Free Republic

North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis and Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema have reportedly reached a framework deal on immigration reform they would like to push through in the lame duck session before Republicans take the House in January. The deal would include a pathway to citizenship for two million Dreamers, or DACA recipients who were brought to the U.S. as children, resources to speed up asylum processing and removal of those who do not qualify, more funding for border officers, and a one-year extension of Title 42 until new processing centers are up and running, according to the Washington Post. The...

Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle might prevent up to 60% of inflammatory bowel disease cases—Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Researchers drew on participant data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS). The researchers created modifiable risk scores (MRS) based on established modifiable risk factors for IBD to estimate the proportion of IBD cases that could have been avoided. The MRS ranged from 0-6. These risk factors included weight (BMI); smoking; use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; physical activity; and daily intake of fruit, fiber, vegetables, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and red meat. The researchers then estimated the proportion of avoidable cases...

A large Planned Parenthood affiliate has been doing more sterilizations on men this fall since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Dr. Grace Shih, director of vasectomy services for Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, told KIRO 7 News that they have seen a 34-percent increase since the June abortion ruling, according to Fox News. Shih said one man told her that he believed having a vasectomy was an “act of love.” Others apparently never want to have children. “Men are interested in learning about contraception and learning about a vasectomy. I think the change in our...

Ron DeSantis can save Australia. In Jim Cousen's dreams. In the spirit of Mark Twain and Huck Finn, I hope for the best from people but more often seem to cop their worst. God Bless Laughter. Tyrants fall when exposed as jokes.

Breathing in common workplace dusts and fumes from agents such as vapors, gases, and solvents may heighten the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, suggests research. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by the presence or absence of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies or ACPA for short. ACPA positivity denotes a worse prognosis with higher rates of erosive joint damage. Nearly three-quarters of those with rheumatoid arthritis testing positive (73%) and negative (72%) for ACPA had been exposed to at least one workplace dust or fume, compared with around two-thirds (67%) of people in the comparison group. Analysis of the data showed that exposure to...

[Catholic Caucus] Where is the Church headed?The Synod of synodality, which has been extended for another year by decision of Pope Francis, has begun its continental phase.While this process of global listening, which is being celebrated within the Church, we see how different local Churches decide to bet on very different paths. The most obvious case is the direction that the Church in the United States seems to have taken, with the recent appointments of the president, vice president and secretary general of the country's Bishops' Conference, and the attitude shown by the German bishops in recent days.The Church in...

A special grand jury report about the handling of two sexual assault cases that occurred in Loudoun County Public Schools last year says at least one of the assaults could have been prevented if not for the actions of administrators. The report released Monday offers a look into the work of a special grand jury impaneled by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and directly alleges that the sexual assault of a female student at Broad Run High School in October 2021 by a male student should have been prevented. The assailant had previously committed an assault while a student at...

The secretary of the United Kingdom’s Home Office, which regulates immigration, recently caused a scandal by referring to the nonstop immigration of mostly Muslim migrants as an “invasion.” On Oct. 30, 2022, Suella Braverman said:The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not… Some 40,000 people have arrived on the south coast this year alone, many of them facilitated by criminal gangs, some of them actual members of criminal gangs. So let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress: the whole country knows that...

A top general in the Marine Corps has acknowledged that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate is hampering its recruitment goals, but he credited the requirement with keeping military personnel healthy.Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger made the comments during a panel discussion at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Dec. 3.“Where it is having an impact for sure is on recruiting, where in parts of the country there’s still myths and misbeliefs about the backstory behind it,” Berger said, Military.com reported.The general noted that the requirement for military personnel to be fully vaccinated has created recruitment issues...

In the teeth of the Depression, Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon famously told President Herbert Hoover to “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate”—in other words, to resist bailing out any industry through state intervention. This was a tough sell even in those days, and of course Hoover succumbed to politics and took the opposite approach, greatly and needlessly damaging the US economy for decades to come.Less often quoted are Mellon’s follow-up words to Hoover: Liquidation would “purge the rottenness out of the system,” so “people will work harder” and “live a more moral life.”Mellon, having lived most of...

THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME CONTINUES, OVER & OVER AGAIN, & THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY AREN'T GOING TO TAKE IT MUCH LONGER, A GIANT POLITICAL SCAM!!!

The headline is a rhetorical question. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have come up with the framework for immigration reform. Is it something that can pass in the Senate in the lame duck session before Republicans take back control of the House in January? Nah. But, Senator Sinema can tell her constituents that she fulfilled her promise to make immigration reform her first priority after the midterm elections. There is a time crunch even if there was the support of 50 Democrats, much less 10 Republicans, which is highly unlikely. Any legislation would have to pass in...

First things first: there is no way to know for sure how common this is due to poor screening and reporting, but German researchers have decisively demonstrated through autopsy that the COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis was the cause of death in 5 patients they autopsied after sudden deaths experienced shortly after COVID-19 vaccination.The study was published in the peer reviewed journal Clinical Research in Cardiology. The doctor sharing the study is a Johns-Hopkins professor and graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, so not a nobody in the public health world.This is a German study from a reputable group. It's...

There’s a headline.Manufacturing orders from China down 40% in unrelenting demand collapseShipping companies are already reacting with “blank” (canceled) sailings and reallocating cargo shipments (“vessel utilization”) to make sure they have full boats before they pull out of port. All this is raising hell with the logistic delivery schedules people waiting on the other side of the pond depend on. …Carriers have been executing on an active capacity management strategy by announcing more blank sailings and suspending services to balance supply with demand. “The unrelenting decline in container freight rates from Asia, caused by a collapse in demand, is compelling...

Time Magazine has announced the names of the people on their shortlist for this year’s Time “Person of the Year.”They name people for good and sometimes bad reasons, but the idea is supposed to be the significance of what that person has done.But when you peruse the shortlist that The Hill has, for some of the people, you have to wonder about what Time was thinking..@TIME releases its 2022 Person of the Year shortlist pic.twitter.com/8rTCTIJUCY— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 5, 2022I’ll start with the ridiculous — “we need to fill out the list” — inclusions.If you don’t know what the...

It was just a matter of time before the January 6th committee did what it was always going to do. Namely, announce criminal referrals in relation to the unrest at the Capitol following the 2020 election.On Tuesday, Chairman Bennie Thompson made it official, telling reporters that referrals were on the way and would be submitted as a separate document from the committee’s report.House January 6 committee has decided to make criminal referrals, chairman says https://t.co/esCgI5qvlk— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) December 6, 2022Thompson didn’t announce exactly who the criminal referrals will target, but it’s not exactly a secret that Donald Trump...

TSMC has confirmed it will build not one, but two advanced chip manufacturing plants in Arizona, more than tripling the Asian foundry giant's original investment to $40 billion, even though the company has complained about the US project becoming a major headache for multiple reasons. The Taiwanese contract chipmaker said on Tuesday it plans to construct a second fab in Phoenix, Arizona, that will produce 3nm chips when it goes online in 2026. This is in addition to the previously announced fab set for 2024 operation that is now set to manufacture 4nm silicon wafers, not 5nm as originally intended,...

The bold release by Elon Musk of Twitter files on how and why employees blocked The Post’s 2020 bombshell on Hunter Biden’s laptop marks a defining moment in modern American history. The disturbing details of arrogance and ignorance revealed the so-called geniuses pulling the technology levers to be as supernatural as the man behind the curtain in “The Wizard of Oz.” The deflating reaction in both is the same: Is that all there is? In this case, no, not by a long shot. For Musk’s revelations must be the start of a national campaign to expose the entire picture of...

More than half of all patients who receive solid organ transplants will have an incidence of skin cancer at some point—most often a nonmelanoma cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. This increased risk can be several hundred times higher than in the general population. The increased risk is related to long-term immunosuppressive therapy required for transplanted organ survival, which affects the immune system's ability to monitor cells for abnormalities, according to Leila Tolaymat, M.D. "While dermatologists are involved in treating carcinomas and other neoplasms in high-risk patients, an understanding of skin cancer risk, is important across...

Senator Raphael Warnock, whose victory in a 2021 runoff helped Democrats gain control of the Senate and made him the first Black senator from Georgia, is again facing a runoff election. This time, he is vying against Herschel Walker, a former football star and Trump-backed Republican.