Free Republic

Economic conditions just keep getting worse. As we prepare to enter 2023, we find ourselves in a high inflation environment at the same time that economic activity is really slowing down. And just like we witnessed in 2008, employers are conducting mass layoffs as a horrifying housing crash sweeps across the nation. Those that have been waiting for the U.S. economy to implode can stop waiting, because an economic implosion has officially arrived. The following are 15 facts that prove that a massive economic meltdown is already happening right now…#1 Existing home sales have now fallen for 10 consecutive months.#2...

News 4 Tucson is learning more about a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government against five Arizona gun stores accusing them of participating in illegal gun trafficking that led to violence in Mexico. The lawsuit was filed in October and names the Hub, SNG Tactical and Diamondback Shooting in Tucson as well as Spragues in Yuma and Ammo AZ in the Phoenix area. Veerachart Murphy owns Ammo AZ and is the only shop owner to agree to do an interview with News 4 Tucson. He believes the lawsuit is purely political. In the lawsuit, Mexico claims it traced 19 firearms...

For much of his life, Roderick, a high school junior, did not enjoy reading...But recently, he said, he has made strides, in part because of an unusual and sweeping high school literacy curriculum in Memphis... The program focuses on expanding vocabulary and giving teenagers reading strategies - such as decoding words - that build upon fundamentals taught in elementary school. The curriculum is embedded not just in English, but also in math, science and social studies... The program in Memphis is an extension of a growing national movement to change the way younger children are taught to read, based on...

I ran across this video on Twitter (where cringe goes to multiply) and couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cringe in disgust. It perfectly encapsulates a form of White liberal virtue signaling that uses performative self-hatred to project an underlying sense of moral superiority. This video was filmed at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Brookfield WI, and features 3 White women playing Anti-Racist Jeopardy with a White man in the role of quizmaster. I love it because it features white people performing a kind of self-abasement that serves no purpose other than to elevate themselves above the hoi polloi. It...

The COVID-19 antiviral drug Molnupiravir helps speed up recovery from the virus but does not reduce the hospitalization or death rate in higher-risk vaccinated adults, a new study has found.Molnupiravir, from Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck & Co. is used to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 and can be taken at home, twice a day for five days, within five days of symptoms onset.It works by stopping the virus from replicating, keeping levels low in the body, thus reducing its severity.The study was published in The Lancet on Dec. 22 and has been peer reviewed.Between Dec. 8, 2021 and April 27,...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

There were several promising developments in the year of our Lord 2022, and a few honest-to-goodness wins. Staring down the end of 2022 burdened by rumblings of nuclear war, news of collusion between corrupt intelligence agencies and Big Tech to silence Americans, and the threat of a rabid Justice Department that’s trumping up charges against peaceful pro-lifers, plenty of Americans may feel they’re closing out the year with less hope than they began it. Radicals are trying to trans the kids, and conservatives’ most powerful officeholder is Mitch McConnell. But darkness in this world is nothing new, and until...

“The powerful are panicking, and so they should. Their secrets are leaking.” —Miranda Devine, The New York Post As the Yule log burns down, and the trivialities of the season melt into air, the nation might ask itself how the authorities who run things went to war against the citizens of this land. I will tell you, and, it will probably make you angry: It started when the women of the professional and managerial class watched their avatar, Hillary Clinton, lose the 2016 election against a man who seemed the quintessence of everything they hated about Daddydom. Donald Trump, flawed...

Did we think about Elon Musk more in 2022 than we did a year ago?That thought might seem inconceivable, considering that just 12 months after he was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2021, Musk has become even more of a global presence.Now that doesn’t mean life has been perfect for the world’s richest man: while he’s recently dominated headlines for his turbulent Twitter takeover, his other ventures have not gone unscathed.While still the darling of the EV industry, Tesla has lost nearly half its market value since Musk first made his bid for Twitter, potentially threatening his...

Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Joe Biden needed to better “message” the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Co-host Jonathan Lemaire asked, “Title 42 put in place by the Trump administration, the Biden White House wants it to end but not quiet they pushed for the stay and will get an answer potentially as soon as today for its future. It will be very difficult at the border White House aides say what, when you look at the images from El Paso, what does it make you think?” Glaude said, “There’s the moral...

Justin takes a Christmas Eve walk and meets Santa, who has a gift for him.

(Daily readings from the USCCB)On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. John 20:1–3It’s interesting that Saint John refers to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved.” Of course, Jesus loved all people. He loved all of the disciples. But in John’s Gospel, this unique title of the beloved disciple is given...

Earlier this month, an old video surfaced of Dr. Richard “Rachel” Levine, Joe Biden’s assistant secretary of health. The video, from the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., went viral because Levine inadvertently admitted everything wrong and predatorial about the transgender movement. Levine was secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health at the time the video was made, but it was nevertheless a revealing video, exposing just how evil the movement is.On Monday, another video featuring Levine went viral, and it’s just as disturbing. It is not clear when the video was...

Canada has been much on my mind these days, weeks, months, and years, not only because I am a Canadian citizen, but because, like many of my American friends, I am witnessing firsthand the destruction of a country.The current prime minister’s campaign, amounting to a kind of jihad, to destabilize the nation and create the world’s first “post-national state” proceeds on many levels. Among them, as I have previously catalogued, are a burgeoning national debt, a series of repressive bills making their way through parliament (C-4, C-11, C-12 and C-18), a prohibitive and unnecessary carbon tax, the deliberate destruction of...

In the least surprising clinical conclusion in world history, research published in the medical journal Transgender Health revealed the sizable mental health disparity between transgender and cisgender subjects:We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses among transgender patients in clinical care using an all-payer electronic health record database. Of 10,270 transgender patients identified, 58% (n=5940) had at least one psychiatric diagnosis compared with 13.6% (n=7,311,780) in the control patient population (p<0.0005). Transgender patients had a statistically significant increase in prevalence for all psychiatric diagnoses queried, with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder being the most common...

As a response to a federal order by the Department of Defense, West Point is starting to remove all Confederate statues and portraits from its campus. West Point Superintendent Lieutenant General Steve Gilland broke the news and stated “During the holiday break, we will begin a multi-phased process, in accordance with Department of Defense directives, to remove, rename or modify assets and real property at the United States Military Academy and West Point installation that commemorate or memorialize the Confederacy or those who voluntarily served with the Confederacy”. One of the most notable Confederate portraits that will be removed is...

The US housing market continued to sag in October as the impact of higher mortgage rates and concerns over the economy rattled buyers and sellers. Prices fell 0.5% from September, the fourth consecutive monthly decline for a seasonally adjusted measure of home prices in 20 large cities, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index. The market began downshifting earlier this year as the Federal Reserve started hiking its benchmark interest rate, with the goal of easing high inflation that’s been driven in part by skyrocketing housing costs. Rates for 30-year, fixed mortgages reached 7.08% in October — and again in...

I was in 6th grade in 1976 during America’s Bicentennial. I played Abraham Lincoln in the school’s celebration, my family parked next to the Pentagon to watch the fireworks above DC and our class visited the newly opened Air and Space Museum. And of course, TV commercials were chock-full of patriotic themes from morning until stations signed off with the national anthem. It was a good time to be an American. Looking back, I lived in a cocoon of security that comes with knowing that the world was as it was supposed to be as if God had our backs....

Recently, Sen. Rand Paul released his “Festivus” report that detailed wasteful government spending.This is an annual tradition meant to be an eye-opener to citizens. This is Paul’s 8th report.Good morning everyone and welcome to everyone’s favorite holiday - #Festivus! pic.twitter.com/g8xM8QER9y — Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022Festivus was popularized by “Seinfeld” and is celebrated on December 23. It was created by author Daniel O’Keefe. O’Keefe's son, Dan O’Keefe co-wrote the Seinfeld episode “The Strike” which referred to Festivus.One of the traditions of Festivus is the “airing of grievances,” i.e. complaining about the disappointments of the year which is supposed to...

A new bill introduced by a Florida congresswoman aims to incentivize states to increase minimum teacher salaries as the country’s education system faces a growing need for educators. The American Teacher Act was introduced last week by Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee. The bill would work to entice states to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 through a federal grant program. The bill is an attempt to persuade educators to remain in the profession as a national teacher shortage impacts districts across the country — a problem that has been...