Free Republic

Neo-feudalism: The elite is hiding out from the devastation their policies have caused. News that billionaire Google co-founder Larry Page has been hiding out on and buying isolated private islands in Fiji to avoid tourists who aren’t allowed in once again underscores how the elite is using the fallout from the pandemic to segregate themselves from the general public. Page has been living off grid for over a year and forced a state-owned news website to remove an article about his activities that was also de-listed by Google in an apparent effort to conceal his location. “He has spent months...

Ohio Republicans are divided on candidates for the open U.S. House seat, as former President Donald Trump's choice is competing with candidates backed by other conservative leaders, an anti-abortion group and Trump's own former allies. The winning candidate will succeed former U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, who resigned in May to lead the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Trump's selection for the GOP-leaning 15th Congressional District race is Mike Carey, who was described by Trump's Save America PAC release to "be a courageous fighter for the people and our economy, is strong on the Border, and tough on Crime." Though Trump won...

When his country came calling, Frank Capra had already won three best directing Oscars in five years—”It Happened One Night” (1934), “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” (1936), and “You Can’t Take It with You” (1938)—and had directed the incomparable “Lost Horizon” (1937) and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939). He could certainly have rested on his laurels, but he was too patriotic an American not to assist in World War II.Too old to fight on the battlefield, Capra waged his war in the editor’s booth, constructing a series of seven propaganda films known collectively as the Why We Fight series,...

The Cleveland Indians baseball team announced on Friday that the team will be renamed the Cleveland Guardians.

A state appeals court Friday refused to overturn an order that closed a Pennsylvania restaurant for disobeying Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 restrictions requiring its workers and customers to wear face masks. The Commonwealth Court panel’s decision in the case of The Crack’d Egg of Pittsburgh marks the defeat of yet another legal challenge to the validity of directives Wolf issued amid the pandemic. Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer noted in the Commonwealth Court opinion that the state Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the governor’s emergency authority to issue those edicts. The Crack’d Egg case involves a battle between the restaurant owners...

Venice, Italy. (Luca Micheli/Unsplash) ====================================================================================== At the bottom of the Treporti Channel, meters beneath the waves of the Venetian Lagoon, a series of surprising ancient structures has just been uncovered. Aligned for a distance of around 1,200 meters (3,937 feet), they suggest that, once upon a time, before sea levels rose and flooded the area, a Roman-era road stretched across the landscape. According to archaeologists, this is evidence that a significant Roman settlement was present centuries before the founding and settlement of Venice in the fifth century CE. "This multidisciplinary study documented the presence of an about 1,200-meter long segment...

America’s Frontline Doctors, a nonprofit, filed a motion on July 19 seeking immediate injunctive relief to stop the emergency use authorization (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccines for three groups of Americans: anyone under the age of 18, anyone who has recovered from COVID-19, and those who haven’t given informed consent as defined by federal law. The motion was filed against Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other defendants in a federal district court in the Northern District of Alabama. “The emergency declaration and its multiple renewals are illegal,” the complaint (pdf) alleges. According to...

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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is beginning to arrest migrants on trespassing charges along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's actions that he says are needed to slow the number of border crossings, jailing at least 10 people so far with more on the way, authorities said Thursday. The arrests put in motion plans that Abbott first announced in June, when he also said that Texas would continue building former President Donald Trump's border wall and called on other governors to deploy law enforcement and National Guard members to the southern border. The detainees are being held...

The FBI is attempting to do damage control after it was revealed the law enforcement bureau initiated and carried out a significant portion of the kidnapping plot against Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer last year. "Partnerships are key to disrupting violent plots. With the terror threat growing more insular, awareness and reporting are crucial," the FBI posted on a their website this week. "This is especially true for domestic terrorism—defined as violent, criminal acts committed by individuals or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. Because the...

An Italian-American organization has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Park District demanding the Christopher Columbus statue be returned to its pedestal at Arrigo Park in Little Italy. The lawsuit filed by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans claims the removal of the Columbus monument violates a nearly 50-year-old agreement the group has with the Park District that says it must obtain written consent from the organization “before making any substantial change to Columbus Plaza or Columbus Statue.” The filing comes just three days short of the one-year anniversary of when the city removed the statue after mounting pressure...

A woman was arrested Thursday for an alleged hate-driven, anti-Asian assault spree that left four people injured over the course of several months in Queens, police said. Maricia Bell, 25, is accused of attacking three women — ages 75, 63 and 34 — and a 23-year-old man in four separate incidents in the borough beginning May 23, according to police. *** At about 8 p.m. July 11, Bell is accused of slugging the 63-year-old woman in the face as the victim was walking near 72nd Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, according to police. In the latest incident, Bell allegedly whacked the...

Russia on Friday fired back at the International Olympic Committee after it appeared to change a map previously showing the Crimean Peninsula as separate from Ukraine hours before the games' opening ceremonies were scheduled to begin. "This is a reason for our embassy and our sports officials to take appropriate action and ask appropriate questions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday morning, according to a translation of his remarks.

CNN’s town hall event with Joe Biden was a total bust and came in dead last with only 1.5 million viewers Wednesday evening.Joe Biden is such a popular president that no one watched his heavily promoted town hall event.Fox News reported:CNN’s heavily promoted town hall event with President Biden failed to resonate with Americans on Wednesday night, as it got thumped by Fox News and even finished with a smaller audience than MSNBC. The CNN Biden town hall, moderated by Don Lemon, averaged only 1.5 million viewers from 8-9:30 p.m. ET, while Fox News averaged 2.7 million viewers during the...

This week included interesting revelations about the FBI’s case against the handful of people charged with plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Of 14 people indicted, five (or more) were working as informants for the FBI....[T]he five people who seem to be the FBI informants were also the people who seemed to have all the kidnapping ideas and access to all the equipment needed for a paramilitary assault on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s vacation home. At one point, the leadership of the conspiracy met, and three of the five people in that discussion were FBI...In case after case, it’s the...

Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted himself one year ago Friday at a Washington Nationals baseball game by not wearing a mask or social distancing during the throes of a global pandemic. Fauci originally wore the mask to throw the first pitch before the game but decided to pull the mask down when he sat next to two people, not socially distanced, perhaps believing he was no longer on camera.

As I make clear in my brand-new book, Christianity and Wokeness, nothing will be left untouched by the woke revolution. One of the key targets of this movement, which is currently sweeping the West: boyhood and girlhood.No less a cultural touchstone than Disney World recently changed up the greeting to its famous fireworks show. Instead of “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls…” the park begins proceedings with “Good evening, dreamers of all ages!” In addition, Disney is changing its standards of dress and presentation for staff. Simply put, Disney’s look and feel will now be “gender-inclusive” according to the company:“Our...

A study posted Friday, led by Oxford University, found that delaying the second dose up to 10 weeks boosted antibodies and "helper" T cells that support the immune system higher than giving it at three weeks, as recommended by Pfizer. Dr. Lance Turtle, senior clinical lecturer in infectious diseases at University of Liverpool, was also involved in the study. He said that eight weeks between doses is a "reasonable compromise" but added that there are exceptions. People who are immunosuppressed, such as those being treated for cancer, should get second doses of Pfizer's shot as soon as possible, he said.

WASHINGTON, Monday Morning, July 22, 1861. I came in from Centreville last evening for the express purpose of sending you the latest intelligence of the great battle of yesterday. I left Centreville at half-past 5 and reached here at midnight. I sent a dispatch to the office, but, as it is to be subjected to the censorship of the Government, which gives no hint of what it refuses permission to pass, I have no means of knowing whether its contents reached you or not. I must therefore repeat its contents. The battle yesterday was one of the most severe and...

The arrests were the latest involving suspected critics of Hong Kong’s government that have raised fears about the shrinking space for dissent since Beijing imposed a national security law in June 2020 to put an end to pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous city. Police said one book, “Defenders of the Sheep Village,” was connected to the protests. In the story, wolves want to occupy the village and eat the sheep, who in turn use their horns to fight back. The second told the story of 12 sheep taken by wolves to the beasts’ village where they would be cooked, potentially...