Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump’s plan to expand the universe of swing states is paying off. Left-wing panic is reportedly sinking in over New York’s increasingly competitive status, with one local Democrat official saying it has morphed into a “battleground state.” Politico reported on the development in the long-blue Empire State on Wednesday in the wake of President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27: Elected officials, union leaders and political consultants are panicking over polls showing a steady erosion of Biden’s support in a state he won by 23 points four years ago. They’re so worried they’ve...

Let’s discuss the latest BLS report on employer costs with a special focus on teachers.Employer costs from the BLS, chart by MishEmployer Cost SynopsisGovernment Wages Plus Benefits: $61.27Private Wages and Benefits: $43.78Government Wages: $37.90Private Wages: $30.76Government hourly wages are 23.2 percent more than private workers on average.Benefits are the real killer.Government total compensation is 39.9 percent more than private workers.What About Teachers?Employer costs from the BLS, chart by MishTeachers make $37.90 per hour in direct wages. But they make a whopping $79.38 per hour in total benefits.Benefits for teachers are a mere 109 percent of wages.Economic FairnessEducation Week reports Biden...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CBS’s “The Late Show,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) responded to a question on America’s role in the Israel-Hamas conflict by stating that “We have a foreign policy that pretty much follows the idea of peace through strength, and what that means is we need to have a very strong military so that we can scare other countries into doing what we say. I wish we would use our wealth and our resources and our means to lead with diplomacy.” And we should “build a Palestinian state” with our resources. Host Stephen Colbert asked, “What do you...

~Favorite City and State and Road Songs~ City of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie *Video*Okalahoma *Video*

Rafah isn’t just the last stand for Hamas, but for an entire foreign policy establishment. The desperate effort to keep Israeli soldiers from going into the last Gaza stronghold of the Islamic terrorist organization is about more than the sum of the geopolitical parts. After nation building failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and everywhere else it’s been tried, the radioactive ‘Palestinian’ nation building experiment from over 30 years ago is its last hope. Long before George W. Bush tackled nation building after 9/11, his father began the era of turning Muslim terrorist groups into countries with the project to give...

Former President Donald Trump is appearing in blue Minnesota on Friday, delivering the keynote address at the Minnesota Republican Party’s Lincoln Reagan Dinner as all eyes are on traditionally blue strongholds that the former president hopes to flip in November. Trump has a busy day on Friday and is headed to Minnesota after attending his youngest son Barron Trump’s high school graduation in Palm Beach, Florida, earlier in the day. In early May, the Republican Party of Minnesota announced Trump as the headliner for the 2024 Lincoln Reagan Dinner. At the time, Minnesota Trump Campaign Chair and House Majority Whip...

Some voters in battleground states are confused about the origins of the current abortion landscape in the United States, despite President Joe Biden making abortion the centerpiece of his reelection campaign. A New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College poll of voters in battleground states — including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin — found that nearly one in five registered voters (17 percent) think Biden is responsible for the end of the constitutional “right” to abortion. Fifty-six percent credit former President Donald Trump, and 13 percent say they do not know or refused to answer. Notably, Trump nominated three Supreme Court...

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced his proposed $288 billion state budget, which would cut thousands of vacant state jobs and funding to more than 200 state programs in order to close the state’s $27.6 billion deficit. Newsom revealed his budget proposal on Friday for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which starts on July 1, citing the importance of accountability and responsibility, according to ABC7 News. This comes a month after state officials agreed to reduce California’s deficit by $17.3 billion after Newsom announced in January that the state’s deficit was $37.9 billion. The state deficit ended up being closer to $45...

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the State Department's new senior DEI hire will "destroy" the foreign affairs agency and make America "less safe" in an interview Friday with Fox News Digital. Zakiya Carr Johnson was hired by the State Department last week as chief officer of diversity, equity and inclusion. Fox News Digital exposed her past anti-American remarks, including her saying the U.S. represented a "failed historical model" embedded with racism, colonialism and other isms. Carr Johnson has also called for tradition to be dismantled. Pompeo believes Carr Johnson's hire was part of the "Biden administration's core commitment…...

First daughter Ashley Biden made a rare appearance at a lavish state dinner welcoming the Japanese prime minister to the White House on Wednesday, a day after the woman who stole and sold her diary was sentenced to a month of prison time. The New York Times noted the timing of her appearance: Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, politely but quickly drifted away from the cameras after telling reporters about her dress. On Tuesday, a Florida woman was sentenced to jail for selling Ms. Biden’s private diary to a right-wing activist group. But outside worries rarely come between a Biden...

A State Department official resigned Wednesday and has since gone on a media tour blasting President Biden’s “horrific policy” toward Israel, accusing the administration of enabling “a genocide in Gaza.” Annelle Sheline’s resignation from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor is the most significant public departure from the department since last October, when Josh Paul, a senior official in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, announced he was calling it quits. “For the past year, I worked for the office devoted to promoting human rights in the Middle East. I believe strongly in the mission and in...

President Biden and Vice President Harris are set to travel to every battleground state in March as part of his reelection campaign’s effort to ramp up after Super Tuesday and the State of the Union, the campaign announced Friday. Biden will travel to New Hampshire on Monday, Wisconsin on Wednesday and Michigan on Thursday, according to the campaign. Ahead of that, he will visit Pennsylvania on Friday and Georgia on Saturday, directly following his State of the Union address, and more travel to battleground states will be announced throughout the month. The campaign has deemed March the “I’m on Board”...

Add Bloomberg/Morning Consult to the latest round of polls showing Donald Trump sweeping all the 2024 swing states. Just a few days ago, EmersonPolling/the Hill surveys found former President Trump leading His Fraudulency Joe Biden in the seven states most likely to decide the next president. Thursday, Bloomberg/Morning Consult showed the same. Here are the results from a two-way race: Arizona: Trump 49 / Biden 43 — Trump +6 Georgia: Trump 49 / Biden 43 — Trump +6 Michigan: Trump 46 / Biden 44 — Trump +2 Nevada: Trump 48 / Biden 42 — Trump +6 North Carolina: Trump 50...

The federal government won an 8.7 percent profit of $37.5 billion from the resident population of 2.9 million refugees and asylum seekers in the 15 years before 2020, says a celebratory report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The report also notes that the imported refugees also inflicted a 7.3 percent loss of $21.4 billion on the taxpayers who fund state and local governments. The report calculated the costs by comparing the $739 billion in taxes paid by migrants and their families to their $723.4 billion in government aid.

Hundreds of college students at one of the largest party schools in America, Florida State University (FSU), dedicated their lives to God on Thursday.Christian author Jennie Allen shared news of the event on her social media pages. Photos and videos show the large group of young people gathered at Wescott Fountain on the school’s campus in Tallahassee, the Stream reported Saturday.“God keeps doing it!! They confessed their sin. They came forward in droves tonight to trust Jesus. We baptized hundreds in a fountain usually used for partying and worse. And it’s all just the beginning,” Allen wrote in a post...

Britain’s former Prime Minister, now returned to frontline politics as the nation’s top diplomat, is again talking about recognising a Palestinian state despite Israel rejecting the idea, but this time adding the condition it would have to be without Hamas. The United Kingdom would recognise a Palestinian state, but only once Gaza is no longer controlled by Hamas, Britain’s Foreign Minister Lord David Cameron said in Lebanon on Thursday. Per a Guardian report on the remarks Britain legitimising a Palestinian state could come even before the end of futuretalks between Israel and “Palestinian leaders”. No moves could be made until...

The state is reportedly planning to dramatically downsize or even close SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. The Big Apple’s only state-run medical hospital has been plagued by low patient enrollment, annual operating deficits of about $100 million and a deteriorating hospital building – information administrators shared this week with staff doctors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated his belief that finding a pathway for Palestine to become its own state is “necessary” for Israel to obtain “genuine security,” while giving remarks in Davos, Switzerland. “The problem is getting from here to there, and of course, it requires very difficult, challenging decisions,” Blinken said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum, as reported by The Associated Press. “It requires a mindset that is open to that perspective.” The secretary continued, claiming the biggest concern around security would be Iran and its proxies, including the Houthi rebels in Yemen, as war continues to rage...

Bomb threats targeting state institutions rippled across the country for a second day in a row on Thursday, one day after multiple state capitols were forced to evacuate due to similar threats. .... State capitol buildings in at least six states — Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan and Mississippi — were forced to take safety precautions as a result of bomb threats Wednesday.

What is truly unexpected is that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has just ordered a state spending freeze. In a memo sent across California agencies and departments this week, the director of the Department of Finance wrote, “It is vitally important that state government is efficient, effective, and only expends funds that are necessary to the critical operation and security of the state. As such, all state entities must take immediate action to reduce expenditures and identify all operational savings achieved.” The department urged state agencies to take several steps to save money, including avoiding any new contracts or agreements to...