Free Republic

Chris Barber, a key organizer of the so-called Freedom Convoy that has occupied Ottawa streets for three weeks, has been arrested in Ottawa, CBC News has learned. Barber, who is currently in police custody and is expected to face criminal charges, has been described as one of the key leaders of the protest in Ottawa, which has now hit the three-week mark. Barber is also one of three protest organizers named in the class action lawsuit filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by lawyer Paul Champ on behalf of his client, 21-year-old public servant Zexi Li. The suit...

Protesters are digging in as Ottawa police begin to roll out a plan to end the trucker protest occupation that has clogged the centre of the Canadian capital for almost three weeks. Interim police chief Steve Bell says if they want to leave peacefully, now is the time and they will be given a secure route out of the city. “If they do not peacefully leave, we have plans, strategies and tactics to get them to leave,” he told reporters, saying that action is “imminent”. Protest organiser Chris Barber was spotted being taken into police custody. A secure zone with...

Joe Biden is out of excuses. He never should have had any. He won the 2020 election decisively. He took over the White House while having both houses of Congress in his pocket. He was a veteran of the Hill who, I foolishly presumed, understood not only how things are done in Washington, but how that process has evolved since he first won elected office in 1973. Best of all, he wasn’t Donald Trump. Those are all good things, and Biden’s first 100 days showed him cashing in on all of that political capital. He presided over a comprehensive and...

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – In a surprise announcement Thursday, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham says she is ending New Mexico’s indoor mask mandate. The governor says the state and country are trending in the right direction when it comes to COVID-19. “I’m announcing…that the mask requirement for indoor settings is gone,” said Gov. Lujan Grisham.”

The iconic Big Mac has been the head honcho on the McDonald's menu since 1967. While the recipe has remained the same over the course of its 55-year lifespan, the price of the famous burger has dramatically changed over time. And currently, it costs 40% more than it did ten years ago. According to CNBC, the Big Mac is, in many ways, a powerful demonstrator of the inflation Americans are currently going through. Since the demand for Big Mac spans the globe, The Economist even created the Big Mac index in 1986 to monitor the burger's price against other currencies....

Nearly a decade ago, Edward Snowden dropped a series of bombshell revelations on the world, chief among them revealing the presence of the PRISM program: a constitutionally dubious surveillance program under which the National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Central Intelligence Agency gather and search through the emails, internet calls, photos, and chats of Americans without obtaining a warrant, usually through the backdoor of America’s major tech companies. In response, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act in 2015, a bill that amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to ban the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records and...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with 100 chief executive officers, in an effort to cajole them “to get their workers back into the office to stimulate the city’s economy.” He told the business leaders it was time to get their workers back in offices, stating that the lack of people commuting into the Big Apple hurts the city’s economy. The mayor said, “We can’t send mixed messages,” by delaying the return to work dates. “We can’t keep kicking the can down the road.” "Let's start out with a three-day workweek, to let people see how safe it is...

A report from the city of McAllen revealed that the federal government dropped off 144,281 migrants in the McAllen area since February 2021. Of those migrants, 13,432 of them tested positive for COVID-19.

<p>Two transgender swimmers blew away the competition Wednesday at the Ivy League Women’s Swimming Championships by posting the fastest times in the 800-yard freestyle relay.</p><p>The two swimmers, Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig swam the fastest split times on Wednesday night, adding more controversy to the topic of transgender athletes.</p>

Figure-skating commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir couldn’t hide their relief after suspected doping cheat, Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee, stunningly plummeted from gold-medal favorite to fourth place in the women’s free skate event on Thursday. As the 15-year-old Valieva’s low scores were announced, and it was clear that the International Olympic Committee’s plan to scrap the ceremony and withhold medals if she finished in the top three would not be needed, Weir exclaimed, “Thank God!” “Thank goodness for all the other medalists to have that moment,” Lipinski said, to which Weir quickly added, “And to have done...

U.S. Attorney General protected Joe by hiding explosive investigation An anti-corruption task force has ripped the lid off the shocking cover-up of a federal grand jury probe into Hunter Biden's dirty deals with China that might have torpedoed his father Joe Biden's run for the presidency and changed the course of history! During the heated 2020 campaign, the grand jury's secret investigation into whether Hunter laundered money, evaded taxes, and peddled his father's influence was already well underway - and it has since widened to include other members of the Biden family. The anti-corruption nonprofit group Marco uncovered a grand...

Zoltan! Credit Suisse’s Zoltan Pozsar thinks The Federal Reserve needs to spark a market crash. Really Zoltan?? If The Fed does its expected “shock and awe” (or shock and awful), it will be more than the stock markets will crash. The housing market could crash too. Take the current US housing situation with its limited inventory of listings combined with massive Fed stimulypto. US 1-unit housing starts are down -4.1% in January. But heck, it is January! But on a year-over-year basis, 1-unit housing starts are down -2.4%. But what will happen if The Fed ACTUALLY withdraws its gargantuan monetary...

https://amgreatness.com/2022/02/16/the-socrates-of-the-airwaves-remembering-rush-limbaugh/

Cardinal Ouellet: Priests not supporting Francis should ask, 'What am I doing here?'Rome — When Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet was first appointed in 2010 to lead the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, the office that advises the pope on candidates to serve as Catholic bishops around the world, the former professor and theologian was "more attentive to the doctrinal dimension" of the job, he recalled."With Pope Francis, we've learned the accompaniment dimension," Ouellet told NCR. "We have learned that it's not enough to tell people what they have to do."The Congregation for Bishops is one of the Vatican's most powerful offices,...

The New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) warned Wednesday it was poised to deploy “Defence Force assets” to Wellington to disband an anti-coronavirus vaccine mandate protest near New Zealand’s parliament building after the rally pushed into its ninth consecutive day. “An NZDF spokeswoman said discussions on the possible deployment of Defence Force assets remain ongoing, and no decisions have been made,” New Zealand’s Stuff news site reported on February 16. “Four Defence Force vehicles have arrived in Wellington and are on standby should they be required,” the NZDF spokeswoman confirmed. The New Zealand Police issued an ultimatum to anti-vaccine mandate protesters...

The Canadian government is issuing warnings to anyone involved in the massive anti-mandate protests, saying that in addition to freezing bank accounts and towing their trucks, they can confiscate pets as well. A tweet from the official account for Ottawa’s by-law and regulatory services read, “Attention animal owners at demonstration: If you are unable to care for your animal as a result of enforcement actions, your animal will placed into protective care for 8 days, at your cost. After 8 days, if arrangements are not made, your animal will be considered relinquished.” According to tweet, the law applied to animals...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has admitted soaring US inflation is 'not acceptable' - then insisted the American economy would be even worse were it not for the very spending by the Biden administration that has been blamed for soaring prices. Speaking to AFP, Yellen said of the rise in cost of living - which hit 7.5 per cent last month: 'Inflation is clearly a great concern to Americans, and it really needs to be addressed. 'Certainly it's not acceptable to stay at current levels.' Her words were in marked contrast to Joe Biden's, who has repeatedly insisted that surging inflation...

Johns Hopkins University professor Dr. Marty Makary says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been "using science as political propaganda.""The absolute worst studies that were done during the pandemic came out of the CDC," he said in an interview Tuesday with the Fox Business Network spotlighted by Breitbart News."It really is offensive. It should be offensive to anybody who believes in science, including our nation’s physicians. This is using science as political propaganda. The absolute worst studies that were done during the pandemic came out of the CDC."Makary, a professor of public health, pointed to a CDC...

Former CNN and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs joined Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on his Firebrand podcast and discussed the future of Republican congressional politics. During the episode, titled “The Great Lou Dobbs,” Gaetz asks the staunchly pro-Trump television personality about a variety of topics from Ukraine-Russia tensions to the latest news reports on John Durham’s investigation. In one particularly notable part of the 25-minute conversation, Dobbs declares Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the current leader of the House Republicans, should not become speaker of the House should the GOP regain the majority in the 2022 midterms. Dobbs says, “It’s outrageous,...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — A woman was arrested in connection to an explosion that caused damages to a group of mailboxes at a downtown apartment building in January. Authorities say Melissa Trenholm faces charges for damaging or destroying by means of an explosive. A criminal complaint filed in federal court Wednesday alleges a feud between the suspect and her neighbor may have been the reason behind the incident. On January 27 around 7 a.m., the Rochester Police Department Bomb Squad responded to 87 N. Clinton Avenue for the report of an explosive device at the Buckingham Properties apartment building. Officials...