Free Republic

The New York Times reported this week that the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion “coronavirus relief” bill includes $86 billion for failing pension funds: Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic. Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income. The bailout targets multiemployer pension plans, which bring...

This year, fired up by a newly intense commitment to Christianity, regretful that he wasn’t more assertive internally before the second crash, and moved by the anger and frustration of the families of those who died, Jacobsen decided that wasn’t enough. Ahead of his planned retirement from the FAA at the end of this month, he recounted his MAX experience in a Feb. 8 letter to the parents of Samya Rose Stumo, a 24-year-old American who died on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302. “I felt a strong conviction that I should help with healing the families of the 737 Max crashes,”...

On Jan. 27, 1986, Allan McDonald stood on the cusp of history. McDonald directed the booster rocket project at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol. He was responsible for the two massive rockets, filled with explosive fuel, that lifted space shuttles skyward. He was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of the Challenger "to approve or disapprove a launch if something came up," he told me in 2016, 30 years after Challenger exploded. His job was to sign and submit an official form. Sign the form, he believed, and he'd risk the lives of the seven astronauts set...

On top of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s nursing-home scandal and sexual-harassment charges comes new cause for concern: an alleged coverup of serious flaws in the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. On Monday, the New York Thruway Authority denied any issues of concern over the $3.9 billion span, which replaced the Tappan Zee Bridge in 2017. But a report Sunday in The Albany Times Union alleges that the contractor “covered up” structural problems — faulty bolts — potentially endangering the public, and the authority basically let it slide. “The bridge has been and continues to be safe,” insisted Jamey Barbas, the director of...

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) did not hold back Wednesday in ripping H.R. 1, the so-called “For the People Act.” The House bill would radically change the United States’ voting system. Lee called the bill “rotten to the core.” He said it is as if the bill was “written in hell by the devil himself.” “I disagree with every single word in H.R. 1, including the words ‘but,’ ‘and,’ and ‘the.’ Everything about this bill is rotten to the core. This is a bill as if written in hell by the devil himself,” Lee declared. “This takes all sorts of decisions...

Fifty-two percent of likely voters expressed concern. Of those, 37 percent said they are “very” concerned. About a quarter, or 24 percent, of respondents, said they are “not very” concerned, followed by 22 percent who said they are “not at all” concerned. A majority of Republicans and independent voters, 68 percent and 56 percent, respectively, indicated concerned. Notably, only 32 percent of Democrats said they are concerned by Biden’s lack of holding press conferences, compared to the 64 percent of Democrats who are not concerned.

Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic. Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income. The bailout targets multiemployer pension plans, which bring groups of companies together with a union to provide guaranteed benefits. All told, about 1,400 of the plans cover about 10.7 million...

"If you control the money, you control the party," Republican donor Dan Eberhart told CNN on Tuesday. "Trump has effectively stunted the RNC, NRCC and NRSC this cycle because they are going to have to spend an awful lot of time worrying about friendly fire from the MAGA crowd." "The MAGA endorsement is going to loom large this cycle for everyone. When Trump puts his finger on the scales, it may prove decisive in a lot of races," said Eberhart, who said he is considering a Senate run in Arizona. "There is going to be a lot of consternation when...

LOS ANGELES - Chuck Norris, the former star of "Walker, Texas Ranger," celebrates his 81st birthday on March 10. Norris, an American icon known for starring roles in popular action films and television, first studied martial arts in Korea in the 1950s while serving in the U.S. Air Force, according to Biography.com. When he returned home, he opened a karate studio and later tried his hand at acting — appearing with Bruce Lee in the 1972 film "Way of the Dragon." His Hollywood career continued through the 1980s, and he even played the title character in the "Walker" TV series...

VIDEORoger Mudd, the longtime CBS News correspondent, passed away on March 9. In this video, Mudd speaks to us from the grave about disgraced CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather.

Disclaimer: I must admit I have never read a biography of Queen Victoria. My knowledge of her as a person has been accumulated by reading articles, mentions in non-fiction books, watching documentaries, and listening to podcasts. As a side note, if you are interested in the Victorians the “Age of Victoria” podcast is excellent. Just like season 2, season 3 starts with a bang. It is 1848 and one sees King of the French Louis Philippe preparing to disguise himself as a common working man to escape his father’s fate via the National Razor. In Britain, the Hungry Forties and...

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s nominees to fill out the Justice Department’s leadership ranks pledged at their confirmation hearing on Tuesday to tackle domestic extremism, racial inequality and other thorny issues within the bounds of the law, seeking to restore order to a department battered by political attacks during the Trump administration. Lisa Monaco, a Justice Department veteran and national security expert nominated to be deputy attorney general, and Vanita Gupta, a civil rights lawyer known for her criminal justice overhaul work tapped as the department’s No. 3, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that they were committed to ensuring that the...

Debate Over Navy's Zumwalt Destroyer's Seakeeping Abilities Doused After Rough Seas TestsThe Navy sent Zumwalt into two real-world storms as part of trials to prove its controversial hull design could handle heavy seas.The U.S. Navy says the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt successfully completed the second and final phase of its Rough-Water Trials late last year. This involved sending the ship into two real-world storms with waves between around 16 and a half and 20 feet tall. The testing was extremely significant given the ship's inward-sloping tumblehome hull form, which critics have long said would make it a disaster waiting to...

Fears Of A ​​​​​​​”Return Of The 1930s Dust Bowl” Rise As Record Drought Sizzles SouthwestThe United States Drought Monitor publishes weekly data that shows the Western U.S. is in a historic drought. The latest Drought Monitor map shows for Mar. 4, “Dry conditions dominated much of the West and especially the Southwest and into the Plains.” Extreme to exceptional drought conditions are seen across 57% and 90% of the land in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, and diminishing snowpack could jeopardize drinking water for tens of millions of people from Denver to Los Angeles. The drought developed last...

Cotton flannel (left) and polyester (right). (E.P. Vicenzi/Smithsonian Museum/NIST) ================================================================ While some still quibble over wearing masks a year into the pandemic, scientists have gotten on with working out exactly what strategy is best - and cotton face masks just received another tick of approval. Various studies have tested different material combinations and health authorities such as the World Health Organization and the CDC recommend cloth masks for the general public, based on their conclusions. But some of these studies overlooked an important real-world factor - these face covering fabrics end up damp from our breath. Now, a team of...

It could go without saying that clearly the world has a dark history full of injustice and oppression. Moreover, in terms of evil, certainly it is those who wielded the greatest power in an utmost destructive manner, who are the ones history remembers the most. It should be asked, however, if the sins of the infamous are greater than the sins of many more wicked men who were forgotten, merely because they had not the power to accomplish greater deeds. How can this comparison be one may ask? Because the motives of the heart of many poor wicked men were...

The love of God ONLY gives and ONLY seeks that which is the highest and best for its object of love based and rooted in Almighty God's ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS PERSON, the MORAL ABSOLUTES of time, ETERNAL RIGHTEOUSNESS and ETERNAL SPIRITUAL TRUTH. How can any say they love you and give you less than Almighty God's RIGHTEOUS standards and RIGHTEOUS virtues (John 15:1-7, Gal. 5:21-22, Rev. 2:1-7)? Almighty God LOVES YOU in RIGHTEOUSNESS and sent His Son to die to make us RIGHTEOUS and to give us ETERNAL LIfe and an ETERNAL future (John 14:3, 1 Cor. 2:9, Rev. 21; 22:1-5)!...

Mumford & Sons banjoist and guitarist Winston Marshall took to Twitter on Tuesday to apologize for praising journalist Andy Ngo and promoting his new book exposing the far-left movement known as Antifa. Marshall apologized to those he “offended.” “Over the past few days I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed,” Winston Marshall wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “I have offended not only a lot of people I don’t know, but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for that I am truly sorry. As a result of my actions...

Restoration (white indicates bones preserved in the adult skeleton). (Bi et al., Science Bulletin, 2020) ============================================================ An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of an extraordinary fossilized nest in China, preserving at least eight separate dinosaurs from 70 million years ago. The clutch of ancient eggs belongs to a medium-sized adult oviraptor, and we know that because the parent is actually part of the fossil. The skeleton of this ostrich-like theropod is positioned in a crouch over two dozen eggs, at least seven of which were on the brink of hatching and still contain embryos inside. The ancient...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.