Free Republic

Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. bounced Tuesday, after the social-media platform Truth Social laid out its plan to launch a new live TV streaming network. The stock DJT, -18.35% gained 1.5% in premarket trading, after sinking 18.4% on Monday after disclosing a share offering, to close at a three-month. It had plummeted 59.8% since it closed a postmerger high of $66.22 on March 27. On Tuesday, the Trump Media said it has completed the research and development phase for the launching of its content-delivery network (CDN). “With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home...

FBI agents told an Oklahoma woman that the agency spends "every day, all day long" questioning people about their social media posts when they arrived at her house to ask about posts she made online. Rolla Abdeljawad, of Stillwater, was told by FBI agents who showed up at her home on Wednesday that Facebook had handed over screenshots of her posts. Abdeljawad told the agents she did not want to talk and asked them to show their badges on camera, but the agents refused, video posted to the social media platform X by her lawyer, Hassan Shibly, shows. The woman...

In a major push to seize control of the public’s financial freedom, Canada is radicalizing its banking system by linking citizens’ bank accounts to a tyrannical social credit score.The Canadian banking system will soon be transformed by a so-called “open banking” framework.Proponents are framing this as a more “inclusive” way for banks to easily share information and access user data.However, the move will merge social standings with banking to provide governments and unelected bureaucrats with complete control over our finances.The organization Open Banking Excellence (OBE), a World Bank partner that originated in the UK, boasts that it will incorporate social...

The Left is turning us into a “sh*thole country.” During a White House meeting with Senators in January, 2018, then-President Donald Trump reportedly questioned the reasoning for allowing immigration from “shithole countries” such as Haiti. This triggered the pearl-clutching mainstream media, and charges of racism flew fast and furious, including from Haiti Ambassador to the U.S. Paul Altidor, who said Trump’s language was based on “clichés and stereotypes rather than actual fact.”Today Haiti is a shithole country, and that is not a racist cliché or stereotype but actual fact. It is a failed nation in a state of emergency, becoming...

Farmers not sufficiently 'woke' can have accounts shut down without notice.. Farmers are under attack in multiple food-producing nations now... empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike. ... And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies. Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses. ... officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an...

The mayor of New York City has officially declared social media an 'environmental toxin' and 'public health hazard' in the same category as tobacco and guns. In an advisory released Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams criticized TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, blaming them for the mental health crisis plaguing tens of millions of children in the US — with rates of teen depression hitting their highest levels in a decade in the latest surveys. In the declaration, city officials called on parents to impose 'tech-free times' for children and urged teens to consider turning off their notifications and tracking their emotions while...

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social has lost $73 million since its launch in early 2022, a securities filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC.O), the SPAC that plans to merge with the company, showed on Monday. Trump had announced the launch of his social media app in Oct 2021, saying it would "stand up to Big Tech" companies such as Twitter and Facebook that previously barred him. In 2022, Truth Social posted a loss of $50 million, with net sales of just $1.4 million. It lost $23 million in the first half of this year,...

International Man: With nearly $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM), BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager. The company exploded in size after the 2008 financial crisis, and that’s no coincidence. Central banks around the world have printed scores of trillions since then. A significant portion of that freshly created money eventually found its way into the stock market, specifically BlackRock’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs). BlackRock was also responsible for helping the Federal Reserve manage its massive debt portfolio after 2008. It’s another indication of BlackRock’s cozy relationship with the government. BlackRock is a good illustration of the Cantillon Effect—those...

Social Security recipients have been hit with payback demands following overpayment - and now the government agency is facing questions over how billions of dollars were incorrectly paid out. Numerous reports have told the stories of people, many of whom are vulnerable or suffer from a disability, who have been asked to pay back large sums due to the service accidentally giving them too much money. Social Security payments are made for a variety of reasons. SSA benefits are paid based on your earnings record if you are aged 62 or older or if you are a person with a...

Among America's numerous social programs, none lifts more people out of poverty each year than Social Security. As of 2021, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 21.75 million people, including nearly 15.4 million seniors aged 65 and over, were being lifted above the federal poverty line due to their monthly Social Security benefit. Unfortunately, this vital program that provides benefits to approximately 66.7 million people each month -- 49.6 million of which are retired workers -- finds itself on shaky ground. The 2023 Social Security Board of Trustees Report estimates that America's top retirement program is facing...

A Mastodon server that focuses on left-leaning political activists, recently had an unencrypted copy of its database confiscated by the FBI.Source: Pixabay The recent news that a copy of Kolektiva.social’s database was confiscated by the FBI as the result of a raid at the home of one of the organization’s administrators, should serve as a cautionary tale for activists taking advantage of Mastodon’s federated nature to form online communities. Specifically, you should should do some research into the security in place at an activist-focused server, as well as the servers privacy policies.Actually, the same advice would hold even if you...

Meta-owned Facebook has handed US users the controls over fact-checked content, in a potentially significant move that the platform says will give them more power over its algorithm but some analysts insist could benefit purveyors of misinformation. For years, Facebook's algorithm automatically moved posts lower in the feed if they were flagged by one of the platform's third-party fact-checking partners, including AFP, reducing the visibility of false or misleading content. Under a new "content reduced by fact-checking" option that now appears in Facebook's settings, users have flexibility to make debunked posts appear higher or lower in the feed or maintain...

The controversial Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings system for businesses made popular by BlackRock, Inc. was put on indefinite hold last month, citing a concern that people now understand what it means and totally hate it. According to sources, the company plans to bring it back at a later date when they come up with another name for it that nobody knows about. "ESG has been a great money-making scheme, but it was destined for failure once people figured out it was nothing but a tool for pushing radical Communist ideology," said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. "But I'm confident...

Unilever is a £100 billion company, one of the biggest beasts on the London stock market ... But have its bosses gone off their trolley in their mania for 'woke' values? Terry Smith, a leading fund manager and long-term shareholder in Unilever, thinks so. He used his annual letter to his own investors as the forum for an extraordinary broadside at the company's top executives, accusing them of having 'lost the plot'. ... Critics have been uneasy for several years about Unilever's politically correct antics. At times, its posturing would have seemed more at home in an undergraduate common room...

The COVID-19 pandemic has ended - but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office is not yet up to speed, according to an automated phone message her DC office provides to callers. “Thank you for calling the office of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Federal, state and local officials have advised that social distancing is critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19,” the recorded greeting from a male staffer at the democratic socialist’s office says. “As such, staff in the congresswoman’s DC and district offices will shortly begin telecommuting. Meetings and other business will be conducted by phone or video. Thank you for your understanding.”...

Social Security will be insolvent even sooner than previously expected, with automatic benefit cuts now projected to occur in 2033, according to a new report released Friday by the program's trustees. The new projections underscore the limited time that's available for policy makers to deal with the fiscal problems that are quickly rotting away America's old-age entitlement program. The more quickly approaching insolvency date also draws a stark contrast with leaders of both major political parties—including President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.)—who have all, at times, promised not to touch Social Security during...

Reserves for Social Security’s largest trust fund are on track to run out as soon as 2033, a board of trustees of the program’s accounts said in a report on Friday. The estimate is one year sooner than previously projected for the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays out Social Security benefits to retirees, in the trustees’ report from last year. If the reserves are depleted, the report projected income for the account would only cover 77 percent of scheduled benefits. By contrast, the board estimated the program’s smaller Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund would not become...

Americans can’t afford food, but leftist and Chinese companies get bailed out. Silicon Valley Bank spent billions on green energy, millions on Black Lives Matter and other leftist causes, until it finally ran out of ‘other people’s money’. That’s when the Biden administration decided to bail out its depositors. At a dinner hosted by Peter Orszag, Obama’s former budget director, Wally Adeyemo, Obama’s Nigerian assistant treasury secretary and Biden’s deputy treasury secretary, chatted with Blair Effron, an influential Biden donor, serving on Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board, who had been hired as an advisor by SVB to deal with its financial...

PJM Interconnection sounds the latest alarm that fossil-fuel plants are shutting down without adequate replacement power. The political class yawns. ... The warnings keep coming that the force-fed energy transition to renewable fuels is destabilizing the U.S. electric grid, but is anyone in government paying attention? ... The PJM report forecasts power supply and demand through 2030 across the 13 eastern states in its territory covering 65 million people. ... Fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are getting developed, which could lead to energy “imbalances.” That’s a delicate way of saying that you can expect shortages...

The Florida House announced proposed legislation to protect Florida pensions and state investments from politically-driven ESG discrimination. TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) announced the filing of what he calls “landmark legislation” that would protect Florida retirement accounts and state investments from financial discrimination. Eliminating the consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies have become a focus of the upcoming legislative session after both Governor DeSantis and Florida’s CFO Jimmy Patronis announced that the state would divest from BlackRock Investments after concerns over ESG. “DRIVE UP THE COST OF LIVING”.. House Bill 3,...