Free Republic

Despite the best efforts of political operatives, the majority of the electorate fails to vote in the majority of elections at all levels of government. There are logistical hurdles that exacerbate this problem, such as the bewildering fact that election day isn’t a national holiday and that young adults aren’t taught how to vote or how to register to vote by their schools or parents. However, the main cause of the problem is about the attitudes of individuals themselves toward voting. One individual who declines to exercise his right to vote is Quillette writer Coleman Hughes, who, in a blog...

Yesterday, my lovely daughter gave birth to a beautiful 7lb 6 oz baby girl. Mother and daughter are doing well. Dad is proud. Shark24 is very happy. "Babies are always a blessing" is my wife's saying. God bless all Freepers!

Some financial writers have claimed that stock market crashes such as followed the 2007 Bubble are unpredictable and rare, calling them “Black Swan” events. More recently, the Covid-19 health threat has been described as a “Black Swan” event. Making the two together about as “Black Swanny” as it gets. However, a review of history suggests that severe financial crashes have always followed great financial bubbles. The transitions to busts have had much in common and the methodical pattern strongly suggests that even the greatest of crashes since the first in 1720 have predictable characteristics. Therefore, severe financial panics cannot be...

This was cited on yesterday's (March 9, 2020) "Peak Prosperity: Coronavirus: New Data Introduces (Some) Hope" video and I thought it would be useful for the COVID discussion even thought the article is five years old... The term "herd immunity" refers to a means of protecting a whole community from disease by immunizing a critical mass of its populace. Vaccination protects more than just the vaccinated person. By breaking the chain of an infection's transmission, vaccination can also protect people who haven't been immunized. But to work, this protection requires that a certain percentage of people in a community be...

As the coronavirus continues to spread and upend travel plans and day-to-day life, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is set to become the latest casualty. Multiple sources report that Coachella promoter Goldenvoice is in talks with artists to move the 2020 edition of the event, which was set to take place on two consecutive weekends starting April 10, to Oct. 9 and 16. It is also working to move the Stagecoach country music festival to a fall weekend.

As more and more people grow hesitant to travel by plane because of concerns about the coronavirus, domestic and international fares have plummeted. Expedia is marketing a New York to Los Angeles round-trip flight for $142, which costs, on average, about $300 one-way. A Miami to Chicago flight is usually about $193, but Frontier Airlines is advertising a $67 round-trip ticket. Prices for international flights are also shockingly low: A round-trip fare from Boston to Barcelona is $196, compared to an average of $681. It might seem tempting to snatch up these deals, if not for the Centers for Disease...

Last week we had President Trump explaining to a FoxNews Town Hall that “we have to hit back.” And we had Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) complaining about her treatment by Bernie Bros. In other words, as I keep insisting, men have a Culture of Insult, and women have a Culture of Complaint. And the reason we have President Trump is because, in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, “he fights.” And he is a master of insult. What is this all about? How about because, scientists say, we are almost chimpanzees? Male chimpanzees patrol the border of the troop’s territory...

The issue of Joe Biden's health will become more evident as the campaign goes on. So let me throw this out there for comment. Is it possible Biden is having TIA's, Mini Strokes? It seems his gaffes and omissions are getting worse and more frequent. It will be impossible for this guy to take on the rigors of general election campaign as he is. My opinion is that it is only a matter of time before he has a complete meltdown, by that I mean a stroke given his health history and brain surgeries.

Climate law rollbacks in the US and Australia have origins in libertarian think tanks that trade in climate denial. Investigative journalists have exposed how one is now trying to strip climate protections in Germany.“The Trump administration frequently asked us for advice,” James Taylor, chief strategist at US libertarian and climate-skeptic think tank, The Heartland Institute, told two journalists posing as PR consultants representing German car and coal companies in late 2019. “What can we get for €500,000?” one of the bogus young PRs asked, offering an anonymous donation to Heartland on behalf of a large German automotive client. Taylor soon...

During his speech at Hillsdale College, conservative actor and director Nick Searcy said that Hollywood is broken forever. Everyone in that town knows in order to work, they must become a member of the Hate Conservatives, Christians and Republicans Club. Incredibly, Harrison Ford calling Trump an SOB and Robert De Niro repeatedly saying “F*** Trump” enhances their status in Hollywood. When these arrogant elites express disdain for Trump, they are really exposing their disdain for you MAGA cap wearers who buy tickets to their movies. A fan of Call of the Wild said that because of Ford's anti-Trump statements she...

Just 1 percent of Hispanic Democratic voters in Florida prefer the term "Latinx," the gender-free alternative to "Latino" and "Latina" that has been embraced by several liberal groups and top Democratic politicians, according to a new poll. The poll, shared Monday by Politico‘s Marc Caputo, surveyed 800 Hispanic Democrats in Florida and found the preferred label is still "Hispanic," the primary choice of 69 percent of respondents. Twenty-three percent said they preferred "Latino," 9 percent said they had no preference, and 1 percent said they preferred "Latinx," an attempt to remove the gender forms inherent in the Spanish language. Support...

How quaint that leftists aka Democrats sound the alarm on voting rights for illegals but display nothing but dictatorial instincts when they want to squash the rights of conservative voters. New Jersey Democrats are reviving an effort to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns or be denied a spot on the state's 2020 ballot. Thus, "[t]he New Jersey state Senate approved a bill which the Legislature passed once before, in 2017, but which then-Gov. Chris Christie blocked by issuing a scathing veto -- that would prohibit candidates for president and vice president from appearing on the ballot...

I don't know about you, but I wish we could go back to a world where we didn't have to talk about periods and other bodily functions all day long. Unfortunately, we are going in the opposite direction, with toilet paper commercials showing bears with skidmarks on their Jockey shorts (where's Mr. Whipple when you need him?) and harpies from the "Menstrual Movement" suggesting that men should have to pay for toilet paper in public restrooms. A non-profit group called "PERIOD," in partnership with HUGE, a marketing firm, released a tongue-in-cheek (or was it?) video on Sunday, showing what would...

Well, that certainly did not go as planned. NeverTrumper and “Republican political strategist” Rick Wilson made a sorry attempt to play gotcha over the coronavirus-induced market dip March 9, by sharing a tweet the same day that appeared to be from President Donald Trump in 2015. The tweet he shared called for the punishment of a sitting president if the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell “more than 1000 ‘points’ in a Single Day” (the tweet called it the “Dow Joans”). Wilson commented: “I agree, Mr. President.” The problem? Wilson agreed with a fact-checked “fake” tweet.

With a long post on Facebook Dr. Daniele Macchini, a doctor from Humanitas Gavazzeni, talks about his life on the front lines to combat coronavirus. It is a creepy testimony, to be read from the first to the last line. Here is the post In one of the constant emails that I receive from my health management on a more than daily basis now these days, there was also a paragraph entitled "doing social responsibly", with some recommendations that can only be supported. After thinking for a long time if and what to write about what is happening to...

Starting March 23, Harvard will not have in-person classes for the remainder of the spring semester amid fears of spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus, the university announced Tuesday. “The decision to move to virtual instruction was not made lightly,” University President Lawrence S. Bacow said in a statement. “The goal of these changes is to minimize the need to gather in large groups and spend prolonged time in close proximity with each other in spaces such as classrooms, dining halls, and residential buildings.” Students at Harvard release for spring break this Saturday and will begin remote classes. They are asked not...

Speaker Pelosi spoke at Northeastern University’s “Women Who Empower Summit” event Monday in conjunction with International Women’s Day. The speaker was celebrating women but only liberal women. The event was supposed to be a non-political event, acknowledged by Pelosi at one point but that didn’t stop her from speaking solely in political terms for much of her time. She looked at the moderator and said, “You asked a political question so what do you expect?”She began her remarks by declaring that “Civilization as we know it is at stake.” There’s nothing subtle with that statement. As she touted the...

Canada’s federal government introduced legislation to criminalize “gay conversion therapy” that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation to what is deemed “normal” by heterosexual standards. “Conversion therapy is a cruel practice that can lead to life-long trauma, particularly for young people,” said Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti. […] The new legislation would make it illegal to cause an individual to undergo conversion therapy or remove a minor from Canada for the purpose of undergoing this practice. It would also make it illegal to advertise or profit from providing such therapy. A ban on conversion...

Boy, oh, boy. They really got old Donald John Trump this time. Forget the Russian Collusion hoax. And the Emoluments Clause. And Hurricane Maria. And the Creepy Porn Lawyer. And the 25th Amendment. And the worst-since-the-Depression stock market crash of 2018. And the Mueller Report. And the Impeachment. And the World War 3s with Syria, North Korea, and Iran. No, this time, the Globalists Who Took Over America really have him with the corona virus. As a Blogger, I'm not amiss, I thoroughly examined this. His presidency's not only merely dead, it's really most sincerely dead. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity...

A new Gallup poll finds congressional Republicans with a higher approval rating than Democrats in the wake of President Trump's impeachment and acquittal in the Senate. Republicans get a 40 percent approval rating, compared to 35 percent for Democrats. The Gallup poll found that since October, shortly after Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry, the approval rating for Republicans in the Gallup poll has gone up six points, from 34 percent to 40 percent. Democrats saw their approval rating fall over the same period from 38 percent to 35 percent. The disapproval rating in the Gallup poll for Democrats rose, from...