Free Republic

When Norm Macdonald closed out his Dec. 13, 1997, "Weekend Update," the Saturday Night Live star had no idea he’d never sit at the "Update" desk again. Nobody at Saturday Night Live knew that Macdonald would be fired from his job as SNL’s fake newsreader before the show returned from its holiday hiatus or that Colin Quinn would be installed in Macdonald’s place. Saturday Night Live is all about cast turnover. Still, Macdonald’s three-and-a-half year reign as the deadpan anchor of SNL’s venerable midshow centerpiece took viewers, cast members and even Macdonald completely by surprise. That “and-a-half” segment of Macdonald’s...

The late congressman and civil rights giant John Lewis will be honored with a postage stamp in 2023, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday. The design for the stamp uses a photograph taken by Marco Grob for a 2013 issue of Time magazine. Lewis, then 73, wears a dark suit and blue tie and looks directly into the camera. A 1963 picture of Lewis at a workshop on nonviolent protest in Clarksdale, Mississippi, taken by Steve Schapiro, is planned for the margin of the printed stamp sheets. The Postal Service said the stamp “celebrates the life and legacy” of Lewis,...

Alexander Khodakovsky, the commander of Russia's Donetsk militia, pointed to nuclear weapons as one way Russia could win the war during an appearance on state TV..."We don't have the ability—we're a country which is now fighting the entire Western world, and we don't have the resources to defeat the NATO bloc with conventional means," he said. "But we have nuclear weapons for that. We built them specially for such situations. That is why there is only one option."

A major flu outbreak has hit Kremlin and could force Russian President Vladimir Putin into isolation in a bunker, a report in Metro said. The development comes a day after officials announced that Mr Putin will not hold his annual end-of-year press conference this year. Since Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave no reason or the break with tradition, several outlets are claiming that it has been done due to health issues Mr Putin is facing. After Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine in February this year, there has been a renewed focus on Mr Putin's health. "Yes, this year, flu...

MariMed, Inc. (CSE: MRMD) (OTCQX: MRMD) announced that Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder Robert Fireman died unexpectedly on December 11, 2022. The company said it will provide further information on succession once the Board has had an opportunity to determine the best path forward. “Bob Fireman worked tirelessly and passionately until his last day as Chairman and CEO of MariMed to fulfill our mission of improving people’s lives, much as he did as a philanthropist who cared so deeply about the people and community around him,” said Jon Levine. “He was my business partner and dear friend, and I...

A cross-country winter storm is expected to bring severe weather, including heavy snow and flooding, to multiple states as it makes its way across the central U.S. Heavy snow and blizzard conditions are expected to smash into the Great Plains and the Midwest beginning late Monday and stretching into Thursday, the National Weather Service forecasted. The major storm will "produce numerous, widespread, and impactful weather hazards in the heart of the country this week," NWS said. **SNIP** The Weather Channel's Mike Bettes on Monday told "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell that heavy snow and strong wind...

Tamari Key, who sat out Tennessee’s 69-39 win over Chattanooga on Tuesday, will miss the remainder of the season after blood clots were found in her lungs, the team announced. The Vols senior has been an integral part of the roster since her freshman year. Tuesday’s game was the first she had missed since beginning her career at Tennessee. “My sole concern right now is that Tamari continues to get the medical care and guidance she needs and begins the gradual process of healing and returning to full strength,” coach Kellie Harper told reporters Thursday. “This is much bigger than...

Jazzy the dog has been reunited with her owners seven years after running away, a Florida animal shelter said.She was found more than 800 miles (1,280 km) away from her home state of Texas. Jazzy was left behind in a hotel in Florida and could barely walk when Orange County Animal Services discovered her earlier this month. The Orlando animal shelter was shocked when they scanned Jazzy's microchip and tracked down her Texas owners. "We've had reunions that brought together families and pets that were apart for maybe a few years," Bryant Almeida, the public information officer for Orange County...

The Washington Post was forced to issue a correction to an op-ed piece that lamented the absence of black players on Argentina’s national soccer team — even though the black population of the South American country is less than 1%. The correction was attached to a Dec. 8 “Perspective” piece by author Erika Denise Edwards, who wrote an op-ed as part of the newspaper’s “Made by History” series. “Why doesn’t Argentina have more black players in the World Cup?” read the headline of the op-ed.

A 54-year-old man fell to his death while canyoneering alone in Death Valley National Park, according to park services. On Dec. 3, the man was found on the West Fork route in Mosaic Canyon. He was not reported missing, which means the search did not start in time to save his life, according to a park spokesperson. Park rangers and SAR team members noticed that the man’s rope was not long enough to reach the ground on a long rappel. According to Death Valley, he tied a piece of webbing to the end of the rope but he appeared to...

A programme of therapy involving the drug ketamine will be made available to alcoholics in a research project. The University of Exeter-led trial, with funding of £2.4m, will go ahead at seven NHS sites across the UK. The trial will look into whether a combination of ketamine and therapy could help alcoholics stay sober for longer. Prof Celia Morgan, the academic behind the research, said there was an "urgent need" for new treatments. The research will go ahead after a phase two trial showed ketamine and therapy treatment was safe and tolerable for heavy drinkers. An earlier study found participants...

Many Republicans in Florida are very serious and upset about election integrity. Unfortunately, it seems the Republican Party upper echelons are not among those who are worried about the free and fair election of our leaders. The 'why' part of that question can be dealt with in another article, but let's delve into one specific example of avoiding dealing with serious, large scale election fraud in 'The Free State of Florida' shall we?Below is a letter recently sent to the FL Secretary of Elections, Secretary of State, Governor's office, Miami-Dade election officials, and Florida law enforcement - specifically the Elections...

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." "And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him." "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."...

California scientists may have discovered a source of unlimited clean energy by recreating the process of nuclear fusion which powers the sun. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in Livermore were able to spark a fusion reaction that briefly sustained itself - a major feat because fusion requires such high temperatures and pressures that it easily fizzles out. The experiment was performed in August, but reported for the first time earlier this month. Similar tests have been performed before, but this was the first one that generated more energy than was used to create...

How can she conduct an impartial investigation of his Ponzi scheme? ... Sam Bankman-Fried, according to Victor Davis Hanson, “may have robbed perhaps a million investors, and along with them hundreds of large institutional investors.” He “protected from federal securities regulators, had drained off, lost, hidden, or spent billions of dollars of other people’s money.” Now his dear friend Maxine Waters (D-Incitement), who was caught on video blowing him a kiss in December 2021, will be leading an investigation into his sleazy FTX Ponzi scheme as Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Waters initially stepped on a rake when...

[H/T Melian] Have you seen President Trump's powerful 4 minute video message? Don't miss it!A NATION IN DECLINEQ is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation.Q describes this awakening as follows: "The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a backchannel to the public (away from the longstanding 'mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media)...

Ken Griffin, who contributed $5 million to DeSantis' reelection campaign, also donated to Biden and Obama's presidential runs.The Republican Governor of Florida seems to be putting together a 2024 presidential run against former President Donald Trump, who is expected to announce his campaign soon.During Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial reelection campaign this cycle, his largest donation came from Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of Citadel, a massive investment firm.Griffin donated a whopping $5 million to the Republican governor’s ongoing campaign.The billionaire CEO told Politico how he hopes DeSantis will run for president in 2024. Griffin, who contributed $500,000 to Joe Biden’s 2020...

President Trump slapped the current system of weaponized justice in the U.S. on Friday, labeling the scandalous slate of revelations released this week in the wake of the “Twitter Files” drop as part of a broader and perhaps even Orwellian society. “Police State!” Trump remarked simply, captioning a re-post of an earlier statement he made about the shocking data.He previously wrote, “WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE FBI & ‘JUSTICE’ DEPARTMENT? THEY SEEM TO BE TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL! THERE IS, RIGHT NOW, A ‘WEAPONIZATION’ OF JUSTICE THE LIKES OF WHICH OUR COUNTRY HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE.”This week, Trump also...

All eight defendants have been found guilty over the July 2016 lorry attack in the southern French city of Nice in which 86 people were killed. Seven men and a woman were sentenced by a special court in Paris to jail terms ranging from two to 18 years. Three were convicted of association with a terrorist, while five others were found guilty of supplying weapons. The attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was shot dead after driving a lorry into crowds on Bastille Day. The 31-year-old Tunisian ploughed through a crowd of some 30,000 people...victims included 15 children.

After nearly two years of rampant price increases that appear to have no end in sight, one thing is clear: The economic forecasters amplified by the corrupt corporate media are always wrong. You wouldn’t know it from headlines suggesting inflation is “easing,” “cooling,” and “slowing,” but November’s consumer price index advanced 7.1 percent since this time last year. Nearly two years into Joe Biden’s presidency, U.S. inflation has reportedly climbed 13.8 percent and is still lingering near the four-decade highs that burdened Americans for the last 24 months. Gas prices last month may have dropped to an average of $3.25...