Free Republic

Will inflation turn into stagflation? With inflation hitting 40-year highs, it’s the question of the hour.Currently, Wall Street and the Fed are saying no, forecasting a respectable 3.7% real for 2022, 2.7% for 2023, and 2.3% for 2024. These aren’t epic prints, but they’re also nowhere near recession. Of course, that same dream team of Wall Street and Fed missed inflation to an epic degree last year: in mid-October of 2021 the Wall Street Journal’s survey of economists were predicting 5.25% inflation by December—just two months later. Actual CPI in December was an annualized 9.5%, and it was 7.1% on...

In a recent Detroit News opinion piece, Governor Gretchen Whitmer opined that she released her Fiscal Year 2023 budget - a budget bolstered by nearly $5 billion in federal funds left over from prior COVID relief. Despite her political talking points, Governor Whitmer’s budget isn’t a reflection of savvy negotiations or sound business principles - she’s merely playing Santa Claus with federal giveaway dollars in an attempt to salvage Michigan’s economy after her policies devastated our small businesses and workers. As she touts her spending spree, it is important to remember what Governor Whitmer has done before and during the...

Several prominent anti-Trump Republicans, including Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), will be hosting a separate “counterprogramming” event that intends to serve as a rival to the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). As Breitbart reports, the “Principles First Summit” will take place from February 26th to February 27th, the last two days of the larger and more popular CPAC event, which is being held in Orlando, Florida. The anti-Trump event will be held in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club. “Principles First is excited to announce a two-day grassroots summit at the National Press Club...

Our freedom went to the cities, where it’s been on a bender ever since. In the 2000s, when I was in high school, civil disobedience was lauded as something almost inherently noble. Our teachers encouraged us to think like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr., and grow up to be the kind of people who would disobey unjust laws. The moral groundwork for this philosophy, though our teachers were almost certainly ignorant of the fact, was the very American idea that Benjamin Franklin proposed as the motto for the United States: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” Our...

It is impossible to know what ordinary Russians think about Putin’s onslaught against Ukraine. Under conditions of increasing domestic repression, opinion polls are unreliable. On topics that are sensitive for the Kremlin, they are a guide to the level of popular fear, not to popular attitudes. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the Putin regime has invested vast resources in shaping the attitudes of its own people. Over the past two decades, it has created a sprawling apparatus of propaganda institutions that were built up, step by step, as Putin’s rule became more dictatorial. The origins of this system can...

Except in the months preceding a crucial midterm election, today’s Democrats would argue that high gas prices are a good thing. They see gas prices as a Pigouvian tax on fossil fuels that accelerate the shift to renewable “green” energy. Regulatory and legislative actions such as killing the Keystone Pipeline early last year, and closing off federal lands for oil drilling, were made by the Biden Administration and its congressional cohorts knowing full well such decisions would raise gas prices for consumers. Democrats were okay with that, until their polling numbers began dipping into the frigid zone. It appears now...

President Joe Biden hit Fox reporter Peter Doocy with a dose of sarcasm after he asked the president if he underestimated Putin. "The thing I love about the press is they're always on message," Biden said at a Tuesday afternoon minerals event. He then joked to those participating virtually, "Did YOU underestimate Putin?" Biden was in a more jovial mood at the afternoon gathering in the South Court Auditorium after having already announced the new Russian sanctions. "Hi everybody. How are you? Gavin, how are you, man?" he said upon entering. Newsom told Biden, "I'm impressed. I am impressed. Thank...

There does remain one major difference between Canada and Cuba. Few Cubans support their Marxist leaders, but most Canadians support theirs. They don't know what they're in for. Canada is leaving the Western world. In terms of all-encompassing government, suppression of dissent and the denial of fundamental human rights to many of its citizens, Canada is now more similar to Cuba than to any free country. Canada may eventually return to Western civilization, but right now, the majority of Canadians appear to have no interest in it doing so. According to Maru Public Opinion, “two-thirds (66 percent) of Canadians support...

BERLIN (AP) — Climate activists on Wednesday blocked roads leading to Germany’s three biggest airports, gluing themselves to the ground before police arrived. Members of the group Uprising of the Last Generation said they wanted to disrupt cargo and passenger traffic at the airports in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. The group has demanded that the government take measures to end food waste. It argues that throwing away vast amounts of usable food contributes to hunger and climate change.

In the international discourse around Ukraine, the country has traditionally been portrayed as a divided nation with irreconcilable differences between east and west. This was always an unhelpful over-simplification of Ukraine’s complex political geography; since the onset of Russian aggression in 2014, fast-changing realities on the ground have rendered such stereotypes completely redundant. With around 200,000 Russian troops currently concentrated on the Ukrainian border, Putin’s eight-year war against Ukraine is getting more global media attention than ever before. While this coverage is welcome, it has also underlined that current understandings of Ukrainian political and cultural identity are still often based...

If you want to reduce gun violence, New York City Mayor Eric Adams thinks, you need to go after guns. His plan relies heavily on disrupting gun trafficking, seizing guns and arresting people for illegal gun possession. This strategy is unlikely to work. Worse, the focus on gun possession arrests, if it fails to distinguish between people who pose a real threat to public safety and people who carry guns for self-protection, will compound the injustice of systematically denying city dwellers their Second Amendment rights. "It is estimated that as many as 2 million illegal guns were in circulation in...

The upcoming polar plunge will cause temperatures across the northern United States to drop by as much as 50 degrees, during a time when war may break out in Europe. This is a reminder of how important affordable American energy sources are. Europe is weak because it is in the grip of an energy crisis with some prices soaring tenfold in the last two years. Europe depends for nearly 30% of its oil and gas supplies on Russia, while German manufacturing is particularly dependent for energy on Russia after environmentalists forced Germany to dismantle all 17 of its nuclear power...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Europe braced for further confrontation Wednesday and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia after tensions escalated dramatically when Russia’s leader got the OK to use military force outside his country and the West responded with a raft of sanctions. Hopes for a diplomatic way out of a new, potentially devastating war appeared all but sunk as the U.S. and key European allies accused Moscow on Tuesday of crossing a red line in rolling over Ukraine’s border into separatist regions — with several calling it an invasion. The top U.S. diplomat canceled a meeting with his...

Residents living in an affordable housing complex in Perinton are speaking out about filthy conditions. They worry their complaints about rodents, mold and water damage are being ignored. Now, there is a deadline for residents to address concerns. Nelifar Farzad says throwing out dead mice in traps has become part of her daily routine while living at the Pines of Perinton. "It's been hell, it’s been a complete hell," Farzad said.

Wisconsin restaurant worker shot in face over $3 hamburger A Wisconsin restaurant worker who was shot in face during a dispute over an incomplete order last month has spoken out about the harrowing ordeal that he thought was going to end his life. Anthony Rodriguez, 26, was working as the sole server at a George Webb location in Wauwatosa around midnight Jan. 30 when trouble arose after twin 20-year-old sisters complained their order was missing a $3 hamburger, WISN reported. “They said they weren’t going to pay, and I said, ‘OK, I’m going to take your food since you’re not...

<p>An Australian man has been convicted of possessing child sex dolls under new laws to combat abuse against minors.</p><p>Terry Dunnett, 45, pleaded guilty Wednesday in District Court in Brisbane to two counts of possessing a child sex doll, one count of attempting to possess a child sex doll and possessing child exploitation material, abc.net.au reported.</p>

This article is part of a continuing series of defensive bear shootings discovered through a Freedom of Information Act request by AmmoLand. It appears these events were not reported in other media. On September 13, 2011, two bowhunters were hunting for elk in a wild part of Wyoming, on the boundary of the Shoshone National Forest and the Bridger Teton National Forest. The location was on the Continental Divide between the Salt Creek and the South Fork of the Fish Creek drainages, about an hour north of DuNoir Junction, southwest of Dubois, Wyoming, near the boundary of Fremont County and...

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem1 Thessalonians 31Timothy’s Encouraging Report 6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for...

In parts of Eastern Europe this year, rising prices, particularly on food and utilities, have prompted large scale demonstrations, with police controlling crowds with tear gas and stun grenades. Meanwhile, in the West, price protests have been far more muted. There has been a “benign reaction” to increases as Andre Schulten, CFO at P&G said in a January earnings call, which was reported in Forbes. In the same article, Church & Dwight CMO Barry Bruno commented that “pricing is a muscle we’re going to continue building as we expect a prolonged inflationary environment.” The bet is that consumers will continue...

Seven-foot fencing topped with razor wire will be installed surrounding the U.S. Capitol next week, in advance of President Joe Biden's State of the Union on March 1. The wall is to keep out truckers who are heading to Washington, D.C., as part of the Freedom Convoy protesting COVID restrictions. Instead of shutting the truckers out, Biden should be inviting them in to sit in the gallery during his speech and have a chat afterward. He invited Vladimir Putin to talk -- why not truckers who love America and say they want to "restore our nation's Constitution"? How Biden treats...