Free Republic

Ray Eps alive and well, and relaxing at ranch outside Phoenix. Case of "Plot" against Whitmer falling apart. Begins at 19:00.

After December 31, 2021, the CDC will withdraw the use of the PCR test for COVID-19 testing. The CDC finally admitted the test does not differentiate between the flu and COVID virus. Via the CDC website: In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test. CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. Such assays can facilitate continued testing for both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and...

Well, at least construction materials are growing more slowly than energy prices! The Producer Price Index for Construction Materials rose at a 34.7% YoY pace in November. So it is no surprise that the median sales price for new homes rose 18.8% YoY in November.

Biden’s record on Covid shows how preposterous the over-the-top critiques of Trump were. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE The fullness of time, and now the Omicron wave, have made it obvious how preposterously over-the-top and unfair the chief lines of criticism against Donald Trump were during the pandemic. It has been said, over and over, that Trump almost single-handedly killed thousands upon thousands of Americans. Chris Hayes a couple of months ago called for a truth-and-reconciliation-commission-type inquiry into how Trump “willfully got hundreds of thousands of people killed.” Willfully! Whoopi Goldberg opined that “this blood is on his hands.” During one of...

SOURCE — CDC ALERT https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html Audience: Individuals Performing COVID-19 Testing Level: Laboratory Alert After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives. Visit the FDA website for a list of authorized COVID-19 diagnostic methods. For a summary of the performance of FDA-authorized...

According to a recent report published by Green Car Congress, New York City is accelerating its already aggressive efforts to electrify its entire fleet of public vehicles. Not only will the city invest some $420 million in electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and other alternative fuels, but it will also work to move to a fully electric fleet by 2035. The report notes that NYC had already set an earlier goal to go all-electric by 2040. That said, the new $420 million investment will be in addition to the previous $75 million in related investments the city just announced back in...

Question: I’m now 39, and in a better place in my life than I was roughly 10 years ago, when I decided to take out over $100,000 in student loans to attend a food policy and nutrition master’s program. The program was the only master’s program I got into, and I didn’t care what the cost was — I didn’t even look at what I was signing.Now, in total, between my undergrad and grad loans, I owe $131,000. Some of the loans are federal and some of them private; one of those companies charges an interest rate of 6%. Though...

A reporter for The New York Times suggested in an Instagram story that the United States is a "trash country" because of its current healthcare system. Taylor Lorenz, a technology reporter for The Times, was answering a question from one of her followers, who asked why "COVID hasn’t woken new Americans up to fight for free healthcare." Lorenz then gave an anti-American response to the question. "Yeah if a global pandemic doesn’t help people in this trash country recognize the problems in our healthcare system [I don't know] what will," Lorenz wrote Monday.

That’s not cookie dough — it’s a meat alternative created with a 3D printer and plant-based ingredients, including cocoa butter. Credit: Adapted from ACS Food Science & Technology 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.1c00311 No longer just a dream of vegetarians and vegans, fake meat is becoming more widely available in grocery stores and restaurants. And more options are almost certainly on the way. In a study reported in ACS Food Science & Technology, one team has developed a new combination of plant-based ingredients tailored for 3D printing meat alternatives. Their most successful recipes required an odd-sounding addition: cocoa butter, derived from cocoa...

(Thanks to Scottish Enlightenment titan David Hume for the guest post on William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford — a Catholic peer who fell victim to the hysteria of Titus Oates‘s “Popish Plot”. It takes some time to build into the execution itself, since Hume in his History of England narratively locates it in the proto-Whig party’s frustrated parliamentary efforts to exclude from the succession the king’s Roman Catholic brother, the eventual King James II who at this time was the Duke of York. -ed.) Besides friendship for his brother, and a regard to the right of succession, there were many...

2021 showcased the inability of the West to win small, long wars, and now, on the eve of 2022, the perils of far more existential big, fast wars loom over East-West relations. These risks pose grave questions. In the wake of the US humiliation in Afghanistan, and with fears rising of a potentially apocalyptic conflict breaking out over the flashpoint Taiwan Strait, how can conflict be better managed – or even better, effectively obviated? In a world in which state-run militaries seek ever-bigger budget allocations, while generals and their staffs war game with expensive conventional weapons and deadly strategic arms,...

The Washington Post tried to whip out the generic “Republicans have pounced” cliché in order to spin some of the attention on skyrocketing prices away from President Joe Biden. The liberal newspaper released a revealing story headlined, “Inflation emerging as top economic challenge in 2022.” Strong consumer demand in addition to ongoing supply chain problems “threaten to prolong sharply rising prices well into 2022, potentially making inflation the premier economic challenge of the new year.” The Post conceded that inflation “defied many economists’ expectations in 2021 by rising at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years,” and that “[e]verything from...

The new offensive fight against COVID-19 got a boost Tuesday night as the first shipment of 13 million home COVID-19 test kits arrived at JFK via Air China Airlines, in the pouring rain, with more shipments planned throughout the week

We’ve all seen the absurdity of biological males winning sporting events, breaking records, and shattering the dreams of biological females who can’t adequately compete against their transgender counterparts. Now, another female record has been broken by a biological male who used his brains instead of brawn to overcome every woman who has ever competed on the show. Current Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider, who used to be Thomas E Schneider before deciding to defy biology, just won his 18th match. That breaks the record for most wins by a “female” Jeopardy player, knocking down biological female Larissa Kelly’s record. According to...

Current 7-day daily average of new COVID cases is roughly 240,400 cases per day, an increase of 60% over previous week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky says. cases up 60% hospitalizations only up 14% deaths DOWN 7%

Sen. Durbin on filibuster reform: "It has to be done for the good of this country. [...] If we don't change the rules to go back to a Senate that truly debates and legislates and responds to the needs of America, then it's going to be a great misfortune for this country." Clip...

Twelve major cities across the nation broke annual homicide records this year, following 2020’s already historically bloody year. "The community has to get fed up," Rochester Police Department Capt. Frank said at a news conference in November. "We're extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it's worse than a war zone around here lately."

An online poll conducted by the staunchly left Guardian newspaper seeking nominations for “Person of the Year” has been turned off, sparking speculation it was shut down when author J.K. Rowling took the lead.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man was found dead, stuffed in a suitcase earlier this month and now his roommate is charged with his murder. Police said the body of Bruce Jeffries, 63, was found in a suitcase that had been left behind a dumpster in Memphis on Dec. 12, WHBQ reported. Police said Jeffries died of blunt force trauma to the head. A witness told the authorities that he saw a person dragging a suitcase in an alley the morning of Dec. 12. The witness said the man tried to lift the suitcase to throw it in the dumpster but...

Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees