Free Republic

A hearing for the Senate Banking Committee went off the rails when Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) sparred with Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) over the insinuation that Saule Omarova is a communist... ...As the hearing got underway, Republicans accused Omarova of backing “radical” and “socialist” economic ideas, while Brown derided this line of thinking as “Trumpism meets McCarthyism.” When Kennedy got his turn to ask questions, he immediately focused on Omarova’s involvement in a communist youth group... ..From there, Kennedy ran through a number of written works and economic opinions Omarova expressed over the years. ... [video at link]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Democratic New York Rep. Yvette Clarke were reportedly seen Tuesday night at a Washington D.C. bar violating the district’s mask mandate, a video obtained by the Daily Caller shows. In the video, both Pelosi and Clarke can be seen speaking to a small group inside the “crazy golf club” at Swingers in Dupont Circle. Others in the crowd can be seen not wearing a mask either. Pelosi appears to have her arm around Clarke, who is smiling without a mask. Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday that the indoor mask mandate will...

"The urgent wave that we're in right now will not be stopped by vaccinations," since it takes weeks for people to build up full protection, Meyer-Hermann said. "We need to keep other measures front and center and put them immediately into place."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) several-hours-long landmark speech bashing President Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda on Thursday night appears to have pushed the Democrats into delaying the vote until Friday morning. According to several congressional reporters, the Democrats called it quits for the night as McCarthy continued hammering the bill as a socialist wish list that will cripple the American people with unfair taxes and generations of debt. “Leader McCarthy is welcome to continue his raving as late into the night as he wants. The House will return and vote first thing Friday morning,” one senior Democrat aide told...

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) tried several times on Thursday night to reach a deal to set up votes on a package of 18 amendments on a defense bill. But one after one, seven GOP senators stood up to block the deal unless their colleagues agreed to add their amendment into the package. Those GOP amendments included proposals related to the border wall, the Nord Stream pipeline and the repeal of vaccine requirements for Defense Department contractors.... ...senators, as they were leaving the Senate floor after the stalemate, said that they didn't expect the Senate to hold...

My latest song. No angry spiders are involved.

U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth this week warned members of the National Guard that they may be barred from "continued service" if they refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “I have determined that all soldiers who refuse the mandatory vaccination order will be flagged,” Wormuth wrote in a memo, according to The New York Times. This action would prevent soldiers from receiving promotions, awards and bonuses. If members persist in declining vaccination without an approved exemption, she added, they will not be allowed to "continue service."...

The move would restrict development on roughly 9.3 million acres in North America’s largest temperate rainforest, according to those briefed on the plan, reversing Trump Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will propose reinstating a Bill Clinton-era rule to ban logging and road building in more than half of North America’s largest temperate rainforest, the department confirmed. The restrictions had managed to stay in place for years because of a series of court battles, but the Trump administration wiped them out last fall. “Restoring the Tongass’ roadless protections supports the advancement of economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability in Southeast Alaska in a...

Australia on Friday called for governments around the world to agree on "rules of the road" to fight the spread of misinformation and state-backed disinformation online. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said blocs like the Quad group - the United States, India, Japan and Australia - and global bodies like the United Nations were already working to strike a balance between harmful content and free expression online. But time was running out to agree on rules of what was permissable. "We should be starting yesterday," Payne told a panel at the Sydney Dialogue virtual event alongside Facebook Inc's global affairs boss.

A former U.S. soldier in Pakistan said the U.S. Embassy repeatedly hung up on him as he pleaded for help and wouldn’t let him enter the building to speak with a government official. The former staff sergeant, an Afghan native, said he traveled from the U.S. to Pakistan to try to help his family escape the Taliban and flee Afghanistan.... ...The veteran said the Taliban, ISIS-K and al Qaeda were all at the Pakistan border, making it harder and more dangerous for anyone trying to escape Afghanistan. ... ..."If there's anyone out there that can help me, help my family,...

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New Delhi -- India is set to finalise a long-conceived proposal to procure 30 multi-mission armed Predator drones from the US for the three services at an estimated cost of over USD 3 billion (around Rs 22,000 crore), official sources said on Tuesday. The proposal to acquire the MQ-9B long-endurance drones, armed with air-to-ground missiles, is likely to be cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in the next few weeks following which it will be placed before the PM-led Cabinet Committee on Security, they said. The sources said various key aspects of the procurement including the cost component and...

News AnalysisThe China-watching community has been going through a bit of a freak-out over the U.S. Defense Department’s (DoD) latest report on the Chinese military. In particular, the report—an annual, congressionally mandated publication—states that China now possesses the “largest” navy in the world.In a nutshell, the DoD report asserts that “The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has numerically the largest navy in the world with an overall battle force of approximately 355 ships and submarines, including approximately more than 145 major surface combatants.”Moreover, the PLAN is expected to grow to 420 by 2025, and 460 ships by 2030. In comparison,...

While Nancy Pelosi hopes to pass the so-called “Build Back Better” bill tonight in the House, some bad news came down the line from the CBO.Previous commitments were made by some “moderate” Democrats to vote for the bill only if the budget score came back deficit-neutral. But the preliminary numbers are out, and it looks like the CBO has completely debunked the White House’s “it costs zero dollars” talking point.At first, Democrats were cheering on social media after seeing the following post from the CBO.CBO estimates that the funding for tax enforcement activities provided by H.R. 5376, the Build Back...

PENG SHUAI and CCP OFFICIAL ZHANG GAO LI When one thinks of no-nonsense, hard-nosed sports, tennis isn’t going to be the first that comes to mind. Nevertheless, it is tennis, specifically the WTA, presently making a stand against China, the likes of which neither the NBA nor the IOC would ever consider.The focal point for this standoff is Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. Shuai, who has won two Grand Slam doubles titles, has not been seen since making a sexual assault allegation on November second against former senior Chinese Communist Party official Zhang Gaoli. As reported by The Age:In her...

“He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good” (Proverbs 19:8).

TikTok user TheColt3.0 recently posted a TikTok explaining he was in prison for 19 ½ years for killing his sister’s alleged rapist. Colter Thomas was 12 years old when his 14 year old sister came home with blood on her jeans and said that their family friend Carl had raped her. Thomas then called four of his friends and grabbed a crowbar and a baseball bat and went to Carl’s house. Carl died from the injuries three days later in the hospital. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison for killing the alleged rapist. Thomas was later charged with...

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Several teen girls who were caught on video attacking a group of Asian students on a SEPTA train in Philadelphia have now been charged with ethnic intimidation and other offenses. On Thursday, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office approved aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, criminal conspiracy, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and disorderly conduct against the four suspects, who are all under the age of 17. One of the suspects was also charged with an additional count of robbery for trying to steal air pods from one of the victims, the District Attorney's Office said.

A Loudoun County school board member may face removal from her position after a parent group filed a petition for her removal with thousands of signatures. Fight for Schools filed a petition with the Loudoun County Circuit Court on Thursday for the removal of Atoosa Reaser , the vice chairwoman for the Loudoun County school board , Fox News reported . While an earlier petition received 1,795 signatures, the current petition has received approximately 1,859 signatures from residents in the Algonkian District.