Free Republic

A Black Lives Matter (BLM) nonprofit affiliate told “white folks” the time has come Thursday to make good on monetary reparations and enhance its dwindling finances. The Daily Caller first reported Black Lives Matter Grassroots issued a series of demands for assistance to “our people” and to hold white Americans “accountable” in a press release marking Juneteenth. Juneteenth events have been scaled back this year due to funding shortfalls as companies and municipalities across the country reconsider their support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, as AP reported. The press release defied that dwindling interest and was headlined “JUNETEENTH IS...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is delivering a big win to businesses that have been pressuring her to pay off their billions of dollars in unemployment-insurance debt — but she’s stealing the cash from state reserves to do it. Hochul said Monday that the state will cover the roughly $7 billion debt still lingering for employers from the pandemic. The businesses had hoped federal money that the state received during COVID-19 would at least partly be used to help cover the deluge of unemployment claims spurred by the pandemic, as most other states did.+ But the state used the money for other...

The Trump administration has started paying illegal migrants to $1,000 each to “self-deport” from the US, and the Department of Homeland Security said it will save taxpayers up to $1 million per family. Immigrants can avoid arrest by federal immigration agents if they choose to use the Trump administration’s CBP Home app. The DHS will pay for commercial flights out of the US, and then send cash once they confirm they’ve left. Despite shelling out the cash, DHS projects that taxpayers will save 70% over the cost of rounding up and deporting each illegal migrant. It costs taxpayers an average...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher criticized and mocked Republicans and stated that they lied about raising taxes on the wealthy and said that raising taxes on the rich “never really happens” and responded to the argument that he could just voluntarily pay more in taxes himself if he wants to and no one will stop him from doing that by saying, “that’s not going to happen.” While discussing the budget proposal from the Trump administration from earlier in the day, Maher said that the administration is increasing the budget for the Defense Department in their...

Planning a vacation in Hawaii? Might be better to make it sooner rather than later as local lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations. AP reports the first-of-its-kind impost will earmark the funding boost for programs to cope with “climate change” with the politicians responsible pointing to the wildfires that devastated parts of Hawaii in 2023 as evidence that something must be done. State leaders highlight projects like replenishing sand on eroding beaches, helping homeowners install hurricane clips on their roofs and removing invasive grasses as a starting...

New Yorkers would be forced to pay 2.5 times the market rate for electricity generated by the Empire Wind One offshore wind farm if the deal goes through, according to an independent financial analysis. The Trump Administration paused construction of the controversial project — 54 turbines in the Atlantic Ocean some 14 miles south of Long Island — last week, saying it needs further review. The project has seen strong backing from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Trump’s move was welcomed by those who claim the project is going to overcharge taxpayers. “New Yorkers are entitled to clean,...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that while President Donald Trump is going about it the wrong way, he’s correct that “Europe should pay for their own defense.” Maher said, “[T]here are some things I don’t like altogether, but there are some things, — I think you and I both agree, I don’t know if you do on all of these — but some of the things that Trump has ideas for, like, Europe should pay for their own defense. Yeah, they should. They’re rich. Border security, equity completely replacing the idea of equality. Some...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has long been considered one of the Senate’s budget hawks, recently gave advice that when the stock market tumbles, “it pays to listen.” “The stock market is comprised of millions of people who are simultaneously trading. The market indexes are a distillation of sentiment,” Paul posted Monday on social platform X. “When the markets tumble like this in response to tariffs, it pays to listen.” His remarks come as markets began to dip after President Trump declined to rule out the U.S. economy from sliding into a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 890...

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” host Lawrence O’Donnell stated that “Elon Musk himself, personally, could pay for the entire budget of USAID, the entire budget, by himself, without missing that money at all, and easily, easily pay for all of the life-saving work that USAID does.” And “He says USAID isn’t doing it right, but why doesn’t he just step forward and show us how to do it right with his own billions? That, of course, will never happen.” O’Donnell said, “So, one of the ugly truths of this is that, unlike anyone else in the history...

Air traffic controllers are set to receive a 30% pay hike as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to boost recruitment Thursday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the announcement during a press conference at the air traffic controller’s academy in Oklahoma on Thursday. He argued that the pay structure and the technology air traffic controllers are forced to use are outdated. “Currently, students are paid $17.61 an hour. By the way, you might be able to go to Walgreens and make that, right? So we’re going to bump it up to $22.84 an hour,” Duffy said. “And again, I think making...

On Jan. 21, 2025, one X user wrote (archived): "75% of immigrant farm workers didn't show up yesterday in Bakersfield because of fears of ICE raids under the new presidency. America's rural and agricultural regions will be the hardest hit from Trump's immigration policies. Food prices are going to skyrocket." Though the raids took place during the Biden administration in the week starting Jan. 6, according to Californian news media outlets, posts like the one above continued to circulate after Jan. 20, when President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and incorrectly attributed the raids and the resulting alleged worker absences to...

Outgoing left-wing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Thursday that American consumers will pay more if and when President Donald Trump moves to apply sweeping tariffs on products from north of the border. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office earlier in the day he still plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico at 25 percent rates starting as soon as Feb. 1. Trump previously threatened to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he took office but the tariffs weren’t applied on day one, as Breitbart News reported. The president is seeking assurances...

Massachusetts must give $2.1 billion to the federal government due to an apparent mix up with federal pandemic funds. Officials said the state will be required to pay the sum over the next ten years after former Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R) administration “mistakenly” used the money to cover unemployment benefits, WHDH reported Monday. Baker was succeeded by Gov. Maura Healey (D) in 2023 “and her deputies unveiled details of a settlement they reached with the outgoing Biden administration Friday in which the Bay State will repay most but not all of the amount it owed due to the error committed...

As deadly wildfires continue scorching their way through Los Angeles and the surrounding area for the second straight week, homeowners are worried about the prospect of defaulting on their mortgages in the wake of the unprecedented disaster were offered some reprieve from the nation’s major lenders. On Monday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveiled mortgage assistance and relief options for customers reeling from the historic Southern California fires. Both government-backed corporations are offering 12-month forbearance plans, meaning that struggling homeowners could either reduce or suspend their mortgage payments for up to a year without incurring late fees, foreclosure, or other...

MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Stephanie Ruhle will reportedly need to take a pay cut if they want to remain in their anchor chairs as the struggling cable network continues to cut costs. The left-leaning news channel — which recently gave star anchor Rachel Maddow a $5 million-a-year haircut from her annual $30 million haul — has been negotiating with Reid and Ruhle on new deals at reduced salaries, according to the Ankler newsletter. The controversial Reid is believed to be earning $3 million a year to host her nightly 8 p.m. show, “The ReidOut,” according to the Washington Free Beacon....

Walt Disney reached an agreement to pay $43.3 million to resolve a lawsuit claiming its California female employees earned $150 million less than their male colleagues over an eight-year period, the plaintiffs’ attorneys confirmed on Monday. A motion has been filed to seek approval of the settlement, which would cover a broad range of salaried Disney employees in California, Variety reports. If the petition is granted, thousands of women who have worked for Disney since April 1, 2015, will receive checks to compensate for the wage disparity.

How Much Does Each American Pay? I am curious how much the cost per taxpayer is each time I hear that the administration is sending more money to Ukraine or reducing student debt or such other unconstitutional nonsense. The number of tax returns in 2021 was 153.6 million In 2021, more than 54 million taxpayers chose to file "married filing jointly," while roughly 3.9 million opted for "married filing separately." 100 million single returns mean 100 million individuals. 54 million joint returns mean 108 million individuals. 208 million individuals file tax returns. What is the cost per taxpayer when the...

In another sign of cracks forming in the U.S. labor market, a New York Federal Reserve survey Monday showed a slide in people reporting they are employed, a surge in those looking for work and growing dissatisfaction with pay. The thrice-yearly measure of labor activity, confidence and satisfaction reflected growing concern in July about job security and in increase in those expecting to work past typical retirement age. Workers are still looking for higher starting salaries but are getting lower offers. The results come with the unemployment rate ticking higher and Wall Street and Fed policymakers watching the developments closely...

Leading populist lawmakers in Germany, from both the left and right, have demanded consequences for Kyiv over Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, including reparations and the cessation of arms deliveries. Last week, it was reported that German authorities had issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian citizen for alleged involvement in the 2022 sabotage against the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines owned jointly by Russia and Germany. This was followed by a report from the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had initially approved the plot to attack the...

For decades now, I’ve been conducting my own informal survey of American views about CEO pay. Whenever family, friends, or random strangers ask about my job, I tell them it involves research on executive compensation. Last year, for example, I found that CEOs of America’s 100 largest low-wage employers made, on average, over 600 times what their median workers made — and often thousands of times more. Invariably, people see red when I share these numbers. And they often have choice words about the unfairness of it all. A new poll reinforces my informal findings: Americans across the political spectrum...