Free Republic

Between 2014 and 2019, US tax dollars were funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology via EcoHealth Alliance. Given that US scientists have far more virology expertise than the Chinese, this begs an obvious question: what type of research were US tax dollars paying for in Wuhan, China? Dr. Fauci’s surprising statement in an interview might provide the short answer to this question: “You don’t want to go to Hoboken, NJ or Fairfax, VA to be studying the bat-human interface that might lead to an outbreak, so you go to China.” Given what we’ve endured for the past three years,...

Democrats and their cohorts in the media are quickly coming to Joe Biden’s aid as critics say Biden didn’t handle the Chinese spy balloon incident well. The spy balloon flying across America can easily be thought of as a test of Biden’s inclination to use force against Chinese intrusion.At first, the Biden administration and the Pentagon remained silent about the appearance of the balloon. Then a local news organization in Montana reported on it as it hovered over Billings. The word quickly spread to news outlets across the country. When would Americans have known about the story of a Montana...

Sometimes it’s funny how coming across an article will make you smile because of a memory triggered by some aspect of it. That happened yesterday, and again today, when I came across these pieces on the chaos in the wind turbine manufacturing sector. My Daddy, after being summarily booted from the Marine Corps in their post-Korean War downsizing, went on to fly for Eastern Air Lines for 30-plus years. He was the loveliest person, a natural in the cockpit (soloing in an Indiana cornfield at the age of 12), and dearly loved truly awful puns. “Wind turbines” reminded me of...

Information suggesting that Chinese spy balloons traveled over the continental United States during the Trump administration was "discovered after" former President Donald Trump left office, a senior administration official told Fox News. A defense official on Saturday said Chinese spy balloons briefly traveled over the United States at least three times during the Trump administration. ...on Sunday, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital that "U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration" assesses that "PRC (People's Republic of China) government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know...

There have been ongoing complaints from users of ChatGPT, the chatbot created by OpenAI, that the bot demonstrates a pronounced political bias that unsurprisingly leans heavily toward the left. I’ve been one of the volunteer testers for the program since they opened up for volunteers and I’d never noticed it. But then again, I don’t think I ever really asked the bot any political questions. Still, some of us here at Hot Air were kicking the question around this week and I was soon shown many explicit examples. So is this bias real? And if so, how did ChatGPT wind...

The Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the U.S. likely was able to send sensitive data to the Chinese Communist Party before it was shot down by the U.S. military Saturday, foreign policy experts told Fox News Digital. Military officials decided to take out the balloon exactly one week after they first discovered it in Alaska. However, President Biden was not made aware of the balloon until Tuesday, when it was over Montana. Local news broke the story of its existence on Thursday. The Pentagon said Thursday it "acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information" from the...

Ukraine's military intelligence chief will replace Oleksiy Reznikov as defense minister in one of the highest profile changes to the country's leadership since Russia invaded one year ago, officials said on Sunday. The reshuffling comes amid a corruption scandal that swept through the upper echelons of Ukraine's government last month. Several top officials, including Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov and Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko, resigned in late January amid accusations that inflated prices were paid for the army's food supplies. The defense ministry has denied the accusations of corruption and said the resignations were done to ensure the public's...

How is it possible for one man to be this much of a train wreck? A short-term employee who Santos hired just two weeks ago claims that Santos sexually harassed him in the office and invited him home. Derek Myers announced on Twitter yesterday that he had filed a report about the incident with the Capitol Hill Police. He included a copy of the police report.As stated in the filings, my complaint pertains to violations of House Ethics in which I was an unpaid volunteer performing staff duties with the promise of employment and compensation, only to be released after...

The multibillion-dollar company that runs the immigrant detention center in Tacoma confirmed deploying “chemical agents” Wednesday as conflict over allegedly inadequate food and unsanitary conditions escalate. GEO Group guards at the Northwest ICE Processing Center took the measure after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorized “non-lethal use of force” in response to a confrontation during a housing unit inspection that discovered contraband razor blades, an ICE spokesperson said. The unit’s detainees barricaded their door before the chemical agents were used, according to GEO and a witness, and multiple reports say a hunger strike is taking place at the facility, though...

Disgruntled migrants fed up with the Big Apple’s crime and grime are taking off to the Great White North — on bus rides paid for by New York taxpayers, The Post has learned.National Guard soldiers have been helping distribute tickets at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan to migrants who want to head upstate before crossing into Canada, several migrants said.

The Pegasus Affair: This is how the right-wing government was overthrown They had a problem. The majority of the people in Israel vote right. The national camp has been in power for too long and they had no democratic way to replace it, so they found a solution Yehuda Vald, 10.02.22 The revelation this week [https://www.srugim.co.il/?p=645212] in the Calcalist newspaper about the activation of spy software against senior officials in the economy, including those close to Prime Minister Netanyahu, is the tip of the iceberg that has been revealed about the anti-democratic revolution led by influential people in the police...

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised not to assassinate his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky when he met with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last year in the early days of the war.“Do you intend to kill Zelensky?” Bennett recalled asking Putin, during an almost five-hour interview he gave to Israel’s Channel 12, that was posted on YouTube on Saturday night.Putin assured Bennett, “I’m not going to kill Zelensky.”Bennett called Zelensky while he was still in Moscow on his way to the airport from the Kremlin to tell him that he was not under a death threat.“Are you sure?” Zelensky asked.“One...

The swamp is thick on Free republic. Trump was the best president in our lifetime! He was the man we prayed for, for decades! He picked some bad people. HE HAD NOTHING ELSE TO CHOOSE FROM! Not in D.C. NOT in 2016. Let me remind you, 90% of you supported Bush no matter what damage he did to this country! SO DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT POOR JUDGEMENT! I got kicked out of here when I would no longer buy his crap! Like AMNESTY! I'M A DEAD WOMAN. But at least I got 4 years of a president who actually...

6-pack: Box contains cans of "Leopard Beer". https://olaf.fi/collections/frontpage/products/olaf-leopard-beer-sixpack-coming-soon

The media: Real life: We got a peak into the way this propaganda machine works on Friday when iHeart, the written news side of iHeart Radio, covered the recent physical assault of a young girl on a school bus. According to WPLG, the incident occurred in South Florida on Wednesday when, after a short argument, a group of boys from Coconut Palm K-8 Academy in Homestead began physically assaulting a small 9-year-old girl. At least one of the boys appears to be at least a few years older than the girl. In this particular incident, the perpetrators happened to be...

Walk of shame...

Full video-prank with Former United States National Security Advisor John Bolton In world politics, this man has repeatedly become a participant in political tensions and planned coups around the world. Therefore, who will tell all about the political games of the West if not him? During the revelations for Petro Poroshenko, John Bolton revealed the secret of Baker's promise not to expand NATO, said that the West should have trained the Ukrainian military better over the past eight years, told about plans to separate Minsk from Moscow and, in addition, gave his «good to go» for terrorist acts of Ukraine...

It’s not a doomsday clock or a pedometer, though it’s been confused for both. The copper-cased ticker affixed to Rep. Thomas Massie’s lapel is a debt clock, tracking the country’s debt in real time using a complicated algorithm of the Kentucky Republican’s design — and raising eyebrows in the process. Since Massie, who has voiced reservations about hiking the debt ceiling, debuted the device in late January, he’s worn it around the halls of Congress, to votes and at an event in his home district. It’s been the subject of dozens of tweets and a handful of news stories. On...

> Credit: Associated Press The Jan. 11 fire at Carus in LaSalle, Illinois, heavily damaged the facility but resulted in no serious injuries. Afire at a Carus plant in LaSalle, Illinois, has temporarily shut down the only US producer of potassium permanganate and sodium permanganate and is raising concern about availability of the important water treatment chemicals. The Jan. 11 fire destroyed a warehouse and caused extensive damage at the facility, Carus says. The firm declared force majeure on Jan. 18, saying it will be at least 90 days before it can fulfill orders for permanganate chemicals. The company...

Realizing NATO’s war with Russia will likely end unfavorably, the US is test-driving an exit offer. But why should Moscow take indirect proposals seriously, especially on the eve of its new military advance and while it is in the winning seat? Those behind the Throne are never more dangerous than when they have their backs against the wall. Their power is slipping away, fast: Militarily, via NATO’s progressive humiliation in Ukraine; Financially, sooner rather than later, most of the Global South will want nothing to do with the currency of a bankrupt rogue giant; Politically, the global majority is taking...