Free Republic

ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) - For the first time, an openly transgender woman has announced her intention to compete for the Miss Georgia USA title. The decision is sparking controversy, but Bella Bautista says she is optimistic about competing in the competition. The Cartersville native is currently Miss Buckhead USA and is dreaming even bigger. “I was like, this could honestly be a true reality for me. This dream could one day come true. And just because there hasn’t been a first in Georgia, I could be that first,” she said. In 2021, Kataluna Enriquez from Nevada made history when she...

Donald Trump's 2024 election victory is fueling claims of fraud on both sides of the political divide. His right-wing supporters claim the outcome vindicates their debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. To a smaller degree, those on the left are circulating their own baseless claims casting doubt on this year's results. The election denial movement Trump inspired has spent the past four years building an infrastructure and community around false claims that 2020 was rigged. This year, it invested heavily in raising similar alarms that voting would again be compromised — only for those claims to...

An Italian man has simultaneously tested positive for monkeypox, HIV and COVID-19 after returning home from a holiday, according to a paper published in the Journal of Infection. The 36-year-old reported having intercourse with men without a condom during a five-day Spanish holiday from June 16 to 20. Nine days after his trip, he developed a fever, sore throat, fatigue and headache before testing positive for COVID-19 on July 2.

Well, it’s finally a race. On Tuesday, Kamala Harris selected progressive Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate in what has become one of the most exciting presidential campaign sprints in modern history. The Harris-Walz campaign now has just 89 days to take its show on the road before voters head to the ballot box on Nov. 5. Harris’ choice also did the impossible, uniting progressive and conservative lawmakers in Washington. Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hailed Walz as an “excellent decision” and a leader who “won’t back down under tight odds.” Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) —...

Donald Trump’s comments on Wednesday questioning whether Vice President Kamala Harris is Black were not an off-the-cuff expression of racism, but part of a broader campaign strategy that Trump and many of his key lieutenants plan to make a heavy focus of their final three-month sprint to retake the White House.Asked on Wednesday about Republicans accusing Harris of being a “DEI hire” or “DEI candidate,” Trump responded by questioning Harris’ racial identity. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened...

Vice President Kamala Harris earned Democrats their highest lead over former President Donald Trump in nearly a year, according to a poll from Morning Consult.The pollster released its latest survey on the 2024 election on Monday, which found Harris leading Trump 48 percent to 44 percent among registered voters across the country. Morning Consult said the poll was conducted between August 2 and 4 and is based on the responses of 11,265 voters.Morning Consult said that Harris' 4-point lead is a "record-high margin in her favor" and is the "largest advantage for a Democratic presidential candidate over Trump in nearly...

At the outset of Christopher Marlowe’s late 16th-century play “The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus,” the scholar at the center of the tale abandons all the learning he has mastered. Law, philosophy, medicine — none of these have fulfilled his boundless ambition. Instead, he turns to magic, making the fateful decision to sell his soul to the demon Mephistopheles, for what he “most desires” — “a world of profit and delight, /Of power, of honor.” That brand of striving, so strong that it compels Faustus to sell what is most essential to him, must lie somewhere in the makeup of...

California's third most populous city has renamed a section of a prominent street "Barack Obama Boulevard." The boulevard through downtown San Jose is the first street in the Bay Area to be named for the nation's first Black president after four years of planning, FOX 2 of the Bay Area reported. "We always felt like it was going to happen because there was bipartisan support," Alex Shoor, who proposed the idea in 2017, told The Mercury News. "San Jose is a progressive, open-minded city. Most of us want to grow up in a country where any one of our children...

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Individually they’re amazing, but together they’re one of the greatest couples in sports. Bird won her fourth WNBA title with the Seattle Storm last month, and while in the Wubble she led the can’t-get-rid-of-her, let’s-help-her-lose movement to boost Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is now in a runoff against Republican Senator and Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler. Rapinoe proposed to Bird in late October, and there may or may not have been happy squeals at this laptop when we saw that news. George Hill By all accounts, it was Hill, the Milwaukee...

Viola Davis is thrilled to be playing Michelle Obama in the upcoming Showtime anthology series First Ladies, but says she had some trepidation. The How to Get Away With Murder star dropped by The Graham Norton Show for an episode that will air on Dec. 25, where she opened up about playing the former first lady. "People love Michelle Obama," Davis told Norton. "They feel like they know her, they own her — and they do not want anything that is negative to touch her." As an actress, Davis said she delights in looking for the "mess" when it comes...

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has assigned an out woman to be chief of staff to his running mate, putting a lesbian in one of the campaign’s most senior positions. Shortly before announcing that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) would be his running mate in the 2020 general election, the Biden campaign announced that senior campaign advisor Karine Jean-Pierre would be the vice-presidential candidate’s chief of staff. Jean-Pierre is the first Black person to serve as chief of staff to a vice-presidential candidate. ...

President Trump has commuted the sentence of Roger Stone. The timing, late on Friday, suggests internal embarrassment over the move, and we wish there were more. The commutation is a move fully within the president’s powers and in keeping with the long-established pattern of presidents’ pardoning or commuting the sentences of associates caught up in special-counsel probes, although usually the associates aren’t as sleazy as Stone. We’re a long way from George H. W. Bush’s pardoning Cap Weinberger, the great Reagan-era defense official, who had been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Lawrence Walsh investigation. [cut] It...

Nothing unites Democrats more than a deep belief that President Trump must be driven from office. And right now, nothing divides Democrats more than finding the best way to bring this about. Trump’s racist tweets over the weekend against Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and the city of Baltimore that is part of the dignified Democrat’s district only underscored the moral urgency of ending a presidency that, day after day, brings shame upon our nation. Trump is not a political genius. He is president because of our outdated and undemocratic electoral college. What he is skilled at is taking advantage of...

After recruiting thousands of donors for the American Conservative Union — the powerful organization behind the annual CPAC conference — a Republican political operative pushed the same contributors to give millions to a PAC that promised to go after then-President Barack Obama, but then steered much of their donations to himself and his partners. The PAC, called the Conservative Majority Fund, has raised nearly $10 million since mid-2012 and continues to solicit funds to this day, primarily from thousands of steadfast contributors to conservative causes, many of them senior citizens. But it has made just $48,400 in political contributions to...

For the first time since the end of World War I, the president of the United States is not the leader of the free world. When the guns fell silent at the end of the Great War on Nov. 11, 1918, Europe was in ashes after more than four years of fighting. America was newly ascendant, a leader in manufacturing, science, military power and global influence – with a home front untouched by the destruction of war. Our leading role as the most powerful and influential nation on Earth was solidified with our victory in World War II. We never...

Vice President Mike Pence, accompanied by Republican senators including Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), visited two detention facilities near the U.S.-Mexico border where migrants were being held on Friday. Pence visited one center in Donna, Tex. where men were being held in addition to a McAllen facility where children were detained.The account from pool reporter Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post, who accompanied Pence into the facility in Donna, is chilling:After negotiating with the VP’s office, pool was taken into an outdoor portal at the McAllen Border Station around 5pm, where almost 400 men were in caged fences with no cots....

Announcing his second bid for the presidency March 2, Sen. Bernie Sanders drew a massive crowd in Brooklyn, estimated at 13,000 by his campaign. But can he do the same in Peoria?

The final votes are being counted from the 2018 election. They confirm that the Democrats crushed Republicans. Let's start in the seat count. Republican Rep. David Valadao of California's 21st District conceded on Thursday to Democrat T.J. Cox. Cox's victory combined with other election results means that Democrats have picked up a net gain of 40 seats. As has oft been repeated, this is the largest Democratic House gain since 1974. It's a larger gain than Democrats had in the wave elections of both 1982 and 2006. We can go back even further and see how unusual it is that...

For the clusters of onlookers, besuited power players and three former presidents who had all traveled to Washington National Cathedral, the muggy day was a historic opportunity to memorialize the life of Senator John McCain, who was remembered as a deeply patriotic war hero, a former Republican presidential candidate and a scrappy, humanly flawed, ultimately idealistic lawmaker. For President Trump, it was Saturday. In the many discussions about how to mark his life that Mr. McCain had with his staff and family before he died, he had made clear he did not want Mr. Trump to participate in anything they...

TEHRAN – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that an international bloc should be formed to press the Zionist regime to end its siege of the Gaza Strip. “We should try to form an international front to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip and condemn this action and support Palestinians,” Ahmadinejad said in a telephone conversation with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya on Tuesday. The telephone conversation came after Israeli forces attacked a civilian flotilla on Monday morning killing 19 civilians. The ships were carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The president emphasized that Iran will firmly support the Palestinian nation and...