Free Republic

High prices are just one logical result of California’s disastrous mandate to impose a $20 minimum wage on workers in fast-food restaurants.A recent trek to southern California brought not only a trip down memory lane for this writer but also a case of sticker shock. Consider just some of the expenses that busted my food budget: $10.71 for a McDonald’s McMuffin meal; $15.93 for a steak burrito (without sides) at Baja Fresh; and $26.44 for a kebab plate and baklava from a local Middle Eastern chain.These high prices represent one logical result of California’s disastrous mandate to impose a $20...

OpenAI is reportedly facing another lawsuit on its supposed artificial intelligence training methods, this time by YouTuber David Millette. Lawyers for David Millette, a YouTube user from Massachusetts, claim in a lawsuit filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that OpenAI secretly transcribed videos from Millette and other creators to train the models for their AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, and other generative AI tools and products. The complaint reportedly alleges that OpenAI significantly benefited from the creators' work by gathering this data, while also infringing copyright law and YouTube's terms of service which...

Vice presidential hopeful Josh Shapiro spent last week tempering his Jewishness, walking back support for Israel to pacify the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party. At this pace, the Pennsylvania governor is mere days from warning us that the future doesn’t belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.Hey, Michigan isn’t going to win itself.You can really learn a lot about a politician by watching who they choose to appease. The problem is that Shapiro, who is reportedly on the top of Kamala Harris’s veep list, has a record of supporting a liberal democratic ally in the Middle East...

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will be the vice presidential running mate for Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, according to multiple news organizations including the Associated Press and New York Times. The decision to choose Walz is expected to bring back to the Democratic ticket hundred of thousands of people angry over the Israel-Hamas war who voted “uncommitted” in the primaries to express outrage at the Biden administration’s support of Israel in the face of ongoing attacks in Gaza after Oct. 7. The choice also avoids potential controversy over the other leading contender: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, an observant...

HARRISBURGH, Penn., Friday, Aug. 5. Dispatches received here at an early hour this morning state that the rebels were then crossing the river at Hancock, and that they had driven Gen. AVERILL's pickets into Cumberland. A semi-official dispatch, received at 9 A.M., conveys the intelligence that the rebels occupied Hagerstown in force this morning. The greatest consternation once more prevails among the people in the southern portion of the Cumberland Valley. Farmers are hurrying from their homes with their stock, and the population generally is reported to be perfectly panic stricken by this sudden, and to them unexpected occupation again...

... Chicago’s hospitals, however, have simultaneously been planning for a potential darker side to the convention. They’ve been developing plans and practicing for influxes of patients should violence erupt or disaster strike at the convention during this time of political anxiety — a mood exacerbated by the attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. In some ways, preparing for the convention has been like readying for other large events, such as the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, the Chicago Marathon and Lollapalooza, say hospital leaders. In fact, it’s somewhat of a relief that...

According to the polls, the presidential race has tightened since Joe Biden dropped out and anointed Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ nominee. Donald Trump’s lead in the RealClearPolitics average has shrunk to just 0.8 points. However, one pollster that still shows Trump with a healthy lead nationally is Rasmussen Reports. Its latest poll, released Thursday, had Trump up five points nationally; however, Trump’s “margin has narrowed, especially when third-party candidates are factored into this year’s election.” Many on the left took to social media to dismiss the poll and label Rasmussen Reports as a "pro-Trump pollster." To get a response...

Nancy Pelosi and President Biden haven’t spoken since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, the former House speaker said in an interview Monday. Pelosi (D-Calif.) admitted that she hasn’t talked to Biden, 81, since he abandoned his reelection campaign more than two weeks ago during an appearance on CNN Monday. The last time the two Democrats conversed would then be when Pelosi spoke with Biden before he announced on July 21 that he was ending his bid for a second term. “I was asking for a campaign that would win,” Pelosi recounted of their conversation on CBS News...

Music video by OMC performing How Bizarre. (C) 1996 Universal Music NZ Ltd.

Remember Cassidy Hutchinson, the former West Wing aide who swore that the hearsay evidence she would tell the J6 Committee was the truth, the whole truth, so help her God? The new Inspector General's report on the Secret Service's activities on Jan. 6, 2021, has finally put this story and Hutchinson's reputation into the wood-chipper. As you may recall, Hutchinson said that on January 6, as President Donald Trump was driven from his speech at a Save America rally to the White House, he "lunged" at the Secret Service driver when he learned that he wouldn't be going to the...

If Donald Trump wants to win in November, he should stop talking about 2020 election irregularities and focus on what's happening today under the Biden-Harris regime: record inflation, the near-recession, Biden-Harris's wide-open border, and the deplorable state of public education in the United States. Relitigating the 2020 election is not a path to victory. And if Trump wants to do anything about voter fraud, he'll need to win in November, plain and simple. In a May Pew survey of the top issues facing the U.S., voter fraud and the 2020 election did not even crack the top 16. Inflation was...

The Biden administration will reportedly phase out the use of plastic cutlery in all federal departments to combat “climate change.” The administration announced the plan in July as part of its “Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities,” per the New York Post. “The President is committed to taking ambitious actions… to end plastic pollution and is calling upon the global community to do the same, with the goal to reduce the global production and consumption of virgin plastics,” the White House said. The White House said that it will eliminate single-use plastics like “plastic and polystyrene...

Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate, according to three sources with knowledge of the pick, adding a popular Midwestern state executive to the Democratic ticket as the party gears up to hold onto key Northern battleground states this fall. In picking Walz, who's in his second term and also served 12 years in Congress, Harris will have as her No. 2 someone with a proven record of winning over white working-class voters in Rust Belt states while also boasting a robustly progressive record. Democrats will hope that mix of attributes...

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Aalarming video surfaced Monday appearing to show Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) declaring that Congress will have to disqualify former President Donald Trump on January 6, 2025 if he wins the November election, and predicting a civil war with “rampaging Trump mobs” could erupt as a result. Raskin made the disturbing comments during a discussion about voter rights with law professor Richard L. Hasen and civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Iffil at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington D.C. on February 17, 2024. The congressman’s remarks were so extreme, some journalists are wondering if the video was manipulated. The Supreme Court...

Russia's space agency on Monday said the break with the West following Russia's offensive in Ukraine had cost it nearly 180 billion rubles ($2.1 billion). As part of sanctions against Moscow following the start of Russia's campaign, Western countries broke off partnerships with Roscosmos in the space sector. "The termination of contracts by unfriendly countries cost Roscosmos 180 billion rubles," Andrei Yelchaninov, deputy head of the Roscosmos agency, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. One of the collaborations what was halted was the cooperation on a planned joint mission to explore Mars with the European Space Agency. Roscosmos...

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” [He said,] “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” [Acts 1:4-5 NASB95]

NATIONAL ROOT BEER FLOAT DAY On August 6 we celebrate National Root Beer Float Day to tell us to float a scoop of vanilla ice cream in an ice-cold mug of frothy root beer. The classic beverage creates a creamy treat loved by generations! #NationalRootBeerFloatDay Also known as the “Black Cow,” the root beer float got its start in Colorado in a mining camp. Frank J. Wisner of Cripple Creek, Colorado, gets the credit for inventing the “Black Cow” way back in August of 1893. One night Wisner, owner of the Cripple Creek Cow Mountain Gold Mining Company, was staring...

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif gave an interview Sunday night urging folks to not bully Olympic athletes online, but her compassion was completely misplaced - it focused solely on her, not the women she and fellow alleged XY-chromosome holder Lin Yu-Ting have physically bullied over the past week, women whose lifelong dreams were shattered. In an AP article headlined, "Olympic boxer Imane Khelif calls for end to bullying after backlash over gender misconceptions," Khelif is quoted as saying: “I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who was reported Tuesday to be the likely running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, failed in 2020 to anticipate and react to riots in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd at police hands. The violence led to the destruction of a police precinct, widespread looting, and the spread of riots nationwide. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blamed Walz for failing to respond: In an interview Monday, Frey said that Walz hesitated to send in the National Guard to quell the growing violence and then blamed him for allowing...