Free Republic

The collapse in oil prices is already a major cause of concern for countries heavily reliant on exports of the commodity. For some, it could be a matter of avoiding a severe recession. Here's why: For governments in oil-exporting countries to meet their spending commitments they need oil to remain above a certain price. With oil prices under $87 a barrel, countries that rely on high oil prices, including Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, may have a reason to be concerned. This chart shows the price per barrel that the six most exposed countries need to meet their national budgets....

Ukrainian-Democratic coordination traces back to 2014, when then-Obama Vice President Joe Biden helped install Petro Poroshenko in Kiev. Then came collusion against Trump. Six years ago, before Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country, the Ukrainians bet that a Hillary Clinton presidency would offer better protection from Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though he had invaded Crimea during the Obama-Biden administration, whose Russian policies Clinton vowed to continue. Working with both the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign, Ukrainian government officials intervened in the 2016 race to help Clinton and hurt Donald Trump in a sweeping and systematic foreign influence operation...

2016: Donald Trump Is the Peace Candidate He alone can end 70 years of dangerous tensions with Russia — by extending a hand of friendship to our longtime adversary.

Igor Danchenko is on trial, but so is the FBI. That is the theme of Russiagate special counsel John Durham’s prosecution of Danchenko, heading into its third day of trial in Alexandria, Va., federal court. Danchenko is charged with five counts of lying to the FBI about two of his sources for what became the infamous “Steele dossier” — a compilation of faux intelligence reports, mainly authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, that portrayed the GOP’s then-presidential candidate, Donald Trump, as a clandestine agent of Russia. It remains to be seen whether Durham can prove these charges: The allegation...

In my opinion, the Jan. 6 Committee has had two main aims that have nothing to do with the riot, justice, or “threats to democracy.”It’s always been about trying to damage President Donald Trump so that he can’t run or win again, and to hurt the Republicans’ chances in the midterms.If you understand it through that lens, then you know that they are largely admitting defeat on one of those major goals with their latest action.Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MI) said that they would not be putting out a report until after the election. They will be having a...

Ben Sasse is brilliant, a consensus builder and will be a great leader of a great University. Ben and family, welcome to Florida! https://t.co/FMlssqdT9q— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 6, 2022

I used to joke, during the recent impeachment trials, that if what Donald Trump had done was “worse than Watergate,” as CNN’s Carl Bernstein said over and over again, then perhaps Watergate wasn’t so bad.At the time, I had a conventional view of the scandal that brought down President Richard M. Nixon — the one taught in history courses, and familiar from All the President’s Men: that due to hubris and paranoia, Nixon had sought to spy on the opposition in an election he won by a landslide, and deserved to go to prison.That narrative has unraveled slowly over the...

WARREN, Mich. – Paige Cole is one of the “Anons.” The mother of three from Eastpointe, Michigan, says Joe Biden is a sham president and believes Donald Trump will soon be reinstated to the White House to finish the remainder of Biden’s term. “His whole inauguration was fake. He didn’t have real military people. He had, like, fake badges, fake people. And Trump is actually our president,” she said while waiting in line for his latest rally on Saturday at Macomb Community College. Wearing a pink “Trump 2024” hat and draped in a large “TRUMP WON” flag, Cole — a...

On the morning of January 6, 2021, Michael Palian went to work as an FBI agent assigned to a task force investigating health care fraud. Then a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. That afternoon, he was among the FBI agents who rushed to the Capitol to guard senators who had gathered earlier in the day to certify now-President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. On Monday, federal prosecutors called Palian as the first witness in the seditious trial of Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes and four others charged with plotting to violently prevent the peaceful handoff of power...

They are the buzzwords of New York City crime circa 2022: Random and unprovoked. A chilling spate of recent incidents involving innocent victims runs the gamut from a woman savagely beaten inside a Queens subway station to a 17-year-old Brooklyn girl killed by a stray bullet to a Mexican immigrant nearly killed by a sucker-punch outside a Manhattan restaurant. The latest terrifying attack took the life of of a veteran city EMS lieutenant on her way to grab lunch in Astoria this past Thursday, with a schizophrenic stranger knocking her to the sidewalk before stabbing her 20 times for no...

CNN anchor Chris Wallace told filmmaker Judd Apatow that the jokes he wrote for former President Barack Obama’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) were a “beatdown” of then-TV host Donald Trump — suggesting the jokes delivered by Obama were so humiliating, they cemented Trump’s decision to run for office. “It has been suggested that you are responsible for Donald Trump becoming president of the United States,” Wallace told Apatow in a recent episode of HBO Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, to which Apatow replied, laughing, “How dare you.

Dick Morris was an adviser to Bill Clinton when he was Arkansas governor and later as president in 1992, but now advises Donald Trump He said both Bill and Hillary's recent comments about migrants are a sign that she's gearing up to run as Democrats' 'moderate' option in 2024 Morris predicted Clinton would announce a third White House bid if Democrats faced huge midterm losses in the Senate and House of Representatives Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of 'open borders' could be a sign that she's looking to mount a third presidential campaign, a former adviser to her...

Miami police have arrested the man allegedly responsible for the theft of a naked statue of Donald Trump that stood over a section of the Wynwood neighborhood. Pedro Rodriguez, 36, has been charged with grand theft and burglary, police say. Miami Police PIO said the naked Donald Trump statue has been returned and is in its owner’s possession. No further details were disclosed on the status of the statue. UPDATE: Correction, statue was not recovered, but an arrest has been made. Pedro Rodriguez has been charged with Grand Theft and Burglary. https://t.co/wI84C5LETI — Miami PD (@MiamiPD) September 23, 2016 According...

A Democrat former congressman has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for election fraud charges. The judge threw the book at a corrupt former Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers (D-PA), jailing the 79-year-old Philadelphia politician for multiple voter fraud felonies. Myers was sentenced to 30 months in prison, with three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $100,000 in fines. $10,000 of the fine was due immediately. United States District Court Judge Paul S. Diamond threw the book at Myers after the disgraced Democrat plead guilty to conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification...

After three years of apocalyptic wailing and gnashing of environmentalist teeth over President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the job and economy killing Paris Climate Accord, it is ironic that the one country that faces the brunt of criticism from climate change zealots such as Greta Thunberg is leading the world and the European Union in lowering emissions and promoting cleaner energy, such as natural gas, all the while not hurting the economy: Despite shrieks of terror from the left about how President Donald Trump’s presidency threatens the existence of Earth and thus mankind, the fact is that under his...

Special counsel John Durham filed a pre-trial motion in limine on Sept. 13 in his false statements case against Igor Danchenko, the primary sub-source of Christopher Steele’s dossier on Donald Trump. Danchenko, who is charged with five counts of lying to the FBI about his sources for the dossier, had earlier filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. * * * Perhaps the most stunning disclosure is that Danchenko was given confidential human source (CHS) status by the FBI in March 2017. Notably, this was after Danchenko had disowned the Steele dossier in a January 2017 FBI interview,...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is refusing to release 15 pages of documents explaining the Biden administration’s strategy to implement a “voter access” policy that is being coordinated with left-wing groups just weeks before the 2022 election. In March 2021, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14019, “Promoting Access to Voting.” As Breitbart News noted: President Joe Biden issued an executive order on “access to voting” on Sunday that instructs federal government agencies to promote voter registration, help Americans apply to vote by mail, and “combat misinformation,” among other measures. The “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting” reads like...

This September 11, let's not forget: A Democrat administration deliberately destroyed the Northern Alliance. Democrats were offered Osama bin laden and refused to take him. A Democrat regime deliberately left Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan and tried to stop private organizations from getting them out.

We have control of the house of Representatives. They control the purse strings. The source of all spending bills. Right? Can anyone tell me why the Republican controlled house rubber-stamps spending that continues to fund... Department of Education Department of Agriculture The Energy department Housing and Urban Development Labor Relations Board EPA Corporation for Public broadcasting How about they take just one department and cut the entire budget? Make the Democrats defend and explain just exactly what would be lost if the entire budget of the Department of Education were cut. Republicans need to prove that they are the party...

Gas prices are coming down slowly here in East/Central Illinois and while they are still well above prices two years ago they are down a great deal from their high of $5.99/gal a few months ago.I'm curious as to why that is and do you think they will continue to fall thru the end of the year, as a bonus question, will they go back up after the elections? Thanks!