Free Republic

WASHINGTON — As President Trump congratulated the World Series champion Houston Astros at a White House ceremony last week, he also heaped praise on himself and congressional Republicans for passing a sweeping tax cut last year. He hailed Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the House’s chief tax writer and an Astros superfan, as “the king of those tax cuts.” What he did not mention is that the new tax law Mr. Brady helped draft, and which Mr. Trump signed, levies a large new tax on the Astros, and similar franchises across professional sports. The law changed a corner of the...

I received an email from my Google/YouTube rep at 9:30pm tonight. He requested an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss YouTube's new policies regarding firearms content. This is really bad. Please read this carefully and a couple of times, and let it sink in. 1/3rd of my videos or more will need to be removed. If you don't have them removed in 30 days, your channel will be deleted for policy violations. I wish this were a joke. It's not. I feel horrible for reloading channels or NFA channels. Showing how to make ammo or even showing the installation of a...

If you're a parent, you've had at least one passing discussion on the closure of Toys R Us. The mega-giant toy chain that ruled the childhoods of many of today's parents is shuttering nearly 200 stores this month. While bankruptcy is the official reason, it isn't the only or perhaps even the biggest reason why Geoffrey the Giraffe is being sent to the big zoo in the sky: Debt. Competition from online retailers like Amazon, as well as cheaper big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Yes, bad customer service, too. All of these are the most commonly cited reasons...

Amid calls for investigation and a #DeleteFacebook campaign, company releases an official statement but its figurehead keeps quiet =================================================================================================================== he chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has remained silent over the more than 48 hours since the Observer revealed the harvesting of 50 million users’ personal data, even as his company is buffeted by mounting calls for investigation and regulation, falling stock prices and a social media campaign to #DeleteFacebook. Facebook’s shares slid 6.77% on Monday following the news, knocking $36bn off the company’s valuation as investors worried about the consequences of the revelations. Zuckerberg owns 16% of the company...

“They [the NCAA] just got a contract from CBS (and TNT), $8.8 billion, and if you are making that, I think you have to share some revenue. You can’t expect people to continue to work for nothing on a false hope of, well this is about education, we are getting you an education, we will feed you. It sounds a little like 400 years ago, like slavery. Stay in your hut. Stay in that little house. We’ll give you some food. You do all of the work. All of it. And I am telling you that I will take care...

Well, that is damned inconvenient. A state-of-the-art pedestrian bridge hailed as the inevitably wondrous result of diversity in engineering has collapsed within days of being paraded before the media. Did I say inconvenient? I should have said symbolic. “Diversity Bridge” (that’s not the structure’s official name, but I think it fits) was designed to connect Florida International University to the city of Sweetwater, where many FIU students and staff reside. The bridge, installed (though not yet opened to the public) a mere four days before its failure, spanned a busy Miami highway, and the collapse crushed cars and people underneath....

The meeting will be led by Facebook's deputy general counsel as CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains silent on the data scandal. ====================================================================================================================== Facebook is holding an open meeting for all employees following allegations that data belonging to its users was harvested by Cambridge Analytica. The company's chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg has not commented on the scandal nor made a public appearance since the story broke. Mr Zuckerberg will not be present to lead Tuesday's meeting, which instead will be chaired by Facebook's deputy general counsel, Paul Grewal. Cambridge Analytica is accused of illegally harvesting the personal data of 50...

The probes follow a weekend of turmoil for Facebook after reports that Cambridge Analytica gained access to the data of more than 50 million users. Shares of Facebook are down 3.5 percent down after falling as much as 8 percent on Monday. UK officials are also investigating the alleged mishandling of data. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether the use of personal data from 50 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica violated a consent decree the tech company signed with the agency in 2011, Bloomberg reported Monday. The probe follows a weekend of turmoil for the social media...

I have to apologize for my generation. I mean there’s the appalling affinity for the Democratic Party, the safe spaces, the anti-free speech antics, the triggering, and the fetishistic fixation on victimhood through the patriarchy. A lecture on intersectionality, you say. I’d rather chug bleach. So, I guess it wouldn’t shock you at all that Millennials aren’t saving because they think capitalism will be a thing of the past by the time they reach 65. Emily Zanotti of The Daily Wire has more:

Now that an Arizona woman was killed after being struck by a self-driving Uber vehicle many questions come to mind not that they shouldn’t.We live in Pittsburgh, lots of hills, and lots of snow and ice.There are times when we have difficulty controlling a car in those conditions (our weather forecast is for 6 inches of snow later today and tonight). A couple months ago my wife, after driving to and from work in terrible road conditions, wondered how a self-driving car would handle it. What do you think of these self-driving cars navigating snow and ice?

A growing homelessness crisis. Complaints about traffic congestion. Worries that the economy is becoming dominated by a wealthy elite. Those sound like California’s problems in a nutshell. But now they are also among California’s leading exports. Just ask the citizens of this city, where growing numbers of Californians and companies like Tesla have migrated to take advantage of cheap land and comparatively low home prices. A four-hour drive from Silicon Valley, across a mountain range and a state line, Reno is finding that imported growth is accompanied by imported problems.

Multiple lawmakers left a meeting with House Republican leadership on Monday night, confirming that the House version of the omnibus spending bill will not include an Obamacare bailout package proposed by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Congress must pass the omnibus spending bill before midnight Friday or the government will shut down. The proposed bailout package would include Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies for three years and funding a federal reinsurance program for three years in exchange for increased flexibility for states through federal waivers. The program would also expand eligibility for Obamacare “copper” plans. The removal of...

A Southern California town council rebelled Monday night and voted to reject the state’s sanctuary law. Los Alamitos Council members voted 4-1 to opt out of a state law that limits cooperation between local police and federal immigration agents. The law, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year and became effective on Jan. 1, includes prohibiting state and local police agencies from informing federal authorities in cases when illegal immigrants facing deportation are released from detention. Los Alamitos’ adopted ordinance claims the new state law “may be in direct conflict with federal laws and the Constitution.” The council, therefore, “finds...

The U.S. Navy asked shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries on Monday for detailed pricing on the cost of two aircraft carriers, showing the Trump administration is taking a serious look at doubling its order for the most expensive ship in the U.S. fleet. The Navy’s request seeks to determine the savings achievable with a two-ship buy.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Weinstein Co. filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday with a buyout offer in hand from a private equity firm, the latest twist in its efforts to survive the sexual misconduct scandal that brought down co-founder Harvey Weinstein, shook Hollywood and triggered a movement that spread out to convulse other industries. The company also announced it was releasing any victims of or witnesses to Weinstein’s alleged misconduct from non-disclosure agreements preventing them from speaking out.

Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday that China doesn’t want to see a “trade war” with the United States and hopes to reach a negotiated settlement of disputes. Speaking at a nationally televised news conference, Li said rash action would hurt all sides. He made no mention of a possible Chinese response to any increase in U.S. import controls. Beijing faces mounting pressure from the government of U.S. President Donald Trump over complaints it hampers access to its markets, pressures foreign companies to hand over technology and is flooding foreign markets with unfairly low-priced steel and other goods. That has prompted...

China Jumps to Number Two Importer of U.S. Crude By MarEx 2018-03-19 00:17:30 U.S. crude oil exports in 2017 were nearly double those of 2016, and China accounted for 202,000 b/d (20 percent) of the 527,000 b/d total increase. As a result, China surpassed the U.K. and the Netherlands to become the second-largest importing destination. However, similar to previous years, Canada remained the top destination for U.S. crude oil exports. Canada’s share of total U.S. crude oil exports continued to decrease in 2017, down from 61 percent in 2016 to 29 percent. U.S. crude was shipped to 37 destinations, compared...

• Price performance difference between tech and utilities has spread lately to a level nearly as wide as when the dotcom bubble burst. • "The obsession with dot-com stocks in the late-1990s has been replaced today by a fascination with FANG stocks," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group. Price performance between the two sectors has spread lately to a gap not quite as wide as during the bubble, but close. Using a measure called the "Popular/Panned Ratio", Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, sees danger signs growing for the bull market that began...

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth decline by about $5 billion Monday, but it could have been worse. Ahead of Facebook’s worst one-day decline since 2012, prompted by news that data affecting 51.3 million members was improperly shared with a political consulting firm, Zuckerberg had been busy selling stock. So far this year, he has sold nearly five million shares. Disposing of those Facebook FB, -1.02% shares before Monday ended up saving about $40 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings and some arithmetic by MarketWatch. At Monday’s close, the 4.9 million shares Zuckerberg has...

It sounds like an oxymoron, but the state Legislature is taking action to help reduce the risk in one of the more dangerous jobs in road maintenance: driving the safety truck. The trucks are fitted with a warning arrow and a crash barrier on the rear. They are driven slowly to provide protection behind crews cutting grass and painting lines. About once a month, one of these truck drivers is injured when a motorist strikes the vehicle. To address that situation and others, the state House passed a bill last week to allow autonomous versions of the vehicle, known as...