Free Republic

Two years ago, a slate of radical democratic socialists shocked the state of Nevada by winning all but one of the party leadership positions. In response, every paid staffer who worked for the Democratic Party resigned. Judith Whitmer became chairman of the party, and the civil war was on.The embittered establishment Democrats led by the remnants of the Harry Reid coalition formed an opposition party to the regular Democrats. Reid, the former Senate Majority Leader, almost singlehandedly turned Nevada from a reliable red state during the 1970s and ’80s to a swing state.The socialists won thanks to some radical union...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that taking more than half of someone’s income through taxes is “absolutely” fair for some earners. Host Bill Maher asked, “I hear you all the time say, the rich don’t pay their fair share. Now, maybe that’s true of those three guys you mentioned [Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos], they are pretty rich. But, I guess I’m not very rich, but I pay more than half. California is 13.3% and the federal is 37% for people who make over 250k…and then there [are] the state and...

America is being torn apart by a "scientific" dispute over the appropriateness of hormone-blockers for minor children. The safety of these drugs is in question, as well as whether children are being fully assessed for mental health issues that may underlie gender dysphoria. A number of responsible states have initiated legislation to ban their use, most recently joined by Tennessee. Meanwhile, another group of states are rushing to shield these drug regimens for kids from parental or legal interference. Vermont, which eagerly embraced eugenics and forced sterilization a century ago, is aggressively creating a modern version of Underground Railroad for...

RUTLAND, Vt. —Yesterday evening, a federal judge approved a settlement that ends a lawsuit challenging the state and several local governments’ policy and practice of denying tuition benefits to parents who send their children to religious schools. The settlement guarantees that Vermont parents who qualify for tuition benefits can spend those benefits on the private school of their choice, regardless of whether the school is religious. The families who brought the lawsuit were represented by the national nonprofit law firm, the Institute for Justice (IJ). “This settlement guarantees that any Vermont family eligible for tuition benefits can use those benefits...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Sunday called Israel’s government “racist” and suggested that there should be strings attached to US aid to Israel. Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation”, Sanders was asked by interview Margaret Brennan if he thinks democracy is in peril in Israel. “I do. I am very worried about what Netanyahu is doing and some of his allies in government and what may happen to the Palestinian people,” replied the Senator, who is Jewish. “And let me tell you something, I mean, I haven't said this publicly. But I think the United States gives billions of dollars...

Former President Trump has a significantly higher favorable rating than Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll found.The survey provided a list of high profile figures across the board in politics and found Trump standing at the top in terms of favorability, garnering 46 percent.That is higher than every other figure featured on the list, which includes President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and more. McConnell’s favorable figures are toward the bottom half of the list, garnering a 25 percent favorable rating — 21 points lower...

Retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in an interview that too many politicians in Washington “don’t care” about the country, only about their “political ambitions.” In an interview with The Associated Press published Wednesday, Leahy said when he first joined the Senate in 1975, senators found ways to get things done regardless of differing views. Leahy, 82, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, has spent the last 48 years in the Senate and serves as the chamber’s president pro tempore and is third in line to the presidency. “I think then, most of [the senators] knew there were basic things the...

Parents in Vermont can now use the state’s tuition assistance for towns without public education at faith-based schools, attorneys announced Thursday, ending a 20-year dispute. The Vermont settlement was filed in court papers Wednesday, said the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented two parents and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Burlington, Vermont, in suits against Education Secretary Daniel M. French. ADF legal counsel Paul Schmitt said in a statement, “For more than two decades, Vermont unlawfully excluded religious schools and their students from public benefits, essentially eliminating school choice for many parents in the state. As the U.S. Supreme Court recently...

High-profile Republican members of Congress gained tens of thousands of Twitter followers in the first few weeks of Elon Musk’s reign over the social media network, while their Democratic counterparts experienced a decline, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) all lost about 100,000 Twitter followers in the first three weeks of Musk’s ownership of Twitter, while Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) gained more than 300,000 each.

Joe Biden and other Democrats promise to curtail U.S. domestic oil production, the northeastern United States could face a historic energy crisis as temperatures fall this winter, burdening an energy economy already beset by record-high prices and oil shortages. Signs of vulnerability in the Northeast have been apparent in recent months, Bloomberg reported, with retailers already rationing oil as stockpiles of diesel and heating oil are at a third of their normal levels. Those unfavorable conditions could bring about challenges to the Northeast's energy infrastructure that would be unprecedented in most Americans' lifetimes, according to Bloomberg: Add some cold to...

Aborting viable, late-term unborn babies for any reason is now a “right” in the Vermont Constitution. On Tuesday, state voters approved Proposal 5, a pro-abortion constitutional amendment, on the ballot by a massive margin, with 72 percent in favor, the VT Digger reports. According to election results, 22 percent voted against the amendment and 6 percent did not vote. Most expected the amendment to pass in the deeply Democratic state. Abortions already are legal for basically any reason up to birth in Vermont, but the amendment will stop the state legislature from enacting any limits in the future. “We knew...

California, Michigan and Vermont voters vote to protect abortion; Kentucky votes 'no' on "no right to an abortion" and Montana votes down Born-Alive Infants Regulation.

As the Tuesday midterm elections loom, there is scrambling to adjust to the expectation that Republicans will fill the seats in Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on her way out, and Democrats will need to have a minority leader in place when the turnover happens.If Democrats fail to hold the House, Pelosi is widely expected to step down — not just from leadership, but from Congress, Politico reported.Republicans are currently favored to win the House of Representatives, according to Five Thirty-Eight, and are expected to announce leadership positions a week after the midterms. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will likely take...

Blaming Conservatives For The Attack On Pelosi Is A Cynical Effort To Chill SpeechThe left’s insistence that every conservative personally “condemn” the actions of the mentally ill man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul has nothing to do with lowering the rhetorical temperature or averting violence, and everything to do with trying to compel Republicans to take responsibility for the incident.Forget the ugly, transparent cynicism of partisans like Joe Scarborough or David Frum or Bill Kristol. Take The Washington Post, which ran a triple-bylined, reported piece headlined, “Attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband follows years of GOP demonizing her.” “Years of...

A Vermont school district punished both 14-year-old Blake Allen and her father for stating that a biologically male student who identifies as a transgender girl is male. Now the Allens are suing the school district—and accusing it of retaliating against their family for speaking out. Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, Travis and Jessica Allen alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont that Travis and Blake “were punished for expressing their view on a matter of profound public concern: whether a teenage male who identifies as female should be permitted...

It’s only October, and in the mostly Democrat-run American Northeast, heating oil is already being rationed. Rationing. n America. We have natural resources so vast in this country, enough to power America for hundreds of years, and we’re not only rationing oil, we’re importing oil. And the only reason this is happening is that Democrats want it to happen. If the rationing is not bad enough, how about the average wholesale cost for a gallon of heating oil is now $4.09, compared to $2.46 a year ago? And that’s the wholesale price. So you are going to pay a lot...

The Hamas vision of the future is not an idyll of peace and prosperity. Bernie Sanders should read the report if he wants to know what he will be aiding and abetting. Hamas supporters wearing veils and gloves take part in an anti-Israel rally in Jenin. (photo credit: MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/REUTERS) Bernie Sanders’s knitted mittens were the sensation of Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration at the beginning of the year. For weeks, memes of the poker-face Vermont senator wearing a winter coat with his hands hidden in oversize mitts ruled the viral world. The image came back to me this week when...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he did not accept the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress spending as a reason for inflation. Anchor Chuck Todd said, “Do you accept the criticism the American Rescue Plan in 2021 contributed to inflation issue we’re dealing with right now.” Sanders said, “No, I don’t. Inflation, I’m sure you know, Chuck is an international problem. In Germany, it is 10%. U.K., it is 10%. Canada it is 7% inflation globally is caused by the pandemic and the break in supply chains. It is caused by, in my...

US Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was hospitalized Thursday after he felt unwell at his McLean, Virginia, home, his office said. As a precaution, the 82-year-old Democrat was taken to a Washington-area hospital for tests. At the recommendation of his doctors, he was expected to remain in the hospital overnight for observation. Leahy, the longest-serving sitting senator, is not seeking re-election in November. By the time his term expires in January 2023, Leahy will have served for 48 years in the Senate. In June, he fell and broke his hip. At the time, his staff said he was expected to...