Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump on Monday took credit for Germany finally meeting NATO’s defense spending requirement, after the country failed to fulfill its obligation for years. “I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said. “There would be no NATO if I didn’t act strongly and swiftly.” “Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective anti-tank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!” Trump...

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) announced on Monday that he will not run for reelection in November, becoming the 31st House Democrat to announce they will not run for reelection in the lower chamber this November. Deutch will become the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, and in his statement he highlighted an “unprecedented rise in antisemitism” in the U.S. and around the globe. Deutch, 55, has represented Florida in Congress since 2010, but moved to the 22nd congressional district from the 21st district in 2017 after redistricting. The race before Deutch's announcement was not considered competitive by the Cook Political...

Let’s face it: often, a good song is only as good as its bassline. In fact, there are times when the bass guitar player – so often the under-appreciated middle man or woman of music – steals the spotlight through their mountain-moving low-end activities. In an age where it’s easy to debate and obsess over the greatest guitar solos of all time, the bassline can often fly under the radar. Yet there is an entire legion of bass hooks that deserve their rightful place in the annals of music history. The breadth of style in the following list is a...

The offensive of Russia and the new world © REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko Peter Akopov A new world is born before our eyes. Russia's military operation in Ukraine opened a new era - and in three dimensions at once. And of course, in the fourth, domestic. Here begins a new period both in ideology and in the very model of our socio-economic system - but it is worth talking about separately a little later. Russia isrestoringitsunity-thetragedyof 1991, this terrible catastrophe of our history, its unnatural dislocation, has been overcome. Yes, at a high price, yes, through the tragic events of...

Russia Stocks Fall Most Globally as U.K. Responds To Poisoning Russia-focused funds plummeted 25% Monday as individual stocks crashed as much as 75%. KEY FACTS After the nation's currency plummeted to a record low in morning trading, Russia's central bank announced Monday it would close the Moscow Stock Exchange, the nation's largest trading group, until March 5 as it "assesses the feasibility" of reopening "depending on the development of the situation." Though some 200 stocks didn't trade on the Moscow Stock Exchange Monday, a handful of Russia-focused exchange-traded funds, which track baskets of stocks in the country, still traded in...

“Through hard work, trust and accountability, we transformed every aspect of the franchise, reshaping the workforce and developing a long-term strategic plan for success,” Jeter said in a statement released through PR Newswire rather than the Marlins. “That said, the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead.”

Richard Blum, the husband of Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, died Sunday at age 86 after a years-long battle with cancer, the senator announced. “My heart is broken today. My husband was my partner and best friend for more than 40 years. He was by my side for the good times and for the challenges. I am going to miss him terribly,” she said in a statement. Blum, a private equity executive and member of the University of California Board of Regents, married Feinstein in 1980, shortly after she became mayor of San Francisco in the aftermath of the assassination...

How Parkinson’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia Spread in Brain A team at Scripps Research reveals details into how Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia spread in the brain. In neurons, the LC3 protein (green) and LAMP1 protein (red) fuse together into autolysomes (yellow) where autophagy, a cellular mechanism for clearing misfolded proteins, occurs. The prominence of green shows that autophagy has been blocked at the fusion step, allowing misfolded proteins like alpha-synucelin to instead spread throughout the brain. Credit: Scripps Research ***************************************************************************** Study shows how blocking cellular housekeeping system leads to buildup and spread of abnormal protein aggregates in...

Sunday on FNC’s “Fox News Live,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) emphasized the importance of doing everything possible to “allow the Ukrainians freedom and democracy.” Ernst called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression “absolutely unacceptable.” She added that the United States needs to do more to provide lethal aid to the Ukrainians,” including cutting off Russia’s energy sources. “[T]his is heartbreaking, Bret,” Ernst said in response to Putin ordering his country’s nuclear forces to be on high alert. “And as I’ve asked point to many viewers before, I spent some time in Ukraine while it was part of the Soviet Union in...

The idea of zoonotic diseases – that is, diseases that jump from animals to humans – is one we’ve all had to become familiar with over the past couple of years. After all, the leading theory on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that it was a bat disease before it infected humans. Before that there was swine flu, which came from – you guessed it – swine, and bird flu, which came from a similarly eponymous source. So naturally, it’s in our interest to try to figure out where the next zoonotic disease might come from. A new...

Russian President Vladimir Putin banned residents from sending money to bank accounts abroad and blocked payments on external debt, aggressive controls on capital flow made in response to punishing Western sanctions. The Kremlin-issued decree said that foreign-exchange payments under loan agreements to non-residents of Russia were prohibited from March 1. It said that payments to banks and other financial-market organizations outside of Russia and money transfers through foreign payment service providers would be barred. The U.S., European Union and other Western allies put forward plans to cut major Russian banks off the Swift financial network and to take action against...

Switzerland is ditching its deep-rooted tradition of neutrality and adopting the European Union’s sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The move, which was announced by Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, is significant since Swiss banks include Russian oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin among their clients. Switzerland plans to immediately freeze the assets of Putin; his prime minister, Mikhail V. Mishustin; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and 367 other individuals who were personally sanctioned by the EU last week. “Switzerland reaffirms its solidarity with Ukraine and its people; it will be delivering relief supplies for people who have fled to...

For the past hundred years, the public has been warned of an existential threat that the Arctic ice would soon be gone and coastal cities would be devastated. This is from 1922 in the Washington Post by the Associated Press. The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer The only time the media deviated from saying that the ice was melting fast was in the 1970s, when they said we were under an existential threat that there was a coming ice age. Somehow, all the things we are constantly told cause warming, including coal, oil, humans, cars, CO2,...

Many thought once the invasion began, the military of Ukraine would be swept away by the might of the Russian force. Kyiv would fall and Ukraine would quickly submit to the will of Moscow, but that hasn't happened. snip Retired Lieutenant Colonel Glen Grant, now with Baltic Security Foundation, said: "In 2014, they (the Ukraine military) really were terrible. "Most of the structures that they had simply did not have sufficient people in the structure to actually do fighting and logistics. "There has been a development since then and people have understood things and there's been a better organisation of...

A Ukrainian man was arrested for partially sinking his Russian tycoon boss’ $7.7 million luxury super yacht in Spain in protest over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Taras Ostapchuk, 55, was taken into custody on Saturday in Mallorca after he allegedly opened several valves to intentionally flood the 156-foot-long vessel, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reported. The yacht — named Lady Anastasia — is owned by businessman, Alexander Mijeev, who is the CEO of Russian military weapons company, Rosoboronexport. When officers arrived to arrest Ostapchuk, the crew member allegedly said: “My boss is a criminal who sells weapons that kill the...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel should be more cautious about its attitude to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and instead put its focus on the Iran nuclear deal, which was more of an “existential security threat.” “In days like these, it’s advisable to take positions with the utmost caution,” Netanyahu said at the opening of Monday’s Likud faction meeting according to a translation of his remarks by The Times of Israel. “Unfortunately, in the last few days we’ve heard too many unnecessary expressions and too many false predictions.”

Biden Now we hear that midterm Biden has played the crisis wonderfully. The surreal progressive take on this crisis is that Winston Biden has corn-popped the “killer” Putin, metaphorically taken “the bully” behind the proverbial gym and given him a whomping, slammed his head on the global lunch counter, and in Biden’s deterrent fashion, called him a chump, one of the dregs, a junkie, fat, and a lying dog-faced pony soldier—and capped it all off with “You ain’t white!” Joe threatened the toughest sanctions in history that on Wednesday would deter an invasion and by Saturday were never meant to...

Christmas is long past. World-War-I stories were told this Christmas about an informal, Allied-Axis cease-fire, spontaneously breaking out among the line soldiers, though condemned by the Generals, during which both sides sang Christmas carols, came out into No-Man's Land to share food, cigarettes and even play soccer games. But, now, no one last Christmas dreamt that today we would be thinking about Russia & the Ukraine. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a very popular 19th century poet, had a very appropriate poem for this time, about the human cost of war, "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day", but it was centered...

Six American special ops veterans are on the Polish border, ready to enter Ukraine and join the resistance against Putin's army after a call for help from President Zelensky. The men are joined by three British veterans and a German, all of whom are NATO-trained and ready to assist the Ukrainian territorial defense teams. They are believed to be among the first to join the newly former International Legion of the Territorial Defense of Ukraine that Zelensky announced on Sunday after a weekend of staving off the enemy. BuzzFeed News cites an unnamed US Army veteran recruiter who said there...

Shouldn't MIT be the country's leading defender of science? Today, MIT isn't asking any tough questions about the COVID vaccines and refuses to let people with dissenting views talk on campus. Dear President Reif,Nearly 24 years ago, I made a $2.5 million gift to MIT to aid in the construction of the Stata Center and in return, MIT named the Kirsch Auditorium in my honor.Since that gift, I have never once requested to speak in the auditorium named after me.Recently, however, I made such a request to speak about vaccine safety.I was denied.