Free Republic

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A New York grower broke a national record when his giant pumpkin was officially weighed way more than a ton. Scott Andrusz of Williamsville, brought his massive pumpkin to the Great Pumpkin Farm in Clarence, N.Y., where it tipped the scales at 2,554 pounds. Andrusz's pumpkin broke the national record for pumpkin weight, which had been 2,528 pounds. The pumpkin fell short of the Guinness World Record, 2,702 pounds, which was set by Stefano Cutrupi in Italy in 2021. Andrusz may soon have competition for the title, as Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minn., has a pumpkin...

"Just this month Oberlin had to pay $36 million for defaming a local bakery with false accusations of racism. Oberlin has a track record of politically motivated dishonesty and can’t be trusted to give an honest assessment of Mahallati’s past. Our concerns have nothing to do with academic freedom or unorthodox views—they’re about Mahallati’s past and his apparent leading role in covering up the Iranian regime’s atrocities. I’d like to thank Ranking Member Foxx for her commitment to investigating higher education’s ties to hostile foreign regimes when Republicans retake the majority, "Republican Study Committee Chairman Banks told Fox News Digital....

Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) defended her calls to defund the police by saying “we can’t get caught up in words” Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked, “You have stuck by it. In fact, you are are one of the few Democrats who still says let’s defund the police. Are you worried at all that that could hurt some of your colleagues going into the midterm elections?”

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Job openings in the U.S. plunged in August to their lowest levels since 2020, as the Federal Reserve continues to seek to lower demand for workers. Available positions dropped from 11.17 million in July to 10.05 million in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The decline in openings was the biggest since April 2020, according to Bloomberg. The Federal Reserve has tried to walk a tightrope by decreasing job vacancies to cool the labor market without an ensuing jump in unemployment. The largest decreases in job openings were in health care and social assistance,...

As opposition to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new policies on treatment of transgender students grows, Virginia still lacks an enforcement plan to have school divisions adopt them. Under new guidance published last month, schools are required to inform a student’s parent or guardian whether a student wants to change their name, nickname and/or pronouns from how they are listed in their records, among other policy changes. The Republican Youngkin said he expects schools to follow the law when it comes to the new guidance. “It’s the law and so I don’t really have a lot of patience for folks that see...

President Biden spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Tuesday as Ukrainian forces continued to drive back Russian invaders on two fronts. The call took place days after Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin claimed to annex four regions of Ukraine — some 18% of the country — and vowed to back up his claim with nuclear weapons if necessary. Biden signed a bill Friday authorizing another $12 billion in US aid for the Kyiv government while insisting the US will “never” accept Russia’s annexation attempt. Biden, joined on Tuesday’s call by Vice President Kamala Harris, “underscore[d] that the United States...

Is Gavin Newsom completely tone-deaf, self-centered, and deluded? Does he have something to gain by emptying California of its population and ruining it economically? Is he trying to showcase his progressive chops for a potential run against DeSantis for the POTUS slot? Or is he just a terrible human being? If you said all of the above, you may already be a winner. Newsom, in his never-ending quest to make California a post-apocalyptic wasteland of mob rule, Mad Max-style running battles, ritual cannibalism, mutant animals, and the adult version of Lord of the Flies, has signed AB-2098 into law, according...

Calvinists like to use Paul's reference in Romans 9:13, which refers to the story of Jacob and Esau, to support their Calvinist doctrine of predestination. Yet when we read Genesis 25:27-34, we know that Esau willingly, on his own, forfeited his birthright by selling it to Jacob. Thus it should be obvious that it was not by God’s election, but rather by Esau’s own free will choice. It's a misinterpretation of the Scriptures to claim this text teaches predestination? To properly understand the text in question, one must understand the main reason Paul wrote his letter to the Jewish and...

“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ She said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?’ . . . Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will...

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.’” (Matthew 16:24, NKJV). However, Jesus could not carry his cross all alone, and neither can you! It may sound almost sacrilegious to suggest Jesus did not carry his own cross, but that is the truth. As Jesus bore his cross to Golgotha, he was too weak and frail to carry it the whole way. When he had reached the end of his endurance, his cross was laid on another’s shoulder. Simon the Cyrene was compelled to...

For Elon Musk, no good deed goes unpunished.Get a load of the ingratitude from leaders of the nation he helped with his Starlink internet connection back when they badly needed that help: Fu** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk Eeew. What kind of a reply is that? All the Ukrainian diplomat had to do was say 'bad idea' or 'won't work,' or 'too late for that now,' or he didn't like it. He didn't have to go all foul-mouthed and ad hominem, using toilet-mouthed language, especially against someone who materially came to his nation's aid at a...

Today is National Taco Day. That's right -- Taco Tuesday just got a major upgrade. The origins of the popular dish stretch back to long before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, though what we know as the modern-day taco emerged in the 18th century, when Mexican miners needed something inexpensive and portable to eat. Some historians believe the word "taco" originated as slang for the paper rolls filled with gunpowder that they used to blast the ore. Read more: National Cinnamon Roll Day Is Oct. 4: Freebies from Cinnabon, Cinnaholic and More When Mexican workers migrated to California, they bought...

How can the police say there is “no evidence” of a political motive when we have the accused’s own words suggesting that it was politically motivated? North Dakota teenager Cayler Ellingson appears to be the latest victim of left-wing terrorism incited, then ignored by the national media. The lack of curiosity in the press about his senseless and apparently political murder is predictable, but what is surprising is the way local police appear to be following their lead. Shannon Brandt, 41 and the accused in this case, told the authorities that Ellingson, 18, was a “Republican extremist” and that the...

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused neighbouring Ukraine on Tuesday of sending 15,000 troops to the border area to build defences and conduct reconnaissance, actions that he called "provocations". Lukashenko allowed his close ally Russia in February to use Belarus as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine. However, he has said Belarus is not a party to the conflict and that its own forces are not involved. In comments carried by the state news agency BelTA, Lukashenko said the Ukrainian unit brought up to the border had blocked roads and was setting up checkpoints and firing positions. "In a...

Rap mogul and billionaire fashion entrepreneur Kanye West has declared that Black Lives Matter was always just a “scam,” saying that the movement is now “over.” On Tuesday, Kanye West posted a haiku-like obituary for the BLM movement to his Instagram stories, taking at least partial credit for its demise. Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam Now it’s over You’re welcome

I’ve written for years, you can’t listen to what globalists say, you have to watch the consequences of their actions. Most of the time, they are projecting — meaning, doing exactly what they accuse others of doing.So, with the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, which removes a vital source of energy from the German economy, fostering economic destruction and inflicting pain on Europeans this winter, not to mention damage to Russian cash flow and follow-on military capability, it is very obvious to this writer the beneficiary of this violent act is the globalist agenda. This agenda includes human death...

Tucker: "Despite what you may hear on NBC News, Zelenskyy is not the leader of a democratic nation. Zelenskyy is a client of the Biden administration. And ideologues within the Biden administration did not want negotiated peace. They wanted regime change against Russia." Watch the video to see the whole excerpted on twitter section of a longer Tucker feature on the subject.

Common Carriage NowThe state-corporate assault on freedom of speech is accelerating.Editors’ NoteThe following is adapted from a panel presentation given at the 2022 Claremont Institute Constitution Day Symposium.During the early Trump years, we saw people like Alex Jones de-platformed by the tech companies. But many, at the time, figured that it was fair to toss “fringe” characters like Jones under the bus, and that fears about a “slippery slope” of cancellation were overblown. They were wrong. Similarly, James Damore’s July 2017 memo about Google’s diversity/woke practices was another warning sign about exacerbating rot within the technology industry, but few bothered...

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has warned that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes and the slew of other central banks raising rates, could pose harm to the global economy. UNCTAD calculated that for every Fed basis point rise, the economic output of wealthy countries declines by 0.5%, and for poorer countries, the value of all sales of goods and services is reduced by 0.8% for a duration of three years. UNCTAD Report Criticizes Central Bank Rate Hikes During Global Economic Downturn Monetary tightening measures may not be a good idea according to the United...

Italy’s likely next Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to fight against speculators she claims are distorting the energy markets and lower the costs of energy for Italians while also promoting those who create wealth in the country. The firebrand leader of the national-conservative Brothers of Italy (FdI) stated that energy costs for Italians remain a major priority for her likely incoming government. “The priority will be the cost of energy, the issue is not how to compensate for speculation but how to stop it, we cannot continue to give billions to speculators,” Meloni told a crowd of the National...