Free Republic

The FBI is expected to soon commence a dig for the remains of legendary labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, where it is claimed he was buried in a barrel after being killed in Detroit July 30, 1975. The chances that the remains of Hoffa, the onetime president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, are under the industrial dirt of Jersey City, New Jersey, are actually very good, observers say.

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas ended her controversial college swimming career with a last place finish in the final of the 100-yard freestyle at the US collegiate champsionships on Saturday. Thomas, who competes for the University of Pennsylvania, trailed home in eighth place in 48.18sec, more than two seconds behind winner Gretchen Walsh, who touched the wall in 46.05sec. Thomas, who swam on Penn's men's team before switching to the women's squad this season, became the first transgender athlete to win a top-tier National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) crown when she won the 500-yard freestyle title on Thursday. She finished fifth...

The cable channels have granted Zelensky billions of dollars worth of free air time to sell the public on having Americans finance his war with Russia. So far, he's received commitments to $13.6 billion in U.S. aid, money he will gladly share with the children of congressmen. Anyone who questions this is labeled a Putin puppet.Well, I have been called worse.There is another side of the story, weak as it may be. In a speech Power Line called, "The Madness of Vlad the Inhaler," Putin made a Zelensky-style plea to his colleagues. Most of it was BS. There is no...

At approximately 9am local time on February 21, 1972, a Boeing 707 airplane dubbed Spirit of ‘76 landed in Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport.The airplane’s main door opened, and out walked US President Richard Nixon.The trip shocked the world. There had been no formal communication or diplomatic ties between the US and China for 25 years. And Nixon’s voyage not only normalized relations between the two countries, but it kickstarted decades of worldwide economic growth.Back then, the US was the richest and most powerful economy in the world. But as a consequence of that prosperity, the US was also a very expensive...

Some countries declare Bitcoin to be official legal tender while others announce outright bans on cryptocurrency. The world map below, created by Statista's Katharina Buchholz - based on data collected by the Law Library of the U.S. Congress - shows where countries have been trying to stop the cryptocurrency hype and where crypto has been given more or less free reign.You will find more infographics at StatistaOne example of a country embracing cryptocurrency is El Salvador, where Bitcoin was declared an official currency in September of 2021 by populist president Nayib Bukele. The country also taxes and otherwise regulates cryptocurrency....

Advanced fighter jets from the United States and China came face to face recently, according to the commander of the United States’ air presence in the Indo-Pacific.“We recently had, I wouldn’t call it an engagement, but we got relatively close to the J-20s with our F-35s in the East China Sea, and were relatively impressed with the command and control that was associated with the J-20s,” said Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander of the Pacific Air Forces during a March 14 interview with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.The F-35 and J-20 are the most advanced fighters in the American and...

A federal judge on March 18 blocked a Washington, D.C., law that allowed children in the nation’s capital to receive a vaccine without parental consent.The parents who sued over the law appear likely to succeed in proving claims that the law violates federal statutes and will be irreparably harmed if a preliminary injunction weren’t entered, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote in a 38-page opinion.The D.C. Council passed the District’s Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act in 2020. It lets children as young as 11 get a vaccine without permission from their parents.But the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of...

An experimental treatment greatly reduced the risk of hospitalization and emergency room visits in people who contracted COVID-19, according to the maker of the drug and investigators running a clinical trial.California-based Eiger BioPharmaceuticals and investigators running the TOGETHER trial say (pdf) that the treatment, Peginterferon Lambda, cut the risk of needing hospital care by 50 percent and death by 60 percent in a phase 3 trial measuring the results through the 28th day after receiving the treatment.A single injection of the treatment was compared to placebo in a trial in Brazil featuring 1,936 patients who had mild or moderate COVID-19...

Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out several demands for Ukraine including two “most difficult issues” during a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.The demands can be divided into two parts, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told several media outlets.The first four articles appear to be possible common ground for both sides.“Basically, there are six topics discussed. The first is Ukraine’s neutrality, that is, its withdrawal from NATO membership. Second, disarmament and mutual security guarantees in the context of the Austrian model. Third, [is] the process that the Russian side refers to as ‘de-Nazification.’ Fourth, removing obstacles to the widespread...

There have been a lot of people protesting the war in Russia, and in a time where such protest can get you locked up–facing a lot of punishment–that’s a brave thing to do. They’ve been protesting since the first day of the invasion. But perhaps it’s even more dangerous an effort to protest when you have a very high-profile position. It’s hard to think of people with a “higher” position than cosmonauts being sent into space, to the International Space Station.Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the Station on Saturday, as the first Russian group sent into space since the Russian...

Vladimir Putin is doing all he can to project an air of success with his disastrous decision to attack Ukraine.But it hasn’t gone well with all kinds of issues — from thousands of their troops killed and some very high-placed officers being taken out by the resistance to getting bogged down and not being able to take Kyiv yet. As I noted earlier, if the Defense Ministry has to make up a lie in order to post a propaganda “win,” you know it’s not going well.Indeed, on Saturday, it was announced that yet another Russian general had been killed in...

When Lia Thomas “won” the NCAA swimming championship in Atlanta, it elicited the usual level of controversy, and the “boos” definitely outweighed the “yays.” The answer why is obvious: Thomas is a biological male who is competing against biological females, and every sane person still left in America knows why this is absurd.The New York Times reported:But Thomas’s triumph in Atlanta — indeed, her very presence at the swimming championships as a contender — came amid a far larger storm, particularly in statehouses and right-wing media, about sports participation by transgender girls and women. The issue, which on Thursday drew...

According to the Jerusalem Post, Belarus faces an organized sabotage campaign aimed at railroad lines carrying Russian troops and supplies into Ukraine.The General Prosecutor of Belarus opened a criminal case into what it called an act of terrorism carried out by an organized group against infrastructure of the Belarusian Railway, according to TASS.The general prosecutor added that signaling facilities and other transport equipment were rendered “unusable.”The BYPOL group, which consists of former security officers who support the opposition in Belarus, said on Tuesday that a series of sabotage actions had targeted the railway system in Belarus, disrupting the movement of...

“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out” (Proverbs 20:4).

It’s just the flu, bro. Below is a link I found to the one year anniversary thread. It was good to look back and see all the ways that we were right. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3943183/posts I am not skilled at freerepublic searches but if anyone can find the first thread that would be interesting as well. Early on the threads were very active because there was an active debate among freepers as to what the appropriate policies and mandates (or lack of mandates). I think eventually the vast majority of Freepers saw the wisdom of the Flubros mindset by rejecting the biomedical...

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Gonzaga Bulldogs will likely need to play better if they want to make it out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament and into the Sweet 16. The Zags will face No. 9 seed Memphis on Saturday night. You might not know it by looking at the final score (93-72), but the Bulldogs struggled early in their first-round game against Georgia State. It wasn’t until Gonzaga went on a 21-0 run that the Bulldogs finally looked like a number one seed.

Thanks to a new analysis technique, precision measurements of the Earth-Moon distance should improve estimates of the size of the gravitational-wave background. NASA Precise measurements of the Earth-Moon distance can allow researchers to estimate the maximum possible amplitude of the steady background “hum” of gravitational waves. (This time-lapse series of photos was taken by a satellite a million miles from Ea... Show more The barrage of all gravitational waves that continuously hit Earth in the microhertz frequency range—roughly one oscillation every few weeks—might be detected by measuring their subtle effects on the Earth-Moon system. By exploiting this decades-old idea, researchers...

22 days until first round voting in France's Presidential Election and this week Business teamed up with Government in France to keep gasoline prices down at the time of the election. Total, a major provider of gas cutting its prices 11 US cents a litre. That's equal to 40 US cents a gallon. This in addition to the 60 cents a gallon give back from the government in gas prices that starts April 1st nine days before the first round vote. Today the Yellow Vests protests continue in France on a "Worldwide Day Of Freedom" protests worldwide opposing COVID mandates...

The likelihood that Russia is sitting on a wealth of compromising Ukraine-related material on Joe Biden and his family may come as a shock to media that pushed the Trump-Russia collusion narrative for four years. But the Biden-Russia kompromat story may be more than a political funhouse mirror. It may explain the president’s curious passivity toward Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline and why, almost as soon as Biden took office, Putin seized the opportunity to move more than 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s border. What’s more, it may also provide new insight into the Russiagate conspiracy theory that poisoned America’s public...

In this third week of our spiritual journey through Lent, the Scripture readings remind us of what we might call the “Moses stage” of salvation history, and also drive home the theme of repentance during this holy season. 1. Our First Reading is Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-1Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,...