Free Republic

Social Security payments could rise 6.1 percent next year due to soaring inflation, which would be the largest increase since 1983, according to a new estimate. The Senior Citizens League, a non-partisan advocacy group, released the new estimate on Wednesday, responding to the latest inflation data showing prices are up 5.4 percent in the 12 months through June. For the 69 million people currently receiving benefits, however, the next cost-of-living increase will not come until January's payment, leaving many struggling on a fixed income as the price of goods surges. The most recent bump in benefits, calculated based on last...

The Delta variant is here. It's now responsible for the majority of COVID-19 infections in the United States and is driving a rapid rise in cases, not only in red states like Arkansas but in true blue New York City. But while the Delta variant is much more contagious than either the original strain or the Alpha variant that first appeared in Britain, and has shown greater ability to infect vaccinated individuals, all the vaccines approved for use in the United States have so far proven highly effective in preventing severe disease and death. So it's understandably maddening that much...

This is a humorous (yet mostly accurate) video showing the differences between Catholics and Orthodox. It's done by a talented Serbian Orthodox young man and his channel is worth subscribing to. Differences Between Orthodox and Catholics

Microsoft wants 20,000 likes in return for Clippy, and it got themMicrosoft is threatening to bring back its annoying loveable Clippy character. The software giant claims it will replace the paperclip emoji in Microsoft Office with Clippy if the tweet below gets 20,000 likes. The tweet has already surpassed that number, so it seems Clippy could be about to return as a more innocent emoji — but Microsoft is being coy about what might happen next. Born in Office 97, Clippy originally appeared as an assistant to offer help and tips for using Microsoft Office. You either loved or hated...

A study of adults in Switzerland who had contracted COVID-19 found that a quarter of them still had symptoms for six to eight months following their illness. Fatigue, shortness of breath and depression were the most common long-term symptoms reported among the group, which the study authors said highlights the need for post-COVID-19 care. “This cohort study based on a representative, population-based sample of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals found that 26 percent did not fully recover within 6-8 months after diagnosis and 40 percent had at least one further health care contact related to COVID-19,” the study authors, from University of...

WASHINGTON — Democrats have agreed to include a tax on imports from nations that lack aggressive climate change policies as part of a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget plan stocked with other provisions aimed at ratcheting down fossil fuel pollution in the United States. The move to tax imports was made public Wednesday, the same day that the European Union outlined its own proposal for a similar carbon border tax, a novel tool that is designed to protect domestic manufacturing while simultaneously pressuring other countries to reduce the emissions that are warming the planet. The two actions in concert suggest that...

"Just look out the window. See those wires? That's where electricity comes from." "But how does it get into the wires?" "At the other end of the wires, there's sort of a factory that has machines that make electricity. The machines are driven by steam turbines. The steam is made by burning natural gas or coal and sometimes the heat from small atomic bombs." "Oh! I get it." Ironically, as carbon-based energy is being hysterically blamed for the impending destruction of the Earth, schemes to put much more demand on the electrical grid abound. Meanwhile, last December, the CEO of...

MSNBC’s Al Sharpton on Thursday praised President Joe Biden’s speech on voting rights in Philadelphia the day before. Sharpton described the speech in which Biden likened recent GOP-led voting integrity laws to Jim Crow laws as “monumental.” “I think he made … a monumental speech,” Shapton proclaimed on “Morning Joe.” “For a president to stand there in the shadows of where they signed the Declaration of Independence and attack Jim Crow 21st century was something that I was not expecting. And I also thought the fact that he did not, in any way, shape or form, duck the racial aspect...

Our timing is bad or we are just plain sheeple. Biden could be throwing gas on Cuba's fire. Instead he chooses to let this 'crisis' go to waste. California-2 days left to file for the Governorship and Larry Elder is the latest-no money + no warts(so far). 80k signature gatherers pound the pavements for the recall-then what? Wait for a billionaire like Peter Thiel to save us the followup work? 60 days to go and our followup is limp. Freepers are part of the problem-naysayers(unexpected). 2 million signed the recall petition. Then there are the 80k recall gatherers ready to...

VIDEOThat is a question that MILLIONS of Americans are asking right now. I can't remember a time when tax refunds have been delayed so long on such a mass scale. The federal government is waaaaaay delayed on sending us our tax refunds yet they are already planning on passing multi-trillion dollar spending programs? Beam me up, Scotty!Oh, and finally, WHERE'S MY DAMN TAX REFUND?

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are asking the Justice Department for more information and records after learning that the department could not locate 59 of the 96 phones used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team. Further, the Justice Department failed to review over twenty phones for federal record preservation. In September 2020, Grassley asked about the potential violation of federal record-keeping laws after a Freedom of Information Act disclosure detailed the inventory and management of the special counsel team’s devices and showed records had been deleted. Johnson requested information from the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General...

Tape. It has many uses: School projects. Quick fixes. Sometimes it’s even used in fashion. Double sided stick tape has long been a hack for those who dare to bear in plunging necklines (see JLo’s 90s era jungle Armani gown). At Paraiso Swim Week, tape was used for yet another reason Saturday night: as a material. Local designer Joel Alvarez sent his models out at Faena Forum in Miami Beach in a special kind of adhesive that works on human skin and does not leave any stickiness once removed.

Operation Barn Door began on the morning of Nov. 5, 2020, when the Trump “campaign” suddenly realized it should have been paying attention—over the previous two years!—to what the Democrats were up to via the George Soros-funded secretaries of state project. It involved an entirely futile and doomed last stand to somehow overturn the certified (a better word would be “rubber-stamped,” which is all the legislatures and the Congress actually do) results according to the timetables laid down by law. At that point, there simply wasn’t enough time for the Trump team to do what it should’ve been doing from...

ZMM MEZJC ZXOQJG, KCNZJOB ME HXMOBJCKCS ZIJ VKCB, VJXJGU GJCSZIJCN ZIJ WMCQJXNOZKMC. —JGKLOHJZI BXJR Today’s Cryptogram

No one can compete with CNN in its complete lack of self-awareness of what it is: a talking-points network for Democrats, and the media’s loudest voice for removing Fox News from your cable TV. At 10:55 pm, Brian Stelter e-mailed out their latest "Reliable Sources" propaganda sheet under the headline “Have you no shame?” It was a quote of their hero President Biden. Stelter began: "Make no mistake," President Biden said Tuesday, "bullies and merchants of fear, peddlers of lies, are threatening the very foundation of our country." Biden's dire warning -- part of his address about an ongoing assault...

WASHINGTON, Sunday, July 14. The following was received, July 13, from Beverly, Va.: "I have received from Col. PEGRAM propositions for his surrender, with his officers and remnant of his command, say 600 men. They are said to be extremely penitent, and determined never again to take up arms against the General Government. I shall have near 900 or 1,000 prisoners to take care of when Col. PEGRAM comes in. The latest accounts make the loss of the rebels in killed some 150." Gen MCCLELLAN's dispatches have diffused general joy here, and none share in it in a greater degree...

Well, Keith Olbermann decided to pop his head out of the bunker to give a lecture on the Second Amendment. Yeah, you might want to grab a drink or seven if you want to watch. To put it simply, it’s an attempt at gaslighting us on gun rights. According to Mr. Olbermann, the Second Amendment doesn’t mean we can own firearms. Despite the text, which is clear, and eons of legal precedent, Olbermann says owning guns isn’t a right. He wasn’t alone either. That’s the new rule. If you don’t like something, just invent stuff and see if it flies....

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will visit with former President Trump at Trump's golf club in New Jersey on Thursday, Trump said in a statement. McCarthy will travel to Bedminster for his second in-person meeting with Trump since he left office in January. McCarthy previously met with Trump at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "Much to discuss!" Trump said in a statement.

(Nirosha Murugan, Levin lab, Tufts University and Wyss Institute at Harvard University) A slippery yellow slime that lives in the damp undergrowth is continuing to test our understanding of what it means to make decisions. Physarum polycephalum, AKA the many-headed slime mold, uses its body to physically sense its environment before making a decision about where it wants to go, new research has found. It's the latest in an impressive list of ways the single-celled organism has blown our minds lately. "People are becoming more interested in Physarum because it doesn't have a brain but it can still perform a...

The 1970 Porsche 917K driven by Steve McQueen in the classic film 'Le Mans' will be put up for auction next month - and could fetch more than $18million. Expected to become the most expensive Porsche ever, the car is one of racing's most illustrious vehicles having competed in the race and starred with McQueen in the movie. McQueen even drove it while crossing the finishing line in the winning shot. The sports car represents the culmination of Porsche's engineering at the time as the company sought to take its first victory at the 1970 race, according to the auction's...