Free Republic

The popular Arizona State University professor who often discussed social justice issues and purportedly died after a battle with the coronavirus actually never existed. The person behind the hoax account was BethAnn McLaughlin, a neuroscientist, and founder of the #MeTooSTEM advocacy group. The story: McLaughlin, who last week announced the fake professor’s death, told the New York Times this week that she was operating the account. “I take full responsibility for my involvement in creating the @sciencing_bi Twitter account. My actions are inexcusable. I apologize without reservation to all the people I hurt,” she said in a statement.

CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter on Monday blamed right-wing media outlets for putting forward the suggestion that Joe Biden shouldn’t debate President Trump. What Stelter said: Stelter was responding to a tweet from Townhall.com’s political editor Guy Benson, who said the push for Biden to skip debates with the president is a “media tempest.” Stelter wrote: “it is mostly a right-wing media tempest, fueled by hour after hour of Fox commentary (not reporting), far removed from campaign reality…”

Dr. Oxiris Barbot stepped down as New York City health commissioner Tuesday citing the city’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio as reason for her leaving. “I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree that it could have been,” Barbot wrote in her resignation letter reviewed by the New York Times. “Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work. The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center...

Leaders in education, politics and other areas gathered in suburban Evanston Sunday to ask that the Illinois State Board of Education change the history curriculum at schools statewide, and temporarily halt instruction until an alternative is decided upon. At a news conference, State Rep. LaShawn K. Ford said current history teachings lead to a racist society and overlook the contributions of women and minorities. Before the event Sunday, Rep. Ford's office distributed a news release "Rep. Ford Today in Evanston to Call for the Abolishment of History Classes in Illinois Schools," in which Ford asked the ISBOE and school districts...

Nervous managers of the scheduled 2020 presidential debates are shuffling the logistics and locations to deal with the threat of the coronavirus. But here’s a better idea: Scrap them altogether. And not for health reasons. The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership. In fact, one could argue that they reward precisely the opposite of what we want in a president. When we were serious about the presidency, we wanted intelligence, thoughtfulness, knowledge, empathy and, to be sure, likability. It should also go without saying, dignity. Yet the debates play an outsize role in campaigns and...

The family of a murder victim in California was outraged to learn that the state has released the person responsible for killing their loved one as part of an effort to reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks inside prisons. Terebea Williams, 44, was sentenced to 84 years-to-life in prison on charges including first-degree murder, using a firearm, carjacking, and kidnapping of 23-year-old Kevin “John” Ruska Jr. in 1998. However, Williams served less than a quarter of that sentence (19 years) before being released early as the California government tries to reduce its prison population.

In an interview with Candace Owens, author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza said the violence by Antifa radicals and others in response to the death of George Floyd is a direct result of progressive indoctrination at America's colleges and universities. "Academia is the theory, and Antifa is the practice," D'Souza said on "The Candace Owens Show." Discussing his new book "United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It," D'Souza was responding to Owens' comment that America has "replaced a solid education system with psychological conditioning." Students are being taught "anti-Americanism," she said, graduating with a...

During a lengthy interview with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Thursday, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer not once asked Silver about an explosive new investigative report by ESPN detailing frequent instances of abuse and lack of education in NBA academies in China. The ESPN report, published roughly two hours before Blitzer’s interview with Silver, painted a grim picture of human rights abuses against young players where players would often be mistreated and American coaches harassed and monitored by Chinese authorities. A former NBA employee who worked in an NBA academy in the Chinese province of Xinjiang compared the situation there to that...

A Twitter spokeswoman has defended the company’s decision to block and restrict tweets from President Trump but not those of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei which call for genocide of the Israeli people. The reason? Because the Iranian dictator’s tweets pass as “commentary on political issues of the day” while Trump’s could “inspire harm,” Twitter claims.

The NFL will have messages in support of Black Lives Matter and racial justice such as “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us” displayed on players’ helmets and on playing fields during the opening games of the 2020 season. Names of some black victims will also be stamped on players’ helmets. “The NFL informed clubs today of plans to amplify its social justice initiatives, including helmet decals and signage in end zones for kickoff games and club home openers,” NFL reporter Tom Pelissero wrote on Twitter.

WHITTIER, Calif. (KABC) -- Rival groups of demonstrators led to some tense moments in Whitter Tuesday night. The event began as a pro-police rally, but a counter-demonstration group turned up as well. There were some minor skirmishes and police took at least a few people into custody. But the event was otherwise largely peaceful with a number of cars driving by with pro-police messages.

Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday wrote a piece enthusiastically praising a newly released ad by the Biden campaign last week featuring the former vice president and his boss, Barack Obama, engaged in a lengthy discussion reminiscing about the good old days. In her piece, Hornaday compares Biden and Obama to “superheroes joining forces to save the world” and praises the video by Adam Garber, a former staffer in Obama’s Office of Digital Strategy, as technically and visually superior to videos released by the Trump campaign.

For weeks now since the death of George Floyd in May Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Marxists and other far left groups with the support of the Democrat Party have been looting, rioting and destroying businesses, homes and public property across America. The mainstream media HAS YET to air this destruction from the weeks of Democrat-endorsed violence and destruction. The Democrats don’t want you to see the destruction. On Friday we asked our readers to send photos of the Democrat sanctioned devastation in their communities. We were overwhelmed with the response.

They are cold, calculating consultants — Republican strategists who’ve spent their entire political careers making Democrats uncomfortable. They’ve successfully painted Democratic candidates as big spenders, high taxers and soft on crime and defence. But not this year. Several high-level former Republican operatives are giving Democrats a pass. In fact, they’ve turned their full arsenal of political tactics and warfare against their own party and their own president, Donald Trump. “We have a particular set of skills,” said Rick Wilson, quoting Liam Neeson’s character from the movie, Taken, “skills that make us a nightmare for people like Donald Trump.” Wilson was...

Conservative commentator Mark Levin slammed the Washington Post’s publisher for serving as the outlet’s CEO while also working on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute's board of trustees. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute requested this weekend that the Republican National Committee and President Trump’s reelection campaign stop fundraising off of Reagan’s likeness, following an email saying Trump supporters would receive a commemorative Reagan coin if they donated at least $45 to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee.

President Trump’s mental acuity again became a hot button topic this week after the president boasted acing what many called an “easy” cognitive test. “If you’re in the office of the presidency, we have to be sharp,” President Trump told Fox News medical correspondent, Dr. Marc Siegel, on Wednesday. “It was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very easy, the last questions are much more difficult.” Trump said he requested the test “a little less than a year ago” to silence critics who have repeatedly called his mental fitness into question. Trump cited as one of the “more...

Self-censorship is on the rise according to a new Cato Institute survey that reports nearly two-thirds of Americans are afraid to share their political views. A new CATO Institute/YouGov national survey found 62% of Americans say the political climate today prevents them from saying what they believe. This is up several points from 2017 when 58% of Americans said they were afraid to share their political beliefs. “31% of liberals, 30% of moderates and 34% of conservatives are worried their political views could get them fired or harm their career trajectory,” the CATO survey stated.

Since the beginning of the anti-racism, anti-police brutality protests in late May, at least 183 monuments and memorials have been vandalized, desecrated, or taken down, according to a new report by The Federalist. Statues and memorials have been continually targeted during the civil unrest triggered by George Floyd’s death on May 25. In most cases, the statues targeted commemorated historic figures including Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, colonial and religious figures, explorers, and Confederate leaders.

Portland is still engulfed by antifa violence (as the Democrats side with the violent rioters), America’s history and heritage is under direct and unapologetic assault, covid hysteria is still hamstringing the nation’s economic life and prosperity, and on Monday, Joe Biden offered an all-purpose remedy: “One of the things I think is important, I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith.” I’ll bet you’re wishing you had thought of that.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been actively forcing its poor villagers to remove Christian imagery from their homes and replace them with pictures of Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping or lose their welfare benefits. The story: In April, CCP officials visited believers in the city of Linfen in the northern province of Shanxi and targeted welfare recipients, warning them if they refused to remove crosses, icons, and other religious symbols they would lose their government benefits, according to the religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter. “All impoverished households in the town were told to display Mao Zedong images,” a...