Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have succumbed to his own mythmaking and hyperbole, unable to let go of his desire to conquer Ukraine, no matter what the costs, according to a public assessment by America’s top spymaster. CIA Director William Burns, the last U.S. official to meet with Putin before he ordered Russian forces into Ukraine in February, warned late Wednesday that the Russian leader truly believes he must conquer Ukraine to fulfill his destiny. “Putin really does believe his rhetoric, and I’ve heard him say it privately over the years, that Ukraine's not a real country....

BERLIN — Natural gas started flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe on Thursday after a 10-day shutdown for maintenance, the operator said. But the gas flow was expected to fall well short of full capacity. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany had been closed since July 11 for annual maintenance work. Amid growing tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, German officials had feared that the pipeline — the country’s main source of Russian gas, which has accounted for around a third of Germany’s gas supplies — might not reopen at all. Operator Nord Stream AG said...

An illegal “vodka pipeline” has been discovered by a group of patrolling Ukrainian border officials near the southeastern city of Podilsk. According to the Ukrainian government, the pipeline was used to transport bootleg alcohol from Ukraine into Moldova. “Three hundred meters of polyethlene pipe stretched from the state border underground in the direction of the private home of a 32-year-old citizen of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement. ***** The recently discovered vodka highway is part of a network of pipelines built under the former Soviet Union that was built to transport cheap Russian vodka out of the...

The Terminal B ticketing lobby at the San Antonio International Airport had become a waiting — and sleeping — area for migrants with upcoming flights. A corner of the Greyhound station had been turned into a migrant hub, where volunteers delivered sandwiches and tried to help translate directions. And as record-high temperatures were setting in, volunteers and migrants alike milled around an uncomfortably hot Travis Park, where nonprofit groups worked to secure transportation for people who still needed a plane or bus ticket to reach family or sponsors in other parts of the country. Faced with a rising number of...

Liz Truss today vows to beat Labour by 'governing as a true tax-cutting, freedom-loving Conservative'. The Foreign Secretary last night surged into the final run-off against Rishi Sunak in the race to become prime minister, knocking out rival Penny Mordaunt. Writing in the Daily Mail today, Miss Truss sets out an agenda that will see her pursuing Boris Johnson's freedom-loving instincts while reversing Mr Sunak's high-tax agenda. In an attack on the former chancellor's record, she says the Government has been 'going in the wrong direction on tax, with the tax burden at its highest in 70 years'. She pledges...

California .. the bill is coming due. ... no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle. Many are already winding up in .. contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium. Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled ... The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste... “The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the...

If they want to convince voters outside their bubble, they should try far harder than they did with this report. A group of establishment Republicans released a report last week claiming to make “The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election.” It is not news that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The report’s strawman-slaying title is intended to suggest that concerns about the integrity of that election are without merit. But the report itself simply goes through court decisions and recounts, listing how they turned out. It focuses on questions about “fraud,” rather than...

Multiple neighbors of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have come forward about the growing frustrations with the constant protests that occur in their neighborhood. Since the leaking of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion that Roe v. Wade should be overturned, activists have begun targeting conservative judge's homes for protests. In June, the Supreme Court overturned a constitutionally protected abortion right for women. Kavanaugh was among those who voted to overturn. During his confirmation hearing in 2018, Kavanaugh said of the ruling: 'It is important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times. It is not as if it...

Maryland’s Larry Hogan is a conservative non-MAGA Republican governor in a blue state who has received a lot of Democratic votes — especially in the 2018 midterms, when he ran for reelection and defeated Democratic nominee Ben Jealous by 12 percent. 2018 was generally a good year for Democrats, who enjoyed a major blue wave in the U.S. House of Representatives that year. Yet Republican Hogan enjoyed a double-digit reelection victory in a blue state.Because Maryland has gubernatorial term limits, Hogan cannot seek a third term — and in Maryland’s 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, he endorsed former Maryland Commerce Secretary...

The celebration of Disneyland’s 67th anniversary turned sour over the weekend as some fans noticed that the Mouse House left out a nod to its controversial founder, Walt Disney. “Why did Disneyland cut Walt Disney’s opening day speech from today’s anniversary celebration?,” asked one fan on Twitter. -snip- Walt’s speech invokes “the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America,” which one Twitter user called “taboo” for Disney’s “woke” agenda. “Because it mentions both history and facts, two things that are taboo to the woke agenda,” the user tweeted, adding an excerpt of the speech. -snip -...

Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted earlier today that the “globalist” world order is “totalitarian” and is “holding back creative pursuit.” Putin made the comments during a forum in Moscow. The notorious leader claimed that the west had only achieved its global preeminence due to the historic plunder of other nations and had no moral right to enforce a unipolar model on the planet. “The model of the total dominance of the so-called ‘golden billion’ is unjust. Why should this ‘golden billion’ among the planet’s population dominate others, impose its own rules of conduct?” Putin asked. “Based on the illusion of...

In what could be the biggest economic investment in Central Texas history, technology giant Samsung is considering building 11 new chipmaking facilities in the Austin area over the next two decades, a stunning move that could lead to nearly $200 billion in new investment and create more than 10,000 jobs, according to documents filed with the state. Fresh off announcing plans to build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Taylor, Samsung could increase its investment in the region by more than 10 times that amount if the proposed facilities were to be built.

https://streamable.com/q6mzgn

As often happens during these every three to five-year maintenance routines, the configuration got bungled. Nothing is ever simple, eh?

The word “abortion” has been “weaponized” by pro-lifers to “raise the emotions” of others, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) suggested, calling for an end to the use of the word in favor of one less “negative” in order to “have a real conversation” on the issue. Speaking in response to Dr. Christina Francis, an Indiana-based OB/GYN and chairman of the board of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday, New York Democrat Congresswoman Kathleen Rice complained of constantly hearing the term “abortion” being used in a “negative” light when...

Anybody getting a warning "unsecured website, folks may get tour data...bla bla. La" type warning?

Joe Biden approval rating by race:Whites: 29% Blacks: 61% Hispanics: 19%Overall approval rating: 31%

"Non-traditional" is the way LGBTQ+ relationships are described by many in Russia, including in Russian legislation."They are great experts in the field of "non-traditional" relations, so they also decided to rely on "non-traditional" forms of energy," Putin told reporters during a trip to Tehran, saying European countries had neglected "traditional" energy forms. "It turned out to be a long winter; there was no wind - that's it."Supported by the ultra-conservative Russian Orthodox Church, Russian President Vladimir Putin has passed multiple laws over the last decade to restrict LGBTQ+ rights and assert what he calls "traditional values". Russian lawmakers last week...

Denver Newsroom, Jul 12, 2022 / 16:19 pm Half of the Chapels of Light at Our Lady of Lourdes shrine in France were destroyed by a fire during the night of July 10–11. The fire was quickly brought under control. “Another hard blow for the Shrine at Lourdes, which didn’t need it,” tweeted Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, lamenting the destruction. “But the main thing is that there were no injuries and that pilgrims can continue to pray in the chapels that remain and continue to light candles,” he wrote. In a...

Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf, meanwhile, has signed an executive order to protect the abortion industry.HARRISBURG (LifeSiteNews) – Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf has signed an executive order protecting abortion-on-demand in the Keystone State, but pro-life senators have approved a measure that could clarify there is no state-level right to abortion in a higher authority: the Pennsylvania Constitution. On Tuesday, Wolf announced that he had signed an executive order “immediately ensuring out-of-state residents may enter Pennsylvania to access” abortion and affirming that the governor will “decline any request received from any other state to issue a warrant for the arrest or...