Free Republic

Just to preface this post, no, I'm still not 'over' the pandemic, and various government responses to it. It seems as though a lot of people just want to put all that unpleasantness behind us as a society, and move on, but we cannot do that. 'Authoritarianism' is a word that gets tossed about with reckless abandon, typically to describe virtually anything the Left opposes, but COVID triggered an extraordinary avalanche of authoritarian edicts -- many rooted in extremely dubious science, or none at all. Bureaucrats and politicians declared that we must "follow the science," even when they had little-to-no...

PBS NewsHour Here is the transcript JUDY WOODRUFF: Scientists working in Greenland have identified the oldest samples of DNA ever found on Earth. By analyzing this two-million-year-old genetic material, they have revealed how Northern Greenland was once a wildly different environment than the cold polar region it is today, one teeming with ancient wildlife and plants, including some that scientists thought had never lived so far north. William Brangham is back now to explore this with one of the researchers who made this discovery. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For more on this remarkable discovery, I’m joined by one of the lead scientists...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly privately expressed doubt if President Joe Biden can actually win following widespread panic sparked from his poor debate performance, according to reports from Politico Playbook, citing “half-dozen lawmakers and others who have spoken with her or are familiar with these conversations.” However, Pelosi is denying this. According to the report, Pelosi has been working behind the scenes and carefully crafting her responses, some of which she hoped would “serve as a subtle green light” to “encourage members to speak up about their desire to see change atop the ticket — and to warn Biden to...

Israel sent names, military IDs of 'terrorist operatives' working for UNRWA Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is employing 100 terrorist operatives and directly asked the organization to terminate the staffers immediately. In the July 4 letter, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, Ambassador Amir Weissbrod wrote that the presence of Hamas terrorists in UNRWA has been a "recurring concern" for Israeli officials. "However, the full scope of this unprecedented infiltration was unknown and became clear only after the October 7th terrorist attack...

<p>Part of what brought Vance to the dance may be his undoing. Donors are scared of him.</p><p>In his rise from Donald Trump critic to viable contender to be the presumptive Republican nominee’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio has come so far. But he may fall just short thanks to some risk-averse GOP donors.</p>

IDF soldiers walk in the southern Gaza Strip, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool) Israel and Hamas have agreed on a “framework” for a hostage release and truce deal and are negotiating how to implement it, the Washington Post reports, saying that a key step was both parties agreeing to accept an “interim governance” of Gaza by a Palestinian Authority-backed force in the second stage of the deal. The report, in an op-ed from commentator David Ignatius, cites a senior US official as saying that “the framework is agreed” and the parties are now “negotiating details of how...

UK-based conversion company Electrogenic has done a great service to the legendary DMC-12. Now, it drives the way it looks. The DeLorean DMC-12. A moment in automotive history that many people, myself included, have picked apart, studied, and, well, everythinged. It started as a nice idea to make a cool, powerful sports car for successful young people, and ended up a very public failure. The downfall of the company is far more complex than we have time and space for here, but it was a bit of a mess that left a fair few people out of pocket (including the...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday evening that the House General Investigating Committee in Texas is attempting to collude with the Biden Regime to bring a federal case against him or attempt to revive impeachment. In May 2023 the Republican-led Texas House impeached highly popular Attorney General Ken Paxton over allegations of misconduct. The 20 articles include “bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust.” Last September Texas Senators acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton on all 16 articles of impeachment. Texas RINOs, including Bush and Rove allies, wanted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gone so they made...

The first hurricane of 2024, Hurricane Beyrl, is now in the books. Beryl reminded us that hurricanes are a powerful force of nature – a force that causes much fear and anxiety. The stronger and more destructive the hurricane, the deeper it becomes ingrained in our collective consciousness. Katrina, Andrew, Sandy, Harvey – hurricane names that will forever be associated with destruction and death. Sadly, as with most destructive weather events, these events quickly become fodder for climate extremists to tie our fear of these events to “climate change” or more specifically, “man-made climate change.” Beryl is no exception, “Is...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” she is “mad” at actor George Clooney for writing an op-ed calling for President Joe Biden to step aside as the Democratic Party’s nominee in November. Behar asked, “George Clooney couldn’t he tell him that in person for God’s sake?! He has to write an op-ed piece?” She added, “The World Bank said last month that the U.S. economy under Biden is boosting up the entire global economy right now. Why doesn’t George Clooney mention that in his op-ed piece? I’m mad at George Clooney right now, even though we...

MADISON — Civic Media, a Wisconsin-based progressive talk-radio network, said Thursday it had agreed to make two edits to an interview with President Joe Biden at the request of his campaign before the broadcast aired, a decision the station fell short of "journalistic interview standards."

Democrats are biding their time until after this week’s NATO summit to pressure President Biden into ending his re-election bid, a party pollster told The Post Thursday*** “I’m of the belief that this is very close to the end,” said John Zogby, pollster and founder of an eponymous marketing and political consulting firm. “[I think] that the NATO summit wasn’t a test so much for Biden as it was a holding action,” he added. “You don’t embarrass the world’s leader in front of world leaders. You’re going to see more and more Congress people come out and I think the...

China on Thursday came out swinging at NATO, accusing it of posing an "enormous danger to the world" after the alliance labeled Beijing a "decisive enabler" of Russia’s war in Ukraine. ... "Wherever NATO shows up, turmoil and chaos will follow," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a briefing Thursday. "NATO’s so-called security is more often than not built on others’ insecurity, and a lot of its security anxieties are self-made. "The ‘success’ and ‘strength’ boasted by NATO means enormous danger to the world," he added, further accusing the alliance of creating "imaginary enemies." Words like scaremongering, belligerent,...

Fairly 'low budget', unsophisticated malware, say researchers, but it can collect the same data as Pegasus When it comes to surveillance malware, sophisticated spyware with complex capabilities tends to hog the limelight – for example NSO Group's Pegasus, which is sold to established governments. But it's actually less polished kit that you've never heard of, like GuardZoo – developed and used by Houthi rebels in Yemen – that dominates the space. This is according to Lookout principal researcher Justin Albrecht, who spoke to us about the analyst's report, out today, revealing the existence of GuardZoo. The report says that the...

A Harris County Deputy Sheriff responding to a call regarding an armed robbery in Houston on Wednesday night was shot and killed. Shortly after 10:00 p.m., 28-year-old Deputy Fernando Esqueda was shot and killed after responding to the emergency call. The sheriff believes Esqueda was ambushed. Esqueda was shot after locating and investigating a suspicious vehicle believed to be involved in the 911 call. Hours after the murder, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales named 44-Year-Old Ronnie Palmer as a person of interest in the armed incident and in the capital murder of Esqueda. Palmer was already wanted for aggravated assault...

The White House aides who covered up President Joe Biden's cognitive decline from the world and waged war on the press for three-and-a-half years are now facing accusations of incompetence. The staff closest to the ailing 81-year-old have deployed a multitude of tactics to hide his deficiencies - such as limiting his access to reporters, giving him smaller stairs for Air Force One and surrounding him to hide his stiff walk. He has been given notecards for almost every event, given a tighter schedule so he can get more sleep and has been the center of strategy to avoid him...

A New York University student and South Korea Marine Corps veteran was left paralyzed from the waist down after armed carjackers crashed into his Uber in South Philadelphia last month. Finance major Junoh Kim, 23, was less than a month into his summer analyst role at New York City-based M&A adviser Klema Capital when the carjackers rammed into his Uber while fleeing police on June 23 near the University of Pennsylvania, according to a GoFundMe page organized by his loved ones. “Junoh is currently paralyzed in his lower body from waist down and has limited use of his hands (left...

Northrop Grumman designed and built the XRQ-73 SHEPARD Hybrid Electric Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) X-Plane for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman) REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – July 10, 2024 – (PHOTO RELEASE) Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has announced the design and construction of the Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD) vehicle. The uncrewed air system developed for DARPA recently received its official X-plane designation of XRQ-73. Built in collaboration with Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, the XRQ-73 SHEPARD is a DARPA "X-prime" program leveraging hybrid electric architecture and component technologies to quickly mature...

President Biden’s highly anticipated “big boy” press conference Thursday — his first formal solo press conference in Washington since 2022, where he will address increasing calls to bow out of the 2024 race — has been delayed by one hour and is now scheduled to begin around 6:30 p.m. The new time means that clips of the 81-year-old president stumbling again — or exceeding expectations — likely won’t be ready in time for widely watched network evening news programs. A White House official told The Post that the event was delayed “due to NATO schedule,” which also began later than...

July 10 (UPI) -- Transit officials in California said a stretch of highway was closed for several hours when a truck overturned and spilled its load of tomatoes into the roadway. The California Highway Patrol said the truck overturned onto its side on Interstate 5 in Patterson about 8:05 a.m. Tuesday and lost its load of tomatoes onto the roadway and shoulder. Caltrans District 10 said crews cleared the tomatoes from the center divide to give northbound traffic a chance to ketchup. The cause of the crash was unclear, and the road was fully reopened by 12:30 p.m.