Free Republic

The swing state of Pennsylvania’s voter registration system will be closed on the night of former President Donald Trump’s return rally in Butler, the site of the July 13 assassination attempt against him. The Republican nominee announced Sept. 25 that he is holding another rally in Butler on Oct. 5, just three months after a gunman shot the former president at a rally there, wounding him in the ear. “This website will undergo scheduled system maintenance and be unavailable Saturday, October 5th 10 p.m. until October 6th 4 a.m,” the Pennsylvania Voter Registration website says. “We thank you for your...

ADonald Trump-endorsed Senate candidate left debate moderators in shock on Wednesday when he declared that the US military needs to recruit “alpha” men and women into its ranks prepared to tear out and devour their own intestines – and not drag queens. Hung Cao, a retired US Navy captain, went head-to-head against veteran Democrat Tim Kaine in a debate on Wednesday as they spar over the US senate seat in Virginia. During the showdown, Cao was asked about the military’s struggles to find sufficient numbers of new recruits and his own past comments blaming diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies...

Agrowing number of Amazon employees are “rage applying” for other jobs in the wake of CEO Andy Jassy’s mandate to return to the office full-time at the start of the new year, according to a report. One Amazon worker who had become accustomed to working from home during her tenure at the company told Fortune magazine that she learned of the new mandate from a story in the news media rather than from her superiors. “Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” said the employee, who identified herself as Laura. She was incensed that the...

Dell Technologies said Thursday that their global sales team employees who are able to work from the company offices must do so five days a week, starting Sept. 30, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The change is to leverage collaborative environment and “grow skills,” which requires the team to be in the office, the memo said. “Working remotely should be the exception rather than the routine,” it added. The field representatives from the sales team are expected to spend five days a week with customers and partners, or in the office. The team was previously required to work...

Some Amazon workers are refusing to "disagree and commit," as one of the company's famed leadership principles requires of those who aren't on board with a decision. Instead, hundreds of the online retailing giant's employees are complaining that CEO Andy Jassy's five-days-per-week return-to-office mandate, announced last week, will negatively impact their lives—and productivity at work—and how they hope the company will reverse course. The feedback is from an anonymous survey created by Amazon employees that was viewed by Fortune on Tuesday. Corporate employees have shared it widely via the messaging app Slack, including in one "remote advocacy" Slack channel with...

Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Brian Niccol has a stern message for his employees, and many may not be too thrilled about it. As companies across the country are starting to cut back on remote work, with some even forcing employees to return to working in the office five days a week, Niccol revealed in his first staff address as Starbucks CEO that there is “power in having everybody together,” according to a new report from Bloomberg. “My point of view is we should be together as much as possible,” said Niccol in his address. “You need to figure out where you...

Amazon has become the latest major company to order staff to return to the office five days a week, effectively ending working from home at the $1.99 trillion tech giant. Just like JPMorgan, Boots, and Goldman Sachs’ bosses, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy cited strengthening company culture as one of the main reasons behind raising its in-office requirements from three days to full-time. However, a new report from PwC suggests that the move to full-time in-office work could have a different effect than the one intended. The Big Four accounting firm conducted 13 months of research and surveyed over 20,000 business...

Do you swipe in to your office building to meet your in-person mandate, but leave as soon as possible? There’s a word for your covert strategy: “coffee badging.” It is where you show up to the office long enough for a coffee or a meeting expressly to fulfill in-office mandates — while primarily continuing to work from home whenever you can. This new workplace lingo was popularized by videoconferencing company Owl Labs. The company defined it as “showing face at the office and then leaving.” In its 2023 report of 2,000 full-time U.S. workers, 58% of hybrid employees said they...

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., will resign shortly as chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the chamber’s most conservative members, after losing his primary election. Good told reporters Monday that he had submitted his resignation to the caucus board, but didn’t provide a timeline for his official resignation as chairman. Sources familiar with the matter, however, told news outlets that Good’s resignation would become official by week’s end. In June, Good lost his primary in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District to his challenger, state Sen. John McGuire. McGuire had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump working on his...

Social Security is among the rare topics that can make Republicans and Democrats see eye to eye, according to a new survey. In Pennsylvania, people on both sides of the aisle agree that it’s time to raise payroll taxes on high-income earners, cut benefits for the wealthiest retirees, and even push the full retirement age from 67 to 68 if that’s what it takes to keep Social Security from running out of cash. A new poll conducted by the University of Maryland’s Program For Public Consultation found majorities from both political parties want to see lawmakers tackle Social Security’s looming...

Costco shoppers haven't been shy about expressing their anger over the warehouse's new membership card policy. The new rule, which was implemented in some stores in January and is now rolling out nationwide, calls for mandatory membership card scans to enter the store. As frustrating as the new policy has been for some shoppers, it turns out that Costco workers hate the mandatory card scanning, too. Or at least, they hate they way it's making some shoppers behave. A Costco worker recently vented on Reddit about the membership card-scanning policy. They also offered disturbing details on the "abuse and mistreatment"...

Avolcano has erupted in Russia after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of the country, according to state-run media. The Russian news agency, TASS, reported that the Shiveluch volcano in the region of Kamchatka started to erupt on Saturday. CNN noted that the volcano is about 280 miles from the coastal city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000.

The Secret Service shifted multiple agents from President Joe Biden's protective detail in an effort to boost Republican nominee Donald Trump's team, The New York Times reported. It's unclear how many agents are being shifted to Trump, though the Times report called the move temporary. The move comes after the assassination attempt on Trump last month at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was also reported Thursday that Trump will be encased in bulletproof glass at future outdoor rallies, another adjustment by the Secret Service. The move to shift agents from one detail to another is unusual, a Secret...

In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and other House leaders on Wednesday, a right-leaning think tank encouraged “prompt House passage” of legislation protecting the installation of AM radios in all new vehicles. Numerous vehicle manufacturers—especially makers of electric vehicles—such as Ford, Tesla, and Volvo, have begun removing AM radios from their new models. The American Principles Project urged Johnson, R-La., as well as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., to bring the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act “to the House floor as soon as possible.” According to Rep. Josh Gottheimer,...

President Joe Biden’s White House issued a statement Saturday night condemning the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. “I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania,” the president said in a statement, released about an hour after the initial news of the shooting broke. “I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally as we await further information.” “[First lady Jill Biden] and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety,” Biden continued....

Video with Ferfal's take on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It's YouTube, so who knows how long it will stay up?

Imagine a life where you reclaim your time, working hard yet stress-free in your own space. At home, you can meditate or exercise without the hassle of commuting, enjoy great coffee whenever you like and have healthy lunches and snacks at your fingertips. No more dealing with uncomfortable office temperatures or poor lighting. The stress of a corporate open office setup fades away, and you no longer wake up before dawn to sit in traffic for hours, nor do you spend your evenings stuck in the same gridlock. Expensive, unsatisfying lunches and fake office niceties have become things of the...

WASHINGTON — Small businesses in Fayette County affected by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore are eligible to apply for U.S. Small Business Administration low-interest loans. Fayette is one of eight Pennsylvania counties where small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses, and private nonprofit organizations now are eligible for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which carry interest rates of 4% (3.25% for private nonprofit organizations) and have terms of as long as 30 years. Businesses can borrow up to $2 million to pay operating expenses if their revenues dropped due to the disaster. Businesses in Maryland;...

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore came as quite a shock. After a massive container ship struck one of the bridge’s pillars, the entire span quickly fell apart, costing several lives. It’s hard to overstate the bridge’s importance, particularly for the automobile industry. In addition to handling 11 million vehicles per year, it provided a vital way for trucks to access the Port of Baltimore while avoiding the dense city core. The impact on the region will be felt for months, if not years. The question is, what now? President Joe Biden has said that the...

LOS ANGELES, CA — The National Association Of Perverts (NAP) Rated Planet Fitness 'The Best Gym In America' after learning this week the workout chain giant allows men to use the women's locker rooms whenever they want. "We couldn't be happier to learn that our members will have access to women's changing rooms all over the country," NAP Spokesperson Lester Johnson told reporters. "For years, we perverts have been forced to peep through closed doors and leer around corners. Thankfully, with the rise of the transgender movement, we can now move freely through the women's locker room and stare all...