Free Republic

Walmart heiress Christy Walton is facing backlash, and Walmart is facing some calls for a boycott from Trump supporters after placing a full-page ad in The New York Times urging Americans to attend town halls and engage in civic discourse. While the "No Kings Day" ad did not mention President Donald Trump by name, its emphasis on values like honoring commitments to allies, defending against dictators, and respecting trading partners was widely interpreted as a critique of Trump's foreign policy and "America First" agenda. A spokesperson for Walmart told Newsweek: "The advertisements from Christy Walton are in no way connected...

The Presbyterian Church (USA) just revealed its membership numbers for 2024, and it is not pretty. The liberal denomination is showing a continued loss of membership, closure of churches, an increasingly aging population, and an inexorable decline into irrelevancy, with one of the only rising data points being the number of members who identify as “non-binary” or “genderqueer.” Since its formation, the PCUSA has denigrated to one massive pen for goats, run almost exclusively by faithless, didn’t-finish-well octogenarians and blue-haired lesbians, with barely a sheep to be found anywhere. Some of their greatest hits over the last three years include:...

Target is struggling. Employees are worried. Online message boards used by hundreds of in-store staff are lighting up with fears about job security, increased workloads, and potential store closures. 'We are cooked,' one employee said on Reddit. 'Less and less hours with little to no change with what the expectations are from us all.' Another wrote: 'All we can do is ride it out and hope for the best. If it comes down to it, prepare a resume just in case.' Several workers have also posted TikTok videos showing backrooms overwhelmed with merchandise that hasn’t made it to the sales...

Microsoft on Tuesday began laying off nearly 3 percent of its total workforce — or about 6,000 employees. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Hill in an emailed statement.The Washington state-based tech company has a total of 228,000 workers globally, according to the corporation’s latest figures, with some 126,000 in the United States. Tuesday’s cuts will impact thousands. The layoff notices have already gone out to some employees. Microsoft also had layoffs earlier this year, initiating performance-based job cuts across multiple departments. The...

Germany's Allianz Global Investors has dropped two exclusions blocking its sustainable funds from investing in defence, becoming one of the first major European asset managers to change their policies to help finance the region's rearmament. AGI wrote to its clients late last week to advise that its sustainable funds could now buy into companies that earned more than 10% of their revenue from military equipment and services. AGI, part of insurer Allianz (ALVG.DE), opens new tab, manages about 570 billion euros ($615.77 billion) in assets. The changes come amid a broader drive by European investors to reconsider their policies on...

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released his payroll expense tax (PET) report for 2024 Tuesday, and its projections came up nearly $50 million short. “Today’s announcement that PET revenues collected in 2024 were $47 million lower than projected requires action to ensure our budget remains balanced,” Harrell explained in a statement. Harrell said that his 2025 budget proposal was based on the projections from the independent Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts. But since they got it wrong, the mayor said for the 2026 budget, “my office will consider all options, including additional revenue sources and appropriate expense reductions, to ensure...

When culture warriors become literal corporate sell-outs, they shouldn’t be surprised when the laws of economics come and bite them in the ass. There’s a reason ‘go woke go broke’ has become axiomatic. Even institutions as big as Disney and Bud Light have learned they are not too big to feel the sting of a spurned public returning the favor. As for politics, there aren’t many corporate political attention whores louder than Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s sold their company to Unilever in 2000, with the expectation that they could continue their political grandstanding. It looks like,...

Retail giant swats back at a conservative activist group ... In a steady parade of companies retreating from their diversity efforts, Costco Wholesale is standing out by holding fast. Ahead of its annual meeting next week, the warehouse retailer has urged its shareholders to reject a proposal .... Major companies from McDonald’s to Meta Platforms have faced pressure to reconsider diversity, equity and inclusion policies. That pressure has been amplified by anti-DEI boycott threats and ... In Costco’s case, a conservative activist group is pushing the company to compile a report on the risks posed by its initiatives. “It’s clear...

Ugly-ass new logo Mozilla earned approximately 80% of its income through “revenue-sharing” deals with Google, pushing Google’s search engine as Firefox’s default choice. Now that Google faces antitrust investigations for this practice, Mozilla and Firefox may suffer a concomitant reduction in revenues. So what does Mozilla do? They “rebrand” themselves as “advocates” and “activists,” fighting “misinformation.” Among other marketing gobbledygook at this website, Mozilla’s rebranding director describes her client as “a trailblazing, activist organization in both its mission and its approach…. The new brand presence captures this uniqueness, reflecting Mozilla’s refreshed strategy to ‘reclaim the internet.’ The modern, digital-first identity...

The Episcopal Church announced yesterday that it had divested entirely from the fossil fuel industry, marking the “culmination of a decade-long shift toward environmentally conscious investments and a significant milestone in the church’s more than 50-year history of socially responsible investing,” according to a press release by the denomination. With a median congregational age of 69, the Episcopal Church is literally dying. This denomination is thoroughly depraved and ceased long being Christian decades ago, with perhaps only a fraction of a percent of real believers left. Abortion and LGBTQ have long since been lauded and celebrated, and if you throw...

Intraday power prices in Germany jumped and natural gas-fired electricity generation rose to a two-year high this week as low wind speeds continue to depress wind power output. Natural gas use for power generation rose on Wednesday to its highest level since December 2022, as a wider power supply gap had to be filled by fossil fuels amid very weak wind power generation. ... Germany’s power margin, the available electricity supply to meet demand, has dropped this week to the lowest level so far this winter, as low wind speeds and colder weather are straining the power system. This week,...

Food workers in Washington, D.C., pledged to refuse service and cause other inconveniences for members of the incoming Trump administration when they dine out over the next four years. Industry veterans, bartenders and servers in the nation's capital told the Washingtonian that resistance to the Republican figures in the progressive city was inevitable and a matter of conscience. [snip] "There’s a lot of opportunities for us as workers to feel like we’re taking our power back, while not necessarily ruining someone’s life. Giving them a subtle inconvenience feels like a little bit of a win for us," she continued. Nancy...

Caitlin Clark, the WNBA’s first international superstar, has taken a sharp turn down the path of woke politics, leaving many of her fans disheartened. Caitlin Clark’s meteoric rise—bolstered by her jaw-dropping, record-setting college career and stellar rookie season in the WNBA—seemed to offer a much-needed respite from the league’s ongoing struggles with dwindling viewership and ideological conformity. But instead of sticking to what made her a star, Clark appears to be prioritizing progressive virtue-signaling over her unique identity, alienating fans who admired her for standing tall amidst the leftist noise in professional sports. In her Time interview after being named...

"Laffy taffy woke pink"

An Idaho beauty salon owner said she is seeing customers “dropping like flies” after calling supporters of President-elect Donald Trump “racist, homophobic, and misogynistic.” Tiffney Prickett of Voiage Salon in Coeur d’Alene said she is “suffering the consequences of my own action” in a TikTok video posted days after the November election, saying that one of her longtime clients demanded a refund after she went on an anti-Trump tirade: @beautybytiffney It is the right thing to do. Period. #sorrynotsorry #humanrights ♬ original sound – Tiffney

'This is the biggest win yet for our 'movement to end wokeness' in corporate America,' ....Walmart also agreed to stop using the terms 'DEI' and 'Latinx' in official communication. Some of the sweeping changes include abandoning a $100 million racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd and leaving a prominent LGBTQ+ gay rights index. The retail juggernaut also won't be giving priority treatment to suppliers that are 51 percent-owned by women, minorities, veterans or members of the LGBTQ community. Walmart has said that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make...

The culture wars have spilled over from the political arena into the automotive industry, as two legacy carmakers recently released ads that garnered attention on social media—one generating widespread praise, the other sparking controversy. Earlier this week, Jaguar Land Rover launched a new marketing campaign for the rebranding of Jaguar, the 100-year-old British luxury carmaker once known for making some of the most beautiful sports cars in the world. A 30-second video posted to social media showcased a diverse group of (human) models in colorful outfits, revealed a new sans-serif logo—dropping the iconic big cat emblem—and, notably, did not feature...

The famed British – though Indian-owned – luxury car company, Jaguar, recently caused a social media storm on X as it unveiled its latest ‘Copy nothing’ commercial. Many commentators, including billionaire Elon Musk, quickly mocked the firm over the ad’s strange and apparently disconnected nature. Musk, for example, simply asked if the company even sells cars in his comment.

This is the self-styled marketing guru who masterminded the 'woke' rebranding of the iconic Jaguar car which has sparked furious reaction and ridicule around the world, MailOnline can reveal. Santino Pietrosanti, who boasted at an awards dinner that Jaguar had 'established over 15 DEI groups' as part of a 'transformative journey', is head of brand at the historic British car company. Originally from the USA, Pietrosanti lives in a £975,000 house in Milton Keynes with his Scottish husband Paul, who he has been with for 12 years, and cockapoo Mia.

Lower prices and social justice are not in conflict, and Democrats should do a better job of declaring that these goals do reinforce each other, to everyone’s benefit.In the wake of Democrats’ losses in this year’s election, questions have been raised about the party’s progressive wing, with some claiming that “woke is dying.” There are indeed lessons to learn, but Democrats should not abandon their core values. Obviously, elections are won by appealing to a broad base. Going too far left or right undermines that. Though President-elect Donald Trump is mostly on the extreme right, he apparently appealed to enough...