Free Republic

VIDEO Who could have believed even in the recent past that one day a major American city such as Los Angeles would be afflicted by the threat of typhus and bubonic plague? Those diseases, which were associated with medieval times, now threaten the people of Los Angeles. So what is the major concern of its mayor? To oppose Donald Trump by openly opposing enforcement of immigration laws via its "sanctuary city" policy. No wonder there is a recall petition for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti who has FAILED in his most basic duty of protecting the citizens of that city.

State lawmakers from San Francisco proposed legislation Friday that would allow noncitizens to participate in Democratic Party politics as state convention delegates and county committee leaders. State law now limits noncitizens’ ability to participate in party politics. Supporters of the new proposal noted that Democrats dominate California politics, and said it was important for noncitizens to have a say in party policymaking. “We need to continue to send a very, very loud message that we are ... going to embrace and uplift and support all American immigrant neighbors,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said at a news conference at...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) said in a recent piece profiling her Democratic colleague Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) that it is "too early" to tell whether the potential 2020 candidate would make a good president. Feinstein's remarks came in a Politico piece published Thursday and titled, "Kamala Harris keeps 'em guessing." The piece reflects on Harris' first year in the Senate and how she has become a rising star in the Democratic party, describing the senator as a "serious-minded lawmaker" and as someone who "bones up on policy and can engage on substance." While the junior senator from California has...

Some of the usuals anti-gun suspects in the Senate have proposed new legislation that would ban suppressors following a shooting in Virginia Beach, Va., in which the perpetrator a handgun fitted with the device. But the problem is, this particular accessory is already one of the most regulated by the federal government. The Help Empower Americans to Respond (HEAR) Act is being introduced by Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez (NJ), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Richard Blumenthal (CA) and Tim Kaine (VA), all of whom claim — wrongly — that suppressors are ‘silencers’ in the true sense of the word and that as...

Liberals are going nuts. They’re furious. All because President Donald Trump is doing exactly what he said he’d do during his campaign and is reshaping the judiciary in the United States. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced the nominations of 17 of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, including a Ninth Circuit pick who faced questions about his ties to California. Daniel Bress received approval from the committee with a 12-10 vote, over the objections of Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both California Democrats, who said Bress does not have close enough ties to California to occupy one of...

Obama officials are accused of holding backchannel communications on how to defeat President Trump’s foreign policy. Last year, John Kerry was caught engaging in shadow diplomacy with Iran through meetings with their foreign minister and others. It is believed he is also telling them how to circumvent President Trump and destroy his policies. Dianne Feinstein also met secretly with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif recently, knowing he is responsible for directing the Iranian terror plots. She has his number on her cell phone. According to The Daily Beast, a far-left Democrat newspaper, The Obama Team told Iran not to escalate,...

Historian Victor Davis Hanson described why he feels his home state of California is America’s first “Third World state” during a Monday night appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Hanson’s comments came after the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, said that national Republicans will go “into the waste bin of history, the way Republicans of the ’90s [in California] have gone.” Responding to host Tucker Carlson’s question about why he considers California a “Third World state,” Hanson pointed to “symptoms” we typically “associate with failed states” such as high taxes, poor schools, a super-rich class, and a significant percentage...

A group of Senate Democrats say American citizens “have an obligation” to give amnesty to potentially millions of foreign nationals living in the United States who they say have “earned the right” to be in the country. After House Democrats and seven House Republicans passed an expansive amnesty to any illegal alien claiming to have arrived in the U.S. as a child, Senate Democrats are now demanding the Senate do the same. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) are urging the GOP-controlled Senate to pass their amnesty plan, which gives nearly...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a top member of the minority party in the upper chamber, met recently with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a time of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. The two had dinner around the end of last month when Zarif was visiting the U.S., sources told Politico. Feinstein's team said the dinner was designed to update the senator on the situation between the U.S. and Iran and was "arranged in consultation with the State Department." A State Department official said the agency did not ask the California Democrat to meet with Zarif, but did not...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had a dinner meeting with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, Politico Playbook reported Thursday morning—a move even the left-leaning media outlet called “unusual.” Feinstein’s staff told Politico the meeting, which took place a few weeks ago, was “in consultation with the State Department” but it was not at State’s request that she go. "The office was in touch with State in advance of the meeting to let them know it was happening and to get an update on U.S.-Iran activity," the California Democrat’s office said.

Imagine, for a moment, what the political reaction would be if a leading Republican senator met with an antagonistic foreign power, say Russia, in the midst of high-tension standoff between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin? Such a scenario seems nearly ­inconceivable. Yet, it’s exactly the situation Sen. Dianne Feinstein created when hosting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for dinner a few weeks ago. Politico reported on the meeting, noting that it was “a bit unusual” for a former chair of the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate minority to dine out with the acting foreign minister of...

A federal appeals court ruled Monday the parents of Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in 2015, cannot sue San Francisco for the "sancutary city’s" failure to tell immigration officials about the shooter’s release. Steinle’s parents alleged San Francisco and the city’s former sheriff shared the blamed for their daughter’s death because officials did not notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Jose Ines Garcia Zarate got out of jail.

The City of Oakland is in such dire financial straits that it is planning to use $2.9 million from state gas tax revenues to keep the city’s lights on, rather than using the money to fix pothole-riddled roads, for which the funding was intended. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that the city is facing severe financial shortfalls, despite a booming economy that has seen wealthier households relocate from San Francisco across the bay to gentrifying neighborhoods. The problem is that the city’s costs are rising faster than its growing revenues, thanks partly to pension obligations — an increasingly common...

San Francisco officials voted Tuesday to require brick-and-mortar retailers to take cash as payment, joining Philadelphia and New Jersey in banning a growing paperless practice that critics say discriminates against low-income people who may not have access to credit cards. The vote by the Board of Supervisors was unanimous.

A police chief scolded California lawmakers while honoring an officer whose slaying entered the national immigration debate last year.

Terrorists need their guns more than their victims need surgeries. In 2002, Shmuel Waldman, an American from New Jersey, was shot while boarding a bus in Israel. The terrorist attack killed 2 people and left 40 injured. Among that 40 was Shmuel whose leg was blown apart, forcing him to undergo multiple surgical procedures, and leaving him suffering from PTSD. The terrorist who shot him was Said Ramadan, a “police officer” working for the terrorists who run the Palestinian Authority. The attack had been planned by senior Palestinian Authority officials and the Palestinian Authority viewed Ramadan as a hero. Waldman...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said in a recent appearance that he does not think religious beliefs interfere with a judge’s job, and criticized attempts by Democrats to impose “religious tests” on judicial nominees. Thomas, in remarks last week that were first reported by The Daily Caller, was asked about the 2017 confirmation hearing of Amy Coney Barrett where Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the Catholic: “The dogma lives loudly within you and that’s a concern.” He was asked if religious convictions should be taken into consideration when lawmakers were considering a judicial pick. “I thought we got away from...

What do New York, San Francisco and Chicago all have in common? They’re all willing victims of socialism. The far-left political ideologies that have consumed these cities are now driving them deep into financial ruin — and citizens are fleeing in greater numbers every year. Whether it’s a lack of job opportunity, exorbitantly expensive housing costs, or high taxes, there’s no shortage of bones to pick with socialist policies. While liberals may herald socialism as the progressive dream, its ideologies don’t hold up very well in the real world.

The Senate is poised this week to consider two more conservative nominees selected by President Trump to sit on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee isn't happy about it. That's because the nominees, Ken Lee and Dan Collins, were picked without any input from either Dianne Feinstein or Kamala Harris, California's two Democrat senators. Traditionally, the White House seeks to obtain a so-called "blue slip," or approval, from a judicial nominee's two home-state senators before pressing on with their nominations. But the Trump administration, which has successfully nominated several conservative...

The end of the Robert Mueller investigation has demolished Democrats' mythology about the 2016 election. That should force them to confront some unpleasant truths about what has happened to their party since President Trump's election — and, more to the point for 2020, it should force enough introspection to prevent a repeat performance. The idea that Trump colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton was appealing to many Democrats in the same way any conspiracy theory appeals to the confused: It seemed to explain the inexplicable, with paranoia providing enough elasticity to gloss over any plot holes. The theory's most...