Free Republic

Fact checkers want folks to stop calling Beto O’Rourke’s bacterial infection ‘monkeypox’ August 30, 2022 | Tom Tillison | Print Article Facebook Twitter Gettr LinkedIn Telegram Gab OMG. Sometimes, given the state of politics today in America, the abbreviation for “oh my god” is all one needs to say. Beto O’Rourke, aka Robert Francis O’Rourke, announced on Twitter over the weekend that he had fallen ill and was diagnosed with a bacterial infection, which prompted some on social media to mock the Democrat by suggesting he had contracted monkeypox. Of course, our fact-checking overlords could not allow such blasphemy against...

Donald Trump, who said two weeks ago "the temperature has to be brought down" in this country, is raising it to heights that would burst the thermometer. He’s gone on what we would call an angry tweetstorm, if he was still on Twitter, pumping out three dozen postings and repostings on his far smaller Truth Social app. Then Trump drops the hammer: "REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner, or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!"

The Syracuse University Board of Trustees is considering revoking the honorary degree given to Rudy Giuliani, the Daily Orange reported Tuesday. SU Chancellor Kent Syverud told the Syracuse University Student Association on Monday that he brought the topic up with the school’s board of trustees, according to the report. In April, the University Senate passed a resolution, introduced by the Student Association, urging the revocation of Giuliani’s honorary degree. Syverud said the board debated the issue and asked him to research how peer institutions revoke honorary degrees, according to the Daily Orange. Syverud said he hoped the full board would...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Tuesday for suggesting at a rally earlier this month that Empire State conservatives should take a hike. “You have the governor of New York saying all Republicans need to get on a bus and leave the state and come to Florida,” DeSantis said at an unrelated press conference. “Who would say something so ridiculous? To say if you don’t agree with me then you don’t even have a right to be here.” Hochul raised eyebrows for saying her conservative nemeses — including former President Donald Trump, gubernatorial opponent Lee Zeldin...

The owner of a small coffee shop in the centre of Athlone was shocked when she opened her electricity bill this week and realised she had been charged almost €10,000 for just over two months of energy usage. The cost of electricity to the Poppyfields cafe for 73 days from early June until the end of August came in at €9,024.70 an increase of 250 per cent in just 12 months. There doesn’t include the €812.22 in VAT, which brought her total bill to €9,836.92. It has left Geraldine Dolan wondering if she will be able to continue running the...

<p>FUTURES MOVERS Oil futures fell Wednesday, extending the previous session’s sharp decline amid worries about the global economic outlook as central banks move to squelch inflation.</p><p>Oil is heading for a third monthly drop, despite the Ukraine war, with slower economic growth expected in Europe, China and the U.S. as economies recover from the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and central banks raise interest rates to combat inflation.</p>

The Biden administration announced that Ukraine would receive $3 billion in military assistance — the largest amount it has sent since Russia began its invasion in February. The Department of Defense said that it was meeting both Ukraine’s “immediate and longer-term security assistance needs.” Among the 245,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and the laser-guided rocket systems listed in the Pentagon’s security assistance for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) were the VAMPIRE Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems. VAMPIRE is an acronym for “Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment.” In short, the system transforms pickup trucks and other vehicles into mobile...

“Is it okay to have a conspiracy to get rid of Trump?” host Bill Maker asked guests Rob Reiner and Sen. Amy Klobuchar on his HBO show on Friday. This exchange got considerable online attention. Most of that attention focused on Reiner’s shockingly ignorant disavowal of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Overlooked were the knee-jerk comments by both Reiner and Klobuchar on the subject of January 6. Rather than answer Maher’s question about the suppression of the laptop story, Reiner reflexively retreated to the safe space of January 6. “You know what is not justified,” said Reiner. “Using armed violence...

Dark clouds are ahead. We are being browbeaten by liberals about Trump being a dictator to distract you from Biden actually being a dictator. It is one of the current dog whistles on social media. There is a reason for it. Today Joe Biden launched into a bizarre speech in Pennsylvania in which he pounded on his newly discovered issue of crime and the perennial issue of gun control. It was really weird and often, dishonest. Crime is rampant across the country, Pennsylvania included. Philly has seen over 300 homicides this year. Philly is far more dangerous than the rest...

Former Secretary of State James Baker on Tuesday paid tribute to former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at 91 earlier in the day, calling the former world leader a “giant who steered his great nation toward democracy.” In a statement published through his eponymous Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Baker applauded Gorbachev’s role in ending the 40-year Cold War between Russia and the U.S., referring to him as an “honest broker” who stood by his word despite experiencing pressure from Moscow. Baker served as the secretary of State in the George H.W. Bush administration from 1989...

oogle is blocking Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media network, from its app store due to concerns over its content moderation policy. Trump started the app after Twitter banned him over his comments related to the Capitol Riots on Jan. 6, 2021, and Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes said the app was ready for the Google Play app store and pending approval last week. However, the company is requiring Truth Social to enforce stricter content moderation before it can be made available on Google Play, a Google spokesperson told the Hill. “On August 19 we notified Truth Social...

Today, Alaska is set to release the results of its special election to fill a vacant House seat, with Democrat Mary Peltola locked in a close race with former governor Sarah Palin (R). The election was Aug. 16, the state’s first ranked-choice contest, and after a 15-day waiting period required by state law, the results will be announced. If she wins, Peltola would be the first Alaska native elected to Congress. If Palin wins, it would revive the political career of a candidate who lost the vice presidency in 2008. The winner would serve the last four months of the...

Over the last three years Philadelphia's gun buyback program has removed more than 1,000 guns from the hands of private citizens. None of these weapons were linked to the commission of any crime. Philadelphia Police Capt. Frank Palumbo admitted that "we never expected any returns from criminals. Guns are the tools of their trade. Without them they'd be out of business. It'd be like a buyback of saws. No carpenter could afford to turn in these tools for the measly amount we have to offer. The $50 ShopRite gift card we give is easily dwarfed by the $1,000 in cash...

Sculpture Space, a residency program for sculptors in Utica, New York, was ransacked and severely damaged by vandals in the early hours of Sunday, August 28. The Utica Police Department told Hyperallergic that an investigation is ongoing. The motive for the attack remains unclear. Several donated pieces of artwork for an upcoming charity auction were damaged or destroyed in the raid, Sculpture Space said in a Facebook statement today. The 44-year-old organization provides up to 25 artists-in-residence annually with housing, studio space, and equipment. The damage to the arts center, located in an old industrial plant, is extensive. According to...

Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday morning to compliment whistleblowers for helping to expose "damage" done to "our nation," and again said the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."Trump commented after reports that Timothy Thibault, a senior FBI agent under scrutiny for alleged political bias during the Hunter Biden laptop inquiry, had left the bureau."So now the con man Special Agent of the FBI has announced, right after getting caught RIGGING the 2020 Presidential Election (and many other things!), and getting blasted by his 'bosses,' that it would be a wonderful time for him to 'retire.' What...

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association is defending the design of a new pier it plans to build in the Jersey Shore community, despite backlash from some residents who say the structure too closely resembles a Christian cross on a public beach. The religious nonprofit organization’s chief operating officer, Jamie Jackson, said the group makes “no apology for that we love the fact that it looks like a cross.” When asked if Jackson’s statement meant the beach pier was, in fact, intentionally designed to look like a Christian cross, Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association President Michael Badger said only, “it...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

Analysis: Taiwan is Relying on World War II Era Submarines – It is hard to put an expiration date on military hardware, and some platforms remain in service decades after first entering service. The United States Air Force continues to operate around 48 B-52 Stratofortress bombers that date back to the 1950s and early 1960s, while the United States Navy returned its four Iowa-class battleships to service in the 1980s, only to retire them nearly a decade later. In late 2020, the United States Navy also marked the 50th anniversary of the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), one of two amphibious...

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations (EUAs) of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to authorize bivalent formulations of the vaccines for use as a single booster dose at least two months following primary or booster vaccination. The bivalent vaccines, which we will also refer to as “updated boosters,” contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of SARS-CoV-2 virus, one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other one in common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for...

Across the globe, one hundred and thirty-four countries are criminalized or prosecuted due to criminal laws against HIV transmission, non-disclosure and exposure. Lower rates of HIV treatment and viral suppression are present and more likely in those countries that criminalize the virus. In a recent article by Mandeep Dhaliwal, director of the HIV and Health Group for the United Nations Development Program, states that the decriminalization of HIV is “scientifically proven and morally correct.” Laws that target people living with HIV hinder the progress of the United Nations' political declaration to ends AIDS by 2030, which is supported by 165...