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You never know what you're going to get when you crack open a geode-like rock called an agate, but a new specimen is even more surprising than usual: It looks just like Cookie Monster. The agate, found in Soledade, a precious stone hotspot in southern Brazil, is a dead ringer for the blue, googly-eyed Sesame Street Muppet. After its owner, California mineral collector Mike Bowers, posted about the agate on Facebook, it went viral, with write-ups in newspapers from Australia to Israel to the United States. "I didn't realize that Cookie Monster was so well known and part of the...

Washington (CNN) — US Capitol Police on Wednesday afternoon arrested a West Virginia man who was armed with a handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition outside the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, which is near the US Capitol, a spokesperson from the Metropolitan Police Department said. He was taken into custody for having a black .9mm Sig Sauer handgun and the ammunition, the report said. The arrest comes weeks after hundreds of rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop the Senate's confirmation of President Joe Biden. Five people, including a police officer were killed. Security was...

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an ominous speech to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, warning the Chinese coronavirus pandemic and rising income inequality threatened to thrust the world into “all against all” conflict, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Russian leader made his first speech to the forum in 12 years as he faces widespread international scrutiny over the alleged assassination attempt and subsequent imprisonment of his main political rival, Alexei Navalny.

Hall County officials said multiple people were taken to hospitals after a chemical explosion at Prime Pak Foods. (WSB-TV) ATLANTA — Hall County officials said six people were killed and 10 people were taken to hospitals after a chemical leak at a Hall County food processing plant Thursday morning. The incident, which officials initially called an “explosion” but now say was a liquid nitrogen leak, happened at Prime Pak Foods around 10 a.m. At least 130 people were evaluated at the scene. Content Continues Below Of the ten people taken to the hospital, three are in critical condition, health officials...

GameStop dominated Wall Street in an odd financial tug-of-war. Investors on Reddit bought up the stock after big hedge funds had sold the stock short, essentially betting it would go down. GameStop’s stock price skyrocketed and short-sellers lost billions. Talking heads scrambled to make sense of the event. But one of the most brain-melting assessments of the GameStop short squeeze came from Bloomberg TV guest and President of Financial Insyghts Peter Atwater. Atwater was so perplexed that he actually compared individual investors on Reddit outsmarting the big short-sellers to the Jan. 6, Capitol Hill Riot during a segment on Bloomberg...

During his inauguration speech last week, President Joe Biden called for unity, and millions of Americans watched and applauded. The words were hopeful, inspiring and forward-looking. Biden said: "To all those who did not support us, let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart. And if you still disagree, so be it. That's democracy. That's America -- the right to dissent peaceably. ... I will be a president for all Americans." For many Trump supporters, the words were welcome. But the words soon fell away as Biden began signing...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Assembly members will vote Thursday whether to overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate order. If Assembly members vote to repeal the order, Wisconsin will become one of only 10 states without statewide mask mandates. However, masks will still be required in some of its largest cities thanks to local ordinances. State law gives the Legislature the power to overturn emergency orders issued by the governor, a move that does not require the governor’s approval to take effect. The state Senate voted 18-13, with all Democrats and two Republicans against, to overturn the order on Tuesday....

His campaign for the senate against Ted Cruz in 2018 ended in failure. His campaign for the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination in 2019 ended in epic, buffonish failure. His campaign to turn Texas blue in 2020 ended in abject, hilarious failure. So, naturally, Irish Bob “Beto” O’Rourke, the undeservedly-famous deletant offspring of a fabulously wealth family married to a fabulously wealth wife in El Paso, Texas, is now considering mounting yet another destined-to-fail campaign in 2020. This time, Irish Bob is exploring the possibility of running for the Texas governor’s mansion, against either incumbent Gregg Abbott – who is likely...

Rumble — Henry Davis - THE #pipelineworker just worked his last day! THANKS @JoeBiden ! #pissed #notfunny-1354507470060859392 Heart breaking, tear jerker. WTH?

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — One day after the deadly insurrection in Washington, a Pennsylvania school district announced it was suspending a teacher who, the district asserted, “was involved in the electoral college protest that took place at the United States Capitol Building.” Three weeks later, Jason Moorehead is fighting to restore his reputation and resume teaching after he says the Allentown School District falsely accused him of being at the Capitol during the siege. The district says Moorehead’s social media posts about the events of Jan. 6, and not just his presence in Washington that day, are a focus of its...

Cardinal Tobin asked to mediate Indy high school standoffCardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark has been working to mediate a settlement between the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in a dispute over an instruction to dismiss a teacher in a same-sex civil marriage, The Pillar has learned.The archdiocese and the school have been locked in a disagreement over a 2019 decree by Archbishop Charles Thompson, which said the school could no longer call itself Catholic. The archbishop’s decision came after controversy over the employment of a teacher in a same-sex civil marriage.Brebeuf Jesuit Prepatory School. The Pillar file...

News broke yesterday that the Feds arrested and indicted a Trump supporter for using the social media platform Twitter to ‘spread election disinformation’ to Hillary Clinton voters in 2016. 31-year-old Douglass Mackey, who went by “Ricky Vaughn”, was arrested in West Palm Beach on one charge of conspiracy against rights and faces up to 10 years in prison. He was charged due to memes he posted to Twitter trolling Hillary supporters to stay home and text their votes in. But, guess what.. Democrats were just caught doing the exact same thing. And she’s still walking around, scot-free. Could it be...

China on Thursday intensified its rhetoric directed towards Taiwan and said its independence would result in war. Reuters reported that Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian was holding his monthly press conference when the subject turned to regional tensions. Taipei accused Beijing of flying a dozen military jets in its airspace on Sunday in an act of intimidation. U.S. observers said China was intent on testing President Joe Biden, who had been sworn in just days before. Wu said the "military activities" in the Taiwan Straits "are necessary actions to address the current security situation" there and then he warned,...

Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair is pushing Boris Johnson to use British leadership of the G7 to create a global vaccine passport. “The UK faces a choice: lead or be led,” insists a new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, established by the Iraq War architect after he stepped away from electoral politics.

The American gentry seeks to squash conservatism, the free speech ethos of the university system, and intellectual diversity in our country. An article titled “Instructing Insurrections: How UChicago Can Avoid Creating the Next Ted Cruz” was published on Sunday in “The Chicago Maroon,” a nearly 130-year-old left-wing student newspaper at the University of Chicago. Replete with obnoxious Ivy League elitism, the article reads like an instruction guide on how to undermine the university’s renowned “Chicago Principles,” which guarantee free speech and open discourse on campus, and how to gaslight conservative students in the classroom. It is also a direct attack...

"It’s finally happening," Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean wrote on Twitter on Thursday. "@NYGovCuomo is going to have to answer for his role in the nursing home tragedy and the cover up. The angels won." After months of investigative work, New York Attorney General Letitia James and her office released their report on the number of COVID-related fatalities in state nursing homes. Over the summer, the New York State Department of Health reported that just over 6,600 people had died from COVID. But as predicted, that number appears to have been severely undercounted, perhaps by as much as 50...

I hope what I am somewhat awkwardly calling "the new post-Trump's-First-Term era." only lasts four years. In order for that to happen, Trump values have to be communicated better to those who don't hold them as strongly as Freepers do. Good luck to you in America in achieving that goal. If I contribute, it may be, in part, by telling Americans what life is like under a socialist left government in places like the police state of Victoria in Australia. Who wishes me luck? Any suggestions on things I could do or ways I could improve?

He has lost his mind… He wants to keep everyone dependent on the system. They cant have a healthy community that works for a living

Michigan suffered the worst job losses in the country in December as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) latest lockdown stretched well past the announced three-week phase. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Michigan lost 64,400 jobs in the final month of 2020, Michigan Rising Action found.

Although campaigning against big money in politics while on the campaign trail, before he was elected, Joe Biden experienced a windfall of benefits from a record-breaking haul of “dark money” contributions to his 2020 presidential campaign.Biden’s campaign was backed by an unprecedented $145 million in dark money donations, dwarfing the $28.4 million spent on behalf of President Trump. It also tops the record of $113 million in anonymous donations that US Se. Mitt Romney (R-UT), saw in his failed 2012 campaign for the presidency.The Biden campaign’s willingness to accept even a dollar of dark money contributions spotlights the campaign’s core...