Free Republic

In his latest Investment Outlook, titled "Scrooge McDucks," the outspoken Pimco co-founder said that with tax reform back on the radar, the focus should be on taxing the wealthy. Yes, he knows the rich work hard. And yes, he knows they pay an outsized share of the taxes. But Gross said the wealthy really didn't earn all of their wealth. They are lucky beneficiaries of a decades-long credit boom that poured money into the hands of the financially skilled. "You did not, as President Obama averred, 'build that,' you did not create that wave," he wrote. "You rode it. And...

At a "Latinos for de Blasio" rally on Sunday afternoon, Democratic mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio called on the state to provide drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants, and he reiterated his support for municipal ID cards for non-citizens. But de Blasio opposes another progressive idea for the city's immigrant population that wasn't mentioned on Sunday: allowing undocumented immigrants to vote. At the rally, de Blasio spoke enthusiastically about the merits of issuing identification cards that undocumented residents could use to open bank accounts, lease apartments and receive library cards (an idea that was a non-starter in the Council in 2007)....

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Monday asked Instagram to stop its users from selling firearms. “A growing number of Instagram’s users are conducting unregulated gun sales through Instagram’s widespread mobile and Internet application,” Markey wrote in a letter to the company on Monday, citing a Daily Beast report from last month. Markey said he is concerned that “a significant number of unlawful sales of firearms may be occurring through Instagram’s mobile and online services.” Markey noted the ability of Instagram users to remain anonymous and find gun sales through “an array of ever-expanding search terms” such as #gunsforsale, #gunstore and...

“Every time we are faced with the death of a loved one or of someone we knew well, the question arises: ‘What will become of his life, his work, his service to the Church?’ The Book of Wisdom tells us that they are in God’s hands!” —Pope Francis, homily today in St. Peter’s Basilica, at a Mass in memory of all the cardinals and bishops who died during the past year“Our sins are also in God’s hands, those merciful hands with their ‘wounds’ of love. It is not by chance that Jesus wanted to preserve the wounds on his hands...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Sunday's This Week with Stephanopoulos and the roundtable discussion. Stephanopoulos says, "This is kind of pile-on time now for the president. I want to show some magazine covers this week as well. You see the New Yorker cover right there. The president is trying to, with a huge cell phone, trying to get HealthCare.gov working. Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, 'Can Obama Reboot?' And Forbes -- this may be the most interesting one -- Vladimir Putin comes up on top of Obama as the most powerful leader in the world. What do we make of this," Jonathan Karl?...

A Federal website tied to Obamacare has suffered from unexpected network outages and other hiccups, but at least one recurring problem will be intentional. A message on HealthCare.gov says the online application function for those seeking health coverage will not be available each night from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. EST, when officials conduct maintenance. “Additional down times may be possible as we work to make things better,” it said.

Northeastern Illinois needs to be educated on its political heroes. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, not a Democrat. But the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies apparently would prefer to just make up their own version.

Mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio stood silently by as celebrity booster Harry Belafonte compared the Tea Party-supporting Koch brothers to the Ku Klux Klan inside a Harlem Church on Sunday — then let the inflammatory attack slide as he spoke to the overflow congregation. De Blasio warmly embraced Belafonte after the liberal icon called the Kochs “white supremacists” and “men of evil,” and repeatedly praised the actor during his own speech from the pulpit of the First Corinthian Baptist Church. Belafonte, 87, viciously tore into billionaire energy moguls and political activists Charles and David Koch as he introduced de Blasio...

Bill de Blasio toured parts of the communist Soviet Union as the Cold War raged, The Post has learned. The Democratic mayoral candidate — who is enjoying a huge lead over Republican Joe Lhota coming into Tuesday’s election — was “back in the USSR” in 1983 while a student at NYU. It was the same year that President Ronald Reagan referred to the country’s regime as “The Evil Empire.” De Blasio’s trip also occurred five years before he went to Nicaragua in support of the Marxist Sandinista regime there to distribute food and medicine during its civil war. At the...

**SNIP** PS - for the folks questioning how we know she was an Obama voter, here you go.

With one day until the special-election runoff in Alabama’s 1st District, conservative groups are making a final push to affect the GOP contest that has become a national bellwether for Republicans. Business groups are trying to boost former state Sen. Bradley Byrne over Dean Young, a tea-party-backed businessman who’s already made some controversial comments. Over the weekend, Ending Spending Inc., a PAC launched in 2010 by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, spent $102,000 in ads to promote Byrne, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. “Who can you trust with your money? Career politician Dean Young started numerous...

I'm usually a lurker here, but I may have something to contribute today. :) I was listening to a hard core Liberal in another non political forum I frequent go on and on about how Obama just implemented the Republican healthcare plan that the Heritage Foundation suggested. I have read about the Heritage Foundation spin before, but this seems to really be popping up a lot on my journeys around the interwebs lately so I did a little digging and noticed that pretty much all of the Wiki pages about the ACA have very recently been edited to insert the...

Mika Brzezinski channeled the frustration of many liberals this morning when she gave what has to be the best reaction yet to New York Magazine’s supercut of President Obama telling Americans that if they like their current health care plan they can keep it. Joe Scarborough set up the clip, in which the president says repeatedly over the course of four years that under the Affordable Care Act people who already have health insurance and want to keep their plans will be able to. As we have learned over the last few weeks, insurance companies have been terminating plans that...

Brazil and Germany want the UN General Assembly to adopt a draft resolution to end mass surveillance, as German public figures call for Edward Snowden to receive asylum. The two countries say that the mass surveillance on the scale revealed by the Snowden leaks “constitutes a highly intrusive act,” reports the BBC. The resolution, which calls for the right to privacy, is set for a vote at the end of the month. It says countries must protect the right to privacy as guaranteed under international law. …

Developing story.

The European Commission Monday (4 November) tabled measures to reduce the use of thin plastic bags by 80 percent, with about 710,000 tonnes of them being thrown away each year. Each EU citizen use almost 200 such bags—below 50 microns in thickness—yearly and, for the most part (89 percent of the time), throws them away after just one go. The practice is causing “enormous environmental damage,” said environment commissioner Janez Potocnik. He said the bags are a symbol of our “throwaway” culture, as the bags take hundreds of years to degrade “yet we only use them for a few minutes.”...

Thousands of people attending the installment Mass of Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican in 2005. (Gregorio Borgia/AP/File) Can you tell your aspergillum from your alb? Your cassock from your chasuble? Take our quiz on all things Roman Catholic to test your knowledge of one of the world's oldest, largest, and most powerful institutions. TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE Average reader score = 51% No Cheating!

EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has said the Union should create its own intelligence service by 2020. Speaking on Monday (4 November) to Greek daily Naftemporiki on the US snooping scandal, she said: “What we need is to strengthen Europe in this field, so we can level the playing field with our US partners.” She added: “I would therefore wish to use this occasion to negotiate an agreement on stronger secret service co-operation among the EU member states—so that we can speak with a strong common voice to the US. The NSA needs a counterweight. My long-term proposal would therefore...

Officials expressed concern that the next shoe to drop in the evolving story about the Affordable Care Act would be disappointment from consumers once they are able to get on the troubled HealthCare.gov website – disappointment because of sticker shock and limited choice, according to a new document obtained by CNN.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, spoke on the Senate floor today urging passage of a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Harkin said a vote in favor of the bill would be positive for both the House and Senate. “I think in the general public we’re probably about as popular as a toothache right now,” Harkin said. “But this week we can show the American people that we can come together and we can lift our eyes above the haze and the smoke, the horizon, and we can make this country a...