Free Republic

<p>Concierge Auctions, which handled the sale, told the Los Angeles times that more than three dozen prospective buyers toured five-acre property in the last couple of months, including billionaires from across the US, Middle East and Asia.</p><p>However, when the auction opened on Monday, only five bidders from the US and New Zealand made offers on the 'white elephant' superhome, with the winning buyer remaining unidentified until paperwork is submitted to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court next week.</p>

Investors dumped European stocks and the euro currency on Friday, as anxiety ramped up over an intensifying war in Ukraine. Bank of America said the most money ever flowed out the region over the last week.The Stoxx Europe 600 index XX:SXXP closed down 3.6% and lost 7% for the week, the biggest since March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic began, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The German DAX DX:DAX closed down 4.41% and French CAC 40 FR:PX1 was down 4.97%, while the FTSE 100 index UK:UKX closed down 3.48%. The euro EURUSD was under pressure, down 1.3% to...

Short ~1 min video about march in Ottawa on Saturday (tomorrow). Peaceful march for freedom, follow up on Freedom Convoy 2022.

Legislation promoting U.S. energy independence from Russia has been blocked by House Democrats.House Republicans introduced the “American Independence from Russian Energy Act” on Feb. 28, a measure meant to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, boost domestic oil and gas production, and prevent President Joe Biden’s executive branch agencies from halting energy leasing on federal land and water, among other provisions. Yet on March 1, the legislation was shot down in a 221–202 vote, almost entirely along partisan lines. “Getting our pipelines expanded is huge,” Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee and a co-sponsor of...

The two-minute video, titled “Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS)” and uploaded by the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) this week, details the project. Details on the planned project are sparse. The CHPS is a “spaceflight experiment designed to demonstrate foundational space domain awareness capabilities in the cislunar regime,” according to an extremely brief description on AFRL’s website. The project will be a collaboration between a number of US military branches. The Air Force will work with other organizations and contractors to develop the CHPS satellite, while the US Space Command will figure out how to best make use of...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted from two immense strategic blunders, Robert Service says.... It rankles Mr. Putin that Ukraine would seek to join the West—and not merely because he wants it as a satellite state. He also “can’t afford to allow life to a neighboring Slav state which has even a smidgen of democratic development. His Russian people might get dangerous ideas.”... Mr. Service says the key to understanding Mr. Putin is his adamant belief that Russia is “a great global power” and that the Russian sphere of influence should extend to as many of the former Soviet republics...

A San Francisco shoplifter was filmed filling a bag with stolen goods behind the counter of a Walgreens store as staff stood helplessly and watched. The heist took place on Tuesday at a Walgreens in the Richmond area of the city, and saw the brazen shoplifter hurl bananas and cookies at one man who confronted him. It is the latest in a long line of shocking shoplifting outrages to hit the famously-liberal Bay Area. San Francisco and its Bay Area neighbors have been hit hard by a wave of property crimes and smash-and-grab robberies since the start of the pandemic....

Ford Motor Company's reorganization into Ford Model e (EV operations) and Ford Blue (ICE operations) finally provides an explanation as to why the Blue Oval opposed Tesla's attempt to register the Model E trademark in 2014. At the time, Ford stepped in to block Tesla's trademark application, justifying its action with a 2010 agreement between the companies that prevented Tesla from using the letter E for a car name. While it didn't have a car in the past named Model E, Ford argued that Model E sounded too similar to the original mass-market hit automobile, the Ford Model T. Ford's...

A blast struck a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 56 people and injuring another 196, police and hospital officials said. More than 50 people were injured in the explosion... The source of the blast is suspected to be a suicide attack, but investigations are ongoing, Peshawar's police chief Muhammad Ejaz Khan told CNN. There has been no claim of responsibility so far for the attack, one of the deadliest in recent years on Pakistan's Shia minority, which has long been the target of violence by Sunni Muslim Islamist militant groups...

About three months ago my cell phone carrier (Tracfone) started sending me emails warning me that my 3G cell phone would soon stop working. Being the suspicious type, I thought this was probably just a gimmick to make me buy a new phone. Well, today I tried to use my cell phone and got a “service is no longer available” message.

In an unusual move, more than 150 Russian Orthodox clerics have called for an immediate stop to the ongoing war in Ukraine in an open letter issued on March 1. At least 176 Orthodox clerics said that they "respect the freedom of any person given to him or her by God," adding that the people of Ukraine "must make their own choices by themselves, not at the point of assault rifles and without pressure from either West or East." The letter says the clerics “bewail” the suffering that has been “undeservingly imposed on our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.” It...

“It was clear to me that the horrible invasion will change Russia forever.” A growing number of Russians have decided to leave their country following Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, fearing the economic and political consequences the move will have. “I hope to return to the country I love, but it is completely unclear what will happen next. My future is taken away from me, the country won’t be the same,” Trubetskoy said. Google analytics showed that the word “emigration” saw a spike in searches over the last week while countless Telegram channels have been set up in which...

MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Friday on “MTP Daily” that America had a “voting emergency” brought on by state legislatures’ election laws that is similar to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Host Chuck Todd said, “I’m curious, to me, this moment of Bloody Sunday and what we’re seeing in Europe, there is a connection. It’s a fight for freedom, a fight for democracy.”

A gallon of gas is now costing buyers $5 on average in San Diego as the national average recently climbed to $3.72. Fox 5 reported on Friday:

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said that “we have to transition into clean energy” at some point and that we’re in the process of making the transition. Walsh also stated that making the transition “can be painful in some sectors and some fields,” and isn’t going to happen instantaneously.

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said that increasing domestic oil drilling hasn’t been on the table in the White House, but will “have to be a conversation.” Host Stuart Varney asked, [relevant remarks begin around 1:05] “Will the president acknowledge that we’ve got a shortfall in domestic production so we should make it up? Will he drill?”

NFL fans are mourning the death of a Charger. Shane Olivea, a former lineman for the then-San Diego Chargers, passed away March 2 at the age of 40. The Chargers confirmed the death on March 3. The cause of death is not yet known. The team remembered the offensive tackle's contributions to their 2006 season in a statement, saying, "In 2006, Olivea was an integral piece of an offensive line that helped Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson break the NFL's single-season touchdown record." Fans shared their condolences on social media. Bobby Carpenter, former NFL linebacker for teams like...

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy sent a formal request for information Thursday to major tech companies demanding data on “misinformation” related to the COVID-19 vaccine and the virus itself, The New York Times reported.The request demanded the companies provide data on “exactly how many users saw or may have been exposed to instances of Covid-19 misinformation,” as well as the particular demographics most affected by misleading information, according to the NYT. Murthy also reportedly demanded data on the sources of COVID-19 misinformation, particularly related to discredited treatments for the virus.“Technology companies now have the opportunity to be open and transparent...

In a video circulating on social media on Thursday, a Russian soldier appeared to claim he and other soldiers deployed in Ukraine were being ordered by their superiors to sign papers retroactively firing them in what may be a move to deny their involvement in the invasion. The Moscow-based Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), which has conducted open-source reporting on Russian involvement in conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, tweeted, “This rare video was filmed by a (non-captured) Russian soldier complaining about losses and harsh conditions. What caught our attention is a claim that they are forced to ‘sign papers’ to be...

A new DNA test, developed by researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney and collaborators from Australia, UK and Israel, has been shown to identify a range of hard-to-diagnose neurological and neuromuscular genetic diseases quicker and more-accurately than existing tests. "We correctly diagnosed all patients with conditions that were already known, including Huntington's disease, fragile X syndrome, hereditary cerebellar ataxias, myotonic dystrophies, myoclonic epilepsies, motor neuron disease and more," says Dr. Ira Deveson, Head of Genomics Technologies at the Garvan Institute and senior author of the study. The diseases covered by the test belong to a class...