Free Republic

Rest easy, everyone — Obamacare has completely taken care of the American health care system. It's done. It's completely fixed. In fact, it's so fixed that Americans had to borrow $74 billion last year to get the medical care they needed. From CBS News: Health care is so expensive that 31 million U.S. adults, or 12%, had to borrow a total of $74 billion last year to obtain medical care, new data shows. That includes people with health insurance, making such numbers even more troubling. Yes, even health insurance isn't enough to keep people from going into debt.

Fourth quarter economic growth eased to an annualized rate of 2.3 percent, shy of an expected 2.6 percent, as the economy heads into uncertain territory. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed from an impressive 3.1 percent in the third quarter and 3 percent in the second quarter, according to data released Thursday by the Commerce Department. Real GDP increased at 2.8 percent on the year, above the non-inflationary growth rate. Economists said the number was an excellent one in light of a downturn that many expected in 2024, but that they anticipate more moderate growth in coming quarters. “The economy...

A year-to-date after three Kansas City Chiefs fans were last seen alive, it is still unclear why they died in their friend’s snowy backyard — and authorities have not handed down any criminal charges in their deaths. Clayton McGeeney, 37; Ricky Johnson, 38; and David Harrington, 36, visited their longtime friend Jordan Willis’ home in Kansas City, Missouri, on Jan. 7, 2024 to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers. Two days later, the three men were found dead on Willis’ property by McGeeney’s fiancée. Willis could not be reached by phone and did not answer his door in...

Happy New Year!

:-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025!!! A Happy and quiet New Year here in the woods. Best to you and yours.

Just hours after the shooting at Madison, Wisconsin’s, Abundant Life Christian School, CNN claimed there have been “83 school shootings” during 2024 alone. CNN claimed, “As of December 16 – the 351st day of the year – there have been 83 school shootings in the United States in 2024.” CNN did not provide any links to the myriad school shootings they claim have occurred. Rather, they pointed out that they pulled their information from the “CNN school shooting database.”

Time is planning to name President-elect Trump its annual “Person of the Year,” according to a new report. The legacy news magazine plans to announce the decision Thursday morning, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the plans and noting Trump would be in New York City that morning to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. In a statement to The Hill, Time said it “does not comment on its annual choice for Person of the Year prior to publication. This year’s choice will be announced tomorrow morning, Dec. 12, on Time.com.” In a...

Last month, former President Jimmy Carter marked one year in hospice. After entering end-of-life care in February 2023, he celebrated his 99th birthday and grieved the death of his wife of 77 years and former first lady, Rosalynn Carter. Even then, Carter was able — with help — to attend her funeral. Even at the end of life, the nation’s longest-living president — someone who “practically no one ever thought” would be elected president, writes the New York Times’ Peter Baker — is defying the odds. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 90% of patients who enter...

ACLJ Chief Counsel and lifelong musician Jay Sekulow has assembled this award-winning, all-star lineup, led by two of the most powerful voices in rock ’n’ roll – John Schlitt of the iconic Christian rock group Petra and legendary singer/songwriter John Elefante of Kansas. The Jay Sekulow Band is ringing in the New Year with a stellar night of classic rock anthems and original tunes.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Considering how pessimistic Western analysts and policymakers have recently become about Ukraine’s chances in Russia’s imperialist war, Ukrainians should be even gloomier. They’re the ones doing the fighting and the dying. Russian missiles are destroying their country. Their people are the targets of the Kremlin’s genocidal urges. In fact, Ukrainians remain bullish about their country’s future. To be sure, not quite as bullish as a year ago, but bullish nonetheless.

This year will be both earth’s warmest year on record and the conclusion of the warmest nine-year period on record, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) projected Thursday. The past year has already set a number of temperature records, and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service earlier said 2023 was on track to be the warmest known year. Despite the remaining time in the year, the WMO said in a statement that 2023’s temperatures have already outflanked the previous warmest years, 2016 and 2020, to the point that it is almost certain to break the record. WMO data...

Family incomes dropped by about $2,000 last year on average, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated on Tuesday. Median family income has dropped every year since 2019, adjusted for inflation. The figure stood at $74,580 as of 2022, according to Census data, a 2.3 percent drop from 2021 levels. The change may reflect rising inflation, which has cooled in recent months but nonetheless hurt families’ bottom lines. Last summer saw inflation hit a forty-year high. Inflation slowed to 3.2 percent in July, down from over 9 percent a year before.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise and raising anxiety around the possibility that schools could implement mask mandates or close down again. Surges of COVID-19 cases in Texas and Kentucky have caused three school districts to briefly suspend in-person classes. But few schools have taken those steps so far, and superintendents contend that without national guidance, it is highly unlikely we’ll see a return of mass closures or mask mandates. In the post-emergency era of COVID-19, schools no longer have the comprehensive surveillance data that was readily available during the pandemic, though some local data remains available to inform their...

In 1992, a Texas billionaire had had enough with both parties and decided to use his considerable fortune to run for president as an independent. The billionaire part might have been unique, but the third party part wasn’t, every election cycle, there are third party candidates who manage to get their names on the ballot. Most don’t amount to anything and history quickly forgets them. But 1992 was different. H. Ross Perot was different. Maybe Perot just came along 32 years too early. Things are far from set for the 2024 election, but at this point, it sure looks like...

In theaters the week of July 4th Claim a free ticket to a theater near you or buy a ticket and pay for a ticket for someone who needs to see this but can’t afford it.

What if we asked a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence program to analyze all Americans eligible to be president and come up with the names of everyone who has the characteristics required for someone in that important job — things like character, competence, integrity and common sense. Raise your hand if you think the names “Joe Biden” or “Donald Trump” would show up in the top million names the AI program would spit out. Besides Biden, Trump and maybe members of their immediate families, I’m guessing not a lot of hands would go up. But here we are. Almost nobody wants...

President Joe Biden said Wednesday on “PBS NewsHour” that the United States would not have an economic recession this year or next year. Partial transcript as follow: WOODRUFF: And I want to ask you about that because the picture you painted last night: unemployment, record low — the growth, the economy, what is it? Inflation is coming down, incomes are rising. And yet when you when you mention the polls, when you look at the polls, CBS poll, 64% of Americans think the economy is in bad shape. There’s an NBC poll, 71% think the country’s on the wrong track....

The eldest son of the late Martin Luther King Jr. said Monday that the country is “gonna get there on voting rights” and deliver on his father’s legacy. Martin Luther King III during an appearance on CNN critiqued restrictions that impede Americans from casting their ballots and said the country has work to do on shoring up voting legislation and making access to the polling place easier. “It’s going to be quite difficult for any of that to happen with this Republican-led Congress, but we have to keep exerting pressure on them. Nothing happened in the modern Civil Rights movement...