Free Republic

As people have been forced indoors it looks like criminal activity hasn’t stopped it’s just adjusted to the new normal.At last check of the San Francisco Police Department, crime statistics comparing November of this year to November of 2019:Burglary shot up by 42% citywideArson has gone up by 39%Stolen cars saw an uptick of 34% Homicides up by a 32%

Democrat Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who faced controversy for dressing in black face while in medical school, ordered a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee removed overnight from the United States Capitol. The Washington Post reported it will be replaced by a statue of Barbara Johns, who was a civil rights activist as a teen in Farmville, Virginia. “Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) had requested the removal over the summer after a commission chartered by the General Assembly decided that a man who fought to uphold slavery was not a fitting symbol for a diverse and modern state,” the...

Buckle up everybody, for I am here to defend and exalt turnips. In fact, I’d go so far as to claim that turnips, when mashed, are better than their potato counterparts, and a far more interesting vehicle for gravy. Cooked turnips are firm yet velvety, slightly nutty, and bring a bit more oomph to your holiday spread. But, full disclosure, my not all of my turnip-eating Christmases have been merry.

Senator. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called President Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election “really sad” and “embarrassing” on Sunday. “I understand the president is casting about, trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people,” Romney told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing because the president could, right now, be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine.” “He could be going out championing this extraordinary success, and instead he’s leaving Washington...

The San Francisco Unified School District on Friday released an update on its timeline for reopening schools. SFUSD will not begin its phased approach and reopen the first 12 schools to in-person instruction on Jan. 25 as originally planned. However, progress has been made to ensure that when students to return to campuses, they do safely. Some progress includes: Every classroom in the first school buildings proposed to reopen has been assessed for ventilation, physical distancing, etc. A letter of interest to reopen schools has been submitted to the SF Department of Public Health Families in Phase 2A have been...

It's summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, and strange structures are crawling out of the ice. It's summer at the south pole of Mars, and the angels and devils are coming out to play. You can see them both in a stunning new image of the recently thawed pole, taken by the European Space Agency (ESA). The devils, it should be said, are made of dust. Just like on Earth, Martian dust devils form when a pocket of warm air suddenly rises through a column of cool air, creating a spinning updraft. (Unlike on Earth, these dusty cyclones can tower 6...

An Alabama man and his son killed each other in a dispute over a dog, authorities said. Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer told WALA-TV that Kelvin James Coker, 60, discovered his dog had been shot on Saturday. The man then drove to the home of his 32-year-old son, Kelvin Nicholas Coker, who claimed to have killed the animal. The older man shot first, shooting his son in the leg, and the younger man returned fire with a shotgun, Stringer said. Both men died from their wounds. The sheriff called the family “very dysfunctional.”

It comes as no surprise that the holiday crowds are noticeably thin in San Francisco's Union Square this pandemic-plagued year.

Congress is making some money available for people who need help paying their rent, but they’re only extending an eviction moratorium by a month. And there’s no new help for people with mortgages... But Congress only extended an eviction moratorium, saying people cannot be evicted from rentals, for another month. That matches California’s existing moratorium that’s already on the books. The rent crisis is hitting minority communities particularly hard. About 46% of those not caught up with the rent in the state were Hispanic and 21% were black. About 20% were white and 13% were Asian. ...A previous stimulus bill...

So I went to a shrink and told him, "I've got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody under it. I'm scared and I think I'm going crazy." "Just put yourself in my hands for one year", said the shrink. "Come in and talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears". How much do you charge?" "Eighty dollars per visit", replied the doctor. "I'll sleep on it", I said. Six months later the doctor met me on the street. "Why didn't you come to see me...

...outcry over the ban on outdoor dining continues to grow. ...some San Francisco elected officials will be holding an emergency meeting next week, in order to demand that public health officials clearly explain the reasons why. Parklets stand empty on 18th street in Potrero Hill as outdoor dining has been shut down under the new health order. It’s something Supervisor Matt Haney supports. “...we also need to have a conversation about the ways that this could lead people to go inside and do more risky activities,” Haney said. “Everything that I’ve seen has shown that the single most risky thing...

As the coronavirus spread throughout the U.S., bigotry toward Asian Americans was not far behind, fueled by the news that COVID-19 first appeared in China. “That old-school rhetoric that we eat bats, dogs and rats — that racism is still alive and well,” said Clarence Kwan, creator of the anti-racist cooking zine “Chinese Protest Recipes.” The speed with which such false stereotypes resurfaced during the pandemic is “a reflection of how little progress we’ve made,” Kwan said. n addition, Asian American small businesses have been among the hardest hit by the economic downturn during the pandemic. While there was a...

MANAMA, Bahrain – The nuclear-power Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia (SSGN 729) along with the guided-missile cruisers USS Port Royal (CG 73) and USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) transited the Strait of Hormuz entering the Arabian Gulf, Dec. 21. Georgia’s presence in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations (AOO) demonstrates the U.S. Navy’s ability to sail and operate wherever international law allows. As an inherently flexible maneuver force, capable of supporting routine and contingency operations, Georgia’s presence demonstrates the United States’ commitment to regional partners and maritime security with a full spectrum of capabilities to remain ready to defend...

Bill Barr started his term as President Trump’s second attorney general maligned by the left and is ending it under attack from both sides. But the man is a class act who has consistently done the nation great service. Barr announced his resignation, with a departure date of Dec. 23, in a classy letter to the president. Barr has done all he can to ensure those who abused their power to harm first candidate and then President Trump will be held accountable. In October, he made John Durham, the former US attorney he’d tasked with investigating the origins of the...

Peter Navarro Says 379,000 Illegal Ballots Were Cast in Michigan... Within Five Seconds,’ Biden Got 141,000 Votes, While Trump Only Got 5,900.. Last Thursday, Dr. Peter Navarro released an explosive report outlining the fraud in the 2020 election. The report explained how Democrats cheated in the 2020 election in various contested states. Notably however, the report did not include a detailed breakdown of Michigan. At the time of the report, Dr. Narravo explained there was insufficient data to draw estimates of how the various types of irregularities in Michigan translate into possible illegal votes. This morning, Dr. Navarro joined Steve...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, is warning against “overreacting” to a mutated strain of coronavirus spreading in parts of the United Kingdom and does not yet want restrictions on flights to and from the country. In a Monday interview with CNN, Fauci, who also serves as a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said that the United States should “without a doubt keep an eye” on the new strain, but “we don’t want to overreact.”

Some of the patriots are armed and a tad ticked off. Talking about creating a Patriot Autonomous zone HERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8GL5r07LQ

San Francisco Chinatown small businesses have been hit extremely hard during this pandemic and they’re asking the mayor for help. A week before Christmas, the storefronts are nearly empty and businesses are struggling. They’re asking for a relief package they feel is desperately needed. David Ho is pretty much a one-man band these days at Sam Wo restaurant which has been serving up steamy, stir-fried dishes since 1908. “It used to be busy but now it’s very quiet,” Ho said. “Even when we apply for them we get rejected. We applied for grants — at least three of them —...

Some new drone footage shot as the ONE Apus was arriving in Japan last week gives us the first aerial view of the extent of damage on the deck of the ship after its historic cargo loss in the Pacific Ocean. The video was commissioned by W K Webster & Co., a leading global marine and transit claims consultancy. The owners and managers of the containership estimate that 1,816 containers were lost overboard when the ONE Apus encountered severe weather as it sailed towards Long Beach, California on November 30. The number of containers damaged but remaining on deck is...