Free Republic

New York Gov. (Andrew Cuomo) urged private businesses on Aug. 2 to institute “vaccine-only” admission in order to incentivize getting vaccinated against COVID-19.“Private businesses, bars, restaurants: go to a vaccine-only admission. … I believe it’s in your business interest to run a vaccine-only establishment,” he said, without elaborating.

If Republicans were to get serious about ending special favors for corporations in general, it would be a positive development. To be clear, states and the federal government should keep taxes low and maintain reasonable and predictable regulations. But they should not provide special subsidies or tax carveouts to penalize or reward favored industries or businesses. They should not tempt rich owners of sports leagues with government funding for sports stadiums. Or lure Hollywood productions with special tax incentives. Or provide large companies with special tax breaks to get them to do business in their states. However, as tempting as...

...Once upon a time, the far-left used to decry "giant corporations." Today, the giant corporations are all woke, and therefore, according to Axios, our rulers. Never mind elections. Apparently, we can't even boycott them, presumably because they are too big and ominiscent. One thing is for sure right now, yes, they now seem to have power. And it's quite possibly becoming the state. ...Both Allen and VandeHei are very smart guys, and Allen, whom I once shared a panel with, is very nice. But this analysis I see about this being a good thing, or maybe just a trend, has...

At least 14 people who President-elect Joe Biden has picked to serve either in his administration or to advise his transition have worked for the Big Tech firms that cracked down earlier this week on President Donald Trump and a social media site popular with conservatives. Apple’s top lobbyist was a chief adviser to the Biden transition team. A former Facebook executive will serve as staff director in the Biden White House, and a former Twitter executive will serve as chief spokesperson for the National Security Council under Biden. Current and former executives at those firms and two others, Google...

"Legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway founder and CEO Warren Buffett said it’s high time companies stop acting as moral arbiters, social activists and SJWs — social justice warriors — and instead focus their efforts on their primary responsibility: making money for their shareholders. This comes alongside the announcement that Berkshire Hathaway is pouring about $30 billion into wind turbines and infrastructure in Iowa. The plan, according to Buffett, is to turn the state into “the wind capital of the world, the Saudi Arabia of wind.” Among the corporate consensus these days is a call to be “doing well by doing...

Nike is preparing to release yet another product lionizing Colin Kaepernick, this time, with a shoe memorializing the first time Kaepernick protested during the national anthem in 2016. The sportswear giant is set to issue the Colin Kaepernick x Nike Air Force 1, a low sneaker that features the date of the first time Kaepernick remained seated during the national anthem to protest against the country. “This special edition Nike Air Force 1 comes dressed in a Black and White color scheme,” SeanerBarDetroit explains. “It features a Black leather upper, a gradient-faded Swoosh on the sides completed with several personal...

Universities may not target unpopular speech on campus often, but when they fail to protect it, the results are similar to officially silencing speech. A recent example of this lack of effort to protect comes from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where an anti-socialism display was destroyed on campus within a day after the Young Americans for Freedom campus group erected it. I am the founding chairwoman of YAF at UNC Charlotte. I started this group to bring together students who are committed to free speech and the belief in a free marketplace of ideas. Our club hosts...

The Pentagon is slamming the brakes on its mega-competition to award a $10 billion cloud computing contract after President Donald Trump suggested the Defense Department might have rigged the contest in favor of Amazon, a frequent target of his criticism. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who assumed his post July 23, is now reviewing accusations of unfairness in the fiercely fought competition, the Pentagon announced Thursday, marking the president's latest incursion into the arcane world of Defense Department contracting. Oracle has reportedly waged an aggressive lobbying campaign to push back on the competition, now pitting Amazon against Microsoft, including talking with...

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Monday said she will support the construction of a street-level community grid to replace the elevated portion of Interstate 81 in Syracuse.Until now, Gillibrand declined to take a position on the issue, saying it was up to Central New Yorkers to choose the best option for replacing the 1.4-mile viaduct that cuts through the heart of Syracuse.Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said during a visit to Syracuse on Monday that she decided to speak out after discussions with community stakeholders who favor the grid over a tunnel or new elevated highway."Given where the stakeholders are -- and given what...

An Obama-era plan to have the federal government finance half of a $13 billion rail tunnel project ran into a red light Friday from the Trump administration. The plan, proposed under President Barack Obama in 2015, includes revitalizing a deteriorating Amtrak tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York City, repairing damage to a dual-tunnel conduit, and reconstructing the New Jersey railroad network’s aging Portal Bridge, Crain’s New York Business reported. Amtrak, which owns most of the rail tunnels and tracks between Boston and Washington, D.C., contends that the existing tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City is damaged and...

Hollywood actor-director Rob Reiner teamed with Atlantic senior editor David Frum, Obama-era government officials, and vocal Donald Trump critics to launch an initiative Tuesday intended to help uncover the extent of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. “To understand the gravity of Russia’s invasion of our democracy, today we launch Committee to Investigate Russia,” Reiner wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning, linking to the organization’s website: InvestigateRussia.org. The Committee claims to be a “nonprofit, non-partisan resource provided to help Americans recognize and understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy,” according to its website. It will be a place where “all relevant information is aggregated...

Let me just say this at the outset: Mildred Dresselhaus, who died in February at the age of 86, was an amazing woman. An accomplished physicist who won just about every scientific award short of the Nobel Prize, Dresselhaus was by all accounts a pioneer, patriot and great American. Nonetheless, I still find GE's commercial in her honor to be profoundly creepy. If you haven't seen the ad, which debuted at the Oscars and is omnipresent on MSNBC, you can find it on YouTube. It opens with a little girl unwrapping her birthday present. "A Millie Dresselhaus doll!" she exclaims...

"Goldman Sachs' financial lifeline to the regime will serve to strengthen the brutal repression unleashed against the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans peacefully protesting for political change in the country," wrote Julio Borges in a letter to Goldman Sachs President Lloyd Blankfein.

Facebook officials said they will not punish any employees who choose to take off work May 1 to protest President Donald Trump. Pro-immigration groups, socialist organizations, labor unions, and hundreds of thousands of workers are planning to walk out on their jobs on International Workers Day. “At Facebook, we’re committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where employees feel comfortable expressing their opinions and speaking up,” a representative told Bloomberg. “We support our people in recognizing International Workers’ Day and other efforts to raise awareness for safe and equitable employment conditions.” Facebook told staff about its policy April 14, specifically clarifying...

Online source code repository and team collaboration service GitHub has been under fire after an anti-white agenda was revealed within the company’s “Social Impact Team.” According to Tech Insider’s reveal on GitHub’s current situation, CEO Chris Wanstrath is radically changing the company. The former flat structure that eliminated substantial hierarchy has been replaced with supervisors and middle managers, and the ability for employees to work remotely has been cut back in favour of mandatory office working environments. These changes have prompted many long-term employees to leave, with some reportedly being ousted if they cannot meet the new requirements. GitHub’s Social...

The American government is officially putting a giant vote of confidence behind self-driving cars. And the cash to back it up. Today, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is announcing a nearly $4 billion plan that’ll help manufacturers and tech companies develop safe, automated vehicles in the next ten years with real-world pilot projects. It’s all part of President Obama’s plan to make American transportation as futuristic as possible. The funds, which have been set aside in the proposed federal budget for 2017, will go toward pilot programs in specific transportation corridors in the US. The government will then work with...

LE BOURGET, France — One of the smartest ways to fight global warming is putting a price on carbon dioxide pollution, some key world leaders said at Monday's international climate summit. Either a tax on carbon dioxide emissions or trading carbon pollution like pork bellies, which puts a price on carbon, will help use capitalism to get closer to a day when the world isn't adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, according to leaders of France, Germany, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Ethiopia, as well as heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development....

The sixth time was the charm as British-based brewer SABMiller on Tuesday accepted in principle a $106 billion takeover offer from Anheuser Busch InBev that will create the world's biggest beer company and bring together top U.S. brands Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft.

Regulation: You can bet all the contenders at Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate will say they're the toughest on big business. What they won't say is their own policies favor big business, big time.

One of the leading lights of Marxism on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison brings home a sweet salary of $170,000 per year. The well-heeled sociology professor is Erik Olin Wright .. The tenured, capitalism-hating professor’s annual salary of $170,000 is $117,587 greater than the household income of a typical Wisconsin family and is in the top 2 percent of all Americans. Whil an average middle-class family in Wisconsin survives on $4,368 per month, the Marxist professor enjoys a cushy monthly income of $14,166. He will teach exactly two courses in the fall semester for this princely sum. ......