Free Republic

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that opponents are using rising prices as a 'political cudgel,' as the administration continues to try to retool its rhetoric after a new report showed consumers were getting hammered by price increases. 'It's become a political cudgel, and it shouldn't be,' said Psaki, speaking at her first White House press briefing since testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month. 'It's impacting ... millions of Americans, no matter their political party, and that's certainly of concern to the president,' she continued. She noted that 'everyone from the Federal Reserve to Wall Street agree...

A school board in Oregon that recently banned teachers from displaying symbols including those supporting gay pride and Black Lives Matter has abruptly fired the superintendent, apparently for failing to enforce the new policy. Superintendent Joe Morelock was fired in a 4-3 vote by the conservative majority of the Newberg School Board on Tuesday night, learning his fate during a public meeting over Zoom. The conservatives who sealed Morelock's fate refused to comment on their vote. An earlier meeting had been held in private, but topics discussed have not been released.

Feminist activists and leaders from around the globe ascended the stage at COP26 to say there is no climate justice without addressing gender equity and human rights for women. Wearing red masks in solidarity with their Indigenous sisters, climate activists spanning the Global South talked to a packed venue about the successes, struggles and what real climate justice must look like during a public event hosted Monday evening by the Women and Gender Constituency, a stakeholder group with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Moderator and international human rights lawyer Kavita Naidu launched the panel by acknowledging...

Senator Joe Manchin has said that he doesn't know whether he will run for reelection when his term expires in 2024, as the moderate Democrat faces harsh criticism within his own party over his reluctance to back President Joe Biden's $1.85 trillion spending plan. 'I have no idea,' Manchin told West Virginia podcast Talkline on Friday when asked if he would run again in 2024. 'I'll make a decision after the 2022 election, November.' 'I wouldn't make a decision yet, I wouldn't make it now,' he added. 'Right now I'm trying to do everything I can to try to find...

Donald Trump's former spokeswoman at the State Department has taken House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff to task again for his promotion of a dossier used to discredit the former president. Morgan Ortagus was a guest host on The View on Tuesday, and grilled Schiff for his enthusiastic embrace of the discredited document. He dodged her questions, with Ortagus also since taking to Fox News, where she blamed Schiff's enthusiasm for the dossier's widespread coverage in liberal media outlets, and revealed her nerves at getting to confront him on the popular show.

A Washington Post columnist has sharply criticized CNN for failing to retract its claim that British ex-spy Christopher Steele's dossier is 'corroborated,' following a federal indictment that raised serious questions about the document. Media critic Erik Wemple issued the harsh rebuke in a column on Friday, calling on CNN to correct its longstanding claim that its reporting had verified substantial portions of the 2016 dossier alleging Donald Trump conspired with Russia. Last week, a federal indictment alleged that Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko, a key source for the Steele dossier, fabricated conversations with one source, and used a Democratic political operative...

Vice-President Kamala Harris was video taped using a French accent when she spoke with scientists at the Institut Pasteur in Paris this week. She was widely mocked on social media for this affectation and professed herself "mystified by how cruelly I am being treated." "I thought it was polite to speak in the other person's language," Harris said wiping away a tear. "It's a show of respect. All the French scientists I spoke with seemed happy that I was using their tongue. They smiled and nodded. We were all speaking French. Their accents were the same as mine. We were...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday tossed out greenhouse gas emissions rules for heavy-duty truck trailers, ruling two government agencies had exceeded their authority. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2016 set rules for the first time requiring trailer manufacturers to adopt fuel-saving technologies like side skirts and automatic tire pressure systems. An industry group challenged the rule, which was put on hold by the court pending the review. The administration of then-President Barack Obama said it was important to regulate the fuel efficiency of the trailer portion of commercial...

One of the U.S. Air Force's Boeing B-52 bombers has been damaged after its wing clipped a fence while it was being moved around on an airbase in Louisiana. The bomber, also known as the Stratofortress, was being positioned in order to be put on display when the driver of a tow misjudged the distance between the plane's right wing and a metal perimeter fence. The fence appeared to have penetrated through the skin of the aircraft and punctured the right wing leaving a significant amount of structural damage and its starboard fuel tank ... [photos at link]

As the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has progressed, Americans who hope for a successful conviction have begun to focus their attentions on the true villain of the piece: the 75-year-old presiding judge, Bruce Schroeder. Among the many accusations that have been leveled at Schroeder this week are that he is “biased,” that he is “prejudiced,” that he is a secret “conservative,” “right-winger,” or “Trumpist,” that he is a “a gun nut,” that he is a “a racist” or wannabe member of the Klan, that he is the “worst judge in town,” and that he is attempting to parlay this trial...

The judge presiding over Kyle Rittenhouse's homicide trial is receiving hundreds of emails threatening him and even his children. The Kenosha County Courthouse received threatening emails, letters, postcards, and faxes accusing Wisconsin Judge Bruce Schroeder of racism and asking him to resign in addition to warnings about Rittenhouse's safety if he is acquitted by a jury. There were also threats against the judge's children, according to the Daily Mail ... ...Schroeder noted earlier this week there were "thousands of communications" he and his staff have received in the course of the trial. He promised he would "deal with" the senders....

“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20).

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened Thursday to cut off a major pipeline transporting Russian gas through Belarus to the European Union if the EU imposes new sanctions, escalating what the EU calls Belarus' "hybrid attack" on the 27-member bloc Earlier this week, thousands of migrants from the Middle East moved through Belarus to the EU's Polish border, and now they are stuck in frigid weather between Polish border guards who won't let them in and Belarusian guards who won't let them return. "We are heating Europe," Lukashenko said Thursday. "They still threaten us that they will close the border. And...

Arraf is a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, an anti-Israel group that was investigated by the FBI for possible ties to terrorists A Michigan activist who promoted the use of violence against Israelis announced that she will be running for Congress Huwaida Arraf will run for Michigan’s 10th congressional district as a Democrat, a seat currently held by Republican Rep. Lisa McClain. ...Arraf and fellow ISM co-founder Adam Shapiro penned an article that promoted using nonviolent resistance against Israelis in tandem with violence — regardless of their ties to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)....

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed an executive order on Monday halting the state from issuing nonbinary birth certificates. The order mandates the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) to “cease amending birth certificates” in any way that is inconsistent with state law, and to “remove from its website any reference to amending birth certificates” that doesn’t align with state law. Stitt further urged the Oklahoma state legislature to “immediately pass legislation that will clarify, to the extent necessary, that changes in sex or gender on a birth certificate, or a designation of non-binary is contrary to Oklahoma law.”

(CNN)The federal government announced a large hike in Medicare premiums Friday night, blaming the pandemic but also what it called uncertainty over how much it may have to be forced to pay for a pricey and controversial new Alzheimer's drug. The 14.5% increase in Part B premiums will take monthly payments for those in the lowest income bracket from $148.50 a month this year to $170.10 in 2022. Medicare Part B covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, medical equipment, and certain other medical and health services not covered by Medicare Part A, including medications given in...

If Joe Biden could shut down the border the way he shuts down pipelines he’d be in good shape. Instead, he’d rather stick it to hard-working Americans through skyrocketing gas prices while rewarding illegal immigrants with vast sums of taxpayer money. It is not enough that the hate-America, left-wing loonies got him to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, now they are going after the so-called Line 5 pipeline that moves crude oil from Western Canada to Michigan. You may not like Donald Trump, but when he left the presidency, he left behind a country that he not only had...

A twisted New Jersey mother charged with killing her two children duct-taped their faces and suffocated them — cruel slayings that she planned in advance, authorities said. Yuhwei Chou, 36, of Skillman, told cops in Hillsborough Township after her arrest Tuesday that she killed Samantha Ross, 7, and her 11-month-old brother, Paul, a day earlier, according to an affidavit obtained by MyCentralJersey.com. After stopping at a Wawa for lunch, Chou drove to a hardware store and bought the sinister supplies before heading to Mountainview Road in Hillsborough, where she started to tape Samantha’s face, but got “spooked” by a bystander,...

Its a very rainy Saturday in New Zealand and highway vehicle convoy protests were the order of the day nationwide protests sponsored by The Freedoms And Rights Coalition. Today's protests entitled "The Great Gridlock". Yesterday ahead of the protests the TFRC issued a series of demands to the New Zealand government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern including the revocation of workplace vaccination mandates and and end to the segregated system of treating vaccinating and unvaccinated people differently. The statement said that "The Great Gridlock protests would continue indefinitely until those four demands are met. A Monday deadline looms for many...