Free Republic

President Biden said Friday that Americans will have to learn to live with COVID-19 long-term but that things will “be better” — despite CDC Director Rochelle Walensky warning that US coronavirus cases are poised to hit new record highs almost two years into the pandemic. Biden erroneously told reporters his team is in the process of acquiring “500,000” tests to fight the highly contagious Omicron variant, misstating the actual figure of 500 million.

A few months ago, when prices began to spike throughout the U.S. economy, Americans were told not to worry, it was just a temporary blip. On several occasions, President Biden and high-ranking officials in his administration claimed the current bout of inflation was “transitory” and would subside sooner rather than later. Yet, as the months tick by, inflation is getting worse, not better.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all wake up someday and the pandemic is finally behind us? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back to a world with no masks, no restrictions and no mandates? I know that is what so many of you want. I want it too. Just like millions of others, we are ready for this long nightmare to finally end. Unfortunately, we are now being told that this crisis is never going to have an end. COVID is apparently going to be with us indefinitely, and that means that we will be talking about masks, restrictions...

Government’s decision to remove the strict COVID-19 restrictions comes 561 days after they were first introduced to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, with Norwegian health authorities also giving the green light for other restrictions, such as those on sports venues and travel to end in the coming weeks. Norway will “remove most of the infection control measures,” giving “a big thank you” to citizens for complying.While measures will be lifted in the next 24 hours, the Norwegian PM urged businesses to not start preparing for customers to return until tomorrow.However, Norwegian official urged eligible citizens to ensure they...

Republicans are pledging big headaches for Biden if they can win back control of one or both chambers of Congress next year. Amid the days-long fallout over Afghanistan, GOP lawmakers have floated everything from launching select committees to impeachment to even questioning if Biden should be removed through the 25th Amendment. The comments are, for now, just rhetoric that plays well with their base. But it’s also a potential preview of how a GOP-controlled Congress could try to trip up Biden heading into 2024.

The ultimate goal of every totalitarian system is to establish complete control over society and every individual within it in order to achieve ideological uniformity and eliminate any and all deviation from it. This goal can never be achieved, of course, but it is the raison d’être of all totalitarian systems, regardless of what forms they take and ideologies they espouse. You can dress totalitarianism up in Hugo Boss-designed Nazi uniforms, Mao suits, or medical-looking face masks, its core desire remains the same: to remake the world in its paranoid image … to replace reality with its own “reality.” We...

President Biden on Friday condemned the deadly FedEx rampage that left eight people dead in Indiana as “the latest in a string of tragedies” that have become all “too normal” in the US. Repeating his call for more weapons control legislation, the president added in the prepared statement, “Gun violence is an epidemic in America.

Covid-19 certainly wasn’t the beginning. Americans were told “the world changed” after 9/11. Basic pillars of the American system, like the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, were too antiquated to deal with the “new threat of terrorism.” Warrantless surveillance of our phone, e-mail, and financial records and physical searches of our persons without probable cause of a crime became the norm. A few principled civil libertarians dissented, but the public largely complied without protest. “Keep us safe,” they told the government, no matter the cost in dollars or liberty. Perhaps seeing how willingly the public rolled over for the political right...

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates predicted this week the world should be “back to normal” by the end of 2022 due to the coronavirus vaccines. “By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal,” Gates told Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and television broadcaster TVN24, according to Reuters. “This is an incredible tragedy.”

Given the level of insanity erupting at all levels in America, it wasn't really a shock when the huge, multinational corporation Unilever announced in early March that it was pulling the word "normal" from at least half of its products. No more soap for "normal skin care," or shampoo for "normal hair." It's offensive. A global study by Unilever found that the word "normal" made 56 percent of the respondents feel excluded and that 70 percent felt that using the word on packaging has a negative impact on people. So, "normal" has to go. Unilever has 400 brands in 190...

The beauty and personal-care company Unilever said on Tuesday that it would no longer use the word “normal” on its products and in its advertising, following a study that revealed it makes most people feel excluded. Unilever, a London-based company that owns Dove, Axe, Sunsilk and Vaseline, among other personal-care brands, also said it would not digitally alter the body shape, size and skin color of models in its advertising as part of its Positive Beauty initiative, according to a news release. And the company promised to increase the number of ads featuring underrepresented people, without specifying which groups.

Consumer goods conglomerate Unilever said Tuesday it will no longer use the word “normal” to advertise and package its beauty and personal care products and will ban the excessive photoshopping of models as part of its inclusivity policy. The company, which owns skincare brands like Dove and Simple and haircare brands like TreSemme and TIGI, said the word “normal” will be removed from the packaging of at least 200 products within a year. It also said it will increase the number of advertisements featuring people from diverse groups, and that it will not “digitally alter a person’s body shape, size,...

Dr. Anthony Fauci cast doubts Tuesday on whether life would be back to normal by March 2022 as the coronavirus pandemic continues. “I don’t think we’re going to be completely normal a year from now,” Fauci said. “But I hope we’re well on the way to normality so that we can ultimately get the world protected at the same time as we get economic recovery so that all the unintended consequences of shutting down begin to normalize, including other health issues that have arisen because of the shutdown.”

Life should return to normal — more or less — by Christmas, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted Thursday. In an interview with MSNBC, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned that there were many variables at play and returning to some sort of normalcy “is not a mathematical formula…it’s a question of estimates.” But he agreed with President Joe Biden’s estimate that things will start getting back to normal “by the end of the year, by Christmas.”

President Joe Biden, during Tuesday evening’s CNN town hall, provided a rough timeline on when he believes the United States may be able to return to a level of pre-pandemic normalcy, identifying “next Christmas” as a potential marker. “When do you think this pandemic is — I mean, when are we — when is it going to be done? When are we going to get back to normal?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Biden, who explained that experts have warned him to refrain from making such predictions.

(CNN)About 70% to 85% of the US population should be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before the country can begin to return to a sense of normalcy, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Tuesday night. So far, less that 2%about of Americans have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) undermined the message of “unity” from President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, saying there will be “no return to normal” for America in a message posted to social media Thursday. Pressley, a member of the House’s far-left “Squad,” made the remarks a little more than a week after violent riots broke out at the U.S. Capitol.

During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of CBS’ “Late Show,” President-Elect Joe Biden stated that we are “going to get to the place we can open schools.” And by this time next year, “we’ll be awfully close to” back to normal “if not there.” Host Stephen Colbert asked, “Do you think this time next year, when you’re both in the White House, we will have what you could call a normal Christmas? Will the country be back to normal?”

What’s a realistic timeline for a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine to be available to the public? How long will it really take to get back to “normal life”? Research is progressing well on several of the COVID-19 vaccine candidates, but Dr. Anthony Fauci wants everyone to understand that even under the best-case scenario, getting back to normal won’t happen overnight. “Right now, today, in real time, we’re averaging close to 40,000 new infections a day and 1,000 deaths,” Fauci said. “So we are still in the middle of this. In order to get any semblance of normality, you’ve got to get...

ALCONA COUNTY, MI - The language in a rural Michigan county board resolution defying statewide coronavirus restrictions alluded to the civil disobedience shown at the Boston Tea Party. “We are not advocating for overthrow or abolishment,” according to Alcona County Resolution 2020-13, “but if these practices continue, (we advocate for) civil disobedience and ignoring the over-reaching and oppressive Executive Orders that have been inflicted on our citizens, akin to the Boston Tea Party, which was respectful to the cargo vessels but not the cargo itself.” Instead of tossing tea into the water, the “cargo” in this case would mean “a...