Free Republic

Happy New Year, everyone!! Here's hoping 2020 is the best year yet!! President Trump should take the win in the Senate trial without dragging it out, then concentrate on winning the 2020 election with wide coattails, then bide his time as the cases against the various coup plotters wind their way through the justice system. Win the election, hold the senate, take back the house!! And then continue the work of making America great again: Build the wall, enforce the law, deport them all!! End DACA!! End sanctuary cities!! End anchor babies!! Continue cutting regulations, cutting government, cutting spending and...

The Boston Red Sox are the latest Major League Baseball team to be embroiled in a sign-stealing scandal. The Red Sox are alleged to have used the video replay room to steal opponent’s signs during the 2018 season, according to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic. The team sent players to the video replay room — which is usually housed near the dugout — to study signs and relay information back to their teammates, according to three people with the Red Sox during the 2018 season. While this practice wasn’t uncommon around the league, MLB cracked down on...

Suzanne Saltisiak organized the One Day of Gun Violence Memorial at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center on Tuesday, January 7, 2020. (Stephen M. Katz) One hundred T-shirts lined up like tombstones were displayed on Municipal Center grounds Tuesday, a reminder of the consequences of gun violence, said the organizer. “It’s a memorial for today’s victims,” said Virginia Beach resident Suzanne Saltisiak, a clinical social worker, who planted the colorful cotton shirts on the metal frames of leftover campaign yard signs. Written on the shirts are statistics about gun violence and suicide, as well as quotes, including some from survivors...

The Justice Department is recommending that former National Security adviser Michael Flynn be sentenced to up to six months in prison for lying to the FBI, telling a court that the former Trump adviser has been uncooperative in recent months. "The sentence should adequately deter the defendant from violating the law, and to promote respect for the law," the Justice Department wrote in a sentencing memo Tuesday. "It is clear that the defendant has not learned his lesson. He has behaved as though the law does not apply to him, and as if there are no consequences for his actions."...

Julie Chinnock is 50 years old and owes about $250,000 in student loans. She was happy to get a new payment plan that lowered her monthly bill, but the holders of two bonds backed by her loans were probably less cheerful. The two bonds were due in 2043 and 2054, but Ms. Chinnock and other borrowers were paying less each month under a new government plan that tied debt payments to income. Because borrowers were taking longer to pay off their loans, there was a risk the bonds backed by the loans wouldn’t be paid off in time. Bond-rating firms...

HB 569 Out-of-state concealed handgun permits; reciprocity. Introduced by: Dan I. Helmer | all patrons ... notes | add to my profiles SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED: MO< Out-of-state concealed handgun permits; reciprocity. Reinstates the prior law providing that the holder of an out-of-state concealed handgun permit who is at least 21 years of age is authorized to carry a concealed handgun in Virginia if the other state (i) has a 24-hour-a-day means of verification of the validity of the permits issued in that state and (ii) has requirements and qualifications that are adequate to prevent possession of a permit by persons...

A well-known Islamic religious leader in Texas has been busted for sexually assaulting four children — though authorities believe he’s victimized others. Mohamed Omar Ali, a 59-year-old Somali national, was arrested Friday on charges of sexual assault of a child and sexual indecency of a child after an investigation was launched in September, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls told reporters at a press conference Monday.

On Friday morning the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike. The Iranian regime is threatening retaliation against the United States following the death of their terror leader. On Sunday the Iranian Regime offered an $80 million bounty for anyone who brings in the head of President Donald Trump for killing Qassam Soleimani. And on Tuesday the Iranian parliament allocated...

"""Mar-a-Lago in the firing line: Iranian presidential adviser posts list of Donald Trump's properties in chilling hint of an attack on his real estate empire - after Iran put an $80million bounty on his head"" Hesameddin Ashena linked to an article listing properties owned by Trump It included Trump Tower in New York as well as his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida The adviser said that Tehran's 'sole problem is Trump' rather than Americans Iran has vowed revenge after the death of Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike Trump has warned of 'disproportionate' retaliation including on cultural sites An adviser to...

HOUSE BILL NO. 568 Offered January 8, 2020 Prefiled January 6, 2020 A BILL to amend and reenact § 18.2-308 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 4 of Chapter 7 of Title 18.2 a section numbered 18.2-287.5, relating to carrying or storing firearms in motor vehicles and vessels; exceptions; penalty. Patron-- Helmer Committee Referral Pending Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. That § 18.2-308 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 4...

Jan. 6 (UPI) -- A trio of escaped pigs wandered into a supermarket in Russia and were caught on camera raiding the liquor aisle. A video taken at the store in Tyumen, Siberia, shows the three pigs perusing the liquor aisle and knocking over bottles of cognac, which they then proceeded to lap up off the floor. Witnesses said the three pigs were found to have escaped from a nearby home. The pigs were returned to their owner unharmed. VIDEO AT LINK................

The Justice Department reversed its prior recommendation and asked that General Flynn be incarcerated for up to 6 months. The DOJ previously asked for no jail time. The DOJ is now accusing Flynn of being uncooperative and failing to accept responsibility for his “serious” offense. The judge previously set Flynn’s sentencing date for January 28 after rejecting Sidney Powell’s request for Brady Material.

New Yorkers are fleeing the state in drove due to high taxes. The result is an overabundance of home few can afford. Bloomberg reports Manhattan’s Flood of New Condos Could Take Six Years to Sell. “ Manhattan is glutted with even more luxury condos than most apartment-shoppers realize. The borough has 7,050 unsold, newly built units, according to a report by Halstead Development Marketing. The bulk of those -- almost 6,000 -- haven’t been formally listed for sale, creating an under-the-radar “shadow inventory.” The secret supply is a heavy weight on a market in which sales, especially of higher-end...

House Intelligence Committee Republicans are investigating the intelligence community inspector general for his handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, including potential inconsistencies in his testimony before the panel as part of the Trump impeachment inquiry, Fox News has learned. Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., first told investigative reporter Sara Carter earlier this week that the panel has an “active investigation” into Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. A source familiar with the committee’s investigation on Tuesday went into further detail, telling Fox News that Republicans are looking at the ICIG’s handling of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment...

In recent weeks NRA-ILA informed Virginia gun owners about gun control funding included in the state budget bill. The budget legislation, HB30, included a $250,000 appropriation to the Corrections Special Reserve Fund in order to provide for the “increase in the operating cost of adult correctional facilities resulting from the enactment” of Governor Ralph Northam and the Michael Bloomberg-bought General Assembly’s gun control measures. In other words, $250,000 of taxpayer money that will be used to lock up gun owners who don’t comply with Northam and Bloomberg’s unconstitutional gun laws. News of the quarter of a million dollar appropriation justly...

On Monday's The Late Show on CBS, host Stephen Colbert prodded liberal actress Jane Fonda to promote her alarmist views on global warming as the environmental activist hyperbolically claimed that "humankind is facing the greatest crisis that we've ever faced," and repeated the often used 10-year deadline to impose regulations to prevent world catastrophe. Fonda -- who has credited environmental alarmist Greta Thunberg with inspiring her to become a frequent protester on the issue -- described young environmental activists as "suffering" from "extinction illness." STEPHEN COLBERT: I want to talk to you about a subject near and dear to your...

The New York Giants have found their next coach. The team is reportedly finalizing a deal with New England Patriots wide receiver coach Joe Judge, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Disgraced Governor Ralph Northam and his anti-gun allies in the newly elected legislature have made it clear they are hell-bent on enacting gun control. They want to take your guns and they want taxpayers to fund it. They’ve seen the same research that has shown that gun control doesn’t work. Violent crime in Virginia fell for the second consecutive year, and the Commonwealth has the fourth lowest violent crime rate in the nation – also for the second consecutive year. Virginia had the 25th largest decrease in the violent crime rate from 2017 to 2018, while holding its spot as...

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope What Does Jesus Mean When He Says to Some, “I do not know you.” Mother and Daughter praying. by bigbirdz This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Every now and then someone will come past my door and request parish services of some sort. Maybe it’s to plan a wedding, a baptism, or a funeral; maybe it’s for money! And then I look at him or her and say, “Who are you?” (since I don’t recognize the person). “Oh, well Father, you don’t know...

Updated 2 hours ago Harris County deputies are investigating the death of a man they believe may be tied to another scene just south of Crosby. According to a tweet from Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, the first scene was a shootout between a gun shop owner and two burglary suspects around 4:30 a.m. at the 2000 block of Kennings Road. The second scene, Gonzalez said, was along the 3800 block of Morelos Road near Baytown, where a man in his late teens or early 20s was found shot to death. Deputies continue investigating both scenes.