Free Republic

<p>A helicopter jump might not have been the most special part of Former President George H.W. Bush's birthday on  Thursday.</p>

… Some German business leaders have been loud in urging Chancellor Angela Merkel not to support harsher sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine. But polls and interviews underscore another factor putting pressure on Berlin to pursue a softer line: a populace that has grown so distrustful of the U.S. that it is skeptical of following Washington’s lead in a geopolitical conflict. Among Germans, “the overwhelming feeling in the Ukraine crisis is that for the Russians—but also for the Americans—it’s about own interests and not the interests of the people in Ukraine,” says one of Germany’s top pollsters, Manfred...

As we have been reporting (and forecasting for the past several years), the Eurasian anti-US Dollar axis is rapidly taking shape, with recent events catalyzed and certainly accelerated by US foreign policy in Ukraine, which has merely succeeded in pushing Russia that much closer, and faster, to China. The latest proof of this came overnight when the FT reported that Russian companies are preparing to switch contracts to renminbi and other Asian currencies amid fears that western sanctions may freeze them out of the US dollar market, according to two top bankers. According to Pavel Teplukhin, head of Deutsche Bank...

Since its first introduction into our lexicon, the definition of the word metrosexual has changed several times. At first it was used to describe young, urban males who were more interested in fashion, grooming and appearance than the traditional masculine male. Sexuality ran the gamut from officially gay, straight or bisexual. Then an article in Salon.com by Mark Simpson narrowed it down to the following: "He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference." In his book Male Impersonators,...

Ukraine said on Monday it had reached a "mutual understanding" with Moscow on parts of a plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko for ending violence in the east of the country. No further details ...

This isn't related to the core enumerated powers questions in Bond but struck me as sufficiently interesting that it was worth posting about separately. In his post about Bond, Mark Tushnet writes: This isn't Justice Thomas's problem but James Madison's [but] Justice Thomas quotes Madison to the effect that treaty cannot "dismember the empire." Really? Suppose Vladimir Putin lets the United States know that he's going to bomb the bejeezus out of the "red" states of the United States unless we negotiate a treaty returning Alaska to Russia. Work out the scenario as you wish, but I doubt that it's...

Sisi won the presidential election in Egypt with remarkable results that demonstrate a high level of national confidence in the former general. While head of the Egyptian army, he played a key role in ousting the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Mursi in July 2013, following mass protests against the Islamist president and his government. […] After making his appearance on the Egyptian political scene as well as in the global arena, al-Sisi has been compared more often than not with Gamal Abdel Nasser. Many experts and journalists debate the possibility and reasonability of such a comparison, while al-Sisi, now president elect,...

Professional historians working under the Soviet Union found themselves in a pinch. Early on, authorities proved adept at seizing control of history and deploying it as propaganda drenched in Communist ideology. Scholars were given little space to challenge official versions of the past. So what was a historian to do? “People who cared about academic integrity almost never [studied] the Soviet Union,” says Maria Lipman, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “They would pick something medieval. Or, you know, ancient Rome.” History, the old dictum goes, has a way of repeating itself. Early this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin...

After video surfaced of Obama “working out” at a hotel in Poland, we put together a comparison with Putin’s exercise regime. Well, actually, there is no comparison.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has taken a swipe at former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, describing her as "weak" in disparaging remarks about women. Mr Putin was asked about Ms Clinton's recent comparison of the Russian leader's Ukraine policy to Adolf Hitler's aggression in Eastern Europe in the 1930s. In his interview with French television, Mr Putin said: "It's better not to argue with women. But Mrs Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements." Mr Putin said that he met Ms Clinton when she was America's top diplomat "and had cordial conversations at various international events. I...

Paris (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin waded into US politics Wednesday describing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and possible 2016 presidential candidate -- as "weak" in some sarcastic comments about women. In an interview with French television, Putin was asked about Clinton's recent remarks that the Russian leader was trying to redraw the boundaries in eastern Europe just like Adolf Hitler did in the 1930s. "It's better not to argue with women," Putin replied, adding: "But Mrs. Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements." Putin remarked that he met Clinton when she was the US...

In March, Hillary Clinton compared Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression towards Ukraine to that of Adolf Hitler before World War II. Putin responded to the comments on Tuesday. "It’s better not to argue with women. But Ms. Clinton has never been too subtle in her statements,” said Putin. "When people push boundaries too far, it’s not because they are strong, but because they are weak. But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman."

The Putin-Hillary relationship is already strained. Russian President Vladimir Putin(Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to bump into President Obama later this week—that much is fairly mundane. But when asked in an interview with Radio Europe 1 whether he'd prefer to meet with Hillary Clinton, formerly the secretary of State, things got weird. "It's better not to argue with women," Putin told an interpreter, playing on a stereotype of women as irrational, weepy creatures who presumably can't be trusted to handle complex things like diplomacy. "But Ms. Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements. Still, we always met...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Hillary Clinton’s recent comments comparing his actions to those of Adolf Hitler are a sign of weakness, saying she “has never been too graceful” in her public statements. Putin was asked if he thought "it would be worse if you were meeting with Hillary Clinton" given the former secretary of state's rhetoric. "I think even in this case we could reach an agreement," Putin said. "When people push boundaries too far, it's not because they are strong but because they are weak. But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman.

THE WOLF, THE BEAR and THE LAMBS One of the complaints leveled against Conservatives by Progressives is that we’re always looking backwards. Why always so locked in the past? Why so obsessed with history? Why always looking behind us? Why not look forward? There’s actually a very simple explanation for that. You see, the past exists. And the future doesn’t. Not yet, anyway. That’s why progress isn’t always good. We could be progressing forward off a cliff. Or into the room where the murderer is hiding. Or out into the water where the shark is. And since we can’t know...

US leader Barack Obama has promised to defend Poland and other NATO allies against potential Russian aggression. “I’ve come to Warsaw today—on behalf of the United States, on behalf of the NATO alliance—to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Poland’s security. [The NATO treaty’s] Article 5 is clear—an attack on one is an attack on all,” he said in a speech in the Polish capital on Wednesday (4 June). “Poland will never stand alone. But not just Poland—Estonia will never stand alone. Latvia will never stand alone. Lithuania will never stand alone. Romania will never stand alone,” he added. “These are...

In one office on the sixth floor a fridge was stocked with huge cheeses and sausages bearing the logo of the Metro supermarket, a superstore close to the airport that was reportedly raided by well-organised looters after Monday's battle brought life in the district to a standstill. In other offices, fighters found vast quantities of cigarettes, soft drinks, and shops own-brand socks and underwear stacked on desks and in wardrobes. "We were starving on the battle field for two days," said a masked fighter, as he tested the ripeness of several mangos looted from the fruit and vegetable department that...

The EU has unveiled plans to reduce its reliance on Russian gas, with increased imports from Norway and energy efficiency at the top of its wish list. […] Although EU countries import 88 percent of the oil that they use, as well as 42 percent of solid fuel, the main concern of the commission and governments is gas—66 percent of Europe’s gas is imported at a cost of more than €1 billion per day. Of the 400 billion cubic metres of gas consumed in the EU each year, around 40 percent comes from Russia’s state-owned Gazprom. The majority of this...

Edward J. Snowden says he was not merely a “low-level analyst” writing computer code for American spies, as President Obama and other administration officials have portrayed him. Instead, he says, he was a trained spy who worked under assumed names overseas for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. “I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas — pretending to work in a job that I’m not — and even being assigned a name that was not mine,” Mr. Snowden told Brian Williams...

There was a moment at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 when Soviet ships approached to within just a few miles of a U.S. naval blockade and then, at the last minute, turned back — prompting then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk to utter one of the most famous lines from the Cold War: “We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.” The crisis in Ukraine never threatened a Cold War-like nuclear Armageddon, but it may be the first case of post-post-Cold War brinkmanship, pitting the 21st century versus the 19th. It pits...