Free Republic

Yesterday, I covered how one city in the United Arab Emirates announced that booster shots would be required for travelers intending to visit. Several other countries require proof of vaccination or other documentation before granting entrance to travelers. But, one European country announced this week that a negative COVID-19 test will no longer be required for travelers entering the country. Travelers visiting Sweden will no longer be required to show a negative Wuhan coronavirus test to enter the country, Reuters reported Tuesday. In a statement, the Swedish government said "travelers are no longer considered to pose a particular risk of...

I asked a friend (who's Canadian) if she'd listened to Brandons press conference. She replied with one word: "Pathetic". Pretty much summed it up. So...I thought I'd try to solicit a FReeper survey of one-word adjectives to tag to Brandons press conference today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insight (FR wit and brilliance). LGB!

California remains the most expensive state for gas, outpacing the national average by more than a dollar, according to AAA. However, Hawaii and Washington and Oregon are not far behind, according to AAA's latest data. Currently, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in California will cost motorists $4.65, according to AAA. It's a significant jump from the national average, which rose one cent from a week ago to $3.31, according to AAA. This increase, which marks the third week of consecutive gains in 2022, is being "driven primarily by the cost of crude oil," according to AAA. Here...

In 2020, our nation’s economy was booming. Then everything came to halt when COVID came to us from China. The country went into lockdown in an effort to “slow the spread,” sending unemployment levels skyrocketing to historic highs. But thanks to President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, the federal government authorized three vaccines in record time and the lockdowns ended. Yet a year later, our nation has yet to recover the jobs it lost, as incentives to remain unemployed predictably kept people from going back to work. But four states have managed to see a full recovery of the jobs lost...

Matt Walsh, Daily Wire podcast host and best-selling children’s author, made an appearance on Dr. Phil that will reverberate across the country for quite some time. Destroying the narrative that men can identify as women and actually become women, Walsh put one very simple question to the opposing debaters who outnumbered him two to one. “What is a woman?” Neither guest who were arguing the narrative that men can be women had an answer for that. “One of the problems with the left-wing gender ideology is that no one who espouses it can even tell you what these words mean,”...

People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with a history of infection were best protected against infection from the delta variant, followed by people who were unvaccinated and had recovered from a previous infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.Those who survived a previous infection but were unvaccinated were also better protected against the delta variant than people who were vaccinated alone.“These results demonstrate that vaccination protects against COVID-19 and related hospitalization, and that surviving a previous infection protects against a reinfection and related hospitalization,” the agency’s researchers reported on Wednesday. The report analyzed infections caused by the...

Illegal immigrants worried about having proper identification to fly can now use an arrest warrant as an alternate form of ID when presenting to airport security, according to a TSA letter obtained by the Daily Caller.Responding to Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden’s Dec. 15 inquiry about illegal migrants flying across the country, TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable forms of alternate identification for non-citizens, including a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.” -Daily Caller"TSA’s response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security...

<p>By Richard Bitzinger, an independent international security analyst. He was previously a senior fellow with the Military Transformations Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.</p><p>How good is China’s most advanced fighter jet, the J-20? The J-20 is a “fifth-generation” combat aircraft, which ostensibly puts it in the same league as the U.S. F-22 and F-35.</p>

Another company has abandoned its plans for a vaccination mandate and mandatory routine testing roughly one week after the Supreme Court killed President Biden's plans to enforce a corporate vax mandate through OSHA. To wit, Starbucks has joined the ranks of American megacorps including General Electric in rejecting vaccine mandates by pausing its plans to require baristas to get vaccinated, or receive weekly testing. The decision was reported shortly before President Joe Biden blasted the SCOTUS ruling as a "mistake" during his Wednesday press briefing.Instead, Starbucks says it will "strongly encourage" baristas to get vaxxed while encouraging them to disclose...

Something's very wrong at CVS, and it isn't pretty. What really got me was when an older white female manager barged into the treatment room during my pre-scheduled 12:20 pm visit, angrily telling the nurse she wasn't allowed to treat me, because I was "out of network" (even though my policy is a PPO and I'd been treated at that facility numerous times over the past several years). At age 73, I pay $150 a month out-of-pocket to be covered by a United HealthCare Medicare Advantage Choice PPO policy which allows treatment by providers either in-network or out-of-network. When I...

Please prayer for my PTSD dog's upcoming tests for his osteosarcoma

Canadian-born Diane Bederman called Trudeau a 'sanctimonious, self-serving, self-righteous, inept, unethical, immoral, and corrupt man, who can now add evil to the list.' Canadian-born Jewish author Diane Bederman blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an “immoral” and “evil man” for the leader’s targeting of the vaccine free, saying the lessons learned from the Nuremberg Trials have been forgotten. “Here we are in 2022 and our leaders are scapegoating the non-vaccinated, blaming them for the continuation of the pandemic. Like other evil leaders, they divide rather than unite,” Bederman wrote in an January 10 opinion piece titled “Is Comparing Covid Policies...

One of Prince Andrew’s well-connected ex-girlfriends has claimed that former President Bill Clinton and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were so close, they were “like brothers.” “Clinton was definitely very close to Jeffrey,” Lady Victoria Hervey, 45, said in the new ITV documentary, “Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Pedophile,” which aired in the UK Tuesday night. The socialite said she got to see the powerful group up close as a longtime pal of Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who first introduced her to Andrew. Hervey and the royal briefly dated in 1999. “I don’t know if you saw the paintings that were in...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of COVID-19 measures introduced to curb the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England as he looks to live with the virus after a peak in cases. Britain was the first country to limit international travel over the Omicron variant, raising alarm bells about its mutations, and in December introduced work-at-home advice, more mask-wearing and vaccine passes to slow its spread. But while cases soared to record highs, hospitalizations and deaths have not risen by the same extent, in part due to Britain's booster rollout and the variant's lesser severity. Johnson's...

Dr. Rand Paul Objects to Proposed Sanctions Against the Nord Stream II Pipeline Rumble...

Reflecting the Pentagon’s new focus on China, US aircraft carrier strike groups almost doubled deployments to the South China Sea in 2021 compared to the year before. According to the Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), US carrier strike groups entered the South China Sea 10 times in 2021, compared with six times in 2020, and five in 2019. “The US military have drastically reinforced their military deployment in the South China Sea since last year, in terms of training scales, sorties and scenarios,” SCSPI director Hu Bo said Friday, according to The South China Morning Post. Hu said...

A failed vote on filibuster reform guarantees little progress on voting rights — and many other policies. The Senate on Wednesday voted 48-52 against changing the chamber’s filibuster rules, dooming much of Democrats’ agenda for the near term. Democrats were ultimately split on the rules vote, with two opposing the change, and 48 in favor of it. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) were the only Democrats who voted against the rules change, which would have made an exception to the 60-vote threshold many bills need to advance. No Republicans voted to support the reform. Had it passed,...

Democrats' attempt to change Senate rules to pass the voting rights bill failed Wednesday night, with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) voting with Republicans.

The FBI on Wednesday said it was conducting "court-authorized law enforcement activity" near what was reported to be the Texas home of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). In a statement to The Hill, Rosanne Hughes, a spokesperson for the FBI's San Antonio office, said authorities were present in a neighborhood in Laredo where Cuellar reportedly lives but would not "provide further comment on an ongoing investigation." “The FBI was present in the vicinity of Windridge Drive and Estate Drive in Laredo conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity," Hughes said in a statement. Cuellar's office confirmed to The Hill that an investigation was...

Joe Biden held his first White House press conference of 2022, and it was a complete and total disaster. Biden kicked off the Wednesday presser by blaming Republicans for his policy failures and insisting he did a great job as president in his first year. Biden even claimed he “over-performed” as president despite supply chain breakdowns, rampant inflation and energy price hikes.