Free Republic

Ford reported losing over $100,000 per electric vehicle sold in the first quarter of 2022, with its electric vehicle division posting a $1.3 billion loss. Electric vehicle sales volumes dropped 20% as Ford was forced to slash prices due to weak industry demand. “Americans don’t want EVs at levels Biden’s climate hysteria require,” businessman Andrew Puzder wrote on X. “Ford’s EV Q1 losses soared to $1.3 billion — a ridiculous $132,000 per EV sold. All Ford’s profits came from combustion engine vehicle sales. Collectivist policies destroy prosperity.” The company expects $5 billion in electric vehicle losses for the year, up...

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced his proposed $288 billion state budget, which would cut thousands of vacant state jobs and funding to more than 200 state programs in order to close the state’s $27.6 billion deficit. Newsom revealed his budget proposal on Friday for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which starts on July 1, citing the importance of accountability and responsibility, according to ABC7 News. This comes a month after state officials agreed to reduce California’s deficit by $17.3 billion after Newsom announced in January that the state’s deficit was $37.9 billion. The state deficit ended up being closer to $45...

Dozens of Israel supporters protested outside “traitor” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office in Manhattan on Friday, calling on him to resign for “backstabbing” Israel and allegedly staying silent as antisemitism rages across college campuses. The demonstration came days after the New York senator told reporters he has “faith” in President Biden’s decision to withhold weapons for Israel’s invasion of Rafah, a move the protesters strongly condemned. “Schumer, the doomer! It’s time to resign!” yelled the crowd of about 40 protesters outside his Midtown office.

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) stated that America wants “to continue to be” Israel’s best ally but “the Biden administration, and certainly I would agree here, has a very strong disagreement with how Israel is conducting the war in Gaza. And so, if Israel wants to go ahead and do whatever it’s doing, regardless of the American position, there will be consequences, and that will be seen in the Congress and undoubtedly seen in the actions of the administration.”

NEXSTAR) – It’s been almost 20 years since we’ve seen a geomagnetic storm as strong as the one heading our way this weekend. Power operators and other groups that maintain critical infrastructure are preparing for what might happen when the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, hit Earth. But is there anything you should be doing? A G4-level solar storm, such as the one expected to hit as soon as Friday evening, can cause issues with the power grid, radio communications and the accuracy of GPS.

Former Trump administration communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that former President Donald Trump was a “very dangerous guy” who shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “You recently called Trump the most un-American presidential nominee in U.S. history. Obviously, you want Biden to win president Biden to be reelected. What are you hearing from your fellow Republicans who also have a distaste for Trump but are having difficulties pulling the lever for Biden?”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic support is on the rise as Israel’s war against Hamas advances, according to poll numbers released on Thursday. Israel’s Channel 14 published the results of a survey conducted by Direct Polls on Thursday evening, showing that if elections were held now, Netanyahu’s Likud Party would receive 25 mandates, one of its best numbers since the October 7 massacre — the most brutal attack on Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.

Millions of middle-class California households are poised to pay an extra $24 per month for electricity, regardless of how much electricity they use. Regulators are hoping this utility billing policy will rescue their agenda to move everyone to electric cars and appliances by redistributing the massive costs of the state’s electric grid so utilities can lower their usage rates. But critics say the income-based premium will likely further hike utility costs for millions of Californians—nearly one-fifth of whom are already behind in paying their bills after household electricity rates almost doubled in the last decade—and likely won’t do much to...

The US government says Israel may have breached humanitarian law in Gaza using American weapons. In a delayed report, the state department says it is "reasonable to assess" that US-supplied arms have been used in ways "inconsistent" with Israel's obligations. But it says Israel has had to confront an "extraordinary military challenge" fighting Hamas in Gaza. The report, ordered by the White House, was submitted to Congress on Friday. While the report was a clear rebuke of some Israeli operations in Gaza, it stopped short of definitively saying that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign had breached international law. And...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that student protesters didn’t “know very much” about the Middle East. When asked about the protests at college campuses across the country, Clinton said, “First of all, I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now. You are right. They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country. With respect to the Middle East, they don’t...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday announced a $44.9 billion deficit in his revised proposal for the 2024-2025 state budget, while proposing a series of cuts to close the spending gap. The shortfall includes $27.6 billion detailed in his proposal, plus $17.3 billion in cuts that the State Legislature proactively instituted a few weeks ago. The governor proposed a $288.1 billion topline budget figure, down from Newsom’s initial January proposal for a $291.5 billion budget. Although the total $44.9 billion deficit is higher than the $37.9 figure projected in January, Newsom’s revision involves withdrawing $4.2 billion from the state’s...

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Lael Brainard dismissed the notion that Republicans would be able to easily reverse the sustainable energy provisions passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) even if they win majorities in the general election this fall. By building the energy transition into the tax code and incentivizing businesses and households to change their behaviors rather than compelling them to do so with more top-down spending initiatives, the Inflation Reduction Act is insulated from any quick-and-dirty policy corrections that may be desired by a new Congress or presidential administration, Brainard argued Friday.

State Election Board calls for a monitor in Fulton for this year’s elections.. The State Election Board reprimanded Fulton County and ordered an independent election monitor Tuesday, finding that the county likely scanned over 3,000 ballots twice during the recount of the 2020 presidential election. The decision, on a 2-1 vote, resolves one of the last remaining investigations of the 2020 election, drawing jeers from a crowd of Republican voters who wanted more severe punishment against the Democrat county. The case exposed errors in Fulton’s 2020 recount but didn’t indicate any fraud in the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won...

President Joe Biden’s border chief says the White House’s border plan “is working.” But the plan is not intended to reduce migration into U.S. communities, homes, and jobs, according to May0rkas, who was impeached in February by the House of Representatives. Instead, the border plan is intended to divert the flood of economic migrants from the cartel-run “irregular migration” pipeline into many expanding government-run quasi-legal pipelines, Mayorkas told NPR Morning Edition‘s Steve Inskeep during a May 10 interview: Inskeep: Do you also have a policy goal to cause fewer people to arrive, fewer people to get in, fewer people to...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in an interview with Politico, saying that he and the Democrat leader have “more in common than people might think.” Johnson said about Jeffries: I have. Hakeem is a good man. We’ve worked well together. We have a lot more in common than people might think. You know, he’s from New York and I’m from Louisiana. While we have lots of disagreements on policies and the fine points of policy, I think you can appreciate people for who they are as a person. I think that’s what we’re called...

CLAIM: President Ronald Reagan, like President Joe Biden, withheld arms from Israel to influence its military policy. VERDICT: MISLEADING. Reagan acted within the law, and in very different circumstances, in withholding arms. The New York Times‘ Peter Baker — winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper’s bogus reporting on “Russia collusion” — wrote Friday that President Reagan, too, withheld weapons from Israel over concerns about their use. Baker’s aim in the article appears to be to rescue Biden from some of the criticism he has faced since he confirmed earlier this week that the administration was withholding bombs and...

On Thursday a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that Steven Duarte, a felon, has a “right to possess a firearm for self-defense.” Courthouse News Service noted Duarte has five felony convictions and was a member of a street gang in Los Angeles. The decision upholding Duarte’s gun rights was split, with George W. Bush appointee Carlos Bea and Donald Trump appointee Lawrence VanDyke deciding in the majority. Bea wrote the majority opinion, noted the panel tested the prohibition against felons possessing guns in light of Bruen (2022) and found the government...

Unions are said to be having a moment. The story goes something like this: Helped by a presidential administration that touts itself as the "most pro-union in history," labor unions—after decades of decline—are winning big victories against anti-union corporations and extracting impressive concessions for their workers. But is it all true? There has certainly been a lot of union activity. Last year we witnessed a significant increase in strikes and threats of strikes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country lost 16.6 million labor days to work stoppages last year. You have to go all the way back...

A DEA agent accused of killing a cyclist in Salem while on duty had his case presented before a federal appeals court today in Seattle. At the center of today’s hearing was whether the agent could claim immunity from state prosecution because he was an on-duty federal agent. On March 28, 2023, Marganne Allen was riding her bike home from work in southeast Salem. Video from that day shows a black pickup truck running a stop sign moments before striking and killing the cyclist.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the U.N. Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably.” The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member – a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state – after the United States vetoed it in the U.N. Security Council last month. The assembly adopted a resolution with 143 votes in favor and nine against – including the U.S. and...