Free Republic

U.S. productivity just surged +4.9%. The strongest reading in nearly six years. At the same time, labor costs fell –1.9%. Higher output with lower costs is the holy grail: growth without inflation. Put simply: • Productivity jumped from ~3.3% to 4.9% • Labor costs flipped from +1% to –1.9% No surprise the Atlanta Fed’s Q4 GDP forecast just climbed to +5.4%.

Alex Berenson, author of Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, pointed out that the New York Times had curiously removed from an article about the Uvalde school shooter a former coworker’s recollection that he complained about his grandmother not letting him smoke weed. The Times didn’t append a correction to the story as it might be expected to do when fixing a factual inaccuracy... Assuming the elided detail was accurate, it would fit a pattern. Mass shooters at Rep. Gabby Giffords’s constituent meeting in Tucson, Ariz. (2011), a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. (2012), the...

Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.Superman was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Metropolis at 2:32 p.m yesterday at the Metropolis Courthouse. Taken away by ICE agents equipped with specially-designed Kryptonite armor, Superman soon after arrived at a Luthorcorp pocket-dimension prison the Trump administration is now calling “Antimatter Alcatraz.” The arrest was officially announced last night after GOP and Legion of Doom member Kristi Noem posted on X, “Adios Supermanos.” This move comes...

Ideologically? Socially? Romantically? No one wants to be rejected, but inevitably we all do our fair share of rejecting. Admittedly, I have never asked myself how I would want to be rebuffed, such that I would still feel mutual respect and a desire to move forwards together. That requires a confidence found only when we feel unthreatened by others and by our own hurt. But we can’t avoid conflict forever. If we’re going to reject and be rejected for the rest of our lives, we should talk about how it should happen. Let’s start with ideological rejection. Gone are the...

At $13.73 an hour, Michigan’s minimum wage jumped on Jan. 1 to the highest it’s ever been. That shouldn’t be a surprise, given the state’s minimum wage has only stagnated or increased every year. The question is: Does that mean today’s lowest earners also have more purchasing power than minimum wage workers from the past 61 years? With some caveats, the new minimum wage is the highest it’s ever been, even after being adjusted for inflation, since Michigan implemented a state minimum wage in 1965. The previous high was 1979. While minimum wage was only $2.90 an hour, that equates...

https://x.com/HiRezTheRapper/status/2008604404178354463 There’s a fish that looks like president Donald trump at this aquarium 😁🙄😉................

The Lebanese daily Al-Nahar on Jan. 3, 2026, quoted Lebanese Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Wehbe Katicha as saying that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro provided Lebanese Hizbullah with 10,000 Venezuelan passports, some of which were used by officers of Syria's Assad regime to flee the country.

Interview with Mahyar Tousi. Some important and worrying news: The regime has been able to shut down the Internet in Iran. Only Starlink open for posting videos and other news. The police has been retracted from the streets. Instead the regime has sent out the military. Very large demonstrations expected tonight. According to M Tousi on the few videos that now have reached the West lots of shooting.

President Trump joins Hugh Hewitt for an approx. twenty minute interview on a wide range of topics.

Explanation: Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant toward the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis. A sprawling island universe, IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky, but it is hidden from clear view and only glimpsed through the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds along the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed and reddened by intervening cosmic clouds, this sharp telescopic image traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust, young star clusters, and glowing star...

Rep Emily Randall (D-WA) said taxpayers should ignore the data alleging fraud and instead focus on investigating US citizens, especially “white men.” As independent journalists and citizen watchdogs continue raising alarms about possible “Minnesota-style” daycare fraud in Washington, the State Auditor’s Office is now finalizing an audit of a $770 million child care subsidy program run by the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), an audit that began before the recent fraud allegations went viral, that reportedly shows millions of dollars in overpayments. According to KOMO News, the audit includes payments to more than 7,400 child care providers statewide,...

Somalians in Minnesota committed so much fraud Tim Walz resigned

In what could prove to be a pivotal election year for the Republicans, with the midterms holding much influence, President Donald Trump arguably needs the support of his own party now more than ever. Especially as he is facing loud calls for impeachment from the Democratic Party on account of his Venezuela operation... Yet there is currently a split forming, as some prominent Republican lawmakers are publicly disagreeing with Trump regarding his renewed annexation threats against Greenland in the wake of the Venezuela intervention. In a series of inflammatory remarks labeled as “utterly unacceptable” by Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen,...

The asteroid, 2025 MN45, completes a full rotation once every 1.88 minutes, meaning it must have a very high strength to keep itself together. An artist's impression of the asteroid 2025 MN45. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld ===================================================================== The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has observed a record-breaking ultra-fast-rotating asteroid. The space rock is the fastest-spinning asteroid larger than 500 meters (0.3 miles) to have ever been observed. The asteroid, designated 2025 MN45, completes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes. Announced at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory First Look event in June 2025, it was one of 1,900 new...

(The Center Square) - California’s main state retirement fund, CalPERS, announced the hiring of a new chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer whose listed duties include integrating DEI principles into investment practices, and recruiting staff for DEI-informed proxy voting and ESG investing, The Center Square has learned. CalPERS, which faces an estimated $166 billion shortfall, insists the position won't influence financial choices. Shari Slate was hired for the job with base compensation of $221,580, though neither her Linkedin profile nor the news release indicate she has any experience in the finance industry. CalPERS’ May 2025 state paperwork for the position...

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted an undocumented immigrant of dragging a federal immigration agent in his vehicle in June, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. RELATED: 39-year-old facing federal charges after dragging ICE officer 300 feet in his car Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, 40, was convicted on one count of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous and deadly weapon, causing bodily injury. Federal agents tried to arrest Munoz-Guatemala on an immigration order on June 17. Court documents note he was convicted of sexually abusing a minor in 2022. Munoz-Guatemala was “uncooperative and refused to...

Trump Administration will create a new Assistant Attorney General position who will have nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud — focusing first primarily in Minnesota, then expanding nationwide.

The ICE agent involved in the deadly Minneapolis shooting of Renee Nicole Good has been identified as Jonathan Ross. Ross was an 'experienced' officer, sources told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Thursday. Good, 37, was shot and killed on Wednesday afternoon while she was driving her SUV down a street where ICE agents were on duty. Multiple videos show the agent, identified as Ross, opening fire on Good and hitting her in the face while she was behind the wheel. The Trump administration says Good was a 'professional agitator' who had been stalking federal agents. But Democratic officials in Minneapolis...

The ICE agent who opened fire in Minneapolis Wednesday was dragged 100 yards by an illegal migrant in Minnesota last June after his arm was trapped inside the vehicle during a traffic stop, The Post can reveal. The attack on the officer, whom The Post is not naming, happened June 17 in Bloomington, Minnesota, exactly a month after embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz labeled ICE agents “modern-day Gestapo” while speaking at a University of Minnesota Law School graduation in May. ICE agents conducted a traffic stop on Roberto Carlos Munoz, a serial illegal immigrant from Guatemala with a lengthy rap...

Amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, federal agents have threatened to arrest onlookers, following through on that threat at least once. Social media is also full of videos of civilian watchdogs blowing whistles and honking car horns to alert others as agents attempt to stop or detain people they believe to be illegal immigrants. One of them is Lucia Webb, who was boxed in and confronted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after following them in her car last week.