Free Republic

This weekend I re-read 1984, a book I tend to reach for when I get Defcon-1 depressed about the state of the world. Deep in the novel, Winston ponders the intricacies of doublethink: To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them… To forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again… that...

William Hurt, the Oscar-winning actor who starred in films like Body Heat, The Big Chill and Broadcast News, has died at the age of 71. Hurt’s son Will confirmed his father’s death in a statement Sunday. “It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday,” the family said. “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time.

NewsGuard, the establishment “news-rating” project that presents itself as a source of expert knowledge on which news sources can be trusted and which ones cannot, will be rolling out to millions of American schoolchildren due to a partnership with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Per Axios, the AFT will purchase NewsGuard licenses for all of its 1.7 million teachers, in a major deal for the news-rating project. NewsGuard has had a reputation as a project of the political establishment since its inception. NewsGuard maintains a list of news outlets it considers “trustworthy” and “untrustworthy,” data which it uses in...

Are you seeing all of those blaring corporate press headlines targeting Joe Rogan this weekend, reporting on a letter from “270 doctors,” which described the famous podcaster as a “menace to public health”? Well, it turns out that the real arbiters of misinformation are the individuals behind the letter itself, and they are being helped along by a corrupt corporate media that is misreporting the credentials of its signatories. It was first reported by Rolling Stone, with a story titled, “Doctors Demand Spotify Puts an End to Covid Lies on ‘Joe Rogan Experience’”

Apocalypse Now.....or is it Apocalypse Again? Back in October, Rolling Stone magazine declared that "Joe Manchin Just Cooked the Planet." The description of the earthly inferno that would be our inevitable fate due to Manchin was quite gruesome:

Democrats, media pundits, and Hollywood stars threw tantrums on social media on Sunday after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told Fox News Sunday that he would not vote for President Joe Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar “Build Back Better” bill. Rolling Stone, for instance, published an article titled: “Joe Manchin Just Tore Out the Heart of Biden’s Agenda.” It went on to explain: “Build Back Better was the centerpiece of Biden’s domestic plans.” Now it is unlikely to pass the Senate.

It’a that time of year again — that very special season when you can’t walk into a grocery store without getting ambushed by “Jingle Bell Rock” or dive-bombed by Paul McCartney wishing you a “Wonderful Christmastime.” Every artist who ever sells more than two records eventually tries a Christmas tune. The amount of great Christmas music out there is staggering. But along with all that Yuletide goodness comes plenty of Yuletide dreck. Our list of the worst Christmas songs includes psychotic butcherings of beloved classics, horrific attempts at new standards, hideous novelty tunes, and more. At the family Christmas party...

Authorities searched Marilyn Manson’s West Hollywood home Monday as part of a probe into sexual assault claims, a report said. Manson was not at the home when investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department entered to execute the warrant, according to TMZ, which cited law enforcement sources. Authorities removed “media storage units” from Manson’s home, the report said. A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said she was aware of the report, but couldn’t confirm the search or offer any details on Monday night. The “Dope Show” singer, whose real name is Brian Warner, has been hit with assault and...

Documents released Monday reveal the CNN host was using his media sources to get intel on his brother Andrew’s accusers, and then funneling information to the then-governor’s top aideChris Cuomo is the host of his own CNN show on which he discusses national political issues. He’s also the brother of Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York who resigned in August in the wake of a damning report detailing several allegations of sexual misconduct. It was a pretty big conflict of interest, especially considering Cuomo the younger was advising his brother on how to weather the scandal. Documents...

“After doing the research and connecting the dots, I have reached the conclusion that the Stop the Steal organization is a Deep State organization to raise money for purposes other than to FIX 2020,” Wood posted on his Telegram. Right-wing darling Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen acquitted of murder for killing two people at a racial justice protest, sent the QAnon world into a tailspin when he said in interviews that Lin Wood, a leading QAnon believer and Trump attorney who briefly represented Rittenhouse, was “insane” and had “taken advantage” of him. That prompted right-wing Trump allies — including Rep. Marjorie...

The Eric Clapton we loved, whose new album is as good as anything he’s ever done, is dead to us, basically. Clapton has doubled down on his anti-vaccine madness and thrown in with Robert K. Kennedy, Jr. Kennedy, a misery to his family– they’ve all criticized him– maintains a loud anti-vaccine campaign himself. Despite suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, Kennedy is anti-public health. His dead uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who fought for decades for universal health insurance, must be throwing up in heaven. Clapton has now allowed himself to be interviewed by Kennedy and featured on his website. Clapton tells...

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) in a new interview said Republicans’ campaign tactics that utilize “fear and darkness” will help them win in next year’s midterm elections, but will ultimately hurt the party in the long term. “I think in the short term, stoking division, using the fear and darkness, will win the midterms in 2022. In the long term, this will destroy the GOP. Or it will destroy the country, because this is an unsustainable path,” Kinzinger told CNN political commentator and anti-Trump Republican S. E. Cupp during an interview for Rolling Stone, published Monday.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger in a recent interview said that he considered using his gun during the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, expressing that he was "prepared to defend" himself against his own party. While talking with Rolling Stone, the Illinois Republican spoke of the "real sense of evil" he felt that day, and even before the insurrection occurred, he felt as though violence, fueled by then-President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election, was imminent.

Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer called him “very dangerous” for his handling of coronavirus restrictions. The Belfast-born singer opposes restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, and has released several songs criticizing lockdowns. He denounced Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann during a gathering at Belfast’s Europa Hotel in June after a Morrison concert was canceled at the last minute because of virus restrictions. The defamation suit relates to three incidents in which Morrison criticized Swann, calling him “a fraud” and “very dangerous.” …

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin just cooked the planet. I don’t mean that in a metaphorical sense. I mean that literally. Unless Manchin changes his negotiating position dramatically in the near future, he will be remembered as the man who, when the moment of decision came, chose to condemn virtually every living creature on Earth to a hellish future of suffering, hardship, and death.

Kiss canceled their planned Las Vegas residency suddenly late last week, amid questions about their coronavirus safety protocols. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were scheduled to play at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas as part of their long-running End of the Road World Tour. The decision came after some of the band's roadies blamed guitar tech Francis Stueber's death on negligent safety protocols in Rolling Stone. Kiss disputed many of the claims the tour staffers made. Kiss was scheduled to play at Zappos Theater from Dec. 29 to Feb. 5, but options to buy tickets...

Meghan McCain says in a new interview that sketches performed on "Saturday Night Live" mocking her during her stint on ABC's "The View" made her feel like she was "the laughing stock of the country." "I think partly 'Saturday Night Live' parodies have this way of becoming reality. I’ve seen it so many times with Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton. The stereotypes of who you are become true. Bush being an idiot. I still think Alex Trebek is someone who celebrities hated. Sometimes the parody is the person, and I think that probably played a factor, too," McCain said during a...

On the heels of being exposed in September for their fake news story about supposed Ivermectin overdose patients flooding hospitals, you would figure that Rolling Stone might want to lower their hyperbole profile a bit. However, no such luck. On October 1 that rag published an extreme climate alarmist hit piece by Jeff Goodell on Senator Joe Manchin for the high crime of opposing the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Before you even read the article itself, you know it is a hit piece just from the title, "Joe Manchin Just Cooked the Planet."

Michael Flynn, the former general and former Trump advisor who thinks companies may be putting the Covid vaccine in salad dressing, allegedly received a total of $200,000 in undisclosed secret payments in 2014 and 2015 for consulting he did on a plan to build 40 nuclear power plants in the Middle East, the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported. The nuclear power plan, which never came to fruition, would have involved companies from the U.S., French, Canada and Russia constructing and managing nuclear plants in Arab nations. According to SpyTalk, a site run by national security reporter Jeff Stein, the paper...

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, tech millionaire turned LGBTQ activist Tim Gill said he’s aiming to punish Christians who don’t want to participate in same-sex weddings. For more than two decades, the software programmer has poured an estimated $422 million into various gay rights causes. After the Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal in all 50 states in 2015, Gill turned his attention and resources to targeting Christians. The election of Donald Trump, who claims to support gay rights but stocked his administration with anti-LGBTQ extremists, has only emboldened those looking to erase the gains of the...