Free Republic

Jen Psaki dodged a reporter's question Wednesday and cut him off abruptly when she was asked if President Joe Biden plans to address his role in systemic racism while a senator for more than three decades. 'To what extent does President Biden acknowledge his own role in systemic racism and how does that inform his current policy positions?' New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked Psaki during her briefing Wednesday. He noted that Biden is 'an architect of multiple federal laws in the 1980s and 90s that disproportionately jailed black people and contributed to what many people see as systemic...

Much of Corporate America declared solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd last year and vowed to address racial inequities in their own businesses. After Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing Floyd on May 25, 2020, was found guilty Tuesday on all three charges in his death, many companies issued statements declaring it not a victory, but a step in the larger fight for racial justice. The CEO of Minneapolis-based retailer Target (TGT) said the verdict in the Chauvin case is a sign of forward progress: "The murder of George...

We know how great avocado is in salads, sandwiches and especially on toast, but have you ever thought to have it as a dessert? We certainly hadn’t, so when we heard that local sweets chain Café comme ça was selling an avocado tiramisu cake, we immediately knew we had to pay them a visit. Unusual cakes like these tend to be incredibly popular, so we called ahead to reserve a slice as soon as they were released on March 18. When we arrived to pick it up at 3 in the afternoon, we were glad we’d thought ahead, because all...

SNIP Yes, the feds deserve some blame for the drop in demand: Putting a pause on the Johnson & Johnson jab was absurd — the possible blood-clot risk is one-in-a-million, far smaller than the odds of death if you don’t get vaccinated. Yet polls suggest trust in the J&J shot dropped 15 percent after the pause. The move also fed fears about all the vaccines, feeding the conspiracy theories of anti-vax cranks. The likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci aren’t helping, either, by insisting Americans still wear masks even after they’ve been fully vaccinated. Too many people will ask, “Well, then,...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for commitment to restoring the planet, and to making peace with nature, in his message to mark International Mother Earth Day, celebrated annually on 22 April.

Georgia Pastor pushing boycott of Atlanta-based Home Depot over voter rights is a vocal supporter of notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan who he calls 'one of the greatest leaders of our people' By Ross Ibbetson For Mailonline15:19 21 Apr 2021, updated 17:47 21 Apr 2021  Bryant is one of thousands of church leaders calling for Home Depot boycott They want big firms to stand up to Republican legislation which will impose new restrictions on absentee ballots in Georgia Bryant has been vocal supporter of Farrakhan over years, in person and online It comes despite the Islamic leader's controversial record, including...

YouTube Video: Recent mass shootings have once again put guns at the center of national debate, and President Joe Biden has announced new executive orders on gun control. At the center of the discussion is a question: do gun control measures prevent crime or do they actually do the opposite? To understand what the data says, I decided to sit down with John Lott, who has studied the impact of gun control measures for decades. He’s the founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center, and author of a number of books on guns and gun control, including most recently, “Gun...

Ellen DeGeneres is catching heat online for admitting that she drove her wife, Portia de Rossi, to the hospital in March after drinking three “weed drinks” and taking over-the-counter sleep aids. DeGeneres made the admission that what she did was “probably not safe” to Jimmy Kimmel Tuesday during a marijuana-themed episode of his show. DeGeneres explained that she found de Rossi on the bathroom floor of their home, visibly in pain — but only after the daytime talk-show host had consumed three Cann drinks and the sleep aid melatonin. She then drove de Rossi to the hospital for an emergency...

Timothy Ahlbeck stood at the local election in Torbay in 2019.A fantasist who once stood for election in Torbay has been convicted of fraud and setting up multiple companies while being a disqualified bankrupt. Timothy Ahlbeck, 37, used different names and gave himself aristocratic titles such as Lord or Duke Timothy Ahlbeck while ordering goods and services worth tens of thousands of pounds. He claimed to have international supply lines and swindled two companies, Staples UK Ltd and Northgate Vehicle Hire, out of almost £27,000, Exeter Crown Court was told. Many other companies were left out of pocket as he...

CESifo Economic Studies, ifab003, https://doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifab003 Published: 29 March 2021 Full article https://academic.oup.com/cesifo/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cesifo/ifab003/6199605 Conclusions The lockdowns in most Western countries have thrown the world into the most severe recession since World War II and the most rapidly developing recession ever seen in mature market economies. They have also caused an erosion of fundamental rights and the separation of powers in large part of the world as both democratic and autocratic regimes have misused their emergency powers and ignored constitutional limits to policy making. Comparing weekly mortality in 24 European countries, the findings in this paper suggest that more severe lockdown policies...

A HEROIC little boy who saved his cousin’s life has been recognised with a police award. Jake Emerson has been crowned Weardale’s latest Young Hero after he dislodged a sweet that his cousin Lewis had been choking on. The youngsters were playing at their grandmother’s home in Stanhope when Lewis decided to tuck into a bag of Bon Bons. Panic ensued when Lewis began to choke but Jake leapt into action and produced five back blows. When this failed, Jake gave his cousin five abdominal thrusts which eventually removed the sweet from the youngster’s throat. The eight-year-old was taught the...

Cincinnati police reported Tuesday about a horrific murder of a 13-year-old Black girl who was stabbed to death by another 13-year-old Black girl during an argument in their Winton Hills neighborhood. The deadly stabbing occurred Monday, the night before Black teen girl Ma’Khia Bryant was shot to death by police in Columbus, Ohio as she tried to stab another teen girl. Unfortunately for the girl in Cincinnati, there were no police officers present to save her life as happened in Columbus.

Luckily the staff acted quickly to save the hedgehog that was clearly far from homeA hedgehog has been saved by holiday park staff in what could be the most adorable rescue we've ever seen. Captured on video doing a little 'doggy paddle' swim in the pool, the hedgehog can be seen gliding around the deep end at Hendra Holiday Park, Newquay. After a few moments, pool lifeguard Lorraine rescues it with a net after it struggled to find its way back out. The caption of the video said, “Lifeguard Lorraine has had to make her first pool rescue of the...

Yes, like all other devices around you, your Smart Home devices can be hacked too. You must be thinking how that is even possible. Well, hackers have their way of finding their way around something. And nothing better than a Smart Home device that can allow a hacker to enter your home and quietly collect all your helpful information. This sensitive information can include your personally identifiable information, bank details, account details, and more. Hackers can easily sneak into your Smart Home devices and find their way around the information which is most beneficial to them. So, instead of just...

Christianity exhorts its adherents to be charitable, but it is really charitable to affirm people in a belief system that tells them that hatred, contempt, and violence are blessed by the deity? The question is pertinent because recently in Nigeria and France, Catholic bishops have used the money donated by their own Catholic people to build mosques for Muslims. Charity, foolishness, or both? History will be the judge, but we can see right now a great deal of what is coming.Gloria.tv reported Saturday that in France, “Tours Diocese donated money for the construction of a local mosque,” and that...

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul took another shot Wednesday at Dr. Anthony Fauci's insistence that vaccinated people should continue to wear masks before suggesting that President Joe Biden "burn" his in order to promote coronavirus vaccines. "You might get run over by a car, you might get hit by a meteor," Paul told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum during a Wednesday afternoon "The Story" appearance. "The science is about proving that things are happening. If Dr. Fauci can prove that people who are vaccinated are spreading the disease, I will listen to him. If he can prove that people like...

On day before Joe Biden became president, a federal court in North Dakota defended Roman Catholic health care providers from an Obamacare mandate forcing doctors and nurses to perform experimental transgender surgeries that violate Roman Catholic convictions. Yet on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appealed that decision, seeking to enforce the transgender mandate on Catholic health care providers. Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at the religious freedom law firm Becket, which represents the Catholic health care providers, noted the tragic irony of an administration headed by a Catholic president targeting the religious freedom of...

MINNEAPOLIS -- The defense attorney for the former Minneapolis police officer on trial in the death of George Floyd tried Wednesday to show that Floyd yelled "I ate too many drugs” as three officers pinned him to the ground. Attorney Eric Nelson didn't get the clear confirmation he was seeking, but he may have planted a seed in jurors' minds anyway as he seeks to sow reasonable doubt about the prosecution's case against Derek Chauvin. Part of his strategy for defending Chauvin against murder and manslaughter charges has been to deflect responsibility for Floyd's death last May 25 away from...

Syria’s air defenses responded to an Israeli attack in the Damascus countryside, according to state media. The report comes after a blast near Israel’s nuclear plant, which IDF pinned on a missile launched from Syria. The Israeli strike reportedly targeted a site in al-Dumayr, located some 24 miles (40km) from the Syrian capital, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported early on Thursday morning. The country’s air defenses were said to have intercepted “most of the enemy missiles,” according to a military spokesman. “The Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression with bursts of missiles from the direction of the...

John Kavanagh, a Republican state representative in Arizona, recently ran through a list of what he called “bad election bills that were introduced by Republicans.” One would have allowed the Legislature to overturn the results of a presidential election even after they had been certified. Another would have required that early ballots be dropped off only at drop boxes that are attended. A third would have repealed the state’s hugely popular permanent early voting list, which allows voters to receive a ballot in the mail for every election. All three measures were also stopped by Republicans in Arizona, even as...