Free Republic

There is no need, however, to panic. If you're feeling in any way anxious about the coronavirus outbreak, here are five facts to help assuage your worries. 1. The number of cases in China is already falling significantly 2. The vast majority of cases are mild, and the death rate is likely lower than reported. 3. It is not that contagious. Only one out of every 1,000 people in Hubei Province has contracted the coronavirus. 4. There have been no reported deaths in young children. 5. The world already survived another pandemic just ten years ago

San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City currently make up 42 percent of the United States homeless population. These so-called sanctuary cities are in a mess. Due to decades of misguided and faulty policies, homelessness is a serious problem. Over half a million people go homeless on a single night in the United States. But that’s no reason for homeless people to crash into your backyard and stay there because the cops tell you that they will arrest you if you remove them! This might sound horrifying but one video that surfaced over the weekend shows a homeowner in...

Politicians across the Western world like to speak fondly of the “middle class” as if it is one large constituency with common interests and aspirations. But, as Karl Marx observed, the middle class has always been divided by sources of wealth and worldview. Today, it is split into two distinct, and often opposing, middle classes. First there is the yeomanry or the traditional middle class, which consists of small business owners, minor landowners, craftspeople, and artisans, or what we would define historically as the bourgeoisie, or the old French Third Estate, deeply embedded in the private economy. The other middle...

Good evening fellow Freepers. This may seem like an odd request but it's something that I've wanted to ask here because though I know computer PCs, I don't know audio visual very well. What I'm looking for is a device where an HDMI cable can be plugged in one side, and video and audio come out the other side separately. The audio output needs to be in the way of a 3.5MM audio port. The video output still needs be HDMI, or even Displayport and DVI. The reason for this request is because the antiquated equipment in our A/V room...

It could have been the end for Monty the jungle carpet python, who got a bit peckish recently and decided to eat an entire beach towel. Footage of vet Dr Olivia Clarke and her team extracting it from Monty's stomach was posted online and went viral.

Friends it's Sunday night again and time to relax. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio Americana. Listen Live Info *tonight's show will be available at the "Info" link starting tomorrow.

Somebody made a deal. Was it the DNC? Mike Bloomberg? Perhaps even Joe Biden? Pete Buttigieg, the young Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who won the Iowa Caucus and performed better than expected in the New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucus (and arguably the South Carolina primary where he came in fourth), has inexplicably dropped out of the race two days before Super Tuesday. Like I said, somebody made a deal. Timing of the Buttigieg drop out is more than a little unusual. Maybe he secured some sort of deal … a “quid pro quo,” we might say. — Josh...

I went to a 'Fat Tuesday Potluck' last week, and one young lady brought Shrimp Etouffee, which I had never had. Instead of rice, she served it over grits, and I was in Heaven. Here is Chef John's recipe, thoughtfully adapted to frozen shrimp because it's all that many of us can procure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx1yprdgs80We're coming up on Asparagus Time, and I'm looking for new ways to use it. We can get it nearly all year now, but find the nice big ones in Summer. We usually put it on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and...

There are currently two people under investigation for #COVID19 in NYC. We’re also announcing one other test performed is negative. Tests for novel #coronavirus are now being performed by @HealthNYGov's lab, which means we will be able to get results back much sooner. Governor Cuomo Delivers Update on Novel Coronavirus (3 min video)

Two Bay Area hospital staffers have been determined "presumptive positive" for coronavirus, public health officials announced. They are employed by the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, where a Solano County woman was treated before being tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. --SNIP-- Officials said both workers — one from Alameda County, the other from Solano County — had been exposed to the "community-acquired case" hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center. They are currently in isolation at home and will not return to work until they are cleared. “We took immediate and comprehensive measures intended to stop any further spread of...

The EU has found itself assailed on both sides by challenges it cannot unilaterally overcome at a time when it is totally divided. Brexiteers predicted all of this.

Nick Apollo Forte, a lounge singer who gave an engaging performance in Woody Allen’s film “Broadway Danny Rose,” died Wednesday at age 81. The singer — born Nicola Antonio Forte — began his career at age 15 under the stage name Nicky Redman and opened for Della Reese at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in 1957. He later adopted the stage name Nick Apollo. Forte, a native of Waterbury, Conn., recorded albums in addition to his live shows. When Allen was looking for someone to play a lounge singer in 1984′s “Broadway Danny Rose,” he came across Forte’s album “Images” in a record store...

A very disturbing video was posted on Twitter this weekend. A homeowner in Los Angeles claims the local government is preventing him from removing a homeless encampment from his property.

The Rev. Ernesto Cardenal, one of Latin America’s most admired poets and priests, who defied the Roman Catholic Church in the 1980s by serving in the revolutionary Sandinista government of Nicaragua, died on Sunday in Managua, Nicaragua. He was 95. His personal assistant, Luz Marina Acosta, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Born to a wealthy Nicaraguan family, Father Cardenal became a prominent intellectual voice of the Nicaraguan revolution and an ardent proponent of liberation theology, a Christian movement rooted in Marxist principles and committed to social justice and uplifting the poor. He was appointed Nicaragua’s first minister of...

The Second Amendment Sanctuary movement continued to gain steam in Michigan in the past week, with Allegan, Charlevoix and Livingston counties all passing resolutions to declare they will not enforce any unconstitutional firearms laws. Allegan County's resolution sought to codify board support for the Sheriff and prosecuting attorney in exercising their “sound discretion to not enforce against any citizen an unconstitutional firearm law.” Protection of Second Amendment rights also advanced at the state level this week. The Michigan House of Representatives passed a resolution Wednesday, stating it would not pass any laws that could infringe on the Second Amendment. View...

At 4:41 Trish Regan tells personal story of how she wanted vaccine for Swine flu in 2009 when she was pregnant with her twins. She said there were shortages with people standing in line for hours to get it... She had not been able to get it get it due to fact that Bloomberg NYC Health Dept. had decided to give the vaccines to the NYSE, Goldman Sacks, Morgan Stanley, etc. She found about about this travesty because someone at NYSE offered it to her...WOW! None initially went to gynecologists or pediatricians even tho pregnant mothers and children were the...

Pete Buttigieg is dropping out of the 2020 presidential primary race, a senior campaign aide told CNBC. He is flying to South Bend, Indiana to make the announcement, where he served as mayor for two terms. The Indiana Democrat waged an unlikely campaign that saw a little-known mayor overpower governors and U.S. senators in the race for the party nomination. Along the way, Buttigieg assembled a substantial war chest and a vast national operation. A two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg was the first openly gay major presidential contender. He scored a narrow delegate edge over Sen. Bernie Sanders...

Multiple sources breaking out on the Twitter. Beto seems happy.

Plains, Georgia - Former President Jimmy Carter suggested Pete Buttigieg's campaign is searching for answers after a disappointing fourth-place finish in Saturday's South Carolina primary, the first test of candidates' support in a state with predominantly African-American voters. Buttigieg and his husband Chasten paid a visit to Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter on Sunday morning, joining them for breakfast here in Georgia, which holds its Democratic primary on March 24. Carter told reporters at Buffalo Cafe in Plains that he is fond of Buttigieg, mentioning their work on a Habitat for Humanity project in South Bend, Indiana, where...

SEATTLE - The coronavirus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in Washington state, a preliminary finding that could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases, researchers said Sunday after analyzing genetic samples from two people. Washington state, home of the nation’s first confirmed infection, saw the nation’s first death from the virus this weekend. Trevor Bedford, an associate professor who announced the preliminary findings on the virus in Washington state, said on Twitter late Saturday that genetic similarities between the state’s first case on Jan. 20 and a case announced Friday indicated the newer case may have descended from the earlier...