Free Republic

Tomorrow the U.S. dollar is put on notice as the BRICS nations come together in South Africa for their first face to face meeting since the start of the pandemic. More than 40 countries are vying to join BRICS as they take aim at the U.S. dollar. Putin and China are officially upending the unipolar order.

If a bill banning the use of fossil fuels in the creation of green energy projects were to become law, it would be the end of renewable energy. There’s no feasible way to manufacture and transport wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles without fossil fuels. New York state Sen. George Borrello, R-Wyoming County, has introduced a bill to require that all wind turbines, solar collectors and infrastructure for producing green energy be manufactured and constructed without the use of fossil fuels. His bill would also apply to the manufacture and distribution of electric vehicles. If the bill were to...

Siemens Energy announced Thursday that it will be undergoing a technical review after it was found that up to 30% of its wind turbines could have faulty components, according to statements made by the company. Siemens Energy, an international energy company that seeks to “decarbonize global energy systems,” announced that it is withdrawing its profit guidance for the year after subsidiary Siemens Gamesa found that there was a “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components.” The company believes that between 15% and 30% of its installed fleets are suffering from component failures, Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens Gamesa,...

The blight on the landscape of abandoned and decommissioned wind turbines stimulated Colorado's U.S. Reps. Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn and Harriet Hageman, Wyoming, to introduce the Production Tax Credit Reform Act. According to a press release, the bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require energy companies remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land as a condition of receiving federal tax credits. Currently energy companies are not obligated to remove wind turbines from leased land once they are decommissioned, putting the onus on landowners — typically farmers and ranchers — to remove the turbines. According to the United States Geological...

Make electricity unreliable and unaffordable and you’ll soon turn your economy to ashes. Australia is on the brink of a major recession, and energy costs are front and centre. Power prices will jump by 25 to 30% next month following the closure of yet another perfectly operable 2,000MW coal-fired power plant. Since the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Target was ramped up by the Labor government in 2010, Australians have been hit with double-digit percentage increases in their power bills every year since. Households are being hammered by rising interest rates and power bills that they simply cannot afford. Then there...

Californians are expecting skyrocketing natural gas bills this month, but this can’t all be blamed on the weather, according to industry insiders. Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), which serves about 5.9 million households and businesses, warned customers to expect “shockingly high” January bills that could be 128 percent higher compared to December. Those who typically paid around $65 a month last winter are likely to pay about $160 this year, SoCalGas said in a statement Dec. 29. Those with bills around $130 a month could see charges jump to $315. Last December, wholesale natural gas prices already cost five times...

Outbound shipments in October shrank 0.3% from a year earlier, a sharp turnaround from a 5.7% gain in September, official data showed on Monday, and well below analysts’ expectations for a 4.3% increase. It was the worst performance since May 2020. The data suggests demand remains frail overall, heaping more pressure on the country’s manufacturing sector and threatening any meaningful economic revival in the face of persistent COVID-19 curbs, protracted property weakness and global recession risks. Chinese exporters weren’t even able to capitalize on a further weakening in the yuan currency and the key year-end shopping season, underlining the broadening...

If there is one consistent fact about electric vehicles, it’s that they are unreliable. Now their charging stations have come into question as well. In Aspen and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, many companies have implemented charging stations in their parking lots. All of them are not fully functional, however. Chris Lane, a Basalt resident who owns two electric cars, highlighted a couple of issues with the local charging stations: Cables are ripped out, attachments are damaged and screens are cracked. If there is a mechanical problem with any one of these stations, it automatically shuts down, Aspen Daily News reported. “I...

Jeb Bush RetweetedIf you ever wondered, "What would get Trump booed at a Trump rally?," you have your answer. https://t.co/E8u5dXi08m— Jay Nordlinger (@jaynordlinger) August 22, 2021VIDEO: Trump Booed at Alabama Rally for 'Get COVID-19 Vaccine' Remarkhttps://t.co/M0BT87be3e— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) August 22, 2021

Mack Bair, 24, supports same-sex marriage. Matthew C., 22, backs marijuana legalization and Luke T., 22, is solidly pro-abortion rights, (both of whom asked to not use their last names out of fear of retribution for their political views). John Henke, 20, says he believes climate change is happening — and that humans are playing a role. At first blush, these young men might seem like progressive voters. But they’re not: All four voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 and, for those old enough, in 2016 as well.

The Maine senator was unequivocal in her statements, which came after a firefighters memorial service in Augusta on Saturday morning, joining Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Ben Sasse, R-Nevada, in breaking rank with GOP support for the president. “I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent,” Collins said. “It’s completely inappropriate.” The president’s comments came days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, announced a formal impeachment probe into his attempt to solicit foreign help in an election, which is illegal and considered by many lawmakers to be a foundational threat...

  Hillary Clinton is a secret sex freak who paid fixers to set up illicit romps with both men AND women! That’s the blockbuster revelation from a former Clinton family operative who is sensationally breaking ranks with his one-time bosses to speak to The National ENQUIRER in a bombshell 9-page cover story — on newsstands Wednesday. “I arranged a meeting for Hillary and a woman in an exclusive Beverly Hills hotel,” the man, who was hired by the Clintons,via a Hollywood executive, to cover up their scandals, told The ENQUIRER. “She had come to the studio to see the filming of a movie in 1994.”...

In early 2003, Glenn Carle, an interrogator with the CIA, arrived at a secret detention facility overseas to question a recently captured Al-Qaeda suspect.... The man's dilapidated state of mind was the result of a systematic program of torture inflicted on terrorism suspects by the CIA after 9/11. Nudity, extreme temperatures, sleep and sensory deprivation, dietary manipulation, waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" were meant to break down detainees' resistance to interrogation. The stress and disorientation induced by these methods, it was believed, would force them to cooperate and release whatever precious information they were hiding. But according to Carle,...

US President Barack Obama has assured Japan that islands at the centre of its territorial dispute with China are covered by a bilateral defence treaty. In an interview ahead of his Asian tour, Mr Obama said the US would oppose any attempt to undermine Japan's control over the islands.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid reiterated Wednesday night the Yesh Atid party's position regarding the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). "The left wants peace at any price and the right is not willing to pay any price for peace," Lapid stated, claiming that, in contrast, Yesh Atid forms the political "center." "We do not deal at all with peace, unless it will be to 'say goodbye' [literally 'to separate in peace']," he added, a reference to his previously-stated opinion that the best outcome for Israel would be a "fair divorce" from the PA. He said the goal is...

Military sources have claimed that the role of senior British officers at the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, has been downgraded because their American counterparts believe that they cannot be trusted with high-level intelligence about a conflict with which they are not involved. Roughly 30 British personnel have been working alongside the Americans and French and have been involved war planning for a number of weeks, including fine-tuning a list of targets and orchestrating military assets.[Snip] No British officers are now engaged in military planning and none will be involved in the execution of the operation, a British defence

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former researcher at Amgen Inc has found that many basic studies on cancer -- a high proportion of them from university labs -- are unreliable, with grim consequences for producing new medicines in the future.

No longer constrained by campaign advisers who insisted on such conventions as “message discipline,” Gingrich fulminated against President Obama, the news media, activist judges and assorted other liberal bogeymen for 41 minutes here Thursday night. It was classic Newt – slashing attacks, an array of ideas, and a few plugs for his website. All jumbled together with little cohesion. The former speaker, it seems, is very much enjoying the post-consultant phase of his candidacy. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57183.html#ixzz1PVO4yauY

Newt Gingrich vowed on Friday to campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination on his own terms, saying he would do “whatever it takes” to remain in the race despite the exodus a day earlier of nearly his entire senior staff. “There is a fundamental strategic difference between the traditional consulting community and the kind of campaign I want to run,” Mr. Gingrich said. “Now we’ll find out over the next year who’s right.” Even as some prominent Republicans, including Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa, questioned his viability, Mr. Gingrich made plans to deliver a foreign policy speech in Los...

On Tuesday, April 28, the Senate Public Safety Committee will hear Senate Bill 697. SB697, authored by State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-7), would prohibit the sale of handguns other than "owner-authorized (or ‘smart’) handguns" -- that is, handguns with a permanent, programmable biometric feature that renders the firearm useless unless activated by the authorized user. No proven, viable handgun of this type has ever been developed. The bill would require the California Attorney General to report to the Governor and Legislature on the availability of owner-authorized handguns; once the Attorney General finds that these guns are available, only “owner-authorized” handguns...