Free Republic

The following is a news analysis. Parler is a Twitter option that promises not to censor legal speech for political reasons, as other social media companies are doing. As such, it has been a target of coordinated attacks. For example, propagandists in media have tried to link Parler to the Capitol attacks, even though both left wing and right wing activists involved communicated widely on Facebook and Twitter. The Wikipedia description entered by agenda editors and propagandists borders on the ridiculous: There are also efforts to link Parler to "The Russians!" even though it was Facebook that the Russians used,...

Members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats, are calling for the passage of two bills aimed at combating national security threats in the wake of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The group of moderate Democrats argues that additional action needs to be taken to prevent similar instances in the future and hold those responsible for the attack accountable, opting to officially endorse Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-Ill.) Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act and Rep. Stephanie Murphy’s (D-Fla.) Security Clearance Improvement Act. Murphy’s bill would bar those who took part in the riot and...

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has introduced legislation—the Handgun Trigger Safety Act—that would require all newly manufactured firearms to be so-called "smart guns." A second mandate is for all firearms in existence to be retrofitted with "smart gun" technology within the next ten years. "The insurrection at the Capitol has reminded all of us that the hundreds of millions of guns in private hands across America pose a substantial threat against democracy," Maloney asserted. "The police and troops we depend upon to protect the government from hostile opposition could easily be outnumbered and outgunned. If we mandate that all weapons have...

The Hollies - Long Cool Woman

Singer Angelo Kelly has been fined for bringing his son on stage to sing under child labour laws. Hassfurt administrative court in Bavaria slapped a €3,000 (£2,600)[USD$3,640] on folk singer Angelo Kelly after his four-year-old son performed on stage with him at a summer concert in 2019. The German dpa news agency reported that the court deemed it to go against Germany's Youth Labour Protection Act as as it wasn't officially approved by authorities as per the regulations and Angelo's kid, William, was on stage until 8.20pm, when the Act states children can be in musical performances if it's between...

Over 52 million coronavirus vaccines have been administered in the U.S. since the rollout of vaccinations began, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to February 14 CDC data, 70,057,800 doses of the vaccines have been delivered in the U.S. Of those, 52,884,356 million have been administered across the country, although a state-by-state tally, as noted by Bloomberg, shows the U.S. nearing 54 million doses administered.

Eighties pop is the best musical genre for reducing blood pressure, due to its 'positive nostalgia', researchers have found. Turkish researchers hooked up 1,540 volunteers aged between 18 and 65 to blood pressure and heart rate monitors and played them a variety of music on Spotify. Music from the hit TV series It's a Sin, which is heavy with tunes from the likes of Eighties legends Wham!, Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran, were more effective at reducing blood pressure – an indicator of low anxiety – than 10 other genres. Other genres effective at decreasing blood pressure were Noughties...

Medications February 10, 2021 Common asthma treatment reduces need for hospitalization in COVID-19 patients, study suggests by University of Oxford Early treatment with a medication commonly used to treat asthma appears to significantly reduce the need for urgent care and hospitalization in people with COVID-19, researchers at the University of Oxford have found. The STOIC study found that inhaled budesonide given to patients with COVID-19 within seven days of the onset of symptoms also reduced recovery time. Budesonide is a corticosteroid used in the long-term management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Findings from the phase 2 randomized...

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense found thousands of its computer servers sending military network data to China — the result of code hidden in chips that handled the machines’ startup process. In 2014, Intel Corp. discovered that an elite Chinese hacking group breached its network through a single server that downloaded malware from a supplier’s update site. And in 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned multiple companies that Chinese operatives had concealed an extra chip loaded with backdoor code in one manufacturer's servers.

North Carolina Republicans plan to censure Senator Richard Burr for his vote Saturday to convict former President Trump in his second impeachment trial. The North Carolina GOP’s central committee will hold an emergency meeting Monday evening to vote on whether to censure Barr, Tim Wigginton, the state party spokesman, told the Charlotte Observer.

Happy Presidents' Day - or Presidents Day (the style is variable) - to all our American readers. You can find our two-part forty-five-song Presidential Medley here and here. Usually, after the mostly-peaceful peaceful transfer of power, I update our special to take account of the new guy - in this case, the purported forty-sixth. But for some reason, this time round, I just thought, aw, screw it. ~As I've been saying for some months, we are aswirl in a blizzard of lies: Covid-19 originated in bats or pangolins. New York did a way better job of handling it than Florida,...

VIDEOGovernors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California were most definitely the Democrat Golden Boys of 2020. Their political prospects were riding high to the extent that both were viewed as having excellent chances of reaching the White House in the near future. However, as you can see, both have sunk beneath the waves in 2021 and their political futures are now considered finished for good.

Not everyone is a Middle East expert. In fact, few Americans are. But most if not all Americans should have some depth of knowledge about the Middle Eastern terrorist group Hezb'allah (translated as "party of god," which is often written as "Hezbollah"). We should be aware (because it should be taught and media should remind us) that on October 23, 1983, Hezb'allah murdered 241 U.S. servicemen and 64 others when it bombed the barracks housing the multinational peacekeeping force in Beirut, Lebanon. French servicemen and civilians were killed in the bombing as well. According to Marine Times: "The bombing killed...

Dementia Joe Biden seldom makes much sense when he speaks, but he did manage to babble something semi-coherent Friday. “Valentine’s Day is a big. Jill’s favorite day. For real.” The crack scribes of the White House press corps swooned in awe of China Joe’s remarkable if fleeting moment of near lucidity. One Lois Lane type begged him to bring her coffee next time. A (male) reporter slobbered, “We love your dogs!” As you can see, the White House has become little more than an assisted-living facility, for all concerned, including the dogs. Fortunately, the surveillance cameras are still rolling, so...

Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a rare deep freeze across the state locked up turbine towers while driving electricity demand to record levels, the state’s grid operator reported. Responding to a request from Governor Greg Abbott, President Joe Biden granted a federal emergency declaration for all 254 counties in the state on Sunday, authorizing U.S. agencies to coordinate disaster relief from severe weather in Texas. The winter energy woes in Texas came as bone-chilling cold, combined with snow, sleet and freezing rain, gripped much of the United States from the...

Celebrating Fat Tuesday during a pandemic means there probably won’t be a genuine hero walking into the office with boxes of paczki for everybody. But there is a bright side. One, it gives you a chance to rethink that repertoire of paczki (pronounced POONCH-key) jokes you break out every year and, two, more paczki to yourself! Paczki, of course, is a traditional polish pastry similar to a donut filled with jelly, custard or cream and covered in powdered sugar or glazed that’s generally only available this time of year. The idea behind the sweet treat was to get rid of...

The Los Angeles Police Department administration has launched an internal investigation after it was alleged that an offensive Valentine-style photo was circulating around the department of George Floyd. The photo of Floyd, who died when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck on May 31, allegedly included the words "You take my breath away.'' The complaining officer was scheduled to be interviewed Monday, LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Times. It appears the photo and a possible post on social media originated out of the department's Harbor Patrol Division. "I just received word through the chain of...

Conservative attorney L. Lin Wood will join fellow lawyer Sidney Powell’s legal team in a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, even as the pro-Trump lawyer faces the threat of litigation for spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the company’s voting machines. Dominion is suing Powell for spreading a baseless conspiracy theory alleging its voting machines fraudulently flipped votes to Joe Biden. Wood said on Telegram Friday that Powell called him Thursday night and asked him to serve as her lead counsel in the case, adding, “I quickly accepted.” Powell’s attorney Howard Kleinhendler confirmed to Forbes in an...

Found this little gem while exploring music that was popular exactly 50 years ago (a hobby of mine). A good ten years before MTV, there were still music videos being made but they were decidedly amateur in their production. Yet decent little time capsules all the same, that bring back memories of less complicated times. Christie - San BenaradinoChristie was an English rock band that is better known in the U.S. for their Top 40 hit "Yellow River" from 1970. They were sort of a "bubble-gummy" band. Anyway, I think many will get a kick out of this video. It...

A day before the inauguration, as Lady Gaga rehearsed “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Washington, D.C., wildfires burned in Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Ventura counties in California, shocking climatologists who had never witnessed the state’s fire season extend into January. NASA had just announced that 2020 tied with 2016 for the warmest year on record. As the Covid-19 pandemic drove city dwellers to search for places that felt surer, safer—Vermont, Kansas, Idaho—the FBI began arresting Americans who had rioted in the U.S. Capitol. Online sales of “prepper” gear (gas masks, food preservation kits) were brisk. Bill Gates was at his lakeside...