Free Republic

"“Fifteen days to flatten curve” was all about making sure we didn’t run out of hospital beds for sick people, whether they had COVID or something else. In the heat of those panicky early days of the pandemic, Congress passed (and President Donald Trump signed) the unprecedented $2.2 trillion-with-a-T Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES). Among the law’s many, many very, very expensive provisions was $100,000,000,000 (that’s one million dollars, one hundred thousand times) “designed to provide an influx of money to hospitals and other health care entities responding to the coronavirus pandemic.” That’s according to the Kaiser...

[10:01 video clip] "The Five’ panel reacts to President Biden’s Georgia remarks over election changes."

[0:49 video clip] "Rachel Campos-Duffy: “They decided to turn the monkeys trans just for fun.”"

Ocean heating driven by human-caused climate crisis, scientists say, in sixth consecutive year record has been broken The world’s oceans have been set to simmer, and the heat is being cranked up. Last year saw the hottest ocean temperatures in recorded history, the sixth consecutive year that this record has been broken, according to new research. The heating up of our oceans is being primarily driven by the human-caused climate crisis, scientists say, and represents a starkly simple indicator of global heating. While the atmosphere’s temperature is also trending sharply upwards, individual years are less likely to be record-breakers compared...

Leading British and US scientists thought it was likely that Covid accidentally leaked from a laboratory but were concerned that further debate would harm science in China, emails show. An email from Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, on February 2 2020 said that “a likely explanation” was that Covid had rapidly evolved from a Sars-like virus inside human tissue in a low-security lab. The email, to Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Francis Collins of the US National Institutes of Health, went on to say that such evolution may have “accidentally created a virus primed for rapid transmission...

Boris Johnson is to face MPs later at Prime Minister's Questions amid demands for him to say whether he attended a drinks event in the Downing Street garden during lockdown. It will be the PM's first public appearance since it emerged 100 staff were invited to the May 2020 gathering. Mr Johnson has so far declined to say whether he attended it. However, a number of Conservative MPs have said this position is unsustainable. On Monday, ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting staff to "socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden"...

The United States Mint has started distributing quarters featuring the image of Maya Angelou , making the poet and activist the first (b)lack woman to appear on US currency. “Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country, what we value and how we’ve progressed as a society,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. Angelou is depicted with outstretched arms on the quarter. Behind her are a bird in flight and a rising sun, images inspired by her poetry. […] The US mint is planning to issue 20 quarters over four years honoring...

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“Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish. A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved” (Proverbs 12:1-3).

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is reporting 3,694 employees with active Covid-19 infections, according to agency data, roughly 7% of the agency’s screeners. For context, the week before the omicron variant was first identified in the United States, there were 275 positive Covid-19 cases among the TSA’s ranks.Like others who work in public-facing jobs, TSA employees have been testing positive for the coronavirus in record-breaking numbers. The skyrocketing of cases at the agency is an 1,243% increase since Thanksgiving.

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is January 11, the article, titled “What the public keeps getting wrong about pedophilia,” was published the day before. The piece was authored by Alia E. Dastagir, who covers topics like sexism, racism, media ethics and mental health. “When most of the public thinks of pedophilia, they assume it’s synonymous with child sexual abuse, a pervasive social problem that has exploded to crisis levels online. Researchers who study pedophilia say the term describes an attraction, not an action, and using it interchangeably with ‘abuse’ fuels misperceptions,” Dastagir wrote. She continued, “Not all people who sexually...

Taiwanese rescuers on Wednesday located the wreckage of a F-16V jet that crashed into the sea a day before, less than two months after the island launched the first squadron of its most advanced fighters. The jet disappeared from radar screens around half an hour after taking off for a routine training mission from its base in southwestern Taiwan on Tuesday.... ....The incident has dealt a blow to the new squadron of US-made F-16Vs that was commissioned in November as Taiwan upgraded its ageing fleet amid rising tensions with China. The airforce has temporarily grounded its entire F16 fleet.

A Tabletop Simulator review bomb is underway after a trans user was banned from the game's chat. The user alleges that the devs banned her because she's a gay and trans woman, and many of the negative reviews point to this as the reason behind their score. Why is this Tabletop Simulator review bomb happening? Over on Twitter, user Xoe details her experiences with Tabletop Simulator. She shows screenshots that show her being banned by one of the game's mods after she declares that she's gay. She then takes to the Tabletop Simulator Discord to discover the reason behind her...

Answer the question: Why is Ray Epps not in custody? You guys are liars.

Record hospitalizations. A nationwide scramble for tests. Entire school districts forced to shutter. As a brutal surge of Omicron infections hits an exhausted nation, a growing number of Democrats are urging the Biden White House to reset its Covid battle plan to prevent what they fear could mushroom into a crisis of trust in public health authorities as cases spike in virtually every state. Democrats acknowledge that the latest Covid-19 variant is the most vexing to date, with plenty still unknown about its severity and resistance to treatments. But many are warning that some messaging from agencies such as the...

A late-round pick out of Illinois State in the 2016 draft, Ramirez played three seasons in Tampa Bay’s farm system before being released. Soon afterwards, however, the club rehired Ramirez for a new role as the bullpen catcher on the big league club, opening a door towards the coaching career Ramirez looked to establish.“He brought so much passion and energy each day to our clubhouse and bullpen, and his love for the Rays and baseball was evident to all. He had the biggest heart and the most infectious smile,” Cash said.The Rays did not announce Ramirez’s cause of death. Neander...

Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday that “most people are going to get Covid” amid a record surge being fueled by the spread of the omicron variant of coronavirus in the country. Woodcock suggested that instead of focusing on stopping community transmission, the federal government should seek to ensure “continuity of operations” in hospitals, public transportation and other essential businesses as the virus causes significant labor shortages. According to Department of Health and Human Services data, as of Saturday, more than 25% of hospitals in 18 states were suffering from severe shortages of...

Astronauts aboard the ISS have been showing off breathtaking views from space — and set everyone back on Earth a challenge. NASA’s Mark Vande Hei posted a stunning shot over the Himalayas on Twitter, leaving aerial photographers green with envy. Hidden among it is Mount Everest, which the astronaut has asked people to try to spot.

One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the new trend of parents choosing to exercise their options when it comes to the education of their children. Much to the consternation of leftists, who seem to believe children belong to the state, not parents, more Americans are deciding to homeschool their children. In Virginia, the number of homeschoolers has increased drastically over the past few years.The Washington Examiner reported:The number of homeschoolers in Virginia has increased by nearly 40% since 2019, making up about 5% of Virginia’s total public school enrollment.There are now around 62,000 homeschoolers in Virginia,...

Former First Lady Michelle Obama recently indicated she would be getting her hands dirty in the 2022 midterm elections. On Monday, she announced her foundation, When We All Vote, in conjunction with 30 other organizations, plans to recruit and train at least 100,000 volunteers to register new voters. She also vowed to register one million new voters this year in the lead-up to the elections in November.Michelle Obama has launched a campaign to get 1 million people registered to vote ahead of the 2022 midterms.Obama says her foundation, When We All Vote, along with 30 other organizations, will recruit and...