Free Republic

The abject failure of Russian policy toward Ukraine over the past seven years suggests Vladimir Putin has a flawed understanding of the country. At dinner at the American ambassador’s residence in Moscow some years ago, I asked a former senior foreign policy official if anyone in the Kremlin understood Ukraine. He replied that someone there understood Ukraine very well. He then added “but nobody listens to him.” The abject failure of Russian policy toward Ukraine over the past seven years suggests the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin have a flawed understanding of the country. On Dec. 17, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov...

It’s ‘go time’ once again in America – time for the unvaccinated to roll up their sleeves...not to get an injection, but to fight against a new ‘variant’ of political and medical hysteria. Unlike the COVID variants, which have symptoms that grow progressively milder with each wave, the authoritarian variants tend to grow harsher with each progressive mutation. Indeed, the battle over vaccines has been waged through successively more draconian waves of pressure to see the whole world come to the saving knowledge of the grace of vaccines. Those who have thus far stood firm in their resolve to retain...

Rejection used to be common for medical sociologist Thomas LaVeist when he tried to get his research published on the effects of racism on the health of black people. “Now,” said the 60-year-old dean of Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, “I have those same journals asking me to write articles for them.” LaVeist’s experience illustrates the transformation in medical research. While few would dispute that black Americans are more prone to chronic health problems and have shorter life expectancies than whites, the medical community generally sought answers in biology, genetics, and lifestyle. Research, like LaVeist’s, that...

“right” curriculum and the “right” teacher mindset will magically cure low student achievement and all social ills. I can’t think of a dumber outlook. For those that still cling to this fantastical notion, how many more decades of tax-payer scammed ineptitude must they be presented with before changing their minds? Of course, how many people still think Covid will be resolved with a 5th or 6th booster? As Mark Twain once observed, it is easier to fool people than convince them they have been fooled. Insofar as I can tell, participating in the government monopoly on education is one of...

If you want one exemplar of the moral and intellectual chaos that characterizes the age in which we live, there are a number of candidates: "Having fewer police leads to a decrease in violent crime" is one. "Men give birth" is another. But perhaps the most obvious moral and intellectual absurdity of all is the notion that Lia Thomas, a member of the University of Pennsylvania's women's swim team, won fairly in the team's recent meet against the Cornell University women's swim team. You see, Lia Thomas was a man until two years ago, when he announced that she is...

Army Captain Russell Rippetoe was killed on April 3, 2003 when the enemy detonated a car bomb at a military checkpoint in western Iraq. When they recovered Capt. Rippetoe’s body, they discovered that he was wearing an inspirational dog tag created by Shields of Strength, a family-owned company in Texas. The dog tag was adorned with a Bible verse from the Old Testament, Joshua 1:9. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go,” the verse read. President George W....

The Federal Reserve’s zero-interest rate policies (ZIRP) has The Fed Funds Target Rate at a measly 25 basis points or 0.25%. While this is great for some, it is disastrous for savers. Once we subtract off the inflation rate (CPI YoY), we find that the REAL 90-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) rate is a horrifying -6.74%. I don’t think that Congress or the Biden Administration really think about how their spending may contribute to inflation and crush savers. Or the American worker who is seeing NEGATIVE real average hourly earnings growth (yes, Biden said that Americans have more money this...

When someone does the right thing, do you really care about why? Or do you care more about the right thing having been done? Personally, I care more about the results than the motivation. In politics, however, political opponents of anyone will make hay out of anything they can get their hands on. Can't blame them, really, but it's wildly dishonest and smells of desperation when it happens. Do you believe President Donald Trump did everything he did out of a deep-rooted belief in conservatism? He'd been a Democrats just a few years before running in 2016, having donated a...

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went OFF on what she derided as an “old boys club” that is the U.S. Senate following Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) revelation that he was a “no” on President Biden’s Build Back Better bill during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.... ...The Congresswoman then explained out the “people’s house” is often the lone true representation of American democracy, correctly pointing out how the U.S. Senate gives more legislative power to constituents in lesser populated states (seeing as every state gets two Senators) and that the Executive branch is often led by a President who wins the...

Fellow FReepers - I hope this will be of interest to you. PJH Law (website) is a firm of solicitors/lawyers based in England. They are specialists in Employment Law.They are representing Dr Sam White and other plaintiffs. Some Freepers will know that Dr White was suspended by the NHS for speaking out about informed consent, the safety of the vaccine(s) and for discussing alternative treatments.On the 17th December 2021 PJH Law sent an open letter to Stephen Lightfoot: the chair of the MHRA *. You can download a copy of the open letter in PDF format HERE.I highly recommend that...

"This is the end. My only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end." – The Doors It's not like the Biden Presidency was breaking any records or anything (other than the daily "oldest president in history" record he sets merely by waking up). But this weekend's "It's a 'no' from me, dawg" pronouncement from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) could very well be the beginning of a very long and pitiful coda to this accident of American politics. And while the media and erstwhile wannabe socialists across the political, academic, and entertainment spectrum insist on demonizing the West Virginia...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - New York governor Kathy Hochul on Monday expressed confidence she can reach a deal involving hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding to build a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills in time to be included on the state’s budget due in April. Hochul said she has provided the team two timelines to negotiate an agreement by either the end of the year or extend talks through March. The governor added the Bills will have the final say whether to have the new facility based near their current home in Orchard Park or downtown....

If you want to know the pickle the Democrats are in as they scuttle their Build Back Better bill and pivot to the real red meat, the H.R.1 bill that imposes vote-by-mail nationwide, read this piece from the NY Sun about Ronald Reagan in 1981-82. Beating stagflation required political heroics by President Reagan and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker. It was “a triumph of economic policy,” Robert Samuelson recently wrote. “Volcker imposed a ferocious credit squeeze, and Reagan supported this wildly unpopular policy.” Interest rates soared to 21 percent. Unemployment spiked at more than 10 percent. Bankruptcies...

Special Counsel John Durham is investigating multiple former members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Last month the FBI arrested Igor Danchenko, a top researcher behind the garbage Steele dossier. We know that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the DNC paid for Steele’s junk dossier and paid for work provided by Fusion GPS. Hillary Clinton’s camp hid the payments to Steele and Fusion GPS through payments to her lawyers at Perkins Coie – Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann – (FEC complaint was filed against Hillary for not disclosing dossier payments). Sussmann was indicted in September by Durham for lying to the...

Democrats claim that democracy is under attack in America and Democrats must act decisively to protect it. They’ve been trying to end the filibuster, nationalize voting, and pack the Supreme Court. The most ominous “fix,” which hinges on the myth of a “January 6 Insurrection,” sees retired generals argue that the military must purge the ranks of Trump supporters and prepare for a military coup to block a future contested election. This is unconstitutional, illegal, and spells the end of American democracy. Victor Davis Hanson notes that leftists are loudly worrying about democracy’s end while ignoring all they’ve done to...

In a video recently uploaded onto YouTube, Bahgat Saber, a Manhattan-based Muslim Brotherhood activist who enjoys life and liberty in the USA, exhibited two aspects that Muslims zealous over their religion often exhibit: extreme vulgarity and warped logic. Regarding the first point, he spent much of his time attacking Fr. Zakaria Botros (whom I first introduced to the English-language world in this 2008 NRO article). A Coptic Christian priest from Egypt, now in his mid-eighties, Fr. Zakaria has for over two decades been appearing on satellite television, examining and exposing Islam’s many problematic doctrines -- for example, sex slavery --...

Less than one percent of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) employees were fired after failing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. On Tuesday, the school board moved to fire 496 of the district's approximately 73,000 workers. Most of the staff had probably been on leave since mid-October... ...Of those fired, 418 were....instructional aides, cafeteria workers, custodians and others.... ...Meanwhile, around 34,000 students have also not been vaccinated as mandated for children ages 12 and older... ...In Los Angeles, students who are not fully vaccinated—or exempt—will be forced into the district's independent study program or will have to leave...

Boston Mayor Wu Relentlessly Heckled As New COVID-19 Restrictions Are Announced

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