Free Republic

In the past, people displayed their membership of the upper class with their material accoutrements. But today, luxury goods are more affordable than before. And people are less likely to receive validation for the material items they display. This is a problem for the affluent, who still want to broadcast their high social position. But they have come up with a clever solution. The affluent have decoupled social status from goods, and re-attached it to beliefs. .... Thorstein Veblen’s famous “leisure class” has evolved into the “luxury belief class.” Veblen, an economist and sociologist, made his observations about social class...

The strict lockdown in Israel easing today with home confinement ending for millions of people... "So for your health I ask you-do not come tomorrow" Those words in a video from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking his supporters to stay away from the court hearing tomorrow as his corruption trial moves into its key phase... Iran and the United States staking out positions on the nuclear issue... More than 100 people missing and at least seven dead in the wake of a torrent of water unleashed by the bursting of a glacier... The pipe-laying for the Nord Stream 2...

Few Scotland players chose to kneel to Black Lives Matter ahead of a historic victory over England in the Six Nations rugby tournament, triggering a woke backlash. The Scots won the Calcutta Cup from England on their much larger neighbour’s home soil for the first time since 1983 — in a stadium which was largely empty, thanks to the anti-coronavirus lockdown — but the win has been somewhat marred by a furore over what the BBC has dubbed “kneegate”. “#AsOne is the message from Scottish Rugby. But the players don’t seem to be ‘as one’ in their stance against racism,”...

[Catholic Caucus] More Aberrosexual Bishops Coming Up! Bergoglio Might Appoint Cupich to Congregation of Bishops Blase Cupich is the confidante who informs Pope Francis about the situation in the USA. As Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, he could soon choose the type of bishops desired by Francis. (Rome) Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Roman bishop-kon-gre-ga-ti-on , will be soon be replaced. The successor in the conversation is Cardinal Blase Cupich, the leader of the progressive bishops in the American Bishops' Conference. The French-Canadian Ouellet, a member of the Sulpician Order (PSS), is one of the few “Ratzingerians”...

TAMPA, FL—Though they had been trailing in the Super Bowl throughout most of the first quarter, the Kansas City Chiefs were suddenly awarded 138,000 points at halftime, sources confirmed Sunday evening. "After closer examination, we discovered several more points scored by the Chiefs that we had missed initially," said one official. "Sometimes these things show up in the instant replay footage." After receiving the exciting news, the halftime show transitioned into a victory celebration for the winning team. "We hope this small irregularity doesn't undermine your faith in our officiating," said an NFL spokesperson.

I produced two videos, then took a little break because work, weather and family required it. Now I'm internally debating whether to make more. Let me know what you think, Freepers. If you like my videos, please give them a "thumbs up" on YouTube and subscribe to my channel. Also, please share them with your conservative Facebook friends. I plan to cover lots of information that the left-wing propaganda bureaus once known as "news media" will never mention. For example: solar panels, wind turbines and high capacity lithium batteries are all ticking environmental time bombs.

TAMPA, FL—Scandal is once again rocking the NFL on Super Bowl Sunday after accusations surfaced that Tampa Bay Buccaneer Quarterback Tom Brady has been taking performance-enhancing Metamucil. "Yeah, I heard that too," said Kansas City Quarterback Patrick Mahomes. "I heard people his age need to take it every day in order to be able to poop like normal young football players like me. I wouldn't be surprised in the least." Tom Brady has forcefully denied all accusations. "Shut up guys! I'm not that old, I'm only 43!" said Mr. Brady to a roomful of sports reporters. "43 is not that...

Remember the Impeachment Whistleblower? Republicans joined in to defend him and protect his Identity even though they were bound by no Law. And then there was No Shortage of Peeps waiting for those Indictments that never came. This is a missing piece of the assessment.

US biotechnology firm Moderna on Monday said lab studies showed its Covid-19 vaccine would remain protective against variants of the coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa. But out of caution, the company will test adding a second booster of its vaccine -- to make three shots in total -- and has begun preclinical studies on a booster specifically for the South African variant. "We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should be protective against these newly detected variants," said Stephane Bancel, Moderna's CEO. "Out of an abundance...

Johnson & Johnson has announced its application with the FDA to obtain an EUA for its COVID-19 vaccine.While this would help get the population vaccinated more quickly, there’s concern the company’s vaccine is not as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.Experts say there may not be a choice over which vaccine to choose until vaccine production can match population needs.However, more effective vaccines will become available at a later time.Experts emphasize that all three vaccines are safe and will help control the pandemic.Johnson & Johnson announced on Feb. 4 that it had applied with the Food and Drug Administration...

The GOAT [greatest of all time] honor belongs to Tom Grady.

The long-downtrodden Tampa Bay Buccaneers are kings of the NFL again thanks to Tom Brady and the championship pedigree he brought over from New England — along with two former Patriots teammates who starred with him in Super Bowl 55. The Buccaneers dethroned the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 Sunday night at Raymond James Stadium behind Brady’s trio of first-down touchdown passes, two to tight end Rob Gronkowski and the other to wide receiver Antonio Brown. Gronkowski came out of retirement and signed with the Buccaneers after Brady bolted the Patriots last spring for a two-year, $50 million contract in Tampa...

With Joe Biden in the White House, the mullah-led Iranian regime is pressuring the U.S. to provide "compensation" for the "damage" from sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. Iran also wants to leverage its nuclear accomplishments and gain additional ones, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) MEMRI sai Iran wants to be "recognized as a nuclear threshold state with the ability to produce a nuclear bomb within a short time, in order to move towards a nuclear balance of terror in the Middle East, to block European initiatives to include the issue of Iran's ballistic missile development...

Q is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation.Q describes this awakening as follows: "The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a backchannel to the public (away from the longstanding 'mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media) to endure future events through transparency and regeneration of individual thought (breaking the chains of ‘group-think’), but,...

Pizza Hut Israel is trialing a new program that would enable drones to bring orders for delivery to pre-approved hubs, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday (Jan. 18). The company is planning to launch a test pilot and send drones to deliver multiple orders at government-approved landing zones in Israel — such as designated parking spots. From that point, drivers would take the food to the last leg of delivery, according to the report. “Drone delivery is a sexy thing to talk about, but it’s not realistic to think we’re going to see drones flying all over the sky...

A man fishing near Samphire Hoe captured a video of a section of the White Cliffs of Dover collapsing into the sea on February 3. Dennis McIntyre took the video and shared the footage on Facebook. He stated he saw pieces of debris and dust falling when he started recording, then he heard cracking sounds like an explosion as the collapsed pieces of chalk and flint hit the water. Councillor Steve Albon from the Thanet District Council urged the public, “Please use common sense and caution – stay away from the edge and base of cliffs at all times and...

It may be that the present two-party domination of national politics is now so exhausted that Middle Americans will soon emerge in their own party with their own agenda and consciousness unencumbered by the trivia and distractions of the major parties. But what ought to have become clear this summer is that that agenda and consciousness cannot be advanced by either the established leadership of the Republican Party or even by the party’s Right wing that allows itself to be swindled for a meaningless platform that the leadership despises.

Oh, we know it well. That big beautiful blue Boeing 747-200B that ferried our beloved President Trump from MAGA rally to MAGA rally as he "whistle-stopped by Air Force One." Crowds of thousands waited patiently in rain and cold, cheering madly as that gleaming big bird approached the airport while RSBN's veteran reporter admitted to getting choked up every time it appeared on the horizon. I know just how he feels. And this is the plane the MSM implied Joseph the Senile flew home to Delaware aboard on Friday. Fiddlesticks! While I fully realize that every plane carrying the person...

There are thousands of soldiers outside Congress and political terror inside its halls. That political terror isn’t coming from a QAnon Shaman who only eats organic food, but from the Democrats who are using a manufactured state of emergency to purge the opposition. Democrats deployed 26,000 troops to Washington D.C. at a cost of $500 million. Thousands of soldiers, authorized to use deadly force as they were forbidden to do either at the border or during the Black Lives Matter assault on the White House, will stay to fight an imaginary threat. While walls, razor wire, and military encampments rise...

In a significant bit of performance art, Democrats in the House decided to give more airtime to the most self-obsessed member of our government, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Honestly, President Trump has nothing on this young lady on the narcissism scale. Shame on Speaker Nancy Pelosi for allowing it and shame on any member who said nothing about left-wing violence all over his nation over the summer for thinking their tearful testimony meant anything to anyone paying attention. Ocasio-Cortez organized this time on the floor after she was outed for several inaccuracies in her Instagram storytime regarding her own experience. Pelosi...