Free Republic

Trump honors US military service members in a Veterans Day message promised that America ‘will be back stronger than ever”

When past presidents have seen their approval numbers take a dive, they went on foreign trips. Sometimes this works, but more often it doesn't, because failure at home often follows them abroad. World leaders can sense failure and its twin, weakness. Vice resident Kamala Harris, whose poll numbers and favorability among the public and even her fellow Democrats have sunk faster than a rock thrown in the River Seine, left for Paris this week where she is attending a five-day meeting "to focus on the plight of migrants and refugees." That's a laugh, because she has done such a terrible...

Ken Griffin, the Chicago billionaire who runs hedge fund giant Citadel and owns the enormous market-making firm Citadel Securities, says he’s "all-in" to back a candidate to try and defeat fellow billionaire and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois. "I’m going to make sure that if he runs again, that I am all-in to support the candidate who will beat him," Griffin said Wednesday during comments he made at the DealBook Online Summit hosted by The New York Times. "He doesn’t deserve to be the governor of our state."

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s chancellor on Thursday stepped up threats of lockdown measures for unvaccinated people, as new coronavirus cases in the Alpine country are soaring. Austria has taken a series of measures in recent weeks in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 and encourage more people to get vaccinated. On Monday, new rules took effect barring unvaccinated people who haven’t recovered from an infection from restaurants, hotels, hairdressing salons and large public events. Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said late last month that unvaccinated people in Austria could face new lockdown restrictions if infection numbers continue to rise —...

Hate crimes in Los Angeles increased by 20 percent last year, hitting a 10-year high as racially and sexually motivated crimes jump in cities nationwide. A report from the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations published on Wednesday showed that 635 hate crimes were reported in Los Angeles in 2020, up from 530 in 2019. This marked the largest number of reported hate crimes in the area since 2008. Among racially-motivated hate crimes, Black people, who account for just 9 percent of county residents, were disproportionately targeted, accounting for 42 percent of the incidents reported. Overall, anti-Black hate crimes were...

Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory last week over former Virginia Democratic Gov.Terry McAuliffe has led most observers to predict that Republicans are sure to make big gains in next year's midterms. While I agree that the election gives Republicans cause for enthusiasm, I have learned during more than four decades in politics that overreach and assumptions represent a path to political failure. According to a USA Today/Suffolk poll released this week, President Joe Biden's approval rating is 38%, and Vice President Kamala Harris is at 28%. Of the top three things the respondents wanted Biden to do in the next year,...

KEY POINTS Shares of Rivian, an electric vehicle start-up backed by Amazon and Ford, opened at $106.75 per share on its first trading on Wednesday. At its opening price, Rivian is already worth more than automakers Ford and GM. ======================================================================== Rivian Automotive shares ended the day up 29% in their debut Wednesday, giving the Amazon and Ford-backed electric vehicle start-up a market valuation of $86 billion after one of the biggest IPOs this year. Shares of Rivian originally priced at $78 a piece Tuesday night, but popped more than 50% Wednesday when it opened at $106.75 per share, before paring...

Few of us challenge that narrative, at least publicly, so parents have turned to one another in droves to cry, rage, and brainstorm. But they can’t even meet openly; the woke environment forces them underground. They fear losing their jobs and relationships, even their child, if exposed. Hence the secret meetings, private Facebook pages, made-up names, and extensive vetting. They hide in the dark as if they’re guilty of some awful crime. This is an appalling betrayal of parents. To my colleagues: we’ve lost all credibility because of our surrender to a destructive, unscientific ideology. We’ve harmed thousands of parents...

EcoHealth Alliance documentation of 2018 submission casts doubt on agency's representation to Congress. ===================================================================================== Ataxpayer-funded nonprofit is contradicting the National Institutes of Health on when it notified the agency that China's Wuhan Institute of Virology unintentionally enhanced a bat coronavirus, raising the possibility that top public health officials made false statements to Congress. EcoHealth Alliance spokesperson Robert Kessler shared a screenshot from its account on the NIH eRA Commons website for grantees, showing it submitted its "year four" report April 13, 2018. Kessler also provided Just the News with a video recording of EcoHealth searching its NIH account for the...

MEMORIAL OF SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS, BISHOP LUKE 17:20-25 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus warns that he, the Son of Man, will come on a day we do not expect. What’s so frightening about the coming of the Son of Man? Why isn’t it just good news? Well, if he is the life, that life which is opposed to him has to give way; and if he’s truth, then false claimants to truth must cede to him; and if he’s the way, then the false ways have to be abandoned. So as we await the Lord’s Second Coming, we must...

The risk of myocarditis for children under 16 years is 37 times higher for those infected with COVID-19 than those who haven’t been infected with the virus, according to a new study. Authors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the study provides more evidence that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh a small risk of myocarditis after vaccination. Researchers analyzed data from more than 900 hospitals and found inpatient visits for myocarditis were 42% higher in 2020 compared to 2019, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Among 36 million patients, about 0.01% had...

A year after the election day in 2020, concerns still linger about election integrity in many states. This does not mean the election results are deeply in question, but it does suggest a need for more secure election processes next cycle. According to Just the News, election integrity group VoterGA filed an Open Records Requests regarding the alleged destruction of ballot images from the 2020 election in Georgia. Their findings were stunning. VoterGA said 74 Georgia counties had failed to produce the images, and it said 56 counties confirmed “most or all of the images” had been destroyed. The images...

“If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth” (James 3:14). Humility is the hallmark of a wise person. James says that if a person has a self-centered motive for life, he should stop arrogantly boasting. He should stop claiming to possess true wisdom. Why? Because he is lying “against the truth.” In verse 13 James indicates that if a person claims to have God’s wisdom, he must show it. If I see you are motivated by self-centeredness and pride, you ought to stop your arrogant boasting about...

Let me give you one of the most powerful verses in all of scripture. Proverbs give us these prophetic words of Christ: “Then I was beside him as a master craftsman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:30-31, NKJV). Beloved, we are the sons being mentioned here. From the very foundations of the earth, God foresaw a body of believers joined to his Son. Even then the Father delighted and rejoiced in these sons. Jesus testifies, “I was my Father’s delight,...

Excerpt 1: But one constant focus of this movement has been the need for sweeping criminal justice reform. Americans were introduced to the slogan "Defund the Police,” with some activists making clear they meant that literally, while leading progressives in Congress chanted along. Prison abolition and the evils of "the "carceral state” became mainstream progressive positions. Last May, The New Yorker heralded what it called “The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition,” noting that while some activists merely want incremental reform, for many these events "confirmed that the institution of policing should be abolished completely. Excerpt 2: Yet a...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday said his personal relationship with President Biden hit a breaking point after the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, leading him to a place where he said he “will never forgive” the president. Graham, during an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” said issues that arose from the troop withdrawal were “all so preventable,” before reflecting on his damaged personal relationship with the president. “I've known Joe Biden for a long time, I had a good personal relationship with him. He's a decent man. But what he did in Afghanistan I will never forgive him for,...

Although he was born 200 years ago, in a world that should be foreign to me, Dostoevsky formed my way of seeing the world more than almost any other person has. As a college student, I read Notes From Underground and found it weird and befuddling. Then, I read The Brothers Karamazov, and I was unmade. What I thought I knew about Christianity seemed to be flipped inside out. What I thought I believed about life, death, suffering and love was all held up to a new light and found wanting. Fyodor Dostoevsky was born on Nov. 11, 1821, in...

On November 11, 1918, a full century ago, an armistice took effect ending the fighting of World War I. Later, a peace treaty would be signed officially ending the war, but neither the Armistice nor the Treaty of Versailles could end the suffering generated by World War I nor could they prevent the even bigger World War (II) that would follow. Today we take a look at the costs of The Great War 100 years after the fighting (supposedly) ended.

Editor’s Commentary: When Y2K was supposed to collapse the economy, I didn’t believe it. When the housing crash of 2008 was supposed to collapse the economy, I didn’t believe it. Today, reports of doom and gloom are far more credible. When Michael Snyder says the various forces in motion against us are going to crash the economy, I’m starting to believe it. Yes, things are looking very grim. At best, we are facing an uphill economic fight that will take years if not decades to win. It’s not just inflation that’s threatening to destroy the economy. It’s, well, EVERYTHING. People...

President Trump recently announced plans to launch his own social media platform called “TRUTH Social.” This puts an end to speculation that the former president would launch a social media site or some other digital platform to reach his base. The new platform made a big splash during its announcement, with only invited guests allowed as part of the soft launch. While some are quick to point to the seeming hypocrisy of TRUTH Social’s terms and conditions, the launch of this platform could be a positive development for internet regulations. President Trump’s high profile expulsion from large social media platforms...