Free Republic

A presidential campaign is figuratively called a "race." Two runners sprint toward the Election Day finish line for the prize of the presidency. But the 2016 presidential campaign has spawned lots of weird races. The first sprint is one between embarrassments and scandals. Will another WikiLeaks disclosure confirm that Hillary Clinton is a dishonest and conniving hypocrite? Or will yet another open-mic tape, disgruntled beauty queen or old Howard Stern interview remind us that Donald Trump's private life was -- and perhaps still is -- uncouth? The winner will be the candidate leaked about the least by Election Day. Here,...

The dozen or so cranes visible from Interstate 10 in Baytown will only remain for a few more months as Chevron Phillips Chemical's $6 billion petrochemical expansion moves toward completion. Chevron Phillips' complex is more than 80 percent complete, although it won't be fully operational for almost another year. The project involves a massive ethane cracker - on a plot the size of 44 football fields - that will separate a component of natural gas called ethane, which will provide the feedstock for some 1.5 million metric tons a year of ethylene, a common building block of plastics. Chevron Phillips,...

A wave of apprehension and anguish swept the Republican Party on Thursday, with many GOP leaders alarmed by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of the election and concluding that it is probably too late to salvage his flailing presidential campaign. As the Republican nominee reeled from a turbulent performance in the final debate here in Las Vegas, his party’s embattled senators and House members scrambled to protect their seats and preserve the GOP’s congressional majorities against what Republicans privately acknowledge could be a landslide victory for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. With 19 days until the election, the Republican...

CASA GRANDE — Republican Congressional District 1 candidate Paul Babeu says he plans to make improvements to Interstate 10 a greater priority for the federal government. Babeu, who is Pinal County sheriff, assembled a number of Republican state lawmakers on Monday to discuss his intentions as a congressman to prioritize widening a portion of I-10 that runs between Phoenix and Casa Grande. His plan is to work on expanding this section from two lanes to three in each direction. Doing so, Babeu said, improves safety and economic development. “This is directly linked to a prosperous future for western Pinal County...

Dream last night’s presidential debate, pro-abortion presidential candidate Hillary Clinton denied the brutality of abortion. She called Donald Trump’s statement that she favors ripping unborn babies from the womb a scare tactic. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “I think it’s terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now you can say that that’s okay and Hillary can say that that’s okay, but it’s not okay with me. Because based on what she’s saying...

As you would expect from a first-rate journalist, Fox News’ Chris Wallace held the candidates’ feet to the fire in last night’s third and final presidential debate. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT From the pro-life perspective, it was particularly useful that Wallace said he would “drill down” on the question of the Supreme Court “because the next president will almost certainly have at least one appointment and likely or possibly two or three appointments which means that you will in effect determine the balance of the court for what could be the next quarter century.”And so he did. The results were classic Hillary...

President Barack Obama offers multiple excuses for why health insurance premiums continue to skyrocket, including blaming Republicans and insurance companies for the problems. He complains that too many reporters spend more time discussing premium increases than explaining why he isn’t responsible for them. “No, I had nothing to do with that,” Obama said, calling it “complicated” despite the “hysteria” that was growing. Obama traveled to Florida to argue that Obamacare was working well, but needed to be fixed

If you haven’t paid your parking tickets you may soon have a face-to-face with “the Barnacle.” The yellow monstrosity, which latches on to the windshield and blocks the driver’s view, rendering the car undriveable, has already begun replacing the parking boot in cities like Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as part of a 60-day trial that began Sept. 23. The peculiar device is more effective than the boot at immobilizing cars and is easier to install, Kevin Dougherty, president of the New York-based Barnacle Parking Enforcement, told Philly.com. The Barnacle — an opaque piece of plastic held in place...

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...

After the relentless barrage of verbal abuse and negative sentiment aimed at Barack Obama and the US, coupled with increasingly complimentary statements toward Beijing, it was only a matter of time before Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte put an end to the speculation if and when he would officially pivot the country's long-held diplomatic alliance away from the US and toward China. He did so today when, during a visit to China's capital, Duterte announced his "separation" from the United States, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks. Duterte...

Content at link.

WASHINGTON: The United States (US) looks unlikely to follow through on a threat to relegate Britain to second-class trade status once its ally leaves the European Union, as it weighs the potential costs of undermining the countries close diplomatic and military ties. President Barack Obama had warned ahead of Thursday's "Brexit" referendum that Britain would move to the back of the queue on US trade priorities if it voted to leave the bloc, well behind a much larger US European trade deal now under negotiation. But in the face of a severe financial market reaction to the vote to...

Donald Trump held onto his 1-point lead over Hillary Clinton in the second day of the IBD/TIPP presidential tracking poll — 41% to 40%. Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Part's Jill Stein remain far behind at 7% and 5%, respectively. In a two-way matchup, Clinton continues to hold a three-point lead over Trump — 43% to 41%. The poll included 779 likely voters, giving it a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points. The second day's results of the IBD/TIPP poll don't reflect any impact of the spirited presidential debate Wednesday night, which covered a wide range of...

WASHINGTON: The United States (US) looks unlikely to follow through on a threat to relegate Britain to second-class trade status once its ally leaves the European Union, as it weighs the potential costs of undermining the countries close diplomatic and military ties. President Barack Obama had warned ahead of Thursday's "Brexit" referendum that Britain would move to the back of the queue on US trade priorities if it voted to leave the bloc, well behind a much larger US European trade deal now under negotiation. But in the face of a severe financial market reaction to the vote to...

illary Clinton And Wall Street: Financial Industry May Control Retirement Savings In A Clinton Administration BY DAVID SIROTA @DAVIDSIROTA AND AVI ASHER-SCHAPIRO ON 10/19/16 AT 12:50 AM Blackstone's Tony James: America's Not Great at Saving While Hillary Clinton has spent the presidential campaign saying as little as possible about her ties to Wall Street, the executive who some observers say could be her Treasury Secretary has been openly promoting a plan to give financial firms control of hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement savings. The executive is Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group. The investment colossus is most...

POLICIES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION. PART 2: TRADE This is the second in a series on the majory policy ideas — from Left and Right — that should guide the next presidential administration's agenda. (For the opposing view, see Will Marshall, "Detoxifying the Trade Debate.") Budget-deficit hawks often insist that the only way to balance the Federal budget is to raise taxes or cut spending. The far smarter path to balance the budget is simply to grow our economy faster. From 1947 to 2001, the U.S. real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent. Since 2002,...

A California teacher recently did a double take after she received an email from the travel website Expedia. Cara Viramontes logged in to check her itinerary and saw a message that said, "F*** You!" She then discovered her family's travel reservation had been cancelled.

While Hillary Clinton has spent the presidential campaign saying as little as possible about her ties to Wall Street, the executive who some observers say could be her Treasury Secretary has been openly promoting a plan to give financial firms control of hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement savings. The executive is Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group.

After more than a week of blistering attacks from Democrats, celebrities and the press, Donald Trump has managed to pull ahead of Hillary Clinton by 1 percentage point — 41.3% to 40% — in a four-way matchup, according to the new IBD/TIPP poll released today. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson got 8% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein got 6%. The results are the first in the IBD/TIPP presidential tracking poll. Daily updates start Thursday and will continue until the election. The IBD/TIPP poll previously was monitoring support for the candidates in the 2016 election on a monthly basis.

Every year about 4 million American youngsters move on from high school. On average just over 80% of them graduate and the others, around 760,000 each and every year, just move on. Unfortunately the economic futures of those who don’t obtain a high school diploma are rather bleak. They are made bleaker in that they will in all likelihood be competing for jobs against millions of illegal immigrants who are willing to work for far below market wages. Of those who do graduate high school, around 2/3rds will attend college. Thus just over 1 million high school graduates won’t attempt...