Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November.McConnell, who turned 82 last week, was set to announce his decision Wednesday in the well of the Senate, a place where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front row seat afforded the party leaders.“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on...

Nearly three-quarters of Americans, 74 percent, believe former President Trump will refuse to concede if he loses the 2024 election, a significant increase from similar surveys in 2020. The CNN poll released Monday signals that many voters expect election denial rhetoric to continue if Trump loses again in November. Just over half of respondents correctly expected Trump not to concede if he lost the 2020 election, about 55 percent in August 2020 and 58 percent in October of that year. He did indeed refuse to accept the results of the election, with his supporters later assaulting the Capitol on Jan....

Republican pollster Frank Luntz replied that he “would bet on” former President Donald Trump upon being asked after Wednesday night’s CNN debate whom he predicts will win the 2024 presidential election. A CBS News reporter asked Luntz after the debate, “If you had to bet $150,000 on who’s going to win in November, who would you bet on?” “I never dreamed that I would say this, but I would bet on Trump. I never – I thought it was done. I thought it was over,” he said. “You don’t come back from an impeachment, you don’t come back from January...

Private sector job creation slowed further in November and wages showed their smallest growth in more than two years, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday. Companies added just 103,000 workers for the month, slightly below the downwardly revised 106,000 in October and missing the 128,000 Dow Jones estimate. Along with the modest job growth came a 5.6% increase in annual pay, which ADP said was the smallest gain since September 2021. Job-changers saw wage increases of 8.3%, making the premium for switching positions the lowest since ADP began tracking the data three years ago.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska’s largest city declared a snow emergency last week after a winter storm dropped record snowfall amounts, and with more snow falling this week, Anchorage is now less than an inch away from achieving its snowiest November on record. Anchorage broke a daily snowfall record last Wednesday when 9 inches of snow fell in 24 hours. An additional 8.2 inches piled up the following day, setting another daily record. Another 3.6 inches fell on Friday, bringing the winter storm's three-day total to 20.8 inches between Nov. 8 and Nov. 10. Alaska was hit with another snowstorm earlier...

A November slowdown in inflation could give consumers relief both from rising prices and rapidly rising interest rates. Consumer price index (CPI) data released Tuesday by the Labor Department still showed inflation near 40-year highs. But a slower pace of price growth may help Americans catch a break from more than a year of rapid inflation, all while giving the Federal Reserve room to hike interest rates at a slower pace. “Cooling inflation will boost the markets and take pressure off the Fed for raising rates, but most importantly this spells real relief starting for Americans whose finances have been...

The U.S. economy gained 263,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate held even at 3.7 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. Job growth in November beat the expectations of economists, who projected the U.S. to gain roughly 200,000 jobs last month, according to consensus projections. The unemployment rate remained just 0.2 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level as the job market continued to push through high inflation and rising interest rates to grow at a sturdy clip. The U.S. had added an average 392,000 jobs per month since the start of the year despite high...

Private companies added an estimated 127,000 jobs in November, a sharp slowdown from October and the lowest monthly gain in nearly two years, according to a new ADP jobs report. The estimate, which does not include public sector jobs, fell from 239,000 private jobs added in October and marks the latest sign of a cooling labor market as the Federal Reserve rapidly raises interest rates. Private companies added 357,167 monthly jobs on average last year, a steady pace spurred by the nation’s pandemic recovery that has since slowed amid the central bank’s monetary tightening, which is aimed at lowering inflation....

The Babylon Bee is a great satire site, with a real talent for making some truly fun stuff. Recently, we brought you some of their humor from their “Californians who moved to Texas” series. The California couple went canvassing for Beto O’Rourke in a deep red area of Texas, with special guest Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) — who revealed his true identity as the Zodiac Killer — with a twist at the end of the video. Now they’re out with another one — a Democrat midterm ad — about how we moved from the “time of darkness” under the “Orange...

Col Douglas Macgregor - the build up for a Russian offensive in NovemberCol. Douglas Macgregor: "Keep in mind, these reservists are going into groups of Russian forces that are collecting in the south and on the borders in western part of Russia and Belorussia. These forces are going to be quite large by the time they amass. They won't be used in mass in a concentrated fashion until November. What you're seeing happen right now after all of these massive counterattacks launched by the Ukrainians that achieved, frankly, nothing from a strategic standpoint at all. They have taker such horrendous...

While much attention has been paid to Donald Trump’s continuing fixation on denying the results of the 2020 presidential election and the possibility of a repeat in 2024, a more immediate threat to democracy is looming: an alarming number of Republicans across the country are now gearing up to cast doubt on the outcome of the midterm elections this November. The New York Times reports that “six Republican nominees for governor and the Senate in key midterm states … would not commit to accepting the November outcome.” Five others refused to answer the question. The Washington Post found a similar...

Weeks of falling gas prices are dulling what had previously been a sharp Republican weapon, giving Democrats another glimmer of hope ahead of the midterm elections. Months ago, sky-high gas prices were a major reason why Democrats’ prospects looked bleak. But as candidates hit the homestretch ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms, the lower gas prices are giving reasons for Democrats to think they can be more competitive. “It takes a lot of the effectiveness out of a cudgel when people aren’t seeing and feeling it as much,” Democratic strategist Eddie Vale said of gas prices. Since hitting a June...

For the second time in as many weeks, Democrats have won a competitive special election. And by the numbers, this win was even more impressive than last week’s victory in New York’s 19th District. On Wednesday, the Alaska Division of Elections announced that former state Rep. Mary Peltola had defeated former Gov. Sarah Palin in the special election for the state’s vacant U.S. House seat, becoming the first Alaska Native ever elected to Congress and the first Democrat to win a statewide election since 2008. [SNIP] Democrats have clearly overperformed in special elections since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional...

Every action has a reaction. This election cycle, Democrats are learning the hard way that the same is true in politics. For nearly two years, Joe Biden and Democrats have run the country into the ground with a set of left-wing priorities and radical policies. Now, voters from coast to coast are rejecting Democrats’ agenda and voting Republican up and down the ballot. A backlash is coming, and there’s no better indicator than the battle for the United States Senate.

A measure that would allow San Bernardino County supervisors to explore secession from the state of California could be put to county voters in November. The Board of Supervisors approved the ballot measure at a meeting Wednesday night after the issue had been raised at several board meetings. Wednesday's vote was the first step in adding the measure to the ballot, to be followed by a second and final reading and vote scheduled for next week. “Do the citizens of San Bernardino County want the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to study all options to obtain its fair share...

Democrats are facing their worst political environment in over a decade heading into November’s mid-term elections. Republicans lead the generic ballot and hold a solid structural advantage in competing for the House of Representatives. And despite concerns about candidate quality, the GOP is also favored to take control of the Senate.The correlation between presidential approval and their party’s mid-term prospects also can’t be ignored. Joe Biden has hit the lowest poll numbers of his term, with a recent Times/Siena poll showing him at just 33 percent approval with only 13 percent believing the country is on the right track.In response,...

President Joe Biden unleashed another passionate call for gun control, using the bully pulpit of the White House to make his case. “Nothing has been done,” Biden said. “This time that cannot be true. This time we must actually do something.” The president spoke about his proposals during a prime-time address from the White House, surrounded by candles representing the victims of mass shootings. “For so many of you at home, I want to be very clear, this is not about taking away anyone’s guns,” Biden said before announcing he wanted to ban all “assault weapons” including AK-47s and AR-15s...

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said Tuesday on “MSNBC Reports” that after last week’s deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, “gun violence protection is going to be on the ballot” in the upcoming midterm elections. Blumenthal said, “This time, it really does feel different because of those shouts, ‘Do something.’ I’ve heard them for the last three days, four days that I’ve been in Connecticut, as I watched Memorial Day ceremonies in parades. There is something about how America has reacted and how shaken my colleagues have been. We’ve never before had five Democrats and five Republicans, as...

Despite the midterm election season looking increasingly grim for Democrats, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) says his focus on the empowerment of individual voters has him in a good spot in a notoriously “purplish” state. “Colorado is a very independently minded, freedom-oriented state, and they don’t want Republicans or Democrats telling them what to do,” Polis told The Hill. “They value accurate information, they value facts, and people should be empowered to make their own decisions, whether that’s marijuana, whether it’s wearing a mask — we’re a state that values freedom.”

Texas Democratic candidate for governor Beto O’Rourke said Thursday on “MSNBC Prime” that he believes there will be a “reckoning” led by voters reacting to mass shootings in the upcoming midterm elections in November. O’Rourke said, “The choice is to vote for people who reflect and represent your values. What I’m trying to say is that too often, we dismiss folks to others who belong to the other political party. We say all Republicans are this or that or all Democrats are this and that. I’m just saying that the majority of us in Texas, which includes Republicans and Democrats,...