Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) – When the robots came to online retailer Boxed, dread came, too: The familiar fear that the machines would take over, leaving a trail of unemployed humans in their wake. “I had a lot of people asking me, `What is going to happen to us?”’ says Veronica Mena, a trainer for the e-commerce startup, recalling the anxiety that rippled through her co-workers after company executives announced plans to open an automated warehouse in nearby Union, New Jersey. Yet their fears didn’t come to pass. When the new warehouse opened this spring, workers found that their jobs were less...

Since President Reagan’s tax reforms of the 1980s, other countries around the world have been cutting their corporate tax rates and other taxes on businesses. As a result, American companies and their workers suffer today with the highest corporate tax rates and other business taxes in the developed world. What do these other countries understand that America does not? The average corporate tax rate in Asia today is 20.1 percent; in Europe, 18.9 percent. America’s federal corporate rate is 35 percent, nearly 40 percent counting state corporate taxes on average. America’s noncorporate businesses face tax rates of more than 40...

The hefty sum — although still a fraction of his fortunes — will be directed for the solving of two main areas of personal concern for Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan: widespread incarceration and unaffordable housing. The funds will come from the personal coffers of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a limited liability company that outwardly reflects a foundation. “You can make change, but in order for it to be sustainable, you need to build a movement to support it,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with The New York Times around the time of Plouffe’s hiring. “No amount of...

A rattlesnake interaction gets interrupted with an arrow and broadhead. You always hear “The only good snake is a dead snake.” And you will also hear “The only thing better than a dead snake is two dead snakes.” Well, if that is you, you will enjoy this video. The Red Arrow team is hunting in Texas when they come along some funky business going down between two rattlers. Kip draws back, sets the pin, and lets it fly. He misses the first shot and the snakes don't even flinch! He eventually connects with an arrow and might have just got...

What did the FBI know about the infamous “dossier” on Donald Trump, and when did they know it? Now that it has been established that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the efforts of former British spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Trump, the spotlight should fall next on the FBI’s strange attempts to hire Steele for more, Byron York writes. Congress has tried to get answers from the FBI and Department of Justice about just how they used that information. Did their intercept warrants rely on what turned out to be unsubstantiated oppo research —...

“Palestine will be the 2nd place of the Holocaust for the Yahood [Jews].” Editor's note: As revealed in recent congressional testimony, Students for Justice in Palestine is a campus front for Hamas terrorists. SJP’s propaganda activities are orchestrated and funded by a Hamas front group, American Muslims for Palestine, whose chairman is Hatem Bazian and whose principals are former officers of the Holy Land Foundation and other Islamic “charities” previously convicted of funneling money to Hamas.The David Horowitz Freedom Center is naming the “Top Ten Worst Schools that Support Terrorists.” The latest school to be named to this list is the...

Former House Speaker Tip O'Neill famously observed, "All politics is local." We have a particularly sharp example in an upcoming school board election in Douglas County, Colorado that has far-reaching national implications. At issue is the Blaine Amendment, which appears in constitutions of 38 states. The Blaine Amendment prohibits appropriation of public funds to any religiously affiliated institution. Each state has its own wording for this provision, but the bottom line is the same in each state -- no public money for anything having to do with religion. The Blaine Amendment issue at the center of the upcoming school board...

A majority of Americans — and Utahns — are facing more days of extreme heat each summer than they did a few decades ago, according to a study that highlights the health effects of that trend. The study released Tuesday by the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) finds that two-thirds of the U.S. population, or about 210 million people, live in counties that have faced more extreme heat days each year over the past decade than they did from 1961 to 1990. The NRDC cited Utah as one of 20 states, plus Washington, D.C., with populations especially...

When Rob Jones was tasked with searching for an IED on deployment in Taliban territory in Afghanistan, a land mine exploded and took away both of his legs. His right leg was amputated above the knee. His left, at the knee. The Marine was honorably discharged in December 2011. Less than six years later, on Monday, he’ll run his 12th marathon — along KC’s Riverfront Heritage Trail — in as many days. He plans to run in 31 marathons in the course of a single month — a marathon a day for 31 straight days, all to raise awareness and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Justice needs to immediately give Congress documents related to the funding of a dossier on Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday, saying the department and the FBI were “stonewalling.” “We’ve had these document requests with the administration, with the FBI in particular, for a long time and they’ve been stonewalling,” Ryan told Reuters in an interview, adding that the department and the FBI needs to comply with Congress’ documents requests “and they need to do it immediately.” Ryan was responding to a question about a Washington...

Three weeks after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, efforts to pass even scaled-down gun-control legislation have effectively stalled on Capitol Hill. Congressional aides and issue advocates say they see no viable path for passing even the most promising bill: an effort to ban the manufacturing and sale of bump stocks, which were used by the Las Vegas shooter to essentially turn his semi-automatic weapons into fully automatics ones. “Depressing but not surprising,” is how one senior House Democratic aide put it. “It’s pathetic,” said another. The failure of lawmakers to move bump stock legislation comes despite the...

The world will be in deep trouble if it fails to tackle climate change and inequality, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde has warned. “If we don’t address these issues... we will be moving to a dark future” in 50 years, she told a major economic conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday. Lagarde said that “we will be toasted, roasted and grilled” if the world fails to take “critical decisions” on climate change. Lagarde also called for tackling inequality between men and women and countries that are “haves” and those that are “have nots”. If the world wants a...

Carbondale, CO - A Western Colorado mother has entered a church in Carbondale, seeking asylum to avoid being deported and separated from her three children. She becomes the fifth undocumented person in Colorado seeking asylum. Carbondale is home to a little more than 67-hundred people, but it's one person in particular living here who has become the talk of the town. Sandra Lopez got a call from her lawyer and found out she was going to be deported, after she was arrested, and even though the charges against her were dropped.

"Geostorm," a big-budget global warming film featuring frozen Afghan towns and deadly ice waves in Rio de Janeiro, is bombing at the box office and could lose more than $100 million, according to The Wrap. The film, which stars Gerard Butler, envisions a world with an "International Climate Space Station" and includes a scene in which a temperature surge causes gas lines to rupture throughout Hong Kong. Its tagline is "Control the weather, control the world." According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Geostorm" underwent extensive reshoots and suffered multiple release delays after it tested poorly with audiences. The studio brought Jerry...

The National Parks Service (NPS) is proposing a fee hike during peak periods of visitation for select parks to help pay for $11.3 billion worth of needed maintenance. The hike would apply to 17 parks during their busiest five consecutive months of the year, and it would raise NPS revenue by an estimated $70 million per year. During peak visitation periods, selected parks would cost $70 for a car or truck, $50 for a motorcycle, or $30 for a person on bike or foot, according to an NPS press release.

NFL kneelers have started a firestorm regarding our National Anthem and article after article have discussed what the National Anthem means. Although perhaps well intentioned, all of these discussions miss the main issue. The issue is not what the National Anthem might mean to this or that individual but rather why the National Anthem, or in smaller settings the Pledge of Allegiance, is performed before public gatherings. And that why is unity. Before the city council meeting or before a town hall or even yes, before a sporting event the National Anthem is performed as a sign of unity. Before...

A high-tech manufacturing firm that has pledged to create roughly 400 jobs here in the next few years chose to expand in Springfield after narrowing the field from about 50 other sites, company leaders said Monday. Silfex, based in Eaton, has pledged to invest about $223 million in Springfield and recently purchased the former Thirty-One Gifts plant near the PrimeOhio Industrial Park for $11 million. The company is a high-tech manufacturing firm that provides silicon products for a variety of markets. The company has roughly doubled its workforce since 2014 and is on track to double again by 2020, said...

For more than a year now, you could hear the word echoing from Congressional offices and TV studios all over Washington DC: Russia, Russia! Mind you, these are the exact same people who spent more than 7 decades making excuses for the Soviet Union; yet, the Democrats and their mainstream media pundits were suddenly convinced that Russian spies have invaded the US (and the internet by the way) back in 2016, thus trying to destroy America’s democracy and install their golem in the White-House. Trump only won because, of course, he was Vladimir Putin’s pet. That was the left’s claim....

Former US president George HW Bush apologizes after actress claims he 'sexually assaulted' her from his WHEELCHAIR in this photograph - with his wife Barbara standing by his side Actress Heather Lind made allegations Tuesday claiming when she met former President George H.W. Bush, 93, he 'sexually assaulted' her from his wheelchair She claimed the 'assault' happened during a photo-op with wife Barbara Bush standing by his side, and claims his wife saw the incident unfold The now 34-year-old actress also claimed that afterwards Bush's security detail told her she shouldn't have stood next to the former president for the...

The extreme form of gun control pushed onto the Australian electorate after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 will not “work” in America. The reason is simple. It did not “work” in Australia. There have been numerous studies about what happened after extreme restrictions on gun ownership were implemented in Australia in 1996.  The evidence is clear. There was no measurable benefit, and significant cost. The overall homicide rate was not reduced in a measurable way. The suicide rate went up, down, and up, but stayed level as other methods were substituted.This detailed article, with charts, is the best...