Free Republic

High inflation has captured the headlines as of late particularly as CPI recently hit the highest levels since 1981. Some are even suggesting we will face hyperinflation. However, while inflation is certainly present, the question to be answered is whether it will remain that way, or if the worst may already be behind us? To answer that question, let’s define the difference between an inflationary increase and hyperinflation. Not surprisingly, as Milton Friedman stated, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. It is always and everywhere a result of too much money, of a more rapid increase of money,...

Every mass shooting has three elements: the killer, the weapon and the cultural climate. As soon as the shooting stops, partisans immediately pick their preferred root cause with corresponding pet panacea. Names are hurled, scapegoats paraded, prejudices vented. The argument goes nowhere.

A Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove Instagram accounts of journalists and activists. "I was offered 5,000 to 10,000 euros [$5,350-$10,700; £4,250-£9,000] to delete an account. They were especially after removing Masih Alinejad," the former reviewer told BBC Persian. Ms Alinejad is an Iranian-American author and activist. Last year, the US justice department said Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country to kidnap her. Both content moderators also accused some Iranian colleagues of exhibiting "pro-regime bias" when reviewing posts on...

Boris Johnson will pave the way for the return of pounds and ounces in British shops this week, in a "common sense" move heralded by Tory MPs as taking advantage of freedoms delivered by Brexit. On Friday, the Government will publish proposals to repeal EU-derived law requiring metric units to be used for all trade, with only limited exceptions. At the same time, ministers will issue guidance to firms on restoring the use of the crown symbol on pint glasses, after it was replaced by the CE marking to help the UK conform with EU rules. A government source said:...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- With the holiday weekend upon us along with a surge in COVID-19 cases, we're all asking the same questions: Should we gather? and if we do, should it be outside? and what about masks? CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot talks to an expert to get some answers. "Now we've moved into the high risk and high risk means we have more people hospitalized related to COVID infection."

A Pakistani woman separated from her family during the 1947 Partition met her Indian brothers for the first time last month after 75 years. Mumtaz Bibi, who was separated from her Sikh family during the turmoil, met her brothers Gurmukh Singh and Baldev Singh for the first time at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan in April. "We are so happy that we've been able to meet our sister in our lifetime," Gurmukh Singh said. In 1947, the Partition led to the creation of two independent nations - India and Pakistan. It was the biggest movement of people in history,...

Tighter background checks. Red-flag laws. An assault-weapons ban. Bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines. Democrats push the same set of policy prescriptions after each horrific mass shooting like Tuesday’s massacre of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Each time, Republicans claim that the problem isn’t guns, take umbrage at infringing upon Americans’ Second Amendment rights and stymie any move to even try to prevent future carnage. But as we suffer through yet another anguishing episode in our epidemic of gun violence, unique to the US, it’s time for a new idea — one based in...

<p>The Russian navy on Saturday conducted another test of a prospective hypersonic missile, a demonstration of the military’s long-range strike capability amid the fighting in Ukraine.</p><p>The Defense Ministry said the Admiral Gorshkov frigate of the Northern Fleet in the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile in the Barents Sea, successfully hitting a practice target in the White Sea about 1,000 kilometers (540 nautical miles) away.</p>

Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise address at the funeral for a victim of the Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket shooting on Saturday, saying such violent acts will not stop America from speaking out. “I think we all know that a true measure of strength is not based on who you beat down. It’s based on who you lift up,” Harris said at the funeral for victim Geraldine Chapman Talley.

Two senior federal law enforcement officials said the federal agents decided after about 30 minutes not to wait any longer and entered the school to find gunman Salvador Ramos.

The New York Times on Memorial Day weekend blamed American citizens for record-high gas prices, instead of President Biden’s war on American energy. As gas prices reached another record on Saturday of $4.60 per gallon, up 45 cents from one month ago, according to AAA, many Americans are looking to enjoy their holiday weekend by getting out of town using a gas-powered vehicle. Yet the Times on Friday slammed American drivers for over-consuming gasoline.

The last two years have been tough for just about everyone. President Joe Biden sees a silver lining to that, especially for recent college graduates. Speaking at the Naval Academy’s commencement ceremony in Annapolis on Friday, Biden said that the class of 2022 is particularly well-equipped to change the world due to the graduates’ proven ability to navigate uncertainty. “You faced added challenges to maintain a sense of mission and community and purpose when a global pandemic forced ... literally everything to change,” Biden said. That adaptability has prepared graduates to make sound, informed decisions in an “uncertain world,” Biden...

Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Friday that allows county workers across the state to collectively bargain. Senate Bill 22-230 was introduced by Democrats in April and given final passage on May 11, the last day of the 2022 legislative session. Polis’ office said in a news release that the new law ensures county workers “have a voice in their working conditions.” House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, said in a statement that the law “allows county workers to unionize if they choose to so that they can have a seat at the table to discuss decisions...

Uvalde police officers have been widely criticized for their delayed response to the tragic shooting that took place Tuesday at Robb Elementary School – apparently despite the fact that the department had hosted an “Active Shooter Training” just nine weeks earlier. The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski shared a photo of a flyer advertising the training course, hosted by the Uvalde Police Department, that was scheduled to take place in March. “It appears there was an active shooter class hosted by the Uvalde Police Department on March 21,2022. Here is the ad for the class that was posted on the Southwest Texas...

Yikes! One of the unmentioned costs of Fed monetary tightening is the one to US taxpayers. Fed carrying $330B in unrealized losses on its assets according to Q1 financial statement. Which US tax payers are on the hook. Adjusting for the appreciation in its assets the Fed had seen through the end of last year, the unrealized losses were an even larger $458 billion. This makes the Ukrainian relief bill of $30 billion look like chump change. Although it is about the same amount as Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan which would about to $321 billion. Nobody spends other peoples’...

The school district police chief who held officers back during Tuesday’s chilling massacre is set to join the Uvalde City Council, according to reports. Officer Pete Arredondo’s bungled orders resulted in the slowed response of at least 19 cops at Robb Elementary School, where a gunman opened fire and killed 19 students and two teachers, according to NBC News.

Let’s begin with a basic truth that most of the corporate media continually ignore or obscure: President Trump’s endorsement is the single most powerful force in the universe of American politics. There’s never been anything quite like it. ..,.. Snip..... Trump’s endorsement basically won the race for JD Vance in Ohio, and for Ted Budd in North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, his endorsement did the same thing for Doug Mastriano in the governor’s race. This has happened again and again in 2022. Remember, Trump’s record is 92-7. That’s what makes the primary results in Georgia last night so curious and so...

Over the past decade or so, corporate America has incessantly barraged an annoyed citizenry with the preachiness, the condescension, and the weaponized guilt that form the basis of woke ideology. Spineless corporate boards, bending to the will of numerically insignificant but deafeningly shrill fanatics, have bent over backward to cleanse their products and their organizations of supposed bigotries which, upon examination, would be determined to be decidedly unbigoted by any rational being.

Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in an interview Thursday that there is a difference between the way lawmakers climb the ranks in Congress now and 10 years ago, adding that lawmakers in both parties today are “entertainers.” “In the old days, like 10 years ago, if you wanted to do really well in Congress, if you wanted to succeed, you climbed a meritocracy. The measurement of success was policy and persuasion,” Ryan said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “That’s not necessarily what motivates people anymore. There’s a lot of entertainers in Congress from both parties,” he said.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In the effort to prevent the shooters from getting additional notoriety, I will refer to them, not by name, but as the Buffalo shooter and the Uvalde shooter, respectively.Quite some time ago, after Sandy Hook's school shooting in 2012, then after another school shooting at Umpqua Community College in October of 2015, I began to be suspicious of the frequency and the targets of these shootings. I wrote an editorial titled "Thinking the unthinkable: A case for orchestration". In it, I explored the possibility that the mass shootings were being orchestrated and enabled by members of certain three-letter...