Free Republic

Breitbart economics editor John Carney said Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” that “overspending by the federal government” under the Biden administration caused inflation, not tariffs implemented by former President Donald Trump. Kudlow said, “Because Trump might raise tariffs or use tariffs as a tool to enforce reciprocity, they’re all up in arms saying tariffs will cause inflation but you say they will not?” Carney said, “They didn’t cause inflation. They screamed about inflation when Trump was president last time around and we didn’t see it. It just didn’t happen. I tracked month after month these numbers, everything you could...

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” President Joe Biden stated that while “corporate greed” has caused an increase in the amount of money people have to spend on groceries and people feel real pain from the cost of groceries and food and he’s angry people have to spend more, “if you take a look at what people have, they have the money to spend.” Host Erin Burnett said, “[T]here’s real pain. Grocery prices are up 30% — more than 30% since the beginning of the pandemic, and people are spending more on food and groceries than...

On Tuesday, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced that it would withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine. In a statement, AstraZeneca said it would begin to withdraw Vaxzevria’s authorizations within Europe over low demand. This particular vaccine was not approved in the United States. "As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines," the company said in a statement, according to Fox Business. "Our efforts have been recognized by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic," the statement continued. "We will now work with regulators...

Growing up in San Bernardino, California in the 1980s was an experience that shaped me in many ways. One of the highlights of those years was playing high school football, and one of our fiercest rivals was Fontana High School. Fontana was known for having one of the toughest football teams in San Bernardino County, and our games against them were always intense and hard-fought. But Fontana was more than just a football rival. It was a town with a long and proud history of steel production. The Kaiser steel production facility, a major employer in the area, closed its...

Democrats and Republicans banded together to pass a bill on Tuesday aimed at blocking the Biden administration from banning everyday home appliances that run on natural gas. The Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, which passed 212 to 195, is one facet of a sweeping bill targeting the Department of Energy (DOE) introduced by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz. Seven Democrats voted in favor of the bill, which received no Republican dissent. "I am saddened that we would need such a bill," Lesko told Fox News Digital in a statement. "However, as we have experienced under this administration, the Department of...

Two gun controls, one of which was a bump stock ban, were defeated in the Pennsylvania House on Tuesday despite a rally by activists and pro-gun control lawmakers. WGAL reported every Republican and one Democrat, state Rep. Frank Burns (D), voted against the bump stock ban. A gun control requiring federal firearms license holders (FFLS) to report sales electronically was defeated as well.

Hillary Clinton’s feminist Broadway musical Suffs is struggling at the box office despite receiving a bounty of Tony Award nominations and an outpouring of adulatory coverage from the mainstream news media. Suffs — a nearly three-hour musical about the rise of the suffragette movement, featuring a cast comprised entirely of women and gender “non-binary” performers — played to 81 percent capacity last week, while dipping to 78 percent capacity the week before, according to data from The Broadway League.

The Port Authority announced on Monday a historic milestone in the ongoing $19 billion transformation of JFK International Airport, where a record $2.3 billion in contracts have been awarded to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE). The JFK redevelopment also demonstrates a significant focus on working with local contractors, awarding more than $950 million in contracts to Queens-based businesses to date. “When we embarked on this historic, $19 billion public-private effort to transform JFK into a world-class international gateway, we pledged that the economic opportunities generated at the airport would flow fairly to the neighborhoods surrounding the airport,” Port Authority...

An investor at famed Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz is the latest VC to get involved in the debate around "fake work" in the tech industry. In an interview published Monday with Emily Sundberg for her Substack newsletter "Feed Me," Andreessen Horowitz general partner David Ulevitch called Google "an amazing example" of a corporation employing people in "BS jobs." "As we (society / our economy) prioritize conglomerates and megacorps, irrelevant jobs proliferate," he said. "Anyone who works in a 10,000+ person or larger white-collar job company knows that a bunch of the people can probably be let go tomorrow and...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she regrets saying that Black children ​who grow up in the Bronx don’t know what the word “computer” means. “I misspoke and I regret it,” she said in a statement Monday. “Of course, Black children in the Bronx know what computers are — the problem is that they too often lack access to the technology needed to get on track to high-paying jobs in emerging industries like AI,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been focused on increasing economic opportunity since Day One of my administration, and will continue that fight to ensure every New...

The reduction in expenditure isn’t enough to balance a sharp fall in the tax take from an economy officially in recession.. Although it has slashed public service numbers and ended some programmes, New Zealand’s coalition government is heading towards its first budget with forecasts of a higher-than-expected deficit. The National-NZ First-ACT government took office with an ambitious agenda centred on major cuts to public servant numbers. To date, over 4,000 people have lost their jobs as a result, with more expected. ACT Leader and Minister for Regulation David Seymour has previously indicated the total could reach 7,500. But the reduction...

Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. fell 4% in the extended session Tuesday after the EV maker posted mixed quarterly results, reporting a wider-than-expected loss but revenue above Wall Street’s expectations. Rivian RIVN lost $1.45 billion, or $1.48 a share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $1.35 billion, or $1.45 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire founder of Meta, has recently made waves with his latest acquisition—a $300 million superyacht named Launchpad. Zuckerberg’s luxurious vessel, which is longer than a football field, has drawn criticism based on his climate activism. The Hindustan Times reports that with an estimated net worth of $180 billion, Mark Zuckerberg has joined the ranks of tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in buying a luxurious superyacht. The 118-meter vessel, designed by Swedish-based Espen Øin International, boasts a sleek, multilayered exterior with a robust steel hull and an aluminum...

Elon Musk’s Tesla, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer, has slashed even more workers from the payroll following weeks of massive layoffs, leaving employees on edge and seeking closure. Business Insider reports that Tesla has been conducting a series of layoffs over the past four weeks. The latest round of cuts, which took place on Sunday night, has left employees uncertain about their future with the company. According to Business Insider, four workers reported that their managers notified them of additional cuts to their teams on Monday morning, while several Tesla workers took to LinkedIn to share their experiences of receiving...

SACRAMENTO — In May 1969 a National Guard helicopter hung over the campus of UC Berkeley, spraying protesters with what The Times then described as “heavy clouds of tear gas.” It was the sixth consecutive day of campus demonstrations over plans to develop the land known as “People’s Park.” An ambitious governor who would go on to become president had called in 2,300 National Guard troops and hundreds of Highway Patrolmen. They brought shotguns, rifles and bayonets. The problems, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan said in a feisty televised appearance, all started because universities “let young people think they had the right...

Stormy Daniels, the porn actor paid hush money to keep an alleged affair with Donald Trump secret ahead of the 2016 election, has taken the stand Tuesday in the former president’s New York criminal trial. Daniels, wearing black with her hair in a clip, smiled nervously as she entered the room, walking quickly toward the stand. She put on a pair of black, thick-rimmed glasses as she started. Trump was whispering with his attorney, Todd Blanche, and watched Daniels as she prepared to begin her testimony.

Your next new home air conditioner could set you back $12,000 or more, with federal regulators contributing to the rising cost of staying cool. Before 2020, buying and installing a new residential central air conditioner typically cost well under $10,000. Many jobs, including both purchase and installation, fell in the $6,000 to $7,000 range—about half the current price—says Martin Hoover, a co-owner of Atlanta-based Empire Heating & Air Conditioning. While many factors, including rising material costs, have contributed to the increase in prices, regulations have played an outsize role. The Energy Department in January 2023 issued a new efficiency standard...

Popular Victorian-looking rum pub Hobson's Choice, on the corner of Clayton and Haight, will shutter after 26 years in business, owner Chris Dickerson told SFGATE columnist Stuart Schuffman this weekend. Dickerson cited the lack of pedestrian traffic on the famous street for the decision, and said the neighborhood hasn't yet bounced back from the pandemic.“A lot of service industry people lived in the neighborhood. So, they’d get off work at a restaurant at 10-ish, 11-ish, and come back to the neighborhood and hang out until close," Dickerson said. "They’re no longer here."

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has declared an “extraordinary animal health emergency” and imposed “the most comprehensive measures in the country” to combat highly pathogenic avian influenza. “Producers must immediately implement robust biosecurity practices and create emergency preparedness plans and this order starts to address these on-farm risks,” Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director Tim Boring said statement last week. Those measures include a biosecurity manager for every farm, a secure perimeter around poultry, cleaning and disinfection for people and vehicles, a log of all people and vehicles that enter farms, isolation of lactating cows until 30 days after...

The Biden administration is being ridiculed for hypocrisy as it touts 'energy savings' at federal buildings that are nearly empty of workers - and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm recently celebrated the Biden administration's efforts to reach net-zero emissions from federal buildings by establishing a rule outlawing the use of fossil fuels on-site. 'The Biden-Harris Administration is practicing what we preach,' Granholm said in a statement about the rule. 'Just as we are helping households and businesses across the nation save money by saving energy, we are doing the same in our own federal buildings.' But...