Free Republic

chronicling the personal and political journey of President Barack Obama as the country grapples with its racial history. Weaving together conversations with colleagues, friends, and critics, and interspersed with his own speeches and news interviews, the series begins with Obama's childhood and takes us through his perspective as the son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father, his spiritual formation informed by a generation of Black leaders, and his hopes for a more inclusive America.

“Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her" (Proverbs 4:8).

(Natural News) According to reports, out of any country in the world, Israel is seeing the most compliance with the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine push. As a result, Israel is also seeing a “spike” in new cases of the “delta variant” among the fully vaccinated. The situation is so bad there, according to government and media talking-heads, that officials are, like dogs to their own vomit, reinstating mask mandates and other authoritarian provisions that they claim will help to “save lives.” As many as 90 percent of all new infections with the Chinese Flu are occurring in people who got...

With climate change threatening the sea ice habitat of Emperor penguins, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday announced a proposal to list the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. “The lifecycle of Emperor penguins is tied to having stable sea ice, which they need to breed, to feed and to molt,” said Stephanie Jenouvrier, a penguin ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Research published Tuesday in the journal Global Change Biology found that by 2100, 98% of Emperor penguin colonies may be pushed to the brink of extinction, if no changes are made to current...

With COVID-19 infections continuing to spread thanks to the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, Los Angeles County Tuesday reported another slight uptick in cases at skilled nursing facilities, despite high rates of vaccinations among residents and staff. For the week that ended July 18, the county documented 33 new cases at nursing facilities — six among residents and 27 staff members. That's up from a previous weekly average of 22 total new cases. Skilled nursing facility staff and residents were among the first to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations. County officials said 86% of residents and 85% of...

An unvaccinated Virginia man who’s been hospitalized with Covid-19 is using social media to urge others to go out and get the shot. Travis Campbell, 43, has been in the hospital for more than a week with complications from the virus, which also infected his wife and two of their children. ... “I’m testifying to all my bulletproof friends that's holding out, it's time to protect your family, it's not worth getting long term lung damage or death please go get the vaccine,” Travis Campbell wrote in a July 25 Facebook post.

President Joe Biden has now revealed there is at least one area in which he is a fiscal conservative: When it comes to providing the infrastructure needed to secure the border, he wants to spend far less than the government currently spends.His administration has presented Congress with a Department of Homeland Security budget proposal that calls for slashing spending on what it calls "Border Security Assets and Infrastructure" by 96%.In fiscal 2021, Congress approved $1,513,000,000 in funding for border security assets and infrastructure. Biden is now asking that Congress approve just $54,315,000 for fiscal 2022. That is a reduction of...

So, will Chris Cuomo, CNN’s most favored blowhard, report tonight on the bombshell findings into his brother’s long-term sexual predation? My educated guess: No. Why would he? Cuomo the Younger is but one example of privileged, liberal men, high on their own self-regard, who have really outdone themselves this week. Look at our disgraced governor Andrew. The deluge of credible accusations leveled against him months ago — truly despicable stuff — wasn’t enough to shame him from office. (Nor were the nursing home deaths he covered up, that’s another scandal.) No, this self-styled feminist doubled down, seeming to out one...

In 2000, Google began using “don’t be evil” as its unofficial motto. That pledge, shared internally among employees, rightly acknowledged that any company trusted with vast amounts of personal information ought to maintain the trust and confidence of the people the company claims to serve. Google believed that the public could count on it to do the right thing. Two decades later, while Google has gained power beyond anything the company’s founders could have imagined, it has long since departed from its original commitment to ethical behavior. Indeed, Google attempts to de-platform conservative voices, it has helped China oppress vulnerable...

If the bipartisan “infrastructure” bill passes, Senate Republicans who vote for it will have some explaining to do on two provisions buried in the text. One will make it too expensive to drive, and the other will eliminate local control of zoning. Both are extensions of Obama-era policy intended to destroy the suburbs by depriving them of funding to repair roads if they don’t let the federal government mandate zoning and make commuting from them outrageously expensive. The first unacceptable provision the Republican negotiators agreed to can be found beginning on page 510 of the text. It directs the secretary...

Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are still confident that their vaccines can protect against COVID-19 variants despite a recent report warning about hundreds of breakthrough infections in a Massachusetts town. The new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focused on an outbreak in the Cape Cod town of Provincetown, a heavy tourist hotspot in Barnstable County, after the July 4 weekend. Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson told Fox News that they remain certain that their vaccines prevent severe illness and death despite the alarming report amid the spread of the Delta variant. Moderna, the third major COVID-19...

SINGAPORE — Fully vaccinated COVID-19 patients infected with the Delta variant experienced "significantly lower odds" of moderate or severe outcomes, according to a local study. "Vaccination was associated with lower peak measures of systemic inflammation, fewer symptoms, including more asymptomatic infection, and better clinical outcomes," the study, posted last Saturday (31 July) on medical database medRxiv ahead of peer review, added. Conducted by researchers across various medical institutions in Singapore, the study analysed 218 patients aged 18 and above who were infected with the Delta variant, which first originated in India, and were admitted across five hospitals or centres. Of...

Trailblazing Asian American stage and television actor and singer Alvin Ing is the latest rare case of a 'breakthrough' Covid-19 death, meaning someone who had been previously vaccinated against the disease yet still fell victim to it. As reported by Deadline, Ing passed away Saturday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, of complications arising from Covid-19.

Daily recorded infections have more than halved since mid-July. Few researchers anticipated such a sharp decline, and they are now struggling to interpret it. Scientists are scratching their heads over the precipitous decline in daily COVID-19 infections in the United Kingdom following their rapid rise earlier in the year. Officially recorded new cases more than halved in just two weeks: from a high of 54,674 on 17 July to 22,287 on 2 August. “Nobody really knows what’s going on,” says epidemiologist John Edmunds at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). In particular, it’s not clear whether this...

On Monday, there were more Covid-19 hospitalizations in Florida than at any time in the pandemic. The chief executive of the Florida Hospital Association, Mary Mayhew, told MSNBC that about 95% of those hospitalized were unvaccinated. “Our beds are full of patients with Covid-19 who are predominately unvaccinated,” said the hospital’s chief operating officer, Stephanie Manson, in a statement. “In the past two weeks, we have seen a rapid influx of younger patients under the age of 50 come into our hospitals with the Delta variant.” 99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had a breakthrough case that...

Vindman: 'Direct logic link' to Trump being acquitted during first impeachment and the coronavirus pandemic Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who made waves as a witness during the Trump impeachment proceedings, claimed on MSNBC the former president is responsible for over 600,000 COVID deaths in America that would have been prevented if he was removed from office. "If the president was held accountable and removed, we would have 600,000 more Americans walking the streets today. If they censured him, the president would have been on his heels, and he probably would have been more cautious going into COVID. We wouldn’t...

Let loyal Catholics pray in Latin: On the latest edict from RomeIn a stunning rebuke of his predecessors, Pope Francis recently enacted numerous new restrictions on priests offering the traditional Latin Mass — the centuries-old form of the Roman Catholic liturgy that was effectively replaced following the 1960s Second Vatican Council and subsequently revived as an option by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Almost no Vatican watchers thought Francis, a long-time critic of those who attend the Latin Mass, would issue such a strong papal document while Benedict remains alive. After all, the 94-year-old Pope emeritus, who in...

Curtis Sliwa has been a fixture in New York City for more than four decades, best known for starting the Guardian Angels, the volunteer anti-crime group, but he’s also worked as a trash-picker, newspaper boy, TV and radio host, and cat dad to more than a dozen rescued felines. As someone who claims to know the city streets and subways better than anyone else, there’s a certain logic to his latest move: running for mayor.The Republican nominee will face off against Democrat Eric Adams in November, a race that pits two New York City natives in their sixties against each...

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo pleaded the fifth on his show Tuesday night regarding the controversy of his "Luv Guv" brother, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was accused by the state's attorney general earlier in the day of sexually harassing 11 women. Cuomo, who had awkwardly addressed the family drama on his primetime show in the past, did not address the explosive report released by NY Attorney General Letitia James that outlined the damning findings from its probe into the harassment allegations against his brother, telling viewers "we're focused on COVID here."