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As of Wednesday night, Italy is in chaos, as if they were at war. They’ve counted 1,800 new sick people in one day, more than 12,000 total infected and more than 800 dead; they’ve seen food shortages and prison riots with mass escapes and several deaths. Spain is has experiencing more than 2,000 cases and nearly 50 deaths as of Wednesday, making it the new health concern hotspot in Europe, along with France, where 33 people have already died and more than 1,700 are infected. Even the French minister of culture, Franck Riester, has tested positive for coronavirus. The stock...

A passenger who caught a JetBlue flight from New York to Palm Beach had reportedly been told he tested positive for coronavirus moments before the plane took off. Florida officials announced early on Thursday that a man had tested positive for the virus. Passengers were forced to remain on Flight 253 for two additional hours as the aircraft stood on the tarmac instead of proceeding to gate C12 at the Palm Beach International Airport. Another passenger on the plane claimed the man's wife told him they had been told of the result before take off. The flight landed at 8.53pm...

President Donald Trump announced major new restrictions on travel from Europe, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic and the Dow fell into bear market territory. And to top it all off, Tom Hanks became the first global celebrity to test positive for the virus. Here’s the latest on the coronavirus outbreak and the worldwide response.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that there has been "irresponsible rhetoric" from people who have downplayed the seriousness of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. In an interview on the "TODAY" show, Savannah Guthrie asked what message Pence sends to people who aren't afraid of the coronavirus and think it's just politics and hype, quoting from President Donald Trump on Monday that the "fake news media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything to inflame the coronavirus situation." "Well, obviously there's been some irresponsible rhetoric," Pence said without directly naming Trump. Pence, the head of the president's...

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Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Shiva Ayyadurai. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Shiva Ayyadurai is a conservative-leaning Boston-based entrepreneur and is purported to be the inventor of the current email protocols for the Internet. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on...

MSNBC has already proven that its ability to do math is suspect. Turns out, its on-air talent may understand little about business loans too. MSNBC’s Joy Reid sent out a flippant tweet in an attempt to denigrate the Trump administration’s plan to direct the Small Business Administration to provide liquidity to states and small business owners through low-interest loans to provide economic relief from the coronavirus impact. Reid stated, “Who knew low-interest business loans were the key to stopping the coronavirus spread?” Fox Business' Melissa Francis let Reid have it: “Have you ever been responsible for making payroll, ever? You[‘re]...

What happened to Bernie's eye? https://twitter.com/Proven_Right/status/1237739591689330688?s=20  

On Wednesday night, a solemn President Trump spoke for less than ten minutes to tell Americans what steps the federal government has taken and will take to address the spread of coronavirus around the world. These steps include stopping all travel from Europe, payroll tax relief, small business loans, and aide for American workers who become sick or must care for someone who is sick. Although it was not a flowery speech, Trump reminded Americans that health crises are a fact of life. What matters is how one responds. In the face of the panic sweeping America, Trump promised us...

This is the week that began when we lost an hour as we sprang forward to save daylight and continued with a full spring moon, so close and large, enough to give many of us something to admire ... while in self-isolation from coronavirus.  Sigh. And so, in that spirit, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Somalia in Minnesota) temporarily suspended her professional hate of America to announce, via Instagram:  No, this lucky third husband isn't her brother as was husband #2 -- or was he #1?  He is her married-to-someone else campaign aide and fundraiser who conveniently "earned" several hundred thousand dollars from her campaign when...

The European Commission has said that the European Union “disapproves” of President Donald Trump’s decision to protect his citizens from further foreign exposure to coronavirus by banning entry from most of the bloc’s countries without having consulted with Brussels, first. President Trump announced the 30-day ban on Wednesday which will go into effect on Friday. The ban is limited to mainland Europe, specifically the countries in the visa-free travel area known as the Schengen Zone, like France, Germany, and Sweden. The UK and Ireland are not affected, as are non-Schengen countries like Croatia and Romania. Non-EU countries on the continent...

Morning "Thou shalt love thy neighbour." Matthew 5:43 "Love thy neighbour." Perhaps he rolls in riches, and thou art poor, and living in thy little cot side-by-side with his lordly mansion; thou seest every day his estates, his fine linen, and his sumptuous banquets; God has given him these gifts, covet not his wealth, and think no hard thoughts concerning him. Be content with thine own lot, if thou canst not better it, but do not look upon thy neighbour, and wish that he were as thyself. Love him, and then thou wilt not envy him. Perhaps, on the other...

Eager to join the rest of the media in politicizing the coronavirus, on Monday’s CBS Late Show, liberal host Stephen Colbert sought to use the disease to attack President Trump. Colbert commenced the thrashing session with an opening monologue in which he skewered Trump over his response to the coronavirus:

CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta argued on Wednesday night that President Trump's Oval Office address to the nation "smacked of xenophobia" after the president referred to coronavirus as a "foreign virus." "I think we should point out, at one point during this address the president referred to the coronavirus as a quote 'foreign virus,' Acosta said on "Chris Cuomo Primetime" following the president's primetime address. "Now, why the president would go as far as to describe it as a foreign virus? That is something we’ll also be asking questions about," Acosta said. He suggested that White House adviser...

First it was the Russian Collusion Hoax, based upon nothing but a phony dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC in order to promote the media-fueled fever dream that Trump “colluded with Russia” to steal the election of 2016. Then it was the Ukrainian Quid Pro Quo Hoax, based upon a phone call between Trump and the President of Ukraine, leaked by a phony “whistleblower” and his phony informant, both of whom were carefully shielded from all scrutiny by the Democrat-Media Complex (DMC). The hoax was exposed when the transcript of the call showed no quid pro quo...

Dear MoveOn member, The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 is here. After weeks of watching the global pandemic unfold, we're now seeing the virus affect many of our communities, our families, our politics, our elections, our jobs, and more. And while the full extent of the virus's impact is still unclear, it's already exposing underlying problems in our country including these three major ways: Donald Tump and the GOP have put the profits and the needs of corporations before caring for our communities. Their corruption, ineptitude, and secrecy are putting millions at risk. Americans are at risk not just from...

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are working to kill a House deal to reauthorize expiring intelligence programs and reform the surveillance court, throwing up an eleventh hour roadblock to the agreement. The two libertarian-minded Republicans, who are close allies of President Trump's, are urging Trump to veto the House agreement, which pairs a reauthorization of expiring intelligence programs with broader changes to the court associated with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). "The president I think really would like to see real reform, and I think the open question is whether or not he'll take what [Attorney...

Coronavirus is a significant public health issue, but the response to it, in many quarters, has been hysterical. Events of various kinds are being canceled or modified: schools are closing or going online, the NCAA basketball tournaments will be played without fans in the stands, New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has been canceled, countless businesses (like my old law firm) are closing their offices and telling employees to work from home. I think there are several reasons for this, beyond legitimate concerns about spreading the disease. First, a fear of liability that is probably misplaced. If other schools send...

The normally well-fed primates had no food after coronavirus fears left the normally busy streets in Thailand completely empty of tourists.... ==================================================================== Hundreds of starving monkeys fought over a single banana that was left in the street, as tourists who regularly feed them shun Thailand. The normally well-fed primates swarmed across a street in Lopubri, central Thailand, after they spotted a fellow monkey holding a banana. A clip showed the primates giving chase to the unlucky monkey, who was doing his best to stay ahead of the pack. But, it took a sinister turn as they started to shriek and...

I have always been fascinated by numbers, so looking at data on the virus spread and its lethality is revealing, and also raises lots of questions I cannot answer, since I am not a virologist, nor am I on top of what each country is doing to contain the spread of the virus. There are several very good sources of information on the numbers if this interests you. A 17-year-old prodigy from Seattle has created an excellent database, which updates every minute.  Here is an article on the young software designer.  Johns Hopkins University, recipient of the largest gift...