Free Republic

Salon’s Top 'Conservative’ List Is Nearly All 'Never Trump' Liberals Who Hate the Right Kristine Marsh October 16, 2017 Over the weekend, liberal online magazine Salon put out a highly mockable list of their top “25 Conservatives Actually Worth Following on Twitter.” The story made a splash on social media, because it seemed Salon’s only criteria for being a “worthy conservative” is that you had to be an outspoken “Never-Trumper” and a fierce critic of the right. Brownie points if you support Obamacare and spew profanities at the president. What didn’t count? Actually being a smart, thoughtful commentator on conservative...

For a generation, the car has been reviled by city planners, greens and not too few commuters. In the past decade, some boldly predicted the onset of “peak car” and an auto-free future which would be dominated by new developments built around transit. Yet “peak car,” like the linked concept of “peak oil” has failed to materialize. Once the economy began to recover from the Great Recession, vehicle miles traveled, sales of cars, and particularly trucks, began to rise again, reaching a sales peak the last two year. Instead, it has been transit ridership that has stagnated, and even fallen...

SALT LAKE CITY — A new manufacturing facility in the city's northwest quadrant is projected to bring 1,000 new jobs to the area over the next decade. Swiss-based railroad vehicle maker Stadler broke ground Friday on a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at 150 S. 5600 West, where the company will build and assemble trains for transit properties throughout the United States and North America. Stadler currently leases space from the Utah Transit Authority at its Warm Springs facility at 900 N. 500 West that employs 115 workers. The expansion project is scheduled for development over 10 years or less, depending on...

•Corporate America is willing to invest money on a longer-term basis under President Trump, real estate mogul Sam Zell says. •Zell points to deregulation and promises of tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending as major positives for business. •Continued improvement in underlying economic growth continues to "surprise," he says. Corporate America is willing to invest money on a longer-term basis under President Donald Trump than the previous "anti-business administration" of Barack Obama, real estate mogul Sam Zell told CNBC on Tuesday. "Bluntly, the only way I can square anything is I focus on what gets done, not what's said," the...

Authored by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,The projected total US debt will be $30 trillion within 10 years, using the CBO’s own numbers. But the CBO also makes the rosy assumptions that there will be no recessions and that GDP will grow at a 4% nominal rate.Now, that’s possible; I'm inclined to haircut it a bit.If you asked me to bet the “over/under” on the debt in 2027, I would bet the over at $35 trillion.After the next recession the deficit will be $30 trillion within 4–5 years and then grow from there at a rate of anywhere from $1.5...

In November, 2016, the Cook County Board of Confiscators created a new tax on most non-alcoholic beverages – punitive, astronomical, and unconstitutional. Virtually everything that could be wrong with a government policy was wrong with this one, and the community reacted with unexpected force. County commissioners reported receiving more complaints about this issue than on any other issue in their careers. Despite a united front held by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle through the summer 2017 implementation, the resolve of her members soon withered as the real effects of the hated tax began to be felt. In the end, it...

These GOP members who are contemplating raising taxes are playing with fire. Failure to act in a way that pleases the base will ensure they are the ones who get burned Make no mistake about it: if Congress, particularly the United States Senate, fails to send a tax bill to the president’s desk, it will imperil the congressional majority, do lasting damage to the Republican Party, and potentially threaten the American economy. The clock is ticking.

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) could lead to global peak oil demand as soon as 2023, which will result in oil prices crashing to $10, Chris Watling, CEO & chief market strategist at Longview Economics, told CNBC on Friday. Watling said he didn’t see oil crashing “in the next few weeks or months, or maybe even quarters, but I think the long-term outlook for oil—because of what’s happening in terms of electric vehicles” with 70 percent of oil used for transportation, is oil plummeting to $10 somewhere around 2023-2025. “We used to talk about peak oil in terms of...

On Wednesday, Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn penned a joint letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, pitching the state of Texas as the landing site for the online retail giant’s planned second headquarters, HQ2. “Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes our economy, our skilled workforce, and our quality of life,” they wrote, noting that three of the nation’s top-five fastest growing cities are in Texas: Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. All three of those cities and others across the state, including Dallas, El Paso, and Frisco, put themselves in the running for HQ2 when Amazon called...

North Korea imported $666 million worth of luxury items last year, which takes up 17.9 percent of the year’s total imports, a lawmaker here said Thursday. According to data from the Chinese Customs revealed by Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the Liberty Korea Party, the communist state’s imports of luxury goods increased by $59 million, or 9.8 percent, from 2015. The luxury goods included upmarket electronics, cars, leather products and watches. Electronics made up the biggest import value at $330 million, followed by high-end cars with $260 million. The reclusive state also imported some $16 million worth of liquor and drinks....

Superion, a software company that provides service for non-profits and state governments, is expanding operations and adding jobs at its site in Guilford County. Over the next three years Superion plans to create 80 full-time jobs, at an average annual salary of $57,829, in High Point. The Guilford County average is $45,602. The company will also invest $3.6 million at the site. Currently, Superion has 170 employees in High Point. The new jobs will be in software development and customer support. Among Superion’s customers are law enforcement dispatch operations. The company’s “Freedom” is a phone app that gives police call...

Diversey, a leading global provider of cleaning and hygiene solutions, will locate its new 100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters at the Lakemont Business Park in York County, SC. An additional 18,500 square feet of lab space will also be created to develop cutting-edge technology for cleaning and hygiene operations. The project is expected to result in $6.1 million in investment and approximately 400 jobs. “I am extremely proud of building Diversey’s new global headquarters in York County, which will become the new home for our employees and their families,” said Diversey President and CEO Ilham Kadri. “Our new state-of-the-art campus will provide...

At a news conference Wednesday, global customer service company Alorica will announce the addition of 400 jobs to its Joplin contact center. All of the new jobs the company will be announcing full-time positions eligible for benefits, said Jacob Kramer, senior director, on Tuesday. Kramer said the company's clients have praised Alorica's customer service performance and wanted to expand the use of its services. Kramer declined to name any specific clients. The company's business model is set up where it secures contracts with companies to provide customer service specialists through its various centers around the globe. Alorica's website says it...

The NFL put out a statement on Wednesday denying it had capitulated to President Donald Trump and banned players from kneeling when the National Anthem plays before games. This remains true, so far as we know, in the abstract. The league has not imposed any formal restrictions. (Yet. There are more meetings planned.) But even as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones threatened on Sunday to bench any player judged to be "disrespecting the flag," the presidential blitz continues -- and it becomes clearer that the NFL and ESPN's attempts to appease Trump have failed. ESPN retreated on Monday, suspending SportsCenter...

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump pitched his tax plan as a boost for truckers at an event Wednesday in Pennsylvania, saying, "America first means putting American truckers first." Trump appeared before about a thousand cheering people at an airplane hangar dramatically draped with American flags. Two big rigs were in the background. "It will be rocket fuel for our economy," Trump said of a plan that would dramatically cut corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 20 percent, reduce the number of personal income tax brackets and boost the standard deduction.....

The best is yet to come for US oil production—but it will be a short-lived hurrah, according to Ian Taylor, head of oil trading giant Vitol. US oil production has steadily increased throughout 2017 as US drillers regained their footing after the oil price crash. What started out at 8.946 million bpd of crude oil production in the first week of January has now reached an average of 9.561 million bpd as of September 29, according to the EIA.

People are shocked that Facebook and Google apparently "embedded" staff in the Trump campaign. • But big-spending advertisers get hands-on treatment from platforms all the time. • The tech giants made this offering available to Hillary Clinton, and also brands like Clorox. Did you hear that Facebook and Google helped swing the 2016 election by planting people in the Trump campaign? It was on 60 Minutes the other night, when a stunned Lesley Stahl quizzed Trump digital ad guru Brad Parscale on how the tech giants planted staffers inside Trump HQ: Brad Parscale: Well, we had our-- their staff embedded...

One-third of those who retire actually come back to the labor market and take another full-time job, according to Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Sløk. This “reverse retirement” rate is higher for workers in the highest and lowest income quintiles, as shown in the chart below. “Retirees either come back because they need more income (lowest income quintile) or they come back because the opportunity costs of staying at home are too high (highest income quintile),” Sløk explained....

JANE LEW— Fountain Quail Energy Services is bringing more than 160 new jobs to Lewis County as part of a new field office the oilfield services company is opening in the Jane Lew Industrial Park, according to Del. Patrick Martin, R-Lewis. “This is great news for our region and state,” Martin said. “When I learned that Fountain Quail was looking to open an office, the Jane Lew Industrial Park location seemed like an ideal fit, and I reached out to company officials to encourage them to consider it. While they looked at sites in other states, in the end Fountain...

Jerry Brown is the self-anointed Savior of the Planet while his decades-long policies destroy the once-Golden State People like me have been explaining for many years that California is an example of leftist policies to avoid, and the poster child state of what not to do unless state suicide is the goal. California has become the Greece of the United States, and is cracking up. But this crack-up isn’t funny, as I cover in my new book co-authored with Jim Lacy, ”California’s War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?” Despite the dire circumstances, the ravenous left in California continues...