Free Republic

(Kitco News) - The physical gold and silver market just became a little tighter in the near-term as one major mint is shutting down operations for the next two weeks. -snipLast week, the U.S. Mint announced that it sold out of American Eagle Silver Eagle bullion coins. It said that demand for silver coins has jumped 300% compared to sales in February.

Even as the coronavirus pandemic has led officials to largely shut down Philadelphia and left its streets and subways nearly empty, violent crime has continued unabated. ---SNIP--- As of Friday, police said, the city’s homicide total for the year stood at 86, compared with 66 at the same point last year — a 26% increase.

The extraordinary shutdown, if continued, will have harmful consequences that go far beyond the economy. A short period of decisive action to buy time to prepare may be prudent. But ongoing measures of mass mobilization are likely to do severe damage to our society. The Wall Street Journal editorial “Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown” warns of the economic consequences of a prolonged lockdown. We could be heading toward a drastic decline in GDP. This will dislocate the lives of tens of millions and exact human costs, not just economic ones. Already, federal officials are gearing up to spend one trillion dollars....

Campaign staffers are hunkered down at home instead of working from their headquarters or in primary states. Traditional fundraisers, campaign rallies and speeches are replaced with virtual events that have faced technological snafus. From his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden told reporters on a call Friday that his campaign had hired a professional team to set up the ability to broadcast live on television networks from there -- potentially with the small group of reporters that travels with his campaign present. He said he aims to be up and running by Monday, holding regular briefings on the response to the...

China is partnering with Cuba, to invade the southern Western hemisphere. China bribes corrupt South American government officials, establishes economic beachheads, then when poor countries default, China takes actual ownership of supposedly "sovereign" South American territories, vital ports and transportation centers. Please indicate to the President whether or not you would favor active resumption of The Monroe Doctrine signaling to non-American powers that Uncle Sam will not tolerate their incursions into South America and Central America. It's easy to contact the President at the White House contact page, just a few clicks, just a simple message like "keep China out...

President Trump's can-do "what the hell do we have to lose" attitude in what he calls a "war against an invisible enemy" was on full display again in a news conference on the coronavirus, COVID-19, and a drug that may be used soon to treat it, but the fireworks flew when one reporter accused the president of giving "false hope" to the American people. What happened next might have been Trump's finest hour. Mind you, we're still so early in these tectonic changes to American life – quarantines, shutdowns, social distancing – that it's a little early to say what's...

Our concern about Donald Trump in the campaign of 2016 was not about his personal morals. The ultimate choice to vote for him was made easier by the manifest political criminality of Hillary Clinton. And his emergence as an America First, America-loving president was a welcome relief after the apology tour presidency of Barack Obama. The concern about Donald Trump was that he had no ideological core. His public political persona was that of a fairly standard liberal Democrat from New York, but one smart enough over his career to shift around and play both sides of the political aisle...

Victoria's Secret is closed for business until March 29. The lingerie retailer posted an announcement on its website informing customers that it has temporarily closed its online business just days after it confirmed that it is closing all its retail locations in the US and Canada until March 29. "With constant breaking news regarding COVID-19, we have made the decision to temporarily close our online store through March 29. As with our previous announcement regarding store closures, we will be paying associates who are impacted by these actions," the company said in an announcement on its site. "We ask for...

A variation on the theme of the cold -- a cold with an attitude.  Is Western civilization going to collapse over a cold?>As Newsweek stated a few months earlier:  [A] cold can also have more severe symptoms in the very young and the very old. Older people are more likely to develop a more serious infection compared with adults or older children. And people who smoke -- or who are exposed to second-hand smoke -- are also more likely to get a cold and have more severe symptoms. Another group of people who are more severely affected by infection...

Sky-high property taxes are perpetuating an affordability crisis, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pointed out. Abbott told the Rotary Club of San Antonio, “One thing that is driving up the cost of housing and the cost of living is skyrocketing property taxes—skyrocketing property taxes that are beginning to force people out of homes they’ve lived in for virtually their entire lives.” And of course, he’s right. Texans everywhere are struggling to hold onto their homes because of soaring tax bills. That’s especially true in places like Travis County, where local officials are hitting homeowners hard. In fiscal year 2015, the...

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)..... ....be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov 10:13 AM · Mar 21, 2020

Thanks to being quarantined at home, we’re all spending more time on social media harping about how horrible we have it. As a country, we’re facing an unknown pandemic that has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of people and as a result, our government has taken drastic measures to curtail its spread by asking, or in some cases forcing us to self-quarantine. Out of all this, do you know who has it the worst? Is it medical professionals faced with the thought deciding who will live and die because of shortages of life saving equipment? Nope. Is it...

"Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10). The only acceptable response to Christ’s offer of the Kingdom is to receive it, value it, and pursue it! Many people who think they're kingdom citizens will someday be shocked to discover they aren't. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." Some people think highly of the kingdom but never receive the King. They call Jesus "Lord" but don't do His will. Lip service won't do. You must receive the...

I am just amazed how quickly the world changed. Up to this point, the biggest threat many of us have faced was gun violence. And despite the tens of thousands of innocent adults and children killed each year by guns in this country, no number of deaths has been enough to move government to take the drastic measures now being taken to stop a deadly virus.

Anthony Fauci, M.D., the 79-year old head of the National Institute of Allegy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has become the #1 point man on the government’s role in the coronavirus crisis. Fauci has worked for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) his entire professional life. In the past, for more than two decades starting in the mid-1980s, he was the medical establishment’s face of HIV-AIDS – omnipresent on television when AIDS was hot and ever present at international AIDS conferences well into the 21st century. Always, he was an enthusiastic advocate of throwing more federal money at the problem...

https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evidence-over-hysteria-covid-19-1b767def5894

As members of Congress debate the terms of the trillion-dollar-plus coronavirus relief package for businesses and individuals, they would do well to remember our recent history. Most people in professional Washington hate the populist era we are going through. The populist period exists because Americans already feel like their elected officials are more responsive to large corporate interests than to the individuals who elected them. This played out big-time after the Wall Street bailouts fueled the tea party on the right and Occupy Wall Street on the left. People on the left and right agree that some government assistance...

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has resigned from the Boeing Board of Directors. She explained that she is against their seeking bailout funds during the coronavirus pandemic. Haley wrote in her resignation letter: I have had the pleasure of working with Boeing for almost ten years now. As South Carolina Governor I came to know the quality of the company, but more importantly, the excellence of the Boeing team and workforce. When I was asked to join the Board of Directors, there was no better team I could think of being a part of. As Boeing has gone through the...

There are two sides of the surgical mask which are white and blue (or white/green). The white side contains filter. Therefore, if you have flu, it should be attached to your face so that the blue side faces out to prevent the germs from spreading outwards. If you are not ill, the white side should be facing out to protect micro-organism from the environment to come into contact with you.

Social distance world champion--Sasquatch Don't stop by and visit us, we don't trust you around our toilet paper. Coronavirus needs to disappear like 49ers 10 point lead in Super Bowl. Gas is finally affordable and we have no where to go. Didn't plan to give up this much for lent. Your worried about elderly and realize you are elderly. I don't find toilet paper shortage Charmin. As some people have, don't call 911 if your out of toilet paper. With all the closures of bars, casinos and gyms..I realize my life has not changed one bit.