Free Republic

The Biden administration is casting its plan to phase out the use of natural gas in federal buildings in favor of clean energy as a "cost-effective" move that will save taxpayers millions each year. That's baloney, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of federal data, which indicates that a Biden administration statement touting the plan's frugality excludes the administration's own findings on the increased cost of green energy sources as compared with natural gas. In that statement, President Joe Biden's Energy Department says the proposed natural gas phaseout "would save taxpayers $8 million annually in upfront equipment costs," a...

Stanford University published an index of "harmful language" it plans to eliminate from the school’s websites and computer code, offering terms to be used as replacements. The Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative, which was revealed in May, is a "multi-phase, multi-year project to address harmful language in IT at Stanford," according to the guide. Many of the terms in the index offered longer alternatives for terms that described a person by one characteristic. These terms include replacing "immigrant" with "a person who has immigrated," "prisoner" with "a person who is/was incarcerated" and "homeless person" with "a person without housing." Other...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that Republican unwillingness to back the Democrat immigration reform is causing “chaos” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Anchor Jim Sciutto asked, “Another issue, and you’ve been watching events at the border with this open question as to whether Title 42 expires and when. I know that passing immigration reform in this country on Capitol Hill is just tough. There is a lot of opposition from Republicans, not a lot of political will from many Democrats, but Democrats have had majority in both chambers for two years. I know you need ten votes...

FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT Luke 1:26-38Friends, in today’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she has been chosen to be the mother of God.In the face of this overwhelming word, Mary is confused: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And she cannot begin to imagine the full consequences of accepting this invitation: shame, exile, violent pursuit, the final agony on Calvary.And yet, despite her fear and despite the darkness, she says, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” At the crucial moment,...

Investors should have known that Sam Bankman-Fried's unique personal brand was not a replacement for reliable economics and market principles.The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York officially charged cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) with eight counts of fraud and conspiracy, calling the collapse of FTX “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also sued SBF for fraud on the same day. These lawsuits came just the day after the Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested SBF. Although the FTX case...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to one of the most dangerous battlefronts in the war against Russia Tuesday when visiting with his troops on the front lines in Bakhmut. The small city in eastern Donetsk and its surrounding area has come to look like a scene out of World War II, as men fill muddy and freezing trenches that wind through destroyed landscapes, while the remnants of pummeled apartment blocks and scorched buildings show the effects of months of shelling in Bakhmut. -snip- Zelenskyy’s visit comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time conceded Tuesday that his 10-month-long...

Some version of justice has finally been served for Gibson’s Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio, but it’s clear where the power lies in this country.After six years, justice — or some version of it — has finally been served for Gibson’s Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio. After having its name dragged through the mud for alleged racism because it tried to hold an admitted shoplifter accountable for his crime, the almost 140-year-old family business last week received a $36.6 million settlement from a defamation suit it filed against Oberlin College in 2017. The case was appealed all the way to the Ohio...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit halted President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate Monday after a lawsuit from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. "We do not, and cannot, rule on the efficacy of any vaccine, the wisdom of the President’s action, or even whether or not this action would, in fact, increase economy and efficiency in federal contracting. Today, we are asked, where Congress has not authorized the issuance of this mandate, whether the President may nonetheless exercise this power. We hold that he may not," the ruling states. "As the Government’s brief makes clear, questions...

The top court in Massachusetts has ruled that doctors have no right to prescribe lethal drugs for patients with terminal illnesses under the state’s constitution, dealing a blow to advocates who hoped the state would be the first in the nation to guarantee such a constitutional right. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled 4-2 against the lawsuit filed in 2016 by a doctor seeking to overturn the commonwealth’s common-law prohibition on physician-assisted suicide. The ruling leaves doctors who prescribe such drugs liable to be prosecuted for manslaughter. “Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all end-of-life...

State ecology and environmental panels in Oregon and Washington have approved plans to transition vehicles in their states to meet zero emission standards by 2035. The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission voted on Friday to require all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emissions, while the Washington Department of Ecology updated its Clean Vehicles Program to require all new, light-duty vehicles sold in the state to meet zero emissions by that year. Both states are following California’s lead in moving toward zero-emission vehicles, adopting identical policies. The Clean Air Act allowed California to establish emissions...

Devin Nunes and his Foreign Intelligence Committee caught the DOJ/FBI spying on Donald Trump and were subpoenaing records from the top law enforcement agency in 2017. The FBI reacted by turning it around and spying on Nunes’s staff and Devin Nunes. Specifically, the Special Counsel handled the spying. The Justice Department’s Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Andy Weissman used grand jury subpoenas to secretly obtain the personal email and phone data of at least two top House Intelligence Committee investigators – Devin Nunes’s lawyers – back in November 2017, reports Just the News. It’s likely more than two. This was...

On Monday, the partisan January 6 committee declared that it would refer former President Donald Trump—and others they claim are culpable for the Capitol riot—to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.This was hardly surprising. The entire purpose of the J6 Committee was not a legitimate investigation of the events of that day but rather a taxpayer-funded partisan witchhunt with the sole intention of preventing Trump from becoming president again.Outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) admitted it earlier this year when she said, “the single most important thing, though, is to ensure that Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee and...

The nation's largest annual conference for Millennial and Gen-Z conservatives, AmericaFest, drew tens of thousands of attendees who seem divided on who should win the 2024 nomination—a troubling sign for the former president. As Trump acolytes, like his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, sang praises for Trump's 2024 campaign, many event speakers avoided endorsing the former president and interviews with attendees revealed that many aren't prepared to commit to another Trump term just yet. The four-day event in Phoenix, Arizona, is a glaring red flag for Trump's campaign. It signals there may not be...

The big news today is that Elon Musk has agreed to step down from running Twitter because 57% of over 17 million poll respondents said he should go. There’s no doubt that Musk will keep his promise, but you can be sure he’ll do it in his own time and his own way. After all, he’s already shown that he has a puckish sense of humor and a chaotic but highly effective management style. The moment Musk took over Twitter, he had the place in an uproar. He instantly fired many people and then fired people he’d initially said he...

It never even mentions NINETEEN twenty-one, as opposed to 2021. I think this must've been secretly the Biden campaign's theme song. If you don't recognize it, it's from The Who's rock-opera, "Tommy." It's how Tommy, the "Pinball Wizard" ended up rendered psychologically "blind, deaf and dumb.": Got a feeling '21 is going to be a good year Especially if you and me see it in together So you think '21 is going to be a good year? It could be good for me and her but not for you, no never! I had no reason to be over optimistic but...

@ChadPergram Senate to take procedural vote at 2:30 pm et to begin debate on omnibus spending bill. This procedural vote comes 13 hours after appropriators released the bill. The Senate's goal is to pass the bill by Thursday & send it to the House by Friday

A man was arrested Sunday night after Nazi symbols were found carved into the base of a large menorah in Beverly Hills on the first night of Hanukkah. Officers responded to reports of a man vandalizing a menorah near Sunset Boulevard and Foothill Road, according to a statement released by the Beverly Hills Police Department. The suspect, Eric Brian King, of Dallas, Texas, was captured on surveillance cameras hurling objects at the menorah, police said, and is now under investigation for felony, vandalism and a hate crime.

Video footage on social media shows Ukrainian forces continuing capture and redeploy Russian tanks – even using captured Russian tanks to commandeer more of them. In one video recorded from inside of a car, a captured Russian tank towing a recently-captured Russian MT-LB armored personnel carrier. In the footage, multiple Ukrainian soldiers can be seen sitting on top of the tank as it tows the captured MT-LB personnel carrier. One soldier appears to wave as they pass the individual recording from inside their car. The video, shared on Ukrainian social media channels and then re-uploaded to Twitter by Ukraine Weapons...

Kelly Conlon and her daughter came to New York City the weekend after Thanksgiving as part of a Girl Scout field trip to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular show. But while her daughter, other members of the Girl Scout troop and their mothers got to go enjoy the show, Conlon wasn't allowed to do so. That's because to Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Conlon isn't just any mom. They had identified and zeroed in on her, as security guards approached her right as he got into the lobby. "They knew my name before I told them. They...

"...There are numerous reasons that unemployed Americans aren't entering the workforce, including ongoing fears of COVID-19, disabilities such as "long COVID," and other care responsibilities. One factor that is contributing to the relatively low labor force participation rate is the combination of unemployment benefits and recently expanded Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, according a new study by the nonprofit Committee to Unleash Prosperity. In 14 states, unemployment benefits and ACA subsidies for a family of four with two people not working amounts to an annualized equivalent of $80,000 a year in wages and benefits, the study found. Those benefits come...