Free Republic

Excellent!and flood dangers. Speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Trump said that the approval process for projects was “badly broken” and that the nation’s infrastructure was a “massive self-inflicted wound on our country.” Trump said that “no longer” would there be “one job-killing delay after another” for new projects. But he did not provide any proposal on how his much-promised infrastructure program would be financed or what it would include.

DONALD TRUMP IS bringing back jobs to the US – at least that’s what he’s promising to do. At a press conference at Trump Tower this evening, the US President said that he would cut down on regulations for construction projects like motorways, and aim to bring manufacturing jobs back from other countries – namechecking Ireland. You have to bring it back to this country, you can’t do it in Ireland and all of these other places. You have to bring this work back to this country so that American workers can benefit.(TWEET-AT-LINK) Ireland has gathered unwanted attention from the...

President Trump angrily defended himself on Tuesday against criticism that he did not specifically condemn Nazi and white supremacist groups following the weekend’s deadly racial unrest in Virginia, and at one point questioned whether the movement to pull down statues of Confederate leaders would escalate to the desecration of George Washington. In a long, combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the president repeatedly rejected a torrent of bipartisan criticism for waiting two days before naming the right-wing groups and placing blame on “many sides” for the violence on Saturday that ended with the death of a young...

Premiums for the most popular health insurance plans would shoot up 20 percent next year, and federal budget deficits would increase by $194 billion in the coming decade if President Trump carries out his threat to end certain subsidies paid to insurance companies for the benefit of low-income people, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. The subsidies reimburse insurers for reducing deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs that low-income people pay when they visit doctors, fill prescriptions or receive care in hospitals. Even before efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed in the Senate last month, Mr. Trump began...

Despite the turbulence of the Weimar years, Germany has followed a steady capitalist economic model since the end of the Second World War. But that doesn’t mean people like the idea, a new study shows. Contrary to the US, where belief in capitalism is as entrenched as hot dogs and baseball, Germany has always had a more complicated relationship to the philosophy of competitive markets. This is, after all, the country that gave us the founding communist thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. And a study published by Statista and YouGov on Tuesday shows that only 16 percent of Germans...

Walmart’s chief executive issued a strong rebuke of President Trump’s response to the protests that turned violent in Charlottesville, Va., saying the president “missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together.” The criticism came in a statement that the retailer’s chief executive, Doug McMillon, emailed to employees Monday evening, which was reviewed by The New York Times. The statement was later posted on a company website. “As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting...

The GOP’s plan to cut the number of immigrants and increase the percentage of highly educated workers within that pool would decrease GDP by 2 percent over the long term and cost 4.6 million jobs, a new study finds. The RAISE Act, introduced by Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue and endorsed by President Donald Trump, would use a “merit-based” system for evaluating applicants, prioritizing those with college degrees, English-language skills, and employment prospects, among other criteria — an approach favored by politicians in both parties. But by combining this with measures that would cut the approximately 800,000 legal immigrants...

(CNN)Major cities across the country are bracing for a wave of white nationalist rallies in the coming days. The largest scheduled rally is the "March on Google," which will take place in nine major US cities Saturday. The aim is to protest the firing of Google employee James Damore over a controversial memo he wrote about the company's diversity policies. Damore has said he doesn't support the "alt-right," and will "likely not" participate. The "March on Google" rallies are scheduled to take place at these Google locations around the country: Atlanta Austin Boston Los Angeles Mountain Park, California New York...

MOLINE -- Building the new Interstate 74 bridge will take years, but certification to bid on the jobs building it should only take about 90 days. The Illinois Department of Transportation held a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise certification and supportive services workshop Monday evening at the Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St. At the workshop, officials from IDOT shared information on how those who are in presumed disadvantaged groups can bid on contracts associated with the project. To qualify for DBE certification, the business owner must have a personal net worth of less than $1.32 million. Engineering consulting businesses must average...

On Monday morning, Merck & Co. Chief Executive Ken Frazier resigned from President Trump’s manufacturing jobs council to protest Trump’s deficient condemnation of the racist violence in Charlottesville, Va. Since then, membership on Trump’s Potemkin Village-like CEO boards has begun to look like something of a litmus test for American corporations and business organizations. Two CEOs followed Frazier out the door on Monday: Under Armour’s Kevin Plank and Intel’s Brian Krzanich. But representatives of some 40 other corporations and other organizations, including a couple of retired CEOs, are still members of the jobs council and a second panel designated the...

The Connecticut lottery's mobile app malfunctioned over the weekend, causing some winning tickets to read as losers. Lottery officials shut down the app for an hour after identifying the error that took place from 12:25 p.m. on Saturday through 10:34 a.m. on Monday and encouraged players who checked their tickets during that time to scan them again. "If you scanned draw tickets during that time, please check your tickets again. The Mobile App 'Scan Tickets' feature is now fully operational," the lottery said. "You can also check CT Lottery tickets at a Ticket Checker available at all CT Lottery Retailers."...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the three chief executives who left his manufacturing council as "grandstanders." "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!" ....Shortly after Trump's tweet Tuesday, Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, also said he would drop out of the council. Paul, head of the group that aims to promote American manufacturing, said "it's the right thing for me to do."

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government collected record amounts of both individual income taxes and payroll taxes through the first ten months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of July), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. Through July, the federal government collected approximately $1,312,691,000,000 in individual income taxes. At the same time, it collected $976,278,000,000 in Social Security and other payroll taxes. Prior to this year, fiscal 2015 held the record for individual income tax collections through July. That year, the Treasury collected $1,309,431,860,000 (in constant 2017 dollars) in individual income taxes in the first ten months of...

A US service provider is fighting government demands for it to hand over details of millions of activists. The Department of Justice (DoJ) wants all visitors' IP addresses - some 1.3 million - to a website that helped organise a protest on the day of President Trump's inauguration. DreamHost is currently refusing to comply with the request and is due in court later this month. The DoJ has not yet responded to requests for comment from the BBC. It is unclear why it wants the internet protocol addresses of visitors to website disruptj20.org, which organised a protest against President Trump...

In a fresh onslaught on its former employer, James Damore, the engineer who was fired by Google over a memo criticising the company's diversity efforts, has said that the tech giant is discriminating in its hiring practices.

FULL TITLE: Deadly 'super heatwaves' of 55°C will sweep across the US east coast, China, India, South America and Europe if global warming goes unchecked. This summer, a heatwave nicknamed 'Lucifer' has swept across Europe, with temperatures reaching 44°C (111°F). But a new study suggests that things could get much worse, with a bout of 'super-heatwaves' reaching 55°C (121°F) predicted to hit several areas if global temperatures rise by just 4°C (39°F). Experts say that these heatwaves will be particularly humid, and could leave more people vulnerable to health risks, including sun stroke and hypothermia. As a result, if global...

It’s time to treat Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter like public utilities.... Yes, they are private companies, just as many utilities are. And yes, these Internet monopolies do not have the same physical-infrastructure advantages that electric-utility monopolies have. But because of their network effects, their dominance and monopoly power are in many ways even starker. If I don’t like my utility I can put solar panels on my roof and an inverter and battery in my garage, and I can still get power. But if I can’t get access to the 2 billion people on Facebook because Facebook doesn’t like...

Reports now, according to Exhibitor Relations: if things continue as they have, this will be the lowest box office in a quarter century. While there have been bright spots (“Dunkirk”) and surprises (“Baby Driver”) the failures have outweighed everything. Start with a total write off on “King Arthur” and go from there. Then go to “The Dark Tower.” One terrible new failure: “Nut Job 2,” they say, is the biggest loser ever in wide release (4000+) studio movie. It made just over $8 million this weekend. Four years ago, at a USC symposium, famed and very successful directors George Lucas...

<p>Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said his staff will gauge the “accuracy” of a major federal science report that blames human activity for climate change — just days after researchers voiced their fears to The New York Times that the Trump administration would alter or suppress its findings.</p>

Krzanich is the third executive to leave President Donald Trump's council in the span of a day — Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier both resigned earlier on Monday following the recent episode of white supremacist violence in Virginia. "I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing," Krzanich said in Monday's blog post. "I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on all leaders...