Free Republic

You aren’t just imagining it: Your paycheck didn’t go as far last year as it did the year before — or the year before that. Inflation surges outpaced the average pay raises of US workers in 2022 — the third consecutive year under President Joe Biden in which Americans have seen their standard of living take a tumble, according to fresh data from the US Census Bureau. Inflation-adjusted median household income fell to $74,580 in 2022 — a 2.3% decline from the 2021 average of $76,330, the federal agency reported on Tuesday. The result has caused many cash-strapped New Yorkers...

I cleaned my computer cache (IE files; Internet "history"; and CC cleaner). I then went online to Walmart link. Then my computer screen had the dreaded pseudo Microsoft warning: "You have malware; call our number..." There were several flashing banners, etc. I shut the computer down; rebooted; cleaned cache; etc. I didn't get the scam from the Walmart website, did I? Microsoft's website says this is a common scam currently, and my Malwarebytes didn't catch it. Neither did AVG. Did this piggyback something? Is it a time release program? I was on Zillow, Freerepublic, 3 gun forums, etc. thnx

Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit this week against a former Trump White House aide over his alleged role in the laptop data scandal, which the first son’s attorneys blasted as a “sustained, unhinged and obsessed campaign” to advance an “extremist” agenda. The 14-page complaint filed in California federal court Wednesday accuses Garrett Ziegler, a one-time aide to President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, of violating the state’s computer fraud and data laws by accessing “tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, and dozens of videos and recordings” that belonged to Hunter, according to the suit viewed by The...

Join Reason on YouTube and Facebook at 1 p.m. Eastern this Thursday for a discussion with Aaron Kheriaty, author of The New Abnormal about the persistent COVID mandates for K-12 schools, college campuses and health care settings.It's back-to-school season, and for some parts of the country, that means dealing with COVID restrictions again. Americans are no longer experiencing indefinite school closures or ubiquitous masking, but intermittent school closures, temporary mask mandates, and COVID vaccine requirements persist. Will it ever end? Or are we in "the new abnormal?" That's what Aaron Kheriaty, a psychiatrist and fellow and director of the Program...

The city wanted to bring in more money, in part for early childhood education. But such taxes are disproportionately paid by the poor.Want a soda? You'll pay more for one in Philadelphia, because five years ago, local politicians decided to tax it. They're "protecting" people, they said. The tax would "reduce obesity" and "lower diabetes rates." But their main goal was to bring in more money, which they said would "fund early childhood education" and "help a lot of families." I reported on this five years ago, right after the tax went into effect. My new video updates what happened....

A state judge Thursday rejected prosecutors’ request to try all 19 defendants together in the Georgia 2020 election interference case next month. “The Court joins the skepticism expressed by several federal courts that denying severance always ensures efficiency, especially in ‘mega trials’ such as this,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in an order. McAfee’s ruling means former President Trump will not be tried in October alongside at least two of his co-defendants who invoked their right to a speedy trial. It marks a major blow to District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who repeatedly urged McAfee to keep...

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis is turning to Mitt Romney‘s former advisor, Emil Henry, for financial support in an effort to save his beleaguered 2024 presidential campaign.Henry, CEO of the private equity firm Tiger Infrastructure Partners, will host a fund-raising lunch event on Thursday for the Florida Governor, charging a whopping $11,600 for admission. Henry, a long-term “moderate” Republican fundraiser, worked for the Romney on his 2012 presidential campaign, and as the assistant secretary of the Treasury in the George W. Bush administration.DeSantis participated in a $11,600 per person breakfast on Thursday, alongside Republican fundraisers including David Blumberg, who has...

English speaking spokesperson for the Ukrainian military: Ukraine will hunt down "Russian propagandists" around the world

A Georgia judge ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump and 16 others will be tried separately from Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, who are set to go to trial next month in the case on an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. Powell and Chesebro had filed demands for a speedy trial, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had set their trial to begin Oct. 23. The former president and the other defendants asked to be tried separately from the two, with some arguing they would not be ready in time for an...

"Just got back from Maui. Our crew, myself included, secretly recorded state and federal officials along the burn zone being honest. Stay tuned Thursday PM for Part 1 of our *Undercover in #Lahaina* installment. @GovHawaii fasten your seatbelt. #OMG indeed…"

I recently wrote that the White House is terrified of the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Well, here’s more proof. CNN, which pretty much always has Biden’s back, attempted to fact-check House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement launching the impeachment inquiry. To start, CNN claims that McCarthy made “several unproven claims” during his announcement and then attempts to disprove them. First, CNN attempts to debunk the claim that the Biden family and associates got $20 million through shell companies. CNN’s response: Facts First: This is true about Joe Biden’s family and associates, but there is no public evidence to date that...

Are our secular universities, especially those leaning most radically left, soon to collapse – or at least, soon to lose their current positions of power and influence? A good case can be made that the answer could well be yes.First, there has been a serious dip in enrollment in our colleges and universities across the nation. As noted in a March 9, 2023 headline on the Fortune website, “The labor shortage is pushing American colleges into crisis, with the plunge in enrollment the worst ever recorded.”Yes, “What first looked like a pandemic blip has turned into a crisis. Nationwide, undergraduate...

In Dresden, a statue of a nude woman in a crouching position has just been removed from the plaza where it has been on display for decades. The officials who removed it were anticipating that the hundreds of Muslim migrants moving into a new dwelling, a former hotel, located near the statue, would be offended, but even before they received a single complaint from Muslims — who had not yet moved in — those officials decided to remove the statue to an out-of-the-way place in the courtyard of an office complex, where it was felt far fewer people would be...

The formal initiation of the Oslo process on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, was supposed to herald an era of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But that hope was based on Israeli delusions.The truth was readily evident. On the evening of the White House ceremony, Yasir Arafat broadcast a speech on Jordanian television assuring Palestinians that they should understand Oslo in terms of the Palestine National Council’s 1974 decision. This was a reference to the so-called “plan of phases,” according to which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) would acquire whatever territory it could by negotiations, then...

The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) was announced last year with a budget of $5 billion. It was meant from the get-go to help states, agencies, and local authorities advance EV charging over a five-year period. The plan was to spend around $1 billion every 12 months. Around $500 million were set aside so federal authorities could direct funds exactly where they wanted them to be used. One such case is fixing or outright replacing existing EV chargers that are no longer in use or have been abandoned. The initiative consumes 20% of that budget.

[Catholic Caucus] Francis, Fatima, and GarabandalPope Francis says don’t worry about sin. Our Lady says otherwise.Catholics are confused and divided over Pope Francis. For years he has been introducing novel changes into the Church that seem to conflict not only with traditional practices but also with established Church teaching. An increasing number of Catholics have come to the conclusion that Francis (along with others in the hierarchy) is in the process of creating an alternate Church—one which is meant to eventually replace the true Church. Defenders of Francis say that he is only trying to reform the Church—to renovate an...

Jerome Powell is the God of Hellfire and he brought us …. FIRE! By rapildy raising The Fed’s target rate rapidly. And then sending mixed signals as inflation begins heating up … again. WTI crude just hit $90. Rising oil prices may be one of the reasons. After yesterday’s hotter than expected rebound in CPI, all eyes are on PPI for signs that the pipeline for inflation may be more dove-friendly. It wasn’t! Producer Prices rose 0.7% MoM in August (up from +0.3% in July and hotter than the +0.4% exp). That is the hottest PPI since June 2022, and...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vented his frustration about the hard-line conservatives holding up appropriations, dropping an expletive as he dared his fiercest critics to attempt a vote to oust him. During a closed-door conference meeting Thursday, McCarthy addressed an uptick in threats from members to call a motion to vacate the chair — a move to force a vote on ousting the Speaker. “If you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the ****&&& motion,” McCarthy said, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) recounted. McCarthy’s comments follow Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) earlier this week explicitly threatening to call a...

On September 6th, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced its designation of 483 Community Disaster Resilience Zones. Community Disaster Resilience Zones will build disaster resilience across the nation by driving federal, public and private resources to the most at-risk and in-need jurisdictions. Designated zones will have prioritized support to access federal funding and technical assistance for resilience and mitigation projects. Dr. Ned Gardiner of the CEE division, program manager for Climate-Smart Communities Initiative (CSCI), negotiated with the awardee of the CSCI grant as well as with FEMA to have CSCI included in the FEMA announcement. On September 6th, FEMA announced...

Former President Donald Trump will not head to trial next month alongside two of his co-defendants whose cases in the sweeping Georgia election interference case were severed. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee granted motions from Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell to sever their criminal cases from Trump and 16 other co-defendants.(Snip) For Trump and the 16 other co-defendants, McAfee set a schedule requiring all motions to be filed by Dec. 1.