Free Republic

April was not the cruelest month for investors—although the tariffmageddon-obsessed naysayers may be smarting. Despite a month of wild swings and gloomy forecasts, U.S. stock markets ended April nearly flat, brushing off predictions that Trump’s trade policies would trigger a historic collapse. The S&P 500 finished the month down just 0.8 percent. The Dow dropped 2.1 percent, and the Nasdaq edged lower by 0.3 percent. That mild performance stood in stark contrast to a mid-April Wall Street Journal article that warned of a “Trump rout” and suggested the Dow was on track for its worst April since 1932. It wasn’t....

Employers in the United States added 177,000 workers to their payrolls in April, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, defying predictions of labor market sluggishness following President Trump’s announcement of tariffs. Economists had been expecting 130,000 jobs and an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2 percent. The prior month’s jobs figure was revised down to 185,000 from 228,000

The Late Hour of Our RepublicI am compelled by the late hour of our republic to recognize how far we have come and how far we have slipped. After centuries of rising from a mere rabble of farmers and shopkeepers, homemakers and nurses to one of the most powerful and wealthy nations on earth, it took next to no time to fall amongst the casualties of broken empires. The end of the United States has already been accomplished, it’s just a matter now of how it unfolds. Those in the Executive branch of government have already committed the ultimate treason,...

President Biden on Thursday took a victory lap after federal data showed the U.S. economy grew by 2.6 percent during the third quarter of the year and accused congressional Republicans of “rooting for a downturn.” “For months, doomsayers have been arguing that the US economy is in a recession and Congressional Republicans have been rooting for a downturn,” Biden said in a statement. “But today we got further evidence that our economic recovery is continuing to power forward. This is a testament to the resilience of the American people.” Commerce Department data showed U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at...

Anyone else sick and tired of hearing so-called political experts predict that Democrats are going to lose badly in this year's midterms? Apparently it doesn’t matter that in President Joe Biden’s first year, 6.6 million new jobs were reported, the strongest first year of job gains of any president since our government began collecting such data in 1939. Nor does it appear to matter that unemployment is down from 6.7 percent in former President Donald Trump’s last full month in office to 3.8 percent and that wages are up 5 percent over the past year.

The Michigan appeals court turned down an appeal Friday from President Donald Trump's campaign in a challenge to how absentee ballots were handled in Detroit and other issues. In a brief order, the court said the lawsuit fails because Michigan's election results, including Joe Biden's 154,000-vote victory over Trump, were certified on Nov. 23, a week before the campaign filed an appellate brief. The court said the president's only recourse was a recount, but that has passed, too. “Because plaintiff failed to follow the clear law in Michigan relative to such matters, their action is moot,” Judge Stephen Borrello said...

A couple of weeks ago, we saw media outlets report that "experts" predicted that 500,000 would die in Great Britain and two million in the U.S. Now those wild made-up predictions have been lowered to 20,000 or below in Britain and to 80,000 in the U.S. Here's the news item: "Imperial College scientist who predicted 500K coronavirus deaths in UK adjusts to 20K or fewer" So those predictions of less than two weeks ago, used to spread panic and depression and used to justify shutting down much of the economy, were at least 96% off. Why would anyone think the...

The problem with environmentalists isn't merely that they have destructive ideas about the economy, but that so many of them embrace repulsive ideas about human beings. Take a recent NPR piece that asks, "Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?" If you want to learn about how environmentalism has already affected people in society, read about the couple pondering "the ethics of procreation" and its impact on the climate before starting a family, or the group of women in a prosperous New Hampshire town swapping stories about how the "the climate crisis is a reproductive crisis."...

Because of my unshakable belief in the Bible and its uncanny track record of predictions of future events, I have been accused of being an apocalyptic doomsdayer. It’s not accurate, because I see a glorious future for planet Earth – the restoration of all things including complete justice and real world peace. What I found remarkable today is that secular people, atheists, agnostics and materialists seem to be the real doomsdayers in our world. It was just about a year ago that Noam Chomsky, all of the above plus a radical left-wing idealist, wrote that the world was facing imminent...

Scientists looked back in time – in the geologic record – to see the future Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)–as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends–future generations will likely have to deal with a completely different world. One with sea levels 40 to 70 feet higher than at present, according to research results published this week in the journal Geology. The scientists, led by Kenneth Miller of Rutgers University, reached their conclusion by studying rock and soil cores taken in Virginia, New Zealand and the Eniwetok Atoll in...

A group of people calling themselves climate scientists have just released a video bashing climate-change deniers. And by bashing I mean a profanity-laced rap that includes calling one detractor a “mother fu**er.” The video opens up with the following message: “In the media landscape there are climate change deniers and believers, but rarely are those speaking about climate change actual climate scientists.” Then it goes into the rap, which features the names and titles of the scientists, including professors and students: “Droppin’ facts all over this wax / While bit**es be crying about a carbon tax,” one line says.

Meet The Doomsayers Who Just Won't Give Up Joe WeisenthalDec. 17, 2009, 10:32 AM Last April we ran a profile of the leading doomsayers -- the folks who aggressively argued that the economy was going to hell in a handbasket. Of course, back in April that seemed very possible, and so many of these folks were riding huge waves of fame. Since then, things have improved markedly, but it's hard to switch gears when you're mostly known for being negative. And so we've updated our survey to introduce you to the brave holdouts. Despite the rally, they're warning us, Cassandra-like,...

Fernando Antonio Salguero grew up with his sister and mom in “a community of junkies and thieves” in a series of squats in Kensington. The worst year, he says, was 1985. Salguero is certain of this because it was the same year that Mayor Wilson Goode dropped a bomb on the West Philly building containing members of the radical group MOVE, killing six adults and five children. Salguero watched the bombing on a neighbor’s TV. 
 Salguero was 11 years old. This was also the year he, his mom and his younger sister learned to survive on the five gallons...

Doomsayers Say Benedict Fits World End Prophecy By Phil Stewart Thu Apr 28, 9:17 AM ET Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd during the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 27, 2005. Benedict XVI held the first general audience of his new pontificate Wednesday, pledging to work for reconciliation and peace. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito) ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's ascent to the papacy took a conclave of 115 cardinals, four rounds of voting and followed a lifetime of service to the Vatican. But ask Internet doomsayers eyeing a 12th century Catholic prophecy and they'll...

Can we get store somewhere all the pathetic predictions of doom by the media, pundits and politicians of surrender so we can openly ridicule them when Iraq succeeds? It is so very irritating to hear them attempt to pass themselves off as worthy of consideration when they've been wrong in such serious matters.... What do you think?

<p>This was going to be a column about oil. Instead, it's also about disease, poison, and a cool way to get rid of both. Actually, it's about a new technology — a new process that is going to make a Difference. One that's going to change things, and one you're going to be hearing a lot more about.</p>

With no viable competitors, Bush's popularity holds firm in runup to 2004 elections So, just how much trouble is George Bush in over the Iraq situation? Not as much as we've been led to believe, it appears. Many opponents of the U.S. President have been eager to suggest his chances of re-election fade with each setback in Baghdad. But if Americans are rising up against Mr. Bush, preparing to discard him on the heap of one-term presidents, it isn't evident from the polls. It can't be reassuring for Mr. Bush to be entering the final 12-month slog to the vote...

It is easy and tempting to see the glass of Iraqi reconstruction as half-empty rather than half-full, and there are plenty of people with a vested interest in doing just that. Certainly, events such as Saturday's vicious assassination attempt on Aquila al-Hashima – one of three women members of Iraq's Governing Council, and a strong contender to become Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations – lend volume to the voices of those who say Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket. But they will be disappointed, because it is not. And the fact that 82 American soldiers and 11...

<p>APOLLO BEACH, Florida (AP) -- The Tampa Bay area's burgeoning population of nearly 2 million people is tapping a new source for its drinking water -- salty Tampa Bay itself.</p> <p>The nation's first sea water desalination plant built to serve as a primary source of drinking water is providing water to Tampa, St. Petersburg, New Port Richey and surrounding cities.</p>

Natalie Marmion (ABC affiliate KATU-TV, Portland, Oregon on March 17, 2003): “The announcement that war is close sent the stock market soaring.” Wrong, Miss Information. The President announced that if certain conditions are not met by his chosen deadline, March 19, 2003, his coalition of the willing, whether it includes the troops of two nations or many, will enter Iraq, and shortly close the book on the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein. That is why the stock market soared. What, you ask, is the difference between what you said and what I just said? A grasp of the situation is...