Free Republic

Commodities prices could rise by 40 percent and will likely continue to go higher, according to a note from JPMorgan Chase from April 7, as raw materials hit a record high last month following Western sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. Russia is a main supplier for up to 10 percent of global energy production and about 20 percent of global wheat production. The commodities affected include oil, which is already up 33 percent from the same month the previous year, while natural gas has gone up by 65 percent since the invasion roiled the markets. Metals...

The biggest problem is that both Washington Democrats and the press seem to have no idea who comprises the Democrats' base anymore. “Some base Democrats see Obama as too conservative, and the working-class Democrats see him as too liberal," one Democratic strategist remarked. "The appeal he would have would be with suburban-mom voters, but even that’s a stretch given how they feel about education.” In short, Obama is probably not going to save Democrats in places like Johnstown, which until now have been key to statewide Democratic victories. And Keystone State Democrats certainly aren't helped by Biden nor by Gov....

Lurid and false atrocity stories have been used before to encourage Western involvement in unnecessary wars. The reports and photographs showing an apparent massacre in Bucha, Ukraine, are truly terrible. They are reminiscent of the atrocities used to galvanize Western opinion during Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, when the Srebrenica Massacre and the Siege of Sarajevo were seared into Western consciousness. Of course, pictures do not always tell the whole story. For example, to determine whether a war crime took place we must know who did the killing, why, and how. After all, the United States killed many thousands of...

Russia and Ukraine appear to be in the final stages of preparation to fight the Battle of Donbas, in what is shaping up to be the biggest tank battle in Europe since the decisive Battle of Kursk in World War II. The stakes for both Moscow and Kyiv couldn’t be higher. The course of the entire war could hinge on the outcome in the Donbas.

The Georgia Republican primary race for Secretary of State is deadlocked in a virtual tie. Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger does lead his primary challenger, U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10); however, the lead is well within the poll’s 4.3 percent margin of error. Raffensperger, in a situation that many political observers consider alarming for an incumbent, polls at far less than fifty percent. According to a poll conducted by Emerson College Polling/The Hill, Raffensperger leads Hice 28.6 percent to 26.1 percent, a margin of 2.5 percentage points. 36.6 percent of those surveyed are undecided. Former President Donald Trump,...

One-party blue California is an amazing repository for bad ideas that have failed elsewhere, and nowhere is that more obvious than in Palm Springs. The ritzy desert city has shucked out $200,000 to two activist groups to come up with a pilot plan for a "universal basic income" solely for the city's transgender and "non-binary" individuals, with a plan to apply for the cash for it from the state. According to NPR, which has an impressively surreal report about it: The city council unanimously approved allocating $200,000 for DAP Health and Queer Works in late March. But this was just...

University of Penn - The Ivy League college raked in a total of $54.6 million from 2014 through June 2019 in donations from China, including $23.1 million in anonymous gifts starting in 2016, according to public records.

BROCKPORT, N.Y. (WROC) — Anthony Bottom, who now goes by Jalil Muntaqim, spoke at a virtual event as an invited guest of a SUNY Brockport faculty member Wednesday, prompting the college to cancel evening classes and activities. The event has sparked an ongoing controversy as Bottom was convicted in 1971 in the killing of two New York City Police officers. He spent nearly five decades in prison before being released on parole in 2020. College officials say Bottom was invited to speak at the school by Dr. Raphael Outland, of the department of counselor education. The school also said they...

Jimmy Savile was one of the United Kingdom’s most beloved TV personalities. Shortly after his death in 2011, an investigation prompted more than 450 horrific allegations of sexual assault and abuse, with victims as young as 5. The documentary examines, through extensive archive footage, the evil within Jimmy and delves into how he managed to fool an entire nation for four decades. Trailer...

It's one thing for the FBI, once considered the pre-eminent law enforcement agency in the world, to turn to the dark side and become the secret police of the Democrat party. Again and again, the FBI has shown its partisan colors, overlooking obvious Democrat criminality (see Clinton, Hillary and Biden, Hunter) while chasing after Donald Trump and his supporters like Brian Stelter chasing down a Mister Softee truck for seconds. But although it's unsettling to know that the FBI is only supporting one side of the political aisle, what's truly incredible is how bad the Feebs are at partisan warfare....

Kid Rock kicked off his latest concert tour Wednesday at Evansville's Ford Center. The thousands of fans on hand were greeted with a video of Trump, one of the rocker's most well-known golfing partners.

The endless tide of craziness emanating from the left can be tiring but fighting against it defends our children, our grandchildren, and our very civilization. When the gay lobby pushed for gay marriage during the first Obama term, I knew that this was not the end game; it was merely the end of the beginning. The real battle was going to be pushing to disassociate children from their families and their own bodies. That push has accelerated with incredible force and rapidity under the Biden administration. The battle can be overwhelming and it’s tempting just to tune out the madness....

Thanks for joining our Palm Sunday Bible study. I am blessed to write about this profound event for the third year and will repeat an amusing personal story. Up until my early twenties, I thought Palm Sunday was about glorifying palm trees, and Good Friday was a Friday in spring that was "good." My theological excuse is that having been born and raised Jewish, no one ever told me the real meaning of both days, and I never bothered to ask. Now, my prior ignorance appears to be more the norm. With church attendance and Bible study declining, millions don't...

Open letter is the latest and loudest salvo against the Ivy League law school U.S. senators, governors from across the country, and other prominent figures have signed an open letter asking Yale Law School to discipline the "vitriolic mob" that derailed a bipartisan panel on free speech, the latest call for consequences amid the law school's inaction. The letter, sent to the Yale Law administration, included signatures from Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, nine members of the House of Representatives, and the governors of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Mississippi, and Idaho. It urges the school to punish the "physical intimidation...

Explanation: Fainter stars in the zodiacal constellation Capricornus are scattered near the plane of the ecliptic in this field of view. The two brightest ones at center aren't stars at all though, but the planets Mars and Saturn. Taken on the morning of April 4, the telescopic snapshot captured their tantalizing close conjunction in a predawn sky, the pair of planets separated by only about 1/3 of a degree. That's easily less than the apparent width of a Full Moon. Can you tell which planet is which? If you guessed Mars is the redder one , you'd be right. Above...

IPray For The Peace of JerusalemRevelation 3To the Church in Philadelphia 7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 I will make those who are of the...

The Talk Shows April 10th, 2022 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Guest host Dana Perino: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Panel: Brit Hume; Julie Pace, Associated Press; Harold Ford Jr. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Hosted by Chuck U. Toad: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba; National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Molly Hunter reports from Ukraine.. Panel: Boston Globe Opinion editor Kimberly Atkins Stohr; Carlos Curbelo, former Florida RINO representative; NBC News correspondent Josh Lederman; co-founder and CEO of Punchbowl News Anna Palmer—just another...

Hollywood celebrities rejoiced in unison as the Senate voted 53-47 on Thursday to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, marking President Joe Biden’s first appointment to the high court. In their unconditional hosannas, the stars ignored the controversies surrounding Judge Jackson, including her history of lenient sentencing in child pornography cases, her support of critical race theory, and her apparent inability to define what a woman is. Some used Thursday’s vote to accuse Republican senators of racism for daring to ask tough questions during the judge’s confirmation hearings. Celebrities including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mark Ruffalo, Viola Davis,...

Watching the downfall of Walt Disney’s iconic legacy stirs some powerful emotions, and for many of us, a great sense of loss. I understand the frustration and anger parents feel at such a betrayal, but as I look on at the justifiable uprising, all I can feel is profound sadness. Disney has been an American institution for almost a century old. I grew up wishing upon a star and dreaming one day my prince would come. “Happily ever after” may seem like a fairytale cliché, but for a little girl facing dark days, it was something real to believe in,...

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