Free Republic

Facebook whistleblower says Facebook destabilizes democracy

Over the last two years, progressive critics have casually attacked the origins, nature and values of American society. Is the idea of America so indestructible that it can weather any assault? The foundational dates of America — the signing in 1776 of the Declaration of Independence and in 1787 of the Constitution — have been attacked. Citizens are now asked to believe that they have no inspirational or historical value. Statues of the American luminaries have been defaced or toppled. Names on schools and monuments are obliterated. The Soviet-like erasures do not just involve Confederate generals. Often the Founders, such...

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has reportedly told employees who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus that they could face termination. In an internal email obtained by Politico, the DNC’s Chief Operations Officer Monica Guardiola said that unvaccinated workers could face “termination” if they have not obtained legal exemption for the jab. The policy goes into effect when in-person work begins at DNC headquarters, the outlet reported.

A King County woman has died from a blood clot after she got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Washington State Department of Health (WSDH) confirmed she is the first blood clot death in the state after getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “Sadly, this is the first such death in Washington State,’ Secretary of Health Umair A. Shah said. “We send our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. Losing a loved one at any time is a tragic and difficult and pain that’s become all too familiar in the last year and a half of this pandemic.”...

Federal agents raided the offices Tuesday of a New York City police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Long Island home of its bombastic leader, who has clashed with city officials over his incendiary tweets and hard-line tactics. FBI spokesperson Martin Feely said agents were “carrying out a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation.” Along with the union’s Manhattan headquarters, agents also searched union president Ed Mullins’ home in Port Washington, Long Island, Feely said. Messages seeking comment were left with Mullins and the union. Mullins, who is also a police sergeant, is in the middle...

New York Times economist Paul Krugman is rehashing a batty idea that former Daily Show host and comedian Jon Stewart mocked him for over eight years ago. In a new blog headlined “Wonking Out: Biden Should Ignore the Debt Limit and Mint a $1 Trillion Coin,” Krugman dusted off an old neo-Keynesian idea of his that he peddled in 2013. He suggested Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen “mint a platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion — no, it needn’t include $1 trillion worth of platinum — deposit it at the Federal Reserve and draw on that account to...

Non-White employees for the City of Seattle were invited to an anti-racist training to explore their internalized racism and given tools on how to free themselves from White supremacy influence, new documents show. Employees "who identify as people of color" were sent an invite to a three-hour optional training, "Internalized Racial Inferiority," in August that excluded White people. It was conducted on Sept. 3 by the city's Race and Social Justice Initiative, radio host Jason Rantz on KTTH reported Monday after filing a public disclosure request for the lesson materials. The lesson was described as having employees explore "the process...

Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three people in Wisconsin during unrest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, is due in court Tuesday — where a judge is expected to rule on his request to call a self-defense expert in his upcoming trial. Attorneys for the Illinois man are expected to argue in a Kenosha County courtroom that such use-of-force testimony is pivotal to Rittenhouse’s defense that he needed to protect himself from possible death or serious injury, the Chicago Tribune reported. Rittenhouse shot three people, including two fatally, in Kenosha with an AR-15-style rifle last August amid riots and protests...

It's been coming for some time and now it's here. The United States of America has become Germany 1933. January 6 was the democrats' Reichstag fire and everything is being woven around it. Before long, Hitler claimed more power. The fire in the Reichstag, the parliament building, was a key moment in this development. On 27 February 1933, guards noticed the flames blazing through the roof. They overpowered the suspected arsonist, a Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe. He was executed after a show trial in 1934. Evidence of any accomplices was never found. The Nazi leadership was quick...

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Fiona Hill says Trump was fixated on Putin, not Russia © Greg Nash Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official and White House adviser who served in the Trump administration, said former President Trump’s “fixation” was on Russian President Vladimir Putin and not the country itself. Hill, during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said Trump saw qualities in Putin that he wanted to emulate. “For Trump, his fixation was on Putin. It wasn't on Russia it was on Putin himself, it's what he saw in Putin that he saw many qualities that he wanted to have himself,”...

AstraZeneca, the drugmaker that developed one of the first COVID-19 vaccines, has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize the emergency use of a first-of-a-kind antibody treatment to prevent the disease. The Anglo-Swedish company said Tuesday that the treatment, known as AZD7442, would be the first long-acting antibody combination to receive an emergency authorization for COVID-19 prevention. If authorized, the drug would likely be limited to people with compromised immune systems who don’t get sufficient protection from vaccination. “First and foremost we want to protect those vulnerable populations that haven’t been adequately protected by the vaccine,” said Menelas...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected efforts by four Democratic-leaning U.S. states to overturn former Republican President Donald Trump's decision to limit federal deductions on state and local taxes. In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the federal government had authority to impose a $10,000 cap on the state and local taxes that households' itemizing deductions could write off their federal returns. The decision is a defeat for New York, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey, which challenged the so-called SALT cap implemented as part of a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul in 2017....

Charges Biden made horseback agents 'scapegoat' for failed policies Amid a record surge in illegal immigration that has followed a reversal of Trump administration policies, the chief of the Border Patrol union says he's never seen morale so low among his colleagues. Brandon Judd, who began his career under President Bill Clinton, charged in a radio interview that President Biden used the manufactured controversy over border agents on horseback to "deflect attention from his failures.

Stats and Predictions in Body of Comment. My average over more than 30 years is around 60%. If a favored team loses, just replace with the next highest ranked team to figure out the next predicted winner(s). Remember my average is really good, but just like the stock market, you don’t bet on one stock or one year. It’s an overall average over many years. According to the stats I use (Points For minus Points Against), the “World Series” (best two teams in baseball) would be the NLDS between the Dodgers vs. the Giants.

Last March, Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill. It had cash for taxpayers, for businesses, and — most controversially — $350 billion for state and local governments. Republicans objected because Democrats at the state level were going to spend the money on non-pandemic-related issues. Most notably, some states like Illinois wanted the cash to bail out their state and local employee pension plans that had been robbed for years by Democrats and now threatened to explode in a massive “pension bomb” that would put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars. Republicans wanted more strings attached...

Even as President Biden shrugged his shoulders over progressives’ harassment and intimidation of a sitting United States senator of his own party — a crime under Arizona law — Biden’s Justice Department was running roughshod over the First Amendment, threatening to investigate and prosecute parents for protesting against school boards and teachers who insist on indoctrinating children with the cultural Marxism beloved by Democrats. On Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum in which he wailed about the “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” Clearing his throat with...

Despite efforts to denigrate ivermectin as “horse paste” and prevent doctors from prescribing it and patients from using it, the latest research shows this safe, inexpensive drug is effective at keeping COVID patients out of the hospital. A patient with Type 1 diabetes called to tell me the pharmacist at our local Walgreens refused to fill the prescription I had written for ivermectin, so I called to ask why.The young pharmacist, a few years out of pharmacy school, informed me he did not understand why I was using ivermectin for early treatment of COVID because “SARS-CoV-2 does not have...

A paper published Sept. 30, in Eurosurveillance showed COVID spread rapidly by a fully vaccinated patient to fully vaccinated staff, patients and family members — despite a 96% vaccination rate and use of full personal protective equipment. Five patients died and nine had severe cases.A paper published Sept. 30 in Eurosurveillance raises questions about the legitimacy of “vaccine-generated herd immunity.”The study cites a COVID outbreak which spread rapidly among hospital staff at an Israeli Medical Center — despite a 96% vaccination rate, use of N-95 surgical masks by patients and full personal protective equipment worn by providers.The calculated rate of...

I like to check Iceland's data from time to time. They are honest in their reporting. Blue is vaccinated, Orange is unvaccinated. Iceland notes that most of the orange represents kids who were infected by their vaccinated household members.