Free Republic

It's no secret in Hong Kong that I was with my boss (Jimmy Lai, the owner of Apple Daily) and a few others recently walking the halls of government in Washington D.C. Saw Speaker Pelosi and other leaders in the House and Senate. Visited the State Department. Met some folks from administration, the think tanks, and of course always see the very switched on human rights groups. This week I shot down to D.C. and saw a few folks in a follow-up. All staffs and officials. Working level folks have best info. Both trips to D.C. were in regard to...

Disparaging comments. Demeaning jokes. As the mogul reportedly considers a 2020 presidential run, it remains an open question whether his long-alleged history of undermining women will affect his chances. If you find yourself seeking, in these turbulent times, evidence of steadiness among the chaos—proof that even as the seas rise and the winds whip and the world that was gives way to the world that will be, some things will remain the same—here is a fact that seems always to be true: Mike Bloomberg is considering a run for president. The newest version of the old truth comes from an...

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the U.S. pulled out of its nuclear deal with world powers last year. Rouhani made the announcement in a speech in the desert city of Yazd. He said the field was located in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, home to its crucial oil industry....

The following is an exclusive excerpt from Doug Wead’s new book, Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency, available on November 26. *** As a candidate, Trump’s frequent refrain was “America First.” We should take care of our own problems, he said, before meddling in the business of other nations. But the words “America First” were also a reminder that other countries were competing for our attention and our resources. One reason Trump had entered politics was his long-felt frustration over the nation’s trade deficits and defense arrangements, which he believed had led to the economic bloodletting...

Anyone who deals with the IRS on a regular basis knows that the agency is in trouble: IRS employees are less able than ever to effectively and efficiently handle their work. The internal problems facing the agency were greatly exacerbated by the 35-day government shutdown that began in late December of last year. But the shutdown is not by any means solely responsible for the agency’s dire situation. To put all this in better perspective, let me give you pictures of what the agency looked like before the shutdown, and what it has looked like after the shutdown. What the...

While Illinoisans will be paying higher taxes, Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he’s going to give state lawmakers at least a $1,600 pay increase because they’re hard workers. Pritzker said he’ll sign the budget bills being sent his way, despite the ire from taxpayers that lawmakers gave themselves a raise while doubling the state’s gas tax. Pritzker was asked multiple times in Chicago Tuesday if he’d line-item veto more than $280,000 in lawmaker pay increases when he gets the budget that was passed in overtime session. “Look, this was a highly negotiated budget,” Pritzker said. “We had the Republicans and Democrats...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- The Libertarian Party of Kentucky says it is celebrating “delicious tears from Bevin supporters after Tuesday’s general election ended with a victory from Democrat Andy Beshear, a victory Governor Matt Bevin disputes. The Libertarian Party says it is thrilled to have “split the vote”. “IN AN IDEAL WORLD, WE ELECT LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATES AND ADVANCE LIBERTY. FAILING THAT, WE PUSH MAINSTREAM CANDIDATES TOWARDS LIBERTY TO ADVANCE THE CAUSE. - ADVERTISEMENT - BUT IF WE CAN’T DO THOSE THINGS, WE ARE ALWAYS HAPPY TO SPLIT THE VOTE IN A WAY THAT CAUSES DELICIOUS TEARS. TONIGHT THERE ARE PLENTY OF...

On Friday, former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, delivered two flat-out lies in one 16-minute interview with PBS. Biden falsely claimed that wages are stagnant and that he did not know his son Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma Holdings."We're now in a position where — you know — wages are stagnant," Biden told PBS News's Judy Woodruff.In fact, wages have grown by almost 3 percent in the past three years. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, "Wages and salaries increased 2.9 percent for...

I'm having difficulty formulating my failing brain.Before 1913 we operated just fine (it seems) without taxes but (and so the meme goes), now everything operates BECAUSE of taxes.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs on Friday after the October employment report blew past estimates. The U.S. economy added 128,000 jobs last month, well ahead of the 89,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6 percent as wages grew at a 3 percent year-over-year clip. The better-than-expected results came despite the pressure from a six-week General Motors strike. Helping fuel the rally was improvement in the manufacturing sector. ISM Manufacturing reading rose 0.5 percentage points to 48.3 in October, but that was below the 48.9 that economists...

(WNN) London, UNITED KINGDOM, WESTERN EUROPE: As a Buddhist myself I’ve been concerned like many others for over a decade about the treatment of indigenous Tibetans inside China, many who follow the spiritual teachings of the Dalai Lama, who received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. The changing face of modern China has had an open opportunity to bridge diversity of thought and religion within its borders over the last decade, but it has critically failed to do so. And it’s not just indigenous Tibetans who are feeling the pressures placed on them by the Chinese government today. Numerous youth...

Today it was announced by many new services that the Chinese officials have raised concerns about the impulsive nature of President Trump which has led them to believe that at this point in time it will be very difficult to a come to an amicable resolution to the trade war. Although the breaking news came across through multiple respectable news or sources, for the most part almost all of them cited Bloomberg News as the primary source of this information. Add to that is the fact that Bloomberg simply cited unnamed sources as their point of contact for this information....

U.S.-China trade talks are progressing well and the United States aims to sign an initial deal this month, top Trump administration officials said on Nov. 1, offering reassurance to global markets after nearly 16 months of tit-for-tat tariffs. Beijing’s state-run media Xinhua said the world’s two largest economies had reached “consensus on principles” during a serious and constructive telephone call on Friday between their main trade negotiators. U.S. and Chinese negotiators had made “enormous progress” toward finalizing a “phase one” agreement, although the deal was not yet 100 percent complete, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters on Friday....

If there were anyone who should be a candidate for an emergency ego intervention, it has to be CNN anchor Jim Sciutto. At a Citizen by CNN conference last week, Sciutto lectured (and hectored) the Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro over the "fact" that the United States does not collect tariffs. Sciutto took the idea that the consumer and the manufacturers ultimately pay for the tariffs in the form of increased prices of imported goods to absurdly assert that the United States does not collect tariffs. It wasn't just an unfortunate slip of the tongue on the...

It may have been in the 90s Friday in Livingston for the announcement of a new $175 million wood pellet plant in Sumter County, but the weather didn’t matter to Livingston Mayor Tom Tartt. “When I heard about a $100 million yearly impact, I got chill bumps,” he said. “Can you imagine what that will mean for this community?” Biofuel company Enviva Friday announced it will build a wood pellet production plant at the Port of Epes, bringing at least 85 jobs and 180 associated jobs in logging, transportation and local services to the Black Belt county. Enviva, which calls...

The price of pork continues to surge across China because of supply shortages driven by the poor handling of African swine fever Chinese people are looking for alternatives, including dog and rabbit, as the country’s most popular meat becomes unaffordable African swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from. Photo: AFPAfrican swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from. Photo: AFP African swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls...

Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Shiller believes a recession may be years away due to a bullish Trump effect in the market. According to the Yale University professor, President Donald Trump is creating an environment that’s conducive to strong consumer spending, and it’s a major force that should hold off a recession. Before the markets can take-off, Shiller stresses President Trump needs to get past the impeachment inquiry. He sees this as the biggest threat to his optimistic forecast. Yet, he’s sticking with the idea that the economy and markets should have a lot of runway left for gains if President...

Key Takeaways 1. Middle-class incomes, after adjusting for inflation, have surged by $5,003 since Donald Trump became president in January 2017. 2. These surges in income, have occurred at exactly the time when many liberal economists and media talking heads were shouting “recession.” 3. These latest income numbers also squarely contradict the claims by Democratic presidential candidates.

This is the first segment of AFGE’s 5-part series: The Secret Memo : Inside Trump’s Plan to Destroy Unions.A leaked White House memo, as first reported by the New York Times and then obtained by POLITICO, outlines President Trump’s plans to destroy public and private-sector unions, get rid of worker protections, cripple workers’ ability to organize, and increase profits for corporate special interests.This explosive 19-page document was prepared in 2017 by Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy James Sherk, who was previously a research fellow at the regressive, anti-worker Heritage Foundation.The memo, laced with familiar half-truths and outright...

President Trump lauded the partial trade agreement he struck with China this week, calling it the “greatest and best” deal in a tweet Saturday morning. As part of the deal -- which Trump and President Xi Jinping could sign as soon as next month -- China agreed to raise its agricultural purchases to between $40 billion and $50 billion from $8 billion to $16 billion and to make certain reforms on intellectual property and financial services. The U.S. will not raise tariffs on Oct. 15 from 25 percent to 30 percent. It’s still unclear whether Trump plans to halt another...