Free Republic

"Nobody imagined it would go on this long," Schuhmacher said. He continued: "It seems random — it struck a nerve. I've never seen anything to compare it to, in all of the [consumer packaged goods] industry. It’s a real shock."

The United States plans to expand its training of Ukrainian troops in Europe as Russia continues to bombard the country with missile strikes, the Pentagon announced. “We will expand U.S.-led training for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to include joint maneuver and combined arms operations training, while building upon the specialized equipment training that we’re already providing to the Ukrainians,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Thursday.

NATO will push ahead with long-planned nuclear exercises next week despite rising tensions over the war in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s insistence that he is not bluffing about using all available means to defend Russian territory, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. The exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Noon,” is held annually and usually runs for about one week. It involves fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads but does not involve any live bombs. Conventional jets, and surveillance and refueling aircraft also routinely take part. Fourteen of the 30 NATO member countries will be involved in the exercise, which was...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve, according to two people familiar with the decision, in a bid to control energy prices that have spiked as the U.S. and allies have imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine The announcement could come as soon as Thursday, when the White House says Biden is planning to deliver remarks on his administration's plans to combat rising gas prices. The duration of the release hasn't been finalized but could...

In under 20 minutes, the Tuscaloosa Police Department responded to an emergency call and successfully disposed of the taco delivery.The Tuscaloosa Police Department had an exciting Valentine's Day, and it started with an early morning phone call from an employee at the Tuscaloosa Federal Courthouse. According to the Tuscaloosa News, the courthouse worker reported a pair of suspicious packages on the building's front steps, and several officers were immediately sent to the scene. Within a few minutes, the cops had blocked the streets to both vehicles and pedestrians, and cautiously approached the two unidentified items that had been left on...

As relations between Twitter and its conservative users continue to deteriorate, a new conservative-friendly alternative is gaining steam with its stated devotion to true freedom of speech. Founded by John Matze and Jared Thomson, Parler bills itself as a “non-biased free speech driven entity that “accepts your right to express your thoughts, opinions and ideals online.” Whereas Twitter and Facebook have steadily adopted and expanded roles as adjudicators of “productive” versus “hateful” or “misleading” speech, Parler says it “aims to empower users to control their social experience. Users can be responsible to engage content as they see fit.” The platform...

Millionaire Benjamin Chen destroyed his $750,000 Porsche Mirage GT supercar while driving high on drugs through the abandoned streets of downtown Manhattan, New York on Tuesday. The crash happened at around 7:30 am and the scene was captured on security camera footage as well as cell phone footage taken by onlookers who witnessed the action. After smashing into a van in front of several bystanders, Chen attempted to drive away in his mangled car but didn’t make it very far. Police quickly arrived on the scene and arrested the 33-year-old on charges of reckless driving and operating a motor vehicle while...

Not that I've heard of, anyway. Are US Courts even open? Is this supposed quarantine authority the executives around the country are using and abusing, unlimited in scope and length, not subject to revision by any court or legislature, ever? When did we consent to that?

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Bernie Sanders acknowledged Friday that fears about the spread of coronavirus have damaged his ability to leverage large rallies into support at the polls, and suggested that future Democratic presidential primary voting should be delayed if health officials deem doing so appropriate. “We do more rallies than anybody else, and (they’re) often very well attended. I love to do them,” the senator told reporters at a hotel in his home state of Vermont. “This coronavirus has obviously impacted our ability to communicate with people in the traditional way that we do. That’s hurting.” “If this isn’t a...

ISIS bride from UK wants to return: “There is more safety in a British prison, more education and access to family” SEP 27, 2019 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER Yes, of course, and this will probably work. After all, it shouldn’t be hard to find British officials who will consider her safety, not that of British citizens, to be paramount. “JIHAD IT Shamima Begum moans she was an ISIS ‘baby machine’ during time as jihadi bride and demands to return home as British prisons are cushier,” by Jenny Awford, The Sun, September 26, 2019: ISIS bride Shamima Begum has claimed...

Kellogg’s shares (NYSE: K) dropped 1.44% on Thursday, the day after accusations of child labor exploitation and the launch of Breitbart News’ #DumpKelloggs campaign brought the snack company’s value down 2%. Kellogg’s stock fell $1.04 to close at $70.96 per share. The combined two-day drop has been $2.66 per share, down 3.6% from $73.62 at the start of Wednesday trading. Kellogg’s announced this week that it would pull advertisements from Breitbart News. The company fired back on Wednesday: Kellogg Co. announced on Tuesday its decision to pull ads from conservative media giant Breitbart.com because its 45,000,000 monthly conservative readers are...

MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – They left for what they thought would be an easy float down Muskegon River Tuesday afternoon – but ended up spending the night on the river bank, scared and yelling for help. The trio of young women were rescued 20 hours later after a fisherman eventually heard their cries, said Muskegon Township Deputy Fire Chief Bob Grabinski. The women, all in their 20s, had never been tubing before and decided it would be a fun thing to do, Grabinski said. So they bought some tubes and headed to the popular launch site at the Maple Island...

Shortly after Barack Obama swept into the White House while giving Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid a coattail Marxist Congress, Newsweek Magazine ran the cover "We're all Socialists now,"... ...it took until last night before it was literally true, as New Hampshire gave a full-throated socialist a rout over semi-socialist Hillary Clinton on the Democrat side and the once and now apparently again socialist Donald Trump won... ...In case you missed the final score, it was Bernie by about 18 over Hillary and Trump by about 18 over John Kasich. Yes, John Kasich. ... ...Trump has flirted with socialist talking...

Toward the end of the century, Westerners who fled their home countries to fight in Afghanistan or Bosnia shared a common characteristic: They were practically all men. Today’s militant recruits, however, represent a dramatic demographic shift. Most are just entering adulthood. They often meet terrorists online. They’ve asked in covert chats: Do you have hair dryers, or should I bring one? One in seven are women, according to a new report. An estimated 4,500 Westerners have ditched home for the Islamic State or other Sunni jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq. Researchers at New America, a nonpartisan think tank in...

An unknown man came into a Spartanburg Wal-Mart waving a Confederate flag and threatened to come back and shoot people after being escorted out of the store.The man, who was not identified, walked into the store with a Confederate flag around his neck and shoulders and began waving the flag and dancing with it, according to an incident report from the Spartanburg Police Department.The man left in a black moped and was wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts, an orange hat and camouflage cowboy boots.

BRUSSELS — Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel warned Russia on Thursday to stay out of the turmoil in Ukraine, while NATO defense ministers issued repeated statements meant to show support for the new leadership in Kiev. “We expect other nations to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and avoid provocative action,” Mr. Hagel said after the ministers met at NATO headquarters here. “That’s why I’m closely watching Russia’s military exercises along the Ukrainian border, which they just announced yesterday.” The Russian defense minister, Sergey K. Shoigu, was quoted by state news media saying the exercises were meant to “check combat readiness of armed...

A recent high school graduate from the Midwest who moved to New Orleans in hopes of making a difference in the lives of others, was gunned down on a New Orleans street corner Monday night. Joseph Massenburg, 18, had been eager to embark on his first project in New Orleans as an AmeriCorps member, friends and family said.

Last week’s Chick-fil-A appreciation day must have been painful to watch for David Friend the CEO that runs Carbonite a computer file backup service that was once the king of its industry. Watching how well a business that is favored by the Right can do must have ground salt into the self- inflicted wound that is still plaguing Carbonite today. On Saturday March 3, David Friend, the breast beating fool who is the CEO of Carbonite, decided he could not even wait until the following Monday to drop his company’s advertising relationship with Rush Limbaugh. Bleating about Limbaugh having correctly...

Is Obama as right as he seems? New evidence reveals his college class got lower SAT scores than Dubya Average SAT score of Obama's 1981 transfer group to Columbia was 1,100 Bush got into Yale with score of 1,206 out of 1,600 Obama refuses to release his academic record Barack Obama may have got worse high school grades than George W Bush after new evidence showed the current president was among a college class with poor average SAT scores. Doubts about the supposedly superior intellect of Mr Obama were first raised after he refused to release his academic record. He...

Any single incident where an unarmed civilian is gunned down is one too many