Free Republic

When Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, government employees weren’t allowed to unionize. Now, they make up almost half of all union members. This would be unacceptable, even if they were all showing up to work. But they are not, and that adds insult to injury. President Joe Biden needs to make sure they do. Just 10% of wage earners are members of a union, down from more than 30% in the 1950s. The number is still falling. However, the percentage of public sector workers who belong to unions is much higher, at 33%, and rising. Some 7.1...

US officials are growing frustrated with how Ukraine is fighting the war, The New York Times said. The officials are worried that Ukrainian forces are not consolidating their power in the right areas. If Ukraine wants to speed up its counteroffensive, it will need to change tactics, they said.As Ukraine presses ahead in its slow-moving counteroffensive against Russia, some US officials appear to be growing increasingly concerned.Half a dozen US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The New York Times and other outlets that they are starting to question some of Ukraine's military tactics, including where on the...

In the last 20 years, the Left has boasted that it has gained control of most of America institutions of power and influence—the corporate boardroom, media, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the administrative state, academia, foundations, social media, entertainment, professional sports, and Hollywood. With such support, between 2009-17, Barack Obama was empowered to transform the Democratic Party from its middle-class roots and class concerns into the party of the bicoastal rich and subsidized poor—obsessions with big money, race, a new intolerant green religion, and dividing the country into a binary of oppressors and oppressed. The Obamas entered the presidency spouting the...

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. Loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles 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 a vehicle is captured and then...

A Giant grocery store in Southeast Washington, DC, has removed name brands like Advil, Colgate, and Tide from its shelves to better prevent a spike in theft. Beyond the removal of brands, shoppers at Giant will also be required to show their receipts to security guards before exiting the store. Ira Kress, president of the chain, told the Washington Post that the store can no longer serve the community by keeping its stores at high risk.

Then-Ukrainian Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt Welcomes Then-Vice President Joe Biden To Kyiv To Further the Biden Burisma Kickback Conspiracy, December 6, 2015. Also Pictured, Then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. Screenshot White House Public Domain Video. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt played a crucial and secretive role in the ObamaBiden Burisma kickback scheme during his time as Obama’s ambassador to Ukraine, Biden Laptop emails reveal. He should be investigated, indicted, convicted, and jailed for lying about it to Congress and for furthering the conspiracy, which he continues to do from his present post. It should also be...

A groundbreaking new peer-reviewed study has found that ivermectin use in COVID-19 patients during the pandemic resulted in a staggering 74 percent reduction in excess deaths. According to the ecological study, a natural experiment occurred when the government of Peru authorized ivermectin for use during the pandemic. The Peruvian government’s decision resulted in evidence of the drug’s effectiveness and ability to reduce excess deaths. The situation in Peru was unique as other governments around the world had banned the use of ivermectin for Covid patients in an effort to promote mRNA vaccines. The paper’s results were published on August 8...

Within minutes after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot began, the Democrats, the corporate media, and countless progressive law professors unanimously declared that it was an “insurrection.” Inevitably, they accused then-President Trump of inciting this purported uprising in order to overthrow the 2020 election. Most Americans, however, saw the mayhem merely as a protest that devolved into a riot. Then the other shoe dropped. The people promoting the “insurrection” narrative developed an intense interest in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies anyone from holding public office at the federal or state level if they have “engaged in...

So-called Nazis were on the march near Orlando, FL on Saturday when a group of costumed men going by the name of “Blood Tribe” turned out to seek attention in a demonstration that conveniently feeds into the Biden regime’s claims that “white supremacy” is the most dangerous threat to America today. Coming a week after a “racially motivated” incident at a Jacksonville-area Dollar General store that saw three black people gunned down in cold blood by a disturbed young man who left behind a racist manifesto, the gaggle of demonstrators who are dressed in remarkably similar garb to the Patriot...

Manley High School, for example, has a capacity of nearly 1,300 students, but just 64 kids attend the school and only 2 percent of the kids can read at grade level. And Uplift High School – where operational spending is about $30,400 per student – has just as many employees, 54, as there are students, 55. Despite that 1v1 ratio, only 3 percent of students are proficient in reading. And Douglass High School has both a principal making $147,000 an assistant principal making $122,000 – all for managing just 44 students.

GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hammered climate change alarmists in no uncertain terms during Hurricane Idalia's aftermath. DeSantis cited an 1896 storm that reportedly had 125 mph winds and Florida's Labor Day hurricane in 1935, saying during a Sunday press conference that those storms resulted in massive destruction and deaths. "So, I think the notion that somehow hurricanes are something new, that’s just false. And we’ve got to stop politicizing the weather and stop politicizing natural disasters," DeSantis said. "We know from history there’s been times when it’s very busy in Florida, late ‘40s, early ‘50s, you...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Millions of Americans who have federal student loans have been dreading this day. On Sept. 1, interest on student loans started accruing again for 43 million Americans. "I graduated from dental school in 2019," said Annelise Eriksen. She has been a dentist in the Bay Area for more than three years. "I owe somewhere around $470-480,000," said Eriksen. "I think it's an obscene amount." She went on to say, "I didn't take out any student loans for my undergrad. That's all dental school loans. I think my largest loan is $70,000 with a 7.5% interest rate."...

The future of Donald Trump's social media network Truth Social could be decided this week as its parent company fights for a deal that would allow it to go public. The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the platform the one-time president frequently uses instead of his formerly beloved Twitter, is facing a potential make or break shareholder vote this week on whether it can merge with Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), which has raised $300 million from investors. In October 2021, TMTG announced it would be merging with DWAC, a special-purpose acquisition company [SPAC], or "blank-check" acquisition...

Crushing federal and state regulations are forcing California's farmers to move operations to Mexico. What could go wrong? Anybody notice who might be getting their hands on the U.S. food supply? I found it buried in an Epoch Times story about Congress's upcoming Farm Bill spendathon, set to go to a vote in December. It's supposedly aid to U.S. farmers, including California's, the U.S.'s top agricultural state, which produces much of the U.S. food supply. But it's hardly a solution. Turns out the regulatory burden is so nasty out there it's driving farmers in California to move operations to Mexico...

When a dying ex-con drops a clue as to where he buried $350,000 in stolen cash, the five people who witness his death make a mad race for the money. Starring Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante

Bidenomics just had its first birthday, and less than half the country celebrated. The president has to hope that changes by the policy’s second birthday next August, just weeks before the 2024 election. If more Americans aren’t in a partying mood by then, neither will Democrats be on election night. Yet changing voters’ minds when so many of them think this good economy is actually bad — and getting worse! — is proving harder for President Biden than changing the $27-trillion economy itself. And Republicans aren’t helping, of course.

UPDATED: Monday, September 4, 2023 8:07AM CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago shootings this Labor Day Weekend have left three people dead and another 29 wounded, police said. A teen boy was critically injured in a South Side shooting on Sunday evening, Chicago police said. Police said the shooting happened in the Englewood neighborhood's 6000-block of South Elizabeth Street just after 7 p.m. The teen was near the sidewalk when someone shot him in the head, police said. Over an hour earlier, a 6-year-old boy was shot inside a South Side home, Chicago police said. Police said the shooting happened in the...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Applying and Appreciating God's Word ~ •Drawings•Engravings•Facades•Frescoes•Illuminations•Miniatures•Mosaics•Photographs•Reliefs•Statues•Tapestries•Windows• WOMEN IN THE BIBLE SUPPORTIVE MOTHERS BATHSHEBA, SOLOMON’S MOTHER 1 KINGS 1: Bathsheba went to see the aged king in his room. Bathsheba bowed low and knelt before the king. “What is it you want?” the king asked. She said to him, “My lord, you yourself swore to me your servant by the LORD your God: ‘Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.’ But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord the king, do not...

Central Asian countries are attempting to curb Russian recruiting of their citizens for its war in Ukraine, while Moscow seeks to avoid stirring public discontent with another large wave of domestic mobilization. So far this year, Kyrgyzstan has sentenced one citizen to 10 years in prison and detained another for allegedly serving as mercenaries. In Kazakhstan at the end of July, a prosecutor's office in a region bordering Russia warned citizens about the proliferation of online ads urging them to join the war, noting stiff legal penalties for doing so. This came a few months after Kazakhstan's National Security Committee...

Perhaps it is a little early for another update here on the “homelessness” situation in San Francisco. (My last update was about six months ago in March 2023.). But there is a good reason for an update now: At least a few people seem finally to be catching on that the basic idea behind “homelessness” advocacy is to exploit an issue that brings forth great human empathy to generate vast taxpayer funds and then to not solve the problem. The spending continues and increases without limit. There is way too much money — for advocates — in “homelessness” for the...