Free Republic

Rate hikes are projected to help reduce inflation -- but don't expect high prices to drop any time soon. In response to accelerating inflation, the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points for the first time since 2018. The Fed also projects six additional rates hikes throughout 2022. Raising interest rates is a key step to combatting skyrocketing inflation, which is at a 40-year high, and will jumpstart the process of rate increases for credit cards, mortgages and other loans. Although raising rates is designed to curb inflation, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged...

SPOFFORD, Texas — Illegal migrants crossing the border to evade apprehension frequently cause damage to property just north of the southern border, brazenly breaking into properties on ranches, causing some in the community to live in fear. Brad Whitaker took the Daily Caller News Foundation to a property he’s managed for 21 years, located a few dozen miles from the nearest border town. During the past several years, Whitaker has felt the effects of the border surge with his property sustaining costly damage that has compromised his safety and the safety of hunters who frequent the ranch.

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available.

The footage is just getting crazier and crazier every single day.

The bodies of coronavirus victims in Hong Kong are being stored in refrigerated shipping containers as a deadly Omicron surge pushes morgues past capacity, harrowing photos show. Photos obtained Wednesday by AFP show workers in full personal protective equipment putting corpses into a refrigerated container at a mortuary in Hong Kong, where more than 4,600 deaths and nearly 1 million infections have been tallied in the past three months. The rising death toll has pushed local morgues to the brink and exhausted Hong Kong’s supply of coffins. Just 300 remain and those are expected to be depleted by this weekend,...

The world has been ruled by the ultra-rich, for many centuries, for millennia, stretching back to the legendary Croesus. They are at the top of the heap, of layers of economic classes, each with their own peculiar characteristics. You know those already, even if you’ve never considered them individually as such; they were described by cultural Marxist Abraham Maslow as "the hierarchy of class values". (What you already know about this, is enumerated below.) The greediest classes, are those at the very top of the heap, and, strangely, those at the very bottom. There are two stories told below, that...

In a video interview Wednesday with WND, a former Wall Street executive whose analysis of CDC data shows an alarming rise in deaths among Millennials over the past year amid the COVID vaccine rollout said he's hoping to start a national conversation that will penetrate an establishment media "blackout" by emboldening people across government and private industry to speak out. "That's my goal, to just change the conversation, to give people cover," said Edward Dowd, a former portfolio manager for the multinational investment firm BlackRock. "Once the subject is broached, you don't sound as crazy, if some other guy said...

On Thursday, Russian news agency TASS provided an update on Brittney Griner’s situation. It turns out her detention in Russia has been extended until May 19. Griner was initially detained for the possession of vape cartridges containing hash oil. A criminal case has been opened for this incident.

His commission’s work vindicated hours earlier by judges of the state’s highest court on both sides of the aisle, University of Pittsburgh chancellor emeritus Mark Nordenberg said Wednesday evening that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to uphold the newly drawn state legislative maps — the work of his reapportionment commission — made for a “very satisfying moment.” In an exclusive interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mr. Nordenberg, chair of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, said after an “intense and grueling process” that included 10 months of work and a touch of partisan fury over the results, he hopes his commission’s...

When Joe Biden was elected he immediately attacked the American energy industry. He canceled the Keystone pipeline project, that was being developed to bring millions of barrels of oil to the U.S. He made it harder to develop natural gas resources. He had a go at making the oil permitting and well drilling processes much harder – or even impossible. The result was a surge in gasoline prices that contributed to an inflation rate measured at 7.5% for consumers. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, further destabilizing the world's energy industries, and pushing that inflation rate in America up to 7.9%. Voters...

This is one of those stories I meant to write about at the time, but didn't get the chance to before it got overwhelmed in our ever shorter news cycles. Back in November, Project Veritas (PV), and specifically James O'Keefe's home, was raided by the FBI. It was the typical predawn / multiple guns drawn shock and awe raid over PV having obtained what was allegedly the diary of Ashley Biden, the daughter of President* Biden. Veritas had been given the diary after being told that it had been abandoned by her at a rehab facility. For all that Veritas...

VIDEOS AT LINK............ Companies like Michelin, Bridgestone, and even Hankook have been demonstrating and promising puncture-proof airless tires for almost two decades now, but their actual rollout has been limited at best. If you’re tired of waiting, maybe it’s time to just build your own like these brave Brits did using a bunch of PVC piping. If you’re a driver, there’s good reason to be excited about airless tires. Cars are expensive and a lot can happen when you’re on the road, but tires are particularly at risk. You can drop thousands of dollars on a new set and five...

About 400 used bulletproof vests that were collected for donation to people in Ukraine have been stolen in New York City, according to reports. The vests were removed from a building in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan sometime overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, the New York Post reported.

"The March FOMC meeting will go down in history as the one in which the committee saw the light," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont, a dogged critic last year of the Fed's easy policy stance. "This is a group that has got some urgency. They may view this as their challenge to sustain the legacy of the central bankers that tamed inflation," said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust, in an interview. For the first time in memory, the Fed has indicated they are prepared to raise rates above the neutral rate of interest. If the...

The dramatic saga of Jussie Smollett continues. Less than a week after his sentencing, an appeals court ruled that the actor is to be released from jail during his appeal. He had initially been sentenced by Judge James Linn to 30 months felony probation, the first 150 days of which Smollett was to spend in the Cook County Jail, restitution in the amount of $120,106, and a fine of $25,000, after a jury found him guilty of a hate crime hoax last December, as Spencer covered last Thursday. Smollet does not even have to put any money down yet for...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told German MPs that a new type of Berlin Wall is being built, dividing Europe between freedom and oppression. He thanked Germany for its support during Russia's invasion. But it was uncomfortable listening for many MPs as he criticised German energy policy and business interests for contributing to that wall of division. Over the past week, Mr Zelensky has given a master class in how to pitch his message to allies.

Another state is weighing in on abortion law ahead of the United States Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade, with Kentucky the latest to advance legislation to protect the unborn by prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks gestation. Senate Bill 321 is modeled after the Mississippi law under review by the high court. It now advances to the state’s House.

Many know this story, but I’d like to summarize it as succinctly as possible, using only primary and establishment media sources in hopes that this article may be persuasive and shareable to friends/family of all politics. The goal is not to distract from Ukrainian suffering but to inform US citizens of how their leaders often engage in harmful foreign policy so that we may refrain from electing such leaders in the future.

Remember when it was reported last week by Politico that the New York Times is "loath to be seen as reacting" to the Project Veritas videos in which Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg laughed at the drama queen hysteria of several of his colleagues over the supposed mental duress they supposedly suffered on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol building?Unfortunately for the Times, it appears that Project Veritas and James O'Keefe now live in every waking (and perhaps sleeping) thought of the Times staffers as revealed by a memo, parts of which were reported on by Tuesday's Politico Playbook PM.The paranoid...

A British operative was inserted into President Trump’s White House in an effort to tarnish President Trump’s image and then derail the 2020 Election audit efforts. We’ve previously reported that an individual named Don Berlin inserted a document into President Trump’s inner circle days before Jan 6 in an effort to set President Trump up for perceived insurrection. A summary of this document was then scooped up by the Jan 6 committee and shared with multiple media outlets in an attempt to claim he attempted an insurrection after the 2020 Election steal. We now know that Berlin wasn’t alone. Another...