Free Republic

Energy The Biden Administration's claim that forcing consumers to shift from gas stoves to electric stoves would lower their monthly cost of cooking is technically true. A Department of Energy analysis showed that using electricity to cook instead of gas would save an estimated nine cents per month in operating costs. However, it would cost a consumer more than $300 to purchase the lowest priced GE stove on the market. This stove would have to last 300 years before the monthly nine cent savings would equal the cost to buy that stove. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pointed out...

Newt Gingrich:“We are drifting towards the greatest constitutional crisis since the 1850’s and the rise of secession and civil war,” he said on Fox News. “I don’t mean that as hyperbole.” “What you are seeing across the country is a desperate, last ditch effort by a corrupt machine to destroy their most dangerous opponent in a way that not only breaks the constitution, destroys the rule of law and establishes a moment of bitterness which I think will last for a generation or more" “This is going to be a horrendous period. The people who want to control America and...

It’s hot out there. Yeah, it’s summer and summer is typically hot, but it has been hotter than usual this summer across much of the globe. Hundreds, if not thousands, of local daily temperature records around the world have been set during the present heatwave, which, in some locations, has persisted for an extended period of time. The heatwaves are real. I say heatwaves because it is not a single global heatwave but a series of regional ones. For progressive bloviating politicians and alarmed reporters in mainstream media the cause of the present hot weather is simple: climate change. As...

[Catholic Caucus] The Mystical Body of Christ Must Purge the Impurities Introduced by Vatican IIIn his 1846 encyclical, Qui Pluribus, Blessed Pius IX charged the Church’s shepherds with protecting the purity of the Catholic Faith:“So, in accordance with your pastoral care, work assiduously to protect and preserve this faith. Never cease to instruct all men in it, to encourage the wavering, to convince dissenters, to strengthen the weak in faith by never tolerating and letting pass anything which could in the slightest degree defile the purity of this faith.” According to Pius IX, the shepherds should never tolerate anything that...

The New York Fire Department recently reported that so far this year there have been 108 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City, which have injured 66 people and killed 13. According to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, "There is not a small amount of fire, it (the vehicle) literally explodes." The resulting fire is "very difficult to extinguish and so it is particularly dangerous." Last year there were more than 200 fires from batteries from e-bikes, EVs and other devices. A fire ignited at an e-bike shop and killed four people near midnight on the morning of June 20. Two...

there is a “real possibility” that Russia has stopped financing the mercenaries of the wagner group and that without this support they are returning from belarus to Russian territory. According to the latest British intelligence report on the situation of the war in Ukraine, Moscow “has acted against some business interests” of the owner of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhinsince he launched a failed “riot” against the Russian Army last June. “There is a real possibility that the kremlin no longer finance the group,” he said in his Twitter account. Twitterwhere he recalled that Wagner it is going through a process of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mali’s interim president, Assimi Goita Tuesday had a telephone conversation over events unfolding in Niger – a development that is likely to raise concerns among Western leaders about Russia’s increasing influence in the West African region. “At the initiative of the Malian side, Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Transitional Period of the Republic of Mali Assimi Goita,” the Kremlin said in a statement on Tuesday. Putin’s call for a peaceful resolution comes days after West African leaders ordered the “activation” and the “deployment” of a regional standby force to restore...

Inflation is a killer to the middle class and low-wage worker. Yet there are always apologists for terrible Federal spending and Federal Reserve monetary policies. Like Alex Bereson with his “How we stopped inflation without a recession (hint: by not stopping inflation).” Before I look at Berenson’s plea for more inflation, let’s see where Federal spending and Fed Monetary policies have left us. As of this morning, the REAL US Treasury 10-year yield (nominal yield less inflation), is now the highest since two crises ago, meaning The Great Recesssion and the first major overreaction of The Federal Reserve in late...

Photo: AlamyA new I&I/TIPP primary election poll reveals that former President Trump still holds a large lead among Republican voters even after three indictments. TIPP Poll: Trump holds 45-point lead for Republican Nomination • Trump — 57% (+2 from June)• DeSantis — 12% (-7)• Ramaswamy — 8% (+6)• Pence — 5% (-1)• Haley — 4% (-1)• Scott — 2% (-1)TIPP (A-) | August 2-4 | n=529https://t.co/jueJPGlCM6 pic.twitter.com/U1bIqARmU9— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) August 14, 2023With the upcoming primary elections next year, poll numbers are being closely watched to see who will win the GOP nomination for the general election. Recent polling shows that...

Scrapping the infamous Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel cost Disney $250 million, the company announced in its quarterly earnings call last week. With only 100 guest rooms, that breaks down to $2.5 million per room for the failed venture. The Galactic Starcruiser in Disney World was billed as a one-of-a-kind “Star Wars” experience. Each two-night booking was meant to feel like boarding a cruise ship in outer space, and guests were given a “mission” involving characters from the most recent “Star Wars” trilogy. It was a gamble on a relatively niche — and expensive — concept. But at about $4,800...

Christie leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in the Granite State, garnering 9 percent support. DeSantis’s support, on the other hand, fell to 8 percent from 17 percent in March. Christie’s 1-point lead over DeSantis falls within the poll’s plus-or-minus 3.4 percent margin of error. Former President Trump still dominates the GOP primary field with 49 percent support, according to the same poll. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott trails DeSantis in fourth place at 6 percent support, while North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tied at 4 percent. Businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy and Perry Johnson came in...

GOP strategist Garrett Ventry said the DeSantis presidential campaign is floundering in the same way that the past campaigns of Jeb Bush and Scott Walker did, Tuesday afternoon on FOX News. GARRET VENTRY: I think Ron DeSantis is really in Scott Walker and Jeb Bush territory, here. He's bleeding campaign dollars, he's firing staff, and Ed Rollins, who runs a pro-DeSantis PAC, essentially, is saying he's a flawed candidate. If you dig into the facts and look at the polling, GOP voters in the New York Times poll and your FOX Business poll show by 30-point margin they trust Donald...

Weeks after its international launch, Worldcoin is drawing the attention of officials around the world. Kenya’s government has gone so far as to shut down the service. The international ID company, backed by big investors in Silicon Valley’s technology industry, now has to defend itself in investigations. The central question is whether the biometric data that the company is collecting is secure or not. What is Worldcoin? Worldcoin is the creation of Sam Altman. He is best known as the head of OpenAI, the maker of the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT. The goal of Worldcoin and the company backing it,...

Former President Donald Trump is getting blasted from both sides of the aisle for palling around with conservative provocateur Laura Loomer at his golf club over the weekend.Loomer posted a video and a handful of photos of herself and Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, during the LIV golf tournament."Today was the best day of my life," Loomer posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Sunday. "I got to spend the entire day with the greatest President our country has ever had: DONALD J TRUMP!"

Aug 15 (Reuters) - An analyst at Fitch Ratings warned that U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), could be downgraded if the agency further cuts its assessment of the operating environment for the industry, according to a report from CNBC on Tuesday. In June, Fitch lowered the score of the U.S. banking industry's "operating environment" to AA- from AA, citing pressure on the country's credit rating, gaps in regulatory framework and uncertainty about the future trajectory of interest rate hikes. Another one-notch downgrade, to A+ from AA-, would force Fitch to reevaluate ratings on each of the more than 70...

The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled Monday that religious schools are allowed to screen their employees based on their adherence to the institution's faith. The Garden State's high court ruled unanimously in favor of St. Theresa School, a Catholic elementary school in the Archdiocese of Newark, for its decision to terminate the contract of a teacher due to her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, in violation of church teaching. New Jersey law states that religious institutions are allowed to establish employment criteria based on their faith, Justice Lee Solomon wrote in his opinion, and that it is "an affirmative...

John Dean, former President Nixon’s White House counsel, said Monday night that former President Trump’s latest indictment in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 election is “much bigger than Watergate.” Dean made the comment on CNN, when asked by anchor Kaitlan Collins whether he sees echoes of the Nixon-era scandal in the Georgia indictment. “It’s much bigger than Watergate,” said Dean, who gave key congressional testimony during the Nixon scandal. “It’s of a whole different dimension. It goes to the very foundation of democracy. Nixon abused some powers, he exceeded his authority when he shouldn’t, but he wasn’t taking...

Matt Wolking, the Strategic Communications Director for the pro-Ron DeSantis Super PAC ‘Never Back Down’, appeared to invent quotes from within the Trump presidential campaign on Monday, before having a very public meltdown after he was quizzed on the matter.Wolking – on loan from DeSantis campaign chief Jeff Roe’s embattled Axiom Strategies – refused to provide evidence of his claim that the “Trump camp” is “livid” about his meeting with reporter Laura Loomer on Sunday at Bedminster.Trump camp is livid about his huddle with @LauraLoomer."We kept his [Iowa] fair visit to an hour to avoid another self-inflicted wound, then he...

The difference between Joe Biden’s geriatric sloth and President Trump’s tireless, unrelenting work ethic couldn’t be more glaring than it is right now. While Hawaii is crying out for help in the midst of perhaps the most devastating natural disaster in the state’s history, Biden is nowhere to be seen. By contrast, President Trump proves once again he’s the man Hawaii – and America – desperately needs. The apocalyptic wildfires that engulfed Hawaii have destroyed entire cities, including the historic town of Lahaina. The damage in Maui is estimated at approximately $6 billion. Most chilling, the death toll, currently at...

The seemingly low-cost virtue signaling of declaring your non-border city or state a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants has now revealed its hefty price tag. “If we don’t get the support we need, New Yorkers could be left with a $12 billion bill,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Wednesday of the now crisis-level illegal immigrants who continue to flow into the Big Apple. According to The New York Times, over 100,000 illegal immigrants have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022. Politico explained what these numbers mean for New York: The $12 billion is the...