Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt his country’s presidential election by shelling Russian territory and using 2,500 soldiers to try to pierce Russia’s borders, promising to punish Kyiv for its actions. Polls opened across 11 time zones in Russia on Friday to begin three days of voting with Putin almost certain to secure his fifth term since winning his first election in 2000 with dissent in the country almost completely stifled. The shadow of the Ukraine war fell across the election with what Putin said was repeated shelling of western Russia and an attempt by...

Vladimir Putin is demanding urgent potato imports from Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, while he delays supplying the ally with promised notorious Oreshnik horror missiles. Putin has made the shameful admission that he has run out of spuds - one of his country’s leading food staples - amid economic meltdown during his war with Ukraine. It now appears Belarus will not get the lethal missiles until after Lukashenko supplies Putin with new exports of potatoes which have spiralled in prices in Russia. The Minsk tyrant has even cancelled sanctions against imports from the EU to stock up to supply Russia. -snip-...

A D.C. Superior Court judge Thursday struck down D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s order that all District employees be vaccinated for COVID-19. Bowser instituted the mandate last August requiring vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing for D.C. government workers in offices reporting directly to her, and proof of vaccination was later required by Feb. 15, 2022, according to Judge Maurice Ross’ decision. Ross found Bowser was not authorized to unilaterally require vaccination and ordered that all Fraternal Order of Police members be fully reimbursed for pay and benefits lost as a result. “Had the Mayor just engaged the Union in good faith...

President Joe Biden demanded Wednesday that gas stations start lowering their prices, in his latest attempt to address record-high prices this summer. “To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump, this is a time of war, global peril, Ukraine,” he said. The president spoke about the record high gas prices occurring during his administration during a speech on his imitation White House set across the street. “These are not normal times. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product,” Biden said. “Do it...

Arthur Caplan, who is the director of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CNN on Wednesday more things need to be done to punish Americans who are not vaccinated for COVID-19. A clearly perturbed anchor John Berman asked Caplan, "Why should anyone who is boosted bother at this point to do anything that makes the unvaccinated more safe?" "Well, look, I want us to act as a community. I want us to act as a team. When you’re fighting a war, you need all hands on deck. I don’t want to reject those who still haven’t done...

The White House released new details about President Joe Biden's federal Wuhan coronavirus vaccination mandate Thursday morning, giving large employers a firm deadline for implementation or fines. "For our country, the choice is simple: get more people vaccinated, or prolong this pandemic and its impact on our country. The virus will not go away by itself, or because we wish it away: we have to act. Vaccination is the single best pathway out of this pandemic. And while I would have much preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this...

During Friday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) reacted to President Joe Biden mocking people who cite their freedom of choice not to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Biden said police officers and first responders should be fired if they refuse their employers’ mandates to get vaccinated, adding the vaccine-hesitant have the “freedom to kill” people. Stefanik called Biden’s remarks “absolutely absurd” and “un-American.” “My reaction is this is absolutely absurd, and sadly, it’s very typical of Joe Biden and the Biden administration to attack Americans’ everyday freedoms,” Stefanik emphasized. “First of all, they are turning...

Speaking during a Wuhan coronavirus press briefing Wednesday morning, Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky said young children ages 5-11 will still need to wear masks even if they are vaccinated against the disease. "After we have authorization from FDA and recommendations from CDC, we will be working to scale up pediatric vaccination. That said, it will take some time. And as I just noted, as we head into these winter months, we know we cannot be complacent," Walensky said. "We are going to continue to recommend masks in all schools for all people in those schools, and we...

Thousands of people found themselves inside a national park when the government shutdown went into effect. Pat Vaillancourt and her tour group "which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard." The seniors were treated harshly by armed park employees until they were able to leave according to Vaillancourt. Once they began the journey out of the park, "the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the 2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms that were open along...

President Obama on Monday issued stern language to the Supreme Court of the United States regarding his health care law, expressing confidence "Obamacare" will not be overturned by the nation's highest court. "I'm confident this will be upheld because it should be upheld," the president said Monday afternoon at a White House press conference that included ‪Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who are attending the North American Leaders' Summit. The president said overturning the law would be "an unprecedented and extraordinary step" and compared the court's rejection of the law to "judicial activism."

“Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, ‘No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.’” “Obama Seeks a Course of Pragmatism in the Middle East,” The New York Times, March 11, 2011. Mr. Obama is right.

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) -- Once again bypassing a gridlocked Senate, President Barack Obama acted Thursday to install three agency officials and a diplomat whose nominations had stalled amid election-year squabbling. In a statement released shortly after he arrived here for vacation, Obama said the partisanship left him no choice but to resort to what's called a "recess appointment". He said Americans deserve better.

. For Ladyinred