Free Republic

Vice President Kamala Harris was blasted by critics Monday for claiming during a speech at the White House that American voters "got what they asked for" when they elected her and President Biden. Harris made the claim during a celebration for Black History month when she took a moment to celebrate Biden's nomination of Judge Ketanji Jackson to be the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

Zi Faámelu was born and raised in Crimea, an area of Ukraine that was invaded and taken over by Russia in 2014. Now the 31-year-old lives in Kyiv, the capital city that has been under Russian siege for nearly a week. She is running out of food and hasn't left her house for days as gunfire erupts outside. And she says she can't leave. Faámelu, who is transgender, said that transphobia is pervasive in the city and neighboring countries, and fears that if she leaves, the tension of the ongoing conflict will make her more susceptible to violence. Faámelu was...

Another sports governing body has barred Russia from international competitions, as the International Skating Union (ISU) has moved to exclude Russian competitors in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Only a day after the governing body of international soccer, FIFA moved to ban Russian teams from the World Cup, the ice skating organization said that no skater from Russia or Belarus “shall be invited or allowed to participate” in ISU events until further notice, according to the CBC. Artur Was of Poland and Kai Verbij of The Netherlands competes in the mens 500m race during day three of the ISU...

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said on Tuesday it had issued subpoenas to six people who promoted false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and participated in, or encouraged, actions based on those false claims. The individuals subpoenaed included Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump, and Christina Bobb, a reporter for the far-right One America News Network who also worked part time for the Trump legal team, a statement from the panel said. Subpoenas also were sent to Trump campaign attorney...

COMPARING TRUMP AND BIDEN ON COVID DEATHS (As of 3/01/22) The media went wild after the reported Covid death toll reached 400,000 on Trumps last day in office. Blood on his hands': As US surpasses 400,000 COVID-19 deaths, experts blame Trump administration for a 'preventable' loss of life On Trump’s Last Full Day, Nation Records 400,000 Covid DeathsUS Covid-19 death toll passes 400,000 on Trump’s last day in office The reported death toll from Covid now stands at: 951,616 according to Johns Hopkins Covid Tracker 976,011 according to Worldometer Covid TrackerBIDEN: 551 to 576 thousand reported COVID deaths TRUMP: 400...

“Are we going to be sending massive amounts of money to a country and they’re corrupt and they steal the money and it goes into everybody’s bank account?” This was the infamous rhetorical question posed by President Donald Trump which set off a hurricane of criticism from his political opponents on Capitol Hill. Immediately, the President was accused of “exaggerating” Ukrainian corruption, which, let’s remind ourselves, has triggered the Democrat-led House impeachment proceedings against Trump. According to Democrats, Trump is alleged to have pressured the newly elected President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in order to urge Kiev authorities to start...

According to David Frum of The Atlantic and author of Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy (2020), Russia's Ukraine invasion has been greatly aided by high energy prices, especially natural gas, in the ongoing energy boom. Frum notes that the price of Russian gas on spot markets surpassed $10 per million metric BTUs in June 2021 before tripling to the current $30 per million metric BTUs. The sharp rise in energy prices has helped Russia's foreign exchange reserves hit $630 billion, or 42% of the country's $1.5 trillion GDP. With those massive financial resources, Russia could inflict real havoc on world energy...

The Swiss-based company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has filed for bankruptcy and fired all 106 of its employees, a local official confirmed to Swiss radio broadcaster SRF.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that she would not be wearing a mask tonight at President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address. Pelosi said, “Tonight will be a great speech. I’m really looking forward to it. I think it will be pivotal in terms of COVID as well, which has had a direct impact on the attitudes and rates that people give to governance because COVID still has its remnants. But I think tonight will be pivotal in terms of our values. His vision, his plan, his knowledge, and his connection...

Vladimir Putin was said to be looking 'ashen and bloated' in a meeting today as the global condemnation of his invasion of Ukraine continued. In an image released by the Kremlin, the Russian president was seen in Moscow sitting with the Governor of Saint Petersburg Alexander Beglov. The pair sat opposing each other across a desk in the Kremlin and viewers on social media picked up on the under-pressure Russian leader's apparently pale appearance. One said: 'Putin does not look well... he's ashen and bloated.' Another noted that he was sitting very close to Mr Beglov, despite the fact that...

THIS is the shocking moment a group of Mexican cartel gangsters line up mourners at a funeral and shoot them dead against a wall. Around 17 victims were massacred in the town of San Jose de Gracia, Michoacan on Sunday. The shocking clip which was shared on social media shows the moment dozens of men storm the wake and violently drag mourners outside. The video believed to be filmed by a nearby neighbour, through a window shows the people lined up against a wall, most of them holding their hands behind their heads, while the gunmen are seen pointing their...

For the second consecutive year, a record number of handgun carry permits were issued last year in Minnesota. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on Tuesday released its annual permit to carry report, which showed 106,488 permits were issued in 2021 on 110,078 applications. That’s up nearly 10.3% from 2020, when a record 96,554 permits were issued. According to the BCA, 176 permits were suspended last year, 40 were revoked, 1,165 voided and 1,627 denied. More permits were issued in Hennepin County last year than any other county, by a wide margin. The five counties that issued the most permits...

Youtube video at link. (17 minutes) Sorry I can't give a more complete summary. But this was a fascinating discussion with Bill Brownden, who was a big investor in Russia before he was exiled. Discussion is of the impacts of the sanctions and how they are going after the Russian Oligarchs. As well as Putin's motives.

On Tuesday morning, “journalist” Daria Kaleniuk confronted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, demanding NATO enters the war in Ukraine, despite massive public objections to Western nations becoming involved.Kaleniuk, however, is scarcely the “journalist” Western media outlets are portraying. Instead, The National Pulse can reveal, Kaleniuk is a long-time political activist recently used in the Joe Biden 2020 campaign. Additionally, Kaleniuk serves as a World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Young Leader.

On Moday Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) stated that Alaska is ready to do its part in helping the U.S. reduce its dependence on foreign energy if the Biden administration will allow it to do so and argued that oil from Alaska is better for the environment than oil from Russia. Dunleavy said, “I think we should do both. I think we should push renewables, and we should push oil and gas. "And I don’t understand why we aren’t doing that, especially given what’s happening over in Russia. We’ve had the same issue with Iran and others that are not...

Zi Faámelu was born and raised in Crimea, an area of Ukraine that was invaded and taken over by Russia in 2014. Now the 31-year-old lives in Kyiv, the capital city that has been under Russian siege for nearly a week. She is running out of food and hasn't left her house for days as gunfire erupts outside. And she says she can't leave. Faámelu, who is transgender, said that transphobia is pervasive in the city and neighboring countries, and fears that if she leaves, the tension of the ongoing conflict will make her more susceptible to violence. Faámelu was...

Think about the madness of this… Joe Biden is running around trying to look tough, hitting Russia with sanctions over Vladimir Putin’s obscene invasion of Ukraine. But at the same time, we pay Russia in the vicinity of $70 million per day for oil imports. In other words, during these seven days of Putin’s criminal war against Ukraine, we’ve sent this same Putin during those same seven days close to a half-billion dollars! What the hell is going on? On the one hand, Biden claims to be crippling Vlad with sanctions, while on the other hand, we’re slipping him $70...

The West must not build military facilities in any countries of the former Soviet Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Lavrov, quoted by Russian news agencies RIA and TASS, also said Moscow found it unacceptable that some European countries hosted U.S. nuclear weapons and was taking measures to prevent Ukraine from acquiring similar weapons.

The war of the Ukrainian people against Russian invaders continues on many fronts – military, diplomatic, volunteer and informational. NOW ANOTHER FRONT IS STARTING – A LEGAL WAR. Ukrainian government agencies and various organizations are beginning to gather evidence of war crimes committed by the Kremlin and Russian armed forces in Ukraine. This needs to be done now to be ready to act in the near future, because wars typically end with significant legal consequences: changes in the system of governance of the world order, the punishment of international criminals, and so on. Kyiv has already taken the first step...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought Republican neocons out of the woodwork, agitating for escalation and U.S. military involvement. The same people who brought us the Iraq War and a 20-year occupation of Afghanistan that ended last year in an ignominious and chaotic U.S. withdrawal would now like us to go to war with Russia, a nuclear power, over Ukraine. Why? Partly because they’re reacting emotionally to the war, which is understandable up to a point. But mostly they would like to leverage a military conflict with Russia to regain control of the Republican Party, whose voters have become...