Free Republic

House Democrats are poised to approve Washington, D.C., becoming the nation's 51st state in a historic vote scheduled for Friday. Washington the 'District of Columbia' would be no longer, the bill's language says, as the new state would be referred to as 'Washington, Douglass Commonwealth' - swapping out Italian explorer Christopher Columbus for Maryland-born abolitionist Frederick Douglass. 'And what an appropriate name: George Washington and Frederick Douglass, joined together in support of citizenship, what an appropriate name it seems to me for the capital of America,' remarked Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House's No. 2 Democrat who represents nearby Maryland. 'To...

PHOENIX – The federal government could give Americans $4,000 apiece to take a vacation if U.S. Sen. Martha McSally’s proposal takes off. McSally (R-Ariz.) introduced the bill, the American TRIP Act, on Monday, the day before President Donald Trump visits Yuma and Phoenix. The legislation is meant to act as an incentive to travel domestically. Couples would start at $8,000 in vacation tax credits and receive $500 for each child who is a dependent. Credits would apply for 2020, 2021 and 2022. “It will also encourage Americans to safely get out of their homes and discover or rediscover Arizona along...

Amazon workers at a Chicago warehouse were left outraged that chicken and waffles were being served as part of the facility's Juneteenth celebration. The workers at the Amazon warehouse known as DCH1 were told Thursday that the facility was 'honoring the Black community by supporting local Black businesses' by serving chicken and waffles on Friday - Juneteenth - a document obtained by CNBC revealed. . . . The Facebook group added that some warehouse workers' responses to the chicken and waffles included 'That's some racist s**t, who idea was that lol' and 'I love chicken and waffles, but damn that...

The pancake syrup brand Mrs. Butterworth’s — known for its matronly woman-shaped bottle — will undergo a “complete brand and packaging review,” a spokesperson for Conagra Brands said Wednesday. The development comes after parent companies for Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s announced that the two product lines will see branding changes of their own. “We understand that our actions help play an important role in eliminating racial bias and as a result, we have begun a complete brand and packaging review on Mrs. Butterworth’s,” Conagra Brands Communications Manager Dan Skinner told Forbes. The company added: We stand in solidarity with...

I hope everyone watches this outstanding 2 minute video, and that Twitter doesn't delete it. I'll post the transcript below.  Click to view the video (turn sound up)To the feckless, hypocritical, virtue-signaling Democrat leaders of AmericaYou took the time to kneel for George Floyd so you could pretend to care about black people, but I know the truth, the truth you continue to ignore.So now allow me to call you on the carpet for your many failures in the black community that you refuse to acknowledge.How about kneeling to acknowledge that the worst riots and the worst instances of police...

President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order Tuesday that will create a system for tracking police misconduct, incentivize officer training and send social workers on some nonviolent police calls. Trump said Monday afternoon that the order would be a “very comprehensive” response to unrest over the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police. Its details were spelled out to reporters on an evening call. A senior Trump administration official said the reforms could be “revolutionary” and that the White House expects broad support, including from police representatives who will attend the order’s signing ceremony.

(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) opened a letter to her Democratic colleagues yesterday by quoting Isaiah 2:12 and Isaiah 10:1-2 in an apparent reference to corrupt police officers and Trump administration. “As Isaiah says, ‘For the Lord will have a day of reckoning… Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed,’” Pelosi said. “A reckoning is here for justice in policing, and I commend Chair Karen Bass and the Congressional Black Caucus on their important leadership in presenting the George...

Guess what happens when you overreact to the mob and make a decision based completely on proving how much you CARE … you pick a new name for your band that appropriates the name of a black, blues singer who you didn’t bother to reach out to beforehand. Awkward and oopsie. Lady Antebellum is now “Lady A” — but so is a black blues singer who’s performed music under the name for 20 years. “For them to not even reach out is pure privilege,” says the woman with the original moniker — Rolling Stone

Joseph R. Biden passed Wednesday during a virtual town hall event with the NAACP on the chance to endorse reparations for black Americans, saying that such a package must also include Native Americans. Pressed on the issue, Mr. Biden, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, said he supports the concept, but said he wants to allow studies on the issue to play out before he goes all-in on direct payments to African Americans.

As many in Black Lives Matter call for Caucasians and law enforcement officers to kneel before them, one can't avoid the obvious comparison to a similar situation in the past. All across social media and in mainstream media reports, images and videos of people kneeling “in solidarity” with Black Lives Matter protests seem to all be missing one important component. To kneel in solidarity would mean that everyone is kneeling together, but that’s not the case. If you look at the images, you’ll notice the kneeling is only happening on one side. While Caucasians and law enforcement officers kneel to...

NASCAR utilized much of its pre-race show at Atlanta Motor Speedway to address the recent social unrest and the issue of systemic racism in the United States. NASCAR Hall of Famer and FOX commentator Jeff Gordon opened the broadcast with his own statement, saying: "We are listening. We are learning. We are ready for change." Bubba Wallace, the only African-American driver in the Cup Series, was wearing a shirt on pit road that read 'Black lives matter' and "I can't breathe," referencing George Floyd's plea to officers in his final moments.

Like so many Americans, I am haunted and angered by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery—three of the latest of many lives that have been taken because they were Black. These and other recent demonstrations of police violence, racism, and inequality in America provide fresh evidence that we have a long way to go on the road to equality. Betterment will not stand for the unequal treatment of people of color in our company, in our communities, or in our country. We will advocate for our Black colleagues, friends, and fellow citizens and work harder to...

Some of the changes Northam said they’ve made include expanding voting laws, making election day a holiday, decriminalizing marijuana and eliminating a holiday commemorate Confederating generals. Going forward, the Governor presented four pillars of a plan for going forward with reforms that address racial inequities:

Joe Biden will attend George Floyd’s funeral, a report said Tuesday. The Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president is set to appear at the service, which starts at 11 a.m. next Tuesday, June 9, in Houston, according to a local Houston ABC TV affiliate.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, now running for president, told a gathering of ministers and community activists on Monday that the American public is ready for institutional change, and he indicated that he'll raise taxes to accomplish that, if elected: Biden said it's "pure selfishness" to object to higher taxes that would help pay for programs benefiting the black community.

A video shows a white couple bending down and kissing the boots of black power group members to apologize for slavery. The eight-minute clip appears to have been filmed in First Citizens Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was uploaded to the YouTube page of the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, a radical faction of the black nationalist Black Hebrew Israelite movement, under the title: “WHEN HEATHENS #RECOGNIZE TRUE #PROPHETS OF #GOD.” Two people who had expressed an affinity with the group were responsible for the December 2019 attack on a JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey...

Former Attorney General-turned-Alabama Senate candidate Jeff Sessions is calling for a moratorium on all employment-based immigration until the U.S. unemployment rate reaches pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. Sessions made the announcement during a Thursday press release, saying the federal government should not take on more foreign workers until the country’s unemployment level falls below 3.5%. The declaration appears to be the most dramatic call for employment-based restrictions since the pandemic began.

Governor Murphy signed Executive Order No. 114, ordering the flag of the United States of America and the flag of New Jersey shall be flown at half-staff at all State departments, offices, agencies, and instrumentalities indefinitely, starting on Friday, April 3, 2020, in recognition and mourning of all those who have lost their lives and have been affected by COVID-19.

A makeshift morgue has been set up outside a Manhattan hospital in a bid to handle any possible surge in coronavirus victims as the New York City death roll rose to 192. Armed military personnel, NYPD and NYC Medical Examiner's Office employees were spotted outside Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday as crew members erected huge white tents as part of the makeshift facility. In addition to the dome-like tents, multiple refrigeration trucks were also lined up at the site in Midtown along 30th Street and the FDR Drive parkway. The coronavirus death toll in New York City has risen to...

You seriously could never make this stuff up. – In a series of Tweets this afternoon, GOP Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas listed the absurd list of Democrat demands that are holding up the crucial stimulus bill. Below is the text of those Tweets: Families and businesses need help now to survive the China virus pandemic. But @SpeakerPelosi walked away from negotiations to write her own bill, full of absurd provisions completely unrelated to the crisis at hand. Here’s what Speaker Pelosi is demanding while Americans suffer: 1. Corporate pay statistics by race and race statistics for all corporate boards...