he says the bill does. “The Dignity Act is mass amnesty and would constitute a terrible betrayal of our voters,” Gill wrote on X, after GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, talked up renewed interest in the proposal. Gill then turned his fire directly at the bill’s supporters: “If your bill were so popular, you’d be straightforward about what it does. The DIGNIDAD Act provides mass amnesty...

The front page of today’s New York Times features a big article clearly intended to get the readers riled up about the latest environmental horror that must be stopped. The headline is “The Illegal Airstrips Bringing Toxic Mining to Brazil’s Indigenous Land.” Subheadline: “The Times identified hundreds of airstrips that bring criminal mining operations to the most remote corners of the Amazon.” Wow, this is bad. The airstrips are “illegal.” The mining is “toxic,” and not only toxic but also “criminal.” And it’s all happening in the most pristine place left in the whole world, the “remote corners of the...

On Tuesday's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish turned to retired Brigadier General Steven M. Anderson to assess President Trump’s potential expansion of military strikes on Iran. Anderson repeatedly warned that targeting infrastructure such as bridges, power plants, and water facilities could amount to “war crimes,” even suggesting U.S. troops could be put in the position of refusing “illegal” orders. Cornish failed to disclose that Anderson sits on the board of VoteVets, a progressive PAC that backs Democrat candidates. Nor did she note his record of sweeping, alarmist claims, including warning in a Washington Post op-ed of a potential military...

President Trump vowed Monday to catch the “leaker” who revealed that US forces were not immediately able to rescue the second F-15 pilot shot down over Iran — as he retold of the wounded airman’s dramatic weekend rescue. “We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said in the White House briefing room. “They basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing. Well, [Iran] didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information.” “We think we’ll be able to find it out, because we’re going to go to the media company that released it,...

Although ICE has celebrated going after “the worst of the worst criminals” in Ohio, the vast majority of people taken into custody had no criminal conviction – less than 7% of arrestees during the heightened enforcement surge in mid-December had a criminal record, according to the Deportation Data Project (DDP) data analyzed by The Dispatch. The DDP collects immigration data from lawsuits and publishes the datasets publicly.

Adult dancers say they have "absolutely" seen an increase in their military and defense clients. Here's what that might mean. Sex workers have long been bellwethers for major shifts in the economy — and they’re also more in touch with military action than your average civilian. Even if you’ve managed to avoid the news and aren’t aware of the Trump administration’s war with Iran and the skyrocketing gas prices accompanying it, erotic dancers and sex workers are paying attention and noticing a shift. HuffPost spoke with members of the sex worker community about what they’re seeing right now and what...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) accused US media of engaging in “selective coverage” that has downplayed the successes of Operation Epic Fury — and instead benefited Iran during the first 30 days of the war. “I read the entire political spectrum on Epic Fury. Iran now loves and learns from the media,” Fetterman told The Post Tuesday. “The media’s selective coverage rewards and reinforces Iran’s strategy,” he said. “Media amplifies the 1% chaos Iran creates, while ignoring the 99% of Iran’s beatdown.” Much of that coverage has been focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint through which around one-fifth...

The line Joe Biden used to put into nearly every big speech — “I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future” — is a long way from what he says in private now. These days, multiple people who’ve spoken to him over the last year say, Biden often punctuates conversations with: “You think we can actually come back from this?” The 83-year-old Biden continues to feel out a post-presidency that may prove to be one of the shortest in history and is already one of the most complicated. There are days when Biden is heartbroken, indignant or in disbelief about...

Gavin Newsom is reflecting on the long-term grief he dealt with after witnessing his mother end her life through assisted death, also referred to as death with dignity. Newsom was a 34-year-old rising politician at the time and told the outlet that he felt guilty that his busy schedule kept him distant as his mom suffered from the disease. But when the day arrived, he and his sister Hilary were by Tessa’s side. “I hated her for it — to be there for the last breath — for years,” he said. “I want to say it was a beautiful experience....