Free Republic

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, warned Thursday that President Trump's demand for $2,000 stimulus checks can't pass the Senate and urged him to sign a massive year-end agreement. Blunt, acknowledging that he has "no idea" what Trump will ultimately do, said that it would be a "mistake" to try to renegotiate the bill, which ties $1.4 trillion to fund the government to $900 billion in long-sought coronavirus relief. "It took us a long time to get to where we are. I think reopening that bill would be a mistake," Blunt said. "The best way out of...

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Pakistani soldier has been killed and seven others were injured in terrorists' firing in Pakistan's northwest tribal district of North Waziristan, the Pakistani military said Thursday evening. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, terrorists fired on a convoy of security forces Wednesday night in Mirali, a major town in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan. One soldier was killed while seven got injured, the statement said. "Security forces responded promptly. In intense exchange of fire two terrorists were killed while 10 got injured," the statement said. No group...

TALLAHASSSEE, Fla. (News Service of Florida) - Bondholders have gone to a state appeals court as they seek to force the Florida Department of Transportation to pay damages because of lost toll revenues on a long-controversial Panhandle bridge. UMB Bank, which represents bondholders, filed a notice last week that it was taking the dispute to the 1st District Court of Appeal after a Leon County circuit judge ruled in November that the department could not be forced to pay damages. As is common, the notice of appeal does not provide detailed legal arguments. But the appeal is the latest move...

KOREATOWN (CBSLA) — Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were investigating Wednesday evening after a fetus was found in the middle of a Koreatown street. ... When officers arrived on the scene, they found the fetus in the middle of the road. Police initially described the fetus as a 6-month-old infant. ...

The Brexit negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union concluded on Thursday, Christmas Eve, with the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen calling a press conference and boasting the EU got a “good deal” out of the years of negotiations. Update: Boris Speaks Speaking from Downing Street on Christmas Eve, Prime Minister Johnson announced the agreement of what he terms a “comprehensive, Canada-style free-trade deal” — an agreement that Mr Johnson has been seeking since the beginning of negotiations, which the European Union had said was impossible to strike. “I’m very pleased to tell you that we have completed...

Boureima Hama and Patrick Fort Thu, December 24, 2020, 8:10 AM EST Seven troops and 11 suspected jihadists have died in clashes in a troubled western region of Niger ahead of elections this weekend, the defence ministry said Thursday. An army patrol in the Taroun area of the Tillaberi region was ambushed early Monday by "heavily armed terrorists" travelling aboard motorbikes and other vehicles, it said in a statement, using a term that typically denotes jihadists. The country, the poorest in the world by the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index, is to stage presidential and legislative elections on...

Pope Francis is urging Catholics worldwide to receive COVID-19 vaccines, even if the vaccines have derived from mutilated fetuses tortured and murdered during the mortal sin of abortion. The Vatican made the announcement to Catholics on Monday that God is okay with these shots made from the parts of babies ripped to shreds. They use an argument pertaining to the “differing degrees of responsibility of cooperation in evil” to justify their position. They claim the vaccine is permissible because “they can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that (it) does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion...

I cant remember whats what. Only watch em once a year.

Accusing the Begusarai police of siding with the accused, the woman is now demanding justice for herself. In a Muslim dominated area of Bihar’s Begusarai district, a youth named Mohammad Chotu forcefully entered the house of a 30-year-old Hindu woman and tried to physically assault her. After she tried to put up resistance against the accused, the latter allegedly attacked the victim with a sharp knife, leaving her injured. The incident occurred in Baro Rampur Tola village falling under the Gadhara station area in​​ Begusarai, Bihar. According to reports, Mohammad Chotu broke into the woman’s house by jumping over the...

Pernicious grading practices start out as pernicious pedagogy. ... Think of grading as the output: If your programming code is bad, the output of the program will always be bad. ... One thing we understand from Universal Design for Learning is that there are multiple ways a kid can express their knowing. And so if you know 2+2=4, one way you can express your knowing is by writing it. Another way you can express your knowing is by discussing it. A third way is by creating a model that shows it. A fourth way is by illustrating it and a...

I thought maybe some may enjoy this. It's very good and boy those days were so glamorous. More than the Marmont, some of the Sunset Strip, the old stars, the mob, you know...good times ;) Just for fun.

The roughly $900 billion stimulus package is on its way to President Donald Trump for his signature, though it’s unclear whether he will sign the bill that would deliver aid to Americans, mutliple news outlets reported on Thursday. The massive 5,593-page bill, which includes the $1.4 trillion omnibus, is being flown on the plane to Florida, where Trump is staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort for Christmas...

The only demonstrable result of government-imposed COVID-19 lockdowns has been the destruction of national economies, the crippling of domestic and cultural life, the suffering and death of multitudes due to untreated prior medical conditions, and the drastic rise in suicide rates. The lockdowns themselves have seemed to do little to prevent the onset of the disease, hence one lockdown after another has led to no discernible effect—apart from the fact that the virus appears to strike primarily a designated older cohort of the population already suffering from comorbidities. A recent graph charting the effects of repeated lockdowns in the province...

It appears that, as both vice president and president of the Senate, Pence has both access to information and actual power to affect the election outcome. For the most part, Americans assume that the vice president lacks power. The president may assign him responsibilities, but the Constitution does not. Instead, he's the understudy, there just in case something happens to the president. Except that, in this strange year of 2020, we may learn that the vice president is the most powerful man in America. Ivan Raiklin, a constitutional lawyer, claims that the Constitution grants Mike Pence the power to overturn...

December's Ratings Collapse for Fox News continues to be a nightmare for the Murdochs and their paid and unpaid minions. They thought we would stick around after their Election night treachery and they were wrong! Going from record ratings in November, to a massive ratings collapse by Wednesday 12/23. Here are the current Fox News ratings losses as of Wednesday 12/23 according to Nielsen: Ingraham -61% Hannity -57% MacCallum -54% Baier -54% Hemmer -53% Carlson -51% Cavuto -50% Sandra Smith -48% Outnumbered -48% Fox and Friendless -44% Perino -43% The Five -39%

Just wondering if any of my fellow Freepers are, like me, spending Christmas Eve solo. Unlike previous years, however, I'm not quite alone, as I am now sharing my home with a two year old Greyhound I adopted last Spring. Other than he and I, it's a cozy, quiet, peaceful and solo Christmas Eve. How about everyone else?

The coronavirus/omnibus spending bill was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of its burial wasn’t signed by the president…old coronavirus/omnibus spending bill was as dead as a doornail. No. These aren’t the opening lines of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, writing about the death of Ebenezer Scrooge’s late business partner, Jacob Marley. But it’s pretty close. And certainly, what unfolded this Christmas on Capitol Hill surrounding a COVID aid package was just as Dickensian... It’s unclear if the president’s proposed changes to the bill could pass. And don’t forget that Congress has...

Over the past weekend the President filed a case with the Supreme Court and asked for it to be expedited due to the fact that it involves the 2020 election and the future of this country. If Joe Biden, who stole the election from record-setter President Trump is allowed to win the election, the country will never recover. How can President Trump’s record setting election that destroyed the previous all time high by nearly 10% be stolen? The Supreme Court yesterday acknowledged the filings were received. The court did not rule on the case. The court did not acknowledge the...

CNN claims a relatively mundane Christmas card sent out by former President George W. Bush is a shot at President Trump for having not been accepting of the 2020 election results. “George W. Bush sends holiday card with pointed message as Trump denies election loss,” reads the headline. The ‘pointed message’ appears to be an image of the Statue of Liberty titled, “Beacon of Hope, 2020.” The artwork is from a collection that celebrates immigrants. Here is CNN’s explanation for why this is a shot at President Trump: “The painting and its title come from a former President who has...

Proponents have called the state’s massive new toll road project a monumental opportunity and a thoughtful plan for smart growth. The 330 miles of new highways will curb interstate congestion, bolster the economy and facilitate hurricane evacuations, they say. In short, the argument goes, the roads would be a good investment. So why is it that so many of the preliminary studies are at best lukewarm on the idea? And the latest reports only add to the list of reasons to reconsider the controversial project. The tolls roads, dubbed the Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, were largely pushed by...