Free Republic

FOX Business Network host Charles Payne sounded the alarm that the economic indicators in the United States are becoming "frightening." Payne said on "Hannity" that he fears $4-per-gallon gasoline could look cheap in the next few months, and "Americans just aren't prepared" for what is coming. CHARLES PAYNE: He's [Biden] in a lot of trouble, but it's going to get a lot worse. The trends on the economic data are frightening… frightening. We see the smallest banks right now, their delinquency rates are 7.5%, it's off the rails, but the large banks are turning up. Credit card interest rates just...

A popular narrative suggests young people are liberal and getting more liberal. Thus, social media buzzed when a chart surfaced in spring that seemed to suggest 12th-grade boys had become overwhelmingly conservative. As with many Reddit posts and viral tweets, the truth was more complicated. But the numbers do say this: Twelfth-grade boys are nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative versus liberal, according to a respected federal survey of American youth. In annual surveys over the last three years, roughly one-quarter of high school seniors self-identified as conservative or “very conservative” on the Monitoring the Future survey, a...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

The world is always changing, but some changes are more important than others. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will likely be remembered as the start of a new era in geoeconomics. In response to the war, the West launched sanctions against Russia, escalating the economic war the Kremlin began when it blocked Ukraine from trading with the world through its ports. Moscow answered by drastically reducing natural gas exports to Europe. The uncertainty and tit-for-tat measures kicked off an energy crisis. And the war renewed focus on the growing divide between the West and a nascent revisionist bloc led by China...

It is one of many blessings God has given me.At Church Answers, we hear from tens of thousands of churches, church leaders, and church members every year. We are truly blessed to have our “ear to the ground” to hear what is taking place among the estimated 350,000 congregations in America.We take each piece of data (we call them “dots”) we receive and connect the dots to understand developments in the present that will become trends in the near future.Here are ten of the most common developments we’ve discerned. They will likely become trends in 2023.1. Local congregations will emphasize...

HARRISBURG — The American population might be growing, but Pennsylvania remains a leading state for Americans to flee, rather than stay. The commonwealth is one of 18 states to lose population in 2022, according to new data from the Census Bureau, and one of the worst performers. The data is confirmation of a long-running trend: Pennsylvania has a population problem, and the end isn’t yet in sight. The latest Census data shows the American population grew by 1.26 million (0.4%) since a year ago, with the primary growth being more than 1 million immigrants landing on American soil. Natural change...

“Gaslighting” — behavior that’s mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. The gaslighting was pervasive. “It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at...

If you thought that the economic news was crazy during the first half of 2022, just wait until we get to the second half. So many of the problems that we are experiencing now are going to continue to intensify, and Americans are becoming more pessimistic about economic conditions with each passing day. In fact, as you will see below, a whopping 85 percent of us believe that it is “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that the economy will go through a recession at some point during the next year. Of course the truth is that if all we have...

Four weeks ago, OneAmerica insurance company CEO Scott Davison revealed that they had witnessed 'the highest death rates in the history of this business - not just at OneAmerica' with a jump of '40% over what they were pre-pandemic.' Interestingly, Davison noted that the majority of deaths are not classified as due to Covid-19.So the CEO in his own words. They are mandating vaccines in the workplace and raising premiums in lower vaccinated counties because they are mistakenly guessing here initially. The premiums will change to higher vaccinated areas as time moves on is my guess. He missed the plot....

PepsiCo and Sam Adams brewer Boston Beer are teaming up to create an alcoholic version of Mountain Dew. Boston Beer will develop and produce the drink, called Hard Mtn Dew, while Pepsi has created a new entity to sell, deliver and market the product. The beverage is expected to hit shelves in early 2022. Hard Mtn Dew will belong to the flavored malt beverage category and contain 5% alcohol by volume. Early images of the products also show that it will contain zero sugar. The first hint that Pepsi could enter the alcohol category came in October, when Pepsi CEO...

Google Trends indicate that searches for "Election Fraud Punishment" surged specifically in the crucial swing-states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona in the weeks before the election.One would imagine the term would be searched by people concerned with the punishment for committing election fraud. The election results in all three states are being highly-contested. As I reported on Friday, Joe Biden got a shockingly disproportionate 60-point advantage over Donald Trump in absentee mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and a 38-point advantage in Michigan. 

Many recently celebrated Bastille Day, the day French radical revolutionaries stormed a prison, released its prisoners, and brutally murdered the warden. That fateful day, now more than 200 years ago, set in motion a revolution that led to bloodshed and a devastating loss of liberty in France. It also set the precedent for many future revolutions that took an unbelievable toll on human life.Contemporary British politician Edmund Burke lamented that French Revolutionaries could have repaired the walls of their government and society instead of tearing them down. In an attempt to found an egalitarian utopia, the French Revolutionaries tore...

A study highlighting seven encouraging trends within global Christianity was released by Facts & Trends. Here’s what you need to know:1. Christianity is growing faster than the population Aaron Earls, the author, says, “Globally, Christianity is growing at a 1.27% rate…. The world’s population, 7.7 billion, is growing at a 1.20% rate.”A .07% difference may not seem substantial to you. But remember, we’re talking about almost 8 billion people.What this means:Many people believe Christianity has gone out of style and is in decline — that the only people who are Christians today are those raised by Christian parents. However, this...

A new Gallup poll finds congressional Republicans with a higher approval rating than Democrats in the wake of President Trump's impeachment and acquittal in the Senate. Republicans get a 40 percent approval rating, compared to 35 percent for Democrats.

I happened to listen the other day to then-Sen. John F. Kennedy's opening remarks in his debate with then-Vice President Richard Nixon during the 1960 presidential election cycle. Kennedy, the Democratic Party candidate, recalled that Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860 presidential election cycle, said the great question facing the nation was whether it could exist "half-slave and half-free." In the 1960 election, said Kennedy, the issue was "whether the world will exist half-slave or half-free." "Whether it will move in the direction of freedom, in the direction of the road that we are taking ... will depend in great measure...

More Americans now identify as Republicans than they do as Democrats, according to new polling regarding party affiliation conducted by Gallup. According to the polling, conducted on January 16th-19th, 30% of American identify as Republicans. 27% identify as Democrats.

Darwin Day Is Fizzling February 12, 2020 | David F. Coppedge Certain advocacy sites are busy, but Darwin Day seems to be falling off the radar of major news outlets and journals. Darwin Day is February 12, the birthday of Charles Darwin. The International Darwin Day website lists a smattering of events around the world, but no results were found for the phrase ‘Darwin Day’ in the usual science news outlets on February 11th. The journals we routinely follow, too, showed no search results. Perhaps the morning of February 12th will show some activity, but it seems surprisingly quiet on...

Nothing quite tickles the fancy of energy investors like a giant oil or gas find. But here’s the secret sauce: stocks of small-cap companies tend to enjoy serious leverage whenever they strike oil, whereas the heavyweights, well, not so much. You don’t have to look very far for an example: shares of ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) are down more than 20% since the company announced a 14-strong string of good discoveries off the coast of Guyana in 2015, one of its best finds ever. That’s because companies like Exxon have their fingers in too many pies, and their share prices depend...

Story Highlights Slight plurality of Americans in 2019 identified as conservative (37%) Moderates nearly as high, at 35%, while 24% were liberal Movement toward liberalism has slowed among Democrats, though still top group

WASHINGTON—Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened about four times the number of workplace investigations in the year ended Sept. 30 compared with the close of the Obama administration, while starting fewer probes into gangs, weapons and financial crimes, according to new figures the agency provided to The Wall Street Journal. ICE’s focus on workplace enforcement—targeting both immigrants working illegally and their employers—has intensified in the past two years. Homeland Security Investigations, the ICE arm that carries out criminal investigations, opened 6,812 new workplace cases in the 2019 fiscal year, up from 1,701 during fiscal 2016. The agency made...