Free Republic

Who knew that the Ivy League and other wealthy institutions were taxing you, the American people Incredibly, it’s a $45 billion largess during the most recent five-year period. Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com quantified the federal payments on contracts and grants and special tax treatment of their endowments into the eight schools of the Ivy League plus Stanford University and Northwestern University. Since 2018, $33 billion of federal contracts and grants flowed to these ten colleges – averaging $6.6 billion annually. Today, these “educational” non-profits are more federal contractor than they are educator. Their $33 billion in federal contracts and grants...

Just when we thought the extent of the federal government's censorship had been fully revealed, an entirely new industry has been exposed as a partner in burying dissent and subverting the First Amendment. This time, we're learning the National Science Foundation (NSF) worked with academic institutions — including the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and others — to censor "misinformation" online through Big Tech platforms and search engines. Alarmingly, they're using new artificial intelligence technology to do it. This means studies and data coming out of universities can no longer be trusted. Grants depend on promoting a government...

The signs are all around. Governments from coastal America to Communist China and businesses from automakers to toymakers have promised that they will produce no net carbon emissions by some date conveniently far in the future. But as years have gone on, those dates have come to seem inconveniently near. Something has to give. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama has described the process of improving societies — making them more politically democratic, economically advanced and culturally tolerant — as “getting to Denmark.” And in fact, Denmark, though far from perfect, has done a better job of getting there than just about...

As the investment world still comes to grips with the Fitch Ratings decision to downgrade the U.S. debt rating, here’s an eye-popping statistic: the U.S. government’s debt will rise by $5.2 billion — every single day for the next decade. That’s according to the latest missive from Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett, in which he references Congressional Budget Office projections to come up with the number. See: Congressional Budget Office paints grim long-term U.S. deficit picture Importantly, debt is set to grow much faster than the broader economy. On the CBO’s numbers, the debt held by the public will...

I think that it would be fair to assume that Bill Gates is a Democrat. There is nothing that hints to me in any way that he would lean toward conservative policies other than those that add money to his pockets. Here’s the list of Congressional Republicans whom Bill Gates donated money during the 2022 election season: Rep. Vernon Buchanan – Florida, District 16 Rep. Dan Crenshaw – Texas, District 2 Rep. Elise Stefanik – New York, District 21 Rep. Chuck Fleishmann, Tennessee, District 3 Rep. Mike Simpson, Idaho, District 2 Rep. Garrett Graves, Louisiana, District 6 Rep. Cathy Rodgers,...

Literally named the “Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2023,” the measure was filed last month in Congress by U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat. Coleman was endorsed for office last fall by national anti-gun groups including billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown organization. “The Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act is one step in the right direction to slowing the proliferation of guns and ammunition,” said Watson Coleman in a statement. The proposal would establish the licensing of ammunition dealers who then would be required to confirm the identity of customers seeking to purchase ammo by verifying a valid...

Many brilliant companies – from Apple to Starbucks – have been founded in the United States, starting out as small ventures to become international leaders in their fields. However, the world of business isn’t always as straightforward as it looks. Regardless of how well-rooted a company’s American history is, it doesn’t mean that it will always belong to Uncle Sam. In fact, many quintessentially American brands are no longer American-owned at all. From Ben and Jerry’s to IBM and Holiday Inn, overseas investors have played a big part in keeping these companies moving forward. Without them stepping in, some of...

The DNC treats users of Chinese spyware app to all-expenses-paid DC trip. President Joe Biden met with eight users of the social media app TikTok as part of an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., arranged by the Democratic National Committee, according to Washington Post TikTok correspondent Taylor Lorenz. Biden on Tuesday had "an hour-long private meeting" with the TikTokers, whom the DNC brought to the nation's capital "in hopes that their posts will turn out votes for Democrats in the Nov. 8 midterms," which are widely expected to be a Republican wave. The TikTokers also met with former president Barack...

Another critic of National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre is being pushed out of the organization. Judge Philip Journey, who has been at the center of several efforts to remove current NRA leadership, has not been renominated to appear on the ballot for next year’s board election. That makes his road back onto the board far more difficult. “As an incumbent Director your name was submitted to the NRA Nominating Committee which met on August 27, 2022,” NRA Secretary John Frazer said in a letter to Journey on Monday. “I regret to inform you that you were not renominated.” The...

The message is clear. Those that acted responsibly are being penalized all because of President Biden’s vote-buying scheme. While some are praising President Biden’s announcement of up to $20,000 in student loan debt cancellation per recipient, for the overwhelming majority of Americans, the message is clear- do the right thing, work hard, play by the rules and get punished for it. This program is an insult to every parent who worked multiple jobs, sacrificed, and forwent vacations, just so their child could graduate from college debt free; to students who worked full-time so that they could pay for their college;...

Hope Florida connects the needy with existing private and nonprofit services to achieve self-sufficiency. To learn how to maximize community collaboration outside government, I traveled our state and held roundtables with our faith-based communities, nonprofits, businesses and state and local government partners. I saw the passion of Floridians spending their time and treasure helping others. But unfortunately, many were working in silos. Within Florida’s Department of Children and Families, we’ve turned state employees into “Hope Navigators.” These employees, who once processed government payments within “the system,” now help parents identify barriers to their family’s prosperity, map out individualized plans, and...

According to the Republican senator from Kentucky, Small businesses organized as S-Corps or Partnerships could face a tax increase and hurt job creation. The NIIT is a 3.8% surtax on passive income (capital gains, interest, rental and royalty income, and dividends). However, the proposal suggests expanding the tax to apply to active income over $400,000 individually or $500,000 jointly. The proposed expansion of NIIT is expected to raise some $183.6 billion in tax revenues over the next decade, according to the Tax Foundation. The bill proposes to expand the taxation to include all business income, whether or not the taxpayer...

The Netherlands has been in the throes of a pitched battle between the government and its farmers. The government there declared that it wanted to reduce nitrogen oxide and ammonia, which come from the waste of livestock. This decision was based on climate dogma and not on what is actually practical for the farmers and the Netherlands as a whole. The farmers’ first salvo was on June 22, when 40,000 of them clogged the roadways to form a protest convoy. Then the Dutch farmers took to their tractors and trucks and parked them outside supermarkets and other stores that sell...

Imagine one of your kids freezing to death in your home. Eleven-year-old Cristian Pineda's mother found her son dead during the Texas blackout in February 2021. Or you have a power outage for three days, losing a couple of hundred dollars worth of food because your refrigerator didn’t work, as Michelle Jones did last summer. The food she had just bought to feed herself, her daughter, and her granddaughter spoiled without electricity. This is likely to become all too common in the future. Why? My years as a Wisconsin state senator and in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration gave me some...

It's the first time since 2005 that the NIH royalty payments receive oversight. Last year, the National Institutes of Health – Anthony Fauci’s employer – doled out $30 billion in government grants to roughly 56,000 recipients. That largess of taxpayer money buys a lot of favor and clout within the scientific, research, and healthcare industries. However, in our breaking investigation, we found hundreds of millions of dollars in payments also flow the other way. These are royalty payments from third-party payers (think pharmaceutical companies) back to the NIH and individual NIH scientists. We estimate that between fiscal years 2010 and...

We’ve all heard stories — on a monthly basis, if not more often — about alleged “studies” that allegedly show that if we just pass a few more gun control measures, we can finally turn the tide on the criminal misuse of firearms. Various big gun control groups love to tout these studies to support their baseless claims that more commonsense restrictions on law-abiding citizens’ rights will make the difference where thousands of other gun control laws have failed. Take, for instance, this one from the highly respected, straight-shooting (cough) news network, CNN . . . Study: 3 federal laws...

The supply chain for electric-vehicle batteries is uncomfortably dependent on China—for now, at least Competing with a much better-established Chinese industry isn’t an obvious proposition for investors, even with subsidies thrown in. That leaves U.S. car makers tentatively leading even the upstream supply-chain push, in alliance with the Energy Department. The future of EVs is often assumed to depend on solving consumer problems such as slow charging infrastructure and range anxiety. Instead, they could be slowed down more by the conundrum of building the foundations of a battery industry.

It used to be that 90% of the time, you accessed stuff only on your computer’s local network. Then in 1993 at the University of Illinois, Marc Andreessen developed Mosaic, the first internet browser, which allowed users to wander around the World Wide Web 90% of the time. He moved to Silicon Valley and founded Netscape. Mr. Andreessen is now a general partner at a top-decile venture-capital firm, better than 90% of its peers. Andreessen Horowitz recently raised $9 billion in new funds.

America has literally lost the plot. On the last soundstage, all parts are interchangeable: Men become women, and the grizzled butch coaches of college athletics can't wait to put 'em on the ladies' track team. Women become men, and then pregnant men, and then threaten the hospital for the humiliation of having to give birth in a "maternity ward". Warner Bros gives J K Rowling the bum's rush for being so out of it as to think periods are something women have. In the TERF wars, lesbians are transphobic because they don't wish to date women with penises. At dark...

Compelling new evidence reveals a disconnect between the metrics used to analyze fuel costs and the realities that EV drivers face on the ground. The More You Consider, the Worse EVs Look Again, the new research is just the first installment in a larger series, but its results are undeniably head-turning. The study found that: Commercial charging rates are two to four times higher than residential rates. Level 1 chargers cost an average of $600 to install and can take 20 hours to fully charge an EV. Level 2 chargers are much faster but cost $1,600. “Full charge” is a...