Free Republic

FULL TITLE: FUR REAL Plot to grow human organs inside RATS ‘could cure diabetes’ for some patients – but branded ‘waste of life’ by animal experts =============================================================== SCIENTISTS will try to grow human organs inside rats and mice, which could then be transplanted to hospital patients. But the controversial experiment – which will attempt to create a pancreas inside – has already been condemned by animal welfare experts as a "waste of life". Scientists plan to create mouse babies that grow human pancreases inside their bodies ============================================================== It attempts to solve a major healthcare problem: the short supply of human...

The hilarious moment a rat caught a ride on a New York subway train, causing passengers to freak out, has been caught on camera. Boutique designer Tyler Taylor tweeted video she shot of the rodent Wednesday morning as it scurried back and forth on the floor. 'So this was my morning,' Taylor wrote in her tweet. So far, the clip has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on Twitter alone, receiving 35,000 likes and 9,500 retweets.

**SNIP** Across the Democratic field, candidates are embracing the big donors they distanced themselves from early on - a sign of increasing doubt that the small online donations the campaigns have been chasing will be sufficient to sustain two-dozen primary contenders. **SNIP** One of those donors is Robert Wolf, a former investment banker and Obama supporter. He said he has met with about a dozen candidates, which included a recent one-on-one confab with O'Rourke, and has given money to 10 presidential contenders. "We are more interested in beating President Trump than we are in getting the candidate we like and/or...

FULL TITLE: Rats at the police station, filth on L.A. streets — scenes from the collapse of a city that’s lost control The good news is that two trash-strewn downtown Los Angeles streets I wrote about last week were cleaned up by city work crews and have been kept that way, as of this writing. The bad news is that I didn’t have to travel far to find more streets just as badly fouled by filthy mounds of junk and stinking, rotting food. Then there was the news that the LAPD station on skid row was cited by the state...

Despite the rise to prominence of openly socialist politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), many Americans say they cannot define socialism, according to a new poll. In a May 29-30 Hill-HarrisX survey of registered voters, 20 percent said they were unsure what socialism was. The study also found that respondents gravitated toward both positive and negative definitions of the term much more than toward its academic meaning. Only 13 percent described socialism as government ownership of some parts of the economy. Twenty-eight percent said they believed socialism was fulfilling basic needs like healthcare, housing, and...

Qualifying for the first Democratic presidential debate was the easy part. Now comes the challenge of preparing for it. With the debate in Miami less than a month away, at least a half-dozen major candidates have begun to block out time or lighten their schedules to prepare. On telephone calls and in conference rooms, advisers are peppering them with potential questions. The candidates are practicing tightening their answers, cognizant of the 7 to 10 minutes of total speaking time they expect to be allotted. And they are watching clips of the 2016 Republican presidential primary debates to familiarize themselves with...

Shortened title. Full title: LIBERAL UTOPIA: LAPD Officers Diagnosed With Typhus Stemming From Mountains of Rotting Rat-Infested Trash in the Streets Mountains of rotting rat-infested trash has piled sky-high in the liberal utopia of Los Angeles despite millions of dollars allocated for clean up and prevention. In October, LA Mayor Garcetti promised to clean up the heaps of rat-infested trash piling up around Los Angeles to help combat the Typhus epidemic. Even though the Mayor allocated millions of dollars to help clean up the streets in LA, especially Skid Row, known as “the Typhus Zone,” there are still mountains of...

This proud 'pole-dancing rat' certainly wasn't shy as it slid its way down Subway handrails that many New Yorkers touch every day. The shocking sight of the rodent climbing the metal bars has attracted over 10,000 views so far on social media page Subway Creatures. The footage by Sebastian, known on Instagram as @seebaass_, was shot on a New York Subway F Train.

When House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that the United States had been plunged into a “constitutional crisis,” a large swath of the media took to plying this fantasy for them. “Ever wonder what a constitutional crisis looks like? Well, open your eyes,” CNN’s Don Lemon explained to his viewers. “The president of the United States is just blowing right through our system of checks and balances, the very thing that is supposed to keep our Congress, the judiciary, and the executive branch working, which means our country working.” None of this is remotely true. Our...

The entire Trump-Russia collusion narrative was always implausible. One, the Washington swamp of fixers such as Paul Manafort and John and Tony Podesta was mostly bipartisan and predated Trump. Two, the Trump administration's Russia policies were far tougher on Vladimir Putin than were those of Barack Obama. Trump confronted Russia in Syria, upped defense spending, increased sanctions and kept the price of oil down through massive new U.S. energy production. He did not engineer a Russian "reset" or get caught on a hot mic offering a self-interested hiatus in tensions with Russia in order to help his own re-election bid....

Probably not the headline you want to run in the first full week of your presidential campaign. ... Fix the subways? Bill de Blasio can’t even fix the potholes. Fix the potholes? He can’t even keep the rats at bay. I suppose he could fill the potholes with the rats. De Blasio’s presidential quest would on the surface appear to be a bit of a curiosity given that after considerable pressing of flesh in Iowa and New Hampshire he remains at 0 percent in the polls. Where do you go with that? “If I work hard, I think I can...

A good chunk of regular coffee drinkers know that coffee isn’t just great at getting them awake in the morning—it also makes them get up and go poop. But while coffee’s laxative powers are well-known, it’s not clear why exactly this happens. To get to the bottom of this mystery, some scientists decided to do exactly what you’d expect scientists to: They gave lab rats some coffee. Their preliminary results, presented this weekend at a research conference aptly named Digestive Disease Week, seem to reaffirm a suspicion that coffee’s poop-making prowess has nothing to do with caffeine. Coffee might also...

The Latest on Congress and the special counsel’s Russia report (all times local): 1 p.m. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says the House should begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. The Democratic presidential candidate went to the Senate floor on Tuesday to reiterate her call for impeachment hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared “case closed” on the Russia probe and potential obstruction by Trump. Holding a copy of Mueller’s report, Warren responded to McConnell that “wishing won’t make it so.”

Kamala Harris's presidential campaign is quietly building out its national footprint. The California Democrat has taken a more methodical approach than some rivals in amassing ground troops. On Tuesday, Harris' team will take another step, launching a national training program designed to harness volunteer energy on the ground that it could later tap into, according to a preview of the plan shared with POLITICO. **SNIP** Harris, who piloted her online program in Iowa under the banner of "Camp Kamala," will put volunteers through one or two sessions a week as part of its national effort to train future precinct captains...

When it comes to presidential obstruction, at least Watergate started with a crime. A stupid crime, but a crime. After 675 days, more than 2,800 subpoenas, nearly 500 search warrants, $30 million spent, endless jaw-jaw on cable and countless whiny Trump tweets, we have come down to one fundamental truth. And it’s the same truth that has been terrorising us all along: Donald Trump’s dirtbag machinations are driven by insane vanity. The First Narcissist’s all-consuming blend of braggadocio and insecurity has turned Washington and its rickety institutions into a dystopian outpost of his id. President Trump obstructed on nearly every...

Democrats are pressing forward with their investigations into President Trump's personal finances well beyond the boundaries of the special counsel probe. Robert Mueller's investigation focused on questions of collusion in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice. But Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff of California, who chair the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees, respectively, are taking a deeper look at Trump's business empire, including potential dealings with Russian nationals, for any evidence of financial crimes. Trump’s attorneys have sought to prevent House Democratic investigators from obtaining his financial records. And Republican lawmakers have dismissed the probe...

Joe Biden is running. The former vice president will make his candidacy official with a video announcement next Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions who have been told about them by top aides. Seriously, he’s actually made a decision. It’s taken two years of back-and-forth, it’ll be his third (or, depending on how you count, seventh) try for the White House, and many people thought he wouldn’t do it, but the biggest factor reshaping the 2020 Democratic-primary field is locking into place. He wants this. He really wants this. He’s wanted this since he was first elected to...

Just a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unequivocally stated her opposition to impeachment proceedings against President Trump, the Robert Mueller report has reignited the debate inside her caucus. “Mueller’s report is clear in pointing to Congress’ responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the President,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted, announcing she’ll sign onto Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s, D-Mich., resolution urging the House Judiciary Committee to probe whether Trump committed impeachment-level offenses. The sprawling and detailed Mueller report released Thursday, while effectively clearing the president and his associates on the Russia collusion charge central to the probe, outlined a series...

The Bramble Cay melomys, a rat native to Australia, is claimed to be the first mammal to go extinct from "human-induced" climate change. (Ian Bell, EHP, State of Queensland) In late February, the Australian government recognized the extinction of the Bramble Cay melomys, and it is probably the first mammal to go extinct due to "human-induced climate change," or anthropogenic climate change, according to a report by Queensland scientists. According to multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists have arrived at the hypothesis that "climate-warming trends over the past century are...

He's running? The always unpredictable Alec Baldwin might be eyeing a possible run for president it appears, with the actor kicking off the week by announcing his possible candidacy on Twitter. 'If I ran for President, would you vote for me? I won’t ask you for any $. And I promise I will win,' declared Baldwin. Beating Trump would be so easy. So easy. So easy.'