Free Republic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgTnHQEVBZk https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?currentFeatureId=ci40699207&extent=33.9912,-118.4079&extent=34.30204,-117.71713

The six one-offs that drove growth and pulled the global economy out of bubble-bust recessions for the past 30 years have all reversed or dissipated. Absent these one-off drivers, the global economy is stumbling off the cliff into a deep recession without any replacement drivers. Colloquially speaking, the global economy is toast.Here are the six one-offs that won't be coming back:1) China's industrialization.2) Growth-positive demographics.3) Low interest rates.4) Low debt levels.5) Low inflation.6) Tech productivity boom.Cutting to the chase, China bailed the world out of the last three recessions triggered by credit-asset bubbles popping: the Asian Contagion of 1997-98, the...

The president of an American Federations of Teachers' affiliate in Chicago was berated by a Black mom for claiming on a radio station that standardized tests are "junk science rooted in White supremacy" as well as "eugenics." Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, was asked by a Black radio station last week about public school students' declining reading and math scores. Specifically, criticism that Gates was advocating to boost teachers' contracts with money that would be better served addressing student achievement. She responded that gauging student achievement...

On August 9, 2024, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court on a case in which numerous states and private parties challenged the ATF’s “pistol-brace” regulatory decision which attempted to reclassify items that it had previously approved as non-NFA “pistols” to NFA short barrel rifles. See, Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, Inc., et al v. Merrick Garland, et al, No. 23-3230 (8th Cir. August 9, 2024). The district court denied the request by the Plaintiffs for a preliminary injunction when the court concluded that the Plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits – that is, the trial...

What does a “progressive” government think of private property rights? Well, they’re just temporary privileges granted by the all-powerful state which can be tread on and revoked at discretion. Immediately after Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the Democrat ticket after a successful coup—Biden’s first interview since the switcheroo, which aired yesterday, described being pushed out by colleagues—she held a fundraiser in Massachusetts, during which time Secret Service agents allegedly broke into a nearby business, a small local hair salon, so they could have access to private bathroom facilities. Porta potties are just so below their station, and of course...

I wanted to get advice from my fellow FReepers on this subject about Israel and Iran. I am going to get personal for a moment. Hopefully you can calm my fears. My anxiety levels have been up and down and up down over what is happening in Israel. I want to understand what could happen and what is not going to happen. Silly I know but my mind keeps saying massive destruction for both countries and It is going to end badly. Any advice? Its just too much.

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Since Vice President Kamala Harris was catapulted to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket when President Joe Biden was forced out of his 2024 campaign, her leftist allies in the media have gone above and beyond to scrub her far-left record -- in addition to sanitizing her many failures as a 2020 presidential candidate. PolitiFact, a major "fact checker," has been one of Harris' greatest champions and advocates. They've explained away positions she still holds in hopes normal, moderate voters will take the bait and think she's changed -- that she isn't a controlling government leftist after all. In...

NYC migrants — including illegal alien convicted of sex assault — raped woman at knifepoint in front of boyfriend: police sources Two migrants were arrested for a knifepoint rape in Coney Island – including one who illegally crossed into the US at the southern border in 2022 and was then busted four months later on rape charges in Brooklyn, law-enforcement sources said Monday. David Davon-Bonilla, 24, a Nicaraguan migrant, allegedly grabbed the 46-year-old woman and threw her to the ground before raping her while holding a knife to her throat at Surf Avenue and 16th Street around 9 p.m. Sunday,...

In November, the American people will go to the polls to decide the future direction of the country. Before the year ends, the political uni-party elite will once again thumb their noses at their constituents by passing an omnibus spending bill to neuter the incoming administration and legislature. The lame-duck GOP will approve. Maybe we should start calling our congress-critters daily to let them know we notice and we're not stupid.

Sleepy Joe sleeping President Joe Biden was spotted catching some rays at a Delaware beach, and the moment roiled some opponents to the core, claiming the moment showed an “unbelievable dereliction of duty.” The RNC Research X account tweeted, “Biden—who held just one public event this week—is currently lounging on the beach in Delaware.” They added, “He has spent 40% of his entire presidency on vacation... Who is running the country?” SNIP

ORLANDO, Fla. — The woman accused of killing her boyfriend by leaving him trapped inside a suitcase will be allowed more freedom in court in the future. Sarah Boone, 46, is charged with murder and has been held in jail since her arrest in 2020. Investigators say she zipped her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., inside a suitcase after a game of hide and seek. She allegedly left him there when she went to bed and found him dead inside the next day. Boone has no attorney and is representing herself in court. Judge Michael Kraynick ruled she forfeited her right...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released the biggest causes of mortality in 2023. The report, published by the agency on Aug. 8, was based on death records from the National Vital Statistics System. A total of 3,090,582 deaths occurred in the U.S. in 2023, a decline of 6.1% compared to 2022, the report stated. "The overall death rate is decreasing," Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital. "The key change is decreased deaths from COVID as the population builds...

Ukrainian drones broadcast to Russian soldiers to put their guns down and surrender as Zelensky's troops storm Kursk.

The EU warns Elon Musk about tonight’s Donald Trump livestream on X. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton says the EU will watch for “spillovers” that violate the Digital Services Act, such as “content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political - or societal - events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.”

I finished Megan Basham's "Shepherds for Sale" over the weekend. Paula is working on getting her for an interview for the podcast, and if that happens, it should be an eye-opening discussion. Basham's book outlines how progressive forces have infiltrated the Evangelical churches of America to undermine the conservative presence in those churches and flip them blue. Basham asserts that this effort is well-funded and occurs across multiple fronts, often aided and abetted by Christian and conservative thought leaders. One of those leaders, according to Basham, is David French. French was once a columnist for National Review before jumping ship...

After allowing former President Donald Trump to get shot in the head, the Secret Service took a new approach to security last week by breaking into private businesses while working Democrat campaign events to use the toilet.Largely unnoticed until this weekend, a Business Insider report published last Wednesday revealed that the Secret Service purportedly broke into a Massachusetts hair salon while protecting a nearby Kamala Harris fundraiser to use its restrooms. The incident reportedly occurred on July 27, which is when the Democrat presidential nominee held her event at a nearby performing arts center.According to the report, “The owner of...

Day #6 of the Top 50 songs on my iTunes playlist -- ranked in reverse order by play frequency from #50 to #1 and presented here on a series of FR threads. I'm posting them here on a new thread that compiles the growing list one day at a time over the next couple of months. I only post them on weekdays and may miss a day or two here and there, so it will take at least ten weeks to do this. And to show my gratitude to the FR management for giving us all a forum to post...

A megachurch pastor in North Carolina has agreed to pay his ex-wife $12k/month in alimony over the next nine years after filing for divorce after 33 years of marriage. The couple have four adult children. Gilbert Andre Thompson, Jr. is the pastor of World Overcomers Christian Church in Durham. According to his bio, “God has used him to both plant and lead the explosive 15,000-member strong World Overcomers Christian Church, which is one of the fastest-growing churches in America…God is also using him to impact over 1 million people each week through his innovative, in-your-face, Faith-Filled television program called “The...

(NEXSTAR) – Geomagnetic storm conditions observed over the weekend strengthened Monday morning, creating a “major disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said. The storm reached a G4 level in strength — the second-highest on the scale, classified as “severe” — just before 11 a.m. Eastern Time. The geomagnetic storm conditions may continue into the evening as solar flaring continues, forecasters said. “Severe levels is pretty extraordinary,” Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at SWPC, said in a media briefing earlier this year. “It’s a very rare event to happen.” At the G4 level, impacts on our infrastructure are...