Free Republic

In the past few days, Democrats have secured majority control of the Pennsylvania House and moved within one seat of ending Republican control of the New Hampshire House. Those wins are not aberrations. They are the latest measures of a nationwide blue wave that has seen Democrats outperform expectations in 24 of 30 special elections for open state legislative seats this year. Legislative contests that were once considered local or regional races are being nationalized, as concerns about abortion rights and voting rights—two issues that are up for grabs in statehouses—are putting Republican candidates in a perilous position. SNIP The...

The big spending has fueled higher inflation, resulted in larger-than-projected deficits, and contributed to a record level of debt.As election season approaches, Democrats are touting the economic results of Biden administration policies aimed at improving the lives of working Americans and creating a more equitable economy. But ordinary Americans aren't feeling the so-called success of "Bidenomics." Superficially, the economy looks solid. As measured by real gross domestic product (GDP), it increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2023. While August's unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent, that's still considered full employment by economists. Wages...

BAGLEY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A woman was rescued Tuesday from an outhouse toilet in northern Michigan after she climbed in to retrieve her Apple Watch and became trapped. First responders were called when the woman was heard yelling for help. The toilet was removed and a strap was used to haul the woman out. “If you lose an item in an outhouse toilet, do not attempt to venture inside the containment area. Serious injury may occur,” state police said in the release. The state police did not say Wednesday if the woman was injured or if the watch was...

Former Bonanno crime family boss Joseph “Big Joey” Massino — the first head of one of New York’s five mob families to ever turn rat — died earlier this month after battling a short illness, it was revealed Friday. He was 80. Massino, who ran the Bonanno family with an iron fist from 1991 to 2003, died at a rehab facility in the New York City area on Sept. 14, sources close to his family told Newsday. The ex-mob boss, who sent shockwaves through the organized crime world when he became a federal witness nearly two decades ago, had been...

A legal obstacle that helped get New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez off the hook in his 2015 federal corruption case will factor into the new criminal charges he faces in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan Friday. The veteran Democrat, 69, was previously accused by New Jersey federal prosecutors of using his influence to help Florida eye doctor and pal Salomon Melgen in exchange for gifts and campaign contributions — but the case ended in a mistrial in 2017 when the jury deadlocked. New Jersey federal Judge William Walls then tossed seven of the 18 charges Menendez faced, finding that prosecutors...

A federal judge ruled today that a ban on drag shows at a Texas public university can remain in effect while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds, writing that drag performances are not categorically protected under the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, denied a motion for a preliminary injunction against West Texas A&M University from banning future drag shows on campus. Kacsmaryk also granted the university president, Walter Wendler, qualified immunity from the lawsuit, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). "Because men...

Sen. Robert Menendez is no stranger to corruption investigations and indictments — and to eye-popping revelations about his private life. The New Jersey Democrat is facing charges of taking gold bars and bribes and stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash around his house in return for using his “power and influence” — including his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to benefit the Egyptian government and two local businessmen. He has denied the charges and called them a conspiracy by over-reaching prosecutors — a tactic which worked for him the last time he was...

A Missouri high school has faced a backlash after crowning a transgender girl homecoming queen - beating four biologically female students. Tristan Young, 17, was voted the homecoming queen at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Missouri, following in the steps of Landon Patterson, a transgender who took the title in 2015. The school has been under fire after it shared photos of Young's crowning and celebrated her honor on social media. 'Another reminder to all girls that men make the best women,' Riley Gaines wrote on X, criticizing Young's crowning. Gaines is a former college swimmer against transgender...

China’s exports of two rare minerals essential for manufacturing semiconductors fell to zero in August, a month after Beijing imposed curbs on sales overseas, citing national security. China produces about 80% of the world’s gallium and about 60% of germanium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, but it didn’t sell any of the elements on international markets last month, Chinese customs data released on Wednesday showed. In July, the country exported 5.15 metric tons of forged gallium products and 8.1 metric tons of forged germanium products. When asked about the lack of exports last month, He Yadong, a spokesperson...

A slate of Baltimore schools have sparked outrage after zero students passed their state math exams - with almost 75 percent testing at the lowest possible score. The poor performances came in the latest round of Maryland's state testing, where 13 high schools in the city - a staggering 40 percent - failed to produce a single student with a 'proficient' score in math. 'This is educational homicide,' said Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of Baltimore-based nonprofit People Empowered by the Struggle, to Fox Baltimore. The activist said there is 'no excuse' for the failure, which has come after years of...

Lest we forget the life soldiers died for, we should establish Green Freedom Parks full of memorial trees to remember and respect those who have served for us. Places where culture, environment and heritage unite as one. As an example, I want the vacant 127 hectare Defence Department Site in Maribyrnong, Australia, and adjacent public lands to become a national park. I predict that fusing environmentalism and military heritage will establish conservatives as the best conservationists. God Bless Freedom God Bless Life

Here we are at ground zero of the Paxton Impeachment trial showing you the kitchen with ceramic countertops - not granite. "Never take freedom for granite."" Video

About 100 planes around the world have been caught up in a scandal that would be cartoonish if it weren’t so terrifying. It saw a dubious company, with fake employees and an address that was a glorified PO box, sell and distribute fake airplane parts that ended up in planes belonging to some of the world’s biggest airlines. On Thursday night, American Airlines became the fourth, and so far final, airline to have found parts from AOG Technics in its aircraft. Southwest kicked off the disclosures from various airlines around the world in early September, when it became the first...

Bad news for retro-TV fans: Hulu is getting ready to part ways with roughly a dozen classic and cult titles over the next two weeks, including Arrested Development, The Bob Newhart Show, Beverly Hills 90210, Hill Street Blues, and Ally McBeal. The Disney-owned platform began posting expiration notices on the shows earlier this week, but sometimes those get applied in error. (Indeed, Hulu briefly put one on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and St. Elsewhere, but those turned out to be false alarms.) But Buffering checked in with Hulu PR, which confirmed that indeed all of the aforementioned shows will...

The explosive claim was made in the latest bombshell report published on Sept. 21 by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who spoke with an official who has access to current intelligence about the conflict. “The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going,” the official said. According to Hersh’s report, the war is continuing because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that it must. Currently, there is no discussion at Zelensky’s headquarters or at the White House about a ceasefire and no...

President Slow Joe Biden is the Dead Man Walking. In spite of the daily dose of chemicals, blood transfusions and electro-shock treatment, Slow Joe is on an accelerated cognitive decline. Coupled with his and his criminal son's corruption, his political decline outpaces his cognitive decline. The only race Slow Joe will run in is to the morgue or old peoples home. But Progressives, all is not lost. In the bullpen we have the saving grace. We have commie Hillary "Benghazi" Clinton, fascist Gavin "The Jackal" Newsom and commie Moo "Mike" Obama. Will fan favorite Benghazi come out of retirement? She...

NEW DELHI — Not even a judge’s reprimand of police spared an impoverished pastor in India from being jailed on baseless claims of fraudulent conversion, one of the latest examples of how Hindu extremists misuse “anti-conversion” laws. Pastor Bajarang Rawat, a 47-year-old convert from Hinduism in Mohanlalganj, Lucknow District in Uttar Pradesh state, faces charges of converting people by “allurement” even though police could find no witnesses against him, and the only evidence they presented was his Bible, the pastor said. “Reprimanding the policemen, the magistrate told them that it was not a crime to possess a Bible and that...

In December 2005, five groups of Wall Street investors flew in private jets to Portland, Maine, where they took waiting limousines to a warren of metal buildings that resembled a midsize lumberyard. They had come to Bushmaster Firearms in pursuit of a highly profitable product whose market was growing faster than any other in America’s stagnant gun industry. The product was the AR-15, and red-hot Bushmaster, the nation’s leading manufacturer of the rifle, had decided to auction itself to the highest bidder. Bushmaster’s owner Dick Dyke had once feared that he could never sell the company because so many people...

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) will step aside from his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his indictment on bribery charges, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday, as New Jersey’s governor called for the long-serving lawmaker’s resignation. “Bob Menendez has been a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey. He has a right to due process and a fair trial,” Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement. “Senator Menendez has rightly decided to step down temporarily from his position as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee until the matter has been resolved.”...

We’ve reported in the past, numerous times, about cHurChEs being coopted by the LGBTQ mafia and turned into grinding hubs for drag queens. The phenomenon isn’t unexpected as historically, these perverts have always been pervasive in society. But what is stunning about it is that these places of odd sex worship continue to call themselves churches. Cathedral of Hope Church in Dallas, Texas recently held a “Drag Sunday” LGBTQ church service to bless the Satanic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Drag Queens. The ritual was replete with prayers of repentance toward these sanity sell-outs, as well as pledges of allyship. Weird,...