Free Republic

The New Jersey start-up that snagged a controversial no-bid $53 million contract with New York City to give migrants prepaid debit cards could net a whopping $1.8 million in profits by taking a cut of the funds doled out to asylum seekers, The Post has learned. The one-year deal signed by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and tech finance company Mobility Capital Finance .. is now raising eyebrows with some members of the City Council, who noted the agreement didn’t undergo the usual competitive bidding process. “Something’s wrong with this deal, and taxpayers are getting fleeced,” Councilman Bob Holden (D-Queens) .....

It takes money to make money, as the old saying goes, and, apparently, it also takes money — as much as $53 million — to give money away. Earlier this month, The Post broke the story that Mayor Adams is giving out pre-paid cash cards to migrants. Unusually for the mayor, Adams didn’t publicize this story himself, and his administration has for nearly a month failed to correct several public misperceptions about it. One misperception is that the program allows the city to give out just $50 million to migrants. No wonder the mayor has been reticent. This debit-card program...

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly backing away from his pro-migration border bill amid a mutiny by multiple GOP Senators. “MCCONNELL told a closed meeting of Senate Republicans Wed[nesday afternoon] that the politics of the border has flipped for R[epublicans]s and cast doubt on linking Ukraine and border,” Punchbowl News reported early Wednesday evening. The report added: McConnell referred to [Donald] Trump as “the nominee” and noted the former president wants to run his 2024 campaign centered on immigration. And the GOP leader said, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.”

I am vehemently opposed to Joe Biden’s illegal assumption of the power to force taxpayers to assume the burden of student loan repayments on college tuition obligations voluntarily entered into. It’s wrong constitutionally, and it’s wrong morally to force other people to pay for services to others that only a minority receive. Besides, higher education has devolved into a brainwashing arm of the hard left and has lost all claim to be a general public benefit. The education cartel has abused the public with tuition escalating at three times the rate of general inflation for about half a century now,...

As President Obama used to say of his clownish vice president: "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up."Which brings us to Joe Biden's student loan debt forgiveness rollout, announced this week.Let's set aside the issue of the legality of the matter.The actual execution of the matter is Joe in Action.According to Axios:The implementation of President Biden's widespread, income-targeted student loan forgiveness is shaping up to be a bureaucratic challenge for the Department of Education.Why it matters: Millions of Americans are in limbo waiting for information on how to take action on student debt relief — the success of which...

When US national laboratories develop a new technology, Uncle Sam is supposed to ensure it is commercialized in America. But that's not what happened with what's said to be a breakthrough battery design. A vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) design created at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has wound up in the hands of a Chinese company, which has since gone on to become the largest manufacturer of VRFBs in the world. The US, which owns the patent and invested $15 million of taxpayer dollars into its development, reportedly has no domestic production site for the novel VRFBs. That's not...

President Joe Biden marked the tenth anniversary of the DACA work permit giveaway by touting the migrants’ role in the U.S. economy, even as Americans’ wage gains fall below the inflation rate. “These young people contribute to our community in ways that are both big and small,” Biden said in a White House video about the foreign population in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, adding:

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council narrowly approved Wednesday Mayor Lightfoot’s plan to handout prepaid gas and mass transit cards to Chicago residents. The vote was 26 to 23.

“Baby bonds” have become one proposal to help close the racial wealth gap between Black and white families in the United States. Unlike regular bonds, they’re not a debt instrument traded in the public markets. Instead, the policy proposal creates a federally funded trust fund account for every newborn baby in the U.S.

President Joe Biden and his European Union counterparts will commit to ending outstanding trade battles next week at an EU-US summit in Brussels on June 15, as globalists eager to get back to ‘business as usual’ seek to unravel tariffs related to a steel and aluminum conflict which came to a head under the Trump administration – contributing to over $18 billion in US and EU exports subject to steep levies. According to Bloomberg, which has seen a draft of the conclusions, the allies will agree to resolve disagreements – including a nearly two-decade old aircraft dispute which involves illegal...

So Cyrus, who is celebrating the 15th anniversary of her breakout Disney DIS, +2.41% series “Hannah Montana,” has teamed up with Cash App to give out a total of $1 million in stock. People interested in getting some of the free stock are asked to share their Cash App username and their favorite company or stock in the comments on any one of the singer’s social media posts on Twitter and Instagram FB, +1.40%. Winners will be selected at random. Cash App, which was developed by Square, is a mobile payment service that allows people to invest money.

TIPTON, Pa. (WJAC) — The Blair County Farm Bureau will partner with the American Dairy Association Northeast to host a milk giveaway at DelGrosso’s Park in Tipton Saturday. They’re giving away 4,800 gallons of milk. One thousand of those will go to local food pantries. The rest will be handed out in the parking lot next to the water park side of the complex. The milk was produced by dairy farms in Blair County. Organizers say there is an oversupply of milk because of school and restaurant closures and an increased need by the communities. They say dairy farmers are...

Each month, 1,000 struggling Chicagoans would get $1,000, no strings attached, to help break the cycle of poverty, under a trail-blazing pilot program proposed Thursday by a mayoral task force. Days after choosing political retirement over the uphill battle for a third term, Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked retiring Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who has championed the cause of income inequality, to chair a task force to consider universal basic income in Chicago. On Thursday, that task force, co-chaired by SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff and Celena Roldan, CEO of the American Red Cross of Chicago & Northern Illinois, proposed...

In addition to protesting the National Anthem, the National Football League is now funding left-wing advocacy groups, including Dream Corps, a George Soros organization, led by a former Obama advisor, Van Jones. Jones states that he is a communist and two of the goals of Dream Corps is to advocate for the “Clean Power Plan” and open borders. The NFL recently agreed to pay $73 million over seven years to various groups that the NFL Players Coalition supports. The coalition was created in 2016 as a way to “respond to perceived institutional bias among law enforcement agencies.” Its members are...

It is almost certain that with giving the internet to "the world", that people with voices who say certain things run the risk of being silenced. One possible solution: You should record an audiobook. Here's why. As an example, one audiobook that I recorded was The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, which highlights the black patriots that fought side by side against the British for American Independence and liberty. I completed that entire book on Valentines Day of this year, the day believed by some to be Frederick Douglass' birthday. Why is this book important? Have you ever run...

Yes, really. While everyone else is pushing gun control, I'm giving away an AR15 just to make a point. Wanted to give my fellow Freepers a chance to win. Thanks again for being awesome.

Even though the Internet has long been an international community, the United States has always been at its center. However, that all may be about to change as the U.S. Department of Commerce scales back its role in Internet governance. The transition is a gradual one, but by the end of the year, the DOC is expected to give up its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to the international community. The concept of “Internet governance” may seem like a bizarre one since it often seems like the Wild West out there. The most tangible...

On Wednesday, President Obama argued that not raising taxes on certain households amounts to a "giveaway" from the government. On Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney repeated and defended the term "giveaway." Chalk it up as another example of a "You didn't build that" worldview. During the Thursday press briefing, ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper asked Carney why the White House uses the term "giveaway": Jake Tapper: You used the word "giveaway", and President Obama, in his statement yesterday, used the word "giveaway," referring to the extension of the lower Bush tax cut rates for I guess...

Military chiefs are planning to give armoured vehicles worth an estimated £1billion to Afghan forces when it withdraws from Afghanistan in two years time. Officials believe that more than half of the UK’s protected vehicles in the country will be left behind with the Afghan National Army and security forces rather than transported back to Britain. Senior military sources have revealed that an initial review has identified that more than 1,200 protected trucks and personnel carriers are likely to be passed over to the Afghans in 2014.

Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) told the The New York Times that he would "respond to 100% of the territorial demands of the Palestinians" if elected Prime Minister. “I intend to replace Netanyahu,” Mr. Mofaz, 63, said. “I will not join his government.” Mofaz said that he believed Israel should keep the main settlement blocs, but that he would give the Palestinian Authority as much land from sovereign Israeli ground as he kept from Judea and Samaria. He added that he believes it is possible to reach an agreement on the borders and security within one year. When asked about...