Free Republic

Biggest corporate lay-off in history is expected within days, with IBM believed to be scrapping 110,000 of its 430,000 workforce around the world IBM is preparing to scrap 110,000 of its global 430,000 workforce in the biggest corporate cull in the computer giant's history, a report has revealed. The company will make the job cuts this week under a plan known internally as 'project chrome', according to US technology blogger Robert Cringely on Forbes website. IBM is in the process of layoffs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report last week but said the number of job losses was significantly...

Obamacare program costs $50,000 in taxpayer money for every American who gets health insurance, says bombshell budget report It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law, the Congressional Budget Office revealed on Monday. The number comes from figures buried in a 15-page section of the nonpartisan organization's new ten-year budget outlook. The best-case scenario described by the CBO would result in 'between 24 million and 27 million' fewer Americans being uninsured in 2025, compared to the year before the Affordable Care Act took effect. Pulling...

Russia has been downgraded to junk status for the first time in a decade due to the collapsing oil price, the tumbling value of the rouble and sanctions imposed because of its intervention in Ukraine. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said the downgrade was caused by the country’s reduced flexibility to cut interest rates and a weakening of the financial system. The ratings agency said the Central Bank of Russia “faces increasingly difficult monetary policy decisions while also trying to support sustainable GDP growth”. “These challenges result from the inflationary effects of exchange-rate depreciation and sanctions from the west as...

Hundreds of Tanzanian schoolgirls returned home Monday after spending three months hiding in safe houses to escape genital mutilation, state television said. Female genital mutilation (FGM) can range from female circumcision to the removal of the entire female genitalia. Some 800 school girls fled to shelters run by charities and church organisations, which offer protection during the months FGM is traditionally carried out, from October to December. Some of the shelters are given police protection to ensure the girls remain safe. Minister of Labour and Employment Gaudensia Kabaka called on traditional leaders to use their influence to stop “this retrograde...

A Tulsa World analysis of voting behavior and other factors ranks Oklahoma the second-most conservative state in the nation after Utah. The Legislature convening Feb. 2 will be among the most Republican in the nation. The rise of the Republican Party has brought a shift to more business-oriented policies: workers comp and lawsuit reform, reductions in income-tax rates, right to work, weakened regulatory agencies and a push for privatization of everything from education to elevator inspections. “A lot of people think it’s Democrat versus Republican,” said former Democratic Gov. George Nigh, who was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives...

Pelosi gropes for a game plan Heading into a retreat in Philadelphia, House members say Democrats have no message and no clear strategy to retake the majority. By LAUREN FRENCH and ANNA PALMER 1/26/15 5:36 AM EST Nancy Pelosi has big problems in her ranks. The California lawmaker is facing some of the most serious unrest she’s ever seen in her dozen years as the leader of the House Democrats: Members complain that the party has no message and no clear plan to retake the majority, despite good news on the economy that should have brought rewards at the polls....

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LONDON — The United States pressed Argentina to end its investigation of Iranian complicity in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in which nearly 100 people were killed. Western diplomatic sources said the administration of President Barack Obama urged Argentina on several occasions to either stop or limit the investigation into the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires. The sources said the U.S. appeals marked one of the demands by Iran for a reconciliation with Washington. “Argentina had hard evidence against at least one Iranian leader, which prevented him from traveling abroad,” a source said.

...WALLACE:The White House has made it clear that it flatly opposes paying ransom..now,ISIS is making a new demand,offering a swap of the Japanese hostage for a terrorist being held in Jordan.Is that something to be considered?MCDONOUGH:You know,our policies are pretty well set..We don't get into negotiation with terrorists.We don't pay ransom..we're not going to do that.WALLACE:And a prisoner swap?MCDONOUGH:We're not going to do that.WALLACE:And you would advise the Japanese not to do that......WALLACE:..the president wants to pay for free community college,for increased child care tax credits by raising taxes on the wealthy,$210 billion over 10 years......WALLACE:..during the Obama years,the top...

Near-term global warming projections (brick-red region) on[0.13, 0.50] K decade-1, compared with observations (green region)that fall on [0.0, 0.11] K decade-1, and the simple model's 21stcentury warming projections (yellow arrow), falling on 0.09 [0.06,0.12] K decade-1. Credit: Science China PressA major peer-reviewed climate physics paper in the first issue (January 2015: vol. 60 no. 1) of the prestigious Science Bulletin (formerly Chinese Science Bulletin), the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, exposes elementary but serious errors in the general-circulation models relied on by the UN's climate panel, the IPCC. The errors were the reason for concern about Man's effect...

The vote totals are still being finalized but the latest show the SYRIZA Party at 150 of the 300 seats in the Greek parliament with 36.3 percent of the vote. This is one vote short of an overall majority but multiple media sources including "The Wall Street Journal" are reporting that the conservative Independent Greeks, who broke away from the New Democracy (Republican type) Party in 2011 and are firmly against the EU austerity program will join up to stablilize the government. The Independent Greeks (ANEL) won 4.7 percent of the popular vote and 13 seats. The SYRIZA-ANEL alliance would...

A reporter who broke the story that an Argentine prosecutor was found dead shortly before he was about to make explosive allegations about President Cristina Kirchner fled Argentina on Sunday after threats. -excerpt- A citizen of Argentina and Israel, he worked for the English-language Buenos Aires Herald. Pachter fled Argentina after receiving threats, and being followed, he told colleagues in other media. The reporter, who also worked with Israel's Haaretz, told colleagues his phones had been tapped in Argentina.

Former President Bill Clinton took a romantic jaunt in 2002 to convicted pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein’s “orgy island” with “two young girls” from New York, according to a shocking new interview. Virginia Roberts, who’s accused Epstein of turning her into a “sex slave” at age 17 and forcing her to sleep with his powerful friends, claimed Clinton stayed in one of the many villas on Epstein’s US Virgin Islands estate — where group sex was a “regular occurrence.” “I remember asking Jeffrey, ‘What’s Bill Clinton doing here?’ kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said, ‘Well, he owes...

  Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do! For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~   Donald Sloat Info from here.             Donald P. Sloat (February 1949 – January 17, 1970) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the Medal of Honor, United States military's highest decoration. His award was made posthumously in 2014 for his actions in the Vietnam War....

More than a million Californians benefitted from federally subsidized health insurance in 2014 through the nation's health care law. But now the law is about to give many of them a migraine. It's tax season, and for the first time Obamacare is showing up on tax forms. And it's leading to confusion and angst over new rules and their impact on taxpayers' pocketbooks. That's because taxpayers must now reconcile the subsidy they received with the income they estimated they would earn last year. In addition, people who ignored the Affordable Care Act's requirement to obtain health insurance in 2014 now...

MANILA, Philippines – More than 30 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents Sunday in the southern Philippines in the biggest single-day combat loss for Philippine forces in many years, officials said.

Charles Koch on Saturday signaled to hundreds of donors, operatives and conservative leaders gathered in the California desert that the political operation he and his brother David created was just getting started. “Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the march toward collectivism,” Charles Koch said in his speech, seemingly in reference to the Republican takeover of the Senate during the 2014 midterm elections. “But as many of you know, we don’t rest on our laurels. We are already back at work and hard at it! In fact, the work never really ends. Because the struggle for freedom...

ALBANY — The early jockeying to possibly replace embattled Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has already begun, the Daily News has learned. A state assemblyman from the city said he has received calls directly from Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, and surrogates of Assemblyman Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Keith Wright (D-Manhattan) in recent days to gauge his feelings on the uncertainty in the chamber. None of the three directly told the assemblyman that they were looking to topple Silver. Morelle did say he'd be interested in being a candidate for the speaker position should Silver step down or be pushed out...

North Korea Sunday described US President Barack Obama as a "loser" over his criticism on its regime, accusing him of being obsessed with hostility towards Pyongyang. The comment from the North's foreign ministry came after Obama spoke of the eventual collapse of the regime ruling what he called "the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth". "We will keep on ratcheting the pressure, but part of what's happening is... the Internet over time is going to be penetrating this country," Obama said in an interview on YouTube from the White House last week.