Free Republic

Second Week of Advent Matthew 17:9a, 10-13 Friends, today’s Gospel passage identifies the appearance of John the Baptist with the expected return of the prophet Elijah. John, the herald of Christ, appears in the desert. Here he stands for all of us in the desert of sin, the lifeless place. It is as though John purposely went there to remind us of our need for grace. What is he proclaiming? A baptism of repentance. This is the great message. Turn your life over to a higher power. People are coming to him from all sides, because in our heart of...

The owner of a wine and beer bar who openly flouted Gov. Tim Walz's executive orders to shut down last winter during the COVID-19 pandemic was found guilty of six criminal misdemeanor counts Thursday by a Freeborn County jury. A jury of three women and three men took only an hour of deliberation to convict Lisa Hanson, the 57-year-old bar owner, after a three-day trial punctuated by Hanson's repeated attempts to argue that Walz's orders were unconstitutional. Judge Joseph Bueltel followed the reading of the verdict with a scathing denunciation of Hanson's behavior, explaining why the governor's orders were legal....

Comment thread for the 2021 Army-Navy game. Live updates at the link.

CHICAGO, IL—People are protesting in the streets today after human rights groups revealed Jussie Smollett will be forced to share a jail cell with his racist attackers. "This is an outrage!" said Reverend Jesse Jackson. "Not only was Mr. Smollett attacked by hateful racist bigots who want to tear our country apart, but now he has to share a jail cell with them? This is cruel and unusual punishment. This is the kind of thing that happens in our white supremacist country. Send me money!" Criminal justice watchdogs also revealed that in addition to sharing a cell with his attackers,...

Tensions that flared between Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) during the debt ceiling standoff revealed the two leaders’ differing styles and personalities and raised questions about their relationship going forward. The main source of division between the two top Republicans in Congress is their contrasting relationships with former President Trump, whose day-to-day comments on events in Washington have a major influence over the GOP. Trump called on Republican lawmakers to pull out all the stops to oppose raising the nation’s debt limit — even though it would have risked a federal credit...

VIDEO: Muslim Brotherhood Turkish TV Channel: The time has come to annihilate the Jews, Purify Palestine of All Jewish Filth MEMRI - Middle East Research Institute 16:00 7 hours ago Zaghloul Al-Naggar: "Today's Jews are not really Jews. This was acknowledged by the reasonable people among the Jews themselves. They have nothing to do with Judaism. These people are a polytheist nation. The label 'Jews' was imposed upon them. These Poles, Czechs, Russians, Americans, and people from other ethnicities — what right do they have to Palestine? "The existence of a foreign entity in this region is like a cancer...

The Center For Disease Control and the federal government is adamant that pregnant women get a COVID-19 injection. But data doesn’t support its safety and health practitioners around the world are sounding the alarm. A Canadian doctor, who has effectively treated COVID patients with Ivermectin throughout, urges pregnant women to abstain from getting the COVID injections. Speaking to a reporter in November, Dr. Daniel Nagase argues COVID vaccines are directly attributed to an alarming increase in stillbirths across Canada. Doulas who work in women and children’s hospitals in one of the birthing centers for Vancouver “had 13 stillbirths in a...

MSNBC host Brian Williams delivered a somber sign off during his final show for the network, stating that his biggest worry is “for my country.” “After 28 years of peacock logos on much of what I own, it is my choice now to jump without a net into the great unknown. As I do for the first time in my 62 years, my biggest worry is for my country,” Williams said during his 11 p.m. show, “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams.” “The truth is I'm not a liberal or a conservative. I'm an institutionalist. I believe in this place...

The Washington Free Beacon reported: A solar energy company owned by a Biden megadonor received a $500 million government loan to build a manufacturing facility in India, the Biden administration announced this week, raising questions about whether the company’s political clout played any role in the financing decision. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation granted the loan to First Solar, which is owned by billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to build a solar module plant in India. Walton contributed over $300,000 to President Joe Biden’s campaign last year, and over $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance...

A veteran CNN producer who worked “shoulder to shoulder” with now disgraced ex-anchor Chris Cuomo has been indicted on charges of luring young girls to his Vermont ski house for “sexual subservience” training. John Griffin, of Stamford, CT, allegedly used messaging apps to befriend and persuade moms of young girls, telling them “a woman is a woman regardless of her age,” and that he should be the one to “train” their daughters sexually, according to the indictment from the US Attorney of Vermont. Griffin, 44, allegedly got at least one mom of two daughters to bring the girl to his...

NEW YORK ­– Taiwan’s chip fabricators signed an agreement on December 3 to create their own semiconductor equipment industry, opening an “option to decouple from the West,” in the view of a prominent US research firm. The Taiwanese initiative responds to Washington’s extraterritorial sanctions on buyers of US fabricating equipment, imposed by then-president Donald Trump in May 2020. The US asserts the right to block sales of chips produced with US machines or intellectual property. The US sanctions shut off Chinese tech giant Huawei’s access to high-end chips of 7 nanometers and below, crippling what previously was the world’s top...

The high point of Alex Jones’ public life—and the moment that it all began going inarguably downhill—happened in the small hours of the morning after Election Day 2016, not long after Donald Trump declared victory. “I already know my life’s purpose has been completed,” Jones said on air from behind the massive Infowars desk, his eyes watery and even more reddened than usual. “I will continue on. But for now, I realize, I have won.” In the years since, Jones has tumbled precipitously, a descent that is, ironically, all due to his increased fame. Jones’ relationship with the former president—as...

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2021 This CHRISTmas Season ALL LIVES MATTER TO JESUS, Who Was Born to Shed His RIGHTEOUS Blood for ALL - John 3:16-17! Dear friends, the TRUE CHRISTMAS GOSPEL MESSAGE this Christmas season from Almighty God is, ALL LIVES MATTER in RIGHTEOUSNESS and sent His Son to be born and be the SAVIOR of the world (Isa. 53; John 3:16-17; 1 Rom. 5:12-21; John 4:10)! Jesus was born for ALL, given for ALL, died for ALL and rose for ALL in ETERNAL RIGHTEOUSNESS! Beloved, be NOT DECEIVED by the deeds and violent actions masquerading and hiding behind flowery...

It is going to be a very dry Christmas for many Americans this year. Don’t take my word for it; head on down to your local liquor store and have a peek. All those container ships waiting to unload their goods at major U.S. ports are sitting on much of your holiday cheer. The natives are, shall we say, getting very restless and peace on earth seems in short supply as retailers run dry this holiday.Tempers and Temperance Walking into the state-controlled ABC store in Virginia this week was rather shocking. Not only were many of the shelves bare, but...

Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco’s people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. But after repeatedly clearing away used needles, other drug paraphernalia and human feces outside the bar she manages, and too many encounters with armed people in crisis, her affection for the city has soured. “It was a goal to live here, but now I’m here and I’m like, ‘Where am I going to move to now?’ I’m over it,’” said Foster, who manages Noir Lounge in the trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood. A series of headline-grabbing crime stories — mobs of...

David DeLuca of Sicklerville, New Jersey will never know if the Ivermectin prescribed by an out-of-state doctor for his wife would have saved her life. Colleen DeLuca, 62, died of COVID-19 on Oct. 10, at Jefferson Washington Township Hospital in Sewell, New Jersey, before he could get a court order to administer the drug. Ivermectin has helped in some cases, but across the United States, many hospitals don’t include it in their COVID protocol for treatment and refuse to use it, even as a last effort on a dying patient.Buffalo, New York attorney Ralph Lorigo has spent the last 11...

In BriefThe Facts:According to government health authorities and pharmaceutical companies like BioNTech, two doses of a COVID vaccine are not enough to stop you catching the Omicron. A third does may provide more protection from severe symptoms.Reflect On:Why mandate COVID vaccines when they do not stop transmission or infection? If they protect people from severe COVID, should that not be an individual choice?The Omicron variant is spreading, and it’s most likely not the last time a variant will emerge. After all, that’s what viruses do. With COVID, it is approaching endemic status where several variants will continue to emerge. Uğur...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson revealed in a podcast released on Thursday that one of his children was in the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. During an episode of "The Fourth Watch Podcast," host Steve Krakauer asked Carlson about his "Patriot Purge" documentary, which attempts to provide an alternative narrative to the events reported around the Jan. 6 riot, including one person mentioning a debunked "false flag operation" conspiracy theory. "What is it about the focus on Jan. 6, but then the focus on very specific areas of Jan. 6, that made you say, 'We need to give a...

Saule Omarova, President Biden’s pick for comptroller of the currency, has withdrawn her nomination after at least five Democratic senators and every Republican senator made it clear that they were unwilling to vote to confirm her to the post. My question is this: Why the hell was she nominated in the first place? Perhaps he hasn’t noticed yet, but he is not in a particularly good place right now. He is wildly unpopular. He is already seen as last year’s news. He has yet to persuade Congress to pass the core of his policy agenda. His claim to be a...

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas border sheriff who had resisted working with the state to refer illegal immigrants on state trespassing charges said rising crime in his community has forced him to take action and partner with Austin.Despite neighboring counties signing agreements to work with the state earlier this year, Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber had held out on partnering with the governor's office to refer noncitizens on state charges."The state's been after me for a few months," said Schmerber. "I hesitated for about two months. What kind of pushed me to really was because there were more things that...