Free Republic

During Donald Trump’s presidency, The Washington Post kept a running tally of his alleged lies and/or misleading statements. But, when Joe Biden became president, the Post fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, announced an end to the database operation, saying: “Maintaining the Trump database over four years required about 400 additional 8-hour days over four years beyond our regular jobs for three people.” Looks like supply-chain issues at the Post.So, while the Post continues to fact-check Biden, it discontinued the Trump-era practice of running the tote board because, after all, Biden is not Trump, and the Post undoubtedly expects Biden to be more...

The definition of “woke” changes depending on who you ask. The term has been used by some conservatives as an insult against progressive values, as seen this midterm election cycle. However, the term was originally coined by progressive Black Americans and was used in racial justice movements in the early to mid-1900s, being used in a historical recording of the protest song, “Scottsboro Boys” by Lead Belly. In that recording, it was used as a term about staying aware of the potential for racist violence as a Black person in America. The term, in one of its contemporary meanings, began...

Are you among the increasing number of people wondering why Maricopa County, Arizona can't count their votes on time? As of this writing, three days after the midterm elections, there are still over 400,000 ballots yet to be counted in Maricopa County. In fact, most of the votes might not even be counted until after the weekend according to KTAR-News radio in Phoenix, "Maricopa County now says most ballots won’t be counted by Friday: ‘The goalposts have changed.’"If you dare to criticize the apparent incompetence of the pathetically delayed ballot counting, you could be guilty of "disinformation" according to a...

The Republican Party may be girding for a brutal internal war amid the wreckage of its midterm elections — and Donald Trump is ready to “burn it all down” if he can’t keep his grip on the GOP, predicts New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. Who or what remains standing after such a clash is far from clear, she noted Friday. The throw-down is likely to begin next week when Trump is expected to announce that he’s running again for president, against the advice even of some of his allies. Trump has already been trashing potential primary rivals, including Florida...

President Biden is expected to announce a proposal for stronger regulations on the oil and gas sector aimed at controlling emissions of a planet warming gas called methane. The stronger methane regulations are part of a slew of climate-related actions that Biden is expected to announce during his trip to the COP27 global climate summit in Egypt. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) projects that in 2030, the requirements would cut 87 percent of methane emissions from the pollution sources that it regulates when compared to 2005 levels. The proposal strengthens a Biden administration proposal from last year that was expected...

Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, and it appears he's already failing on his promise not to turn Twitter into a 'free-for-all hellscape.' But, I'm not here to talk about his policy blunders. That's a story for another day. No, I'm here to predict that Twitter, the site, will soon crash. And, once it fails, it won't be coming up for a while.Also: Ditching Twitter? How to get started with MastodonWhy? Simple. You can't lay off half of the staff of a cloud-based social network and expect things to keep running smoothly for Twitter's 450 million monthly active users. Indeed,...

Donald Trump is said to be 'livid' this morning and 'screaming at everybody' after a lackluster performance by Republicans in the midterms - and is even rumored to be blaming his wife Melania for advising him to endorse defeated Pennsylvania candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz. The House and Senate both still hang in the balance today despite the promised 'red tsunami' of Republican support. While results in key swing states like Arizona and Georgia are still pending, many are calling Trump the biggest loser of the night with Republicans swearing him off, and throwing their weight behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis...

Sunny Hostin vehemently defended herself on Tuesday after conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin chastised her for a recent comment that went viral in right-wing media, which Hostin claimed was taken out of context.

Ukraine’s president has suggested he’s open to peace talks with Russia, softening his earlier refusal to negotiate with Moscow while President Vladimir Putin is in power — while sticking to Kyiv’s demands. Volodymyr Zelenskyy's appeal to the international community late Monday to “force Russia into real peace talks” reflected a change in rhetoric for a man who signed a decree in late September stating “the impossibility of holding talks” with Putin. But since his preconditions appear to be non-starters for Moscow, it’s hard to see how Zelenskyy’s latest comments would advance any talks. Zelenskyy reiterated that his conditions for dialogue...

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said Monday on “Situation Room” that if former President Donald Trump announced tonight that he is running again in 2024 that could cause Democratic wave in Tuesday’s midterms. The network reported Trump is privately considering announcing a 2024 presidential run at a Monday night rally in Ohio. Anchor Wolf Blitzer said, “What’s your sense, if Trump goes ahead, maybe as early as tonight, announces he’s definitely [running]? He’s hinting broadly he’s going to run for the presidency again. But if he does that before tomorrow’s election, what’s going to be the impact?”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Monday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that the Republican Party is “yielding to a cult” and a “thug” in former President Donald Trump. Cooper said, “The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, others have spread stories casting doubt on what happened, fomenting conspiracy theories. What do you have to say to them?” Pelosi said, “It’s really sad for the country that people of that high visibility would separate themselves from the facts and the truth in such a blatant way. It’s really sad, and it is traumatizing to those affected...

Former president Donald Trump set off a scramble Monday in the Republican Party after he threatened to upend the midterm elections by announcing his 2024 presidential bid on the eve of voting. Trump told people close to him Monday that he might announce his candidacy at a rally scheduled for Monday night in Ohio, according to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential conversations, prompting a chain of phone calls from party leaders who have tried for months to keep him from announcing until after the midterms. Some of his advisers...

So, Elon Musk isn’t your ideal corporate leader, and you want to delete Twitter? You’re not alone. Since the Tesla CEO completed his $44 billion acquisition of the social media site in late October, Twitter may have lost more than one million users, according to estimates from Bot Sentinel, a company that tracks behavior on Twitter. If you’re concerned about hate speech and disinformation, or you’re just not excited about the potential of shelling out cash to secure your blue checkmark, simply avoid the platform altogether. We’ve got you covered for both how to delete your Twitter account and where...

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace claimed Monday on ABC’s “The View” that the Republican Party stands for not condemning antisemitism and “owning the libs.” Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “Let me ask you this though. Some Trump-backed candidates are in tight, tight races. Dr. Oz, J.D. Vance, Kari Lake and of course, the Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. Even with accusations about Walker paying ex-girlfriends to get abortions, the Republicans seem to be focused on getting the Senate at any cost.” She asked, “What is your view of that, and what does the party stand for right now?”

If the pollsters and handicappers end up being spectacularly wrong on Election Night, there’s one group that won’t be too surprised: the pollsters and handicappers themselves. The 2022 midterms could go exactly as modeled—a 20-some-odd-seat pickup for Republicans in the House and maybe a 51-49 GOP Senate—but the people who watch these races the closest are also warning they might be wrong in decisive ways. In either direction. No one really knows because, like every election, pollsters are extrapolating their best guess based on a set of assumptions. But unlike previous elections, the assumptions are getting bigger. According to Dave...

Don’t wait for Tuesday’s votes. The results are already in. Hateful lies and violence are winning. Trumpian politicians pushing the fear button on race, crime and immigration feel good about the polls.

For four years, a cycle of victories by progressive-minded Democrats has pushed the New York State Legislature to the left, carrying their party to legislative supermajorities and creating an unfettered path for liberal priorities to be enacted around housing, climate change and abortion rights. But this year, a national Republican wave is threatening to curb those progressive gains and vanquish the Democrats’ veto-proof supermajority, as Republicans seek to expand their diminished foothold in the State Capitol. While the Assembly is solidly in Democratic control, Republicans seem well positioned to make inroads in the State Senate, where competitive races are playing...

Teams of employees at Twitter who were responsible for monitoring the upcoming midterm elections on the platform have been decimated as part of mass layoffs implemented today by new owner Elon Musk. Those that remain say they do not have access to critical tools used for certain content moderation decisions, sources in a position to know told Forbes. As part of his takeover of Twitter, Musk dramatically slashed the company’s workforce on Friday, just days before the 2022 midterm elections. Employees were told Thursday night that they would receive notice the next morning stating whether they were still employed. Multiple...

A third of global glaciers located at World Heritage sites will disappear by 2050, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned on Thursday. Among the glaciers to vanish will be those at Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro, according to UNESCO. While those glaciers will melt regardless of efforts to limit temperature increases, it is possible to save the remaining two thirds of glaciers at these 50 sites, the organization stressed in a new report. But to do so, the authors cautioned, global heating must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit,...

White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Thursday said that the U.S. is not in a recession and argued that the economy is strong following the Federal Reserve’s decision to again hike interest rates. “We are not in a recession. I want to be really, really clear on that,” Klain told MSNBC when asked what the White House is doing to prepare for a possible recession. He noted that the U.S. is seeing a 50-year low on unemployment overall and an all-time low on Hispanic unemployment, and that more jobs have been created under the two years of President...