Free Republic

Good for Mike Bloomberg. During his first debate, he slammed Bernie Sanders by saying: "We're not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didn't work!" Exactly right. It's safe to say Bloomberg is not a communist. I wonder if that means there's still room for him in the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, Bloomberg is no principled, limited-government capitalist, either. Like his fellow New York billionaire Donald Trump, he's used to getting his own way at his own company. Unfortunately, he assumes government should function in a similar fashion. Instead...

Mark Ruffalo has nothing on his green alter ego these days. Sure, the actor’s signature character is mean, green and out of control. Compare that to what Ruffalo says in a new interview with the UK Independent: “We are approaching mass extinctions, food systems failing, hundreds of millions of displaced people looking for places that are hospitable.” Ruffalo spoke to the news outlet to promote “Dark Waters,” a fact-based film which hit theaters last year but failed to gain awards season buzz. The actor plays a lawyer fighting a powerful corporation tied to environmental-based deaths. The press seized on two...

The girl has never scored below a 96 on any test. She’s No. 1 on the honor roll — and the principal wants her to wear the state-mandated red scarf of the Communist youth organization, los pioneros, or she’s out. Her parents refuse. Her mother is called in for a conference. The women argue. The truce: The price for not wearing the pañoleta is being knocked down to second place for lack of revolutionary spirit. The top spot will go to a boy who is an eager and loyal pionerito (like decades later, a returned Elián González would be, too)....

We have a request for Gambler's Yodel by the Delmore Brothers. Our correspondent (an entertainer and fan of the Delmore Brothers) thought this tune was recorded in 1936 and unissued. It turns out the 1936 unissued tune was Gamblin' Yodel, whereas Gambler's Yodel was recorded in 1939 and issued on the Bluebird label. Would love to know if they are two separate tunes, or the same tune recorded on different dates with slightly different titles? Any insight or help on this would be appreciated.

Aylward said the key to China's "success" in allegedly containing the outbreak is the way that different areas used a "tailored approach" to different regions to avoid exhausting their resources. However, there have been numerous reports of a lack of test kits, masks, medical supplies, and hospital beds in Wuhan throughout the outbreak. After having safely returned to WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Aylward expressed confidence in the communist regime's health care system, proclaiming: "You know, if I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China."

The mayor of San Francisco declared a state of emergency over coronavirus fears on Tuesday shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning that the U.S. will likely see more cases. There are 57 known cases in the U.S. and no cases in San Francisco, but Mayor London Breed pointed to the virus’ unpredictability and troubling global growth. "We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm," Breed said. She said many of the city's residents travel to mainland...

Before former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg threw his hat into the 2020 presidential race, he defended the New York Police Department's use of "stop, question and frisk" policing. At a United States Naval Academy's 2019 Leadership Conference, Bloomberg said, "We focused on keeping kids from going through the correctional system ... kids who walked around looking like they might have a gun, remove the gun from their pockets and stop it." He claimed that as a result of his policy, New York's murder rate fell from 650 a year to 300 the year he left office. In the...

This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the socialist Democratic presidential front-runner, made waves when he merely reiterated his lifelong warmth toward the viciously evil Cuban communist regime. Brushing off the human rights violations of Fidel Castro -- a man whose revolution ended with the murder or imprisonment of tens of thousands of his countrymen, and decades of impoverishment and repression for millions -- Sanders explained: "We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. ... When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a...

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US Democratic candidate Joe Biden keeps on "rolling out the gaffes" however, debating Bernie Sanders is similar to "wrestling smoke" according to the Daily Telegraph's Tim Blair. ... Mr. Blair told Sky News host Chris Kenny, politically "Bernie Sanders is alot harder to lay a glove on" than his opponents. "He's talking about a paradise, a socialist kind of super world where all is free and fair... How do you argue against invisibility like that?" ...

Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. Benjamin Franklin

In Syria’s last opposition stronghold, the worst fears of millions of people are coming true. With the help of brutal Russian airstrikes, Syrian government forces have seized about a third of Idlib Province over the last two months, pushing over 900,000 of the region’s 3.5 million people out of their homes and north toward the nearby Turkish border, where another 800,000 displaced people already live in crude, overcrowded camps. The current wave of refugees fleeing Idlib, about 80 percent of whom are women and children, is now the largest exodus of Syria’s nine-year conflict. Aid agencies are overwhelmed, and food...

MOSCOW—The Russians were excited once again for a U.S. presidential election in which they could interfere to sow division and discord, but their excitement soon turned to dismay when they found an election already too chaotic for them to follow. (Snip) Evil leader of Russia and interferer of elections, Vladamir Putin, agreed. “In our wildest ambitions, we never would have tried to get a straight out Communist to win the nomination in a major U.S. party,” Putin said. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to interfere and add to that.” Putin hung his head sadly. “It’s like people don’t even...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin." (Isa. 30:1)

South Korea will test 200,000 members of a secretive church for the novel coronavirus after its leader agreed to hand a list of members to health authorities. As of Tuesday, 10 people had died of COVID-19 and at least 977 had been infected with it in South Korea, making it the worst-hit nation other than China. (See link for full story)

India has been rocked by violence since Parliament approved a new law that excludes a fast-track path to citizenship for Muslim refugees. An angry group of Hindus carrying pickaxes and iron rods hurled rocks Tuesday at Muslims in a fresh round of violent protests in the Indian capital over a new citizenship law, with at least 10 people killed in two days of clashes that cast a shadow over U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the country. After talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump told reporters that he had heard about the violence but did not discuss it...

Whether as co-founder of Black Sabbath or as a solo artist, Ozzy Osbourne spent his life and art (at least, the non-reality television part) conjuring death, summoning its spirits and welcoming its hold on heaven or hell. You know the drill: his albums were filled with graveyards, devils and bloodlust. At times Ozzy was ferocious, even if the hair metal scene of the ’80s made his dread seem garish, and his evil had a comic-book edge as time went on. The point is, since his first album with Sabbath in 1970, Osbourne has worked death, darkness and demon seeds like...

By Hassan Mahmoudi Finally, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) blacklisted Iran on February 21; after three years of warning and giving Tehran additional time. In a statement, the FATF called for Iran to execute 10 articles, the most important of which was to identify and freeze the assets of terrorist groups in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions. FATF demanded the regime to express a transparent mechanism for reporting suspicious transactions to finance terrorist groups upon request. Ratification and implementation of the Palermo Convention on Combating Terrorism and Transparency of Iran’s Capacity for Legal Cooperation. Iran...

SEOUL — A South Korean flight attendant who has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus may have serviced trips between Seoul and Los Angeles last week, according to several South Korean media outlets. South Korea’s Center for Disease Control said Wednesday local time that a female flight attendant who serviced a flight Feb. 15 from Tel Aviv to Seoul had tested positive for the virus. On board the flight was a church group returning from a pilgrimage to Israel; 30 other infections have been connected to the group so far, according to local authorities. The South Korean media outlets reported...

At this point, the American public should be getting combat pay for watching any of these Democratic debates. While there weren’t any massive unanswered attacks at this debate in South Carolina, it’s become clear that Elizabeth Warren is shifting her goals. Warren, who was once the front-runner before there was actual voting, has come to the realization that she’s got no shot of winning the nomination for herself. But she could definitely position herself as a vice presidential candidate for Bernie Sanders. So Warren continued her chosen role as “attack dog sicced on Mike Bloomberg” tonight while deliberately walking around...