Free Republic

ussia's economy is "incredibly unimportant in the global economy except for oil and gas," Jason Furman, a Harvard economist and former advisor to President Barack Obama, told The New York Times. "It's basically a big gas station," he said. His comments come as the West prepares heavy sanctions on Russia if it invades Ukraine. While they have the potential to throw the Russian economy into chaos, these measures could also reverberate to further damage the US, Europe, and the rest of the world as they battle inflation and rising energy prices — a ripple effect that the West hopes to...

Car accident straight out of Dukes of Hazzard

The city of Marina plans to tear down dozens of old military barracks and buildings that are no longer in use in Fort Ord and turn them into spaces that people and families will use. "We have a lot of work to do," said Marina Mayor, Bruce Delgado. Advertisement Marina City Council is looking to remove 32 run-down military housing units near the Marina High School, on Third Avenue and Rendova Avenue. It is located in a former Fort Ord neighborhood, known as Cypress Knolls. The city will use $1.6 million from the Fort Ord Reuse Authority to complete the...

The Biden Administration’s Office of Management and Budget is strongly endorsing a bill to protect Americans from discrimination when it comes to natural hair. House Resolution 2116 is known as the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2022″ or the “CROWN Act.” It would prohibit discrimination based on hair texture or style associated with a particular race or ethnicity. Those styles include locs, cornrows, braids, twists, bantu knots and afros.

FRESNO, CA—A local family ended up spending over a hundred dollars on their fast-food meal Monday when they got stuck idling in the drive-thru for ten minutes. Due to high gas prices, what used to be a convenience has turned into a crippling expense for millions of American families. "Oh no!" exclaimed Suzy Williams as she steered into the drive-thru lane. There were five cars ahead of her. "This is going to take forever! It's going to cost me a fortune!!!" She quickly put the car in reverse and was ready to put the pedal to the metal, but another...

Second Week of Lent Matthew 20:17-28 Friends, today in our Gospel, the mother of James and John asks Jesus on their behalf for high places of authority in his kingdom. Ah, there is the voice of ambition. Some people don’t care at all about money or power or pleasure—but they care passionately about honor. A lot of people can identify with James and John. They want to go places, they want to be movers and shakers in society. Perhaps a number of people reading this reflection are filled with these emotions. But Jesus turns the tables on them: “You do...

So, The Federal Reserve raised their target rate by … as expected … 25 basis points to 50 basis points. The Taylor Rule suggests that the target rate should be 11.96%. So, Powell and The Gang are getting closer! /sarc The short-term reaction to the measly rate increase? The Dow declined (but still in positive territory for the day) and the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield spiked to 2.23%. Here is what The Fed had to say.

Paris (AFP) – Prima ballerina Olga Smirnova has quit the Bolshoi in Moscow to join the Dutch National Ballet, it was announced Wednesday, making her the first Russian to quit the fabled company over the war in Ukraine. “Smirnova was outspoken in her recent denouncement of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is making it untenable for her to work in her native country," the Dutch company said in a statement. Smirnova is one of the biggest stars of the Bolshoi and had already expressed her opposition to the war on messaging app Telegram earlier this month. "I am against...

Sky News host Chris Smith says US President Joe Biden is clearly “not up to the demands” of such a crucial period in history. “Can the world have any faith in Biden making a difference, certainly in diplomatic terms,” Mr Smith said. “Putin views him as a joke, and European leaders seem intent on engaging in peace talks without the President. “And who could blame them.”

Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, and Dr. Jay Varma, a top health adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, called on the city on Wednesday for a plan to encourage New Yorkers to get their booster shots and protect residents from any future waves of the coronavirus. The suggested plan is driven by the potential threat of a new variant, which could cause a fresh rise in cases and hospitalizations and the need for more “forceful” action, Dr. Varma said. The plan also comes as Mayor Eric Adams has been aggressively promoting efforts to recover the city’s economy in...

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is giving temporary quasi-amnesty status to nearly 75,000 Afghans in the United States, including those fast-tracked into the U.S. over the last seven months despite vetting failures. To date, Biden has resettled more than 85,000 Afghans in American communities across 46 states since mid-August 2021. That resettlement failed to properly vet Afghans against counter-terrorism databases, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General revealed last month.

Russian troops have launched an attack on a theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol where as many as 1,200 civilians including women, children and the elderly, were taking refuge.

Cleaning up our father's estate we found a wax paper umbrella he brought back from his time in China and Japan in the months following the surrender. There is some writing on it which I assume is Chinese but am not certain. He spent some shore time in Shanghai and in Sasebo Japan in Oct-Nov, 1945.Can anyone here translate what this writing means?Larger image at the article link.

Some have speculated that as the Covid Narrative collapsed, the Lying Press would distance themselves from government Covid policy in order to ingratiate themselves with an irate public and avoid the pointy end of their pitchforks. New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet appears to have heeded the forecasts and pushed the media under the bus first....

[H/T Melian>An MIT scientist is warning of possible long-term damage to the brain from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, saying it’s likely there will be an “alarming” rise in several major neurodegenerative diseases.And that’s likely to happen increasingly among the younger population, according to Stephanie Seneff in an academic paper titled “Worse Than the Disease? Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of the mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19”published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research.Seneff, a senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday night it’s “outrageous to be giving...

Germany is considering reopening some of its decommissioned coal power plants in the hopes of getting a handle on its ongoing energy crisis. The reopening of shuttered plants is seen as an option as the country struggles to ween itself off of its addiction to Russian fossil fuels. While authorities have already rejected plans of delaying the decommissioning of the remainder of its nuclear power stations, a new plan involving either delaying the shut down of coal fire plants that are still in operation, or the re-opening of plants that have previously been terminated, is now on the cards. According...

Idiocracy was a movie released in 2006. It was supposed to be a comedy but morphed into a sad documentary which envisioned "a disturbing prophetic look at the future of America-and-our era of stupidity." The movie documents an Army experiment in suspended animation. Two subjects are preserved cryogenically and frozen in a time capsule. The Army forgot about the experiment and the time capsule was lost in the dust of time. Both subjects wake up in the year 2505 and discover that America is completely filled with dumb people. Apparently intelligent people stopped having children and stupid people procreated like...

Soon, most travellers entering Canada will not have to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test, CTV News has learned. As of April 1, the federal government will be lifting the pre-arrival COVID-19 testing requirement at the border for fully vaccinated travellers. Passengers may still be subjected to random PCR testing at the airport, and travellers will still have to use the ArriveCAN app to enter their proof of vaccination and other required information, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault will be announcing the latest easing of pandemic travel restrictions on Thursday. As...

Putin has a problem. His invasion of Ukraine, intended as a days-long operation, is now grinding into its third week and becoming a bloodbath. Attacks across the country are stalled amid predictions that Russia will soon struggle to hold the territory it has - let alone capture more. In short: he needs more men for the meat grinder. But where to find them? America estimates Russia has committed somewhere between half and three quarters of its total land forces to Ukraine, and all of those are already involved in the fighting. Some 'spare' units will be involved in active missions...

A North Korean projectile exploded shortly after launch on Wednesday, Reuters reports, citing South Korea's military. The suspected missile would have been the Kim Jong Un regime's 10th launch this year. The missile was launched from the international airport in Sunanm near the capital of Pyongyang, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement."It is presumed that it failed immediately after launch," the statement said. JCS told Reuters the projectile was presumed to be a ballistic missile and exploded at a 12-mile altitude during its booster phase. North Korea's past two launches, one on Feb. 26 and...