Free Republic

Scanned images of whole kidneys comparing a healthy contralateral mouse kidney with a kidney after ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), with red staining indicative of fibrosis. Credit: Science Translational Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abf5074 A serious condition that can cause the kidneys to suddenly stop working could be treated with existing medicines, a new study shows. In a study in mice, scientists found that medicines usually used to treat angina and high blood pressure prevented much of the long-term damage to the kidney and cardiovascular system caused by acute kidney injury (AKI). Experts hope the findings will pave the way for improved treatment...

President Trump has been executing a foreign policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.” The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a fundamental paradigm shift. Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference.“Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald TrumpThe nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work...

The actions of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s law professor parents are under heavy scrutiny this week following the former billionaire’s arrest on an array of federal charges. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both professors at Stanford University, raised eyebrows on Tuesday with their behavior at their son’s extradition hearing in the Bahamas. During his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Ray confirmed that Bankman had given “legal advice” to his son at FTX and received cash payments from the company. “I don’t know if he actually had ‘employee’ status, but he certainly received payments, the family did receive...

Mayor Eric Adams said he was thrilled that the Democratic Party is “prioritizing Black voters” as it moved to have its first presidential primary shifted to South Carolina, calling the plan a “tectonic change in how Democrats are messaging their priorities as a party,” in a CNN-published op-ed this week. The Democratic National Committee’s rule-making arm voted earlier this month to make South Carolina, not Iowa, the site of the first presidential nominating contest in 2024 after President Biden called on the party to cater to a more diverse electorate as Democrats have been losing black voters in recent years....

Less than 1 in 5 Americans in a new poll said they believe GOP control of the House next Congress will change Washington for the better. Eighteen percent of respondents in a Monmouth University Poll released on Wednesday said that Republicans — who are set to take control of the House next month after securing a majority in November’s midterm elections — will produce a positive change in the lower chamber. Another 21 percent said they expect Washington to change for the worse under Republican leadership in the House, and about half — 51 percent — said they don’t expect...

A paper published last month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior makes an important point about the environment in which “gender-affirming” drugs and surgeries are offered to minors. Positive outcomes from hormonal interventions, argues psychiatrist Alison Clayton, the article’s author, may be attributable to placebo effects generated by clinical encounters and the social context in which they take place, rather than to the underlying psychotropic effects of the drugs themselves. Clayton’s basic intuition makes sense. If you take a teenager in emotional distress and tell her that drug X will solve her problems, while treatment Y will make them worse,...

The Washington Post will conduct layoffs in the coming year, publisher Fred Ryan told employees during a town hall on Wednesday. Video taken from the in-person town hall at the newspaper’s downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters and posted to social media shows frustrated employees peppering Ryan with questions about how the newsroom will be effected and demanding a justification for the cuts. “We’ll have more information as we move forward,” Ryan is seen saying before thanking the employees in attendance as he walks away. Kathy Baird, chief communications officer at the Post, told The Hill on Wednesday afternoon the company anticipates...

Law professor Tim Canova wrote an op-ed recently about a case before the US Supreme Court, which is yet to get much notice. Canova wrote that a ruling in this case by the high court could have a major impact- even going as far as overturning the national 2020 election. “The case of Brunson v. Adams, not even reported in the mainstream media, was filed pro se by ordinary American citizens,” Canova wrote. Here is Canova’s cred according to his bio: Canova is a Professor of Law and Public Finance at NSU Shepard Broad College of Law, with broad experience...

Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California achieved net energy gain in a thermonuclear fusion experiment. But how great of a breakthrough is this, really? As soon as physicists realized how the Sun made its energy, they dreamed of getting the same process to work on Earth. They have worked on it since the 1950s and finally achieved success. There is still a long way to go. But we can now say with confidence that in the not-too-distant future, fusion power stations will...

As expected, The Federal Reserve raised their target rate by 50 basis points to 4.50%, the highest Fed target rate since November 2007. The only thing interesting that happened was Powell’s hawkish statements about The Fed wanting to keep tightening to fight inflation caused under “Inflation Joe” Biden. But the NEW Fed Dots plot looks like an Olympic Ski jump with expectations of DECLINING Fed target rates.

Outgoing National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday on CNN’s “At This Hour” that he had “no clue” why Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) wants to investigate vaccines. Anchor Kate Bolduan said, “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now asking the Florida Supreme Court to greenlight an investigation into, and the way he put it is, any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to COVID-19 vaccine. What’s your reaction to that?” Fauci said, “I don’t have a clue, Kate, what he’s asking for. We have a vaccine that unequivocally is highly effective and safe and...

President Joe Biden (D) marked the tenth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack by pushing for a ban on “assault weapons” and “high capacity” magazines. He released a statement in which he claimed Americans should feel “societal guilt” for having gone this long without banning AR-15s, AK-47s, and other commonly owned firearms which Democrats label “assault weapons. Biden then pointed to the gun control he signed during the summer–the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act–and moved on to push for more gun control now:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 140 points, or 0.4%. The Dow was higher by 287 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 declined 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 1%. The Fed delivered a widely-anticipated 50 basis point rate hike at the conclusion of its December policy meeting. It’s a smaller bump from the prior four consecutive rate hikes of 75 basis points. A basis point is equal to one-hundredth of one percent.

Afirst-of-its-kind product containing human fecal matter has just been approved by the FDA for the treatment of potentially life-threatening bacterial imbalances in the gut. The challenge: The trillions of microbes that live in your gastrointestinal tract, known collectively as your “gut microbiome,” play an important role in your health, helping your body digest food, produce vitamins, and ward off infections. Every year, 15,000 to 30,000 people die from C. difficile infections in the US. If the balance of these microbes is thrown off, you may experience health issues. Taking antibiotics, for example, can kill off the helpful bacteria that compete...

House Democrats on Tuesday held a hearing on “white supremacy” as a threat to national survival so they could continue to portray Republicans as enemies of the state. Yet GOP Rep. Nancy Mace brought the receipts.

Salk Institute researchers have developed a new compound that acts like a master reset switch in the intestines. In a new study, the compound, called FexD, is found to prevent and reverse intestinal inflammation in mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease. New therapeutic has the potential to treat inflammatory bowel disease by targeting a molecule that keeps order in the intestines. Salk Institute scientists have developed a new drug that acts like a master reset switch in the gut. Called FexD, the compound has previously been found to burn fat, lower cholesterol, and ward off colorectal cancer in mice. Now,...

“St. John the Baptist, the Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness” (Matthew 3:1-12) Today’s midweek service is the last in our series called, “Three Saints of Advent.” We began on November 30 with St. Andrew, Apostle, since his festival falls on that date. Last week, on December 7, we remembered St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, since his commemoration falls on that date. Now today, December 14, is nobody’s festival or commemoration, but since the last two Sundays the Gospel readings have featured John the Baptist, that’s the saint we’ll go with today. Now there’s quite a lot in the...

A mother of a middle school student was shocked when the Joshua Independent School District in Joshua, Texas, charged her over $7,000 in public records fees to disclose how many bullying reports the district had received since 2015. The Goldwater Institute first reported this outrageous demand for a simple sum of documents. The mother is combatting the exorbitant fee via an appeal to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The mother, Terrie Chumchal, filed the request following the district’s lack of aid over a two-year period of vicious bullying in which her son repeatedly tried to obtain help from his school,...

Erica Marsh @ericareport BREAKING: Prominent attorneys are investigating whether Elon Musk lied on his application for U.S. citizenship.

Flight 36 Sol 642 Date Dec. 10, 2022 Horizontal Distance 110m ~361ft Max. Altitude 10m ~33ft Max. Groundspeed 5.50 m/s ~12.3 ft/sec Duration 60.5 seconds Route of Flight Airfield X***Flight Log Flights 36 (as of 12/10/22) Distance Flown 7,517 meters (~24,663 ft) Highest Altitude 14 meters (~46 ft) Fastest Ground Speed 5.50 m/s (12.3 mph) Flight Time ~60.9 minutes (3,652 seconds)***This detailed article includes the audio of a press conference (37:38 min) given on December 12th by the Ingenuity team, but I haven't been able to find the video on the NASA sites.December 14, 2022Nasa's Ingenuity helicopter to fly...