Free Republic

Republican Jason Monn, a restaurateur and former mayor of Corry, Pennsylvania, has set his sights on the 2022 Pa. Governor race. The owner of Fat Monn’s Grub restaurant identifies himself as a family and community-oriented “common guy,” who understands the “struggles of the everyday Pennsylvanian.” Monn was raised by a single mom and spent his childhood on welfare. Without a father figure to guide him, he grew up very fast and quickly learned how to take care of himself. Monn’s experience in government began as a city council member in 2012. He was elected mayor three years later. The impetus...

There is clear evidence that high sugar consumption leads to obesity and fatty liver disease. Synthetic and natural alternatives to sugar are available, but little is known about the effects of these non-caloric sweeteners on the liver. A new study led by Rohit Kohli, MBBS, MS, shows that stevia extract can reduce markers of fatty liver disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that obesity affects nearly 19% of children. An associated condition called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease affects one out of every 10 children. Fatty liver disease can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Consumption of too...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 87Psalm 87 Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. A song. 1 He has founded his city on the holy mountain. 2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are said of you, city of God:[a] 4 “I will record Rahab[b] and Babylon among those who acknowledge me— Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush[c]— and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’”[d] 5 Indeed, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her, and...

U.S.—According to alerts from the FAA, the flight crew of a Boeing 747 flying somewhere over the United States is locked in a dispute over how fast they should crash their plane into the ground. Witnesses say the pilot, a Democrat, wants to fly the plane into the ground at 700 MPH. The Republican co-pilot, however, has proposed crashing at a much more reasonable speed of 600 MPH. "We need to be responsible here!" said First Officer Dan McTan, who prides himself in his Conservative values. "700 MPH is reckless and irresponsible! Crashing at 600 MPH will allow the crew...

Lara Trump said during North Carolina’s Republican Convention Saturday night that she would not seek the state party’s nomination to run for U.S. Senate, citing her young children – but she left open the possibility of a future run. "No for now," she said, thanking the supporters in her home state. "Not no forever." After she left the state, former President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C, as "your next senator" to the crowd. "A lot of you don’t know him that well, but you’re gonna know him probably within a few minutes," he said. "Ted Budd." Then he...

Republican-led efforts to re-examine last fall's vote are spreading as experts and election officials warn that the proliferation amounts to a grave threat to U.S. democracy. At the center of the push is Arizona, where the private company hired by the Republican-controlled state Senate continues its review of more than 2 million Maricopa County ballots, despite prior audits finding no evidence of fraud. With former President Donald Trump and others on the right following that count closely — despite it having no legal ability to overturn the result — GOP officials and voters have pushed for similar probes in at...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As the list of candidates who want to replace Governor Newsom grows, the process towards scheduling an expected recall election continues. It's near certain Newsom will face a special election this year, but the question now, is when? Many analysts have estimated a November election, but now an earlier timeline is being floated. "That’s going to be determined by a series of actions the legislature takes," said Newsom after being asked about an expedited timeline. "Department of finance takes, Secretary of State takes, and they’ll make that determination. Period, full stop." **SNIP** Some experts estimate the earliest...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the cyberattack suffered by the Colonial Pipeline Company “an act of war” and said the U.S. should respond by killing whoever was responsible for it.“We ought to pass a law immediately that makes this kind of hacking subject to a death penalty, and the law should include a provision that the president, through a judicial process, should be able to order the killing of anybody overseas who’s doing this,” Mr. Gingrich, a Republican, said Monday on Fox News while speaking about the ransomware attack that recently disrupted the Colonial Pipeline system.Mr. Gingrich, 77, who...

Twitter declared a free and open Internet to be "an essential human right in modern society" Saturday morning after the Nigerian government banned access to the social media giant following a dispute with its president – even as critics say it suppresses conservative content and bans its own users. Twitter deleted a fiery tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari that many perceived as a veiled threat against violent separatists in the nation’s southeast – then his government’s information wing responded by banning the social media platform from the country. "We are deeply concerned by the blocking of Twitter in Nigeria," Twitter’s...

A quarter of all deaths previously attributed to COVID-19 in Alameda County weren’t actually caused by the coronavirus, the Alameda County Public Health Department announced today. That puts the county’s new official COVID-19 death toll at 1,223, down from 1,634. The 25% decrease—or 411 cases—is due to the fact that COVID “wasn’t a direct cause” of death in these cases, according to county health officials.

Jon Rahm was rolling in dominant fashion to his second consecutive Memorial Tournament win after an unbelievable 64 on Saturday at Muirfield Village. Things took a devastating turn post-round, however, as he was alerted by the PGA Tour that he tested positive for COVID-19 and would be forced to withdraw from the tournament after three rounds. Rahm was informed by the PGA Tour on Monday that he was in contact tracing protocol as he was in close proximity to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Rahm tested negative throughout the week but a positive test popped up on Saturday while...

Yet another study finds that “whole of life” carbon footprint of electric cars is little different to conventional cars: April 14th 2021, Jefferies published a research note entitled “Are EVs as ‘Green’ as They Appear?” in which they conclude an electric vehicle must be driven 200,000 km (or 124,000 miles) before its “whole of life” carbon emissions equals that of an internal combustion engine. Their analysis is very similar to ours and details the tremendous amount of energy (and by extension CO2) needed to manufacture a lithium-ion battery. Moreover, they point out that a typical EV is on average 50%...

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ON A GOOD DAY Our worth is tested every day. We are given the choice of being nice to people or uncharitable. We are given the choice of doing our work as well as we can or of goofing off. Some days it seems the tests are harder than on others, but every day brings with it some kind of test. Even the really good days! To have everything go wonderfully for us, to feel like a million dollars, to have one of those days when nothing and nobody can upset us, they are days when we might think...

UMBRA. In the annals of intelligence, no word is more associated with secret government intelligence reports, especially those produced for policy-makers based on raw intelligence. UFO reports in the 1950s. The most brittle reporting on Soviet leadership intentions. Intercepted phone calls between Chinese and Pakistani nuclear officials. Way back when — at least since middle of the 1950s — the intelligence community used the UMBRA code word to inform the reader of a certain report that the original source for the intelligence was of the most sensitive category. At the NSA, back then, there were three levels of source sensitivity....

Nearly a half-century after a teenage girl was viciously stabbed to death in a Chicago suburb, genetic genealogy has led to an arrest. Barry Lee Whelpley, 76, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Minnesota for the 1972 murder of Julie Ann Hanson, 15, who died of multiple stab wounds in Naperville, Illinois, according to the Naperville Police Department. The police identified the suspect through his DNA left at the crime scene, using genetic genealogy. Since 2018, the technique has been used by police to identify more than 150 suspects in cold cases. The technique allows police to search family...

But to believe some of the claims from Trump and Republicans one would have to imagine that President Barack Obama in 2014 helped seed money into bat research, which within several years would result in a global virus that escaped from a lab — either as a bioweapon or by accident — and spread around the globe. One would have to come to the firm conclusion that not only was the virus developed in a lab — something experts have said is nearly impossible given the virus's features — but that Americans helped cover that up, and that President Biden...

Their normal human sympathies have atrophied. They live in the desert of their own inhuman politics. They are cold and apparently lack a spiritual life. Desperate to look down on other people, they take fatuity to a new level. David Atkins, recently elected as a California member of the Democratic National Committee, mused on Twitter (Nov. 21, 2020): "How do you deprogram 75 million people who would literally die to stick it to the domestic enemies the teevee and youtube conspiracy vids told them to hate? No, seriously...how DO you deprogram 75 million people? Where do you start? Fox? Facebook?...

For a majority of people alive today, the COVID-19 pandemic has been the longest-lasting traumatic event of their lives, leaving them with post-traumatic stress. Kenny noted that the duration of a traumatic event is critical because the feeling of there being no end in sight can amplify anxiety. At any given time, Kenny said about one in eight people are suffering from an anxiety disorder, and the pandemic likely pushed some who were already close to the edge, over it. He estimated that 5-10% of people had their system shocked so much that they likely flipped into a panic disorder...