Free Republic

The Austria Center Vienna (Donaustadt) is of crucial importance for the city’s vaccination strategy. Around 5000 Viennese are vaccinated against the Corona here every day. But unfortunately there are always side effects. An Impfstrasse employee told Austrian daily Heute that around 50 people per day collapsed last weekend. Almost all of them had previously received a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The Chinese Communist Party is warning Japan that it will be “digging its own grave” if the country sides with the US to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion — adding Japan is “powerless against the Chinese military.” “Japan does not dare to confront China alone. If Japan involves itself in the Taiwan question militarily, it will be Japan digging its own grave,” said an op-ed published Wednesday in the Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times. “Japan’s military capability is completely restrained by the US and does not have an independent combat capability. It is easy for the People’s...

As the mainstream narrative about the origin of COVID-19 falls apart, it’s time to put other widely accepted facts about the virus—and the devastating measures they were used to justify—under the same scrutiny On March 13, 2020, the public school district where I teach announced that all classrooms and buildings would be closed for two weeks. Then two weeks turned into two months, and two months turned into over a full year without in-person instruction. My school serves a diverse population of low-income students in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is impossible to overstate the severity of this disruption...

Boiling lobsters alive would be banned in the United Kingdom under new legislation that protects the “welfare rights” of crustaceans and mollusks, according to a report Wednesday. Parliament is considering updating its Animal Welfare Bill — which defends against the inhumane treatment of creatures with backbones — to include invertebrates such as lobsters, crabs, octopuses and squid, according to the Evening Standard. The bill, which is making its way through the legislature’s House of Lords, would require fishermen and chefs to stun or chill the sea creatures before boiling them, which is thought to be a more humane method of...

With all the coverage of third-place hammer thrower Gwen Berry’s disrespectful national anthem stunt, you may have missed another bit of Olympic news that happened the next day: American track and field athlete Sydney McLaughlin smashed the world record in the 400-meter hurdles at 51.9 seconds.McLaughlin isn’t just praiseworthy because she’s good. She also seems to be heading to the Olympics with all the right priorities, using the competition as a chance to glorify God and honor her country instead of a means to cheap self-ingratiating publicity.The Dunellen, New Jersey native gets her love of track from both parents, Willie...

A 12-year-old used a hunting rifle to fatally shoot an armed intruder who was threatening the boy’s mother inside the family’s Louisiana home, a report said. The youngster, who will not be charged, feared for his mother’s life when he pumped a bullet into Brad LeBlanc, 32, at about 7:20 a.m. on June 30 at their home east of Clinton, East Feliciana Sheriff Jeffrey Travis told The Advocate. LeBlanc, armed with a pistol, first approached the mother outside their home and then forced her inside the residence where a struggle ensued, the report said. The armed suspect was then shot...

President Joe Biden offered to send a “strike force” into Chicago Thursday in order to help Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) stem the tide of shootings occurring daily in the city. ABC 7 reports that a “strike force” would focus on gun trafficking. Lightfoot responded to Biden’s offer by saying, “My hope and expectation is that they’re going to be coming relatively soon. I’ve made not secret of the fact that this is a matter of incredible urgency and I think the president’s plan is to make a difference in localities like Chicago this summer.” On July 7, 2021, the Chicago...

Last week, on the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary, Chinese state media Xinhua News posted a tweet featuring a quote from Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s, including his claim that China had eliminated poverty and “we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a modern socialist country in all aspects.”Many international users responded with sarcasm, questioning the CCP’s human rights record. Yet Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, responded with a tweet, showering the CCP with over-the-top praise: “The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure! I encourage...

We now know the National Security Agency (NSA) not only was monitoring the electronic communications of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but that either NSA or senior Biden officials leaked information from his communications to the news media in an attempt to smear him.Axios reported July 7: “Tucker Carlson was talking to U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries about setting up an interview with Vladimir Putin shortly before the Fox News host accused the National Security Agency of spying on him, sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.”The Axios article proves several troubling aspects of this story.First, Carlson was right. This confirms what...

I like to apply free market analysis to American politics. Within established laws, politicians compete for votes and are rewarded for maximizing voters' preferences. As in economics, there are sometimes market failures, but mostly the system seems to be self-regulating. This sounds nice, but it doesn't seem to describe what's been happening over the past five or so years. Both parties seem to be ignoring voters' clear signals. Neither seems to be rationally maximizing its votes and its chances of winning presidential elections or congressional majorities. National Democrats have indeed won the popular vote in six of the last seven...

The Biden administration’s plan to distribute post-pandemic farm loan relief to non-white farmers was hit with another legal defeat on Thursday.District Court Judge S. Thomas Anderson of the Western District of Tennessee issued a preliminary injunction to halt the U.S. Department of Agriculture from moving forward with the loan payment plan that excluded white farmers and ranchers.“The Court finds that Plaintiff has shown a substantial likelihood that he will prevail on his claim that Section 1005 violates his right to equal protection under the law,” the decision states. “Absent action by the Court, socially disadvantaged farmers will obtain debt relief,...

Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi, invested millions of dollars in Amazon options shortly before a surprise announcement from Joe Biden's administration that would benefit the company massively. The Pentagon announced this week that it is canceling a multi-billion dollar contract with Microsoft and starting a new one that Amazon will likely participate in.

Chicago community leaders are pressuring Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to declare a “State of Emergency” regarding the city’s gun crime. Breitbart News reported nearly 100 people were shot Friday night, July 2, through Monday, July 5, in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. That weekend violence followed a Thursday in which 32 people were shot, including a one-month-old girl. On July 7, 2021, the Chicago Tribune noted that 2,021 people had been shot in Chicago so far this year. That figure represents 164 more people than were shot during the same time frame in 2020.

The past several days have seen what seems to be an unusually large surge of alleged criminal home invaders being shot and killed by armed citizens. Crime has predictably spiked with increasingly anti-police Democrats in charge of both Congress and the executive branch, and gun sales have also hit record highs as people look to protect themselves and their families from the encroaching lawlessness. Three of the shootings occurred in California, a Democrat-run state that's been soft on crime for decades (via Fox News). A California man in his 60s shot and killed a 27-year-old armed man who broke into...

The District of Columbia and Mayor Muriel Bowser have agreed to pay $220,000 as part of a legal settlement with a local Baptist church that sued the city over in-person worship restrictions during the pandemic. Last September, Capitol Hill Baptist Church sued the district over the government’s ban on outdoor worship services that had more than 100 people in attendance. In a settlement agreement and release approved on Thursday, the city agreed to pay $220,000 to the counsels representing the church, which broke down to $210,000 for the law firm WilmerHale and $10,000 for the national legal nonprofit First Liberty...

The District of Columbia and Mayor Muriel Bowser have agreed to pay $220,000 as part of a legal settlement with a local Baptist church that sued the city over in-person worship restrictions during the pandemic. Last September, Capitol Hill Baptist Church sued the district over the government’s ban on outdoor worship services that had more than 100 people in attendance. In a settlement agreement and release approved on Thursday, the city agreed to pay $220,000 to the counsels representing the church, which broke down to $210,000 for the law firm WilmerHale and $10,000 for the national legal nonprofit First Liberty...

These days, the younger generation is encouraged to despise their American birthright. According to this worldview, the United States was a force for oppression in centuries past, and racism, baked into the very structure of the republic, constitutes the true narrative of the American people. And what is this worldview’s solution to our country’s alleged ills? To tear down the existing order, cleanse it of its sins, and reeducate the youth such that they become activists against democracy, free speech, and free thought.This new mentality is driven by what some call “wokeness.” As I detail in my forthcoming book: Christianity...

Dramatic video captured the moment a Haitian mob captured two alleged Colombian assassins, beat them and dragged them bloodied through the streets of Port-au-Prince after President Jovenel Moïse was gunned down. A video shared on social media shows the crowd pulling two men, one of whom was shirtless and bound with a rope, in the neighborhood of Petion-Ville, near the late president’s private residence. “Advance, advance!” someone is heard yelling on the video as the crowd pushes the two men, who were discovered hiding in some bushes. Some people grabbed the two by their shirts and pants, pushed them and...

The World Health Organization has revealed that it has placed a new Covid-19 strain first discovered in Russia on its online list of variants for monitoring. It joins a selection of eleven other unnamed coronavirus mutations. The strain was first detected in January this year, but it has only now been deemed severe enough to be listed. According to the WHO classification system, variants are determined first to be designated for “further monitoring,” before being promoted to “of interest,” and then, finally, “of concern.” If the newly discovered variant found in Russia is determined to be more serious, it will...

It looks like the first steps are being taken to start a forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania. This week, Pennsylvania state Rep. Doug Mastriano requested “information and materials” from multiple counties for a “forensic investigation” just like the recently completed audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. Mastriano is the chairman of the Intergovernmental Operations Committee.President Trump has been calling for a forensic audit in Pennsylvania. He and his campaign have long alleged irregularities and fraud in battleground states where election laws were violated. However, the media has loudly dismissed these allegations, and those who believe fraud occurred...