Free Republic

With poll after poll saying the economy is the most important issue in the presidential election, the candidate who connects with voters on this subject has a good chance of winning it all. Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s economic plans offer a clear choice. Trump seeks to revive American greatness with policies aimed at kick-starting economic growth. Clinton seeks fairness and more benefits for the middle and working classes. Their proposals fall on either side of one question: Is the state or the individual better at spending the peoples’ money? Trump clearly thinks the people—as individuals or through the companies...

Donald Trump received one of his better polling results on Thursday — at least since the conventions. The highly regarded Pew Research Center released a survey showing Hillary Clinton leading Trump by 41 percent to 37 percent, with Gary Johnson at 10 percent and Jill Stein at 4. Consequently, Clinton’s chances of winning the election dropped 2 points in both our forecasts, to 86 percent in polls-only and to 76 percent in polls-plus. The fact that a 4-point deficit is a “good” result for Trump should give you a sense for how poorly he’s doing. Clinton remains a clear favorite...

I have spent my life as a Democrat which probably isn’t that surprising considering that I am African-American. One of the things that always attracted me to the party were the ideals of equality, fighting for the little guy and our openness to differing opinions, but lately I have seen my party take a turn that makes me uncomfortable. Somewhere along the way we stopped fighting for the little guy and became the party of the smug, educated elites who look down on those with less education and deem them unable or unworthy of being able to make personal decisions...

Jeremy Corbyn used his position in Parliament to call for the “complete rehabilitation” of Leon Trotsky, it has emerged despite dismissing concerns about hard-Left entryism as “nonsense”. In 1988, the Labour leader – then a backbencher – demanded the Marxist revolutionary and other communists have their achievements formally recognised by the Russian state. Mr Corbyn was one of a series of prominent left-wingers who put their name to an Early Day Motion, a form of parliamentary petition with no standing in law, which made the call. It came to light after parliamentary staff on Monday uncovered a paper record of...

From the very beginnings of American history, the concept of merit has enjoyed a certain pride of place. It found a welcoming home in a new republican nation that, from its inception, had sought to proscribe the titles of nobility and other hereditary distinctions of social and political rank, as well as practices such as primogeniture and entail that had long been characteristic of European aristocratic society. But even the most equality-affirming republic would need to generate a pool of talented and effective leaders, a leadership class recruited and empowered for public service. How to find appropriate means by which...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OCCUPY WALL STREET AND ITS DETRITUS may have faded from the nation’s public parks, but experienced far-left organizers are ecstatic over the influence of a new movement, Black Lives Matter (BLM). Founded in 2013 around the death of Floridian Trayvon Martin, BLM has within its grasp the radical revolutionary goals the Bill Ayers activists of old, and more recent new class of far-left operatives, had before now been unable to attain. The Frontier Lab’s in-depth research, gained through unanticipated access to organizers, activists, and allies of BLM, deconstructs the movement’s appeal and what the implications for marketers of...

At least two senior Donald Trump aides were fired by the campaign Monday in what three sources described as a shakeup. Both aides — Ed Brookover and Jimmy Stracner — had worked for the presidential campaign of former Trump rival Ben Carson, who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the race. Brookover, a longtime GOP strategist, had been working as a political adviser. He played a role in helping to organize this month's GOP convention. Stracner, had been working as the Trump campaign’s western regional political director.

http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-01/peter-navarro-is-the-economist-whose-ideas-guide-trump Link only due to copyright issues

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is threatening to leave the World Trade Organization and rip up agreements like the North American Free Trade agreement, and his critics predictably are branding him everything from "wrong-headed" to "insane." But here's the real deal. When our politicians and diplomats negotiate trade deals, we lose because they don't know a good deal from a bad one. For instance, when President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA in 1993, he believed it would "create 200,000 jobs in this country by 1995 alone." Instead, the U.S. has lost over 700,000 jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute, while...

J.D. Vance didn’t encounter anyone else with a personal story like his when he arrived at Yale Law School six years ago. His early family life in a poor town in eastern Ohio was tough, with a mother who became a drug addict and a partially absent father. He and his sister spent a lot of time with his grandparents, evangelical Christians who were originally from Kentucky and inspired Mr. Vance to do more with his life. His experiences are the basis of his new memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book started out as a quest to answer questions about his...

Even the best intentions cannot reverse the insidious effects of a wrong policy. When those who advocate for assisted suicide cite a benevolent desire to relieve suffering, the horrifying results of such a practice still lie just beneath the surface. Recently, an elderly Vermont woman found herself repeatedly pressured to commit assisted suicide. Her grave ailment? Only a broken wrist. Nevertheless, staff at her rehab center “repeatedly asked the elderly woman if she was in pain or depressed; then they would remind her that she could commit doctor-prescribed suicide under the new law.” Advocates of assisted suicide have blown off...

A Miami-Dade judge ruled Monday that Bitcoin is not actually money, a decision hailed by proponents of the virtual currency that has become popular across the world. In a case closely watched in financial and tech circles, the judge threw out the felony charges against website designer Michell Espinoza, who had been charged with illegally transmitting and laundering $1,500 worth of Bitcoins. He sold them to undercover detectives who told him they wanted to use the money to buy stolen credit-card numbers. But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled that Bitcoin was not backed by any government or bank,...

Farewell, left versus right. The contest that matters now is open against closed AS POLITICAL theatre, America’s party conventions have no parallel. Activists from right and left converge to choose their nominees and celebrate conservatism (Republicans) and progressivism (Democrats). But this year was different, and not just because Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party. The conventions highlighted a new political faultline: not between left and right, but between open and closed (see article). Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, summed up one side of this divide with his usual pithiness. “Americanism, not...

Myth-busting website Snopes flagrantly lied about the lack of visible American flags on the first day of the Democratic Convention, claiming an image from the second day of the convention was actually from the first day in an attempt to debunk a factual story from The Daily Caller. First, the facts. TheDC reported on Monday about the lack of visible American flags at day one of the convention. Several flags were briefly on stage for the national anthem and pledge of allegiance, at which point they were carried off stage, as the C-SPAN video for Monday clearly shows at the...

Paul Krugman is confused. He can’t figure out why Americans are so gloomy that they might vote for Donald Trump in November. From the columnist’s perch at the New York Times, things in America seem A-okay: If you want to feel good about the state of America, you could do a lot worse than what I did this morning: take a run in Riverside Park. There are people of all ages, and, yes, all races exercising, strolling hand in hand, playing with their dogs, kicking soccer balls and throwing Frisbees. There are a few homeless people, but the overall atmosphere...

Paul Simon took to the Democratic National Convention stage last night to perform his hit "Bridge Over Troubled Water." A lot of fans were quick to point out that the singer's performance was, well, troubled. Éponine15191 @Eponine15191 So I've just caught up with the footage of Paul Simon at the DNC yesterday singing Bridge Over TW, I'm so sad for him. He looks sick. #sad 5:26 AM - 26 Jul 2016 Public_Interest @Public_Interest Paul Simon fan here: Paul Simon was awful tonight. 10:05 PM - 25 Jul 2016 Mr. Cummings @APGOPOHHS I've always loved Paul Simon but that was more...

Moderators, I hope you'll permit the vanity. I wanted to solicit opinion from FReepers on the remaining NeverTrumpers. What amuses me is the degree to which the NeverTrumper disdain for Trump seems to be personal. It goes well beyond the superficial pettiness of a faculty lounge dispute, and seems bitter and vindictive. With some evidence (not much of which I can post here), I'll posit three motives: Personal slight against one or more NeverTrumpers, perhaps an ancient slight Trump has not paid sufficient fealty to the Conservo-sphere of writers and political consultants He has not hired Mike Murphy or Matthew...

Objectives—This report presents preliminary 2015 data on U.S. statistics offices in 2015. Comparisons are made with final 2014 data births. Births are shown by age and race and Hispanic origin of mother. Data on marital status, cesarean delivery, preterm births, and low birthweight are also presented. Results—The 2015 preliminary number of U.S. births was 3,977,745, down slightly (less than 1%) from 2014. For the three largest race and Hispanic origin groups in the United States, the number of births decreased for non-Hispanic white women, increased for Hispanic women, and were essentially unchanged for non-Hispanic black women in 2015. The general...

Last September (when bitcoin was trading at $230) we said that "As China Scrambles To Enforce Capital Controls, This Is Great News For Bitcoin" and that it is only a matter of time before Chinese buyers figure out that in a world in which the freeflow of capital out of China is increasingly more suppressed and where physical gold is actively being stored in China but is next to impossible to get it out of the country, it is only a matter of time before bitcoin explodes as China's bubble berserk population scrambles to buy. One month ago, we showed...

Before Tuesday, I’d have said that Puerto Rico had no chance to win its legal fight to let its municipalities and utilities declare bankruptcy. That's how the island hopes to resolve its overwhelming debt problems, but the federal bankruptcy code says that it can't. That's what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held last summer, unanimously. The statute seemed so clear that even Judge Juan Torruella, the appellate court’s only Puerto Rican member, concurred in an outraged separate opinion criticizing the federal law. Puerto Rico's Slide Then Sonia Sotomayor stepped in. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court...