Free Republic

People in and around former Vice President Mike Pence's office have been particularly cooperative as the Jan. 6 select committee focuses on what former President Trump was doing during the more than three hours the Capitol was under attack

A QAnon and anti-vaccine podcaster has died from complications due to COVID-19 after contracting the virus at a conspiracy theory conference that turned into a superspreader event, and where fellow attendees baselessly blamed their illness on an anthrax attack. Doug Kuzma, 61, from Newport News, Virginia, died on January 3 after being hospitalized 10 days earlier. Kuzma broadcasted on the FROG News podcasting network, which stands for “Fully Rely On God.” Kuzma and his FROG fellow hosts pushed an array of conspiracy theories ranging from QAnon to COVID denial and election fraud lies. Kuzma attended the ReAwaken America conference in...

Arthur Caplan, who is the director of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CNN on Wednesday more things need to be done to punish Americans who are not vaccinated for COVID-19. A clearly perturbed anchor John Berman asked Caplan, "Why should anyone who is boosted bother at this point to do anything that makes the unvaccinated more safe?" "Well, look, I want us to act as a community. I want us to act as a team. When you’re fighting a war, you need all hands on deck. I don’t want to reject those who still haven’t done...

This afternoon a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected the Biden Administration's request for a stay of a lower court injunction barring enforcement of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for employees of federal contractors in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Judge Bush wrote for the court in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Biden, joined by Judge Suhrenreich. Judge Cole (who recently announced his intent to take senior status upon the confirmation of his successor) dissented.Here is how Judge Bush summarizes his opinion:In 1949, Congress passed a statute called the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act ("Property...

CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY LUKE 4:14-22A Friends, today in the Gospel, Jesus declares that he fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. The deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk. The dead are raised to life, enemies are forgiven, and the poor have the Good News preached to them. And ultimately, in his Resurrection, Jesus’ followers saw that the old world—the world predicated upon death and the works of death, the world that had done Jesus...

Trust the Science? by Jason Ouimet, Executive Director, NRA-ILA - Monday, December 6, 2021 Tucked away in the NRA-ILA archives is an Atlanta Constitution article from April 20, 1975. Titled, “Life-Style Disease: Atlanta’s CDC Plans to Examine Ways People Make Themselves Sick,” the item doesn’t mention firearms, but details how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to expand its role beyond controlling actual communicable diseases like polio and smallpox and into all manner of personal conduct. The Atlanta Constitution item assured readers, "The CDC itself by no means has plans to go out and force people to change...

A botched abortion that is now part of a medical malpractice lawsuit is under further scrutiny following the release of the 911 call from facility staff. Markeisha Hemsley is suing Capital Women’s Services in Washington, D.C., Moore ObGyn in Maryland, and nurse Khalilah Jefferson for $30 million, claiming that a late-term abortion left her potentially infertile. Hemsley suffered a lacerated cervix, a three-inch tear in her uterus, and massive internal hemorrhaging, as well as an incomplete procedure. Jefferson, who committed the abortion, did not remove the baby’s head. Instead, it was pushed through the hole in Hemsley’s uterus, and ended...

<p>Hoda Kotb has tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19.</p><p>Following Melvin’s announcement, Kotb, 57, thanked her fans for their support.</p><p>Kotb’s diagnosis comes after she was expected to attend Savannah Guthrie’s 50th birthday bash over the weekend, but a rep for “Today” told Page Six that she didn’t end up going to the party.</p>

California’s long-running descent into madness continues as its bizarre Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) now encourages public school students to pray to bloodthirsty Aztec deities. The California State Board of Education approved the almost 900-page ESMC in March 2021, saying teaching children about the systemic racism that supposedly plagues America has never been more urgent, as Fox News reported at the time. “The curriculum’s unequivocal promotion of five Aztec gods or deities through repetitive chanting and affirmation of their symbolic principles constitutes an unlawful government preference toward a particular religious practice,” Frank Xu, president of Californians for Equal Rights...

Last year, New York City experienced its worst crime wave in recent memory. Naturally, the response of the Soros DA in Manhattan was to make a New Year’s resolution to keep even more criminals out of jail. As the NYPD is patrolling businesses to enforce “vaccine passport” mandates and drag 5-year-olds out of restaurants, don’t think that real criminals will get the same attention from law enforcement. Alvin Bragg, the newly elected Manhattan district attorney, sent out a memo to his staff on Monday directing prosecutors to not seek prison time for most criminals. “This rule may be excepted only...

The 2020 presidential election was unlike any in American history. Hundreds of laws and processes were changed in the months leading up to the election, sometimes legally and sometimes not, creating chaos, confusion, and uncertainty. Tech oligarch Mark Zuckerberg, one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful men, spent $419 million — nearly as much as the federal government itself — to interfere in the government’s management of the election in key states. Powerful tech oligarchs and corrupt propaganda press conspired to keep indisputably important news stories, such as allegations of corruption regarding the Biden family business, hidden from voters...

COVID cases have continued to climb across Europe, and while UK PM Boris Johnson has stood his ground, saying he won't revive economy-crushing lockdowns, in Italy, PM Mario Draghi is moving ahead with his plans to make vaccines mandatory for all Italian citizens over the age of 50.Sources inside Italy's "control room" virus task force have apparently confirmed the PM's plan, according to ANSA, the Italian-language newswire.The recommendations are expected to be approved by a cabinet meeting later Wednesday.Draghi's crackdown on the elderly is on par with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said during an interview that he really wanted...

Imagine this: It’s a gray, chilly day in Washington, D.C., in March of 2023. A handful of protesters from left-leaning groups like Indivisible are huddled outside against the icy Potomac winds, but mostly there’s a climate of disbelief in the nation’s capitol as the GOP-dominated House of Representatives wraps up debate over the impeachment of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., 46th president of the United States. It was little more than five months since the Republicans gained 43 House seats in the 2022 midterms, many in newly gerrymandered seats, and since the incoming chair of House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan...

As Beijing struggles with the worsening outbreak in Xi'an, the provincial capital of 13M that has been under lockdown for about 2 weeks now, authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to paper over the popular outcry. So, authorities in the northern Chinese city have banned "negative news" on social media as many residents took to Weibo and other platforms to complain about their present circumstances.The citywide lockdown, believed to be the most brutal since the original Spring 2020 lockdown in Wuhan, has left many stranded at home without enough food, and without access to medical treatment. Unfortunately, they'll need to...

India’s top health research body announced on Wednesday that it won’t be adding Merck’s COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir to its national treatment protocol, citing concerns over its safety.The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said it had become aware of “major safety concerns” that prompted the decision, despite India’s drug regulator in December approving the drug for emergency use.It comes after France in December also canceled its order for the drug, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, following disappointing trial data suggesting its drug was markedly less effective than previously thought.“Molnupiravir has major safety concerns including teratogenicity, mutagenicity, muscle...

Home prices and rent are soaring faster than wages. This shattered home buying plans of generations Y and Z and put them in a rent squeeze as well.Dreams ChangeThings have really changed in three years according to Yardi's latest Generational Survey on Homeownership Dreams. Three years ago Yardi found that Gen Z was enthusiastic about the prospect of owning a home, whereas Millennials were pessimistic about their homeownership outlook.Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic and societal fallout Yardi has different findings.Key Takeaways From Latest SurveyAffordability concerns have noticeably risen in the past 3 years, with home...

U.S. sees its worst stretch of flight cancellations since the start of the pandemic.. ... Carriers have now scrubbed more than 22,000 flights since Christmas Eve. Nearly 1,700 U.S. flights were canceled by Wednesday evening, the 11th straight day of more than 1,000 cancellations and the airline industry’s worst stretch since the start of the pandemic. ... In 2020, the airline industry went through a brutal stretch from late March to early May, when it canceled nearly one-third of all scheduled flights, scrubbing thousands of trips daily for 47 straight days .... The airline industry for months had been confronting...

The hardened-steel baton made the most disturbing sound as it bounced off Victoria White’s skull. It varied between a hollow click and a deeper snap, depending on where on her head the metal weapon made contact. “Please don’t beat her!” a man in the crowd yelled.

Damage was $1M, says owner of Battle Ground site. Two teenagers were sentenced to 24 hours of community service Wednesday morning, six months after sparking a fire that burned down the old Cherry Grove Church and home of a Battle Ground man.Marty Wirtanen, now 18, and Bryden Johnston, 17, each pleaded guilty in Clark County juvenile court to first-degree reckless burning. They were both originally charged with first-degree arson, which carried a sentencing range of 8½ to nearly 11 weeks in a juvenile facility, court records show.

The View host Whoopi Goldberg expressed “shock” at catching COVID-19 despite the fact that she had been triple vaccinated. The actress and TV host missed the first episode of the show and had to appear via a remote live link from her home after she was infected with the virus over the Christmas period. According to Goldberg, she “left a couple of weeks ago, just before the break, because somebody I had been around tested positive for coronavirus.” “So, I’ve been gone a long time, I feel,” she added. “And I was all excited and, you know, they have to...