Free Republic

Key takeawaysNearly 2 in 5 (37%) Americans say they couldn’t afford an emergency expense over $400The median emergency savings for Americans is $60021% of people have no emergency savings at allMore than 3 in 5 (62%) Americans say that having dedicated emergency savings is a priority for them; yet 57% say high inflation and price increases have held them back from contributing this year1 in 4 (25%) people dipped into emergency savings to cover basic living expenses in the past yearPaying down debt is a higher priority than saving for an emergency for 57% of Americans34% believe they could handle...

Austrian businessman Bernd Bergmair, former majority owner of Pornhub, has approached the U.S. Treasury about buying assets of Russian oil major Lukoil after the Trump administration sanctioned the company. "Obviously Lukoil International GmbH would be a great investment and anybody would be fortunate to have the privilege of owning those assets,” Bergmair told Reuters. "I don’t comment on potential investments as a matter of course," he added.Last month, U.S. Treasury issued the greenlight for companies to begin talks with Lukoil for its foreign assets, with U.S. oil and gas giants Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) have already expressed interest....

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird hardly needs an introduction, as I expect everyone in the world has read it, or has seen the film starring Gregory Peck. (If you haven’t read it, perhaps you should.) Lee, incidentally, went to visit the film set, and had this to say about Peck: “an inspired performance. In some mysterious way, Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch transcended illusion.” If that seems a tad clichéd and not especially insightful, then I’m afraid to say that this is the general tenor of the nonfiction pieces in The Land of Sweet Forever , alongside eight previously unseen...

Minnesota Democratic lawmakers, including the Attorney General, were handed over $53,000 in campaign contributions by fraudsters who ripped off taxpayer cash meant to feed children. AG Keith Ellison, his councilman son, mayor Jacob Frey, Representative Ilhan Omar and others received cash from the scammers who siphoned off some $250 million, largely through nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Many did so after meeting the crooks, raising questions about how much they knew. “I’m not here because I think it’s going to help my re-election,” Ellison said during an encounter with Somali business leaders, two of whom later became criminal defendants linked to...

Gov. Tim Walz is promoting a new government assistance program open to illegal immigrants in Minnesota, as he faces scrutiny for allegedly allowing statewide welfare fraud, reportedly committed primarily by Somali immigrants. The Minnesota Paid Family and Medical Leave Program (PMFL), which Walz signed into law and is publicly praising ahead of its start date on Jan. 1, will cover “undocumented workers,” according to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Employers are required to display a PFML poster at their respective workplaces to notify employees about the paid leave program. The poster must be displayed in any foreign language that is...

Boeing came under increasing scrutiny in the popular press in the wake of a series of reported incidents and accidents involving aircraft it manufactured… Perhaps the most glaring production deficiency occurred in October 2022, when Boeing provided a MAX plane for Alaska Airlines. Workers at Boeing had apparently forgotten to reinstall four bolts that keep a piece known as a door plug in place on the 737 MAX. It was removed to allow three contractors from a temporary staffing company hired by Spirit AeroSystems, the company’s production partner and supplier, to rework defective rivets… The problems at Boeing were due...

Donald Trump has replaced the chief architect in charge of designing his grandiose $300 million White House ballroom. The president replaced James McCrery II and his architecture firm back in late October, according to the Washington Post. Behind the scenes, Trump and McCrery battled over the commander-in-chief’s desire to keep increasing the size of the new building. One source said Trump decided to replace the esteemed designer after McCrery’s firm repeatedly missed deadlines and its small workforce made progress difficult. Trump's ballroom, paid for by big tech donors including Amazon and Google, is described as 90,000 square feet in official...

While giant tech companies like Google and Amazon tout the billions they’re pouring into AI infrastructure, IBM’s CEO doubts their bets will pay off like they think. Arvind Krishna, who has been at the helm of the legacy tech company since 2020, said even a simple calculation reveals there is “no way” tech companies’ massive data center investments make sense. This is in part because data centers require huge amounts of energy and investment, Krishna said on the Decoder podcast.Goldman Sachs estimated earlier this year that the total power usage by the global data center market stood at around 55...

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang presented Joe Rogan’s audience with a vision of AI so dominant it could rewrite reality itself.Huang layed out a future where human knowledge completely takes a backseat to silicon brains in the very near future.“In the future… maybe two or three years, 90% of the world’s knowledge will likely be generated by AI,” Huang told Rogan, his tone matter-of-fact as if charting tomorrow’s weather.NVIDIA CEO blows Joe Rogan away with a staggering prediction about AI. HUANG: “In the future… maybe two or three years, 90% of the world’s knowledge will likely be generated by AI.” ROGAN:...

For years now, manufacturers have been beholden to "CAFE" fuel standards that force them to increase the average fuel efficiency of their fleets. This has forced automakers to make engines needlessly complex (ie, expensive to fix). Ironically, to avoid regulations imposed on smaller vehicles, it has also led automakers to make their trucks larger and larger, and/or abandoning entire production lines, like Ford did with its sedans.

Steve Cropper, the guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated Memphis backing band Booker T. and the MG's at Stax Records and co-wrote the classics Green Onions, (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, has died. He was 84. Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, said Cropper´s family told her that Cropper died on Wednesday in Nashville. The foundation operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, located at the site of the former Stax Records, where Cropper worked for years. A cause of death was not immediately...

It's funny how much of the Democrat modus operandi resembles that of scam artists. Holiday scams are rising as many rush for deals yet discount due diligence. The left employs its own kind of political phishing, creative, yet driven by emotions such as vanity, guilt, and vengeance. Regardless of how it is done, liberalism often disguises its true political aims. Comparing even those political tactics to more nefarious holiday hustles could be useful. A growing fraud is the non-delivery scam. According to the FBI, this is “where you pay for goods or services … but you never receive the items.”...

(1918-1985) Working name of US author born Edward Hamilton Waldo in New York City.

Recently, showrunner Steven S. DeKnight and actor Nick E. Tarabay opened up about pushing the boundaries of sex and violence on Spartacus: House of Ashur, the upcoming Starz spin-off. Speaking at the Heat Vision Live event, the duo discussed the creative freedoms behind the new series. At The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Heat Vision Live event, showrunner Steven S. DeKnight and actor Nick E. Tarabay reflected on the creative risks behind Spartacus: House of Ashur. DeKnight noted that he has yet to encounter a creative boundary involving sex or violence that he is unwilling to test. He credited both Starz and...

Fool's Ball, Week Pigskin Pickem Thread, Week 14 Your home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

We are shocked! The normally august Audie Cornish didn't go full Scarborough—someone known to drop f-bombs. Still, it was surprising to hear Cornish, the mannerly host of CNN This Morning, utter something out of character today. Mike Dubke, who served as White House Communications Director for three months during the first Trump term, suggested that one thing protecting Pete Hegseth from being fired is the difficulty that would be involved in the confirmation process for a replacement. Responded Cornish: "So, this is not a military term, but you're saying they're SOL. Basically, there's no other options out there." Get the...

Ruh-roh. Sounds like trouble in Democrat Land. Seems Josh Shapiro caught wind of some things Kamala Harris wrote about him in her memoir, things he considers LIES. --SNIP-- Harris wrote that the governor wanted to be “in the room for every decision” if she became president, adding that he often hijacked conversations and frequently needed to be told he wouldn’t have equal power.

Our entire safety net is designed to catch people at the very bottom, but it sets a trap for anyone trying to climb out. As income rises from $40,000 to $100,000, benefits disappear faster than wages increase. I call this The Valley of Death. Let’s look at the transition for a family in New Jersey: 1. The View from $35,000 (The “Official” Poor) At this income, the family is struggling, but the state provides a floor. They qualify for Medicaid (free healthcare). They receive SNAP (food stamps). They receive heavy childcare subsidies. Their deficits are real, but capped. Every dollar...

Ms. Bondi has just stated that the current Administration would like to restore faith in the FBI. She also said the pipe bomber evidence had been gathering dust. Kudos to Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, and the fine forensic work of the FBI! Since it has taken 5 years to solve this case, please post the questions you would like to see answered in your lifetime, here, regarding this case.

Explanation: An example of violence on a cosmic scale, enormous elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 lies about 75 million light-years away toward Fornax, the southern constellation of the Furnace. Investigating the startling sight, astronomers suspect the giant galaxy of colliding with smaller neighbor NGC 1317 seen just right of the large galaxy's center, producing far flung star streams in loops and shells. Light from their close encounter would have reached Earth some 100 million years ago. In the sharp telescopic image, the central regions of NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 appear separated by over 100,000 light-years. Complex dust lanes visible within...