Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump is rich, but given his reluctance to disclose his tax returns and other pertinent financial information through the years, finding the total of Trump’s assets has been a tall task. But it’s one that this year, Forbes undertook, and through its research, the publication found that the 45th president has property, cash and other assets worth $2.5 billion, cementing his place on the Forbes list of billionaires. His properties represent a big chunk of that total worth. Trump got his start working for his father, Fred, a developer in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn...

President Biden is ranked as the 14th-best U.S. president, according to a new poll of historians. Former President Trump is ranked as the last. The New York Times' Peter Baker joins Morning Joe to discuss.

Ever wonder why Democrats push rigged choice voting, err "ranked choice voting," so hard? It *must* help them cheat somehow. I may have figured it out: they *love* to vote more than once. RCV automatically, legally, and officially lets them do that. It gets interesting when one considers how confusing RCV is. How many people only vote once, not knowing how RCV works? Fraud is easier to prove in regular, one person, one vote elections if the number of votes exceeds the number of voters. But it's a lot harder to tell if the Democrats had their thumb on the...

Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Los Angeles all rank among the nation’s 10 “neediest” cities, according to an analysis by the personal finance website WalletHub. The report ranked 182 cities on 28 economic indicators, including child poverty, food insecurity and inadequate kitchens. Detroit ranked as the neediest metropolis. One Detroit renter in five faced eviction this year, according to a report in The Detroit News. Brownsville, Texas, ranked second. One-quarter of the city’s population lives in poverty, twice the national average, according to a recent account in 24/7 Wall St. Cleveland ranks third. Cleveland’s poverty rate is 29 percent, according to...

Well, you can't say we didn't warn you, Alaska. As of this writing, voters already know the outcomes of all the special elections and primary elections in New York and Florida that took place Aug. 23. But nobody has any idea who won Alaska's special House election held a week prior. In fact, the outcome won't be known until next month. Why? Because Alaska went and adopted the idiotic, needlessly complicated ranked choice voting system in a 2020 referendum that just barely passed. Voters might want to consider a do-over and rank "no" first on their ballots this time, except...

Frustration over delays and tabulation mishaps in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary is fueling a wave of Republican opposition to an increasingly popular election structure change. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called it a “corrupt scam.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dinged it as “woke.” New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney argued that it “disenfranchises” voters. Jason Snead, executive director of the conservative-leaning Honest Elections Project, said ranked-choice voting is a “solution in search of a problem.” **SNIP** Ranked-choice voting, also called an automatic runoff, is a system of relocating votes from bottom-tier candidates in races with at least three candidates...

Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, after Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign Wednesday morning. The next big question in the race - beyond when and how Biden will be formally nominated amid a pandemic, of course - is who is going to fill out the ticket as Biden’s vice presidential running mate. The pick carries unusual importance, especially given Biden, who will turn 78 shortly after Election Day, would be the oldest president ever elected by far. We already know one thing about that pick: It will be a woman, as Biden pledged in a recent...

The future looks grim for the state and even grimmer for the Inland Empire in education and the economy, according to a Cal State Sacramento study. Called "State of Decline," the study by the university's Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy found the Inland Empire is least likely in California to prepare students for college. And a second, unrelated report issued by Morgan Quitno Press lists the state as one of the nation's dumbest, ranking it in 47th place out of the 50 states. Declining college-going rates and an achievement gap between students from different races and regions of...