Free Republic

Click on link

Inflation is the worst in 40 years. The price of cars is up 37%. Gas is up 49%. During the last few years, as politicians spent ever more money, experts told us not to worry. Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, said inflation would be "transitory." Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, "I don't anticipate inflation is going to be a problem." Now she says, "I'm ready to retire the word transitory." What went wrong? "Big corporations have taken advantage," says Rep. Ted Lieu. Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted: "greedy corporations are charging Americans extra." It's "price gouging." This is nonsense....

Could it get any more blatant than this? Nancy Pelosi has put forward a plan to limit the actual in-person attendance of the upcoming State of the Union address to 25 people. According to Alayna Treene: Scoop: McCarthy told members of Republican leadership at an ELC meeting today that Pelosi told him she was instituting a 25-member attendance cap for Biden's State of the Union address, two sources in the room told @axiosKevin McCarthy is said to have replied that “Democrats fly on planes with more people than they planned to allow on the floor.” This is perfectly understandable. By...

Numbers mean things. Public companies use numbers to convey the health, growth, and promise of their firm. If their numbers are fake, don’t reconcile, or have hidden data not conveyed to the investors, CEOs and CFOs can and do go to prison. Why should election rolls meet a lesser standard? Why do election rolls fail to reconcile internally? Why do election rolls have hundreds to thousands of dead people or voters whose address is a church or RV park? Why are citizens forced to pay $12,500, $30,000, or $5,000 for a single copy of their election roll? Why do most...

Is the climate changing? Yes. Is mankind contributing to the change in climate? Yes. Should major national policy respond to this change? No! Climate changes continuously, both warming and cooling. There is nothing new in this and probably nothing to get excited about. Man inevitably modifies the climate. The only questions are by how much and in which way. Historically, man has modified the landscape sufficiently as to make a noticeable impact on the climate. The essential question we must address is, how much are we, today, impacting the climate, and is that impact harmful? The answer is we don't...

Ok this is a bit of a change of pace: Vietnam yesterday convincingly beat China in their World Cup lead-up contest. Vietnam recently had a very good team, but has recently had troubles. That said, they convincingly beat China. Very good game Vietnam!

The Directors Guild of America is urging the Senate Commerce Committee to reject Joe Biden’s nominee to the FCC, citing Gigi Sohn’s past stances on copyright. The committee was scheduled to take up Sohn’s nomination on Wednesday, but it will be postponed because of the absence of Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), whose office announced that he suffered a stroke. He is expected to make a full recovery... In confirmed, Sohn would give Democrats a majority in the FCC, giving them the votes needed to restore net neutrality rules or take a harder line against media concentration. But industry lobbyists,...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Republican leadership members that he had been informed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that they were instituting a 25-House member cap for the State of the Union address, Axios reported, citing two sources. McCarthy said on Tuesday that he was informed of the 25-House member cap by Pelosi, which reportedly upset Republican leaders, including the House GOP leader himself, Axios reported.

Fifty years ago this month, one of the last Japanese soldiers from World War II finally came in from the cold. Two local hunters on the Pacific island of Guam stumbled across a hunched-over man in filthy clothing late one January afternoon as he was setting handmade shrimp traps in a remote jungle stream. The two men had lived through the brutal Japanese occupation of Guam during the war and knew exactly what they had found. Before the wild-eyed man could escape, they grabbed him, tied his hands behind his back, and marched him at gunpoint to the island authorities,...

After the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli Jewish teens by Hamas sparked Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” in the Gaza Strip, Tema Smith retweeted and praised an article titled, “There Are No Good Guys In The Gaza-Israel Conflict.” The article claimed, among other things, that, “Hamas—and the Palestinians as a whole—have desperately real and legitimate grievances against Israel.” She also retweeted another piece urging Jews to “repent for Gaza’s dead.” “Here’s the thing: Jews *have* to be ok with Palestinians *explaining* why some turn to terrorism,” Smith insisted two years ago. Now, the Anti-Defamation League has chosen Smith as...

SANTA FE, N.M. — U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján is currently being hospitalized after experiencing a stroke last Thursday morning. According to his chief of staff, Carlos Sanchez, Luján was experiencing dizziness and fatigue and checked himself into Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Santa Fe. He was later transferred to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque. “Sen. Luján was found to have suffered a stroke in the cerebellum, affecting his balance. As part of his treatment plan, he subsequently underwent decompressive surgery to ease swelling," Sanchez said. We talked to KOAT health expert Dr. Barry Ramo to better understand precisely what...

See video at link. Great quotes from this man's speech: "What I want to know is this, 'When are you all going to start standing up for the majority?' And here's who the majority is: 'I'm the majority. I'm a law-abiding citizen.'" He continues: "Every time we have one of these shootings, no one wants to put the blame where it goes, which is at the shooter's feet. You want to put it at my feet. You want to turn around and restrict my right, constitutional right . . . to buy a firearm and protect myself from some of...

Congressional negotiators are in danger of missing the Feb. 18 deadline for passing an omnibus package of the annual appropriations for fiscal 2022. A shutdown is unlikely, but members of the Senate Appropriations Committee from both parties warn that if negotiators blow through the mid-February deadline, it increases the likelihood that Biden will have to settle for a yearlong stopgap funding measure to keep the government open. That would prevent him from putting his own stamp on department and agency budgets while Democrats control Congress… "I think the budget has to be next, to be honest. I want BBB to...

The 2022 Beijing Olympics are set to include a record 109 sporting events this year, with seven new events in snowboarding, bobsled, and skiing. With a focus on new events with mixed gender teams, this year's Winter Games offer a greater balance between men's and women's events than ever before, according to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC says the athlete make-up in Beijing this year is expected to be 55% male and 45% female. This is thanks, in part, to a broader selection of events at this year's Games, giving athletes, especially women, more opportunities to go for gold....

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, and the Media. "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. Finally, brothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God of love...

Former President George W. Bush gave the maximum allowed political contributions to Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, two Republicans who supported impeaching former President Donald Trump over the January 6 Capitol riot. New disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission said Bush gave Cheney $5,800 on October 28 for both the general and primary elections. On December 31, he also gave Murkowski $2,900 for her primary. The FEC sets limits on political contributions. Cheney, the daughter of Bush's own vice president, Dick Cheney, and an outspoken Trump critic, now serves as the lead Republican on the...

New York Democrats on Sunday released a congressional gerrymander so egregious that it makes Republican efforts pale in comparison. It’s also a flagrant violation of the state constitution, which means it is up to the state’s Democratic-appointed judges to show courage and throw this map out. Empire State Democrats left no stone unturned in their efforts to thrash Republicans. Nathaniel Rakich at FiveThirtyEight suggests the map could give Democrats the edge in terms of gains from redistricting nationwide. Cook Political Report redistricting guru Dave Wasserman explains that Democrats were so precise that only a few precincts in the entire state...

The Readings for today's Feast Day focus on the theme of the priesthood of Christ, seeing a kind of sacerdotal significance to this first entrance of the Messiah into the Temple. These Readings prompt us to meditate firstly on how Jesus has served and continues to serve as our great High Priest, but also how his priesthood is lived out in our own lives, since we share in his priesthood by virtue of our Baptism. 1. The First Reading is Mal 3:1-4:Thus says the Lord GOD: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; And suddenly...

NN contributor Dr. Leana Wen on Tuesday published a piece saying America needs to get back to normal now that the Omicron variant is on the way out. This stands in contrast to the message Wen wrote late last year urging the Biden administration to enact heavy pandemic restrictions. While both of her write-ups talk about lingering threats on the horizon, the difference now is Wen wants the public to not be afraid of COVID-19 anymore. In a pair of dueling Washington Post op-eds, Wen reverses course on COVID-19 rules. In November 2021, Wen penned the prior piece by leaning...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced on Tuesday he has tested positive for COVID-19. “This afternoon, I tested positive for COVID-19, and I am experiencing mild symptoms,” the 82-year-old congressman said in a statement. “Thankfully, I am fully vaccinated and already received my booster shot.” He continued, “I’m very grateful to the researchers, scientists, and medical experts who worked hard to develop the COVID-19 vaccines and to all the extraordinary public health workers and volunteers in our communities who have tirelessly worked to get shots into arms.” Hoyer said he will be working from home for the upcoming week...