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[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Zen offers Mass, and a war cry for the Church Cardinal Joseph Zen offers a Solemn High Pontifical Mass in New York City February 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – It would be easy to understand if 88-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen had been weary and less than eager for an interview. He had traveled to New York after a grinding schedule of long flights, interviews, and meetings. But he was joyful and relaxed when he showed up for his interview with LifeSite’s Claire Chretien in Manhattan.  Cardinal Zen, the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, was 15 minutes early....

Democratic Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey called on the Trump administration to “reverse course” on a decision to deploy special Border Patrol tactical units in sanctuary cities to assist in the apprehension of illegal aliens. Warren and Markey delivered a joint letter addressed to the chiefs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday, deriding a decision by the administration to deploy CBP officers to sanctuary cities across the country. The two lawmakers also demanded answers to a number of questions about the operation.

Senator Tom Cotton says that China is refusing to hand over evidence concerning the bio-safety level 4 research lab in Wuhan despite a new report from biological scientists at the South China University of Technology saying it may have been the source of the coronavirus outbreak.During an appearance on Fox News, Cotton told Maria Bartiromo that new evidence confirmed the source of the virus was not the meat market in Wuhan.“Here is what we do know. This virus did not originate in the Wuhan animal market,” said Cotton. “Epidemiologists who are widely respected from China published a study in...

When the US housing bubble burst in 2007, most observers were focused on the threat to Wall Street banks and their massive derivatives books. This was a legitimate fear, since the worst case scenarios involved the death of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, with all the stock market carnage that that implied.But for China the stakes were a lot higher — picture half a billion people taking to the streets and demanding an end to a government whose only claim to legitimacy was its ability to provide millions of ever-more-lucrative jobs. So while the US was bailing out every...

Nuts or evil? The latter. https://t.co/NNIMv3XT2H — Pamela Geller (@PamelaGeller) February 17, 2020 Gotta love our president. He hits back every single time. President Obama was perhaps the worst POTUS ever. He should not be allowed to take credit for the booming Trump economy. #Trump2020! Did you hear the latest con job? President Obama is now trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration. He had the WEAKEST recovery since the Great Depression, despite Zero Fed Rate & MASSIVE quantitative easing. NOW, best jobs numbers…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2020 President...

Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg said at a town hall in Reno, NV if President Donald Trump could “do chores” if he refused to leave the White House after losing his reelection bid. A voter asked Buttigieg what he would do if Trump said, “No, this is all a hoax,” and refusing to concede. Buttigieg said, “I mean, if he won’t leave, I guess if he’s willing to do chores, I guess we could work something out.” He continued, “I think we want to set a goal of winning big enough that this election is...

Silent movie classic The Covered Wagon shows the gentle side of men as protectors and lovers of women and male energy let loose on entering and conquering a new frontier. How much of these qualities are present in President Trump? He breaks through bullshit. But his weaknesses are huge. How will history view his presidency?

High-profile dismissals of U.S. diplomats who participated in the House impeachment inquiry are raising questions about what oversight authority Congress has to push back on the president's actions. American diplomats serve at the “pleasure of the president” but charges of political retribution, campaigns of disinformation and threats to personal safety are prompting some members of Congress to call for more concrete protections for the officials. “Choosing who serves on your team is one thing. Kicking someone out because they're not loyal to your personal political agenda is another,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations...

Is robust freedom compatible with preening in front of mirrors? If men were allowed to be men, wouldn’t wild unkempt hair be much more common?

A New York Police Department detective committed suicide at his mother's home in Queens on Monday, authorities say. Sources identified the officer as Second-grade Det. Paul Federico, 53, according to the New York Post. This marks the first force suicide of 2020, following a string of alarming suicides where 10 NYPD officers took their own lives in 2019.

Over the past year, conservatism has changed. At least, the way conservative intellectuals and some politicians talk has changed. Many now speak of orienting our society toward the common good, and about using government power to pursue that good. But has anything really changed within the Republican party? Politics and policy often run a course independent of philosophical debate. Are policymakers ready to go on offense and commit to a different strategy for combatting transgender ideology and the gay agenda? The answer seems to be yes.Last month, NBC News announced: “Dozens of anti-LGBTQ state bills already proposed in 2020, advocates...

Speaking onstage to Peter Feaver, professor of political science at Duke, Bolton, by his own admission, “ducked” questions about his instructions from Trump. He said the administration’s prepublication review meant that he could not discuss details for fear of legal action. “I say things in the manuscript about what he said to me. I hope they become public someday,” he said. “He tweets, but I can’t talk about it. How fair is that?”

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Vandenberg Air Force Base, CaliforniaVandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located 9.2 miles northwest of Lompoc, California. The installation falls under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, United States Space Force (USSF). Vandenberg AFB is a Department of Defense space and missile testing base, with a mission of placing satellites into polar orbit from the West Coast using expendable boosters (Pegasus, Taurus, Minotaur, Atlas V, and Delta IV) and reusable boosters (SpaceX's Falcon 9). Wing personnel also support the Service's LGM-30G Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic...

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Thursday said that he has written a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to voice concerns over the state's public pension fund chief and his connections with China. The Indiana congressman is calling out the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest state pension fund in the U.S., for allegedly investing in numerous select blacklisted Chinese companies that manufacture military products. The California-based fund invested $3.1 billion into 172 different Chinese companies, Banks said in an appearance on Fox Business Network. He said that some of the companies invested in have been blacklisted...

In fiscal year 2019, which ran from October 2018 to September 2019, Border Patrol agents detained 851,508 immigrants who illegally entered the U.S. via Mexico. Of those, more than half, 473,682, arrived with family members, Customs and Border Protection data showed. According to the Washington Examiner, more than 375,000 immigrants who were detained as part of family units were later released directly into the U.S, including 145,000 who were released directly from Border Patrol stations between March and September.

Denny Hamlin emerged victorious at the Daytona 500 on Monday night, winning the iconic NASCAR race for a third time shortly after a series of dramatic crashes on the track, including a fiery wreck that sent Ryan Newman to the hospital

Each year the White House Historical Association designs an ornament that commemorates the legacy of a president and the design for the 2020 ornament honors President John F. Kennedy. Unveiled on Monday by the White House Historical Association, the official 2020 White House Christmas Ornament honors JFK, the thirty-fifth president of the United States. (PHOTOS: Melania Wishes Everyone Merry Christmas With Release Of Official WH Christmas Photo)

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently made a splash by threatening to vote against corporate managers who don’t disclose an array of non-financial information as directed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. But what is SASB, and where is this all going? Michael Bloomberg founded SASB in 2011 as a shadow regulator for his policy agenda. SASB claims to be modelled on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a nonprofit with the imprimatur of the Securities and Exchange Commission that regulates how corporations account for and disclose financial information. SASB’s nine-member standards board issues guidelines for what kinds of sustainability information...

We’re not sure what Joe Biden is hoping to do, except to pander, by continually asserting that DACA students are in many ways more American than most Americans. Back in January, he told a crowd in Iowa that DACA recipients are “in many cases, more American than most Americans are, because they have done well in school. They believe in basic principles we all share.”

..Born in Boston in 1948, Taylor was, according to his memoir, “brought up devoted to progressive politics, self-improvement and the arts”. His father, a doctor, moved the family to the south when he became the dean of the medical school of the University of North Carolina; his mother didn’t want to go, and fought against the politics she found there. She saw the north-eastern state of Massachusetts as a “lost Eden” and would spend her days doing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, on protests, and hauling her five kids to Martha’s Vineyard every summer to “restore our Yankee credentials”. Not...