Free Republic

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday characterized the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump as a “stroll.”Putin made the comment in a meeting on increasing investment activity, during which he said Russia is interested in stability in the United States.“Some of the people who took a stroll to the U.S. Congress — 150 people were arrested, they face imprisonment from 15 to 25 years. Will all these internal controversies end there or not? We do not know, but we want it to end, because we are interested in stable relations...

...Hemström analyzed the death rates in Sweden going back to 1900 to put the COVID-19 pandemic in its proper context. “From 1990 and onwards we see a clear decrease in mortality, fewer dead per capita. And then 2020 we see a spike,” he said – noting that the increase in deaths only put Sweden back to 2012 numbers. Hemström said that there were “many more deaths in 1918 than 2020,” with regards to the deadly Spanish flu, “especially in proportion to the population, which was millions fewer in 1918.” The reporters concluded that the data shows “the level of excess...

Lakewood mom held at gunpoint because of inaccurate 911 call and her baby’s toy gun by: Lori Jane Gliha Updated: Mar 11, 2021 LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) – Several Lakewood police agents held a woman and her boyfriend at gunpoint in January after the police received false information that someone in the couple’s car had threatened a Walmart asset protection employee with a gun. “I hate to say it, but I actually played the scenario in my head of shots going off,” said Celeste Lopez, a mother of four boys. “I could feel it, like, my heart started racing. I could...

Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Yale School of Medicine all partner with entities backed by the Chinese military or the Chinese Communist Party, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon. The report notes that Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health has partnerships with seven Chinese universities, six of which have “serious security risks,” as they are “tied to other research on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army.” “Three of the seven universities—Sichuan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and Tsinghua University—help develop technologies for Chinese defense, including the Chinese nuclear program,” reads the report, adding, “All...

The House passed President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Wednesday afternoon, raising the price tag for federal government spending on coronavirus relief to $5.5 trillion. The $1.9 trillion bill is just the latest that Congress has passed in the past year, adding to the unprecedented amount of money that is greater than the United States has spent on any previous national emergency in its history. The $5.5 trillion price tag is higher than the 2019 GDP of every country in the world except for the United States and China, and is more than the $4.1 trillion the U.S. spent on...

Neoliberal economists prefer abstractions to proper nouns so they don’t have to assign actions or consequences to actual people. But the people involved in productive labor are not some “input” into the market, easily shuffled about like interchangeable pawns on a chess board. They are American citizens, whose competencies and concerns should matter intensely to their elected representatives. Yet here we are, as the European Union looks into manufacturing semiconductors, having discussions about the theory of comparative advantage with people who imagine the post-war consensus is still meaningful. A nation gains comparative advantage through dedicated work and application of labor...

(Above: Dr. Joseph Shabalala) The star finally gets to be laid to rest and may his soul rest in peace.Multiple Grammy award-winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s founder Joseph Shabalala‘s funeral is currently underway in his hometown at the Ladysmith at the Indoor Sports Centre in KZN.South African, friends, family, industry colleagues, and politicians have gathered to pay their last special respects to the musical icon whose music career spanned for decades and impacted many lives.Shabalala died at the age of 78 on 11 February in a Pretoria hospital after a long illness. He has been honored with a special official...

A group of Big Apple high schoolers is suing the city and the state to eliminate Gifted & Talented programs and admissions screening — arguing they perpetuate systemic racism and reinforce a “caste system,” new court papers show. “Nearly every facet of the New York City public education system operates not only to prop up, but also to affirmatively reproduce, the artificial racial hierarchies that have subordinated people of color for centuries in the United States,” alleges the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Tuesday by 13 students and a youth activist group. The students, identified only by their initials, and...

President Biden’s border adviser made a major gaffe today at her press conference and accidentally told the truth. Roberta Jacobson, a former diplomat, was selected as President Biden’s National Security Council coordinator for the Southern border in January. On Wednesday, she took questions from the press in both Spanish and English. Amateurs, don’t try this at home. Because you might make an error like Roberta Jacobson did. The perils of code-switching, and a major gaffe by Roberta Jabobson whilst warning migrants not to make the journey to the U.S.: "So I believe that it's very important to highlight that THE...

Earlier this week, comedian Larry the Cable Guy commented on the news that Pepe Le Pew, the skunk from Looney Tunes, will be cut from the film "Space Jam: A New Legacy," saying that “we’re neck deep in commie stupidity” and telling his followers to “push back.” “The controversial French skunk.” Lol????. These cancel morons literally have mental problems. Push back folks. Seriously, we’re neck deep in commie stupidity. Just say no to thugs. “Controversial French skunk” ???????. ????. Absolute moronic insanity. PUSH BACK! pic.twitter.com/LmMofJLlfL — Larry The Cable Guy (@GitRDoneLarry) March 8, 2021 Apparently, the decision to cut the...

“Get Organized Brooklyn” community meeting (Photo Credit: Demetrius Freeman, The New York Times) Recently, I joined more than 1,000 people in Park Slope, Brooklyn at a community meeting convened to resist Trump’s agenda. One of the speakers was Hebh Jamal, a 17-year-old Muslim student who led a citywide student walkout to protest the travel ban and Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.

Interest in airguns is growing. Maybe it’s because of increasingly restrictive gun laws, the ability of air arms to skirt no-discharge ordinances, or because they’re just plain fun. Perhaps the most exciting segment of the airgun world is the so-called big bores, which fire projectiles larger than .25 caliber. Make no mistake, these guns aren’t backyard plinkers. They’re serious hunting guns built with big game in mind, producing at least 300 foot-pounds of energy to take deer- and hog-sized animals. Though only somewhere around 15 states allow hunters to take big game with an airgun, many have had open discussions...

The NBA announced on Thursday that Heat center Meyers Leonard has been suspended one week and fined $50k for saying an antisemitic slur during a Twitch live stream. The NBA said that Leonard will also be “required to participate in a cultural diversity program.”

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft today announced he will not be seeking to fill the open US Senate seat vacated by Senator Roy Blunt. This comes as President Donald Trump’s allies have coalesced around former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, urging him to run. ... Eric Greitens has appeared on Missouri radio, Newsmax, Steve Bannon’s War Room, and Seb Gorka’s radio show in the last 48 hours, and said that he is motivated by the tremendous support from grassroots voters across the state of Missouri.

Transgender troops Joe Biden signed an executive order this week that makes transgender surgery free for the military. From now on US taxpayers will pay for the medical procedures and surgery for transgender candidates. The operation is not cheap and can add up to $200,000 per patient. No doubt, this will drive more trans men and women into the military. It’s not clear how this helps the military. But, whatever.

A white Georgetown Law professor belittled black students during a Zoom call with a colleague, saying they “usually” perform “just plain at the bottom” of her classes, according to video posted online this week. The brief clip, posted to Twitter Wednesday, shows an adjunct professor of law identified by the Georgetown Black Law Students Association as Sandra Sellers and another faculty member, David Batson, having what they believed was a private discussion about a class they jointly taught... “We demand nothing short of the immediate termination of Sandra Sellers as adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center,” the group said...

Russia and China have agreed to build a base on or around the Moon, the latest signal of geopolitical maneuvering in space and an apparent rebuke of the United States.Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, signed an agreement this week with the Chinese National Space Administration on the joint creation of what they call the International Scientific Lunar Station.The memorandum of understanding between the two governments is the latest sign that Russia sees its future in space as primarily a cooperative effort with the Chinese space program rather than with NASA, its main partner of the last 25 years.

The measures, similar to ones passed by the House in 2019, are again not expected to pass in the Senate. The Democrat-controlled House on Thursday afternoon passed the second of two gun-control measure, extending the review period for background checks by roughly one week. The bipartisan bill, which passed 219-210, would extend the review period for background checks from three to 10 days. Democratic South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn introduced the so-called "Charleston loophole" legislation. In 2015, a shooter killed nine people at a Charleston, S.C., church. The FBI said afterward that a background check examiner never saw the shooter’s...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to leave his role after a woman accused him of groping her, joining five others who accused him of sexual harassment. “He can no longer serve as governor,” de Blasio remarked at a daily briefing on Thursday after he was asked about the latest allegations against Cuomo.

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill expanding background checks on individuals who are seeking to purchase or transfer firearms as top Democrats have vowed to reintroduce gun control measures. “This bill is a critical step toward preventing gun violence and saving lives,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) who sponsored the measure known as H.R. 8, as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced the companion bill in the upper chamber. The bill, titled the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, passed 227-203, receiving eight Republican votes and one Democrat vote against. Five Republicans co-sponsored the bill along with several Democrats....