Free Republic

Former Democrat mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel famously said to never let a serious crisis go to waste. Several journalists gave President Biden the same advice for his upcoming State of the Union address Tuesday, urging him to use Russia invading Ukraine to his advantage. New York Magazine’s Ed Kilgore cut to the chase with his article entitled, "Did Putin accidentally reboot Biden’s presidency?"

i am noticing what appear to be multiple 2022 D USA type 2 one ounce gold eagle milled edge defects. In each coin that I have recently seen, there is one milled edge "tooth" that is entirely missing. It is as if the milled tooth was shaved off. Using a gear analogy, one gear tooth would be missing. If anyone else is out there and has 2022 USA one ounce gold eagles, I would be curious to learn if they also have a missing milled tooth. I have never seen such an edge on a coin before, with USA coins...

most sf bay internet down for 1.5 hours (11 pm pst monday to 12:45 am pst tuesday) down- comcast/infinity cable, t-mobile cellular data up- att cellular data very odd, possibly storm related. annoyingly ineffective comcast/infinity help line (wait was 1.5 hours, but they hung up at 30 minutes) i have never experienced such a long time off the internet, at least since the early research days... not good...

why are so many women evolutionarily inclined to be liberal/socialist/communist/fascist? my observation is that many more women than men seem to fit these categories, which imho differ only in degree. my own conjecture: women have been evolved to submit to the force and power of authority. in prehistory, women, having generally less strength and less weight than men, have taken follower social status as the primary way in which both they and their offspring maximize their survival and reproduction chances. the us constitution upholds minimal government. minimal government is antithetical to maximum force and maximum power. thus, the us constitution...

where can one find the website for the real usa inflation rate? in the past i have used google to find it, but now i apparently cannot do that any more (at least not easily). thanks.

[...] The virus that caused the pandemic is known officially as SARS-CoV-2, but can be called SARS2 for short. As many people know, there are two main theories about its origin. One is that it jumped naturally from wildlife to people. The other is that the virus was under study in a lab, from which it escaped. It matters a great deal which is the case if we hope to prevent a second such occurrence. I’ll describe the two theories, explain why each is plausible, and then ask which provides the better explanation of the available facts. It’s important to...

On Thursday, President Joe Biden traveled to Ohio to make the case that the economy is headed in the right direction. “We’ve turned the tide,” he told the crowd in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, during an appearance on Yahoo Finance Live, one of his top economic advisers acknowledged that in areas like inflation and in the labor market, “there's going to be some bumps in the road” as the economy continues to right itself following the pandemic. However, National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti also told Yahoo Finance that the recent inflation jump is actually a positive sign. “The faster...

what think ye, fellow amd beeches and wannabees? :)

[...] And I hope to G-d someone with access to him reads this and tells him it’s time. Take the family NOW and go to an undisclosed location. As much as it hurts me to say this, because I want him to continue harassing the left, he has to realize this is no longer the sweet land of liberty. This is now a tyrannical third world shithole. Or will be within months from the way our occupiers are behaving. They will find a way to kill him and his whole family, or kill him and turn his family against him....

i keep hearing that there is a way for pence to declare many of the EC votes fraudulent. if pence is given the exclusive responsibility to "count" the votes, then even if alternative state EC slate votes are not formally "delivered" to pence, what if anything would prevent pence from inventing a new concept such as "senate presidential notice" and applying it on the fly to the 2020 election, voiding sufficient EC slates of some corrupt swing states such that the election is thrown to congress? a rule of thumb i have often heard in engineering is that the cost...

let's say i have $100000. i want a short term investment portfolio (until EOY) consisting of SPY, AMZN, AAPL, AMD, TSLA (and possibly others) in some proportions. what should be the proportions? i already have most of these. thanks.

By christmas

w t f

this is a hypothetical scenario, about how a civil war might start, which has been lurking in the back of my mind lately. i do not think it is the worst case scenario but it is still very scary and so of course i hope none of it happens. however by way of illustration i include some financial details along with the larger context of a situation which imho could in theory unravel relatively quickly-- basically before most people and institutions can react to protect their investments. now through jan. 17th - trump continues to test the boundaries, but gains...

i paid off my home mortgage yesterday. (it was a really good refinance rate, but whatever.) to do it, i liquidated some rollover stock (SPY) (i am retirement age, so it gets taxed as regular income, i believe). then i did a bank transfer from my broker to a local bank. finally, the local bank ,happened to hold the mortage, so i simply paid the full mortgage owed amount as of yesterday from my checking account to my mortgage account. it still has not registered today, but i am not expecting a problem since i have a receipt that shows...

in a rollover ira, i purchase some spy in june 2020 and occasionally a bit more, a bit later. i have had rollover ira for a long time, not done anything with it other than watch it gradually grow over time, until now. i am retirement age (over 60yo). it used to be the fidelity version of spy for many years. i want to sell $210k of spy now (dec 2020). spy went up 17.67% in about 5 months. i have a long term cg rate of 15%, short term cg rate of 37%. will i only get zinged at...

at least 4 somewhat flashy and expensive optional tires removed. replaced by what i consider lower quality rims and lower quality (imported) tires did not change online web page sales photos how to bargain?

any thoughts? i am thinking * payoff mortgage immediately * divest from all stocks, mutual funds, bonds 50% now, 25% next week if bad news continues * move into precious metals now, 50% from cash in bank now, 25% next week if bad news continues * pay off any mortgage (if overall finances allow, eg, if mortgage currently being used as income tax dodge) * (current blue state residents) prepare for possibility of a need to leave home with very little advance notice, travel to nearest solid red state - have or buy a decent auto, preferably 4x4 truck. plan...

all other alternatives to an emergency special election seem to end in some form of violence or permanent dislocation of one main party or the other. a re-election would be fine but suffers from the flaw that it invites a repeat in the forseeable future simply by the precedent that it sets. holding an emergency election between the two top second tier contestants is not ideal but there is no ideal alternative. this alternative might be the fairest among the hobbesian universe of unequally unfair choices that do not ultimately involve a government collapse. if the two major parties agree,...

i am getting this message for an overseas delivery from the UK. anyone else seeing this? something to be concerned about? or not? i do not ever recall seeing this message from ups before today (admittedly, i have never tried ordering something from the UK or any other foreign country before now).