Free Republic

Keeping the U.S. economy on its feet as coronavirus pervades American borders is up to consumers and how much they’re willing to go out and spend, especially at small and midsize businesses, supply chain management expert Hitendra Chaturvedi says. Chaturvedi, a professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, said he’s not worried about major U.S. firms’ resilience to partial, or even full-year profit flatlines, and instead sees protecting smaller companies as key. “Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that are the heart and soul of this country are the ones that are going to be the hardest hit,”...

Japan's government says it will pay up to about 80 dollars per person per day to businesses as income compensation for parents taking leave from work in response to temporary school closures that began nationwide. The health and labor ministry on Monday revealed the details of a new subsidy system as the government strives to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. The ministry will pay the subsidy of up to 8,330 yen per person per day to businesses if their employees take paid leave to take care of their children due to school closures. It'll also offer stipend in...

With polls closing across Israel, exit polls published by Channel 12 News show that the Likud party has won 37 Knesset seats while the Blue and White party has won 33 seats. The Joint Arab List won 14 seats, Shas nine seats, United Torah Judaism seven seats, Yamina seven, Labor-Gesher-Meretz seven, and Yisrael Beyteinu six seats. According to the exit poll, the right-wing bloc received 60 seats, one shy of the 61 majority necessary to form a coalition. A Channel 13 News exit poll also showed the right-wing bloc winning 60 seats. The poll also found that the Likud won...

The city of Charlottesville, Va., will celebrate a holiday commemorating the end of slavery this year instead of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. According to The Washington Post, Jefferson’s birthday had been recognized annually by the city for more than 70 years. The move comes months after the local city council voted to drop the official holiday celebrating his birthday, April 13, in place of Liberation and Freedom Day on March 3, which marks the day in 1865 when Union troops emancipated slaves. Three of the council’s four members voted in favor of taking Jefferson’s birthday off the calendar. Kathy Galvin, the...

A new bill in the California state assembly would ban stores from separating their toys, clothing and childcare items into boys’ and girls’ sections and would fine them $1,000 if they did so. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Evan Low (Silicon Valley), says each “retail department store shall maintain one, undivided area of its sales floor where, if it sells toys, all toys, regardless of whether a particular item has traditionally been marketed for either girls or for boys, shall be displayed.” The bill, AB2826, includes similar language for clothing and “childcare articles” such as pacifiers. It would apply only...

A federal judge on Monday ordered former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to give a deposition under oath over a years-old lawsuit filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch regarding her role in the response to the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. District Court Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, said in court filings that written answers provided by Clinton to questions from Judicial Watch were "incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory, at best." "As extensive as the existing record is, it does not sufficiently explain Secretary Clinton’s state of mind when she decided it would be an...

Mean Little Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign is over, and how lucky we are to be rid of that nasty piece of work. Never forget that the failed mayor of South Bend, Indiana, launched his failed presidential bid with hate, bigotry, and lies. And then, after his hate, bigotry, and lies earned him enough attention from a media that thrive on such things, the Mean Little Mayor morphed into one of the biggest presidential phonies ever. But the hate came first… You see, if you want to win attention from the fake news media, spewing hate at Christians is an...

"Just What I Always Wanted" is a song by English singer Mari Wilson, released as a single in 1982. Mari Wilson - "Just What I Always Wanted"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is set to become Israel’s largest party, according to exit polls published shortly after voting ended in the country’s third election in a year. However, neither Netanyahu nor his chief rival Benny Gantz are projected a clear Knesset majority. Voting ended at 10 P.M., and official results are expected as early as Monday overnight.

There may be plenty of second chances in life, but there are very few when it comes to voting — a bitter pill to swallow for those Californians who voted for any of the presidential candidates who dropped out before Tuesday’s statewide election. The sudden exit from the race Sunday by Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Ind., sparked some brief interest on social media about the rules governing a possible revote. No doubt similar questions were raised by those who cast early absentee ballots for Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate change activist who left the race Saturday. The...

A Colorado resident was sentenced to 83 months in prison on Friday for his role in a biodiesel tax credit fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. According to court documents and statements made in court, Matthew Taylor and his coconspirators defrauded the United States by filing false claims for tax credits under a federal program that encourages production and use of renewable fuels. They created a fake company, Shintan Inc. (Shintan), that purported to be in the business of creating renewable fuels. From 2010 to 2013, the coconspirators then...

Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is preparing to issue the panel’s first subpoena as part of an investigation into Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company linked to Hunter Biden, he said in a letter on Sunday. Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary Peters of his plans to subpoena Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian embassy official and former consultant for Blue Star Strategies, a firm that Burisma hired to fight against corruption allegations.

For the third year in a row, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed big increases to more than a dozen gun fees in New Jersey. Murphy’s push for higher fees in his proposed state budget follows a series of bills he’s signed adding new restrictions to gun laws that were already some of the toughest in the nation. Murphy is asking lawmakers to raise the cost of a $2 gun application to $50, and a firearm ID card from $5 to $100, according to the state’s treasury department. The Democratic governor also proposed a 2.5% tax on firearms and a...

Students who staged a demonstration in protest of a lecture on the legality of DACA called it an “intellectually cheap and morally affronting topic.” Students held posters that said, “No human being is illegal" and “Everyone is welcome here.” Stanford University law students, upset about a “morally affronting” discussion of the arguments for and against the legality of DACA, staged a walkout of the event in protest. On Feb. 10, Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins spoke at Stanford Law School, sponsored by Stanford’s Federalist Society chapter. After Hawkins began his speech on the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)...

It’s time for another new year, and many people have set their sights on resolutions—things to do differently and, presumably, better during the next trip around the sun. For a good many people, this means learning new homesteading skills to become more self-sufficient. That may lead to leaving the grid for some, but lots of folks these days are just looking to do more for themselves—whether by becoming full-on, self-sufficient homesteaders or simply gaining a little more control over their lives and finances by picking up some new skills. Are you among those people looking to gain some self-reliance this...

The top State Department official under Barack Obama who negotiated the Iran deal has praised President Trump on two foreign policy points — both of which should be easy for Democrats who are not obsessed with removing or damaging the President over supporting what is demonstrably good for America. But of course they aren’t interested in that. If Democrats ravaged by Trump Derangement Syndrome immediately leap to blaming the Coronavirus on President Trump, then all lunacy is possible. The first point of praise was the proposed Afghanistan peace deal to end the 18-year war the U.S. has been bogged down...

The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit against the New York Times for a 2019 article that claimed Trump had a deal with Putin for Russian help against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The suit cites a total lack of evidence or facts in the Times article and argues that the paper showed a "reckless disregard for the truth and malice toward the candidate." Spokesperson for the Times Gunar Bile belittled the suit, calling it "legally merit-less. The courts have granted the press blanket immunity against libel claims unless the plaintiff can prove malice. Malice is a subjective thing....

SEATTLE - Six people have now died from the coronavirus in the Puget Sound area and at least 12 others have been infected, health officials said Monday, as King County's top executive issued an emergency declaration in response to the outbreak. The newest victims in King County include: - A man in his 70s, a resident of LifeCare who was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. The man had underlying health conditions and died Sunday. - A woman in her 70s, a resident of LifeCare, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had underlying health conditions and died Sunday. - A woman in her 80s,...

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday announced he was endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in his bid for the White House. Reid lauded Biden as the candidate best fit to assemble the largest coalition to defeat President Trump and “lead our country following the trauma of Trump’s presidency.” “Joe Biden’s strength of character and deep experience stand in the starkest contrast to Trump’s amorality, corruption and utter incompetence,” Reid said in a statement. “Biden will be a much-needed stabilizing force following Trump’s disastrous term, offering a positive and progressive alternative to Trump’s dark vision of racism,...

To understand why Bernie Sanders’ ideas are immoral, imagine if parents raised their child based on his principles. One of the hardest things to teach children is that wanting something doesn’t give them the right to take it. Selfishness comes naturally, after all. As a father of two toddlers, I know this firsthand. My older toddler’s favorite toy is whatever his younger brother is playing with. My wife and I have to correct and discipline him over this. We want him to learn that it’s wrong to take things that don’t belong to you. That’s very different than Sanders’ view...