Free Republic

Nine months ago, when followers of President Trump stormed the Capitol to halt the election of President Biden, the insurrection appeared to be the work of an extremist fringe led by right-wing militias and pro-Trump zealots. But election denialism, the movement that spawned the uprising, has turned out to be much larger, more durable and every bit as worrisome as the violence of Jan. 6. Stoked relentlessly by Trump, the belief that Biden stole the election has become a tenet of faith for most Republican voters. In fact, Biden won the election decisively — whether measured by the popular vote...

It seems every other day I read a news article or police report of a child predator that comes from the ranks of so-called "pillars of the community." There are people, men, and women, preying on children in our communities. That statement reaks of alarmism, but is a reality. A reality that we have to confront head-on. The more I delve into this subject, the more I realize these predators come from every walk of life. Child sexual predators and traffickers are not exactly the same, but they have similarities; they prey on children, and they come from every walk...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) says that public health data from England shows: In the UK over the past 7.5 months: There were 750,000 new Covid cases 80% of them (about 600,000) were Delta variant There 2,542 deaths among the cases Most of the victims, 1,613, were fully vaccinated 28% were unvaccinated Senator Ron Johnson @SenRonJohnson @POTUS says this is a pandemic of the unvaxxed. Data from England show 63% of Delta deaths in last 7.5 months were fully vaxxed. Why won’t @CDCgov share US data with the American people? What is the justification of mandates and refusal to recognize natural...

Parents and pediatricians, worried for the health of children due to the COVID-19 Delta variant and the return to school this fall, finally have reason for hope and reassurance on the horizon. It has been reported that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine could be available to children ages 5 to 11 years as soon as the end of October. This would be an especially sweet treat just in time for Halloween for this vulnerable population. [cut] As a parent of a fully vaccinated 14-year-old and an as of now "too young to be vaccinated" 10-year-old, my home sometimes feel like a...

Most people think of COVID-19 as a respiratory virus, although some scientists argue that it is a disease of the cardiovascular system. I maintain that it’s primarily a neurological disorder. In short, Covid has broken our brains. Or perhaps I should say, irrational fear of the virus has broken our brains. The main super-spreaders are the corporate media, aka Fake News. Honestly, I never understood why so many people were panicking over something that, for most, is basically like a bad flu (and for many, not even that). Then I got stuck in an airport and had to listen to...

Former President Donald Trump hasn't been in office since January, and he doesn't live in Virginia. Nonetheless, Trump has become the biggest issue in the Virginia governor's race; it's a sign that Democrats know they could lose not only their hold on Richmond but also Congress during next year's midterm elections. Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, who served as governor from 2014 to 2018, wants the race to be about Trump. (Virginia does not allow governors to serve two consecutive terms.) He frequently calls Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin, a first-time candidate who worked his way to the top at the private...

This year, spot ocean container rates have reached record highs and could be at a crucial inflection point this week. News of 40-foot container rates on the world’s most important shipping lane, that is, China and the U.S., plunged amid a power crunch shutting down factories across multiple Chinese provinces leading speculators to sell their shipping spots, according to Chinese media outlet Caixin Global. Caixin spoke with an executive at a Shanghai freight company Thursday who said 40-foot container rates from China to the U.S. West Coast sank this week, plummeting from $15,000 to just $8,000. For the same container,...

At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days (Fig. 1). In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people.

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 10:2-16 Friends, in our Gospel, Jesus defines the fundamental sacredness of marriage. I’m convinced that the deep sacramental and religious meaning of marriage—even within the Church—has been, in recent years, dramatically compromised. We say that marriage is a vocation, but do we mean it? We can look at human sexual relationships at a number of different levels. Two people can come together purely for physical pleasure, for economic reasons, or for psychological companionship. And we might witness two people coming together out of authentic love. But none of these levels is what the Bible...

Pride flags, created to promote unity, are now being called political and divisive in some schools across America. In just one recent example, an Oregon school board on Tuesday banned educators from displaying the flags. “We don’t pay our teachers to push their political views on our students. That’s not their place,” a school board member in Newberg and the policy’s author, Brian Shannon, said at a recorded board meeting. Several other instances have occurred of school officials and students around the country targeting LGBTQ symbols. A Missouri teacher resigned last month after he was told to remove a rainbow...

In the history of the world, German electricity prices have never been higher… … and if what just happened at the Steag Bergkamen-A electric plant is any indication, they are about to get a whole lot higher. According to Bloomberg, the global energy crisis has forced a German electricity producer to halt a power plant after it ran out of coal. Steag GmbH – which operates six large-scale hard coal plants in Germany with an installed capacity of more than 4,000 MW – closed its Bergkamen-A plant in the western part of the country this week due to shortages of...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released recommendations Saturday for the upcoming holiday season, including the idea of using a window fan to keep air at an indoor party as fresh as possible. The CDC appears to be suggesting that circulating air indoors can ward off the airborne coronavirus, or at least reduce its chances of spreading during home gatherings. "If celebrating indoors, bring in fresh air by opening windows and doors, if possible," its holiday celebrations guidance states. "You can use a window fan in one of the open windows to blow air out of the window....

Thanks for joining our study and a warm welcome to new readers. Today we explore one of the Bible’s most meaningful and poetic passages. In my humble opinion, the “Armor of God” ranks high among the world’s most revered poetry that can be appreciated even if one does not believe St. Paul’s message. And what is Paul’s message? A playbook about how to personally triumph in earthly and spiritual battles against evil by fortifying oneself with God’s power, strength, truth, and the Word of God. First, read this beloved passage found in the New Testament book of Ephesians: “Finally, be...

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There has never been a better time to make a case for the conservative cause. resident Joe Biden has done his best to show over and over again the flaws of progressive priorities. It is one thing to campaign as a "moderate" and another to put actual policies into action and live with the results. Can conservatives be thankful for Biden, Schumer and Pelosi? In a strange way, yes. They have shown for all to see America's future under liberal leadership-open borders, higher taxes on citizens and businesses, economic controls, mask and vaccine mandates, federalized elections, an accelerated pathway to...

"It's a kind of hopelessness I guess. Helplessness," says Ross Simpson, 22, from Glasgow. He's telling me how he and his friends feel about stopping the worst effects of climate change. The warnings keep coming of more heatwaves, droughts, floods, and global temperatures going up and up and up. Seeing so many negative stories in the news only makes Ross feel worse. Like many, he worries it's already too late. "What difference does changing your lifestyle actually make in the grand scheme of things? Why do anything, if we're all doomed anyway?" Noor Elmasry, 22, has been having similar conversations...

On Friday’s “Fox News Primetime,” Fox Nation host Lara Logan stated that the generals responsible for the Afghanistan debacle aren’t taking responsibility, but are holding Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller responsible by “jailing him for speaking the truth.” Logan said, “So, what they’re really doing is jailing him for speaking the truth. And I listened to the parents, and I want them to know and I want everyone in America to know that I stand 100% with their son. Because he did something that everyone in America has been waiting for for years, Brian.” She added, “And what we’re seeing now...

JTA — Impossible Foods, the plant-based meat company, is releasing a long-awaited new product — but unlike the wildly popular Impossible Burger, it won’t be certified kosher. The largest and most influential certifier of kosher products in the world has declined to endorse Impossible Pork, even though nothing about its ingredients or preparation conflicts with Jewish dietary laws. “The Impossible Pork, we didn’t give an ‘OU’ to it, not because it wasn’t kosher per se,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher division. “It may indeed be completely in terms of its ingredients: If it’s completely...

Rich countries' plans to curb carbon are "smoke and mirrors" and must be urgently improved, say poorer nations. Ministers meeting here in Milan at the final UN session before the Glasgow COP26 climate conference heard that some progress was being made. But officials from developing countries demanded tougher targets for cutting carbon emissions and more cash to combat climate change. One minister condemned "selfishness or lack of good faith" in the rich world. US special envoy John Kerry said all major economies "must stretch" to do the maximum they can. "We're already on hellish ground at 1.1C," said Simon Steill,...

New York City restaurateurs are speaking out against the city's proof of vaccine requirements for in-person dining, which has disadvantaged local businesses. ... "Our business is definitely down 50. I'm going to say 60 percent. There are just no people coming into the restaurant. They have a fear of being asked for vaccines,"