Free Republic

OPINION: You have to give the Democrats credit. You can count on them to do the politically smart thing even in defeat. This is why they’ve made a deal with Senate Republicans to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill to keep the government funded for the next fiscal year now rather than wait for the Republicans to take over the House of Representatives in January. What’s not clear is why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP Senate colleagues are going along. Depending on whose version of the story you’re hearing — one says congressional Republicans were cut...

A Florida man was arrested after deputies discovered a large quantity of crack cocaine and trafficking amounts of fentanyl and heroin following a vehicle pursuit. “Holley Delton Jones, 46, of Lehigh Acres, Florida, is charged with 15 felonies, most of them narcotics related. At the time of his arrest Jones was on parole for trafficking ecstasy,” said Collier County Sheriff’s Office. According to deputies, Jones was driving a bronze GMC Yukon on Wiggins Pass Road near U.S. 41 N. around midnight when deputies tried to pull him over for a traffic violation. Jones decided to accelerate and drove recklessly through...

Electric car manufacturer Tesla’s stock value is below $150, making it the lowest stock value since CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter in October. Just before 3 p.m. Tuesday, the stock was trading at $140.34, the lowest the price has been since November 2020. Shares opened up on Monday just below $150 a share, with hopes from investors that Mr. Musk would step down as CEO of Twitter after a public poll on the site had the majority of users calling for him to step down. Mr. Musk has made no mention of when he will step down. He had...

You’ll notice a striking difference between election news coverage now and the leadup to the 2016 presidential primaries: The mainstream media have hardly breathed a word about Donald Trump (except to say that he’s not doing well in their “polls” and so obviously voters must want him out of the race). Back when Trump was making his run for the nomination in 2015, the newspapers couldn’t keep him off their front pages. He got hours of coverage on every news network every day.But that was back when most Republicans (myself included) didn’t consider Trump a serious candidate. The media decided...

Blessed Dom Marmion on Catholics, Protestants, and the Worsening Crisis in the Churchopes Benedict XV and Pius XII praised the works of Blessed Dom Columba Marmion (1858-1923) for their holiness and wisdom, and few other writers living in the past 100 years have offered anything as spiritually nourishing as the books of the Abbot of Maredsous Abbey. His Christ: The Ideal of the Monk (1922) is no exception — his great love for God and the Faith shines forth from every page — but it is the book’s description of the differences between Catholics and Protestants that deserves particular attention...

The hits on this horror show just keep coming. A joint report out this morning from the WaPo, Texas Tribune, and ProPublica will cause the bile and tears to well up all over again. Oh, my God, is it hard to read. Not just a retelling of some of the more gut-wrenching moments of the siege and botched operation, but a detailed analysis of the emergency medical response to the school shooting. Nineteen kiddos and two teachers died, and the emergency services story is another complete and total disaster.

TikTok records every keystroke, click, swipe, and text communication—including information written but not sent by the user—when users enter other websites through the app. That level of surveillance not only goes beyond user expectations, but in some states, it is a violation of wiretapping laws, a class action lawsuit filed last week in Pennsylvania alleges. The case claims TikTok violates the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, which bans the interception and recording of private communications without prior consent of all parties to the conversation. For example, to record a phone conversation, both parties must agree to the recording....

A prominent “woke” New York City artist, who “identifies” as “non-binary queer,” has been caught trying to rape a 9-year-old boy, according to police. 35-year-old Efrem Zelony-Mindell was arrested on Friday for trying to arrange sexual intercourse with a 9-year-old boy in NYC. Zelony-Mindell was arrested and charged with attempted enticement of a minor and possession and distribution of child pornography. Prosecutors allege that Zelony-Mindell contacted an FBI undercover agent, believing he was the father of a 9-year-old boy. He then tried to arrange to have anal intercourse with the young child. “Zelony-Mindell allegedly attempted to engage in sexual activity...

‘Descent into Hell’: An alleged Rupnik victim speaks outAn alleged victim of Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik has detailed the sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse she said she suffered as a religious sisterAn alleged victim of Slovenian Jesuit artist Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik detailed on Sunday the sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse she said she suffered as a religious sister, in a new interview with Italian media.Allegations against the Jesuit priest have become a point of scandal in the Church, after Rupnik was accused of serially abusing Slovenian consecrated women in the 1980s and 1990s.The allegations were sent to the Dicastery...

Virgin Atlantic just announced that it’ll operate a net zero carbon transatlantic flight in 2023. The flight will use 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as part of the airline’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. The science and other stuff to know Virgin Atlantic has secured £1 million of Government funding to fly a Boeing 787 jet from London Heathrow to New York JFK in 2023 using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) instead of kerosene. The airline will partner with Imperial College London researchers, Rolls-Royce, Boeing, and researchers from the University of Sheffield in the project. Boeing...

There is a new cable news ratings champion. Nielsen data for 2022 rank the Fox News round table program “The Five” as the most watched show in cable news with an average of 3.5 million viewers. The figure tops “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which averaged 3.3 million viewers for the year. The figure for the Fox News prime-time show is up 3% over 2021 when it was the most watched program for the year. But “The Five” grew more, up 17% over 2021. The program, which airs live at 5 p.m. Eastern and 2 p.m. Pacific, is also the first cable...

WASHINGTON — The $1.7 trillion government funding bill released Tuesday includes extra money for the Justice Department to prosecute Jan. 6 cases. Congress is hoping to pass it this week. The package gives U.S. attorneys a budget of $2.63 billion for the coming fiscal year, a $212.1 million boost above current levels. One reason for the additional money is “to further support prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and domestic terrorism cases,” according to a summary provided by the House Appropriations Committee. As NBC News reported in October, the department said it was in critical need...

The YouTuber Auto Archaeology muscle car gold on his drive home to Wisconsin. parked white 1969 Oldsmobile Hurst/OldsYouYube Channel Auto Archaeology The most satisfying finds are those that you're not even looking for. Whether it is a 1968 Plymouth Road Runner for $250, or a few Shelby Mustangs in an airport hanger, sometimes great classic cars appear almost out of nowhere. That's what happened to Ryan Brutt from the YouTube channel Auto Archeology on his drive home to Wisconsin recently. When passing by a stranger's garage, Ryan noticed a 1969 Dodge Super Bee and a 1969 Oldsmobile Hurst/Olds, both of...

The flu season is off to an alarming start. Hospitalizations from influenza are at their highest levels in the last decade, and case counts are rising across the country. Meanwhile, vaccination rates have fallen well below historical trends. This, plus a surge of other respiratory viruses, has contributed to what some are calling a pediatric care crisis in many parts of the country. Thankfully, some members of Congress are taking long-overdue action to improve the way our country prepares for and responds to seasonal and pandemic flu. Public health experts typically look to the Southern Hemisphere for a signal of...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging her troops to get behind a massive bill to fund the government through most of next year, touting new funding for Democratic priorities and citing an urgency to get the package to President Biden’s desk before a potential shutdown at week’s end. In a letter to fellow Democrats, the outgoing Speaker cited a number of Democratic victories in the package, including provisions to hike nutrition funding for low-income children, provide a huge increase in money for veterans health care, and lend assistance to the victims of natural disasters around the country.

Natural gas has crashed by about 25% over the past week, from $7 to $5.38, and has been practically cut in half since $10 since Aug/Sept. What happened? Nothing unusual, producers got off their butts and overproduced while prices were high and killed the shortage. But the shortages in NE are due as much or more due to the lack of transport infrastructure to that region than actual shortage of the commodity...which is measured at salt dome/storage in TX and the midwest, NOT at the end of the pipe in Billerica, MA. This is a perfect example of the folly...

Growing up in St. Petersburg, Dasha, a 29-year-old marketer and artist, dreamed of having a “complete family.” Raised by her mother and grandmother, her father left when she was in elementary school. ”I grew up thinking that I would be married and have a family of my own before I turned 25,” she told Fortune. But Russia’s political instability and financial uncertainties have recently led her to renounce having kids. In Dasha’s lifetime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine twice; the war’s consequences have taken a heavy toll on everyday Russians like her. Life in Russia has become “too...

Concerns over a new multi-front Russian offensive in Ukraine are legitimate but exaggerated. Lukashenko is deeply hesitant to participate in Putin's war. The dictator has so far resisted significant pressure from Putin to join. Lukashenko recognizes the battlefield crisis facing Russia and wants to avoid further Western sanctions against his struggling country's economy. Even if he is an odd character, Lukashenko is not stupid. He knows that the war unpopular in Belarus, and the Belorussian military is relatively small. If the Belorussian military enters the war and suffers major losses, Lukashenko risks losing his means of controlling restive population. That...

There were explosions in the Russian city of Shebekino, Belgorod Oblast, which is not far from the border with Ukraine. Part of the city has been left without electricity, and there is a wounded person.Source: Russian Telegram channels; Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of Belgorod Oblast, on TelegramQuote from Gladkov: "The Shebekino City district is being shelled. According to preliminary information, there is one casualty, a man with fractured forearm bones.The power supply has been disrupted as a result of the shelling. One-third of the city’s residents are left without power.", ' , , . ³ Telegram- pic.twitter.com/aon4roTaD1— ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) December 20,...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) requested at least 19 earmarks totaling over $60 million in the $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page omnibus bill. If the bill passes both chambers of Congress, Murkowski’s state of Alaska will be granted by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on behalf of American taxpayers, $60,852,000 worth of pork for housing and urban development, along with infrastructure. The specifics of the many line items include: Providence Alaska-Permanent Supportive Housing for Providence Alaska Foundation ($7,500,000) Cabin Community Projects for Sitka Homeless Coalition ($1,000,000) Rehabilitation of Bering Sea Women’s Shelter for Bering Sea Women’s Group ($2,000,000) Norton Sound Health Corporation Housing for...