Free Republic

"We all have a problem .... they're putting a pre-fab concrete wall around the White House right now. I'm sure you might have some conclusions .... especially when the News Organizations are silent." Fuzzy Tom Cat Twitter

Three thousand United Airlines employees have called out sick with coronavirus, causing more flight cancellations, CNBC reported on Tuesday. The surge in illness comes after CEO Scott Kirby instituted a vaccine mandate for all of his U.S. employees. Those who declined to get vaccinated were either fired or obtained an exemption and were subsequently placed on unpaid leave. According to the report, Kirby told employees the airline is “trimming its schedule” in order to deal with the increase in sick calls. In a memo to staff, Kirby said 3,000 workers have tested positive for coronavirus, which is “4 percent of...

Now the World Health Organization has waved the white flag on Covid vaccine boosters too. WHO released a statement about Covid vaccines yesterday. It’s filled with the usual public health jargon and ass-covering, but one line stands out: a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable. It’s over, people. Aside from a few unlucky Israelis, no one is going to receive a fourth dose of the original vaccine; everyone with eyes can see it doesn’t work against Omicron. (And if you haven’t gotten a third dose, at this...

n a bombshell new report, Joe Biden’s Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona appears to have solicited the infamous letter from the National School Board Association (NSBA) which falsely described conservative parents as “domestic terrorists.” According to the New York Post, newly-uncovered emails from October featured NSBA Secretary-Treasurer Kristi Swett explicitly saying that then-interim CEO Chip Slaven “was writing a letter to provide information to the White House, from a request by Secretary Cardona.” The email, dated October 6th, was obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the nonprofit watchdog group Parents Defending Education. In the original letter...

A few days ago, I got an email from a fact-checker at PolitiFact. His name is Bill McCarthy. He said he was checking a quotation from me taken from my appearance on the “Ingraham Angle” on Fox News. We had an exchange of emails that gives a very interesting window into the otherwise obscure world of fact-checking. So I’d like to track our correspondence, because, after all, these are the kinds of checks that get people tagged, restricted, and even banned on social media. Here’s what I said on Fox: “If you follow Jan. 6 at the granular level with...

The prices of cars and trucks continued to soar in December, data released Wednesday showed. The Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index showed that the prices of new cars and trucks jumped higher in December, rising one percent for the month. Compared with 12 months ago, prices are up 11.8 percent. Cars saw larger prices increases. These accelerated 1.5 percent in December, which follows 1.4 percent in November and 1.1 percent in October. Compared with a year ago, the prices of new cars are up 12 percent. Truck prices rose 0.7 percent, down from the one percent gain in November...

Last week, we reviewed our ruling class's strange lack of interest in Jeffrey Epstein's child molestation ring, in which so many of them played a part. The media cover-up is second only to the government cover-up, with prosecutors delivering loss after loss in cases they've been forced to bring (by the police and the public) against the child molester. This week, we'll look at the government's long record of zealously trying NOT to unravel the case. Barry Krischer was the first prosecutor to let Epstein off for child molestation. The local police presented then-Palm Beach state attorney Krischer with bales...

Explanation: What does Comet Leonard look like up close? Although we can't go there, imaging the comet's coma and inner tails through a small telescope gives us a good idea. As the name implies, the ion tail is made of ionized gas -- gas energized by ultraviolet light from the Sun and pushed outward by the solar wind. The solar wind is quite structured and sculpted by the Sun's complex and ever changing magnetic field. The effect of the variable solar wind combined with different gas jets venting from the comet's nucleus accounts for the tail's complex structure. Following the...

A 19-year-old hacker claims to have taken over more than 20 Tesla vehicles in 10 countries through a software vulnerability. David Colombo, who is based in Germany, shared the feat on Twitter saying the fault does not fall on the Elon Musk-founded company, but on owners of the Teslas. The flaw is said to have been found in third-party software that allowed Colombo to unlock doors and windows, start the cars without keys and disable security systems. He also tweeted the vulnerability lets him use the internal Tesla cameras to spy on the driver. Colombo told DailyMail.com that ‘it is...

SCOTTISH EXPATS may struggle to celebrate Burns Night this year with the "Great Chieftain o' the Puddin-race" thanks to rules imposed by a timorous EU after Brexit.Haggis makers have said that it is now easier to export their wares to Canada than Europe because of red tape around imports entering the bloc. Macsween, a household haggis name, said exports to the EU would be halved this year. Caledonians in Europe now face missing out on the traditional dish served at Burns Night, held in honour of the Scottish poet and namesake on January 25. Since post-Brexit arrangements came into effect...

In the wake of staff shortages following the state's decision to fire all health care workers who refuse to get vaccinated, the Rhode Island Department of Health has opted to allow vaccinated covid-positive individuals to take their place. Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken explained that "the unvaccinated pose a greater overall risk because these social misfits reject the government's authority to decide what each person must do to benefit public health. In the long run allowing these individuals to flout the government's directives poisons social cohesion." "While being treated by a vaccinated person who is covid-positive does present some immediate risk...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and city officials struck a generally optimistic tone at a Tuesday press conference, announcing a new measure to access testing amid skyrocketing cases and reassuring residents that no new restrictions are coming at this time.

Supreme Court justices have refused to hear the appeal of a US-born ISIS bride who was stripped of her passport after traveling to Syria, marrying three jihadis and calling for Memorial Day terror attacks. The justices declined without comment on Monday to consider the appeal of Hoda Muthana, 27, who was born in New Jersey in October 1994 to a diplomat from Yemen and grew up in Alabama near Birmingham. She claims to be remorseful, and has begged to be allowed back into the US. Muthana left the U.S. to join the Islamic State in 2014, apparently after becoming radicalized...

[Catholic Caucus] The Backward Logic of Traditionis CustodesInsofar as Traditionis Custodes provides any explanation for its open hostility toward Catholic traditionalists, that explanation lies in the claim that traditionalist communities have caused divisions within the Church. Therefore, Pope Francis suggests (and the Congregation for Divine Worship even more sternly insists) traditionalism must be suppressed.That logic is backward. It was not the traditionalist movement—much less the traditional liturgy—that exacerbated divisions within Catholicism. It was the current Vatican leadership—the very leadership that is now looking for a scapegoat to blame.For several decades after Vatican II, Catholics who might, for want of a...

The Italian government has moved to ban unvaccinated people from public transport, outdoor dining, sports centres and more until at least March 31st of this year. The Italian government is imposing further restrictions on the unvaccinated this week, requiring the country’s “Super Green Pass” health passport for access to public transit, which is only eligible to those fully vaccinated or those recovered from the Wuhan coronavirus, compared to the regular Green Pass which allows unvaccinated people to qualify temporarily by presenting a negative coronavirus test. Local and regional buses, subways, trains and trams all required the Super Green Pass as...

One of the things that weigh heavily on the minds of the elderly and terminally ill is the well-being of their beloved animals after they pass. There are many programs for adoptable animals, as well as fostering opportunities, but there is a dearth of programs for seniors and others who want to ensure their pet’s care after their death. Angela Rafuse of Halifax, Nova Scotia, experienced this problem firsthand when her grandfather, Byron Rafuse, refused to go to the hospital for a health matter because he was concerned about who would care for his late wife’s cat... “So I started...

Cambodia's landmine-sniffing rat Magawa, who found more than 100 landmines and explosives during a five-year career, has died at the age of 8, leaving a lasting legacy of saved lives in the Southeast Asian nation. Magawa, who died over the weekend, was the most successful "HeroRAT" deployed by international charity APOPO, which uses African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. "Magawa was in good health and spent most of last week playing with his usual enthusiasm, but towards the weekend he started to slow down, napping more and showing less interest in food in his last days," the...

New Orleans, Louisiana, is one of the latest areas of the country to reimplement a mask mandate, nearly two years after the start of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. New Orleans Health Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno made the announcement on Tuesday, giving the city a day’s notice before the coming change.

Record high job openings and extremely low employment have not stopped workers from losing ground due to inflation running at a 39-year high, data from the Labor Department showed Wednesday. Real average hourly earnings–meaning, earnings after inflation–were down 2.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2020 to December 2021. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with no change in the average workweek resulted in a 2.3-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period. Inflation-adjusted hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers fell 1.9 percent from December 2020 to December 2021. Weekly wages fell two percent. December’s year-over-year...

Just heard on ABC radio. Democrats planning a Trojan Horse to pass the Voting Rights legislation by avoiding filibuster procedures. As best as I can explain it, Ds plan to remove a provision from an unrelated piece of legislation (NASA related, iirc) and insert voting rights legislation. The radio report said if the legislation originated in the Senate, the 60 vote threshold was unneeded and could presumably move to the house.