Free Republic

They’re offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, making their personal assistants pester doctors every day, and asking whether a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line. The COVID-19 vaccine is here — and so are the wealthy people who want it first. “We get hundreds of calls every single day,” said Dr. Ehsan Ali, who runs Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor. His clients, who include Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, pay between $2,000 and $10,000 a year for personalized care. “This is the first time where I have not been able to get something for...

Every morning, like millions of other conservatives in the United States, I wake up to multiple pleas from Republicans to send money NOW!!! to save the Senate. The latest garbage polls show Perdue a quarter-point ahead and Ms Loeffler half-a-point behind, but, given the rate at which the dodgy mail ballots are pouring in, it's either going to be a double-header Dem landslide or a narrow enough win for the rock-ribbed two-thirds conservative majority of the Supreme Court to be terrified of hearing any lawsuit on the subject. So the GOP need even more of your dough to prevent the...

With Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell having congratulated Joe Biden on his ostensible “victory,” the usual suspects in the establishment are licking their chops under the delusion that the GOP has any national viability absent Trump and the agenda he ran on in 2016. Toward this end, there is already struggle for leadership underway within the Republican party, both literally and ideologically. And Washington’s toxic, failing establishment already knows who it wants to win: Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, daughter of George W. Bush’s vice president. This cannot be allowed to happen. Liz Cheney is the older of Dick’s two daughters,...

Big Apple eatery owners — already struggling to cope with a second shutdown of indoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic — were thrown into a panic Thursday night when the Cuomo administration dropped new rules that barred patrons in outdoor spaces from using their indoor bathrooms. The initial guidance, released publicly by Kapil Longani, counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, stated that “customers are not allowed to enter the inside of an SLA-licensed establishment for any reason while the guidance is in effect.”

As this term ends, and I look back on the record of Donald Trump as president, one thing stands out: he has been far more libertarian and done more on foreign policy and civil liberties than has any recent president. First, as in my previous profession as a physician, my first yardstick for a politician is to “do no harm.” President Trump has started no new wars, has kept us out of conflicts like Syria, and has been actively attempting to wind down the wars he inherited in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also inherited another reaction to the war on...

Up now at whitehouse.gov, a petition: We the People ask the federal government to propose a new administration policy Enforce Art. 4 against Georgia’s unrepublican rigged-elections by ordering a federal takeover of GA’s runoff electionsArticle IV guarantees that each state “shall have a republican form of government.”Hamilton's definition of a republic is: "that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.”Election fraud usurps the will of the people, creating a definitively unrepublican form of gov.GA election fraud already subverted the 2020 presidential election and threatens in the upcoming runoffs to fraudulently determine control of the U.S. Senate as...

Energy and Commerce Committee would handle issues like Green New Deal, Medicare-for-allThe House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Thursday voted to seat Rep. Kathleen Rice on a coveted committee over her New York colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the latest example of House Democrats bucking the firebrand who represents the Bronx and Queens. With five open slots on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., nominated four people and left the fifth spot open for members to choose between the two New Yorkers in a vote, Politico first reported. Fox News confirmed that Rice decisively...

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Congress looked increasingly unlikely on Friday to meet a deadline to agree on $900 billion in fresh COVID-19 aid and instead may pass a third stopgap spending bill to keep the government from shutting down at midnight. ... Congressional leaders plan to pass the COVID-19 aid as part of sweeping legislation to fund the government through September 2021. ... Sticking points in the talks include differences over a Federal Reserve emergency lending program, how to handle eviction prevention, food aid for the poor, and reimbursements to local governments for expenses like personal protective equipment for schools.

I often see conservative commentators, both on TV and on social media, asking for Democrats to condemn the rioters or to at least state why they will not do that. While I am sure that those commentators are well-intentioned, they are obviously missing the point. Democrats have not condemned the riots and will not do so because, unlike conservatives and the independents that value the rule of law and private property, they do not cherish or even respect Western norms. In fact, they hate Western civilization. Therefore, I think it is fair to say that Democrats support the riots that...

A report from July of 2019 indicates Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell received thousands of dollars in donations from lobbyists for two of the largest electronic voting machine vendors in the United States – Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems. Newsweek reported on the donations in noting that McConnell (R-KY) had squashed two separate bills in the Senate addressing election security. The reports were based on an investigation by an outlet called ‘Sludge.’ “Several of the lobbyists working for ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems have recently made contributions to McConnell’s campaign and joint fundraising committee,” Sludge wrote. The...

Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department, senior administration officials tell Axios. Behind the scenes: A top Biden official was unaware of the directive. Administration officials left open the possibility cooperation would resume after a holiday pause. The officials were unsure what prompted Miller's action, or whether President Trump approved. Why it matters: Miller's move, which stunned officials throughout the Pentagon, was the biggest eruption yet of animus and mistrust toward the Biden team from the top level of the Trump administration. What happened:...

There’s still no winner in New York’s 22nd Congressional district, where Republican Claudia Tenney and Democratic Incumbent Anthony Brindisi are vying for the last undecided House seat. This week, county Boards of Elections are recounting some of the race’s ballots. The partial canvasses were ordered by an Oswego County Supreme Court justice after the Boards’ clerical errors made judicial review of hundreds of ballots challenged by the candidates impossible. It’s unclear just how many hundreds of challenge ballots there are, but with only 12 votes separating the candidates, the court’s rulings on them might determine the race’s outcome.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WPDE) — A South Carolina representative wants all employees at the Office of the State Treasurer to answer the phone with the statement "Black Lives Matter." Rep. Chris Hart, D-S.C., pre-filed the bill on Dec. 16. "In the bill he wrote, "This joint resolution takes effect upon approval of the Governor and expires when the Treasurer acknowledges the inappropriateness of the comments he made on Facebook in June 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protest regarding being a second-class citizen." ABC15 sister station WACH in Columbia, South Carolina reported in June that Treasurer Curtis Loftis posted comments on...

Abraham Lincoln didn’t do enough for black lives, according to militant proponents of the woke revolution. In October, the San Francisco Unified School District School Names Advisory Committee suggested a list of school names to be replaced in the city. On that list was a school named after Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. In just a few years, the discussion about history and monuments has gone from whether we should keep Confederate monuments to erasing the president who orchestrated the Confederacy’s destruction. Regarding Lincoln, it seems the woke and John Wilkes Booth are now in alignment.

Rep. Ilhan Omar has accused President Donald Trump of being the reason why her father died of Covid-19 due to his "criminal neglect. "Omar told MSNBC:"My father and over 300,000 people have lost their lives because of dangerous criminal neglect by Trump and his administration."

Happy 85th Birthday to the master of all chefs, Jacques Pepin. Here he makes boning and trussing a chicken look easier than opening a box of mac & cheese

The Cook County Board voted Thursday to recognize Juneteenth as an official paid holiday for county government employees starting next year, following a year marked by racial justice protests over high-profile killings of Black people. In 2021, Juneteenth will be designated as one of 14 government holidays granted to all Cook County workers, making it the country’s largest populated county to grant a paid day off to celebrate both Black Americans’ freedom from slavery and their contributions to the nation. Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the measure, which outlines the centuries of mistreatment America has dealt on Black people....

AGA leaders call for the troops to keep Trump in office A growing call to invoke the Insurrection Act shows how hard-edged MAGA ideology has become in the wake of Trump’s election loss. By TINA NGUYEN 12/18/2020 04:30 AM EST An 1807 law invoked only in the most violent circumstances is now a rallying cry for the MAGA-ites most committed to the fantasy that Donald Trump will never leave office. The law, the Insurrection Act, allows the president to deploy troops to suppress domestic uprisings — not to overturn elections. But that hasn’t stopped the act from becoming a buzzword...

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn says President Donald Trump has options to make sure the integrity of the 2020 election remains intact, including seizing voting machines around the country and using military capabilities to rerun elections in swing states. ''I don’t know if he’s going to take any of these options. The president has to plan for every eventuality because we cannot allow this election and the integrity of our election to go the way it is,'' Flynn said Thursday on Newsmax TV’s ''Greg Kelly Reports.'' ''This is just totally unsatisfactory. There’s no way in the world we’re going...

When Disney announced 52 upcoming films and series, Hollywood press, movie fans, and even Wall Street ate up the hype. Here’s an overview of the big takeaways. In recent days, trading on Disney’s stock hit record highs, a short-term indicator the company succeeded with their much-hyped presentation of upcoming films and shows. But the long-term outcome is a more complex story. After all, over the past year, Disney laid off more than 30,000 employees (mostly related to still-closed theme parks) and streaming video platforms have not yet proven the profit potential of theatrical releases. Over a four-hour unveiling that resembled...