Free Republic

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is facing criticism for requesting federal aid for his home state despite his long track record of opposing aid for other regions recovering from disasters. Kentucky was one of several Midwestern states rocked by tornadoes over the weekend. The storms decimated large portions of towns, and as many as 70 people are believed to have been killed in Western Kentucky. Paul shared a photo of a letter he sent to the Biden administration requesting "expeditious approval" of a request for federal aid made by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Requests like these by senators in states affected...

California will impose a statewide mask mandate in all indoor public spaces as COVID-19 case rates soar, state Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Ghaly said on Monday... The mandate, which will take effect on Wednesday and last one month... In addition to requiring masks, the state is tightening its testing requirements for unvaccinated people who want to attend large events such as music festivals and professional ball games where more than 1,000 people are in attendance. The state is also recommending that all travelers to the state be tested for COVID-19 within three to five days of arrival,...

My daughter, who got straight A's at UIUC and grad school at ISU, is struggling to complete her doctor of physical therapy degree because her last clinical keeps getting cancelled over vax mandates. Do any of you FReepers know of a physical therapist organization that would allow a bright student to do a 10-week clinical with them, even if she refuses the jab? She needs a PT clinical with a neuro component.

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court turned down emergency requests by New York healthcare workers for a religious exemption from state requirements to vaccinate against Covid-19. A federal appeals court in New York previously denied the workers’ requests. The court denied the requests in brief written orders. As is typical for such emergency actions, the majority didn’t explain its thinking. Three conservative justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch—said they would have allowed the exemptions. In October, the court denied a similar application from Maine healthcare workers seeking exemption from their state’s vaccination requirements, which lower courts had rejected. The same three conservatives...

By Andrew Chung (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected challenges brought by a group of Christian doctors and nurses and an organization that promotes vaccine skepticism to New York's refusal to allow religious exemptions to the state's mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. Acting in two cases, the justices denied emergency requests for an injunction requiring the state to permit religious exemptions while litigation over the mandate's legality continues in lower courts. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted the injunction. The Supreme Court previously rejected other challenges...

On a religious link; however, puts everything going on in our country into perspective including interesting history lessons! A good watch!!!!!

In wake of the news that a CNN producer was arrested for raping children as young as nine years old, I have to ask: Why does CNN even exist in 2021?They’ve been below the 1 million viewer threshold for some time. Fox News had 71 of the top 100 most viewed cable shows. CNN had zero.Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. show led Fox’s lineup with a dominant 3,667,000 total average viewers and 651,000 average viewers in the key 25-54 demographic. Fox News noted in the release that Tucker’s Kyle Rittenhouse interview drew big ratings, helping to propel the program to the...

The Canadian federal government has already banned unvaccinated people from domestic or international air or train travel, a rule that went into effect Nov. 30. Facebook banned news and videos of protests of the development, saying it was misinformation. Those videos showed up on Tik Tok, however. Politifact, owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute, disputes the assertion that people are being prevented from buying groceries in New Brunswick. But Must Read Alaska’s Fact Check Desk found the New Brunswick government document that allows stores to discriminate against those who haven’t taken the shot. To date, one of the two major...

In October, Thea-Mai Baumann, an Australian artist and technologist, found herself sitting on prime internet real estate. In 2012, she had started an Instagram account with the handle @metaverse, a name she used in her creative work. On the account, she documented her life in Brisbane, where she studied fine art, and her travels to Shanghai, where she built an augmented reality company called Metaverse Makeovers. She had fewer than 1,000 followers when Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, announced on Oct. 28 that it was changing its name. Henceforth, Facebook would be known as Meta, a reflection of its...

Have Coke, Sprite or Minute Maid in your refrigerator? You may want to check the labels after a pair of recalls from Coca-Cola. The products were the subject of a voluntary recall because they could contain foreign objects such as metal bolts or washers, according to Food Safety News. The Minute Maid drinks were available in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Maine and New Jersey, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The Minute Maid recall involves the following flavors: Berry Punch – Date codes: Jan0422 NP and Jan0522 NP, Batch 0010323455 and 0010259344 (recall F-0276-2022) Strawberry...

The Leftist political and media elites are desperately afraid of Donald Trump, even more than they were when they relentlessly defamed him and tried to run him out of office with a hoax collusion conspiracy and a tempest in a teapot over a routine phone call. A Trump return to the White House on January 20, 2025, would represent a massive repudiation of those who have arrogated to themselves the authority to tell us what to think, and those self-appointed intellectual and moral superiors are doing everything they can think of to try to preserve their crumbling hegemony. The New...

In Israel, the Health Ministry (IHM) has warned that citizens must prepare for an endless lineup of Covid-19 vaccines and booster shots.The country is already on the verge of approving its fourth mandatory booster jab, however, IHM vaccination advisory committee member and deputy chief of Israel’s largest hospital Professor Arnon Afek is saying that a fifth, sixth, and seventh shot – followed by an endless number of injections after that – is set to be next on the agenda.Afek announced: “Those who think we won’t need to take more boosters are wrong. We will need to take the 4th shot,...

Seaman Apprentice Ryan Sawyer Mays is charged with setting the July 2020, fire, which burned for several days while the ship was docked at Naval Base San Diego.

Norway will ban the serving of alcohol in bars and restaurants, impose stricter rules in schools and speed up vaccination as part of new efforts to curb the outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the government said on Monday.

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, plans to change his not guilty plea on federal charges that he violated Floyd's civil rights, according to a court notice. A court filing in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota indicated Chauvin will appear at 9 a.m. Wednesday to enter a new plea. The notice did not say how he intends to change his plea. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, did not immediately return a request for comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. Chauvin and three other former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng...

Hosted by UK Column, on Friday Doctors for Covid Ethics (“D4CE”) held their second symposium, “Sounding the Call.” The symposium comprised 15 experts in science, medicine, finance, media, and the law who spoke as they should – freely and honestly.In July D4CE and UK Column held the first symposium which was a huge success. Over Symposium I’s two days experts discussed: The False Pandemic; The Going Direct Reset; First Do No Harm; and, The Hour of Justice. You can watch all four sessions of Symposium I HERE.Opening D4CE’s Symposium II was Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi, Professor Emeritus of Medical Microbiology and...

The White House repeated on Monday that President Joe Biden plans to run for reelection in 2024 as failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton continues rebuilding her political profile. “The president has every intention of running for reelection,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during the daily briefing on Monday. On Sunday, Clinton warned that former President Donald Trump would run for president again in 2024 and that there would be dire consequences for the United States if he won. “I think that could be the end of our democracy,” she said in an interview with NBC’s Willie Geist. “Not...

It's that time of the year, so I'm re-releasing my cover of "Carol of the Bells." Enjoy!

The Iranian Navy's bad luck is continuing when it comes to warship accidents.An Iranian naval vessel known as the Talayieh, which was still under construction, capsized in dry dock.This happened at the Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran.Videos posted on social media seem to show the naval vessel on its side and people could be seen hanging onto railings along the side of the ship tipped upwards.According to some reports, at least one person was killed in the incident.Iran's Talayieh warship has capsized in dry dock | December 7, 2021 | Defense Updates

The Pennsylvania Turnpike will install overhead tolling gantries on nine bridges that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is considering for tolls. The work will be part of the turnpike’s $125 million project to install open-road tolling to replace the former toll booths along its 450-mile system. The possibility of PennDOT adding tolls to bridges — including the Interstate 79 bridge near Bridgeville — to raise money for their replacement is still under consideration, but the agency is finalizing an agreement with the turnpike to collect tolls. The turnpike is an obvious choice to operate the collection system — something PennDOT...