Free Republic

"Short version: Private enforcement of vaccination is being done through Texas HHS's ImmTrac2 vaccine database and the CDC's IZ Gateway. Sever this connection. Long Version Texas HHS tracks instate vaccinations for children at schools. When COVID broke out, the CDC established data connections with each state to track vaccinations. This is done by an electronic file feed between our database and the CDC. That electronic file feed is called the CDC IZ Gateway. Once the CDC has this data, they send it out to third parties, such as contractor ID.ME, and it is used for vaccine enforcement with private firms....

See the link below for the complete database obtained through Texas (FOIA) of those who have read/write access to the Texas Vaccine database ImmTrac2. This was published in the public’s interest for independent research. https://www.houstoncourant.com/editorial/texas-vaccine-database-who-has-access-readwrite

Democrat tricks, dishonesty, lies, and bad conduct should be met with the authority and ruthlessness of the rule book. That rule book being the Texas Constitution. After the legislative session, Governor Abbott called a special session to wrap-up a laundry list of legislation that our representatives were unable to complete. At some point, a cadre of Democrats abandoned their voters and skipped town, bringing the session to a halt. From my perspective, the most important task the legislature needs to accomplish is redistricting as the future stability of Texas is dependent on it. Though the Democrats derailed the legislature, the...

The current Democratic Party’s demagoguery is unparalleled in human history. Their invective towards Republicans is unconscionable. Deplorable is the nicest word they use when describing the GOP or conservatives. They must portray Republicans as monsters. They are bereft of ideas. But the Republican Party led the way on improving the lot of minorities, women, and the working class. Consider the following—facts about the GOP not ordinarily available in the media or schools: Police Reform. A big topic now, it was the GOP that led the way 90 years ago. The first attempt to reform law enforcement in the United States...

First it was the Confederate statues because they represented racist microaggressions. Then it was any statue of any slaveowner. Now, it is the flag of the United States. Anyone knowledgeable of how totalitarian aggression operates knew it would not stop at the statues. Anyone who has ever read George Orwell’s Animal Farm knew the objective was slow, incremental chips at the core of the symbolism of the United States. Yet, the left is adroit at propaganda and indoctrination, so there should be no surprise this is where we are presently. The recent rhetoric favoring a new flag for the country...

In June, the Federal Reserve disclosed its balance sheet to have passed $8 trillion in assets for the first time in its 108-year history. The holdings illuminate the increasing role the central bank is playing the economy as the United States weathered the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19. As the economy continues to show signs of strength the Federal Reserve signaled that a reversal in loose monetary policy may be ahead. In a hearing with the U.S. House select subcommittee on COVID-19, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell expressed that the U.S. economy is on the rise with increased hiring and spending....

Over the last, terrible schoolyear, appreciators of educational freedom and excellence can at least take heart that their cause is winning the esteem of many parents. This owes not only to the poor behavior of American educrats and their unionized minions, but also to the spiritedness of school choice advocates—noteworthy among them, the masterly economist Thomas Sowell. When Sowell turned 90 a year ago, he concurrently published Charter Schools and Their Enemies, a superb book among a superb oeuvre. Lovers of free enterprise and public virtue should immerse themselves in the latter, and in Jason L. Riley’s splendid new Sowell...

About 20 years ago, I wrote in an opinion piece for an online magazine: “Liberals are the self-righteous, led by the self-important, for the benefit of the self-interested.” I still believe this to be true. But I also believe: Republicans are the complacent, led by the content, for the benefit of those concerned only about taxes. As a case in point, I would like to present Critical Race Theory, transsexuality, and the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board. Until these issues received heightened attention recently, the parents of the Loudoun County School District were content to elect politically and socially liberal...

Suppose some beastly right-wing caricature in Congress proposed a law permitting all white-collar criminals, including current prisoners, to vote in American elections. That would be repulsive. It would also, technically, be a “voting rights bill.” Imagine some congressperson went all-out fruitcake—worse than anyone there now, even—and wrote legislation extending American suffrage to Icelanders, porcupines, and bonsai trees. That would be daft and bizarre. And it too would be a “voting rights bill.” So, then, perhaps the doyens of the national press could quit canting in such terms about House Resolution 1, a “voting rights bill” so offensive to basic constitutional...

In 1976, Dick Vermeil took over as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles who were coming off a last-place finish and one of the worst teams in the NFL the year before. During training camp, Vermeil held a tryout for a 30-year-old teacher and bartender, who never played college football. His name was Vince Papale and Vermeil added him to the team’s roster. It was meant to bring a culture and attitude change to the locker room. His story later became the basis for the 2006 biopic Invincible yet despite this underdog story and triumphant tale, Stephen A. Smith would have...

Texas Democratic state legislators opened their press conference Sunday night with an invocation. Representative Carl Sherman (D-Dallas County) ended the prayer with this entreaty: “Remove us from this hypocrisy and give us democracy.” He and his colleagues had just left their chamber to prevent a vote on major legislation that would otherwise have passed and that voters overwhelmingly support. In this context, Sherman’s words sound contrite. They were not. The reason he and other House Democrats consider it “democratic” to extralegally block a popular bill from enactment by Texans’ duly elected lawmakers is that the proposed election law, Senate Bill...

Twenty years after the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, Americans can reflect on the conflict in Afghanistan that followed. Enough time is passed to allow the fervor to settle, the gains and losses to be digested, and the rhetoric to subside. The public and policy makers can make a rational judgement on whether this war should continue. President Biden appears to be following his predecessor’s steps and pushing for an end. Three days after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001. The bill permitted the President of...

California’s reputation began sinking well before COVID-19 restrictions hastened the descent. Homelessness has soared; cost of living has squeezed even many middle-income earners; taxes have towered above those of other states, with lawmakers now threatening to raise them higher; and crime has risen. Last month, Chief Executive magazine ranked California the least business-friendly state. For eight years now, these phenomena have spurred emigration. The exodus from the Golden State has perturbed the left for the bad light in which it casts progressive domestic policy, but also the right for the impact California’s departees stand to exert on their new, often...

May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and there is no better time to highlight the manipulative attitude with which liberals and Democrats have behaved toward Asian Americans—specifically during this past year and the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Americans have heard about the surge in hate crimes against Asians across the United States. For weeks now, liberals and Democrats have tried their hardest to forge a connection between the horrific hate acts suffered by Asians and the evil of ‘America’s oldest sin’ of racism and white supremacy. This notion soared to front-page news after a white man killed several people...

Gasoline prices have reached their highest level since 2014, still a month before summer. Food has gotten 3.5 percent more costly than it was last spring. Transportation and furniture costs are soaring. But Americans beginning to feel squeezed by inflation have a president whose advisors and friendly press offer words of solace. Judge for yourself whether they sound comforting. Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman maintains that “policymakers should keep their cool…” about the nearly 4.2 percent April increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which looks to him “like a temporary blip, reflecting transitory disruptions as the...

So far as I know, an author known as Z Man at an independent blog called Z Media coined the term “The Compound Eye” in a post of the same name. In his lexicon, the compound eye is a metaphor for the millions of surveillance cameras and other intrusive devices Big Tech and their cohorts have dreamed up to keep us all in line. And the metaphor is a good one at that. If we are going to resist these intrusions and regain some measure of privacy, we are on our own. Looking to Big Tech and our government to...

As Police Week Ends, the Big Lie Continues The police are an impediment to those seeking to overthrow the established order. They stand in the way of ill-gotten power and wealth. It’s therefore imperative for “revolutionaries” to discredit law enforcement. It is known by many names: Große Lüge, the Big Lie, dezinformatsiya, and disinformation. But they all mean the same thing—false, misleading information; distortion or mischaracterization of facts solely for the purposes of deception. At the close of National Police Week, it’s still evident that the police are a major target of The Big Lie, and understandably so: they are...

The trial of Derek Chauvin may come to a conclusion this week as the former police officer defends himself against the state of Minnesota and a hostile media campaign. Chauvin, on trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, sat attentively taking notes over the course of three weeks as witnesses were questioned. This Friday, he evoked his Fifth amendment right to not speak in court. Judge Peter Cahill brought the day to an end by informing the jury that they will return at 9 a.m. this Monday for closing arguments. Many of us tuned in to the trial...

America’s largest casino company launched a TV and radio ad blitz last night aiming to stoke Texans’ FOMO—their fear of missing out. “Every year,” one ad explains, “Texans spend billions of tourism and gambling dollars at casinos in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico—billions that could be staying here.” Las Vegas Sands, the corporation funding the campaign, wants state lawmakers to put a measure legalizing casino gambling on the election ballot in November. The bill under consideration would permit construction of one hotel casino in each of the state’s four largest urban areas. The Lone Star State does have some...

Constitutional Carry Passes Texas House! For years Texas lagged behind peers in support of the second amendment. Before today, 19 states had pro-gun laws on the books giving citizens the right to carry without a permit. Today, the Texas House of Representatives led by Matt Schaefer (Rep. - TX 6) and supported by a Republican majority passed constitutional carry. The bill now moves to the Texas Senate where it is in the hands of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Senator Brian Birdwell.