Free Republic

And this doesn’t include the inflation in prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet. US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose by 5.2% in January, the fastest rate since mid-1983. With CPI inflation at 7.5% YoY, the Taylor Rule suggests a Fed Funds target rate of 13.35%, higher than the current rate of 0.25%. Overstimulated much?? Let’s see if The Fed actually goes hunting inflation. Let’s see if inflation makes The Fed dance!

People who’ve followed my work for a while know that I am a monarchist in the real sense of the word. As a result of this, I correspondingly tend to believe that whiggery as a governing philosophy doesn’t work very well (and in the long run I’m right). However, I am willing to grant that there are times and places where systems with whiggish tendencies, or at least things approaching them, were relatively successful and socially stable. The reason is because these systems met some criteria that, however temporarily, enabled them to curtail democratic tendencies that always lead to social...

With major crime up 34%, 95 more cops walk out the door; CPD is losing cops at “unsustainable” rate, alderman says February 24, 2022 CWBChicago Citywide One month ago, we reported that CPD statistics showed reports of major crimes were up 24% in the first three weeks of the new year compared to the same time last year. How have things improved since then? They haven’t. Major crime reports are now up 34%, with all seven categories showing increases: murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated battery, burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft. That’s according to CPD’s internal CompStat report dated...

Sen. Ted Cruz Full Speech at CPAC 2022 in Orlando

The Russian government has partially blocked access to Facebook in the country after it claims the social network “restricted” the accounts of four Russian media outlets. In a statement on Friday, Russia’s tech and communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said Facebook was violating “the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,” and that it had recorded 23 cases of “censorship” by the social network since October 2020.

25 February 2022Friday of week 7 in Ordinary Time The Chapel of San Tarasio, Church of San Zaccaria, Venice Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingJames 5:9-12 ©Do not ask for judgement, or you may receive itDo not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord; remember it is those who had endurance that we say are the blessed ones. You have heard of...

KEY POINTS: The Biden administration is delaying decisions on new oil and gas leases and permits after a Louisiana federal judge blocked officials from using higher cost estimates of climate change. The leasing pause is an unintended result of the Feb. 11 decision by U.S. District Judge James Cain, who argued that the administration’s attempt to raise the real cost of climate change would hike energy costs. The ruling has prompted delays and uncertainty across at least four federal agencies that were using higher cost estimates of greenhouse gas emissions in decisions. ********************************************************************************* The Biden administration is delaying decisions on...

The Russian incursion into Ukraine has brought out some stark differences in human behavior. The Ukrainians are tough- really tough. Ukrainian border guards defending a Black Sea island defiantly told an invading Russian warship to “go f–k yourself” when asked to surrender and were killed when the warship opened fire. The 13 guards were posted on the small but strategic Snake Island off Ukraine’s southeastern border when they were approached by two vessels on Thursday, according to Ukrainian media outlets. The Russians contacted the guards and identified themselves as a “Russian warship,” demanding that the Ukrainians surrender or they would...

The government says it is handing out 18,000 machine guns to "all those who want to defend our capital".

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A nursing home employee in metro Detroit will serve jail time for making false statements in absentee ballot applications after she forged signatures for residents of the facility she worked at it, the state attorney general's office said Thursday. In October 2020, Center Line's clerk alerted the Michigan Bureau of Elections to about two dozen absentee voter applications with signatures that didn't match what was on file for those voters..... An Associated Press review of election fraud in six battleground states found state officials identified a total of 56 potential instances of voter fraud in Michigan,...

Well, thank you, Rector Logunov. And I want to thank all of you very much for a very warm welcome. It's a great pleasure to be here at Moscow State University, and I want to thank you all for turning out. I know you must be very busy this week, studying and taking your final examinations. So, let me just say zhelayu yam uspekha [I wish you success]. Nancy couldn't make it today because she's visiting Leningrad, which she tells me is a very beautiful city, but she, too, says hello and wishes you all good luck. Let me say...

Revelations about the University of Pittsburgh’s fetal tissue research exploded onto headlines last fall with physicians going so far as to suggest the institution may have received organs that were extracted from live fetuses. Others speculated that tissue may have come from abortions that violated federal anti-trafficking law, as well as other ethical standards.In the controversy’s wake, Republican state Rep. Natalie Mihalek, a Pitt alum who sits on the university’s board of trustees, announced a purportedly “independent” investigation into the university’s fetal tissue research, stating that “it is vital that these questions are answered surrounding this.” In doing so, she...

Soldiers who died defending an island in the Black Sea from an air and sea bombardment told an officer onboard a Russian navy warship to ‘go f–k yourself’ when asked to surrender. AUDIO AT LINK, In RUSSIAN of course...................

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian military to seize power in their country on Friday, a day after Moscow launched an invasion of its southern neighbour. "I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields," Putin said at a televised meeting with Russia's security council. "Take power into your own hands, it will be easier for us to reach agreement."

Former NIH Director Francis Collins and others were wrong about how long mRNA from the Covid vaccines persists in the body, research shows.It was December 2020. Francis Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health, was just beginning his public push for the Covid-19 vaccines. Hoping to enlist support from evangelical Christians, Collins granted an extended YouTube interview to his friend Russell Moore, leader at the time of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.During their interview, Collins tried to allay fears that mRNA vaccines might be unsafe because they inject foreign mRNA into the...

Bloomberg News co-founder Matthew Winkler is twisting numbers again to try to make leftists look like economic wizards. This time, he went to bat for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) who imposed tyrannical COVID-19 shutdown policies on her constituents. Winkler’s blog celebrating Whitmer Feb. 16 was headlined, “‘Woman in Michigan’ Governs the No. 1 Economy.” Winkler fawned, in part, about how Whitmer’s economic policies“outperformed the U.S. when Trump was in the White House and continues to do so 15 months after voters rejected his bid for a second term.” He claimed that “Among 37 states with a population greater than...

THIS IS the moment a brave Ukrainian woman confronted heavily-armed Russian soldiers hours after they invaded, demanding to know what they were doing in her country. The furious woman shouted: "What the f*** are you doing in our land?" and told them they would "die" if they remained in Ukraine. A number of Twitter users hailed her courage after footage of the confrontation went viral. n the short clip, the woman asks the soldiers: "Who are you?" before they respond: "We have exercises here. Please go this way." After demanding to know if they are Russian, she then says: "So...

President Biden and our European allies closed every off-ramp for Russia while misleading Ukraine into thinking we would defend it.Not every war is unnecessary or avoidable, but history might well judge the Russo-Ukrainian war as both, not least because the United States and its European allies could have prevented it, but didn’t.Ultimately, the decision to go to war was Russia’s, and Russia bears ultimate responsibility for what happens now. But that does not absolve the West of its strategic incompetence and complacency, and it does not mean the United States and its allies are guiltless in all of this.At multiple...

The Ukrainian military allegedly blew up multiple bridges outside of the capital city of Kyiv to stop Russian troops from advancing from Ivankiv, according to multiple reports. Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior Affairs said that Ukrainian armed forces blew up a bridge in Irpin, around 15 miles west of Kyiv, to prevent Russian forces from approaching the capital, NBC reported. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry also confirmed that troops exploded the bridge at Ivankiv, about 30 miles north of Kyiv, to prevent a Russian column of forces from advancing towards the capital according to CNN. The ministry said the Russian advance was...

This week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) trumpeted the supposed benefits of its new anti-alcohol initiative. In a press release on the 23rd February, the taxpayer-funded so-called public health organization announced that “if countries of the WHO European Region were to introduce a minimum level of 15% tax on the retail price per unit of alcohol, regardless of the type of alcoholic beverage, it would save 133,000 lives each year.” The reduction in deaths from increased taxation comes courtesy of modelling from the WHO’s Non-Communicable Diseases Advisory Council working group. Needless to say, the conclusions are debatable. It is common...