Free Republic

Vice President Pence does not need to quarantine after President Trump tested positive for COVID-19, his physician said Friday, saying Pence is not considered a "close contact." The vice president's office released a memo from Dr. Jesse Schonau, physician to the vice president, reiterating that Pence tested negative earlier in the day for the coronavirus. "Under the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Vice President is not considered a close contact with any individuals who have tested positive for COVID, including President Donald J. Trump. Vice President Mike Pence does not need to quarantine," the memo states....

Mad Anthony Wayne didn't have long to enjoy his victory. He died in 1796 while traveling back east from the scene of his recent military and diplomatic triumphs. He was buried near Erie, Pennsylvania, a long way from his home in the southeastern part of the state. Some years later his family decided to bring his remains back to Radnor, Pennsylvania, for reburial, a decision that was to have some dramatic and unforeseen consequences. Upon opening the General's grave, the excavators did not discover the skeleton they expected. Although more than ten years had passed since his burial, Mad Anthony's...

According to archaeologists, a 16-year-old boy who stumbled upon a host of old, stone implements in eastern Turkey has landed upon a find that can cast more light on early human civilization. The young shepherd... contacted archaeologists who were working on a nearby dig in the district of Ovacik, in the eastern province of Tunceli, about a set of strange tools he had discovered. Four days of excavation work in the area revealed remains from the Epipalaeolithic and Upper Paleolithic periods. Archaeologists say they are the oldest examples of a human settlement in Turkey's northeast region... Research is still underway,...

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren was indicted Friday on charges she broke campaign finance rules and committed fraud during her reelection campaign three years ago. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley also announced charges against Warren’s campaign treasurer, Albert Jones Jr., and the treasurer of her political action committee, Rosalind Brooks-Harris. The indictment dramatically increases political peril for Warren, who was already facing calls to resign for the city’s handling of the suffocation of Daniel Prude. The Democrat is midway through her second term as the first female and second Black mayor of Rochester, a city of more than 200,000 by...

The Washington Post reports that Amy Coney Barrett was infected by the Wuhan coronavirus this summer. It says Barrett’s infection has been confirmed by “three officials familiar with her diagnosis.” Judge Barrett has recovered from the virus. The Post’s report doesn’t say what her symptoms, if any, were. However, she is female, relatively young and slim, and seemingly in good general health. Thus, it’s unlikely that she was ever at serious risk from the infection.

President Trump will hold a virtual campaign rally on Friday night after testing positive for COVID-19. His planned rally in Sanford was canceled after he and first lady Melania Trump both tested positive for the virus. The president will be live streaming his 'Make America Great Again' event at 7 p.m. on Friday. You can register to attend virtually...

by Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D. One of the many points of contention brought up during TuesdayÂ’s fiery presidential debate was the issue of the United StatesÂ’ high coronavirus case and death numbers. The allegation of AmericaÂ’s high numbers relative to its population was espoused by former Vice President Joe Biden when he lamented that the United States owned 20 percent of worldwide deaths while possessing only 4 percent of the worldÂ’s population. Predictably, he then did his best to pin the responsibility for these stark statistics on President Trump. Indeed, as of this writing, the United States has approximately 21...

Archaeologists have found what they think is evidence of low-chromium crucible steel in the 11th century in what is now Chahak in Iran, a long time and a long way away from the European Industrial Revolution. The metal would have been used to manufacture armour and weapons, including swords and daggers. "This research not only delivers the earliest known evidence for the production of chromium steel dating back as early as the 11th century CE, but also provides a chemical tracer that could aid the identification of crucible steel artefacts in museums or archaeological collections back to their origin in...

Breathe easy. A new study suggests that surgical face masks don’t cause a buildup of carbon dioxide or restrict oxygen, despite opposing claims. The study, on the “Effect of Face Masks on Gas Exchange in Healthy Persons and Patients with COPD,” which was published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society on Friday, was conducted after a group of Florida residents challenged Florida’s mask-wearing mandate in June, arguing that wearing the protective face coverings could result in the buildup of too much carbon dioxide.

President Trump has said numerous times that the Democrats are coming for your guns -- either they will scrap the Second Amendment or gut it of any content. Though some have claimed this is an exaggeration, dismissing it as mere pandering to his electoral base, this election cycle may be different. One of the most significant signs of this is the Democrat Party platform and Joe Biden admitted in the first debate that he has given his stamp of approval on the 2020 platform. Democrats and Republicans approach the Second Amendment from very different vantage points in their platforms. Republicans...

The New York Times’ claim that President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 is wrong, based on a flawed understanding of how taxes are paid. The figures below, drawn from the New York Times’s own analysis of Trump’s tax-return data for 2017, show that Trump paid $7,435,857 in taxes in 2017. The Times says the tax return data show that Trump’s earnings were negative for the year, so he owned nothing in regular income taxes. But he was subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), a parallel tax system aimed at making sure...

<p>JERUSALEM, Israel – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Jerusalem belongs to his country during an address to Turkish lawmakers in Ankara on Thursday, The Times of Israel reported.</p> <p>“In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance. So, Jerusalem is our city, a city from us,” he said. “Our first qibla [Islamic direction of prayer] al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are the symbolic mosques of our faith. In addition, this city is home to the holy places of Christianity and Judaism.”</p>

Thursday, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson opened his program with a monologue about the Democratic Party’s embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the 2020 presidential election cycle. Carlson focused on Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee, in particular. He showed how she, in her own words, had been more outspoken with her support of Black Lives Matter than most others in the Democratic Party. Partial transcript as follows: CARLSON: You should know a lot more about Kamala Harris, a lot more. Kamala Harris is 22 years younger than Joe Biden is. So if Joe Biden...

Federal district court judge Stephen Wilson ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay the NRA’s lawyer fees of approximately $150,000, just months after he ruled a city ordinance violated the NRA’s First Amendment rights. Wilson ruled on the First Amendment violation on December 11, 2019, in National Rifle Association of America et al v. City of Los Angeles, which was heard in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The case centered on City Ordinance 18600, which required “a perspective contractor of the City to disclose all contracts with or sponsorship of the National Rifle...

Sorry, wasn't sure where to put this or what links to use, but today Rush made an unprecedented offer to our POTUS on his show today. He said he would offer his radio forum for Trump rallies anytime he wanted. He further mentioned that he has the largest radio audience in the world and would be reaching out to POTUS as soon as possible to discuss further. I think it's a great idea that is worth consideration. Just passing it along.

President Trump made an explicit appeal for Catholic votes Thursday evening while claiming anti-Catholic bigotry “predominates” the Democratic Party. Trump delivered the broadside remotely in pre-taped remarks streamed into the Archdiocese of New York’s Al Smith 75th annual fundraiser — a traditional dinner that was turned into an unprecedented virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump labeled the Democratic Party as anti-Catholic just moments after his Democratic rival for the presidency, former Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, spoke. Trump praised former New York Gov. Al Smith, a Democrat and first Catholic to run for president as a “happy...

When Covid-19 hit, the islands were locked down, giving the environment time to recover and residents a chance to think People enjoy the uncrowded beach in Key West, Florida, on 17 September amid the coronavirus pandemic. People enjoy the uncrowded beach in Key West, Florida, on 17 September amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photograph: Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images Will Benson stands on the platform of a mint green fishing boat, under a white-hot sun, and whipsaws a fly fishing rig over azure waters as glassy as an aquarium. The water is no more than 10 feet deep. Dreadlock Holiday plays on the...

The demise of Fox News as an alternative to the establishment media marched on Thursday when both Chris Wallace and John Roberts exposed themselves as liars. Wallace and Roberts are not just anyone on Fox News, are not just your run-of-the-mill media liars. Wallace hosted Tuesday’s presidential debate and hosts Fox News Sunday.

I was raised to think of myself as Hispanic, but in retrospect, I was trained to worship like a white man. My mother was from Honduras, but she might as well have come from Mayberry. Back "home," our family history had been difficult. Lots of great people but even more hard times. People had been beaten up, tortured, gunned down, and kidnapped. One of my relatives was conscripted into some kind of a militia. He was put into a boot camp and sent out to kill people. I never found out which side it was for. From the sound of...

Left-wing documentary director and Joe Biden supporter Michael Moore floated the conspiracy theory that president Donald trump could be “lying about having COVID-19 to prepare us and counteract his game” and “gain sympathy” ahead of the Presidential election. “Democrats, liberals, the media and others have always been wrong to simply treat him as a buffoon and a dummy and a jackass. Yes, he is all those things. But he’s also canny. He’s clever. He outfoxed Comey. He outfoxed Mueller.