Free Republic

A few years back in 2018 (which seems like the age of innocence considering what the world has devolved into currently), President Donald Trump had a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Unlike most meetings where polite banter occurs before TV cameras, and core dealings occur behind closed doors, the cameras were allowed to remain for the entire duration of the meeting. After the customary pleasantries, Stoltenberg emphasized the importance of NATO for the EU, he thanked Trump for compelling others to contribute more to NATO, and said he looked forward to Trump’s meeting with President Putin. It was at...

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem2 Thessalonians 15 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our...

Ukrainian forces have regained control of the key city of Kharkiv, the regional governor has said. In a post on Telegram, Oleh Synyehubov said: "Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! "The armed forces, the police, and the defence forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy." Russian troops were able to enter the city, Ukraine's second largest, overnight. Footage circulated on social media showed street fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops. The situation on the ground remains fluid and claims of control are hard to verify - but civilians on the ground have also told...

I once respected Vladimir Putin for his effectiveness, although I emphatically did not like what he did to neighboring countries, and also Russians with whom he disagreed. One can similarly respect the effectiveness of other despots such as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great without liking how they treated other countries or even their own people. When Peter the Great built Saint Petersburg, for example, tens of thousands of workers died from disease and privation, and some were eaten by wolves in the streets. Putin's invasion of Ukraine, however, demonstrates a colossal lack of judgment that reveals him to...

Another example of the softness, feminization and infantilization of our culture. Even in an aging population, finding an actual mature adult is an increasingly difficult task. A February 25 tweet from National Public Radio purported to address how Americans should deal with traumatizing headlines about the ongoing war in Ukraine. NPR noted, "Russia’s attack on Ukraine means there’s a stressful news cycle ahead of us. The reality of conflict is always a shock to the system.” Patriotic Ukrainian citizens are dying in the streets defending their families and their nation against an overwhelming Russian invasion of their land and we...

The reason I'm not a libertarian is because I'd like to be free. The libertarian says he does, too, but is living proof that wanting something and getting it are two completely different matters — and his theory stands directly in the way of his practice. His first problem is his dislike of government, which he shares many times with other "conservatives." This means he's the least likely to actually go into it (and who wants to hire a man who doesn't believe in his job?), and since he forfeits the position, all kinds of important bureaucratic and so-called "oppressive"...

'When you look at all of the evidence together, it's an extraordinarily clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market,' Worobey told the New York Times. Worobey and his team said that they focused on about 156 cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan in December 19. They continued by mapping cases in January and February using data from Chinese researchers of over 700 cases that popped up away from the market in Wuhan, particularly those with a lot of older residents. The team then studied mutations in what's known as the virus' family tree and concluded that they had...

It’s certainly a novel way for him to deal with the fact that Americans are watching their money vanish. Hard-left podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen interviewed Biden. The topics were what would expect—Biden’s race- and sex-based Supreme Court nominee, claims that Trump and other Republicans support Putin, boasts about his strategic genius, etc.—but the real surprise was Biden’s claim that COVID has made Americans so psychologically unstable they can’t understand that the Biden economy is wonderful. Here’s what Americans know: They are facing hard times. The economy is creeping back, but it’s nowhere near what it was under Trump before COVID....

Leftist nonprofit organizations are training cadres of young journalists to do their bidding. For years, local journalism has been collapsing. Between 2018 and 2020, nearly 6,000 journalism jobs and 300 newspapers vanished, a longstanding trend which accelerated with the COVID pandemic. But, not to worry, help is on the way. Enter Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit organization. They are “a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.” They will pay half of the salaries of the “talented” journalists they propose to place in your communities....

GN YGDA NT WAPV, TV SAPMA NT NZAAE, PN ET UA SRVMOPNAW PE EOA SVGMA TD MOPGLN PLW NYPIAVQ? DTVUGW GE, PYJGFOEQ FTW! G BLTZ LTE ZOPE MTRVNA TEOAVN JPQ EPBA; URE PN DTV JA, FGIA JA YGUAVEQ TV FGIA JA WAPEO! - SPEVGMB OALVQ

Word from the battlegrounds in Ukraine is scattered and cannot always be confirmed, but some credible accounts give every indication that Putin may have blundered and faces a stronger defense than he (or the Biden administration) imagined possible. The bravery of a former comedian elected the Ukrainian President and a multimillionaire former boxing champion, now the mayor of Kyiv, who refused flight and stayed to defend their homeland at great risk of their lives, is part of the story. But to my mind, the memory of the Holodomor in which Russia’s Stalin starved to death millions of Ukrainians plays an...

"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him." "And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold...

The First Casualty Of War Is Truth... COVID Cranium Cleanings Lead To Drilling Brains With Ukraine After all the false COVID narratives that saturated our minds for two years, it's time for a new set of false narratives about Ukraine... Four Bullet Points Of Truth World War I was a horrible mistake Communism and Naziism came out of World War I Modern Ukraine was formed out of Communism snd Naziism Vladimir Putin is acting to change that through violent means... There Are Fakegressives Alongside The Fakeservatives... And now the latest total of the dead and injured no I'm not talking...

February 27th 2022 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time St. Nicholas Cathedral, Kyiv, Ukraine Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green First readingEcclesiasticus 27:5-8 ©The test of a man is in his conversationIn a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a man appear in his talk.The kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a man is in his conversation.The orchard where a tree grows is judged on the quality of its fruit, similarly a man’s words betray what he feels.Do not praise a man before he has spoken, since this is the test of...

My gift for the brave Ukrainians defending their home.

Russian forces have entered Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, as residents of the Ukrainian capital reported a massive explosion and other blasts early on February 27 as Russia’s war on its neighbor intensified and as Western powers announced a new, dramatic step in efforts to punish Moscow with sanctions for its aggression. The head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleg Sinegubov, said that Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian troops in the city and asked civilians not to leave their homes. Videos posted online by Ukrainian officials showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and a light vehicle burning on the street. Sinegubov...

MBefore Carroll Quigley wrote Tragedy & Hope, he wrote The Anglo-American Establishment, a forthright history of the secret power dealers, meant only for the eyes of their inner group, but the info escaped. 125 years ago Cecil Rhodes had monopolized S. African gold; he wanted a British-led 1 world govt. There were branch offices, Institutes of Royal Affairs, in all British Commonwealth nations; in the U.S., it was called the Council on Foreign Relations. Rhodes gave his name to the Rhodes Scholarship, it was the training school for the high servants of the 1-world govt, Bill Clinton was a scholar...

As Russia cuts a swath of destruction through Ukraine, two Hall of Fame athletes are going to give everything they have to fight back. Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir are members of the elite Boxing Hall of Fame. As they made clear this week, they are also patriots. Vitali Klitschko, who has been mayor of Kyiv since 2014, said he will not sit by to watch his city destroyed, Reuters reported on Thursday. “I don’t have another choice, I have to do that. I’ll be fighting,” the 50-year-old Klitschko said. Both Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko – sons of a...

Though the invading Russian Army seems to be capturing Ukraine, the real war is between the US-led West and Russia, not between Ukraine and Russia. Also as Russia has vetoed a UNSC resolution that demanded that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops, the only possible way out now is an urgent dialogue between Russia and the West With shock and awe, the world is witnessing the worst ever war crisis in Europe since the end of the Second World War as Russian President Vladimir Putin is hell-bent on punishing Ukraine for refusing to dance to...

The US and allies must be clear-eyed about this: what might the economic and political ripple effects of the war be?We must do what we can to contain Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. But we also need to be clear-eyed about it, and face the costs. Economics can’t be separated from politics, and neither can be separated from history. Here are eight sobering realities: