Free Republic

A virologist who supports gain-of-function research and believes COVID-19 evolved naturally is the new acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the agency Dr. Anthony Fauci led for 38 years. Jeffery Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., a 19-year veteran of NIAID and chief of the institute’s Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, replaced Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who was placed on leave last month by the Trump administration. Citing an email from Dr. Matthew Memoli, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Science reported that Taubenberger’s first day as acting director was April 25. Taubenberger will head...

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

She’s cracking. Gov. Kathy Hochul sounded off Wednesday about the “outrageous” price of eggs — jokingly telling New Yorkers to make chocolate cake with applesauce instead. The unprompted recipe suggestion came as Hochul, during a news conference in Midtown, slammed President Trump’s tariffs for driving up prices on everything from avocados to children’s toys. “And I’m done talking about the price of eggs — just give up eating them,” she said, drawing laughter. “It’s just outrageous, outrageous.” “You can make a really good chocolate cake with applesauce,” she added. “I digress, it’s also vegan.”

The text of the agreement, made public by Ukraine’s government, made no mention of the security guarantees that Kyiv had long sought. The minerals deal signed between the United States and Ukraine on Wednesday could bring untold money into a joint investment fund between the two countries that would help rebuild Ukraine whenever the war with Russia ends. But Ukraine’s untapped resources that are the subject of the deal will take years to extract and yield profits. And those could fail to deliver the kind of wealth that President Trump has long said they would. It is not yet clear...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that HHS is no longer facilitating child trafficking in the United States and is instead “very aggressively” searching for the hundreds of thousands of migrant children lost by the Biden administration. “We have ended HHS’s role as the principal vector in this country for child trafficking,” Kennedy said during a White House Cabinet meeting with President Trump and other top administration officials to mark the first 100 days of the president’s second term. “During the Biden administration, HHS became a collaborator in child trafficking for sex and for slavery, and...

Blackouts are becoming longer and more common in Xcel’s Colorado service territory, with 90,000 customers experiencing 6 or more outages in 2024.. Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity provider, is having increasing difficulty answering customer calls, sending out bills and keeping the lights on, according to two reports by state utility regulators. Blackouts more than doubled in 2024 and customer complaints have jumped 100% in three years, according to a Colorado Public Utilities Commission briefing Wednesday on outages. Outages have become more prevalent across Xcel Energy’s service territory which includes zones from the northeast, near Sterling, to Greeley, the Denver metro...

Failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris looks around America today and sees a whirlwind of change driven by Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the White House. She told supporters Wednesday night she doesn’t like it. No, not one bit. In a 15-minute speech to an elite audience of Democrats in a gold-trimmed ballroom at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the former vice-president was making her first major speech since losing November’s election. The crowd included Democratic donors, candidates and elected officials. Among them were Eleni Kounalakis, the lieutenant governor of California and former California Congresswoman Katie Porter, both of...

Trump’s counterrevolution presses on—quietly, methodically, and morally—while a flailing opposition offers only chaos, debt, and deflection in response. Despite the media hysteria, Trump’s counterrevolution remains on course. Its ultimate fate will probably rest with the state of the economy by the November 2026 midterm elections. But its success also hinges on accomplishing what is right and long overdue—and then making such reforms quietly, compassionately, and methodically. No country can long endure without sovereignty and security—or with 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants crossing the border and half a million criminal foreign nationals roaming freely. The prior administration found that it...

The wait is finally over… for a movie nobody was waiting for. Nearly four years after a prop gun held by Alec Baldwin and mistakenly loaded with a live round went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set, their movie “Rust” has hit theaters. And how is the Western? Mediocre and often uncomfortable to watch; forever tainted by tragedy. Completing “Rust” and releasing it was a massive error of judgement. Lesser films sometimes get shelved by studios for reasons of quality or other corporate drama. But an average picture that resulted in the death of a young mother will...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/1/25)[Prayer]Names and Titles of God the Holy Spirit (Spirit of The Bridegroom) Revelation 22:1717 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.King James Version________________________God Bless America.ML/LTOS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a beautiful display of solidarity with deported gang members, top Democrats had "MS-13" tattooed directly onto their foreheads. Several members of Congress, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, traveled to "Big Dave's Ink" to have the logo of the notoriously violent gang emblazoned forever on their faces. "We stand with Garcia. We stand with MS-13," said Schumer, pointing to his forehead. "Let there be no doubt who we are fighting for. It's literally tattooed on our faces. We are with you, gang people." According to sources, several democrats bearing the tattoos were subsequently roped into gang...

US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, has said Washington and Kyiv have reached an agreement on 22 concrete action plans aimed at ending the war with Russia. Kellogg spoke to Fox News on Tuesday about last week's peace talks in London, which included representatives from the US, Ukraine, and the E3 countries (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany). “We came up with 22 very specific actions, after very candid and frank and hard discussions with the Ukrainians, we think we're in a very, very good position,” he said. He admitted that Ukrainian officials "didn't...

(WHTM) — A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government of over $1 million in SNAP and Medicare benefits. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, James Sessoms, 60, of Philadelphia, pled guilty today to one count of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud, seven counts of false statements in connection with health care benefits, and seven counts of Social Security fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that in October of 2024, Sessoms was charged by indictment with those offenses after he used stolen identities and Social Security numbers (SSNs) to file for SNAP and Medicaid benefits. The...

From the outset of forming our country, our Founders were determined to keep religion as a foundational element, given that many people had left their homes in Britain to be able to practice their religions as they chose. The goal was not for the government to reject faith, but for it to be prevented from dictating doctrine. But over the years, the Left has distorted the meaning of “separation of church and state” (a phrase that’s not written into the Constitution) and now the country feels obligated to ban religion from every nook and cranny. How did a country founded...

In just the last month, the Supreme Court has heard three important religion cases, culminating in yesterday’s argument over a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. Judging from the justices’ questioning, the side pressing religious-freedom claims seemed likely to prevail in all three. That would extend a remarkable winning streak for religion at the Supreme Court. Since 2012, the pro-religion side has won all but one of 16 First Amendment cases about the government’s relationship with faith. (The exception: The court rejected a challenge to the first Trump administration’s ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries.) The court has been...

1 May 2025 Thursday of the 2nd week of EastertideSt. James Catholic Church, Solana Beach, CaliforniaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 5:27-33We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy SpiritWhen the officials had brought the apostles in to face the Sanhedrin, the high priest demanded an explanation. ‘We gave you a formal warning’ he said ‘not to preach in this name, and what have you done? You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and seem determined to fix the guilt of this man’s death on us.’ In reply Peter and the apostles said, ‘Obedience to...

President Trump said Wednesday that he’d like to see legendary sportscaster Stephen A. Smith run for president — after the Bronx native peppered him with questions about his anti-DEI policies. “I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates, and I will tell you I’d love to see him run,” Trump, 78, said in a NewsNation interview. *** “Stephen A, he’s a good guy. He’s a smart guy. I love watching him,” Trump replied to O’Reilly’s idea. “He’s got great entertainment skills, which is very important. People watch him. You know, a lot of these Democrats I watch, I...

The collapse was predictable and could have been prevented—for a price. Big sections of the European electric grid had a blackout recently. First reports blamed a frequency dip due to a lack of “spinning reserve.” When frequency gets too low, automatic electrical breakers open, isolating sections of loads and the transmission grid. The power plants can only safely operate within a narrow frequency range (pumps spin too slowly, etc), and they too will isolate and trip to protect themselves from damage. The classic grid can be imagined as a broad network of spinning gyroscopes, all electrically synchronized to the same...

A Democratic House lawmaker, known for his jaw-dropping remarks, repurposed a Holocaust-era poem on Wednesday to argue that the Trump administration is targeting “Latinos outside of the Home Depots.” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who once worried Guam could sink from overpopulation, subjected lawmakers to his bizarre variation of German theologian Martin Niemöller’s famous “First They Came For …” poem during a House Judiciary Committee hearing – leaving some people stunned. “You know, first they came for the Latinos outside of the Home Depots, trying to get work so that they could feed their families,” Johnson began. “And I didn’t say...

But blackest in the black catalogue of crime, most horrible among the fiendish deeds of all the dreadful centuries, was the St. Bartholomew Massacre. The world still recalls with shuddering horror the scenes of that most cowardly and cruel onslaught. The king of France, urged on by Romish priests and prelates, lent his sanction to the dreadful work. A bell, tolling at dead of night, was a signal for the slaughter. Protestants by thousands, sleeping quietly in their homes, trusting to the plighted honor of their king, were dragged forth without a warning and murdered in cold blood.