Free Republic

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...

Bank of America’s chief economist warned on Sunday that 2023 would be a “difficult” one for Americans due to economic factors that he predicted could trigger a recession. When asked by CBS’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” to give a forecast on the economy this year, Michael Gapen said he agreed with the notion that it could look and feel worse.

Share Tweet ... More As the new year approaches, it is time to consider how 2023 might unfold. Of course, the starting point, the contemporary context, would be the recent history of COVID lockdowns; massive government spending and inflation and constrictive energy policies driving up energy and food prices, as well as most “downstream prices,” and wiping out retirement savings; Fed strategies depressing the market; war in Ukraine threatening nuclear confrontation; China’s rising political aggression; political corruption of government institutions and apparent government-led attacks on the First Amendment, at least according to the “Twitter Files”; rising urban crime; a surge...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that he thinks White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain deserves credit for the “good year” that President Joe Biden and the White House have had. Host Judy Woodruff asked, “So, it is just a matter of hours before Christmas, and whether you observe Christmas or not, I have to ask a question about, okay, there’s a stocking hanging by the chimney. Who are some people, who’s somebody, David, who you think should get something nice from Santa on Christmas, and who’s somebody who you think maybe needs some...

The average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people in 2022 is estimated to be around $64 dollars, according to a new report from the Farm Bureau, marking a 20 percent increase from the $53 total measured in 2021. The organization’s 37th annual survey found the price of turkey alone costs 21 percent more this year than last, at $28.96 for a 16-pound bird. However, the increase for this Thanksgiving staple can be attributed to more factors than just general inflation. The U.S. inflation rate in October was 7.7 percent, down from 8.2 percent measured in September. “The higher...

Chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Wednesday he thinks it will be known later this year if and how often COVID-19 vaccination boosters should be administered. During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the proposed budget for the National Institutes of Health, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) asked Fauci what he thought the future of coronavirus vaccination looked like.

Chinese health authorities reported the first deaths from COVID-19 in more than a year. The country’s National Health Commission disclosed two deaths in Jilin province, bringing China’s official death count to 4,638.

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that “We’re likely to see another year in which 12-month inflation numbers remain very uncomfortably high.” But cautioned there is a large amount of uncertainty due to the conflict in Ukraine and expressed confidence in the Federal Reserve “to make a meaningful difference going forward.” Co-host Sara Eisen asked, “Already had been happening and is happening in the U.S., when it comes to rising prices from everything from wages to rents to food prices, I think your expectation previously is that inflation would come down in the second...

President Joe Biden defended the first year of his presidency at a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, refusing to change course amidst record-low approval ratings of his job performance. When asked by a reporter if he overpromised Americans what he could accomplish as president, Biden replied, “I didn’t overpromise. And I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.”