Free Republic

... Seifert posted a video of CNBC's Jim Cramer speaking about PublicSq and wrote, "You can tell Jim Cramer isn't used to hearing USA chants on the NYSE floor. The largest network of non-woke businesses in America is officially public." ... On Thursday, PublicSq went public on the stock exchange following a "business combination" with "Colombier Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: CLBR) ("Colombier"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company." ...

A former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School is facing federal charges for allegedly stealing, selling and shipping human body parts, according to an indictment. Cedric Lodge, 55, who worked at the medical school’s morgue in Boston, “stole dissected portions of donated cadavers, including…heads, brains, skin, bones, and other human remains, without the knowledge or permission of (the school) and removed those remains from the morgue in Massachusetts and transported them to his residence in New Hampshire,” the federal indictment, filed Tuesday in US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said. Lodge allegedly conspired with his wife, Denise,...

There have been various surveys taken about the most important inventions that impacted civilization. These can be hard to rank when you consider indoor plumbing, electricity, the internal combustion engine, and more. Life magazine did this survey decades ago and many others have followed, but here is the surprising result. Life magazine’s #1 invention was the printing press and this was in the top three in almost every other ranking. When you think of it, that had an impact on religion with reformation, political discussions, and governments and of course scientific development. In 1647 Massachusetts passed the “Old Deluder Satan...

Earlier this week, the bitcoin community was shocked when a digital wallet containing roughly $1 billion in bitcoin...was emptied by an unknown individual. The Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it had seized the wallet’s contents as part of a civil forfeiture case targeting the Silk Road. The government said it retrieved the roughly 70,000 bitcoins with the help of an unnamed hacker, whose identity is known to the government but who is simply referred to as “Individual X” in court documents. “Individual X” allegedly hacked the Silk Road’s payments system some time in 2012 or 2013. The government...

According to new information released, disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok doctored evidence regarding the Anthony Weiner investigation to hide the fact that Weiner’s laptop (which was under investigation for his sex crimes with a minor) contained classified emails belonging to Hillary Clinton. So the big question is did Peter Strzok know Anthony Weiner was involved in something far more sinister? Absolutely he did. It get’s worse, on the same day that a woman was found dead stuffed in a garbage chute in Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s apartment building, more information was revealed. What has been found is that on...

Hi All. Here's the situation. Hubs and I live in NY. I am not working, and he was part of a mass lay off 3 weeks ago. We need health insurance. COBRA will cost $1100+ per month and that is not doable. We looked into the much-fabled Medishare. To be a member you must profess faith and give them the name of your church. We have faith but no church. Some off-shoot, Aliera (?), isn't as strict, but kinda shady. Any other insurance company points to the Marketplace, where we will not go because, without income we'll be shoved onto...

In fairly short order, the Supreme Court is going to begin hearing arguments in the case of South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. This case is being closely watched around the country because of the potential impact it will have on consumers as well as retailers, both traditional and online. The state of South Dakota is asking the Supremes to overrule their 1992 decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which held that states could not force online retailers to collect sales tax in other states where the company didn’t have a physical presence.Now the White House has weighed in on...

In the series "The Secret Life of a Food Stamp," Marketplace reporter Krissy Clark traces how big-box stores make billions from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps. What's more, the wages of many workers at these stores are so low that the workers themselves qualify for food stamps—which the employees then often spend at those big-box stores...

With three weeks left in the year, not one of the thousands of Massachusetts residents who need to enroll in new health insurance plans by Jan. 1 has been able to do so through the state insurance marketplace that was revamped to comply with the national Affordable Care Act. About 126,000 people enrolled in health plans subsidized by the state have until March to choose a new plan and can keep their current coverage until then. But thousands of others are depending on a new plan to start on the first of the year, and some worry that their coverage...

**SNIP** But it was problems with the federal insurance exchange website that prompted Enroll Alaska to suspend operations. Following weeks of technical glitches and low enrollment rates, the company announced the closure in a statement on its Facebook page late Monday morning. "Enroll Alaska is suspending marketplace enrollments until we are confident that the FFM is fixed," the post stated. "We are still talking with individuals regarding their options over the phone and enrolling individuals outside of the marketplace that do not qualify for a subsidy."

The Internet is one of modern marvels of the world. It started out as a simple government project to allow the government to be able to communicate with other parts of the government in the event of a major disaster like nuclear war. When it was opened up to the civilian world, it became the major economic engine of the early 21stCentury. The Internet works amazingly well, so what are those geniuses we sent to Washington want to do? Here is a hint. The word “fairness” is involved. How?

In 1975 advertising executive Gary Dahl had one of the simplest and most rewarding marketing ideas of the decade. He placed a shiny little rock in a box decorated as an animal carrier and offered it to consumers to buy and keep as a “pet.” Dahl marketed this (unique) product by reminding consumers of the unwanted expense, time and effort that conventional pets take compared to his lovable and low-maintenance “pet rock.” Within a six-month period, the Pet Rock received national fad appeal and Dahl made millions of dollars before market saturation and copycat competitors, in combination with the next...

"Russia: Suicide car bomb at city's central market kills at least 17, wounds 133 in northern Caucasus" SNIPPET: "The attacker detonated his explosives as he drove by the main entrance to the Vladikavkaz market, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry." SNIPPET: "The market and its surrounding blocks has been the target of several bomb attacks over the past dozen years, in which scores of people have died."

The government's history of distorting the market place is long, storied, and usually ends badly. Federal interference in the market place began in earnest during FDR's New Deal policies in the thirties and continues to this day. Many economists believe that the great depression was extended due to the Federal Government's marketplace interference. A recent study out of UCLA comes to the same conclusion, showing that FDR's policies extended the depression by 7 years. More recent Federal Government efforts have yielded similar results. Progressive policies originally implemented decades ago, and extended since, turned the mortgage business upside down.  The...

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-at-182.html NOTE: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Department of Justice and USDA Workshops to Explore Competition and Regulatory Issues in the Agriculture Industry to Begin March 12 in Iowa Initial Workshop to Be Held in Ankeny, Iowa, at Des Moines Area Community College, FFA Enrichment Center WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today the agenda and panelists for the first joint public workshop, which will be held on March 12, 2010, in Ankeny, Iowa, to explore competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture...

Al-Qaeda’s al-Fajr Media Center has released a religious ruling on the permissibility of mass-casualty attacks in public places like markets. Written by Shaykh Atiyatullah, the ruling came in response to an inquiry into the October 28, 2009 market bombing in Peshawar. The bombing was carried out through the detonation of 150 kg of explosives hidden in a parked car, and it devastated the Mina Bazaar of Peshawar, reserved for the use of women and children. Over 100 people were killed and 200 wounded, mostly women. At the time, both the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda denied involvement in the attack,...

Army Spc. Adam Feldon talks with an Iraqi boy May 4, 2009, as a patrol of Pennsylvania Army National Guard Soldiers and Iraqi Police officers moves through Taji Market, north of Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Doug Roles. TAJI — Iraqi Security Forces and U.S. Soldiers have been hitting the streets, working together to maintain security in Taji Market, one of the busiest sectors of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s area of operations north of Baghdad. The market is a lynchpin in the security effort because it’s where the lives of locals intertwine. “Being the main market area, that’s...

TAJI, Iraq, May 6, 2009 – Pennsylvania Army National Guard soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts have been hitting the streets to maintain security in Taji Market, one of the busiest sectors of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s area of operations, north of Baghdad. Army Spc. Adam Feldon talks with an Iraqi boy May 4, 2009, as a patrol of Pennsylvania Army National Guard soldiers and Iraqi police officers moves through Taji Market, north of Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Doug Roles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The market is a lynchpin in the security effort because...

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan, April 28, 2009 – A busy marketplace is a common sight in the city of Nangalam during the day, but as night falls, the lack of electricity turns the bustling Konar province commercial center into a ghost town. “By 6 p.m. all the shops would close and people would head back home, that way they wouldn’t be frightened by the [anti-Afghanistan forces], or injured when they were walking down a dark street,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert Campos of the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, based in San Diego, Calif. In order to increase security and...

President Obama on Saturday struck back aggressively at critics of his $3.6 trillion budget proposal, casting himself as a populist crusader whose "sweeping change" has angered Washington's entrenched special interests, and promised to fight them. "I realize that passing this budget won't be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington," Mr. Obama said in his weekly video and radio address. Mr. Obama's language was combative and confrontational, as he promised to fight for "American families." "I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists...