Free Republic

STAGE 1: INFILTRATIONMuslims begin moving to non-Muslim countries in increasing numbers and the beginning of cultural conflicts are visible, though often subtle. - First migration wave to non-Muslim “host” country. - Appeal for humanitarian tolerance from the host society. - Attempts to portray Islam as a peaceful & Muslims as victims of misunderstanding and racism (even though Islam is not a ‘race’). - High Muslim birth rate in host country increase Muslim population. - Mosques used to spread Islam and dislike of host country & culture. - Calls to criminalize “Islamophobia” as a hate crime. - Threatened legal action for...

<p>A blue-ribbon commission had just excoriated Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks for fueling the financial crisis. Prosecutors were investigating whether Goldman had misled investors. The company was a whipping boy for politicians looking to lay blame for the crash.</p>

NEW DELHI—India is being offered blueprints to advanced combat aircraft by the world’s aerospace companies, a move unthinkable even a decade ago, as New Delhi gets ready to place another multibillion-dollar air force order. India’s aging military jet fleet desperately needs an upgrade, which analysts say may spur it to place an order worth more than $10 billion in the next year. Hoping for an edge, and encouraged by a recent law that allows 100% foreign ownership of local defense firms, jet-fighter makers such as Lockheed Martin Corp. , Boeing Co. and Saab AB are rushing in with offers to...

After voting to proceed to a bill that didn’t exist earlier this week, the Senate has finally produced text of the continuing resolution, a short-term government spending bill. The bill, written behind closed doors by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was brought to the floor late Thursday afternoon, and for the majority of Senate Republicans, represented their first opportunity to see the text. According to McConnell, senators will have four days (two of them on a weekend) to review the bill before having to cast their votes next week. As far as conservative priorities go, the bill is a failure....

Donald Trump detailed his energy plan, which he previously mentioned during his speech on the economy at the Detroit Economic Club in August, on Thursday in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. “I am going to lift the restrictions on American energy, and allow this wealth to pour into our communities – including right here in Pennsylvania,” Trump stated while speaking to more than 1,000 gas industry experts. Citing the Institute for Energy Research, Trump suggested that lifting energy restrictions such as shale production would produce more than 500,000 new jobs every year and raise the GDP by more than $100 billion each year.He also says...

Nike has finally announced when it will begin selling its self-lacing sneakers inspired by the shoes worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to The Future II. According to a tweet from the company's Heidi Burgett, the HyperAdapt 1.0 will be available for "experience & purchase" starting on the 28th of November, but only in select Nike locations in the US. Pricing is still unknown, but expect a "high price tag," according to a Wired feature on the shoe's development. You can check out the full story from Wired for a more detailed look at how the sneakers were made,...

The White House mocked GOP nominee Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz for trying to prevent the Commerce Department from transferring technical oversight of the Internet to an international body. "It doesn't withstand scrutiny," President Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday. "It also strikes me as a curious position for a self-described small government conservative to shut down the government to ensure that the federal government can continue to control the Internet," Earnest said of Cruz. "It doesn't make any sense." Cruz is trying to stop the multi-year transition that will leave the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and...

Goldman Sachs is cutting almost 30 per cent of its 300 investment banking jobs in Asia outside Japan in response to a slowdown in activity in the region, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Wall Street bank is reducing the number of bankers working on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and equity and debt capital markets deals, the sources said. It will be left with slightly more than 200 bankers across Asia. Most of the jobs cuts are likely to take place in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, where Goldman’s main Asian offices are located, according to the...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument next Tuesday, September 27 on the Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called Clean Power Plan. The centerpiece of resident Obama’s climate policy agenda, the Plan establishes first-ever carbon dioxide (CO2) emission standards for “existing” (already built) coal and natural gas power plants. The Plan will increase consumer energy prices and impede job and GDP growth yet have no discernible effect on global temperatures or sea levels. However, that’s not why the Court should strike it down. The Court should overturn the Plan because it is an unlawful power grab. The Plan will...

Mr. Drangmeister of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is invited to debate us (Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative) on OPEC , free trade and the price war against in the American Southwest. Apparently, he missed our presentation at the Independent Producers Association of New Mexico (IPANM) Convention recently in Santa Fe. This OP-ED is a response to his comments in a news article in this newspaper by Maddy Hayden It is not too late for him to learn that as a communications officer in an oil and gas trade association he should support an open forum of all ideas...

Bruce Stokes of the Pew Research Center based in Washington, DC, was in Delhi for a series of talks. He presented results of opinion polls that offer an interesting insight into the contemporary American mind Every leap year, the United States presidential election becomes the most watched such event in the world. The quantum of coverage only grows with each successive election, as media and social media capacities expand worldwide. Yet, this year the election has acquired a special significance due to a mix of factors. First, there are the compelling personalities -- in their own ways, Donald Trump and...

Are you one of 20 million uninsured Americans who hasn’t signed up for Obamacare? Then you might be getting a note from the IRS this year “suggesting” you enroll. “Getting a letter from the IRS can be a threatening and nerve-racking experience; it seldom is seen as a suggestion and more of a threat,” Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner wrote in a Forbes column Wednesday. The IRS is reportedly “reaching out” to Americans who claimed an exemption or chose to pay the tax penalty for not purchasing mandatory health insurance. The ploy is intended to “attract” Obamacare enrollees. “The government...

Anyone who pays any attention knows that something unusual is happening to employment. Good full time jobs are disappearing, being replaced by lower paying and part time jobs. Experts and especially politicians have explanations and excuses: Offshoring to lower labor countries, excessive rules and regulations, illegal aliens, lack of education in the workforce…. The list goes on and on. What I rarely hear: automation. When most people hear “automation,” they think “robots.” Most robots are dedicated and expensive and don’t replace that many people. “Automation” or computer control is what gets the majority of the jobs, and it is not...

While the most recent set of troubles plaguing Deutsche Bank have been duly documented here, most recently yesterday when the stock price tumbled once again just shy of all time lows over fears the bank's multi-billion DOJ settlement could severely impact its liquidity and/or solvency, this may be the first time we have heard the "n"-word tossed around in an official German publication: as Germany's top financial newspaper, Handelsblatt said, "German financial officials reacted with shock and dismay to the leaking of a U.S. government demand for a $14 billion fine against Deutsche Bank, which may ultimately need a state...

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...

Colonial pipeline is investigating what caused a pipeline to leak nearly 336,000 gallons of gasoline into a man-made retention pond. That leak was discovered back on September 9th near Helena, Alabama after state workers noticed a strong smell of gas. The shutdown pipeline caused rising fuel prices amid gas shortages across the South. Investigators say the broke portion, built in 1963, has since been repaired. A preliminary report does not identify the cause of the break as the federal investigation continues.

Democrats love to talk about rights. They say people have the "right to affordable health care," the "right to a debt free college education," the "right to choose," and so on. But there's one right they apparently want to erase: The right to work. Here's how Hillary Clinton put it in a videoconference this week at the Laborers' International Union of North America: "I will fight back against so-called right to work. Right to work is wrong for workers and wrong for America." Come again? The right to work is wrong for America? Clinton is referring to state right-to-work laws...

"Yeah, you're a genius, everyone knows it, a goddamn genius, but that's why you failed as a head coach - that's why you'll never be a head coach ... some genius." Those were the words of head NFL coach Bill Parcells to then assistant, and at the time once-failed (with the Cleveland Browns) head coach, Bill Belechick. During a game Belechick had suggested a defensive scheme that Parcells rejected, only for Belechick to be proven correct. Parcells' irritated reply revealed a now dated view among some football types about Belechick; that while he was in possession of a brilliant defensive...

THEY do not naturally crave the limelight. But for the past decade the attention on central bankers has been unblinking—and increasingly hostile. During the financial crisis the Federal Reserve and other central banks were hailed for their actions: by slashing rates and printing money to buy bonds, they stopped a shock from becoming a depression. Now their signature policy, of keeping interest rates low or even negative, is at the centre of the biggest macroeconomic debate in a generation. The central bankers say that ultra-loose monetary policy remains essential to prop up still-weak economies... ...But a growing chorus of critics...

The U.S. Federal Reserve is still enabling financial markets. The central bank on Wednesday again declined to raise rates, despite recent remarks from Chair Janet Yellen suggesting an increase was becoming more likely. The Fed counts talking to the market – what it calls giving “forward guidance” – as one of its tools, but the story has changed so often that Yellen and her colleagues might do better being less chatty. The Fed initially signaled four rate hikes in 2016 after raising the range for the federal funds rate to 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent last December... ...the U.S. economy...