Free Republic

As of this March, it’s officially been two years since the COVID-19 pandemic upended our day-to-day lives. Mask-wearing, capacity limits, even broad shutdowns were enacted across the country as health experts worked to get a full grasp of the situation and understand the depth of the problem at hand, with a particular focus on protecting groups of patients with compromised immune systems. While things are thankfully on the upswing now – as vaccines and booster shots are widely available and the spike we saw in new cases at the start of the year has dropped dramatically – in many ways...

Neil Oliver delivers his remarks this weekend expressing genuine sympathy for the people in Ukraine yet distrusting the constant bombardment by those demanding we pay attention to it. We watch Russia, but after all our own leaders have shown us in the past two-years, amid their COVID authorized lusts for power, it is a wide-open and wary eye our leaders are trying to move. WATCH: (video at link) A wounded water buffalo was spotted trying to give birth on the dangerous Serengeti Plain, CNN International reports if Russia had not annexed Crimea, it wouldn’t have happened. Early tomorrow morning, a...

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko called the Ukrainian President Sunday. ... "Aleksander Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on the Belarusian territory will remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, meeting and return." Russian state news agencies also reported Sunday that a Russian presidential aide said that Ukraine had confirmed it would meet a delegation from the Russian Federation in the Gomel region of Belarus, without providing details about who would represent the Ukrainian side.

You may have heard that if you’re four hands into a high stakes poker game with a card shark and you haven’t figured out who the mark is, it’s probably you. Our guy Brandon is still sitting at the poker table. It’s not at all clear that he realizes that the game is over. Vladimir won. President Putin picked up his chips, completely cleaning our President out. Vladimir got everything he really wanted. He went all in. Consider what he has accomplished. Putin had already absorbed Georgia and Crimea back into Mother Russia. Soon he will complete the annexation of...

Donald Trump has announced that he will be holding a rally in South Carolina on March 12.The event will be taking place at the regional airport in Florence, Trump’s political action committee Save America announced.

President Putin has ordered his military command to put nuclear forces on a "special" state of alert. This is after what Moscow calls "aggressive statements" by Nato countries. Russia's leader had already issued a coded warning that he was willing to use nuclear weapons as he began his invasion of Ukraine. Last week, he warned that "whoever tries to hinder us" would see consequences "you have never seen in your history". These words were widely interpreted as signalling a threat to use nuclear weapons if the West stood in his way. The very public shift to high alert status is...

Vladimir Putin temporarily lost his most senior official position in world sports on Sunday. The International Judo Federation cited “the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine” for suspending Putin’s honorary president status. The Russian president is a keen judoka and attended the sport at the 2012 London Olympics. The IJF is rare among Olympic sports bodies for using the word “war” to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ordered by Putin on Thursday. Others have used phrases such as “escalation of conflict.” A Kremlin-supporting oligarch and longtime friend of Putin, Arkady Rotenberg, remains on the IJF executive committee as “development manager.” ___

It appears that Elon Musk is able to deliver in ways that the Biden administration can’t when it comes to Ukraine – and ostensibly faster, too. After Ukraine’s vice prime minister asked Musk to deliver Starlink internet service to Ukraine – in a conveyed tone that wasn’t exactly courteous – Musk was able to deliver in approximately 10 hours. On February 26th, Ukraine Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov took to Twitter to highlight the rocket fire they’re coming under and asking Musk if he could get Starlink internet services running in Ukraine. Elon Musk], while...

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Saturday evening that the company's Starlink satellites are now active in Ukraine to alleviate some of the connectivity challenges the country is facing amid the Russia invasion. Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov appealed to Musk on Saturday morning, saying that while his "rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people!"

The White House held a brainstorming session on how to combat climate “denialism and delay” even as the Russian invasion of Ukraine fueled pressure on President Biden to end his crackdown on domestic oil-and-gas production. The White House released Friday a readout from the previous day’s first-ever roundtable discussion held by the Office of Science and Technology Policy [OSTP] on “the scientific understanding of why arguments for delaying action on climate change are appealing and how they can be countered effectively.” “It’s clear that a variety of special interests have had a vested interest in sowing doubt on climate change...

Byron Goldstein closely monitors the energy usage at his Glenside home. So when he got a $651 bill from Peco Energy for combined electric and gas usage in January, 37% more than the $477 he paid the previous January, he knew something was off. Goldstein discovered that Peco’s gas supply charge skyrocketed since January 2021, accounting for most of the increase. Goldstein, 74, was unsatisfied by the company’s response to his phone calls, so he filed a formal complaint to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, urging the state regulator to roll back Peco’s “outrageous and irresponsible” price increase. He was...

Early Thursday, an authoritarian ruler deployed troops into an embattled democracy in clear defiance not only of that country’s sovereignty, but of condemnation and threats from the rest of the democratic world. The Putin regime’s incursion into Ukraine is just the latest symptom of a much larger pattern of antidemocratic aggression. In 2021, for the 16th consecutive year, Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report found that respect for political rights and civil liberties declined globally. Military coups proliferated, and authoritarian regimes staged utterly uncompetitive elections in Hong Kong, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, and elsewhere. An astonishing 8 out of 10...

Carter 2.0 Why did the Russians invade Ukraine? One reason is that they could afford to. Vladimir Putin’s neo-Tsarist empire has piled up an estimated $631 billion in currency reserves. That’s a lot of mad money, or should we say, conquest money. And a principal reason that Putin has all that wealth is that the Biden administration has been helping him, however inadvertently. How did Joe Biden help Putin? Biden imposed energy scarcity on this country, thereby opening up more of the world market for the Russians to sell their energy. And because energy is scarcer, it’s more expensive—all good...

… If we took this seriously, all news coverage of warfare would include its environmental impacts and the extent to which military activity, cyber warfare and sanctions inhibit nations’ ability to meet climate mitigation targets necessary for human survival. The consequences for human life include millions of people alive today. Polluting events — the burning and demolition of power plants, industrial facilities, mines, water systems, and the ecological impact of bombardments, fires and fuel spills — are all just an introduction. The long-term climatic effects of war include appalling greenhouse gas emissions. There are estimates that 2 to 3 percent...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading NATO powers. The order means Putin has ordered Russia’s nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch, raising the threat that the tensions could boil over into a nuclear war. In giving it, the Russian leader also cited hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including Putin himself.

News Flash: The first 56 volumes are compiled into a book titled “Bible Study For Those Who Don’t Read The Bible.”Thanks for joining us. Today we study a Bible passage encompassed in the lyrics of a 1960’s classic rock song. Could it be, “Ebony and Ivory living together in perfect harmony side by side on my piano keyword, oh Lord, why don’t we?” No, because that 1982 song is not the Word of God, but a nice sentiment nonetheless.The correct answer is The Byrds’ 1965’s hit, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” based on Old Testament verses from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. So here is...

Why can’t the American security establishment shoulder responsibility for its role in the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine? Because to discuss American responsibility openly would mean exposing the national security establishment’s role in two separate, destructive coups: the first, in 2014, targeting the government of Ukraine, and the second, starting two years later, the government of the United States.

It’s all fun and games till they seize your Italian villa Soloviev learned this week that the latest sanctions imposed against the Kremlin’s regime and its accomplices would impact him personally. His access to properties in Europe is now being impacted, and perhaps his ownership as well. During Friday’s edition of The Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, the host raged: “I was told that Europe is a citadel of rights, that everything is permitted, that’s what they said… I know from personal experience about the so-called ‘sacred property rights.’ With every transaction I was bringing paperwork demonstrating my official salary, income,...

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces on alert amid tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (FL) 100 LAPS | 180 MILES The 1.8-mile, 14-turn (5 lefts, 9 rights) circuit incorporates streets of downtown St. Petersburg and a section of runway of Albert Whitted Airport. After the long front stretch, there's a tight right-hander into Turn 1 and then a quick left-hand turn. Plenty of drivers have gotten into trouble in these two turns over the years. There are two other long straights with heavy braking zones that afford opportunities to overtake. Broadcast by NBC & Peacock Networks, 12 noon ET.