Free Republic

The giant goldfish was found in a park in Greenville County, South Carolina as wildlife authorities conducted a fish population survey, a park official said. A goldfish weighing nine pounds came under the spotlight Monday after being discovered during a fish population survey at a lake in South Carolina, park officials said. Ty Houck, an official with Greenville County Parks, said the “massive” fish was found swimming on Nov. 16 in a 12-acre body of water in Oak Grove Lake Park in the county of Greenville. Greenville Rec, which oversees the park where the fish was discovered, posted a photo...

The coronavirus pandemic helped decimate already declining U.S. media jobs in digital, print, and broadcast newsrooms, according to new data. According to the figures provided by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. and posted by Axios, 16,000 newsroom jobs were lost in 2020 — higher than the last peak in 2008, when 15,000 newsroom jobs disappeared. The data showed 14,000 “other media jobs” were lost this year as well, a category that includes jobs in television/film/streaming production, advertising, and book publishing. Those categories got whacked in 2008 as well, shedding nearly 15,000 jobs. The bleeding has been relentless over the past...

For the Biden family, government positions become a source of profit. In 2009, then Vice President Joe Biden’s niece, Casey Owens, got an important job in the Obama administration as an adviser to the Treasury Department’s strategic and economic dialogue. Just 4 years after college, Owens was hired away from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advise senior officials on U.S. – China relations. She wielded considerable influence over the direction of U.S.-China relations between 2009 and 2011, as she described her team as “advising” former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and responsible for “coordinat[ing] the priorities within the agenda...

Joe Biden pledged his administration will distribute 100 million coronavirus vaccines to individuals most at risk during his first 100 days in office. Biden, who has been declared president-elect by multiple media outlets, made the promise when introducing key members of his public health team on Tuesday. During the event, which was held in Wilmington, Delaware, the former vice president discussed the top three public health objectives that his administration would undertake in its first 100 days.

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." The quote is ascribed to Joseph Stalin, although there’s little evidence that he actually said it. Nevertheless, it resonates as true. Certainly America stands in crisis now because of disagreements about the count of the popular vote. But the President of the United States isn’t actually elected by the popular vote. He’s elected by the college of presidential electors. As I noted in a previous article, one of the most important questions in this crisis is whether the state legislatures can appoint presidential electors to cast...

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-08/republicans-block-inaugural-resolution-recognizing-biden-s-win

Raleigh, NC- Gov. Roy Cooper issued a new stay-at-home order on Tuesday to limit the spread of coronavirus, ordering most businesses to close at 10 p.m. each night, starting Friday. "We have to act now to save lives, preserve hospital capacity and protect our economy," Cooper said during an afternoon news conference. The order will require all restaurants, bars, personal care businesses and most retailers to be closed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Alcohol sales for on-site consumption will have to end at 9 p.m. The stay-at-home order "means just what it says – people are to stay home...

HODGKINS, Ill. (WLS) -- The Illinois Tollway has reached the first milestone in its enormous Mile Long Bridge project. The northbound section of the new bridge, a stretch of Interstate 294 between 75th Street and La Grange Road, is scheduled to open next week. Crews started building the new Mile Long Bridge alongside the existing one two years ago. Weather permitting, the northbound section of bridge will open by Wednesday morning. "We were hoping for the end of the year; clearly we're a month early and want to obviously thank everyone involved, but we're super excited that the bridge itself...

BEIJING (AP) — China lashed out at the U.S. on Tuesday over new American sanctions against Chinese officials for their actions in Hong Kong, along with the sale of more U.S. military equipment to Taiwan, moves touching on two of the most sensitive issues in the increasingly contentious relationship between the nations.The foreign ministry summoned Washington’s top diplomat in China to express “strong indignation and strong condemnation.”The U.S. actions “seriously violated the basic norms of international relations, seriously interfered in China’s domestic politics, seriously damaged China-U.S. relations, are arrogant, unreasonable and vile,” Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang was quoted as...

Update (1515ET): Just twelve hours after it was filed, the US Supreme Court has officially put Texas's lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on the docket, meaning the case will be heard. Unable to post the image -- you'll have to click the link and see for yourselves.

The House is poised to pass the annual defense authorization bill Tuesday, throwing down the first of two gauntlets before President Trump, who has threatened repeatedly to scuttle the $741 billion legislation. The only question is whether the bipartisan legislation will earn enough votes to override the president’s promised veto — and whether the Senate will follow suit. Over the summer, both the House and Senate passed independent versions of the defense bill by veto-proof majorities. But on Tuesday morning, the House Freedom Caucus, a group of about 37 conservative Republicans, announced that it would vote against the bill in...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper issued a new stay-at-home order on Tuesday to limit the spread of coronavirus, ordering most businesses to close at 10 p.m. each night, starting Friday. "We have to act now to save lives, preserve hospital capacity and protect our economy," Cooper said during an afternoon news conference. The order will require all restaurants, bars, personal care businesses and most retailers to be closed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Alcohol sales for on-site consumption will have to end at 9 p.m. The stay-at-home order "means just what it says – people are to stay...

Brandon Bernard is set to become the latest federal inmate executed by President Donald Trump's administration—even though five of the surviving nine jurors who condemned him to death have changed their minds.The 40-year-old is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana on Thursday.Judge Denies Stay Of Execution For Brandon Bernard Read moreBernard, who is Black, was 18 when he was convicted over the 1999 kidnapping and murder of youth ministers Todd and Stacie Bagley at Fort Hood in Texas.Bernard's co-defendant, Christopher Vialva, was executed for his role in the Bagleys' murder on September...

Pizza lovers, add this to your holiday wish list; Pizza Hut's new Triple Treat Box. Two medium, one-topping pizzas in the top and middle levels, and five breadsticks along with 10 mini cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon on the bottom level. And a partridge in a pear tree. Ok, there's no partridge, but everything else is there for just $21.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Kkkh4pRmI

Sen. Rand Paul on the Pandemic, Lockdowns, Schools, and More Video..

Washington (CNN)Congressional Republican leaders rejected a resolution that asserted that Joe Biden is president-elect, the latest effort by the Hill GOP to refuse to accept the election results even though it's been clear for weeks that President Donald Trump lost. The rejection came Tuesday in a private meeting after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer offered a motion to affirm that it is preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt of Missouri voted with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in blocking the motion, effectively...

PUTTING AMERICANS FIRST FOR VACCINES: President Donald J. Trump is taking action to provide Americans priority access to our Nation’s COVID-19 vaccines.Today, President Trump is signing an Executive Order to ensure that the American people are first in line to benefit from United States Government COVID-19 vaccines developed or procured using taxpayer resources.Under this order, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is directed to provide priority access to COVID-19 vaccines to Americans.Through this action, President Trump is putting the health and safety of Americans, the viability of our economy, and the security of our Nation first.The United States has...

A Nevada hospital has resorted to treating coronavirus patients in its parking garage — as hospitalizations soar in the state. Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno converted two floors of its parking garage into an alternative care site in early November to handle an overflow of COVID-19 patients if necessary.

Republican members of the Arizona State Legislature had an election integrity hearing on Nov. 30 that included President Donald Trump’s lawyers Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani, Ellis, and others held a hearing in front of Pennsylvania State Republican senators on earlier, where they argued that the state legislature should take steps to reclaim the ability to appoint electors to the Electoral College. Witnesses who claimed they saw allegedly illegal or irregular vote-tabulation efforts in the Keystone State also offered statements. According to GOP members of the Arizona State Legislature, the hearing is designed “to gather the evidence that justifies...