Free Republic

Often the Joe Biden administration has claimed that COVID-19 attacked families and workers through no fault of their own, and what was needed was its progressive spending agenda, specifically helping "people of color, immigrants, and low-wage workers." In reality, however, Biden's spending, "billions and counting – has gone to unrelated causes and the administration’s COVID relief program continues to fleece American taxpayers," according to a report from government watchdog Judicial Watch. The organization reported that, "Fraud and corruption are so rampant in the U.S. government’s mammoth pandemic relief program that the Justice Department created a special COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task...

A 33-year-old civilian missile specialist died of decompression sickness, also known as the bends, caused by a high-altitude test flight on a U.S. Air Force jet, a report has revealed. The specialist, assigned to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), who had recently had COVID-19, was onboard a C-17 aircraft during a missile-testing mission near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on August 21, 2023. The report into the mishap was released by the U.S. Air Force on Friday. The employee, who has not been named, fell ill shortly after the unpressurized simulated airdrop portion of the mission. One crew member said the...

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce finds himself at the center of a social media storm after purportedly liking an Instagram post featuring former President Donald Trump. The post, uploaded by former ESPN host Sage Steele, shows Trump during his visit to UFC 299 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, last month. He was seen engaging with the crowd and various personalities. Trump, accompanied by his daughter Ivanka, was met with a mix of cheers and chants from the audience. Trump’s presence at the sporting event was punctuated by a viral moment when a “F*** Joe Biden!” chant...

Comedian Bill Maher said over the weekend that if Americans wanted to see what would happen to the United States if it continued down the path to “extreme wokeness,” they should look no further than their neighbors to the north. Maher argued — during Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time” on HBO — that Canada should serve as a “cautionary tale” for Americans who wanted the progressive utopian ideal and thought that they could see it just across the border. Maher began by saying that he agreed with those who said American liberals should learn from progressive countries that were getting...

The World Health Organization’s Dr. Hanna Nohynek testified in court that she advised her government that vaccine passports were not needed but was ignored, despite explaining that the COVID vaccines did not stop virus transmission and the passports gave a false sense of security. The stunning revelations came to light in a Helsinki courtroom where Finnish citizen Mika Vauhkala is suing after he was denied entry to a café for not having a vaccine passport. Dr. Nohynek is chief physician at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and serves as the WHO’s chair of Strategic Group of Experts on...

THE TRUE THREAT posed by the WHO negotiations has been obvious since November 2022. Now would be an exceedingly good time to stop being distracted by red herrings and pay attention to THIS issue. PLEASE REALIZE THE FOLLOWING: The proposed amendments are not about mandates, lockdowns or your relationship with your doctor. The proposed amendments are NOT an attack on national sovereignty. In fact, the proposed amendments are an EXTREMELY dangerous expression OF national sovereignty. Unfortunately, requiring that foreign travelers meet national entry requirements is NOT “unconstitutional.” Such requirements would NOT be over-reach by the federal government. Such requirements would...

...Then he brought the Holocaust into the discussion."You're saying that from the perspective of someone who literally went through the Holocaust or your people, your tribe. You went through the Holocaust and now you're willing to do it?" he said, apparently directing his statement at Israel.Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel group within the Democratic Party, slammed Rogan's comments as "wholly false & dangerous," placing them within the context of other fringe view that it claimed he holds...

Perverse IncentivesI. IntroductionWe live in a world awash in perverse incentives.A perverse incentive is when the rules, structures, or practices of any system reward bad behavior or sociopathic outcomes.I had to come up with my own definition because all of the official definitions claim that perverse incentives are unintended. However, after the events of the last four years many of us have grown skeptical that the harms we experience from bad policy and bad law are unintentional.The cobra effect is a classic example of a perverse incentive. From Wikipedia:The term cobra effect was coined by economist Horst Siebert based on...

Joni Mitchell's music has quietly returned to Spotify after a two-year hiatus. She made headlines after joining Neil Young's boycott over the music-streaming site's deal to exclusively distribute The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Young issued an ultimatum to the music service, saying: "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both." The comedian had come under fire for comments regarding COVID-19 and vaccines. "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives," Mitchell said at the time. "I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue." Rogan's contract, reportedly worth an...

Francis: “We Must Obey The United Nations” “If we consider ourselves humanity, then our duty is to obey when international organizations make statements,” Pope Francis insisted during his September 10 press conference on board from Madagascar to Rome. He gave as examples the the United Nations (UN) and the International Crime Court (ICC) in The Hague. Francis added, that “we must obey international institutions.” And, “That is why the United Nations were created.” However, many UN policies are deeply immoral. They punish countries and institutions which do not bow to the demands of the abortion and gay tyranny. The ICC...

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - This oceanside enclave is a lot like the rest of coastal California: Its signature pier juts into the Pacific as waves big enough to make surfers salivate break beyond miles of white sand. But when it comes to politics, this city of 200,000 south of Los Angeles loudly defies the blue-state stereotypes. Lately, the beach town has become a battleground, its council chambers a coliseum for culture warriors. The conservatives who now control city government have pursued policies that position Huntington Beach as the ideological counterweight to the state’s liberal leaders. In the past year alone,...

SNIP But even in the shadow of this triumph, a more specific crisis in vaccine acceptance has emerged. Americans aren’t now suspicious of inoculations on the whole—the nation isn’t anti-vax—but we have lost faith in yearly COVID shots. Barely any children have been getting them. Among adults, the drop in uptake has been rapid and relentless: By the spring of 2022, 56 percent of all adults had received their initial booster shot; a year later, just 28 percent were up to date; so far this COVID season, just 19 percent can say the same.

The 19-year-old son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was found deceased at the University of California, Berkeley, on Tuesday. His grandmother, Esther Wojcicki, confirmed the devastating news in a Facebook post. The student, identified as Marco Troper, was discovered unresponsive in his dorm at the Clark Kerr Campus, a student housing complex, around 4:23 p.m. local time. Despite immediate life-saving attempts by the Berkeley Fire Department, Troper was pronounced dead at the scene. The University of California Police Department (UCPD) stated that there were no signs of foul play discovered, according to the New York Post. The heartbroken grandmother...

The continued embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM combined with a broad decline in academic standards is producing a generation of scientists who are less capable than their predecessors, warned some scientists in recent interviews with The College Fix. From easier math classes in high school to the elimination of standardized tests to extreme grade-inflation to DEI tropes that elevate lived experiences and ways of knowing over facts and data, the trend represents a pressing problem for science professors working to protect STEM and preserve its standards and meritocracy. Alex Small, chair of the physics and astronomy department...

Left wing comedian Bill Mahr went after Democrat political correctness driving covid misinformation.

A Harvard University-affiliated teaching hospital is seeking to retract or correct dozens of papers authored by four of its top researchers — including the hospital’s CEO — following a probe into allegations of data falsification. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston has already initiated six retractions to papers and 31 others are in the process of being corrected, the hospital’s research integrity officer, Dr. Barrett Rollins, confirmed to the Harvard Crimson. The corrections follow claims of data falsification leveled against the cancer institute’s CEO, Dr. Laurie Glimcher, chief operating officer Dr. William Hahn, director of the Clinical Investigator Research Program...

Pat McAfee, while appearing on his ESPN show he’s receiving $85 million to host, claimed he’s canceled. And he said this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In the latest example of McAfee bringing criticism to his show – and this one somehow did not involve any conspiracy theories from Aaron Rodgers – the host of the self-titled “The Pat McAfee Show” went on a bizarre rant Monday that was met with head-scratching by some in the media. Here’s the full transcript of McAfee’s remarks: “Obviously, it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He had a dream. And I think...

Even Pat McAfee has had enough of the Aaron Rodgers drama. The ESPN host announced at the start of “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday that the Jets quarterback has made his final appearance of the season. “There will be a lot of people who are happy with that, myself included to be honest with you,” McAfee said. “The way it ended, it got really loud. I am happy that he’s not going to be in my mentions going forward, which is great news.” Rodgers was originally scheduled to appear throughout the playoffs, The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported.

McAfee called out ESPN's head of production Norby Williamson on his program Friday.ESPN host Pat McAfee is still making headlines. Just days after he apologized when Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made an unfounded claim about ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel, McAfee himself took aim at a top ESPN executive who he believes is “attempting to sabotage” his show. McAfee on Friday called out Norby Williamson, a four decade veteran of ESPN and its executive editor and head of event and studio production, alleging that the executive leaked negative ratings information. It is not clear what specifically McAfee was referring...

Pat McAfee is clearing some things up after comments made by Aaron Rodgers on The Pat McAfee Show that linked Jimmy Kimmel to the Jeffrey Epstein list of associates. McAfee addressed the controversy at the top of his show on ESPN, noting that the ABC late-night talk show host had threatened legal action. The sports commentator said that he and his staff had been “free wheeling” after coverage of the Rose Bowl, taking note that his show doesn’t have a format and “there is an opportunity to talk about damn near everything for three and a half hours.”