Free Republic

Pete Buttigieg’s high-flying presidential campaign said Wednesday it would refund the donations it received from two lawyers who represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious Senate confirmation hearings. His campaign made the move after reporters from Britain’s The Guardian raised questions about the contributions from attorneys Alexandra Walsh and Beth Wilkinson, who are law partners. The two donated a combined $10,000 from the pair, $3,150 of which had already been returned because it exceeded contribution limits. “With nearly 700,000 donors, a contribution we would otherwise refuse sometimes gets through,” the campaign told the publication in a statement. “We...

A document with the Texas Republican Party’s strategy for the 2020 election was emailed to Democrats, showing a plan over the next 12 months to push back on the narrative that the GOP lacks diversity and counteract Donald Trump's potential negative impact on the race. The document, which apparently began appearing in the inboxes of Democrats this week, lays out concerns about the "polarising nature" of Mr Trump's presidency, as well as ways to counteract the "narrative driven by Democrats" that the GOP lacks diversity in a state where a quickly growing Hispanic population has sowed considerable concern that the...

Alongside the announcement of the Surface Duo, Microsoft announced a new version of Windows - Windows 10X - that would power the upcoming dual-screen device. It’s going to look very familiar to Windows 10, but with some tweaks to improve the UI for dual screened devices. Windows 10X is part of Microsoft’s push towards a modular version of Windows 10, so 10X should be regarded as a branch of Windows 10 for dual screened devices, just as there are versions of Windows 10 that branch out to support HoloLens, Surface Hub, and Xbox. This weekend saw reports of a leaked...

As every contemporary school child knows, the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, when our Pilgrim forefathers took a break from slaughtering Indigenous Peoples to invite them to dinner and infect them with smallpox, before embarking on their mission to fry the planet so that the world would end on Jan. 22, 2031. (Copyright: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) Consider this description of the Pilgrims' treatment of the Indigenous Peoples: "They were the worst of conquerors. Inordinate pride, the lust of blood and dominion, were the mainsprings of their warfare; and their victories were strained with every excess of savage passion." You've probably...

Video footage from the Massachusetts State Police shows a Boston Dynamics robot dog working for the unit's bomb squad. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) immediately began firing shots, stating that the use of a general purpose robot in a police force setting is potentially dangerous. As per usual, the internet went crazy with hot takes and memes on the latest robo-cop, which the police force leased for 90 days

While CNN devoted all this to one news story about a top political figure’s [Trump] unannounced doctor visit, corporate media outlets in general have been busy sending the opposite messaging about a litany of health difficulties for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The 86-year-old Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital on Friday with “chills and fever.” The Supreme Court’s oldest justice went home Sunday, according to CBS’s Jan Crawford. The reports on her illness from CNN, USA Today, Bloomberg, and The New York Times were routine writeups of the press statements Crawford posted. Instead of 2,000 words of probing...

Hunter Biden spent several thousand dollars at a Manhattan strip club during a pair of visits — including one that sent a staffer scrambling to buy a sex toy so strippers could use it on him, sources told The Post on Wednesday. Biden — who’s been dogged by a series of strip-club allegations uncovered by The Post this week — was accompanied by a woman both times he went to Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club NYC in Hell’s Kitchen about a year ago, the sources said. On each occasion, he and his companion holed up in a private room, where they...

`Please go to @ChickfilA and give them a piece of your chicken-pluckin' mind. It's claimed their "followers" dropped by 10%, or 110,000 over the past 4 weeks. (I think in general, stats about Twitter followers are highly manipulable and highly suspect, but let's just go with that.) Anyhow, I have been sending them lots of messages about how bad they are for selling out to the bullies in the LGBT activist organizations. They are getting beat up by angryy conservative (ex)customers, especially for dropping Salvation Army, an act of foul treachery. As of now, I think their customer comment tweets...

Microsoft has released a support bulletin that warns users of a new issue in Windows 10 that could cause Thunderbolt devices to stop working under certain situations.According to the bulletin, this issue is occurring to users running Windows 10, version 1909, 1903, 1809, 1803, or 1709, have Fast Startup enabled, and have multiple devices plugged into a Thunderbolt dock.If these users perform the following steps, it could cause the Thunderbolt devices to no longer work even though they are still listed as operational in Device Manager. You connect the Thunderbolt Dock to the computer. Devices on the Thunderbolt Dock are...

We’re still doing this, huh? Still writing to women who have degrees in meteorology and telling them to “STOP WEARING PATTERNS.” Still contacting grown professionals about their butts. (“VERY wide.”) Still watching morning news like we’re Us Weekly’s Fashion Police, armed with salty insults and not afraid to hurl them. Tuesday morning, WGN Morning News anchors Morgan Kolkmeyer, Lauren Jiggetts and Sarah Jindra read aloud some of the feedback they get from viewers about their bodies and their wardrobe choices during their pregnancies. Kolkmeyer is due to give birth in eight weeks. Jiggetts and Jindra both had babies within the...

China’s state media on Wednesday released images it said were of a man who claims to be a Beijing-sponsored secret agent confessing to fraud, apparently in an attempt to discredit his assertion that he was involved in intelligence operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia. Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times uploaded screenshots from a court video in which William Wang Liqiang is allegedly making the confession in an October 2016 trial proceeding. Global Times is a tabloid under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, focusing on international issues. Wang has defected to Australia and applied for political...

When Is a Graven Image Not a Graven Image? When It Dances the Pachamama Two-Step ungle Boogie: Dancing with the DevilThe Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian region was a spectacle that reeked of the Vatican’s revolting new love affair with the pagan religions of jungle tribes, some of which still practice infanticide. “The life of Amazonian communities not yet affected by the influence of Western civilization is reflected in the beliefs and rituals about the actions of the spirits of divinity, named in innumerable ways, with and in the territory, with and in relationship with nature,” declared the assembled...

“America’s Day of National Thanksgiving” (Deuteronomy 8:1-10) Ah, Thanksgiving! Turkey, football, movies, and the start of the holiday shopping season. No, wait, the holiday shopping season started back around Labor Day, I think. But seriously, is that what Thanksgiving has come to? Turkey, football, movies, and shopping? An opportunity to eat 2,000 calories in one meal, then fall asleep on the couch from all the tryptophan in the turkey? Or is it so guys can watch three football games in a row, from morning till evening? Or for the ladies to watch three Hallmark Christmas movies in a row? Then...

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday the U.S. has “sinister intentions” and its “plot” is “doomed to fail,” after President Donald Trump signed two bills supporting Hong Kong protesters into law. State media also published a statement from the Hong Kong liaison office, emphasizing its commitment to defending its “one country, two systems” policy. “We are officially telling the U.S. and the handful of opposition politicians in Hong Kong who follow America’s lead to not underestimate our determination to protect Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability, don’t underestimate our belief to protect the ‘one country, two systems policy’ and don’t...

Anti-government protesters in Iraq burned down an IranianConsulate Wednesday, as unrest continues to grow against Iraqi lawmakers and Tehran's growing influence in Iraqi affairs. The consulate building in Najaf was torched and the Iranian flag was removed and replaced with an Iraqi one. Staffers inside were not harmed and escaped through a back door. One protester was killed and 35 were wounded when police opened fire to prevent them from entering the facility. Protesters previously attacked an Iranian consulate in Karbala earlier this month. No one was harmed in that attack.

For Parkinson’s patients, deep brain stimulation (DBS) can help control a number of neurological symptoms, like muscle spasms and stiffness. But one weird side effect has surfaced in a string of case studies: Some patients, no matter how good their motor skills, lose their ability to swim after the procedure. Researchers from the University of Zürich in Switzerland published a report today in Neurology identifying nine cases where patients couldn’t stay afloat after DBS. And these people weren’t water-shy, first time doggie paddlers — two of the cases involved former competitive swimmers. And, researchers report, the entire cohort had had...

MSNBC host Joy Reid sternly warned at an event for the American Federation of Teachers union that white Christian Americans will cling to power with tactics that echo South African apartheid.

Brad Parscale ✔ @parscale Data from Broward Florida rally: ✅ 31,177 voters identified ✅ 19% voted once or less in last 4 elections (8% in zero) ✅ 24% Democrat ✅ 27% Hispanic Incredible data from a county that is predominantly blue. Put Florida in the win column for 2020!

New cases and deaths from anal cancer rose dramatically in the United States in recent years, according to a new study. With an increase of nearly 3% per year, anal cancer is one of the most rapidly rising causes of cancer incidence and mortality. But more widespread screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination could reverse this trend. “It is concerning that over 75% of U.S. adults do not know that HPV causes this preventable cancer,” lead author Ashish Deshmukh, PhD, MPH, of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said in a press release. “Educational campaigns are needed...