Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz flew home from Mexico Thursday, amid outrage over his trip during a crisis-level storm in Texas — explaining he was only chaperoning his daughters and their friends on the flight. The Republican lawmaker was seen getting back on a plane to the US on Thursday afternoon and issued a statement explaining that was not on a vacation himself, but was accompanying his daughters on a flight to theirs.

A Florida lawmaker has requested Gov. Ron DeSantis order the state’s flags be lowered to half-staff to honor Rush Limbaugh’s passing. Limbaugh lived in Palm Beach, Florida, and died Wednesday from complications of advanced lung cancer.

Statues of Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley, as well as the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, were among the 41 public statues and other commemorative markers identified on a list from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration on Wednesday for further review as part of “a racial healing and historical reckoning project” started last summer. The city launched a website on Wednesday detailing the controversial monuments flagged by the mayor’s commission on monuments. Other statues on the list included a monument to President Ulysses S. Grant, a Benjamin Franklin statue, a police memorial tied to the Haymarket Riot and a...

A couple of weeks ago, Twitchy reported that Fairfax County, Virginia schools were looking for “monitors” to watch kids in a classroom while fully vaccinated teachers taught from home. Drew Wilder of NBC Washington reports that some students returned to the classroom Tuesday but were still learning virtually. Some students returned to the classroom today in Fairfax County. These students at Annandale HS are in the building but still learning virtually. Each is in a different class with a different teacher who is teaching from home. One of FCPS’ new class monitors is in the room.

More than two-thirds of U.S. service members offered the COVID-19 vaccine have opted to receive it -- but the high rate of troops turning it down has lawmakers voicing grave concerns.Speaking before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Defense officials, including Air Force Maj. Gens. Jeff Taliaferro, vice director for operations on the Joint Chiefs, and Steven Nordhaus, director of operations with the National Guard Bureau, said the vaccine acceptance rate for troops is, on average, between 66% and 70%.Taliaferro added that the rate "varies by different groups," but vaccine refusal has not affected deployability because the military has...

School board members accidentally leave video meeting on "public", discuss limiting parents comments and more.

A day after Rush Limbaugh died, Hollywood filmmaker Rob Reiner attacked the late conservative radio host as a purveyor of disinformation, saying that Americans must protect democracy from others like him. Rob Reiner launched his social media attack on the late Limbaugh by calling him a liar, warning that other conservative media personalities are trying to deny climate change. “To protect our Democracy we must remain vigilant in calling out their big lies. Starting with climate change,” he wrote. Reiner is the latest left-wing Hollywood elite to attack Limbaugh following news of his death yesterday. The 70-year-old conservative radio legend...

With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been accused of traveling to Cancun, Mexico, amid the ongoing crisis in Texas, where millions have been left without power or heat in freezing temperatures. Photos circulating on social media overnight appeared to show the senator at an airport and on an airplane. The idea that Cruz and his family had flown to Mexico soon spread on Twitter. LinkLinkTed Cruz was photographed at IAH in the United lounge flying from Houston to Cancun. AP confirmed that Cruz traveled to Mexico on Wednesday for a family vacation. The high-profile Republican lawmaker went for a long-planned trip...

Prediction: NASA Will Not Find Life on Mars February 17, 2021 | David F. Coppedge The Perseverance rover is scheduled to land today. As usual, the search for life is a priority for the mission. Our prediction that no life will be found on Mars is based on history, probability, the harshness of the Mars environment and the complexity of a minimal cell. We should qualify the prediction by stipulating that if any sign of life is found, it will turn out to be remnants of Earth life that somehow got transported to Mars, perhaps by a glancing meteorite. We...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed Andrew Cuomo for 'bullying' a state lawmaker who claimed the governor threatened to 'destroy' him unless he helped cover up the COVID-19 nursing home scandal. During an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, de Blasio addressed the claim made by assemblyman Ron Kim who said Cuomo made threats as part of an effort to get him to 'cover up' for a top aide who admitted that his administration concealed the real number of nursing home deaths from the virus. 'It's a sad thing to say ... but that's classic Andrew Cuomo,' de Blasio...

President Joe Biden wraps up his first full month in office this week having set a new record of speed and aggression in pursuing a partisan, hard-left agenda. At the Democrats’ virtual convention in 2020, former Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, branding the Democratic nominee a “unifier” with a commitment to bring the country together. “America is at a crossroads,” Kasich said, while standing at a physical crossroads for the taped address. The message of unity, decency, and bipartisanship became the defining theme of anti-Trump Republicans who promoted the most radical pair of candidates...

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is authorized to receive taxpayer funding for animal research through January 2024, according to the National Institute of Health. The WIV received $600,000 in taxpayer funds between 2014 and 2019 through the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance to study bat-based coronaviruses. The president of EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, was the sole U.S. member in the World Health Organization delegation that investigated the origins of COVID-19 in China. Daszak said the White House should blindly accept the WHO’s determination that it’s highly unlikely that COVID-19 could have unintentionally leaked from the WIV. The Wuhan Institute of...

In a fawning interview with billionaire Bill Gates aired on Wednesday’s 3rd Hour Today show, co-host Al Roker hailed the Microsoft founder for launching a climate change crusade to “help save the planet.” A prominent left-wing climate activist in his own right, Roker was particularly concerned about “deniers” spreading “misinformation” and wondered if “big tech” could be used to silence them. “Bill Gates is talking about saving the planet. Being emissions free in 30 years,” Roker heralded at the top of the segment. Turning to Gates, Roker fretted: “Plain and simple, if we don’t act now, what’s at stake here?”...

Five people died in the chaos on Capitol Hill on January 6. An unarmed 14-year veteran of the Air Force, Ashli Babbitt, was shot point-blank by a Capitol Police officer. Four others, one of them another Capitol Police officer, apparently died of medical emergencies. All of these deaths were tragic and unnecessary. At least one of them, and possibly two, may have been the result of criminal acts—though early reports of Officer Brian Sicknick being beaten with a fire extinguisher are now being, as they say, “walked back.” His family says he died of a preexisting medical condition and have...

Former President Donald Trump lamented the death of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Newsmax TV on Wednesday, calling him "unique," "spellbinding," and a "great friend."Trump appeared via phone on "Greg Kelly Reports" to express his sadness for the passing of Limbaugh, who died earlier in the day from lung cancer at the age of 70."We lost a great one today," Trump said. "Rush was just a unique character, and a great friend to all of us. So, we lost a really great gentlemen today."

TRENTON, NJ – It’s no secret that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wants open borders, sanctuary and equal, if not more rights for illegal aliens in his state, but just how far the Governor and his wife Tammy will go to violate U.S. immigration law to provide those opportunities is now being questioned. The Murphys are the owners of the Sky Blue FC professional women’s soccer team and in the past have been accused of mistreatment of players. Now, they are being accused of being part of a wide-scale immigration fraud scheme by the Department of Justice. On Friday, the...

Greenwald is calling out liberal lies. Left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald is exposing the lies made up by the fake news media to justify an unconstitutional crackdown on their Republican opposition after the Jan. 6 mostly-peaceful protest in Washington D.C. Greenwald published an article on his Substack on Tuesday exposing falsehoods that have been deliberately spread on corporate platforms to gin up fear and create new Draconian restrictions against civil liberties. “Condemning that riot does not allow, let alone require, echoing false claims in order to render the event more menacing and serious than it actually was. There is no circumstance...

KEY POINTS: According to a new J.D. Power study, the three most dependable auto brands in the U.S. are now Lexus, Porsche and Kia. Chrysler, Tesla, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo and Land Rover are in the bottom five when it comes to dependability. The 2021 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study by J.D. Power looked into 33 different auto brands, and about 150 different models including cars, SUVs and trucks. ============================================================ The three most dependable auto brands in the U.S. are now Lexus, Porsche and Kia, according to a new J.D. Power study. The three least dependable are Jaguar, Alfa Romeo and Land...

President Joe Biden took advantage of the third anniversary of the Parkland school shooting to call for stricter gun control laws. For most Americans who only ever followed the story of Parkland through the mainstream media, that call made sense. Most journalists only cared about my daughter's murder and the murder of 16 others as far as they could use it to prop up their own political agenda through an opportunistic teenager who has now become a partisan pillow salesman. But for me, having done a thorough investigation into what went wrong and why in Parkland and in other school...