Free Republic

Love him or hate him, Tucker Carlson has become the most important political analyst of our era. The release to him of suppressed J6 Capitol footage that contradicted the Democrat/media narrative dominated political news until Carlson's questionnaire on Ukraine policy to the potential GOP presidential field knocked it out of the headlines. Not since Woodward and Bernstein dominated the news with Watergate has a media source produced results that focused the national spotlight so completely as Mr. Tucker Carlson. Unsurprisingly, many are the progressives who want to see him knocked off the air. Last night, he began his top-rated hour-long...

So-called long COVID can be listed as a cause of death even if a deceased person had not tested positive for COVID-19 for months or even years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new update. “When completing the death certificate, certifiers should carefully review and consider the decedent’s medical history and records, laboratory test results, and autopsy report, if one is available. For decedents who had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and were diagnosed with a post-COVID-19 condition, the certifier may consider the possibility that the death was due to long-term complications of COVID-19, even...

Today President Trump gave a 3 minute and 40 second speech about Ukraine, Russia, the Deep State, the Globalist, the DC Establishement, Biden and World War III today. He said today they are going to get us into World War III. https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1628148650252840971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Limiting how much coal countries can burn is considered an urgent priority for restraining global heating. After all, coal is the most carbon-rich of all fossil fuels and its combustion has contributed the most to planetary warming. For the first time in international talks, negotiators agreed to "phase down" coal use to prevent global temperature rise exceeding 1.5°C in the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact. Coal's primacy in climate negotiations is partly because of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has devised pathways to halting warming at 1.5°C. These scientific assessments prioritize the rapid phasing out of coal burning...

Ugliness awaits most boomers nearing retirement, not only have they been lied to, but they also have to deal with rigged markets, corruption, and incompetent advisors. Boomers make up the second-largest generation in American history, it consists of over 72 million individuals. Those that haven't already retired are getting ready to. A big problem is most have little in the way of savings.Adding to this problem is that the generations following the baby boomer generation are even worse off and America's economic picture is less than rosy. It does not help that Americans have been encouraged over the years to...

From day one of the war in Ukraine, the most powerful argument against unrestrained western intervention in the conflict has been the danger of catastrophic escalation into an all-out war between Nato and Russia.So far, western governments have shied away from a truly existential confrontation with Russia. But the threat remains that continuing western military aid to Ukraine will provoke Russian countermeasures that could turn Moscow’s proxy war with Nato into a direct military conflict.Western hawks have long argued the danger of escalation is illusory. In an op-ed for the New York Times, former British diplomat Nigel Gould-Davies claimed “Putin...

Providing new tanks to Ukraine won’t change the reality on the ground of the current conflict with Russia, according to retired Army Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, who claimed the United States has “no plan” or strategy and warned of the real-world danger of invoking NATO’s “mutual defense” clause, which would trigger a nuclear war.

Eating one freshwater fish caught in a river or lake in the United States is the equivalent of drinking a month's worth of water contaminated with toxic "forever chemicals," new research said on Tuesday. The invisible chemicals, called PFAS, were first developed in the 1940s to resist water and heat and are now used in items such as non-stick pans, textiles, fire suppression foams and food packaging. But the indestructibility of PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, means the pollutants have built up over time in the air, soil, lakes, rivers, food, drinking water and even our bodies. David Andrews, a...

This year’s flu season got off to an alarming start, with hospitalization rates more than 10 times those of past years’ seasons. But as Americans travel for the holidays this week, new data show an encouraging downturn in flu activity in some parts of the country. Some believe that this means this year’s flu season may be unique only in its timing, not its severity. “It looks like right now that flu is coming down, and by the time it’s all done, it will be just another average flu year, it just came early,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and...

U.S. and German embassies in China’s capital of Beijing announced on Dec. 15 the suspension of routine visa services due to the city’s COVID-19 outbreak that is also being seen in other large cities in China, following dozens of countries who have already suspended their visa applications in China. Meanwhile, concerns have been rising that the COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing will spread to the countryside during travel for the Chinese new year in January. The recent outbreak started before the communist regime lifted its “zero-COVID” restrictions last month, the World Heath Organization’s (WHO) emergencies chief noted. Foreign Embassies and Visa...

As part of its “Winter Preparedness Plan” announced on Dec. 15, the Biden administration will continue its free COVID virus at-home test program to address a potential surge in the winter months. U.S. households can order four free at-home tests from CovidTests.gov. The Biden administration plans to start shipping orders during the week of Dec. 19. Complimentary tests will also be available at major food banks, according to a White House statement. The program was suspended on Sept. 2 “because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” the CovidTest website reported at the time. This...

COVID-19 cases have been increasing in China, including since the ruling communist regime eased its “zero-COVID” restrictions on Dec. 7. Netizens have been reporting that hospitals and mortuaries are being overwhelmed by demand, particularly in nine provinces where the relatively new Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 have been reported to be spreading quickly. On Dec. 14, China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced for the first time that 49 cases of BQ.1 had been found in nine Chinese provinces, as well as cases of BQ.1.1. However, the authorities didn’t identify which provinces were the ones affected. BQ.1 and BQ.1.1...

WITH CHRISTMAS JUST a month away, the good news is that Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom have been falling and are now at the lowest we’ve seen for some time. Meanwhile, the number of new flu infections remains stable. And people in their 20s and 30s have some of the lowest case numbers of both viruses — great if you’re planning your work holiday party or just fancy getting together with your friends this festive season. However, while flu rates are relatively stable, they are higher than they have been for the past few years, and data from Australia...

More and more apartment compounds in Beijing on Friday forbade residents from leaving for at least a few days. "You constantly hear of someone going into lockdown and you have this constant feeling that you're going to be next," Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, said Friday. It was not clear how many people were affected at a city level, and to what degree stay-in-place measures were being enforced. This morning most of our 30+ staff reported their communities went into a 7-day lockdown," James Zimmerman, partner in the Beijing office of Perkins Coie, said...

By all accounts, the risk of another winter surge of COVID-19 in the U.S. is high. And this time coronavirus is on the prowl alongside two pals — influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In some areas, hospitals are already overwhelmed. Just how severe this “tripledemic” is going to be is unclear. But what is very clear is that a pandemic-weary public isn’t taking the threat seriously enough. Shockingly, neither is government. Biden administration officials have expressed concerns for months, but there’s been no loud alarm bells, so far. That includes at a White House briefing on Tuesday where officials...

Winter 2020 was the season of Zoom holidays. By 2021, the omicron surge spoiled end-of-year plans. So far, the 2022 holiday season is off to a bumpy start with an early, sharp surge of flu and respiratory syncytial virus cases with an expected wave of Covid-19 cases on the horizon. With a lack of national and local precautionary guidance, individuals are now on their own to gauge risk and protection. However, Americans have more tools in their arsenal when it comes to protecting themselves against Covid this holiday season: vaccines, boosters, tests, masks, knowledge of how the virus spreads. ...Make...

Which subvariants are circulating right now? And what is the ‘nightmare variant’? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the BA.5 subvariant, which powered the summertime COVID-19 surge, still causes just under half of infections across the country. But two other subvariants are growing rapidly and are expected to outcompete BA.5 very soon: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. As of last Friday, BQ.1 accounted for 14% of COVID-19 infections in the United States, while BQ.1.1 accounted for 13.1%. Another variant, called BA.4.6, has also gained some ground since August. It now accounts for 9.6% of cases. BF.7, BA.5.2.6, BA.2.75 and...

Putin evacuates 60,000 people before Battle of Kherson Vladimir Putin declared martial law in occupied Ukraine, handing him sweeping new powers over civilians Comes after officials ordered evacuation from occupied Kherson, as Ukraine's forces push to re-take city If Putin's army is forced to flee the city, it would be the most humiliating defeat it has yet suffered in Ukraine Fears are growing that Putin may be plotting a nuclear show of force over the Black Sea to save his invasion Experts believe Putin may detonate a nuke at a remote testing ground or above the Black Sea to prove...

Reasonable People Won't Launch War: One of the Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO’s Twitter followers on Friday quote-tweeted a Reuters story on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) starting nuclear drills with B-52 bombers on Monday. Responding to him via tweet, Musk suggested no reasonable person would launch a nuclear war. Russia has the ability to destroy USA & Europe utterly with nuclear missiles in less than 30 minutes & vice versa. A surprising number of people don’t know this. Of course, it would be MAD to use them, but it is also MAD to be in this situation at all.

President Xi Jinping on Sunday kicked-off the 20th congress of China's ruling Communist Party with warnings that he may use force to retake Taiwan as he slammed foreign interference in its reunification efforts. The gathering of roughly 2,300 delegates from around the country began in the vast Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square amid tight security and under blue skies after several smoggy days in the Chinese capital. Xi began a speech that touted the party's safeguarding of national security, maintaining social stability, protecting people's lives and taking control of the situation in Hong...