Free Republic

How long until the citizenry rebels not only against voluntary and forced quarantine, but also the forced shuttering of businesses. We have already seen the young adults flagrantly ignore recommendations to avoid being in the presence of, or congregating in, large groups. This is not meant to discuss nor dismiss the constitutionality of the significant curtailment of our rights, and the outright inflation that will be caused by runaway monetary spending/printing. But rather, will America allow itself to succumb to economic death in favor of physical survival? This is not to say that we wouldn't still exercise reasonable precautions, but...

Stuck rationing toilet paper because you didn't stockpile during the coronavirus panic over the last few days? Don't worry, according to supply chain experts. "All the grocery stores are going to have pallets of toilet paper sitting in the aisles and nobody is going to buy it because who needs to buy toilet paper when you got a year's worth sitting in your garage," Daniel Stanton, a supply chain expert and author of "Supply Chain Management for Dummies," tells CNBC Make It. But what about food? Even if the COVID-19 pandemic stretches over months (President Donald Trump said it could...

The highly contagious novel coronavirus that has exploded into a global pandemic can remain viable and infectious in droplets in the air for hours and on surfaces up to days, according to a new study that should offer guidance to help people avoid contracting the respiratory illness called COVID-19. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, attempted to mimic the virus deposited from an infected person onto everyday surfaces in a household or hospital setting, such as through coughing or touching objects. They used a device to dispense...

What if I told you there was a paper on climate change that was so uniquely catastrophic, so perspective-altering, and so absolutely depressing that it's sent people to support groups and encouraged them to quit their jobs and move to the countryside? What if I told you there was a paper on climate change that was so uniquely catastrophic, so perspective-altering, and so absolutely depressing that it's sent people to support groups and encouraged them to quit their jobs and move to the countryside?

Europe stepped up preparations for a no-deal Brexit on Monday after giving key parts of the City of London temporary access to EU customers in the event of a cliff-edge departure. The European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU financial regulator, has granted three UK-based clearing houses — LCH, ICE Clear Europe and LME Clear — licences to carry on doing business with European-based customers over the next 12 months even if politicians fail to strike an agreement. London dominates clearing for derivatives traded by European customers and clears nearly all over-the-counter derivatives, mainly interest-rates swaps, traded in euros. Clearing...

The United States is expected to churn out far more oil in 2019 than what international analysts originally forecasted. The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based organization that helps coordinate energy policies for industrial countries, released its latest oil market report Friday, noting exceptional numbers for the U.S. fossil fuel industry. The agency reported U.S. oil production is expected to rise by 1.3 million barrels a day in 2019. While this number is lower than the record-smashing 2.1 million increase producers enjoyed in 2018, it’s more than double what the IEA initially expected to see in 2019. The forecast illustrates the...

RUSH: Look at this headline: “Majority of Wild Coffee Species at Risk of Extinction, Study Finds.” This is in something called The Scientist magazine. Now, this is how climate change advocates do it. When all else is bombing out, when all else is failing, tell people that something they can’t do without, they don’t want to do without, tell people something that they habitually engage in is about to be taken away from them because of X. In this case, climate change. I’ve not shared them with you, but there have been doom-and-gloom stories about chocolate and bananas related to...

Coffee lovers, here’s one more reason to savor that morning cup o’ joe. Research shows 60 percent of coffee species found in the wild could soon go extinct. In a new study published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, researchers at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens say factors putting the future of coffee at risk include climate change, deforestation, droughts, and plant diseases. According to the study, a collaboration between scientists from the UK and Ethiopia, out of 124 types of wild coffee, 75 are at risk of extinction. About 35 of the 124 species grow in areas with no...

Imagine a post-Brexit scenario whereby Brits will be issued with EU passports to secure the right to freedom of movement across the 27 member states of the European Union. That is exactly what the European Commission will be asked to consider if a citizen’s initiative can garner one million signatures from across Europe. The “Choose Freedom” EU passport campaign was launched this week with the support of Brits living across Europe. Sue Wilson, the chair of Bremain in Spain which campaigns for the UK to remain in the European Union and to protect the rights of British migrants living and...

Radiation inside one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power facility has reached an “unimaginable” level according to experts. Because so much nuclear material from Fukushima escaped into the Pacific Ocean, there are many scientists that believe that it was the worst environmental disaster in human history, but most people in the general population seem to think that since the mainstream media really doesn’t talk about it anymore that everything must be under control. Unfortunately, that is not true at all. In fact, PBS reported just last year that “it is incorrect to say that Fukushima is under...

Oversight: A federal agency keeps stonewalling congressional efforts to access its internal communications. What's the problem here? If the agency's global warming claim was honestly arrived at, just turn over the documents.

News about the spread of the Ebola virus has been an increasing focus for market participants in recent days. Despite rising media coverage, Ebola seems to have had little discernible effect on consumer sentiment to date. However, as Goldman Sachs notes, the "fear factor" associated with Ebola appears more significant than in past instances of pandemic concern. While expert opinion sees the likelihood of a significant outbreak of Ebola in the US as very low, it is likely any negative macroeconomic consequences are most likely to be transmitted through fear or risk-aversion channels.

The information leaked by Edward Snowden last year raised the public consciousness quite a bit about user privacy and security in using certain services (not to mention the hope that companies won’t be that willing to acquiesce to government requests for user information). In recent weeks, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been emphasizing a new focus on user security and encryption. Both Apple and Google have implemented stronger data encryption so it’s harder to compromise user data. The problem is, however, that it would be harder for law enforcement to access that data too. And FBI Director James Comey isn’t...

To Hold Senate, Democrats Rely on Single Women By JACKIE CALMES JULY 2, 2014 Senator Kay Hagan, center, a North Carolina Democrat struggling to secure a second term, recently has shown gains in polls. RALEIGH, N.C. — The decline of marriage over the last generation has helped create an emerging voting bloc of unmarried women that is profoundly reshaping the American electorate to the advantage, recent elections suggest, of the Democratic Party. What is far from clear is whether Democrats will benefit in the midterm contests this fall. With their Senate majority at stake in November, Democrats and allied groups...

Here's the question of the day: Is there a climate bubble? In a New York Times op-ed, former treasury secretary Hank Paulson says there is. He calls it The Coming Climate Crash. For too many years, we failed to rein in the excesses building up in the nation’s financial markets. When the credit bubble burst in 2008, the damage was devastating. Millions suffered. Many still do. We’re making the same mistake today with climate change. We’re staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to both our environment and economy. The warning signs are clear and growing more urgent...

Here is a truth so fundamental that it should be self-evident: When legitimately constituted state authority stands down in the face of armed threats, the very foundation of the republic is in danger. And yet that is exactly what happened at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch this spring: An alleged criminal defeated the cops, because the forces of lawlessness came at them with guns — then Bureau of Land Management officials further surrendered by removing the government markings from their vehicles to prevent violence against them. What should be judged a watershed in American history instead became a story about one...

Of his new plan to address climate change, President Obama says: This plan will cut the dangerous carbon pollution that contributes to climate change. For years, groups like the American Lung Association have warned us that carbon pollution threatens our health and the air our children breathe. We limit the mercury, sulfur, and arsenic in our air and water, but today, there are no federal limits on the amount of carbon pollution that power plants can pump into the air. ThatÂ’s not safe. So weÂ’ll work with states and businesses to set new standards that put an end to this...

All Signs Indicate That This Flu Season Is Going To Be Brutal Jennifer WelshDec. 4, 2012, 6:53 PMThe flu season could be especially bad this year, and is one of the earliest-starting flu seasons in a decade, said Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control. "This is the earliest regular flu season we've had in nearly a decade, since the 2003-2004 flu season. That was an early and severe flu year," CDC director Thomas Frieden said in a teleconference yesterday Dec. 3. That season was very severe, especially for children, they said. This is much different than we...

Vince Cable has warned that Europe could be plunged into war if the crisis in the eurozone results in the collapse of the currency. The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary said that the potential consequences of the failure of the Euro were "incalculable" and that there was "no automatic guarantee" that the continent would not disintegrate into conflict. … Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Mr. Cable said: "I think we need to take stock that if the eurozone were to unravel in a way that destroyed the European project—and there is a risk that could happen—the consequences would be absolutely...

It is time for Lisa P. Jackson to resign. Last Friday at Howard University, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) railed against the coal industry, saying, “In [the coal industry’s] entire history - 50, 60, 70 years or even 30 - they never found the time or the reason to clean up their act. They’re literally on life support. And the people keeping them on life support are all of us.” This is patently false, of course, as emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants are quite heavily regulated. Those emissions controls are the reason U.S. air is clean...