Free Republic

When I found Darshan Smaaladen earlier this month, she had joined several hundred of her neighbors at a “No Kings” demonstration in Orange County, California. Not that she was there to protest. “Rallies are great,” Smaaladen told me, “but they don’t get people out to vote.”A year ago, Smaaladen had helped lead a successful campaign to recall two ultraconservative members of Orange County’s school board. Now the 52-year-old mother of three was using the “No Kings” protest as a campaigning ground for Proposition 50, the ballot measure orchestrated by Governor Gavin Newsom that would redraw California’s district map to add...

Elon Musk was born a South African, so he’s ineligible to serve as either president or vice president of the United States. But he is swiftly showing, by dint of his enormous wealth and growing influence with the person Americans actually elected as president, that neither of those titles are necessary to dominate Washington. Over the course of a few hours yesterday, Musk may have singlehandedly tanked a carefully negotiated bipartisan compromise to fund the government for the next three months and provide billions of dollars in aid for disaster relief and farmers. The deal was the work of House...

Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker haven’t exactly caught fire. All lagging, struggling to break through visa v, Biden, Bernie, and Pbuttig… Kamala really took advantage. Grandstanding was sorta brief, then squirted off, “has… anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no?"? Senate / House “hearings” are 歌舞伎 (Kaboki)

Thursday could mark the beginning of the end for Bobby Jindal’s increasingly slim presidential hopes. The Louisiana governor’s campaign reported having just $260,000 to spend at the end of September after raising a little over half a million dollars and spending significantly more than that in the third quarter. It’s a paltry sum compared to his rivals, and if Jindal can’t jumpstart his White House bid soon, he could be headed the way of Rick Perry and Scott Walker, who ended their campaigns when their coffers ran dry. Jindal’s haul—or lack thereof—was the most ominous signal that came from the...

House Republicans were furious with Senate Republicans and President Obama on Saturday for trying to cut a debt ceiling deal that leaves them out in the cold. Members emerged from a conference meeting saying Obama had double-crossed them by breaking off talks in order to shop for a better deal from the Senate GOP. “Clearly the president can't be trusted,” said Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.). “It is up to Senate Republicans to grow a backbone and stand with House Republicans like they said they were going to do.”