Free Republic

<p>People walking around downtown Ithaca over the past few months may have noticed something different — more graffiti.</p><p>Gary Ferguson, executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA), said the increase in graffiti began around the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, in the middle of March leading to the beginning of April.</p>

At least two people were killed and others seriously wounded Sunday night in a stabbing rampage at a church here. Police said there were no services going on at the time. They said "unhoused" people had been brought inside to get them out of the cold. San Jose police tweeted around 8:47 p.m. that officers were responding to the Grace Baptist Church. It's near the San Jose State campus, CBS San Francisco reports. They then tweeted that at least two victims had died. Mayor Sam Liccardo said police had a suspect was in custody but police later said that wasn't...

Trans activists keep bullying businesses into removing content through fear tactics rather than by countering the message with their own better one.It seems the battle about the rights and privileges of transgender Americans has come down to what other people are allowed to say about them. The controversy over Abigail Shrier’s book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” demonstrates how far this battle has come. Shrier’s book, which explores the phenomenon of many teenage girls suddenly and impulsively insisting they are now boys and how this affects their families and futures, has come under fire from transgender activists....

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s (D) temporary, tighter new restrictions on the state’s gaming properties and restaurants — as well as other enterprises — could lead to some businesses closing, possible layoffs, and a slower economic recovery, according to a prominent local economist. Stephen Miller, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, warned that operating at 25 percent of capacity — rather than the current 50 percent — “will cause some businesses to close rather than continue to operate. They lose more by operating than by shutting down.” Sisolak’s directive announced on Sunday requires a capacity to be lowered...

A survey found only 36 percent of people could find the right answer to a seemingly simple logic problem, according to economics and math pro Presh Talwalkar of the YouTube channel Mind Your Decisions. Here's the problem: "There are three hats, each with an accompanying statement. Hat One: The cat is in this hat. Hat Two: The cat is not in this hat. Hat Three: The cat is not in Hat One. Exactly one of the statements is true. Exactly one hat contains a cat. Which hat contains the cat?" The answer options are: 1) Hat One; 2) Hat Two;...

In the aftermath of black conservative former NFL player Burgess Owens getting elected to Congress in Utah (where Mia Love lost narrowly in 2018), CNN host Erin Burnett was apparently so alarmed by his criticisms of the far-left Black Lives Matter movement that she gave House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn an unchallenged forum to accuse the Utah Republican of historical ignorance. Concluding Erin Burnett Outfront on Wednesday evening, the CNN host noted that Republicans had gained seats in the House of Representatives and brought up the win by Owens and his political message: Then came a couple of soundbites of...

Third Circuit Court of Appeals grants expedited review for Team Trump’s appeal from Pennsylvania.

Cincinnati Bengals rookie sensation Joe Burrow suffered a torn ACL during Sunday’s showdown against the Washington Football Team. His expected recovery time is set at 9 to 12 months. With Burrow out, Cincinnati’s quarterback options consist of Ryan Finley and Brandon Allen. For obvious reasons, many have begun to question whether the organization may take a look at signing Colin Kaepernick.

Republicans only need one of the two seats to maintain their Senate majority. A look at the history of similar contests indicates that an electoral split is uncommon, but still possible.The presidential race seems to be over. Republicans gained seats in the House, but Democratic control is assured there too, if narrowly. Only the Senate stands between the Democrats and undivided government, with the majority there to be decided by two runoff elections in Georgia. As close as that state was in the presidential race—a margin of 0.25 percent, according to the hand recount just finished—we can expect the Senate...

Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer’s stance against lockdowns is courageous, but ultimately bolder action may be required to save businesses from the pernicious effects of lockdowns. Walt Ehmer, the CEO of Waffle House, didn’t mince words when he explained his biggest problem with economic lockdowns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. "None of the people who make the decisions to shut down businesses and impact people's livelihoods ever have their own livelihood impacted," Ehmer recently told Business Insider. When the coronavirus swept across America earlier this spring, Waffle House, which has locations in 25 states, was forced to shut down some...

Good Morning/Afternoon, MEGARushReadyForThanksgivingDayWeekDITTOS!

The head of the NYPD’s largest union issued a stark warning to subway riders Friday amid the recent rash of shoving incidents by unhinged assailants: You’re on your own, reports the New York Post. Since October 19, so we’re talking about just a little over a month, on four occasions now, unsuspecting subway riders have been ambushed from behind, pushed on to the subway tracks while waiting for a train. According to Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch, the “politicians have made it abundantly clear that they don’t want cops enforcing transit system rules, connecting the homeless with services, engaging...

When Tucker Carlson is on, no one can say it better. He is clairvoyant and witty and spot on. But at other times – like now – he can be off quite a bit (to say it nicely).We love Tucker Carlson but many of us are done with FOX News after the far-left bias consumed the network that was once the favorite conservative news channel. Tucker’s rant with Sidney Powell has not helped the permanent exodus from FOX News. What FOX doesn’t realize is that after all of their conservative viewers leave, they will have no one. We refer to...

Several Hollywood leftists jumped to Twitter on Sunday and Monday to praise former NFL player Colin Kaepernick and to attack Kyle Rittenhouse. Morgan Freeman (not actor Morgan Freeman, but filmmaker Morgan Freeman) retweeted a message by a United Nations operative that supported Kaepernick and attacked America

In the latest sign of economic trouble for Silicon Valley, Bay Area tech entrepreneur Keith Rabois is leaving San Francisco for the state of Florida."I think San Francisco is just so massively improperly run and managed that it's impossible to stay here," Rabois told Fortune magazine.Rabois is a startup executive for the likes of PayPal, Square, and LinkedIn. He is "moving imminently" from the area, finding it "impossible to stay," after calling it home for two decades, per the report.

Steve Schwarzman, the billionaire businessman who's been a long time supporter of Donald Trump's, now says the election is over and the president needs to move on in a sign of dwindling support for Trump's doomed legal battle. In the immediate aftermath of the election Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, defended the president's right to pursue legal battles and told the business community Trump had the right to pursue all avenues. But now he's recognizing Joe Biden's victory. 'I'm a fan of good process,' Schwarzman told Axios. 'In my comments three days after the election, I was trying...

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) dismissed President Trump's accusation that fraud altered the outcome of the election "because he said before the election that if he were to lose, it would be because of voter fraud. That right there is enough to persuade me that Biden won fair and square." Asked if he would be as skeptical of a woman who predicted her boyfriend would beat her and she later showed up with cuts and bruises claiming that he did, the Senator replied "that's a totally different situation. She probably had ample reason to predict the outcome. He may have exhibited...

"....Indeed, if one were inclined to worry, this current manifestation of legal nihilism, maximalism and nullification are far more dangerous than the version we learned to live with for the past four years, because this new one is now operating separate and apart from Trump. We don’t have to wait to see what happens when Josh Hawley or Tom Cotton runs as a “competent” authoritarian in 2024. Even without a formal figurehead, competent authoritarianism is seeping up from below. It’s coming from Trump supporters who deny the legitimacy of the election, state officials who are pushing false claims, lawyers making...

Bucking the long-run trend of declining hunting license and permit sales statewide, hunters purchased 7 % more for all hunting licenses and permits from last year. Sales of specialty licenses and permits are surging with permits for snow geese up 863%, river otters climbing 73%, and shooting range permits soaring 93%. “The pandemic left people with time they didn’t typically have,” said Patrick Snickles, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “And people have been looking for things to do where they aren’t around other people, so they have been hunting, fishing and kayaking.” They are also looking for shooting ranges...

Sorry for using the word, “algorithm.” I suspect most of you reading this struggled thru basic algebra in high school and did not deign to venture into the world of calculus and other advanced mathematics. The explanation is simple. A calculation built into the computer software was executed to produce numbers that, if unexamined, appear to secure a victory for Biden. The numbers do not lie. Votes were manufactured for Joe Biden. The citizens of Pennsylvania voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. Joe Biden’s folks tried to steal it.A fellow by the name of Edward Solomon has done yeoman’s work in...