Free Republic

Is REGEN-COV the answer to COVID? Nearly a year and a half has passed and over 618,000 COVID-19 related deaths were recorded in the U.S. alone and finally the FDA released an emergency use authorization for REGEN-COV; a new drug that was undergoing testing in 2020 (pre-Biden). It is now an early treatment option for primary care physicians. Until this point, the only authorized COVID-19 treatment my family doctor had per the July 2021 update to NIH guidelines was recommend quarantine, wait until symptoms go away or report to a hospital if they get worse. It is noteworthy that these...

Like most Americans, the debacle surrounding the fall of Afghanistan’s capital city to the Taliban caused me great concern. In fact, we are witnessing failures of leadership decision-making and foreign intelligence analysis worse than any in modern history; certainly, worse than the failures that lead to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. To a degree, this conclusion is based on my personal experiences of having lived in that part of the world in my youth (I graduated from high school in Tehran, for example), having worked at the CIA for eight years in the 1970s, and having served in the Congress...

As the Taliban began seizing provinces across Afghanistan in recent weeks, the CIA’s intelligence assessments began to warn in increasingly stark terms about the potential for a rapid, total collapse of the Afghan military and government, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News. In the end, the CIA’s description of what a worst-case scenario could look like “was pretty close to what happened,” one former official briefed on the matter said. The White House won’t confirm whether President Joe Biden ever received such a dire forecast from his national security team. The president himself appeared to dispute a month...

Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley's behavior led to the collapse of the Afghanistan military and government. We saw Joe Biden's horrible press conference. Sixty-nine percent of American disapprove of how he handled the recent debacle in Afghanistan. Who else was involved in this disaster? The first domino to fall in Afghanistan was caused by secretary of defense Lloyd Austin and chairman of Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley. According to the AP on July 6, 2021: The U.S. left Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying...

A New Republic article trashing Milton Friedman is actually an important read for it gives us insight into how leftists approach “serious” economic analysis The cover of the July-August edition of The New Republic features an interesting image of a well-known man whom one might not recognize unless one reads the blurb: “The Second Death of Milton Friedman.” On the opposite side of the cover, we read: “The economist died in 2006. And now, his pernicious and reactionary ideas are finally dead, too.” So much death! And that alarming word “reactionary“ would suggest that Dr. Friedman wanted to take America...

It's doesn’t take an immense amount of imagination to recall the images of those who were desperate to escape from the US embassy in Saigon.Blame the Generals and the PentagonSo now we reach the stage of figuring out who is to blame for this total strategic failure in Afghanistan.Some politicians will try and use the US regime’s failure in Afghanistan to score points against the Biden administration. We already see it with some Republicans who still haven't figured out that the American public long ago stopped caring about the war.It’s easy to see the partisan reasons for this, but if...

Aug 18 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian countries need more help securing COVID-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. The region escaped the worst when the pandemic erupted last year, but in recent weeks has seen the highest deaths globally, as soaring infections push fragile healthcare systems to the brink and expose sluggish vaccination rollouts. "This COVID-19 surge driven by the Delta variant is claiming a tragic toll on families across Southeast Asia and it's far from over," Alexander Matheou,...

Like many Americans, I do not like wearing a face mask that hurts my ears, steams up my glasses and makes my bearded face itch. And while I think businesses should be free to require face coverings as a safeguard against COVID-19, I am skeptical of government-imposed mask mandates, especially in K-12 schools. At the same time, I recognize that my personal peeves and policy preferences are logically distinct from the empirical question of how effective masks are at preventing virus transmission. From the beginning, however, the great American mask debate has been strongly influenced by partisan and ideological commitments,...

The Senate infrastructure bill approved last week includes an unprecedented boost in funds for a Transportation Department program to reduce harmful emissions from buses. But the provision adding billions to the Low or No Emission Vehicle Program has an unusual requirement: At least $1.4 billion must be spent on buses that pollute. In a legislative turn of phrase with far-reaching implications, the bill says that for at least a quarter of spending in the $5.6 billion program, the secretary of transportation shall “only consider eligible projects related to the acquisition of low or no emission buses or bus facilities other...

In the first two weeks of August, America's withdrawal from Afghanistan became a humiliating rout. Make no mistake, the U.S. has suffered a major diplomatic and psychological defeat that will have resonance throughout the world. Understand that I think that since 9/11, America's essential mission in Afghanistan has been what I call Guard Duty Writ Large. I first used that description in 2012. To protect U.S. national security at home and abroad, America had to attack and damage militant Islamic terrorist organizations. That meant denying them bases in anarchic regions, like Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. Denying doesn't mean we have...

Americans will be stuck paying higher gas prices for the foreseeable future, thanks to President Joe Biden’s destructive energy policies and OPEC’s dismissal of his request to increase global oil production to counteract soaring prices in the United States. Four sources told Reuters on Monday that there’s no need for OPEC to boost oil output over the next few months simply because American consumers are hurting. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries comprises 15 member countries, including two nations that are hostile to the United States, Iran and Venezuela. So it’s no surprise that U.S. foes aren’t eager to accommodate...

A former British soldier turned MP who served in Afghanistan says the Taliban cannot be trusted and warns "of the biggest hostage crisis the West has seen in decades", amid growing calls for humanitarian support. In an interview with 9News, Tom Tugendhat, chair of the UK Parliament's powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, criticised the handling of the withdrawal, lashing his own government for the "worst foreign policy mistake for the United Kingdom since Suez", and saying "for the United States this is potentially worse than Saigon." Mr Tugendhat questioned remarks by US President Joe Biden defending the chaotic withdrawal, and the...

It’s a foreign-policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis. The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country [of Afghanistan] is highly unlikely,” President Biden confidently proclaimed in July. “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy.” One month later, the scenario Mr. Biden deemed impossible has become a horrifying reality. In recent days, the world has watched panicked civilians cling to U.S. military aircraft in a desperate attempt to escape the chaos unleashed by Mr. Biden’s reckless...

A Dutch evacuation effort from Afghanistan on Tuesday night was unsuccessful due to chaos outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport as the route to the country’s main exit point turned increasingly treacherous three days after a Taliban takeover, with foreign and Afghan nationals still desperately trying to leave the country. A military plane operated by the Dutch together with other northern European countries left Kabul Tuesday night without any people destined for the Netherlands on board, said Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag. "It's awful. Many were there at the gates of the airport with their families," Kaag told Dutch news...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, 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.

The Taliban is "cooperating" with British forces as they work to evacuate people from Afghanistan and is not behaving in a "medieval way", the chief of the UK defence staff has said. General Sir Nick Carter told Sky News: "We are cooperating with the Taliban on the ground and that seems to be a very straightforward relationship. "They are keeping the streets of Kabul very safe and indeed very calm. They are helping us at the airport." He said the militants are "keeping the streets calm, they are avoiding public disorder" - and added: "What we're not getting are reports...

For months, President Joe Biden has opened the borders to Hispanic illegals, but he has turned a deaf ear to our Afghan allies desperate to get to America. Some 20,000 pro-American Afghanis and their families are in danger of being killed by the Taliban because Biden refused to speed up the bureaucratic, 14-step visa application process and medical exam required for them to evacuate to the U.S. It's death by red tape. Meanwhile, Biden is allowing more than 200,000 mostly Hispanic migrants to walk across the southern border into the U.S. every month. Nothing is demanded of them. No documents,...

Four summers ago, the network evening news shows obsessed over Donald Trump Jr. attending a brief and ineffective meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in 2016. He hoped to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, but nothing came of it. ABC, CBS and NBC offered viewers more than 62 minutes of coverage energetically speculating over collusion with the Russians in just four nights in July. On Aug. 11, the Daily Mail reported, "Hunter Biden claimed Russians stole another one of his laptops for blackmail while he was close to overdosing in a Las Vegas hotel room." Coverage on ABC, CBS and...

In 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, tried to arrange the group’s surrender to the new U.S.-backed Afghan government. It was rejected. He spent most of the past decade under arrest in Pakistan. He tried again to negotiate a settlement midway into the conflict, engaging in secret contacts with Mr. Karzai’s government before he was captured by U.S. and Pakistani agents in early 2010. For years after his arrest, Mr. Karzai—who belongs to the same influential branch of the Pashtun Durrani tribe as Mullah Baradar—pressed Pakistan to free the Taliban leader in the hopes that his...

A small Texas school district has made facial coverings part of its dress code, in a bid to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order banning mask mandates. The board of the Paris Independent School District, which has about 4,000 students, said in a statement Tuesday that the governor's order does not usurp its ability to manage schools. "The Board believes the dress code can be used to mitigate communicable health issues, and therefore has amended the PISD dress code to protect our students and employees," the district said. The measure - which read "For health reasons, masks are required...