Free Republic

South Korea spike: Cases in the Asian country have surged past 340 after more than 140 new infections were reported on Saturday. Nearly half of the total cases are associated with a religious group in the south of the country.

US and Taliban agree to ceasefire that could see most American forces leave Afghanistan FEB 21, 2020 9:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER The US/Taliban peace talks are a grim charade. No one in the foreign policy establishment will acknowledge the fact, but the Taliban are strict, Sharia-observant Muslims, and the Sharia guidelines for treaty-making with Infidels are based on Muhammad’s Treaty of Hudaybiyya. Muslims can only enter into such a treaty when they are weak and need time to gather their strength (or, more remotely, if they think the enemy is about to convert to Islam). Then they can break...

Last month the Supreme Court granted the federal government’s request for permission to enforce a rule known as the “public charge” rule, which prohibits noncitizens from receiving a green card if the government believes that they are likely to rely on public assistance. That ruling put on hold a pair of orders by a federal district court in New York, which had blocked the government from enforcing the rule anywhere in the nation. Tonight the justices, by a vote of 5-4, allowed the government to enforce the rule in Illinois while it appeals an order by a district court there...

SERVES YOU RIGHT for marrying a Muslim man FEBRUARY 21, 2020 BY BARENAKEDISLAM Ashley Brown was not unattractive, only slightly obese, so what in the world would behoove this young woman to marry a big fat older Muslim? Daily Mail Five years later, she is not around to express her dismay because she is dead, savagely murdered by her husband, Mohamed Naddaf. Brown, a mother-of-three, had remained alive in the bathroom for four or five days after the attack The 25-year-old had been bound, gagged, stabbed and had her long hair cut off. A post-mortem examination found Ashlee had suffered...

February 22 2020 Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle Reading 1 1 Pt 5:1-4 Beloved: I exhort the presbyters among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed. Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown...

Conservative Legal Circles Buzz With Rumor that Justice Gorsuch Will Defect to the Liberals and Rule That Transgenders Are Women For Title VII Posted by: Ace at 05:04 PM The debate is whether Title VII's protections of discrimination "because of... sex" applies to sexual orientation and "gender" expression. Does a man who claims to be a transwoman actually get protections based on "sex" when his sex is male? The liberals are solid for answering "yes," of course. And chatter in conservative legal circles is that Justice Gorsuch will join the liberals. There is a rumor rapidly circulating in legal conservative circles that Gorsuch...

Legendary comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke on Friday endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president and urged older voters to back the Vermont lawmaker. "Why wouldn't an older citizen vote for somebody with that kind of record and with that kind of experience and honesty and trust?" Van Dyke, 94, said in a video circulated by the Sanders campaign. "It just doesn't make sense that he's not getting my generation! And I want to urge my generation to get out and vote for him please." Sources include, The Hill, Vulture, The Wrap, Twitter

Richard Nixon defeats Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota) and is re-elected President of the United States. With only 55 percent of the electorate voting, the lowest turnout since 1948, Nixon carried "ALL" states but Massachusetts, taking 97 percent of the electoral votes. During the campaign, Nixon pledged to secure “peace with honor” in Vietnam. Aided by the potential for a peace agreement in the ongoing Paris negotiations and the upswing in the American economy, Nixon easily defeated McGovern, an outspoken peacenik whose party was divided over several issues, not the least of which was McGovern’s extreme views on the war. McGovern...

Greyhound, the nation’s largest bus company, said Friday it will stop allowing Border Patrol agents without a warrant to board its buses to conduct routine immigration checks. The company’s announcement came one week after The Associated Press reported on a leaked Border Patrol memo confirming that agents can’t board private buses without the consent of the bus company. Greyhound had previously insisted that even though it didn’t like the immigration checks, it had no choice under federal law but to allow them. In an emailed statement, the company said it would notify the Department of Homeland Security that it does...

Donald Trump attacked the Bush family during the Republican presidential debate Saturday night, accusing the George W. Bush administration of lying to the public before going to war in Iraq. "Obviously the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake," Trump said, launching into a fierce critique of rival Jeb Bush's brother. "George Bush made a mistake," the billionaire continued. "Obviously we can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty." "We should have never been in Iraq," Trump added. "They lied, they said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none and they knew that there were none."...

President Donald Trump’s “Hire American,” low-immigration policy is giving American employees a larger share of company profits, so the federal government should raise the supply of foreign workers, according to a mournful editorial column in the Wall Street Journal. “Corporate profits have been declining as employers increase wages to hire scarce blue-collar workers … corporate profits could soon drop to historic lows, which could reduce business investment and GDP growth,” says the editorial board’s complaint, titled “America’s Disappearing Workers.” “Maybe the only short-term fix is to increase legal immigration—unless Americans want to see their living standards decline and more jobs...

<p>Photo issued Friday Feb. 21, 2020, by London's Metropolitan Police, showing Safiyya Amira Shaikh.</p> <p>LONDON (AP) — A British woman who supported the Islamic State group pleaded guilty Friday to plotting to bomb St. Paul's Cathedral and a hotelin London.</p>

Years before I ever heard of Lake Placid or the Olympics, before I knew the name of a single Russian hockey player, I was a kid in Massachusetts who wanted to be the next Bobby Orr. I grew up skating on Holmes' Pond, which took its name from our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Holmes, who owned it. A man named Phil Thompson, our postman, was the person who told me I should try organized hockey in the Easton Junior Hockey League. He had already been working on it with my mother. He was a fine postman and an even better...

<p>Michael Bloomberg’s campaign office in Knoxville, Tennessee, was vandalized Thursday evening with “Fuck Bloomberg,” “oligarch,” “classist” and “authoritarian” spraypainted on its door.</p> <p>Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey issued a statement Friday saying the vandalism “echoes language from the Sanders campaign and its supporters,” but also saying that they don’t know who’s responsible for the action.</p>

President Trump predicted chaos Friday on the eve the 2020 caucus in Nevada, saying Democrats want to win the White House and revamp health care but can’t even count. “I hear their computers are all messed up, just like they were in Iowa,” Mr. Trump told supporters at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “They can’t count votes.” Mr. Trump was referring to widespread reports that technological glitches will upend the caucus on Saturday, akin to app problems that seriously delayed caucus results in Iowa. Senior Democrats say it’s under control, but Nevada volunteers and operatives are skittish. After significant ribbing,...

Bernie Sanders’ surge in national polls and success in the early-voting states has Democratic Party elders increasingly concerned about the self-proclaimed democratic socialist’s potential to become their nominee -- as he heads into this weekend's Nevada caucuses with a massive lead and aiming to cement his front-runner status. Establishment Democrats inside and outside of Washington have sounded the alarms over Sanders’ success, warning that his nomination would pave the way for President Trump's re-election and potentially hurt Democrats' chances of maintaining the majority in the House and taking the majority in the Senate. Most recently, former Senate Majority Leader Harry...

Bernie Sanders went ballistic at NBC and MSNBC execs ahead of the Democratic debate this week — jabbing one top TV exec repeatedly in the face with his finger and accusing the networks of offensive negative coverage. Surging Sanders stormed through the walk-through for the Las Vegas debate, singling out one top producer at the end and aggressively sticking his finger in his face. One shocked witness said, “Bernie marched right up to NBC and MSNBC’s head of creative production and began jabbing his finger right in his face, yelling, ‘Your coverage of my campaign is not fair . . . Your...

During 2019, many Catholic churches were closed down for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Even state-run churches are suppressed.Torn down as “illegal buildings”On December 29, 2019, the Religious Affairs Bureau of Qishan county, administered by the prefecture-level city of Baoji in the northwestern Shaanxi Province, ordered to demolish a Catholic church in Luojiazhuang village. The church refused to be registered by the state, and was therefore suppressed for “lacking proper permits.” A local believer told Bitter Winter that before Christmas, the church’s priest, having learned that the government wanted to demolish his church, went to negotiate with...

HARRISBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, becoming the first diocese in the state to seek protection from financial claims in the aftermath of a 2018 grand jury report that revealed decades of sexual abuse and cover-up by the church’s top leaders. And, said a lawyer for the diocese, it’s not likely to be the last. Citing the fallout from that probe and recent court decisions that opened new avenues for some victims with time-barred claims to sue, attorney Matt Haverstick said Harrisburg, like each of the state’s eight other Catholic dioceses, faces the prospect...

[Catholic Caucus] Austrian diocese sues father of six for refusing to pay Church tax The father opposes the promotion of homosexuality and gender ideology, which he says is running rampant in his diocese. FELDKIRCH, Austria, February 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — The Austrian diocese of Feldkirch is taking a father of six to court for refusing to pay the Church tax. The father, who remains anonymous, argued that he could not pay the tax in good conscience because of the diocese’s involvement in the promotion of homosexuality and gender ideology. As reported by faithful Catholic news website kath.net, the father...