Free Republic

Today’s CG was chosen by me. ZLJ MSRONJ QGSRBQFI RJPJQ UJJNM QJMIFRMSCNJ UFQ ZLJ UNFFB. ---BFYONGM GBGDM You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you might give the group on how...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans said lead impeachment prosecutor Adam Schiff insulted them during the trial by repeating an anonymously sourced report that the White House had threatened to punish Republicans who voted against President Donald Trump. Schiff, who delivered closing arguments for the prosecution, was holding Republican senators rapt as he called for removing Trump from office for abusing his power and obstructing Congress. Doing anything else, he argued, would be to let the president bully Senate Republicans into ignoring his pressure on Ukraine for political help. “CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that key senators...

As I wrote in The Spectator way back on February 13th 1999: At the time of writing, I do not know the verdict of the impeachment trial. But undoubtedly, by the time you read this, William Jefferson Clinton will have been convicted and removed by, oh, at least 83 out of 100 Senators. Okay, maybe not. So instead, in this brief interlude between the end of the President's first impeachment trial and the start of his second - over the so-called 'Jane Doe #5', the contract killing of Kathleen Willey's cat, or whatever else comes along - let me make...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden picked up another high profile endorsement on Saturday in Iowa, where the party’s nominating contest kicks off in nine days, after U.S. congresswoman Cindy Axne said she was backing the former vice president. Axne, a freshman U.S. lawmaker and moderate, is the latest in a slew of big-name endorsements for Biden in Iowa which could have an impact on undecided voters as caucus day nears on Feb. 3. Two former Iowa Democratic governors, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver, have backed Biden, as has another U.S. House member, congresswoman Abby Finkenauer.

"I pray that . . . you may know what is the hope of [God's] calling" (Eph. 1:18). The hope of your calling is grounded in God’s promises and in Christ’s accomplishments. In Ephesians 1:3-14 Paul proclaims the blessings of our salvation. In verse 18 he prays that we will comprehend those great truths, which he summarizes in the phrase "the hope of His calling." "Calling" here refers to God's effectual calling—the calling that redeems the soul. Scripture speaks of two kinds of calling: the gospel or general call and the effectual or specific call. The gospel call is given...

For those Freepers on Twitter, there is a hilarious poll to vote for the best/worst liberal hack. Go for it!!

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 96 Psalm 97 1 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;     let the distant shores rejoice. 2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;     righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him     and consumes his foes on every side. 4 His lightning lights up the world;     the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,     before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,     and all peoples see his glory. 7 All who worship images are put to shame,     those...

“Unfortunately, people who entertain hateful beliefs … are protected as long as [those beliefs] don’t result in hate-crime actions. That’s what we’re talking about,” Mr. Looney told reporters Wednesday. “We want to be more aggressive in enforcing our laws and identifying likely sources of potential domestic terrorism acts against religious institutions and ethnic institutions.”

“'Socialism as Popular as Capitalism Among Young Adults in U.S.'-- Since 2010, young adults' positive ratings of socialism have hovered near 50%, while the rate has been consistently near 34% for Gen Xers.”  (Gallup, Nov. 2019). “Private corporate property is not only wrong, but also nonsensical…we cannot accept capitalism’s conception of economic relations as “free and private.” (Democratic Socialists of America, of which AOC and Rashida Tlaib are proud members.)“Only through the total eradication of private property will we create the new man.” (Che Guevara)“Youth must refrain from ungrateful questioning of governmental mandates. The very spirit of rebellion is reprehensible!" (Che...

“Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain” (Proverbs 25:14).

The United States is arranging a charter flight on Sunday to bring its citizens and diplomats back from the Chinese city of Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak of a new coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The plane, with around 230 people, will carry diplomats from the U.S. consulate as well as U.S. citizens and their families, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the operation. -excerpt- A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that on Thursday, the State Department had ordered the departure of family members and all U.S. government employees at its Wuhan...

President Trump’s allies say Democrats made a critical mistake by spending so much time on Joe and Hunter Biden in their Senate impeachment trial arguments, and they’ve given Trump’s legal team no choice but give the father and son's dealings in Ukraine a starring role when they launch their defense starting Saturday. “Believe me, you'll hear about that issue,” Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow previewed to reporters Friday at the Capitol. Sekulow said "for the life of me," he can’t understand why Democrats “opened up the door, as wide as a double door, on the Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Burisma [Holdings]...

We are being told that the coronavirus outbreak which is currently escalating at an exponential rate probably started with a snake. Perhaps that is true, but a lot of researchers are now pointing out some really odd “coincidences” regarding this outbreak. For example, China’s very first biosafety-level-4 lab is located just 20 miles away from where this outbreak supposedly originated. And a news report about this lab from a few years ago specifically stated that it would be “studying the pathogen that causes SARS”. Of course SARS was caused by a coronavirus, and now a “new coronavirus” has been unleashed...

THIS IS CNN: CNN Analyst Joe Lockhart Fabricates Story About GOP Senators Talking Impeachment. It’s hard to keep track of all the fake news, these days. It seems covering for Democrats lying isn’t good enough for CNN anymore; now, their analysts arehelping the Democrats’ impeachment effort by fabricating stories themselves. Case in point? Wednesday, CNN analyst Joe Lockhart tweeted an appalling conversation he overheard between two Republican Senators during that day’s impeachment trial, only to admit later that he had made the whole thing up.

You go, Tulsi. – I’ve consistently called Tulsi Gabbard one of the two actual interesting candidates in the Democrat presidential field, along with Andrew Yang. That’s not because I agree with either of those two about much, but because they are the only two people in the race who actually speak their own minds rather than just parroting talking points written and handed to them by staffers on any given day. Of course, the relative independence of mind displayed by Gabbard is one of the main reasons why she and Yank literally had zero chance of really becoming any kind...

2020 is the 100th anniversary of an important U.S. law that becomes more vital each year: the Jones Act. As the United States fends off China's effort to become the world's dominant economic and military power, this law has become especially important. Yet despite the law’s significance, some Americans want to repeal it, effectively allowing China to expand their ocean dominance by moving into America's domestic waters. Last year the world learned that China's economy has surpassed Japan's to become #2 in the world, second only to the U.S.A. A major part of China’s growth has been its heavily-subsidized industry...

BEIJING -- The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Saturday held a meeting on the prevention and control of the outbreak of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chaired the meeting. The meeting decided to set up a CPC Central Committee leading group to oversee the work.

The GOP-controlled House of Delegates in West Virginia recently unanimously passed a bill that would require pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) to share the rebates they receive from drug companies with consumers at the point of purchase. The bill now goes to the state Senate. Pharmacy benefit managers were created to administer drug benefits for health plans including commercial, employee and retiree plans and Medicare Part D.  In 2003, the PBM industry secured safe harbor status from Congress that exempted them from criminal prosecution for taking rebates from drug manufacturers. Essentially, PBMs can collect these kickbacks and give certain medications access to the...

Democrats' claim that the Trump administration broke America's promise to protect Ukraine from Russia by withholding military aid is just an example of the party's hypocrisy, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, claimed Thursday. "The Democratic House Managers’ hypocrisy is on full display," Ernst wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening, after Day 3 of Trump's Senate impeachment trial. "They’ve spent most of their time lecturing the Senate on aid to Ukraine, yet four of them voted AGAINST legislation that provided the very same aid they’re lecturing us on." Joni Ernst ✔ @SenJoniErnst The Democratic House Managers’ hypocrisy is on full display: they’ve...

Donald Trump has always been a man of absolutes. Something is the best or the worst, a person is a winner or a total loser, an event has never happened before, even when it has. Absolutism was the unwritten credo of his career in business and is the guiding light of his presidency as he makes an assertion rarely heard from an American president: that he can do as he pleases. Now that approach faces its ultimate test as a foundation of Trump’s defense in his impeachment trial, namely that he is cloaked with unrestrained authority. How that question is...