Free Republic

Word is that things are a little rough down in Cuba right now. In my post of February 23, I reported that Cuba had become the first nation in the world to achieve the climate activists’ Holy Grail of “Net Zero” carbon emissions. I had looked around for news of the big celebration of Cuba’s achievement, but I couldn’t find any mention of it. If I had understood things correctly — and I think I had — Net Zero was supposed to deliver abundant and much cheaper electricity from the free wind and sun, lowering everybody’s energy costs, creating jobs,...

A new report says Ireland’s economic model is in urgent need of reform to sustain high living standards. The study, by University of Galway Professor Alan Ahearne, said Ireland has some of the highest productivity rates in world, but this is being driven by foreign multinationals, not domestic firms. The research was funded by Irish brothers, John and Patrick Collison, who founded global payments company Stripe, which is valued at more than €135 billion. […] Mr. Ahearne’s study said over the past 50 years, real income per person, adjusted for inflation, had tripled, rising from about €17,500 in 1970 to...

A New York City Council bill under consideration wants to limit the number of items at self-checkout in an effort to combat retail theft.Pharmacies and grocery stores across the five boroughs would be required to limit the number of items customers can bring to the self-checkout line to 15. Stores must also staff at least one employee nearby for every three kiosks, according to the proposal.

Los Angeles teachers are expected to announce a strike date Wednesday that could halt classes for nearly 400,000 students. The timing is set to coincide with a massive rally in downtown LA involving three major unions. The walkout, if it happens, would be open-ended, lasting until a new contract is agreed upon. United Teachers Los Angeles represents more than 30,000 educators and staffers, whose contract expired last June.

Cuba plunged into an unprecedented blackout after its entire electrical grid suddenly suffered a total collapse on Monday, briefly leaving roughly 10 million residents in total darkness. “At 1:54 p.m. local time, there was a disconnection of the national electrical grid resulting in a complete power outage across Cuba which includes the Havana metropolitan area,” the U.S. Embassy in Cuba said. The nationwide outage comes just two days after a large crowd of protesters, fed up with the island’s energy crisis, were caught on camera attacking a local Communist Party headquarters in Cuba, ransacking the building and attempting to set...

The Spanish PM’s shift to the left could foreshadow the path that socialism—or the social-democratic Left—across the West will follow, or is already following. Last Sunday, regional elections were held in Spain, though they were experienced everywhere through a national lens. The People’s Party (PP) won the elections in Castile and León but failed to reach an absolute majority, meaning it will need VOX, the party led by Santiago Abascal, in order to govern the region. Both parties gained seats, and VOX, with 19% of the vote, achieved the highest share in its history in any election. The bad news...

An athlete’s silent act of dissent can turn both her and her family into targets of intimidation under the rule of Iran’s radical Islamist regime. After refusing to sing the Islamic Republic’s anthem before a match in Australia, seven members of Iran’s women’s national soccer team sought asylum there, making a desperate choice no athlete should ever face. After the regime issued threats against the seven and jailed their families, five later withdrew their claims and left. And yet from the global capital of women’s soccer, there has been no public solidarity.

The United States saw four terror attacks on its soil in just the two weeks since the Iran war began, yet Democrats voted yet again last week to #Defund Homeland Security. Are they trying to help the terrorists? They also seem to hate TSA workers and flight passengers: Chaos has reigned at airports around the nation, with hours-long security lines; the shutdown has prompted 300 agents to quit and others to take unscheduled leaves rather than work without pay. The defunding’s latest horror: The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Bombing Prevention just canceled a training class on how to...

New York City's charismatic new socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has a ruthless and tyrannical streak behind closed doors, progressives who have crossed him say. The 34-year-old skyrocketed to popularity among New Yorkers and Americans alike during his mayoral campaign as his team positioned him as a man of the people. Known for his smiling and seemingly unflappable attitude, Mamdani attacked both Donald Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat whom he deemed too centrist. But sources inside Mamdani's political circle have now alleged that the mayor wields his power for personal gain and has no qualms sidelining...

Abigail Spanberger ran for governor of Virginia as a sane, middle-of-the-road Democrat, but once elected immediately went communist crazy. Among her rapidly developing acts of comradely solidarity is an “assault weapon” and magazine capacity ban. There is, of course, no such thing in firearm nomenclature as an “assault weapon.” There are military assault rifles, which fire intermediate cartridges and have select fire—automatic—capability, but such rifles are essentially banned by federal law. What Spanberger is targeting is America’s most popular rifle, the semiautomatic AR-15 and anything like it. The bill also bans magazines of greater than 15 round capacity, which encompasses...

The Democrats have been making desperate arguments against voter ID legislation, including claims that it will disenfranchise married women due to their name change. Naturally, they’ve left out the part about Barack Obama launching his political career by using the name change of a married woman in his successful attempt to have all his opponents kicked off the ballot and run unopposed. The SAVE Act, which has been passed by the House and is heavily supported by the public but is stalled in the Republican Senate, simply “requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote,...

Nick Sortor@nicksortor·9h🚨 LMAO! Democrats are throwing a FIT as pro-gun activists are outside the Virginia State Capitol handing out free 30-ROUND AR-15 mags to folks, as the state government is about to BAN themTHIS is what patriotism looks like right here 🇺🇸🔥https://x.com/nicksortor/status/2032904275831996660

Summary. Blackouts exacerbated by US oil blockade Violent protests very rare in Cuba Cuba says it has opened talks with US. HAVANA, March 14 (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters attacked a Communist Party office in central Cuba early on Saturday, a state-run newspaper reported, in ​a rare outburst of public dissent triggered by blackouts exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade. A rally against power cuts and food shortages began peacefully in the ‌city of Moron late on Friday then turned violent in the early hours of Saturday morning, Invasor newspaper said.

Protesters in Cuba have ransacked a Communist Party building following a rally over steep food prices and persistent power cuts, in a rare show of public dissent. Five people were arrested after a small group vandalised the offices in the central city of Moron overnight into Saturday, Cuba's Interior Ministry (Minint) said. Discontent among Cubans has been mounting as the island is buffeted by rolling blackouts and shortages of food, fuel and medicine, exacerbated by a prolonged US oil blockade. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that, while the protesters' complaints and demands were "legitimate", "violence and vandalism that threatens citizen...

A founder of the Mexican Communist party. Does that sound like someone for whom politics in general was incidental and communism in particular was just a passing fad?Of course not, but that is how Mexican muralist Diego Rivera is often depicted in the media. As for his sometime wife and lover, Frida Kahlo, she was even more fanatic in her devotion to communism. She was not only a party member, but a staunch Stalinist as well. And yet it appears that the their communist connection which was at the core of their beings as well as their art, as the...

BREAKING: The Chicago Teachers Union voted to strike on May Day (the 1st). "No School, No Work, No Shopping" We need to put the teachers union cartel out of work for good.

A survivor and witness to the atrocities of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel delivered a blistering broadside to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife after she “liked” a social media post claiming the rapes of Israelis during the terror rampage were a “mass hoax.” “My message to Mrs. Mamdani is simple: political narratives should never cloud your judgment when it comes to the facts of October 7th. Real people suffered, were raped and were killed,” Tali Biner told The Post Friday from a bomb shelter in Israel. “I was there.” Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji liked a February 2024 Instagram...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing to reduce the state’s estate tax exemption threshold by nearly 90%, from over $7 million to $750,000, while raising the top estate tax rate from 16% to 50%. The proposal appeared in a memo circulated by Mamdani’s office to state lawmakers negotiating the state budget. New York Focus first reported the memo. Mamdani is confronting a $5.4 billion city budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and is seeking assistance from the state legislature to generate revenue to address the shortfall. The memo included nearly a dozen potential revenue-raising ideas....

Chuck Collins figures he won life's lottery by inheriting vast sums of money through his great-grandfather Oscar Mayer's processed meat company. Rather than fight to protect every dime, Collins helped push to hike taxes on the ultrarich like himself. He was successful in helping implement a higher tax in Massachusetts on income over $1 million, and the idea took hold in a handful of other blue states, including California, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey. Lawmakers in the state of Washington, which doesn't have an income tax, could send the governor this week a measure that would impose one on million-dollar...

WASHINGTON — The White House is privately pushing congressional lawmakers to keep their cool as the war in Iran wraps up its 12th day, arguing it is critical to root out threats from the Islamic Republic against the US and its allies. The message from the White House to jittery Republicans is that the “short-term spike” at the pump is needed for a “long-term gain,” a White House official told The Post. While Republicans in Congress are largely cheering on President Trump’s military campaign in Iran — at least publicly — many of them are anticipating fallout and potential midterm...