Free Republic

Thousands of Israelis gathered in a Tel Aviv hangar on Wednesday night as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the most influential political organizations in the United States, held its inaugural Israeli conference. Conservative activists and top Donald Trump administration officials spoke about how much the former US president has done for Israel, praised Israel’s high birthrate and called on Israelis to fight on the conservative side of America’s culture wars. But the key draw for many was celebrity pundit Ben Shapiro, who gave the evening’s keynote address. SNIP “Do any of you watch CNN International?” he...

According to the state health department, testing done at a state lab and confirmed by the CDC showed that the virus is a vaccine strain Sabin type 2, which indicates that transmission occurred from someone who received an oral polio vaccine. Different from wild polio, which has been nearly eradicated globally, cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus occur when a live but weakened strain of virus that is included in vaccines spreads between people. Like wild polio, vaccine-derived poliovirus can cause paralysis. According to the state health department, it is the first case of vaccine-derived polio recorded in the United States since...

What do you call an economic system where a relative few individuals own all the land and most of the people who live on that land do so at the sufferance of the landowner? It's feudalism. This was the economic system in most of Europe during the Middle Ages. The vast majority of the population was born into, lived and died in poverty. There was little hope for upward mobility unless one opted for a career in military service or the clergy. (From time to time, extraordinarily pretty peasant girls might be married off to a lesser lord.) The rise...

Disney has announced it is ditching the term 'fairy godmothers' for gender-neutral titles at dress-up salons across its theme parks. The salons, which give makeovers and help kids aged 3 to 12 dress up as princess, knights and other characters, will drop the term 'fairy godmothers in training' for their staff, instead referring to them as apprentices. 'This way, cast members that might not identify as female can still be part of the process to dress up & style the children without having to refer to themselves as a female Disney character,' a release on Disney blog, Streaming the Magic,...

President Joe Biden tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday morning, the White House revealed, just hours after returning from a trip to Massachusetts.The White House said Biden, age 79, is only experiencing “very mild symptoms” and is fully vaccinated and boosted with four shots of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

Many countries are ramping up coal to keep up with rising energy demands. Even some EU countries that were otherwise planning to exit coal usage are now seeing an increase in production and fossil-powered energy generation. ... Despite the best efforts to the contrary, short-term global reliance on coal has only increased... energy is getting harder and harder to come by, and most countries are falling back on reliable .. sources. Energy Issues Have Left Many Nations with No Other Choice.. In the US, coal production has risen significantly from last year... production is up 6%.. ... China, too, has...

Republican lawmakers filed a bill Wednesday that would require expecting fathers to pay child support beginning at conception. The "Unborn Child Support Act" would "establish and enforce child support obligations of the biological father of an unborn child." With the mother's consent, once paternity is proven, fathers would be responsible for the payment amount determined by a court. The bill would amend the Social Security Act which outlines the existing state-enforced requirements for biological fathers to make child support payments to the mother of their child. Not only would the legislation expand the requirements and ensure state enforcement of mothers'...

The House passed a bill on Thursday to safeguard access to contraceptives, less than a month after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said the bench should overturn the landmark case protecting forms of birth control. The legislation, titled the Right to Contraception Act, passed in a 228-195 vote. Eight Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure, and two Republicans voted present. GOP “yes” votes came from Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), John Katko (N.Y.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.) and Fred Upton (Mich.). Reps. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) and Mike...

It's fitting the United Nations was the setting for this spectacle. Only in the headquarters of the world's most useless institution could a semi-disowned member of the British Royal Family deliver a tone-deaf address about abortion rights. Is Prince Harry bored? He must be because of everything to make a stink about—he decides to weigh in on the abortion wars. Meghan Markle's fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Also, International Nelson Mandela Day is probably not the best day to discuss abortion. What the hell is this? Are they starving for attention (via Fox News):

I'm not making these into hyperlinks. Just the headlines, generated by Google's "algorithm": Pro-Kari Lake PAC accused of masking donors Trump-backed Kari Lake shared anti-Trump 'not my president' meme on Facebook days before 2017 inauguration Mysterious pro-Kari Lake PAC paid fake elector $2 million for ads and promotion Trump Doubles Down on Kari Lake Support After Her Anti-Trump Post Surfaces A Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate in Arizona is urging her supporters to use mail-in ballots — a form of voting that Trump has baselessly labeled a 'scam' How an Obama-backing Arizona news anchor became Trump’s pick for governor Kari Lake posted...

President Sergio Mattarella has dissolved Italy's parliament. The move comes after several key parties refused to form a coalition with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, prompting his resignation. Italy's President Sergio Mattarella has signed a decree dissolving the country's parliament. This now paves the way for fresh elections to be held.

I, for one, am tickled pink that our ruling class has finally come out against child rape. This is something new. For several decades now, the position of government officials, both political parties, think tanks, the Bush family, district attorneys and the entire media has been: We're going to foist primitive, peasant cultures on America and then lie to the public about how this is changing our country. We recently found out about one big way that third-world immigrants are enriching us. Soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the media began talking nonstop about a "10-year-old rape...

A new landmark was briefly added to Google Maps before disappearing on Tuesday night; the spot where President Joe Biden fell off his bike in Delaware. In June, the president took a tumble while trying to speak to reporters after a bike ride with his family in Rehoboth Beach. The viral moment captured the attention of right-wingers, including Donald Trump, who used the moment to mock Biden, 79. The accidental fall even led some to create the "Biden Bike Challenge" where people would visit the spot Biden fell and recreate the infamous photo of his fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to the highest level in more than eight months in what may be a sign that the labor market may be weakening. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 16 rose by 7,000 to 251,000, up from the previous week’s 244,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most since Nov. 13, 2021 when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet expected the number to come in at 242,000. First-time applications generally reflect layoffs. The four-week average for claims,...

What can cause/typically will cause that message? Thanks.

Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec BREAKING: Biden tests positive for COVID THIS IS KAMALAS MOMENT 9:37 AM · Jul 21, 2022

Thomas Lane, one of the three former Minneapolis police officers convicted in February of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison on Thursday. Federal prosecutors had asked Judge Paul A. Magnuson to sentence Lane to between 5.25 years to 6.5 years for his role in the fatal restraint of Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020. Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, asked for a sentence of 2.25 years. Former officers Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng faced state and federal charges for their actions – or lack thereof – in May 2020 as...

Former President Donald Trump, with a net-positive approval rating, is viewed far more favorably than net-negative President Joe Biden across midterm battleground districts, according to Wednesday’s AARP/Fabrizio polling.A majority (50-49 percent) of battleground respondents approve of Trump, while Biden’s approval rating among the same constituents is marked at only 37 percent with 61 percent disapproving. Trump’s approval rating is 23 points better than Biden’s.The survey was conducted among 56 of the most competitive districts in 2022 that are rated either a toss-up or as lean Democrat/Republican, according to the Cook Political Report. The poll sampled 2,352 likely voters in the...

Hungary’s foreign minister said Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the U.S. tax treaty with Hungary as leverage in negotiations about the adoption of a corporate minimum tax. The Treasury Department announced earlier this month that it is terminating its tax treaty with Hungary, a move decried by Republicans as retaliation for Hungary opposing the European Union plan, favored by the Biden administration, to adopt a 15% corporate minimum tax. The Biden administration has steered clear of saying that it canceled the deal to pressure Hungary, but Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday that Blinken had threatened to pull...

The old guard of the Republican Party in the state that once sent Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to the U.S. Senate is now laying it all on the line in a gubernatorial primary in an attempt to prevent the return of former President Donald Trump to power.What has become a proxy war between Trump and several elements of the old donor class and seen skirmishes in other states like Georgia and Nebraska in gubernatorial primaries this year has now burst out into the wide open just two weeks ahead of the all-important August 2 election.The battle...