Free Republic

Key PointsSocial Security provides a periodic cost of living adjustment.Seniors will see their benefits increase by 5.9% in 2022.The rising costs of five necessities could mean the COLA may not provide much extra buying power.Social Security benefit checks will be much larger next year for retirees. Seniors receiving retirement benefits are entitled to annual cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to help maintain their buying power. The 2022 COLA will provide older Americans with a 5.9% benefit increase.While this may seem like a lot of extra money, the sad reality is that rising prices in some key areas are likely to...

A mob of anti-vaxxers stormed Brooklyn’s Barclays Center Sunday as violence erupted at a rally to support Nets hoopster Kyrie Irving, who is refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Hundreds gathered outside the team’s home arena to support Irving, chanting “no vaccine mandate” and “stand with Kyrie” before a break-away group stormed the barricades, wild Twitter video shows. The footage shows security personnel trying in vain to hold back the crowd but being quickly overwhelmed as a handful of protesters break through and make for the front doors. The mob shouted about “Nazi passports” and “Let Kyrie play,” and waved...

Many people are objecting to the mandate to get vaccinated and there are a number of lawsuits working through the courts. For the most part, people are arguing for an exemption. The core question should be “Does the Federal Government have the legal authority to issue a vaccine mandate?” In a word, no. State Vaccine Mandates Can be Permissible The foundational and still-controlling legal authority is Jacobson v. Mass, 197 U.S. 11 (1905). In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a vaccine mandate issued by a town. The Court reasoned that the town’s legal authority flowed from the...

A new poll shows Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin seizing the lead for the first time in the race against Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. Mr. Youngkin edged out Mr. McAuliffe 43% to 41% with 11% of respondents still up for grabs less than two weeks out from Election Day, according to the survey for the conservative Presidential Coalition. The lead was within the polls 3.8% margin of error. The findings, first reported by The Washinton Times, mark a shift from a month ago when the same survey showed Mr. McAuliffe with a 4-point lead.

Dr. Anthony Fauci should face prosecution for testifying under oath before Congress that he did not send taxpayer dollars to Wuhan to conduct gain of function research after his denials were contradicted by the National Institutes of Health, Rep. Devin Nunes said Sunday. "Our committee did a year-long investigation and we talked about it back in May, when we put out an official report, so he was clearly on notice then," the California Republican said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo," where he appeared with former acting director of national intelligence Ric Grenell. But after that, Fauci,...

The chief executives at CSX Corp. CSX 1.17% and Union Pacific Corp. UNP 2.73% say a lack of truck drivers, equipment and warehouse workers are causing congestion in their yards, forcing the railroad operators to turn down some business during a time of high demand for shipping companies. The railroads are also facing issues within their own operations, from damaged bridges to difficulty hiring conductors, that they say are hampering them from transporting more goods. “You dream about days like this when the phone is ringing off the hook, and customers saying, ‘Pick up my stuff and move it for...

The Virginia Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service (USPS) on Friday for allegedly failing to process and deliver election-related mail on time, contending the delays are “threatening to disenfranchise” thousands of voters ahead of next month’s contentious gubernatorial election. The lawsuit argues that while problems are being observed throughout the commonwealth, the “significant delay in election mail” in Albemarle, Portsmouth and James City counties is “particularly egregious.” The party is alleging that thousands of ballots delivered to postal facilities by general registrars in those counties are “still outstanding” and have yet to be scanned into...

Union Pacific and its labor unions are suing each other to determine whether the railroad has the authority to require its employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The unions argue that the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad should have negotiated with them before announcing it would require all employees to get the shots. The railroad contends in its own lawsuit that it believes it has the authority to require the vaccine under its existing contracts because it can set standards for when employees are fit for duty. Union Pacific announced this month that it would require all employees to be vaccinated...

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said Saturday that his official Twitter account had been suspended over a post he made about Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine, who is transgender. According to a screenshot posted of the tweet, Banks said “the title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man,” a reference to Levine, who became the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps' first openly transgender four-star officer. “The account referenced has been temporarily locked for violating our Hateful Conduct Policy. The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining...

Now we have elected officials at the highest-level threatening people who won’t get vaccinated not only with the loss of their job, but barring them from our much-vaunted social safety net. Spiteful and divisive policies aren't likely to increase vaccination rates.

The removal of the Thomas Jefferson statue in New York City shows Donald Trump’s prediction has “come true 100 per cent,” according to Sky News host Rita Panahi. “Trump told us that it wasn’t going to stop at (Confederate) soldiers – this was going to be something that was going to extend to America’s heroes,” Ms Panahi said. “Anybody who had any link with slavery was going to also be impacted.”

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.< p> I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14...

The campaign of Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin took aim at comments made in 2019 by his opponent Terry McAuliffe, who shrugged off Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal as a "dumb mistake" months after calling on him to resign. A new video ad by the Youngkin campaign highlights McAuliffe’s apparent flip-flopping on his view about the scandal, in which Northam, a Democrat, apologized for appearing in a yearbook photo showing a man in blackface and another in a KKK hood and robe. Northam later recanted his apology and denied being in the photo. An investigation into the photo proved...

Classic children’s books in a Cambridge University archive will in future be labelled with ‘trigger warnings’ for ‘harmful content relating to slavery, colonialism and racism’. Researchers are reviewing more than 10,000 books and magazines to expose authors who have been ‘offensive to historically enslaved, colonised or denigrated people’. It comes after anti-racist campaigners demanded teachers censor racial slurs when reading out the text of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. The archive at Cambridge’s Homerton College is being reviewed as part of a move to upload texts to a digital library. In online versions, words, phrases and images deemed harmful...

It’s great to be in Baltimore to cheer on the @Ravens in their first AFC North matchup of the season! #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/cBpwZi5OzE— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) October 24, 2021

A national parents’ group filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a public school district in Massachusetts for allegedly violating the U.S. Constitution by racially segregating students into “affinity groups” and imposing a student speech code. The lawsuit comes as parents and the education establishment across the United States are battling over critical race theory and the systemic racism that leftists argue plagues the nation. Almost 70 years ago, Supreme Court precedent established that “public schools cannot segregate students by race, and students do not abandon their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” states the legal complaint in Parents...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says former Trump campaign adviser Steve Bannon should be prosecuted for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena for information related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “Yes, I do,” Ms. Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The House Friday voted 229-202, with nine Republicans voting with Democrats, to hold Mr. Bannon in contempt of Congress. The Justice Department now will determine whether Mr. Bannon should face prosecution. The nine-member select committee has issued a series of subpoenas seeking testimony and records from former Trump officials and organizers of the “Stop...

Thanks to President Joe Biden, JFK assassination records set to be released this year will be going back to the archives. We’re already a good four years past the deadline from the federal government to turn in the assignment, so to speak. The JFK Act is clear: “Each assassination record shall be publicly disclosed in full, and available in the Collection no later than the date that is 25 years after the date of enactment of this Act.” President Joe Biden wrote in a statement the remaining files “shall be withheld from full public disclosure” until December 15 next year...

Florida Surgeon General Speaking Truth.

When you google “homeschoolers” most of the images that pop up show white, evangelical families. But there’s new evidence that the face of homeschooling is changing. Data from the 2020 Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey shows the number of Black families homeschooling has gone up five-fold in the last year, and it’s no different in Alabama. When Jennifer Duckworth and her husband started their family 10 years ago, homeschooling was something they were always curious about, but it wasn’t until her oldest son was ready to go to kindergarten that they decided to start. “My son, being a young Black...