Free Republic

I talk a lot about the global investment markets. I’m focused on making profits, and often I’m looking to make multiples, knowing full well that some opportunities won't work out. I’ll get timing wrong or I’ll miss something entirely and need to hedge, reposition, or exit entirely. That’s life. But I haven’t spent much time on stating the obvious (because I figured it’s obvious) so today's post is going to do just that. We are going to forget all about economics, financial markets, central banks, derivatives, GDP, and all that stuff, and we're going to go all the way back...

Some Hamiltonians are watching the U.S. presidential election campaign with a sense of awe. Some are dismayed by its numerous controversies. Some are disgusted. But on the weekend, half a dozen with local Liberal ties got involved by driving to Pennsylvania to campaign for Hillary Clinton. Led by former Liberal candidate Anne Tennier, the group knocked on doors in Erie to encourage current and former Democrats to get out and vote. It was Liberals this time, Tennier said, but some active NDP members will join her in two weeks. "Today it just happened to be Liberals," Tennier said on the...

After seeing reports last week that his campaign was pulling out of Virginia, Donald Trump picked up the phone and called his Virginia state director Mike Rubino to deliver a very clear message: he will not withdraw, and will give Rubino whatever resources needed to win the Old Dominion. To back that up, CNN is told the Trump campaign plans to go on the air with television ads in Virginia starting Tuesday in what campaign officials say is a $2 million buy in “key markets” through election day. Sources familiar with that conversation tell CNN that Trump was not happy...

Donald Trump’s allies tried their best Sunday to tamp down an eruption of stories accusing the Republican presidential nominee of untoward sexual advances against women, as national polls showed the billionaire businessman still within striking distance of Hillary Clinton after a horrendous week. His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, said he “couldn’t be more proud” to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Trump, despite the rising tally of women who have accused the presidential candidate of groping and other unwanted advances over the past few decades. “Donald Trump has made it clear that he categorically denies the allegations that...

The key to predicting who is going to win an election is understanding who will vote – and that spells trouble for pollsters. The best predictor of voting intention is to ask the respondents if they intend to vote. The problem, however, is that real turnout has been around 55 percent for the last 55 years, while, historically, over 70 percent of survey respondents routinely say they intended to vote. Yikes! So are 20 percent of respondents selected in random probability samples lying? Yes....

Many of the Republicans who will be voting for Donald Trump next month do not like him but they despise Hillary Clinton even more. He certainly wasn't my first choice. I wanted Rick Perry and when he dropped out, I was sure the winner would be either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. But as the primary process continued and polling became the operative tool, I began to suspect that the whole thing was rigged. When Gov. John Kasich came in as a late candidate that pushed Perry into the second tier debate group, my suspicions were confirmed that the media...

Fifty years before Benghazi we had the Bay of Pigs: “Where are the planes?! Where is our ammo?! Send planes or we can’t last!” The pleas came from Commander Jose San Roman as Soviet tanks, Soviet artillery and tens of thousands of Soviet led troops pounded the 1400 Cuban freedom-fighters he commanded on a bloody and heroic beachhead now known as the Bay of Pigs. The same heartsick and enraged U.S. Navy men listening to these pleas had escorted these freedom–fighters to that beachhead. Their ships—including the aircraft carrier Essex groaning under a heavy load of deadly Skyhawk jets– sat...

A member of the Hillary Clinton campaign praised former President George W. Bush on immigration, according to leaked emails from campaign chairman John Podesta’s account. As the campaign tried to figure out whether to let former President Bill Clinton speak on immigration, his chief of staff Tina Flournoy took a minute to praise Bush. “43 is soooooo good on it,” Flournoy wrote in a March 2015, email. “Really good. At least he has been when I’ve seen him talk about it with 42.” The rest of the email chain is devoted to whether to risk Clinton talking about immigration and...

A Donald Trump ‘Make America Great Again’ hat is once again stirring tempers at Calgary universities – this time leading to a physical altercation. According to a University of Calgary statement, a fight broke out between two males, one of who was confirmed to be a university student, around 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Andrew Brookman, a political science major, alleges that someone called him over, referencing the hat, and what looked to be a ‘fist bump’ quickly escalated. Minor injuries were sustained, and both individuals were treated at the scene. Neither was sent to hospital. Brookman said he had never...

In response to Peter Thiel's pledge to donate $1.25 million to Donald Trump's presidential bid (reported by the New York Times on Sunday), some in the Silicon Valley-centered tech community are going public with a call to reject any company willing to do business with the PayPal co-founder. In addition to co-founding PayPal and data analysis software firm Palantir, Thiel sits on the board at Facebook and is a part-time partner and investor in startup seed fund Y Combinator. Thiel substantial donation to Trump doesn't come as a surprise--he did have a prime-time speaking slot at this summer's Republican National...

ORLEANS - Orleans-based Paoli LLC has announced it is closing its manufacturing plant. In a notice to the state, the office furniture company says closure will result in the layoffs of nearly 500 employees in the Orange County town. The company says the layoffs of 467 workers are expected to be permanent. Employees will be terminated beginning in January with most of the layoffs taking place between March and October of 2017. Paoli did not disclose a reason for the closure of the plant.

Volkswagen has unveiled the I.D., an automated electric car the company says will be able to cover a distance of 249 to 373 miles on a single battery charge. The production version of the I.D. is due to be launched in 2020 at a price on a par with comparable Golf models. In “I.D. Pilot” mode, the car is capable of fully automated driving, a technology the company expects to be ready for series production in 2025. Volkswagen has also set itself the goal of selling a million electric cars a year by 2025, with the production version of the...

The polls point to the promised land. But she'll have to get past Trump and WikiLeaks first. The final three weeks should have been an anxious but happy time for a Hillary Clinton team on the cusp of making history. Her odds of victory, according to most prediction experts, sit north of 80 percent, and she has solidified modest but durable leads over Donald Trump in most battleground states. But Clinton's final sprint has become a joyless, nail-gnawing slog through Trump Tower’s moat of mudslinging — and the day-to-day worries of WikiLeaks’ dump of internal emails from campaign chairman John...

Remember the Trinus 3D printer? While 3D printing startups have previously been responsible for some huge crowdfunding successes on Kickstarter, Kodama and their Trinus 3D printer showed the world how it’s done by raising more than $1.64 million USD during their extremely successful campaign. That achievement grew out of the appeal of the all-metal Trinus 3D printer, the first all-metal 3D printer to dip below the $500 price point. In fact, early bird pledgers picked one up for just $199. While huge Kickstarter successes sometimes create equally huge logistic challenges, Kodama seems to have thought of everything and the first...

For Minnesotans, coming next is meant literally. In order to keep insurers from fleeing the Mnsure ObamaCare exchange, Commerce Commissioner Mark Rothman and Governor Mark Dayton had to agree to massive rate increases across the board, which have garnered most of the headlines and discussion in this state and around the nation. Another less-discussed concession, though, might have even worse portents for the unaffordable Affordable Care Act. Rothman and Dayton have allowed insurers to cap enrollments in order to limit their losses — an act of rationing that may set precedent for negotiations in other states. David Montgomery reported it...

Abdul Fattah, a Muslim man from Philadelphia, isn't offended by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's promise of a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States if he is elected. In fact, Fattah said, he actually is "grateful" for the proposed policy. "A lot of Americans have the misconception that Donald Trump is racist toward Muslims," said Fattah, 39, who attended a rally on Independence Mall Sunday as part of a small group under the banner Muslims for Trump. "That's not what [the policy] is about whatsoever. It's about the extreme vetting of Muslims coming into this country, and I...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A judge on Friday dismissed a wrongful-death lawsuit by Newtown families against the maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre, citing an embattled federal law that shields gun manufacturers from most lawsuits over criminal use of their products. State Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis granted a motion by Remington Arms to strike the lawsuit by the families of nine children and adults killed and a teacher who survived the Dec. 14, 2012, school attack, in which a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators with a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle made by...

Most Democrats are happy that Donald Trump’s campaign is stumbling. But some, looking at the long term, might think that a Trump win next month would be a good thing. Not for the country, they would explain, but for the future of the Democratic Party. Just like Barack Obama’s win in 2008 hurt Democrats in elections later on, Trump’s victory would be terrible for the Republicans in future elections. Obama’s victory seemed to be the prelude to a long period of Democratic dominance and control of the House and Senate. But it did not last long because Obama’s victory provoked...

We have a media frenzy that declares Donald Trump to be guilty of molesting women at the same time that he emphatically declares his innocence. Hillary Clinton's demand that a woman should be believed the moment she speaks is being heard. But is there a scenario where Donald Trump is correct and the women are the guilty parties? Believe it or not, that scenario is not only possible, it's very likely, given the facts we know now. Jessica Leeds claimed that Donald molested her on an airline flight. But now we know that she got the type of airplane wrong,...

Lewisberry, Pennsylvania - Sitting in the bar of a roadside restaurant with a friend, Rick Shaffer sums up what he thinks of the situation in this northeastern US state with three words: "We need change." Shaffer and his friend, both construction workers in their 50s, support Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate. They believe the United States needs a strong military and that undocumented immigrants should be deported. "Why build a wall? Landmines will do the same!" Pennsylvania has backed the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1992. Even so, the state is "not reliably Democrat", says political analyst...