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Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski came out Friday against calling witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, all but assuring the Senate will move to wrap up proceedings with a likely acquittal in a matter of days, if not hours. “Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate. I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed,” said Murkowski, R-Alaska, a key moderate senator...

The Kremlin reacted with fury on Tuesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Soviet collusion with Nazi Germany led to the outbreak of World War II. While visiting Poland on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp, Zelensky said the Poles “were the first to feel the consequences of the criminal collusion of the totalitarian regimes.” Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and carved up Poland in September 1939 under a secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Nazi invasion prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany. “We categorically disagree with...

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) may very well have just ended the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. Late Thursday, the Tennessee Republican announced he would be voting "no" on witnesses. "I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States ConstitutionÂ’s high bar for an impeachable offense," Alexander said in a statement. His vote will put the nail in the coffin, essentially, for witnesses, even with...

At a dinner last week in Davos, Switzerland, I was asked if I thought Facebook was behaving more responsibly today than it did during the 2016 presidential election. “Not at all,” I answered. “Facebook helped Trump to get elected and I am afraid that it will do the same in 2020.” I explained that there is a longstanding law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — that protects social media platforms from legal liability for defamation and similar claims. Facebook can post deliberately misleading or false statements by candidates for public office and others, and take no responsibility...

Mike Bloomberg’s campaign for president spent a colossal amount of money in the final quarter of 2019 as he attempts to catch up to and surpass Democratic rivals. Bloomberg’s campaign spent over $180 million at the end of 2019, according to a newly released Federal Election Commission filing. The massive expenditure amount went toward TV ads, field staff and his technology firm, Hawkfish. The record shows Bloomberg’s campaign spent over $11 million on the digital firm. The company has become the primary digital ad agency for Bloomberg’s operation. He launched his bid for president at the end of November, several...

Senator Chuck Schumer held a press conference today and was not in any mood to play around. Watch below as Kamala Harris is playing around with Sherrod Brown when Schumer turns around and admonishes her. This is NOT a good look for Democrats. Schumer will be in hot water with the #MeToo crowd that is offended by just about anything. The race card could also be in play with this one. Would Schumer have done this to a white male? It’ll be interesting to watch what happens with this. The best part of the video is when the lame reporter...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) continues to push campaign cash to a firm run by her alleged boyfriend, filings show. Omar's new committee filings submitted Friday morning show that between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2019, her committee made $215,000 in additional payments to the E Street Group, a firm run by political consultant Tim Mynett, Omar's alleged boyfriend. The payments were reported as going toward consulting, direct mail, research services, travel expenses, advertisements, and graphic design. The new payments mark another increase in money funneled to the firm. Mynett's group is yet again the highest-paid vendor from Omar's campaign....

On Friday, former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), a successful entrepreneur who announced his run for president way back in June 2017, dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in an attempt to boost ostensible moderates in their battle to prevent an outright socialist from taking the Democratic nomination. "Today, 2020 Presidential candidate John Delaney announces his decision to withdraw from the 2020 race. This decision is informed by internal analyses indicating John’s support is not sufficient to meet the 15% viability in a material number of caucus precincts, but sufficient enough to cause other moderate candidates to not to make...

HELL—Jeffrey Epstein has been released from hell after coming out as transgender, sources in the afterlife confirmed today. The millionaire and convicted sex offender donned a blonde wig and told the guardians of hell that he was rehabilitated and ready to go back to the land of the living.

Jennifer Williams, a foreign service officer and aide to Vice President Pence who testified in the House impeachment inquiry, has asked to leave her post early. Politico reported Thursday that Williams, who is on detail from the State Department, plans to leave her position in Pence’s office early in order to join Central Command. Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short subsequently told The Hill in a statement that Williams had requested an early departure from her role, set to end in March, and that the office is “evaluating her request.” “Jennifer Williams, a State Department employee detailed to the Vice...

We’ve recently been discussing the use of mandatory “diversity statements” for academic job candidates, and the University of California’s commitment to not just using them in all searches, but giving these statements precedence in the hiring process, so that if your statement doesn’t exceed a minimum numerical cutoff for promoting diversity, increasing it in your past, and promulgating it in the future should you be hired, your candidacy is terminated (see here and here). This practice of making candidates not only swear fealty to diversity, but also show a history of concerted efforts to increase it, has been controversial, deemed...

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski came out Friday against calling witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, all but assuring the Senate will move to wrap up proceedings with a likely acquittal in a matter of days, if not hours. “Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate. I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed,” said Murkowski, a key moderate senator who...

Dear Fellow FReepers, I have a few polls and graphs in my arsenal to show libs that Trump's support among Blacks has increased since 2016, when he only obtained 8% of the Black vote. But Liberals are morons. I'm in a discussion with one of them on Facebook, and I mentioned the recent Rassmussen, NPR/Marist and Emerson polls indicating a 33% to 34% approval rate amongst Blacks who support Trump. The liberal says that those polls are incorrect because they 'throw in' Non-Whites are one group -- both Blacks and Hispanics. Are there any graphs or polls that show an...

A bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Virginia's nondiscrimination law cleared committees in the House of Delegates and Senate this week and appears to be on its way to becoming law in the Old Dominion. A version of the bill known as the Virginia Values Act was shepherded through the Senate committee by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria). In the House, it was sponsored by Mark Sickles (D-Franconia), where it passed by a 16-6 vote, with all Democrats and three Republicans voting in favor. The mood among activists was celebratory. Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the...

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his speedy decision to pardon and release Israeli-American backpacker Naama Issachar, who had been held in a Russian prison for some 10 months on drug charges. “I want to thank you in the name of the entire Israeli people for your quick decision to grant a pardon to Naama Issachar. This moves all of us and our gratitude is on behalf of all Israeli citizens, from the heart,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of their meeting in the Kremlin. During a whirlwind visit to the snowy...

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Abstract We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019- nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in other coronaviruses. Importantly, amino acid residues in all the 4 inserts have identity or similarity to those in the HIV-1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. Interestingly, despite the inserts being discontinuous on the primary amino acid sequence, 3D-modelling of the 2019-nCoV suggests that they converge to constitute the receptor binding site. The finding of 4 unique inserts in the...

VIDEO Since the Democrats' attempt to avoid facing President Trump at the ballot box via impeachment appears to have failed, the media is now experiencing meltdowns over his impending acquittal. Of course, their BIG meltdown will be coming on November 3.

WASHINGTON -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, one of the lead architects of Democrats’ impeachment case against the president, announced Friday that he would not be present for the final phase of Trump’s Senate trial. “I am sorry to not be able to stay in Washington for the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial but I need to be home with my wife at this time,” Nadler wrote in a tweet Friday. “We have many decisions to make as a family. I have every faith in my colleagues and hope the Senate will do what is right.” Earlier...

Getty Images The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 500 points as investors finally decide to start worrying about the spread of China’s coronavirus and the implications for the global economy. The Dow has dropped 511.80 points, or 1.8%, to 28,347.64, while the S&P 500 has fallen 1.4% to 3239.05. The Nasdaq Composite is off 1.3% at 9175.40. The coronavirus is spreading. According to Johns Hopkins, which has a website dedicate to the virus, 9,776 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, with 213 total deaths. Most of the cases are still in China, but it has spread...