Free Republic

Krugman sees benefit cuts as "a choice" but believes that implementing a massive tax increase on American employers and workers would be "of course" no big deal.For The New York Times' Paul Krugman, the real crisis facing America's entitlement programs is that the media isn't working hard enough to ignore their impending collapse. "I've seen numerous declarations from mainstream media that of course Medicare and Social Security can't be sustained in their present form," Krugman wrote in a Times op-ed this week. "And not just in the opinion pages." Perhaps that's because the unsustainable trajectories of Social Security and Medicare...

Former Vice President Mike Pence condemned "apologists" for Russian President Vladimir Putin within the Republican Party, an indirect dig at former President Donald Trump, during a foreign policy address delivered on the first anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine. "While some in my party have taken a somewhat different view, let me be clear," he told the University of Texas at Austin's Clements Center for National Security Friday. "There can be no room in the leadership of the Republican Party for apologists for Putin. There can only be room for champions of freedom." Pence described Russia's war in Ukraine as "unprovoked"...

What does the Titanic have in common with NFTs? Not much. One lives on in the collective psyche as a monument to hubris while the other refuses to just sink already. Still, apropos of nothing except the smell of filthy blockchain-adjacent lucre, RMS Titanic Inc (RMST), which has been collecting artifacts associated with the ship since the 1980s, has hooked up with NFT flinger Artifact Labs and Venture Smart Financial Holdings to "bring the RMS Titanic and its physical artifacts into Web3." The ship sank into the frigid Atlantic in 1912, taking the lives of more than 1,500 people aboard....

Somehow, people seem legitimately confused that they can't avoid laws with pictures.The financial industry used to be able to make 💩 up so 🤷‍♂️ investors would hand over their 💵. Then the United States passed securities laws and started to crack down on people ginning up public investment based on wild or outright false promises of future returns. This made Wall Street very 🤬. As decades passed, those folks eventually had to accept the SEC, but a new generation of finance bros have shaken off the strictures of Wall Street and moved to the crypto industry (which doesn’t have...

Cardinal Grech: ‘tracing the Catholic path to synodality’Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod, addressed the Asia Continental Assembly. In his remarks, he related that he recently told Pope Francis he would be coming for the Assembly. The Pope, the Cardinal said, “sent his father blessing and he is following our activity very closely. The Holy Father would like to tell you, 'You are not forgotten.'” Cardinal Mario Grech addresses the Asian Continental Assembly on Synodality The Cardinal then characterized the Continental Stage of the Synod as “a further moment of listening to which the Church is called: ‘mutual...

For the first time, a researcher has determined that the naturally occurring dietary supplement known as nicotinamide riboside (NR) can enter the brain. The discovery was made by Christopher Martens and Dr. Dimitrios Kapogiannis. The finding is significant because it supports the idea that NR, upon reaching the brain, can alter the metabolism of relevant biological pathways involved in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Upon consumption, NR is readily converted into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which is critical to cellular repair and the repair of damaged DNA. "NAD+ is gradually lost as we get older or develop chronic diseases. Loss of...

Former President Trump hosted some of his top financial backers at what was described as an intimate gathering at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday night. The event is the first major fundraiser this cycle for MAGA Inc., the top super PAC supporting Trump as he makes his third straight presidential run. Several other potential and declared presidential candidates are ramping up the 2024 fundraising race this week. On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will kick off a weekend retreat with roughly 150 of his top donors at the Four Seasons resort in Palm Beach, just a...

The situation in East Palestine, Ohio, is much worse than the media is letting on, particularly as it pertains to the widespread release of chemical dioxins. The 14 some-odd tanker cars carrying vinyl chloride that were intentionally blown up released a massive plume of these deadly chemicals, which were spread far and wide, including up the eastern seaboard through Pennsylvania, New York and beyond.Tens of millions of people stand to be affected by this dioxin release, which by and large appears to be the most disastrous dioxin incident to have ever occurred in world history. Water supplies, food crops, city...

Telecom equipment maker Ericsson plans to lay off 8,500 of its employees globally to cut costs, according to a memo sent to employees from the company’s CEO Börje Ekholm. “The way headcount reductions will be managed will differ depending on local country practice,” Ekholm wrote. According to Reuters, the layoffs are predicted to affect North America and would be the largest to hit the telecom industry. The company announced Monday that about 1,400 jobs in Sweden will be slashed as well. “In several countries, the headcount reductions have already been communicated this week,” he said. Ericsson is the latest telecom...

When John Fetterman's health went south, his wife went north. Gisele Fetterman revealed on Friday that after her husband admitted himself into a Washington, D.C.-area hospital for treatment for severe depression last week, she packed up her kids at home in Pennsylvania and took a road trip. But not to Washington. "We drove straight into … Canada," Gisele announced on Twitter. "1 week ago today when the news dropped, the kids were off from school and media trucks circled our home. I did the first thing I could think of … pack them in the car and drive," she said....

A mental health advocate has launched a furious defense for the 6'6" boy, 17, who attacked and knocked a teaching aide unconscious after she took his Nintendo Switch away from him. Sue Urban - whose 17-year-old son graduated from Matanzas High School before taking his own life - has responded to the incident where a 17-year-old special needs student, who weighs 270 pounds, attacked his teaching aide on Tuesday. Neither the student nor the teaching aide's names have been released publicly. 'This is not this child's fault. He is not a threat,' Urban said in an emotionally Facebook Live. 'This...

A study finds common strategies used to protect infants from the heat can warm up a stroller by almost 4 degrees Celsius. The researchers recommend new strategies to keep infants cool as temperatures soar. In line with current advice, the scientists found that covering a stroller with a dry flannel or muslin wrap heated up the stroller by up to 3.7 degrees Celsius. In contrast, combining a damp muslin cloth draped over the stroller with a clip-on fan reduced the temperature within by 4.7 degrees relative to the outside temperature. Senior researcher on the study Dr. James Smallcombe from the...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that U.S. support for Ukraine “will be lasting and is unconditional.” Co-host Joe Scarborough asked, “Secretary Yellen, what can we do? What can the allied governments do to help the Ukrainians right now over the next year? Do we begin – is it too early to talk about reconstruction projects? At least the western half of the country. What’s our best move now? Yellen said, “Let me make clear, the United States and the allies, our support for Ukraine will be lasting and is unconditional. We stand with Ukraine and...

Embracing the destination resort-style casinos envisioned in multiple legislative proposals this session, Abbott signaled his support for a “gaming version of the Great Wolf Lodge” in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. State Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth) has filed House Joint Resolution 97, a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling in seven resorts across Texas, while State Sen. Carol Alvarado (D–Houston) has filed Senate Joint Resolution 17, which would also authorize “casino gaming at a limited number of destination resorts” and allow sports wagering. “If it can be built in a way that is, kind of like a...

Remdesivir (Veklury) reduced mortality in non-ventilated patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to an individual patient data meta-analysis of nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Among patients who received no oxygen or low-flow oxygen, 9.1% of those who were treated with remdesivir died within 28 days of randomization compared with 11.2% of those who did not receive the antiviral (adjusted OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.70-0.93), reported Benjamin Speich, PhD, of University Hospital Basel in Switzerland, and colleagues. Of the patients on ventilation, including high-flow oxygen, 30% of remdesivir-treated patients died versus 28.5% of those not treated with remdesivir (aOR 1.10, 95% CI...

...Witnessing how Shenzhen had become a showcase for affluence, he wrote a letter in 2002 to the Commercial Press, one of Hong Kong's biggest publishers, to pitch his book called "Treatise on the '66 Movement" ― a memoir about his young adulthood during the Cultural Revolution. He later said he handwrote the letter while being under the illusion of Shenzhen's reforms and was mistaken that there was greater room for political speech than the rest of China. "I believe that the Commercial Press in Hong Kong is a free publishing house," Wu said, reciting a part of his letter. He...

Critics say it’s a hate-filled agenda that will lead to fear, division, violence, discrimination, and a weakened FL. Gov. Ron DeSantis has unveiled an anti-immigration agenda that would deny jobs, education, and possibly health care for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who call Florida home. If the governor gets his way with the state Legislature — as is likely — all private employers would have to screen potential hires against the dodgy E-Verify database maintained by the federal government. Undocumented immigrants would lose the ability to pay in-state tuition at Florida colleges and universities. That would undo 2014 legislation...

The Arizona Senate and House Elections Committees yesterday heard testimony and presentations from multiple individuals regarding election anomalies and potential fraud in Arizona’s elections over many years. During the meeting, legislators considered a presentation by Jacqueline Breger, which, if true, exposed absolutely bombshell information regarding massive corruption and collusion between American politicians, appointed government officials, and the Sinaloa Cartels. The money laundering and racketeering scheme allegedly uses fraudulent mortgages, real estate transactions, and insurance claims in Maricopa County to hide money made through cartel human trafficking, drug trafficking, and bribery of elected officials, and to rig elections, intimidate, or murder...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the woods... Hannah Hoekstra as Elsa in Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks. Universal Cocaine Bear! There's a bear! It does a ton of cocaine! Movies! Cocaaaaaiine Beeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr! That's it, that's the review! Want more than that? I'm not sure this movie has much more to offer, but seeing as it's in theaters now I'll give it a shot. Astonishingly, this gory comedy-horror flick about a bear that does cocaine is based on a true story. This probably leaves you with a ton of questions: When and where --...

Who threatens our friend Taiwan, every single day? And not only Taiwan, but any other country in the South China Sea, who fishes or drills or does anything else that nations normally do in their own territorial waters? You know who. Who has over a million people in prison camps just because they happen to have been born into an ethnic minority, known as the Uyghurs, and uses these prisoners for the internationally-banned practice of slave labor, from backbreaking hours harvesting crops to miserable lives in textile sweatshops? You know who. Who has warped the concept of capitalism, designing an...