Free Republic

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unilateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of,"...

I owe Democrats an apology. Flipping through some of my hate mail (I lead a tremendously exciting life, as you can see) it dawned on me that it’s quite possible conservatives are a little too hard on our liberal friends. (Also: I’m trolling for more hate mail.) And so, with reserved humility, I sat down with a drink (less than 32 ounces) and a pen, and made a list of things for which we conservatives ought to apologize. It’s the least I can do:I am sorry about labeling Net Neutrality “broadband-socialism”. Clearly my distrust in the folks who brought us...

~snip~ It wasn't always like this. Between 1978 and 2008, Oklahoma averaged fewer than two significant earthquakes per year. In 2014, that number had spiked to 585, including 19 that measured a powerful 4.0 magnitude or stronger...

Everyone should aspire to live as exemplary a life as Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, 97, the former Notre Dame president, who died Feb. 26 but was a transformational national leader while also serving as the university’s president from 1952 to 1987, after receiving the school’s top job at the age of 35.With Fr. Hesburgh’s help, the United States ushered in an era of civil rights and the Catholic school became one of the country’s top universities, despite him arriving when it was best known for its iconic football team. His prominence did not prevent Fr. Hesburgh from taking an interest in...

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fisher told an economic forum on Friday that the Fed would likely look to interest rates hikes in June or September but that economic developments could change that, thereby declaring the impending end of an era of easy money. “I don't think there is an emphasis on June instead of September” Mr. Fischer told a monetary policy forum in New York according to Bloomberg. “[I]t seems those two months get the main weight of probability.”

An old chestnut among pundits is to say that Republicans have become an extremist party out of touch with everyday, average Americans. It's so frequently stated that many Republicans even believe it. But as we've written before, it's the Democratic Party that has moved to the extreme.

We are only two months into 2015, and it has already proven to be the most volatile year for the economic environment since 2008-2009. We have seen oil markets collapsing by about 50 percent in the span of a few months (just as the Federal Reserve announced the end of QE3, indicating fiat money was used to hide falling demand), the Baltic Dry Index losing 30 percent since the beginning of the year, the Swiss currency surprise, the Greeks threatening EU exit (and now Greek citizens threatening violent protests with the new four-month can-kicking deal), and the effects of the...

The UK government has issued a shortlist of aerodromes that could host a UK The UK government has issued a shortlist of aerodromes that could host a UK spaceport. The list reduces the number of runways first suggested as candidates when last year's consultation got under way. Still in are Campbeltown, Glasgow Prestwick, and Stornoway in Scotland; Newquay in England and Llanbedr in Wales. RAF Leuchars is confirmed as a potential temporary facility. Ministers are keen to see the spaceport established by 2018. . The list reduces the number of runways first suggested as candidates when last year's consultation got...

Five days after an open letter was posted online, the number of people at University of Wisconsin -- now including not only faculty, but staff, students and alumi -- demanding that UW System president Ray Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker's plan to restructure UW in his budget rose to 484. Some 88 of them were at, or graduated from UW-Madison, where faculty were scheduled Monday to vote on a resolution asking Cross to delay restructuring. Seventy-four University of Wisconsin faculty members from campuses across the state signed an open letter to UW System president Ray Cross, “insisting in the strongest...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivered his budget address in February, presenting a $68 billion, two-year spending plan that he said would “assist small businesses and farmers.” .... watch Walker’s speech

It’s been a little more than six months since the full brunt of Western sanctions took force against Russia. The punishment, while slow in coming, has proven devastatingly effective—especially when paired with the crash in oil prices.

Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to call today for the Republican-controlled General Assembly to send him a budget that boosts state education funding and provides relief for school district property taxes while raising the rates of the sales and personal income taxes. His plan for doing so includes a proposal to raise the personal income tax rate in July 2015 from 3.07 percent to 3.7 percent, while increasing the eligibility for a poverty exemption, according to a briefing document prepared by the administration. He will propose increasing the state sales tax in July 2016 from 6 to 6.6 percent while...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Shortly after dusk along a lonely stretch of Interstate 95, armed robbers hijacked an armored truck, tied up the two guards and disappeared into the night with 275 pounds of gold bars.

OAKLAND (KPIX 5) — The minimum wage in Oakland is about to become the highest in the Bay Area. Right now it’s $9/hour, but not for long. Thanks to voter-approved Measure FF, it will rise to $12.25/hour on Monday. But as this city’s minimum wage goes up, so go food prices. Most restaurants have said they’ll have to raise prices and cut worker hours. --SNIP-- But while Higginbotham can’t wait for the $12.25 hourly wage, small business owners like Sam Hori at 475 Café worry they may not survive. “It’s scary, because if things go down, we cannot to be...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of,"...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.

The trio of Republicans tasked with shaping GOP senators’ response if the Supreme Court voids many of the Obama health law’s tax credits have thrown their weight behind a short-term extension of financial assistance. [Snip] Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Orrin Hatch of Utah and John Barrasso of Wyoming gave their backing to such a plan in an op-ed published Sunday night in the Washington Post. “Republicans have a plan to create a bridge away from Obamacare,” wrote the men, who were tapped by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with devising a strategy for GOP senators.

To quickly secure our Southern Border, open the construction of the border fence to public and private sponsorship. Crowd source it. If individuals, private organizations, and state or local governments with jurisdiction were allowed to finance construction of one mile segments, build out would occur quickly, leaving only a subset for the Federal Government to finance. What do you think of this as a "power down" solution for a future Republican Administration?

* U.S. Stocks Close Higher *Nasdaq Composite Closes Above 5000 For First Time Since March 2000 *DJIA, S&P 500 End at Fresh Records The Nasdaq Composite climbed above the 5000-point level for the first time in almost 15 years on Monday, another milestone in the revival of an index that once was synonymous with dot-com excess but now reflects a broad swath of global technology, consumer, health-care and financial firms. The Nasdaq Composite, which tracks the prices of the 2,571 companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market, briefly topped 5000 at 10:30 a.m. EST. It was the first time the index...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know...

"....Claire Yunker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services, said in a statement that Walker’s proposal is aimed at preventing fraud and abuse in the existing system and creating a more coordinated care regimen. But Daniel Idzikowski, executive director of Disability Rights — a group that advocates for people with disabilities — said his organization was not consulted about Walker’s plan that the Legislature will debate over the next three months. It would drastically restructure Family Care, which administers personal care and long-term care services to elderly, disabled and injured Wisconsinites through Medicaid, he said. “By and large that...

President Obama earned a double-barreled rebuke Monday from The Washington Post's fact-checker, for repeating a faulty claim that the Keystone XL pipeline "bypasses" the U.S. -- and for saying it would only carry "Canadian oil." The president made the claims in an interview last week with WDAY of Fargo, N.D. Obama continued to downplay the impact of the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, just days after vetoing a bipartisan-backed bill that would approve the construction project. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has teed up a vote to override that veto later this week. In the local interview, Obama said: "I've already...

......UW officials say that Walker's proposal to end funding for the bioenergy program would cripple broader energy-development research that is receiving $25million annually from the federal Department of Energy."I can't honestly say how we would replace it at this point,"said Michael Corradini,director of the Wisconsin Energy Institute at UW-Madison,which derives 90% of its funding from the bioenergy program...In 2007,Wisconsin landed the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center—the first federal research center the state had attracted in decades. The center received an initial five-year,$125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.It was part of a $375 million package by the administration...

MRIs cost about $4,000, but his patients pay $400 CT scans are $2,000 with insurance, he said, but are $300 through his practice X-rays are usually $500, but priced at $60 at Pinckney's clinic, the results of which he can check on his smartphone

Obama hates Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress because, unlike the McConnell Boehner clown car, there will be one strong voice, drawing a national audience, declaring truth and the treachery of what Obama is up to. I wish Netanyahu could address Congress monthly. This is just upside down insaneville. The House passed a bill to fund Homeland Security, minus Obama's illegal amnesty. The Senate wants to pass the bill, but can't because Democrats are filibustering it. Senate Democrats are declaring loud and clear they'd sooner shut down DHS than keep it open without the amnesty program. It’s a classic standoff, and...

Last week I wrote an article for the Illinois Policy Institute on the hugely unfunded and deteriorating nature of numerous Illinois' pension systems. I will post the article on Monday. My article was on on state pension systems, not Chicago's, and was written well ahead of downgrades of Chicago's debt by Moody's on Friday. I was not surprised to see the downgrade.

Back in 2012, I shared some superb analysis from InvestorÂ’s Business Daily showing that the United States never would have suffered $1 trillion-plus deficits during ObamaÂ’s first term if lawmakers had simply exercised a modest bit of spending restraint beginning back in 1998. And the IBD research didnÂ’t assume anything onerous. Indeed, the author specifically showed what would have happened if spending grew by an average of 3.3 percent, equal to the combined growth of inflation plus population.Remarkably, we would now have a budget surplus of about $300 billion if that level of spending restraint continued to the current fiscal...

Suppose there were a banquet for 100 people and at the end of the night it was time to split the bill of $50 per person. If that bill were paid for the way we pay our income taxes, here is how it would work. Those in the top half of income would pay roughly $97 each and those in the bottom half of the income would pay an average of $3 each. Almost 40 people would pay nothing. And the single richest person in the room would cough up $1,750. Liberals would complain that the cheap skate rich guy...

RENOWNED Bucks County portrait artist Nelson Shanks has painted everyone from Princess Diana to President Bill Clinton and from Pope John Paul II to Marisa Tomei. He and his wife, Leona, are the founders of Studio Incamminati, an art school on 12th Street near Callowhill. On a recent Friday, as the north light of a chilly afternoon flooded his Andalusia studio, Shanks, 77, chain smoked cigarettes and drank Diet Cokes while painting Gabrielle, a beautiful young belly dancer, on a 7-by-5-foot canvas. Following his 7-hour session with Gabrielle, Shanks spoke with Stephanie Farr about a hidden secret in his portrait...

When Alison Norris couldn’t find work in Detroit, she searched past the city limits, ending up with a part-time restaurant job that’s 20 miles away but takes at least two hours to get to via separate city and suburban bus systems. For many city residents with limited skills and education, Detroit is an employment desert, having lost tens of thousands of blue-collar jobs in manufacturing cutbacks and service jobs as the population dwindled. What’s available to those without cars—about 40 percent of Detroit’s population, according to federal figures—often are low-paying retail or sales positions far outside the city. […] The...

While Vladimir Putin remains firmly entrenched in power in the Kremlin, opposition forces marched in the tens of thousands in the streets of Moscow according to journalists. The marchers chanted demanding an end to Putin’s power in Russia after the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov was gun down on the streets of Moscow.The suspicion is that Nemtsov, who was planning a rally in Moscow against Putin and the prosecution of the Ukraine war, was killed to silence and inconvenient critic.“Tens of thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow on Sunday, carrying banners declaring ‘I am not afraid’ and...

President Barack Obama last week vetoed legislation that would have greenlighted the Keystone XL pipeline, linking Canadian oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Senate lacks the votes to override Obama's veto. Yet Keystone isn't dead. Both Democrats and Republicans have an interest in keeping this political football in play. Someday, we hope, the pipeline will be built. But that day won't come any time soon — and perhaps never during Obama's dwindling presidency. In his veto message, Obama asserted that he hasn't decided whether Keystone should be built or not. Obama said he was using his veto pen...

As robots increasingly adopt human qualities, including those that allow them to replace actual human labor, economists are starting to worry.  As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, some “wonder if automation technology is near a tipping point, when machines finally master traits that have kept human workers irreplaceable.”The fears of economists, politicians and workers themselves are way overdone.  They should embrace the rise of robots precisely because they love job creation.  As my upcoming book Popular Economics points out with regularity, abundant job creation is always and everywhere the happy result of technological advances that tautologically lead to job destruction.Robots...

A German investment firm has predicted Apple Inc’s downfall as it sets a stock price target of $60 per share. Berenberg Bank believes the financial model of the Cupertino-based company relies too much on the iPhone. Berenberg has forecasted a more than 50 percent decline of Apple shares. According to Apple Insider, the German firm’s price target is so “extreme” that it doesn’t appear to be plausible prediction but more of a statement. In a note to investors, Berenberg issued the extremely bearish forecast on Apple stock. Even a few investment firms who remain bearish on Apple have maintained price...

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker compared labor unions to ISIS his audience cheered. At the end of the speech he got a standing ovation, reported FOX News in an article entitled “Walker draws standing ovation in CPAC address”. His wealthy audience hated labor unions that much. In fact, the 1% despises unions much more than they hate ISIS. Islamic extremists in the Syrian desert pose no threat to anyone in the U.S., while labor unions pose a direct threat to the profits of the super rich. Conversely, the average U.S. worker has much more to fear from Scott Walker than...

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphones, featuring a slim body made from aircraft-grade metal, in a bid to reclaim the throne of undisputed global smartphone leader from Apple Inc. Designed from scratch in an operation dubbed "Project Zero", the Galaxy S6 and its curved-edges variant are critical for Samsung's plans to reverse plunging smartphone revenues that led to its first annual earnings fall in three years in 2014. A warm initial reception sent Samsung shares rising as much as 3.9 percent on Monday to their highest in nearly nine months. Some technology publications described...

SEOUL – South Korea's LG Display Co. Ltd. and the display-making subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will supply screens for Apple Inc.'s smartwatches, The Electronic Times reported on Monday. ...Apple has scheduled a special event on March 9, where it is expected to showcase Apple Watch.

Scott Walker wants you to know he now opposes “amnesty” — even as he says he supports a policy that amounts to “amnesty.”

In Asia, emojis and stickers on messaging apps are big, and it's common for people -- even adults -- to pay extra so they can punctuate their text messages with bears or bunnies. Now the Line messaging app says Americans are getting in on the sticker phenomenon too. Japan's Line Corp., which is trying to popularize its messaging app in the U.S., amid tough competition, launched a contest for artists to design new stickers, with people voting for winners. Line says the U.S.-focused contest brought in more than 10,000 sticker submissions and 500 million votes since it was launched in...

Lithuania said Saturday it had signed a trade agreement to buy liquified natural gas from the United States in a move aimed at reducing the EU Baltic state’s heavy dependence on Russian gas deliveries. Under the deal with Houston-based Chenier Energy company, the first LNG fuel is expected to arrive in Lithuania as early as next year, state-owned company Litgas said in a statement.

Fast-food giant McDonald’s has avoided paying €1 billion in tax across the EU, and should be included in the EU’s probe on “sweetheart” tax deals, according to a report published Wednesday (25 February). The report, published by the European Federation of Public Service Unions, its US Counterpart and the charity War on Want, accuses McDonald’s of “aggressive and potentially abusive optimization of its structure which has led to the avoidance of significant amounts of tax across the continent”. It concludes that “it is likely that the company reached a secret tax deal with Luxembourg”. In July 2009, the Happy-Meal maker...

Speaking at the EEF National Manufacturing Conference in London, Miliband said yesterday (26 February) that “(t)here is no greater threat to the long-term stability and prosperity of Britain and British business than leaving the European Union.” Leaving the European Union is not in Britain’s national interest, the UK opposition leader added. Taking aim at the Conservatives, Miliband said it was, “wrong to play fast and loose with our membership of the European Union.” …

This Key Market Signal Says Oil Is Heading to $60 a Barrel By Matt DiLallo | More Articles March 1, 2015 | Comments (1) Given the dramatic drop in the price of oil over the past few months, the burning question on a lot of minds is "What will the price of oil do next?" It seems like everyone has an opinion on that question. The range of predictions goes from $10 at the bottom to a staggering $200 a barrel at the top. What that range tells us is that where oil will go in the future is anyone's...

THE internet is stuffed with garbage...Google has devised a fix – rank websites according to their truthfulness. Google's search engine currently uses the number of incoming links to a web page as a proxy for quality, determining where it appears in search results. So pages that many other sites link to are ranked higher. This system has brought us the search engine as we know it today, but the downside is that websites full of misinformation can rise up the rankings, if enough people link to them. A Google research team is adapting that model to measure the trustworthiness of...

Under the false pretense of calling for new and tougher so-called fiduciary standards for financial brokers, advisers and retirement plan representatives, the White House once again horned in on Wall Street’s compensation formulas. However, what the president surely knows is that a vast majority of retirement plans — IRAs and 401(k)s — are in simple fee-based products like mutual funds. The commission-based accounts are for those who prefer to direct their brokers in certain purchases inside some of their retirement products. The key to the White House’s interference is in its nuanced language. Currently, a broker may make a recommendation...

[excerpt from Stock-market crash of 2016: The countdown begins]Dow will drop 50% as market replays 2008, 2000 and 1929.  That will translate into the DJIA crashing from today’s 18,117 down 50% to about 9,000. Ouch, the Dow crashing all the way below 10,000. Unimaginable. Bulls will hate it. No wonder our brains tune out, turn off. Instead, we prefer the happy talk that will just keep coming out of Wall Street and Washington till the 2016 collapse. We’ll just keep denying reality ... till it’s too late, and we suffer another $10 trillion loss is on the books. Deja...

"...What was missing from CPAC? Any sign of the intellectual ferment in conservative think tanks about how to address the stagnant incomes of the American middle class. Most speakers stuck to more traditional fare: smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation. There are new ideas in the Republican Party, but this, it seems, was neither the time nor the place..."

I'm sure Dr. Mengele would agree with Bill Gates. Careful what you think is safe. Here is Bill Gates, at the TED, saying CO2 warms the planet and that he hopes to depopulate of the Earth by 10 to 15% through NEW vaccines. This is the crux of the Global Warming Movement/Climate Change rubbish/CO2 tax... That's right depopulation.

Thousands of Wisconsin union workers rallied at the Capitol Saturday to protest a “right-to-work” proposal that would outlaw the mandatory payment of union dues, but the crowd was much smaller than those in 2011 against Gov. Scott Walker’s law stripping public sector unions of much of their power. Speakers at the event jeered Walker’s comment Thursday that fighting against protesters during the 2011 debates prepared him to battle terrorists as president. Walker has not yet announced his presidential campaign, but is expected to do so later this year. “What we are doing here today is the heart and soul of...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - More than 14,600 blighted properties around Ohio have been demolished in the past two years under a program aimed at benefiting areas affected by foreclosures, the state’s attorney general said Friday. Ohio used $75 million from a national settlement with major mortgage servicers to create a grant program in 2012 to revitalize neighborhoods and eliminate abandoned structures. A portion of the settlement money also was designated for consumer relief in the form of cash payments, loan modifications and refinancing. Attorney General Mike DeWine released a report on the results of the demolition program at a news...