Free Republic

Sweeping social transformations occur during times of crisis. We are in such a predicament now, and transformative change may be coming to America whether we want it or not. It could define who we are as a nation for the remainder of the 21st Century. Whether America reaffirms itself as a beacon for freedom for the world or whether we become just another plot of ground in the new world order remains to be seen. The consequences for all Americans could be enormous, and especially so for Millennials. What crisis are we in, you ask? Well, consider the staggering debt...

It’s March of 2021, less than six months after the last Presidential election and barely a month after Joe Biden was sworn in, and yet the 2024 horse race silliness is well under way. It feels like every other day or so there is a new poll out on who Republicans prefer to be the party’s nominee in 2024 and even decidedly unscientific findings – like the CPAC straw poll – are touted as tea leaves to be read about the future of the Republican Party.

Like many Americans, I’ve been in a funk since last November. Now it’s time to shake it off and re-engage. George Washington presided over a series of lost battles and tactical retreats during the American revolution. But each battle (regardless of outcome) weakened the enemy, and led to eventual freedom from monarchical rule. The ruling class has taken an election, but they’ve substantially weakened their position in doing so.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recalled how her public-school teachers thought she needed “remedial education” because she had grown up speaking Spanish at home. The freshman lawmaker, speaking Saturday at a packed town hall organized by the Jackson Heights People for Public Schools, said, “As a child I spoke Spanish first. … and I went to a school where no one looked like me. I went to a school where teachers thought I needed remedial education because I spoke two languages instead of one.”

If you are a man having trouble getting a date, you may just not earn enough money. A new report reveals that a significant portion of American women refuse to date men who earn less than they do.

So he won. The nation takes a deep breath. Raw ego and proud illiteracy have won out and a severely learning-disabled man with a real character problem will be president. We are so exhausted from thinking about this election, millions of people will take up leaf-raking and garage cleaning with intense pleasure. We liberal elitists are wrecks. The Trumpers had a whale of a good time, waving their signs, jeering at the media, beating up protesters, chanting "Lock her up" -- we elitists just stood and clapped. Nobody chanted "Stronger Together." It just doesn't chant.

When Donald Trump started his zany campaign —laced with racism, xenophobia, nasty remarks about women, and endless falsehoods — most analysts said he could not possibly win the Republican primaries. Yet he did so easily. So, the very analysts who once derided his chances now wonder if he will win the presidential poll. He may be morally terrible, but is good at winning elections. His political incorrectness and willingness to speak his mind have made his rabid populism an electoral advantage, not disadvantage. He has antagonized not just the intelligentsia but the entire Republican establishment. He has violated many basic...

Donald Trump has taken an unlikely path to winning the GOP nomination for president. And now he's taking an unusual approach to campaigning for the general election that could cost him dearly. The billionaire businessman effectively clinched his party's nomination a full month before Democrat Hillary Clinton did the same. But Trump spent much of the month of May campaigning in states that won't help him win the 270 votes he needs in November. Yes, the California primary and contests in other Western states still loomed. But he was unopposed in those GOP contests, and many Republicans wished he had...

Raqqa, Syria Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS, announced today that he would be disbanding all forces and returning all land to Syria and Iraq. The move was prompted by the ongoing Climate Conference in Paris. "This is one thing we could not have anticipated," Mr. al-Baghdadi said in prepared remarks. "When we see the world coming together like this on such a dangerous subject as Global Climate Change, we realize that our Caliphate will never survive. It's only a matter of time before Climate Change is no...

I almost shed a tear but it was the garlic.They haven't heard about the RACIST Nobel Prize Committee yet.

"You know it's going to be boring, but you just don't appreciate how boring it actually is," one first-year associate at a large New York law firm tells us. The young lawyer describes long days of reading dense papers, which he only barely understands, and which seem to have no bearing on any actual case. "Doc review is the most boring experience of your life, but strangely nerve-wracking because you know you're messing it up, but you just can't bring yourself to care that you're messing it up. And you're probably going to mess it up even if you did...

Think about it. Has there been a lousier 10 years in American history? OK, the Civil War, granted. And the Great Depression wasn't so hot, either, the pictures suggest. But this one has been close enough to an all-time bad to merit the kind of willful amnesia that I'm proposing. sajohnson@tribune.com

RGE Monitor MEDIA ALERT: Nouriel Roubini predicts the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst U.S. Recession in the last few decades. New York, July 15, 2008- In a series of recent writings on the RGE Monitor Nouriel Roubini - Chairman of RGE Monitor and Professor of Economics at the NYU Stern School of Business - has argued that the U.S. is experiencing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and will undergo its worst recession in the last few decades. His analysis leads to the following conclusions: This is by far the worst financial crisis...

Clinton and the press [UPDATED] Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson, delivered some really heated criticism of the press on a conference call just now. Halperin has audio, and here's a transcript. I think it is true that every time the Obama campaign in this campaign has attacked Senator Clinton in the worst kind of personal ways, attacked her veracity, attacked her credibility, said that she would say or do anything to get elected, the press has largely applauded him. When we have attempted to make contrasts with Senator Obama, we have been criticized for it. That is a fact...

The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45. The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century. Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800. Have gold, silver, oil, the euro, the pound and the Canadian dollar all suddenly soared in value in just a few years? Nope. The dollar has...

"20/20” co-anchor John Stossel is going on the attack against “experts” who warn about manmade global warming – along the way berating Al Gore for saying the debate over climate change is over. In a release from ABC previewing Stossel’s report on Friday’s “20/20,” the veteran newsman and Newsmax pundit – who won 19 Emmys exposing scammers and con artists – says: “This week on ‘20/20’ (in our new 8 p.m. Eastern time slot) I say ‘Give Me a Break!’ to our Nobel Prize-winning Vice President. “Mr. Gore says ‘The debate is over,’ and those who disagree with his take...

<p>BOSTON (CNNMoney.com) -- For those in the real estate industry and for those looking to buy or sell a home, it could take until 2009 to catch a break.</p> <p>That's the forecast from Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), who will present his outlook to an auditorium full of real estate professionals on Wednesday morning.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Builders continued to slam the brakes on new homes in September, as the government's latest reading on the battered market out Wednesday showed housing starts and permits were weaker than expected at levels not seen for more than a decade.</p>

Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found. While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years. The Foresight report, written by 250 leading scientists, says Britain's obesity crisis is so severe that it would take at least 30 years to reverse. If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese...

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The meltdown in the mortgage market in August dried up the supply of buyers for homeowners looking to sell their homes, as an industry group report showed the lowest level of homes under contract on record.</p>