Free Republic

The data centers required for Big Tech are driving up electricity demand — and prices.This summer, across a vast stretch of the eastern United States, monthly home electric bills jumped. In Trenton, New Jersey, the bill for a typical home rose $26. In Philadelphia, it increased about $17. In Pittsburgh, it went up $10. And in Columbus, Ohio, it spiked $27.Few customers were happy, of course, but even fewer knew exactly why the rates had climbed so quickly.“I never know why it goes up,” said Vicki Miller, a retired secretary in Columbus. “But I can adjust the thermostat to save...

Amazon Prime making a TV show blasting Convention of States probably wasn’t on your bingo card. But, alas, here we are. The show is called Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War, and it’s a sensationalized polemic about an evangelical organization that apparently “radicalized” Christian youth, which takes an unexpected turn into “exposing” the COS grassroots who want to “rewrite the Constitution.” According to the series’ description, “Teen Mania captivated a generation of fervent evangelical Millennial kids with adrenaline-fueled, ecstatic religious experiences through ‘Acquire the Fire’ rallies. But beneath the glittering surface lurked sadistic boot camps, staged martyrdom drills, and...

Another day, another leak. CNN and The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that sources say the Pentagon Inspector General has ‘evidence’ that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal chat included classified information from Central Command. The Pentagon Inspector General expanded his investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted app Signal in May. Steven Stebbins took over as Acting Inspector General after President Trump fired the previous IG and 17 other inspectors general. Stebbins was first appointed to his position in 2015. Pete Hegseth has been under heavy attack since before his confirmation hearing and the leaks keep coming....

History forgot the horrors endured by laborers on the automaker’s massive cattle ranch in the Brazilian Amazon. But a priest had recorded it all. SANTANA DO ARAGUAIA, Brazil When Ricardo Rezende Figueira saw the headline, he felt a chill run through him. It was about Volkswagen. The company said it was finally ready to atone for its past. After admitting that its staff had cooperated with Brazil’s military dictatorship to target workers for political persecution, the automaker had begun to negotiate reparations. Rezende read to the bottom of the article, then sat for a moment, quiet. The story didn’t say...

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — She hadn’t seen cracks like that since the earthquake. Now they snaked up her buttercream dining room walls and etched tiny ravines in the ceiling. “Crazy,” Fernande Vital said to her husband as they eyed the damage. “They’re driving me crazy.” Clearly, they’d spread. Like the scars on all those buildings back home, she told a construction-worker friend who, as a fellow Haitian, understood. He’d also survived the 7.0 mega-tremors that once leveled much of their island nation. Fernande had figured calamity wouldn’t trail them to America, land of the free, home of the Kardashian opulence on...

Last week saw a massive document dump that reconfirmed what we knew about the Russian collusion hoax. It was a deep state, legacy media, and Democrat plot to undermine the first Trump presidency. Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-FBI Chief James Comey are now subjects of investigation over their conduct regarding their operation. The next question is when James Clapper and Barack Obama will be roped into that probe. Obama especially since his fingerprints are all over this mess.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ousted another senior adviser amid a staffing shakeup at the Pentagon.Justin Fulcher, who started at the Defense Department as a member of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and was promoted to senior adviser in April, left the department on Saturday, reported CBS News.His departure comes after Fulcher found himself at the center of two Pentagon controversies, according to the Washington Post.Fulcher claimed that his departure is 'perfectly amicable' and he only planned to work in the government for six months.'Working alongside the dedicated men and women of the Department of Defense has been incredibly...

Since his arrival at the struggling newspaper, Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis has fought to reverse the plunge in revenue and readership to save this great American newspaper. His greatest challenge has been the staff itself, which seems willing to embrace bankruptcy rather than give up its bias. This week, Lewis sent another warning to his intransigent staff: get on board or get out. I have written about Lewis’s fight to save the Post from itself over the years. Many writers and editors seemed to believe that owner Jeff Bezos would run the newspaper as a type of...

A new culture of secrecy in government is taking root – among career staffers and new political appointees alike.At the Department of Veterans Affairs, some employees had to sign nondisclosure agreements before reviewing plans for firings and organizational shake-ups. At the Administration for Children and Families, career staff were told not to respond in writing to panicky grant recipients whose funding had been shut off to avoid a “paper trail,” one employee said.And at the Environmental Protection Agency, several months after Elon Musk began requiring federal workers to submit weekly emails detailing five things they’d accomplished, some managers began calling...

Hollywood Actress Kathy Griffin uploading an extremely disturbing video depicting decapitated heads of President Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.

Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos' A-list guests like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were forced to take cover on Thursday as the couple's pre-wedding party was hit by a huge freak thunderstorm. The lavish event held at the Madonna dell Orto cloisters marked the start of the billionaire couple's lavish three-day wedding in Venice, Italy, which will come to a close on Saturday. However, Thursday night's star-studded soiree was brought to an early end due to the intense downpour. Guests dived for cover under the vaulted cloisters as lightening bolts flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled overhead at the...

The Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs at the State Department has left much of the workforce exasperated and embittered, tanking morale as extra demands were made to assist U.S. citizens seeking to flee the Middle East amid Israel’s war with Iran, employees say. At the direction of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department informed Congress in May that it planned to reduce its U.S. workforce by more than 15 percent — almost 2,000 people — as part of a sweeping reorganization intended to streamline what he has called a “bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce...

For many people, a trip to the airport is simply a means to an end. Whether you're traveling for vacation or business, you'll need to catch your flight in order to get there - and that's where the airport comes in. All airports have the same goal, but any traveler knows that all of them aren't created equally. Some airports are sprawling ecosystems with multiple terminals and acres of space, while others can be traversed entirely on foot. One airport may have more opportunities for scenic views, while others offer better food options. The Washington Post recently ranked the best...

Top officials will brief lawmakers on Thursday amid a political battle over what intelligence reveals about the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.The White House plans to limit classified intelligence sharing with Congress after leaks to the press of an early assessment undermined President Donald Trump’s claim that U.S. airstrikes obliterated Iranian nuclear facilities, a senior Trump administration official said, setting the stage for a contentious classified briefing before senators Thursday. Amid a political battle over what the intelligence shows, the White House is expected to send four of its top national security officials to brief lawmakers: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,...

The struggling news network is expected to face massive spending cuts by company chief Gunnar Wiedenfels ... CNN staffers are bracing for impact as the network faces yet another corporate restructuring by its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), fueling an unsettling morale in the newsroom. "I'd say the mood remains really grim," ... WBD announced that it was splitting into two companies, separating the studios and streaming business from its cable networks ... "We knew this was happening," the CNN staffer said. "And it was required to be able to sell the company. People are hoping CNN will be...

The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that he was unsure he would be able to quell Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Ukraine and Russia may need to keep fighting, President Donald Trump said Thursday, comparing the warring nations to squabbling children in what appeared to be a signal that the U.S. leader was losing interest in brokering peace in a conflict he once promised to end in a day. The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that...

In 2024, a majority — 58 percent — of antisemitic incidents “contained elements related to Israel or Zionism,” according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual antisemitism report released earlier this year.

Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed.At the Transportation Department, enforcement of pipeline safety rules has plunged to unprecedented lows since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to antidiscrimination laws.Across the government, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic for gutting federal rules and policies that the president dislikes: simply stop enforcing them.“The conscious...

A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks to strip union rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies and offices. Trump in March issued an executive order that said that parts of the United States Code that protect federal workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain would no longer apply to agencies including most or all of the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice. The executive order covers about two-thirds of the federal workforce, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which filed a...

Trump’s presidential blitz is realizing the dreams of conservative intellectuals in the Reagan-Bush era.Imagine a populist president who set out to create, “in the first weeks of his administration, a radically different perception of the presidency.” He could use “far-reaching executive orders” to “give various constituencies throughout the country the immediate conviction that this president, for a change, looks out for them.” The burst of presidential edicts would serve visceral as much as practical purposes: “The nation as a whole needs to be jarred by this newcomer’s determination to protect the country’s vital interests, perhaps by ordering, on national security...