Free Republic

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Reuters) - Automakers may not be able to build as many electric vehicles as they would like — and consumer demand for those EVs may not materialize as quickly as anticipated — if government and industry do not address and resolve a convergence of issues, a new study released on Tuesday said. Among those roadblocks, a looming shortage of battery raw materials could put government mandates “in conflict with manufacturing reality” — one of the macro trends charted in the 2023 Moving World Report, published by investment firm UP.Partners. Obstacles to the acceleration of EV production and...

Last week, the company announced that beginning Feb. 1, the centralized monopoly will no longer help support local charities, including youth athletic associations. Instead, it will donate to social justice and social responsibility initiatives that work on a larger scale, like affordable housing and other entities that align with its values.

Newly released video captured the moments before a knife-wielding double amputee was fatally shot by police in Los Angeles and shows him stabbing a man in front of a gas station. Huntington Park on Monday released video of Anthony Lowe, 36, sitting in his wheelchair on Jan. 26 before attacking a pedestrian with a 12-inch butcher knife near a Shell station. The man, who is seen staggering, was critically wounded with a collapsed lung but is recovering. Police also released the 911 call made by the victim, who identified himself as Ramiro. “I got stabbed in the heart right now,”...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday demanded a federal investigation into rising natural gas prices in western states, after many families across the state saw their gas bills double — or more — in the month of January. In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the group responsible for regulating wholesale natural gas, Newsom asked the agency to "focus its investigatory resources on assessing whether market manipulation, anticompetitive behavior, or other anomalous activities are driving these ongoing elevated prices in the western gas markets." Many SoCalGas customers saw a massive bill in January, in many cases double the previous...

About 18 months ago, there was some chatter in Washington about a COVID commission that would examine the wild response and evaluate its good and bad features and make recommendations for the future. From the looks of it at the time, it seemed pretty obvious where it was going. In effect, it was going to be a cover-up, just government and industry leaders and anointed “experts” touting their wise decision-making while offering some mild tweaks for the future. The commission never formed. Why not? Pretty simple: absolutely no one would have believed it. There are too many people now wise...

​Rock star Bono, the ​family of Tyre Nichols, the man who disarmed a mass shooter in California last month and the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are among those who will watch President Biden’s State of the Union address from first lady Jill Biden’s box Tuesday night. “Each of these individuals were invited by the White House because they personify issues or themes to be addressed by the president in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies at work for the American people,” the White House said in a statement Tuesday. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will...

A reboot of the Disney show "The Proud Family" is receiving backlash over a rap in a recent episode of the cartoon featuring kids singing about slavery and reparations, arguing that America "owes" black Americans because America "still has not atoned for" its systemic prejudice, racism and White supremacy. "This country was built on slavery, which means slaves built this country," the song repeatedly stated in the Disney+ episode of "The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder," which reviewed the history of Juneteenth.

Disney Plus is now home to content marketed to kindergarteners that deals with extremely divisive and controversial social topics of the day. That's already strange enough, but combine that with a previously disclosed "not so secret agenda" and you'll find discover Disney is solely on one side of the propaganda game. A nuanced or neutral presentation this is not. Instead, the loveable characters from the original Proud Family television show have been brought back only to push extreme ideology, world views, and political beliefs on your children.

The annual State of the Union address is a chance for presidents to claim credit for great achievements and outline plans for the future. With the memory of China’s spy balloon crossing our most sensitive military installations unmolested hovering over the House chamber, the stink of Biden’s passivity and failure will taint any such boasting. And the public ain’t buying it, as even the Democrats’ house organ, the Washington Post, reports:Two years into a presidency that the White House casts as the most effective in modern history, President Biden is set to deliver a State of the Union address Tuesday...

Bill Gates does not agree that using a private jet and campaigning on the issue of climate change represents a contradiction open to allegations of hypocrisy. During a wide-ranging interview with the BBC aired at the end of last week, Gates was asked for his view on the charge that a climate change campaigner using a private jet to travel around the world was a hypocrite. “Well, I buy the gold standard of, funding Climeworks, to do direct air capture that far exceeds my family’s carbon footprint,” the Microsoft co-founder, being interviewed in Kenya, replied. “And I spend billions of...

Los Angeles County supervisors are pushing a .50 cal. rifle ban after a 9mm pistol was used in the January 21, 2023, Monterey Park, California, mass shooting. Breitbart News noted the Monterey shooter killed 11 people with a 9mm pistol. Two days later, another attacker used a pistol to kill seven in Half Moon Bay. On February 6, 2023, KTLA reported LA County supervisors are weighing a ban on .50 caliber rifles and .50 caliber ammo in response to the 9mm killings. They are also weighing a county wide gun registry, a liability insurance requirement for gun owners, and a...

Pfizer will protect their lies any way they can. There’s far too much at stake in the form of massive profits as well as the agenda of the globalist elite cabal, so when their protective shields of corporate media, Big Tech, and government fail them, they are forced to rely on traditional methods to continue lying to the public. So, they put out a memo warning employees that the random person they meet at a bar or on a dating app may be one of the crazies at Project Veritas. Following the bombshell undercover video of Pfizer executive Jordan Walker...

Black activists are slamming New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.) for moving to ban flavored tobacco products while allowing rampant access to flavored marijuana. "You’re telling me that my 21-year-old son can buy all the cannabis he wants, but my grandmother who’s been smoking for 65 years can’t get a cigarette? It doesn’t make sense," said Corey Pegues, a retired black New York Police Department executive who is urging lawmakers to reject Hochul’s proposal. Pegues said the governor’s proposed legislation, which was tucked in her Jan. 10 State of the State plan, will disproportionately affect black voters. Critics say the...

At the SHOT Show, Browning ammunition has introduced a subsonic, 45 grain, suppressor optimized .22 Long Rifle load for pistols. It uses the heavy, 45 grain bullet to increase energy from a pistol at subsonic velocities. It is loaded to reliably stay subsonic from pistols. If fired in rifle length barrels, it may reach supersonic velocities, with the resultant sonic barrier snap produced by bullets exceeding the speed of sound. A rough estimate of the price is about 10 cents a cartridge. The market for ammunition is fluid, so prices are difficult to forecast. Browning ammunition is produced by Winchester,...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said during a speech Monday that the national debt is the “greatest threat” to America’s future and called on President Joe Biden to negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling. McCarthy said during the press conference, addressing the looming debt ceiling deadline: Americans are getting hammered by higher prices. Today, nearly two-thirds of all Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, China is infiltrating our culture, our farmland, and our skies because they see us as weak. This is not sustainable. But of all the dangers we face, the greatest threat to...

Underlying strength in the bond market is signaling that the US economy is not on the verge of entering a recession anytime soon, according to a Monday note from DataTrek Research. In fact, corporate bond-yield spreads relative to US Treasuries suggest the economy is not going to enter a recession in 2023 or 2024, according to the note.

In my over 30 years of working with volunteers who advocate replacing the income/payroll tax system with a national retail sales tax, one thing that I have noticed is that our volunteers have always been driven by the desire to help our great nation and future generations. None of these advocates are looking to make money or obtain other types of gain for themselves. In fact, most of us have paid our own expenses associated with the effort with no expectation of being reimbursed. Advocates for the national sales tax come from every religion, every line of work, every economic...

New York City employees will no longer be required to receive a coronavirus vaccine, ending a policy that has been in place since October 2021, Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced on Monday. “With more than 96 percent of city workers and more than 80 percent of New Yorkers having received their primary COVID-19 series and more tools readily available to keep us healthy, this is the right moment for this decision,” Adams said in a statement. “I continue to urge every New Yorker to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them...

A public health emergency declaration on abortion is not completely off the table for the Biden administration in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, sending the restrictions on abortion, or lack thereof, back to the states. This push to declare a public health emergency is not necessarily new, as dozens of House Democrats urged President Joe Biden to do so last summer. In a letter to Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the lawmakers called the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision both “radical and dangerous,” contending it “precipitated a...

A higher percentage of women agreed Canada is broken than did men, and more in the youngest age brackets than among the oldestA majority of Canadians looking at the country they see around them say everything seems to be broken. Concerned about rising costs, the state of health care, affordable housing, jobs and more, half of us are also angry about the way Canada is being run, a national opinion poll says. But before settling on the easy image of old, malcontent men skewing the survey, consider this: A higher percentage of women agreed Canada is broken than did men,...