Free Republic

It’s a killer birthday gift. The legal defense fund for Luigi Mangione reached more than $1 million in donations Tuesday, with droves of starry-eyed supporters pitching in to help the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin on his 27th birthday. “Happy 27th Birthday to the man, the myth, the legend. You are so loved. May you stay healthy and strong and keep the fighting spirit inside you,” one anonymous fan wrote while donating $27 on Mangione’s birthday. “This is my 7th donation, and I will keep donating as long as I need to. You are fighting for your life, but know there...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A new proposal in Springfield would change how Illinois funds its roads, by charging drivers by the mile instead of a gas tax. The proposal, filed by Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) and Sen. Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis), calls for starting a pilot program to study the effectiveness of charging drivers by the mile, something the state is considering due to the prevalence of more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles on Ilinois roadways. Since fuel-efficient cars use less gasoline, fewer tax dollars will be available for road infrastructure. Electric vehicle owners currently pay a $100 premium on...

John Podesta, Biden’s top climate czar, was in charge of doling out $375 billion in climate change spending, which had been sent to many charities founded only months ago. The New York Post wrote: The Biden administration funneled at least $20 billion dollars into environmental groups, most of which had only recently been founded, The Post has discovered. In one case, former Vice President Kamala Harris handed over a check for nearly $7 billion to Bethesda, Maryland, based group Climate United Fund, which does not appear in the IRS’s charities database, and has no federal filings. in 2024, EPA adviser...

Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said on Friday in “MSNBC Reports” that President Donald Trump is already shutting down the government, so Democrats should not vote to fund it. Swalwell said, “What we have to do in Congress, you know, is the branch that funds government and that funds the Department of Justice is to put in place, you know, guardrails and protections against this and that funding is coming up, by the way, in just a couple of weeks.” Host Ali Vitali asked, “I’m glad that you asked about that funding, because there has been a lot of conversations about...

Massachusetts must give $2.1 billion to the federal government due to an apparent mix up with federal pandemic funds. Officials said the state will be required to pay the sum over the next ten years after former Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R) administration “mistakenly” used the money to cover unemployment benefits, WHDH reported Monday. Baker was succeeded by Gov. Maura Healey (D) in 2023 “and her deputies unveiled details of a settlement they reached with the outgoing Biden administration Friday in which the Bay State will repay most but not all of the amount it owed due to the error committed...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made a personal contribution of $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Cook, who Trump famously nicknamed “Tim Apple,” is the latest in a long line of tech lords bending the knee to Trump in hopes of currying favor with the new administration. Axios reports that as the United States prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, tech giants are making efforts to ensure they are noticed by the new administration. The latest to do so is Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has personally donated $1 million to the...

Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene called on Congress Thursday to release the names of current and former members on a secret list of lawmakers that have used taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims. “Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X. “Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he added. Massie’s suggestion was quickly endorsed by Greene (R-Ga.). “Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list,”...

The Small Business Administration's Disaster Relief Program has NO FUNDS. I was told this by their representative as well as from a disclaimer when you apply for a disaster loan. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is sending hundreds of millions to the Ukraine and Gaza while Florida and North Carolina are reeling from devastating hurricanes Helene and Milton. Such BS when they say they are doing everything they can. FEMA is being its usual dysfunctional self, failing TWICE to activate the Blue Roof Program, preventing rented dumpsters with storm refuse from dropping off material, leading to additional damage when the second...

Los Angeles County voters have chosen to pass Measure A, which will raise sales taxes by a quarter of a percent to fund homeless services. The referendum, which seemed in doubt until recently, passed with 57% support. CalMatters.org reported (original emphasis): Measure A, which is leading in the ballots counted thus far, would end the county’s existing quarter-cent sales tax for homelessness that was scheduled to expire in 2027 and replace it with a half-cent tax that would begin immediately and continue in perpetuity. That new tax is expected to raise $1 billion a year, and since it has no...

Vice President Kamala Harris refused to answer a question from Fox News’ Bret Baier about why the Biden-Harris administration allowed Iran to access billions of dollars, deflecting instead to familiar criticisms of Donald Trump. Harris sat for a contentious 27-minute interview on Special Report during which the Democratic nominee often evaded questions or tried to shift the focus to her opponent. Her answer on foreign policy was no different. Given Harris’s claim that Iran (and not China) was America’s greatest enemy, Baier asked her, why had she and Biden “relaxed or failed to enforce sanctions on Iran, allowing all of...

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and other “progressive” Democrats have introduced legislation to restore U.S. funding to the terror-linked United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) despite the fact that several of its employees participated in the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7. The legislation, called the “UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act of 2024,” is almost certain to fail, meaning it is only a symbolic gesture, but a bizarre one. Then-President Donald Trump cut funding to UNRWA in 2018 amid concerns that it encourages conflict, because it indoctrinates Palestinian children to hate Israel and Jews, and perpetuates the idea...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is proposing to dip into the state’s “rainy day” fund to help fill the hole that is the state’s $38 billion deficit — a stunning shortfall, given a surplus of nearly $100 billion that the Golden State had enjoyed just a year before. As Breitbart News has noted, California received shocking news at the end of 2022 when a $98 billion surplus, partly fueled by President Joe Biden’s “rescue” plan, collapsed into a $25 billion deficit. Later projections predicted an even larger deficit.

Index providers, Western managers face growing pressure over Chinese investments.. The report by the Coalition for a Prosperous America said a Vanguard fund has put money into companies sanctioned by the U.S. government over alleged human rights abuses.. HONG KONG -- Top index fund manager Vanguard has invested in scores of Chinese companies that have links to the nation's military or have been sanctioned by the U.S. government over alleged human rights abuses, according to research by a bipartisan U.S. group. The $98.7 billion Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund has invested in the subsidiaries of 60 companies that are...

A staggering 371 Americans have been charged with stealing roughly $836 million in COVID relief funds — including gang members who used the money to hire hitmen, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. The charges were the result of a three-month-long joint investigation conducted by law enforcement agencies across the nation from May through July, according to the DOJ. The department has focused on “bringing to justice those who stole from American businesses and families at a time of national emergency,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. Sixty-three of those facing charges include gang members and defendants with connections to violent...

6-pack: Box contains cans of "Leopard Beer". https://olaf.fi/collections/frontpage/products/olaf-leopard-beer-sixpack-coming-soon

The White House is asking Congress for another $5 billion to bus, fly, and house the southern flood of economic migrants into Americans’ workplaces and housing. Any additional funding will accelerate the federal “cheap labor distribution [network] that too many politicians in Washington are willing to participate in,” said John Feere, a former homeland security official. He now works for the Center for Immigration Studies.

It is an “interesting idea” for Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to fund the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) with his personal funds, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — who is himself a millionaire — told Punchbowl News Thursday. McConnell, whose net worth was estimated in 2018 to be $34,137,534, has been taking aim at Scott, who chairs the NRSC, for the way in which Scott is planning to defeat Senate Democrats in November. Scott has publicly described the minority leader’s criticisms as a “strategic disagreement.” But when McConnell’s allies have taken to writing articles condemning Scott’s leadership, the NRSC chairman called...

The “Kill Keystone XL” crowd isn’t little David up against a Big Oil Goliath. As usual, conventional wisdom isn’t wisdom when the mainstream media ask all the wrong questions with commensurate answers. Behemoth Big Green outstrips Big Oil in expendable revenue by orders of magnitude — if you know how to follow the money. The mainstream media don’t know how. Like most liberals, their staffs are afflicted with what 20th century futurist Herman Kahn called “Educated Incapacity” — the learned inability to understand or even perceive a problem, much less a solution. They’ve been taught to be blind, unable to...

London -- British-Indian prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak on Wednesday pledged a crackdown on Islamist extremism, the UK's most “significant terror threat”, with a widened government definition of extremism and strengthening existing terrorism legislation. The 42-year-old former Chancellor, who is seen closing the gap with opponent Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the race to 10 Downing Street, also vowed to weed out organisations that promote extremism in the UK and refocus the “failing”. Prevent programme, a government tool intended to tackle Islamist extremism. “There is no more important duty for a Prime Minister than keeping our country and our people...

Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss citizen, has contributed millions to nonprofits that have benefited Democratic causes. Insiders say he will ramp it up leading to the November midterm elections.. A Swiss octogenarian billionaire has donated tens of millions of dollars to Democratic politicians and progressive causes in “dark money” contributions — and Hansjörg Wyss is likely funneling millions more to influence midterm elections in November, One Virginia-based think tank estimates that, since 2016, nonprofits linked to Wyss have funneled more than $253 million to Democratic candidates and related causes, such as voter registration initiatives that benefit the party and ... through...