Free Republic

Its is Douglas MacArthurs 143rd birthday. Was he the 1950's equivalent of Donald Trump? The times when he showed great leadership were many. He modernised Wrest Point, asking when he had recently begun the task post World War One, "Why are we still preparing for the War Of 1812?" He resisted Australians who wanted to betray their own country in WW2 and surrender half the continent to Japan above the Brisbane line because he knew the all conquering Japanese were over extended and could be beaten. He did that aged in his 60s with island hopping strategic brilliance. In his...

Protests in at least six German cities and towns tonight opposing government policies including the decision to send tanks to Ukraine. Protesters calling for 'peace without weapons' in Ukraine rallied in the hundreds in Munich tonight... New air raid warnings in Ukraine where it's Thursday morning... "No To War" The English translation of a banner near France's National Assembly in Paris this evening. A group of protesters... In Spain an attack on churches with one killed others wounded in the 'stabbing attacks". Authorities opening a terrorism investigation. The attacker wearing a North African robe and shouting during the attack at...

A New York Times editorial board member actually claimed that Americans should be concerned about their taxes being too low when thinking about the $31 trillion-plus national debt crisis. Yes, you read that correctly. Binyamin Appelbaum, The Times editorial board’s so-called “lead writer on economics and business” argued that the government is actually a victim in the debt crisis that it created. “The Real Debt Crisis Is Low Taxes,” read the headline of his nonsensical Jan. 25 op-ed. It seems he realized just how stupid his headline sounded as The Times later changed the headline entirely, making it appear more...

Today’s GDP report from the BEA reminds me of the Peggy Lee song “Is That All There Is?” Between the massive Fed monetary stimulus since late 2008 (and particularly since Covid in 2020) and all the Federal spending (Covid relief, Inflation reduction, Omnipork spending bill, etc.), US real GDP rose by only 2.9% in Q4 from Q3. But signs of slowing underlying demand mounted as the steepest interest-rate hikes in decades threaten growth this year. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.9% annualized rate in final three months of 2022 after a 3.2% gain in the third quarter, the Commerce...

Joe Biden was a lousy Congressman. He was a lousy Senator. He's a lousy President. He is a liar. He is a grifter. He is plagiarist. The self-described poorest man in Congress is a multi-millionaire, owning several mansions. Biden Inc has made $31 million through deals with people having direct contact with the highest levels of Chinese intelligence. Hunter Biden scored millions from those Chinese deals, even enjoying free rides on Air Force 2 to cash in on Pop's office of VP which Joe made available. Joe has repeatedly denied knowing anything about his son's business dealings but a voicemail...

The December new home sales report is good news and bad news. The good news? US new home sales rose by 2.3% in December from November to 616k units sold SAAR. That is the good news. The bad news? Since December of 2021, new home sales fell -23% year-over-year (YoY). The median price of new home sales rose 7.8% YoY, but the trend as The Fed withdraws monetary stimulus (orange line) is not good. Perhaps there is a communications breakdown between the Biden Administration and The Federal Reserve.

Get ready for cuteness overload because these 24 pictures of the cutest puppies from different dog breeds will make you want to adopt a dog as soon as possible. Every single canine is cute in its own way, just like its human counterparts. It is a matter of personal opinion instead of fact when it comes to which dog has the cutest puppy.

On this date in 2010, American-occupied Iraq hanged Ali Hassan al-Majid — Saddam Hussein‘s cousin and longtime aide, better known as Chemical Ali. Al-Majid acquired his chilling nickname for the notorious March 1988 attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja. That day, after an appetizer of conventional bombing, Iraqi jets dropped a cocktail of multiple chemical weapons — mustard gas, sarin, tabun, and VX, give or take — killing up to 5,000 people. “It was life frozen. Life had stopped, like watching a film and suddenly it hangs on one frame,” wrote the ethnically Iranian BBC correspondent Kaveh Golestan,* who...

There appears to be a trend going on at liberal video programming distributor DirecTV. The company dropped Newsmax from its channel lineup just months after it nixed One America News from the platform. Newsmax reported Jan. 25 that DirecTV “cut” the outlet’s “signal, immediately shutting the network off from more than 13 million customers of the satellite service, DirecTV Stream, and U-Verse." Newsmax said it was “seeking a fee with a 75% discount to its market value, and compared to fees currently paid by DirecTV, almost all 50 channels below Newsmax in ratings get higher fees.” Newsmax Media CEO Christopher...

U.S. oil refining margins, also known as the 3-2-1 crack spread, jumped to a three-month high on Tuesday — and that’s an indication the country faces an ongoing product shortage that might lead to higher gasoline and diesel prices at the pump. The 3-2-1 crack spread is a great indicator to gauge fuel product tightness. High spreads indicate gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other petroleum products are in short supply, while low spreads mean an abundance of supply. Spread direction is also important — if rising, it would mean fuel inventories are declining. The simple calculation of refining margins is...

The Chinese Embassy in the African nation of Zambia telling the US to get its own house in order when it comes to debt... The UN Special Envoy for Haiti says that an international force must be deployed there... "They've been asleep for a year. NATO is pouring advisors and weapons into Ukraine to counter a massive Russian invasion. There is no real diplomatic effort. Does anyone in the west or in Russia-think Putin would accept defeat without using nukes?" The opinion of Ezra Levant of Rebel News as the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" moved their "Doomsday Clock" 10 seconds...

In 2009 Mary Tyler Moore said she was a fan of Charles Krauthammer and Bill O’Reilly. For me she is a great Indigenous Woman of the Anglosphere. A woman who loved, understood and helped develop the culture she was born into. She was an icon for the feminist movement but rejected Gloria Steinem's attempts to get her support. She described herself as a libertarian centrist. She believed in freedom and in women focusing on being moms. Her production company MTM facilitated Steve Bochco in getting the creative freedom for his team's acting filming and writing talent to revolutionise television through...

A police K-9 in Wayne County, Michigan, is under investigation after being accused of stealing a coworker's lunch.

Have legitimate concerns about the national debt? Well, you may just be one of those GOP “economic terrorists,” according to New York Times bloviator-in-chief Paul Krugman. Krugman’s Jan. 19 column spewed bile at GOP congressional members seeking spending concessions from President Joe Biden on the debt ceiling issue. “Don’t Try to Appease Economic Terrorists,” the headline read. Yes, Krugman actually used the word “terrorists.” [Emphasis added.] He sugar-coated the issue falsely claiming that raising the debt ceiling “simply allows the government to honor its promises, which include everything from paying interest on its debt to sending checks to Social Security...

South Korea’s dictator reluctantly commuted the death sentence of democracy activist Kim Dae-jung on January 24, 1981 … a gesture that would eventually enabled Kim to return the same favor to the dictator. A farmer’s son who became a wealthy businessman and a charismatic orator, the Catholic Kim had been a fixture of the political opposition since the 1960s which was a dangerous profession. In his address accepting the Nobel Peace Prize for 2000, Kim reflected that five times I faced near death at the hands of dictators. Six years I spent in prison, and 40 years I lived under...

Three regional Fed reports I like to watch are New York’s Empire State Outlook, Philly Fed’s Outlook and Richmond Fed’s outlook. Today, The Richmond Fed released their manufacturing outlook and … it declined to -11. So the big three are all down (Philly down to -8.9 while NY’s Empire State outlook is down to -32.9. On the Treasury front, the US 10Y-3M yield curve inverted further (a signal of impending recession) just tanked to -126.462 basis points. Winter is coming!

While the children in Congress and the Administration argue about cutting the Fedcral budget (as if there isn’t trillions of dollars of wasteful spending in the budget), we saw an ever dumber suggestion from Pramila Jayapal (WA-D), Adam (Shifty) Schiff (CA-D) and Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-D): a bill to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether to allow unlimited Federal spending. That reminds me of the Tom Arnold/Julie Ford film “The Stupids.” Yet these clowns keep getting re-elected. In any case, The Federal Reserve’s quantitative-tightening program risks being propelled toward an early end as US politicians bicker in Washington over raising the...

In Idaho a plea deal in a case involving Libertarian activist Ammon Bundy. Bundy arrested last March at St. Luke's Hospital in Boise for trespassing when objected to the seizure of Baby Cyrus Anderson from his parents. The child later released to the custody of the parents and the case against them dropped... Meanwhile St. Luke's Hospital is taking Ammon Bundy to court in a civil case over his defense of child wrongfully taken to the hospital. Bundy believes that the hospital is: "trying to take everything I own"... Seven people shot and killed at two farms in Half Moon...

Western societies are tearing themselves apart with enmity, injustice and conflict. That is not what Our Lord created us to be. We must return to the harmonious roots of our heritage. Where people can be human. God Bless The Freedom Where We Can Love Ourselves And Each Other

Bongino Report Content Manager Matt Palumbo peeled back “the layers” of leftist billionaire George Soros’ global political and media influence during a recent interview with The Epoch Times. Palumbo noted that his book —The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside The Secret Network of George Soros — includes a “list of publications that are linked to Soros.” Palumbo told The Epoch Times that Soros' well funded media empire gives him connections with some of the biggest names in journalism, which in turn allows him to be shielded him from serious journalistic scrutiny. In addition, Soros' influence encourages media figures to call...