Free Republic

Since Obuma was elected to POTUS, I have been coming to Free Republic to get news, opinions and a few laughs. Most of the serious posts were bemoaning the out of control government and what could be done about it. "Oh Whoa is Me!". Then along comes a constitutional conservative. For the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a constitutional candidate running for the GOP nomination. This man was elected by conservatives to go to Washington and stand up to the elites that no longer listen to the American people. He didn't go to Washington and "fall in" with...

<p>The “American Diner” in Liverpool, N.Y., may be the most politically incorrect diner in the Empire State – and possibly the nation.</p> <p>The “American Diner” is a gun-toting, beef-eating, Constitution-loving establishment owned by Michael Tassone.</p> <p>Mr. Tassone is a no-nonsense God & Country fellow who takes pride in Old Glory and his signature “Animal Burger” – made from 24 ounces of “American Love.”</p>

Jonathan GarberMarch 3, 2016South Korean exports are often referred to as the world's economic canary in the coal mine, or leading indicator, because of their exposure to the US (12.3%), China (25.4%), and Japan (5.6%) — the world's three largest economies. Forty-eight percent of South Korea's exports go to those countries if you consider Hong Kong (4.8%) to be part of China, according to the CIA's World Factbook. Recently, Wall Street has been rather gloomy about the prospects for the global economy. The concern has come as South Korean exports have fallen by double-digit percentage points in each of the...

On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare. We will work with Congress to make sure we have a series of reforms ready for implementation that follow free market principles and that will restore economic freedom and certainty to everyone in this country. Congress must act. Our elected representatives in the House and Senate must: 1. Completely repeal Obamacare. 2. Modify existing law that inhibits the sale of health insurance across state lines. 3. Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the...

Are the wheels about to come off Trump? Forget the late push to reshape Marco Rubio, with cheery endorsements from the losing Republican presidential candidates - namely, Romney, McCain, and Dole. Good men, nice words, wrong moment. Put aside the capable former Supreme Court litigator, who polls say can beat Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz. What is happening to the Trump story? Stories are appearing with facts hard to ignore, even for Trump supporters. Something in his story is beginning to not ring true. Trump offers three things that appeal - bluntness, political incorrectness, and self-claimed business acumen. The blunt talk...

Just a few hours after LifeNews posted a story about Lands’ End honoring pro-abortion feminist Gloria Steinem and collecting donations for her organization, a flood of criticism from pro-lifers prompted the clothing company to removed all references to Steinem from its website. Earlier this month, Lands’ End published an interview and photo-shoot with Steinem on its website (see images below) and in its spring catalog, highlighting Steinem’s work to pass an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which could expand abortion in the U.S. Steinem is a well-known abortion activist who once said women “need” abortion.

I am looking to make a transition in my career this year, and I am starting the process of setting up my own consulting business in my industry. I've got a reputation and track record that my clients seem to value, and I'm looking to break free of the constraints of my corporate role. I will be working with a lawyer and a CPA once I get a little further down the road here (probably when I am ready to get an EIN#), but in the meantime I'd be interested in getting input from other Freepers who may have followed...

Well then, you must like losing your job to someone in Mexico who will make $3/hour. Union leaders at an air conditioner factory in Indianapolis threatened with losing 1,400 jobs to Mexico said on Tuesday the plants owner expects to pay Mexican workers $3 an hour compared to an average of more than $20 an hour for the U.S. workers. "We have not given up the fight yet," said Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers union local that represents workers at the Carrier Corp plant. "But Carrier has pretty well indicated that the wage differential is too great and...

Unmanageable deadlines and disastrous IT wrecked this top US retailer's attempt at international expansion. The moral of the story: IT drives the enterprise. Business school case studies tend to fall into two categories: epic wins and oh-my-gosh-how-could-they-possibly-have-been-so-stupid epic failures. This article discusses a real-world billion dollar story that falls into the second category. As epic failures go, this one is worthy of the history books. . . EVERYTHING WENT TERRIBLY, TERRIBLY WRONG . . .

Bob BryanFeburary 10,2016The "r-word" — recession — has creeped back into the economic conversation in the US. And though weakness in manufacturing persists and the stock market has been rocky, the argument against a recession in the US is simple: the US consumer is fine. But what if they aren't? According to Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, there is a worry that a faltering stock market and a slower labor market could damage the psyche of consumers. And without consumer spending rolling — which accounts for around two-thirds of GDP — the economy faces the risk of contraction....

The US dollar has suffered one of the sharpest drops in 20 years as the Federal Reserve signals a retreat from monetary tightening, igniting a powerful rally for commodities and easing a ferocious squeeze on dollar debtors in China and emerging markets. The closely-watched dollar index (DXY) has fallen 3pc this week to 96.44 and given up all its gains since late October. This has instant effects on the world’s inter-connected financial system, today more geared to the US exchange rate and Fed policy than at any time in modern history. David Bloom, from HSBC, said the blistering dollar rally...

On Thursday, February 4, Satya Nadella will celebrate his second anniversary as the CEO of Microsoft. It's been an eventful couple of years. Microsoft has grown its crucial cloud business, released Windows 10 to a much better reception than its loathed predecessor, launched a bunch of great apps for iPhone and Android, and generally made people like it a lot more. But the real victory of Satya Nadella — the truly monumental shift — has been within the company. Under Nadella, Microsoft is pointed in one direction for first time in modern memory.

I'm in need of mentoring and support from my fellow Freepers on succeeding in my small business. Please post here if interested.

Blake Pyron and his family refuse to be held back by a world of “can’t”s. When Blake was born, doctors diagnosed him with Down syndrome and told his family that he may never walk or talk, his mother, Mary Ann Pyron, told ABC 13 News. “They didn’t give us much hope for Blake’s plans, but we had faith,” Mary Ann said. Twenty years later, Blake and his family are challenging all the predictions about what the young man could and couldn’t do in life. This winter, Blake hopes to become the youngest business owner in his hometown of Sanger, Texas,...

Wow.   We've never seen this before: articulate and successful sons and daughters of a Presidential candidate making meaningful — not token — contributions to a campaign. There's been a lot of back and forth about family values in this campaign, but how well his successful children turned out tells you all you need to know about the kind of a Dad Trump is.   It's also exciting to see young people — millenials! — active in a political process dominated by senior citizens and seasoned politicians.

World oil prices slumped more than 6 percent to below $29 a barrel on Friday, as a further fall in the Chinese stock market and the prospect of an imminent rise in Iran's crude exports deepened fears of a longer supply glut. After closing higher for the first time in eight sessions on Thursday, U.S. and Brent crude futures slumped to new 12-year lows, taking this year's losses to more than 20 percent, the worst two-week decline since the 2008 financial crisis. The slump was not over yet, some analysts warned, as the lifting of sanctions on Iran opens the...

Here’s a question: Why should lawmakers bother trying to inject transparency into the operations of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation? Wouldn’t it make more sense to apply their efforts to just dumping the MEDC altogether? Given the obstacles, the answer may be “probably not.” As Michigan’s corporate welfare arm, the agency spends the public’s money to entice businesses to start operations in the state, or pay firms already located here not to move elsewhere. The primary goal is to create jobs. Yet according to state audits and independent studies, the MEDC's success rate for creating the number of jobs it...

Crude oil has become so cheap it could speed the oil market to a recovery. U.S. crude plunged on Thursday to a 12-year low, an ominous milestone for Houston's oil hub, which already has shed thousands of jobs in the 19-month oil downturn. With crude now fetching less than $34 a barrel, about half the nation's scattered collection of 400,000 aging, nearly depleted wells may have to be shut in as their product becomes less valuable than their operating costs. Called stripper wells, these produce a negligible amount of oil individually but together account for about a tenth of U.S....

Directors of Kohl's Corp., which has been struggling to regain at least some of the growth that once made the company a retailing star, are weighing the possibility of going private, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Citing a person familiar with the situation, the paper said directors are debating whether to hire an investment bank to explore alternatives that could include sale to a private equity firm. The discussions are preliminary and may not lead to such action, the paper reported. But New York-based retail consultant Howard Davidowitz said the considerable cash flow Kohl's generates makes it attractive to...

AFTER a year of big Apple releases, analysts are predicting a flat 2016 where the world's biggest tech company refines product lines rather than produces the next big thing. Apple's share price has taken a battering in the past six months, with more than $220 billion slashed from the company's value as analysts look towards an era of smartphone saturation. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty recently predicted that 2016 would be first time that iPhone sales would shrink, dropping by up to three per cent.