Free Republic

The euphoria around Rivian kicked into overdrive Wednesday as it debuted as a publicly traded company, with an opening share price of $106.75. If that sticks, it would give Rivian an implied valuation of $90 billion. The opening trade was nearly 37% higher than its listed IPO price of $78. That absolute eye-popping number makes Rivian one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history and puts its market cap above GM as well as one of its backers, Ford (GM’s market cap is $86.31 billion; Ford’s is $78.2 billion).That share price continued to rise after it began trading around 1...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that electrifying personal transportation will require electricity generating capacity to double. And while ramping up output might feel daunting for anyone worried about the transition to electric vehicles, investors—and U.S. consumers turning on the lights—shouldn’t worry. “If we shift all transport to electric than electricity demand approximately doubles…this is going to create a lot of challenges with the grid,” said Musk on Wednesday at CodeCon, a conference held at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, Calif. Now, Musk is no fool: He has built several entities worth tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars....

As one of the most popular sports brands in the world and in Israel, the loss of those sales will weigh heavily on the businesses of hundreds of sports stores across the country. Israeli retailers are fuming after international sporting goods giant Nike on Sunday said it will stop working with them to market its products. The measure will come into effect on May 31, 2022, Nike said. As one of the most popular sports brands in the world and in Israel, the loss of those sales would weigh heavily on the businesses of hundreds of local sports stores. In...

The Monarch’s lavish living quarters at Buckingham Palace are set to be reduced to little more than “a flat above the shop” when Prince Charles becomes King. The plan is part of a radical drive to overhaul the vast Royal estate, which will involve the official London residence being thrown open to the public more than ever before. Other changes being considered under Charles’ wide-ranging plans include turning Balmoral into a museum to the Queen and moving the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge into Windsor Castle, The Mail on Sunday understands. Charles is said not to want the Berkshire residence...

As parting shots go, it packed quite a punch. But then it had been coming for some time. In an open letter announcing his resignation from Portland State University in Oregon, assistant philosophy professor Peter Boghossian condemned his former employer as a “social justice factory, whose only inputs were race, gender and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division”. What had once been a bastion of free inquiry was gripped by “a culture of offense where students are too afraid to speak openly and honestly”. His broadside echoed right across the United States. […] Today, most US universities...

Rep. Matt Gaetz called the Anti-Defamation League “racist” after it again called on Fox News host Tucker Carlson to be fired for promoting the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. Gaetz, the Republican congressman from Florida, also endorsed the conspiracy theory. On his popular show Wednesday, Carlson trumpeted the idea that Democrats are working to bring foreigners into the United States in order to weaken the voting power of white people. He said,”this policy is called the ‘Great Replacement,’ the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far-away countries.” The “Great Replacement” is a term used by white...

Republicans say a new non-partisan report indicates President Joe Biden improperly avoided paying Medicare taxes before he took office — raising eyebrows and the possibility that he owes the IRS as much as $500,000 in back taxes. Biden is leading a Democratic push for a $3.5 trillion bill to subsidize childcare, education and health care by targeting tax avoidance and raising tax rates on higher incomes so the rich “pay their fair share.” A House Ways and Means Committee draft of the bill would end the accounting trick apparently exploited by Biden and boost IRS funding for audits — but...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell world leaders at the United Nations that humanity has to “grow up” and tackle climate change, saying humans must stop trashing the planet like a teenager on a bender. Johnson is due to host a major United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland in six weeks’ time. He is using a trip to the U.N. General Assembly in New York to press governments for tougher emissions-cutting targets and more money to help poor countries clean up their economies. In a speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday, he’ll say...

As a new semester begins amid a resurgence of the coronavirus, 26 of the 50 largest public university campuses in the U.S. are not mandating that students be vaccinated, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Approaches on enforcement vary widely even among universities that do have vaccine mandates, with some offering leniency for students who opt out and others expelling those who do not comply. Administrators are emphasizing high numbers for student vaccinations as key to bringing some normalcy back to campus and keeping instruction in classrooms rather than online. Where mandates face political opposition, schools are relying...

North Carolina judges struck down the state’s latest photo voter identification law on Friday, agreeing with minority voters that Republicans rammed through rules tainted by racial bias as a way to remain in power. Two of the three trial judges declared the December 2018 law is unconstitutional, even though it was designed to implement a photo voter ID mandate added to the North Carolina Constitution in a referendum just weeks earlier. They said the law intentionally discriminates against Black voters, violating their equal protections. The law “was motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intent to target African American...

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! Isaiah 14:12 KJV I’ve noticed something strange in the conservative movement for decades now—the desire to call our enemies (those who are stripping away our rights and aiming to do us harm or worse) “stupid.” I’m not sure where this idea came from, or why exactly its been employed. I remember, for instance, fundraising letters I’d read in the Nineties that would use phrases such as “loopy liberals.” I hated that phrase even back then....

This week we honored the 2,977 Americans who lost their lives in the most deadly attack against the United States in history. Like Pearl Harbor Day, 9/11/01 is a day that should live in infamy. But will it? Will we remember what we learned that day? On that crisp New York morning, America was attacked by those who hate freedom, hate democracy, and hate peace. For a brief moment in this fresh, young century, still filled with hope and promise, these 50 states were indeed United. We stood together with one voice and we said to the world, "We are...

With lemon and black plumage, the Scott’s oriole flashes in the desert like a flame. But the bird’s name holds a violent history that Stephen Hampton can’t forget. He used to see the orioles often, living in California. Now that he lives outside the bird’s range, “I’m kind of relieved,” he says. Hampton is a birder and registered citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Winfield Scott, a U.S. military commander and the bird’s namesake, drove Hampton’s ancestors and other Native Americans from their land in the 1800s during a series of forced marches now known as the Trail of Tears. The...

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, said he doesn't 'intend to die on the court', in a hint toward retirement Progressives are pushing Breyer to step down so President Joe Biden can appoint a younger, liberal replacement Breyer also warned against court packing despite a 6-3 conservative majority 'If the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it,' he told NPR President Biden has set up a commission to look at reforming the Supreme Court But Breyer said more justices could likely cause people to lose trust in the court The party has expressed anxiety that the justice...

(The Associated Press called (Aug/2021) terrorists in Gaza throwing incendiary balloons onto Israeli civilians as "activists.")___ HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) Tweeted: "Activists" @AssociatedPress. https://t.co/Jl6QYU0hR7

Does it make Max Boot feel big to tell a former President of the United States to "shut up?" The Washington Post columnist and Never Trumper did just that on today's Morning Joe. In his recent Washington Post column, Boot argued that neither Trump nor Mike Pompeo nor Mike Pence, have any right to criticize Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal since they set it in motion. Boot summed up his position by trumpeting: "People like Trump and Pompeo just need to find a good opportunity right now to just shut up and stop criticizing something that they set in...

CHICAGO -- At least 44 people were shot, seven fatally, acorss Chicago over the weekend, police said. A One person was killed and two were wounded outside a gas station Saturday morning in Austin on the West Side. About 2:55 a.m., a man, 52, and two women, 62 and 24, were outside a gas station with about 20 other people in the 5100-block of West Madison Street when someone in a black Dodge Charger opened fire, according to Chicago Police. The man suffered gunshot wounds to the head and leg, the 62-year-old to the head, abdomen and lower backside; and...

Police are painting rainbows on the side of their squad cars in a bid to beat online hate crimes and 'give confidence' to the LGBT+ community. Critics have said forces should be focusing on 'real' issues such as knife crime and that the colourful cars might seem less intimidating to the public. The cost of painting the cars, described as 'hate crime cars', is 'quite minimal' but are believed to give a 'huge impact' on the community. Deputy chief constable Julie Cooke said: 'Cars are there in the communities on normal policing patrol just to show the community that we...

Sweden's Covid-19 strategy for schools is complex, but nonchalant attitudes and a lack of systematic protection for schoolchildren can only be described as irresponsible, argues Lisa Bjurwald in this opinion piece.In the US, liberal news media are reporting with horror that several Republican-led states will penalise schools that require masks. This despite the number of infected children soaring, not least in Republican states such as Florida and Texas, and despite leading public health experts including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending universal indoor masking in schools this year. In Swedish schools, you’d...

The co-founder of fact-checking website Snopes has apologized for plagiarizing more than 50 articles and writing under a fake name. David Mikkelson, a computer science graduate who founded the site in 1994, blamed the behavior on a lack of journalistic training. 'I didn't come from a journalism background,' he said. 'I wasn't used to doing news aggregation. A number of times I crossed the line to where it was copyright infringement. I own that.' Following an investigation by BuzzFeed News, he is no longer allowed to publish articles on the page - although he retains his position as chief executive....