Free Republic

U.S. job growth cooled sharply in July while the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to the highest level in nearly three years. The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 114,000 jobs in July, missing the 175,000 gain forecast by LSEG economists. The unemployment rate also unexpectedly inched higher to 4.3% against expectations that it would hold steady at 4.1%.

Kate McKinnon as Barbara DeDrew and musical guest Billie Eilish as Paw-bree Hep-purrn during the “Whiskers R We” sketch on "Saturday Night Live" on Dec. 16.Will Heath / NBC

Four key pillars of the global climate are melting in the heat trapped by rising fossil fuel emissions, a new study has found. The relatively stable climate that nurtured human civilization depends in large part on these structures: the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica, the Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic currents that warm Europe. Under current policies, the world faces a scenario in which those pillars have roughly even odds of either surviving or collapsing during the next three centuries, according to results published Thursday in Nature Communications. The scientists warned that if the pillars are fatally undermined...

On Sunday, Venezuelans went to the polls to select a new president. By Sunday night the results were clear. Exit polls found that the Venezuelans voted two-to-one to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro. The exit polls had communist tyrant Nicolas Maduro losing by a landslide. 66.6% for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez and 30.86% for Nicolas Maduro. -- snip -- But on Monday, Maduro announced he was the clear winner. On Tuesday he called for the arrest of the two leading opposition figures. And by Thursday, the communist tyrant announce the construction of two maximum-security prisons where he will...

Footage has emerged of the second 'failed gender test' boxer landing a flurry of heavy punches on her opponent to win her opening fight of the Paris Olympics. Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting put on a dominant display across three rounds at the North Paris Arena on Friday to storm to victory against Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan. The 28-year-old showed off impressive striking and quick footwork to maintain dominance inside the ring and secure the unanimous decision victory. Afterwards, her opponent Turdibekova was overcome with emotion and could not hold back the tears as the decision was read out inside the arena....

I started a thread like this a couple of years ago when I bought a new computer and transferred all my music files to it. I didn't stick with it, but maybe this time I'll be more dedicated! One of the things that caught my eye was the "Play Count" number for each of the MP3 and MP4 files I moved from one computer to the other. As I went through these tracks on iTunes, I decided to rank them in the order of their play frequency to see if there were any interesting patterns in the number of times...

The Supreme Court is caught in a crisis of its own making.There is the gross corruption of Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, who have received millions of dollars in gifts and benefits from various billionaire benefactors.There is the court’s open assault on the basic rights of tens of millions of Americans, exemplified in its decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion on the basis of a vague and inconsistent standard of “text, history and tradition.”And there is the hubris of Chief Justice Roberts, who, the legal scholar Eric J. Segall writes, has “led the court to...

If it seems you’re getting more and more messages from co-workers, friends or attendees at that family barbecue about a positive COVID-19 test, it’s not in your head. While COVID-19 hospitalizations are still far lower than previous years, they’re steadily trending up this summer — both statewide and in the Capital Region. “We have seen a jump this month, but the good thing is we’re nowhere where we were two years ago,” Albany County Department of Health Interim Commissioner Maribeth Miller told the Times Union. With at-home testing prevalent, officials now rely on hospitalization rates to track the disease. Last...

The tap dancing, lies, and coverup of the Trump assassination attempt by the Secret Service, FBI, and now the mainstream media is so far beyond bureaucratic ass-covering that it's hard to conclude that the events in Butler were not desired. I still maintain that it is unlikely in the extreme that anybody inside the government recruited Crooks to take his shots at Trump because it seems so implausible that any sane person would recruit an untrained kid to do the deed, but it is now clear to me that the top levels of the Secret Service and Homeland Security wanted...

Tracy Nailor, a 56-year-old Atlanta pediatrician, wasn’t particularly impressed with Kamala Harris when she first ran for president. “I think I succumbed to the narrative about her,” she said. She thought Harris wasn’t experienced or accomplished enough to merit the Democratic nomination. “I just didn’t know enough,” she said. “I didn’t do my homework.” Instead of Harris, she supported the trusted, familiar Joe Biden in the last election.But as Biden’s most recent presidential campaign ground on, her faith wavered. She knew it was going to be hard for the aging president to win again. “I was not hopeless, but I...

If you want a good laugh, CNN, a far-left propaganda outlet that spreads conspiracy theories and political violence, had an “opinion” section at CNN-dot-com (I don’t link fake news). Can you believe that? Yes, CNNLOL was so wedded to the ludicrous fantasy there was a separation between its “””””news””””” and “opinion,” that it wasted money creating this opinion section. CNN’s ratings sinking like a stone. https://t.co/WySz4DbcJK — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 5, 2021 Well, the delusion is over. CNN has announced an end to the ludicrous fantasy. CNN Opinion is no more. And I mean “CNN Opinion” is no more....

VIDEOMerrick Garland claims he wouldn't ILLEGALLY appoint Jack Smith to go after President Trump. Why? Because he claims he is too smart for that. That was his excuse. More likely what happened was that he knew the appointment of Jack Smith was ILLEGAL but hoped that the rest of us wouldn't be smart enough to notice.

Mark Cuban is issuing a big warning to self-insured employers: If your company receives pharmacy rebates through employee benefits, prepare for an eventual lawsuit. "It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when," he wrote on X on July 22. "The inevitable class action suit will dwarf the tobacco settlements." Mr. Cuban's comments come as large employers are beginning to face lawsuits from their workers over claims of mismanaging health and pharmaceutical benefits and violating their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA requires self-funded employers acting as health plan fiduciaries to make an effort...

Kamala Harris' handlers have been carefully curating all of her public appearances since Joe Biden was forced off the ticket and the vice president became the presumptive nominee. For the most part, that's meant heavily scripted rallies with high-level entertainers (in popularity, not quality) doing the heavy lifting. On Thursday, she was put in a different position, though. Appearing in Houston, Harris gave the eulogy for recently passed Democrat politician Sheila Jackson Lee, and things got really weird. At one point, Harris started touting her own political record. She then called herself "the president," which led to the room bursting...

Chelsea Clinton has eyes on an ambassadorship if Kamala Harris becomes president, according to sources. “Chelsea really wants to be the ambassador to the UK,” said a Clinton source. “There’s a reason why Bill and Hillary came out in the first five minutes to support Kamala’s presidential bid — they were currying favor.” The source said the Clintons have been “working on this idea for a long time.” The former first daughter, who is vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, would also love a gig in France, the source said.

The Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll of so-called swing states show Chase Oliver in 4th place at 3%, behind Kennedy at 5% but ahead of Stein at 1%. BLMB12 If the November 2024 election for U.S. president were held today, and Democrat Kamala Harris, Republican Donald Trump, Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and Libertarian Chase Oliver were on the ballot, for whom would you vote? Democrat Kamala Harris 2,249 - 45% Republican Donald Trump 2,213 - 44% Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 237 - 5% Libertarian Chase Oliver 164 - 3% Green Party candidate Jill Stein 26...

Gymnastics great Simone Biles appeared to take a swipe at former President Donald Trump on Friday. 'I love my black job,' she posted after winning her second gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games, which cemented her status as the most decorated U.S. gymnast in history. Trump has used the term 'black job' on several occassions, including at his controversial appearance in front of the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago, where he argued immigrants were taking 'black jobs' away. Online Trump was already being mocked for the term, as a popular meme was created about Vice President Kamala...

A lot has been said about the JD Vance selection by Donald Trump. Does the freshman Ohio senator do enough to bring new voters into the fold? Is he non-controversial enough to not be a drag on the ticket? I'll let others continue to argue over those questions, most of which won't be answered until the votes are cast. What I know for certain, though, is that he is an absolute wizard in a debate setting, and that includes battling loaded questions from journalists.

Theme park only park to successfully breed albino reptiles KENANSVILLE, Fla. – Wild Florida is living up to its alligator hatching success with the arrival of a new rare albino gator. The theme park in Osceola County said out of a nest of 9 eggs, one successfully hatched on Saturday. The alligator’s parents, Snowflake and Blizzard, are also albino. See video of the hatching AT LINK............... “This is our third year in a row of babies and Wild Florida remains the only park on the planet that has successfully bred albino alligators,” Wild Florida co-owner Sam Haught said in a...

The United States on Thursday recognized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's opponent and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of Venezuela's disputed presidential election, rejecting Maduro's claim of victory. “Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday. The announcement from Washington did not go beyond congratulating him for a "successful campaign," the closest the U.S. has come since Sunday's contested election to recognizing Gonzalez...