Free Republic

COVID-19 long-haulers experience an array of widespread and debilitating symptoms even after the virus clears from their system, and latent viruses may account for many symptoms. Because of the compromised state of long haulers' bodies, previously dormant viruses are reactivating and becoming chronic infections. Recent studies are highlighting the occurrence of these reactivations. Researchers are pushing for more testing and research on potential treatments.

Hello and goodbye from Des Moines, where everything on the New West Side is shiny and bright.Every office park, retail center and neighborhood is alit with a bright swath of LED lights.Which is beautiful but makes me nostalgic for what seemed a much simpler Christmas time of my youth. These watercolors of old Grand Rapids downtown encompass most of my Christmas shopping haunts of old - before the suburban malls displaced downtowns (only to shut down themselves several decades hence) and Macy’s bought the few surviving regional department stores. Bigger but definitely not better by most measures.Herpolshiemer’s, Wurzberg’s and Steketees’s...

There are some green shoots of optimism poking up through the cracked and wasted ground. As many of you are, I am weary and confused about why COVID continues to plague our everyday lives. When will the pandemic of the incompetent end? The virus has been used repeatedly for two years as a political weapon. The "pandemic" will not end until "we the people" demand that the virus and the handling of it be depoliticized. The credibility of the U.S. government, the U.S. scientific community, the CDC, and the FDA are at stake. The Chinese continue to work on bio-weapons,...

Bob Dylan’s song, “The Times They Are a-Changin’” was written when the country was undergoing significant political and social upheaval. Change can be both good and bad, but only the most naïve among us or someone who is intentionally undermining our laws could look at the changes in our criminal justice system over the last 19 months and say it’s been a change for the better. Our criminal justice system has sold out, not for a humble, good man who spent his life helping others but for a criminal who lived a life of crime. Not even Dylan could have...

The power brokers in today’s world aren’t shy about it but that doesn’t mean we must accept it. The rough beast whose hour has come round at last is the replacement of America’s constitutional republic with global governance. A critical mass of the country’s public servants, corporate heads and boards, academics, think tanks, religious leaders, and financial influencers, has intellectually accepted and promoted the loss of America as a sovereign nation. From one of America’s best-known families: Some even believe we [Rockefeller family] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my...

So capitalism is the same as insider tradingg? A few days back, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that lawmakers should not be prevented from trading stocks. “We are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi said. Her remarks are probably owing to the fact that Pelosi’s husband holds stocks and options worth tens of millions of dollars. This includes stocks in big tech firms such as Amazon and Apple that are each worth between $5 million and $25 million. In Comcast, Pelosi’s husband holds stock worth between $1 million and $5 million and in...

More and more businesses in recent days have walked back previous rules mandating COVID-19 vaccine sas a condition for employment in a bid to keep workers. Earlier this week, Amtrak—a quasi-public corporation—became the latest to rescind its vaccine requirement amid concerns about staff shortages and cut service in January. In a memo sent to staff that was obtained by The Epoch Times, Amtrak CEO William Flynn said the company would do away with the mandate that would have given employees until Jan. 4 to get fully vaccinated or go on unpaid leave. About 500 out of more than 17,000 Amtrak...

The news reads like a farce but, apparently, they’re certain it will work—and they’ve got history on their side. It’s just that history really isn’t very good. Environmentalism, as much as anything, represents semi-educated man’s yearning to return to a less complicated past, one in which man was dependent upon nature’s vagaries, rather than master of them. Maybe that explains why European environmentalists have decided that the way to reduce carbon emissions from shipping is to use “giant kites”—or, as humans called them for thousands of years, “sails.” This is not a joke. It’s absolutely real and highlights just how...

So long as crime remained in San Francisco’s low-income, historically black Tenderloin neighborhood, it was acceptable to San Fran’s far-left ruling elites, but when it erupted in the high-end stores the elites frequent, “the reign of criminals” had “to end.” The reaction to the looting of Louis Vuitton on Union Square reveals San Fran’s liberal elites are “Fair Weather Marxists” and hypocrites. As we know from their contributions to liberal candidates’ campaign coffers and support for socialism, San Fran’s elites have an affinity for Marxist revolution, but apparently only for revolutionaries who rob, rape, maim, and kill each other in...

In a recent article in the New York Post, writer Michael Shellenberger found, with rising crime and violence in California, guns might be useful things in some situations. Situations other than hunting or target shooting. Situations involving the defense of self, family, and home. From the article: “I’ve always been anti-gun,” said Debbie Mizrahie of Beverly Hills. “But I am right now in the process of getting myself shooting lessons because I now understand that there may be a need for me to know how to defend myself and my family. We’re living in fear.”During Black Lives Matter protests last...

Imagine knowing that the very act of going to a religious service would likely result in violence and death. In Nigeria, churches have been sent warning letters instructing them to shut down or face "ferocious" attacks. That's some Christmas card! In a perhaps not unrelated event, just before Thanksgiving, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Nigeria as part of his tour of Africa, the country was cruelly and infuriatingly de-listed from the roster of Countries of Particular Concern for Religious Freedom by the U.S. State Department. Christians in Nigeria rightfully feel abandoned by the...

Physicians who still practice medicine cannot afford to write or say the following for fear of being cancelled. As a retired physician, I cannot be coerced to keep silent with threats to my medical license or hospital privileges. COVID-19 is probably the greatest and most successful swindle in history. By comparison, Carlo Ponzi and Bernie Madoff were pikers. The COVID scam has affected most of earth’s 7.8 billion inhabitants, consumed trillions of dollars, and achieved a level of government control unprecedented in modern democracies. The COVID “pandemic of fear” is a con, perpetrated by those in power to extend and...

In 1621, the city of Chocim in today's western Ukraine witnessed a mighty battle between the Polish-Lithuanian Empire and an invading Ottoman army. Chocim is rightly remembered by Poland as a victory, although the conflict ended in a political draw. But this stalemate was fought by only about 50,000 men against three times as many Turks and Mongols. After the death of the Polish commander-in-chief, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, it was Stanisław Lubomirski (1583–1649), not yet forty years old, who turned the tide in favor of Warsaw. Chocim was not the first battle in this war against Muslim aggression. Already in...

I had serious reservations about the Steven Spielberg version of the film classic West Side Story. Rumors of wokeness haunted the new movie from the first casting call through to its dismal opening weekend. I expected to wince throughout, but Spielberg did something brave and unexpected. He gave the Jets a rationale for their existence and their resistance. The 1961 original did not. As a 14-year-old living in a "transitional" neighborhood very much like the one the Jets and Sharks inhabited and not far away, I fully identified with the white gang, the Jets. My friends, even my black friends,...

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For seven years, a war has been going on in eastern Ukraine and now Russia is accused by the West of threatening an invasion. Since war in the east broke out in April 2014, more than 14,000 people have died. There are fundamental differences in the Russian and Ukrainian positions. But the major dispute centres on a political settlement for the Donbas. The two countries have "irreconcilable" views on the future of the war-torn areas in eastern Ukraine, says Duncan Allan, an associate fellow at Chatham House. Ukraine wants to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity while Russia, he believes,...

Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann announced Friday that he settled a $275 million defamation lawsuit against NBC. Neither party publicized the terms of the settlement. However, Sandmann asked for $275 million in damages in his lawsuit against NBC Universal and MSNBC. “At this time I would like to release that NBC and I have reached a settlement,” Sandmann tweeted. “The terms are confidential. ”NBC is the third corporate media organization to settle with Sandmann after he and his classmates were accused of mocking Native American activist Nathan Phillips during last January’s March for Life event. Sandmann was wearing...

With COVID-19 cases once again soaring in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said the state could soon face new restrictions in response to a deadly pandemic that is once more growing. “My fear is we’re going to be getting back to capacity limits at some point,” Murphy said during an unrelated press event at Port Newark on Friday, where he warned “this thing is still with us and sadly, the numbers are still going up.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed spending more than $300 million to help law enforcement and small businesses address a recent rash of high-profile smash and grab thefts. Under the three-year plan, the money would finance a crackdown on organized crime rings, which are believed to be carrying out the crimes.... ...Local law enforcement agencies would receive $255 million over the next three years to place more officers in stores to deter theft and another $30 million would go to district attorneys ...

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan took an ominous tone Friday when speaking about efforts to bring Iran back in line with a 2015 nuclear agreement saying, "It's not going well."... ...Sullivan said there has been "some progress" over the last few days but did not appear hopeful that a concrete resolution would be found following months of indirect talks with Tehran. President Biden made it a top priority for his administration to bring Iran back to the negotiating table .....