Free Republic

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who led U.S. Army Europe until 2017, said he believes Russia's actions over the last year, including the troop buildup along the Ukrainian border in March and alleged involvement in fostering a migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, are strategic in nature."This is part of an ongoing process to undermine Ukrainian government, to present Ukraine to the West as a failed state so that there is no further effort to integrate Ukraine into the West, into the EU ... or NATO," Hodges said.Russia is being further emboldened by the European Union's failure to apply more...

An advanced U.S. Navy combat ship struck a berthed freighter in Montreal

Skilled Obama watchers know that the real subject of any Obama speech is his own magnificence.

The nightmare of collectivism is the defining battle of our age. It is in this era that we will decide whether or not individual liberty and freedom of thought are more important than the illusory security and “harmony” of the collective. Collectivism and individualism cannot coexist; confrontation is inevitable. Recognizing this, and preparing for it, is our duty as free human beings.

US taxpayers are now paying for military missions, in which US taxpayer paid-for warplans and missiles are used to blow up other US taxpayer paid-for tanks, artillery, MRAPs, and various other weapons of death.

Telecom Sector Shoots Higher On Unprecedented Windstream Announcement

Article based on excerpts from Baupost Group's Seth Klarman letter. "there is a growing gap between the financial markets and the real economy...and the overall picture is one of growing risk and inadequate potential return almost everywhere one looks..."

Curious why despite the huge miss in payrolls the unemployment rate tumbled from 7.0% to 6.7%? The reason is because in December the civilian labor force did what it usually does in the New Normal: it dropped from 155.3 million to 154.9 million, which means the labor participation rate just dropped to a fresh 35 year low, hitting levels not seen since 1978, at 62.8% down from 63.0%.

European leaders meeting in Brussels for a summit on banking rules got some bad news this morning. The Standard and Poor's credit rating agency announced that it is stripping the entire European Union of its AAA rating.

The Fed keeps buying roughly $85 billion in bonds a month, chronically delaying so much as a minor QE taper. Over five years, its bond purchases have come to more than $4 trillion. Amazingly, in a supposedly free-market nation, QE has become the largest financial-markets intervention by any government in world history. And the impact? Even by the Fed's sunniest calculations, aggressive QE over five years has generated only a few percentage points of U.S. growth. Having racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in opaque Fed subsidies, U.S. banks have seen their collective stock price triple since March 2009....

Today's US National Debt Clock status.

"The situation in Egypt is becoming more unstable. Amid cheers of "the people demand the fall of the regime," protesters set fire to and ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood's main offices all over Egypt. Many saw this as another victory towards their goal of Egypt not being ruled under Islamic law...It seems the pressure is building as five Egyptian ministers have just resigned amid the growing chaos."

A lot of Americans know that the US government is out of control. Anyone who has cared enough to study the US Constitution even a little knows this. Still, very few of these people are taking any significant action, and largely because of one error: They are waiting for “the good guys” to show up and fix things. Washington is an unfettered beast. The system will NOT fix itself.

A bill filed Thursday morning in Annapolis would replace the flat $24 boat registration fee paid every two years with fees ranging from $50 to $700, depending on the size of the boat. Under the plan, the registration for a boat under 16 feet would rise to $50 every two years by 2016. Registering a boat from 16 feet to 32 feet — the most popular size in Maryland — would cost $125. Vessels 32 feet to 45 feet would cost $250. Vessels 45 feet to 65 feet would cost $500. The registration fee for the approximately 52 yachts over...

Many House Republicans were frustrated by the alcohol tax bill, which changed in the last few days —- both in the amount and how the tax would be distributed. In the end, two separate bills were passed to raise the sales tax on alcohol from 6 percent to 9 percent starting July 1.

Wednesday, April 6th in Washington, DC to tell the Budget Committee to Cut Spending Now. Confirmed speakers: Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Mike Pence, and more.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011 at 12:00 PM (ET) Washington, DC Wednesday, April 6th in Washington, DC to tell the Budget Committee to Cut Spending Now. They need to hear from you as they crunch numbers and grapple with this year’s budget. You’ve had to tighten your family budget in this struggling economy. They should have to tighten the national budget too. Michele Bachmann is a confirmed speaker. Bus arrangements being made for: New Jersey North Carolina Pennsylvania Maryland Virginia

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about...

A media coverup of Watergate proportions David Limbaugh November 2, 2004 Of all the outrageous aspects of this year's presidential campaign, nothing exceeds the Old Media's overt mission to defeat President Bush. They've always been biased, but this year, they barely tried to hide it. Because of their bias, a large number of people remain in the dark about who John Kerry really is, which is alarming. I dare say that if they had not sheltered Kerry's past and his official record, if they hadn't conspired with Democrats to bring down President Bush, Kerry would be lucky to receive 40...

Outraged Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday said the length and breath of leaked memos that fell into Republican hands warranted a criminal prosecution of the culprits. Meantime, an ousted senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said aides to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) had access to the internal Democratic documents. Yet these GOP staffers have not yet been questioned by Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle, even though his investigation into the leaked memos has already stretched into its third month, said the aide. Emerging from a nearly two-hour briefing by Pickle, the panel’s ranking member,...