Free Republic

The good news is that, even with the rising case and test positivity numbers, the new variant and recently lifted restrictions, hospitalizations and deaths are not showing any signs of increase. The region’s 7-day test positivity has risen 50% since Tuesday, from 0.8% to 1.2% today. That kind of jump in a 7-day average is worth noting, even though the percentages are still very low. On Tuesday, L.A. County reported 708 new cases. Today, the number had risen 78% to 1,263 new cases, up from 1,088 yesterday. L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer expressed some concern this week about...

Not everyone would be willing to confess their sexual secrets to a room full of strangers. That's where Kim TallBear and her Indigenous erotica event, Tipi Confessions, comes in."I confess: my first lesbian experience was with a white person. Even if she couldn't give any land back, she did give me many orgasms," says TallBear, reading an anonymous confession written and submitted by an audience member at a show during Toronto's 2019 Queer Film Festival. The crowd hoots, hollers and cheers.Tipi Confessions is a live theatre event, with its co-creators and hosts reflecting on sexual desire and sex positivity through...

Emory University has launched a program to limit internet access by students who have refused to get a COVID-19 booster shot, the school said. >> Read more trending news The program is designed to encourage students to get a COVID-19 booster shot. The school’s policy requires students and faculty to have a COVID-19 vaccination and a booster shot. Students who have not gotten three vaccinations were notified in February that their internet access would be limited, or the speed slowed if they did not either show they had the booster or had requested an exemption from getting the shot.

… China once claimed large tracts of land in what is now the Russian Far East. Russia took the southeast corner of Siberia through the Amur Annexation in 1858. A military conflict broke out in March 1969 that included clashes over Zhenbao Island in Heilongjiang Province and on the border between China’s far western province of Xinjiang and the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. These incidents led to fears of nuclear war between the USSR and the People’s Republic of China. Given China’s view that it is entitled to all of the territory, both land and sea, that it once controlled,...

The wet dress rehearsal, which simulates every stage of launch without the rocket actually leaving the launchpad, will begin at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday and is expected to go until 2:40 p.m. ET Monday, according to the release. The test is an important step in the first phase of NASA's Artemis program, which is expected to return humans to the moon and land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025. The results of the wet dress rehearsal will determine when Artemis I will launch on a mission that goes beyond the...

America’s top military officer conceded this week it is “possible” the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan contributed to Russia's decision to invade Ukraine — an argument Republicans have made for weeks. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made the comments during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. Gen. Tod Wolters, the head of U.S. European Command, said last week that Vladimir Putin may have been attempting to take advantage of potential cracks in NATO resulting from post-Afghanistan conditions. ... When pressed by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, on the Afghanistan withdrawal and whether it...

Private donations from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg were used "to manipulate state law in a way that they could harvest ballots," asserts Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry won an appeal last week against private, "Zuckerbucks"-style funding for state elections, arguing that it's not the government's job "to entice people to go vote." Landry told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberberg, who spent nearly $400 million on city and county voting operations in the 2020 presidential election, found loopholes in the law. "He ... found a way to manipulate the laws,"...

What if we applied the principles of election integrity we expect from other countries to the United States? The U.S. government spends about $2.4 billion per year supporting democracy around the world. Through this support we aim to encourage adoption and compliance with internationally accepted principles and obligations for democratic elections and governance. These principles and obligations are grounded in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and are included and elaborated on in regional treaties and agreements. Grounded in this foundation, advocates of democracy have...

I really admire toughness and courage, and I will tell you that the people of this brigade (Bay of Pigs freedom-fighters) 2506 really have that…you were let down by our country.'' (Donald Trump, addressing Bay of Pigs Veterans at Bay of Pigs museum Miami Fl, 11/16, 1999.)“It’s a great honor and I’m humbled for this endorsement from these freedom fighters—from TRUE freedom fighters… You were fighting for the values of freedom and liberty that unite us all. (Candidate Donald Trump, receiving endorsement of Bay of Pigs Veterans at Bay of Pigs museum Miami Fl, 10/25, 2016.)“The Republicans have allowed a...

Genesee County Clerk-Register John Gleason, who was overseeing the city of Flint during the 2020 presidential election, is being charged with bribing or intimidating a witness as well as neglecting his duties. Gleason has been charged with felony witness intimidation, which can be punished by up to four years behind bars and a $5,000 fine. His misdemeanor willful neglect of duty charge could be punished with up to one year behind bars and a $1,000 fine. Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson announced the charges during a Friday afternoon press conference. Swanson gave little in...

MSNBC updated a previously aired segment after a reporter who goes by "they/them" pronouns publicly complained about being misgendered by the liberal network. Reporter Kate Sosin, who covers LGBTQ issues for The 19th News, objected after being identified as a female during a segment about women journalists who face online harassment. Sosin appeared on MSNBC while an on-screen graphic said, "1 in 3 women under 35 experience online harassment," but the graphic has been removed. Sosin, who claimed the network "misgendered me" and "won’t fix it, responded with the folded hands emoji when the reporter was informed the segment was...

Iran and the US continue to sanction each other as they engage in talks to restore a 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran, Iran – Iran has added 24 United States officials and people to its blacklist of sanctioned individuals over charges of “terrorism” and violations of human rights of the Iranian people. On Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry announced it has targeted nine individuals for “their involvement in terrorist acts”. These, among others, include George W Casey Jr, former Chief of Staff of the US Army and Commanding General of Multi-National Forces in Iraq; Joseph Votel, former commander of the United...

Nancy Pelosi privately vented about having to "grovel" for another term as House speaker after the 2018 midterms and said "at this point in my life, I don't need this," according to a forthcoming book. New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns pull back the curtain on Pelosi's internal frustrations in their forthcoming book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," due for release on May 3. Punchbowl News reported on some excerpts of the book's reporting on Friday morning. Pelosi showed "her frustration with unusual vehemence" on the day of her election...

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has said that she sees hardly any possibilities left to supply Ukraine with weapons and equipment directly from the German military stockpiles. Talking to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, Lambrecht said that in order to maintain Germany's defense capability, future deliveries to Ukraine would increasingly have to be made directly via the arms industry. "To this end, we are continuously coordinating with Ukraine," she said, in remarks published Saturday. "In the case of deliveries from Bundeswehr stocks, however, I have to be honest, we have now reached a limit," Lambrecht said.

The media bury truthful stories to protect corrupt politicians while intentionally spreading lies to destroy politicians they oppose. When an inconvenient, truthful, story about massive Biden family corruption came out before the 2020 election, the media and other Democrats went into panic mode to bury the story. The social media billionaires were complicit in burying the story. Fifty former swamp creatures, including congenital liars Brennan and Clapper, along with Leon Panetta, were solicited, and put out a letter, without evidence, that claimed the laptop looked like Russian misinformation. The compliant media used this fictional letter as justification to bury story....

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Kyiv's forces have managed to "thwart" Russian attempts to connect Crimea, the peninsula they seized from Ukraine in 2014, to its western border so far. And it is now hoped they will put Britain's Mastiffs, heavily armoured vehicles that were used to protect troops from roadside bombs in Afghanistan, to the same use they gave to the UK's anti-tank and anti-air weapons. It comes after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, having seen Russian troops retreat from their advance on his capital, called on the world to hold Moscow accountable for a missile strike on a train station that killed at least 52...

The Goldwater Institute is a leading free-market public policy research and litigation organization that is dedicated to empowering all Americans to live freer, happier lives. We accomplish real results for liberty by working in state courts, legislatures, and communities nationwide to advance, defend, and strengthen the freedom guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and the fifty states. The following column is by Nicole Solas, a mother in Rhode Island and a client of the Goldwater Institute.I’m just like any parent—when I enrolled my daughter in kindergarten, I wanted to know what she would learn. In response, our school...

2022 has been a tough year for bond investors and the mortgage industry. Doubleline’s Jeff Gundlach observed that the 2 Year Treasury yield is up 125 bp over the past month or so. I commented that the 2 Year Treasury Yield is up 179 bp since December 31, 2021 and the 30-year mortgage rate is also up 179 bp since the end of 2021. Yes, 2022 has been a dismal year for bonds and the mortgage market. The ICE BofA MOVE index, a yield curve weighted index of the normalized implied volatility on 1-month Treasury options, has risen in 2022...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemRevelation 3To the Church in Sardis 3 “To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will...