Free Republic

China is using a new study about the early, hidden spread of coronavirus in Italy to cast doubt on the firmly held assumption that the Asian nation was the birthplace of the pandemic, according to reports......

I disagree. I'll kill you. Is that where we are at?

The Trump campaign, which has filed a petition for a statewide recount in Wisconsin, said Friday that when all legal ballots are counted – and illegal votes thrown out – Trump "will be proven the winner.” “Our democracy depends on fair and impartial elections that fully adhere to the Constitution and state statute," Jim Troupis, Wisconsin counsel to the campaign, said in a statement. "By staging a last minute attempt to change the rules, and by providing unlawful advice before then, the Wisconsin Elections Commission has repeatedly failed to follow the law. They have disenfranchised voters and undermined the integrity...

For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to get a straight answer out of City Hall about why voting records stored in an official city database showed that a parade of 22 dead people, led by Smokin' Joe Frazier, voted in past city elections. First, I tried emailing all three members of the Board of Elections, especially Al Schmidt, a Republican who briefly became a star on CNN by proclaiming the sanctity of the vote count in Philadelphia for the presidential election. But neither Schmidt nor his Democratic colleagues on the board ever responded.

UW-Madison is moving forward on a plan to remove a boulder from Observatory Hill after calls from students of color who see the rock as a painful reminder of the history of racism on campus. The 70-ton boulder is officially known as Chamberlin Rock in honor of Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, a geologist and former university president. But the rock was referred to at least once after it was dug out of the hill as a “ni--erhead,” a commonly used expression in the 1920s to describe any large dark rock.

ATLANTA — Georgia's Republican secretary of state was forced to issue a correction Friday after he initially claimed that the Peach State had certified that Joe Biden won the state's presidential election, beating President Trump by more than 12,000 votes and securing 16 Electoral College votes. An earlier announcement around 12.30 p.m. had said the state had completed its certification - but around an hour later, the office of Brad Raffensperger, the beleagured secretary of state, issued the correction. The snafu was just the latest embarrassing turn in what has been a chaotic electoral process in the traditional Republican state....

HARRISBURG — A deeply divided state House on Thursday voted to approve a Republican-sponsored measure that sets up a near-immediate audit of the 2020 election, citing inconsistencies and confusion in the electorate as evidence the process must be improved for future elections in the state. The chamber voted 112 to 90 for a resolution that told the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, or a contractor it will hire, to conduct the audit and report back by early February. Republicans argued they were responding to constituents who were confused by some of the procedures as the state conducted a high-turnout election...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem laid out a “common sense” plan for families to spend time with their loved ones during Thanksgiving amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“If a criminal doesn’t admit he committed voter fraud, Clark County is unlikely to find out about it,” Joecks wrote.WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — “Clark County election officials accepted my signature on eight ballot return envelopes during the general election. It’s more evidence that signature verification is a flawed security measure,” wrote Las Vegas Review-Journal's columnist Victor Joecks, saying the assurances from elections officials that the process was secure were just puffery. “County officials aren’t working proactively to determine whether unscrupulous actors abused this vulnerability in a widespread fashion,” Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria told Joecks.Joecks conducted his own...

President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani will meet with the Republican leaders of the Michigan state legislature at the White House Friday afternoon as Trump and his legal team continue to mount a long-shot effort to overturn the results of the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden. Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, Speaker-elect Jason Wentworth and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey will attend, a source familiar with the meeting said. The meetings come as the President, Giuliani and other allies continue to peddle false claims of nationwide voter fraud.

Calls are mounting among Democrats and progressives for a prospective Biden administration to make “canceling” student debt a top priority.The loudest demands have come from progressive legislators such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Meanwhile, prominent senators such as Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are imploring Biden to “cancel” $50,000 in student debt via executive order. Student loan forgiveness is good, actually — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 16, 2020Student loan debt is holding back a whole generation from buying homes, starting small businesses, and saving for retirement – all things we rely on to grow our economy. Executive...

Even with a new president and political party soon in charge of the White House, the nation’s economic standoff continues. Notwithstanding President-elect Joe Biden’s solid popular vote victory, last week’s election failed to deliver the kind of transformative reorientation of the nation’s political-economic map that Democrats (and some Republicans) had hoped for. The data confirms that the election sharpened the striking geographic divide between red and blue America, instead of dispelling it...This time, Biden’s winning base in 477 counties encompasses fully 70% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,497 counties represents just 29% of the economy. (Votes...

Some murky territory here SARAH TAYLOR David Atkins, a newly elected California member of the Democratic National Committee, declared recently that Democrats and liberals should "start thinking in terms of post-WWII Germany or Japan" in order to "deprogram 75 million people." POLL: Who is the most corrupt? The 75 million people he referred to are presumably Trump supporters. According to the Associated Press, President Donald Trump received more than 73 million votes during the 2020 presidential election. What are the details? Conservative activist Jack Posobiec tweeted Atkins' remarks, captioning them, "A Democrat Party official in California is calling for national...

Lin Wood just posted a tweet that shredding company trucks were seen in Cobb, Georgia. Within 2 minutes his tweet was removed. This is war! We cannot back down!

Because of Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden thundered during the campaign, the U.S. "is more isolated in the world than we've ever been ... America First has made America alone." Biden promised to repair relations with America's allies. And he appears to have gone some distance to do so in the congratulatory phone call he received from Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan. According to Suga, during the brief call, Biden said Article V of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty of 1960 covers the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, islands Japan controls but China claims as its...

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has announced new restrictions on out-of-state visitors to Pennsylvania’s state parks, in an effort to halt the growing spread of COVID-19. The new measures announced on Nov. 20 state that those traveling from out of state to visit Pennsylvania parks must either have a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to their arrival, or must quarantine for 14 days beforehand after arriving in our state. The new measures apply to residents from out of state, as well as Pennsylvanians who are returning from traveling out of state. Overnight facilities at state...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is discouraging people from spending Thanksgiving with friends and family members outside of their immediate household, warning that a “safe zone” in your home is actually “dangerous” this year. “It’s your family. It’s your home. It’s your table. These are all environments where you feel safe, and that is the beauty of Thanksgiving,” Cuomo said in an audio recording shared in a tweet Thursday afternoon.

There have been a lot of questions raised about fraud and irregularities in this election. But one of the reasons that people question is also the other numbers and results in the election. One of the things that isn’t getting a lot of coverage in mainstream media is just how well the Republicans did, contrary to predictions. While even Fox, incorrectly, projected a Democratic gain the House on Election Night, in fact, as we reported, the Republicans picked up at least 12 seats and will likely have more before the final count is in. Of the four remaining House races...

Few Republicans have spoken out publicly against President Trump's refusal to concede the election he definitively lost, as he and his legal team continue to promote baseless claims of voter fraud. Mr. Trump's campaign has launched lawsuits in several states won by President-elect Joe Biden alleging voting discrepancies, but nearly all of these challenges have been unsuccessful. Nonetheless, the president's legal team has continued to baselessly claim that fraud occurred. In a rambling, often incoherent news conference on Thursday, the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani falsely said that Democrats were attempting to steal the election... But a few Senate Republicans...

Our republic stands on knife edge. As Gandalf said, "So it begins, the great battle of our time." Pray God it stays cool. A great battle fought genteelly and calmly in the courts and legislative halls, by lawyers and computer geeks, auditors and congressmen, whistleblowers and prayer warriors. Tonight I'm worried about something else. Not about whether or not Trump will be Triumphant because we all know he will be. Heck! Even Kamala knows! If she believed otherwise, she would've resigned her Senate seat already! No, what's got me worried is the fact that there are thousands and thousands of...