Free Republic

Not surprisingly, winter has returned to many areas this week. Yes, still winterOther things not surprising this week:Under Secretary Victoria Nuland Admits U.S. Funded Biological Research Labs Exist in UkraineDid the Director of the CDC Admit She Gets Her Science From CNN?Ivermectin study demonstrates its efficacy against Covid, but that’s not what the published results saidHow the Manhattan DA's Investigation Into Donald Trump fell apart Biden Announces Russian Oil Ban, Blames Putin For Surging PricesIt appears that it’s going to be a very long year. Certainly not the worst strategy. Alternatively, we could follow Lucy’s advice.Expectations, being downgraded.From thrive to...

Oh dear, this cannot be good.BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) - The condition of China's winter wheat crop could be the "worst in history", the agriculture minister said on Saturday, raising concerns about grain supplies in the world's biggest wheat consumer. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the country's annual parliament meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian said that rare heavy rainfall last year delayed the planting of about one-third of the normal wheat acreage. The minister's comments underscore concerns about China's grain supply at the same time as the war between Russia and Ukraine, which together...

Who’s Zoomin’ Who?Take another look and tell me, baby (Who's zooming who?) Who's zooming who? (Who's zooming who?)When the truth has been deconstructed to the point of being meaningless it’s hard to say precisely who’s zoomin’ who. Russia, Ukraine, Covid, Vaccines – who are you going to believe? Where do you find truth? The only correct answer is nobody and nowhere. Stay cynical my friend.Regarding Russia Russia Russia and Ukraine: Russia bad, Ukraine good? That’s a bit of an oversimplification.The (Obama) White House seems to have taken a perverse pride in the death and destruction it helped incite in Eastern...

It’s now been 410 days since the Last Mean Tweet™How’s that working out for you?Hint: Not so well.But like the lady said: No Mean Tweets!Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

I see Russia has joined the techno-autocrats at Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram in the fight against misinformation. After effectively shutting down Russia’s independent media last week when they began reporting mis-misinformation, Putin has now shut down most of the Internet for the same infraction.The interior forces came from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censor, which Friday announced plans to block Facebook, which already had been throttled for several days. In a post on the popular Telegram social media site, the agency accused Facebook of blocking the free flow of information to Russia after it took steps to fact-check state media...

It appears our trepidation was in orderI checked the headlines this morning: there is nothing that requires your attention. Certainly nothing you can do anything about. Therefore I suggest you light a candle, read a book,or write a book……even if it never gets published.Carve out a bit of solitude that allows the world to slip by until such time as you are ready to be in it again. When from our better selves we have too long Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, How gracious, how benign is solitude. William...

It’s open-line Throwback Thursday: time to recycle one of the best squirrels of all time.It’s a useful ruse in many variants and applicable to multiple situations: from undermining a sitting president to diverting attention from corruption, inflation, Covid-fatigue, plunging approval ratings – so many things! Just toss it out there and wait awhile.P.S. The ‘sanctions’ aren’t working Joe, maybe you should consider including the U.S. purchase/import of Russian oil to the mix. Just a thought.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

Allow me to state upfront my blood pressure is far too high to have watched the SOTU live. But I did read it, and others’ take on it, posthumously. Aside from the blather of praise from the Potato’s usual political hacks and MSM cheer squad the highest praise I’ve seen for the speech was “it was painfully short.” Rantingly’s screenshot captures the essence:He sailed along effortlessly, dropping such nuggets along the way as:“You can’t build a wall high enough to keep out the vaccine.” “Putin may circle Kiev with tanks, but he'll never gain the hearts and souls of the...

Today is Fat Tuesday: the day before Lent begins. Depending on where you hail from the day of debauchery is known as Mardi Gras, Carnevale, Carnival, Fasching. As we’ve discussed before, in Detroit it’s known as Paczki Day. There was a time not so long ago that if you didn’t live in Detroit or Chicago or another city with a sizable Poletown you would have never heard of the paczki. It was made just once a year and could only be snagged from authentic Polish bakeries such as Hamtramck’s New Palace, where people still wait in long lines for the...

I didn’t think it possible to grow more jaded. Sometimes I underestimated myself. But perhaps you understand. What with all the corrupt media,the war mongers (both foreign and domestic), and all the other miscellaneous liars and hypocrites perforating the peace I find that my capacity for being jaded has not yet maxed out. Unfortunately.Being jaded is like being burned out…only with more cynicism: two things I do not need more of at my age. Plus weariness is catching and cynicism spreads as fast as the latest WuFlu variant. So…Full steam ahead! When I can no longer rely on coffee to...

Joe Lockhart: CNN Political Analyst and former WH press secretary under William J.Clinton:Salute to Biden for restoring American leadership before taking a nap:Appeal from everyone else in the world with any sense: But don’t worry, Joey’s got this. He’s sending Putin a harsh letter. Next week. After he rests up. Whoops, I forgot it’s Caturday:BatCat readies himself for warPosted from: MOTUS A.D.

I am aware that Kiev is falling to the Russians. I’m also aware that our global elites have determined that we are now to pronounce it ‘Keeve’ and spell it ‘Kyiv.’ Modern day elites always tend to focus on the most superficial facets of a situation, especially when they’ve no clue what else to do. Jean Carré, the muzzle-wearing “special presidential envoy for climate” – whatever the hell that is.Case in point:Former Secretary of State John Kerry appeared for an interview to express his regret that the war between Ukraine and Russia is distracting people from climate change. Kerry, the...

Throwback Thursday: Remembering the Good Old Days.Remember when Romper Room was a children’s TV show, not the seat of power in Washington D.C.?President Biden’s response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine (paraphrased): “Romper, stomper, bomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do.” We are past the rhetoric and reasonable negotiation stage and headed south fast. It might be time to break out the old Obama Hashtag Diplomacy, demonstrated in 2014 by his State Department Spokesmouth Hashtag Girls:Jen and Marie: State Department tag team TwitsMaybe we can just tweet our way through this latest Russia! Russia! Russia! crisis as well.I’m guessing...

For Wing and Feather Day: "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all." ~ Emily Dickinson~A starling in its autumn dress in Finland that looks as if it’s made of enameled porcelainAs we watch in real time what looks like either the start of WW III or Cold War II (or both), remember this: We’ve felt the Anger, and seen the Courage and pray that they are triumphant. Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

Did you know that this year February has 10 palindrome dates? Beginning with Groundhog Day - 2/2/22 – and ending with the last day of the month - 2/28/22. Some people however are more impressed with what they call the “222 days” than the palindromes.The month kicked off with a New Moon in Aquarius ushering in the energy of new beginnings and change, and just one day later, we got to experience what some called the first of the last three 222 days of the century, which occur on February 2, 2022, February 20, 2022 and February 22, 2022.Here we...

It’s Presidents’ Day in the USA, which doesn’t mean much anymore other than your USPS mail will be later than normal. Our current president is busy saber-rattling about securing the sovereign borders of other countries while our own remain as porous as a crocheted face mask. “Our position is very clear in respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.” (except ours) Meanwhile in Canada, the man Rolling Stone pined for and wished could be our president has characterized the most polite government protestors in history as terrorists and white supremacists. He deployed riot police to break it up,...

Would you look at that, it’s Sunday again - already. I’m planning to spend the day catching up on long-overdue correspondence, making a pie,Pie for people with too much time on their hands and who are also OCDPie for the rest of usOr if you’re really short on time because you plan to watch the entire Daytona 500:Costco’s ‘peel-out’ pumpkin pieand going for a walk,although not necessarily in that order. It’s the beginning of a new week and I want to remind myself to enjoy these simple things because this old world - it will keep on turning. Whether I...

I tuned into Tucker to get his take on Castrudeau’s imposition of martial law in Canada and his declaration that “all of your monies belong to me.” He did cover that eventually but his opening segment was devoted to a new book about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez written by editors of New York magazine. It’s called – and I’m not making this up - Take Up Space. I’m beginning to think that the Left really does not understand irony.As you are not likely to purchase this charming little Valentine of a book yourself I’m dedicating my post today to Tucker’s take on...

A week ago the government announced that the consumer price index rose 7.5% from a year ago, marking the fastest increase since February 1982 (which was a very bad year in case you don’t remember). Yesterday Biden went to Ohio where he touted his “growing” economy – if by “growing” he means inflation. In the same visit he proposed $1 billion in funding for a “greening” clean up of the Great Lakes. Now, it’s hard to be opposed to cleaning up the Great Lakes, but timing-wise one might question the need to do so while inflation is running unchecked. Even...

It’s Throwback Thursday, let’s ride! Trudeau voices support for farmers in India who blocked major highways to New Delhi for more than a year in 2021, saying at the time: “Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest.”That certainly didn’t age well Justine. Were you lying then or are you lying now? Mind you, we are talking about the Canadian Prime Minister of little brain who thought this a good idea: Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada’s history, allowing the federal government to freeze assets, suspend the insurance of the Freedom...