Free Republic

The latest ocean container bookings data reveals that despite the strong levels of inbound cargo during the first five months of 2022, import demand is not just softening — it’s dropping off a cliff. Because capacity on the trans-Pacific has remained relatively stable, Drewry’s container spot rates from China to the West Coast have plunged 41% month-over-month to $9,630. Freight forwarders will enjoy expanding margins on ocean freight, while U.S. trucking carriers and intermodal volume providers may start to see volume risks. Consumer buying patterns are rapidly normalizing to pre-COVID levels, and U.S. retailers are stuck with too much inventory....

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Cuomo Primetime,” CNN Political Commentator and former Obama administration official Van Jones stated that President Joe Biden is doing good things, but he made claims about furthering his agenda, “then he steps on a rake and then he slips on a banana peel and then he falls down the stairs with some marbles and now people are looking at him in a negative light.” And people aren’t seeing “strong Joe Biden leadership that I think people were expecting,” and “the honeymoon’s over.” Jones also said that “right now, the Democratic Party is looking over the...

A woman drove off a cliff in Santa Cruz after a random person mistakenly opened her door, police said. The woman was sitting in her parked car in the Santa Cruz Walton Lighthouse parking lot. Police said she was spooked when the person opened her door, which caused her to drive off the cliff. She suffered an injury to her foot and no major injuries were reported. Santa Cruz police said this was “truly” an accident. The person who opened the woman’s door thought they were entering the passenger seat to their car, which was a similar model and color,...

COVID-19 surge pushes US toward deadly cliff BY REID WILSON - 07/12/20 06:00 AM EDT The coronavirus is spreading at ever-faster rates in a broad array of states, putting the U.S. on the precipice of an explosion of illness that threatens to overwhelm the nation's health care system. The painful economic lockdowns imposed in March gave the country time to flatten the epidemiological curve and contain the virus. But that window of opportunity, which came at great economic cost, is quickly slamming shut. Health experts say all signs point to a deadly summer and fall unless government leaders implement a...

Authorities in California are desperately searching for an SUV and its occupants after it was captured on video driving on a highway shoulder and then flying off a cliff.In the 170-second video released by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, the dark-colored vehicle can be seen traveling northbound and then shooting across State Route 1 just south of Gray Whale Cove State Beach in Half Moon Bay, California, before disappearing from view.A person who was traveling on the multi-lane highway saw the SUV and captured the dramatic moment on video at around 11 a.m. on Monday, according to the San Jose...

"According to the CHP, which said in a conference call with reporters Sunday it had completed its initial review of the crash, software pulled from the SUV shows it was stopped at a pull-off spot on the side of the highway before accelerating straight ahead off the cliff." "Jennifer Hart and Sarah Hart, a married couple who adopted six children, were both found dead at the vehicle along with three of the children: Markis Hart, 19, and Jeremiah and Abigail Hart, both 14. Devonte Hart, 15, Hannah Hart, 16, and Sierra Hart, 12, are still missing, but officials presume they...

At least 36 people have been killed after a coach plummeted 100m (330ft) down a cliff and landed upside down on a beach in Peru, officials say. ...The accident happened on a notorious stretch of road known as Curva del Diablo (the devil's bend) in Pasamayo, north of the capital Lima. A transport official said the coach was carrying about 50 people. ... Peru transport chief Dino Escudero said an investigation had been launched but it appeared that the coach had been in collision with another vehicle, causing the driver to lose control.

the DOE and everybody in the auto industry pegged their EV hopes and dreams on lithium manganese oxide, or LMO, and lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries. The reasons were simple. Both chemistries had great performance profiles for EVs and both chemistries were made using cheap and abundant raw materials – lithium, manganese and iron. The sole renegade was Tesla, which planned to use consumer grade cells and a nickel-cobalt chemistry instead of more costly automotive grade LMO and LFP cells. Tesla's theory, which had more than a touch of genius, was that using consumer grade cells would allow it...

A new online game encourages users to send a virtual President Trump to his death, either by sending him off a cliff, down a manhole, into a volcano or into the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The game, "Push Trump Off A Cliff Again," instructs users to "Take out your frustrations with [the] President by pushing him off a virtual cliff, or into a virtual volcano." A virtual Trump shouts out phrases including "Bye!" and "I'm really rich!" as he tumbles to his death. Online users have played the game almost two million times, according to the site’s count, thanks...

A giant fracture in a limestone cliff overlooking Lake Whitney is threatening another luxury home, less than a year after a mansion was burned to the ground before it could collapse and fall into the North Texas lake below.

Republicans in the U.S. House caucused on Thursday and chose U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to replace U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., as House majority leader. They also selected U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., to replace McCarthy as GOP whip. U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., weighed in on Thursday after the vote and said he backed U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Ind., over McCarthy but did back Scalise. Yoho also tried unsuccessfully to move the vote back a week. “Yesterday in the House Republican conference I introduced a motion to delay the vote for the majority leader of the Republican Party...

**SNIP** Yet now comes the sell, with the president, just as he did with ObamaCare, in full pitchman mode. Before the ink was dry, he was in California before adoring crowds assembled to nod and smile and clap on cue as he trotted out a straw man to demonize critics. “Tough talk and bluster may be the easy thing to do politically, but it’s not the right thing for our country,” he told the nodding heads. There he goes again. If you don’t agree with him, you’re playing politics. Only he knows “the right thing for our country.” His latest...

SAN FRANCISCO—The government shutdown is beginning to ensnare a lot of people and businesses who didn't think it had anything to do with them. On Wednesday, a random canvassing of spurned visitors outside the Cliff House—a tourist spot perched above the Pacific Ocean at the city's western edge—revealed that even those related to President Barack Obama aren't immune. Two members of the president's extended family were denied entry to the historic dining establishment, which is privately operated but has been ordered to close because it is on national park land. Virginia Goeldner, 78 years old, Mr. Obama's maternal great aunt,...

MISSOULA, Mont. – A federal judge has ordered a Montana newlywed to be released from jail on her own recognizance while awaiting a murder trial in the death of her husband in Glacier National Park. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch said Thursday that Jordan Linn Graham, 22, of Kalispell did not pose a flight risk because of her strong community ties and did not appear to be a danger to others. Graham allegedly pushed Cody Lee Johnson, 25, face-first off a cliff to his death in the national park on July 7 after the two argued. Earlier that day, prosecutors...

Even the writers of the old Looney Tunes cartoons could imagine the wacky behavior and ideas coming out of Obama and other leading Democrats as the country, and the world, are four years or less away from plunging into an abyss...

On Friday, Gallup released a poll gauging Americans' views of the Senate deal passed last week to avert the "fiscal cliff." Overall, Americans are mixed on the deal, with 45% disapproving and 43% approving. Among Republican voters, though, the verdict is overwhelmingly negative. 65% of Republican voters disapprove of the plan, against just 27% who support it. It's the opening salvo in the 2014 primaries. The Senate deal, negotiated by GOP Leader McConnell and VP Biden, gave the government $620 Billion in new tax revenue and delayed, for two months, the automatic spending cuts enacted with the debt ceiling increase...

When lawmakers delivered a long-delayed, last-minute agreement on the budget, Wall Street celebrated. And it would be easy to think that the surge in the Dow the following day meant that investors had put their concerns about Washington's political gridlock behind them. The Dow Jones industrial average surged on the news, but that doesn't mean the volatility is over. In fact, there could be more turmoil in the market soon because decisions on cutting the federal budget deficit have been put off until March, when the government will reach its borrowing limit. Republicans have already said they will demand cuts...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi isn't ruling out pushing for upper-income earners to pay more even after the "fiscal cliff" deal that raised their taxes. She tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that "I'm saying that's not off the table." The California Democrats isn't getting into specifics but she does discuss changes to tax law that might involve deductions and other breaks.

Quantifying the "fair share"?

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