Free Republic

Wanna bet? I’m so old that I remember when media outlets would have considered “extreme” any allegations that governments would abuse pandemic-tracking tools. And yet, here we have the Associated Press reporting its scoop today that reveals precisely that outcome. After first insisting that individual privacy had to be set aside in an emergency, the AP seems shocked, shocked to find that governments like being able to track and snoop on its subjects — er, citizens: (AP Excerpt in Comment #1) This seems so obvious that it almost goes without saying. Once you allow the camel’s nose into the tent,...

The federal government is looking to pay someone as much as $111,000 a year to do outreach and social media work. In Uganda.Where 12 percent of the population uses the Internet occasionally or owns a smartphone. The job posting is just one example of how social media's rise in popularity is being accompanied by a rise in federal spending on it. Uncle Sam is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to pay for social media-related services and to fund grants for research into the habits of the Twittersphere and other online worlds. Exactly how much the federal government...

Robbins, an Academy Award-winning actor, explained his journey from strict compliance with government edicts early in the pandemic to one of doubt about the inerrancy of so-called health experts and the official narrative constructed around COVID-19, vaccination, lockdowns, and masking. Despite having initially "bought into it" and "adhering to the requests" made of him, Robbins explained that his real-life encounters were ultimately at odds with what he had otherwise been told about the pandemic, anti-lockdown protesters, and the unvaccinated. This generated a sense of cognitive dissonance, prompting him to doubt the official narrative.... Robbins admitted, "At first, if you were...

For the second year in a row, the Centers for Disease Control has been caught ignoring science and letting liberal interest groups set its policies. In 2021, the American Pediatric Academy and the Children’s Hospital Association tracked COVID-19 statistics in children and the data show no relationship between mask mandates and the rate at which children caught the disease. In the face of this evidence – and other data showing that masks harm children’s development, the CDC supported masking students after being pressured by the National Education Association (the nation’s largest teachers’ union). Now comes word that CDC is again...

Core Scientific, one of the largest publicly traded crypto mining firms in the U.S. listed on Nasdaq as $CORZ, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy [ruh roh] Core Scientific is still generating positive cash flow, but it is insufficient to repay the financing debt Instead of liquidating, the company will continue regular mining operations while trying to reach a deal with senior security noteholders The company owns approximately 5% of Bitcoin’s global hash rate The loss in Bitcoin’s value and higher energy prices have narrowed profit margins of BTC miners worldwide [bummer]

Brittney Griner’s homecoming party at a church in Waco, Texas didn’t get quite the turnout many expected. According to a report from ESPN, around 20 people showed up to welcome the WNBA star home from her detainment in Russia. Per the report, the crowd was sparse at University Baptist Church, located within two miles of Baylor’s campus. The story indicated that part of the reason why the turnout wasn’t much bigger was because the school was on winter break.

“‘The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again’” (Matthew 13:44). Jesus’ concise but profound parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value show us that, above all, we must personally appropriate God’s kingdom. People automatically at birth become members of their parents’ family and country, but such natural inheritance doesn’t apply regarding the kingdom. Everyone is under God’s dominion because they live on the earth, which is under His sovereign control. And if unbelievers associate with believers, they can potentially enjoy many kingdom benefits. But if...

John the Baptist’s definition of his ministry was blunt and simple: “I am ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness’” (John 1:23 NKJV). Who was John the Baptist? The scriptures says that this most blessed of all prophets was the greatest “among them that are born of women” and a revered preacher of righteousness. Crowds flocked to hear John’s scorching messages. Many were baptized and became his disciples. Even royalty came under his mighty influence. Some thought he was Christ; others considered him to be Elijah raised from the dead. However, this fearless man of God refused to be...

WASHINGTON, Saturday, Dec. 20. The following has just been received at the Headquarters of the Army of the United States: Maj.-Gen. Halleck, General-in-Chief, Washington: I have the honor to inform you that I left Newbern for this place on the 11th instant, but that owing to the bad roads and consequent delays to my trains, etc., I did not reach Southwest Creek, five miles from this town, until the afternoon of the 13th instant. The enemy were posted there, but by a heavy artillery fire in front, and a vigorous infantry attack, on either flank, I succeeded in forcing a...

There’s some justice after all. The $1.7 trillion spending bill names things after the D.C. swamp creatures passing it. That includes Pelosi. From this day henceforth, the San Francisco Federal Building (that is its name) will be named the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. The San Francisco Federal Building is the ugly thing blotting the skyline that architects love and everyone else hates. It was so despised that it was featured in the Trump presidential order calling for a return to classical architecture. “For example, GSA selected an architect to design the San Francisco Federal Building who describes his designs...

President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to meet at the White House on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the planning, in a Washington visit that is tentatively scheduled to include an address to a joint session of Congress. Zelensky is already on his way to Washington, two separate sources said, for a visit that marks his first trip outside of Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February of this year. The visit to the White House, which hasn’t been finalized and has remained tightly held due to security concerns, will include a meeting...

Out on the frontline, near the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman, on 8 November at 15.10, a Russian serviceman called Andrey decided to ignore the orders of his superiors and call his mother with an unauthorised mobile phone. “No one feeds us anything, mum,” he complained. “Our supply is s**t, to be honest. We draw water from puddles, then we strain it and drink it.” Russian forces had been on the back foot in the Donetsk oblast for weeks. Lyman, taken by the Russians in May, was liberated by Ukrainian forces in October. Two days before Andrey made his afternoon...

The Biden administration appears to have lied about adding more than a million jobs in the second quarter of this year to mitigate economic data that showed the United States was entering into a recession ahead of the midterm elections. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a report last week shooting down the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) claim that the U.S. added more than a million jobs from March to June of 2022. According to the Philadelphia Fed’s analysis of the numbers, the U.S. added a mere 10,500 jobs in that time period, as opposed to the...

A lawyer who works at a firm involved in a litigation against MSG Entertainment has been booted from a Radio City Music Hall in New York after she was targeted using facial recognition. Kelly Conlon, 44, was chaperoning her nine-year-old daughter's Girl Scout troop to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular last month when she was flagged and asked to leave the venue. The girl scout mother was then forced to spend 90 minutes wandering around outside in the rain while her daughter watched the show despite holding a ticket, the New York Post reported. Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan...

India has started massing troops along its disputed border with China after a clash between soldiers from the two nuclear-armed superpowers earlier this month. Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said an unprecedented number of troops would be deployed along the 2,100-mile border. Less than two weeks ago an 'encroachment' by Chinese soldiers leading to a skirmish with Indian troops sparked fears of war.

Argentina's euphoric World Cup celebrations descended into chaos yesterday as violence broke out on the streets of Buenos Aires between fans and riot police after their star players were forced to evacuate to safety by helicopter. Officers armed with shields and batons were pelted with missiles at the Obelisco monument in the country's capital hours after fans tried to jump into the bus during the victory parade to meet Lionel Messi and his teammates. The World Cup heroes were met with a heaving crowd of an estimated five million fans who blocked their path to the Obelisco, then had to...

Tens of thousands of drones have been employed across Ukraine to kill the enemy, spy on its formations and guide bombs to their targets. But this month the Ukrainian military began a program to use drones in a more unusual role: to guide Russian soldiers who want to surrender. The program had its genesis in late November, when the Ukrainian military released footage of a Russian soldier throwing his weapon to the ground, raising his hands and nervously following a path set out by a drone overhead, leading him to soldiers from the Ukrainian army’s 54th Mechanized Brigade. A few...

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The case left doctors shell shocked. A French hospital was partially evacuated Saturday after a senior citizen arrived with a World War I artillery shell lodged in his rectum. The 88-year-old patient visited Hospital Sainte Musse in Toulon to have the antique explosive removed — but instead sparked a “bomb scare,” French publication Var-Matin reported. “An emergency occurred from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday evening that required the intervention of bomb disposal personnel, the evacuation of adult and pediatric emergencies as well as the diversion of incoming emergencies,” a hospital spokesperson stated. “We had to manage the risk...