Free Republic

While U.S. intelligence has been unable in two years to determine for sure if COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, Congress has decided it no longer wants to take the risk of funding medical research at labs controlled by Beijing or other American adversaries.With little fanfare and in bipartisan fashion, House appropriators quietly amended the 2023 federal budget for health and science agencies on Thursday to ban any funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which U.S. intelligence fears may have been the origin point for the coronavirus pandemic, and other labs like it."None of the funds made available by...

One-third of Americans have changed their Fourth of July plans due to high gas prices, an Emerson College Poll released Friday found. The survey, taken June 28-29 among 1,271 registered voters, found that 33 percent have actively changed their travel plans this holiday weekend due to consistently high gas prices. “Regarding airfare, 18% have changed plans because of issues with plane travel,” the survey found. The results come as gas prices remain high, standing at an average of $4.842 on Friday after reaching an all-time high of $5.016 on June 14. Even so, gas prices are still well over $2.40...

"And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." "The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever." "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but...

VIDEOA year ago, in July 2021, Sleepy Joe and pals went into a state of deep braggadocio boasting how they saved the public 16 cents on their Fourth of July cookout from a year before. That's right! SIXTEEN WHOLE CENTS!!! Of course, that "savings" figure was due to some very creative accounting on their part. However, as you can see in this video, there is NO WAY Sleepy Joe wants to even mention anything at all associated with the costs of the 2022 July 4 picnic. In fact, they prefer you just think of something else altogether.

The Biden regime has blamed Vladimir Putin, oil companies, Donald Trump, Covid-19, and Vladimir Putin again for the skyrocketing gas prices. None of it stuck. The people blame the regime and rightfully so. But instead of finally coming out and acknowledging that their own failures and policies (one in the same) caused this problem, they’ve chosen a new target upon which to attempt to gaslight the nation. They decided to do it on social media, which is about as ludicrous as it sounds. People can respond, and their responses have been some of the most brutal this failed regime has...

Global warming is not a serious topic. No one cares, but the left wants us all to suffer in order to drop the Earth's temperature by less than a degree or whatever. Let's cannibalize future economic growth, curb population growth while we're at it, and declare war on burgers. These are the most miserable people on Earth. The problem is fighting back against their climate lies is hard when you have the shield of Big Tech there to flag and censor stories that shred their narrative. Before that crackdown, we used to torch the climate change crew. I'll do so...

The Supreme Court yesterday denied an appeal from the California Trucking Association about AB5, the new employment law in California governing independent-contract work. That means the law goes into effect today, and the trucking industry in the most important state for supply chains will face major upheaval. “It is going to be a radically new world in California’s trucking sector with the imposition of AB5, and it isn’t clear what parts of the industry — if any — are ready for it,” writes John Kingston at FreightWaves. The law was enjoined by a lower court on New Year’s Eve in...

SAN RAMON, California — Chevron intends to sell its vast headquarters campus in San Ramon, keep its head offices in the same East Bay city and shift jobs to Texas, a move that could deal a fresh blow to the Bay Area economy. The energy giant said it will cover relocation costs for some employees to move from San Ramon to Texas. “Chevron plans to sell our Chevron Park campus and move to new modern leased space in San Ramon,” the oil titan said in comments emailed to this news organization. ... “Chevron will remain headquartered in California, where the...

In the wake of school violence around the country, Benjamin Logan Schools is examining measures to increase school security, including an option allowed under the recently enacted House Bill 99 that enables boards of educations to choose to have an armed presence in school buildings if certain procedures and requirements are met. Board members tabled at their regular rescheduled Thursday evening meeting a resolution to consider a volunteer response team in the district. Instead, the board has called a special meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday,July 6, at the Benjamin Logan High School auditorium, inviting district residents to attend and provide...

Authorities in Norway have hatched a plan to prevent Freya the walrus from sinking more small boats as she sunbathes at a marina. See video at the link.

Nearly 50 years ago, Randy Bachman's Gretsch guitar – on which he wrote "American Woman" and other hits — was stolen from a hotel in Toronto. Decades later, the instrument has been returned to him by a Japanese musician who had bought it at a store in Tokyo, unaware of its history. Bachman, former guitarist for the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was understandably distraught when he first noticed the guitar had gone missing in 1977. It was the first expensive instrument he'd ever bought as a teenager, having worked odd jobs to save up the $400 for it. "I...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is calling for the State Legislature to reenact the strict gun control laws that the US Supreme Court explicitly struck down last week. She rejected contentions that she needed any evidence to support her demands that law-abiding citizens must be prevented from defending themselves with firearms, saying “I’m the Governor. I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. The peace on our state’s streets has been preserved in a delicate balance of terror between an armed criminal element and the police. The Supreme Court’s interjection of a mythical Second Amendment right for individuals to...

GARDENERS have been warned that their habit could leave them at an increased risk of heart disease. Medics found that pollutants in the soil could have a 'detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system'. The results of the analysis pushed experts to recommend that people wear a face mask, if they are in close contact with the soil. Experts at the University Medical Center Mainz, Germany said pollution of air, water and soil is responsible for at least nine million deaths each year. They highlighted that more than 60 per cent of pollution-related deaths are due to heart issues such as...

"It's the first time I've ever seen anything that looks like an Audi R8 flying through the sky"An unidentified bright white object has been spotted in the Welsh skyline, reportedly "bouncing" through the night. The object, which has been described as resembling an "Audi R8", was captured on film last weekend flying over the north Wales sky. The car-shaped object was filmed flying over Colwyn Heights by garage owner Matthew Norbury last weekend, North Wales Live reports. The quick video shows the bright white object speeding through the sky, then making a sharp change of direction. It's this odd...

A note from the author:My friends, Jim and Joe Hoft, are being attacked by some readers of this blog because of what I am writing. Some of you (and you know who you are) accuse the Hoft boys of being “pro-Putin” or “pro-Russian.” Why? Because they allow me to write about the real situation in Ukraine that does not kow tow to the bullshit narrative being spun by Dementia Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer, Lloyd Austin, Hillary Clinton, Clinton-lackey Jake Sullivan, George Soros, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.Now, if you are comfortable endorsing the pro-Ukraine, fight to...

January 6, 2021. Unbridled violence was sweeping the nation, a disputed election had Americans pitted against each other, and trust in the mainstream media had been lost. Donald J. Trump lost his bid for the office of president of the United States in an extremely close and hotly debated election. Mail-in ballots and voting machines were called into question, and the validity of the election had a nation divided. On January 6th, 2021, then-President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters from the Ellipse, near the White House in Washington, D.C. He spoke of a failed electoral system...

Russia-backed separatists say they have "completely" encircled the key city of Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region. "Today the Luhansk popular militia and Russian forces occupied the last strategic heights, which allows us to confirm that Lysychansk is completely encircled," Andrei Marotchko, a spokesman for the separatist forces, told the TASS news agency. Ukraine's army denied the claims, saying that fighting is still raging in the city.

The story of the GOP primary race for Secretary of State in Colorado gets more interesting the more you investigate the results. As I noted yesterday, the big news is that an Australian businessman named Mike O’Donnell somehow got 28% of the vote (173,000 citizens voted for him!) even though polling showed he had no support, he raised $4,700 for his campaign, and 139 people were following his campaign on Twitter. The most interaction he got on his 1,300 campaign tweets was 4 “likes” on his June 27th tweet; most of them had zero interaction. He went from being a...

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced Thursday that he bought 80 bitcoin, at a time when the legal tender cryptocurrency maintains a downward trend and is around 20,000 dollars. “El Salvador I buy today 80 btc (at $19,000 each),” the president wrote on Twitter, in English. “Bitcoin is the future, thanks for selling cheap,” he added. Faced with the decline in the price of cryptocurrencies and the criticism his administration is receiving, on June 19 the president said that “patience is the key” when investing in bitcoin.

People in Sri Lanka have been rioting over the cost of food and lack of energy resources. The military has responded by gunning down protesters. This offers a glimpse of the future if Western countries continue their trajectory of inflations, supply chain issues, food shortages and gas price hikes. Once society collapses, people are the ones to starve as the government makes sure its power remains intact and functional to force people to obey their whims. Troops in Visuvamadu, around 228 miles north of Colombo, fired on civilians on June 18 as their guard point was pelted with stones, said...