Free Republic

President Biden has said he backs creating a carveout in the Senate filibuster to pass sweeping election reform legislation over united Republican opposition. ​​ “The only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster. I support making an exception on voting rights for the filibuster,” Biden ​told ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir in an interview.

A Japanese professor has developed a prototype lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavours, another step towards creating a multisensory viewing experience. The device, called Taste the TV (TTTV), uses a carousel of 10 flavour canisters that spray in combination to create the taste of a particular food. The flavour sample then rolls on hygienic film over a flat TV screen for the viewer to try. In the Covid-19 era, this kind of technology can enhance the way people connect and interact with the outside world, said Homei Miyashita, a professor at Meiji University in Tokyo. Miyashita has also...

Deaths per day will peak out about 2047 by early February. Until then its up and up. This is Omicron: more contagious by a lot, less deadly by about 20%. The net result is doubling death per day.

Carlos Maldonado was delivering a specimen his physician wanted him to take to Cleveland Clinic’s Lutheran Hospital location on West 25th Street for testing on Saturday, December 18, 2021. When he arrived at 10:30 a.m. Maldonado learned the laboratory had closed two hours earlier due to a worker shortage. The Lutheran Hospital employee who turned Maldonado away explained that only one person showed up for work though four were scheduled. The single employee who did arrive for work was sent back home. The normal Saturday workload was too much for one worker to handle....

The NFL's new COVID-19 protocols are based on data that shows the disease is not spreading from asymptomatic individuals, according to chief medical officer Allen Sills, a significant departure from the stance of public health authorities for much of the pandemic.

One of the most beautiful tributes I have seen. Four minute video of Wreaths Across America honoring the fallen. https://gettr.com/post/pke5ouc504

Just hours before kickoff against the Carolina Panthers, the Buffalo Bills announced that Jon Feliciano was added to the Reserve/Covid-19 list. Instead of playing in the game, the guard found himself in the emergency room. He saw his notifications going up on Twitter, so he jumped online and told people that he had the vaccine, called them dummies, and stated none of it helped since he ended up in the hospital anyway. Jonathan Feliciano @MongoFeliciano All u dummies that keep @ me about Covid, I’m VAXXED and ended up in er Sunday morning. U can still get Covid while vaxxed...

http://www.khv1611.com

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas board that had unanimously supported a posthumous pardon for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston backpedaled in an announcement Thursday, saying “procedural errors" were found in their recommendation months after leaving the decision to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.In a letter dated Dec. 16 but not released publicly until now, the board told Abbott that it had identified “unexplained departures” from its process of issuing pardons and needed to reconsider more than a third of the 67 clemency recommendations it sent to Abbott this year, including the one for Floyd.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki and her communications team awkwardly played reporters for a day Thursday as part of a holiday greeting from Psaki to the media and her colleagues. “Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!” Psaki tweeted Thursday afternoon. “To the White House press– thank you for challenging us, for questioning and for holding us accountable as we all work to keep the American people informed. And to the press team–you are simply the best. Grateful every day to work with you.”

Ian Matos, a Brazilian diver who competed in the 2016 Olympics, has died at 32 from a lung infection. According to The Sun, Matos had been hospitalized for two months. He initially sought treatment for a throat infection, which ultimately spread to his stomach and lungs. “We are profoundly saddened to have received the news of the premature death of the Olympic diver Ian Matos, aged just 32,” Brazil’s Olympic Committee said in a statement. “Team Brazil acknowledges his contribution to the evolution of the discipline. Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.”

An Evil Edict from Pope FrancisBISHOP ROB MUTSAERTS Auxiliary Bishop of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands Pope Francis promotes synodality: everyone should be able to talk, everyone should be heard. This was hardly the case with his recently published motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, an ukase [imperial edict] that must put an immediate termination on the traditional Latin Mass. In so doing, Francis puts a big bold line through Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict’s motu proprio that gave ample scope to the old Mass.The fact that Francis here uses the word of power without any consultation indicates that he is losing authority. This was...

Kim Potter Convicted for Accidentally Shooting Daunte Wright While Michael Byrd Was Never Even Charged for Intentionally Killing Ashli Babbitt Justice has not been served in the shooting death of Daunte Wright as former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter has been found guilty of 1st Degree Manslaughter. According to RedState: Former Brooklyn Center Police Department officer Kim Potter was found guilty of both first and second-degree manslaughter by a Minnesota jury Thursday in the death of Daunte Wright. Wright was killed on April 11, 2021, during a traffic stop when Potter mistook her Taser for her service weapon. Potter...

Police in California are taking action against thieves as Christmas quickly approaches. They leave packages with tracking devices in front of houses to catch porch pirates. "We're going to a prearranged residence with the homeowner's consent. They are a prior victim of either mail theft or package theft. We place the package at the front door, and we wait for the signal to go off," said Anaheim Police Officer Andrei Bratiloveanu. Officers are delivering boxes with GPS trackers inside an unmarked black van to bait the thieves. The package is placed at a house that's been targeted twice already. The...

Explanation: Are you still looking for that perfect holiday gift for an astronomer? If your night sky is dark and horizon clear enough, the Solar System may have done your shopping for you. Send them outside after sunset to see three planets and a comet. In this snapshot of the December solstice evening sky from the village of Kirazli, Turkey the brightest celestial beacon is Venus, close to the southwestern horizon at the right. Look left and up to find Saturn shining between clouds. Follow that line farther left and up to bright Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant....

US Census Bureau New Release New Vintage 2021 Population Estimates Available for the Nation, States and Puerto Rico DECEMBER 21, 2021 RELEASE NUMBER CB21-208 Estimates Show Slowest Growth on Record for the Nation’s Population DEC. 21, 2021 — According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2021 national and state population estimates and components of change released today, the population of the United States grew in the past year by 392,665, or 0.1%, the lowest rate since the nation’s founding. The slow rate of growth can be attributed to decreased net international migration, decreased fertility, and increased mortality due in part...

Legendary Women’s Volleyball Coach Russ Rose Announces Retirement Winningest coach in NCAA Division I history retires after 43 years as the leader of the Nittany LionsUNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State women's volleyball head coach Russ Rose announced his retirement today after 43 years leading the Nittany Lions. Rose retires from his post as the winningest coach in NCAA Division I women's volleyball history with 1,330 victories in his illustrious career.Rose will remain in an advisory role within the athletics department. Katie Schumacher-Cawley will serve as interim head coach as Penn State opens a national search for its next head...

More than 400,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since President Joe Biden took office. Biden achieved the grim milestone despite repeatedly telling the American people that electing him president was the only way to "shut down the virus." That turned out to be an egregious lie. The Washington Free Beacon projects that Biden's COVID-19 death toll will exceed that of his predecessor (408,450) by the end of the year, and will reach approximately 420,069 by the time he delivers his first State of the Union address.

Scientists have uncovered evidence for a large-scale, prehistoric migration into Britain that may be linked to the spread of Celtic languages. The mass-movement of people originated in continental Europe and occurred between 1,400 BC and 870 BC. The discovery helps to explain the genetic make-up of many present-day people in Britain. Around half the ancestry of later populations in England and Wales comes from these migrants. ...When the newcomers arrived, the existing British population traced most of its ancestry to people who arrived at the end of the Neolithic, around the time Stonehenge was being built. They were part of...

On Tuesday December 22nd the UK Medicine Regulator (MHRA) gave emergency use authorisation for the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 injection to be administered to all children between the ages of 5 and 11.Then within minutes, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised the UK Government to roll the jab out to all children deemed to be in a clinical risk group, or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed.Professor Wei Shen Lim, Chair of the JCVI said:“The majority of children aged 5 to 11 are at very low risk of serious illness due to COVID-19....