Free Republic

China approved “provision of lethal aid” to Russia in its war in Ukraine earlier this year and planned to disguise military equipment as civilian items, according to a U.S. intercept of Russian intelligence revealed in leaked secret documents.The intercept, apparently obtained through U.S. eavesdropping on Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was included in a top-secret summary, dated Feb. 23, of recent Ukraine- and Russia-related “products” compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It was among a number of previously unreported documents that The Washington Post obtained from a trove of images of classified files posted on a...

A new class of voter is waiting to shake up our politics. In 2016, we learned about the crucial importance of “Obama-Trump” voters. Some estimates held that up to 13 percent of Trump’s voters in 2016 had voted for Obama in a previous election. This reflects the moodiness of swing voters, the changing composition of the two parties, and the continuities between the two very different men. Notably, Obama and Trump both ran their campaigns as critics of NAFTA. Hillary Clinton lost about one out of every four Obama voters who were white men with only high-school education. Some analysts...

*snip* Assimilation There are other important ways in which Russia is putting its stamp on Mariupol. For example, local residents are under pressure to obtain Russian passports. Ivan, the Mariupol city councillor I spoke to (not his real name), said locals often formed "huge queues" trying to get Russian passports. They were required if you want to find formal employment, especially with government agencies or in the public sector, he explained. Also, they made it possible to travel to Russia without additional stringent checks known as "filtration", he added. "So they have deliberately created a situation where you get problems...

President Donald Trump reportedly isn't adjusting well to life in the White House after his first month in office. That's according to Axios' Mike Allen's latest newsletter, in which he writes that a Trump adviser told him the president is experiencing "cabin fever" in the White House. Trump is reportedly experiencing headaches and frustration that he can't spend his evenings dining at restaurants like he could around Trump Tower in his old neighborhood in New York City. Trump's campaign-style rally in Melbourne, Florida, on Saturday — during which he castigated the news media and mentioned a nonexistent incident in Sweden...

Regular readers of this column know that, at times, we look at the ways Muslim countries, those nations where Islam is the national religion and the foundation for their laws, are not like us (if you’ll excuse the grammar). Egypt and Turkey are two examples. Both have been in the news recently for their unabashed persecution of their Christian populations. An official policy of the Obama administration is to keep happy our pigs and those who raise them by avoiding the term “swine flu” when describing the influenza virus that jumped from pigs to people. It is not the swine...

Barack Obama has said he considered joining the United States military when he left school but decided not to because the Vietnam war was over and "we weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point". The statement is thought to be the first time during the 19-month-long presidential campaign that the Democraticnominee for the White House has indicated he once wanted to serve in uniform. The aspiration was not mentioned in either of his two volumes of memoirs.

Earlier she says "It's OVER!" "You Republicans ALWAYS do that!!" I'd like to thank the moonbats at DAILY KOS for the tip-off on this example of an "UNBIASED" media presentation!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrG8w4bb3kg&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/3/161834/7679/859/584943

The world faces different crises all the time, and each generation feels its crises to be the biggest. But nobody can ignore the fact that recent developments in certain parts of the world are having a major impact on the relations between nations and peoples. The recent North Korean missile tests, the terrorist attack on trains in India, the nuclear standoff with Iran, massive sectarian turmoil in Iraq, oil prices at unprecedented levels, the capture of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and Israeli raids into Lebanon that have resulted in the deaths of more than 200 civilians — these are just...

Researchers have found stronger evidence for a link between a parasite in cat faeces and undercooked meat and an increased risk of schizophrenia. Research published today in Procedings of the Royal Society B, shows how the invasion or replication of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in rats may be inhibited by using anti-psychotic or mood stabilising drugs. The researchers tested anti-psychotic and mood stabilising medications used for the treatment of schizophrenia on rats infected with T. gondii and found they were as, or more, effective at preventing behaviourial alterations as anti-T. gondii drugs. This led them to believe that T. gondii...

Many underwater volcanoes erupting simultaneously all over the world – tectonic disturbance steadily rising – are we headed for a major catastrophe? Staff Reporter Mar. 14, 2005 When in America Mount St. Helen recently erupted, many thought it was just an isolated normal case of volcanic eruption. But now it is becoming clear that hundreds of underwater volcanoes are erupting all around the world especially around the Pacific Ring of Fire. The tectonic plate movements especially under the oceans have gone up by many times. Andaman Nicobar Island now is experiencing under water volcanoes in Indian ocean and Bay of...

<p>WASHINGTON -- President Bush was re-elected, and Dan Rather wasn't.</p> <p>That, in a nutshell, is the outcome of a bitter four-month struggle between the White House, which insisted there was no basis for the "60 Minutes" report casting doubt on the president's National Guard service, and a major network whose controversial anchor chose to give up his job before the release of the outside panel's report that sharply criticized him Monday.</p>

I've had it with these ridiculous polls and pundits claiming everything is a virtual tie. Even all the battleground states are a tie according to them! I have a suspicious feeling that a great majority of pollsters, pundits, and newservices are going to be scraping egg off their faces by 11pm Tuesday evening. What happened in 2000 was historic because it only happened 1 or 2 times in our history. 2000 was an anomole folks, pure and simple. The chances that this election will be another tie or deadheat are almost like lightening striking the same place twice. Think about...

If the loving heart of the Great Emancipator found its natural amorous passions overwhelmingly directed toward those of his own sex, it would certainly be a stunning rebuke to the Republican Party’s scapegoating of same-sex love for electoral purposes. And a forthcoming book by the late Dr. C.A. Tripp — The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, to be published in the new year by Free Press — makes a powerful case that Lincoln was a lover of men.Tripp, who worked closely in the 1940s and 1950s with the groundbreaking sexologist Alfred Kinsey, was a clinical psychologist, university professor and author...

<p>AARON BROWN: We were talking about these forces that are coming into the region and whether they'll be there for a post war Iraq or whether they will be there to continue the war. This question of whether the war is on schedule or not seems to be dominating the news cycle these days. Is it on schedule? Are wars ever on schedule?</p>

Cannabis poses a greater threat to health than tobacco, lung experts have warned. The warning comes on the day that Home Secretary David Blunkett is due to make a Commons statement about the future of government drug policy. Many young people are simply not aware that smoking cannabis may put them at increased risk of respiratory cancers and infections . Dame Helena Shovelton: The Home Affairs Select Committee has recommended that cannabis is downgraded from a class B drug to class C. This would mean that possession would lead to a caution, rather than arrest. The British Lung Foundation is...