Free Republic

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed Wednesday that he was saving his state from 'radical green zealots' by removing references of 'climate change' from the state's energy policy and banning offshore windmills. DeSantis, a failed 2024 presidential hopeful, signed into law a bill that additionally gives preferential treatment to natural gas companies and scraps a requirement that state-purchased vehicles are fuel efficient. With 8,346 miles of shoreline and water surrounding three of its side, Florida is the most vulnerable or close to being the most at-risk state when it comes to climate change impacts, according to a number of metrics. 'The...

Swiss researchers have developed a solar energy method using synthetic quartz to achieve temperatures above 1,000°C for industrial processes, potentially replacing fossil fuels in the production of materials like steel and cement. Instead of burning fossil fuels to reach the temperatures needed to smelt steel and cook cement, scientists in Switzerland want to use heat from the sun. The proof-of-concept study uses synthetic quartz to trap solar energy at temperatures over 1,000°C (1,832°F), demonstrating the method’s potential role in providing clean energy for carbon-intensive industries. A paper on the research was published on May 15 in the journal Device. The...

<p>President Biden cited executive privilege Thursday to block the House Oversight Committee from getting copies of five hours of audio recordings from his interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur on Oct. 8-9, 2023, as well as tapes of ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer allegedly admitting to deleting incriminating recordings of Biden discussing classified information.</p>

The “West Point for Democratic operatives,” which credits itself for aiding President Biden’s victory, hired a digital director, who previously shared that “terrorism is the dream of politics.” Johannah King-Slutzky landed the digital director gig at the Democratic-aligned The Arena during the Fall in 2019, a few years after she had made a post discussing “terrorism” on her personal blog. “Terrorism is the dream of politics — ultimate togetherness, ultimate realness — in a way that neuters criticism,” the post on JKS’s personal blog said prior to her hire. “The point is this: Terrorism (and American anti-terrorism) are compelling because...

Headline-chasing Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s vanity project of a trial against former president Donald Trump comes at a high cost for New Yorkers. The time and expense Bragg has devoted to the flimsy-as-a-cobweb Trump charges are indefensible given how many dangerous crimes go unprosecuted. Criminals roam the streets with little fear of facing jail time. Manhattan’s crime clearance rate is an abysmal 29.8%. In 2023, NYC’s 109,303 prosecuted arrests resulted in an imprisonment rate of less than 7%. While Trump is going to trial and faces six to eight weeks of “embarrassing evidence,” most New York criminal cases summarily...

The ex-diversity program manager for Facebook and Nike who stole more than $5 million from the mega companies to fund her “luxury lifestyle” was sentenced Monday to five years behind bars — and ordered to pay back the hefty sum. Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, set up fake business deals, invoices and events — including a Juneteenth celebration — to line her own pockets, the Justice Department said. “Furlow-Smiles shamelessly violated her position of trust as a DEI executive at Facebook to steal millions from the company utilizing a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks,” said US Attorney Ryan...

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson are investigating whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office misused federal funds. The two Republican senators highlighted multiple reports accusing Willis’ office of squandering funds, including from the Justice Department Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and other initiatives, on frivolous items such as “swag” and unrelated travel. “In Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, OJJDP awarded Fulton County nearly $500,000 to establish the Fulton County Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention,” Grassley (R-Iowa) and Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote in a letter to Willis Wednesday. “The Center has yet to open and the ‘building...

Have a Florida condo? Can you afford a $100,000 or higher special assessment for new safety standards? After the collapse of a Surfside Building on June 24, 2021that killed 98 people, the state passed a structural safety law that is now biting owners. Not only are insurance rates soaring, but owners are hit with huge special assessments topping $100,000.

@SenLummis The Senate passing a CRA overturning SAB 121 is a win for financial innovation and a clear rebuke of the way the Biden admin and Gary Gensler have persecuted crypto. It also marks the 1st time Congress has passed standalone crypto legislation. We are just getting started.

Car manufacturers are slowing their transition to producing electric vehicles (EVs), because of low customer demand and production problems. Mercedes-Benz announced to investors in March of this year that it is going back on its pledge to sell only fully electric cars by 2030. Instead, investors were told that the company plans to continue to make gasoline-powered cars well into the next decade. Fully electric cars and hybrids will account for only up to half of its sales by 2030. It appears that carmakers are suffering after committing wholeheartedly to the ideological fad of EVs, rather than introducing them as...

A new report from British bank Barclay’s says that Swift, who has just kicked off the European leg of her wildly popular tour (revamped to include the top tracks from her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department) will bring around 997 million pounds ($1.26 billion) into the U.K. economy thanks to fans spending an average of 848 pounds to see her live. The “Swiftonomics” report also said that attending one of Swift’s 15 U.K. tour dates is expected to be more than 12 times the average cost of a U.K. night out (67 pounds) and even higher than the cost...

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2024-- The way people pay and get paid has changed more in the past five years than in the last 50. Consumers have evolved, adapting to new payment experiences – from the advent of embedded, digital commerce to the rapid adoption of “the tap.” Today at the annual Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco, Visa (NYSE: V) unveiled new products and services that will revolutionize the card and address the future needs of businesses, merchants and consumers and the financial institutions that serve them. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240515563838/en/ “The...

KEY POINTS: * Patients taking diabetes and weight loss drugs say they’ve also noticed changes in their cravings for alcohol, nicotine, opioids and some compulsive behaviors, such as online shopping and gambling. * These anecdotal reports add to the growing list of potential benefits of GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy beyond shedding unwanted pounds. * Several studies in animals back up those reports, but more research needs to be done in humans to prove that those treatments can curb addiction. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Heather Le Biller shed 9 pounds within the first week of taking Novo Nordisk ’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic...

The Zigy electric quadricycle for one is a concept study at the moment, but its designers are seeking industry partners to move to prototyping - Andrea Mocellin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The design collaboration that brought us the Revolve wheelchair in 2021 has now turned its attention to the problem of inner-city mobility. Noting that many SUV-sized vehicles around town only have a single occupant, the team has designed a compact EV for one. The collaboration in question is between German mobility designer Andrea Mocellin and engineering consultancy Dexet Technologies. The Zigy concept was inspired by the narrow and congested roads of London,...

Another out-of-season storm is brewing near Hawaii and is likely to deliver much heavier rain than the first, as an atmospheric river will become involved, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. A storm locally called a Kona Low, which is a storm in the middle levels of the atmosphere, brought rounds of rain to parts of the islands from late last week to Mother's Day weekend. Up to several inches of rain brought localized flooding to Oahu and Kauai. Earlier this spring, another Kona Low brought tremendous rainfall and flooding to part of the island chain. In a matter of hours, the storm...

A solar flare measured at X8.7 on the strength scale just emerged from AR 3664, the sunspot region responsible for last weekend's solar storms that sparked vivid auroras.That's the most powerful solar flare of the current cycle, absolutely the most powerful since 2017, and comfortably within the top 20 solar flares ever measured.As AR 3664 made its way toward the edge of the Sun's disk, it wasn't just the X8.7 flare on May 14 that erupted from the solar limb. On May 15, an X3.4 flare followed suit, suggesting that the giant sunspot region is going to continue its party...

The fertility industry has opened new doors for countless would-be parents across the globe, and it’s not just doors allowing them to have children. Thanks to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), people can create their children and then have them tested to ensure they meet all the right specifications. While this brave new world sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, it’s all too real – and using IVF to select the kind of child you want is becoming more and more common. In 2021, socialite and reality television alum Paris Hilton announced her plans to use IVF to create...

PM 4Liberty, if you want On/Off this listhttps://pluto.tv/live-tv/americas-voicehttps://americasvoice.news/Tune in via Roku/AppleTV/AmazonFire with the America’s Voice App https://americasvoice.appLIVE STREAM all Bannon shows & find past episodes here: https://rumble.com/c/BannonsWarRoom | https://americasvoice.news/playlists/the-war-room/

ransomnote: I posted Matt Taibbi's introduction to the article below. Follow the link for the core of the article.Susan Schmidt, Andrew Lowenthal, Tom Wyatt and 5 others provide a well organized overview to their extensive research. They describe 30 main players in the Censorship-Industrial Complex (CIC), and another 20 in the 'honorable mentions' catagory. I will put a hyperlinked table of contents in post #1. Illustration by mrmooremedia.comIntroduction by Matt TaibbiOn January 17, 1961, outgoing President and former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower gave one of the most consequential speeches in American history. Eisenhower for eight years had been...

A bill aimed at booting illegal immigrants out of the U.S. if they assault a police officer passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening. It's one of several pieces of legislation that House Republican leaders are putting up for a vote this week as part of National Police Week. The bill passed with a 265 to 148 vote, with 54 Democrats voting with the GOP. The bill is called the Detain and Deport Illegal Aliens Who Assault Cops Act and is led by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J. He said in February when the bill was being introduced, "There...