Free Republic

"Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a major Ukrainian natural gas producer, from 2014 to 2019. He has been the subject of debunked right-wing conspiracy theories concerning his business dealings in Ukraine"

Having forced myself to listen to most of the Republican National Convention (RNC) orations in late August, I was struck by what my daughter, who had done such work professionally, characterized as the program’s “underlying marketing strategy.” The GOP’s advisers seem to have pitched their message at the demographics among whom Trump has had the least support in the polls, namely suburban, college-educated women, and blacks. Trump, according to the polls, was losing the former group until recently by about 20 percentage points, and may be winning the votes of no more than 8 percent of blacks. The overall size...

You know Yara Shahidi. Black-ish actor, fashion icon, passionate activist, and inspiration to us all. Well now, the 20-year-old is out here changing the game. Yara Shahidi was just cast as the first Black Tinkerbell ever!! The film, called Peter Pan and Wendy, will star Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson as the titular characters. And Jude Law will be playing Captain Hook! In a recent Instagram post, she made the announcement by sharing some gorgeous artwork (by @alexcollectsofficial) portraying her as Tinkerbell. "Thank you for all of the love," the Grown-ish actor said in the caption. "It truly means so...

CNN appears to have altered a widely-seen photograph of Joe Biden with his young son to remove the logo of the Washington Redskins. The Democratic nominee and former vice president initially shared the photo in June to commemorate Father's Day.

At the Batman Legacy panel at DC Fandome today, Jim Lee introduced John Ridley who talked about writing a new Batman series, with Nick Derington, bets known for his work on Mister Miracle, Batman Universe and Doom Patrol. The comic book will, as John Ridley put it "a slightly greater than 47% chance that he will be a person of colour" and that he will be using the comic to "delve into the Fox family" and that "Lucius Fox has been at Batman's side the longest." So… Luke Fox as Batman. Taken a while to get here. John Ridley is...

Distant cosmic objects such as planets, galaxies, and nebulae are sometimes referred to by the scientific community with unofficial nicknames. As the scientific community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful. NASA is examining its use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects as part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an initial step, NASA will no longer refer to planetary nebula NGC 2392, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star that is...

A New Mexico Hispanic leader upset about the removal of Spanish conquistador monuments is pushing for the state to end its support for Chicano and Native American studies. In a letter to University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes, New Mexico League of United Latin American Citizens Executive Director Ralph Arellanes wrote that the state’s largest university should dismantle both programs because they teach Latino students “self-hate” about their Spanish heritage. Arellanes, who signed that letter in his role as New Mexico LULAC executive director and chair of the Hispano Roundtable of New Mexico, said he has collected stories of...

Washington Post Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah argued on Monday that the Texas Rangers as a team name "must go." On the heels of the Washington Redskins retiring its name and mascot amid pressure from critics and corporate sponsors, an op-ed written by Attiah made the case that "to know the full history of the Texas Rangers is to understand that the team’s name is not so far off from being called the Texas Klansmen." Growing up in Dallas, Attiah recalled going to Rangers games with her father as a child, but not realizing at the time that the Rangers...

A reboot of “The Wonder Years” has landed a pilot production commitment at ABC. The new half-hour comedy series would focus on how a black middle class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent late 1960’s made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too. That puts the new show in the same time period as the original series, which was set between 1968 and 1973. A mini writer’s room for the show will be opened once ABC approves a pilot script. Saladin K. Patterson will write and executive produce. Lee Daniels and Marc Velez will executive produce via...

Black Lives Matter activists cite Douglass’s 1852 speech ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’ as proof America is evil. They utterly miss his point. Last week on CNN, as contributor Angela Rye accused White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnaney and President Trump of failing to understand the history of black America, she referred to the legendary Frederick Douglass. “Frederick Douglass said about Independence Day in this country, what to the slave is the Fourth of July?” she said. “And I would invite them to even start there, as a reading principle, to see how different we see...

Well, if you ever want to see linguistic gymnastics, just take a look at this USA Today’s fact check of the claim that the Democrats didn’t create the Ku Klux Klan or start the American Civil War. Are they really just low on material over there? Because this wasn’t even said by a major politician. It was an Instagram user. Yeah, so for USA Today to pull out the fact check guns on this is a tell-tale sign that the Left is fully aware of their racist past. And given how left-wing mob violence has grown and ‘woke’ crybabies taking...

Dear Faculty, in the interest of learning for life, and to promote a deeper understanding of our own socialization in America, the Multicultural Committee would like to promote an opportunity to grow. All we ask is that you watch a documentary on Netflix called 13th and engage in honest self-reflection. We would also like to offer a chance to talk through the ideas in the film and your work as a person confronting your own socialization and implicit bias. 13th is a powerful film that discusses the criminal system in America and how the prison system has been used to...

Twitter users are debating whether or not Beethoven was black after a blog post about the subject resurfaced online. ... In the post on The Concordian, the author said: "I am no Beethoven expert, but bringing up this topic is important. While getting to the bottom of the truth about Beethoven's race will change nothing about the supreme quality of his music, it will open up dialogue about the massive effects of European colonialism that promote racism still today. .. However, there is no evidence of Beethoven's race aside from portraits that suggest that he was white, and the blog...

In an increasingly antiracist era when problematic iconography — ranging from Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben to even the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee car and country band Lady Antebellum’s name — is being reassessed, revised or retired, America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” seems to be striking a wrong note. Last week, protesters in San Francisco toppled a statue of the song’s composer, Francis Scott Key, a known slaveholder who once said that African-Americans were “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.” This week, Liana Morales,...

America was founded upon genocide, slavery, and theft, said Hollywood director and actor Spike Lee in a recent interview with Joe Madison on his radio show. “The foundation of the United States of America is immoral, from the get-go. The foundation has been shaky from day one. This country was based upon the stealing of the land from native people and genocide against native people, coupled with slavery.” Spike Lee said. “Whenever this day comes, when we go back to supposed normalcy. What they called normal was abnormal.” We’ve been patriotic for this country from day one,” said Lee of...

The Confederate monuments that are coming down across the United States have once again ignited a generations-old American argument. Though the idea that the war was really about the “noble cause” of states’ rights retains its mystique for some, historians agree that the root cause of the Civil War was slavery. The worst American war in the nation’s history—from the standpoint of casualties, direct costs and indirect consequences—was fought in a vain attempt by the Confederate States to preserve that “peculiar institution.” Now, 155 years later, not only are statues of Confederate leaders being removed in cities from Richmond to...

The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down. The decision, proposed by the museum and agreed to by New York City, which owns the building and property, came after years of objections from activists and at a time when the killing of George Floyd has initiated an urgent nationwide conversation about racism. For many, the “Equestrian” statue at the museum’s Central Park West entrance had come to symbolize...

On Thursday, June 4, 2020, a 22-year-old activist named Kennedy Mitchum reached out to the publishers of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to express her frustration with their definition of the word "racist:" A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Mitchum felt this was inadequate to fully cover the scope of systemic issues and unconscious biases that affect race relations in America. Growing up in Florissant, Missouri — just a few miles away from Ferguson — she'd grown tired of trying to explain to...

In the Pulse attack, we knew it was jihad when devout Muslim Omar Mateen called 911 in the middle of his mass slaughter and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State. But it didn’t matter. It never does. Little girls singing and dancing with pure joy at a pop concert one moment, then targeted for death with a bomb designed for maximum pain, suffering and death. Nails, nuts, shrapnel designed to tear into flesh and bone. That didn’t matter. Coworkers and holiday revelers at an office Christmas party in San Bernardino didn’t matter. Moms and dads and their kids celebrating...

Political pundit and author Dave Rubin asked, “Where are all the adults in the room?” reacting to the so-called cancel culture sweeping the nation following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. “This thing is out of control,” Rubin told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday. Rubin reacted to the recent resignations of two newspaper editors among other incidents related to "cancel culture.'" New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigned last week, amid anger inside the company over the publication of an op-ed from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., supporting the deployment of the National Guard to help...