Free Republic

(NewsNation) – The Social Security Administration announced 2024’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) just over a month ago, confirming a 3.2% bump in benefits for retirees. Here’s what you need to know. How does the 2024 increase compare to 2023’s? While still one of the largest increases in decades, 2024’s COLA increase of 3.2% is far below the 8.7% bump that recipients were granted in 2023.

Washington could grant Chevron approval to significantly boost oil production in Venezuela as early as this weekend, if the government of Nicolas Maduro resumes talks with the opposition. This potential would mean an easing of sanctions against Venezuela at a time when the United States is pushing for higher oil production to ease soaring prices. Easing sanctions on Venezuela is among the only options left to the Biden administration to increase oil production. OPEC+ has refused to heed Washington’s calls for a production hike; instead, cutting production by 2 million bpd through the end of the year. Sanctions will not...

From cattle to uncontrolled wildlife, pesky but pervasive large parasites like tapeworms have a far greater impact on the total body health of their mammal hosts than previously known, new University of Alberta research suggests. "Parasites don't have to kill the animal to control a population," says Kyle Shanebeck, a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Science's Department of Biological Sciences who led the study. Shanebeck explained that all wildlife have at least one and often multiple parasites. The less fatal a parasite, the more prevalent it is within a population, with potentially stronger negative effects. "They can affect the...

The possibility that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade has set off alarm bells in the LGBT community. Advocates and legal experts are warning that the 1973 landmark decision, which deemed that a woman’s right to abortion is constitutional, could have severe consequences for LGBT Americans’ mental and physical health, socioeconomic status and right to marriage.

https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/crop-production/nitrogen-shortage-brewing-so-what-will-it-take-cure-worlds-fertilizer

To mark the premiere of Fox Nation's new special, "The Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan," former White House Advance Planner Rick Ahearn joined "Your World" Tuesday to reflect on the shooting of the 40th president by John Hinckley 40 years ago next week.

When COVID-19 restrictions reduced his work schedule at the National Institutes of Health, Sam Smith decided to turn to another time-consuming job: applying to medical school. He'd always wanted to go into medicine, but what was happening in the world had a big impact on the kind of medicine he hopes to practice. Now Smith wants to specialize in infectious diseases. The experience of the last year "makes me think, there's probably going to be another pandemic" in the future, said Smith, 25. "So I want to be on the front lines of the next one."

A few choice comments by Dave Cullen. Today's subject: CNBC - "Physicists assure us that we're not living in an alternate reality where Trump is president"http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/22/alternate-realities-and-trump-mandala-effect-and-what-cern-does.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYTJYCdebzQ

The Burlington police said Trump's campaign issued the free tickets online through its website. Trump's rally will be held at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m. Thursday. Doors will open at 5 p.m. The Flynn's capacity is 1,411, which includes space for the press pool.

Writing for the Associated Press, Rachel Zoll notes that, "The Vatican ambassador to the U.S., addressing American bishops at their first national meeting since Pope Francis was elected, said Monday they should not 'follow a particular ideology' and should make Roman Catholics feel more welcome in church. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano noted the challenges from broader society to Christian teaching....'the Holy Father wants bishops in tune with their people....He made a special point of saying that he wants pastoral bishops, not bishops who profess or follow a particular ideology.' In a September interview, Francis said Catholic leaders should give greater...

This election highlights a growing phenomenon: non- Jewish Republican candidates outflanking Jewish Democrats in pro-Israel positions. When an Orthodox Jewish, kippa-wearing Democratic candidate might lose a congressional election in the most Jewish (and 75% Democratic) congressional district in America – a seat occupied by Democrats for nearly a century – to a non-Jewish Republican, something significant is going on. And Golda Koppelman knows what that something is. New York’s 9th Congressional District (Brooklyn and Queens) is gearing up for the September 13, 2011 special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced Democrat Anthony Weiner. Koppelman, a Holocaust survivor who...

BOSTON—The number of Earth-like extrasolar planets suitable for harboring advanced life could be 10 times higher than has been assumed until now, according to a new modeling study. The finding contradicts the prevailing notion that a terrestrial planet needs a large moon to stabilize the orientation of its axis and, hence, its climate. In 1993, French mathematicians Jacques Laskar and Philippe Robutel showed that Earth’s large moon has a stabilizing effect on our planet’s climate. Without the moon, gravitational perturbations from other planets, notably nearby Venus and massive Jupiter, would greatly disturb Earth’s axial tilt, with vast consequences for the...

A radical reformulation of quantum mechanics suggests that the universe has a set destiny and its pre-existing fate reaches back in time to influence the past. It could explain the origin of life, dark energy and solve other cosmic conundrums.The universe has a destiny—and this set fate could be reaching backwards in time and combining with influences from the past to shape the present. It’s a mind-bending claim, but some cosmologists now believe that a radical reformulation of quantum mechanics in which the future can affect the past could solve some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, including how life arose....

Yesterday, Fox News reported the hearings held by Senator Joe Lieberman with cabinet officials concerning a shortage of flu vaccine. I'm sitting in Afghanistan not getting much broadcast TV news. I wanted to find out more, so I searched Google News for related articles. It turns out that as of this writing, the rest of the media is not reporting this event, at least in print. Try this. Go to the Google search page, click on the "News" tab. Now enter "Joe Lieberman".

The meta-message of Cass Sunstein's new book delivers a warning to those who would spread Internet "rumors" about Barack Obama. The Regulatory Czar's latest book is entitled Rumors. It purports to be about how rumors spread. To that end, it's full of remarkable insights such as "Many of us accept false rumors because of either our fears or our hopes." (p. 6) "Your willingness to believe a rumor will inevitably depend on the information with which you start." (p. 19) "Sometimes people believe rumors because other people believe them." (p. 28) Plus the shocking revelation that "Many rumors spread conspiracy...

I know I am new to FR and not entirely sure I am doing this correctly however having said that I know there was a lot of interest in Glenn Beck's show about the Bubba Effect and wanted to let y'all know the subject is being discussed right now on his show.

THE RIGHT TAKES AIM AT MEDIA'S TREATMENT OF OBAMAPOST STAFF REPORT Last updated: 4:19 pm July 25, 2008 Fully expecting Sen. Clinton to be the Democratic presidential nominee, the conservative advocacy group Citizens United spent 18 months and millions of dollars making "Hillary: The Movie." But as the saying goes, God gave them lemons and they made "Hype: The Obama Effect." "Hype" is a full-length feature documentary that will be released on DVD Sept. 1 and will be playing in select theaters across the country. The trailer has been released online and advertising on FOX began this week. Citizens United...

Lots of issues including Russia – the USA complicated relations were discussed at G8 summit in Germany, but the question of the greenhouse effect taken for unimportant for many years appeared to be one of the most disputable. The parties agreed that so-called post-Kyoto agreements implying double reduction of emissions by 2050 should be worked out. In 2013, as soon as the Kyoto protocol is no longer valid, Germany is going to put forward an initiative of an agreement on global 30% cut of CO2 emissions by 2020. The document is supposed to be ready at the end of 2007...

SMILE FOR EFFECT, A PREQUEL TO “THE AMERICAN STREET”. Months ago I wrote a post about the American Street. In it, I describe a verbal exchange I had with a communist propagandizer. Despite the obnoxious T-Shirt this snake oil salesman was wearing, and despite the fact he was trying hard to attract attention – almost everyone around him was doing a good job of ignoring him. I however could not ignore him. You might be asking, why did humint notice a subversive newspaper salesman among an ocean of busy bodies, shuffling diligently from point “A” to point “B”? The answer...