Free Republic

ALBANY – In 2020, state officials will examine whether to turn to New York residents and businesses for more tax revenues. With the state facing a gaping hole in its finances, and if history is an already well-known guide to New Yorkers, that’s hardly a bold prediction. But how? That’s the $6.1 billion question. The new state budget is due in March, and Democrats who control the state Capitol are already talking about potentially major tax hikes on wealthy individuals and corporations. Considering past red-ink periods in the annals of state budget-making, however, low and middle class taxpayers could get...

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After seeing the cover for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” award, who can still pretend the Left is irreligious? It is clear Time has officially sainted Thunberg. After all, the magazine proclaims, “By clarifying an abstract danger with piercing outrage, Thunberg became the most compelling voice on the most important issue facing the planet.” Thunberg -- for now at least -- has become the secular equivalent of Joan of Arc, whose portraits and statues are depicted with a similar expression denoting transcendent holiness. One suspects that in a very short time, St. Greta will invite St. Joan's fate. No,...

MADISON, Wis. - A woman was arrested after allegedly punching and throwing an educator to the ground. Lacandis Walker is in custody on suspicion of felony battery to school employees and disorderly conduct. Officers were called to Orchard Ridge Elementary around 8:40 a.m. Wednesday. Witnesses said a woman came into the school office looking to speak to several staff members about how her child was disciplined at school, according to Joel DeSpain, a spokesperson for the Madison Police Department. The victim is one of the staff members the woman was looking for and happened to walk into the office, DeSpain...

ontroversial New York City restaurant Lucky Lee's closed its doors Friday. The establishment, which was opened in April by nutritionist Arielle Haspel, a white woman, had been marred by accusations of racism and cultural appropriation from the Asian American community. It initially described its cuisine as “clean Chinese food,” comparing its meals to the “icky” dishes at traditional Chinese American joints. In a statement on its website, the restaurant did not provide a rationale for its closure but wrote that “it is with a heavy heart that we are shutting down our woks and ovens tonight.” “We have truly loved...

Germany on Thursday (12 December) warned Washington to mind its own business after US lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that would sanction contractors working on a Russian pipeline to Germany. The EU also opposed sanctions against ‘companies doing legitimate business’. “European energy policy is decided in Europe, not in the US,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter. “We reject external interference,” he said. The €9.5 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline will run under the Baltic Sea and is set to double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany. The German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (AHK) said the pipeline...

Michelle Obama knows how to #BeBest. The former first lady came to the defense of climate activist Greta Thunberg’s on Twitter TWTR, +0.66% Thursday, after President Trump mocked the 16-year-old for being named Time’s Person of the Year. Trump had tweeted, “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” (snip) So former first lady Obama tweeted a message of support to Thunberg on Thursday night, writing: “Don’t let anyone dim your light. Like the girls I’ve met in Vietnam and all over the world,...

Freshman swing district Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) voted for both articles of impeachment Friday in the House Judiciary Committee. The House Judiciary Committee moved to advance both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Both items were approved on party lines, with 23 Democrats in favor and 17 Republicans against the measure. The articles of impeachment charge that President Donald Trump obstructed Congress and abused the office of the presidency.

The director of King County’s coordinating agency for homelessness is on paid leave following a dancer’s strip show at the agency’s annual conference on Monday. Performer Beyoncé Black St. James {a trans woman} danced topless in a sheer bodysuit, gave lap dances and kissed attendees. Kira Zylstra, organizer of the conference at South Seattle College, has been placed on leave as of Thursday. Zylstra was paid about $123,000 a year, according to a county spokesperson. The performance was in the same room as a catered lunch at All Home’s annual conference, this year at South Seattle College with the theme...

(The Washington Post) begins its latest front page hit piece on President Trump this way:"On a day in which North Korea issued a fresh threat and a House committee set the stage for his impeachment, President Trump on Thursday found time to insult 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg after she was named Time’s Person of the Year, an honor he has coveted for years."[snip] Post writers David Nakamura and John Wagner move beyond inanity to intellectual dishonesty in the second paragraph of their report:

Mahatma Gandhi often walked barefoot which produced an impressive set of callouses on his feet. He also ate very little, making him rather frail and with his odd diet he often suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed with halitosis.

A judge on Thursday ordered the government to give the results of a hydrology study to the defendants in a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice over whether the building of a private border wall on private land in South Texas violates an international water treaty with Mexico. During a Thursday hearing, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane also scheduled another hearing for Dec. 19 and said he will issue a revised temporary restraining order on Friday that further limits deep digging on the private land on the riverbanks of the Rio Grande. At times, Crane appeared to...

Actor Colin Firth has announced he has split from his wife Livia but said they remain 'united in their love for their children' almost two years after it emerged she had an affair with her childhood friend. The 59-year-old Love Actually star confirmed the news in a statement today, and insisted he would maintain a 'close friendship' with Livia. The couple have been married for 22 years, and have two sons, Luca and Matteo. A statement from their publicists today said: 'Colin and Livia Firth have separated. They maintain a close friendship and remain united in their love for their...

Jeremy Corbyn today vowed to stay on as Labour leader for months as his hard-Left faction fights to keep control of the party despite the disastrous election rout. The veteran MP dismissed calls to step down immediately after overseeing the most catastrophic Labour showing in a poll since 1935. Extraordinarily Mr Corbyn - who will have to face Boris Johnson in what promises to be an humiliating PMQs session next Wednesday - he also rejected the idea his appalling personal ratings and extreme policies were to blame. Labour's tally of MPs was slashed by 59 to just 203 in a...

On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived by Catalina flying boat to take command. He did not bring any staff with him. When the door opened, he was assailed by a poisonous atmosphere from black oil, charred wood, burned paint, and rotting flesh. The boat ride to shore engulfed the party in the panorama of sunken hulls and floating wreckage, punctuated by the bodies of dead sailors still surfacing from the blasted ships. He spent the first days learning everything he could about his new assignment and confirmed the general perception was wrong. The dry-docks, repair shops, and fuel...

WASHINGTON — Although the courts have so far blocked President Trump’s attempts to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, his administration announced on Thursday that it would allow a 10th state, South Carolina, to condition Medicaid eligibility for many poor adults on proving that they work or engage in other activities, like volunteering. It is the first time the Trump administration has approved such rules in a state whose working-age Medicaid population consists almost entirely of poor mothers. Unlike most of the other states that have won approval for work requirements, South Carolina chose not to expand Medicaid to most...

Porsche has teamed up with Star Wars to create a fantasy spaceship called the Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus Starfighter to celebrate the latest movie in the George Lucas franchise. The 5ft model, which took two months to create, is to be presented at the Los Angeles premier of 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' next month. The designers say it is a fusion of Porsche and Star Wars DNA, with the curvature of the cockpit inspired by the 911 and Taycan car models. The spacecraft is fitted with air intakes and lights which are taken from the Taycan's design, while the...

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said Friday it’s his opinion that the shooters who killed a police officer and three civilians on Tuesday afternoon had an even more sinister objective - killing students at a religious school next door. “My opinion is that as more info comes out it’ll become increasingly clear that the target was the 50 children at the Yeshiva attached to that store,” the mayor wrote on Twitter just after 8 a.m. “We will never know 100% but the doorway to the yeshiva was 3 feet away (and) it seems he goes in that direction 1st.” Authorities...

WASHINGTON — Always beware of drawing conclusions from one country’s election to another. But it’s also hard to ignore that the results in Britain last night were bad news for Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and America’s left — just 52 days before the Iowa caucuses. On Thursday, unpopular Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party trounced even more unpopular socialist Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, with Labour having its worst general-election performance in three decades. Make no mistake: Neither Sanders nor Warren are as unpopular as Corbyn is in his country; in fact, Sanders and Warren have similar...

French commuters endured a ninth day of public transport strikes Friday, with little relief expected in coming days as unions vow to keep up their protest against a pension overhaul through the holidays unless the government backs down. Officials have said they are ready to negotiate, with Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer meeting teachers' representatives on Friday to try to stave off another day of class shutdowns. "It was an intense and frank meeting... but we still need details, and maintain our call to strike on Tuesday," Stephane Crochet of the SE-Unsa teachers' union said.