Free Republic

resident Obama is a cronyism machine. No administration in our history has done more to punish its enemies and reward its friends. In fact, while engaging in rank identity politics - another Divider-Not-Uniter moment in seven-plus years full of them - the president himself said exactly this: “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.”Cronyism candor from the commander in chief. And this promise he has kept. On steroids.But three more of the latest examples are some unequal-protection-before-the-law fiats from the president’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Except...

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/04/why-democrats-are-becoming-the-party-of-the-1-percent

Did you see that Sen. Bernie Sanders released his income taxes?....well, his 2014 income taxes, anyway. He did it around 7 p.m. on a Friday night, on the same day that the Democratic presidential hopeful was making international headlines by speaking at the Vatican and meeting Pope Francis, for at least a handshake. In journalism, releasing information at that off hour is what we call "a Friday news dump" -- usually an attempt to bury bad news. That's weird, because if I were handling PR for the Bernie Sanders campaign, I'd be shouting the news from the Green Mountain-tops. They...

A blogger recently complained that I (along with my fellow bloggers from George Mason University's Department of Economics) "seem to be shills for industry." This lazy accusation is as familiar as it is mistaken, for if I were truly a shill for industry ... • I'd be wealthy, raking in many more dollars than I now take in from my job as a professor at a state university. • I would not have come by my strong preference for freedom and free markets when I was still an undergraduate at Nicholls State University in south Louisiana. Corporations are not known...

The stupidest, lamest, and couldn’t-be-more-mistaken charge often leveled at those who find great merits in free markets (such as me and my colleagues at GMU Economics and the Mercatus Center, and my dear friends at institutions such as the Cato Institute and the Hoover Institution) is that we’re “bought off by” or are “paid shills for” rich business people. Such a charge or belief reflects an utter misunderstanding of economics and of how economies operate. Currently successful business people have a material interest in stifling at least some market competition and in themselves receiving handouts and special privileges from the...

The intensity with which some American companies try to use the government to trick or deceive consumers is astonishing. Yet the extent to which lawmakers seem content to cater to these crony pursuits never disappoints, either. Case in point: the current attempt to protect contact lens sellers from competition at the expense of consumers. An estimated 40 million Americans wear contact lenses. That's a $4 billion industry. Thanks to the heavy-handed government regulation of all things health care, contacts already cost more than they should. However, if an ongoing effort to reduce competition through government cronyism were to succeed, costs...

Everyone has already voiced their astonishment regarding the complete disenfranchisement of approximately 1,000,000 registered Republican voters in the State of Colorado. It is clear that the Colorado Republican Party has no interest in the voice of their constituents. The CO Republican Party rules for the delegation selection process and delegates are outlined at the source below. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/CO-R As you have seen, the GOP is extremely proud of their achievement to privatize the selection of a presidential candidate for Colorado. They have published the list of Colorado delegates in The Denver Post and other sources. Many of you may have friends...

Last fall, I wrote a piece about Hedge Fund Billionaire Bill Ackman and his unmitigated assault on the health products company Herbalife; Battle of The Hedge Fund Titans. It was an interesting piece about one man’s personal vendetta and attempt to take down a famously successful American company. The short of it (no pun intended), is that Bill Ackman used his hedge fund company, Pershing Square, to take a $1 Billion short position in Herbalife. Thus, banking on the failure of the company to profit immensely, while actually attempting to trigger that failure. Herbalife fought back and the demise of...

As president, Donald Trump would sell off $16 trillion worth of U.S. government assets in order to fulfill his pledge to eliminate the national debt in eight years, senior adviser with the campaign Barry Bennett said. "The United States government owns more real estate than anybody else, more land than anybody else, more energy than anybody else," Bennett told Chris Jansing Sunday on MSNBC. "We can get rid of government buildings we're not using, we can extract the energy from government lands, we can do all kinds of things to extract value from the assets that we hold." In a...

When pressed by Matthews, Trump added, "I have, actually, believe it or not, I have a lot of friends that are Muslim and they call me. In most cases, they're very rich Muslims." "But do they get into the country?" Matthews then asked. "Oh, they'll come in," Trump responded, later adding that the ban will have exceptions.

Breathe easy, America. Before you judge Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban too harshly, consider this: It will not apply to Muslims who are, A. Donald Trump's friends, and B. rich. Feel better? The Republican presidential candidate, with a totally straight face, told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday that he has "a lot of friends that are Muslim," many of whom are "rich" and would get special treatment to let them in the country....

We did trade wrong. We could have had a good trade policy that increased trade and raised living standards. We could export more soybeans, airplanes and software, and protect the environment around the world. We could have low-cost goods and encourage democracy, respect for human rights and improved working conditions.

While movement conservatives would like to blame the Republican establishment for the rise of Donald Trump and the attendant political problems he has created for the national Republican Party, as our friend Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government, pointed out in a recent article for Breitbart, those whom we call “establishment conservatives” bear just as much responsibility for Trump’s rise.  And there is no better example of how DC’s snide elitist “conservatives” have helped create Trump than a recent cover article in National Review by one Kevin D. Williamson.   Mr. Williamson, who has apparently never done anything in conservative politics except pontificate for various elite journals, took to...

Berlin’s mayor has been forced to answer questions in parliament over the decision to grant a lucrative contract to the consultancy McKinsey. The US firm has hired one of the mayor’s old party colleagues. The list of companies turning a profit from Germany’s influx of refugees grew a little longer in early March, when US consultancy McKinsey signed a €238,000 ($268,000) contract to come up with a plan to integrate the city’s influx of 80,000 refugees. Now that deal, much criticized a month ago because it had been handed to the company without a tender process, has gained an extra...

Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed closing the family homeless shelter at DC General due to its inadequate conditions, and replacing them with smaller shelters in 7 of the City's 8 wards. While many agree with closing DC General in its current form, the Mayor's plan to relocate the 260 affected families is irresponsible. The Mayor's proposal is unacceptably expensive, lacks oversight and transparency, and most importantly does little to serve the very people it is meant to help. We deserve answers now. Not after the plan is in place and tax dollars are being spent. Ignoring Financial Consequences The cost...

Chris Matthews at Center of NBC’s Latest News Scandal MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews isn’t much for keeping his promises of transparency when it involves political contributions to his wife’s congressional campaign. Last June, the blabbermouth commentator insisted on his show that he would be “transparent and fair in our coverage” after his wife, Kathleen, announced that she was running as a Democrat for the open seat in Maryland’s 8th District. Since then, Kathleen Matthews, a former news anchor and Marriott exec, has received a total of $79,050 in campaign contributions from prominent former and current politicians featured on her...

Just tuned in to the Fox network....why is John McCain's daughter on? She brings WHAT to the show?

Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal regulators should increase the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. Speaking at an event hosted by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Trump, a real estate mogul and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to follow the ethanol volumes Congress set in 2007. “The EPA should ensure that biofuel ... blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress under the [renewable fuel standard],” Trump said. The mandate is popular in Iowa, which hosts the nation's first caucuses.

Here is a recurring frustration during election season: Candidates who seem attractive before the race begins suddenly sound squishier or change their positions once they hit the campaign trail.On the issue of cronyism, there is one noticeable exception during this year's campaign. In spite of what could be perceived as a political risk, one candidate has remained true to his opposition to (and his commitment to end) the terrible renewable-fuel standard, which requires blending ethanol and other biofuels into the gasoline supply, thereby driving food prices up and creating all sorts of distortions in the energy market: That's Senator Ted...

One of the predominant themes of the 2016 presidential campaign thus far — and one that is unlikely to lose significance once the primaries give way to the general election — is the American people’s exasperation with a political system they see as corrupt, self-serving, disingenuous and out of touch. Advertisement Advertisement It is not an especially partisan or ideological sentiment; you can just as easily find it among supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders as among fans of Donald Trump. You can even find those who support paragons of the status quo, like Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush, making similar...