Free Republic

Donald Trump: akin to a homicidal cult leader? Yup, if you believe Joy Reid's guest this morning, MSNBC analyst Dr. Irwin Redlener. Calling President Trump the leader of a "cult," Redlener said that President Trump's "cultish following reminds me of Jim Jones and the Koolaid and all that horrible stuff."Jones was, of course, a mass murderer, responsible for the deaths of more than 900 of his followers, whom he ordered to commit mass suicide in the Jonestown Massacre. It is outrageous for Redlender to compare President Trump with Jones. Is Redlener suggesting that Trump wants his followers to die? When...

A scroll through frescoes from a single room in the House of Mysteries, assumed to depict the rite of initiation for a young girl into the Dionysian Mysteries, a mystery cult. The house, located in a suburb of Pompeii, was destroyed in the volcanic explosion of 79 AD and excavated beginning in 1909. This is the type of painting that inspired Neoclassical painters like Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

Reacts to Ocasio-Cortez calling on Americans to not return to work Franklin Graham, the CEO of Samaritan's Purse, the Christian ministry that provided an emergency hospital in New York City to treat coronavirus patients, is urging Americans to pray for the president as he deals with "stupid thinking" in Congress. He referred to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., telling workers to just say "no" to returning to work. The freshman congresswoman said: "Only in America, when the president tweets about liberation, does he mean go back to work. When we have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). You are a messenger of peace! When Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9), He was referring to a special group of people whom God called to restore the peace that was forfeited because of sin. They may not be politicians, statesmen, diplomats, kings, presidents, or Nobel Prize winners, but they hold the key to true and lasting peace. As a Christian, you are among that select group of peacemakers. As such you have two primary responsibilities....

Billy was having trouble in school. His teacher constantly yelled at him, "You're driving me crazy, Billy! Can't you learn anything?" Billy's mother met with his teacher at fall conferences. The teacher told her Billy was a disaster, getting the lowest marks of any of her students . She had never had such an unmotivated and ignorant boy in her teaching career. Billy's mom, shocked at the feedback, withdrew her son, moving from Detroit to Cleveland. 25 years later, the teacher was diagnosed with severe cardiac disease and she needed a special heart surgeon . Her doctors advised open heart...

HBO's Bill Maher pressed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on trillions of federal spending on the coronavirus pandemic, with the "Real Time" host saying a "house of cards" will eventually collapse, resulting in a depression. The back-and-forth comes as President Trump signed off on a $484 billion package on Friday to replenish a small business lending program prompted by the pandemic. The package also provides $100 billion for hospitals and COVID-19 testing as some states slowly reopen their economies. "I know we can bail out certain sectors as we have done in the past, I don't know how you can...

An Iraqi man accused of being an Islamic State terrorist has gone on trial in a high court in Frankfurt accused of genocide, human trafficking, and the torture and murder of a 5-year-old Yazidi girl he had held as a slave in Falluja, Iraq. *** His trial is believed to be the first in the world that carries the charge of genocide in relation to the Yazidis. *** Taha Al-J., who is 27, is also charged with murder, crimes against humanity, war crimes and trafficking for the exploitation of their manpower and murder, according to the counts read aloud by...

<p>In early April, writer Jen Miller urged New York Times readers to start a coronavirus diary.</p> <p>“Who knows,” she wrote, “maybe one day your diary will provide a valuable window into this period.”</p> <p>During a different pandemic, one 17th-century British naval administrator named Samuel Pepys did just that. He fastidiously kept a diary from 1660 to 1669 – a period of time that included a severe outbreak of the bubonic plague in London. Epidemics have always haunted humans, but rarely do we get such a detailed glimpse into one person’s life during a crisis from so long ago.</p>

Feast of St. Mark MARK 16:15-20 Friends, today’s Gospel gives us Mark’s very laconic account of the Ascension: "So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God." We should think of it as Jesus’ going to his heavenly place in order to reign over the earth. Now, don’t literalize this language—there aren’t chairs in heaven—but take it very seriously indeed. What Mark is suggesting is that Jesus is now reigning; he’s in the attitude of a king on his throne. This means that he...

Kim Jong Un is rumored to be dead, according to a Hong Kong broadcast network, while a Japanese magazine is reporting that North Korea’s rocket man is in a “vegetative state” after he underwent heart surgery earlier this month.

We have horse racing tips and free picks for today's racing card, including betting action at Gulfstream Park and Oaklawn Park. Our horse racing analyst Monique Vág shares her five favorite horse racing bets for Saturday, April 25, which start at 2:46 p.m. ET. GULFSTREAM PARK, RACE 5 7 Furlongs, Purse: $45,000 Maiden, Post: 2:46 p.m. ET No. 1 DREAMS OF TOMORROW (10/1): Should offer a nice price at post time given that this is a first time starter making his racing debut. Although the rail post can often prove tricky for younger horses especially, I think this colt could...

Is Al Pacino one of the great Jewish actors of our time? Hear me out. While best known for portraying characters of Italian and Latino descent – think Michael Corleone of “The Godfather” films, Carlito Brigante of “Carlito’s Way,” and Tony Montana of “Scarface,” Pacino has an arm’s-length resumé of portraying Jews in film and onstage. Most famous perhaps are Pacino’s much-discussed, multiple portrayals of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender from William Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” whom Pacino has portrayed with overwhelming sympathy both onstage and on the silver screen. Pacino – who discussed his career in an interview with film...

The German Bundesliga is poised to become the first sports league I follow to go back to work. In fact, players are already at work. They are practicing in anticipation of matches to be played in early May. When the Bundesliga season came to a halt, teams had nine matches left to play. And, for once, there was a genuine race for the championship. Normally, Bayern Munich has the top spot all but locked up by mid-March. This season, though, three additional teams were in contention. Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and Borussia Mönchengladbach are all within six points (two games,...

Mitch McConnell believes he has hit upon a solution for states that are upside-down on their pension obligations and other financial commitments: “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he told Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.” There are a couple of good reasons for denying the states bankruptcy protection. One is the fact that there is no such thing as state-bankruptcy law in the United States. A second reason, related to the first, is the Constitution. In the United...

FRANKFORT - Kentucky's Democratic governor has vetoed abortion legislation pushed by Republican lawmakers. The bill would have given the state's Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron authority to regulate abortion clinics and the power to suspend abortions as an elective procedure during the coronavirus outbreak. Another part of the vetoed measure would have required doctors to provide life-sustaining care for an infant born alive after a failed abortion attempt. The measure cleared the legislature in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session. As a result, lawmakers won’t have an opportunity to override Governor Andy Beshear’s veto. In a statement on...

The University of Washington’s IHME COVID-19 model is the one most widely cited by policymakers and journalists. Superficially, that model has been relatively stable, with its total projected fatalities nationwide from the Wuhan virus declining from the mid-80,000 range to its current faux precise level of 67,641, which is probably a pretty good guess–one that you or I might have made–based on experience to date.But if we look at the IHME model’s projections for individual states, we see capricious changes that cast serious doubt on whether the model is based on any coherent scientific principles at all. I have...

The coronavirus patients began arriving the last week of March, transferred to the Gurwin Jewish Nursing and Rehabilitation Center under a New York State Mandate requiring nursing homes to accept those recovering from COVID-19, even if they might still be contagious. At the time, the Long Island nursing home had only one known resident who had contracted the virus, according to to the facility's president and CEO, Stuart Almer. A month later, Gurwin is battling an outbreak that's killed 24 residents — only three of whom were hospital transfers — and one staff member, who worked in housekeeping, Almer said....

Germany could be facing its second drought in just two years, a leading meteorologist has said, just as farmers struggle with strict measures imposed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. “The past two years were unusually dry. The ground now needs rain,” forecaster and oceanographer Mojib Latif told German regional newspaper Rhein Neckar Zeitung (RNZ) on Saturday. Latif said the country’s network of reservoirs is only partly full, adding that if there is no heavy rain in the next two to three weeks then a failed harvest could threaten the agriculture industry. […] Rain is forecast in the coming weeks, according...

Austin (KXAN) — As the coronavirus pandemic and response continues, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have continued to churn out papers and update models in an effort to give policymakers an informed look at the risk the virus poses. The latest projections for many places (including the state of Texas) based on current data suggest that there is a 64% probability Texas has already seen its peak in COVID-19 deaths and a 99% probability that the U.S. has already seen its peak in COVID-19 deaths. These numbers reflect significant changes from what these models have shown over...

YouTube took down a video Friday posted by the bio-tech firm Aytu BioSience explaining a new UV light treatment for coronavirus patients. Aytu BioScience announced Tuesday the firm is working with Cedars-Sinai and the FDA to determine the efficacy of the treatment. The video is now labeled, “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Terms of Service”. Original video with now dead link: https://youtu.be/RZHQbKe9TtI Copy posted and live for now: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Aytu BioScience promoted the video on Twitter Friday morning, “Many are now talking about UV light being used as a treatment for COVID-19....