Free Republic

The Vermont school teacher who made Bernie Sanders’ mittens, featured in the most recent viral meme, said she had to stop making them after the federal government taxed her too much. “People have been contacting me thinking that they can get mittens, and actually they can’t. I don’t have any more, and I don’t have much of a mitten business anymore because it really wasn’t worth it,” Jen Ellis explained to Slate. “Independent crafters get really taken for a ride by the federal government. We get taxed to the nth degree, and it wasn’t really worth it pursuing that as...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WTVD) -- A 133-year-old North Carolina retail icon has filed for bankruptcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Belk announced Tuesday that it plans to restructure financially under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The company hopes to complete the reorganization by the end of February. "Belk has a 130-year legacy of providing quality products at great prices," said Lisa Harper, Belk CEO. "Like all retailers navigating COVID-19, our priority has been the safety of our associates, customers and communities. As the ongoing effects of the pandemic have continued, we've been assessing potential options to protect our future. We're...

NASA's former chief Jim Bridenstine just joined a private equity firm that invests in the aerospace and defense sectors. Acorn Growth Companies said the experience of Bridenstine, who resigned shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden took office Jan. 20, will be particularly useful for a new investment vehicle called Aerospace and Defense Fund V. "Innovation is found in small and mid-market companies," Bridenstine, Acorn's new senior adviser, said in a statement Monday (Jan. 25). "I'm excited to join this firm and work with disruptors that provide needed innovation to the aerospace and defense industries." "Jim's wealth of knowledge in the...

Sophisticated hackers, identity thieves and overseas criminal rings stole over $11 billion in unemployment benefits from California last year, but the extent of the fraud might grow far larger: billions more in payments are under investigation. California Labor Secretary Julie Su told reporters in a conference call Monday that of the $114 billion the state has paid in unemployment claims, about 10% — or $11.4 billion — have been confirmed as fraudulent. Nearly $20 billion more — another 17% — is considered suspicious, and a large part of that could be found to be fraud, she said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy has reportedly been taken to the hospital for a sudden illness on the day senators were sworn in for the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump."This evening, Sen. Leahy was in his Capitol office and was not feeling well," spokesman David Carle wrote in a statement, per reports. "He was examined in the Capitol by the Attending Physician. ... The swearing in and Leahy's illness come one night after being assigned to preside over the trial.

For the first time since 1960 -- and just the seventh time since the first election in 1936 -- the National Baseball Hall of Fame will not have a new group of electees in 2021. Yet because the Class of 2020’s induction was pushed back a year by the coronavirus pandemic, there will still be entrants welcomed into the hallowed Hall this summer. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Tuesday night on MLB Network that none of the 25 players on the 2021 ballot received at least 75 percent of votes -- the threshold required for entry. Starting pitcher...

Four members of one family were killed in Indianapolis around 4:00 AM on January 24th. The victims include Kezzie Childs, 42, Raymond Childs Jr, 42, Elijah Childs, 18, and Rita Childs, 13. Kiara Hawkins, 19, and her unborn baby boy were also killed. Another teenage boy was found seriously wounded nearby. On Facebook, Hawkins says she was due to give birth on February 1st. Hawkins seems to insinuate that Elijah Childs is the father of her baby, though this is unclear. On the morning of January 25th, police announced that they apprehended a 17 year old, but they could not...

Pilots discuss how the A-10 Warthog's tight turning radius coupled with its big gun means it can sting even the best fighters in a dogfight. While the “Warthog” isn’t optimized for the air superiority role and lacks key capabilities, such as high-speed, radar, and radar-guided long-range missiles that make its fighter brethren such air-to-air supremos, even the greatest fighter pilots are rightfully wary of getting into a close-in turning dogfight with a ‘lowly’ mud-moving A-10. the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, actually teaches the art of Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) in its bi-annual...

The current holders of a valuable violin are under growing pressure to pay compensation to the heirs of its Jewish former owner, whose family music shop was seized by the Nazis. The rare instrument, built in 1706 by the celebrated Italian luthier Giuseppe Guarneri, is worth approximately 150,000 euros, or around £133,200. But if it was repaired to its full glory, experts say it would be with at least $1 million. It came into Felix Hildesheimer’s possession in 1938. The music shop owner took over his father’s business in 1898 and bought the rare instrument from a Stuttgart-based music dealer...

Prominent Democrats in North Dakota donated to the legal defense fund of a man accused of attacking a Republican senator’s office with an axe. North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party chairwoman Kylie Oversen, party official Ellie Shockley and former lieutenant gubernatorial contender Ellen Chaffee gave money to support 30-year-old Thomas “Tas” Alexander Starks. Starks, of Lisbon, N.D., is a far-left activist who was arrested and charged over a Dec. 21 axe attack on Sen. John Hoeven’s office in downtown Fargo. The shocking incident was caught on video. Laura Starks, the suspect’s wife, started a GoFundMe account to support his legal defense...

Joe Biden is caught lying yet again, this time over his remarks about President Trump’s ‘Buy American’ economic policies.“But the previous administration didn’t take it seriously enough,” Biden claimed. “federal agencies waived the ‘Buy American’ requirement without much push back at all. ”Critics have said this is a blatant lie as ‘Buy American’ was a key staple of President Trump’s policies on manufacturing and foreign trade. The Trump administration hosted ‘Made in America’ events and even imposed high-tariffs on imports to support U.S. manufacturers.

Undeterred by the mayhem at the Capitol in Washington and the near-universal condemnation of Donald Trump’s failures in the dying days of his presidency, the small but committed Japanese chapter of the far-right QAnon movement is standing by its man. It is also advancing some absurd, albeit uniquely Japanese theories: The imperial family was replaced by “fakes” during the mid-1800s; Emperor Hirohito was British, an agent for the CIA, and owned the patent for the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the closing days of World War II. […] A member of the group who goes...

Today Joe Biden issued a firm call to heal America’s racial divide, taking several steps and promising more to confront racism and inequality that he said has plagued the United States for far too long. Only 2,200 people were watching the live video on the White House YouTube page as Biden mumbled through his prepared racial equality remarks on Tuesday. Screenshot below: In his speech, Joe Biden accused all Americans of being a “nation of morally deprived” people. Joe Biden: I believe we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. And the simple truth is our soul...

"Trump's American Carnage" - Preview JANUARY 26, 2021 From his first days as president to his last, how Trump stoked division, violence, and insurrection. FRONTLINE investigates Trump’s siege on his enemies, the media, and even the leaders of his own party, who for years ignored the warning signs of what was to come.

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Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is set to preside over the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, was taken to a Washington hospital on Tuesday afternoon after “not feeling well,” his spokesman said.

With a deft maneuver today raising a point of order to require a vote of the full Senate to dismiss the sham impeachment case against Donald Trump, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul demonstrated clearly that the divisive Senate Democrats have no chance of obtaining a conviction in their ongoing jihad to keep persecuting the man even after he has left office. Sen. Paul is at his best when he is focused on being a thorn in the fat butt of Chuck Schumer, and he played that role delightfully today, beginning his parliamentary maneuver with an epic floor speech that should be...

A dentist and lawyer known for her past promotion of the "birther" conspiracy theory regarding former President Barack Obama has sued Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to halt former President Donald Trump's impeachment. Orly Taitz is suing to prevent the Senate from holding a second Trump impeachment trial more than a decade after she first made headlines for launching legal complaints in support of misinformation claiming that Obama was not born in the U.S., a bogus claim that Trump promoted for several years before becoming president. The new lawsuit was filed Thursday on behalf...

Patriot Action: Fighting Corporate Censorship By Establishing Free Speech States While private corporations are free to regulate the speech that occurs on their platforms and choose who they will or will not hire or transact business with, they are not entitled to enrich themselves with tax dollars paid by the same people whom they are denying the exercise of Constitutionally-protected speech, political activity, and gainful employment. The remedy to this problem is the establishment of “Free Speech States” with state-level legislation that prohibits corporations who do business with the state from engaging in censorship, deplatforming, and employment discrimination.

Explanation: How did this strange-looking galaxy form? Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of unusual jumbles of stars, gas, and dust like NGC 1316. Inspection indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that somehow includes dark dust lanes usually found in a spiral galaxy. Detailed images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows details, however, that help in reconstructing the history of this gigantic tangle. Deep and wide images show huge collisional shells, while deep central images reveal fewer globular clusters of stars toward NGC 1316's interior. Such effects are expected in galaxies that...