Free Republic

The 64-year-old leader of the Supreme Court posed a question on Wednesday that some in his generation have been asking for months: Does saying “OK, boomer” count as age discrimination? If the query hadn’t been an earnest attempt to test the bounds of a lawyer’s legal argument, Chief Justice John Roberts might have followed it up with another viral expression: “Asking for a friend.” But Roberts wasn’t typing a tweet. This was a meeting of the highest court in the land, and its nine justices - older federal employees ranging from 52 to 86 years old - were hearing a...

As baby boomers look to downsize out of their suburban McMansions, a generational showdown is looming: Millennials might be coming into their own as the nation's biggest group of first-time home buyers, but they aren't exactly lining up with bids in hand for those large, expensive homes in the sleepier suburbs. Instead, they're looking for a different kind of home—the same ones, in fact, that the empty nesters are looking to buy. It's a battle of the millennials vs. baby boomers playing out in the nation's suburban housing markets.

Pete Buttigieg likes a crisp white button-down — no fuss, no flash — and his favorite novel is by a man who died in 1941. He has taken to calling himself “the retirement guy,” after introducing a plan this week for long-term care. He recently referenced the “Bull Moose progressive movement,” a nod to the politics of Teddy Roosevelt. As Mr. Buttigieg, 37, looks to solidify his support in the remaining weeks before the Democratic primary season begins, he has found a wellspring of enthusiasm among a critical bloc of voters more frequently associated with Joseph R. Biden Jr.: older...

Mayor Pete Buttigieg wants to raise taxes on the more wealthy Social Security earnings, as part of a plan to save it from bankruptcy, according to a plan released Monday. Buttigieg announced individuals earning above $250,000 (Families earning over $500,000) would face higher Social Security taxes if he is elected president.

Star Trek actor William Shatner waded into a generational row last night as he took aim at the catchphrase 'OK Boomer' and feuded with a Twitter user who had blamed older people for millennial 'hardships'. The jibe 'OK Boomer' has become popular among millennials and the younger Generation Z, who use it to show exasperation with older people and their opinions. One Twitter user aimed it at Shatner yesterday but the Hollywood veteran, who was born in 1931, fired back: 'Sweetheart, that's a compliment for me.' Warming to his theme, Shatner said he would 'wear that badge with honor' and...

Flaherty’s mother, Caroline, has for two years qualified for in-home care paid for by the state’s Medicaid program. But the agency could not find someone to hire amid a severe shortage of workers that has crippled facilities for seniors across the state.

The music festival at Woodstock 50 years ago was a big deal. There had never been anything quite like it in America before — not in terms of size or caliber of performers (though Monterrey Pop might not have been too far behind in terms of the latter). But with the 50th anniversary approaching, it was inevitable that precincts of the mainstream media would make Woodstock out to be more than what it was. The heady combination of nostalgia and leftism would see to that. That combination outdid itself in a PBS program called “Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a...

A booming economy should help people make good financial decisions since more money can be directed to other needs. That is why savings rates normally go up as the economy improves. People naturally tend to take advantage of better days especially after bad or slow times. This is not happening now. Many Americans are spending more on consumer goods, but they are not saving their money or accumulating wealth. No Emergency Funds Nearly a quarter of households, for example, do not have any available emergency funds according to a survey conducted by the SSRS research firm. Another third do not...

The massive Baby Boomer generation which brought America the happiness of rock & roll and the Ford Mustang en masse is poised to trigger a surge in a scourge: Senior hunger.

My PJM colleague Jim Treacher has the story of Beto O'Rourke's plunge into the maelstrom that is the 2020 Democratic race for the presidential nomination. Beto is expected to do well with several factions of Democratic voters, including Hispanics and the young. As Treacher points out, he already has the press in his corner.But the ever-burgeoning field of candidates presents a problem for anyone wanting the nomination. The money, the energy, and the passion are with younger voters, but the majority of voters who will cast their ballots for Democratic candidates are over 45.Hey Democrats! Remember the Baby Boomers?Old...

WLS was mentioned in a post the other day, and several FReepers mentioned listening to it at night. Although WLS was located in Chicago, the range seemed to be across the country. I listened to it, here in Dallas, many nights (when the weather cooperated). How about you? Did any of you listen to WLS? I did, on my patent’s hi-fi in the living room - when I was doing my homework. 😉

Everyone likes to bash millennials. We’re spoiled, entitled, and hopelessly glued to our smartphones. We demand participation trophies, can’t find jobs, and live with our parents until we’re 30. But is the millennial hate justified? Have we dropped the generational baton, or was it a previous generation, the so-called baby boomers, who actually ruined everything? That’s the argument Bruce Gibney makes in his book A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America. The boomers, according to Gibney, have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change,...

Beset by big college loans, inheriting two wars, and facing an uncertain future of work, a majority of millennials say baby boomers have made things worse for them — and a lot of boomers agree, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. Why it matters: If it persists, the generational divide could turn into political rivalry as the generations compete for limited tax dollars — millennials seeking government help as automation takes hold, and boomers insisting on promised levels of Social Security and Medicare. The poll found that 51% of millennials (18- to 34-year-olds) blame boomers (51- to 69-year-olds) for making...

Roberta Gordon never thought she’d still be alive at age 76. She definitely didn’t think she’d still be working. But every Saturday, she goes down to the local grocery store and hands out samples, earning $50 a day, because she needs the money. “I’m a working woman again,” she told me, in the common room of the senior apartment complex where she now lives, here in California’s Inland Empire. Gordon has worked dozens of odd jobs throughout her life—as a house cleaner, a home health aide, a telemarketer, a librarian, a fundraiser—but at many times in her life, she didn’t...

The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s AMZN, +2.87% “CamperForce,” seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are “people who never imagined being nomads.” Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, “felt they’d spent too long losing a...

A nuclear weapons command exercise by NATO in November 1983 prompted fear in the leadership of the Soviet Union that the maneuvers were a cover for a nuclear surprise attack by the United States, triggering a series of unparalleled Soviet military re­sponses, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence review that has just been declassified. “In 1983, we may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger,” the review concluded.

It should be the obligation of older citizens to try to improve the prospects for their successors. But, here in California, as seen in a new report issued by the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, we seem to have adopted an agenda designed to make things tougher for them.Millennials everywhere face many challenges. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that, even when working full-time, they earn $2,000 less than the same age group made in 1980. Nationwide, a millennial with a college degree and college debt, according to a recent analysis of Federal Reserve data, earns about the same as...

President Donald Trump sat down with Maria Bartiromo for an interview that will air Wednesday at 6:00 AM ET on Fox Business Network. The president is expected to address the Syria airstrikes, the state of the U.S.-Russia relationship, new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, his meeting with China’s president, his tough talk on North Korea and much more. During the interview that was prerecorded President Trump said he was sending an entire armada to North Korea including submarines. Via Chris Snyder:

Every two weeks, my small conservative website ask visitors to vote for their favorite conservative thought. Vote, then go to the categories and see some of the thoughts presented Not for Liberals Thank You

Michael Walsh is an acclaimed novelist, music critic, and screenwriter now filling the role of prophet. He joined us on the show to discuss his excellent book, The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory & The Subversion of the West. In a fascinating conversation we somehow never got to discuss the book directly, so focused were we on the manifold examples of the subversion of the West that we see around us, in particular those within American conservatism itself.