Free Republic

Massachusetts is considering trust funds, aimed at reducing the racial wealth gap, for the state's poorest newborns that the recipients would be able to access when they turn 18. The "baby bonds" would be an at-birth publicly funded trust fund program for Massachusetts residents, to be used for college, buying a home or starting a business. The amount given to each eligible newborn would depend on their household income, although it doesn't give a maximum amount or specify who would qualify for the funds. "Children born into households with low income (which are disproportionately households of color) are prioritized through...

Ukraine may have to prioritize spending on defense above paying salaries if the EU and U.S. do not approve more aid soon, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said in an interview with the Financial Times on Dec. 27.Congress has been unable to pass a $61 billion funding package for Ukraine amid months of infighting, while Hungary vetoed a four-year EU funding package for Ukraine worth $55 billion at the European Council summit in mid-December."The support of partners is extremely critical," Svyrydenko told the Financial Times. "We need it urgently.""There's a huge risk of underfunding of certain social...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. Christmas Day in 1776 George Washington's "Victory or Death" I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but...

An emergency phone call between a distressed woman put in danger by a home intruder and a 9-1-1 operator who says she has no officers to dispatch perfectly illustrates the importance of gun ownership. In the 9-1-1 phone call going viral on social media, a woman who locked herself inside her home explains to the operator her angry violent ex-boyfriend who has hospitalized her in the past is outside her home attempting to break in. [snip] “My ex-boyfriend is trying to break into my house. I’m not letting him in, but he’s like trying to break down the door and...

By not punishing shoplifters, looters, rioters, and other criminals, Democrat cities have turned many of their neighborhoods into food deserts. (1/5) #FoodDesert #BLM #shoplifting #riot #looting #crime #softoncrime #socialjustice #poverty #hunger #liberal #progressive #Democrat https://web.archive.org/web/20201121054539/https://old.post-gazette.com/pg/08358/937017-85.stm https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-longfellow-neighborhood-almost-food-desert-after-riots/570928442/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200609190703/https://www.wbez.org/stories/in-chicagos-poorest-areas-recovery-may-be-long-if-it-comes-at-all/4ec11642-b45f-4c32-9e48-66ab206d14d5 https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/emails-reveal-frustration-with-city-led-sodo-food-desert/PXM5GXPPDJEBJO4J6TAJZADOPY/ https://www.ipi.org/ipi_issues/detail/those-food-deserts-may-become-food-wastelands (2/5) https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Fk1zrva8R_wJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/02/minneapolis-school-asked-people-donate-food-students-after-looting-closed-stores-miles-cars-lined-up/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us https://komonews.com/news/local/crime-prompts-sodos-only-grocery-store-to-close https://www.fox29.com/news/looting-forces-germantown-stores-to-close-leaving-residents-with-limited-access-to-food https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/06/03/chicagos-south-side-left-with-few-food-options-after-weekend-violence/ (3/5) https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/06/02/black-girls-break-bread-steps-in-as-looting-leaves-food-deserts-even-worse-off/ https://abc7chicago.com/looted-pharmacies-grocery-stores-remain-closed-while-residents-scramble-for-essentials/6227663/ https://thesource.com/2020/06/06/chicago-food-deserts-grow-on-citys-south-side-due-to-looting-during-recent-protests/ https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Walgreens-to-close-5-more-S-F-stores-citing-16528444.php (4/5) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/walgreens-close-five-stores-san-francisco-theft-shoplifting/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/13/walgreens-closes-5-more-locations-san-francisco-over-shoplifting/8434183002/ https://blackdoctor.org/looters-leave-more-food-deserts-in-black-communities https://web.archive.org/web/20210601041405/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/us/san-francisco-shoplifting-epidemic.html https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/04/neighborhoods-where-stores-were-destroyed-become-food-deserts-overnight/ (5/5)

The young women of the West are not okay. They are bawling and screeching. They are locking arms and ripping papers. The best—or at least the most credentialed—minds of their generation are proudly displaying various ways of being destroyed by madness. They’ve been trending this way for a while, but the Jewish state broke them. First, they took to the streets tearing down pictures of Israelis taken hostage by terrorists and civilians of Gaza. Overnight, poster removal became a global trend, spreading from one Western city to another. Most of the vandals caught in the act of methodically destroying the...

The teachers at Munkevaengets School are threatened by students in the oldest classes - and now it has emerged that the [Muslim] students have a 'haram police' who, among other things, check other students' lunches for pork"We are doing all parties a disservice if we just stand by and let Muslim culture take over." We must dare to talk about it, and we politicians should probably take the lead and take the difficult debates. Angry, speechless and upset This is what Anders Kronborg, Social Democratic Folketing member and naturalization spokesman, says to JydskeVestkysten about the self-appointed "haram police" that some...

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has decided Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot.

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally in a decision that has potential Electoral College consequences. While Maine has just four electoral votes, it’s one of two states to split them. Trump won one of Maine’s electors in 2020, so having him off the ballot there should he emerge as the Republican general election candidate could have outsized implications in a race that is expected to be narrowly decided.

We must have been fifteen or sixteen when we discovered the church visitor’s book. It was an old church, maybe medieval, and I would pass it with my school friends on our way to the town center. I’m not sure what possessed us to go in; it might have been my idea. I’ve always loved old churches. For a long time, I would tell myself that I liked the sense of history or the architecture, which was true as far as it went. Like the narrator in Philip Larkin’s poem “Church Going,” I would venture into any church I found,...

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, December 28 at 8:07 p.m. ET for Falcon Heavy’s launch of the USSF-52 mission to orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A backup launch opportunity is available at 8:06 p.m. ET on Friday, December 29. A live webcast of this mission will begin on X @SpaceX about fifteen minutes prior to liftoff. This will be the fifth launch and landing of these Falcon Heavy side boosters, which previously supported USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes JUPTER 3, and NASA’s Psyche mission. Following booster separation, Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters will land on...

SpaceX's fifth Falcon Heavy of the year is set to liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center carrying the US Space Force X-37B spaceplane. Falcon Heavy - USSF-52 (OTV-7) Window Opens: December 28th at 8:07PM EST (01:07 UTC on the 29th) Window Closes: December 28th at 8:17PM EST (01:17 UTC on the 29th) Current T0: December 28th at 8:07PM EST (01:00 UTC on the 29th)

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American Paul Whelan said he is "extremely concerned about being left behind" in Russia again, as the Biden administration looks to cut a deal with the Kremlin to release U.S. detainees. In one of several phone calls over the Christmas holiday, Whelan told WTOP that the Russians are "adamant" about doing "one-for-one exchanges," which he worries will result in Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's release and not his own. "At this point, the five-year mark, I'm extremely concerned about being left behind a third time," Whelan said. "I'm concerned that the Biden administration will work out a deal for...

CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger said Thursday on CNN’s “News Central” that voters “brainwashed” by former President Donald Trump needed to hear the “truth” from 2024 GOP hopeful former Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ). In a campaign ad, Christie said, “Some people say I should drop out of this race. Really? I’m the only one saying Donald Trump is a liar. He puts Americans against each other. His Christmas message to anyone who disagrees with him, rot in hell. He caused a riot on Capital Hill, he will burn America to the ground to help himself. Every Republican leader says that in...

Twenty years ago, after my first trip as a government minister to 13 college campuses in the United States, I told Ariel Sharon, then Israel’s prime minister, that in my opinion, the main battlefield for the future of the Jewish people lies in American academia. Since then, I appeared dozens of times at different universities, and with each visit I witnessed the new antisemitism growing stronger. In light of this experience, I insisted in many conversations with liberal American Jews that while left- and right-wing antisemitism are connected and both are very dangerous, it is the left-wing variety that poses...

DENVER, CO — Facing critics over their 4-3 decision to remove Trump from the presidential ballot in 2024, Colorado's Supreme Court insisted it was a necessary step due to concerns the usual election rigging system could fail. "I know we have all the normal rigging techniques available to us, but we're worried that Trump's lead could grow so much that those efforts will fail to protect our democracy as they did in 2020," said Justice Richard Gabriel. "Rest assured, we will not rest until we save democracy by making it completely illegal to vote for Trump. You're welcome, America!" Pollsters...

A federal appeals court on Thursday denied President Trump’s motion seeking to delay the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial set for January 15, 2024, in Manhattan. Trump’s attorney asked the appeals court to give the former president 90 days to stay the trial and give him the option to take the fight to the US Supreme Court. “The requested stays are necessary and appropriate to give President Trump an opportunity to fully litigate his entitlement to present an immunity defense in the underlying proceedings, including pursuing the appeal in the Supreme Court if necessary,” Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba wrote, according...

A CNN contributor who claims to be a Catholic priest made the dual false claims on the air that Jesus was a “Palestinian” and that he was “homeless.” Father Edward Beck appeared on CNN early on Christmas morning and made the effort to link the birth of Christ to the current confrontation going on in Gaza between the nation of Israel and the terrorists of Hamas. But instead of being praised for an uplifting message, the commentator faced an intense backlash for being so embarrassingly wrong about the birth and lineage of Jesus Christ. During the segment, Beck was asked...

UW-La Crosse Chancellor, Dr. Joe Gow, has been fired by the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents for, essentially, discovering he’s posted porn videos with his wife online and has been affiliating with actors in the adult film industry.