Free Republic

Arizona’s water is running worryingly low. Amid the worst drought in more than a millennium, which has left communities across the state with barren wells, the state is depleting what remains of its precious groundwater. Much of it goes to private companies nearly free, including Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy company.Thanks to fresh scrutiny this year from state politicians, water activists and journalists, the Saudi agricultural giant Almarai has emerged as an unlikely antagonist in the water crisis. The company, through its subsidiary Fondomonte, has been buying and leasing land across western Arizona since 2014. This year The Arizona Republic published...

The US Federal Reserve continues to grapple with inflation, which at 7.7% (October CPI) is more than triple the Fed’s 2% target, without causing a recession by lifting interest rates too high. The Fed has two options when it comes to interest rate increases designed to tackle the highest US inflation since the early 1980s. The first is it continues to hike rates, beyond what the economy can handle, causing a recession, usually defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. This is the “Volcker Fed” playbook. In 1979, then US Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker faced a serious...

But in the meantime, enjoy the political theatrics down on the sand-strewn floor of the Coliseum. While the much-touted differences between America's political parties get obsessive, hysterical attention, the sameness of Imperial corruption, waste and squalor regardless of who's in power gets little notice. Scrape away the differences--mostly in domestic issues--and we see the dead hand of Imperial Corruption is on the tiller. The core of Imperial Corruption is the disconnect between the nation's ideals of representational democracy and open markets and the sordid reality: elites serve their interests by corrupting both democracy and open markets. Unfettered democracy and markets...

For all the amazing benefits of the mRNA coronavirus vaccines, there are limitations. The effectiveness wanes. New variants evolve faster than shots can be adjusted. Destructive disinformation about their safety lingers. Yet, the vaccines are critical to battling disease and death — and that also goes for the next generation of boosters coming soon. Critics might raise fresh concerns about these new shots, and there are some things the public should know. But the latest booster, as with all the previous shots, promises to be a life raft in dangerous seas.

Here's my view of the Trump rally from D.C. on January 6th, 2021. It was cold and windy. It was an awesome experience. We arrived at the Ellipse at daybreak and the crowds were already there. Decided to stake out a place in the field on the north side of the Washington Monument. By 10:30 am the areas from the Ellipse to the Washington Monument was shoulder to shoulder. I removed my American and Trump flags from the makeshift flagpole and tywrapped my phone to the pole and hoisted it up! The horizon gets a little crooked but overall the...

I'm baffled by men, particularly white men, who enthusiastically support the most extreme politicians from the unhinged Democrat Party.Is there any platform that this party offers that actually benefits white men? Or are Democrat-supporting white men just sadomasochists? A severe case of cognitive dissonance?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “Deadline ” that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito‘s legal reasoning in a leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade was a “severe danger to the Constitution of the United States.” Pelosi said, “We have to have clarity in what this draft decision means so that the final decision doesn’t go that far. The chief justice has said this is authentic, but it is not final. I don’t want to use the word authentic. It’s real but not final. Again, Lincoln said public sentiment is everything, and with it, you...

The leak is the thing. It’s egregious, and clearly meant to give liberal groups almost two months before the term ends at the end of June to pressure the Court much like there was a pressure campaign against Chief Justice Roberts on Obamacare. I’ve never seen an actual draft opinion leak from the U.S. Supreme Court. Not even what the vote will be — remember everyone waiting for the 2012 Obamacare decision and then speed reading it? Obamacare was small potatoes compared to ABORTION. We’ve covered the Mississippi case that many speculated would result in Roe v. Wade being overturned....

111 Votes From John McNulty.. “I watched the Democratic leaders of Congress kneel in the halls of Congress for about 9 minutes, for the death of a black man named George Floyd. I have never seen them kneel for a fallen *Police Officer. I have never seen them kneel for a fallen *Soldier. I NEVER SAW THEM KNEEL FOR THE *SOLDIERS THAT HILLARY & OBAMA LEFT TO DIE IN Benghazi!! I have never seen them kneel for the thousands of (black and white) *babies aborted EVERY DAY. I have never seen them kneel for a murdered *white man or woman....

CNN)Once again, the shifting winds of the Covid-19 pandemic have placed the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a pickle. Last month, in the (very brief) good old days after the original Omicron variant had settled, the agency had indicated that, on April 18, it would reevaluate the mask-wearing mandate on airplanes, trains and other "transportation conveyances."

The conventional wisdom is that Vladimir Putin catastrophically miscalculated.He thought Russian-speaking Ukrainians would welcome his troops. They didn’t. He thought he’d swiftly depose Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. He hasn’t. He thought he’d divide NATO. He’s united it. He thought he had sanction-proofed his economy. He’s wrecked it. He thought the Chinese would help him out. They’re hedging their bets. He thought his modernized military would make mincemeat of Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainians are making mincemeat of his, at least on some fronts.Putin’s miscalculations raise questions about his strategic judgment and mental state. Who, if anyone, is advising him? Has he lost...

People in both parties will tell you that their own side is made up of feckless wimps who cower at the first sign of resistance, while the other side is populated by ruthless Machiavellians who will go to any lengths to win. But they can’t all be right. A look at Washington, and more vividly, at the states, tells us which side is mercilessly advancing its goals and which isn’t. And there are few better illustrations of this vast imbalance than how the parties have responded to the extraordinary Texas abortion law passed last year. A recap: The Texas law...

When the Bush Administration announced in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia would be eligible for NATO membership, I knew it was a terrible idea. Nearly two decades after the end of both the Warsaw Pact and the Cold War, expanding NATO made no sense. NATO itself made no sense. Explaining my “no” vote on a bill to endorse the expansion, I said at the time: NATO is an organization whose purpose ended with the end of its Warsaw Pact adversary… This current round of NATO expansion is a political reward to governments in Georgia and Ukraine that came to power...

Vanity

After Joe Biden’s first year in office, NOT ONE participant in Face the Nation’s focus group believes America is in a better place. CBS host Margaret Brennan was stunned when the entire panel of six participants, including Biden voters, said America is on the wrong path. “During the course of the pandemic, “Face the Nation” has been listening to Americans, through Zoom, to get their thoughts on COVID, the economy and how the government is handling it all. On Friday, we checked back in with six of them,” host Margaret Brennan said. “Who feels like we are in a better...

Surprisingly little attention is being paid to a bombshell admission made by the attorneys representing the corporation formerly known as Facebook, Inc., which has now transitioned into Meta Platforms, Inc.In a court filing responding to a lawsuit filed by John Stossel claiming that he was defamed by a "fact check" Facebook used to label a video by him as "misleading," Meta's attorneys assert that the "fact check" was an "opinion," not an actual check of facts and declaration of facts. Under libel law, opinions are protected from liability for libel.Anthony Watts of Wattsupwiththat explains:Opinions are not subject to defamation claims,...

Are other Freepers looking at or considering leaving the US? No problem dying for my country, not sure if my country is willing to die with me. The older folks will stand, the younger? Be blessed! I can handle the flak, so bring it. We are apparently run by non voted in intelligence groups. They failed to do a cognitive test on Biden, not an accident. Oh ya, Trump lost the election, what a joke.

Do you know what crazy and dangerous stuff the Left did yesterday?

Even worse, the poll shows that registered voters prefer Republicans over Democrats in congressional races by 10 points. If the midterm elections were held today, the result would be a GOP landslide. Given how extremist and authoritarian the Republican Party has become...that is deep cause for concern.

Last week was a good one, so it’s kind of dickish to make fun, but it’s really amusing how quickly some of you went from, in 2016, “We’re gonna get tired of winning,” to nervously awaiting the Youngkin/McAuliffe results sweating bullets, fingers nervously crossed, “Oh please please please just give us this one victory!” Trump lost the House, then the White House, then he blew two potentially winnable Georgia races to lose the Senate, then he idiotically engineered a piece of pointless theater that turned into a full-on riot that morphed into an event that will never stop haunting the...