Free Republic

Investors have been amassing wagers on Donald Trump’s return to the White House for weeks, trimming holdings of long-term US bonds and buying Bitcoin, among other things. Now, they’re considering whether Joe Biden’s exit from the race boosts the odds of a Democrat victory — and how much they must recalibrate their bets. Though the announcement was widely expected as the 81-year-old faced pressure from allies, it injects a wild card into the campaign that will likely translate into volatility for markets. “This means more uncertainty,” said Gene Munster, co-founder and managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “There was a...

On Sunday, President Biden chose National Ice Cream Day to announce he will not seek re-election for a second term, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Biden said in a letter posted to X that he will “stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” But if he had any respect for the office he holds, the American people, our republic or himself, Biden would resign from the presidency immediately. No one said campaigning for re-election was easy. The schedule is punishing. A...

President Joe Biden has dropped out of this year's presidential election race, the White House said Sunday, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to represent the Democratic party against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President," Biden said in a message from his verified account on the X social media platform. "And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as...

In 2019, then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a Democrat presidential candidate, bragged that she had “always” supported the single-payer Medicare for All program. “I have always supported Medicare for All, I was very happy to sign onto Bernie [Sanders’] bill, and I give Bernie, frankly, a lot of credit for moving the conversation to where it is now,” Harris said in 2019 when running for the Democrat nomination for president. However, she said her version of Medicare for All, wherein Americans would still have the option to receive a private insurance plan, was similar to Medicare, where seniors can choose traditional...

A Go Fund Me account authorized by former President Donald Trump has raised more than $6 million for the victims of the failed assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. As of Friday morning, the account had raised nearly $6.5 million through more than 69,000 donations, including contributions from billionaire Elon Musk, hedge fund investor Ken Griffin, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and his wife, UFC CEO and President Dana White, and musical artist Kid Rock.Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter from Sarver, Pennsylvania, was shot and killed at the rally while shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire. David...

President Joe Biden, after ending his campaign for a second term, is now giving his “full support and endorsement” to Vice President Kamala Harris. But what about his campaign cash? Does Kamala Harris automatically become the Democratic nominee? Not exactly Biden’s campaign recently reported just over $91 million on hand, but allied Democratic campaign committees brought the total at his disposal to more than $240 million. Now that Biden is out, however, campaign finance experts have said that Harris could tap into some of that cash without too many hurdles — but it would be tougher for any other Democratic...

Hollywood star Sharon Stone has revealed that she is considering moving to Europe if former President Donald Trump wins in November. In a red carpet interview at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, where she was being honored with a lifetime achievement award, Sharon Stone didn’t mention Trump by name but made her political opinion abundantly clear. “Well I’m certainly considering a house here, and I think that’s an intelligent construct at this time,” the Basic Instinct star told Deadline.

The peak electricity demand in Britain is in the winter when we need to heat our homes, offices, shops, warehouses, factories etc. But in the winter solar farms produce almost no electricity in Britain. This is because it is dark for around 16 hours a day and when the Sun does appear it is weak and usually hidden behind thick cloud. Solar energy may make sense in some countries, for example the countries of North Africa, but building solar farms in Britain is completely brainless.The new Energy Secretary Ed Milliband has just given the green light to the biggest solar...

Japan's biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel Corp... has hired former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to help with its effort to acquire U.S. Steel ... "We look forward to working alongside him to further emphasize the ways in which Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel bolsters the country's economic and national security," Nippon Steel said ... Pompeo had not been given a specific job title within the company. ... Although both steelmakers have received all regulatory approvals outside of the United States for their proposed $14.9 billion merger, they face political opposition and regulatory scrutiny from within the United States....

On the surface, this GOP convention is the most ebullient and unified in decades. Beneath it, many elected officials are deeply uneasy. The source of that agitation is Donald Trump’s running mate. At a glance, Mr. Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance makes sense, as he appears to be a prototype of Mr. Trump. Protectionist. Passionate. America First. But he isn’t Mr. Trump—not at all—in ways that are hugely consequential for the conservative movement and its future. In choosing Mr. Vance now, Mr. Trump sets him up for 2028, which means a monumental internal fight is coming. We’ll soon find...

CrowdStrike Intelligence has since observed threat actors leveraging the event to distribute a malicious ZIP archive named crowdstrike-hotfix.zip. The ZIP archive contains a HijackLoader payload...Notably, Spanish filenames and instructions within the ZIP archive indicate this campaign is likely targeting Latin America-based (LATAM) CrowdStrike customers.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted X earlier Friday that CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) has been “deleted from all our systems, so no rollouts at all.” However, according to several sources cited by Business Insider, Tesla (TSLA) sent some of its employees working the night shift at its Austin, Texas and Sparks, Nevada factories home early after the outage resulted in error messages on some of the facilities' machinery. The carmaker sent its staff a notice early Friday morning that its systems had been impacted by a "Windows Host Outage" across its IT platform. A glitch caused by an update...

CHICAGO — From 1972 to 1978, ‘The Bob Newhart Show,’ featuring Bob and Emily Hartley, put Chicago in the spotlight. Featured in the open was the Edgewater-area condominium at Sheridan and Thorndale, where the couple lived. “Every week, the opening credit sequence showed Bob walking up to this building and I think it would have to qualify as one of the most overexposed buildings in Chicago,” said John Holden, president of the Edgewater Historical Society.

undreds of flights were cancelled at British airports yesterday due to the fault ... Travel disruption is continuing today as trains are hit in Crowdstrike outage with ticket machines and scanners going down at London stations. The meltdown chaos comes after the world's biggest IT disaster struck, with thousands of Brits stranded abroad. It happened on one of year's busiest travel days, with families now desperately queuing at Dover Port in an attempt to get home. After another 45 flights were cancelled today, 28,000 Brits are fighting to get a seat on a plane. Some passengers stuck overseas have been...

A Microsoft global outage has wreaked havoc across America, locking countless individuals out of their bank accounts, causing hospital cancelations and even grounding flights. The notorious Blue Screen of Death is popping up everywhere, from banks to supermarkets and media outlets, causing widespread panic and confusion. All United, Delta and American Airlines flights were grounded amid the chaos. Microsoft has issued a statement on the issue. “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said on X this morning. “We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue...

The surging demand for energy in the U.S. is growing significantly for the first time in decades. Experts say it is forecast to hit record highs both this year and next year — creating more planet-warming emissions. Part of the demand is due to an increasing number of data centers across the country, along with the rise of artificial intelligence. The nation's roughly 2,700 data centers are mostly run by big tech firms like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Apple, and consumed more than 4% of all electricity in the U.S. in 2022. It's projected to more than double to...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made headlines with his recent comments about former President Donald Trump, calling him a “badass” and praising his resilience while also addressing the role of political content on Facebook in the upcoming election. Bloomberg reports that in a recent interview, Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his thoughts on former President Donald Trump’s response to being shot, describing it as “badass” and “inspiring.” Zuckerberg’s comments, made during a discussion for “The Circuit with Emily Chang,” have drawn attention to the complex relationship between Silicon Valley leaders and political figures. Zuckerberg specifically referred to Trump’s...

On Wednesday, radical, left-wing Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban went all-in for Joe Biden and jumped up to attack X owner Elon Musk for his strong support of Donald Trump. Cuban said he supports Biden’s bid for a second term but will blindly support whoever the party nominates if it replaces him. The NBA owner’s attack came after PayPal founder David Sacks wrote an X post listing the business leaders who have come onboard the Trump train—such as Bill Ackman, Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Doug Leone, Joe Lonsdale, Peter Thiel, Cameron, Tyler Winklevoss, and Elon Musk—and adding the message, “Come...

When Joe Biden finally leaves the White House, he is set to get a pay raise. Because of his nearly 50 years in federal office, first as a senator, then vice president, and now .. his pension will be at least $13,000 higher than his current salary of $400,000, according to a National Taxpayers Union Foundation report. “Joe Biden represents a unique situation. With his long tenure in Congress and subsequent years as vice president and president, Joe Biden stands to benefit significantly from both systems, potentially receiving a combined payout starting at around $413,000,” said NTUF’s Demian Brady, vice...

National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers show firearm sales for June of 2024 were down five percent from 2023. They are still over 1 million for the month. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, this is the 59th month of over one million sales a month. If July sales are over a million, it will be five complete years of over a million firearm sales a month. May, June, and July are traditionally the lowest months for firearms sales during the year, although the pattern is not absolute. Specific events can increase firearms sales. The assassination attempt, which...