Free Republic

Now that the Keystone XL pipeline is cancelled by President Joe Biden, the world is supposedly greener. Really? Fact is, it's the opposite. Instead of getting more environmentally friendly, the carbon footprint from that oil will be increased substantially because it will be shipped by truck and trains above ground, instead of through underground pipe. It is also much less safe and efficient: Shipping by trucks and trains means more accidents -- and an increased human cost. What sheer brilliance! I thought all of Biden’s decisions were going to be based on facts and science. I read the other day...

MADISON — Tax and spend Tony does it again — this time looking to tax the small businesses his administration has driven to the brink of extinction with lockdowns and other COVID-19 health edicts. Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Revenue last week quietly issued guidance that ignores federal COVID-19 relief legislation language on tax liability and aims to tax tens of thousands of Wisconsin businesses that received funding through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). “Gov. Tony Evers and the DOR are looking to skim the federal money that came down to our small businesses so they can grow the coffers...

75 million. Seventy-five million, if not more. That is the potential market for existing companies and start-ups that reject cancel culture and freely open their products and services to Trump supporters. And it’s more than just a wide-open market that awaits. We are dedicated and loyal customers who will aggressively fight any efforts to shut you down and reward you for standing tall against the cancel mob. Ask Chick-fil-A and Goya about their sales growth after liberal boycott attempts. Just being pro-Trump (or even neutral in the face of political correctness) will all-but-guarantee liberal boycott efforts and the resultant sales...

During the Gold Rush era it celebrates, the owners of Columbia Booksellers & Variety Store might settle their disputes with dueling pistols at dawn. But today, non-firing replicas of the very kinds of guns that would have been brandished during that time period appear to be at the center of a dispute between the small locally owned Tuolumne County shop and major San Francisco tech company Square, Inc. The store had to close both its physical location in Columbia State Historic Park and its online website sales due to the tech giant abruptly canceling its contract earlier this week. Now...

Any doubt that the Biden Administration plans to slowly regulate fossil fuels out of existence vanished this week. First came the Keystone XL pipeline kill, but perhaps more significant is the 60-day freeze on new leases on federal lands and bureaucratic permitting. The pause could soon become a long-term ban. Federal lands account for about 22% of U.S. oil production, 12% of natural gas and 40% of coal. When the Obama Administration slowed oil and gas permitting on federal land, drilling and exploration shifted to private land. The Biden Administration may shut that down too. Start with the 60-day suspension...

PARIS - France’s top health advisory body on Saturday recommended doubling the time between people being given the first and second COVID-19 vaccinations to six weeks from three in order to increase the number getting inoculated. The gap between the first and second injection in France is currently three weeks for people in retirement homes, who take priority, and four weeks for others such as health workers. The Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) said spacing out the two required vaccinations of the Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna vaccines would allow the treatment of at least 700,000 more people in the first month....

Ontario, Canada barber shop reopens using loophole given to film industry. She sets up cameras and microphones and is cutting hair again. Good for her!

Are ammunition companies hoarding their supplies? Have they stopped making ammo altogether? In short, no. Here’s what’s really going onLast week I was riding around South Texas with Jason Vanderbrink, the president of ammunition for Vista Outdoor. In other words, he’s the big boss for Federal Premium Ammunition, CCI, Speer, and now Remington ammunition. This is a pretty wild time to be running an ammo company: There are an estimated 7 million new gun owners in the U.S. this year, consumers have been panic-buying rounds in everything from .22LR to .300 Win. Mag., and retailers are backordered for months; plus,...

Visit site for Getty image. We need to visit John Solomon's site for support! Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg Incoming Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has suggested taxing Americans for the number of miles they drive, a policy he endorsed as a Democratic presidential candidate.The Biden Administration is actively searching for ways to fund its ambitious $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., acknowledged "privacy concerns" related to implementing a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) system but said it should be considered as a potential replacement for the gas tax. During Buttigieg's confirmation hearing in the Senate Commerce,...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s 60-day moratorium on new oil and natural gas leases and drilling permits is prompting widespread concerns in New Mexico, where spending on education and other public programs hinges on the industry’s success.

Three unions seemed to be regretting endorsing President Joe Biden after his first day in office. Biden revoked the construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Wednesday, destroying thousands of union jobs. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives,” Biden said, according to The Associated Press. Keystone XL President Richard Prior said more than 1,000 unionized jobs would also be eliminated in the next few weeks as it slowly shuts down the construction of the 1,700-mile pipeline. The United Association of Union Plumbers was one group...

After expressing disappointment with President Biden's decision to revoke permits allowing the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he will take his gripes to the new commander in chief himself. Trudeau expressed his intention to reporters in Ottawa on Friday afternoon. “I will express my concern for jobs and livelihoods in Canada, particularly in the West, directly in my conversation with President Biden,” he said. The Canadian prime minister also alluded to areas of common interest between himself and Biden. “We are much more aligned on values, on focus, on work that needs...

Continuing a flurry of executive action, President Biden signed an order Friday calling on the Labor Department to allow workers to collect unemployment benefits if they quit jobs they fear put them at risk for COVID-19. Pointing to a Gallup Poll finding that found 43% of Americans live in a household where at least one member has a preexisting condition, the White House wrote in a release: “The President is asking the Department of Labor to consider clarifying that workers have a federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that will jeopardize their health and if they do so, they will...

Indoor dining expected to be allowed in Chicago starting Saturday. CHICAGO - Customers will be allowed back inside of bars and restaurants in Chicago and suburban Cook County beginning Saturday, provided coronavirus infection rates stay down. The city and Cook County will move from Tier 2 to Tier 1 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigation plan as long as metrics continue to improve or stay the same, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

California Democrats and their labor union allies are embracing anti-democratic principles to thwart the will of the people.In his first inaugural address in January 1911, California's progressive Gov. Hiram Johnson detailed a far-reaching "people's reform program" that would help wrest control of the state's government from what his contemporaries called "The Octopus"—a reference to muckraker Frank Norris' 1901 novel about the outsized power of Southern Pacific Railroad. As Norris explained, the Cyclopean sea monster was a "symbol of a vast power, huge, terrible, flinging the echo of its thunder over all the reaches of the valley, leaving blood and destruction...

Jan. 22 (UPI) — NBC News announced the retirement of Tom Brokaw on Friday after 55 years with the network. The 80-year-old anchor said in a statement that he trusts the new generation of NBC News to cover current events. “During one of the most complex and consequential eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News journalists, producers and technicians is providing America with timely, insightful and critically important information, 24/7,” the statement read. “I could not be more proud of them.

President Joe Biden on Friday lowered expectations of his administration’s ability to affect the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the coming months. Biden made the remark during a press conference addressing the signage of two more executive orders: one aimed at increasing food stamp benefits and the other for workers’ rights.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg said Friday on MSNBC that the Green New Deal introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is “very far from being enough” action on climate. Thunberg said, “How can we expect people will want climate action? How can we expect people to support any kind of action when the general public welcome awareness is so low when it comes to the climate. We have not been made aware of what is happening because the climate crisis has never once has been treated as a crisis. So how can we expect a to happen when we aren’t...

Arnold Schwarzenegger has received the COVID-19 vaccine and is urging fans to sign up up for the injection if they are eligible. Quoting himself from the Terminator movies, he said in an Instagram post: “Come with me if you want to live!” The 73-year-old actor and former Republican governor of California posted a video of himself receiving the COVID vaccine at a drive-thru facility in Los Angeles. “Put that needle down!” he joked to the nurse, in another self-quote from his 1996 movie Jingle All the Way.

Total Doses Distributed: 39,892,400 Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses: 16,243,093 Number of People Receiving 2 Doses: 2,756,953 Doses Administered in Long-Term Care Facilities: 2,289,284