Free Republic

From the Desk of Lori: ‍ Symbols matter. And there is no greater symbol of Chicago’s broad and diverse shoulders as the Magnificent Mile. Yet the anti-equity policies of retailers such as Macy’s that decided not to renew leases on Michigan Avenue have led to other national brands replacing artfully painted BLM plywood edifice monikers with empty storefronts (as to Macy’s, good riddance to their racist Frangos which force you to chomp on darkness before getting to the good stuff inside). Seriously, the situation is grim: Nearly 1/3rd of retail space sits empty on this section of Michigan Avenue. Moreover,...

The Texas Senate passed its version of an election reform bill Tuesday. However, it is stalled until Texas House Democrats return.In an 18 to 4 vote along party lines, Senate Republicans passed SB1, which would add new identification requirements for absentee and mail-in-voting, ban some early voting, and create new criminal penalties for breaking certain election codes, according to CBS News.The bill passed despite Texas Democrats' attempt to deny Republicans a quorum, the number of legislators needed for the state legislature to conduct business. On Monday, 50 House Democrats and nine Senate Democrats fled the state to Washington D.C. to...

The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation. The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum. However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House. Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged four Iranian nationals over an alleged plot to kidnap a Brooklyn-based journalist and human rights activist who published material critical of the Iranian government. A superseding indictment from the U.S. District Court from the Southern District of New York was unsealed Tuesday, revealing charges against an Iranian intelligence official, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, as well as "Iranian intelligence assets" Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori.

Andrew Bannister’s article ‘Don’t mention Ivermectin; it’ll upset the vaccine rollout’ was published on BizNews.com in May. The article gained an extensive amount of traction, which isn’t all that surprising considering mainstream media’s lack of coverage on alternative Covid-19 treatment. Bannister, a photographer and hotelier by trade, wrote a follow-up article titled ‘Conflict of Interest in WHO Recommendation Against Ivermectin’ which takes a deep dive into the sordid nature of the ‘financial and ideological conflicts of interest that have blocked the usage of this life-saving medication.’ BizNews spoke to Bannister about the various conflicts of interest which he outlines in...

To finally determine a lasting definition of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new water director says everyone with a stake in the issue will need to be engaged. Radhika Fox recently spoke to The Associated Press about the Biden administration’s plan to rewrite the regulation, also called Waters of the United States. […] She was previously CEO of the conservation advocacy group U.S. Water Alliance and policy director at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. […] “If we look back 50 years ago, what really prompted us to create the...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul condemned Dr. Anthony Fauci on Newsmax for his refusal to accept the science related to COVID-19 while charging that the Biden administration's chief medical adviser "has no respect for freedom." Appearing on "Spicer & Co.," Paul, who himself is a medical doctor, argued that because Fauci ignores "the science of natural immunity he presses on. And because he has no respect for freedom — for individual freedom — he wants to push on to tell us and mandate what we must do in our medical lives. And so I think this is a terrible step backwards,...

MIAMI BEACH, Florida (WPVI) -- Two men accused of drugging and raping a Bucks County, Pennsylvania woman while on spring break could be facing more charges, according to the Miami-Dade State's Attorney's Office.Authorities say 24-year-old Christine Englehardt, of Newtown, Bucks County, was found dead inside the Albion Hotel in Miami on March 18.Evoire Collier, 21, and Dorian Taylor, 24, are accused of drugging and raping the woman. They remain behind bars on charges of sexual battery, burglary and credit card fraud.According to a toxicology report obtained by WPLG, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner revealed that Englehardt died from "prone positioning while...

Elected Labour Party representatives have raced to put space between them and the ‘Rainbow Monkey Dildo Story Hour’ hosted at a London Library childrens’ reading event after intense backlash from the local Muslim community. On Sunday, Breitbart London was the first news outlet to reveal that the Labour-run Redbridge Council in London hosted a carnival troupe featuring a performer dressed as a naked rainbow monkey with a giant phallus dangling betwixt his legs during Redbridge Libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge for children. The event, which has since sparked international outrage, particularly angered local Muslim parents and school leaders, ultimately forcing the...

Prices for U.S. consumers jumped in June by the most in 13 years, evidence that a swift rebound in spending has run up against widespread supply shortages that have escalated the costs of many goods and services. Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices in June rose 0.9% from May and 5.4% over the past year — the sharpest 12-month inflation spike since August 2008. Excluding volatile oil and gas prices, so-called core inflation rose 4.5% in the past year, the largest increase since November 1991. The pickup in inflation, which has coincided with the economy’s rapid...

(h/t cathi)[ransomnote: I appreciated this review of VAERS reports from researchers in Britain as the subject is otherwise untouchable in the United States. The PDF includes graphs, charts and excellent information.]Authors: Scott McLachlan, Magda Osman, Kudakwashe Dube, Patience Chiketero, Yvonne Choi, Norman Fenton Click Link to Start PDF DownloadClinically trained reviewers have undertaken a detailed analysis of a sample of the early deaths reported in VAERS (250 out of the 1644 deaths recorded up to April 2021).[ransomnote: the CDC held records of deaths for many months and continues to upload reports of adverse events 'late'; around half of adverse events...

Johannesburg: Stores and warehouses in South Africa were hit by looters on Tuesday for a fifth day running despite a move by President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy troops in a bid to quell unrest that has claimed 72 lives. As large-scale pillaging erupted in the economic capital of Johannesburg and southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, the crisis burst into the political arena, where South Africa’s main opposition accused radicals of stoking the unrest. The armed forces were sending 2,500 soldiers to help the police, who have been utterly overwhelmed. But these numbers are dwarfed by the more than 70,000 troops deployed...

Boeing will cut production of its large 787 airliner for several weeks after discovering a new structural flaw in some planes that have been built but not delivered to airline customers. The Chicago company said Tuesday that it now anticipates that it will deliver less than half of the 787s remaining in its inventory this year. That is a retreat from CEO David Calhoun's statement last month that the company hoped to deliver a majority of the planes, estimated to be fewer than 100, in 2021. The slower rate of deliveries will hurt Boeing's cash flow because the company gets...

Texas Democrats demanded Tuesday for the Texas House journal clerk to lock the state house voting machines, thereby denying the GOP majority a quorum needed to proceed with election integrity legislation. Chair of the Texas House Democrat Caucus and State Rep. Chris Turner (D) stated, “Minutes ago, at least 57 letters were delivered to the house journal clerk directing the [Texas] House to lock our voting machines and not unlock them until we provide express permission to do so upon our return to the [Texas] capitol.” “It takes two-thirds of the body present to constitute a quorum, so 100 members,”...

Mississippi’s health department is aiming to combat misinformation on COVID-19 by limiting users' ability to comment on its Facebook posts related to case numbers and vaccine distribution. Liz Sharlot, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi State Department of Health, told The Associated Press that the “comments section of our Facebook page has increasingly come to be dominated by misinformation about COVID-19.” Sharlot added that the false information included in the comments from various social media users could “mislead the public about the safety, importance and effectiveness of vaccination.” While the comments section is open on department posts related to other health...

CNN network contributor David Gergen said Tuesday on CNN’s “Situation Room” that former President Donald Trump was crazy and therefore more dangerous than former President Richard Nixon. Discussing two new books about Trump’s last days in office, anchor Wolf Blitzer said, “David Gergen, you had a unique experience and experiencing witnessing the end of Nixon administration up close. You were even written about in Woodward and Bernstein’s book ‘The Final Days.’ So what similarities — do you see similarities in what you saw then and now these new accounts.” Gergen said, “There certainly seem to be some similarities and parallels,...

“Cannabis is part of our Long Beach culture and to safely share a joint without contributing to the spread of COVID-19, we must all do our part to get vaccinated,” said James Suazo, Executive Director with Long Beach Forward. “With the delta variant becoming the dominant COVID-19 strain in Los Angeles County, we want our unvaccinated neighbors to catch a free marijuana strain instead so we can protect each other.”

A man facing federal charges in the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer says there never would have been a plot without FBI involvement and wants to know who those 12 informants were after finding out that some were paid “snitches.”Buzzfeed News reports that at least a dozen informants worked with the FBI to work with the six defendants to plot, train, and do reconnaissance on the unpopular governor. Whitmer has been especially draconian in her COVID lock downs, as PJ Media has reported.Related: Plot to Overthrow ‘Tyrant’ Gretchen Whitmer Is Thwarted. Michigan Governor Blames Trump.A lawyer for...

These games don’t count. Right now, that is the only saving grace for USA Basketball. And for the first time in 29 years of NBA players suiting up for the national team, there was a smattering of boos when a game ended — on home soil, no less. Patty Mills scored 22 points and Australia held the U.S. without a field goal for the final 4:34 on the way to beating the Americans 91-83 on Monday night, dropping the three-time defending Olympic gold medalists to 0-2 in their five-game slate of exhibitions leading up to the Tokyo Games. “I thought...

Keith Olbermann owned himself on Twitter.The left-wing former ESPN and MSNBC commentator unveiled a novel argument for the constitutionality of gun control — that the Second Amendment doesn’t use the word “own.”~~SNIP~~“Consider again the holy Second Amendment to the Constitution and ask yourself this question. Why doesn’t the 2nd Amendment have the word ‘own’ in it? Why does it not say the right to own guns or a synonym for own?” he asked sarcastically before reciting the existing amendment.It says “‘keep and bear’ … not ‘own.’ ‘Keep’ doesn’t mean ‘own’; ‘bear’ doesn’t mean ‘own,’” he said to his close-up camera.In...