Free Republic

Joe Manchin has done it again. The senator from West Virginia threw a wrench yesterday into another key element of President Biden’s climate agenda. This time, it’s the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, a role that entails monitoring emerging risks to the U.S. financial system — climate change among them.

Susan Rice @AmbRice46 Congratulations to the trailblazing @HHS_ASH Admiral Rachel Levine on being named one of @USATODAY’s Women of the Year. Your leadership during this pandemic has been vital.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) called President Biden an "inept, geriatric despot" in a speech on the House floor Wednesday while criticizing the U.S. deployment of 3,000 troops to aid Eastern European allies as tensions heat up between Russia and Ukraine. "Madam Speaker, the sons and daughters of America are not foot soldiers for your party's inept, geriatric despot. They are not expendable pawns to be dispatched at the whims of an idiot, tossed carelessly around the world to Godforsaken caves and bloody sandboxes. They are Americans, worthy of honor and dignity. The only salute from them Joe Biden deserves involves...

The Pentagon announced the 8,500 troops are US-based and stressed there was no plan to deploy them at this time, but that they would be ready in case the NATO Response Force was activated.'It’s very clear the Russians have no intention right now of de-escalating,' DoD spokesman John Kirby said.

The White House is calling Russia's reported plan to install a pro-Kremlin leader in Ukraine "deeply concerning." A spokesperson for the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said they have information indicating that the Russian government is looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine. "We have information that indicates the Russian Government is looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv as it considers whether to invade and occupy Ukraine. The former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate," the spokesperson said.

The Department of Justice today announced a new rule to help enable the safe and secure storage of firearms and published a Best Practices Guide for federal firearms licensees (FFLs). This new rule implements the existing Gun Control Act requirement that federal firearms licensees that sell firearms to the general public (non-licensees) must certify that they have available secure gun storage or safety devices. “Today’s announcements build on the department’s efforts to reduce the risk of firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Gun safety is a Department of Justice priority, and we will continue...

In an odd announcement that came from the Department of Justice on Monday, federal officials now are requiring that firearms retailers certify that they are selling gun safes, or similar products. The DOJ explained its new rule is "to help enable the safe and secure storage of firearms" and "implements the existing Gun Control Act requirement that federal firearms licensees that sell firearms to the general public must certify that they have available secure gun store or safety devices." Merrick Garland, the attorney general, cast the rule in the light of gun safety. "We will continue to take all appropriate...

Is the liberal MSM starting to talk about Joe Biden’s issues including his coherence and confusion problems? It seems like they might finally have started approaching the topic, although certainly not calling out everything, as we might. As we noted over the weekend, in a surprising move for CNN, they were honest and reported on his “confusion” when he was talking about test kits with ABC’s David Muir. He repeatedly called test kits “pills,” then corrected himself and then called them “pills” again even after correcting himself. In a remarkably honest report, CNN took notice of it and pointed out...

The Biden administration quietly waived sanctions on Iran to allow the hardline regime to sell electricity to Iraq, according to a non-public notification obtained by the Washington Free Beacon that was provided to Congress just as nuclear talks between the United States and Tehran resumed this week. The timing of the waiver notification—which was signed Nov. 19 but not transmitted to Congress until Nov. 29, the day nuclear negotiations resumed—has prompted accusations the Biden administration is offering concessions to Tehran to generate goodwill as talks aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal restart following a months-long...

The top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee blasted Republicans on Thursday for “vile attacks” on President Biden’s pick intended to make her a “Marxist boogeyman.” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chairman of the Banking panel, ripped Republicans for efforts to “degrade” the confirmation process for Saule Omarova, who Biden nominated to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, was born and raised in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan before emigrating to the U.S. While she has been a U.S. citizen since 2005 and served in the George W. Bush...