Free Republic

House Republicans are growing increasingly alarmed that some of their most vulnerable members aren’t doing the necessary legwork to protect themselves from an emerging Democratic tidal wave. In some of the biggest media markets, where blockbuster fundraising is a prerequisite for political survival—most notably in New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston—Republican lawmakers aren’t raising enough money to run aggressive campaigns against up-and-coming Democrats. Of the 53 House Republicans facing competitive races, according to Cook Political Report ratings, a whopping 21 have been outraised by at least one Democratic opponent in the just-completed fundraising quarter. That’s a stunningly high number...

A new piece of sophisticated malware has been discovered on the networks of an unnamed European energy company with what researchers believe is the potential to shut down an energy grid. Endpoint protection firm Sentinel One Labs discovered the malware and dubbed it SFG, revealing it not only collects information on the infected system but opens a backdoor through which a destructive payload could be launched. It affects all versions of Windows and has been produced to overcome next-generation firewalls and anti-virus software. The malware also shuts down when put into a sandboxed environment or a virtual machine to escape...

With investors on razor's edge, markets around the world turned sharply negative as initial results from the British referendum on European Union membership showed a nail-bitingly close vote. The pound plunged to its lowest level since 1985 as results gave a narrow lead to the Leave campaign. Amid volatile trading, the British currency sank below $1.35 after earlier touching $1.50.

The US has been warned about its high poverty rate in the International Monetary Fund's annual assessment of the economy. The fund said about one in seven people were living in poverty and that it needed to be tackled urgently. It recommended raising the minimum wage and offering paid maternity leave to women to encourage them to work.

Transgender: The American “hot button” du jour. Even as I type this article, Dr. Phil is on the TV in the background, interviewing a man who is sobbing over the pain he feels with his adult son transitioning to female. He feels that “someone has got him;” that “something has come over” his son. He absolutely cannot accept his son as anything other than male. He is shaking and seething as Dr. Phil says, “We’re going to soon meet ‘Steph’,” (the man’s trans daughter, who wishes to debut as her “authentic self” on national TV). Earlier today, Kathie Lee &...

While the production will almost certainly improve this summer, “SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes Project in Tonopah, Nevada [isn’t even] quietly providing clean, green solar energy to 75,000 homes in the Silver State even when the sun [is] shining”… The average U.S. residential utility customer uses about 900 kWh per month. 75,000 homes * 900 KWh/month = 67,500,000 kWh/month = 67,500 MWh/month In its best month so far, Crescent Dunes generated 9,095 MWh… About 3 hours of electricity per day for 75,000 homes. This is the Venezuela version of 24/7 /SARC.

(NEW YORK) — A basketball court-sized asteroid is set to whiz past Earth next week — but astronomers are unsure of just how close the asteroid will come or precisely when the flyby will happen. However, you can breathe a sigh of relief: Astronomers say there’s no chance the rock will hit Earth. NASA’s team at the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) predict Asteroid 2013 TX68 will come within 3 million miles of our planet, but have also left open the possibility it could pass as close as 15,000 miles. It’s expected the flyby will happen around...

AN ASTEROID set for a staggering close whistle past of Earth in just 10 days could return to strike the planet as early as next year, NASA has admitted. We are expected to be risk free when the space rock hurtles past us at as close as 11,000 miles away - 21 times closer to us than the moon - on March 8. But the US space agency cannot yet be 100 per cent certain about its orbital path. NASA gives near-Earth asteroid a condition code regarding the certainty of its travel from one to 10, with the latter meaning...

It is believed to have exploded about 18 miles (30km) above the Atlantic Ocean, 6 miles above the troposphere, the atmospheric layer where the Earth's weather occurs. It is unlikely that anyone saw it, but it was probably picked up by the military, who record atmospheric explosions. "Impacts like this happen several times per year on average, with most going unseen," Plait said. It's the much larger impacts that we should be worried about. Nasa tracks around 12,992 near-Earth objects which have been discovered orbiting within our solar system close to our own orbit. It estimates around 1,607 are classified...

You may need Java on, also this link has been giving a few people issues. The link is here (For copy/pasters) http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2013%20TX68&orb=1 Go to www.spaceweather.com and scroll down to the near-earth objects. 2013 TX68 Mar 5 0.044 LD 30 m

Asteroid TX68 is coming! OK, it's probably gonna miss... but maybe not! Asteroid TX68, from it's name 2013 TX68 was discovered in 2013. It is supposed to approach closer than anything else recently, at .044 times the Lunar distance, or about 11,000 miles. Not sure why they use LD as a measurement because LD changes all the time, but so it goes... Comments or thoughts are always appreciated!

On October 6th, 2013, the Catalina Sky Survey discovered a small asteroid which was later designated as 2013 TX68. As part Apollo group this 30 meter (100 ft) rock is one of many Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that periodically crosses Earth's orbit and passes close to our planet. A few years ago, it did just that, flying by our planet at a safe distance of about 2 million km (1.3 million miles). And according to NASA's Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it will be passing us again in a few weeks time, specifically between March 2nd...

An asteroid as long as a basketball court will give Earth a close shave next month — though scientists aren’t sure just how close. The near-Earth asteroid 2013 TX68, which is thought to be about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter, will zoom past our planet on March 5. The space rock could come as close as 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers) — less than 5 percent of the distance from Earth to the moon — or stay up to 9 million miles (14.5 million km) away during the flyby, NASA officials said. “The variation in possible closest-approach distances is due...

I have never, ever had anyone tell me that he had too much ammunition. Not in a combat zone, not in a civil disaster, not even in peacetime. Never. Nor have I lived through a time where our governing class was so deeply corrupt, so utterly foolish, and so dangerously focused on the perpetuation of its own power that it risked bringing down everything we have built not merely in the United States but in the entire West. Right now, if you are watching the news, you have questions about the future. And the answer to all of them is...

I have never, ever had anyone tell me that he had too much ammunition. Not in a combat zone, not in a civil disaster, not even in peacetime. Never. Nor have I lived through a time where our governing class was so deeply corrupt, so utterly foolish, and so dangerously focused on the perpetuation of its own power that it risked bringing down everything we have built not merely in the United States but in the entire West. Right now, if you are watching the news, you have questions about the future. And the answer to all of them is...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- North Korea's U.N. mission claimed Wednesday that its successful nuclear bomb test showed that it could now "wipe out" the United States, as the U.N. Security Council grappled with a response to the underground blast.

The currency's decline is having a pronounced effect on Canadians' grocery bills. As Bloomberg reminds us, Canada imports around 80% of its fresh fruits and vegetables. When the loonie slides, prices for those good soar. "With lower-income households tending to spend a larger portion of income on food, this side effect of a soft currency brings them the most acute stress," Bloomberg continues. Of course with the layoffs piling up, you can expect more households to fall into the "lower-income" category where they will have to struggle to afford things like $3 cucumbers, $8 cauliflower, and $15 Frosted Flakes. Have...

Astronomers initially thought the object was an asteroid when they spotted it in early October, and named it Asteroid 2015 TB145. But using the US space agency's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, experts "have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement late Friday. ... The space rock has already grabbed attention with its unusually high speed and big size, about as large as a football stadium at 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter....

A newly discovered asteroid larger than a skyscraper will wiz past the Earth on Halloween, making a dangerously close approach to the planet. The asteroid, officially named 2015 TB145, was just discovered on Oct. 10, 2015, and is expected to make its close approach to the Earth at the end of the month.Some have already given the asteroid the nickname of "Spooky" due to the fact that it's closest approach to Earth is going to occur on Halloween. Fortunately, the asteroid will miss the Earth, but it will still make an uncomfortably close approach of 302,885 miles. To put this...

Pressed by a senior House Democrat at today’s Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Iran deal, Secretary of State John Kerry would not commit the Obama administration to following the law if Congress shoots down the deal by a veto-proof majority. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) noted that the deal “might be, at most, morally binding on this administration.” “The IRGC may publicly oppose this deal because that’s the best thing the Iranian government can do to pursue us to support — here in Congress to support the deal or maybe they genuinely oppose it,” he noted. Sherman asked Kerry point-blank...