Free Republic

So Downton Abbey‘s message is an anti-class warfare one. The fact is that the spirit of the critics is hard left, and maybe that’s why Downton Abbey makes them so angry, because the success of the series shows that this group does not speak for America. It also shows something equally important to the future of our culture: that there is no inherent need for good TV to be left of center. Stories sympathetic to virtue, preservation of property and admiration of nobility and of wealth can be told beautifully and to wide audiences, and I suspect they will be...

I recently read the new biography of Trotsky by Oxford don Robert Service, published in 2009 by Pan Books. It is well-written and surprisingly interesting. The book does a great public service in describing the life of the actual Trotsky, whose previous “biographies” were little more than hagiographies written by his toady worshippers (people like Isaac Deutscher). The last time that I had taken any interest in Trotsky was when I was a teenager and had fleeting delusions of believing in “socialism.” Reading the new book as an adult and as an economist, I found it a useful opportunity to...

This post requires that an individual understand the concept of political ideology as an r or K-selected Reproductive Strategy, presented here, under the link r/K Selection Theory. Republicans are holding meetings now on how to move forward. A fundamental question is, how do we appeal to the Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, and whatever sub-group supposedly doesn’t like us of late. We will assume, for the sake of argument that the Republican Party, and the United States government is worth saving, which I will concede is arguable at this point. We will also assume that Republicans actually want to win, which, as...

Sometimes, looking at the political discourse in this country, I wonder if we really understand the ratchet effect of increasing government programs and power over time: unlike in business, unlike in nature, unlike in, well, real life -- failure is not punished, but at best ignored, at worst rewarded. Once a program is in place, it is almost impossible to repeal, even when Republicans obtain political power because voters become dependent on it. Progressives have known this for as long as they have been blowing up the bureaucracy. Congressman Henry Waxman famously said that, if it took losing a few...

Armed with the intimidating powers of the SEC, the IRS and the Justice Department, which can fine, audit and indict citizens into oblivion, President Obama has taken to singling out the private-citizen donors of his opponents for special abuse. For example: One of Obama’s campaign websites posted a blurb titled “Behind the curtain: a brief history of Romney’s donors,” which named eight private citizens, describing all of them as having “less-than-reputable records” and accusing them of being “on the wrong side of the law” and of profiting at “the expense of so many Americans.” The “crimes” that Team Obama refers...

I’m happy to pay my fair share — which is whatever the tax is right now. The thing about capital gains is, I made the investment. I put in the original money. The house cost $3 million and then I put in an additional $6 million because the house was in terrible shape. We added rooms, sections, areas, and basically it was my investment. When I bought that house I think Obama was in high school, and I certainly have paid taxes ever since. -snip Now I’m being told the right thing is to do more. And because I can...

Minority groups in America live better here than they do in other parts of the world. This is true for both Blacks and Hispanics. “Poor” in America is a description of at least lower middle class or better in many countries around the world. Yet when given a chance, these groups gladly plunged America into a dark and dangerous future to take their “revenge” against our nation. On first glance this lust for revenge seems counterintuitive. But closer examination explains this rage. Both groups are fueled by greed hatred jealousy and a thirst for revenge stoked to a roaring flame...

Note:  The following letter is co-signed by 185 of the nation's economists including Dr. Sanjai Bhagat, Provost Professor of Finance, University of Colorado, and Contributing Editor to A Line of Sight.  http://sanjaibhagat.com  Further information is available from the National Taxpayers Union, click here.  An Open Letter to Congress: December 11, 2012Dear Members of Congress:As the nation approaches the so-called "fiscal cliff," we, the undersigned economists, urge Congress to carefully consider the relative merits of tax increases and spending restraint. Increasing taxes would likely slow or reverse our nation's fragile economic recovery and undermine long-term growth. Restraining the growth of expenditures,...

Last Week Was A Momentous Week For AmericaOur allies, our enemies, and many Americans were overwhelmed with emotion upon learning Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in Britain, former Assad PR gal, and Obama top bundler was being considered for an ambassadorship to London. Don't fret, the brits are underwhelmed at having an expert on designer fashions as their ambassador, and don't think for a minute that London doesn't come with Benghazi type dangers. From a State Department spokesman: "An ambassador serves at the pleasure of the president. It's a designation of the most qualified person. But it would be erroneous to...

I’m in the camp that believes Republicans have no choice but to agree to raise taxes on the top 2 percent of earners. The party has been successfully caricatured as the servant of the rich. This is unjust, yes, but justice is imperfect in this life. It’s political suicide for Republicans to stand fast on maintaining current rates for high earners even at the cost of raising taxes for everyone else. Imagine if we went over the fiscal cliff. In January, Obama would call upon Congress to pass a law restoring the tax rates for 98 percent of filers. What...

Full Headline = Sign of National Resentment for the American Way of Life: Kristof Angry About Private Generators During Sandy RUSH: Now, over the weekend, a columnist in the New York Times by the name of Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece. He's all upset about the electrical grid failing in the Northeast during Hurricane Sandy. But that's not what made him mad. What made him mad was the reliance that some people had on private generators. He was upset about that, that some people had them and other people didn't. Here's the short version, according to David French at National...

Wow, I was barely done posting excerpts of Mark's Monday show, when I decided Tuesday's show was too full of gold not to post stuff as well. So here's the Great One, continuing his discussion on the Democrats, taxing the so-called "rich" and other class warfare demagoguery, and the "fiscal cliff." The first clip below is from Tuesday's first hour, the second clip from the second hour:[Edited for commercials, long pauses and other extraneous content] Download clip here Download clip here 

Well, that $80 billion a year will come in handy, no? That's the impression that six in ten Americans have as a solution to the trillion-dollar deficits in the latest Washington Post/ABC poll — and 39% of Republicans, too. The result demonstrates the political leverage of Democrats in the fiscal-cliff fight, and perhaps the leeway for the House GOP to compromise as well: Sixty percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll support raising taxes on incomes more than $250,000 a year, long a popular option overall, but also a divisive one: While 73 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of...

In a NYT Op-Ed today, Warren Buffett argued that the rich should pay a certain minimum tax, and he explained to activist Grover Norquist that it's preposterous to think that businessmen would forgo profitable deals merely because the rate of tax on the profits would go up. But why do people listen to Buffett on taxes? Basically because he's a rich, successful guy (which is why a lot of people are listened to on a lot of subjects). To that end, economist and former Romney advisor Greg Mankiw has a short post talking about Buffett as a master of "tax...

UPDATE: Twinkies-maker Hostess Brands says it has asked court to allow it to close its business and sell its iconic brands. PREVIOUS STORY: NEW YORK -- Is this the end for Twinkies? Hostess Brands said Wednesday that it will go into liquidation unless bakers striking in protest against a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court return to work by the end of the day Thursday. "We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said in a statement. The liquidation would result in Hostess' nearly 18,000 workers losing their jobs. The...

Hostess Brands is seeking to liquidate. Hostess Brands Inc., the maker of iconic treats such as Twinkies and traditional pantry staple Wonder Bread, said Friday it is shuttering its plants and firing about 18,000 workers as it seeks to liquidate the 82-year-old business. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 in January, said it has requested bankruptcy-court authorization to close the business and sell its assets. A victim of changing consumer tastes, high commodity costs and, most importantly, strained labor relations, Hostess ultimately was brought to its knees by a national strike orchestrated by its second-largest union. The work stoppage,...

Wednesday’s press conference marked the first occasion journalists have had to question the President directly – about anything – in eight months, and President Obama tipped his hat on his plans to confront the coming fiscal cliff with chastened House Republicans. In short, he will probably raise tax rates for the wealthy. But thanks to an explosive and, as my colleague Donny Deutsch put it, testosterone-fueled defense of UN Ambassador Susan Rice, a lot of what the President also said about his plans to reduce the deficit went ignored. That’s a shame – they were quite illuminating. Before Obama’s “bring...

Hostess Brands said Wednesday that it will go into liquidation unless bakers striking in protest against a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court return to work by the end of the day Thursday. "We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said in a statement. The liquidation would result in Hostess' nearly 18,000 workers losing their jobs. The bakers' union represents around 5,000. The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but has called the concessions demanded in the new contract "outrageous." "Our members are on...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday pushed for his proposal to have the wealthy pay more in taxes as a way to tame the federal deficit, taking a hard line in his opening bid before he begins fiscal talks with U.S. lawmakers later in the week. "We should not hold the middle class hostage while we debate tax cuts for the wealthy," Obama said in his first press conference since winning re-election on November 6.

When President Obama took the stage at McCormick Place in Chicago well after midnight, we were all too wiped out with joy or depression or Nate Silver auto-refresh fatigue to pay careful attention to the speech the newly reelected president delivered. The phrase that lingered in most of our sleepy ears was the reprise of his career-launching invocation of the United States as being more than red and blue states. So soaring, so unifying. But those words were merely the trappings of magnanimity draped over an argument that was, at its core, harsher than the one he had regularly delivered...