Free Republic

With more than one million reported COVID-19 deaths and enormous collateral damage to public health, education, and the economy, our pandemic response was a disaster. Yet some House Democrats are now defending the Trump administration officials responsible for initiating those misguided policies. Two Trump-appointed officials—former CDC director Robert Redfield and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx—formally directed the federal response from the start of the pandemic through January 2021. They adopted lockdowns, including school and business closures, as the centerpiece of the national coronavirus response. In a recent report, Democrats on the Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus...

“If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that’s not an abortion,” Foster said. “So it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul bought up to $5 million in stock of a computer chip company ahead of a vote on a bill next week that would hand billions in subsidies to boost chip manufacturing, a financial disclosure shows. Paul Pelosi purchased 20,000 shares of Nvidia, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, on June 17, according to the speaker’s disclosure report released Thursday. Now, senators will convene as early as Tuesday to vote on a bipartisan competition bill, which allocates $52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and gives tax credits for production, Reuters reported Thursday. “It...

Fauci appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to recommend viewers continue to mask up indoors and get their second booster shot to combat the spread of the BA.5 variant, though he admitted it would be a "hard sell" for the American people.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took their opposition to Sheriff Alex Villanueva to new heights Monday with a power grab he called an “illegal motion” to make themselves “judge, jury and executioner” for his office. Since taking office in 2018, Villanueva has stood in contrast to the soft-on-crime policies dominating California politics and the draconian measures pushed in response to the COVID pandemic. Now, ahead of a Nov. 8 election, the board demonstrated that they are not willing to leave this decision up to the will of the people and that they must have the authority to remove...

Shock absorption would make them less efficient peckers, study argues Scientists have long hypothesized that a spongy bone in the woodpecker’s skull cushions its repeated head slams like a well-designed safety helmet. (Indeed, engineers have modeled football helmets and shock-absorbing electronics after this idea.) But a new analysis shows the birds may be opting for power over protection. ...But woodpeckers, despite smacking with accelerations three times the human concussion threshold, seem to escape unharmed, says Sam Van Wassenbergh, a biomechanist at the University of Antwerp and lead author on the study. This impressive resilience led previous researchers to search for...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis: Priest Mothers Are “Not Surprised”The mothers of Roman Rite priest (La Voie romaine) who made a foot pilgrimage from France to Rome to soften Francis’ hardened heart, published a press release about Desiderio desideravi, Francis’ most recent attack on the Mass.“We are not surprised by this position, but we can only regret that the various messages addressed to Rome since the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes - including that of La Voie romaine - have not been echoed,” the mothers write.The mothers are therefore preparing to embark on Act II of their project. They will publish a collection...

The United States may begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. "Ukrainian pilots are going to be taught to fly F-15 and F-16 fighters in the USA. This amendment to the bill on the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2023 was supported by the House of Representatives. It is planned to allocate $100 million for this," head of the Pesident’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram channel on Friday.

Archdiocese publishes synod reportThe Archdiocese of Louisville’s report on the local synod listening process — part of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality — is now available at www.archlou.org.The report, “Journeying Together,” reflects themes prevalent in church and society, such as issues related to clericalism, the experience of LGBTQ+ Catholics, the engagement of young people in church and polarization in society.“This synthesis reveals pain and challenges within our Church along with opportunities for healing and growth,” writes Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre in a cover letter that accompanies the document. “It also reflects the great enthusiasm with which participants entered into this...

A bigot headbutted a man and spewed anti-Asian statements at him in Queens this week, cops said. The suspect approached the 22-year-old victim on Steinway Street near 34th Avenue in Long Island City just before 9 p.m. Tuesday and snarled, “You Asians are the reason I cannot get a job. You Chinese are scum,” according to police. Then he slammed his own head into the victim’s before taking off, cops said.

SNIP he ‘announced’ her departure from the game four months ago, during one of two bizarre interviews which have seemed designed to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the Chinese state’s process of vanishing her. More than 18 months have passed, now, since China removed Peng from the internet and, effectively, from public life. She had publicly accused a 75-year-old former Communist Party official of sexual assault. The Chinese state’s response to international demands to know her whereabouts says everything about its bloated sense of invincibility. There was a creepy, stage-managed appearance with the IOC president Thomas Bach who, in...

An activist who shouted "Where is Peng Shuai?" and held up a sign with the same message was removed from Center Court during the Wimbledon men's final on Sunday. Drew Pavlou, an activist who made a similar protest at the Australian Open this year, said he shouted the message during a stoppage in play and was then forcefully removed from the stadium. "I didn't want to disrupt the actual match itself, so I waited to make sure there was a break in the play and then I just basically held up a sign saying, 'Where is Peng Shuai?'" Pavlou told...

Leading laywoman and Co-President of German 'Synodal Way' calls for 'nationwide provision of abortion'Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German CatholicsA leading laywoman and co-president of the German "Synodal Way" has demanded a "nationwide provision of abortion" across the European Union's most populous country. Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), acknowledged that abortion should not be considered a "regular medical service", CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner, reported. In comments published by German weekly Die Zeit, the 65-year-old wrote that abortion was "not a regular intervention and should not be treated as such,"...

Former President Donald Trump’s pick to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney in the race for Wyoming’s lone House seat holds a commanding 22-point lead with a month until the primary, a new Casper Star-Tribune poll shows. Natural resources attorney Harriet Hageman leads Cheney 52% to 30%, the poll shows. No other challenger received more than 5% support. Only 11% of voters were undecided.

During a meeting between President Joe Biden and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, the Palestinian Authority’s honor guard welcomed Biden with a poor rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. “Just the Palestinian Authority’s honor guard completely butchering the American National Anthem…” tweeted Kassy Dillon, the U.S. Bureau News Editor for Jewish News Syndicate. Just the Palestinian Authority's honor guard completely butchering the American National Anthem… pic.twitter.com/dfcJjMj8Ff— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) July 15, 2022 The brutal performance elicited mockery and criticism on Twitter, with some even suggesting that the Palestinian orchestra played poorly on purpose. Christopher Bedford, senior editor at The...

Donald A. Pierce, 82, was one of two victims in an unprovoked attack at a Portland bus stop Keffer James White, 29, approached Pierce and attacked him, kicking him repeatedly in the head Pierce sustained serious head and face trauma and died in the hospital over a week after the attack Crime has risen dramatically in Portland recently, with an increase in shootings and homicides

The Motown singer and prolific songwriter — who once fronted Smokey Robinson and the Miracles — is still going strong despite a recent bout with COVID-19 in 2020. “I was very sick — I was in the hospital for 11 days with it — but I came through,” Robinson said down the line from his L.A. home. The Detroit-born songwriter behind such classics as Shop Around — Motown’s first million-selling hit record — You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me, I Second That Emotion, The Tears of a Clown and The Tracks of My Tears, says the key to staying...

In games such as golf, you win by scoring lower than any of your opponents. But in the realm of presidential job approval, such an approach is a recipe for political upheaval, as President Biden has found over the past few months. Polls continue to show his approval rating in poor shape, and even Democrats are asking questions about his political future amid broad dissatisfaction with the current state of the country. In fact, Biden is dancing with a bleak bit of history: His approval rating of 39 percent1 is now the worst of any elected president at this point...

A Rochester Police officer is on desk duty following an altercation with an EMT at a hospital’s emergency department, according to published reports. The incident happened Monday at Strong Memorial Hospital when the police officer’s car was hit by the EMT while unloading a patient in the ambulance bay. The officer wanted to get the EMTs identification, but the EMT wanted to bring the patient inside the hospital first. While the EMT was at the check-in desk, she was handcuffed and forcefully taken outside to a police car. The EMT was later released from custody. She was not charged or...

Explanation: On July 13 this well-planned telephoto view recorded a Full Moon rising over Lubovna Castle in eastern Slovakia. The photographer was about 3 kilometers from the castle walls and about 357,000 kilometers from this Full Moon near perigee, the closest point in its elliptical orbit. Known to some as supermoons, full moons near perigee are a little brighter and larger in planet Earth's sky when compared to full moons that occur near the average lunar distance of around 384,000 kilometers. Of course any Full Moon near the horizon can show the effects of refraction over a long sight-line through...