Free Republic

Conservative talk show host Alex Jones slammed former President Trump after the 45th president encouraged people at an Alabama rally to get vaccinated against COVID-19. A clip from the Aug. 22 taping of InfoWars appears to show Jones accusing the former president of heralding the vaccine for political gain and bowing to media pressure. “Shame on you, Trump. Seriously. Hey, if you don’t have the good sense to save yourself and your political career, that’s OK,” the InfoWars host said. “At least you’re going to get some good Republicans elected, and we like you,” Jones added. “But, my God, maybe...

Former Vice President Mike Pence slammed the Biden administration and its efforts to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan on Tuesday, calling it a “foreign policy humiliation.” In an interview on “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” Pence recalled Biden’s decision to fully withdraw by Sept. 11, saying that decision set the “disaster in motion.” “I was in Washington, DC, on September 11, and the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, it’s a foreign policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis,” he said. “What you’re seeing in the Biden administration I think is just an effort to...

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the ancient people of Teotihuacan wrapped bunches of flowers into beautiful bouquets, laid them beneath a jumble of wood and set the pile ablaze. Now, archaeologists have found the remains of those surprisingly well-preserved flowers in a tunnel snaking beneath a pyramid of the ancient city, located northeast of what is now Mexico City. The pyramid itself is immense, and would have stood 75 feet (23 meters) tall when it was first built, making it taller than the Sphinx of Giza from ancient Egypt. The Teotihuacan pyramid is part of the "Temple of the Feathered Serpent,"...

As the situation in Kabul deteriorates, the Biden administration seems increasingly untethered to reality, boasting about an evacuation gone haywire and lying about stranded Americans.Americans are stranded in Afghanistan. That’s a fact. You don’t have to have special military clearance to know it, or access to classified information, or be in contact with Americans in Kabul or elsewhere in Afghanistan. All you have to do is follow the news.For days now, reports coming out of Afghanistan have chronicled the dire situation of Americans unable to get to the airport in Kabul, unable to get past Taliban checkpoints outside the airport,...

There are several segments to Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al," the lead single from his lauded 1986 album, Graceland, and every one of them is a marvel. But the song's intricate bass break stands out as perhaps its most fascinating moment. For some time it was unknown just how exactly bass player Bakithi Kumalo, a Johannesburg native who had met Simon in South Africa in 1985 as he began the Graceland sessions, managed such an elaborate, top-speed riff — one that turned out to be almost physically unrepeatable. "It was May 10 [1986], my birthday," Kumalo recently recalled,...

Last Friday, Commonwealth Attorney Jim Hingeley voluntarily dismissed the removal case brought by Fairfax parents against Fairfax County School Board Member Elaine Tholen. Hingeley, one of five Soros-backed Commonwealth Attorney’s in Virginia was hand-selected to “represent” these parents by Fairfax Commonwealth Attorney Steven Descano, who is also a member of the Soros-backed prosecutor club and recused from the case before selecting Hingeley to parachute in from neighboring Albemarle County. Make no mistake, this is a travesty of justice. In Virginia, when removal cases are filed against abusive public officials, the case is litigated not by the petitioners’ attorney, but by...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Tuesday that President Biden did a ‘terrible job’ with the Afghanistan withdrawal, but asserted that the problem wasn't leaving, but rather staying too long. RAND PAUL: I think Biden did a terrible job in the withdrawal. So, no I don’t think it was executed very well at all. But, we did need to leave and there has been a consensus for a decade or more to leave. So, the problem isn’t in leaving—the problem is that we stayed too long. The longer we stayed the more the expectations were, but the more complacent the Afghans...

KABUL—Americans stuck in Afghanistan with no way to get to the airport or sneak past the Taliban are relieved after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that they're not actually stranded. "It's irresponsible to say these Americans are stranded," said Jen Psaki as she forcefully swatted down a reporter who dared to use the word. "The word 'stranded' is divisive and a little bit dramatic, to be honest. You're only saying they're 'stranded' because you are a pouncing Republican, and because Americans are trapped behind enemy lines with the Taliban and they have little hope of making it to...

At the end of May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a notable, yet mostly ignored, large-scale study of COVID transmission in American schools. A few major news outlets covered its release by briefly reiterating the study’s summary: that masking then-unvaccinated teachers and improving ventilation with more fresh air were associated with a lower incidence of the virus in schools. Those are common-sense measures, and the fact that they seem to work is reassuring but not surprising. Other findings of equal importance in the study, however, were absent from the summary and not widely reported. These findings cast...

The Florida firm hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to review the 2020 election results in Maricopa County was supposed to submit its final report on Monday, but Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) said she now only expects "a portion of the draft report," due to unforeseen circumstances. "The team expected to have the full draft ready for the Senate today, but unfortunately Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and two other members of the five-person audit team have tested positive for COVID-19 and are quite sick," she said in a statement. Fann suggested on Twitter that some of the Cyber...

Israel passes 1 million total COVID cases, approaches one-day record During the peak of the third wave in mid-January, more than 10,000 cases were reported in one day, but that figure has not been replicated since. On August 16, 8,772 new COVID cases were reported, which was the highest one-day figure in the fourth wave so far. As of Tuesday morning, there were 72,572 active COVID cases in Israel, with 1,124 people hospitalized, 678 in serious condition and 123 of them on ventilators. Of the 141,472 COVID tests carried out on Monday, 9,831 came back positive. The ministry said that...

Six people on Britain’s ‘no fly’ list picked up in security checks in Kabul and Frankfurt.. Six people deemed a “direct threat” to the UK have been flagged up in security checks of would-be evacuees from Kabul, amid broader warnings that the Islamic State terror group is targeting British soldiers and officials at the airport. The individuals were on Britain’s “no fly” list – although MPs were told in a briefing on Monday that one had made it to Birmingham airport, where many evacuees are landing. It is unclear what happened to the person next. ... Kevin Foster, a junior...

As a Green Beret operating from fire bases with over 50 direct action missions in Afghanistan, as well as a CIA liaison officer, I defeated many high value targets. Then as a contractor I supplied nearly 1,000 linguists to our troops on the ground and executed intelligence contracts for the DOD over a 12-year period. So, to see the Chinese begin discussions with the Taliban to provide their support necessary to keep the United States out and assert control over the region feels like a kick to the face. This will leave the United States at an increased risk of...

Vaccine passport requirements have come to Gotham. Restaurants have started asking patrons to see their vaccination cards along with IDs to dine inside. Starting Sept. 13, restaurants, museums and certain other indoor venues not doing that will be fined. SNIP We’ve known for some time that restaurants are not major COVID-19 spreaders. You’re not catching COVID standing near someone for a few minutes at the Guggenheim. The main source of COVID transmission is close, prolonged contact. In other words, if you’re going to contract it, it will most likely be from your dining or museum companion, not a stranger nearby....

The small town community of Hamilton in West MI had special meeting of the school board to have a work session. Over the prior weekend, the local county health official mandated masks for children K-6 nullifying a board-approved mask optional directive from 3 days prior. Over 50 irate parents showed up at the meeting to voice their concern and disapproval of the new county edict. Upon entering the room, the board president Mr. Randle informed parents that there would be no public comment. When a point of order was made that there must be public comment, Mr. Randle stated that...

Charlie Watts, best known as the prolific drummer for the rock band the Rolling Stones for more than half a century, has died. He was 80. A representative for Watts told Fox News Tuesday that the musician "passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family." No cause of death was given yet.

Even prior to the stunning display of American failure in Afghanistan, President Biden appeared slow-witted and spineless on crucial U.S. national security matters.For example, Biden handed Russia’s Vladimir Putin gift after gift: extending the START Treaty, lifting Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions despite bipartisan legislation and essentially surrendering Ukraine to Russia. During the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva, Biden was tougher with an American journalist than with Putin. After Biden’s advisers and the first lady told the press how extensively he prepared for the meeting, he cut it short.Biden also responded to the several major cyberattacks traced to Russia—including the meat...

Try as we might, the United States has unfortunately been unable to kick its opioid habit. Recently released data shows that drug overdose deaths, fueled primarily by a rise in illicit synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, surged 30% in 2020 to over 90,000. This marks a tragic new high-water mark in annual deaths related to the opioid crisis. It has become clear that we are clearly losing the war against illicit fentanyl and action must be taken to reverse these concerning trends. Law enforcement officials across the country, from beat cops to Attorneys General, are engaging in an all-hands on...

I believe that Marxist post-modern deconstructionists are the greatest internal threat known to Western Civilization. They are the enemy within, and they are winning, and it scares the hell out of me.

The first groups of Afghan evacuees arrived at Dulles International Airport Saturday, one week after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. At a Defense Department briefing at the Pentagon Saturday, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters that three flights carrying Afghan evacuees had landed at Dulles, near Washington, D.C., and those evacuees will be transitioned to Fort Bliss in Texas "for further processing." On Thursday, "the U.S. military airlifted nearly 6,000 evacuees in a single day," Taylor said. "In the last 24 hours, six U.S. military C-17s and 32 charters departed Kabul. Through this combined effort, the total passenger count...