Free Republic

VIDEOHe's smart. Not dumb like everybody says. Oh, and is there something in it for him from a certain country he mentions?

From the way we work to the way we shop, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a multitude of changes across all aspects of our lives. One of these changes revolves around the way we pay for the goods we purchase. Cash is no longer king. Contactless payments are at an all-time high and more Americans than ever are relying on their credit and debit cards to purchase goods and services. While this transition to a more convenient and sanitary form of payment has been a long time coming, the stranglehold that credit card companies currently have on this sector...

A new powerful new documentary called "The Streets Were My Father" features three Chicago men, two Hispanics and one Black, who grew up without fathers. All three did hard time for serious offenses, including murder. The film, with no narrator, just lets the men talk. None blames "systemic racism." All concede they made bad choices, but choices nonetheless. All talked about the pain they felt growing up without a father figure to instruct, scold, guide, motivate and instill confidence and direction. I highly recommend it. In Barack Obama's first book, "Dreams From My Father," he talked about the hole in...

This is an excerpt from The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood, in which nonbinary transmasculine author Krys Malcolm Belc explores how the experience of gestational parenthood—conceiving, birthing, and breastfeeding his son Samson—eventually clarified his gender identity. In this excerpt, Belc writes to his partner Anna about raising their three young children. … There are things I miss. Before Michigan, before testosterone, sometimes people in Philadelphia would look at me and Samson and know he was mine, think I made him, and they would call him beautiful. No one says that anymore; now they say You’re...

New York City officials are ready to move nearly 8,000 homeless residents out of some 60 hotels and back into congregate shelters, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday, as the city continues to see record-low COVID infections. 'It is time to move homeless folks who were in hotels for a temporary period of time back to shelters, where they can get the support they need,' de Blasio said at his daily press briefing. 'In shelters is where we can provide support, a variety of services and the pathway out of shelter and into a better life,' he said.

It really takes some balls to, er, I mean guts, to show your face again after being caught on a company Zoom call pleasuring yourself. Most people wouldn’t do it, but then most people wouldn’t feel the need to drop trou in the middle of a work event and take care of business, then actually do it in that same room. If people did, they’d likely be smart enough to leave the room with the camera attached to the computer on which they’d just been talking to everyone they work with only moments before the frisky coffee break. Then again,...

Three Big Lies will soon doom the current regime. Tuesday night at LewRockwell, I read a terrific article that laid out a plausible near future for our declining nation, “The Three-Way Squeeze” by James Howard Kunstler. Conservatives and libertarians really ought to read it. Those disgusted and horrified by the state of our nation will take heart at Kunstler’s opening line: Here is why the “Joe Biden” regime only has a few months to live: it is caught in a squeeze between some of the greatest lies in world history, and they’re all unraveling now. Kunstler then explains the three...

The South Carolina supreme court halted the executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, ruling that officials needed to put together a firing squad to give them the option of how to be killed. Sigmon, 63, was scheduled to be executed using the electric chair on Friday, the first use of capital punishment in the state in a decade. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in 2002. Owens' electric chair execution was set for 25 June, having been convicted of murdering a store worker during a robbery in 1999. The state recently changed its...

The public does not like critical race theory (CRT), now that details of what is being brainwashed into our children have started to leak out. A majority, at 58%, expressed an unfavorable view of critical race theory, while 38% expressed a favorable view, according to the results of a YouGov/Economist poll released Tuesday. (snip) The debate has caused a partisan split on the issue of critical race theory, with 86% of Democrats expressing a favorable view of the theory, compared to 6% of Republicans. The poll revealed that independents were more likely to side with the GOP, with 20% expressing...

Do you smell their fear rising over the competing reeks of Prius new car smell, of kale, and of the armies of shambling, squatting hoboes that have come to symbolize modern liberalism? That eau d’ uh-oh is the scent of progressives realizing that maybe pushing an ideology that tells the majority of America “You stink!” is not going to lead to the sweet smell of success. Everyone hates CRT, critical race theory, that bizarre, ridiculous, and morally illiterate hodge-podge of Marxist mumbo-jumbo blended with a healthy dose of the kind of racial hash that would make Democrat David Duke beam....

WASHINGTON — Now it's Russian President Vladimir Putin's move. President Joe Biden walked out of his summit with Putin on Wednesday with few of the "deliverables" — concrete outcomes — that diplomatic negotiators obsess over. The two leaders mostly agreed to set up a process for lower-level aides to keep talking about key issues. But Biden did deliver a succinct message to his Russian counterpart: Stop messing with the U.S. and international norms. "The bottom line is I told President Putin that we need to have some basic rules," Biden said at a news conference in Geneva. "This is the...

If undercover FBI operatives encouraged what happened on January 6, maybe it's not such an admirable institution after all. Do you remember how conservatives went out of their way to separate rank-and-file FBI agents from the corrupt actions of Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe, Bill Priestap, James Baker, James Rybicki, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and others as more evidence came to light revealing that the top brass at the bureau had worked to create an "insurance policy" that could be used to overthrow President Trump from office? Writers and television pundits would always couch any criticism of the bureau in some...

HONG KONG (AP) — Like many in Hong Kong, Jason Chan had no immediate plans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. For the finance professional, there seemed to be no pressing need, with travel restrictions still in place and no major outbreak at home. But Chan had a change of heart when he heard that one of the city’s property developers was offering a lucky draw with a grand prize of a one-bedroom condominium. The day the draw was announced, he went online and made a booking to get vaccinated. “It’s a chance to win a free apartment,” he reasoned. He...

CHICAGO (CBS) — A balloon release was held Wednesday night for the victims of a mass shooting in Chicago, but it was also about releasing pain – as the repeated mass shootings cause lasting damage. There were two mass shootings in 24 hours this week – one in Englewood that left four people dead and four more injured, and another in West Garfield Park that wounded five people. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city is safe and police have a handle and a clear strategy to combat gun violence. But as CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reported Wednesday night, the...

The US Education Department on Wednesday expanded its interpretation of federal sex protections to include transgender and gay students, a move that reverses Trump-era policy and stands against proposals in many states to bar transgender girls from school sports. In a new policy directive, the department said discrimination based on a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity will be treated as a violation of Title IX, the 1972 federal law that protects against sex discrimination in education. … The policy is not likely to bring immediate, sweeping change but carries the possibility of federal sanctions against schools and colleges that...

The hyperpartisanship of the last five years has posed a threat to national security by dividing the American people and distorting how foreign policy is discussed. The “resistance” mounted by the Democrats against President Donald Trump even on issues of longstanding common concern, such as trade policy and infrastructure, was carried into foreign policy even when differences had to be contrived, a case in point being the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Democrats have tried to make the alliance into a partisan issue when in fact it is an example of the kind of continuity needed to keep the U.S....

Conservative House leader Gerard Deltell moved a motion Wednesday calling for PHAC to be found in contempt of Parliament and its president, Iain Stewart, to be summoned before the bar of the House to be admonished by the Speaker... Rota ruled that the Trudeau government has not complied with an order, passed by the Commons earlier this month, to produce the documents. As such, he said there’s a prima facie case that it has breached MPs’ privileges... Deltell’s motion was debated at length Wednesday and will be put to a vote Thursday. If it passes — which seems likely given...

Colorado baker who won a partial victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to make a birthday cake for a transgender woman, a state judge has ruled. In Tuesday’s ruling, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones said Autumn Scardina was denied a cake that was blue on the outside and pink on the inside to celebrate her gender transition on her birthday because of her transgender status in violation of the law. While Jack Phillips said he could not make the...

I am a scientist, living in a beautiful little town that is home to a fine university with a good medical school and a football program that teeters toward excellence. These two programs have many traits in common and some marked differences. Together, they make a useful paradigm to explore and understand two unfolding events, one of which is tragic and the other almost comical. The football program seeks and recruits the best players from the best high school programs. Recruits have been assessed for their mental toughness, speed, agility, and pure brute strength. They have been supported by a...

Instead of workshops on social justice topics, Montessori organizations should feature seminars on the value and role of the individual in eliminating racism. Unfortunately, some Montessori organizations are caving in to the social justice movement.[1] Two major Montessori organizations, Association Montessori International/USA (AMI/USA) and the American Montessori Society (AMS) have supported or sponsored conferences that featured workshops or lectures on understanding structural racism, diversity, anti-bias, LGBT students, and much more. These conferences were put on by an organization called Montessori for Social Justice. The website for the AMI/USA conference in 2018 states that Montessori for Social Justice is "dedicated to...