Free Republic

Do you remember the first time you heard about Google? If you’re younger than 35, it may feel like it’s always been a thing . . . but if you’re older, you might remember when it became THE way to search the Internet. Today, Google.com is officially 25 years old. Google itself has picked various dates to celebrate its birthday over the years, but the domain was registered on September 15th of 1997. And it really started to take off in the year 2000. Google began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both...

The chairman and CEO of energy company Chevron has warned Americans to brace for price increases in natural gas this winter. CEO Mike Wirth made the comments in an interview with CNN on Sept. 13 in which he warned consumers that “there’s certainly a risk that costs will go up” when it comes to natural gas. “Prices already are very high relative to history and relative to the rest of the world. We’re already seeing this impact being felt in the European economy and I do think it’s likely that Europe goes into a recession,” Wirth said. Europe has been...

It is remarkable that, with the example of Europe before us, and with blackouts in California and Texas in the immediate past, our masters are plunging ahead with plans to do away with fossil fuels in favor of solar and wind energy. I have written many times about what folly this is, and won’t repeat those arguments here. Instead, something new.Minnesota’s far-left Governor Tim Walz has proposed to make 100% of Minnesota’s electricity–not all energy, just electricity–carbon-free by 2040. Of course, he and his backers had no idea what would be required to meet that goal when they announced it....

Last year, Kawasaki revealed plans to electrify all of its motorcycles in developed markets by 2035, and also have at least 10 electric or hybrid models in the range by 2025. Now, late-stage prototypes for both types of powertrains have been revealed thanks to a surprise demonstration ahead of the Suzuka 8-Hour motorcycle race in Japan. Kawasaki gave no prior notice of the demonstration and made no subsequent announcement, nor did it release any images. However, thanks to friends at the Japanese motorcycle magazine Auto-By who were present at the demonstration, we’ve acquired detailed images of both prototypes. Hybrid The...

Far left activists have recently deployed a “sophisticated, academic-sounding” crowbar to batter tech companies and ideological dissenters alike, but the strategy is getting mixed reviews from free speech and extremism experts interviewed by the Daily Caller. Instances of the phrase “stochastic terrorism” have seen a massive spike online since 2016 and more recently in the last few months, as activists seek to de-platform and censor personalities and brands that refuse to hew to their particular worldview. “I believe concept creep helps explain the sudden and relatively recent uptick in the phrase ‘stochastic terrorism,'” Komi Frey, a research fellow at the...

Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence at the FBI field office in New York City who was involved in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 election, has fallen under the scrutiny of a grand jury convened by U.S. attorneys late last year for his own ties with Russia and other foreign governments, reports Insider. The grand jury is reportedly investigating McGonigal’s business dealings with a top aide to Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian oligarch who was at the center of allegations that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign, according to a recently obtained...

The U.S. will not be providing Ukraine with long-range missiles amid Russia's invasion, with the Pentagon believing the precision-guided missile systems already provided are "the most relevant munitions for the current fight." Speaking to reporters Wednesday after President Joe Biden announced an additional $3 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Defense Under Secretary Colin Kahl said long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) munitions, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of more than 280 kilometers, are not currently needed. Since June, the U.S. has provided 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which have played a vital part...

Yes, tell them, Joe. Tell the “MAGA Republicans” they’re not welcome in their own country. Tell them their participation is a threat to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Tell them that Democracy means they have to sit down and shut up. Tell the truck driver who travels coast to coast, working the graveyard shift, to bring freshly cut meat to supermarket shelves. Tell the police officer, the waitress, the bartender, the cable guy, the grocery-store clerk, the grandmother, the garage mechanic, the veteran who served in Afghanistan who now has been kicked out...

Earlier this month extreme heat downed a Twitter datacenter in California over the Labor Day weekend, leaving the website and app working on bare-bones infrastructure.According to a memo obtained by CNN, Twitter lost access to its Sacramento (SMF) datacenter "due to extreme weather" on September 5, 2022. The memo, attributed to VP of engineering Carrie Fernandez, says, "The unprecedented event resulted in the total shutdown of physical equipment in SMF." The temperature in downtown Sacramento, California reached a record high of 113°F and local temperature records were broken again within days. While Twitter has backup datacenters in Atlanta and Portland...

John Durham’s team has known of these discrepancies for years but has failed to hold responsible those who used the CIA to target a political opponent with false smears. Awhitepaper obtained first by The Federalist suggests Special Counsel John Durham botched the investigation of a second Russia collusion hoax, the one concerning Yota cellphones. In a scandal linked to the Spygate operation, Hillary Clinton cronies peddled to the CIA fake evidence they claimed established Donald Trump and his associates were using the Russian-made Yota cellphones in the vicinity of the White House and other key locations. The news of this...

Former President Trump on Thursday said he “can’t imagine being indicted” over his handling of classified documents or a scheme to put forward alternate electors after the 2020 election, but that if he were, it would not deter him from a possible White House run in 2024. “I can’t imagine being indicted. I’ve done nothing wrong,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Joshua Ziminski in court Today, September 14, 2022(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)Joshua Ziminski and his wife Kelly Ziminski were in court today and officially charged with multiple felonies. Joshua was charged with felonies Armed burglary, robbery, intimidation of a victim, false imprisonment, ID Theft, and bail-jumping – all felonies as a party to a crime. Kelly was charged with the same felonies, without the bail-jumping charge. She was not out on bail like her husband, but was on extended supervision, which is similar to parole. Kelly will likely have her extended supervision revoked, and go back to prison...

Last month, Rachel Richardson—the only black starter on the women’s volleyball team at Duke University—leveled a shocking accusation. She said that during her team’s August 26 match against Brigham Young University, fans inside the BYU arena in Provo, Utah inundated her with racist abuse and threats. After the match, 19-year-old Richardson told her godmother, Lesa Pamplin, about the incident. Pamplin is a criminal defense attorney running for a county judgeship in Texas, and was not at the game—but the next day, she published a tweet that rocketed the story to national attention: “My Goddaughter is the only black starter for...

Railroads and unions reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday morning, averting the threat of an imminent strike that would have ravaged the nation’s economy. The Biden administration intervened in negotiations to push both parties toward a compromise ahead of Friday, the first day that workers could legally walk out. The two largest rail unions said Thursday that the deal provides key wins for workers that weren’t included in the previous contract proposals. Here are five key gets in the agreement, according to the unions.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) leads Democrat challenger Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D) on issues Texas voters say are most important to them, a UT/Texas Politics Project survey found. The survey asked respondents to identify the most important issues when it comes to their vote in the 2022 election. Immigration and border security topped the list, as 26 percent chose it as the top issue. The state economy came in second with 13 percent choosing that issue, followed by abortion (12 percent), gun violence (11 percent), climate change (seven percent), health care (six percent), voting and elections (six percent), property...

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck noted on Thursday, at the sidelines of the G7 trade ministers meeting in Brandenburg, that Ukraine will need around $350 billion to reconstruct itself.Habeck stressed that the "reconstruction of Ukraine requires more than public money can offer" and urged the international community to "create a global fund with money from private investors, hedge funds and so on."Habeck stated that trade should also be utilized to "stabilize Ukraine once again." Finally, the German economy minister assured that Berlin will supply Kiev with more weapons.

In another move by the left to exert control over elections, several states are considering switching to ranked-choice voting. ... A multimillion-dollar effort to enact ranked-choice voting in Missouri has failed after Secretary of State John Ashcroft announced the initiative will not appear on the November ballot due to an insufficient number of valid signatures submitted. The measure would have appeared as a constitutional amendment to change Missouri’s election system. Millions in outside funding by Texas billionaire and former Enron executive John Arnold and his wife Laura went into getting ranked-choice voting on the ballot. Former Obama administration and Hillary...

The world quickly undid emissions reductions that were an unintended perk of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading a multi-organizational UN group to issue a bleak warning: we need to be working seven times harder to meet climate change goals. The United In Science 2022 report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that, despite a litany of pledges from countries promising to halve their carbon outputs by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement, little is being accomplished. "Climate science is clear: we are heading in the wrong direction," the WMO said.

A long-delayed plan to dismantle Interstate 375, a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) depressed freeway in Detroit that was built by demolishing Black neighborhoods 60 years ago, was a big winner of federal money Thursday, the first Biden administration grant awarded to tear down a racially divisive roadway. The $104.6 million is among $1.5 billion in transportation grants handed out to 26 projects nationwide thanks to increased funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. It allows Michigan to move forward on its $270 million effort to transform the stretch in Detroit into a street-level boulevard, reconnecting surrounding neighborhoods and adding amenities, such as...

They claim to be “defending democracy,” but not one of the Democratic Party candidates for statewide office in California has agreed to debate his or her opponent, rejecting what many voters see as a key part of the democratic process. Democrats have rejected all of these requests for debates, though media outlets have been interested in hosting them. Breitbart News has even responded favorably to a general call from Hochman’s campaign to media outlets to host debates — to no avail. The refusal to debate is unprecedented.