Free Republic

Next year, General Mills will raise prices on hundreds of products. The inflation rate for consumers reached 6.2% in the United States during the month of October, and food companies such as General Mills are passing their higher input costs on to consumers. General Mills (GIS) notified retail customers that it’s raising prices in mid-January on hundreds of items across dozens of brands. They include Annie’s, Progresso, Yoplait, Fruit Roll-Ups, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charm’s, Wheaties, Reese’s Puffs, Trix and more, according to letters General Mills sent to at least one major regional wholesale supplier last...

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he is nominating Shalanda Young to lead the White House budget office and Nani Coloretti to serve as Young’s deputy. If confirmed by the Senate, Young would be the first Black woman to lead the Office of Management and Budget while Coloretti, who is Filipino American, would become one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the Biden administration. It would be the first time that two women of color will lead the agency, which helps the president develop an annual budget and monitors how tax dollars are spent. Young has...

Joe Biden has invited Taiwan to a virtual summit on democracy alongside more than 100 countries -- a move that sparked indignation from authoritarian China, which is not on the list.Taiwan thanked Biden for the invitation and said the gathering would be a rare opportunity for the self-ruled democracy to burnish its credentials on the world stage."Through this summit, Taiwan can share its democratic success story," Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang told reporters.China said it "firmly opposed" the inclusion of an island it regards as "an inalienable part of Chinese territory". Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory...

During the Trump administration, the Department of Education instituted a new data collection point that would include not just students who were raped by teachers and led to convictions but also students who were sexually assaulted or fondled where the incidents led to the reassignment of the offender to another school district before the investigation was completed. Creepy Joe’s Department of Education has rescinded that requirement and will no longer keep track of teachers who fondle kids and get hidden away somewhere else to do it to someone else’s kids. The Washington Free Beacon reported:The Education Department will still ask...

The White House is dismissing concerns about the historic cost of Thanksgiving Dinner this year, which is up 14 percent. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki brushed aside those concerns during her daily press briefing. "I don't know if you've ever cooked a turkey before, but a 20-pound turkey is a pretty big turkey, I think we can all agree," she said. "They're about $1 more." "I just want to be clear that there's an abundance of turkeys available, about $1 more for a 20-pound bird, which is a huge bird, if you're feeding a very big family. We're working...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and climate activists generally supported President Joe Biden’s decision to release a record 50 million barrels of oil from America’s strategic reserve, even as the move appeared to contradict his long-term vision of combating climate change. Kelly Sheehan, senior director of energy campaigns with the Sierra Club, hailed Biden’s actions as a way to ease Americans’ energy burdens. But she said the current spike in oil prices was a reminder that “the only way to truly achieve energy security is to rapidly transition away from risky fossil fuels like oil and gas and make it easier...

With great fanfare from the press and a shrug from the markets, Presidentish Joe Biden announced his plan to basically do nothing about the high price of oil and gas. Of all the inflationary pressures putting the squeeze on Americans’ household budgets — beef up 20% since 2020, pork up 14%, ham up 7%, chicken up 9%, seafood 7%, eggs up 12% — perhaps none has hurt as much as the increase in the price of a gallon of gas. Gas is up an average of 57% this year, with corresponding increases of 44% for diesel and a whopping 60%...

As President Joe Biden continues his refusal to retract false allegations of white supremacy against Kyle Rittenhouse, President Donald Trump is stepping in to do the right thing. Trump invited Rittenhouse to Mar-a-Lago this week after a jury found he acted in self-defense against a band of criminal adults in Kenosha last year. Trump discussed the visit with Fox News host Sean Hannity Tuesday night. "Kyle I got to know him a little bit...really a nice young man and what he went through, that was prosecutorial misconduct. He should not have had to suffer through a trial for that. He...

A coalition of nearly 70 California progressive grassroots groups urged Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) either to call for the "swift passage" of both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by the end of this month or to resign. In a letter released on Tuesday, the 69 civic and environmental groups asked that Feinstein call for the two pieces of legislation to be passed and express her willingness to "abolish or create an exception to the filibuster" in order to get them through the Senate. "If you are unwilling to take these steps to...

Yesterday 8 year old Jackson Sparks succumbed to the injuries sustained when he was struck by a vehicle drive by Darrell Brooks. He was the sixth person to die in the Waukesha killing spree. At least 62 other were injured. Brooks was released from custody a couple of days before with a low bail after trying to run over a woman- the mother of his child. Milwaukee DA John Chisolm says it's all worth it. Chisolm, backed by George Soros, has been a champion for criminals for some time. Chisholm has been a leading figure among "progressive prosecutors," leftwing lawmen...

CRANBERRY & PICKLE PIE

This is the time of the year to give thanks, and the FRED Blog is thankful for the rich variety of data series and data sources available in FRED. In years past, we’ve tapped data from the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Eurostat to assemble tasty graphs showing the price of traditional Thanksgiving meals. Today, we compare a poultry-based meal with a plant-based meal. Let’s start with a data literacy appetizer. The FRED graph above plots the quarterly global prices of poultry (including turkey) in orange and soybeans (the main ingredient in tofu) in green,...

J.J. Watt will reportedly pay for any funeral costs of those killed by a black nationalist during a Christmas parade Sunday night in Wisconsin. J.J. Watt is covering the funeral costs for everyone that lost their life in the Waukesha Christmas Parade. That is an amazing gesture. He has such a huge heart. — Cory Jennerjohn (@CoryJennerjohn) November 23, 2021 The Arizona Cardinals star hails from Waukesha, where six people have now died and about 50 more were injured, when Darrell Brooks drove his SUV through a large crowd at the town’s annual Christmas parade. The horrific rampage likely hits...

Republican Virginia Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome Sears took a strong stand for individual liberty Sunday as she said forcing the coronavirus vaccine on those who do not need it is wrong. Sears appeared on the CNN show “State of the Union” on Sunday, where she tried to talk common sense to host Dana Bash. “Let's ask ourselves, if the purpose of the COVID vaccine is to prevent us from getting COVID, then why is it that those who have had COVID must get the vaccine?” she said as she began staking out her position. “The one doesn't follow the other. And...

There was a "lot missing" from President Joe Biden's first routine physical as the nation's leader, including a cognitive examination, and that's because the current White House physician didn't want to reveal the answers those tests could have determined, Rep. Ronny Jackson, former White House doctor, said on Newsmax Wednesday.

Has any other couple enjoyed and/or endured as much publicity as Harry and Meghan? Remember the fairy-tale romance started with a blind date? Soon they were jet-setting around the world. This was followed by the engagement, a magnificent wedding, and a year later a bouncing baby boy, Archie. Were they living happily ever after? As in all fairy tales, there was a murky underside. The couple stated the British media had been unfair. Among other issues were family drama and a massive case of ‘I-want-my-own-way.’ They announced they were stepping down from royal duties and moving to North America to...

Have you finally had enough yet? Do you sense the worm beginning to turn? Has the constellation of abnormalities that currently afflicts the real-American body politic at last gotten your attention? Isn’t it time for all of us to stand up for the nation-as-founded and reject those who would destroy it in order to usher in their cultural-Marxist paradise?Consider the events of the past few days.RittenhouseIn Kenosha, Wisconsin, teenager Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on multiple charges stemming from his shooting of three Antifa rioters, killing two of them. Despite the media’s best attempts to portray his rabid assailants...

Like T.R. Clancy on these pages two days ago, I railed at the moronic, breathless claim the main-stream-media spewed that Kyle Rittenhouse crossed state lines. As Mr. Clancy explained, the United States Interstate Commerce Law mandates the ability to wander among the states freely. One doesn’t have to actually be involved in commerce to travel. Here, in the United States, one has the luxury to visit family, job-hunt, shop and/or sightsee, or move about the country without purpose or permission. So why did the media make a false meme regarding Kyle Rittenhouse’s purported felonious crossing of state lines? With what...

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The scariest scenario of the global warming doomsayers has been the idea that the melting Arctic ice cap would put coastal cities underwater. For example:‘Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice,’ reported the BBC back in 2007. ‘Their latest modelling indicates that northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.’Professor Wieslaw Maslowski from the Department of Oceanography of the US Navy predicted an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the summer of 2013.Maslowski added that his prediction was on the conservative side, too: “Our projection...