Free Republic

The Substack Modern Discontent recently posted an anthology series on the benefits of quercetin, including the finding that it works like hydroxychloroquine, a drug found to be effective against SARS-CoV-2 when used early enough. Part 1 begins with a brief overview of what quercetin is and its basic mechanisms of action. Quercetin is a flavonoid found in a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as onions and shallots, apples, broccoli, asparagus, green peppers, tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, black currants and green tea. The quercetin content in any given food is largely dependent on light exposure, though,...

A Democratic National Committee meeting erupted into a bitter battle Thursday morning over the question of holding a climate-specific presidential debate, with party officials stamping down a resolution calling for a such an event in the face of raucous opposition from activists. In a 17-to-8 vote, the DNC’s Resolutions Committee defeated a resolution that called for the candidates to debate each other about their views and policies on climate change — on a national stage. Young protesters filling the room hissed, jeered and sang the union song “Which Side Are You On?” before and after the vote. The two-hour-plus debate...

Fans of economic policy may recall that during one of the many recent debt ceiling showdowns, the idea to mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin came to the fore. It turns out that the Obama administration took the idea seriously enough to have the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel draft memos pertaining to its legality, a fact belied by the White House’s out-of-hand dismissal of the option in January. In response to the Huffington Post’s Freedom of Information Act request, the OLC confirmed that memos about the legality of minting a high-value platinum coin had been written since Obama took...

Bad things are said to happen on Friday the thirteenth. This year the thirteenth fell on a Thursday in May but that did not stop the gremlins on Capital Hill from creating mischief. The two gremlins hardest at work are Senators Lieberman and Kerry. They have introduced a nine hundred and eighty-seven page bill called the American Power Act; but it should more aptly be called the American Power Grab. Both Lieberman and Kerry know that the bill is a sugar coated version of Cap and Trade and both men know that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that...

As television and radio reel from new censorship laws in Venezuela, there are also signs of intimidation appearing against Venezuela's bloggers. We've recently reported that "media" like VHeadline* aligned with Venezuela's dictatorship have targeted the fearless Aleks Boyd, whose blog VCrisis.vom is a thorn in the side of the Chavez regime. They've now taken aim at essayist Gustavo Coronel, a retired Venezuelan oil executive who writes graceful, informative essays on VenezuelaToday. Coronel's deep well of knowledge has drawn the invective of chavistas in the past, but his latest work, directed at Global Exchange and at the Sandalista political tourists who...