Free Republic

Another Sunday, and Biden's national security adviser is at it again making the rounds on the big network news shows, warning the Russian invasion will invade Ukraine "any day now" - at this point a familiar refrain we've heard for multiple weeks running..."We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window, and an invasion could begin, a major military action could begin by Russia in Ukraine any day now -- that includes this coming week, before the end of the Olympics," Jake Sullivan told CNN's Jake Tapper.This latest...

13 February 2022 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Basilica of Saints Vincent and Caterina de 'Ricci, Prato, Italy Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingJeremiah 17:5-8 ©A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the LordThe Lord says this:‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in man,who relies on things of flesh,whose heart turns from the Lord.He is like dry scrub in the wastelands:if good comes, he has no eyes for it,he settles in the parched places of the wilderness,a salt land, uninhabited.‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord,with the Lord for...

INDEPENDENCE, Missouri — The half-circle of 13 chairs that framed the statue of President Harry Truman in the heart of the historic Independence Square this past fall was placed there in the days after 13 American soldiers were killed in the attack on the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in late August. The loss of these brave service members marked the beginning of an awakening. Many people stepped outside the comfort of their political beliefs and began to question everything coming out of the government. Few national journalists noticed it at its inception because few national journalists leave their desks or...

In a letter, signed by 37 of his Republican colleagues in Congress, Texas Rep. Dr. Ronny Jackson warns that President Biden's "mental decline and forgetfulness have become more apparent over the past two years," and urges the 79-year-old to take a cognitive aptitude test (just as former President Trump did).“My colleagues and I are again asking President Biden to immediately undergo a formal cognitive screening exam, such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment,” Jackson said.“As a former physician to three Presidents of the United States, I know what it takes mentally and physically to execute the duties of Commander-in-Chief and Head...

Team USA’s Erin Jackson is a medal contender in the 500 meters. Her teammates from the ‘New Jax City Rollers’ will be watching. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to a couple of Jackson’s former teammates: Shady Godiva and Fancy Schmancy. “She’s just tough,” Shady Godiva says. “Super strong,” says Fancy Schmancy. Shady and Fancy know. Before Jackson made her case as the fastest woman on ice, before she became one of Team USA’s best hopes for gold, she was a star in the rollicking world of roller derby, trading collisions and bruises with teammates who maintained aliases like...

AMISH IN SARASOTA, FLORIDA As with elsewhere in Florida, snowbirds are a regular sight here. But intermixed with the more stereotypical visitors to Sarasota, a city and county on the Gulf of Mexico coast in southwest Florida, is a large community of Amish. Like other snowbirds, the Amish come from locales with cold winters. Think central Ohio, northern Indiana and, of course, the unofficial Amish capital of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. At the height of the season, about 5,000 winter-weary Amish and Mennonites call Pinecraft, an enclave about 20 minutes from the popular St. Armand’s Circle, home. In the summer,...

The National Chicken Council expects Americans will eat nearly 1.42 billion chicken wings while watching the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams this weekend, but many restaurants and bars, including a local business, are having trouble getting a hold of this fan favorite food. The Growler Guys in Eau Claire said throughout the pandemic and even before the big game, they've had a difficult time sourcing certain cheese curds and one of their wing sauces. Because of this, they've had to discontinue those items from their menu. Co-owner Greg Haugen said it's also hard to get a hold of chicken...

The scientists soon concluded their new calculations had been thrown off kilter by the physics of clouds in a warming world, which may amplify or damp climate change. “The old way is just wrong, we know that,” said Andrew Gettelman, a physicist at NCAR who specializes in clouds and helped develop the CESM2 model.

The claim by the American intelligence community that the Hunter Biden laptop story is just a result of Russian disinformation is so 2020. Old news. The new hotness for 2022 is that the protesting truckers and their supporters in Canada are being manipulated by Russian agents. And what both reports have in common is that the claims are/were based on exactly nothing. The latest iteration of Russian subversion comes to us by way of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. However, if you didn't know any better you could be forgiven for thinking that the video interview was produced by the Babylon...

Morning Consult monitors the approval rating of a set of leaders in democracies globally. Every week, information gets updated for leaders in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Most leaders in the selected democracies are underwater by a significant margin. Especially those in the West:The notable exceptions are Italy, India, and Mexico. Prime Minister Mario Draghi in Italy just took office. The media describes him as an outsider with no particular political party after a career in economics in the European and global financial bureaucracies. Because he...

Officers lined the road near the border and told protesters to move as vehicles towed. Officers from multiple police forces advanced Sunday morning to clear out the remaining protesters and break-up a days long occupation near the Ambassador Bridge border crossing in Windsor, Ontario. "Time to leave", police said, as they formed a line and prepared to march forward along Huron Church Road, which leads to the international border crossing connecting Windsor with Detroit. "If you don't leave, you will be arrested" Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told CBC's "Rosemary Barton Live" on Sunday that he heard "several" people were arrested...

A filing from Justice Department special counsel John Durham says Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign paid a technology company to "infiltrate" Trump Tower servers, and later the White House, Fox News reports. Durham in a motion filed Feb. 11 said the purpose of the infiltration was to establish a "narrative" of collusion between then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia. Durham, appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr to lead a review into the Russia investigation, made the claim in his investigation that brought charges against an FBI attorney and former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who is currently charged with making...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination is former President Donald Trump’s for the taking. Anchor George Stephanopoulos said, “Senator, it’s been several years since you’ve been on the program. It’s our first chance since January 6 to ask about your relationship with President Trump and his leadership with the Republican Party. We showed your comments from January 6. The next day you talked about the president’s accountability for allowing the ride to happen. You’ve also said the Republican Party can’t win without him, and the 2024 nomination is his...

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his ground-breaking work negotiating the Abraham Accords. Kushner worked on the Accords in his capacity as White House Senior Advisor, along with his deputy, Special Assistant to the President Avi Berkowitz, who was also included in the nomination. The nomination was submitted by U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.). The New York Post obtained a copy of the nomination, in which Zeldin wrote, “The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, represent the most significant diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Arab nations in decades.” Zeldin...

BEIJING (AP) — Erin Jackson became the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics. A gold one, at that. Jackson won the 500 meters Sunday with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the American speedskating program its first medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010. But this one meant much more than national pride. The 29-year-old Jackson, a former inline skater who switched to the ice shortly before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, joined fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win long-track speedskating medals at the Olympics. Now,...

Police in Canada have been somewhat successful at clearing big rigs from the Ambassador Bridge — one of the most vital links between the United States and Canada.But the more protesters they move off the bridge, the more arrive to take their place. And in the city of Ottawa, the protesters show no sign of leaving anytime soon.Other important bridges connecting the United States and Canada, including Coutts, Alberta, which connects to Montana, and Surrey, British Columbia, which connects to Washington state, are also under siege. In Nova Scotia, an important ferry landing has been hit with paralyzing protests.The Canadian...

Some of us are old enough to remember when Dr. Anthony Fauci told the nation that “herd immunity” may require 90% of Americans to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. First, that is a complete revision of the meaning of herd immunity since it is not a static concept. Second, while it may have been a legitimate goal to achieve near-zero COVID-19, all it meant was that 90% of the population needed to have an effective immune response to COVID-19. To date, Fauci, the CDC, and the rest of the health agency bureaucrats have defined this response as having detectable circulating antibodies.If that...

On Monday at 11:30 EST, The Federal Reserve Board of Governors will have a closed door session to determine if they should raise rates and/or change the speed of Fed asset purchases. Between raging inflation and the potential wag-the-dog Russian/Ukraine tensions, The Fed has a lot to consider. Particularly if they are watching the 10Y-2Y Treasury yield curve plunging. And we have the USD Inflation Swap Zero Coupon rate rising again. While the Treasury and US Dollar Swaps curve are upward-sloping (not surprising since The Fed has aggressively pushed short-term rates to near zero), we are seeing Treasury Inflation Protected...

Those familiar with Bitcoin are aware that it consumes an enormous amount of energy. Estimates are that Bitcoin-mining consumes as much power as the entire country of Finland — roughly one half of one percent of all of the electrical power generated on Earth. The theory behind Bitcoin is that avoiding detection of fraudulent transactions should be more expensive in terms of time, effort, and energy than is keeping track of honest transactions. There is necessarily some power required to keep track of honest transactions, and, in the case of Bitcoin, the power required is considerable. The rationale behind the...

Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Republican Party needs to “get back” to believing in “freedom and truth.” Hogan said, “I consider myself a common-sense conservative. I have been a lifelong Republican. I believe that’s where most people in America are. About 70% of the people in America are frustrated with politics on both sides, Republicans and Democrats. The latest CNN poll came out and said right now, only 50% of the Republicans would like to see Donald Trump run again. I believe that there is a pretty large lane of sane...