Free Republic

Republican leaders in both chambers are scrambling to get a bipartisan coronavirus relief and government funding package across the finish line and avert a year-end disaster after President Trump unexpectedly voiced last-minute objections to the legislation passed by Congress earlier this week. Washington was blindsided Tuesday evening by Trump’s lengthy criticism of the $900 billion COVID-19 relief measure and $1.4 trillion omnibus that needs to be signed in the coming days to avoid a government shutdown. Now, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s most loyal Senate allies, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are trying to salvage the...

Silent Night 1977 (Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins) https://youtu.be/VYD27rJP4pY

Singapore and Denmark have confirmed their first cases of the new coronavirus variant found spreading rapidly in parts of the United Kingdom. Singapore has confirmed one case, while 11 others in quarantine have returned preliminarily positive results. Denmark has identified 33 infections with the new strain. "There is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community," Singapore's health ministry said late on Wednesday, referring to the new, potentially more infectious UK strain. Singapore has been conducting viral genomic sequencing for confirmed COVID-19 cases who arrived from Europe recently. The patient with the new variant came to...

Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wished Americans a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, expressing gratitude to God and courageous citizens. “The President and I want to wish every American a very Merry Christmas,” they said in a video released on Thursday. “At Christmas, we thank God for sending us his son to bring peace to our souls and joy to the world.” The first couple expressed appreciation to citizens for showing courage amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, including teachers, students, law enforcement officers, military personnel, etc. “As you know, this Christmas is different...

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Individually they’re amazing, but together they’re one of the greatest couples in sports. Bird won her fourth WNBA title with the Seattle Storm last month, and while in the Wubble she led the can’t-get-rid-of-her, let’s-help-her-lose movement to boost Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is now in a runoff against Republican Senator and Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler. Rapinoe proposed to Bird in late October, and there may or may not have been happy squeals at this laptop when we saw that news. George Hill By all accounts, it was Hill, the Milwaukee...

In refusing to hear Texas v. Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court abdicated its constitutional duty to resolve a real and substantial controversy among states that was properly brought as an original action in that Court. As a result, the Court has come under intense criticism for having evaded the most important inter-state constitutional case brought to it in many decades, if not ever. However, even in its Order dismissing the case, the Supreme Court identified how another challenge could be brought successfully — by a different plaintiff. This paper explains that legal strategy. But first we focus on the errors...

@AOC may rack up likes on Twitter, but the real world is not impressed. Nearly 60 percent of the country thinks poorly of Progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and 75 percent want nothing to do with the socialism she preaches. Asked whether the free-market economy or socialism was better, 75 percent of likely voters chose capitalism, while 11 percent backed socialism, according to a Heartland Institute/Rasmussen poll. Another 14 percent said they were “not sure.” “Likely voters hate socialism,” the pollster said. “Despite the countless calls for more socialism among elites in media and Hollywood, Americans aren’t interested in...

I remember watching the Yule Log on WPIX when I was a kid in the NYC area. None of us had fireplaces so a fireplace on the TV screen with Christmas songs was nice. This is a modern version that is appropriate and hilarious.

President Donald Trump wanted to make America say “Merry Christmas” again. And, if you ask him, he succeeded. He celebrated his achievement during a recent rally in Georgia, after sharing the seasonal greeting with the crowd. “Remember we started five years ago, and I said, ‘You’re going to be saying Christmas again.’ We say it proudly again,” he said at the Dec. 5 event, according to Business Insider. However, Trump also warned his supporters not to get complacent. He said that cherished Christmas traditions are still at risk, implying that the Biden administration will be hostile to people of faith....

A research paper released by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) suggests government schools could free up funds needed to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic if police are defunded. “Police violence is a leading cause of death and trauma for Black people, and is a serious public health and moral issue,” the paper said, citing research from the American Public Health Association titled “Addressing Law Enforcement Violence as a Public Health Issue.” “We must shift the astronomical amount of money devoted to policing, to education and other essential needs such as housing and public health,” the union said, advocating that schools...

For Christmas Eve:Apollo 8's Christmas Eve Message

They really did think they could stop Brexit. They genuinely believed they had the right – conferred on them by their superior station and education – to overturn the 17.4million votes to leave the European Union. That is the loud, clear and chilling message of the Remoaner hissy fit that has greeted today’s announcement of a trade deal being struck between Brexit Britain and the European Union – that even now, four-and-a-half years after the people expressed their Eurosceptic will, the Remainer wing of the political and media elites thought that none of this would actually happen; that we would...

How a Trump announcement of election-related arrests in January would shake out (Or how Trump releases the Kraken)... The scene: The White House, January 6, 2021. On hand are President Trump, VP Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen, General Anthony Tata, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, acting undersecretary for intelligence and retired Army General Michael Flynn. Also present is private attorney Sidney Powell. Conspicuously absent is Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel; FBI Director...

In a major win for the LGBTQ community, Switzerland lawmakers approved the legalization of same-sex marriage last week. At the same time, the law also allowed transgender people to alter their legal gender at civil registry offices in the country and allows lesbian couples to conceive children using donated sperm, Reuters reports. Despite passing parliament, the same-sex marriage law may have to pass a national referendum in the coming year. However, activists expect a potential referendum to succeed, after a recent survey found support for marriage exceeding 80% in Switzerland. Campaign group Marriage For All posted a statement on their...

Another episcopal ordination after the renewal of the Sino-Vatican Agreement. But the bishop had already been designated by the Holy See for some time. The rite was "very sober and low-key".Hongdong (AsiaNews) - Msgr. Pietro Liu Genzhu was ordained bishop of the diocese of Hongdong-Linfen (Shanxi) this morning. His appointment was recognized by the Holy See and the Chinese government. Msgr. Liu had already been vicar general of Linfen since 2010. The diocese had no bishop since 2006, following the death of the then ordinary Msgr. Sun Yuanmo, although Msgr. Liu was the Holy See candidate for a long time....

San Rafael, Argentina, Dec 22, 2020 / 02:47 pm MT (CNA).- A priest of the Diocese of San Rafael has been suspended after he physically attacked Bishop Eduardo María Taussig during an argument over the closing of the local seminary. Fr. Camilo Dib, a priest from Malargue, more than 110 miles southwest of San Rafael, was called to the chancery to explain “his role in the events happened in Malargue November 21st,” according to a Dec. 22 statement from the diocese. On that date, Bishop Taussig made a pastoral visit to the town to explain the controversial closing of the...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump I saved at least 8 Republican Senators, including Mitch, from losing in the last Rigged (for President) Election. Now they (almost all) sit back and watch me fight against a crooked and vicious foe, the Radical Left Democrats. I will NEVER FORGET!

An investor in CD Projekt, the studio behind 'Cyberpunk 2077,' sued the company and its executives Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles, claiming that they hyped the game with false and misleading statements and cost him and other investors money. The game suffers from “an enormous number of bugs,” the lawsuit says, echoing the complaints of players. Eight million people pre-ordered copies of 'Cyberpunk 2077,' a sci-fi game set in a futuristic fantasy city with movie star Keanu Reeves as the basis of one character. But many players quickly soured on the game after it shipped this month, noting...

Moscow, December 22, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has strongly spoken out about the proposal by United States President-elect Joe Biden to allow gender change for children from the age of eight. "In regard to Biden's decision about an eight-year-old child being entitled to change sex, I perceive such statements as being blasphemous. I think that people propagating such ideas should be locked up in prison because, from my standpoint, it is a crime to maim an eight-year-old child or an even a sixteen-year-old," the Synodal Department for External Church Relations' head Metropolitan Hilarion told the Church and the...