Free Republic

Peter Schiff's appearance on the Tucker Carlson show (Dec 10th, 2021). Segment...

Ridiculous, seemingly arbitrary price markups are a defining characteristic of the $4-trillion U.S. healthcare system — and a key reason Americans pay more for treatment than anyone else in the world. But to see price hikes of as much as 675% being imposed in real time, automatically, by a hospital's computer system still takes your breath away....

My daughter has a nice little house in a safe neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. Until recently she never really had to worry about crime or her personal safety. But now suburban places like hers in Northern California and Southern California are being hit by a crime wave that has never hit them before. As you’ve seen on national TV, “smash-and-grab” gangs are hitting shopping malls like the one near her – the same one I often take my granddaughters to. And now there are even young thugs who’ll follow you home from the mall and break into your...

Longtime NBC News broadcaster Brian Williams issued a strange warning Thursday as he retired from his 11 p.m. MSNBC show. "The reality is though, I will wake up tomorrow in the America of the year 2021, a nation unrecognizable to those who came before us and fought to protect it, which is what you must do now," Williams said. "They’ve decided to burn it all down with us inside. That should scare you to no end as much as it scares an aging volunteer fireman." Transcript and video at link.

“The overpopulation of deer in New Jersey is a well-known hazard that contributes to crop damage and car accidents, particularly during mating season,” reports the New York Times. “In 2019, between October and December, there were 4,753 collisions between cars and animals, primarily deer, in New Jersey, according to an analysis by AAA Northeast, the most recent data of such collisions available….In New York, where deer have also proliferated, the number of animal crashes in 2020 — 33,956 — included six fatalities.” For some reason we never seem to have these “deer overpopulation” problems in Red States. Dixie states in...

Opening his Summit for Democracy this week, Joe Biden urged his guests to “stand up for the values that unite us”, including a free press. The US president boasted of his new initiative for democratic renewal, including measures to support an unfettered and independent media: “It’s the bedrock of democracy. It’s how the public stay informed and how governments are held accountable. And around the world, press freedom is under threat.” Yet the US government itself is endangering the ability of the media to bring to light uncomfortable truths and expose official crimes and cover-ups. On Friday, the high court...

If we thought 2019 was weird and 2020 worse, 2021 was off the charts. What will 2022 bring? January 1: Americans gladly say goodbye to 2021 yet welcome the New Year with skepticism and trepidation. January 17: Democratic governors in five states sign legislation in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day making it a crime for a person not to immediately acknowledge the color of any other person with whom he interacts. Punishment for people "of color" (POC) will be waived. Whites, however, will be sentenced to up to $10,000 in fines and/or one year of imprisonment. January 25:...

A musical giant, a most controversial major figure, a leading musical theater composer in modern American music, and the man who is said to have reinvented the American musical died on November 26, 2021, aged 91. With his fifteen musicals for the stage, Stephen Sondheim was a sophisticated figure and product of Broadway, though not the most commercially successful one. On his death, lights on Broadway were dimmed for one minute in his honor. Sondheim, born of Jewish parents, who manufactured dresses, in New York City, was an aficionado of puzzles. His original ambition was to become a mathematician. He...

The U.S. House has taken a stand for human rights by passing a bill directing the White House to implement more severe sanctions against the government of Mainland China, which has for seventy years called itself the "People's Republic of China," a gallows-humor name for a government that exists almost entirely to impose suffering upon its own people. In passing this latest bill, the U.S. House joins the U.S. Senate (which passed a similar bill earlier this year), and also joins the governments of Great Britain, Japan, Australia, the E.U., and many other nations in recent years who have called...

...Biden on Friday announced that Cathy Russell, the head of the powerful White House personnel office, would leave to assume the role of executive director of UNICEF.... ...A longtime adviser to the Bidens, Russell served in the White House and State Department during the Obama administration. She was U.S. ambassador for global women’s issues under former President Obama, a role that Biden highlighted in Friday’s announcement....

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials on Wednesday authorized a new COVID-19 antibody drug for people with serious health problems or allergies who can’t get adequate protection from vaccination. Antibody drugs have been a standard treatment for treating COVID-19 infections for over a year. But the AstraZeneca antibody drug cleared by the Food and Drug Administration is different. It’s the first intended for long-term prevention against COVID-19 infection, rather than a short-term treatment. People who could benefit from the antibody drug include cancer patients, organ transplant recipients and people taking immune-suppressing drugs....the required two antibody injections may be effective at...

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - The Bowling Green area is seeing significant damage after a potential tornado moved through the area early morning. According to Western Kentucky University, emergency crews are assessing significant storm damage and the university is in contact with all residential staff. There have not been any injuries reported on campus at this time. Bowling Green Police say all agencies in the city and county are responding to damage at this time. Police say several warehouses at the Industrial Park are “completely collapsed.” Power is out at the park which makes it difficult to see anything at...

OKLAHOMA CITY - A Trump supporter from Muskogee was sentenced Friday to 20 days behind bars for breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

An FBI office in New York reportedly is warning local television stations to be on alert if they receive letters from someone claiming to be the "Chinese Zodiac Killer". The notice, issued Wednesday night, comes after several media outlets in the Albany area received letters from the mystery individual, according to the Times Union. It's not immediately clear if there is any connection between this person and the California-linked Zodiac Killer, but the FBI in its statement asked the television stations to be on the lookout for more letters ....

President Joe Biden joked about his declining poll numbers and claimed inflation would go down during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday night. Biden, appearing via satellite from the White House, became only the second sitting president to appear on a late-night show after his former boss, Barack Obama, visited Jay Leno a few months into his first term. White House senior officials have recently been critical of the mainstream media's coverage of Biden and his administration. Fallon offered little pushback to Biden's answers and allowed the president to give long answers promoting his agenda.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested Friday that it is OK for kids to eat their lunches outside in cold temperatures in an effort to maintain safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Asked whether the White House wanted school children to "get back to a more normal school experience," Psaki insisted schools are having children practice social distancing measures, mask up, and eat their snacks and lunch in frigid outdoor temperatures in an effort to "keep their kids safe and keep students safe."... Psaki said she believes the "vast majority of parents appreciate" such measures...

LACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A father and son charged with starting a massive California wildfire that destroyed many homes and forced tens of thousands of people to flee Lake Tahoe communities earlier this year pleaded not guilty in court Friday. The El Dorado County prosecutor's office charged David Scott Smith, 66, and Travis Shane Smith, 32, with reckless arson. The office also charged the son with illegal conversion or manufacture of a machine gun and both men of illegal possession of a firearm silencer. ...The criminal complaints do not specify how the machine gun and silencer tie into the Caldor...

December 11th, 2021 Memorial of St. Damasus, Pope St. Stephen's chapel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada St. Stephen's hosts the St. Francis de Sales deaf ministry and has done so for the past 103 years Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet First readingEcclesiasticus 48:1-4,9-12 ©The prophet Elijah will come againThe prophet Elijah arose like a fire, his word flaring like a torch.It was he who brought famine on the people, and who decimated them in his zeal.By the word of the Lord, he shut up the heavens, he also, three times, brought down fire.How glorious you were in your miracles, Elijah! Has anyone...

(Reuters) -Multiple people were trapped after a roof partially collapsed at an Amazon.com Inc facility near St. Louis on Friday night, after tornadoes and strong storms blew through the area, media reported. The warehouse in Edwardsville in southern Illinois was damaged after a severe weather event occurred around 8:33 p.m. (0233 GMT on Saturday), the authorities said, adding that local police and fire departments have a search and rescue operations in place...

NEWSRAEL: Former Finance Minister, Khalil is considered the right-hand man of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri who heads the Shiite Amal Movement. Berri has already trashed this decision. Judge Tarek Bitar was forced to stop the investigation for two months as he himself was sued, but lately, the suits were proven to be a smoke screen and dismissed. The order to arrest the minister was given in the first meeting of the investigation. It proves that Judge Bitar is willing to go "all the way" and is not afraid of his distractors. If we look at the history of modern Lebanon,...