Free Republic

New York City’s coronavirus outbreak grew so large by early March that the city became the primary source of new infections in the United States, new research reveals, as thousands of infected people traveled from the city and seeded outbreaks around the country.

The same day that Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., sold off at least $628,000 worth of stocks before the market crashed, his brother-in-law also dumped a significant amount of shares, according to a new report from ProPublica. The report, citing a public financial disclosure form from Burr's brother-in-law Gerald Fauth -- who serves on the National Mediation Board (NMB) -- reveals that Fauth sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of stocks in a total of six transactions on Feb. 13, 2020. Burr's sales that day, soon before the coronavirus panic tanked the market, reportedly led to the Securities and Exchange Commission...

It's a tough five-way race for Worst Governor of the Pandemic between Cuomo, Newsom, Whitmer, Murphy, and Pritzker. Cuomo and Murphy have killed the most people so far, but Pritzker and Whitmer are staying in the race on sheer obnoxiousness and dumb publicity stunts. Calling the act of wearing a facial covering in public a “collective act of patriotism,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on state residents to not only wear masks while shopping, but also to report mask-related discrimination against minority residents.  He said, while not wearing a mask. But if a mask is indeed a collective act of...

Writing in the New York Times, Linda Hirshman says she believes Tara Reade but she’ll vote for Joe Biden anyway because of Donald Trump. Yesterday in a New York Times column Linda Hirshman said she believes Tara Reade, but she’s going to vote for Joe Biden anyway because anything is better than Donald Trump. That is to say, she believes Biden sexually assaulted Reade in a locker room when Reade worked on his Senate staff years ago. It’s nonsense at this point to try to discount or denigrate every new corroborating witness who comes forward to bolster Reade’s claim, Hirshman...

MSNBC contributor Anand Giridharadas said on Wednesday because Americans are so obsessed with the idea of freedom, it leaves the country vulnerable to outside threats like climate change and pandemics. He added government is not the biggest threat to our liberties. Giridharadas said the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and the government's response will lead to Americans wanting to reevaluate its relationship with the state and federal government. "There is a primordial American tradition going back to the Founders of being freedom obsessed, even though we are a country founded on slavery and genocide, being freedom obsessed to the point that...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) warns that voting by mail is “at the time of the coronavirus, very essential.”

Voting by mail may be the last straw for ballot integrity in a state that already has some of the nation’s most lax guidelines for elective franchise.

The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two government officials implicated in the 2013 Bridgegate scandal, in which then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) allies schemed to create a traffic jam to retaliate against one of his rivals. The justices said in their unanimous decision that while the scheme involved deception and corruption, it did not violate federal law. "The question presented is whether the defendants committed property fraud," Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the court's opinion. "The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing — deception, corruption, abuse of power. But the federal fraud statutes...

‘Criminals, tyrants, and terrorists don’t do background checks,’ said the judge who blocked the law.

Samaritan’s Purse has no expectation of receiving a single penny for the weeks of work they did in Central Park to combat the coronavirus. But now New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is asking them to pay up. Earlier this week, the Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the nonprofit organization, told Faithwire, “They’re the ones who called us originally,” referring to officials with the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. “We didn’t call them; they called us,” he continued. “And we agreed to go and we have not charged them one penny. All of our services have been...

When the state pays your wages - and the sun is shining - what’s the rush to get back to "normal"? Sometimes I think I need to read this in black and white to actually believe it might be true. A quarter of the British workforce is sitting at home in its pajamas receiving 80% of its pay, up to a maximum of £2,500 ($3,000) a month, guaranteed by the government until the end of June. A similar scheme has been put in place for the self-employed. The prime minister's official spokesman said: "Since the launch, 800,000 employers have used...

Let the government-pressed coronavirus-tied blood collections of citizens begin. And begin they have. They have in Georgia at least, where the state’s Department of Public Health recently announced, in cooperation with both Fulton County and Dekalb counties’ Boards of Health, that “to learn more about the spread of COVID-19,” an “investigation” has commenced — and it’s an “investigation” that’s leading government officials to make random stops at randomly selected residences and ask random citizens for, get this, their blood. Citizens’ DNA in the hands of unelected government officials. Hmm, what could go wrong there? Specifically, Georgia’s health wonks want to...

TRENTON, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy today apparently saw his shadow today, which means the New Jersey COVID-19 lockdown will continue for at least another 30 days with no clear plan for residents or small business owners who will remain out of work during that time. “I’m signing an EO to extend our public health emergency by 30 days,” Murphy said today. “To be clear: this does not mean we’re seeing anything in the data which would pause our path forward. These declarations, unless extended, expire after 30 days. We’re still in a public health emergency. If this extension signals...

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano reacts to the jailing of a Texas salon owner for reopening her business and a new memo on the extent of the Mueller probe. Click excerpt link to Watch!

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Shelley Luther. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Shelley Luther is a patriot and a realist from Colleyville, Texas. Refusing to shut down her salon in the midst of a Democrat-scaremongering pandemic, Luther flat-out told King George, alias Judge Moyé, that she was not shutting down her salon, in response to his sanctimonious bloviation. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in...

HANOVER — Dartmouth College officials declined Wednesday to rule out layoffs and furloughs for some of its 3,900 employees, including non-tenured faculty, as the institution faces millions of dollars in projected losses over its spring and summer terms. Layoffs are a “part of a tool kit” that administrators need access to, but are seen as a last resort to stabilize the college’s financial situation past June 30, Executive Vice President Rick Mills said during a meeting with Valley News editors and reporters. “They are a tool that we deploy later and with more reluctance than most of these other tools...

Original film footage shot on the Cunard pier showing passengers arriving and the departure of the ocean liner Lusitania on its final voyage. (appx 6 mins b&w silent)

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter John 13:16-20 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus announces his betrayal just after transforming bread and wine into his Body and Blood. It is of great moment that, immediately after this extraordinary event, Jesus speaks of treachery: “The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.” In the biblical reading, God’s desires have been, from the beginning, opposed. Consistently, human beings have preferred the isolation of sin to the festivity of the sacred meal. Theologians call this tendency the mysterium iniquitatis (the mystery of evil), for there is no rational ground...

Clinicians prescribing Truvada (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine) or Descovy (tenofovir alafenamide/emtricitabine) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for adolescents may have to go the extra mile to provide the most effective support to help this population mitigate their risk of contracting HIV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published guidance for health care providers who prescribe PrEP to adolescents in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The federal agency expresses confidence that this population can do well on the regimen given the proper support.

VIDEO Prepare the gurney for Steve Schmidt to be strapped down in on November 3. Also you will need a leather strap for his foaming mouth to bite down upon when he realizes his world has been shattered with the re-election of Donald Trump. You can get an idea of just how destroyed Schmidt will be in November by watching this severe TDS meltdown he had on MSNBC's Deadline: White House. I expect his rant frequency to increase exponentially between now and Election Day followed by an unending Primal Scream. Enjoy the gurney ride, Steve!