Free Republic

MSM CHASING THE "MISTRESS BOMB "BUT IS THERE MORE THAN ONE? Numerous national media outlets are pursuing multiple allegations of infidelity involving U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida , all in the aftermath of the "mistress bomb" report we published earlier this week. Specifically, three mainstream media outlets have independently supplied us with the names of two additional women said to be romantically linked to the GOP establishment's candidate of choice. These names are in addition to the woman we referenced earlier this week , a lobbyist whose alleged proximity to Rubio was discovered during a deep dive into the...

The U.S. House on Thursday passed a five-year transportation bill that also revive(s) the charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which had been allowed to expire in the face of conservative opposition. the House of Representatives voted 359 to 65. All 65 "no" votes came from Republicans, including lawmakers opposed to the EXIM bank measure. "It proves to the American people that we can get things done," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican.

I have a friend in Texas who believes everything you see on the news is made up. The 9/11 attacks? A media creation. Newtown? Secret footage exposes the fraud.  The recent Paris attacks? A false flag operation to get us all scared.Part of me thinks my friend is a little wacky, but part of me thinks he has a point. It does seem a lot of what the government treats as a crisis is a crisis only for those who stand to profit from it.  Take the 2008 financial "crisis." After the $800 billion TARP bailout, what truly needed to...

Ex-Im Bank board still lacks a quorum to approve multimillion dollar, taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for big business WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) yesterday voted against the $281 billion, five-year highway bill that reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank, a quintessential example of cronyism and corporate welfare. Using various budget gimmicks and one-time revenue raisers, this bill guarantees an even larger shortfall in 2020 when the next highway bill comes up. Sen. Cruz issued the following statement upon the bill’s passage in the Senate:“Last night, sadly, the Washington Cartel reversed one of the few fiscal conservative victories achieved with this...

It seems bizarre that financial policy would get decided in a bill to repair roads and bridges and mass transit, but that’s the whole point of the Christmas tree strategy: If a bill is deemed “must pass,” then adding ornaments to it comprises a good strategy for getting things into law that otherwise might not receive a vote. Ryan touted this process as a positive example of new leadership. In recent years, House bills written in secret sped to the floor without the ability for alterations. But on the highway bill, over 80 amendments got a vote on the House...

Donald Trump likes to remind America that he's a master dealmaker. "I'm going to make the greatest trade deals we've ever made in our country," he proclaims in his new radio ads. But experts say Trump is talking a lot of nonsense on trade. It isn't backed up by the data. "[Trump] wants to convey as a presidential candidate that any deal that he was not involved with... is by definition an inferior deal because he didn't play a role," says Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group. (full article) http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/05/news/economy/donald-trump-trade-nonsense/index.html

The millions of dollars of corporate lobbying for reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank seems to have finally paid off. Despite the fact that taxpayers won a victory when Congress allowed the beleaguered, corruption-laden bank to expire on June 30, a group of weak-willed Republicans, led by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), joined with Democrats and used a little known and rarely used tool called a "discharge petition" to resurrect the Bank from the dead. The House of Representatives has abandoned common sense as Boeing's Bank may be coming back. The discharge petition circumvented the authority of the House Financial...

Washington corrupts, and Congressman Stephen Fincher is proof... It would be an understatement to say Fincher has come to terms with boondoggles and special interests. Fincher, once an opponent of the Export-Import Bank —a federal agency that subsidizes foreign buyers of U.S.-made goods — now is trying to undermine his party's leadership by teaming up with Nancy Pelosi and her party in order to reauthorize Ex-Im Bank.... Fincher has raised a quarter-million for his re-election, according to his most recent campaign finance filing...... More than 99 percent of the money powering Fincher's re-election bid comes from political action committees (almost...

Today 42 House Republicans betrayed the American people and added their names to a discharge petition to revive the now-defunct Export-Import Bank.

The TPP Trade Deal is looming closer to becoming a finalized reality. Current negotiations center around Auto Manufacturing, and Japanese negotiators have constructed an outline that would devastate what remains of the U.S. Auto industry. Unfortunately the K-Street lobbyists, funded by Wall Street through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have already greased the legislative skids to all but guarantee the elimination of thousands of jobs. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue gave Senators $18 million in bribe money to insure passage. The TPP deal encompasses approximately 40% of total global manufacturing. Trillions of dollars are at stake.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says some Wall Street executives should have gone to jail for their roles in the financial crisis that gripped the country in 2008 and triggered the Great Recession. Billions of dollars in fines have been levied against major banks and brokerage firms in the wake of the economic meltdown that was in large part triggered by reckless lending and shady securities dealings that blew up a housing bubble. But in an interview with USA Today published Sunday, Bernanke said he thinks that in addition to the corporations, individuals should have been held more accountable....

Bernie Sanders blazed across the Bay State yesterday, drawing record crowds, name-dropping Elizabeth Warren and greeting rapturous crowds on his first campaign tour of Massachusetts. “As your senator, Elizabeth Warren, reminds us: This is a rigged economy. Heads, they win. Tails, you lose,” the self-avowed socialist told more than 20,000 Boston supporters. “We’re going to create an economy that works for the middle class and not just the 1 percent.” The Democratic hopeful first stopped in Springfield, and then made his way to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, where he drew deafening cheers with his signature impassioned pledges to...

At least some Democrats are resisting Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s purge of the liberal intelligentsia. This week Ms. Warren succeeded in forcing the resignation of respected scholar Robert Litan from the Brookings Institution after he revealed that a new Labor Department regulation could cost investors billions. Now five Democratic economists have authored a letter to protest Warren’s bullying. Robert Lawrence of Harvard’s Kennedy School and Bowman Cutter of the Roosevelt Institute are among those writing “to express our concern over our colleague Bob Litan’s treatment at the hands of the Brookings Institution and Senator Elizabeth Warren.” Also signing the letter are...

Leaked Audio: Hillary Clinton Calls at Private Fundraiser for Infrastructure Bank to Resemble Clinton Global Initiative Hillary Clinton told donors at a private fundraiser in New York last Thursday that she plans as president to create a “national infrastructure bank” modeled on the Clinton Global Initiative, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. This was the first time that Clinton, who has long supported the formation of a government-controlled bank to invest in national infrastructure projects, cited the Clinton Global Initiative—the flagship arm of her family’s controversial foundation—as an investment model for her proposed...

Businessman Donald Trump says there’s at least one subject where he can find some common ground with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: trade. “I was watching him and he talked about trade and he was talking about how we’re getting ripped off left and right on trade, and I [said], you know, I think I can take that paragraph and just use it in my speeches,” Mr. Trump said Monday via phone on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s what I’m saying — it’s one of my big things.” Both Mr. Trump, who has been leading recent polls on the 2016 GOP...

Fed decision day: The event traders across the globe have anticipated for months has finally arrived. As of 8:00 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 43 points lower, or 0.26% to 16621. S&P 500 futures shed 6 points, or 0.31% to 1982, while Nasdaq 100 futures slid 10 points, or 0.24% to 4370. Today’s Markets Months of speculation about whether September was the month in which the Federal Reserve would begin to lift short-term interest rates is finally coming to a close. The Federal Open Market Committee meets for the final day of its two-day policy-setting meeting, which...

Blaming Congress' impasse on the Export-Import Bank, General Electric (NYSE:GE) said that it will move 500 U.S. jobs, some of which are deep in the heart of Texas, overseas to Europe and China in order to avoid losing business to foreign companies. The Lone Star State is one of the losers in GE's announcement Tuesday, as the U.S.-based jobs will be shipped from Texas, South Carolina, New York and Maine to France, Hungary and China. Lawmakers from Texas also have been vocal critics of the Ex-Im Bank.

FULL TITLE: GE may move up to 500 US jobs overseas since Congress failed to renew Ex-Im Bank funding NEW YORK – General Electric Co. may move up to 500 American jobs overseas because Congress did not renew a government program that allows foreign companies to borrow money to buy U.S. products. Authorization for the U.S. Export Import Bank was not approved by Congress, causing it to stop lending on July 1. Foreign companies use the agency to buy expensive U.S. products when bank loans are not possible. As a result, GE says 100 jobs from a Houston plant that...

Neither Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings nor officials from General Electric would confirm on Friday reports that General Electric Co. had decided against relocating its global headquarters to the city because of Texas politicians’ opposition to the Export-Import Bank. Republicans Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Sen. Ted Cruz have each been outspoken in their opposition to the Ex-Im Bank, a federal agency that offers loans, loan guarantees and credit insurance to help U.S. firms sell their products overseas. Hensarling’s opposition to the bank has grown from a small movement two years ago to a full-scale rebellion, dismaying the bank’s supporters among major...

The Democratic Party on Friday adopted a call to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr as part of their established party platform heading into the 2016 election season. The move further polarizes the progressive wing of the party by moving them further to the left of both the Republican Party, and corporate centrist Democrats such as Hillary Clinton. In response to the Democratic Party’s vote, Terrence Wise, a Kansas City, Mo. McDonald’s and Burger King Worker and member of the National Organizing Committee of the Fight for $15, issued the following statement.