Free Republic

The stock market opened with losses Wednesday morning as Wall Street waited to find out which party would control the House and Senate next year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened with a loss of roughly 200 points Wednesday, falling 0.7 percent after the opening bell. The S&P 500 index opened 0.9 percent lower, and the Nasdaq composite sunk 1 percent after the opening bell. The opening decline comes as election results from around the U.S. show a remarkably tight battle for control of Congress. Republican lawmakers and candidates expected to ride a “red wave” to a commanding majority in...

U.S. households expect the Republican Party will win control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to a survey of consumers from the University of Michigan. The survey, conducted by the same outfit that measures one of the most widely followed measures of consumer sentiment, did not ask consumers which party they favored. Instead, it asked which party they expected to win. Republicans came out ahead by significant margins among consumers across all income, education, and age groups.

Republicans are winning on the economy and crime, and that translates into a decisive House majority. In the Senate, it’s all about the toss-up races, and Democrats still have a fighting chance to keep control. The final edition of Fox News Power Rankings for 2022 sees shifts in 18 competitive House races, two Senate races and three governor's races. House: GOP expected to take control with clear majority as party finds opportunities in blue states. The Power Rankings forecast expects Republicans to take control of the House with a 19-seat majority, or 236 total seats. That is a gain of...

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer backs a European Union-wide cap on runaway electricity prices, he said in a statement issued by his office on Sunday. Austria's conservative-led government was initially sceptical at the idea of capping power prices but it has warmed to the idea as they have continued to rise in line with soaring gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "We must finally stop the madness that is taking place in energy markets. And that can only happen through a European solution," the statement quoted Nehammer as saying, adding that he would seek to convince holdouts in the bloc....

"When a world famous physicist rushed to post groundbreaking pictures from the new James Webb Space Telescope of a distant planet, the first ever taken of it, people sat up and took notice. And by default anything such a person said is given great deference. You don’t expect someone like that to post something you later discover was a joke all along. But his approximately 92000 followers on Twitter learned that is exactly what it was. In this case it wasn’t really harmful as after an hour of teasing them all about Spanish charcuterie not existing anywhere but Earth, and...

The problem is that they’re in common use.. New York Congressman Jerry Nadler openly admitted at a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week that the point of gun control legislation being pushed by Democrats is to confiscate firearms in “common use”. When questioned by GOP North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop if Democrats dispute that the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2021,” proposes to ban guns currently in “common use” nation-wide, Nadler, chairman of the committee, replied “That’s the point of the bill.” “So, to clarify, Mr. Chairman, you’re saying it is the point of the bill to ban weapons that are...

wo officials at one of the largest hospital systems in Los Angeles and Southern California dismissed government officials’ statements about another wave of COVID-19 hitting the region and the United States as “media hype.” Los Angeles County health director Barbara Ferrer last week said that her county is now seeing a “high” level of COVID-19 transmission, suggesting that indoor mask mandates might be reimposed. But in a recent news conference on July 13, Brad Spellberg, the chief medical officer of Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center, and epidemiologist Paul Holtom, said that there have been no...

In the Marvel film "Avengers: Infinity War," Thanos, a super-being from another planet, is seeking six gems – the Infinity Stones – to put into the Infinity Gauntlet, a weapon which, when completed, enables the one who wears it to extinguish half of all life in the universe with just a snap of his fingers. Thanos is cast as a super-villain, but he thinks of himself as an altruist. He explains to another Marvel character, Dr. Steven Strange, that he witnessed the destruction of his own planet, Titan, and that his motives for using the Infinity Gauntlet are purely beneficent:...

s masks, travel restrictions, and COVID testing fade into the past, one aspect of the pandemic may stick around for quite some time: Vaccines. Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Canadians may soon be required to get a booster shot every nine months for the foreseeable future to protect against new variants of the COVID-19 vaccine. Speaking to reporters, Duclos said Canadians who got a shot last summer are no longer "up to date," and should now roll up their sleeves for another booster. “The virus evolves and Omicron made us aware we will never be fully vaccinated against COVID-19,”...

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday evening the Biden administration will appeal Monday’s ruling by a federal judge in Florida that struck down mask mandates for air and Amtrak travel. “The Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disagree with the district court’s decision and will appeal, subject to CDC’s conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health. The Department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the transportation corridor is a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health. That is an important authority the...

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Texas needs to find “common ground” on gun control by respecting the Second Amendment while also requiring safety measures on firearms. O’Rourke, the 2022 Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, slammed current Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for what he described as “extreme” gun policies in the interview with KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas, citing a Quinnipiac poll that found only 6 percent of Texans agree with Abbott’s policy of no background checks.

Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that many in the Republican Party were “looking for an off-ramp” from former President Donald Trump’s control. Hutchinson said, “I hope that the future of the Republican Party is different than former President Trump’s leadership. I hope we move in a different direction. I believe that what happened on January 6 is a lot at his feet. It was wrong for our country, and for him to continue to push that theory, I agree, is the wrong direction for the Republican Party.”

ith gas prices hitting historic levels across the country, one gas station owner is drawing praise online for calling out what he deemed a "ripoff" being perpetuated by oil companies. Reynold Gladu has operated Ren's Mobil Station in Amherst, Massachusetts, for around 48 years. Last week, in response to soaring prices, he opted to drain his tanks and not have them refilled, refusing to take part in the business, which he claims is taking advantage of customers. In his state, average gas prices currently exceed the national average of $5 a gallon.

Thousands of COVID-19 testing booths have popped up on sidewalks across Beijing and other Chinese cities in the latest twist to the country’s "zero-COVID" strategy. Lines form every day, rain or shine, even where the spread of the virus has largely stopped. Some people need to go to work. Others want to shop. All are effectively compelled to get tested by a requirement to show a negative test result to enter office buildings, malls and other public places. Liu Lele, who works for a live-streaming company, has no problem getting tested regularly but said the daytime operating hours don’t always...

Actor Matthew McConaughey used an Austin American-Stateman op-ed to push for more gun control as an “acceptable sacrfice” in the wake of high-profile, firearm-based shootings the U.S. His first recommended gun control is an expansion of background checks. The Magic Mike star wrote, “All gun purchases should require a background check.”

Democrats are preparing a large gun control package to be considered in House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The package, dubbed, “Protecting Our Kids,” includes eight bills designed to erode citizens’ Second Amendment rights. Reportedly included in the massive gun control package are provisions to ban high-capacity magazines, increase the purchase age of semi-automatics from 18 to 21, ban bump stocks for civilian use while requiring existing bump stocks to be registered with the government, change the definition of “ghost guns” so they fall under background checks at point of sale, increase penalties for gun trafficking, and mandate how Americans store...

President Biden said Monday that it’s up to Congress to outlaw assault weapons and strengthen background checks for gun sales, telling reporters: “I can’t dictate this stuff.” “I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that,” Biden said after stepping off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House.

"Uvalde was a mass school shooting; the 26 previous tragedies at schools this year were not." While it has become widely accepted that the recent Uvalde school shooting was the 27th this year, it's not widely known that the definition has changed recently, lowering the threshold for what is defined as a "school shooting.""Interesting. The definition of 'school shooting' was changed to make them seem common, when in fact it’s rarer than we realized," tweeted filmmaker Mike Cernovich on Thursday:

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) responded to his colleagues in the Senate and others accusing him of “politicizing” the tragic mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, TX, which has reportedly left 19 children dead. Murphy, who in an interview the night before pushed for gun control in the wake of the shooting, pushed back against the notion that he was “supposed to shut up and not talk about changing laws” following shootings. He argued that not politicizing the shootings was “a fiction created by the gun industry.”

The New York Times reported late Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took action “within hours” of the Robb Elementary School attack to adjust the Senate schedule and will “force” a gun control vote. According to the NYT, the vote will be focused on expanding background checks to cover sales at gun shows and “gun buyers on the internet.” This despite reports that indicate the alleged Robb Elementary School attacker purchased both his rifles from an FFL at a gun store; such a purchase already requires a background check.