Free Republic

The most comprehensive and perhaps important COVID-19 study to date was released in the U.K on July 7th. Although largely ignored by the mainstream press, the study is of great importance because it actually quantifies the health risks of COVID among children and teenagers. Impressively, researchers from prestigious U.K. medical institutions reviewed every COVID case involving children and young people (CYP) hospitalized in the U.K. in the first 12 months of the pandemic. Only 25 children aged 0 to 17 in the U.K. died of COVID in the pandemic’s first 12 months. Of these 25 deaths, 19 (76 percent) occurred...

There’s a shot! Oswald has been shot! Oswald has been shot! A shot rang out . . . mass confusion here. . . . The dark stocky man with the hat on . . . put the gun right in his belly. One of the wildest scenes I have ever seen. . . . The man rushed up and jammed the gun right into Oswald’s stomach and fired one shot. Oswald was carried back in the hallway . . . The man in the fedora was Jack Ruby, the febrile strip-club owner and cop buff On the morning of Nov....

Remember Alexander Vindman? He’s the guy who thought he got to dictate what foreign policy was and not the President. He disagreed with what was said in a phone call between President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president. What he should have done was resign, if he disagreed. Instead, he went all resistance and tried to do in Trump. But ultimately, that gambit failed — like so many other gambits to get Trump failed. But Vindman is still trying to sell himself as somehow an important person. It’s really rather sad, how desperate he is for relevance.

The Biden administration aims to spend millions of dollars to cover the cost of lawyers for migrants who have illegally entered the country, a prospect that has infuriated immigration restrictionists. President Joe Biden proposed in his immigration plan released this week that Congress should make available $15 million to cover the costs of private lawyers for “families and vulnerable individuals,” with another $23 million to cover legal orientation programs administered by the Justice Department. The proposal, first outlined in Biden's fiscal year 2022 budget, is the first time that an administration has proposed covering such an expense, and the White...

New research suggests that English speakers put more droplets into the air when they talk, which may make them more likely to spread COVID-19. Since the novel coronavirus is spread by droplets, how spitty a language is might contribute to different rates of the disease. It all comes down to something called aspirated consonants, the sounds we make that spray more droplets of saliva into the air. In college, everyone knew which professors spit the most when they lectured. The front rows of their classes were always empty after the first day of class, because the high achievers who sat...

This page provides documents the pace of appointments in the current presidential transition and by comparison with predecessors in the modern appointments era (beginning with the Reagan presidency).[warning, this site proves McConnell is totally useless for Republican voters- wildcard_redneck]

In modern times, Saudis, Japanese, South Koreans, and Israelis—to name a few—have all managed to purchase influence. But the usual goal is to gain advantages for their own nations. What we are seeing now is something much more dangerous—using influence to corrode the United States from within. In 2019, over 37,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. That’s nearly five times the number of American troops killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2020, the U.S. government reported 93,000 American residents died from a drug overdose—the vast majority from fentanyl poisoning. The COVID-19 lockdowns have helped bump up the...

Explanation: Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015 July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced-color view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different,...

Sure enough, the United States is again awash in virus, with the incidence of new COVID-19 cases having soared 131 percent in the third week of July. To be clear, the vaccines available work well—especially the Pfizer and Moderna products based on mRNA technology. But it is likely that waning vaccine efficacy, coupled with a stubborn one-fifth of the adult population refusing any immunization, has opened the door for the dangerous mutant delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 to wreak havoc among the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. That’s why the United States is going to need a third dose of mRNA vaccines;...

FUDAfest (Fully Unclothed Dancing Activism) grew into a place where hundreds would flock to party, dance and, for a few, get naked.

Three more Border Patrol Agents working at the Eagle Pass, Texas, processing center tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, according to a source working under the umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The agents were assigned to process migrants apprehended in the Del Rio Sector in a soft-sided structure that is currently holding double its rated capacity. The total number of Border Patrol agents, according to the source, reached six since Thursday. In addition, at least one Texas Army National Guard soldier working in Eagle Pass also tested positive for the virus. The source, speaking on the condition...

The administration is literally out of gas. None of their monetary policy (print it out of thing air by the bucket loads) has worked. People noticed. None of their immigration policy (tell everyone to come, travel to neighboring nations & give US tax dollars away, beg & plead for their help) has worked. People noticed. None of their anti-crime policy (threaten lawful gun owners with confiscation) has worked. People noticed. None of their foreign policy (embolden Iran, play footsie with China, ask the UN to investigate Americans, take the side of the Cuban regime, undermine the Abraham accords) has worked....

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Aug. 1 that she believes the $1 trillion infrastructure bill backed by the White House has the support of at least 10 Republican senators, suggesting the measure will clear the 60-vote filibuster. Collins, in a comment on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the legislation has enough backing to pass in the chamber this week. “I think we will be able to lay down the bill later today and begin perhaps consideration of some amendments,” Collins said. “My hope is that we’ll finish the bill by the end of the week.” For weeks, some...

...The pandemic, these professionals say, is entering a dark new phase. Nearly half the nation rejects vaccines, goes maskless and sees virus restrictions as an assault on liberty. As cases rise again, scientists and doctors are grappling with the exasperating realization that the country has the means to tame this virus, but large parts of the population reject them."How much more energy and effort can the nation exert to save even more lives when Americans, given the options and tools to save themselves, aren’t doing it?” said James Hodge, director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at...

White House Chief Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has rejected the idea that face masks are a "personal choice" in the face of the increasingly severe delta variant of the coronavirus. The United States on Thursday recorded almost 80,000 new COVID-19 cases – well below the January peak of nearly 300,000 new daily cases, but a stark rise from a month ago when daily cases were under 10,000. While the number of those cases driven by the more transmissible delta variant is not clear, the CDC advised in early July that the variant was likely the dominant strain in the...

Britain has seen its Delta surge wane rather quickly. And unlike the U.S., it is not flopping around in the half-dark about what’s going on. Thanks to biweekly blood-sample surveys, the U.K. government knows how many people have antibodies from vaccination and/or infection. Thanks to surveys and modeling it also has a good idea how many are currently infected, invariably a multiple of those who get a positive test. This is infinitely more useful and relevant than any information U.S. authorities produce, a point starting to break through thanks to former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s appearances on CNBC. Of particular...

Renmin University professor Jin Canrong has Washington’s attention. The senior director for China at the US National Security Council, Rush Doshi, cited him two dozen times in a new book entitled “The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order.” Professor Jin’s warning on Friday at the “Observer” (guancha.cn) website that US inflation might lead to the bankruptcy of the US government will be read carefully in Washington – especially because Jin claims that China can help America out of its economic problems. “The United States is in a state of mental transition,” the Chinese academic averred, citing the...

Matt Damon says he just recently stopped using the homophobic f-word slur -- this after his own daughter had to put him in check ... with a detailed thesis of sorts on why it's bad. The actor did a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times that was published Sunday, and among the many topics discussed on how the Hollywood landscape is changing (for the worse, Matt seems to think) ... this one was brought up in the same breath. He says he put the f-word away for good in recent months, explaining he didn't think of it much as a...

TRANSCRIPT For me, it’s all and only about freedom. For me without freedom, there is no point in anything. So take away all the numbers, all the statistics, all the models and predictions, all the promises and threats; all the steel hand in velvet glove coercion. Take all of that away. To me it all boils down into something simple. I declare that I am a free man. I was born 54 years ago into part of the world, just a relatively small part of the world, but I was taught that my freedom had been won for me by...

Friends it's Sunday night again and time to relax. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio Americana. Listen LiveInfo *tonight's show will be available at the "Info" link starting tomorrow.