Free Republic

The San Francisco Chronicle just published a lengthy multimedia report about the most devastating public-health crisis currently afflicting the city. And no, it's not COVID-19. It's the rash of super-potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl that are causing a surge in deaths among the city's vast homeless community, as well as among others.Nearly 3/4ths of the thousands of drug overdoses that have been reported in the City by the Bay have involved fentanyl; for the last two years, Fentanyl has been killing far more people in San Francisco than COVID. It's not even close, really.In San Francisco, roughly 1,310 people died...

Some Ottawa seniors are afraid to leave their homes alone, so residents are accompanying them for neighbourhood walks. Other individuals need help with grocery deliveries. And at least one health care worker asked for rides to the hospital because he no longer feels safe travelling alone. People in the city are dealing with the emotional and mental toll of a protest that has occupied downtown Ottawa over the past week as trucks blare their horns at all hours, streets are blocked by large vehicles, and some report physical and verbal abuse from protesters. Experts worry that the stress could have...

Thousands of people in Canada are protesting vehemently against government orders like making vaccines mandatory and COVID restrictions. People are holding rallies and blocking roads in different cities of Canada. These demonstrations are peaceful but the number of people is so much that the police seem helpless. Police said on Saturday that some 5,000 people demonstrated in Ottawa. At the same time, hundreds of protesters gathered in Canada’s largest cities such as Toronto, Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg. Speaking to Reuters news agency, protester Robert in Toronto said that we are fed up and tired of mandates, threats and living...

Make no mistake, the recent Joe Rogan vs. Spotify scandal is not about COVID and what constitutes proper medical protocols to fight it. It’s about the future of free speech in America. White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s statement on Tuesday, directing Big Tech and Spotify to do “more” to eradicate alleged COVID “misinformation” on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, suggests that the future of the First Amendment is bleak. A representative of a ruling party dictating to a private company what content is “accurate” and what is not, is a clear sign that the US government has embraced censorship....

New York Democrats are going big on gerrymandering as they seize control of redistricting. But they may get bitten by their assumption that they have a permanent lock on non-white voters. Consider the two new state Senate seats in the city, one in heavily Hispanic parts of Queens and Brooklyn, another in heavily Asian parts of Brooklyn. Dems clearly think those minority votes belong to them by default. But do they? Perhaps the biggest political story of the past four years has been the realignment of Hispanic and Asian voters across America with the GOP.

BREAKING: Spotify CEO apologizes to staff for continuing to host Joe Rogan, says he will continue contract while investing $100M in artists from 'marginalized groups'

Even Andrew Cuomo’s beloved 90-year-old mom Matilda has been canceled by her disgraced son’s behavior, sources told The Post. State officials removed the matriarch’s name from the Web site of a mentoring program she founded and oversaw — after her ex-gubernatorial son’s humiliating departure from office over sex-harassment claims last year, sources said. “It’s a sad day when politics has gotten so ugly that it would come down to removing the name of 90-year-old former First Lady Matilda Cuomo,” raged a disgusted source close to the Cuomo family.

The Biden administration has issued a Transgender Offender Manual directing federal prisons to give special accommodations and taxpayer-funded services to certain convicts serving sentences in jails throughout the nation. The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued the new guidelines a few weeks ago to ensure that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) “properly identifies, tracks, and provides services to the transgender population.” The BOP houses some 155,554 inmates at 122 facilities around the U.S. and the agency estimates that approximately 1,300 are transgender. Under the new guidelines BOP staff interacting with transgender inmates must use the authorized gender-neutral communication with inmates or...

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is urging moviegoers to skip “Jackass Forever” while calling for a criminal investigation into the film’s production. PETA claims the goofy stuntmen in the box-office smash hit allegedly commit cruelty and abuse against the animals in some of the stunts. The fourth installment of the “Jackass” franchise and its first sequel since “Jackass 3-D” in 2010 has already netted over $23,000,000 since its release on Friday, according to the IMDB’s Box Office Mojo database.n ETA cited several of the “Jackass” crew’s stunts that involved animals as particularly egregious.

A sheet of floating ice broke away while the individuals were snowmobiling, according to the Coast Guard. Authorities used a Coast Guard Station Marblehead airboat and an Air Station Detroit helicopter to rescue the stranded group, the Coast Guard said earlier in a tweet. A "good Samaritan" with an airboat also assisted with the operation. The National Weather Service Cleveland had warned earlier on Twitter that increased wind could cause ice to break away from the lake's shore. "You are urged to stay off the ice on Lake Erie as there is the possibility that the ice will drift away...

Link only - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-closely-tied-to-nationwide-insurrection-in-canada-against-covid-mandates-live-updates/ar-AATxaJK

A Hong Kong study has confirmed the world’s first known instances of hamster-to-human transmission of the coronavirus, tying them to a cluster of Delta cases linked to local pet shops that sparked a controversial cull of thousands of the rodents. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, and was run as a preprint by the medical journal The Lancet on Saturday, determined that there were two separate hamster-to-human transmissions involving the Delta variant, and that the pets had contracted Covid-19 before being imported into the city...

Brazil's minister of defense Jacques Wagner questioned Argentina's approach to China regarding military procurement, but discarded any conflict with Buenos Aires, since the country is a 'strategic and important partner' of Brazil. Apparently the issue was brought up by Jacques when he visited his counterpart Agustín Rossi in Buenos Aires last week. “However that was not the main issue of discussion or reason for my trip. I returned from Buenos Aires with assurances that Argentina gives leading priority to its association with Unasur”, said Jacques during a press conference following the opening of the Defense and Security show (LAAD) in...

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1490418278157717518?s=20&t=opDeoyqIK22mRyEJjfyNSA "I have drawn my line in the sand. No more silence and compliance from me."

Liz Truss has defended the Falklands as “part of the British family” after China backed Argentina’s claim over the South American islands. The Foreign Secretary tweeted that “China must respect the Falklands’ sovereignty” after Argentinian president, Alberto Fernandez, met with China’s President Xi on the fringes of the Beijing winter Olympics. According to a statement on London’s Chinese Embassy website, the two leaders spoke of their “deep friendship” and Argentina signed up to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, a state-backed campaign for global influence. But they also signed an agreement in which China reasserted its support for Argentina’s claim...

Indiana-based Eli Lilly and Company reported on February 3, 2022, it recently submitted a request for Emergency Use Authorization to the U.S. FDA for bebtelovimab, an investigational anti-SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibody (mAbs). Bebtelovimab, which neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein receptor-binding domain-specific antibody, is being evaluated to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older. Lilly's recent financial disclosure says 'authentic virus analysis of bebtelovimab confirmed earlier pseudovirus findings, which demonstrated bebtelovimab neutralizes coronavirus variants of concern, including Omicron.' The U.S. NIH's OpenData Portal Therapeutic Activity Explorer separately confirmed bebtelovimab's effectiveness against Omicron as of February...

The progressive establishment is determined to cancel Joe Rogan because he’s more popular than any other media figure in the U.S. who comments on current events, and he’s not on their team. In response, Rogan is making a classic error — assuming the torrent of hate he’s facing comes from a place of good faith, and that he can make it go away by addressing the mob’s concerns, apologizing, and pledging to do better. Rogan has released more than 1,700 episodes of his podcast, each one a live discussion usually running three hours or more, without editing or filtering. It...

May 28, 2020, the Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, suffered damage due to fire and vandalism...Surveillance cameras inside the school captured footage of ABDI and another individual intentionally setting a fire in the cafeteria. The footage shows ABDI reaching through a broken glass door and pouring a clear liquid from a white container on the floor of the cafeteria. ABDI then entered the cafeteria and poured more clear liquid onto the floor and into a trashcan. ABDI ignited a fire in the trashcan using a liquid-soaked garment... I wonder what the penalty for arson in Somali might...

Senators Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski crossed party lines to endorse each other's campaigns during a joint appearance Sunday morning on CNN's State of the Union. Manchin, who is a West Virginia Democrat, and Murkowski, who is an Alaska Republican, are among their parties most centrist members and have crossed party lines on votes before. In an increasingly polarized country, their endorsements offer a rare moment of bipartisanship.

Its all over Twitter and Telegram. Riot Police and Swat teams have moved in. Fuel, food, supplies are being confiscated. Arrests are being made of the truckers in Ottawa.