Free Republic

Invasion of the Fact-CheckersWho are you going to believe, the Democratic Party’s new official-unofficial, public-private monopoly tech platform censorship brigade, or your misinformed, disinformed eyes?In the past five years, a cadre of fact-checkers has marched through the institutions of journalism and installed itself in the U.S. media as a privatized, quasi-governmental regulatory agency. What’s wrong with facts, you say? Fueled by a panic over misinformation, the fact-checking industry is shifting the media’s primary obligation away from pursuing the truth and toward upholding vague notions of public safety, which it gets to define. In the course of this transformation, journalists are...

March 23 (Reuters) - Russia plans to switch its gas sales to "unfriendly" countries to roubles, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, responding to a freeze on Russia's assets by foreign nations over events in Ukraine that he said had destroyed Moscow's trust. European countries' dependence on Russian gas and other exports has been thrown into the spotlight since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. “Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices ... fixed in previously concluded contracts," Putin said at a televised meeting with top government ministers. "The...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country would start selling gas to certain nations in Russia's own currency, prompting a rise in the ruble's value on the Moscow Stock Exchange.Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that gas sales to countries deemed unfriendly to Moscow would have to be paid in rubles, saying a freeze on Russia's assets by foreign nations had destroyed Moscow's trust. As of January 27, some 58% of Russian gas giant Gazprom's sales of natural gas to Europe and other countries were settled in euros. "Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in...

There has always been a strong belief amongst Nigerians in the old ways, including voodoo and black magic. There still is: The hunt for Nigerians who can change into cats.Belief in African traditional religions and its juju components are widespread in Nigeria, with many combining them with either Christianity or Islam, according to a 2010 report by the Pew Research Centre. Many Nigerians believe that magic charms can allow humans to morph into cats, protect bare skins from sharp blades and make money appear in a clay pot.Questioning supernatural capabilities is taboo in much of Nigerian culture.While this belief system...

In July of 2021, this writer took a little trip through rural Missouri. Besides visiting kinfolk whom I hadn’t seen for far too long, one purpose of my trip was simply to do something else, something different. You see, I’d become something of a recluse and I really needed to just go outside, blow the stink off, maybe even commune with Nature, whatever that is. My destination was a spot near the center of the northeast quadrant of the state, about a three-hour trip by car. The most expeditious route from Kansas City would be to take I-70 to Columbia...

New York Times columnists Bret Stephens and Gail Collins have a weekly conversation. Their conversation on Monday started off on somewhat light note on the subject of light, namely Daylight Savings Time and then wandered into Russia's invasion of Ukraine until it settled on a rather uncomfortable topic for anybody who works at the Times -- the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 by much of the social and news media, including by the periodical they work for.Stephens broached the topic and it produced a rather strange response from Collins:

South Korean health officials said on Wednesday that total COVID-19 infections in the country have reached 10 million amid a surge in severe cases and deaths, Reuters reported. South Korea’s total caseload as of Tuesday was 10,427,247, with a virus-related death toll of 13,432, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), per Reuters.

Was there fraud in the 2020 presidential election? Wisconsin Special Counsel Michael Gableman is investigating this, and what he's discovered so far is truly shocking.This woman voted in 2020. More on that here; https://www.wielectionreview.org/WIElectionReviewMission/ElderAbuseScreenshot above is from this video by the WI Special Counsel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOEENrRxkmYWI Special Counsel's website; https://www.wielectionreview.org/Zuckerberg bought the 2020 election and many dem minions helped. He's also paying law firms to fight the special counsel's investigation. Repub legislators have been clueless at best and complicit at worst. Watch Tucker's interview even if you don't like him. If you have high blood pressure, you might want to take...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance is likely to bolster troops along its eastern flank, deploying four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia. “I expect leaders will agree to strengthen NATO’s posture in all domains, with major increases in the eastern part of the alliance on land, in the air and at sea,” Stoltenberg said during a press conference ahead of the NATO leaders summit in Brussels.

One of President Biden's top donors and "closest friends" has scored millions of dollars in federal contracts and a prestigious job in the White House, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of government records. Biden in September of last year placed close confidant Joe Kiani, founder and CEO of the medical technology company Masimo Corporation, on the influential President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Kiani's company, which manufactures various medical devices, has received almost $3 million in federal government contracts since Biden took office in 2021. Its contracts include funding from the Department of Defense and Department...

Ingrid Lobet has joined The Associated Press as a climate accountability editor. Recently, she has been working freelance writing about energy transition and the climate tech sector. She was also a senior editor at The Energy Gang podcast from Greentech Media in California, which talks about climate change, energy business and energy policy. She was also an investigative reporter, environment, energy and climate, at inewsource in the Greater San Diego Area. She was also an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle and has worked at Public Radio International for over 10 years as a reporter and editor.

Lightweight Linux distributions share similar characteristics with their desktop-oriented counterparts. They give us the best of both worlds, but with a slightly modified user experience.They’re easy to install and use, but offer just enough customization to cater to the different needs of different users. In this list, we’ll be going over some of the tried and tested champions of the lightweight Linux distro world.1. AntiXAntix is a Linux distribution based on Debian, which has been jointly developed by the Linux-Kernel Association (LKA) and the Debian Project.LKA was founded in 2005 as the result of a merger between the Debian Linux...

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WXIX) - Starting on July 1, Hoosiers ages 18 and older will no longer be required to get a permit to carry a handgun. On Monday, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed House Bill 1296, saying he trusts Hoosiers to lawfully and responsibly carry a handgun in Indiana. Indiana is one of 23 other states with a similar law, the governor added. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a similar law last week.

President Biden is traveling to Brussels on Wednesday to take part in a special NATO summit in Belgium and visit Poland to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and punish Russia for its invasion. The trip comes after Biden said there will be a "new world order" that must be led by the United States. Departing the White House Wednesday morning, Biden was asked what he will say to European partners. "I'm going to say it all to their face," Biden told reporters. "I'll be happy to talk to you guys when I get back."

Some posters in FR seem to get upset with me when I point out the shortcomings of Truth Social. I get accused of being a troll or someone will say they have been accessing the platform in full body bliss for at least 24 hours now and that I need to get a life or learn to be patient or if that doesn't work they will call all kinds of names. We correctly complain about the shortcomings of the established "social media" platforms but have little concern for those that should give voice to conservatives. Such is the mission of...

As Twitchy reported earlier, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made even more liberal heads explode by signing a proclamation declaring Emma Weyant the best women’s swimmer in the NCAA 500-yard freestyle, a race that was awarded to transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. That’s made the news, and it presents quite a conundrum for headline writers. As Christina Pushaw notes, the Orlando Sentinel had to put “female” in quotation marks when describing Weyant, who is a female. Gov. Ron DeSantis waded further into gender politics today, issuing a proclamation that said a swimmer from Sarasota is the nation’s best “female” in the 500-meter...

Welcome to the most dangerous two years in American history. Nations change course slowly, like giant ocean liners. True disasters take a long time to unfold. If you think things look terrible now, you’re not using your imagination. The Biden Administration has only been in power for a little over a year. They got their crowbar in the door early with COVID, but we’ve barely tasted what the professional political class has in store for us. Imagine gas at $10 a gallon, or $15. Imagine food staples so scarce you have to buy them with a ration card (displayed in...

If you've seen this ad your ears probably cringe. There has been a modest amount of protesting this ad basically for two reasons. The ad is a mommy dearest character "mom" who can't be bothered to listen to the grade school band playing out of tune 2001 a space odyssey. Music teachers are upset, parents are upset, and frankly it makes women look uncaring, not interested in their kids performing, and more interested in me me me. So it fits our times. I rate the ad a 1 out of 10. Very annoying.

US housing is getting simply unaffordable. US mortgage rates are soaring, US home prices are soaring, The Fed’s balance sheet is still growing, and US average hourly earnings are growing at a fraction of home price growth. The unafforable nature of US housing prices is similar to that of 2005-2007 when home price growth greatly exceeded wage growth. Another side effect of soaring mortgage rates: MBA refinancing applications plunged 14.37% from the preceding week. Let’s see if The Fed actually tries to extinguish the affordability fire.

President Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 Coordinator – Dr. Ashish Jha – has vigorously advocated for “vaccine passports” and other hardline measures including mandated vaccines for air travel, despite also defending left-wing protests as “essential”.Dr. Jha, who will be replacing Jeff Zients and his deputy Natalie Quillian next month, is the current Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health who has also praised Anthony Fauci as his personal “role model.”A frequent guest on mainstream media programming, Dr. Jha has routinely used his platform to demand the introduction of vaccine mandates and vaccine passports in America, while insisting “we are not...