Free Republic

... Of course, with so many people expected to visit, security is a priority. Rome’s mayor has promised heightened security measures, including extra police and high-tech surveillance, to keep pilgrims safe after recent concerns over attacks at European holiday markets. ... All information about the celebrations is available on the official Jubilee web portal. On the website, pilgrims can register for Jubilee events, activate their account and receive a digital card, pilgrim card, and an identification QR code. ... No tickets are required to attend the celebration from St. Peter's Square, but attendees should register for the event through the...

“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan” (Matthew 3:13). There is something majestic about Jesus’ baptism that brought all the previous events of His earthly life into focus. Here He came fully onto the stage of the gospel story and His work and ministry truly began. Following an eternity past in heaven and thirty years of obscurity in Nazareth, God presented the Savior publicly to the world. John the Baptist, as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” had heralded the coming of the Messiah (3:3; cf. Isa. 40:3), and now He was fully and publicly prepared to...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, Religious Freedom 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. "Finally, brothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God...

I know many of you are veterans so this might make your blood boil. A silver alert was issued in Tennessee for a veteran with Alzheimers. He was found in Kentucky and an officer from the Guthrie Police Department punched him out and knocked him unconscious.

Happy New Year!

This is a brave girl. While ‘Karmageddon’ has sparked significant conversation and controversy, Iyah has stood her ground. She refused to compromise her vision when asked to change a key lyric line, leading to the end of her contract with her manager. She chose to walk away from her record label and now, fully independent, Iyah continues to carve her own path as an artist. Her fearless approach is shaped by her unique perspective as a qualified medical doctor, having worked on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A blackout hit nearly all of Puerto Rico early on Tuesday as the U.S. territory prepared to celebrate New Year’s, leaving more than 1.3 million clients in the dark. Officials said it could take up to two days to restore power. The outage hit at dawn, plunging the island into an eerie silence as electrical appliances and air conditioners shut down before those who could afford generators turned them on. “It had to be on the 31st of December!” exclaimed one man, who only gave his name as Manuel, as he stood outside a...

At about 3:15 p.m. on Dec. 23, as a powerful winter swell raged on the California coast and left the Santa Cruz Wharf snapped and floating in the ocean, Alessandro “Alo” Slebir pointed his surfboard down the face of a growing wall of water. What came next may end up in the history books.

:-)

Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries says far-right Georgia congresswoman’s motion to oust Mike Johnson ‘will not succeed’ Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives vowed that the Georgia extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene “will not succeed” if she triggers an attempt to remove the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, from his role. ...

President-elect Trump is headed for a battle over the debt limit with conservative lawmakers who are demanding steep cuts to federal spending that will significantly complicate Trump’s ability to pass his agenda next year. Thirty-eight House Republicans sent a warning to Trump last week by rejecting his demand to extend the nation’s borrowing authority for two years, casting doubt on Trump’s influence over GOP conservatives. Conservatives now say Trump will need to agree to deep cuts in spending if he wants their support for raising the debt limit in 2025. “We’re about 33 percent overdrawn. We bring in about $4.8...

An Indiana National Guard officer serving in Iraq died on Saturday... The outgoing Democrat governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper commuting 15 death sentences... Canadian politics and an influential group of Liberal Party MP's want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign...a new Angus Reid Poll shows the Liberal Party in third... Two projectiles fired into Israel from Gaza... The US Central Command announcing air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen... Police in Finland making their case to the media against a Russian-affiliated oil tanker they seized... The president of the African nation of Zimbabwe signing a bill abolishing the death...

At a certain point after following politics closely, you move away from reacting to events and begin to focus on proactively predicting events. You start to develop a mental tuning fork that finds the frequency of DC compromise. In essence, you begin to assemble data and take notes on visible activity that indicates compromise.Those notes then becomes predictive data and you keep it visible for later reference when trying to review motives and motivations for the DC schemes. Generally, if you keep close watch and take good notes, you will catch around 80% of the public datapoints that highlight the...

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) – one of Governor Ron DeSantis’s most prominent supporters and lay advisers – will vote against efforts to hold Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff accountable for peddling Russia-gate conspiracies which led to countless conflicts in U.S. politics, and millions spent by authorities “investigating” the matter.Massie’s Congressional colleague Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) filed a motion to “censure, condemn, and fine” Rep. Schiff (D-CA) for pushing Russia-gate even after the Durham Report concluded the federal investigation into alleged Trump-Russia links had been baseless and biased..Schiff is renowned for telling outright lies in an effort to destabilize a sitting...

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) said on Wednesday that the successful effort last October to oust Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker of the House “has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster.” The Kentucky Republican — a top ally of Ron DeSantis’s failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination — made the remark in a post on X (formerly Twitter), expressing frustration with the leadership of new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).“Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster,” Massie said before claiming McCarthy’s ouster derailed the House Republican agenda: “All work on separate spending bills has ceased....

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not deserve a second term in leadership and would cost the GOP its majority in the lower chamber if reelected. “Johnson is not up for this task,” Massie wrote in a Tuesday post on the social platform X, responding to criticism from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) that Republicans opposing Johnson were “in effect the allies of Democrats.” “I challenge them to explain what their end game is other than noise,” Gingrich wrote. Massie countered the former Speaker by listing the ways he thought Johnson failed to measure...

Tech mogul Elon Musk has been crashing at Mar-a-Lago since Donald Trump got re-elected on Nov. 5, with the close confidant to the president-elect paying upward of $2,000 per night to sleep in an elite suite, according to a new report. … Musk — the richest man in the world — had been galivanting around the estate, dining with the soon-to-be 47th president’s family, pausing for lunches on the posh balcony and even going out on the golf course with Trump’s granddaughter Kai. … The X owner has also been purportedly looped in on phone conversations with the president-elect and...

more often than not, an unwanted sequel comes out, and it is rarely as good as the original. Although, in a few are better than the original (Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2). Can't think of a prequel better than the original currently. In any case, which movies would you like to see with a prequel or a sequel?

John Solomon @jsolomonReports Massie continues criticism of Johnson, warning he will cost GOP its majority if he stays speaker From justthenews.com 6:01 PM · Dec 31, 2024

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) commuted death sentences for 15 inmates on his last day in office. On Tuesday Cooper announced that he has commuted the sentences of 15 people on death row in North Carolina to life without the possibility of parole after a thorough review of detailed petitions for clemency. “These reviews are among the most difficult decisions a Governor can make and the death penalty is the most severe sentence that the state can impose,” said Governor Cooper. “After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should...