Free Republic

Off-shore wind lasts longer and is stronger than on-shore, making off-shore wind farms (OWF) a source of renewable energy – except, of course, when it blocks your view, and those NIMBY (not in my backyard) types object. To be a valuable, efficient energy source, you need to cluster those turbines ---SNIP--- Off-shore wind farms impact the local ecology, beneath the waves from the built environment and above by their effect on the wind. We should diversify our energy sources; the wind is a promising alternative. But to believe wind farms come at no or little ecologic cost is the same...

<p>Biden administration budget chief Shalanda Young refused to say that Joe Biden would stop funding gain of function research at the Wuhan, China research lab. For clarity, the term gain of function is used to describe any field of medical research that alters an organism or disease in a way that increases transmissibility or pathogenesis.</p>

WASHINGTON -- “SKYROCKETING MURDER RATES,” claimed the National Fraternal Order of Police. “An explosion of violent crime," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Democrat-run cities across the country who cut funding for police have seen increases in crime,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. On social media and in political speeches, some Republicans and pro-police groups say last year's calls to slash spending on law enforcement have led to a dramatic rise in killings in cities overseen by Democrats. The increases they cite are real, and several big cities did make cuts to police spending. But the reductions were mostly...

A poll on global leadership shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the leader most trusted to lead the world over President Joe Biden. A Pew Research survey reported 77 percent of those polled across 16 countries express confidence in Merkel’s international leadership. Biden came in second with 74 percent and 63 percent placed their trust in French President Emmanuel Macron.

A new poll is showing bad news for anti-Trump Senator Lisa Murkowski in her home state of Alaska. The poll, conducted by Change Research, shows Murkowski trailing Republican rival Kelly Tshibaka, a bad sign for the incumbent especially in light of her state’s new voting rules. As Jim Ellis noted in his newsletter: The poll (5/22-25; released 6/9; 1,023 AK likely voters; online) tested Ms. Murkowski against announced Republican opponent Kelly Tshibaka, the former Alaska Commissioner of Administration, Dr. Al Gross, the 2020 Senate Democratic nominee who lost 54-41% to Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, and John Wayne Howe of the...

The number of cases of a heart inflammation condition in 16-to-24-year-olds was higher than expected after they received their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, citing preliminary data from its vaccine safety monitor system. There have been 275 reported cases of myocarditis or pericarditis, which are inflammation conditions involving the heart, in people ages 16 to 24 as of May 31, according to a CDC presentation that was prepared for a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel meeting Thursday.

Criminals may have stolen as much as half of the unemployment benefits the U.S. has been pumping out over the past year, some experts say. Why it matters: Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily reach $400 billion, according to some estimates, and the bulk of the money likely ended in the hands of foreign crime syndicates — making this not just theft, but a matter of national security. Catch up quick: When the pandemic hit, states weren't prepared for the unprecedented wave of unemployment claims they were about to face. They all knew fraud was inevitable, but decided getting...

Moose just chilling in front yard…

With the latest HHS report about Obamacare coverage, the Biden administration doesn’t want to let facts get in the way of a good narrative.In the “lies, d-mned lies, and statistics” category comes a report the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released Saturday, in conjunction with a Zoom call from presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama promoting Obamacare.The report wants you to believe more than 30 million people obtained coverage because of Obamacare. But the Biden administration knows that number isn’t true. So instead of discussing people “newly insured” by the law, it talks about those who were merely...

An Interior Department report published Wednesday shows police never cleared Lafayette Park of protesters last summer so President Trump could stage a Bible photo-op, as was reported by the mainstream media. Protesters, resistance lawmakers, the media, and Joe Biden all used the incident at the time to portray the former President as a dictator, clearing the park of riff-raff so he could assert his authority. The report by the department’s Inspector General indicates federal police officers cleared the park instead so a contractor could install fencing. “That finding … is likely to surprise many critics of Trump, who have long...

The United States’ image around the world has improved sharply since President Joe Biden took office, according to new surveys conducted in 16 countries, including many long-standing allies of the U.S. The Pew Research Center surveys show majorities of the citizens across the countries — more than 6 in 10 in each — express confidence in Biden to “do the right thing” in world affairs. Favorable ratings of the U.S. have started to rebound after declining considerably during Donald Trump’s four years as president, growing as much as 30 percentage points since last year in partner nations like France and...

Initial Jobless claims continued their slide week-over-week (from 385k to 376k), but remain near pandemic lows (but are still almost double those pre-pandemic levels)…However, there are still over 15 million Americans on some form of government dole…And despite over 9 million job openings, over 11 million Americans remain on some form of pandemic-specific unemployment benefits…As the chart shows, there has been very little movement OFF the pandemic-based dole in over a year. Will the Democrats ever allow those couch-sitters to be free of government handouts?

Dr. Anthony Fauci is busted stuff. He's damaged goods. He's a liar. He needs to go away. Every time he gets on television to stroke his ego, he only damages the very institutions entrusted with fighting pathogens and preparing for future pandemics. The medical expert community is finished for a while. There's no reason to listen to them ever again. They said wear masks but didn't tell us that the store-bought products were useless. There was no such thing as asymptomatic spread. He thought a COVID vaccine wasn't necessary, and there's quite a paper trail concerning Fauci, the NIH, EcoHealth...

International opinions of the United States have become markedly more positive since President Biden took over from former President Trump, according to a new survey released as Biden prepares for his debut on the global stage at a Group of Seven (G7) summit. Of 12 nations surveyed by the Pew Research Center, a median 75 percent expressed confidence in Biden, more than four times the 17 percent who said the same of Trump in 2020. Twenty-two percent said they have no confidence in Biden, compared with 83 percent who said so of Trump at the end of his presidency. And...

WASHINGTON, Sunday, June 9. Semi-official letters from England give assurances that the British Government is gradually "clawing off" from its original partiality for the rebel States. The Government is yet anything but friendly to the Union, but it is decidedly not so open in its hostility as it was before the arrival of Mr. ADAMS. These same letters leave no room to doubt that the Ministry had once determined upon the extreme measure of recognizing the Southern Confederacy, and they were endeavoring to precipitate such action before the arrival of our new Minister. In the interview which Mr. ADAMS had...

he precinct for Scottsdale’s Homewood Suites voted for Joe Biden, 51% to 47%. Today, this upscale Arizona neighborhood regrets its decision. Two hundred residents protested Saturday after ICE took over the recently closed hotel to house more than 1,200 illegal immigrants. No public input was requested, not even from the Scottsdale Police Department, which was notified of the decision a day before migrants were transferred. Government usually detains the undocumented in poorer neighborhoods where they’re more easily ignored by the media. But this zip code has nearly three times the state’s median income, making it harder to hide the ongoing...

The right-to-life movement’s sole aim is to ensure that the rights of all humans, unborn and born, are legally protected. Let’s start acting like it.In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to reconsider Roe v. Wade this fall, Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel for Americans United for Life and perhaps the most well-known pro-life attorney, proclaimed: The court desperately needs to decentralize the [abortion] issue and send it back to the states … pro-life leaders need to think long and hard about overturning federalism and taking the issue away from the states.Forsythe’s view is consistent with his recent...

The state of Iowa has passed groundbreaking new laws that ban far-left Critical Race Theory (CRT) from being taught or promoted in government-funded agencies, schools, or universities. Iowa's Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, signed the new legislation into law this week, effective from next month.

Cameron Kinley, the former United States Naval Academy team captain and class president who has spent minicamp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had his request to delay his commission in order to play in the NFL denied. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Harker denied Kinley's request, and according to Divine Sports and Entertainment, the Navy is also denying Kinley the ability to appeal the decision.

With the world’s eyes having moved on from China’s rip-roaring PPI (and post-data decision to unleash price controls), this morning’s CPI print has been heralded as the arbiter of “is it transitory or not” with some (BofA) even suggesting we are nearing a period of “transitory hyperinflation.” The answer for now is – inflation’s still accelerating as headline CPI soared 5.0% YoY (hotter than the +4.7% expected). That is the highest level of inflatuion since Aug 2008.But it is core CPI that is the huge outlier, soaring 3.8% YoY – the hottest level of inflation since 1992…Goods prices are up...