Free Republic

Russia's central bank said Monday that the Moscow Exchange wouldn't open for stock trading, the latest move to contain the financial fallout from President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, Feb. 27, 1862. Second -- That Maj-Gen. JOHN A. DIX, commanding in Baltimore, and the Hon. EDWARDS PIERREPOINT, of New-York, be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners, for the purpose above mentioned, and they are authorized to examine, hear, and determine the cases aforesaid ex parte, and in a summary manner, at such times and places as in their discretion they may appoint, and make full report to the War Department. By order of the President. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. WASHINGTON, Thursday, Feb. 27. The rain last night was brief, and is succeeded to-day...

Matthew Perna was failed by the country he loved. atthew Perna did nothing wrong on January 6, 2021. The Pennsylvania man walked through an open door on the Senate side of the building shortly before 3 p.m. that afternoon. Capitol police, shown in surveillance video, stood by as hundreds of Americans entered the Capitol. Wearing a “Make America Great Again” sweatshirt, Perna, 37, left after about 20 minutes. Less than two weeks later, Perna was ensnared in what the former top U.S. prosecutor called a “shock and awe” campaign to round up Trump supporters and deter them from demonstrating at...

They are not just waging war in Ukraine. Parents around this country have started to unite and send a message to the rest of America-"We've had enough of Biden's America. We are mad as hell, and we're fighting back!" One of the major fronts for that battle is our schools! Parents are fighting mad at what is happening to their children. While Biden is trying to appease his far-left progressives, he's angered one of the largest and most powerful interest groups in this country-Parents! In fact, democrats seem to be doing everything they can to turn them into rabid conservatives....

Vladimir Putin's propagandist-in-chief has threatened the West with nuclear destruction just hours after the Russian leader put his deterrent forces on alert. Speaking on nation-wide TV amid a frenzy of anti-Western rhetoric, TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov told viewers: "Our submarines can shoot more than 500 nuclear warheads. This would guarantee destruction of the USA, and all other NATO countries. In accordance with the principle 'Why do we need the world, if Russia isn't there?' Today our Russian Nuclear Triad is on the high alert. Putin did warn [the West]. Do not try to scare Russia." In his Vesti Nedeli weekly...

As the Russian government remains silent about the number of losses it has incurred in its invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv is appealing directly to families of Russian soldiers to identify their relatives captured or killed in the four-day-old war. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry issued the appeal on February 27, directing relatives of Russian soldiers to online platforms where they can search through photos and videos of Russian soldiers captured or killed by Ukrainian forces. -snip- Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said the Russian government had been unresponsive about facilitating the return of Russian soldiers’ remains. “For that...

During Thursday's speech announcing ever greater sanctions on Russia, Joe Biden claimed, "The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, without provocation, without justification, without necessity." This was a Western chauvinist point of view that does not take into account Russia's security concerns and historic grievances since the Soviet Union's defeat in the Cold War. There is another reading of history — one from a Russian chauvinist point of view — that Western governments and media turn a blind eye to, and that has inevitably led to the current conflict and the specter of a...

Russian government hackers successfully penetrated the internal systems of Burisma, the Ukrainian-based oil and gas firm that once employed former Vice President Joe Biden's son, a Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity company has found. Area 1, the cybersecurity outfit, issued a report detailing Russian GRU phishing efforts beginning in November 2019 aimed at "targeting the email credentials of employees at Burisma Holdings and its subsidiaries and partners" in an effort to "gain control of [Burisma's] internal systems." "Our report is not noteworthy because we identify the GRU launching a phishing campaign, nor is the targeting of a Ukranian company particularly novel. It...

LAKEWAY, Texas (AP) — Fighting to stay in office, George P. Bush — the last of the Bush family still on the ballot — greeted a small outdoor crowd at an Austin brewery sounding like most Republicans running in Texas’ primary Tuesday. He’ll secure the border. He’ll support police. He didn’t mention Donald Trump, but his campaign passed out leaflets showing him with the former president: the man who mocked Bush’s father, shoved aside the Bushes as the GOP’s standard-bearer and isn’t endorsing him for Texas attorney general. It’s a heated race that, if Bush doesn’t win, will take America’s...

In a sane world, censorship wouldn’t exist. In a sane world, tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, which have become de facto modern ‘public squares,’ would respect and allow the free and open exchange of ideas on their platforms. In a sane world, former President Donald Trump and countless others wouldn’t have been summarily banned from said platforms for the ‘crime’ of simply expressing what they believe to be true. In a sane world, the urgent need for alternative platforms like Truth Social wouldn’t exist. But we don’t live in a sane world, do we? Instead, we find ourselves...

“Just as Kennedy could not accept missiles in Cuba from the ex Soviet Union, so Putin cannot accept missiles (and NATO bases) in the Ukraine from the United States. It’s the same exact thing. So now judge for yourself who is provoking the war without letting yourself being influenced by the American propaganda” – Samuel Col0mbo In the Old Testament, when Israel no longer obeyed God, God used as an instrument a pagan nation to punish and bring back Israel to obedience to God. At Fatima we were told that Russia will be God’s instrument to punish the world and...

Herat (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Jobless, debt ridden, and struggling to feed his children, Nooruddin felt he had no choice but to sell a kidney -- one of a growing number of Afghans willing to sacrifice an organ to save their families. The practice has become so widespread in the western city of Herat that a nearby settlement is bleakly nicknamed "one kidney village". "I had to do it for the sake of my children," Nooruddin told AFP in the city, close to the border with Iran. "I didn't have any other option." Afghanistan has been plunged into financial crisis following...

Oops! Nobody’s agreed to the narrative yet, so…? They’re all scrambling, visibly uncomfortable, all the pundits coming on all the talk shows on cable news, contradicting one another and stepping on one another’s narrative. The hosts have become so used to having a storyline to parrot, they can’t stand it. They’re practically begging to be told the “right” tack to take! But Ukraine/Russia isn’t following a path that anybody predicted. Biden and his administration are no help at all given he’s the one who practically invited Russia to come on in, then got upset about it. It’s not clear whether...

Only bureaucrats could waste time and taxpayer money doing this kind of thing. No matter the purpose for which they’re established, bureaucracies often become ends in themselves, self-perpetuating entities that generate paper to justify their existence. That seems to be the case with FEMA, at least insofar as its rules for nuclear disasters go. Some poor desk drone was given the task of updating FEMA documents to reflect the CDC’s ridiculous COVID requirements. That drone worked hard, with the result being that the FEMA guidelines for a nuclear explosion now include masks and social distancing in bomb shelters. Once again,...

After ignoring Biden's first State of the Union address on Mar. 1, you can express your sentiments in the same way Nancy Pelosi did: Let 'er rip! Get your free copy and join us for the "Great American Rip up."

The Kremlin says Russia's economic reality has changed but sees no reason to doubt the effectiveness and reliability of the central bank, which hiked interest rates to 20 percent as it sought to shield the economy from unprecedented Western sanctions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 28 that President Vladimir Putin would meet with several officials during the day, including the finance minister and Bank of Russia governor. He said Russia had a plan to react to sanctions and was now carrying it out. His comments come as the national currency plummeted by almost a quarter to a record...

The European arm of Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's biggest lender, faces failure, the European Central Bank (ECB) warned on Monday, after a run on its deposits sparked by the backlash from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Western allies have taken unprecedented steps to isolate Russia's economy and financial system including sanctioning its central bank and excluding some of its lenders from the SWIFT messaging system, used for trillions' of dollars of transactions.

Since the start of the conflict, Russia has fired more than 320 missiles. Its ground forces have advanced from Belarus to within 30 kilometers of Kyiv’s city center. Russian forces have also moved swiftly from their bases in Crimea and carried out a rare amphibious landing from the Sea of Azov. Now, the Pentagon says there are signs that Russia is resorting to more firepower, including rockets, in its attempt to take Chernihiv, a city 150 kilometers northeast of Kyiv. Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army major general who has studied advanced warfare, says Russia’s failure so far to achieve...

Even if all North Americans aren’t getting comfortable, there is one sizable contingent in the United States that really likes the idea. Tamara Lich, a 47-year-old mother from Alberta, was arrested and charged recently for “counseling to commit mischief” after raising more than $10 million through a GoFundMe campaign in support of the Canadian Freedom Convoy protesters. Then, incredibly, Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois denied Lich bail, claiming that she was not convinced that Lich would go home quietly and discontinue her counseling activity if she were released on bond. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Judge Bourgeois told Lich: "I...

I’m not going to bury the lede the way the mainstream media is trying to bury the COVID, inflation, and dementia disasters: Donald Trump is running again. He gave every indication of it in public and at private events, and the word from the people within his orbit is unanimous - he’s already planning his next administration. Like it or not - there are plenty of folks unthrilled about him going Grover - you better get used to it. Trump is back. He looked great - slim, smiling, a total 180 from the talking husk we’re stuck with until January...