Free Republic

A Mendocino cafe that has repeatedly pushed back against public health mandates during the pandemic, including charging customers who wear face coverings a $5 fee, will close this weekend, owner Chris Castleman confirmed. He did not agree to Fiddleheads Cafe’s new lease offer, which requested that he comply with government mandates and no longer post “controversial signage or writings.” Castleman said he is being unfairly targeted due to his political beliefs. But the landlord said it wasn’t driven by ideological differences — since the cafe went viral nationally for Castleman’s tactics, the landlord said they have faced harassment from his...

It’s truly amazing to look back on the last year. If you watched a movie that had this plot you would probably reject it as more implausible than Godzilla vs. Kong. Plot Synopsis: The world is brought low by a virus built in a Chinese bio-weapons laboratory, but most politicians refuse to admit it because they hate the sitting President and view any admission of the truth as bolstering his long-standing opposition to the Chinese. The primary election is fought viciously by a number of small factions. When no one gains a clear lead the ex-President calls on all candidates...

There are a lot of people in the world and chances are you have seen the same people multiple times on different occasions but each time you see them, they are like a new person to you because you do not remember seeing them all the times before. For example, I've been taking the 6:46am train out of Westport, CT for years now to head into Manhattan. I have probably seen the same people waiting on the platform with me hundreds of times. In cold weather and hot weather (such as this morning). Yet if I saw them walking down...

Israel reported its highest daily coronavirus infection rate in three months on Wednesday, with 293 people testing positive for the virus while efforts to curb the spread of the delta variant continue. However, the number of severe COVID cases in Israel remains low. The delta variant was first discovered in India and is considered highly contagious.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blasted Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in an editorial published on Wednesday, calling the firebrand conservative lawmaker the most "irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens" since Sen. Joe McCarthy (R). "The Republican senator highlighted five people who said they had serious side effects from the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. Their stories were sad, to be sure, and we don’t doubt their veracity. But they represent only a tiny fraction of the people who have been vaccinated," the newspaper's editorial board wrote. "But instead of encouraging more people to get vaccinated so we can be rid of this plague once...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) lashed out at her Jewish House Democratic colleagues during a CNN interview Tuesday, claiming that they “haven’t been partners in justice.” During Omar’s appearance on “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper cited some of the congresswoman’s statements that have led to accusations that she is anti-Semitic. Tapper specifically cited a February 2019 tweet that stated the alliance between the US and Israel is “all about the Benjamins” and a 2012 message in which she claimed that Israel “has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel”. “Do you...

Have a friend who had their .22 S&W Ladysmith 317 hammerless stolen and is trying to find a replacement but cannot locate one via normal channels like www.gunbroker.com www.auctionsolutionsinc.com or www.proxibid.com. It appears to be a fairly rare model but not sure where else to look. Any insights are appreciated.

A 7-year-old boy died Tuesday when taken off life support after sustaining severe brain damage during a judo class in which he was repeatedly thrown to prove he wasn’t up to the challenge of martial arts. The Taiwanese child, identified only as Wei Wei, had been on life support for close to 70 days since the April 21 incident, according to local media outlets. On Tuesday, after Fengyuan Hospital doctors informed the boy’s family that both his blood pressure and heart rate levels were dropping, they chose to remove him from life support, the BBC reported. The child’s uncle filmed...

When it comes to the debate over pro-abortion Catholic politicians receiving communion, one Catholic bishop says if they can’t even vote against a bill to stop infanticide, there’s nothing to talk about. The comments from Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles Robert Barron come at a time when the nation’s bishops have just voted on a plan to create a new document related to communion in public life that could be used to rebuke Joe Biden and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians who flout the Church’s pro-life teachings. The document could be written in a way to encourage pro-abortion Catholic politicians to...

The city’s bumbling Board of Elections said Wednesday that Eric Adams maintained his lead in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary — one day after officials threw the race into chaos with a botched count. Preliminary results posted on the embattled election agency’s website showed Adams narrowly ahead of Kathryn Garcia, 358,521 votes (51.1 percent} to 343,766 (48.9 percent). In an ironic twist, the percentages are identical to the ones reported Tuesday, when Garcia overtook Maya Wiley to vault into second place pending the counting of absentee ballots.

"It's good to have AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and other vaccines so that prices are reasonable and Europe is not subject to a vaccine monopoly that may be in the process of being created." In the meantime, a dispute has been brewing in the EU over the potential use of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which was initially the subject of doubts over its clinical data and safety standards and has more recently been seen as a geopolitical tool by Russia which has sold the vaccine to various countries around the world, mainly to its allies. Interim analysis of phase...

Terrorists are reportedly attempting to enter the U.S. through the southern border as they blend in with migrants. In an article for Foreign Policy magazine last week, Panama’s foreign minister said Kamala Harris is ignoring a key aspect of the migrant crisis in her role as border czar. According to the official, terrorists and extremists attempt to pass through her country everyday on their journey to the U.S. Earlier this week, a group of House Republicans introduced a resolution to censure Joe Biden for his inaction on the U.S.-Mexico border. “Biden’s border crisis is a humanitarian crisis and it all...

On this episode of the Resistance Library Podcast, Sam and David discuss gun background checks. Prior to 1968, most adults in the United States could purchase a firearm without state interference. Guns were available in local retail stores, as well as mail-order catalogs, and as long as you hadn’t been convicted of a felony and you had the funds, there weren’t any questions asked. Things are different now. Depending on where in America you are and what type of gun you want to buy, there’s a good chance you’ll need to pass a NICS-mandated background check to complete your purchase....

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the second oldest member of the Senate, may be your next fitness inspiration. “So he and I are going to do 22 pushups,” Grassley said, pointing to Cotton, a 44-year-old retired Army captain. A Politico profile on Grassley published in May, which focused on his political future and his indecision on seeking another term 2022, revealed that the Iowa senator wakes at 4 a.m. each day, often going for a two-mile run.

According to the researchers, the new technology proposes a way for storing electric information in the thinnest unit known to science, in one of the most stable and inert materials in nature. The allowed quantum-mechanical electron tunneling through the atomically thin film may boost the information reading process much beyond current technologies. "Our research stems from curiosity about the behavior of atoms and electrons in solid materials, which has generated many of the technologies supporting our modern way of life," says Dr. Shalom. "We (and many other scientists) try to understand, predict, and even control the fascinating properties of these...

Sources close to and within the intelligence community tell Cockburn that Babbitt was actually shot by a member of then-vice president Mike Pence’s protective detail. The VP’s detail, of course, is provided by US Secret Service, not the Capitol Police. One person asserted to Cockburn over drinks in DC that this is ‘basically an open secret’ in the intelligence community. Law enforcement sources suggested to Cockburn that the Capitol Police Department and Department of Justice have publicly identified the shooter as a Capitol Police officer in order to protect the reputation of the Secret Service. Cockburn also wonders if this...

The University of North Carolina’s board of trustees voted on Wednesday to grant tenure to the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, ending a dispute that stretched on for more than a month. Nine board members voted in favor of tenure for Ms. Hannah-Jones and four against during a special meeting on the campus in Chapel Hill, which some trustees attended via Zoom. The opening minutes were livestreamed on YouTube before the proceeding moved into a closed session. Ms. Hannah-Jones, a correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, had accepted a position as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he is fine with legislation that would remove the Confederate statues that stand in the U.S. Capitol.During a speech on the House floor, McCarthy addressed his support for a resolution that would remove Confederate statues from the Capitol, saying all the statues are of Democrats and that the party should consider changing its name.“The bill we’re voting on today we’ve voted on before. I supported it [then] and I support it now. But let me state a simple fact: All of the statues being removed by this bill are statues of Democrats,” McCarthy...

Conviction overturned. Geraldo pontificating.

When Vice President Kamala Harris finally made the decision to visit the Mexico border last week, people inside her own office were blindsided by the news. For days, aides and outside allies had been calling and texting with each other about the political fallout that a potential trip would entail. But when it became known that she was going to El Paso, it left many scrambling, including officials who were responsible for making travel arrangements and others outside the VP’s office charged with crafting the messaging across the administration. The handling of the border visit was the latest chaotic moment...