Free Republic

MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she hoped people in Florida who hate the federal government will remember that the federal government was there for them in a time of disaster. Discussing Hurricane Ian, McCaskill said, “Yeah, and when we are in devastating tornadoes in southwest Missouri, a very Republican area, you saw those party lines fall away. Now the one thing I do hope, Joe, to put a little politics in this. We all are praying for the people of Florida. We hope the devastation is not deadly. We are glad for the cooperation,...

The Colorado race for U.S. Senate comes down to six points in the final stretch of the race, with Democrat incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet under 50 percent in the latest Trafalgar Group poll. The poll, conducted from September 20 to 24, showed that Bennet has under 50 percent of the vote with only 48.6 percent. Joe O’Dea, the Republican nominee, running against Bennet, garnered 42.6 percent of the vote.

Ramsey County election officials have sent more than 1,000 St. Paul voters absentee ballots with a deceased candidate’s name on them. The country attributed the mistake to a “clerical error” in a press release Tuesday. As of Monday night, the county said 1,077 ballots listing Beverly Peterson as the Republican candidate for House District 67A were sent to voters. According to a Supreme Court filing, Peterson died at the beginning of August and was replaced by Scott Hesselgrave as the GOP nominee. Officials said the Ramsey County Elections Office was notified by the Minnesota secretary of state on Aug. 29...

President Joe Biden warned American oil companies on Wednesday not to raise prices on gasoline, in anticipation of Hurricane Ian hitting Florida. “Do not. Let me repeat. Do not. Do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” Biden said sternly during an event in Washington, DC. Biden said the price of oil “remained relatively low” and there was no reason for prices to go up, even though oil companies have evacuated offshore oil and natural gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of the storm. The storm is expected to...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) might be lacking in “emotional intelligence” for his stance on climate change. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “This is a moment I think for DeSantis to show he’s a leader of all Floridians. that it’s not about politics. I would encourage him don’t even call your political team for the next week. Focus on helping the people of Florida, the Democrats, the counties who will never vote for you. He’s smarter than Trump. I think we all recognize this. I actually expect to see competent...

White House officials are weighing the possible departure of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen after the November elections as part of a Cabinet shake-up, according to a report. The decision is not final and is expected to hinge on the outcome of the midterm elections, sources familiar with the matter told Axios. Yellen’s successor will need to be confirmed by the Senate, posing a challenge if the Republican Party takes control of the upper chamber. Officials are also considering whether Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, could leave in the new year, according to the outlet. Deese, speaking...

CHICAGO (AP) — The gun-maker Smith & Wesson illegally targeted young men at risk of violence with ads for firearms — including the 22-year-old gunman accused of opening fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago and killing seven people, according to several lawsuits filed Wednesday in Illinois. The lawsuits filed by people wounded while attending the Highland Park parade and the estates of several victims are the latest bid by victims of mass shootings to hold gun manufacturers accountable, despite broad protections for the industry in federal law. Liz Turnipseed is among those filing lawsuits in Lake County...

Video released by the ATLAS project shows the explosive impact 7 million miles from Earth. a gray, craggly asteroid against the dark of space Our first up-close look at Dimorphos, captured by the DART probe's DRACO camera. NASA/JHUAPL When NASA deliberately crashed its DART spacecraft into an asteroid Monday, the daring but doomed probe was sending back incredible images. But on impact, the screen faded to black. We couldn't see just how big of a dent that DART made. Fortunately, many telescopes around the world were tracking the asteroid pair known as Didymos and Dimorphos. The ATLAS project, which takes...

Hurricane Ian satellite photo Image: NOAA An intensifying Hurricane Ian is on the cusp of becoming a Category 5 storm as it nears landfall along Florida's west coast with "catastrophic" winds and storm surge flooding Wednesday afternoon, per the National Hurricane Center. State of play: The Category 4 hurricane is packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, the NHC said. That's just 2 mph shy of Category 5 intensity. Just four hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. with maximum sustained winds greater than 155 mph, according to Philip Klotzbach, a researcher at Colorado State University. As of 1pm Wednesday,...

But some Republicans are worrying that Mastriano is squandering the opportunity in one of the country’s most consequential races. Would-be allies have remained on the sidelines, having concluded by now that a Mastriano win in November might require a minor miracle. Coincidentally, divine intervention is just what the candidate has in mind this week. On Monday night, Mastriano’s campaign posted on Facebook a photo of two hands under the words “40 days of fasting & prayer” with the dates Sept. 29 through Nov. 8 — Election Day. “Interceding for our elections, our state, and our nation,” it stated, along with...

A costly troop mobilization, plunging energy prices and a new round of Western sanctions threaten to bear down on Russia’s already embattled economy and undermine the financial underpinnings of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. ... Capital Economics estimates that Russia’s total oil-and-gas export revenues will halve from around $340 billion this year to $170 billion in 2023, a loss equivalent to more than twice Russia’s defense budget last year. ... “People are escaping where they can,” Mr. Mironov said. “These are mainly highly skilled, educated workers. So this mobilization is going to have a severe economic effect not just...

Representatives for Jimmy Buffett announced that he must cancel the rest of his 2022 tour dates per “doctors orders” after a “brief hospitalization” for health issues that were not shared. In a message posted on social media Tuesday, the 75-year-old rocker posted a statement indicating Buffett’s “Life on the Flipside-Redux” tour would be cut short. “Due to health issues and brief hospitalization, Jimmy will need to refrain from touring for the rest of the year,” the statement read. “On doctor’s orders, he must take this time to recuperate and heal.” “Jimmy looks forward to getting back on stage next year,”...

While the MSM is busy pointing fingers at Russia for the sabotage of Nord Stream, Trump drew attention to a VERY relevant statement Biden made in an ABC News video from February where Biden promises to remove Nord Stream. Trump replies to the video with "Wow, what a statement. World War III anyone?"

Well, we just had our weekly team meeting. I work for a very large corporation. We were just told that they will be recalculating retirement lump sum payments due to inflation, and depending how things are calculated, if we retire after Jan 1 of next year, we could lose up to 30% of our savings. You read that right, 30%. Thanks Commierats!

Jerome Powell, Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has silenced the calls for a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be issued in the near future, saying that the central bank has “not decided to proceed” with the issuance of a CBDC for the time being. "We do not see ourselves making that decision for some time," he said Tuesday, speaking remotely on a panel about the role of central banks in digital markets to global financial leaders and crypto regulation experts attending a conference in Paris. Powell indicated that the central bank would instead be working in collaboration...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has decreed that natural gas heaters and furnaces will be illegal in the state after 2030. CARB Chair Liane Randolph declared this draconian measure "essential for cleaning our air of carbon emissions." She rebuffed contentions that the ban will cause unnecessary hardship for those who can't afford the pricier options of wind or solar heating, saying "people are mammals. This means we each generate body heat. Garments were invented by the human race as a protection against the cold. If we each wear a sufficient number of garments the need for external heat can...

An 8-year-old child was allegedly molested in August by a substitute middle school teacher in Kansas City, Missouri, who is now in jail. Jason L. Carey was arrested on Wednesday and charged with one count each of felony enticement or attempted enticement of a child, felony second-degree child molestation, and two counts of misdemeanor furnishing pornographic material or attempting to furnish pornographic material to a minor. He was already under investigation for allegedly sending nude photos of himself to several eighth-grade students. ------------ the 8-year-old said that Carey abused her and forced her to watch pornographic tapes, including one with...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) slammed President Joe Biden during a press conference Tuesday as the state prepares to be hit by a category 3 hurricane. The remarks from DeSantis come after Biden held separate calls earlier in the day with Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa, Mayor Ken Welch of St. Petersburg, and Mayor Frank Hibbard of Clearwater. An official White House readout of the calls made no mention of the president speaking with DeSantis. A reporter asked the governor how he would characterize his conversations with Biden as the hurricane prepares to make landfall. “So I have not personally...

An ISIS publication claimed the United States is a “banana republic,” citing the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Voice of Khurasan, a magazine published by ISIS’s Khorasan Province’s Al Azaim Foundation for Media Production, had an article in its latest issue titled “America from the Land of Free to a Banana Republic,” according to Homeland Security Today. It focused on Trump's criticism of the raid to retrieve classified material that he took from the White House to his Florida home. “Donald Trump, an ex-US president who gained animalistic pleasure in butchering innocent Muslims of the third...

The White House refused to comment on why President Biden has not spoken with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prior to Hurricane Ian making landfall Tuesday. Biden has spoken on the phone with multiple Florida mayors ahead of the storm but has so far snubbed the popular Republican governor. Reporters repeatedly pressed FEMA chief Deanne Criswell on why Biden hadn't made the call during a White House press briefing Tuesday. "In the past, President Biden has made calls to [Republican] governors in situations like natural disasters, [such as] Kay Ivey in Alabama, Asa Hutchinson in Arkansas or the governor in Texas,"...