Free Republic

Rapid tests causing grief in state with highest vaccination rate. Emergency rooms in Vermont are being overwhelmed with people who have tested positive for COVID but have no symptoms, bolstering the criticism that mass testing amid a pandemic is counterproductive. Vermont, with about 77% of the population vaccinated, has the nation's highest rate.. Vermonters who take the rapid tests and test positive for COVID-19 are "clogging up emergency rooms." Dr. Rick Hildebrant, medical director of the emergency department at the Rutland Regional Medical Center, said people should go to the ER only if they have a positive test and are...

Sen. Joe Manchin reportedly told the White House last week that he would be willing to support a version of the billionaire tax in President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, in a reversal from his previous criticism . Three people familiar with his private offer informed the Washington Post this week of his endorsement of the plan, saying it was included in a list of spending and revenue proposals that he supports. It remains unclear if the West Virginian Democrat included a revenue estimate.

It’s pretty common that when a sick person is dying, especially from a psychiatric disorder, they get spurts of life that can fool you into believing they’re getting back to normal. But what looks like signs of life can be deceiving. When sickness declines to a slow death, terminal lucidity, agonal breathing, and the Lazarus reflex become signs that death is imminent. Terminal lucidity, first described in 1833, is an unexpected return of mental clarity to a person who’s been gone, sometimes, for years. Agonal breathing looks like real breathing but are the last gasps of a dying brain –...

Apocalypse Now.....or is it Apocalypse Again? Back in October, Rolling Stone magazine declared that "Joe Manchin Just Cooked the Planet." The description of the earthly inferno that would be our inevitable fate due to Manchin was quite gruesome:

A coalition of West Virginia advocacy groups has launched a $250,000 ad campaign to encourage Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) to put his support behind the Build Back Better Act after he said this week he would not be voting on the key piece of legislation. The WV New Jobs Coalition — made up of groups such as the West Virginia Working Families Party and the West Virginia Citizens Action Group — released a television ad as well as ads in five newspapers. "Everyone is talking about inflation. Well, you know what would cut inflation and put money in West Virginia...

House progressives are calling on President Biden to use his executive power to implement parts of Democrats' massive legislative agenda, which stalled out in the Senate this month when Sen. Joe Manchin said he cannot vote for it. "Today, the elected leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is calling on the President and all Democrats who believe in the need to Build Back Better for climate, care, immigrants, and those seeking economic dignity and opportunity to come together and deliver for the American people," the Congressional Progressive Caucus said in a statement. "That means a whole-of-government approach," it continued. "In...

Former US President Donald Trump suggested that Senator Joe Manchin is "saving" President Biden "from himself" by blocking the Build Back Better bill, according to Fox News. "I think he’s saving Biden, because if they ever got that passed, this country would be a total disaster. Already, inflation is so bad, it’s at a level that nobody’s really seen — nobody remembers for so long — Jimmy Carter was there, but I think this will end up being far worse than Jimmy Carter", Trump said, apparently referring to the so-called "stagflation" period that occurred during Carter's presidency in the 1970s,...

The saying, "One man with courage makes a majority" has been attributed by historians to different sources. But regardless of who said it, there is one man who stands out today worthy of this description. It's West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Manchin has been a one-man show in the Democratic Party, standing often in solitude, holding feet-to-the-fire of his president and his party's leadership, pushing back on the massive and irresponsible spending avalanche in the Build Back Better act. Now, Manchin has slammed the door, saying he can't vote for the bill, effectively killing it. In so doing, Manchin has...

Tuesday on FNC’s “Fox News Primetime,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he was not surprised his colleague Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) came out to oppose the so-called Build Back Better agenda promoted by President Joe Biden. According to Graham, one of the takeaways was Manchin was “telling the world” reconciliation to pass spending bills was dead.

Joe Manchin is a hero for holding the line and killing Build Back Better. He cited two reasons—debt and inflation—to which all of us replied: well, duh. But in today’s Democrat party, fiscal responsibility is rare and fleeting. So, we should take a moment and sing the praises of this extraordinary accomplishment in the hopes we can inspire more. Let’s start with the cost. It is often said that nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. We’ve all been around the block; we know the game: give the public a taste of the government’s bountiful benefits and then...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu), the moral lodestar of today’s Democrat party, is unhappy with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for rejecting Biden’s handlers’ breathtakingly expensive and wasteful socialism and climate change fantasy bill. Given the Democrat leadership’s abject fear of appearing to be “Islamophobic” by crossing Omar, this could be the most serious challenge yet to Manchin’s role as a sane man in the party of liars, looters, and lunatics.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which represents West Virginia coal miners as well, said that the bill contained important measures that would benefit coal miners — like an extension of funding to aid victims of black lung disease, tax incentives to urge manufacturers to build new factories and employ ex-miners and protect union workers. Cecil Roberts, the union’s president said in a statement: “We are disappointed that the bill will not pass. We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to this legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working,...

Senate Democrats are signaling they plan to take more of a hardball approach to pressuring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to support their climate and social spending agenda after months of kid-glove treatment failed to deliver his vote. Democrats are threatening to drive a wedge between Manchin and his many lower-income constituents who stand to reap billions of dollars in federal benefits if Build Back Better passes, including an enhanced child tax credit, lower Medicare-negotiated prescription drug prices and subsidies to cover the cost of child care. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said Manchin will have to repeatedly...

Sen. Joe Manchin offered to support a $1.8 trillion version of President Biden’s Build Back Better spending package that included 10 years of universal pre-K, an expansion of ObamaCare and billions to fight climate change, according to a report. However, the proposal from Manchin (D-WV) was rejected because it did not include an expansion of the federal child tax credit that the White House has touted as greatly reducing the child poverty rate and has made a linchpin of its economic agenda, the Washington Post reported Monday. The West Virginian’s offer was made just days before a massive falling-out between...

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., blasted the White House "staff" for leaking "absolutely inexcusable" things about him after rejecting President Biden’s Build Back Better Act during an interview on "Fox News Sunday." He said he would not be pressured into supporting the bill by his fellow Democrats Manchin said during a Monday interview with MetroNews Talkline that the White House "retaliated" against him after he told "Fox News Sunday" that he could not support Biden's signature COVID–19 relief legislation. "Basically, they retaliated," the West Virginia Democrat said. "I figured they would come back strong."

CNN's New Day Tuesday morning mocked Joe Manchin's statement explaining that as a West Virginian, he couldn't be intimidated into supporting Build Back Better. New Day aired a clip of Manchin saying: "Well, guess what? I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from. And they can just beat the living crap out of people, and think they'll be submissive." Co-host John Berman led the charge, saying: "You know I always love it when someone says, I'm from West Virginia, we don't back down to anything. People from all 50 states will say that."Get the rest of the story...

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell said the GOP would “certainly welcome” West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin “if he was so inclined” to flip parties. Manchin has been bashed by his partisan colleagues for pledging to vote against President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan. Speaking on Fox News’ “The Guy Benson Show” podcast, the Kentucky senator called Manchin’s no vote “the single greatest favor Joe Manchin could give this country,” amid rising inflation costs. McConnell said he wasn’t sure how Manchin would vote but is pleased that his decision effectively ends any chance that the bill will get the...

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), praised Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) as a “profile in courage” who rejected offers for self-enrichment while guest-hosting for Monday’s edition of Sean Hannity’s eponymous radio show alongside GAI colleague Eric Eggers. Schweizer and Eggers reflected on their research of political corruption in Washington, DC, while examining Manchin’s recent refusal to join other Democrats in passing the $4.91 trillion spending proposal in the “Build Back Better” legislation pushed by the Biden administration and left-wing news media. Manchin rebuffed attempts to be purchased or rented by political supporters of the Build Back Better...

...On Fox News on Sunday, Manchin said, “If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it. I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything possible, I can’t get there.” “This is a no on this legislation,” he added. White House Press Secretary Psaki admonished Manchin for his announcement. In an interview with radio host Hoppy Kercheval on West Virginia MetroNews on Tuesday, Manchin blamed the White House for his opposition to Build Back Better. Manchin said that the issue from the White...

BOSTON — The man accused of killing three people during a notorious New England crime spree has died, surrounded by the prison walls he’s been staring at since 2001. Gary Lee Sampson was convicted in the murders of two Massachusetts men, Jonathan Rizzo and Phillip McCloskey, during carjackings in 2001 and for the killing of a New Hampshire man, Robert Whitney. The Bureau of Prisons shows Sampson, inmate number 23976-038, died on December 21 at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. In a statement, the BOP said “For safety, security and privacy reasons, this office does not...