Free Republic

Ukraine is a jobs program for the "military industrial complex." Senate Minority Leader Mitch “Glitch” McConnell spoke at the defense industry-funded CEPA Forum in Washington D.C. .. and made a very revealing comment about the state of the war in Ukraine.

By Thomas Kent, for CEPA.It’s one of the curiosities of the information war that for many years the US did not respond in kind to Russian propaganda targeting US citizens. This was largely a red line of America’s own making, reflecting concerns that by directly addressing the Russian people, it would unnecessarily provoke Vladimir Putin. Or that such campaigns just wouldn’t work.Wars change things.In recent months, the State Department has produced a stream of forceful video messages aimed at Russian citizens. Some juxtapose statements by Putin with evidence he is lying. Some end with slogans like “The truth always wins”...

The billionaire founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, is using his fortune to further shape journalism into partisan activism to help Democrats win elections. He is the nation’s leading financier of the “mis”- and “disinformation” industries and is now the largest private stakeholder in America’s legacy journalism schools. The most recent Twitter Files released by Matt Taibbi add a deeply disturbing new layer to the story. They show Newmark is at the very heart of an incestuous web of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and corporate media institutions operating in concert to censor political opponents on social media. Newmark is financing the...

The Ukrainian armed forces have already killed or wounded upwards of 100,000 Russian troops, half its original fighting force; there have been almost 8,000 confirmed losses of armored vehicles including thousands of tanks, thousands of APCs, artillery pieces, hundreds of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and numerous naval vessels. US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment. If we divide out the US defense budget to the threats it faces, Russia would perhaps be of the order of $100bn-150bn in spend-to-threat. So spending just $40bn...

A mock invasion of Sweden and Norway has been carried out by 33,000 Russian troops, a US security think tank has claimed. Tens of thousands of soldiers rehearsed a military takeover of Swedish and Norwegian territory near the Baltic Sea in March, security expert Edward Lucas said in a report for the US-based Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). The exercise also simulated the invasion of other areas including the Danish island of Bornholm, Finland's Swedish-speaking Åland islands, and northern Norway, according to the report, The Coming Storm.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California violated the Clean Air Act when it decided nine years ago that no regulations were necessary to cut smog-forming compounds in farm and commercial pesticides, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton's decision means that lawyers for environmental groups and the state will meet to discuss possible remedies for the pollution. Lawyers for both groups have been ordered to file briefs in 20 days. "The bottom line is that the state should have had regulations in place to have a 20 percent reduction of these emissions in five basins by this year," said...

Ottawa's Kyoto plan under fire on all sides By BILL CURRY Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Updated at 2:25 AM EST From Tuesday's Globe and Mail OTTAWA - Canada's major environmental groups have turned against the federal government over a controversial Kyoto budget measure, increasing the pressure on the Liberals to back down and avoid a showdown with the Conservatives that could lead to a spring election. The NDP and Bloc Québécois have already pledged to vote against the budget bill. Last week, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper also vowed to vote against it unless the environmental provision is removed. Yesterday, eight...