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Mortgage rates continued to climb for the sixth straight week, reaching the highest level since November 2023. That caused weekly demand to drop 6%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, increased last week to 7.30% from 7.12%, with points rising to 0.75 from 0.73, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. Refinance demand has been hit hardest, given that so few borrowers can now benefit at today’s higher interest rates. Applications to refinance a home loan dropped...

50 post in 25 minutes on a sunday night. Wake up admin, there is no wonder why donations are down. We need to recruit new members to keep this site alive. Get your head out of your ass and revitalize this site, Jim Rob would expect you to do that.

"US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is quietly removing some of the recruits it hired during last year’s rapid expansion, raising fresh questions about a hiring campaign that brought thousands of new employees into the agency — and about what happens to the generous incentives offered to attract them. An investigation by The Washington Post found that ICE has begun firing some employees recruited during the push to expand its immigration enforcement workforce. The campaign was launched to provide additional manpower for the Trump administration’s mass-deportation programme. The rapid recruitment drive was backed by unusually large financial incentives. What happens to...

A total of 29% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 68% say they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. When it comes to Trump's handling of the economy, 26% of Americans approve and 71% disapprove. In August, 28% of Americans approved of the way Trump was handling the economy and 69% disapproved.

YARDLEY, Pa. (AP) — Mary Ryan may be a registered Republican but she has never voted for President Donald Trump, turned off by his crass style of politics and chaotic approach to governing. But the 60-year-old medical writer from the Philadelphia suburbs has consistently backed her party’s congressman, five-term Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. Until now. This year, Ryan is so fed up with Trump and his grip on Congress that she is planning to vote in November for Fitzpatrick’s Democratic opponent in the 1st Congressional District, Bob Harvie, a twice countywide elected commissioner who is a former social studies teacher.

President Donald Trump used the Republican Party’s first midterm convention to justify the Iran war rather than trying to put it behind him, as escalating violence and spiking oil prices loomed over the elaborate Trump-centered showcase in Dallas. In a speech billed as an opening argument for the peak campaign season, he defended his record and encouraged supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot. He also debuted a new enticement, promising to reward Republican congressional majorities by giving every American a $5,000 dividend to spend within the country.

President Trump’s pledge to distribute $5,000 to every U.S. adult if Republicans win the midterms is drawing backlash from Republicans and Democrats as the president’s allies are forced to explain and defend the proposition. Fiscal hawks, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), openly questioned how the government would be able to afford to pay 270 million Americans that much money, while others have likened Trump’s proposal to bribery. “Maybe some of us think dependency is evil & soul-sucking in all its forms,” Roy wrote in a post on the social platform X, referring to Trump’s idea. Former Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.),...

President Trump on Wednesday floated the idea of issuing every American adult a $5,000 “dividend” check if his party kept control of the House and Senate in November — an extraordinary offer that would cost more than $1 trillion and likely would require congressional approval. “It will be called the Trump dividend,” he said at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. He added a caveat: The money must be spent in the United States, though he did not say how the government could track where private citizens used the funds. He offered few additional details about the idea. How could...

Stocks dropped Thursday after U.S. oil prices topped $100 a barrel, amid growing fears of higher inflation from a prolonged war in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 315 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.5% too. Higher oil prices continued to weigh on sentiment, as the war between the U.S. and Iran stretched into a seventh month. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for October jumped above $100 per barrel. Futures for the international benchmark Brent crude for November delivery spiked above $105 a barrel. The jump in oil prices...

DALLAS, TX — In his keynote speech at the 2026 RNC Midterm Convention, President Donald Trump pledged that if voters defeat socialism in November, they will each get an equal redistribution of wealth from the government. Trump detailed his plan to take money from taxpayers, divide it up into equal $5,000 shares, and redistribute it to every citizen if they would simply vote to keep socialism at bay. "Socialism is so dangerous, it's terrifying, really. We have to stop it by whatever means necessary, even if it means redistributing everyone's wealth," explained Trump. "What we'll do is we'll take everyone's...

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November. The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation. “If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”

President Trump posted a map showing New Mexico rebranded as “New America” during a rapid-fire Truth Social storm on Sunday. The post, one of 34 made in less than an hour, showed a map of the southwestern state with the word “Mexico” crossed out and replaced with “America.”The rebrand would be the latest America-themed name change by the president after he ordered that the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario be rechristened the Gulf of America and Lake America, respectively. Trump renamed the Gulf of America after coming back into office in January 2025, claiming the change in name would...

President Trump laid out his plan Wednesday to help Republicans win 35 key midterm races in the final stretch before the fall elections. Beginning in October, a month before the critical Nov. 3 contests, the president plans to hit the campaign trail and host several tele-rallies as part of his push to keep the House and Senate in Republican hands, he explained in remarks to GOP lawmakers and administration officials at a White House Rose Garden dinner. “I’m going to take the final 30 days, maybe a little bit more than that, because it’s all about 35 races,” Trump said....

DALLAS — Motorists are expected to encounter the highest average Labor Day gasoline price on record in nominal terms, according to a forecast released Tuesday by fuel-savings platform GasBuddy. The company projects the national average will reach $4.03 per gallon during the holiday weekend, 87 cents higher than the $3.16 average recorded in 2025. The forecast would surpass the previous nominal Labor Day record of $3.83 per gallon, set in 2012.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged continued support for Iran on Tuesday as the United States launched a new round of strikes against Iranian targets, highlighting the increasingly close relationship between Moscow and Tehran as President Donald Trump intensifies military and economic pressure on the Islamic Republic. *** The Post reported that Pezeshkian thanked Putin for Russia's support and urged the two countries to work together to counter U.S. sanctions. Putin said Russia was providing Iran with assistance and essential goods, according to the Post's account of the meeting. The Kremlin's support for Tehran came as U.S. forces launched a new...

At least seven wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack... The US Justice Department backing down on a claim...government agencies were hacked by Chinese state-sponsored hackers... The transcript of former banking CEO Jes Staley's Jeffrey Epstein interview... deadly Israeli attack in the city of Jenin in the "West Bank"... In Ecuador former President Lenin Moreno found guilty of corruption... United States planning to cut off military aid to the Kurdish forces... Fitch Ratings Service keeping France at an A+... In the UK one person killed and six others injured when a sign fell... US House will meet next week to vote...

A text message sent by Vice President JD Vance on behalf of the Republican National Committee urged people not to donate if they couldn't afford groceries. The fundraising text sent in the Vice President's name told recipients: 'If you can't give right now, don't. Groceries cost what they cost.'*** The appeal then offered an unusually frank admission about the Republican Party's finances. 'Now the part I owe you honesty about,' the message said. 'The Republican National Committee needs money. That's true of every party committee, and anyone who tells you otherwise is doing the exact thing I just apologized for....

China warned that it would “take all necessary measures” and retaliate against the US if any of its companies are included in the Trump administration’s new secondary sanctions targeting Iran.Companies based in Hong Kong and mainland China were among the entities targeted by the US after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” on Monday to further isolate Iran. The US, however, stopped short of listing large Chinese financial institutions, with Beijing — Iran’s largest oil buyer — warning that it will do whatever it takes to protect its economic interests. *** “China has made clear on many occasions...

I'm getting a lot of scathing pushback calling JD Vance a leftist so I'm laying out why it's true in a straight-forward, semi-nuanced way. It is not me making the claim, the following is what Vance has personally stated he believes in. 1. Vance calls himself a post-liberal. Post-liberalism rejects free-market capitalism and individualism in favor of the government securing economic and social well-being (social welfare). The counter-argument is to recognize the responsibility of individuals for their own welfare (food, shelter, well-being). 2. Vance says he believes in Hamiltonian economics. Hamiltonian economics has shared commonality with modern left-of-center ideology primarily...

The military has lost 25% of its fleet over the past five months The U.S. has lost 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, worth at least $1.3 billion, since the start of its war on Iran, the Washington Post reported Friday. The drones can cost between $30 and $50 million each, depending on their sensor and weapons payload. The U.S. military has lost roughly 25% of its pre-war fleet in the past five months. A defense official told the Washington Post that some of the drones were not shot down by Iranian forces, but instead were lost after their communications link to...