Free Republic

Things have really gone down the toilet. Literally. Corporate America, the bastion of all things ethical, is now forcing its public potty policies on the rest of America. Why do state legislatures need to even waste time on deliberating over whether men use menÂ’s bathrooms and women use womenÂ’s? Oh, because, in our gender-challenged culture, the needs of a deeply confused 0.1% of the population must upend a practice so common sense even a child understands it. In fact, itÂ’s children who will end up being the ones most threatened. I love all people. I just donÂ’t love all their...

President Barack Obama is launching a version of "take your child to work day" that's focused on America's science laboratories instead of its corporate workspaces. It's part of Obama's effort to encourage young people, especially girls and minorities, to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. [...] The students, including from communities aligned with Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative, will participate in mentoring sessions, hands-on experiments and other activities. My Brother's Keeper is a public-private initiative started by Obama to help boys and young men of color stay on the right path. The White House Council...

In the last three months of 2015, earnings declined 4% at the largest 500 publicly-traded companies compared to a year ago. It was the largest drop since 2009, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch research. Energy companies accounted for much of the decline as oil prices have continued to fall. Earnings growth for energy firms slowed by 75% in the fourth quarter. Excluding energy, earnings increased a tiny bit, 1.7%. Sales didn't fare much better. Sales at S&P 500 companies fell 2.5% on the year. Still, the low growth outside of energy reflects how much America's biggest companies, such...

There are some undeniable facts about America's history with communism that make many "mainstream" conservatives uncomfortable. These troubling facts fall into a category that I call "Facts About Communism that Your Favorite Conservative Columnist Did not Tell You About". 1. Karl Marx was the European correspondent for America's largest circulation newspaper, "The New York Daily Tribune", from 1852 to 1863. The paper was the New York Times of its day, and the paper carried Marx's articles for an amazing 11 years, which was long enough for his ideas to gain influence. Marx's articles were very popular among liberal elites in...

There is an economic mystery I've been struggling to understand for quite some time, and I'm not the only one who's confused: Among financial experts, it is often referred to as a conundrum, a paradox, a puzzle. The mystery is as follows: Collectively, American businesses currently have $1.9 trillion in cash, just sitting around. Not only is this state of affairs unparalleled in economic history, but we don't even have much data to compare it with, because corporations have traditionally been borrowers, not savers. The notion that a corporation would hold on to so much of its profit seems economically...

It turns out the "war on women" exists after all, and it's being carried out by women like Joy Behar and other pagan progressives like her. This week Behar's TV show, The View, provided proof that a male creep/perp need not be anywhere in the room for real life victims of sexual assault to be thrown under the bus. Sure, Bill Clinton is "a dog," admitted Behar, while being confronted with his past infidelity and its impact on Hillary Clinton's presidential hopes. But hey, according to Behar taxpayer-funded birth control and satisfying the blood lust to kill innocent babies (millions...

Too weird. He was reinstated with youtube saying he wasn't in violation of their policies, and now he's been terminated again. Wonder what is going on.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation — the state's corporate welfare arm — won’t disclose the companies to which it hands out public money. In other states, this type of information is routinely made available, which strongly suggests the barriers to doing so in Michigan are strictly homegrown. “Bottom line is that there is absolutely no reason — business climate or privacy — to not disclose corporate income tax credits, and the trend among states is absolutely toward more disclosure of them,” said Greg LeRoy, the executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Good Jobs First, a group that monitors businesses. “States are...

Eighty-one major corporations with operations in the U.S.—including Google, Facebook, Apple, Coca Cola and General Motors—have taken a White House pledge “to demonstrate their support for action on climate change and the conclusion of a climate change agreement in Paris that takes a strong step forward toward a low-carbon, sustainable future.” Signing the White House’s American Business Act on Climate Change Pledge shows a continuing commitment to action preventing global warming and is intended to set an example for other companies to pursue similar policies, according to a statement released by the White House. It also shows the signatories’ support...

The TPP, like many treaties before it, embraces the Investor-State Dispute Settlement process (ISDS), which allows corporate actors to sue sovereign nations to seek compensation for rules or regulations that impede the corporation’s ability to maximize profits. Unlike national courts that commonly allow corporations to sue to recoup actual investments, ISDS insists that corporations be compensated for expected profits, sometimes profits they anticipate decades into the future. The ISDS process is one-sided and undemocratic. Corporate claims against sovereign states are heard in special courts overseen by a handful of judges, most of whom are corporate lawyers. Once the ISDS panel...

The most important driver of stock prices is earnings. "Earnings hold the key," Barclays' Ian Scott writes. "The key to the outlook for global equities is earnings, with global valuations in line with historical averages, a supportive monetary policy backdrop, and very bearish sentiment, a major hit to [earnings per share] is the main risk for the market," Scott argued in a new note to clients. In the US, corporate earnings growth has been slowing for months. "It's amazing how forgiving the general commentary has been on profits and even the broad economy," Deutsche Bank's David Bianco said in an...

New York (AFP) - Swiss food giant Nestle is being sued in the United States for allegedly knowingly allowing its Fancy Feast cat food to contain fish from a Thai supplier that uses slave labor.

Wal-Mart corporate spokesman Brian Nick said the reason West Morgan High graduate Aaron Browder was not able to purchase his senior class ring with a generic Rebels mascot is because design features included the Confederate flag in the background and foreground. The nickname for West Morgan's athletic teams is Rebels.

Companies in the United States are now facing more than twice as much litigation as companies in other countries. That’s the disturbing finding of a survey recently conducted by the third-largest law firm in the world. The firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, which happens to be the largest law firm in the world based outside the US, conducted a poll of more than 800 corporate counsel representing companies across 26 countries, and the results are not good for American companies or the job seekers who would like to work for them. While the survey is performed to identify litigation trends across...

Former President Bill Clinton accepted more than $2.5 million in speaking fees from 13 major corporations and trade associations that lobbied the U.S. State Department while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, an International Business Times investigation has found. The fees were paid directly to the former president, and not directed to his philanthropic foundation. Many of the companies that paid Bill Clinton for these speeches -- a roster of global giants that includes Microsoft, Oracle and Dell -- engaged him within the same three-month period in which they were also lobbying the State Department in pursuit of their policy...

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, appearing at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Spring Kickoff on Saturday, made it clear that he will not allow religious liberty bullies to run rampant in his state. Referring to the recent events surrounding Indiana’s Religious Liberty Restoration Act, Jindal said corporate America teamed up with the radical left “to come after our religious liberty rights.” Jindal warned, “Corporate America needs to be careful because the same radical left that doesn’t want us to have religious liberty rights does not want us to have economic liberty rights. The same radical left that doesn’t want us...

Apple's market capitalization of $730 billion may now be more than double that of Exxon Mobil, but when it comes to taxes paid to the US government, it's no contest: the company with record profitability that so many progressive hipsters adore and for whose products they line up with annual regularity is billions of dollars below its "fair" contribution to the US Treasury. Ironically, it is eclipsed by that other company that so many progressives love to hate: Exxon Mobil, which paid $4 billion more in tax than Apple, yet whose valuation has been cut by 15% over the past...

Since 1996, Gallup polls show that a significant plurality of Americans identify as conservative. Never more than a quarter identify as liberals. A map of the USA that is mostly red shows the congressional districts of the House of Representatives. Money talks. The success of the left is based on the money flow. Despite their smaller numbers, they have learned how to coalesce their energy in order to turn the money spigot on and how to turn the money spigot off. If corporations come to know and fear the prodigious economic power of the conservative and conservative leaning majority, the...

This invisible government which polices the very habits and thoughts that created the culture of consumption is now managing a sustained culture of political correctness. As many modern American capitalists will tell you, money does not discriminate. The almighty and powerful dollar does not care what colour our skin may be or what god we may kneel to. It is man that discriminates on such lines. It is man who utters words and ideas that may alienate or segregate potential consumers. If corporations were to sell their products selectively to Anglo-Saxon, white Americans, they would be consciously minimizing their own...

While Saint Patrick’s Day gives people all over the world a reason to be Irish for a day, it might be better for the United States to move permanently ‘Irish’ when it comes to corporate income tax rates. The United States currently has the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world at 35 percent federally, and reaches almost 40 percent once the average state corporate income tax rate is included. By contrast, Ireland maintains a top statutory rate of just 12.5 percent, less than a third of the top U.S. rate. This competitive, pro-growth corporate income tax rate...