Free Republic

Pakistan-born Mussab Ali is seeking to become mayor of Jersey City, running on a Democrat platform that includes affordable housing for artists, pushing for "economic equity," free buses, and funding "legal defense for immigrants facing deportation." In a recent campaign video posted to social media, Ali said he was the "black Zohran Mamdani." Ali was born in Pakistan in 1997 and came to the US at the age of three with his family. Ali was the youngest elected official in Jersey City’s history at the age of 20 and was the youngest Muslim in elected office at the time. Ali...

Top Republicans on Monday seized on House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York, casting the self-described democratic socialist as the new face of the Democratic Party ahead of next year’s midterm elections. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Jeffries’ endorsement a “seismic shift in politics.” “We saw our clearest sign yet that this radical insurgent movement in the Democrat Party is succeeding, and they are ending what has always been known as the Democrat Party in America,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “After a monthslong pressure campaign from the far left, House...

Moral relativism is enticing. It enables me to establish the moral value of everything I do by reference to the behavior of others. It allows me to avoid censure by judging my intentions, choices and actions not on the basis of whether they are intrinsically right or wrong, but by the lesser standard of whether someone in a similar position might have done something similar. It is deeply corrosive of personal mores and social trust. Over time it dulls the conscience to any moral hierarchy. It is never a legal defense and shouldn’t be a moral one. Moral relativism is...

MAZE @mazemoore Zohran Mamdani's father: America is the root of all evil and was the inspiration for the nazis. Hitler learned genocide from Abraham Lincoln. I'm sure Zohran loves America though. Nice job NYC

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo urged the world's Catholics to help immigrants in his first major document, which was released on Thursday and invoked one of the late Pope Francis' strongest criticisms of U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policies.Leo's document, known as an apostolic exhortation, is focused on the needs of the world's poor. It calls for widespread changes to the global market system to address rising inequality and to help people living paycheck-to-paycheck.The 104-page text started as a writing project by Francis, who was unable to complete it before his death in April after 12 years leading the global...

Tuesday on CNN’s “NewsCentral,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) claimed President Donald Trump was an “idiot” who “doesn’t actually understand how the military works.” Co-host Boris Sanchez said, “Senator, is there anything in place that would prevent the president from going about using certain cities in the United States as a training ground for the military, as he described it earlier today?” Gallego said, “Look, the president is an idiot. He doesn’t actually understand how the military works. The first thing it’s going to be is that most U.S. citizens will stand against that in civil protests, and you’ll have many...

SACRAMENTO, California — California lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom legislation that would ban federal immigration agents from wearing masks while conducting raids throughout the state. The legislation, passed by Democrats over Republican objections in this deep blue state, would prohibit ski masks, balaclavas and other face coverings for local and federal law enforcement, as well as officials from other states operating in California. Another bill that would require law enforcement to wear badges or name tags identifying themselves was also on track to advance from the Capitol on Thursday. Newsom now has about a month to decide whether...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco for the plaintiffs means 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire Sept. 10 have status to stay and work in the United States. It also keeps protections for about 500,000 Haitians. Chen scolded Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for revoking protections...

When Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, dispatched his National Guard troops to Washington to support President Trump’s crackdown on crime, Democrats and other critics wondered why he didn’t keep them within state lines. Memphis, after all, has long been one of the most dangerous cities in the country, with a murder rate about twice as high as the nation’s capital, according to F.B.I. statistics. Nashville has a higher rate of violent crime than Washington as well. The same questions could be asked of other Republican governors like Greg Abbott in Texas, Mike DeWine in Ohio and Mike Kehoe in Missouri,...

The preliminary injunction affects 20 states that sued to stop the sharing of Medicaid enrollees' personal information with immigration officials A federal judge ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to stop providing access to Medicaid enrollees' personal data, including their home addresses, to immigration officials. District Judge Vince Chhabria, an Obama appointee, granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security from using Medicaid data obtained from 20 states that filed a lawsuit to stop the data sharing. The order, handed down Tuesday, blocks HHS from sharing data on Medicaid enrollees in these states with Immigration and...

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has once again joined a coalition of other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over new rules that could bar immigrants without legal status from health and education programs. The suit, announced Monday, seeks to stop a series of orders from federal agencies that would block people from the early childhood education program Head Start, Title X family planning, adult education, mental health care and community health centers based on immigration status.

San Bernardino bishop dispenses Sunday obligation over ICE fearsBishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino issued a dispensation from Sunday Mass and holy days of obligation July 8, citing “genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions” among parishioners.In his letter to the faithful, Bishop Rojas cited Canon 87 §1, which allows diocesan bishops to exempt parishioners from universal norms “whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good.” “All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions,” he wrote, “are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days...

Paywall. Headline speaks for itself. If you can get the text in some circuitous way, please post it.

Federalizing the National Guard in response to ICE protests risks bloodshed—which is exactly what this administration wants.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to shut down the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure...

Rock megastar Bruce Springsteen has made a series of critical remarks about US President Donald Trump and the policies of his administration, calling the American leader “unfit” for office. “The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock n’ roll in dangerous times,” Springsteen said at the beginning of a concert in Manchester, northern England, on Wednesday. “In my home, the America I love — the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years — is currently in the hands of...

SNIP “In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive, it brings people together. Art embraces diversity and that’s why art is a threat, that’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists,” he said. “America’s philistine president has had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions,” he continued. “He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education. And now he has announced a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the...

Saul Alinsky, in his Rules for Radicals, warned that “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Democrats would do well to heed that advice when it comes to Donald Trump. Having unsuccessfully tried twice to impeach him, they’re still invested in impeachment. Just the other day, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff told a town hall crowd that Trump “has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment” because of his meme coin contest. Of course, all candidates now offer contests, and Trump hasn’t yet sold access to the Lincoln bedroom, but none of that matters to Democrats. Rep. Shri...

BREAKING: Indian-born Congressman Shri Thanedar (D-MI) files to impeach President Donald Trump. He is bringing forward 7 Articles. I bet Trump is literally shaking. "Defying a unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court ruling? That has to be the final straw. It's time we impeached Donald J. Trump. The court said the wrongfully deported Kilmar Garcia must be allowed to return and receive due process. Trump ignored it. He ignored the Constitution." "He ignored the very checks and balances that keep our democracy intact. This isn't an isolated incident. It's part of a dangerous deliberate pattern. That's why today I introduced a resolution...

The Santa Clara County Office of Education and the Santa Clara County Board of Education are co-sponsoring a California bill that would establish school campuses as safe havens from immigration enforcement activity, as fears around deportations and arrests ramp up in Bay Area communities amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on noncitizens. Introduced by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat who represents Torrance, AB 49 — the California Safe Haven Schools Act — would prohibit school employees from allowing immigration officers on campuses without a warrant or approval from school officials. The bill would also require immigration officers who are allowed on...