Free Republic

Let’s get ready to stumble! Seriously, with soaring energy prices and soaring EVERYTHING prices (except for real wage growth), it is difficult to see how the US will avoid a recession. Yes, everything is seemingly rising in price, yet REAL average hourly earnings growth keeps falling. Rising price + declining real earnings growth = eventual recession. So, let’s get ready to stumble … into recession.

A grocery store. A hair salon. A church. In less than a week, these everyday settings have become the tragic backdrops for the latest outbreak of what has become the quintessential American expression of deadly violence — a mass shooting staged by a lone gunman armed to the teeth with guns and grievances. Experts who have studied the phenomenon said the three shootings, which have left 11 people dead and 11 more wounded since Wednesday, underscore a sad fact that most of us already understand on some level — that no place is safe anymore. “They are targeting people in...

Russia’s war on Ukraine is leading to an “apocalyptic” food shortage, Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey told a committee of Parliament on Monday. Bailey said the main issue is that major global grain supplier Ukraine’s crops cannot be exported due to the war. The head of the United Nations World Food Program warned “millions of people around the world will die” if Ukraine’s Black Sea ports continue to be blockaded by Russia. Last week, Italian League party leader Matteo Salvini warned the looming food shortages due to the war could cause as many as 20 million people...

This is a question for my fellow Freepers: I have a Ukrainian family living here in Annapolis, Maryland with me. We crossed the border with Mexico at Tijuana in April. One person has a tourist visa issued by the U.S. Consulate in Ukraine. The other two were issued "Humanitarian Visas" by the Department of Homeland Security at the border. We applied for human services benefits through Maryland Gov. for food stamps etc. We applied for Social Security cards for two of our people so that they could apply for work in area businesses (both are college educated and speak acceptable...

Massive flocks of the red-billed quelea bird — a notorious African crop pest — have decimated grain harvests across farms in western Zimbabwe in recent weeks, causing fears of a local food shortage in the near future, the online newspaper New Zimbabwe reported Monday. “Farmers in Umguza and Bubi farming areas in Matebeleland North province are struggling to contain a massive outbreak of quelea birds which are feasting on their crops, mainly small grains,” the publication reported on May 16. “As a result of the invasion, the farmers, say they are now spending most of their time clanging metal objects...

Weekly Update --- Why Did Rand Paul Delay Washington’s $40 Billion Ukraine Giveaway? Video ... [5 mins]

“‘“Our Father who is in heaven . . .”’” (Matthew 6:9). Only those who have come to God through Christ can call God “Father.” He is the Father of unbelievers only in that He created them (cf. Mal. 2:10; Acts 17:28). It is only those who trust Jesus who have “the right to become children of God” (John 1:12; cf. Rom. 8:14; Gal. 3:26). In the Old Testament, faithful Jews saw God as the Father of Israel, the nation He elected as His special people. Isaiah proclaimed, “You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your...

Declaration of Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop, Former Apostolic Nuncio to The United States of America, on the Russia-Ukraine Crisis Nothing is lost with peace. All can be lost with war. Let men return to understanding. Let them resume negotiating. Negotiating with good will and with respect for each other’s rights, let them realize that an honorable success is never precluded when there are sincere and active negotiations. And they will feel great – with true greatness – if imposing silence on the voices of passion, whether collective or private, and leaving reason to its proper domain, they will spare...

Federal regulators authorized a coronavirus booster shot Tuesday for school-age children, making a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available to 5-to-11-year-olds as cases rise nationally. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the booster for use at least five months after children are fully vaccinated with the two-shot primary series. FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a statement that while covid-19 tends to be less severe in children, the wave of infections caused by the omicron variant has resulted “in more children getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even...

Just The News founder John Solomon believes that Special Counsel John Durham is preparing to go after the FBI. During an interview on Fox News, Solomon and host Maria Bartiromo spoke about the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump-Russia witch hunt and what Durham’s next move might be. Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko — key source for the unverified Steele dossier that alleged ties between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia — was arrested by federal agents last year as part of the Durham investigation. Solomon explained that he believes Durham is dealing with “two buckets.” In one “bucket,” there are the...

Lockdowns, Closures, and the Loss of Moral ClarityLast weekend, an 18-year-old kid slogged a powerful weapon into a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and started shooting people based on race. Thirteen people were slaughtered. His goal was to start a race war, along the lines of the fiction books that inspired his online gurus. He live-streamed the carnage and left a manifesto explaining his motives. His ideology – which has deep roots and has spawned genocides – is the kind of demonic gibberish that unstable kids find on the Internet when they are looking for some mission and meaning in...

In late April, Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), made a bizarre announcement during a congressional hearing that DHS was forming what it called a “Mis- and Disinformation Governance Board.” The statement came in response to a question about how DHS was responding to supposed Russian interference in American elections. Mayorkas said the Board was intended to counter threats to both election security and “homeland security.” The DHS secretary did not, however, go into detail about what authorities the board would have and how it would exercise “governance” of the information, opinions, and narratives that reach...

@RepThomasMassie The @US_FDA has had the same impact on baby formula manufacturing as the @USDA has had on meat processing in the United States. The US-duh and the F-duh are working every day to keep prices high and supply low, while making sure no new businesses can enter the market.

Congress on Tuesday held its first public hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years. Pentagon officials testified before a House Intelligence Committee subcommittee about how the Defense Department is organizing reports of these mysterious objects.

A growing number of scientists seem finally ready to at least include intelligent design within the ‘range of views’ allowed to be heard.At first glance, the Potential and Limitations of Evolutionary Processes conference in Israel last week, which I attended, looked like any other scientific meeting on evolution, with talks by highly-credentialed scientists from institutions such as the Technical University of Munich, Cambridge, and the Weizmann Institute. But a closer look at the list of speakers shows that this one was different; it gave a platform to numerous notable proponents of intelligent design. The conference included chemistry Nobel prize winners...

A spokesperson at 76 confirmed to The Post Millennial that the gas pumps were reprogrammed to allocate for double-digit pricing. Gas stations across the US are running out of fuel and in anticipation of an increase in gas prices, gas stations in the state of Washington are reportedly reprogramming pumps to include double-digit numbers in "price per gallon" as the current trend could put prices over $10.00. At the 76 Gas Station in Auburn, Washington located at 1725 Auburn Way North, gas pumps have been reprogrammed to make room for double-digit pricing. In March, they still had single-digit programming. A...

Protesting on people’s lawns will soon be illegal thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Residential picketing has marched into the national debate this month as abortion rights supporters stake out the homes of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices. The protests began following the leak this month of a draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Although the Legislature passed the anti-picketing bill (HB 1571) in March, the bill signing plays into the national conversation around the First Amendment, the right to privacy and obstruction of justice. DeSantis, a Republican, signed the measure Monday. “Sending unruly...

In the span of one month, there were two mass shootings. Both took place in New York. Both were racially motivated. Both shooters were violent extremists. But the media tied only one of them to a mainstream political party. Can you guess why? Immediately after the identity of the alleged Buffalo shooter – initially charged with one murder and suspected of killing 10 – became known, the chattering class was insisting that he was not a “lone wolf” and pinned the blame for the massacre on “right-wing extremists” who “control the Republican party.” The Rolling Stone called the 18-year-old Payton...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Signs of Republican resistance are mounting over a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, a reemergence of the Trump-led isolationist wing of the GOP that's coming at a crucial moment as the war against the Russian invasion deepens.The Senate voted late Monday to advance the Ukraine aid bill 81-11, pushing it toward President Joe Biden's desk by week's end to become law. But more vocal objections from Republicans in Congress are sending warning signs after what has been rare and united support for Ukraine as it desperately battles hostile Russia. All 11 no votes came from Republican...

It is just 24 hours later, and the number of confirmed cases in the UK has more than doubled. I told you that I would be keeping an eye on this story, and there have been some alarming new developments. When I wrote about the monkeypox outbreak in the UK yesterday, there were three confirmed cases. Now there are seven, and authorities can’t explain why it is spreading. This is a disease that is not supposed to spread from person to person easily, but apparently some human to human transmission has been happening in these new cases. According to UK...