Free Republic

On April 13, 2024, Iran executed a large air strike against Israel. What unfolded next was a bizarre series of claims and statements with worldwide implications---and the distinct possibility that Iran intentionally set up the strikes to fail. This video covers what happened, what's next, and what viewers wanted to know about the topic. 0:00 Intrigue among Israel, Iran, and Russia 1:00 Background of the Attack 2:18 The Attack: What Happened? 4:52 Is this the End? 7:57 Russia's Awkward Geopolitical Position 10:36 Ukraine and Missile Defense 12:19 Will this Change Things in Gaza? 13:12 Where Are the Lines on Maps?...

Layoffs continue across the freight and logistics industry, with companies in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Texas announcing job reductions and facility closures over the past two weeks. Universal Logistics Warren, Michigian-based Universal Logistics is permanently shuttering two of its subsidiaries and laying off a total of 677 employees, according to notices recently filed with the state. The layoffs are related to Universal-operated entities Logistics Insights Corp. and Universal Dedicated of Detroit, an auto parts warehousing and logistics facility. Both operations were in Detroit. Universal Dedicated of Detroit’s closure will affect 230 truck drivers who worked from the facility. Logistics...

Why shipping choke points like Panama are FUBAR and getting worse. Long, detailed explanation of all the problems.

The Biden administration has announced in recent weeks new stringent emissions requirements for virtually the entire American transportation system.The Environmental Protection Agency will mandate by the year 2035 that virtually every car made and sold in America must be an EV. No more gas cars. The New York Times comically declared that motorists don't have to worry because this "is not a ban on gasoline-powered vehicles." Sure it isn't. Today less than 2% of cars use the electric power grid for fuel. So soon we will see 50 times more demand for electricity from autos. Then the EPA announced new...

The Biden administration's plan to relocate grizzly bear populations to rural parts of Washington State will have a devastating impact on agriculture and livestock in the region while posing a significant danger to local communities, a fifth generation cattle producer warned. Residents of Washington State are doubling down on their concerns surrounding the federal government's plan to translocate grizzly bears, an apex predator, to the federally-managed North Cascades National Park, after the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the strategy their preferred plan for grizzly bear management in the region. The North Cascades National Park borders...

“… Others believe this was a deliberate attack of US infrastructure based on various factors that do not seem to add up. Could it have been an inside job or a foreign agent? The truth will come to light, as it always does. Let me begin by explaining how crucial the Francis Scott Key Bridge was to America’s supply chain. Around 52.3 million tons of international cargo estimated to be worth $80.8 billion passed through the port in 2023. Around 4,900 trucks, carrying around $28 billion in goods, must be rerouted due to the bridge collapse. It is the second...

When I awoke early on Tuesday morning, I was stunned to learn that the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore had collapsed. We are being told that it was a tragic “accident” and that there is no evidence that any foul play was involved. Hopefully that is true. But no matter how it was caused, this tragedy is going to have an enormous impact on U.S. supply chains. And of course this comes at a really bad time, because Houthi missile strikes in the Red Sea and low water levels in the Panama Canal have been putting a tremendous amount...

Guest editorial by Jim Nelles: The video footage of the Singaporean-flagged cargo vessel, the Dali, crashing into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is truly horrifying. Video footage shows the ship’s lights flickering on and off, indicating it lost power shortly before crashing into the bridge’s stanchion. The video also shows black smoke coming from the ship’s exhaust vents, indicating that the crew was trying to restart diesel engines. Unfortunately, eight workers were performing construction on the bridge at the time of collapse, only two of whom were rescued. Given the temperatures of the Patapsco River, they must be...

The Port of Baltimore has been brought to a standstill thanks to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, creating risks to the U.S. economy of additional inflation, diminished productive capacity, and larger government deficits.The Port of Baltimore was the 17th busiest port in the nation ranked by total tons in 2021, according to the latest data available from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It is the fifth largest on the East Coast, outsized by the ports of New York-New Jersey; Virginia; Mobile, Alabama; and Savanah, Georgia. (snip) It was the first in terms of the volume of automobiles...

The fast-food chain Chick-fil-A backtracked from its decade-old “no antibiotics ever” pledge intended to help prevent human antibiotic resistance linked to the rampant use of the drugs in livestock production. Instead, the company said in a statement that it will embrace a standard known as “no antibiotics important to human medicine,” often abbreviated as NAIHM, which entails the avoidance of medications commonly used to treat people and limits the use of animal antibiotics to cases of actual animal illness. SNIP Chick-fil-A said it will begin shifting to the new policy in the spring of 2024. A company spokesman added that...

a larger campaign to drive Americans out of rural areas and centralize access to food, the Biden administration is rolling out a draconian and needless new wastewater rule that could put small and mid-size food processing facilities out of business. A large group of United States senators and representatives are demanding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdraw a new meat and poultry wastewater proposal, which they claim “stands to hamper rural economies and drive small- and mid-sized processing facilities out of business.” “Given the technical complexity and high costs of wastewater treatment alterations, coupled with the massive expansion of the...

A congressional investigation has discovered strange communication equipment on Chinese-built cargo cranes at U.S seaports, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Rather than building them domestically at potentially higher costs, the U.S. relies heavily on Chinese-built cargo cranes that are relatively cheap to produce and equip at seaports across the country. The congressional probe discovered that several of these cranes, built by Chinese mega-manufacturer ZMPC, contain communications devices that were not requested or don’t appear to support standard operations, heightening existing espionage concerns, according to the WSJ. U.S. intelligence has warned that Chinese cranes – equipped with an array...

Some 39% of the United States is farmland. But, according to the Department of Agriculture’s recently published farmer census, there are fewer farms, and the ones that are surviving are bigger than before. Another statistic that’s worth pointing out: More than 150,000 farms and ranches use renewable energy, up 15% since the last census in 2017. Incorporating solar panels onto open fields or buildings was the most popular method. That’s progress. But the demographics reported in the census are less of a cause for celebration. People of color and women remain underrepresented. Despite diversity efforts in recent years, less than...

The Biden administration plans to use American tax dollars to convince people across the United States that “eating more bugs” will not only help “save the planet” but also a cost-efficient alternative to meat, falling in line with the World Economic Forum (WEF) ‘Great Reset’ agenda. The new push for a “meatless future” came after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began pouring hundreds of thousands of tax dollars into researching trash-fed crickets as an alternative to “unsustainable” protein production.

VIDEOWe are now at the start of the Trucker's Boycott of New York City because of the Democrat confiscation of Donald Trump's property and funds by a deranged judge and a prosecutor who ran for office on a vicious "GET TRUMP" platform. If the legal system thinks they can slow roll the appeals process then the Trucker Boycott will be an incentive to fast track overturn this absurdly illegal property confiscation for purely political reasons.Early signs are that some trucking companies are joining in on the boycott of New York City. It makes sense. After all, if Donald Trump can...

They tell me it’s gone viral. One trucker (Chicago Ray) throws it down on social media, and it takes off. Frankly, this is much more interesting in the Fani Willis hearing. For those who haven’t heard, starting Monday. February 19, 2024 truckers will allegedly refuse to take loads into New York City in response to a so-called trial against one Donald J. Trump. In judicial actions that are literally listed as one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, some truckers (and supporters) have had enough, and are preparing to do the Real American version of ‘taking it to...

Trump-supporting truckers are saying they are refusing to drive to New York City after the former president was slapped with a $355 million fine in his fraud case last week. A conservative social media influencer and trucker who goes by Chicago Ray posted a video clip in which he claims that some of his colleagues are going to stop making deliveries to New York City to protest the ruling, issued in Manhattan Supreme court on Friday.

VIDEOThe liberals smugly thought they had it all figured out. Get a deranged judge and a TDS prosecutor who campaigned primarily on Trump hate in New York to find Donald Trump guilty on an absurd charge that no one else in history had been charged with and for which there were NO victims. Of course, this totally bogus case was sure to be tossed on appeal but the whole point was that during the appeals process that could last for many months or over a year, Trump would have to come up with the over $350 million penalty and prohibited...

I've been on the radio for over an hour and I've talked to at least (10) Truckers who are gonna start refusing loads of Monday for (NYC) ...I talked to (3) guys that I work with who texted the boss and told him no (NYC)

WND reported just days ago on a video that showed empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike.And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies.Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses.The report is from NewsAddicts, which explained officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an alarm after finding out the "unelected globalist United...