Free Republic

The United States will announce a new pledge to buy $1.3 billion worth of military aid for Kyiv in its conflict with Russia in the coming days, two U.S. officials said. The previously unreported weapons package includes air defenses, counter-drone systems, exploding drones and ammunition, one of the U.S. officials said. The United States is using funds in its Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program, which allow President Joe Biden's administration to buy weapons from industry rather than pull from U.S. weapons stocks. Among the systems and ammunition the U.S. plans to buy for Kyiv are counter-air defenses made by...

The shipping industry emits 2.9% of the world's greenhouse gases. It has also largely escaped taxation because what happens on the high seas is not in the jurisdiction of any single government. These two facts represent an opportunity. If the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) - the United Nations body which regulates shipping - taxed carbon emissions, it would encourage shippers to go green faster. The body could then channel the money raised, perhaps $100 billion a year, to poorer countries to help them cope with climate change.

The stock market dropped 611 points Fridy SUPPOSEDLY because of the British exit vote on the European Union. Also, European and Asian markets dropped. Was there a reason for the markets to react that way? No. That vote did not change anything consequential. Big money boys behind the scenes already knew what was going to happen (it was no suprise to them - they have accurate research teams) and shorted what they needed to short. The fact that someone behind the scenes is pulling the trigger on nothing events means someone needs to go to prison for causing peoples' stock...

High hopes for tax money isn’t as expected as the state’s legal marijuana industry isn’t bringing in as much money as anticipated. In fact, tax revenue is way below expectations. When voters approved recreational marijuana sales the state predicted it would pull in more than $33 million in new taxes in the first six months. The actual revenue came up more than $21 million short. The problem is that buying pot is less expensive on the streets where people don’t have to pay taxes or fees. Medical marijuana is also less expensive than recreational pot, so those with medical cards...

A video posted online that shows a former union leader in South Carolina smashing a piñata effigy of Gov. Nikki Haley has riled the national office of the AFL-CIO, which wants it taken down. “Do you think we can get this video pulled,” asked a national AFL-CIO official in an email to Palmetto State union sources. The author of the email also worried the video might get “picked up by tea partiers, maybe even Haley herself, to attack labor again.” The video in question features former AFL-CIO of South Carolina president Donna DeWitt smacking a Haley piñata with a baseball...