Free Republic

Many Americans are only now beginning to realize the devastating impacts that COVID lockdowns had on our society, as many businesses struggle still to recover and children try to catch up with missed learning opportunities. But what if the pandemic was just a trial run for more drastic restrictions and lockdowns related to climate change? After decades of arguing that the world is at a climate tipping point, Democrats may try to enact restrictions to stop perceived global warming at an order of magnitude larger than the COVID-19 measures imposed during the height of the pandemic. And considering the pandemic’s...

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new decree relating to Moscow's historic real estate holdings abroad, a move interpreted by ultranationalist bloggers as a foundation for future revanchism against Russia's neighbors—and even the U.S. The decree, signed by the president late last week, allocates funds for the search, registration, and legal protection of Russian property abroad, including property in the former territories of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. This would include Alaska, swathes of eastern and central Europe, large chunks of central Asia, and parts of Scandinavia. Russia's Foreign Ministry and its presidential administration's Foreign Property Management...

The Biden administration has poured billions of taxpayer dollars into the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) since October 2022, according to a new report from Open the Books. The Biden administration spent $8.925 billion in fiscal year 2022 and $10.928 billion in fiscal year 2023 on the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at ORR to accommodate, transport, and provide migrants with various other services like medical care and loans, according to the report, which was released Tuesday. In recent months, HHS has faced scrutiny for ORR’s alleged mishandling of cases of unaccompanied...

The steamers Creole and George Washington, from New-Orleans, arrived here yesterday afternoon, bringing intelligence to Jan. 16. We are indebted to their respective Pursers for prompt delivery of files and correspondence. NEW-ORLEANS, Thursday, Jan. 14. The late proclamation of Gen. BANKS is the chief topic of conversation. It is much commended by loyal men, and condemned by only one secession paper here, the Courier Francais. The question of who shall be Governor is much debated. The name most prominent before the public is THOMAS J. DURANT, an eminent lawyer of this city, and a staunch loyalist. A steamer of 400...

VIDEOEverybody seems to love trees. They provide beauty, shade, and convert carbon in the atmosphere into oxygen. What's not to like? However, there seems to be one very bizarre HATER of trees on this planet. Bill Gates. Did he have some sort of childhood trauma such as falling out of a tree which could explain this very strange animus towards those plants? Or could it be what explains all of Bill Gates' motivations? Flat out greed. As you can see here, it turns out that Bill Gates is in the business of cutting down trees for profit and then just...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Applying and Appreciating God's Word ~ •Drawings•Engravings•Facades•Frescoes•Illuminations•Miniatures•Mosaics•Photographs•Reliefs•Statues•Tapestries•Windows• CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT Before Bethlehem, Jesus intervened often in this world. This series presents some of those occasions, along with “types” of Christ: people and objects who represent Him and His qualities.ABRAHAM’S SACRIFICE OF HIS ONLY SON, ISAAC—A Type of Christ GENESIS 22 God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering...

Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed the daughter of a veteran gambling lobbyist to the state board that regulates the industry — raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest from government watchdogs, The Post has learned. Marissa Shorenstein — who served as head of Hochul’s transition team when she became governor — was tapped as commissioner on the New York Gaming Commission despite her dad’s clients including some with business before the board, public records show. Stuart Shorenstein has long been an active lobbyist and adviser to gaming firms, and is currently listed as repping the Swedish internet gambling giant Evolution Malta,...

In a rigorous and important study that should surprise no one, University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller has found that of over 3,200 amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in cases filed and decided between 2018 and 2022 by lawyers at the nation’s largest law firms, 64% favor liberal causes. The pronounced tilt by America’s elite lawyers toward the political left is a well-known phenomenon. As someone who practiced in “Big Law” for over a decade, I and many of my colleagues came to view that tilt as a given. Studies have since shown that the...

During an interview aired on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live,” Vice President Kamala Harris stated that the solutions to fixing the U.S. immigration system are ensuring that we can “process people effectively” at the border and have a “meaningful pathway to citizenship.” Harris said, “Well, so, there is no question that our immigration system is broken, and so much so that we, as the first bill that we offered after our inauguration, was to fix the immigration system, which included what we must do to create a pathway for citizenship..”

* Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley held a campaign rally in Salem, New Hampshire, the night before the state’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. * Some of the voters that Haley attracted were registered Republicans who don’t always vote for the GOP, supporters of President Joe Biden and “Never Trumpers,” according to conversations the Daily Caller News Foundation had with nine attendees from New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. * “I’m a left-leaning independent, but I’m pro-life — so neither party appeals to me,” Mark Croteau, a 64-year-old Massachusetts resident who grew up in Nashua, New Hampshire, told the DCNF. “I find...

United Airlines was first and now this. Seems like Virgin Atlantic is more focused on their empolyees sexual deviants and pronouns vs. qualifications. https://rumble.com/v48qnd0-not-satire-this-is-an-actual-ad-from-virgin-atlantic.html

Call it the big reset – downward – in public education. The alarming plunge in academic performance during the pandemic was met with a significant drop in grading and graduation standards to ease the pressure on students struggling with remote learning. The hope was that hundreds of billions of dollars of emergency federal aid would enable schools to reverse the learning loss and restore the standards. Four years later, the money is almost gone and students haven’t made up that lost academic ground, equaling more that a year of learning for disadvantaged kids. Driven by fears of a spike in...

Freed Israeli hostages told the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, this week about the sexual abuse committed by Hamas terrorists against both male and female hostages in Gaza, according to Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy in a briefing on Tuesday. Levy quoted former hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog, 17, who told the Knesset that some female hostages had stopped having their periods in captivity — which, she said, she hoped was a physical defense against becoming pregnant from rape by their captors. She reportedly had added that Hamas terrorists were also dressing female hostages as dolls in order to abuse them in sadistic...

A proposal to let foreign citizens serve in the German army is under consideration by Berlin. If approved, it will allow the Bundeswehr to build strength on the back of a recent announcement that conscription could return as the prospect of a grand “European army” looms on the horizon. Deutsche Welle (DW) reports German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius initially proposed the idea of welcoming non-Germans to enlist in order to ease a drastic shortage of personnel. In addition to Pistorius from the Social Democrats, the report details the idea has also received support from lawmakers belonging to one of its...

In a news alert, multiple countries are implementing an extensive rollout of new AI cameras designed to automatically detect various violations. This development has raised concerns about the potential misuse of such surveillance systems. Speculations suggest that these AI cameras might be leveraged for enforcing health protocols like mask rules, social distancing, and even vaccine mandates. Explore the implications of this technology in this unfolding scenario.

Donald Trump has doubled down on his opposition to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) at a rally in Laconia, New Hampshire Monday Night. “Vivek wanted this: I will never allow the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” Trump said, referring to crypto-friendly candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a critic of CBDCs, who recently suspended his campaign after a disappointing showing in Iowa. “This would be a dangerous threat to freedom, and I will stop it from coming to America,” he has previously said. “Such a currency would give a federal government, absolute control over your money. They could take your money,...

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have a small problem. And it is the problem common to all socialists, as the late great Margaret Thatcher once pointed out.Virginia Kruta@VAKruta · Follow The Democratic Socialists have, it seems, run out of other people's money ...And not only has the DSA run out of money, they can’t seem to figure out why people don’t want to support them anymore. Please sit back and enjoy the schadenfreude.The DSA — which has led protests against Israel over the Jewish State’s retaliatory response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack — is deep in a seven-figure...

The embattled leader of Colorado’s House Republicans was nearly ousted Monday by right-wing members of his own caucus, throwing his leadership into doubt and reigniting lingering ideological tensions among Republicans. The vote — an even 9-9 split to keep Rep. Mike Lynch as minority leader — came five days after the details of Lynch’s 2022 arrest for drunken driving were first made public. The tie was the bare minimum that Lynch needed to maintain his position in leadership. Rep. Stephanie Luck, a member of the right-wing bloc that opposed Lynch staying on as leader, was not present because she recently...

The two-person race to top the New Hampshire primary between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley has been encouraging for MAGA-leaning Republicans in Massachusetts but deeply disheartening for those in the local GOP who still cling to a more liberal kind of Republicanism. Why it matters: If Donald Trump wins a third New Hampshire primary in a row, it could be the death knell for the style of politics that dominated New England Republicanism in the decades before his arrival in 2016. The days of the "fiscal conservative/social liberal" could be over. Flashback: It wasn't long ago that Republicans in Massachusetts...