Free Republic

There’s a lot happening in the world right now, so let’s get the most pressing stuff out of the way and sorted: was the late Gong Show creator/host Chuck Barris really an assassin for the CIA? Barris claimed in his 1982 memoir Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind to have been secretly working for the intelligence organization during the sixties and seventies—around the same time he was developing kitschy and iconic television shows like The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show. Is it possible that the unassuming and at-times silly Barris could be telling the truth here—or was...

A student at Oberlin College in Ohio described being "scared" and "angry" after the school announced a work crew would be installing radiators in a "safe space" dormitory for women and trans students, explaining the crew would likely be "cisgender men." "I was angry, scared, and confused. Why didn’t the College complete the installation over the summer, when the building was empty? Why couldn’t they tell us precisely when the workers would be there? Why were they only notifying us the day before the installation was due to begin?" Oberlin student Peter Fray-Witzer wrote in an op-ed published in the...

Protesters demonstrated Saturday against vaccine mandates in front of the New York Times building in New York City, chanting, “Defund the media!”

As everyone knows, the news media knows what's best for us and they always tell the truth. The only problem is that they use really big and complicated words that we simple folk just don't understand. How will you ever keep up? Well, don't worry! We prepared this special translation guide just for you, so the next time you're watching the news you'll be able to follow along! 1) "Debunked conspiracy theory" = a completely factual event that is 100% true and we don't like it 2) "This is dangerous misinformation" = we don't really agree with it but people...

A subvariant of the Covid Delta strain could be more infectious than its ancestor, experts warned today after data revealed the proportion of cases linked to the strain has doubled in a month. AY.4.2, as it is currently known to scientists, made up almost 10 per cent of all infections in England in the fortnight ending October 9. Virus-trackers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, which sequences thousands of Covid samples every week, say its prevalence stood at just four per cent in mid-September. Academics estimate it may be up to 15 per cent more transmissible than the original Delta, which...

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain voiced his "impatience with complaints about rising prices for food, gasoline, and other stuff. The fact is the American people spend too much on a lot of junk. This behavior is only possible because they have more money than they really need to survive. Billions of people around the world live on just a few dollars a day." "How can they do this?" Klain rhetorically asked. "Well, they don't own expensive gadgets like most people in America do. They don't own motor vehicles. They do most of their traveling on foot to destinations...

Started watching the Google Pixel 6 launch event. All of the speakers had their pronouns in a blurb next to their names. Then, they talked about how their cameras have been optimized to shoot underserved people of color. I had no idea that cameras were racist until today. Needless to say, I won't be buying their stupid phone.

Oleg Deripaska could be a target of Durham’s spygate probe SOURCE — NBC NEWS FBI agents on Tuesday swarmed the home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Washington, D.C., an agency spokesperson confirmed to NBC News. The reason for their presence wasn’t immediately clear. The spokesperson said the agency is conducting “law enforcement activity at the home,” but wouldn’t elaborate. Deripaska is a billionaire oil tycoon with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and officials who were sanctioned by the Treasury Department in April 2018. A press release announcing the sanctions said...

Coal-fired electricity generation climbed this year in the U.S. for the first time since the Obama administration, spurred by spiking natural gas prices, a setback for the Biden climate agenda and a sign that the president’s drilling crackdown may be backfiring. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Monday that electricity generated by coal-fired plants is expected to jump by 22% in 2021 over last year’s levels for the first year-over-year increase since 2014. The reason: the rising cost of natural gas, which began climbing in April and hit a 13-year high this month, fueled by pent-up pandemic demand that has...

Procter & Gamble Co. said it will raise prices on a number of household staple goods as the cost for raw materials and freight has increased faster than it had anticipated. The company, which makes a range of products including Tide and Charmin, said it would begin to charge more for oral care, beauty, and razors. Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble said it would charge more for toilet paper and diapers. The new price hikes are not being implemented on all its products, but they will be marked for specific items such as razors and in some sub-categories, CFO...

On the face of it, America has little to fear from China's new deal to upgrade Cuba's power grid. The countries are already firm allies via their Communist leaders, Havana is under a diplomatic and economic embargo from Washington, and all efforts to mend ties between the two ended when Obama left office. But scratch the surface and what emerges is a picture of Chinese economic dominance in America's backyard that would be enough give any president sleepless nights. In fact, the deal with Cuba - signed this week as part of China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative - is...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared himself the Moses of Climate Change, and said that global warming is worse than Covid and therefore “we have to listen to the scientists.” Speaking at the Global Investment Summit at the Science Museum in London on Tuesday, the prime minister claimed that free-market capitalism, which produced the world’s coronavirus vaccines, needed to be mobilised again to “face a challenge that is even bigger for humanity” and “a threat to our way of life that is ultimately far worse than COVID”: alleged manmade climate change.

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who is running for governor again, released an ad this week clarifying that he has “always valued the concerns of parents” after he was hit with a tsunami of backlash for a comment he made about parents’ role in education in the last gubernatorial debate. The new ad features photos of McAuliffe and his family as McAuliffe emphasizes the importance of parents in schools, a message that comes after McAuliffe said during the debate September 28, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

A New York Foodie does the Texas State Fair and loves it.

Facebook has changed its rules to make journalists a protected class shielded from "bullying" and "harassment" (aka criticism), according to a report from Reuters. From Reuters, "EXCLUSIVE Facebook to change rules on attacking public figures on its platform": Facebook Inc will now count activists and journalists as "involuntary" public figures and so increase protections against harassment and bullying targeted at these groups, its global safety chief said in an interview this week. The social media company, which allows more critical commentary of public figures than of private individuals, is changing its approach on the harassment of journalists and "human rights...

Hoyer: Democrats 'committed' to Oct. 31 timeline for Biden's agenda © Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite The second-ranking House Democrat said Tuesday that party leaders remain intent on passing both pieces of President Biden's two-prong domestic agenda before the end of the month. That timeline is an ambitious one, as Biden and other Democratic leaders have struggled to unite the feuding factions of their party behind a massive package of family benefits and climate provisions. Only when that legislation is finalized do House leaders intend to move on a separate $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which has already passed through the Senate.

LANSING, Mich. (WJRT) - A house cat from Ingham County is the first pet in Michigan with a confirmed case of COVID-19. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development says numerous pets have tested positive for the illness around the country, but the domestic shorthair cat is the first confirmed in the state. The cat’s owners tested positive for COVID-19 a week before the cat got ill. The cat developed sneezing, but animal officials say it since has recovered. “Given the other reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 being found in pets throughout the world, this detection is not unexpected,” said...

We all know the border is a mess. Our own Julio Rosas has been to the southern border multiple times to document the chaos. The Biden administration swore the adults were back, and that competency would return. Neither has happened. The adults are idiots, and this has to be one of the most incompetent administrations since Jimmy Carter. Everyone told Biden that rescinding Trump immigration policies too quickly would cause a crisis. He refused to listen because Biden has an ego the size of Delaware. Where he got that is a mystery since the man has accomplished little and is...

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell died on Monday of Covid-19 complications. His family announced that he was fully vaccinated. He was 84 years old, and had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. Health officials worry that anti-vaccine activists will seize upon Powell's death to make the claim that vaccines don't work. If you can still die after being vaccinated for Covid-19, what's the point of getting the vaccine? CNN: When we see vaccinated people dying from Covid-19, how do you explain that vaccines are still worth taking? Dr. Leana Wen: We need to start with the science and what...

OLYMPIA, Wash. – More than 125 state troopers have been cut following Governor Jay Inslee’s mask mandate. Washington State Patrol announced Tuesday morning it “separated” 127 people from employment who were not vaccinated by the Oct. 18 deadline. This included 53 civil servants and 74 officers. The officers include 67 troopers, six sergeants and one captain. WSP said it has more than 2,200 people in eight districts and the firings are spread across the state. “As for the more than 2,000 individuals who elected to stay with our agency, I am forever thankful. We have the responsibilities of the agency...