Free Republic

Facebook employees were told to stop discussing abortion at work after the subject has become 'the most divisive and reported topic' on the company's internal chat system. Executives at Meta, its parent company, allege abortion discussions on Workplace, an internal social media platform, have put the organization at 'an increased risk' of being seen as a 'hostile work environment,' The Verge reported. VP of HR Janelle Gale, during a town hall meeting Thursday, told staff the abortion discussions isolate certain employees and are harmful to the work environment. 'Even if people are respectful, and they're attempting to be respectful about...

SINGAPORE, May 20 (Reuters) - China is quietly ramping up purchases of oil from Russia at bargain prices, according to shipping data and oil traders who spoke to Reuters, filling the vacuum left by Western buyers backing away from business with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February. The move by the world's biggest oil importer comes a month after it initially cut back on Russian supplies, for fear of appearing to openly support Moscow and potentially expose its state oil giants to sanctions. read more China's seaborne Russian oil imports will jump to a near-record 1.1 million barrels...

Ok so she finished 3rd. The Hannity hate worked. Her tweet's didn't help. Neither did the infighting amongst the freepers. We have to keep the seat. Lose it and it's gone for 6 years. Trump knows it. Taking a chance on Oz is a deal with the devil-we all know that too. She fought hard and didn't quit like too many republicans do before as well as after elections. She kept it up after losing by 20 points in the house election. In her defense the district appears deep blue and if she fought the good fight in an expected...

A furious female skateboarder has slammed Red Bull for sponsoring a contest where she placed second to her trans rival. Taylor Silverman claims she and other female competitors were disadvantaged by officials at the Red Bull Cornerstone Contest, where she placed second and received a $2,750 award. Trans skateboarder Lillian Gallagher was awarded $5,000 for placing first and winning two separate divisions - money that Silverman says should have been given to her. Silverman, who has been skateboarding for 11 years, said when she tried to reach out to officials to 'do the right thing even if it's not the...

A '90s actor who starred in the hit TV show "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" has been charged with perpetuating a scheme to defraud the U.S. government of CARES Act funds, according to the Department of Justice. Austin St. John, who played the red Power Ranger on the show, which aired from 1993 to 1995, was one of 18 charged with filing fraudulent applications for loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, and transferring them to the two ringleaders of the scheme. St. John, whose real name is Jason Geiger, allegedly obtained more than $400,000 in fraudulent PPP loans and transferred them...

In March 2021, the National Threat Initiative (NTI) partnered with the Munich Security Conference to conduct a tabletop exercise on reducing high-consequence biological threats. The report focused specifically on a Monkeypox outbreak. This tabletop exercise can be added to a long list of other pandemic table top exercises. In a previous thread that I wrote back in November 2021 (before my twitter account was banned) I wrote a thread entitled “Who Are The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security And Why Did They Publish A Document Called The SPARS Pandemic 2025-2028”. In that thread I spoke of 4 pandemic tabletop...

We want to open this evening with a story you may not have heard, but that you should definitely know about. It begins early last year when Joe Biden, in one of his very first acts as president, brought the United States back into the World Health Organization. We saw this, and we thought: Why would Biden be so anxious to do something like that? At the time, we assumed it was just part of his larger de-orangification effort. Trump had pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, so Biden had to do the opposite. Childish, but that...

Fewer and fewer Americans are saying the United States is on the right track or that the economy is in good shape as inflation soars, according to a new poll. A recent survey done by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research found that just 21% of adults believe the US is going in the right direction, down from 29% in April. Even Democrats are losing hope – with only 33% saying the US is headed in the right direction compared to 49% a month ago and 55% in March.

Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is running for Congress, he announced Friday morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." De Blasio, a 61-year-old Democrat who served as New York City mayor from 2014 to 2021, will run in New York's newly drawn 10th Congressional District. "Joe, the polls show people are hurting. They need help," de Blasio told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. "They need help fast. And they need leaders who can actually get them help now and know how to do it. I do know how to do it from years of serving the people of this city. And so...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on boosters for 5- to 11-year-olds following the independent vaccine advisers recommendation for an additional dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine following a primary series. The CDC's vaccine advisers voted 11-1, with 1 abstention Thursday to support recommending a booster dose, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized earlier this week. The recommendation they voted on was: "A single Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine booster dose is recommended for persons ages 5-11 years at least 5 months after the primary series, under the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization."

Anne Van Donsel said she didn't quite believe it when her hometown of Burlington, Vermont, last year sent her a new property tax assessment stating that the value of her home had doubled — raising her property taxes by 20%. Her property taxes jumped to about $12,000 a year, up from $10,000, a bump she said is adding to the financial strain as inflation pushes up the cost of food and other necessities. While Van Donsel appealed the assessment, she was given only a small reduction in the value of her home, which didn't make a dent in her new...

FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER JOHN 15:12-17 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us his friends. Psychologists tell us that a true friend is someone who has seen us at our worst and still loves us. If you have encountered me only on my best days, I have no guarantee that you are my friend. But when you have dealt with me when I am most obnoxious and you still love me, then I am sure that you are my friend. The old Gospel song says, “What a friend we have in Jesus!” This is not pious sentimentalism; it is the...

The leftist government of New Zealand will begin handing out millions of checks in an attempt to fight inflation, despite government spending typically being a key contributor to inflation. In order to supposedly combat inflation, which has risen to a 30-year-high in New Zealand, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced on Thursday that the Labour Party-controlled government would be issuing 350NZD ($225/£180) in checks to some 2.1 million Kiwis in weekly payments over the next three months.

Haines welcomed its first large cruise ship last week since September 2019. It marks the start of what could be a record-breaking cruise season for Upper Lynn Canal communities. But with little public data about COVID-19 cases on ships, some community members worry that the cruise ships could also bring a surge in coronavirus cases. Listen to this story: The town’s Deputy Mayor Cheryl Stickler welcomed passengers as they got off the Serenade of the Seas last Thursday. “You’re the first large cruise ship we’ve been able to host since September 18, 2019. That’s only 967 days,” she said laughing....

Today, one of the representatives of the Russian state said that the occupiers allegedly began to use laser weapons systems in Ukraine. Allegedly to save missiles.Firstly, it is noteworthy that they need to save missiles and somehow explain it. That is, more than two thousand missiles fired by the Russian army at Ukraine were the main part of their stockpile of missiles. That is, only the remnants are left.Secondly, everyone has already seen Russia at war. Inexperienced conscripts, which it throws into battle like cannon fodder. Marauders who see normal appliances for the first time in a foreign country. Old...

What in the world is going on? In the past, we were told that monkeypox was not a major concern because it was so difficult to spread it from person to person. But now monkeypox seems to be spreading like wildfire. On May 7th, the very first case in the western world in 2022 was confirmed in the United Kingdom. Now here we are less than two weeks later and there are now dozens of confirmed and suspected cases in eight different countries outside of Africa. Yesterday, I discussed the cases that have popped up in Spain, Portugal and the...

One of the biggest issues driving our economic problems is the supply chain crisis. If you remember last year, we dealt with backups at ports on both coasts, and this year the baby formula shortage has highlighted problems with the supply chain (and the government’s response to it). The prevailing wisdom is that the supply chain crisis is temporary and will resolve itself at some point in the near future. But is that the case? The CEO of a website that covers the trucking and logistics sector isn’t terribly optimistic. Craig Fuller, CEO of FreightWaves, has written an editorial at...

It’s only May 19, and Fox News is reporting that at least 135 teachers and teachers’ aides have been arrested for sex crimes involving children this year. The crimes range from child pornography to rape. These are just the reported crimes. If a principal or school district wanted to hide a sexual predator, as they did in Loudoun County, Va,, when a transgender kid in a skirt anally raped a 14-year-old girl, they often can.Oops, I just found two more arrests that weren’t reported until Fox News released their report. That’s a total of 137 pedophiles arrested. Of those apprehended,...

President Joe Biden arrived in South Korea on Friday for his first presidential visit to Asia. Watch as he departed Air Force One: Biden treads very carefully down the stairs from Air Force One. Watch as he strides towards the South Korean delegation and proceeds to take the mask he was wearing outdoors off of his face. This is not how masks are supposed to work. (Spoiler alert: They don’t work.) On his presidential trip, Biden is set to tour manufacturing plants in South Korea and will also be going to Japan. “President Joe Biden is opening his trip to...

The academic intelligentsia’s obsession with the term “Latinx” is confusing yet enduring. Although roughly 40 percent of Latino voters find the term, meant as a non-gendered alternative to the masculine “Latino” and the feminine “Latina,” to be offensive, it is part of the everyday lexicon of academics and education journalists. On a purely linguistic level, Latinx sounds odd in English, and it makes even less sense in Spanish, the language of the people whom Latinx’s users and advocates claim to represent. But my issues with the word go far beyond linguistic quibbles. It’s personal. Don’t let my last name fool...