Free Republic

Labor unions are all about two things: money and control. The problem is that they go about achieving their aims through coercive means, often political, sometimes violence. In New York, for example, the union bigwigs have contrived to get their allies in the legislature to enact a bill designed to keep workers from learning about their right to opt out of paying dues to public-sector unions under the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision. I discussed that bit of skullduggery here. In Vermont, the same political alliance has placed on the ballot a proposed amendment to the state constitution,...

A Massachusetts mother was shot to death inside her home as authorities launched an hours-long manhunt to capture her adult son, who had fled to Vermont. Andria Hanafin was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound inside the kitchen of her Reading, Mass., home at around 12:38 a.m. on Thursday, the Reading Police Department said. Hanafin’s husband, Matthew, had discovered his 49-year-old wife when he returned home from work and called 911. Hanafin’s 22-year-old son, Ryan Hanafin, was missing from the household along with his car. Officials then started their search for the unaccounted-for adult and his 2010 black Dodge...

WASHINGTON — Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly refused to answer whether he considers Iran or Israel to be the “greater threat to the United States.” When presented with that question during his debate Thursday against Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers, El-Sayed ripped it as a “ridiculous hypothetical.” “Here’s what’s happening right now: our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran,” El-Sayed, a Democrat, replied. “We have watched as Iran has responded by bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply.” “This is a situation...

The arrogance of the oligarchs is extraordinary. THEY WANT IT ALL. In this election, Musk and other billionaires will spend huge amounts of money to make sure that Congress works for them — not working families. We can beat them. Educate. Organize. Get your friends to vote.

Fremont, Calif., has been crowned the happiest city in the country, according to a new WalletHub study ranking 182 of the largest US cities***Bismarck, ND, took the No. 2 spot, followed by Scottsdale, Ariz.; South Burlington, Vt.; and Fargo, ND — putting two cities in frigid North Dakota among the five happiest places in America.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she will skip the Michigan Democratic Party’s August convention because she believes she will be harassed, chased around, and booed off the stage by members of her own party.This is Michigan’s sitting attorney general saying she does not trust her own political party to provide a safe environment for her. Nessel also accused Democratic leaders of failing to address complaints she previously made about party members who allegedly harassed her.

During a March 2025 stop on socialist senator Bernie Sanders's "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said President Donald Trump's "deplorable and disgusting" tax cuts benefited "folks who don't really need more money." Months later, he claimed a $26,000 income deduction that was created as a part of that legislation, records show. El-Sayed and his wife claimed a "qualified business income deduction" of $26,171 on their 2025 tax return, according to a partial copy of the return. Passed as a part of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 and then made permanent as part of...

Sen. Bernie Sanders insisted that he has no regrets about his initial stance standing by disgraced oyster farmer Graham Platner despite an avalanche of warning signs. Sanders (I-Vt.) had been among Platner’s earliest backers, catapulting him to prominence with his endorsement shortly after the oyster farmer jumped in the race for Maine’s Senate seat. “No, I don’t think so,” Sanders told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday when asked about whether he had regrets for not abandoning Platner sooner. The self-described democratic socialist had stuck with Platner during a string of scandals, defending him after revelations emerged that he...

Bernie Sanders served on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board for 18 years but hasn’t attended a single meeting. They only have two meetings per year and he missed all 36 of them. It was a bipartisan effort to remove him. Shameful, lazy socialist.

As JD Vance prepares to make a decision about his 2028 plans, the vice president is facing a barrage of online attacks from within his party, criticism his allies say appears to be part of a coordinated attempt to poison the well for him politically.His detractors have adopted the “Never Vance” slogan and flooded social media, especially over the past week, with attacks including claims that Vance is “unfit” to be vice president due to his efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Iran. They have asserted, without evidence, that Vance is making policy decisions not supported by President Donald...

Faint interest in film glorifying activists bent on violence, destructionJames Cameron caught little heat for a shocking admission. He hearts eco-terrorism. It’s one thing for the “Avatar” director to be so green he makes his cast and crew eat vegan. That seems quaint compared to a quote that got ignored by most press outlets. Now, we have an entire film dedicated to eco-activists willing to employ violence to suit their needs. And it’s clear where the story’s empathy lies. “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” deserves some sort of Truth in Advertising award. The story follows a gang of eco-thugs...

There’s a battle to shape the Democratic Party this fall, and two top Senate Democrats are taking different paths in their bids to put their mark on the process. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., endorsed Abdul El-Sayed in the duel for the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan. It’s a break from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is backing Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. The diverging endorsements are emblematic of the fight going on behind the scenes and publicly in the Democratic Party as the old guard fights to stand its ground, while a progressive surge threatens to completely overtake the...

By now, we have all seen the evidence that the socialist uprising happening in the Democratic Party is fueled mainly by highly educated White voters, and on Saturday, I saw even more evidence of it at a Detroit rally for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. It was whiter than a toothpaste ad. Scanning the hundred or so people in line for the event that featured Marxist superstars Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., I saw fewer Black people than you could find at Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s restricted beach club in Rhode Island. Outside of the Opera House where...

President Trump on Sunday shared a video calling for “hardcore communist ********” to be deported, notably naming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Conservative pundit Michael Savage’s 49-minute-long video, which he posted on July 4, claims that democratic socialist candidates running as Democrats have been turning the U.S. into a socialist country through, for example, the launch of “free” programs. Savage claimed the country was turning into Cambodia under the dictator Pol Pot. “That is exactly what Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists will do to you,” Savage said. “Forget the smirks, forget the smiles, forget the bull— that it’s...

Political strategist James Carville offered a series of harsh criticisms against the far-left Democrats taking aim at their own party in the ongoing primaries, while calling the candidates’ ongoing cannibalization of longtime incumbents “part of the problem.” In a blistering video, Friday, for his “Politics War Room” podcast, Carville blasted the nationwide sweep of far-left and Democratic Socialist primary election victories, while calling certain candidates “part of the problem” within the party. “These people are so f------ stupid I don’t know what to say about it,” Carville said. “So now we have this idea that these insurgent Democrats — and...

Maine Democrats announced it will hold its convention July 25 to pick a new nominee for US Senate to run in Graham Platner’s place in November — but some party members aren’t waiting until a new name emerges from the ashes of the accused rapist’s campaign. Prominent lefties in Congress are already raising money — claiming the fate of the entire party is at stake. “Our path to flipping the Senate runs directly through Maine. If we flip Maine, we flip the Senate,” Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) wrote in a desperate fundraising email Friday. “But if Susan Collins wins, Trump...

How worried should Democrats be about the Democratic Socialists of America? As someone who knows the DSA inside out, I can say with authority: They should be very worried indeed. I was a DSA member for years and served in local leadership. But today’s DSA — illiberal, dogmatic and hostile to traditional American political norms — is not the organization I once knew. It includes disciplined, radicalized networks that have methodically expanded their power over the last decade in pursuit of extremist goals. As the Democratic Party grapples with the DSA’s growing influence and extremism, it would do well to...

The AI industry is growing at a fierce pace, but so is skepticism about where it will lead, with some worried about data centers sucking up power and jobs being replaced with computers. Capitalizing on those fears, socialist wacko Bernie Sanders has proposed the “American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act” — which has grabbed headlines for claiming it will raise $7 billion and distribute thousands of dollars to every American. It’s a pie-in-the sky scheme, doomed from the start. Not least because it would force all major AI companies to hand 50% of their equity over to the federal government!...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is setting up an automated process for parents to obtain Trump Accounts for their children. These Accounts can be established for newborns and children who have a valid Social Security number up until they reach the age of 18. A one-time $1,000 pilot program contribution from the Department of Treasury is available to children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, who are US citizens with a valid Social Security number. So far, six million children have been enrolled in Trump Accounts. SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano explained "Social Security numbers are the backbone...

🚨JUST IN: Senator Bernie Sanders releases a statement urging Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to exit the race: “In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.” @kayleighmcenany