Free Republic

The impeachment proceedings against President Trump have fueled all manner of conjecture regarding the proper discharge of foreign policy, hidden motives behind both Trump’s phone call and the ensuing investigation, and everything from the dead-cat bounce of the Mueller Report to the Kurdish policy shift. But there are a number of questions that, while they should be asked, haven’t been. (Obligatory disclaimer: None of these questions are intended to either excuse or indict the actions of Trump, the impeachment-hearing participants, or anyone else.) 1. Why is the U.S. giving $400 million to Ukraine, anyway? It makes little sense. Europe is...

Famous TV personality Steve Harvey explained to TMZ on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is doing what he said he would do after their meeting in Trump Tower back in January. "As far as doing what he promised me he'd do, he's doing it," Harvey said in Beverly Hills. "I'm working with HUD (Housing and Urban Development). I'm getting housing for underprivileged people. We're going to set up centers around the country. It's going really well, and God willing it will work out." Harvey said he wasn't happy with everything President Trump was doing, but did admit that "He's keeping...

“Boom! These jobs numbers are absolutely incredible and breathtaking in the number of jobs being created and as you point out the historically low unemployment rate across the board,” Crowley said in reaction to these statistics in an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel this weekend. “What it shows is President Trump’s economic freedom agenda is working, literally working, as a record number of Americans are in the workforce and unemployment is at a 50-year low. Unemployment among key groups—African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and women—are at or near all-time lows. The jobs being created,...

China’s trade with the United States sank again in November as negotiators worked on the first stage of a possible deal to end a tariff war. Exports to the United States fell 23% from a year earlier to $35.6 billion, customs data showed Sunday. Imports of American goods were off 2.8% at $11 billion, giving China a surplus with the United States of $24.6 billion. Exports to some other countries including France rose, helping to offset the loss. China’s global exports were off 1.1% from a year earlier at $221.7 billion despite weakening worldwide demand. Imports were up 0.3% at...

<p>From Presidents Harry Truman to Donald Trump, the United States liberalized trade the most among developed countries. The average U.S. tariff on dutiable goods is 4.5%, with the average tariff on all goods sitting at below 2%. Meanwhile, U.S. goods face higher tariffs and many other barriers to entry abroad. Facebook still can’t operate in China, and U.S. tech giants face a “digital services” tax in France.</p>

The tariff waivers were based on applications by individual firms for U.S. soybeans and pork imports, the finance ministry said in a statement, citing a decision by the country’s cabinet. It did not specify the quantities involved. China had imposed the levies in response to tariffs launched by Washington over allegations that China steals and forces the transfer of American intellectual property to Chinese firms, known as Section 301. That includes tariffs of 25% on both U.S. soybeans and pork in July 2018 and a further 10% on pork and 5% on soybeans in September this year.

It’s that time of year again when Congress, feeling the pressure of budget negotiations and the year’s end, provokes the issue of expired or soon-to-expire energy tax credits. Congress has on the table roughly a dozen renewable energy tax subsidies covering wind, solar, electric vehicles, biofuels, and others. There’s a host of reasons why these energy subsidies should end, not least of which being Congress’ 2015 promise to phase out two “temporary” credits that have been around for decades—wind and solar. These two alone divert $23 billion and $12.5 billion, respectively, between 2018 and 2022, and will continue to burden...

Three years ago, Donald Trump began a rhetorical offensive targeting the governments of NATO nations that chronically failed to meet their allied defense financial commitments. With bombastic huff, Trump intimated that allies pay their share or America might walk. It's 2019. Few NATO members currently meet the 2% GDP defense commitment. However, several once-laggard NATO nations have increased military spending, and the alliance is stronger for it. The era of blithe freeloading has ended. Cheapskates like Germany pay a price in lost prestige. America not only hasn't walked; it is modernizing its forces. Earlier this year, President Trump began grousing...

Although the U.S. is on a record streak for job-creation, many Americans still feel like they can't get ahead — it's not their imagination. The last three decades have seen the economy churn out more and more jobs that offer inadequate pay, a group of researchers found. "The history of private-sector employment in the U.S. over the past three decades is one of overall degradation in the ability of many American jobs to support households — even those with multiple jobholders," they wrote. The group wants to popularize a new economic metric, called the Job Quality Index, that goes beyond...

On Tuesday evening, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang celebrated the opening of his office in Manchester, New Hampshire, by squirting whipped cream into supporters’ mouths. The “uncomfortable” interaction was captured on video by ABC News reporter Christopher Donato. As shown in the video below, Mr. Yang squirts the cream into one kneeling young man’s mouth and then celebrates by shaking the bottle and joking, “That’s a full-service presidential candidate!” And he wasn’t done there, to the obvious displeasure of who appears to be the candidate’s campaign manager Zach Graumann. The businessman then squirts more cream into another kneeling male supporter’s...

President Trump’s comment that he had no deadline on a China deal has predictably thrown markets into a tizzy, as the self-imposed deadline of Dec. 15 for additional tariffs is now less than two weeks away. The market is now grappling with the likelihood of no trade deal, but the critical issue is tariffs. I asked UBS Art Cashin if traders would be satisfied with 1) no new tariffs on Dec. 15, 2) keeping additional tariffs, and 3) no deal going into the new year. (Please see link for full article)

President Donald Trump said a trade agreement with China might have to wait until after the election in November 2020. “I have no deadline, no. In some ways, I think I think it’s better to wait until after the election with China,” Trump told reporters in London, where he was due to attend a meeting of NATO leaders. “In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal. But they want to make a deal now, and we’ll see whether or not the deal’s going to be right; it’s got to be right.”...

(Reuters) - Democratic White House hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday said that if elected she would require employers of 15 or more to post work schedules at least two weeks in advance, in a bid to tackle unpredictable and last-minute scheduling. If an employee seeks a change to accommodate caring for a family member, attend training or educational classes or a second job, employers would have to accede to the request unless they provide a “legitimate business reason” why not, according to a preview of the plan Warren detailed on the website Medium.

President Trump said he would impose tariffs, effective immediately, on all steel and aluminum shipped into the United States from Brazil and Argentina. “Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers,” Trump said in Monday morning tweet. He then directed his attention to the Federal Reserve, saying the central bank should “act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our strong dollar by further devaluing their currencies. This makes it very hard for our [manufacturers] & farmers to fairly export their goods....

This seems almost too good to be true….p>A few days ago, two polls—Rasmussen and Emerson -- came out showing that black approval for Trump had reached 34%. Now comes confirmation from another poll NPR/PBS Marist, this time aggregating blacks with other racial minorities, and finding an almost identical rate of support of 33%. Sundance provides the results of the poll in a chart: As he notes, “…the Marist poll was 1,224 voters with a 26 percent minority (black and Hispanic) share of the poll – so that’s a significant poll of minority voters. While the Trump economy has dramatically...

Number employed increases by 128,000 despite General Motors strikes ----------------------------------------------- The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday released its monthly Employment Situation Report (pdf), which showed continued employment growth and near record unemployment rates in October. Employment gains among African-American women and Latinos were particularly impressive. Payroll employment rises by 128,000 in October; unemployment rate changes little at 3.6% https://t.co/NsuHovcqn0 #JobsReport #BLSdata — BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) November 1, 2019 The unemployment rate for African Americans reached a record low of 5.4 percent—a fall of 2.6 percent since President Trump took office. The unemployment rate for black women reached just...

This damn Trump economy just refuses to cooperate with all the “experts.” – This Black Friday was, at least according to all the “experts” quoted by cable news operations an the nation’s other corrupt media outlets, supposed to be a down year. According to their joint narrative with the Democrat Party, the Trump Economy was supposed to be lurching along into a new recession, one that would arrive just in time to impact President Trump’s chances for re-election in 2020. Given that 2/3rds of U.S. Gross Domestic Product – GDP – is derived from consumer spending, this media/Democrat/”experts” narrative meant...

Mexico's negotiator for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement has said there needs to be more work done, but also said he could see the deal being finalized next week. "As the Democrats have directly said a hundred times, we also say. It's more important to get the right treaty than a quick treaty," negotiator Jesús Seade said in a video he tweeted out Friday. "If the amendments suggested are fine, are acceptable, are improvements, then there's no reason why we should not be shaking hands next week," he added. Seade said after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy...

The president’s critics thought his presidency was illegitimate to begin with. His Cabinet members changed frequently. Mainly based on policy disagreements, members of Congress demanded his ouster. Some lawmakers were willing to toss out constitutional norms based on what they said was the president’s “ignorance of the interest and true policy of this Government, and want of qualification for the discharge of the important duties” of his office. But we’re talking 1843, not 2019. In the midst of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump, many pundits make comparisons to the impeachments of Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and...

Black and Hispanic voters are not onboard with the Democrat impeachment train. According to Breitbart News, support for this all-white Democrat hobbyhorse project has collapsed: A recent national poll released by Emerson College indicates that black Americans, a key constituency of the Democrat Party, narrowly opposes Trump's impeachment. The poll found that 38 percent of black voters are opposed, while 37 percent are in favor, with 25 percent unsure. Hispanic voters, meanwhile, were only narrowly in favor of impeachment, 48 percent to 41 percent, with 11 percent unsure. The Emerson poll also found 48 percent of white voters nationally were...