Free Republic

Cannabis stocks are a good indicator for what the stock market is thinking about the election. After the VP debate when Harris pitched decriminalizing cannabis at the federal level, these stocks soared. Today they are largely down despite a big up day for the market. I'm watching CGC, TLRY, ACB, TCNNF as a representative basket.

The Atlantic's tweets, and media echo chamber retweets are still up on Twitter for this obvious fake story by anonymous sources that was refuted by over a dozen people who were there at the time. Click on the Twitter link. All of the story and the related garbage around it are still there.

“Good morning,” Tom said. “I’ve been thinking about what you said. Our conversation.” Tom and I had met years ago at a college camp though he likely hadn’t remembered. He was a coach from an elite college and my older child attended his sports camp. We knew a lot of the same pros and players. And now, both of our younger children were in competitions together. This particular weekend we were settling in on a beautiful crisp morning near the water, the breeze cool on the skin. Tom came over soon after I arrived, because he wanted to share something...

The Commerce Department announced Friday morning that it would ban U.S. business transactions with Chinese-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday. The announcement comes ahead of an expected statement Friday by President Donald Trump on whether or not the government will approve a deal for Oracle to take a minority stake in TikTok and become a “trusted technology partner” for the company in the U.S. It’s unclear if the Commerce Department’s announcement means there’s no possibility of a deal going through before the Sunday deadline, and it could be an aggressive move from the Trump Administration to push for...

Consumer spending is back and has never been better as far as Target CEO Brian Cornell is concerned. "There's no doubt that, like others, we're currently benefiting from a very strong consumer environment — perhaps the strongest I've seen in my career," Cornell told analysts on a call Wednesday. The retailer's shares are surging after reporting fiscal second-quarter results that beat on earnings, revenue and comparable store sales. Just when many investors have written off brick-and-mortar retailers in the era of Amazon, Target is seeing a huge jump in foot traffic. "We're seeing a great consumer response ... unprecedented traffic....

Small business confidence blasted off the day after the 2016 election and remained in the stratosphere for all of 2017, making last year an all-time record setter for the NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism, released today. “2017 was the most remarkable year in the 45-year history of the NFIB Optimism Index,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan. “With a massive tax cut this year, accompanied by significant regulatory relief, we expect very strong growth, millions more jobs, and higher pay for Americans.” The Optimism Index for last month came in at 104.9, slightly lower than the near-record November...

The Trump administration releases their budget, but the numbers are based on an major assumption. MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle explains why relying on a 3% growth rate for our GDP is just "pie in the sky." This is a short 2 min video under their series "For Facts Sake" - have to watch it to see this smug elitist in the media. They were as confident in this as they were in Hillary winning.

The fiscal 2018 budget, due to drop Tuesday, will likely reflect assumptions that economic growth of 3 percent or more will make President Trump's spending proposals work. Those are bad assumptions, according to a new research paper from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.... But the number is unrealistic, said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the bipartisan CRFB, in a press briefing. A more credible number is just south of 2 percent, more than a percentage point below the 3.2 percent average annual rate the U.S. has enjoyed since 1950.... "The bottom line," said Goldwein, "is we should...

With the political world deeply focused on the question of whether the Trump administration comprises a gang of Russian pawns, less attention has been devoted to more mundane questions, such as what ever happened to Trump’s economic policy? As it happens, economists are keeping their eye on that ball, and their conclusion is that it’s in a bad way. More specifically, they recognize that Trump’s policy is aimed heavily at achieving annual economic growth of more than 3%... The U.S. hasn’t had sustained real annual growth (that is, over inflation) of better than 3% since the 1990s, with a brief...

Don't read the whole interview unless you cant sleep, but you read this nugget: Q: In 2013, you ran on reducing income inequality. Where has it been hardest to make progress? Wages, housing, schools? A: What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear...

Op Ed from West Va Sec. Of State, retired Army LTC, West Point Grad Chaos Theory and Leadership By Mac Warner, West Virginia Secretary of State A butterfly flaps its wings in New Mexico causing a hurricane in China – so goes “the butterfly effect.” It’s a dramatic example of chaos theory wherein our world goes nonlinear. Sometimes the results are good, sometimes the results are bad. We are now in the midst of a national chaos moment, and where it stops one can only guess; but indications are, it won’t be good. Colin Kaepernick takes a knee in San...

Steve Sherman and VVFFH are reviewing each episode, pointing out the falsehoods, misrepresentations, outright lies and propaganda as they come up. Here is a summary of the first episode: Segment One: (1945-1959) Fails to mention that Ho Chi Minh was a Comintern (Soviet) agent for nearly 20 years, not a nationalist as portrayed in the documentary. If he was a true nationalist, he would have worked with the other anti-French nationalists (VNQDD, Dai Viet, Catholic, Cao Dai, etc.) instead of betraying them to the French Surete to be imprisoned or killed. He also murdered many anti-French nationalists and Vietnamese patriots...

Which congressman will introduce a bill to stop the violence by requiring background checks and psychological screening before people are authorized to watch MSNBC's Rachel Maddow? We don't want to take away your 1st Amendment rights, but just allow for sensible regulation. If we can save one more life by screening out the potential crazies, isn't it worth it? How much 'media violence' could be stopped by sensible regulation? Rep Scalise should be starting a super PAC called Americans for Responsible Media Solutions (ARMS) to advocate for left wing media control. We can make American communities safer while still protecting...

...The image of confederate surrender surprised me; it was not something I expected to see at a boating club though it did seem to fit the occasion. The letter explained the artist’s rendering of the little known events of the day which ended four years of America’s bloodiest conflict, the casualties amounting to 2% of the population at the time or 620,000 men. (Civil War Casualties, Civil War Trust). The equivalent percentage of today’s population would be 6 million.... ...What’s particularly relevant is the manner in which Chamberlain received General Gordon and his troops during their march. Best in his...

Months after voters in the United Kingdom defied surveys and chose to leave the European Union — after pollsters had widely predicted the country would remain — Donald Trump is betting on the American electorate delivering another polling surprise. "Believe me, this is Brexit times five," Trump said in Pennsylvania last week. But experts say a polling upset on November 8th is incredibly unlikely, and that the Brexit comparison just doesn't hold water. The only real similarity is that British voters that opted to leave the European Union and Trump supporters are both driven by the same kind of anxieties...

This is hilarious. Worth the 2 mins. He seems like he was very serious.

Obama will likely order it to be bleach bit. Trump should make a public statement on this to make them preserve it. If not, the next corrupt group will be uninhibited.

Any attorneys out there? Seems everyone involved got immunity except Hillary and have no incentive to testify.

Donald Trump: 42% Hillary Clinton: 45% Gary Johnson: 5% Someone else: 1% Undecided: 7% What is most interesting to me here is the demographics of who they polled. Democrat 48%, Republican 42%, Non Partisan 10%. That seems OK to me. But, they also polled 14% African American. Pennsylvania is 10% according to census. And 64% of the people asked came from Philly (42%) and Pittsburgh (22%). Pennsylvania has roughly 12 million people. Philly has 1.5 million and Pittsburgh has 300k, so demographically those 2 cities are about 17% of PA's population. Trump won all of the areas polled that were...

T45, C43 We can't link Bloomberg material, so go to the website and you will see it. This is big. Bloomberg hates Trump with a capital H. They have a run a negative top of feed article everyday for a month. For them to print this is a big deal.