Free Republic

The Illinois State rotunda just unveiled its winter holiday display on Monday. Alongside the Christmas tree, Hanukkah menorah, and the Kwanzaa candles was a baby Baphomet, swaddled in diapers, commemorating the satanic holiday of Sol Invictus. The controversial display has been presented by the Satanic Temple for three years in a row. The Satanic Temple’s first installation at the rotunda was in 2018, followed by another installation in 2019 called “Knowledge is the Greatest Gift,” which featured the forearm of the biblical Eve beside an apple and snake. Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) was a Syrian sun god that was adopted...

Russia now has about 265,000 troops stationed within 250 miles of its border with Ukraine, according to a new assessment of troop movements by Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov. Danilov revealed the assessment of Russian military activity during a visit to the Ivano-Frankivsk region, the Ukrainian state-run National News Agency of Ukraine (also known as Ukrinform) reported on Wednesday. Danilov said of the 265,000 Russian troops, 122,000 are located within 200 km (125 miles) of the Russian border with Ukraine. Another 143,500 troops are located between 200 and 400 km (250 miles) of the...

How good is the FDA at EUA approval for COVID drugs? Well, so far, to be honest, pretty shitty. The first three Covid drugs approved under EUA were Remdesivir, Baricitinib, and Tofacitinib. All were EUA approved for inpatient use (in hospital) only, demonstrate dismal effectiveness and are replete with black box warnings and side effects such as organ failure, blood clots, serious infections and malignancy. PAXLOVID PAXLOVID was recently approved by the FDA without any external meetings or disclosure. There was no opportunity for public input. Essentially all done behind closed doors. Dr. Ryan Cole on the drug’s mechanism of...

GOP Rep. Tom Rice has said he regrets voting to sustain objections to the 2020 presidential election results in two states on Jan. 6 — and said former President Donald Trump was “responsible” for the riot that ravaged the Capitol that day. Rice (R-SC) told Politico Wednesday that while he still believes there were “real issues with the election,” he wishes he had voted differently. According to the outlet, Rice is believed to be the first GOP member of Congress to publicly disavow his Jan. 6 vote. “In retrospect, I should have voted to certify,” Rice said. “Because President Trump...

The widow of a Colorado man who was killed in a fiery pileup crash caused by a truck driver has hit out at Kim Kardashian for demanding clemency for her husband's killer... Kardashian, 41, who is training to become a lawyer in California and has been active in the criminal justice reform movement, this week took to social media to call for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos' mandatory minimum sentence of 110 years in prison to be reduced over the April 2019 crash in which his brakes failed and he plowed into stalled traffic, killing four people. 'I don't think that we want...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is the latest lawmaker to announce he has tested positive for COVID-19. In a statement on Thursday, Coons said after testing regularly for COVID-19 in recent weeks with rapid and PCR tests, he received a positive diagnosis Wednesday night. “I have minimal symptoms so far and am optimistic I will recover well after isolating and following CDC guidelines. Like millions of other families, it seems we’ll also be wrestling with another holiday spent on Zoom and cancelled plans for travel or gathering,” he said.

Stocks traded higher Thursday, as studies on the Omicron coronavirus variant revealed infected people were at less risk of being hospitalized. Stronger U.S. economic data also buoyed markets ahead of the Christmas holiday, and set major stock indexes on track to erase Monday’s steep drop and close the holiday-shortened week in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 222 points, or 0.6%, in midday trading Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 4,729, above the index’s all-time closing high of 4,712, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9%. The latest Omicron headlines were net positive. A study from the...

[Catholic Caucus] Bye Christmas: Archdiocese Cancelled ALL EucharistsDue to the Covid hysteria, Quebec Archdiocese cancelled all Christmas Eucharists.Cardinal Gérald Lacroix announced December 22 that from midnight December 23 to January 10 all public Masses are canceled. Funerals are the only exceptions.“I am aware that it will be very disappointing not to gather in church this year for Christmas and New Year’s Day celebrations, but I consider that it is our duty to participate in the collective effort to avoid the further spread of the coronavirus,” Lacroix feigned.Lacroix allows “personal visits” to churches. He encourages Catholics to “celebrate the Nativity in...

On the rebound a month after his acquittal on murder charges, Kyle Rittenhouse indicated Monday night he is not likely to forget the way media outlets trashed him. "There's going to be some media accountability coming soon," Rittenhouse said told Fox News in an interview Monday while he was in Phoenix for the AmericaFest conference hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA. It was a one-sentence warning that should have mainstream news organizations scrambling.

[Catholic Caucus] Italy: “Francis Spring” Makes Excellent ProgressOver the last ten years, the number of seminarians in Italy went down by 28%.According to the Italian Bishops, today there are 1,804 seminarians while in 1970 – when the number of vocations had already dropped because of the failed Vatican II - there were 6,500.Father Marco d’Agostino, the rector of Cremona seminary told IlGiornale.it that seminarians are not “heroes against the tide,” rather “anything but that.”This may explain why so many priests are dead fish tossed around by the empty waves made by the oligarchs’ media.

Last week, the world glimpsed a future in which vaccine passports are implanted under the skin. A viral video from South China Morning Post profiled a Swedish start-up hub, Epicenter, that injects its employees with microchips. “Right now it is very convenient to have a COVID passport always accessible on your implant,” its chief disruption officer, Hannes Sjöblad, told the interviewer. Oddly enough, he repeatedly spoke of chipping “arms” when we clearly see a woman opening doors with her hand. Two years earlier, Sjöblad told ITV, “I want us humans to open up and improve our sensory universe, our cognitive...

Officials said the move will give schools more access to devices and replace damaged laptops as a spike in cases — and a subsequent move to online classes for some classrooms — is anticipated in the new year. Through this past July, CPS bought 100,110 laptops and tablets for a combined $31,846,853 to add to the district’s existing supply and help bridge that gap, according to district records. ... Lost or unreturned devices have also contributed to the need for more laptops, though officials didn’t say how many fell in that category.

Cook County will follow Chicago in imposing a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for patrons 5 and older of restaurants, bars, gyms and an assortment of other businesses, officials announced Thursday. The mandate for suburban Cook County takes effect Monday, Jan. 3, as does Chicago’s. The indoor establishments that will be required to ask for proof of vaccination status also include gyms and anywhere else food and drink are served, according to a copy of the COVID-19 order from the Cook County Department of Public Health. That encompasses movie theaters, concert venues, arcades, sports arenas and more. ...

Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly expressing discontent with the news coverage surrounding her performance as the nation's second-highest office holder, citing her race and gender.According to a piece by The New York Times, Harris has been privately complaining to her allies that the media's coverage of her would be better if she were any of her 48 White male predecessors,[snip]The Times' piece, which focused on Harris' struggle to "define herself" within the Biden White House, noted that she held no "headlining role" when it came to some of the administration's most difficult decisions[snip]The Times noted Harris' historically low approval...

The Supreme Court late Wednesday agreed to hear legal challenges to the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates for large employers and health-care facilities.The court, in an order, said that its consideration for requests to stay those mandates would be deferred until oral argument on Jan. 7.The Supreme Court consolidated the applications of both challenges, which were considered by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito, and both will be heard on Jan. 7.Lower court orders, which allowed the employer mandate and partially allowed the health-care worker mandate, will remain in effect until then.

Five people were arrested hours after Pennsylvania Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-5th District) was carjacked at gunpoint in South Philadelphia. Scanlon, 62, was walking back to her parked car, an Acura MDX, at FDR Park around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday when she was approached by two armed men who demanded that she hand over her keys and other belongings, including her personal cell phone, federal cell phone and ID.

Sen. Ted Cruz may be cruising toward another bid at the presidency. In an interview with the Truth Gazette, Cruz was asked if he would consider running for the White House, and the Texas Republican said his race in 2016 puts him in a good position to win the GOP nomination. "Absolutely, in a heartbeat. You know I ran in 2016. It was the most fun I've ever had in my life," he said. "I ended up placing second. You know, there's a reason historically that the runner-up is almost always the next nominee." Cruz lost his bid for the...

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). The proper response to Christ’s exaltation is to worship Him. Philippians 2:10-11 gives the only proper response to Christ’s exaltation: everyone is to bow before Him and acknowledge Him as Lord. Verse 10 begins with the Greek word hina (“that”), which indicates purpose or result. God’s express purpose is that Christ’s exaltation will result in our worshiping Him. We might translate the sentence, “He was given the name that is above every name in...

Restoring the true meaning of Christmas goes far beyond having Christian carols or manger scenes in public places. How many of you know you can have a manger in a courthouse or carols in a mall and still have a heathen nation? Something more has to change in our nation, and it’s not just the externals but the internal. We might argue that ‘the internal’ is making sure that we remember baby Jesus in the manger. That’s certainly part of it, but I want to go one step more and say that it’s not just remembering Jesus’ birthday. Jesus isn’t...

Although Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, it is home to a free and thriving Arab community. For decades, anti-Israel activists have decried Israel as an illegitimate state which represses Arabs and Muslims. Israel has been incorrectly labeled as a state for “settler colonialism” and apartheid. These baseless claims could not be further from the truth. Researchers have conducted surveys to shine a light on the true treatment of Arabs living in Israel. According to these surveys, there is a growing trend of Israeli Arabs ditching their former Palestinian identity and starting to identify more heavily with their Israeli...