Free Republic

An analyst at Global Equities Research by the name of Trip Chowdhry has publicly commented that he considers the market value of the Tesla/Panasonic Gigafactory to be $50 billion, according to recent reports. Considering that the projected development costs of the Gigafactory total “only” $5 billion, and also that Tesla’s current market capitalization is around $32 billion, that figure is quite a notable one. Whether one agrees or not, it’s a number that gets one’s attention…. In his denouement on the subject, Chowdhry drew an analogy with Amazon — noting that the company was originally just viewed as being an...

One of Hillary Clinton’s most influential labor supporters has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single payer healthcare plan. Members from Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly 2 million healthcare and government workers, passed a resolution declaring medical care a human right at its national convention in May. Obamacare, which the SEIU lobbied for and endorsed, failed to address inequality in the healthcare marketplace and insurance systems remain “confusing and inefficient.” The union pledged to work to improve upon Obamacare with the goal of expanding into a government-run system. “The American healthcare system allows the profit motives of providers, pharmaceutical companies,...

Just before New Jersey holds its presidential primary, Jesse Watters went "down the shore" to find out where Jersey Shore locals stand on the presidential race. He encountered a good number of Trump supporters on the boardwalk of Seaside Heights.

From the IRS link above: "The filing deadline to submit 2015 tax returns is Monday, April 18, 2016, rather than the traditional April 15 date. Washington, D.C., will celebrate Emancipation Day on that Friday, which pushes the deadline to the following Monday for most of the nation. (Due to Patriots Day, the deadline will be Tuesday, April 19, in Maine and Massachusetts.)"

The nation cannot afford to simply put all of that critical intelligence gathering “on hold” for several years No matter which party wins the White House in November our next Commander in Chief will inherit a world far more unstable than at any point in recent history. From the rapid expansion of ISIS, to recent nuclear tests in North Korea, to the many problems in Afghanistan and Iraq, the very real threats to America and its allies have never been more evident. Roughly 150,000 U.S. troops are stationed in more than 150 countries around the world and they are the...

TOLEDO, OH--(Marketwired - May 19, 2016) - Marco's Pizza® has a strong history of supporting U.S. veterans, and the iconic pizza franchise has now formally committed to being an employer of choice for veterans through the launch of a veterans recruiting initiative. U.S. Army veteran Scott Quagliata will oversee the program as Vice President, Veterans Program and Recruitment. "We want to make sure that veterans know that Marco's has wonderful leadership and ownership opportunities for them," said Quagliata, who served in several leadership positions during his 20-year Army career, including Deputy Commanding Officer. "Successful franchisees understand and adhere to operational...

The Donald & The La Raza Judge Pat Buchanan Jun 07, 2016 Before the lynching of The Donald proceeds, what exactly was it he said about that Hispanic judge? Stated succinctly, Donald Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a class-action suit against Trump University, is sticking it to him. And the judge's bias is likely rooted in the fact that he is of Mexican descent. Can there be any defense of a statement so horrific? Just this. First, Trump has a perfect right to be angry about the judge's rulings and to question his motives....

Should you follow your passion, wherever it may take you? Should you do only what you love...or learn to love what you do? How can you identify which path to take? How about which paths to avoid? TV personality Mike Rowe, star of "Dirty Jobs" and "Somebody's Gotta Do It," shares the dirty truth in PragerU's 2016 commencement address.

We conclude that (hospital) CEOs are heavily driven to perform on government pay for performance metrics, but less so to metrics that currently fail to correspond to a reimbursement requirement. (Conclusion first here) Truven Health Analytics™ and Mercer teamed to investigate whether there is a correlation between CEO compensation and hospital performance on a balanced scorecard. The study showed there is a strong alignment for the highest level of performance. However, the study also found that 80% of hospitals do not perform well on a balanced scorecard. Instead, compensation appears to be designed to incent the CEO to pursue metrics...

With Saudi Riyal forwards plunging back below 3.81, dramatically weaker than the current peg, Bloomberg reports that Saudi authorities are cracking down on currency traders as speculation mounts that the world’s biggest oil exporter won’t be able to maintain the riyal’s peg to the dollar as revenue plunges. Saudi Arabia ordered banks in the kingdom to stop selling some products that allow speculators to bet against its currency peg just days after demanding information from lenders on the offerings, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency sent a circular to banks this week saying...

Though the Bureau of Labor Statistics report for May showed an anemic 38,000 new jobs were created during the month and a record 94,708,000 Americans were not in the labor force, Obama Administration Press Secretary Josh Earnest insisted that "we are not disappointed with these numbers." "Those who can't grasp the President's goals for the transformation of this country harp on the point that 38,000 new jobs are far too few to accommodate this country's monthly 200,000 population increase," Earnest complained. "Likewise, they see the expansion of the contingent not in the workforce as a negative. They've got it exactly...

U.S. crude oil exports rose to 591,000 barrels per day in April, up 83,000 barrels from March, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau on Friday. The total figures are the highest since at least 1920, Rigzone reports. A majority of the crude - 324,000 bpd of it - went to Canada, 90,000 more went to Curacao and 36,000 others went to the Bahamas. The figures come almost six months after the U.S. government lifted restrictions on crude exports.

At the start of the campaign to elect the Republican and Democratic candidates, almost nobody would have bet that Donald Trump would eventually be the Republican presidential nominee. Trump awakened many antipathies within his own party, and the other candidates had much more support among its top leaders. In little over a month, Trump has gotten rid of his opponents within the party while his chances of becoming president of the United States of America continue to grow. As strange as it may seem, the candidacy of Donald Trump has gone from the eccentricity of a billionaire’s desire for greatness,...

President Barack Obama is giving up on some of the American manufacturing jobs that went to Mexico, telling an Indiana resident that many of those jobs are not coming back. During a town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, Obama was asked a question about manufacturing by a man who was once employed by Carrier Corporation in Indiana before the plant announced plans to move to Mexico. “What we have to do is to make sure that folks are trained for the jobs that are coming in now because some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come...

How did we not think of this before? You can almost smell the excitement in the air around the green energy warrior community. The Washington Post ran an op-ed this week from “environmental attorney” Stephen Kass in which he puts forth a bold plan for dealing with climate change and the nation’s stubborn refusal to let go of proven, reliable energy generation via fossil fuels. The big target in Kass’ sights is the coal industry and the nation’s remaining coal fired power plants. With resistance growing to the Obama administration’s deceptively named Clean Power Plan, the author comes up...

The world's historic effort to reduce carbon emissions is likely to be a costly if not quixotic endeavor, according to one expert, whose recently published research warns that decarbonizing the globe could have devastating consequences on the world's way of life. In a report published this week, the International Energy Agency issued a call for "concrete action" to match the ambitions of last year's landmark climate change agreement, which was recently ratified by nearly 200 countries. The energy watchdog said the transition to a low-carbon future would require "massive changes in the energy system" to prevent the globe's temperature from...

When Leandro Leviste studied at Yale University, he heard about Elon Musk’s designs for Solarcity. Leviste had bought stocks in Tesla, Musk’s electric car brand, when they were cheap and sold them for $200 apiece at just the right time. Now he wants to cash in again: follow Musk’s mission by building the Philippine equivalent of Solarcity, which is an American company that installs solar panel systems on buildings and owns capacity to make the panels. The 23-year-old founder of Solar Philippines has spent $100 million dollars in bank loans arranged through family connections as well as his Tesla profits...

Ready to kick your Craigslist game up a notch? Maybe you're a regular seller on the site or maybe you want to get started. Either way, we'll cover the basics of how to make money on Craigslist so you can start using the site as your side hustle and make your listings stand out from the crowd. 1. Getting Started If you don't already have a Craigslist account you'll need to make one if you want to make money on Craigslist. On your local Craigslist site, (e.g. newyork.craigslist.org) you'll see a link in the top left that says "post to...

The disrupter-in-chief could tilt the global power balance away from China. Last week an enterprising, and unknown, far-right outfit in New Delhi performed a traditional Hindu puja, literally praying for a Donald Trump presidency. The Washington Post took this to mean that Trump has fans in India despite his tasteless rants about outsourcing. Britain’s Guardian quoted the fringe leader behind the religious ceremony describing Trump as “our hero.” The Hindu right’s Islamophobia is one that The Donald surely shares. They too, like Trump, are keen on restoring some putative long-lost national glory. But a far more sophisticated argument, beyond the...

A “Brave New World": Commissioners of sports leagues are just as infected as the leaders of media, business, government, higher education and the other pillars of our society After five decades, the World Golf Championship will move next year from the National Doral golf course in Miami, Florida to a golf course in Mexico City. Since the Doral course is owned by the certain GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, this decision smacks of political correctness. At least most objective observers would surmise that politics played a role in this decision; however, such a motive was denied by PGA Commissioner Tim...