Free Republic

One of the Bidenary impacts to economic analysis and/or economic outcome review has been the inability of any government statistical data to make any sense.Quite frankly, almost every financial pundit in mainstream media pretends the data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) or the Dept of Commerce is accurate. It’s not, and we all know it.Just like every other institution in Washington DC, the systems of economic tracking have lost all their credibility.That said, even with all the pretending intended to prop-up the Biden administration, eventually the results on Main Street are so...

"The Constitution and federal law establish a detailed timetable following the presidential election during which time the members of the electoral college convene in the 50 state capitals and in the District of Columbia, cast their votes for President and Vice President, and submit their votes through state officials to both houses of Congress. The electoral votes are scheduled to be opened before a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021. Federal law specifies the procedures for this session and for challenges to the validity of an electoral vote. This report describes the steps in the process and precedents...

Sen. Joe Manchin indicated he was open to returning to the negotiating table to revise the Build Back Better measure months after the Democrat torpedoed his party’s sweeping $2 trillion spending bill in the deadlocked Senate. Manchin, 74, of West Virginia, told climate activists and energy executives Monday at a private dinner he would support a bill narrowed down to address only climate change, prescription drug prices, deficit reduction and an updated tax code, according to Axios.

The New York Times posted eight revisions over a 23-hour period to its Saturday and then-Sunday story about U.S. President Donald Trump's first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the process, the paper's headline went from an original "Russians Call Trump Meeting Putin a Win, but Doubt Concrete Gains," to a more certain "Russians Call Trump Meeting Putin a Win," to a celebratory "Russia Crows Over Putin’s Trump Meeting." Additionally, as obsessed as the press has been with Russia and Putin supposedly influencing the 2016 presidential election and Trump's campaign and administration, one would think that the folks at...

Excerpted from The New Yorker: But the mere existence of the edits—whatever the motivation for them—seriously undermines the White House’s credibility on this issue. This past November (after Election Day), White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.” Remarkably, Carney is sticking with that line even now. In his regular press briefing on Friday afternoon (a briefing that was delayed...

President Barack Obama left out the words “by their Creator” when he directly quoted from our Declaration of Independence while speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on 15 September. Obama paused for 4 seconds, grimacing and scowling at his teleprompter, and continued to say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What Thomas Jefferson stated in our Declaration of Independence is, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator...

Real Average Weekly Earnings Increase.  "Easing inflation in July had the effect of pushing up inflation-adjusted earnings. Real average weekly earnings, which posted a big 0.8 percent drop in June, rose 0.7 percent last month, according to a separate Labor Department report."  ("Consumer Prices Drop, Housing Starts Soar," Reuters, 8/17/04)Housing Starts Rebound Sharply In July.  "Housing starts rebounded sharply in July, making up almost all the ground lost in a June slump by posting their largest monthly percentage gain since September 2002, a report from the Commerce Department on Tuesday showed.  Starts rose a healthy 8.3 percent to a seasonally...

<p>An Episcopalian friend of mine, reacting to the elevation of an openly homosexual priest to the office of bishop, said to me: "If you're a heterosexual clergyman and you're having sex outside marriage, you can be expelled. But if you're a homosexual clergyman having sex outside marriage, they rejoice."</p> <p>Most denominations that call themselves Christian take the Bible as their text for spiritual and relational instruction. Some in the Episcopal Church take a liberal view of the Bible, just as some do of the U.S. Constitution -- it must be constantly updated to suit cultural trends. This view lends itself to constant misinterpretation and confusion. Eventually, it leads to religious or political heresy.</p>