Free Republic

Artificial intelligence spending is racing toward levels once considered unimaginable. Yet 250 years of market history suggest the boom may have considerably further to run before financing pressure, higher rates or an outside shock finally brings it down. AI Spending Has Entered a New PhaseThe artificial intelligence boom began as a technology story. It has evolved into one of the largest capital investment cycles in modern history.Since 2024, companies have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into semiconductors, power infrastructure, data-center construction and networking equipment. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are expected to spend roughly $700 billion on capital...

War is never a picnic, and the American Civil War became the deadliest war in US history. What everyone thought would end in a matter of weeks became a four-year battle between the Union and the Confederacy. The amount of supplies and rations needed was sometimes underestimated because the war dragged on, and soldiers on both sides had to get creative with their meals. Soldiers during the Civil War were used to having their meals cooked for them, so it was a steep learning curve out on the battlefield and with sparse ingredients. The rations were technically edible but not...

A Honduran agitator arrested earlier this year at an anti-ICE protest in Southern California was busted by Homeland Security agents Friday on charges of illegally registering to vote — part of a crackdown on suspected election fraud in California. Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores, 30, a Honduran national living in the San Fernando Valley, is accused of two felonies related to his false claims of US citizenship to complete voter registration forms, prosecutors say. Rivera Flores’ early-morning arrest outside a health-care center in Ventura is just the beginning of a war on suspected election fraud that has the full support of...

Both the Democratic Party establishment and the GOP have been flat-footed in their responses to the Democratic Socialists of America and their “Summer of Love.” The Democrats, led by invertebrate castratos like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have mostly ducked when asked about the DSA’s plans to destroy the US Constitution, nationalize 90% of the economy and decapitate our mechanisms of law and order. They’ve taken cover behind the empty “Big Tent” lie as radical DSA members and allies, like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and Colorado’s Melat Kiros, triumph in Democratic primaries. The GOP, for...

Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, a Ugandan king who became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he was crowned at the age of 3 in 1995, has died. He was 34. Rukidi IV, the ruler of the small Kingdom of Tooro in Uganda’s west, died around 10 p.m. local time Thursday, Tooro Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki announced. “This is an immeasurable loss to the Royal Family, the people of Tooro and the nation of Uganda,” he said in a statement. “I call upon all the people of Tooro to remain united, calm and prayerful during this profoundly...

Rob Sand, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Iowa, had a one-word response to whether Kamala Harris should run for U.S. President in 2028. Harris served as the Vice President from 2021 to 2025 under Joe Biden. Biden endorsed Harris for the 2024 presidential campaign against Donald Trump. Iowa Democrat believes Kamala Harris shouldn't run for President in 2028 Democratic nominee Rob Sand is not endorsing Kamala Harris for President in 2028. Politico's Jonathan Martin asked him whether Harris should run for President again, to which Sand replied curtly, "Nope." Sand dodged the previous question when Martin asked him whether he'd...

Earlier this week, the WNBA, the women's professional basketball league, announced that two former NBA players were ineligible to play in the league. Former NBA stars Royce (Roysha) White and Enes Kanter Freedom had announced they were intending to play in the league next year after the WENBA brass refused to condemn biological men playing in the league against women. The league did not elaborate on the reasons for declaring the two men ineligible. Since this announcement, news has broken that the league previously allowed trans players to play. In fact, one of the trans players has been very vocal....

Left or right, taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize political activism they oppose, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is drafting plans to ensure they don’t by revoking tax exemptions from bogus political “charities.” As The Post’s James Franey reports, Bessent and the IRS are taking a hard look at the conduct of up to a dozen or so high-profile lefty nonprofits — including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — with an eye toward possibly revoking their tax-exempt status. That could mean a $165 million windfall in new tax payments from...

An Atlanta woman who participated in a scheme that defrauded Amazon out of nearly $10 million was sentenced to over 16 years in federal prison on Wednesday, the Justice Department announced. The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a release that Brittany Hudson was sentenced to 16 years and three months in federal prison after she and her partner used a business relationship with Amazon to defraud the e-commerce giant. Hudson was convicted in March of 30 felony offenses that involved wire fraud, money laundering, related conspiracy charges and a count related to the forgery...

It is Friday! Time once again for stupid memes!

New York will get its first new nuclear plant in nearly 40 years as the state grapples with soaring energy costs while scrambling to meet increased energy demands. The new reactor would be built on the grounds of the US Army’s Fort Drum in the North Country with the goal of being fully operational within five years, officials said. “We are building the energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally, without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids,” US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in a statement. The new plant — the Empire State’s first new reactor since 1988 —...

The millionaire parents of the silver-spoon socialist DSA leader were slapped with a $2,500 fine after they were caught renovating their ritzy Brooklyn row home without permits. The parents of Gustavo Gordillo, boss of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, were slapped with a summons for the $1.4 million rehaul of their Decatur Street digs in Bed-Stuy where their self-proclaimed anti-capitalist nepo baby lives. The property, which was purchased for just under $1 million but was valued around $1.5 million before the extensive work, made headlines last week when The Post revealed the DSA co-chair...

Country music icon and beloved philanthropist Dolly Parton recorded a secret song that will be locked away until 2046. Prior to her death at age 80 this week, Dolly Parton recorded more than 60 albums, including a never before heard song that she wanted to lock away until 2046, per WKRN. In her 2021 memoir, “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics,” Dolly revealed she penned a secret song. The track is locked in a box on display at Dollywood’s Dream More Resort and Spa in Pigeon Forge. Inside the display are four personal items, including a box made of...

Santa Monica is putting more cops on the streets after a summer of violence hit the tourist hotspot — including two shootings in just two days. **SNIP** Saturday, a knife-wielding man was shot and killed near the Santa Monica Pier after he allegedly charged toward officers. The following day, a person was shot in the leg during an attempted robbery. The violence comes after a string of deadly incidents that has put the normally tourist-packed city on edge. In mid-July, a man was fatally shot in a parking lot near the Pier. Police responding around midnight found an adult male...

Tom Brady came home. California thanked him the only way it knows how. A little more than a week after the seven-time Super Bowl champion cut the ribbon at CardVault by Tom Brady in Palo Alto, somebody put a rock through the glass. Then they put a rock through the cases. Then they walked out with about 60 trading cards worth more than $12,000 and vanished into a state that has spent a decade teaching thieves they can vanish. Palo Alto police say the break-in hit the shop at Town & Country Village, 855 El Camino Real, around 12:30 a.m....

It would probably be pretty alarming to learn that, in the early 1980s, scientists decided to drop off a bunch of gophers at the site of a volcanic eruption. But don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. In fact, according to a report from the University of California, this particular gopher-volcano encounter proved to be such a net positive that its effects are still being felt 43 years later. It starts with the eruption of Mount St. Helens in May of 1980. It was the most destructive volcanic event in American history, claiming 57 lives and causing staggering...

WASHINGTON — Trump administration-funded researchers and independent collaborators found a startling correlation between proponents of a transgender ideology and left-wing violence, according to a new report obtained by The Post and set to be released Wednesday. The new study from researchers at Rutgers University, the right-leaning Manhattan Institute and Network Contagion Research Institute found that those normalizing transgender beliefs were more likely to be supportive of political violence. Respondents were quizzed about six potential targets of political violence for the study: “killing Charlie Kirk, killing Donald Trump, killing Brian Thompson, arson of ICE buildings, damaging wealthy people’s property, and violence...

Now departon from Nashville! Dolly Parton lovers are demanding Nashville International Airport be renamed after the country music queen following her death — with a year-old petition gaining thousands of signatures in mere hours as the likes of Sheryl Crow threw their weight behind it. The Change.org petition — “Rename Nashville International Airport to Dolly Parton International Airport” — blasted past 100,000 signatures Wednesday, gaining more than 50,000 in the day since the Tennessee native died at 80 on Tuesday. “On August 25, the world lost an angel,” an update to the petition read. “It’s difficult to imagine a world...

What Trump wanted was a point of origin labelling for manufactured products, so that other countries could not bypass their own trade deals and use Canada's very favourable standings to get their prouducts into the States at a discount and have Canadians make money. The fact that Carney, Ford, and the Quebec Pm, all objected to this tells me that it is highly probable that they were doing this very thing already. Import China Steel and melt it down and recast it and label it Canadian. IMO, Trump should give them a single warning that he will release all the...

Actor Tim Curry has died at 80 years old, a rep for Curry confirmed to PEOPLE. TMZ was first to report the news. LAPD confirms to PEOPLE that officers responded to a call for service on Aug. 25 at 11:20 p.m. and completed a death investigation for a male in his 80s at home in North Hollywood. Curry, born in the U.K. on April 19, 1946, was best known for his wide range of comedic — and often villainous — roles. Most famously, he played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a part he would reprise again...