Free Republic

QUINCY, Ill. — Considering ditching the mask? Think again. The year that everyone can’t wait to be over won’t be ending any time soon. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday that Illinois is unlikely to return to normal until sometime next year. “We don’t have to do this forever,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference at the Adams County Public Health Department in western Illinois. “We’re not there yet. And frankly, we’re not going to be there until 2021, in my humble opinion. “I’m not a doctor, but that’s what my observation is, that we’re not going to be...

It’s safe to say that a year ago, none of us thought we’d be where we are now. The last few months have wrought havoc on all of us in some way or another, whether we’ve been personally affected by COVID-19 or felt the consequences of the economic turmoil as a result of the pandemic.

The U.S. debate over restrictions for fighting the coronavirus intensified, as protesters labeled mandatory lockdowns as “tyranny,” while medical workers and health experts cautioned that lifting them too soon risked unleashing a greater disaster. Liberals want a lockdown but only if that doesn’t hurt their business. From BLN News: In response to citizens peaceably protesting yesterday- Normal Il mayor taunted “nonessential” struggling citizens and business owners while his business is OPEN. The banner proves he has NO compassion for his own community. He knew people were coming to protest, his message to those NOT ALLOWED to work: his middle finger!...

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an architect of Obamacare and special adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization, told MSNBC’s The Last Word that the United States cannot return to normal until a Chinese coronavirus vaccine is available, which he speculated could take between 12-18 months.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP3-hE-DrSc&feature=emb_titleDR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL: No one is immune to the COVID-19 virus. It threatens all of us. But while we are all experiencing the same pandemic, we are not experiencing it in the same way. The first dividing line is whether you or someone you love has gotten sick. Many Americans have not yet seen firsthand what devastation a positive...

The state-wide shutdowns have only been in place for a couple of weeks at most, but people are already starting to get understandably jumpy. Even if we assume that the governments, both state and federal, are handling this pandemic in the wisest way possible, when does it all end? When can we declare this emergency to be in our rearview mirror and have our lives return to some semblance of normality? This weekend, the Boston Globe put that question to some experts in epidemiology and the answers aren’t terribly comforting, at least in my opinion. “That’s one of the...

<p>Donald Trump is many things. But one thing he is not is a defender of the 2009-2016 status quo and accepted progressive convention. Since 2017, everything has been in flux. Lots of past conventional assumptions of the Obama-Clinton-Romney-Bush generation were as unquestioned as they were suspect. No longer.</p>

To understand the human brain, take note of the rare, the strange and the downright spooky. That’s the premise of two new books, Unthinkable by science writer Helen Thomson and The Disordered Mind by neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel. Both books describe people with minds that don’t work the same way as everyone else’s. These are people who are convinced that they are dead, for instance; people whose mental illnesses lead to incredible art; people whose memories have been stolen by dementia; people who don’t forget anything. By scrutinizing these cases, the stories offer extreme examples of how the brain creates...

Donald Trump goes to Europe, scandalizes the Euroweenies, libs, and cruise-shilling grifters of Never Trump, and comes back victorious. He’s about to get his second SCOTUS justice confirmed – all they have on Brett Kavanaugh is that he likes beer and is named “Brett.” In Congress, the Democrats decided to go all in on abolishing ICE because Americans love open borders and welcome MS-13 or something. In the Mueller farce, the Dems decided that the smart play was to publicly run interference for creepy weirdo Peter Strzok when he went on national TV doing his impression of Lotion Boy from...

Welcome to the new normal for a Western civilization. Well into the second decade of Islamic jihad against the West, we all know the bloody script. In London, “radical jihadists” or “Islamist extremists” for the third time in a year went on a rampage, ramming pedestrians and slashing throats, and leaving seven dead and 48 wounded so far. Police immediately round up suspects they obviously could have snatched before the carnage. Prime Minister Theresa May blusters “enough is enough” and “terrorism breeds terrorism.” Politicians across the world issue rote “condemnations” of terrorism,” then go back to business as usual. Shrines...

This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal. This is not normal....

The 2016 presidential election produced the biggest voter gender gap on record, with women preferring Hillary Clinton by 12 percentage points, while men preferred Donald Trump by 12 percentage points. Was that sexism, or just voter preference?

WATCH Authorities Investigating Video of Dog Chained to Crate on Florida Highway (video) Authorities in Florida have launched an investigation after a video emerged on Facebook of a dog chained to the top of a crate being towed by an SUV driving at least 70 mph. Palm Coast resident Brenna Cronin, 24, shot the video Wednesday afternoon in Flagler County as she and her boyfriend were driving southbound on I-95 toward Daytona Beach. In the video, a dog is seen standing on top of the crate, which contained at least one other animal, while a Chevrolet Tahoe pulls the trailer...

Obama and the progressive elite were not satisfied merely with exonerating the clearly guilty Hillary Clinton of charges that would have sent any mere mortal to the slammer. They had to shove it in our faces. The AG met with Bill Clinton. Then the FBI director laid out a devastating case, followed by an “and…nope.” Then President Faily McWorsethancarter swept her away in Air Force One – at our expense – to campaign with her and even placed her at a podium with the presidential seal while the liberal media thrilled and quivered. This is beyond mere corruption. This is...

Anyone questioning the sustainability and rightness of The New Normal is immediately attacked by the mainstream-media defenders of the crumbling status quo. Not only is everything that broke in 2008 fixed, everything's going great globally, and anyone who dares question this narrative in a tin-foil hat conspiracy nut or simply an annoyingly doom-and-gloomer who recalcitrantly refuses to accept the positive glories of official statistics: low unemployment, rising valuations of stock market Unicorns, etc. But the New Normal is anything but normal; all the readings of artificial life-support and manipulation are off the charts. If the New Normal were indeed a...

Japanese media reports say automaker Mitsubishi Motors has decided to end production in the U.S. to focus on Asian markets. […] The company sold only 82,000 vehicles in the United States last year, less than one percent of the total market. …

Some of us now struggle to recognize the culture we live in. We are profoundly baffled and greatly disturbed by what seems like a complete inversion of values. The zeitgeist looks at actions that to us seem utterly unremarkable and treats them as major social sins or even illegalities. Yet when other actions strike us as jaw-droppingly outrageous or corrupt, the larger culture shrugs without concern. If nearly half the culture acts and believes in ways that are alien to us, but they are backed by the establishment media hordes, then we in the other half feel utterly adrift...

The logo for the "Humanum" conference, to be held held November 17-19 at the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI Hall. (Photo: www.humanum.it/) In golf, a “do-over” is a called a “mulligan”. At the Vatican, might it be called a “post-synodal conference”? October’s Synod on the Family proved disappointing to many. Fraught with controversy and confusion, some believe church leadership missed an opportunity to propose clear and effective doctrine. Reportedly, bishops raised their voices. One pounded his fist on his desk in disgust. But a year out from next fall’s summit, some Vatican leaders are already trying to retake important ground,...

OSLO (Reuters) - The baseline for "normal" weather used by everyone from farmers to governments to plan ahead needs to be updated more frequently to account for the big shifts caused by global warming, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday. The WMO's Commission for Climatology believes rising temperatures and more heatwaves and heavy rains mean the existing baseline, based on the climate averages of 1961-90, is out of date as a guide, the WMO said in a statement. "For water resources, agriculture and energy, the old averages no longer reflect the current realities," Omar Baddour, head of the...

An analysis pointing out the intersection of transhumanism and the occult.

So, I woke up this morning, and the birds were singing, the sun was shining and all was right in the world. The high today is supposed to be 78°, with a slight chance of cooling.  I drove into work, where everyone is paid according to their ability, and I didn't see any illegals anywhere, because they've all been deported and the new Immigration laws have closed our borders and made sure no one can or will break the laws to get in illegally again.  And it especially helps since they put in that new moat with alligators down there......