Free Republic

Add this messaging reversal to the growing list of insane things Democrat voters are asked to believe before breakfast.Leftist media and the White House are in full damage control mode after Joe Biden said the same kinds of things Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and others have said about past elections, but this time about an election that hasn’t even occurred yet. During his second press conference in more than a year in office, Biden slipped in several comments about the trustworthiness of American elections similar to those that got Trump and myriad others banned and sanctioned by every major social...

As most know, there’s a contentious debate over whether it’s fair to let men who claim they’re female compete in women’s sports. It’s a debate driven more by emotion than reason, as so many things are. If a fellow claiming female status trounces woman athletes in a fairly high profile competition — as University of Pennsylvania swimmer “Lia” Thomas (birth name “Will”) did recently — the story makes headlines and raises ire; if such a man falters, as Thomas did quite suspiciously and conveniently even more recently, the story disappears. And each side in the debate often claims vindication based...

It's not dark yet.....

Our insane world has hit woke bottom. This is from Fox News: Penn swimmer Lia Thomas came away with wins in the 100 meter and 200-meter freestyle races against Harvard on Saturday. The victories came days after NCAA updated its policy for transgender participation and how it will be determined on a sport-by-sport basis.What did Thomas do? He, and he is a he, shattered women's records. Who knows what women were denied scholarships because of this? The answer is for men to compete with men and women with women. It's not discrimination. It's common sense.Let's give a cheer for Texas...

U.S. stocks extended declines from their worst week since the 2020 pandemic Monday ahead of a key series of big tech earnings reports and a crucial statement from the Federal Reserve. Stocks extend declines amid rising geo-political tensions in Europe, the prospect of Fed rate hikes and slowing corporate earnings. Reports say Biden is mulling troop deployment near the Ukraine border while ordering the families of diplomats in Kyiv to leave “due to the continued threat of Russian military action” in the region. S&P 500 slides into correction territory after falling more than 10% from its record closing high of...

Copper is coming off a historic year during which its prices broke records on not just one, but two, separate occasions, peaking at $4.76/lb or $10,476/t in mid-October. During the first half of 2021, copper rallied off the back of a sharp recovery in economic activity across the world, led by top consumer China. Also pushing prices higher was the belief that pandemic-related stimulus, plus the global push for decarbonization, will further lift demand for the industrial metal. That saw copper prices break the $10,000/t level towards the end of April, the first time that has happened in a decade,...

Shamgar Connors, a Virginia resident, has Stage 5 kidney failure and has been on the transplant waiting list at the University of Virginia's Transplant Center for two years. However, he's been told he's no longer eligible for a transplant because he hasn't been vaccinated. Although the Center's rule does not comport with developing science, it certainly reflects the dominant attitude in America's medical centers.There are a lot of facts that need to be woven together to fully understand what's happening to Shamgar. I'll start with more general facts and then work my way to specific ones:One: For someone with Stage...

The mission involved Russia's Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft and the A-50 early warning and control aircraft, as well as Syria's MIG-23 and MIG-29 planes MOSCOW, January 24./TASS/.Russian and Syrian military pilots have conducted a joint air patrol mission along the Golan Heights and the Euphrates River, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. "The mission's route ran along the Golan Heights, the southern border, the Euphrates River and over northern Syria," the statement reads. "Russian pilots took off from the Hmeymim Air Base, while Syrians took off from the Seikal and Dumayr airfields outside Damascus," the ministry added...

The vaccines are proving to be a constantly moving target. Two shots will save us. No, three will. No, better make it four. Heck, let's just keep it open-ended, but you'd better get shots if you want to work, shop, eat out, go to a concert, maybe even board a plane. But what happens to this manic shot regime when we're beginning to get data showing that not only do the shots not prevent people from getting COVID (which is the traditional effect of a vaccine), but they may actually leave people more vulnerable to COVID?Israel, which was so terrified...

The ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee suggested Friday that China will launch an invasion of Taiwan sometime after next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. “I do think after the Olympics — China has gotten so provocative, so aggressive in the South China Sea, that you are going to see the CCP, the [Chinese] Communist Party invading Taiwan,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters on a conference call. McCaul argued further that resident Biden’s botched messaging on the ongoing Ukraine crisis sent a signal of weakness to America’s adversaries, which McCaul believes they will look to exploit. ......

The inventor of the PlayStation - one of the best and most widely known gaming consoles - doesn't think too much about VR or the metaverse.Ken Kutaragi, who is responsible for Sony's popular console, says that VR and AR "divide" the real and virtual realms, rather than unifying them, according to a new interview with Bloomberg. Kutaragi, who is now 71 years old, told Bloomberg: “Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about making quasi-real in the virtual world, and I can’t see the point of doing it.”He continued: “You would rather be a polished...

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich hasn't been shy about discussing hot-button political issues. On Sunday before the Spurs' game against the Philadelphia 76ers, he took aim at Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who voted with Republicans to block the advancement of a sweeping voting rights bill that was supported by Democrats and U.S. President Joe Biden. The vote Wednesday night to end debate on the bill was shot down, 51-49, with every Republican voting against moving the bill. Popovich's comments came after being asked about Juneteenth becoming a national holiday. "As many have said, it’s been time,...

Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said on Saturday (Jan 23) that an annual Covid-19 vaccine would be preferable to more frequent booster shots in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Pfizer/BioNtech's Covid-19 vaccine has shown to be effective against severe disease and death caused by the heavily-mutated Omicron variant but less effective in preventing transmission. With cases soaring, some countries have expanded Covid-19 vaccine booster programmes or shortened the gap between shots as governments scramble to shore up protection. In an interview with Israel's N12 News, Dr Bourla was asked whether he sees booster shots being administered every four to five months...

President Trump issued a statement this morning in response to Wisconsin Speaker Vos’s efforts to increase the number of drop boxes in the state for future elections. Our report yesterday uncovered Vos’s actions.Yesterday we released an exclusive report showing that Wisconsin Republican Speaker Robin Vos was working on legislation that would increase the number of drop boxes in the state. Drop boxes are vehicles used by the Democrats to steal elections.

It’s nine in the evening, sometime during this endless post-lockdown liminal period, and I’m curled up on the sofa, clicking listlessly through streaming menus in search of my sedative of choice—dark teen dramas—when my vision starts to blur. Is Who Killed Sara? the new high school murder show I’ve been meaning to watch? Or Cruel Summer? The Wilds? One of Us Is Lying? The screen swims. I have to shut my overwhelmed eyes. The condition is not entirely new, and though it only seems to flare up when I’m watching television, it has worsened over time. Which is concerning, because...

Former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard issued a blunt warning via Twitter on Thursday about rising America-Russia tensions, arguing a conflict between “two nuclear-armed powers” can only end in “the destruction of the world and life as we know it.” “Warmongers” currently in office, the Democrat argued, are escalating tensions with Russia. President Joe Biden and other administration officials have issued multiple threats to Russia should they move troops into Ukraine, something some US officials claim is likely because of recent military movements. Moscow has denied this, saying these troop maneuvers are an internal matter and any allegations of a planned...

A bill working its way through the New Hampshire legislature would allow residents to receive ivermectin from pharmacies with a prescription of a doctor or an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) for the off-label treatment of Covid-19.House Bill 2011 would allow pharmacists to "dispense ivermectin under the delegated prescriptive authority of the physician or APRN (Advanced Practice Registered Nurses), specify a mechanism to document screening performed and the prescription in the patient's medical record, and include a plan for evaluating and treating adverse events," reads the bill. "Any such prescription shall be regarded as being issued for a legitimate medical...

A PSA for politicians/bureaucrats and criminals – 3 not mutually-exclusive categoriesI’m throwing you an open thread this morning. I didn’t sleep much last night until 4:45 am at which point I fell soundly asleep and slept till 6:45 am, my time, 8:30 Eastern. So I awoke noting that the American people now (unexpectedly) list prices/inflation and crime as their top concerns. Where did that come from? What about all the wokesters out there who’ve been more concerned with inequity, social justice, defunding cops and replacing them with social workers? And when did the COVID COOTIE MONSTER drop from #1 for...

Either Bill Maher is pretty much uncancellable at this point -- or he simply doesn't care. In a candid interview with entertainment industry publication Deadline, the HBO host said he was "over COVID," ripped into de facto COVID czar Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he wouldn't get a booster shot, and said public health officials and the "medical establishment" shouldn't "sit there in your white coat and tell me, 'Just do what we say.'" Maher is certainly singing a different tune from the rest of Hollywood -- and, if he were anyone else, this would probably be a scandal. Cancel culture...

An Irishman was busted for refusing to wear a mask on a New York-bound Delta flight — and mooning flight attendants and fellow passengers, according to the feds. Shane McInerney, 29, faces up to 20 years behind bars on charges of interfering with a flight crew’s duties and intentionally assaulting and intimidating a member of a flight crew during a Delta Air Lines flight from Dublin to John F. Kennedy Airport on Jan. 7, authorities said Friday.