Free Republic

President Joe Biden continues trumpeting his agenda on the fundraising circuit even as he quietly prepares his supporters for a Republican takeover. “If we lose control of the House and Senate, we have a different world,” Biden told supporters in New York City on Wednesday. “I’ll be spending all my time with the veto pen, but it won’t be a lot of initiatives.” During his fundraising trip through New York City, the president spoke to donors about “enormous, enormous, enormous opportunity” in the next few years of his presidency, but he is also setting the stage to hold his ground...

President Joe Biden will be signing an executive order on Thursday to ban “ghost guns,” a direct assault on the 2nd Amendment. The executive order may also involve action against “assault” weapons but it is currently unclear at the moment if the order will involve this. “President Joe Biden is expected to unveil a long-awaited package of executive actions to curb gun violence Thursday at the White House, according to four people familiar with the plan,” Politico reported on Wednesday. “Biden will direct the administration to begin the process of requiring buyers of so-called ghost guns — homemade or makeshift...

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model cited by the White House Coronavirus Task Force lowered its projections for coronavirus deaths in the U.S. by 25 percent from 81,766 to 60,415 early Wednesday morning.The IHME model has come under withering criticism for vastly overstating projections of regular and ICU hospital beds needed, but its death projections to date have closely tracked with actual data.Wednesday’s dramatic reverse in the model’s projection of U.S. deaths was made without a press release from IHME explaining the reasons for the reduction. It marks the second reduction in the model’s U.S. deaths projections since April 1, when it...

California's credit rating was dinged Thursday by Standard & Poor's, which cited the state's worsening budget crisis. The firm's rating on $5 billion of short-term notes the state sold in October was cut one notch, from SP-1 to SP-2. S&P also warned that its A-plus rating on $46.6 billion of California general obligation bonds, which are long-term debt, might be lowered. With the state already tied with Louisiana for the lowest credit rating of all the states, a downgrade would leave California alone at the bottom. (Most states are rated AA or AAA.) S&P said its actions "reflect our opinion...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cancer researchers urged people on Wednesday to take more vitamin D to lower their risk of colon, breast and ovarian cancer, saying studies showed a clear link. "Our suggestion is for people to increase their intake," through diet or a vitamin supplement, Dr. Cedric Garland said in a telephone interview. Garland's research team reviewed 63 studies, including several large long-term ones, on the relationship between vitamin D and certain types of cancer worldwide between 1966 and 2004. He said the benefit of vitamin D was as clear as the harmful link between smoking and lung cancer. "There's...

Going on holiday 'lowers your IQ' A scientist claims going on holiday makes you stupid. Siegfried Lehrl, of the University of Erlangen and Nuremberg in Germany, says sunbathing and relaxation lowers your IQ. He told Berliner Kurier: "Fourteen days of complete rest can be enough to bring your IQ down by 20 points." Mr Lehrl agrees people who work hard all year need some time to relax. But he says they should avoid getting bored while on holiday, since boredom affects intelligence. He told the newspaper paper: "Boredom is a warning signal when we feel a lack of mental challenge."...