Free Republic

A staffer says claim that knowing Hillary Clinton causes more deaths than coronavirus was “clearly a joke.” The legislator, Gae Magnafici, took office in January 2019 after a 35-year career as a nurse. It’s obviously nonsense to compare Clinton in any way with a global virus outbreak that has killed thousands. As America’s coronavirus death toll hit 19 and the number of cases topped 400 on March 7, 2020, one Wisconsin branch of Twitter wasn’t exactly taking the matter seriously. It started innocuously enough with a tweet from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck. She shared a link to a...

Excerpt: This case, a man in his mid-50s, is the first example of “community spread” of COVID-19 in Ohio, said Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton. This means the man had no history of travel outside the United States, and had no known contact with someone else with the disease. The patient is currently hospitalize, and health officials in Canton and Stark County are investigating the large number of contacts the patient had, state officials said.

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency Wednesday as the first cases of COVID-19 surfaced in New Mexico. To slow transmission of the virus, the governor urged people to avoid public gatherings, sanitize common surfaces and minimize contact with other individuals, even if it means staying home from church or going out less often. Three New Mexico residents tested positive for COVID-19 early Wednesday and are now isolating themselves at home — the first confirmed cases in the state, the governor said. All three cases, she said, are travel-related — a good sign because it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials. The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus. Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency...

An abortion advocate’s macabre choice of jewelry inadvertently highlighted the dark history of infanticide, a form of killing that was recorded in the earliest books of the Bible. The protester’s earrings were shared by the Daily Caller on Wednesday. The woman wearing the gruesome accessories was apparently spotted at a pro-abortion rally the same day. Appearing to be custom work, the earrings portray a crocodile with a small baby in its jaws. It’s unclear what message this protester was trying to send. The shock factor alone was enough to catch the Daily Caller’s attention, but it could have simply been...

These x-ray images show the damage that coronavirus is doing to the lungs of people who catch the potentially deadly bug. Doctors have been able to identify specific abnormalities caused by Covid-19 and the patterns are similar to those found in patients from the SARS and MERS outbreaks. The scans show patches in the lungs and the experts' findings could lead to a quicker diagnosis and help to prevent infections. The first British person to catch the flu-like illness had previously told how it hit him "like a train" and left him "suffocating" and in blinding pain for weeks.

A federal judge leveled harsh accusations against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and the rest of the conservative majority, claiming that they are “actively participating in undermining American democracy. ”Adelman was even unhappy with Roberts’ own opinion and key vote that upheld ObamaCare because it knocked down its expansion of Medicaid. He said this “thwarted Congress’ efforts to address one of the most serious problems that the poor face, the lack of health insurance[.]” The judge did not reserve his ire for the Supreme Court alone. He took shots at Senate Republicans for their handling of President Barack Obama’s...

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared coronavirus a pandemic, reflecting concern from WHO that countries aren’t working quickly and aggressively enough to contain the virus. “We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Stock market people please weigh in All I know is that it goes from a bull to a bear market when all three of these are down 20% from the most recent high.

. The broadcast by a station of false information concerning a crime or catastrophe violates the FCC's rules if: ;The station licensee knew that the information was false; ;Broadcasting the false information directly causes substantial public harm; and ;It was foreseeable that broadcasting the false information would cause such harm. In this context, a “crime” is an act or omission that makes the offender subject to criminal punishment by law, and a “catastrophe” is a disaster or an imminent disaster involving violent or sudden events affecting the public. The broadcast must cause direct and actual damage to property or to...

SACRAMENTO — Just five weeks into the job, Gov. Gavin Newsom has crystallized his vision of what California will look like in the Trump era: It won’t just be the hub of the resistance against the president; it will be its own nation-state.But before Newsom can create a country-within-a-country, he had to defuse two multibillion-dollar grenades that his predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, left in his in-box: high-speed rail and the delta tunnels project. In proposing Tuesday to scale back both of Brown’s unpopular legacy projects, Newsom hopes he can preserve enough political capital to get his own legacy projects...

Nearly 200 people in Italy have died in 24 hours as cases of coronavirus in the country continue to rise. There have been 827 deaths in Italy and the number of cases increased by more than 2,000, from 10,149 to 12,462, official figures showed. (Please see link for full details)

Sports events across the globe continue to feel the impact of the coronavirus. The disruption has extended to the local sports scene as well. NCAA Tournament games in Ohio won’t have spectators The governor of Ohio Mike DeWine said the state will issue an order that NCAA Tournament games in Ohio, including the First Four round in Dayton, will be played without fans in attendance.

If Donald Trump wins, then Michael Richard Pence, vice president of the United States, will be well positioned to serve Trump's third and fourth terms as president. Pence is only just now beginning to emerge from relative obscurity on the national stage, therefore many voters do not recognize him as the proto-Trump he is. If you like Trump but find him abrasive and overstated, you will love Pence, even if you learn his name only in the 2024 campaign. He is, if anything, to the right of Trump, but understatedly so, and a likely future POTUS. The more interesting outcome...

The founder of the nonprofit crime prevention group Guardian Angels said he plans to run for mayor of New York City in 2021 “to take back the city” from Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio. The announcement: “I am the anti-de Blasio candidate. The part time Mayor ‘Dope from Park Slope’ has single-handedly destroyed our city. Roll with Sliwa through the subways & streets & you’ll see why I’m the only one who can #SaveOurCity,” tweeted Guardian Angels founder and radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa, 65 has not yet filed paperwork to compete against de Blasio but has re-registered...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Wednesday that more than 600 arrests have been made as a result of an interagency operation cracking down on Mexican cartel activity. “Project Python,” a DEA-led initiative, targeted members of Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). According to the DEA, over the last six months federal law enforcement officials have been monitoring the activities of the accused. The operation resulted in more than 600 arrests nationwide, 350 indictments and “significant seizures of money and drugs,” according to the agencies. “Project Python marks the most comprehensive action to date in...

With further developments in the outbreak of COVID-19, the Ivy League Presidents are announcing their unanimous decision to cancel all spring athletics practice and competition through the remainder of the academic year. Individual institutions will decide whether or not winter teams and student-athletes who have qualified for postseason play will participate.

The Supreme Court has handed President Trump a victory, albeit a temporary one, by allowing the administration to enforce the “remain in Mexico” policy.Via The Hill:The justices will allow the “Remain in Mexico” policy to continue while the administration appeals a lower court ruling which deemed the program illegal and ordered a suspension that was scheduled to take effect tomorrow.Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only justice to publicly dissent from the decision to allow the policy to continue.Known officially as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the policy aims to curb entry into the U.S. by asylum-seekers, many of whom are Central...

Doctors in northern Italy struggling with the explosion of COVID-19 cases are warning their hospitals are on the brink of collapse and telling other countries to prepare for a fierce battle. At the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, the sudden surge to more than 10,000 cases in the region in just three weeks has overwhelmed intensive care units, with a shortage of beds and staff and ventilators potentially pushing the death toll higher. The overflow means patients are being treated in operating rooms, hospital corridors, or recovery rooms. Only a small portion of patients are being housed in...

Chinese officials covered up the outbreak of the new coronavirus, costing the world some two months to respond, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said, in some of the strongest remarks against China in regards to the virus to date. Asked about Chinese officials recently trying to claim that the virus did not start in the country, O’Brien said that just wasn’t true. “It originated in Wuhan in Hubei Province in China. It originated some time ago. Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up. There’s lots of open-source reporting from China, from Chinese nationals, that...