Free Republic

Delaware County is keeping all information about a recent ransomware attack close to the vest and is still refusing to confirm whether the ransom was paid in full despite media reports saying it was. “Sources said the county is in the process of paying the $500,000 ransom as it’s insured for such attacks,” an early report from ABC 6 said. ---SNIP--- Hackers seized control of numerous computer networks in the county on Saturday, November 21. The following day, the county issued a press release that only generically described the extent of the attack.

Biden appointed Paris Agreement negotiator John Kerry as his climate czar, a new position that he created to elevate the issue of climate change. He also unveiled a transition agenda that includes “achiev[ing] a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035” as one of its top priorities. Many have discussed their thoughts on the political wisdom or senselessness of this public policy priority. However, few have really called out the elephant in the room: It’s not possible and will only enrich Wall Street at everyone else’s expense. It’s easy to preen “green” when you have enough green to buy a certificate...

Past and present, one of the least known -- and, until the modern era, largely futile -- tactics used by Muslims to disarm Christians has been to insist that Christianity is against warfare and violence in general. The most recent Muslim to take on this mantle of Christian theologian is none other than Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn). Around November 18, after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) criticized Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock for claiming that Christians could not serve both God and the military, Omar, the Muslim, turned to quoting -- that is, misquoting -- the Bible. In a tweet...

A newly discovered batch of 55 uncounted ballots in a rural upstate New York county has the potential to alter the outcome of a yet-to-be-called congressional race. The ballots from Chenango County were cast during the state’s early voting period within the 22nd Congressional District - home to the ultra-tight race between Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi and his Republican opponent Claudia Tenney. As of Monday - which was supposed to have been the final day for election officials to report vote totals in the district - Tenney led the freshman Democrat by a razor-thin 12-vote margin. Chenango County Attorney Alan...

The Following are “Five Advent Reflections” I have prepared. If these interest you I have prepared them also in PDF format which you can get by clicking here: The Season of Advent1. Advent is Witnessed by Creation – Autumn and early winter are times of great seasonal change. The leaves turn brilliant colors then fade and fall. The shadows lengthen as the days grow shorter and colder. The warmth of summer and vacations seem distant memories and we are reminded once again that the things of this world last but a moment and pass away. Even so, we look forward...

December 2 2020 First Wednesday of Advent Lectionary 177Reading 1 IS 25:6-10AOn this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.On that day it will be said: “Behold our God,...

Assuming the two Georgia Republicans get elected to the Senate in January, we’ve dodged a bullet for the time being. However, I believe the Republicans absolutely need to boost their strength, popularity and grow into a greater force over the next two-four years to thwart the destructive efforts of their hostile adversaries over the long term. How can they leverage winning the House and Senate in the next election and set the pace and probability for future victories? While the Republicans just made some impressive gains in the House (especially with new women elected), I believe it’s vital for the...

It’s just the flu, bro. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-anthony-fauci-schools-must-stay-open Tucker Carlson does good job attacking Fauci and the concept that kids shouldn’t be in school so that they can survive the Coronavirus. - https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3911312/posts See above - always good to see a politician be a Flubro (Dr Rand Paul) - My opinion on China’s role in the Coronavirus hoax (Flubros may have a variety of opinions on this topic) - 1. It started there in a lab and leaked out by accident and they covered up some of what they knew, 2. I don’t care about number 1 enough to “punish” them.

Inauguration Day is only seven weeks away. In “normal” times, the outgoing president and his team would at this point be facilitating a smooth transfer of power—tying up a few policy loose ends, but generally making way for the new president and acknowledging the new political priorities of that president. None of that is happening with Donald Trump. In fact, quite the reverse........ Given how the post-election period has developed, it’s not enough to remove this man from power. His authoritarian presence on the political stage, the cancer that he represents on the American body politic, must be obliterated, leaving...

William Barr has been found and we now know what he has and hasn’t been doing. – What he has been doing is secretly appointing John Durham as a special counsel way back on October 19 and not telling anybody about it. His excuse for the secrecy was that it was just too darn close to Election Day and he didn’t want to influence the election, a consideration no Democrat would ever even entertain. Thus, once again we see an establishment Republican demonstrate exactly why establishment Republicans are, as a class, a pack of surrender monkey losers. The other little...

The voters rejected the left in 2020. Election Day came and went and the left did not have a good day, according to the New York Times: That dawning truth is evident in the narrower majority that House Democrats will hold in Congress next year, and especially in the blood bath that the party suffered in legislative races in key states around the country, despite directing hundreds of millions of dollars and deploying top party figures like former President Barack Obama to obscure down-ballot elections..... What happens now? First, we have to win those two seats in Georgia. We can...

Addressing racial disparities in the U.S. coronavirus crisis cannot be an afterthought, a top adviser to President-elect Joe Biden on the COVID-19 pandemic response said Tuesday. That means when testing and vaccination programs are designed and implemented, for example, they must consider fairness and equity along with efficiency in order to be truly effective, said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert on health care inequality at Yale University, in an interview with The Associated Press. “We cannot get this pandemic under control if we do not address head-on the issues of inequity in our country,” she said. “There is no other...

Joe Biden has begun staffing the upper ranks of the U.S. Treasury and Council of Economic Advisers with union-doting, tax-loving, spending-happy economists sure to raise the blood pressure of anyone wistful about the American free market. Some reckon Biden might even nominate his abortive socialist ex-rival, Bernie Sanders, as labor secretary. (Cringe.) Compared with all the ado over Biden’s domestic-policy chiefs, his top foreign-policy appointees have been met with a collective “whatever.” Graeme Wood of The Atlantic called the first three nominees Biden announced “the equivalent of a warm cup of Ovaltine with a melatonin chaser.” Yet secretary of state...

The ignorance and the lies concerning the Wuhan virus can't continue much longer, because time is simply revealing the truth about it. As we continue to suffer under foolish Wuhan virus restrictions, and as many parts of the U.S. — especially those under the rule of Democrats — are again ramping up the shutdowns and the lockdowns, more and more Americans are beginning to see what many of us have long known: the Wuhan virus data simply don't match the Wuhan virus hysteria. The evidence of this continues to pile up. As they near the end of the first semester,...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - - Joining more than 30 countries, New Zealand on Wednesday took the symbolic step of declaring a climate emergency. Lawmakers voted 76-43 in favor of the motion, in a split that followed party lines. The government also launched a new initiative requiring many public agencies to become carbon neutral by 2025, in part by getting rid of coal boilers and buying electric cars. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the government usually declares emergencies only for things like natural disasters, but that if it doesn’t address climate change, such disasters will continue to happen. She said the...

The prospect of a potential Biden presidency and a radical left Democratic administration running the country fills me with dread. But I believe it is instructive to compare my dread to what I felt 12 years ago when I contemplated the imminent Obama administration. According to his own words, Obama planned to bring about radical changes to American society. Here’s a partial list of his intentions: Nationalization of health care.Massive tax increases, sharply indexed.Cap & Trade and other crippling societal maneuvers aimed to avert or ameliorate imminent and severe – but unsubstantiated – climate change calamities.Drastic reduction of the military,...

President Trump tweeted late Tuesday that he will veto the National Defense Authorization Act unless Congress repeals Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which critics say unfairly shields social media platforms from liability over items posted on their platforms. These opponents have been vocal that tech behemoths like Twitter and Facebook should no longer be shielded as a neutral platform when they operate more like a publisher. The criticism seemed to reach its tipping point during the Hunter Biden scandal in the weeks prior to the presidential election. LinkThe New York Post ran an explosive report that purported...

Singapore (AFP) - Lab-grown chicken will soon be available in restaurants in Singapore, after the city-state became the first to green-light meat created without slaughtering any animals. US start-up Eat Just said Wednesday that its meat had been approved for sale in the city-state as an ingredient in chicken nuggets. The news marks a "breakthrough for the global food industry", said the company, as firms increasingly try to find less environmentally harmful ways of producing meat. "I'm sure that our regulatory approval for cultured meat will be the first of many in Singapore and in countries around the globe," said...

Joe Biden made clear he wants to put the old gang back together when he announced his prospective national security team this past week including the likes of John Kerry, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. They represent the worst instincts and outcomes of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy of promoting endless wars while undermining allies and placating adversaries that the Trump Administration had to clean up. How do I know? I served as the Senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of State in the Trump administration, cleaning up the mess that the Obama-Biden administration left behind. While the...

One of President Donald Trump's earliest and most controversial moves was a travel ban on people from certain nations he said were deemed a security threat to the US. Joe Biden has promised this will be one of the first policies he reverses. The ban - which now applies to 13 countries - has survived many legal challenges, but for some families it has meant years of separation. Afkab Hussein is a Somalian lorry driver who has never lived with his sons. When he first moved to Ohio in 2015, Afkab Hussein planned for his pregnant wife to join him...