Free Republic

As the Paris climate agreement edged closer to entering into force – which many advocates hope will occur before the possibility of a Trump presidency – Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday thanked what he called “warriors for the planet” as the second-to-last hurdle on the path to that achievement was cleared. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Kerry said he was “absolutely confident” that the most ambitious climate deal yet negotiated will enter into force before the next U.N. climate megaconference, which starts in Marrakech, Morocco on November 7 – one day before the U.S. election....

In his final address to the United Nations, United States president Barack Obama warned the assembled leaders that the liberal world order was under threat from what he called "crude populism". In words which could apply equally to Donald Trump, the Republican candidate to succeed him as president, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Mr Obama said that some were arguing that the future favours the strong man. "History shows that strong men are then left with two paths: permanent crackdown, which sparks strife at home, or scapegoating enemies abroad, which can lead to war."

Authorities have arrested 14 Chinese nationals in connection with an alleged illegal pot grow involving more than 3,000 plants east of Rifle (Colorado). Authorities are investigating whether human trafficking using forced labor was involved in the operation off Mile Pond Road, north of the Colorado River. The local multijurisdictional Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team, or TRIDENT, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration have been heading up the investigation. The arrests were made Monday. Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said the grow was occurring on a couple acres of a roughly 35- or 40-acre property. The property owner hasn’t been arrested...

Existing-home sales for August an annual rate fell o.9% to 5.33 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday, as the supply of existing homes for sales fell 10% vs. a year earlier. Economists had expected a rate of 5.44 million. Sales fell significantly in July to a revised 5.38 million, but from a recovery high. ... Tuesday, the Commerce Department reported August housing starts fell more than expected. But a day earlier, the National Association of Home Builders said its builder sentiment gauge soared in September to match an 11-year high. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's decision to leave...

The NASCAR Hall of Fame has been looted overnight in Charlotte, NC. Windows shattered, signs hanging through glass on $195 million dollar museum. A state of emergency declared on the city, the home of NASCAR. no lie pic.twitter.com/GWeZqlDsPU — Katie Peralta (@katieperalta) September 22, 2016 Keith Lamont Scott, father of 7, was killed Tuesday, at the hands of police. Another black man killed by police had the Black Lives Matter community taking to the streets demanding justice or proof of justified action. Police claim Scott was reaching through the window of his vehicle for a gun. However, photos of the...

Yahoo is poised to confirm a massive data breach of its service, according to several sources close to the situation, hacking that has exposed several hundred million user accounts. *snip* Earlier this summer, Yahoo said it was investigating a data breach in which hackers claimed to have access to 200 million user accounts and was selling them online. “It’s as bad as that,” said one source. “Worse, really.”

The third leg of the world's intractable depression is yet to come. If trade economists at the United Nations are right, the next traumatic episode may entail the greatest debt jubilee in history. It may also prove to be the definitive crisis of globalized capitalism, the demise of the liberal free-market orthodoxies promoted for almost forty years by the Bretton Woods institutions, the OECD, and the Davos fraternity. "Alarm bells have been ringing... ...money was wasted, skewed towards "highly cyclical and rent-based sectors of limited strategic importance for catching up," it said. Worse yet, these countries have imported the deformities...

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday after its two-day policy meeting, as expected, and longer-term rate projections show an even slower pace of increases. Still, policymakers painted a mostly upbeat picture about the job market and overall growth and signaled that the Fed's key rate will rise before year-end. Markets have increasingly been pricing in a December hike... ...Fed's forecasts show policymakers expect three rate hikes through the end of 2017, down from five at their June meeting. The estimate for the fed funds rate in 2017 has slipped to 1.1% in 2017 from a 1.6% view in...

Guess what? A President Trump could adopt his new trade agenda without any authorization from Congress -- and this could trigger a global trade war and a deep U.S. recession. Policies that promise to make us stronger economically could do the opposite. That's the main take-away of a study... ...Trump could implement most of his proposals, which repudiate decades of pro-trade policies, by executive order. So contends Peterson's Gary Hufbauer after a review of trade laws. Over the past century, Hufbauer says, Congress has passed many laws that "authorize the president to impose tariffs...... ...Trump's bluster may simply be a...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pitching Japan’s maglev technology for the railway system in the United States. Speaking in a meeting with US business leaders and financial experts in New York on Wednesday, Abe said that in the late 2030s, a maglev train linking Tokyo to Nagoya in central Japan will take just 40 minutes - an hour shorter than currently required for the shinkansen bullet train. The two cities are about 260km apart, as the crow flies. “The distance between Tokyo and Nagoya is almost the same as that between New York and [Washington] DC,” he said. “You...

Weird new warship USS Zumwalt has broken down while on sea trials, three weeks ahead of her formal commissioning ceremony. The futuristic $4.4bn vessel, which features a so-called “tumblehome” hull, suffered a seawater leak into the auxiliary lube oil system for one of her main propeller shafts, according to USNI News.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opposes a long-planned transition of oversight of the internet's technical management from the U.S. government to a global community of stakeholders, his campaign said in a statement on Wednesday. Congress should block the handover, scheduled to occur on Oct. 1, "or internet freedom will be lost for good, since there will be no way to make it great again once it is lost," Stephen Miller, national policy director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a former presidential primary foe of Trump's who has refused to endorse the real...

The third leg of the world's intractable depression is yet to come. If trade economists at the United Nations are right, the next traumatic episode may entail the greatest debt jubilee in history. It may also prove to be the definitive crisis of globalized capitalism, the demise of the liberal free-market orthodoxies promoted for almost forty years by the Bretton Woods institutions, the OECD, and the Davos fraternity. "Alarm bells have been ringing over the explosion of corporate debt levels in emerging economies, which now exceed $25 trillion. Damaging deflationary spirals cannot be ruled out," said the annual report of...

Hooray, we’re number . . . 16!? The latest Index of the Economic Freedom of the World was released last week, and the United States held its ranking as the 16th freest economy (see page 8 of the report), the same ranking as last year. I suppose it could have been worse. The Economic Freedom of the World report is put together every year by a consortium of more than 70 think tanks from around the world. It rates countries on a variety of policies from the size of government and the tax and regulatory burden to the soundness of...

MINOT, N.D. — A handful of Dakota Access Pipeline opponents took over the stage Wednesday, Sept. 21, as North Dakota's top oil regulator spoke to an oil industry group's annual meeting. The elders of the Oglala Lakota Nation referred to the pipeline as the "black snake" as they took the podium and microphone while Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms was speaking to the North Dakota Petroleum Council. "We want you guys to hear our voice and see us," one woman said. "We're not just some hashtag out there just making a scene. We want to be heard. We...

Tim Kaine is swinging by the Bay Area's political ATM on Wednesday. Hillary Clinton's running mate will be attending two fundraisers in Atherton and another in San Francisco. Kaine will be scooping up cash during a roundtable at the home of Steve Spinner, an angel investor and top fundraiser in President Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns, and his wife, Allison. In the afternoon, he'll be lunching at the home of former GOP supporter and Silicon Valley philanthropist Jillian Manus. Former GOP gubernatorial candidate and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman will be co-hosting the event. Over the summer, the high-profile Republican...

(WWJ) James Olson, a Sports Illustrated subscriber since fourth grade, watches action-packed NFL games on TV to escape from the endless round of political bickering playing out on other channels. But with more national anthem protests cropping up, he feels like politics has taken over his favorite sport, too. So he’s tuning out. “I want to say to these guys ‘If you weren’t playing in the NFL, you would be working at McDonalds. I think people have had it,” said, Olson, a Birmingham, Mich., resident.

see link in post below

AND NOW... amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke... it is time for... that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-The-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him — do NOT doubt him — with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name (that’s Rush, for those in Rio...

Airbus says the U.S. government has granted it a license allowing it to sell the first 17 planes involved in a landmark deal with Iran. […] Earlier this year, Iran Air signed agreements to buy 118 planes from the European consortium Airbus, estimated to be worth some €22.8 billion ($25 billion). …