Free Republic

President Trump gave an extensive interview to Laura Ingraham, one of the primary advocates for the Ron DeSantis alligator emoji tribe. Ingraham did her best passive aggressive routine, positioning herself to antagonize yet appeal to the base of the DeSantis voter. The resulting interview is transparent in the agenda it represents.There is currently a rather extensive political operation afoot that has been rolling out for the better part of this year. The objective of the coalition is to fracture the MAGA base in a similar fashion to how the Tea Party movement was compromised in 2012.In March 2016, the same...

The world of wealth is constantly evolving, with fortunes rising and falling as markets shift and industries innovate. As of November 2025, the wealthiest individuals are predominantly technology pioneers and influential business magnates who have built vast fortunes through innovation, strategic investments, and entrepreneurial vision. Leading the pack is Elon Musk, whose ventures in electric vehicles, space exploration, artificial intelligence, and social media have propelled him to the top of the global wealth rankings. Musk is now on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, following a landmark Tesla pay package. These billionaires exemplify how ambition, technological innovation, and calculated...

Starlink confirmed its decision early on 29 October 2025 through an announcement on X (formerly Twitter). The company wrote: 'For those impacted by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica and the Bahamas, Starlink service is now free through the end of November to help with response and recovery efforts'. Hurricane Melissa, with winds exceeding 165 mph, caused severe damage to homes, roads, and network infrastructure. Elon Musk's Starlink responded quickly, as it has in past crises such as Hurricane Helene in the US in 2024, when similar aid was offered. The deal integrates Starlink's Direct to Cell technology with Flow's existing network...

Takeaways from the Shareholder Meeting: It was a good day for Elon and Tesla shareholders. Pressure Points: Tesla Shareholder Meeting | 7:05 Deepwater Asset Management | 20K subscribers | 3,000 views | November 7, 2025

With Bill Gates retreating from his high-profile climate crusade, the stage has opened for more unconventional actors to step into the planetary arena. Enter Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX and self-styled architect of humanity’s future in space.This week, Musk floated an audacious vision: a vast swarm of orbiting satellites, not merely to beam internet or data, but to harvest solar energy and regulate how much sunlight reaches Earth. On Monday, he wrote on his platform X:A large solar-powered AI satellite constellation would be able to prevent global warming by making tiny adjustments in how much solar energy reached...

If wealth were altogether bad, why would we give it to the poor? That would only make their situation worse, right? The very fact that God wants us to give wealth to those who do not have it proves it is intrinsically good. So we must affirm the “good of affluence,” as John Schneider has put it, even as we also reckon with its dangers. We can be “godly materialists” (again, Schneider) but must always remember that our godliness should drive and control our pursuit of and use of material things. It is possible to have holy ambition that is...

This week at Starbase, construction continues on Giga Bay and the Flight 12 vehicles at the build site, work continues on the Pad 2 launch mount and launch tower hardware, and teams aren't wasting any time demolishing the Pad 1 launch mount and reconfiguring the supporting infrastructure. Meanwhile in Florida, SpaceX launches another pair of Starlink missions as Blue Origin, Stoke Space, and ULA are all hard at work preparing infrastructure and vehicles for upcoming operations. 2026 Is Going To Be An Incredible Year For Starship - Spaceflight Weekly #191 | 10:16 LabPadre Space | 249K subscribers | 13,984 views...

@TrueGenFlynn Now you all know why Elon Musk & DOGE were shut down. The UNIPARTY was caught with their pants down and no longer wanted the exposure. It was butt ugly! https://truthsocial.com/@TrueGenFlynn/posts/115480668971600808

To return Americans to the Moon, SpaceX aligned Starship development along two paths: development of the core Starship system and supporting infrastructure, including production facilities, test facilities, and launch sites -- which SpaceX is self-funding representing over 90% of system costs -- and development of the HLS-specific Starship configuration, which leverages and modifies the core vehicle capability to support NASA's requirements for landing crew on and returning them from the Moon. SpaceX is working under a fixed-price contract with NASA, ensuring that the company is only paid after the successful completion of progress milestones, and American taxpayers are not on...

Watch live coverage from Cape Canaveral as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Spanish communications satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 is scheduled during a four-hour window that opens at 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 UTC) on Thursday, Oct. 23. It will be the 22nd and final flight of booster B1076. The first-stage will not be recovered as the mission requires the full performance of the vehicle. The Spainsat Next Generation 2 (NG-2) satellite, manufactured by Airbus and Thales Alenia Space on behalf of Hisdesat, will eventually be stationed at 29 degrees East....

Schematic diagram of the first room temperature all-solid-state hydride ion battery. Credit: DICP ============================================================ Scientists have built the first rechargeable hydride ion battery. Hydride ions (H⁻) have drawn interest as potential charge carriers for future electrochemical devices because of their extremely low mass and high redox potential. Yet, progress has been limited since no electrolyte has been able to provide the combination of rapid ion movement, thermal stability, and compatibility with electrodes that such systems require. A recent study in Nature reports a breakthrough from Prof. Ping Chen and his team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), part...

A new technique stabilizes a metastable form of sodium solid electrolyte, enabling all-solid-state sodium batteries to maintain performance even at subzero temperatures. All-solid-state batteries are considered a safe and powerful option for running electric vehicles, electronics, and even storing energy from the power grid. However, producing them relies heavily on lithium, a metal that is costly, difficult to source, and damaging to the environment when mined. Sodium offers a cheaper, more abundant, and less harmful alternative, but sodium-based all-solid-state batteries have struggled to operate efficiently at room temperature. “It’s not a matter of sodium versus lithium. We need both. When...

Trying to figure out how much battery storage, inverter size, type of charger and what have you to power my houseboat. My plan is to have enough battery storage to run everything using an inverter for AC power using batteries and by charging those batteries daily using a generator for a few hours. The biggest draw would be an occasional few minutes of a microwave to heat food, and also run a tv/monitor along with computer. everything else runs on DC current for short periods of time like fresh water pump. I do have a small a/c air conditioner that...

A groundbreaking study published in Nature has revealed that scientists at Tianjin University in China have developed a lithium metal battery (LMB) with an energy density that is twice as powerful as Tesla’s most advanced battery. The new battery can store over 600 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), a significant leap from Tesla’s top-tier battery at 300 Wh/kg. This breakthrough is expected to impact electric vehicles (EVs) and a range of applications, including drones, potentially reducing concerns about range limitations and making EVs lighter and more efficient. The development of this high-energy-density battery represents a huge advancement in the field of...

The hurdles to marrying clean tech and the defense industrial base are cultural more than technical.When Congress took an ax to clean energy incentives last month, support for battery production surprisingly emerged unscathed. The One Big Beautiful Bill left intact advanced manufacturing incentives born from the Inflation Reduction Act — along with hope for the bevy of resulting domestic battery factories still under construction.Those factories, however, were planning not only on supply-side incentives but also on demand that the new legislation reduced. With faster phaseouts of solar-farm and electric-vehicle incentives, two of the country’s largest battery consumers, our nascent battery...

I keep reading how big batteries are all it takes to make wind and solar reliable as the sole grid electricity source. The reality is that making wind and solar work at all requires a fantastic amount of battery backup, far more than is possible. Below is an example using the PJM grid. PJM is America’s biggest grid operator, with a territory covering the Mid-Atlantic and points west. Their territory includes the Washington, DC metro area, where all the federal bigwigs live, making it a good place to start. I also live there. We are quantifying a fantasy, so let’s...

The Chinese military affiliated battery manufacturer CATL appears to be in charge of hiring for roles at the Ford plant that executives said would be wholly owned and operated by the American company. AChinese company appears to be in charge of hiring workers for Ford’s new battery plant in Michigan, contradicting the company’s statements that it will be an American-owned and operated project, and amplifying concerns from locals about potential national security implications. The plant has generated significant controversy because of Ford’s partnership with China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, known as CATL, which closely collaborates with the Chinese military and...

Astartup led by a Canadian battery chemist is racing to crack a made-in-America energy breakthrough even as Trump’s tariffs cast a long shadow over the battery supply chain. Boston-based Pure Lithium is building a pilot plant for a new kind of lithium metal battery, one it claims could outperform today’s lithium-ion cells, and, crucially, be built entirely without Chinese inputs. These efforts come at a crucial time for the U.S., as the world’s biggest economy moves to loosen China’s grip on the global supply of critical minerals. China dominates minerals China’s dominance in this space continues to pose a strategic...

A lithium-air battery that rivals gasoline in energy density may be the game-changer EVs have been waiting for. ================================================================= In a major leap toward next-generation energy storage, researchers have created a lithium-air battery that could one day rival gasoline in energy density, offering up to four times the capacity of today’s lithium-ion batteries. If realized at scale, such a breakthrough could transform everything from electric vehicles to grid storage. This cutting-edge development, led by scientists at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Argonne National Laboratory, hinges on achieving a four-electron chemical reaction—a feat never before accomplished in a lithium-air battery...

After a huge fire broke out at SEPTA’s largest bus depot in Nicetown on Thursday, officials have determined a cause for the fire. What we know: A spokesperson for SEPTA stated that the Philadelphia Fire Department said a battery in one of the electric buses set off the massive fire Thursday at their largest bus depot, in Philly’s Nicetown neighborhood.