Free Republic

If you control my access to healthcare, you control me. Healthcare is not a right. More on that shortly. Controlling the population is mandatory for Marxist leftist progressives. Healthcare is a major lever in that control. If you control my access to healthcare, you control me. If you ever doubted this, the last two years of COVID-mania clearly demonstrate the fact. While most people think people’s main motivators are money and/or power, a new factor became apparent... fear. Scare the people and make them believe that their lives are about to end, and they willingly cede their freedoms to government...

Dubai (AFP) – Russia's invasion of Ukraine has exposed a once unthinkable divergence between Washington and key Middle East allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the oil giants that are increasingly independent on the international stage. The wealthy Gulf nations, which host US forces and have dependably backed Washington for decades, have notably refrained from supporting President Joe Biden's administration as it tries to choke Moscow's lifelines, from energy to diplomacy. Analysts say the new position, rooted in many discords including the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad, reveals a turning point in Gulf relations...

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A Dallas billionaire is suing Beto O'Rourke for defamation over O'Rourke's criticism of his chief political opponent, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and energy companies who made money during a deadly 2021 winter storm - and then made campaign contributions after. The lawsuit, filed Feb. 22, claims the Democratic candidate for governor "intentionally, repeatedly, and widely disseminated his deliberate and defamatory falsehoods" in speeches, interviews and on social media to "publicly humiliate" Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren. **SNIP** The suit cites a tweet O'Rourke posted Dec. 30, 2021 - which mentions the CEO and his donation while accusing Abbott of letting...

Main economic sanctions against Russia.#AFPgraphics pic.twitter.com/IlNmMa4Ckh— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 10, 2022

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's government wants to increase military spending to 2% of GDP "as soon as practically possible" in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Thursday.

Russia will no longer participate in the Council of Europe, the TASS news agency quoted the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Thursday.

NASA says it is considering studying sex in space, as it is 'crucial' for future long-haul missions to the Moon and Mars, that could see astronauts away from Earth for years. This was said in response to a study proposal by a team of five Canadian academics, who called on space organizations to embrace the new discipline of space sex study. Understanding sex, and how it will work in a low gravity environment, is essential to the success of deep space missions, and building off-world settlements... NASA has long avoided the question of sex between astronauts, having previously categorically insisted...

As the invasion of Ukraine stretches past the two-week mark, sanctions are slowly ratcheting up and companies around the globe are suspending their business operations in Russia. Domestic operations there are feeling the heat too, with Lada being forced to halt production, reports the Wall Street Journal. Lada is owned by AvtoVAZ, having been founded in 1966 as one of the primary automakers within what was then the USSR. The company's plants were once largely self-sustaining during the days of the so-called Iron Curtain. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the opening up of trade with Russia, French...

The Russian government issued antihoarding measures and price controls, amid a slew of punishing economic sanctions from the West. Authorities said major retail chains could restrict the sale of a number of “socially important goods,” such as food staples, and limit how high they mark up their prices. The measures were aimed at possible speculation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said Saturday.

Just as oil prices soared above $115 per barrel and European gas prices moved up to $60 per mmBtu, coal markets have been suffering through some turmoil of their own. Global coal prices surged some 30% in one week, primarily triggered by fears of Russia’s coal supply not hitting the market as several rounds of US/EU/UK sanctions made it complicated to arrange financial lines with Russian sellers. The Asian Newcastle benchmark futures contract rose to $440 per metric tonne, with Europe’s API2 March ’22 contract trading at the same levels. Moreover, Europe’s futures prices point to a prolonged period of...

Russia has banned foreign currency sales for six months, its latest measure to attempt to avert a deep economic crisis and run on the Russian ruble. The Central Bank said Tuesday night that banks and brokers would be prohibited from selling dollars, euros and other foreign currency in exchange for rubles until at least Sept. 9, 2022. The regulator added that Russians who have existing foreign currency accounts would be allowed to withdraw up to $10,000 — in U.S. dollars only — over the next six months, with the rest of their holdings only accessible in rubles. The Russian currency...

The Florida state Senate on Tuesday passed a parents rights bill, a media-maligned piece of legislation that will prohibit primary school teachers from talking about sexual orientation with children in pre-K through third grade. Senate passage of the Parental Rights in Education bill by a vote of 21-17 marks a milestone in parents’ efforts across the nation to fight back against the radical left in the classroom. The legislation also represents a model for other states to use as they push back the woke tides. The Florida House of Representatives passed the legislation last month, 69-47. It now goes to...

“The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:3 KJV).

To virtue signal against Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, many Americans, companies, and organizations have taken to cancelling anything or anyone with connections to Russia. Bars have stopped serving vodka. The Met got rid of a Russian opera singer. Now, an orchestra has cancelled Tchaikovsky.Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has been dead for over 128 years, but that doesn’t prevent him from being hit by Ukraine Justice Warriors at the Cardiff Philharmonic. They had an all-Tchaikovsky program planned for this week but have changed the program in light of the Russian invasion.Tchaikovsky is cancelled now https://t.co/c2czaH1xkl— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 9, 2022According...

TEL AVIV - Russian-Israeli oligarch Leonid Nevzlin announced on Tuesday that he planned to give up his Russian passport in protest of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "Everything that Putin touches dies," Nevzlin wrote in a Facebook post. "I am against the war. I am against the occupation. I am against the genocide of the Ukrainian people." Nevzlin was among the first prominent Russian oligarchs to establish self-imposed exile in Israel, fleeing what he has described as a campaign of politically-motivated persecution by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2003, Nevzlin fled Russia for Israel amid a Kremlin-backed investigation into his Yukos...

GUATEMALA CITY -- Guatemalan lawmakers have increased prison sentences for women who have abortions, bucking a recent trend in Latin America toward expanding access to the procedures. As some of Latin America’s largest countries — Mexico, Argentina, Colombia — have expanded abortion access in the past two years, there remain countries where conservative religious trends continue to hold sway. Late Tuesday — International Women’s Day — Guatemala’s Congress passed a “Protection of Life and Family” law that also targeted the LGBTQ community. On Wednesday, which Guatemala’s Congress declared “Life and Family Day,” President Alejandro Giammattei said in a speech at...

"Putin's war is causing gas prices to rise, but this is no excuse for large oil companies to pad their bottom line with war-fueled profits," tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) along with an MSNBC video of her explaining her stance. "Senate Democrats are watching closely—and already working on a windfall profits tax." Warren also said that she gets "supply and demand—that prices go up" but that "profit margins should not go up, that's just oil companies gouging."What she calls "gouging" is actually demand adjusting to supply. She also forgets that higher profit margins strongly incentivize entrepreneurs to supply more of...

With temperatures set to plunge in Ukraine in the coming days, Russian soldiers in the 40-mile convoy of tanks could freeze to death. Glen Grant, a senior defence expert at the Baltic Security Foundation, told Newsweek that the tanks will turn into huge refrigerators for the Russian army if they are not running the engine. "The boys won't wait, they will get out, start walking to the forest, and give themselves up to avoid freezing to death," Grant added. The concerns have been raised as the convoy, heading towards Ukraine capital Kyiv, has slowed down amid the war. It is...

Earlier this year, a phrase was trending because Bari Weiss used it on a talk show: “I’m done with Covid.” Many people cheered simply because the subject has been the source of vast oppression for billions of people for two years. There are two ways to be over Covid. One way is to do what the memo from the consultants of the Democratic National Committee suggested: declare the war won and move on. For political reasons. Deaths attributed to Covid nationally are higher now than they were in the summer of 2020 when the whole country was locked down. They...