US has ZERO cruise inspectors after CDC department was laid off... as hantavirus on ship kills three and concerns spread to America https://t.co/HVkjl2Ewpd
🚨 THANK A DEMOCRAT 🚨
JOE BIDEN AND PETE BUTTIGIEG bragged about blocking the JetBlue–Spirit merger… The very deal that could have SAVED Spirit Airlines
THE RESULT:
❌ LESS COMPETITION
❌ CUSTOMERS SCRAMBLING
❌ EMPLOYEES LOSING JOBS
YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP
Meta's tax rate for the first quarter of this year was negative 23%.
That's in large part because Zuckerberg's company received a tax benefit from the government of $8.03 billion.
2023: Illegals paid $89.8 Billion in US taxes
(Most recent data available)
2025: 88 profitable Corps paid ZERO Fed income tax on $105 Billion in profits including:
- Tesla
- Disney
- United Airlines
- Citigroup
- Palantir
- CVS
- PayPal
- Coinbase
- Yum! Brands
- Live Nation
Before THE GODFATHER became one of the greatest films ever made, almost nobody wanted anything to do with it.
Unimpressed by Mario Puzo's novel, director after director said no. And the man who finally said yes - he didn't want it either.
The full story is a fascinating one👇
Sergio Leone turned it down to make Once Upon A Time In America. Peter Bogdanovich said no. Arthur Penn said no. Otto Preminger said no. Even Jack Nicholson passed on starring in it.
Paramount were running out of options when they turned to Francis Ford Coppola, a young director who'd impressed with a small crime documentary called The Rain People.
Coppola read Puzo's book and called it "pretty cheap stuff." He wasn't interested.
But there was a problem. Coppola's production company, American Zoetrope, owed Warner Bros $400,000. He needed the money. So the director who thought the book was beneath him took the job out of financial necessity.
Once on board, Coppola started fighting for the film he wanted to make. Paramount told him to set it in Kansas in 1972 to cut costs. Coppola pushed back, arguing that stripping the 1940s New York setting would destroy the integrity of Puzo's story. He won that battle.
But the studio wasn't done. During filming, executives watched the dailies and saw what they called a "talky drama." They reportedly wanted to replace Coppola with Elia Kazan.
They also wanted him to hire a "violence coach" to make scenes more exciting. Coppola refused, though he did throw the studio a bone by adding the scene where Connie smashes crockery, just to keep the executives happy.
What changed their minds was a single scene. When the studio saw the brilliance of the restaurant sequence - where Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey - they backed off. Coppola kept his job.
The budget was around $6.2m. It became the highest-grossing film ever made. It won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor at the Oscars.
A film nobody wanted to direct, made by a man who only said yes because he was in debt. Nearly shut down by its own studio mid-production. Saved by one scene in a restaurant.
That's The Godfather.