Free Republic

From the start, the pandemic has been responsible for spreading not only a virus, but polarization. Beyond the immense toll that COVID-19 has taken and continues to take on health and human life, the unnecessary social division that has accompanied the pandemic is a tragedy unto itself. We are dismayed by the notable degree of skepticism and denialism about COVID-19. As Christians belonging to different theological traditions, we are especially discouraged that many of our fellow believers have adopted these attitudes. Moreover, as followers of Christ working for non-sectarian organizations — a public university and a legal charity, respectively —...

When Republican Winsome Sears took the stage early Wednesday morning to celebrate her victory over Democrat Hala Ayala in the race to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, the crowd was electrified. Sears, surrounded by her family, sparkled as the crowd chanted, “Winsome! Winsome! Winsome!” “I am at a loss for words for the first time in my life,” she told supporters. “I am here because of you. I’m here because you voted for me. I’m here because you put your trust in me. Thank you, thank you.” “I’m telling you that what you are looking at is the American dream....

While all eyes were on Virginia last night, where Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled a massive upset, other elections were going on across the country. Candidates for local offices and state districts along with referendums on things like defunding the police occurred in places like Texas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and there’s a big upset in Texas that suggests doom is coming for Democrats in 2022.That occurred in San Antonio where the race of HD118 took place. Republican John Lujan came out victorious in the majority-Hispanic district that Democrats carried by double-digits the last time around.BREAKING: Lujan (R) flips HD118 in Texas...

Many people outside of Virginia have probably not heard about Winsome Sears before — the new Lt. Governor-elect in Virginia. My colleague Jennifer Oliver O’Connell wrote about her win and that of Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares last night.But after the drubbing she and the other Republicans gave their opponents last night and the speech she delivered in response, it’s probably safe to say that many more have heard of her now. Indeed, folks are already pointing at the way she and Youngkin conducted their campaigns as models to win against divisive Democrats. They showed what a failure the Democratic approach...

WASHINGTON — Centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell found themselves on the same page Wednesday, saying Republican wins in Tuesday’s elections show voters are concerned about inflation — and Democrats need to be wary of President Biden’s massive spending plan. Manchin (D-WV) is a pivotal swing vote in Biden’s push for a $1.75 trillion social and environmental spending package, and he alone could kill the bill in the evenly divided Senate. “When you look at southwestern Virginia and you saw the returns from southwest, that’s my entire state — so these are people I talk...

Hugs with friends. Birthday parties indoors. Pillow fights. School children who got their first COVID-19 shots Wednesday said these are the pleasures they look forward to as the U.S. enters a major new phase in fighting the pandemic. Health officials hailed shots for kids aged 5 to 11 as a major breakthrough after more than 18 months of illness, hospitalizations, deaths and disrupted education. Kid-sized doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine cleared two final hurdles Tuesday — a recommendation from CDC advisers, followed by a green light from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At...

Covid-19 vaccines have not only failed worldwide by every metric, they are in fact increasing both infection and mortality rates. The more we vaccinate, the worse they both become. Rather than being safe and effective, hundreds of millions of case numbers and millions of deaths prove that the Covid-19 vaccines are not just ineffective but also deadly, and we have the data to prove it…MethodData was analysed from the ‘Our World in Data’ site of Johns Hopkins University on 247 million Covid-19 cases from the very start of the pandemic to October 31st 2021, for all 185 nations where they...

On October 31st we exclusively revealed how an investigation of the USA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) found extremely high numbers of adverse reactions and deaths have been reported against specific lot numbers of the Covid-19 vaccines numerous times, meaning deadly batches of the experimental injections have now been identified.That investigation also led to the discovery that 130 different lot numbers of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine distributed to more than 13 states, harmed on average 639 times more people, hospitalised on average 109 times more people, and killed on average 22 times more people than the 4,289 different lt number...

Republicans took a victory lap Wednesday following Republican Glenn Youngkin’s stunning win in the Virginia governor’s race, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) predicting his party could flip more than 60 House seats in next year’s midterm elections. “If you're a Democrat and President Biden won your seat by 16 points, you're in a competitive race next year. You are no longer safe,” McCarthy told reporters while flanked by his leadership team and Virginia Republicans. “It'll be more than 70 [Democratic seats] that will be competitive. There's many that are going to lose their races based upon walking off...

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) was elected to a second term, The Associated Press projected Wednesday. “Tabulation for mayor is complete: Jacob Frey has been elected,” the city’s election agency tweeted. Frey, who first won his office in 2017, beat out a small handful of Democratic challengers with just under 43 percent of the vote, outrunning his nearest competitor by more than 20 points. His victory marks another win for the establishment wing of the Democratic Party over progressives seeking more rapid social change.

A rare #MeToo allegation against a retired top Chinese official has sent shock waves through China, with censors scrambling to delete even vague online references. A screenshot is circulating of what appeared to be a post late Tuesday on Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s verified Weibo microblog, alleging that former vice premier Zhang Gaoli had sexually assaulted her before she agreed to begin a years-long affair with him. A public sexual assault allegation against a senior Chinese official is virtually unheard of in a country where officials guard their personal lives closely. The post was not visible on Peng’s Weibo...

Pat Martino, a jazz guitarist revered for the fluid precision and blistering speed of his playing — both before and after he was forced to relearn the instrument following a mid-career brain aneurysm — died on Monday. He was 77 years old. His death was announced on Facebook by his longtime manager, Joseph Donofrio. Martino, born Patrick Azzara, died after a long illness in the South Philadelphia row home formerly owned by his parents, where he moved in 1980 after undergoing neurosurgery that saved his life — at the near-total cost of his memory. The guitarist had been suffering from...

Winsome Sears, Virginia’s newly elected lieutenant governor and the first black female to win statewide election in the commonwealth, trolled sports commentator Jemele Hill on Twitter after the former ESPN host accused her of being a white supremacist. "It’s not the messaging, folks," Hill tweeted in response to a resounding Republican victory in Virginia on Tuesday that elected Republican Glenn Youngkin as governor and Sears as Lt. Governor. "This country simply loves white supremacy." "We beg to differ," A team account for Sears posted in response along with a photo of Sears holding an AR-15 rifle. "I'm telling you that...

There’s a lot of uncertainty over the final numbers in the super-tight New Jersey governor’s election between Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, because mail-in ballots and provisional ballots won’t be counted for several days. Although most of New Jersey’s 21 counties have already reported most of the votes that were cast in person on Tuesday, some counties did not include early voting results in the first tallies.

While Biden administration dismisses the issue.. While the Biden administration has attempted to dismiss inflation and food supply issues, China is now urging its citizens to prepare for the winter by stockpiling food. “A statement from China’s government urging local authorities to ensure there was adequate food supply during the winter and encouraging people to stock up on some essentials prompted concerned talk online, with people linking it with the widening coronavirus outbreak, a forecast cold snap, or even rising tensions with Taiwan,” reports Bloomberg. “The Ministry of Commerce urged local authorities to stabilize prices and ensure supplies of daily...

Five years after Scott's death, Las Vegas Raiders star Henry Ruggs III is facing multiple felony charges after a car crash that left a woman dead Las Vegas Raiders star Henry Ruggs III narrowly escaped a fatal car crash on Tuesday morning, November 2. The accident resulted in one dead - a woman - and Ruggs and his female passenger injured. Following the fatal crash near Rainbow Boulevard and Spring Valley Parkway, Ruggs is facing DUI and reckless driving counts. Later the night, Las Vegas Raiders announced that they had released Ruggs. When the accident took place, Ruggs was driving...

I went to my usual polling place yesterday and was given a REAL paper Ballot. I went to a table and marked it. Then I fed it into a machine which tallied it and saved the original ballot someplace within.I have long been suspicious of all voting machines. (I know if I had programmed any of them, Democrats would have seldom won anything.) But this new way of voting virtually eliminates the possibility of fraud. It is true that the tally machine could intentionally flip random R votes, or not count them. But if even only five percent of these...

The owners of Atilis Gym, the New Jersey gym that opened in defiance of Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) overreaching coronavirus edicts last year, warned the incumbent that, whether he wins or loses his reelection bid, the businesses is “coming for him” as his lawsuits will “continue to fall apart.” “Dear @GovMurphy. Whether you win or lose today, please know that @TheAtilisGym is coming for you. Your lawsuits will continue to fall apart,” co-owner Ian Smith posted to his Twitter page on Election Day.

The Supreme Court's questioning during oral arguments in a New York gun rights case showed that several justices have strong reservations about the state’s highly restrictive regulations for getting concealed carry permits. The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, is potentially the biggest gun rights case to go before the high court in more than a decade. New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood noted that, under current rules, the state has the discretion to evaluate a person’s reason for applying for a permit, as an applicant has to show "proper cause" for needing one. Underwood...

Anew study conducted in one county in Minnesota has found an increased likelihood that citizens who received the Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine were more likely to develop blood clots. The study by the Mayo Clinic found that recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, officially designated "Janssen," in Olmsted County, Minnesota, were about 3.7 times more likely to develop a certain variety of cerebral blood clots. Case numbers taken from February 28 to May 7, 2021, were compared to pre-pandemic levels of the blood clots from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2015. Census data from 2020 showed that...