Free Republic

Bernie Sanders had better find a way to get a majority of first-ballot delegates for the Democratic convention. If he doesn’t, his plurality won’t suffice — if the party establishment has anything to say about it. And as the New York Times discovers, they do — quite a bit, in fact, and they may be past the point of caring about splitting the party. They will do anything to prevent a socialist takeover of the party, if it comes to that: Dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are not just worried about Mr....

The huge amount of carbon dioxide we are producing and pumping into the Earth's atmosphere is causing much more damage than previously thought. Rising CO2 levels aren't just responsible not for global warming; they also have a massive impact on the global food system, according to a Science Advances study. An increase in carbon dioxide can significantly reduce the level of micronutrients in certain plants. Researchers studied the effects of the gas on rice and it was found to contain significantly less protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins after exposure to the level of carbon dioxide our atmosphere is expected...

The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has registered a criminal case on pressure from former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden on former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin. "The SBI has added information on the criminal offence to the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations," Shokin's lawyer Oleksandr Teleshetsky said during a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on February 27. The case was opened under an appeal from Shokin. The court obliged the SBI to register the proceeding. In his motion, Shokin spoke of pressure put on him by Biden, Teleshetsky said. "The reason for the pressure was the...

As the person who posts the daily Live thread on COVIOD-19, I am often pointed at as a ring leader for the "hype" and "hysteria". I don't think its fair, but I get it. I want to make a couple of over arching statements based on my life experience working in hospitals, emergency management and along side municipal and federal emergency preparedness organizations and departments. My work experience in hospital emergency planning and working with local, state, and federal officials provides me with a perspective that is different than most. The planning for these is things is pretty unemotional and...

The 17 state colleges and universities have been directed to immediately suspend or cancel institutionally-sponsored travel to several countries due to concerns about coronavirus. ... An announcement sent to the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities community on Thursday says that all colleges and universities must immediately suspend or cancel institutionally-sponsored travel to countries designated Level 3 (warning) and Level 2 (watch) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention out of an abundance of caution. ...

Gene sequencing, from which scientists can gather hereditary data of organisms, has revealed that the Black Death, often referred to as The Plague, which reduced the world’s total population by about 100 million, originated from China over 2000 years ago, scientists from several countries wrote in the medical journal Nature Genetics. Genome sequencing has allowed the researchers to reconstruct plague pandemics from the Black Death to the late 1800s.Black Death and The Plague – the plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. The Black Death is one huge plague event (pandemic) in history. The Black...

Garden State Equality claims its curriculum is for the good and safety of vulnerable children. Its teachings, however, result in the exact opposite. A little more than a year ago, the New Jersey Legislature passed, and Gov. Phil Murphy signed, a law mandating the teaching of LGBT subject matter in public school curriculum, beginning in 2020-21.In response to the law, the activist group Garden State Equality has prepared a curriculum, currently piloted in 12 New Jersey schools and planned to be employed statewide in the fall. This is consistent with Murphy’s vision. At Garden State Equality’s 2019 Ball, he said,...

The Wonderlic Test was created by E. F. Wonderlic to gauge one's knowledge in math, vocabulary and reasoning abilities in 1936. These days you hear it most talked about around this time of year, regarding the NFL Combine. It has been used in the Navy and to determine IQs, but in the 1970s Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry began quizzing players with the test, and it has been done in the league ever since. Because no one is asking me to play for their NFL team, I will never be given an actual Wonderlic Test, so I decided to head...

Posted on February 26, 2020February 26, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope On The Battle Theme of Lent A brief observation of the first two days in Lent reveals militaristic, even violent imagery in the battle against sin and the unruly passions of the flesh. The Collect (opening prayer) of Ash Wednesday provides an image of troops mustering for battle:Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who...

I hate long drives, but the one redeeming aspect of them is that I get to do something I never do otherwise: listen to audiobooks. Driving to and from Dallas is a 16-hours-plus trip from Baton Rouge. I made it with my wife and kids this past weekend, for a wedding. On my son Matt’s recommendation, I listened to historian Tom Holland’s book Dominion: How The Christian Revolution Remade The World. Before I say anything about the book, I want to recommend a cool piece of technology. It’s illegal to drive with standard earbuds in, so Matt let me borrow...

lhan Omar told friends years ago that the man who went on to become her second husband was, in fact, her brother, DailyMail.com can confirm. She married him in a Christian ceremony outside of the Minneapolis Somali community so as to keep the marriage secret. But hardly anyone realized that meant marrying him. “She said she needed to get papers for her brother to go to school,” Abdihakin Osman Nur , 40, told the Daily Mail. “We all thought she was just getting papers together to allow him to stay in this country. Once she had the papers they could...

General weather for South Carolina on Saturday.

Pope Francis has been forced to cancel a planned Mass in Rome with other clergy after suffering a 'slight illness'. The Vatican said the 83-year-old pontiff had a 'slight indisposition' that meant he did not attend an event at the St John Lateran basilica in Rome on Thursday morning. A spokesman said Francis would continue with the rest of his day's business, but preferred to stay within the Vatican rather than travel across the city. There was no word from the Vatican about the nature of his illness, but the pope was seen coughing and blowing his nose during the...

In another High Noon showdown, two more ESPN lefties bit the "bullet." Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre and their left-wing shtick will get till the end of March, and then their High Noon program will be designated for the television version of Boot Hill. Low and declining rating are listed as the cause of High Noon's impending death, according to ESPN. Highly unpopular, High Noon lasted less than two years. It was drawing little more than 300,000 viewers a day for quarter one, down from last year, USA Today's Scott Gleeson reports. That's why ESPN pulled the plug and designated...

<p>White supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof staged a hunger strike this month while on federal death row, alleging in letters to The Associated Press that he’s been “targeted by staff,” “verbally harassed and abused without cause” and “treated disproportionately harsh.”</p>

Amazon has opened its first-ever full-size, "cashierless" grocery store, providing shoppers an experience that does not require any human interaction. The project, called Amazon Go Grocery, has been in development for five years. Starting Tuesday, customers can scan a QR code from Amazon's mobile app, walk into the Seattle store, take any item they want to purchase and walk out without paying at a cashier station. Amazon said it is employing technology that senses when a product is taken from or returned to a shelf and keeps track of items in a virtual cart. When a customer leaves, they are...

Japan is to ask all schools to close from Monday to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, PM Shinzo Abe says. The closure - thought to affect 13 million students - will continue until the school year ends in late March. World Health Organization head Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said the global outbreak had now reached a "decisive point" and had "pandemic potential". For the second day running, more cases have been reported outside than inside China. Dr Tedros urged governments to act swiftly and aggressively to contain the virus. "This is not a time for fear. This is a time...

On Sunday's What's Eating America?, hosted by celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, the second episode of the new food-focused MSNBC series engaged in scaremongering with predictions about the food industry being hurt by climate change, and indicted "deniers" for not believing climate change is caused by human activity. The show used several sources who are liberal activists critical of conservatives who are skeptical of climate alarmist views, with one even calling it "criminal" for skeptics to dispute the claims of alarmists. The new MSNBC host teased the show holding a plate of food he had prepared containing Alaskan salmon, summer sweet...

Plain ignorance is the most charitable explanation for the misleading defense of communist Cuba offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on CBS News‘ “60 Minutes.” While saying he was opposed to Cuba’s “authoritarian nature,” Sanders insisted that “it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?” Sanders correctly stated that education became universal in Castro’s Cuba, but he ignored the deeply Orwellian nature of the educational system. Literacy was not sought by the Cuban regime just for...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Thomas Jefferson. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers laid the foundation for the Constitutional Republic, which tempered the mob tendencies of pure Democracy. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the...