Free Republic

President Biden’s approval rating ticked up 3 percentage points in the past week, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday, as Democrats scored a major legislative win with the passage of their climate, health care and tax reform package. The poll showed that 42 percent of registered voters said they approve of the job Biden is doing as president. The same poll released last week showed Biden’s approval rating was at 39 percent.

None of the 19 sororities at the University of Alabama were interested in having a male student named Grant Sikes join them this year. The student, who uses “she/her” pronouns, called the decisions “extremely upsetting” and “sad” in a TikTok video, where Sikes had been documenting the sorority application journey. Sikes wrote a note on Instagram: First and foremost, I would like to thank my family, friends and everyone who has come along during this journey with me. From the thousands of messages to meeting the funniest people, I had the best time. Unfortunately this chapter is closed. This recruitment...

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on Tuesday that some people “equate Donald Trump with the person of Jesus Christ” in their hearts. “To them, if you even come against this amazing man, Donald Trump, which obviously quite flawed, you are coming out against Jesus, against their Christian values,” he told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner. “And when you go after their religion, that violates the depth of who they are.” Kinzinger made the remark in response to a question Wagner asked him about criticism he has received from his own family members in relation to opposing former President Trump.

Most people infected by the omicron variant of COVID-19 were not aware they had it, according to a new study. “More than one in every two people who were infected with omicron didn’t know they had it,” the study’s first author and an investigator at Cedars-Sinai Sandy Y. Joung said in a media release. “Awareness will be key for allowing us to move beyond this pandemic.” Investigators conducting a study examining COVID-19 and the effect of vaccines identified nearly 2,500 blood samples from patients just before and after the start of omicron’s surge – identifying 210 people who likely had...

Donald Trump did not divide the country: the democrats, driven by their vicious hatred for Donald Trump, divided the country. /well duh

(Reuters) -Californians were urged to ratchet down the use of electricity in their homes and businesses on Wednesday as a wave of extreme heat settles over much of the state, stretching tight power supplies to their breaking point. Temperatures in the most populous state are forecast to climb to well above 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) during the afternoon. The extreme conditions are the latest sign of the impact of climate change in the U.S. West, where wildfires and severe drought have emerged as a growing threat. As spells of excessive heat become more frequent, the strain on power and water...

Rep. Liz Cheney, the most renowned anti-Trumper in the Republican Party, went down in flaming defeat in Wyoming's GOP primary Tuesday. CNN projected that her main opponent, lawyer Harriet Hageman, who was endorsed by former President Trump...

Novelist, Hollywood producer, and left-wing Trump-basher Stephen King says he cannot understand why people continue to support former President Donald Trump, because he believes “most people are good,” and Trump is a “horrible person” who “engaged in criminal behavior.” “I think that most people are good,” King said in a recent interview with the Sunday Times. “Most people will give you the shirt off their back.”

Higher oil export volumes, coupled with rising petrol prices, will boost Russia’s earnings from energy exports to $337.5bn this year, a 38 percent rise from 2021, according to an economy ministry document seen by Reuters news agency.

We all want to be able to speak our minds online—to be heard by our friends and talk (back) to our opponents. At the same time, we don’t want to be exposed to speech that is inappropriate or crosses a line. Technology companies address this conundrum by setting standards for free speech, a practice protected under federal law. They hire in-house moderators to examine individual pieces of content and remove them if posts violate predefined rules set by the platforms.The approach clearly has problems: harassment, misinformation about topics like public health, and false descriptions of legitimate elections run rampant. But...

I know regretting most of my sexual encounters is not something a sex-positive feminist who used to write a column for Playboy is supposed to admit. And for years, I didn’t. Let me be clear, being a “slut” and sleeping with a lot of men is not the only behavior I regret. Even more damaging was what I told myself in order to justify the fact that I was disposable to these men: I told myself I didn’t care. I didn’t care when a man ghosted me. I didn’t care when he left in the middle of the night or...

Congressional hearings are often-referred to as a show, political theater if you will. How ironic since that’s exactly what our entire government, media, and culture has become, a show. The production, ‘The Great Reset’ depicts a populace evolving to a perfect society, no hate, racism or sexism. Greedy oligarchs will be stripped of their ill-gotten gains, their riches distributed among the masses. And this society will not rape the earth for their fuel, it will go green, will rescue the planet. Yeah, right. Still as with any fiction, the audience (the American people) agrees to suspend disbelief in order to...

Clad in mismatched fatigues, Ukrainian Marine recruits sprawled on the grass, cocking their assault rifles and aiming at targets. Then, to the surprise of their American instructors, one by one they started squeezing the trigger. “Cease fire!” yelled Steven Tomberlin, 62, a retired police officer from Colorado overseeing this part of the training. “Until I give the command. You. Do. Not. Do. Anything.” When the firing resumed, bullets hit the dirt berm, often far off the mark. “Most of these people have just been mobilized. They were electricians or tractor drivers yesterday, and many have never held a weapon in...

For the first time, officials with the U.S. Department of Interior announced plans to operate in a “Tier 2 shortage,” Fox Weather reported. The plan includes increased cuts in water releases from Lakes Powell and Mead. The new mandatory water cuts come after Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue to reach record lows due to climate change. A megadrought and an increase in consumption from Lake Mead caused water levels to drop to an 80-year low. Satellite images show the decreasing water levels. pic.twitter.com/T5tc7zzmMD — FOX Weather (@foxweather) August 16, 2022

Republicans in Alaska passed rank choice voting in 2020. This confusing system is only being pushed by RINOS and radicals in conservative red states. It allows Democrats to even the playing field when they have no chance of winning. Republicans also passed mail-in voting. ..... Snip..... Last night Sarah Palin ran in two races in Alaska. The former governor ran in the 2022 primary race for US House of Representatives. She also ran in the special election to finish out Rep. Don Young’s term in the current US House of Representatives. Young died earlier this year. Sarah Palin may lose...

Rutgers University plans to keep its mask and vaccine mandate in place for the fall semester, citing risks of both the Chinese coronavirus as well as monkeypox. In a message to Rutgers Community Members, the university cited the risks of the Chinese coronavirus, which has now been around for over two years, as well as monkeypox, the latter of which poses the greatest risk to sexually active gay men.

The world could meet the iPhone 14 in less than a month. Apple is preparing to unveil the iPhone 14 at a launch event on Sept. 7, with sales of the rumored phone starting on Sept. 16, according to a report Wednesday from Bloomberg. That rollout plan would follow Apple's habit of making new products available about a week after they're unveiled. Apple store employees have been told to prepare for "a major new product release" on Sept. 16, Bloomberg reported. As it has throughout the pandemic, the company will reportedly stream the launch event online rather than hold it...

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday he would give “due consideration” to any formal invitation to testify before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, while hinting at potential executive privilege issues.Pence made the remarks during a Q&A after a speech here at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ “Politics & Eggs” breakfast, a common stop for candidates considering a run for office.“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” Pence said, after calling January 6 a tragic day for all Americans. “But, you heard me mention the Constitution...

I'm looking for feedback regarding adjustable gas plugs for an M1 Garand. M2 Ball and equivalents, like most other ammo, isn't all that easy to come by but I've been able to find plenty of 150gr 30-06 though it's generally at higher pressures than M2. My understanding is that an adjustable gas plug will allow me to dial in adjustments for modern,higher pressure ammo, heavier bullet weights, etc. If anyone has experience with, and recommendations regarding, these plugs I'd be happy to hear them.

Pavel Filatyev knew the consequences of what he was saying. The ex-paratrooper understood he was risking prison, that he would be called a traitor and would be shunned by his former comrades-in-arms. His own mother had urged him to flee Russia while he still could. He said it anyway. “I don’t see justice in this war. I don’t see truth here,” he said over a tucked-away cafe table in the Moscow financial district. It was his first time sitting down in person with a journalist since returning from the war in Ukraine.