Free Republic

WASHINGTON - A member of the Texas Democratic delegation has returned to Austin from Washington, D.C., to negotiate with Republicans over their voting legislation, h. Rep. Philip Cortez, D-San Antonio, made the announcement Wednesday on Twitter, saying that he intended to "engage in good-faith dialogue about the aspects of the bill that I, and others, think are harmful." **SNIP** Other members, however, question how his decision was made, who he had spoken with or what his mission is. "To be clear, he is not negotiating on our behalf," tweeted Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, in response. "He made the decision to...

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian police said on Wednesday they had dismantled an alleged criminal ring that had charged as much $21,000 per bed for seriously ill COVID-19 patients in a state-run hospital, aggravating care in a country hit by one of the world's deadliest outbreaks of the virus.... ...The hospital involved in the more recent scandal, administered by the EsSalud social security system, provides free care. Patients must endure a long waiting list for the 80 ICU beds the hospital offers. During the peak of the pandemic, many patients paid large sums of money to private clinics as the public...

“I have been covering and chasing Ed Buck since August 2017. I knew Ed Buck was a bad man. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw during court on Friday,” wrote journalist Jasmyne Cannick in her report of Day 3 of USA v. Edward Buck. Buck, a once-prominent Democratic donor, faces nine felony charges, including distribution of methamphetamine resulting in death. That’s actually two counts, one for each of the Black men found dead in his apartment: 26-year-old Gemmel Moore in 2017 and 55-year-old Timothy Dean in 2019. Buck, who has pleaded not guilty on all charges, had, in Cannick’s...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. GOD IS ONE.

Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) had some rough words for National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday appearance on Newsmax TV’s “American Agenda.” Cawthorn called Fauci a “punk” and “pawn of the Chinese government” on the heels of his appearance on Capitol Hill earlier in the day. “[I]t really makes me angry to say that he does not want to retract his statements because he did lie to the American people,” Cawthorn said. “He did lie to Congress, which is a crime. And I’ll tell you — I normally have a great amount of...

'You’ve been the big guy for six months now in the White House. "The big guy" was notably used as a reference to Biden in a leaked email thread allegedly involving Joe’s son Hunter Biden making a deal with a Chinese energy firm. In 2020, Fox News confirmed the authenticity of an email dated May 13, 2017 that detailed a discussion for "remuneration packages" for people involved in a business deal. A section of the email contained a propriety split reading "10 held by H for the big guy?" which was later confirmed to reference Joe Biden. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik,...

Tokyo Olympics organizers have fired the opening ceremony director on the eve of the event after reports emerged of a past joke he had made about the Holocaust, while media said former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a strong advocate of the Games, would also not attend. The latest in a series of embarrassments for the Tokyo organizers comes just days after a well-known musician was forced to step down as composer for the ceremony after old reports of his bullying and abusive behavior surfaced. […] Tokyo Games organizers fired Kentaro Kobayashi on Thursday over a joke he made about the...

The Biden administration is considering urging vaccinated Americans to start wearing face masks again as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads across the US and the nation's vaccine rollout stalls, according to a report. Multiple sources told the Washington Post that high-level discussions are underway between top White House aides and Biden administration officials over whether the nation's mask guidance should be updated following a spike in COVID-19 cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxed its mask guidance back in May, saying fully vaccinated Americans could go without masks in almost all indoor and outdoor settings, with...

Dr. Anthony Fauci has said Sen. Rand Paul is 'out of tune with reality' and and blasted the Kentucky Republican for making 'inflammatory' and 'slanderous' remarks during Tuesday's fierce exchange in a Senate hearing. Paul accused Fauci of funding 'gain-of-function' research in China's Wuhan lab and then lying under oath in front of Congress, which Fauci adamantly denied. The men exchanged words and each called the other a liar. The usually even-keeled Fauci was still fired up during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC's 'The Beat' with Ari Melber, who pointed out Fauci's fiery response was such a contrast to his...

The Biden administration is expected to drop the US's years-long opposition to a new natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany as early as today, earning swift backlash from top Republicans. 'This is a terrible mistake, it's a mistake that's opposed by both parties in Congress. It's just another example of the pathetic appeasement of Joe Biden for Vladimir Putin,' Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said on Fox News Wednesday. On top of 'costing' American jobs, Cotton claims the move empowers Russia and 'badly undercuts our allies and partners in Eastern Europe like Poland and Ukraine, who Joe Biden is now...

The English city of Liverpool was removed from UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites on Wednesday because new buildings undermined the attractiveness of its Victorian docks, making it only the third site to be removed from the prestigious list. Liverpool was named a World Heritage Site by the United Nation’s cultural organisation in 2004, joining landmarks such as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After a vote in China by members of its World Heritage Committee, UNESCO said the new buildings in Liverpool were undermining the city’s “authenticity and integrity”. Liverpool —...

ransomnote: Good discussion on 'variants' and false 'asymptomatic' spread. There's a few different links on the page. I really enjoyed hearing Dr. Yeadon's thoughts in the podcast at the top of the page. Even though the date is April 2021, the content is aging well. He's been correct all along the way. [H/T Robert DeLong]Here is a little about the doctor being interviewed:Dr. Michael Yeadon, who left Pfizer in 2011 as Vice President and Chief Scientist for Allergy and Respiratory, has spent more than 30 years in some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies guiding new research in medicines. After...

The top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday withdrew his five nominees to serve on the special committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol after Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of them.Pelosi had earlier rejected Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, staunch defenders of former President Donald Trump, from serving on the panel investigating the Trump supporters who assaulted Congress in an attempt to stop it from certifying President Joe Biden's election.The violence followed a fiery speech in which Trump repeated his false claims that his defeat was the result of widespread...

• While the premier can't yet say when Sydney's lockdown will end, medical experts have laid out their roadmap to freedom. But even their most optimistic modelling shows it's likely restrictions won't lift until September, and that was before today's big jump in community cases. It comes as the NSW Government processes close to $200 million in financial support payments, with $26 million \already hitting bank accounts

“He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor. The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” (Proverbs 22:11-13).

Smoldering tensions over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack exploded Wednesday in a partisan battle over who should sit on the special committee investigating the deadly siege — a clash of wills that spurred Republicans to end their participation in the investigation before it began. The fight started just after noon when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she would reject two of the five Republican nominees to the panel, Reps. Jim Banks (Ind.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio). Both are among the most staunch defenders of former President Trump and deny his role in instigating the attack, and Pelosi — fueled by...

BEIJING, July 22 (Reuters) - China rejected on Thursday a World Health Organization (WHO) plan for a second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which includes the hypothesis it could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory, a top health official said. The WHO this month proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets in the city of Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities. "We will not accept such an origins-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, disregards common sense and defies science," Zeng Yixin,...

Iran earned nearly $ 1,377 billion in oil sales during the forty years after the anti-monarchy revolution. About $700 billion was earned during Ahmadinejad’s presidency. However, when Ahmadinejad’s eight-year term ended, he left nothing but a ruined, bankrupt, and devastating economy. In addition to the theft and looting of a nation’s assets through those around him and corrupt ministers of his cabinet, Ahmadinejad spent the country’s income to fund the Revolutionary Guards, internal repression, exporting terrorism abroad, and Iran’s missile and nuclear programs. There was no benefit for the Iranians from the windfall during the Ahmadinejad era. When Rouhani came...

As renewable forms of power like wind and solar continue to gain prominence, there will be a need for creative solutions when it comes to storing energy from sources that are intermittent by nature. One potential solution is known as a molten salt battery, which offers advantages that lithium batteries do not, but have their share of kinks to iron out, too. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have come up with a new design that addresses a number of these shortcomings, and demonstrated a working molten salt battery that can be constructed far more cheaply, while storing more energy, than...