Free Republic

A day after President Joe Biden declared to the nation's governors that "there is no federal solution" to stopping the spread of COVID-19, the White House attempted to walk back the president's admission Tuesday, listing resources that will be dispensed at the state level, including medical staff and PPE stockpile. "The Biden-Harris Administration is making sure states have what they need to tackle COVID including: - 1,000 additional doctors and nurses - stockpiling millions of gowns, gloves, masks, and ventilators - adding vaccine and booster capacity," tweeted the White House's official Twitter account. "And more." "Klain hit the [T]witter emergency...

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid died Tuesday at the age of 82. Reid, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018, served in Congress from 1983 until his retirement in 2017. He announced in 2019 his cancer was in remission. A Democrat representing Nevada, Reid served as senate majority leader from 2007-2015. He became most well-known for his use of the "nuclear option" in 2013, leading the charge to end the filibuster on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court.

The United States has lost two industries of critical strategic importance: semiconductors and communications-infrastructure equipment. Only about 9% of the world’s semiconductor devices are currently produced in the US and no significant telecom-equipment manufacturers remain in that country. Different reasons are responsible for these losses, but government support will be required in both cases if the United States is to keep its industrial competitiveness. Since these industries were largely pioneered in the US, we should examine how this happened, and ask further how valid are concerns about America’s apparent loss of technological leadership. The semiconductor industry The invention of the...

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo accused the Biden administration of "actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments" in the United States, according to a Tuesday letter addressed to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. The Biden administration recently paused shipments of COVID-19 antibody treatments manufactured by major drug companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly amid claims that such treatments are not effective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The federal government continues to supply Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody from the company Glaxosmithkline, which reportedly does work against omicron. Ladapo concluded his letter by referencing comments Biden...

Richard Marcinko, who has died at the age of 81, made his mark on the US military as founding commander of Seal Team Six, one of America's elite special forces units which would later carry out a deadly raid on Osama Bin Laden. A Vietnam War veteran, he led the group for its first three years, and was awarded more than 30 medals and citations during his career with the US Navy. His direct and abrasive leadership style brought him great success but often caused conflict with superiors...

After years of rising crime in Los Angeles, elites in wealthy neighborhoods are finally panicking about the recent string of high-profile retail robberies and home burglaries. Experts say wealthy individuals are purchasing bulletproof cars, safe rooms, employing armed guards, and even constructing walls with barbed wire around their properties. The issue of violent crime is nothing new to Los Angeles, but a spillover to upscale neighborhoods has put elites on edge. The Hollywood Reporter reports agencies who provide private security are seeing increasing demand for private patrols. Since August, Rising S Company, a company that builds underground bunkers, has installed...

The New York Times reported that experts advised caution before Israel approved a fourth COVID-19 vaccine injection, warning that too many shots might actually harm the body’s ability to fight the virus by causing “immune system fatigue.”As Israel rolls out a fourth COVID-19 vaccine injection to curb the spread of the Omicron variant, experts are now warning that too many injections may cause “immune system fatigue,” and actually compromise the body’s ability to fight the virus, the New York Times reported.From the report:“JERUSALEM — Israel is considering whether to approve a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose for vulnerable people to contain...

For the first time since late September, the number of people in Los Angeles County hospitals with COVID-19 surpassed the 1,000 mark Tuesday, echoing a sharp upward trend in infections and a dramatic increase in the rate of people testing positive for the virus. According to state figures, there were 1,069 COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals as of Tuesday, up from 966 on Monday. Of those patients, 207 were being treated in intensive care, up from 200 a day earlier. The increase is being closely watched by public health officials concerned that hospitals -- which expanded capacity to...

As he drives his golf cart around his small, immaculate desert ranch, Ray Epps appears at ease. He walks through the property he has transformed into a thriving wedding venue business, emphasizing the rustic charm of the location. The peaceful scene just outside Phoenix, Arizona, could not be more different from another incident where he was involved – the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6. Epps, 60, is not only a genial wedding host for rural areas, he is also the former president of the largest chapter of the Oath Keepers. In video footage taken on the day...

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid died Tuesday at the age of 82. Reid was born in rural Nevada where he quickly made his name in the state, serving in the Nevada Assembly in 1968 and two years later being elected the lieutenant governor of Nevada. He then went on to serve in Congress where we served for 34 years, becoming a star within the party. In 1986, Reid won his race for Senate.

Newly released surveillance footage may corroborate a Minnesota woman's claims that she was trapped and beaten by police during the Jan. 6 Capitol protest, her attorney argued Tuesday.Victoria White faces six federal charges related to her attendance at the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. Her attorney Joseph McBride is pointing to a video that he argues shows his client being hit nearly 40 times in more than four minutes by Capitol police officers after she was pushed into the west terrace tunnel of the building.McBride wrote on Twitter that the 39-year-old Rochester mother of four...

Oil's recent bull move has some predicting further pain at the gas pump in 2022. Gas price tracking outfit GasBuddy predicted in a new report on Tuesday — which it shared exclusively with CNN —that the national average price for gas will reach $3.41 a gallon in 2022 compared to $3.02 this year. GasBuddy didn't rule out gas prices hitting $4 a gallon by the Memorial Day holiday. "No question about it," said Streible, on whether gas prices will march higher in 2022. Streible thinks oil prices are at risk of hitting $60 in the near-term due to an Omicron-related...

Indonesian authorities are attempting to send the group back after providing supplies, clothes and fuel, as well as a technician to fix their damaged boat. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, navy official Dian Suryansyah said Rohingya were not Indonesian citizens and the army could not “simply bring them in as refugees”. “This is in line with government policy,” he added. The wooden boat was first sighted two days ago, stranded about 70 nautical miles (130km) off the Indonesian coast, according to a local navy commander.

Covid-19 antigen tests may be less capable of detecting the fast-spreading Omicron variant, the Food and Drug Administration cautioned on Tuesday. The new warning is based on preliminary studies by the National Institutes of Health’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative using patient samples with live virus — analysis that “represents the best way to evaluate true test performance in the short-term,” according to FDA. “Early data suggests that antigen tests do detect the Omicron variant but may have reduced sensitivity,” the FDA said on Tuesday. Omicron's large number of mutations have raised the possibility that it could evade protections against...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s recent cancelation of its plan to buy 50 Lockheed F-35 fighter jets worth $23 billion from the United States showed that the close trading partnership between the UAE and China could be playing a role. The cancelation means that the UAE has chosen Huawei’s 5G technology over the F-35, which is used by the US as a “favor” to form military alliances with other countries. At the US request, the UAE previously agreed to halt the construction of a logistic port that is being built by China. But this time, strong US pressure has failed...

COVID-19 has ebbed and flowed. Originally, we were warned it could be a Black Death-style disaster; it turned out to be more like a very serious influenza season, with perhaps two or three times the mortality of a normal flu, mostly concentrated among the elderly—a nontrivial social cost, but still a manageable situation. At various times, it also appeared that we were out of the woods. The grim experience of New York in early 2020 was not repeated in most of the rest of the country. Rather, the initial wave came and went far less dramatically, with the vast majority...

About two and a half years ago, we told readers China was panic hoarding food, which was several months before the virus pandemic began to spread worldwide; Beijing has managed to stockpile more than half of the world's maize and other grains that have resulted in rapid food inflation and triggered famine in some countries. In August 2019, we asked the question: Does China believe that we are on the verge of a major global crisis? The communist Chinese government has always been very big into planning, and it appears that they have decided that now is the time to...

Places with highest daily reported cases per capita Seven-day average of daily new reported cases per 100,000 residents

Congratulations to Steve Bannon for becoming the most trusted media source in America today. On Tuesday, far-left Media Matters announced the winner for ‘misinformer of the year’. This year’s award goes to Steve Bannon. What this proves is that Steve Bannon is constantly over the target. And as our readers know, Steve Bannon has been the absolute best at sharing the truth and unparalleled at confronting the Marxist onslaught in America today. If Americans want the truth all they have to do is watch Steve Bannon’s War Room and read The Gateway Pundit. Media Matters, the brainchild of dark and...

<p>While the fear of getting fired has risen sharply among C-suite executives due to various disruptive forces buffeting their businesses, a mere 3 percent identified COVID-19 as their top worry, according to the CEO of management consultancy AlixPartners.</p><p>In a Dec. 27 interview with Yahoo Finance, AlixPartners CEO Simon Freakley previewed some of the topline findings of the forthcoming 2022 AlixPartners Disruption Index, which surveyed over 3,000 senior executives globally across multiple industries to find out what keeps them awake at night.</p>