Free Republic

One of the most damaging impacts of Illinois’ people loss to other states is the destruction of Illinois’ tax base. When people leave in a given year, they take their incomes (adjusted gross incomes, or AGI) with them, and that means the state’s tax base suffers. A smaller tax base, everything else equal, means less tax revenues for safety, education, road repair and every other core government service – or, as is typically the case in Illinois, more debts and more tax hikes.Unfortunately, Illinois’ out-migration problem is much bigger than just a one year loss: the state has lost people...

GovTrack, an organization that tracks voting records in Congress, yanked its 2019 rating that pegged then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as the most liberal member of the upper chamber – after several media outlets including The Post cited the statistic in stories on the presumed Democratic presidential nominee.The website pulled down its 2019 ranking on Monday evening after it got renewed attention in the wake of President Biden’s seismic decision to drop out of the 2024 race on Sunday, its founder confirmed to The Post. GovTrack had previously determined in its single-year “report card” for 2019 that she was the most...

The super-rich are being advised how to use a loophole in pensions investments to shelter their wealth from Labour’s clampdown on large-scale tax dodging, the Guardian can reveal. Undercover filming by the Guardian suggests multimillionaire UK residents are being pitched offshore products said to legally protect their fortunes from inheritance tax (IHT) and capital gains tax (CGT). At a private event held a week before the general election, the international accounting brand Baker Tilly told advisers to the ultra-wealthy how they could use offshore pension schemes to shield their clients’ fortunes from tens of millions of pounds of inheritance taxes....

We need to stop treating technology and those who know how it works like a commodity. Because when you do that, you're quietly creating an elaborate and expensive mess down the road. ..asking tech to code itself seems like a great idea. On paper. But it's only when you ask AI to code something that's going to generate the revenue needed to pay for itself and the company's future growth that you'll realize that AI doesn't know how to shrug. .. Techies, especially software developers, are terrible at marketing. Especially when marketing themselves. So when the boom cycles in the...

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Five out of six defendants surrendered to authorities Thursday morning to face charges in an election fraud case linked to last year's New York City Council primary in Flushing, Queens. All six are being charged with absentee ballot fraud. They were all volunteers for the campaign of Yu-Ching James Pai, a candidate in the June 2023 Primary for City County District 20. "As alleged in this case, the defendants went to the Board of Elections and filed fraudulent absentee ballot applications on behalf of 23 voters they had never met," said said District Attorney Melinda...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. Aragorn's Battle Speech For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give...

An ex-adviser to former President Bill Clinton has predicted that former President Donald Trump will remove Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential pick. Rumors of Trump suffering buyer's remorse after choosing Vance as his 2024 running mate have been rampant since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the likely Democratic presidential nominee. While Trump has publicly insisted that he is happy with Vance, saying the senator is "doing a fantastic job" and has been "very well received" by the public during a Fox News interview on Thursday, worries remain about...

Two NASA astronauts who were supposed to return from the International Space Station over a month ago are still orbiting Earth as engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing Starliner capsule, officials said Thursday. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster failures and helium leaks on Boeing's capsule prompted NASA and Boeing to keep them up longer. No return date yet.. NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said mission managers were not ready to announce a return date. ... Starliner launched...

The Haley Voters for Harris group has vowed not to step down after being sent a cease and desist letter from former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. The group, formerly Haley Voters for Biden, is seeking to poach primary voters who voted for Haley over former President Donald Trump. Haley, who has thrown her support behind Trump, sent the group a cease-and-desist letter, with her campaign warning that it will alert the Department of Justice and FBI if they don’t change their name. The letter demanded the end of “Any use by you of Ambassador Haley’s name, image, or likeness...

One of the world's biggest drug lords, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US. Arrested with Zambada on Thursday was Guzman's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, said the US justice department. In February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors with a conspiracy to make and distribute fentanyl, a drug more powerful than heroin that has been blamed for the US opioid crisis. In a written statement on Thursday evening, US...

ransomnote: TRANSCRIPT of 2 minute x.com video clip below the White House image. Related links at the bottom.The Dems now want the American People to believe it was actually Trump and the Republicans who blocked securing the border.This comes after the Dems blocked every attempt to build a wall, and refused to allocate $5 billion for our own border, but sent $200+ billion to Ukraine.During Trump’s first term, they claimed that there was no crisis at the border whatsoever. Now they admit there is a crisis, but it’s somehow it’s actually Trump’s fault.There is no limit to their lies and...

Anumber of conservative women have criticized Donald Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance, after his "childless cat ladies" comment reemerged.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign team backed out of a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, saying it wouldn’t commit to debate details until the Democratic Party chooses its nominee. “Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee,” the former president’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement on Thursday.

People who drink cranberry juice are 54% less likely to develop urinary tract infections (UTIs), according to a study. It has long been suspected that cranberries contain compounds that help prevent bacteria from adhering to the walls of the urinary tract, reducing the risk of infection. However the effectiveness of cranberry juice has been confirmed by the network meta-analysis that amalgamated the results of 20 studies involving 3,091 participants worldwide. Lead researcher Dr. Christian Moro said the findings could help reduce the use of antibiotics to treat UTIs. "More than half of women experience UTIs and antibiotics are a go-to...

New research shows that inflammation outside the brain, such as that caused by common infections such as colds and urine infections, is linked to the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). The Systemic Inflammation in Multiple Sclerosis (SIMS) study followed 50 people living with progressive forms of MS for two and a half years. Researchers measured inflammation in the body by looking at a weekly urine sample. This inflammation can be caused by a number of factors, including infections, other medical conditions, trauma and an unhealthy lifestyle. Research in animals has shown that inflammation outside the brain can exacerbate this process,...

Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday defended the code of conduct the Supreme Court created last year, but conceded there needs to be a way to enforce the rules for it to be more effective. “I think that the rules that we put out are good ones,” Kagan said at a judicial conference in Sacramento. “I think that the thing that can be criticized is, you know, rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them. And this one, this set of rules does not.” ... Kagan’s criticism of the court on Thursday was not limited to its new code of conduct....

Rumors of Trump suffering buyer's remorse after choosing Vance as his 2024 running mate have been rampant since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the likely Democratic presidential nominee. While Trump has publicly insisted that he is happy with Vance, saying the senator is "doing a fantastic job" and has been "very well received" by the public during a Fox News interview on Thursday, worries remain about whether the Ohio senator could be a liability for Republicans in November. Paul Begala, who served as White House adviser and chief strategist during...

If you thought Joe Biden's electric vehicle mandates were unpopular (and they are) just wait until you see the even more aggressive plans that Kamala Harris has in store if she manages to be elected to the White House. Rather than giving in to a popular lack of demand, Harris intends to double down, accelerating the schedule for converting the American fleet of vehicles at an even more rapid pace wherever possible. The Democrats still aren't quite crazy enough to try to make possession of a gas-powered vehicle illegal, but they will bully the automakers to ensure that a full...

Kalina, who seldom appears in public, was photographed with her husband, Antonio José “Kitín” Muñoz, and son, Simeon Hassan Munoz, in Sofia, the capital of the southeastern European country. After the photos became public, people began commenting on the princess’ incredibly muscular arms. The 52-year-old has devoted herself to training these past years, but her arm muscles were not always so pronounced, as per the Sloboden Pečat. The photos were reportedly taken at the funeral ceremony of Tsar Ferdinand I on May 29. The remains of the first tsar of Bulgaria after five centuries of Ottoman rule were repatriated to...

[Catholic Caucus] The plotting to find the next PopeThe Hollywood adaptation of Conclave, Robert Harris’s thriller about a conspiracy to rig a papal election, won’t be in cinemas until November. But judging by the trailer released last week, its starry cast, crafty plot and spectacular cinematography – jets of smoke scattering cardinals as an explosion shatters the Sistine Chapel – will instantly erase memories of The Two Popes, Netflix’s risible Oscar-nominated fantasy in which Benedict XVI secretly chooses Cardinal Bergoglio as his successor.Perhaps only four cardinal-electors are conservative Latin Mass ritualists, and none stands a chanceHarris’s novel was published in...