Free Republic

America, the best truly is yet to come. President Trump’s brilliant move to secure Mark Meadows as his new chief of staff ensures the continued success of an already amazing presidency and, thus, the nation. Our president is an all-star champion for hard-working, freedom-loving Americans across the land. As he continues to secure victories for economic freedom, religious freedom, rebuilding our military, protecting the sanctity of human life, school choice, free speech and the creation of “jobs, jobs, jobs,” even Americans who don’t support the president are winning and benefitting on every level. President Trump continues to unleash the entrepreneur...

Abstract The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans. Here we examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, which is currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations1. Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting...

The Transportation Security Administration released information to San Jose (California) Mayor Sam Liccardo on Thursday about the three officers at Mineta San Jose International Airport who recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The three agents worked p.m. shifts at checkpoint B in the airport's Terminal B during their most recent days at work, according to the TSA. The three agents last worked Feb. 21, Feb. 26 and March 2, respectively, and two were stationed at the checkpoint's X-ray machines, scanning luggage and performing patdowns as needed. The third agent spent their shift as a travel document checker and screened...

The election prognosticators at the FiveThirtyEight website estimate that former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead in the Democratic delegate race by about 150 votes -- 935 to 785 for Sen. Bernie Sanders. Doesn't that suggest a close race and a long road ahead? They say no. Bernie is now behind 15% to 20% in the national polls, and "Sanders tends to lose more ground every time a new set of states votes." Democrats, who treat the prospect of President Donald Trump's reelection as a "moral 9/11," much like his first election, want to avoid any long-running Biden-bashing feud. If...

Two days before closing a New York City public school building where a student tested positive for the coronavirus, Department of Education officials sent out an internal memo advising staff not to report anyone with potential symptoms to the city Department of Health, THE CITY has learned. The memo from schools headquarters to staff systemwide went out Tuesday morning, days after Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that three public school teachers who’d been in a coronavirus hot zone had to be tested. At the same time, his health commissioner issued an order mandating that educators, first responders and city health...

On the day Chuck Schumer was threatening Supreme Court justices in front of pack of a cheering partisans, Representative Ayanna Pressley told the same crowd: "We have two alleged sexual predators on the bench of the highest court of the land, with the power to determine our reproductive freedoms. I still believe Anita Hill. And I still believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford!" Now, it is far more accurate to call Hill a "disgraced accuser" than Clarence Thomas an "alleged sexual predator." Not a single credible accuser -- and Thomas had scores of subordinates working for him during his years in...

Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur, hosts of the Young Turks, urged Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to target Joe Biden’s “obvious” “mental decline” during their Democrat primary election coverage livestream on Tuesday. “[Bernie Sanders] has got to get out of that comfort zone,” said Kasparian, noting Sanders’ refusal to highlight Biden’s frequent misstatements and slurred speech as evidence of the former vice president’s impaired cognition. “He’s got to hit [Joe Biden] where it hurts.”

IMPORTANT! This quote is an important reminder for everyone to note regarding the media hysteria about the Covid-19 virus (coronavirus). If you want to bypass the puzzle, you can read the quote in the comment area of this post by highlighting the answer row.Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Dr. Amesh Adalja. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Dr. Amesh Adalja is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and has salient advice with regard to the current pandemic hysteria. All hints, along with the...

Former Tallahassee mayor and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was allegedly involved in a hotel drug “orgy” that resulted in an overdose. Law enforcement responded to the location following reports of an overdose where Gillum and two other men were intoxicated by methamphetamines and possibly other controlled substances. The news, broken by conservative pundit Candace Owens, included a police report that shows Gillum was inebriated in the hotel room when police arrived. Three plastic bags contained what police believed to be crystal meth.

... According to the IRS, the top 0.01% of earners—those with incomes above $10 million—paid a 24.8% effective federal income-tax rate in 2018. This isn’t very different from the 25.3% the group paid in 2017, and is higher than the average rate of 22.5% on the same group during the George W. Bush administration. As these rates only encompass federal income taxes, most filers can expect to add another 8% to 12% of income from other forms of taxation, placing their total burden well above the Saez-Zucman numbers. How does that affect the claims of regressivity? It’s true the remainder...

The airwaves and the internet are filled with warnings about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). There is more panic in the air than virus itself. The panic is a non-stop viral news dump. But lost in the hysteria concerning the virus is the fundamental fact that humans rank choices every day, all the time. Government edicts to deal with the virus are simply various methods to trample over human individual choices. This is economics 101. Consider, it seems pretty clear that if someone under the age of 65 contracts COVID-19, it generally means a week or so of illness and that's...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Former Democratic candidate for Florida governor, Andrew Gillum, was involved in a suspected crystal meth incident early Friday morning in Miami Beach, authorities confirmed. According to a police report, Miami Beach Fire Rescue crews were called to a hotel at 1100 West Avenue shortly before 1 a.m. regarding a suspected drug overdose. Authorities said Gillum, 40, and two other men were inside the hotel room at the time. According to the report, one of the men, Aldo Mejias, 56, told officers that he gave Travis Dyson, 30, his credit card information to rent a hotel room...

Full Title: People who fully recover from the coronavirus can be left with '20 to 30%' less lung function, and gasping for breath when they walk quickly, Hong Kong doctors find. People who recover from the coronavirus can still be left with substantially reduced lung functions, Hong Kong Hospital Authority have found after observing the first wave of discharged patients. The doctors found a drop of 20% to 30% in lung capacity in two or three out of those 12 patients.

Italy's in dire need of help.Its health care system is collapsing. The coronavirus has put the whole country in quarantine. There are now 15,000 cases, along with 1,018 deaths, the last 24 hours bringing in 188 more. The casualty count is the highest outside China. And it's spreading fast. Until a few days ago, the problem as concentrated in the north. Now, it has spread throughout the whole country. Anyone with a heart can feel pity and an urge to help them. They need help, bad. But don't go asking the European Union. Turns out the open-borders globalist set-up is...

New travel restrictions and the official declaration of coronavirus as a pandemic forced major changes to racing events. I'm sure we're all tired of hearing about the COVID-19 Coronavirus by now, but for those of us who planned to attend a major racing event in the near future, the past week has been full of nerve-wracking uncertainty. How likely are you to be exposed to the virus? Will you be able to keep your hands clean and maintain ample distance from other people? Will you need to make new plans or rebook travel? (Or watch something else on TV?) Two...

NBA legend Charles Barkley isn’t taking any chances with the coronavirus. Barkley reportedly wasn’t feeling well and took it upon himself to get tested for the virus and self-quarantine until he receives his results. Barkley made headlines on Thursday when he suggested March Madness be suspended until there was more information about the coronavirus. The NCAA followed the rest of sports and suspended all operations.

Even the left now admits that Obamacare failed. The former Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary who helped oversee implementation of the disastrous Obamacare law just argued that “27-28 million” Americans have no health insurance. And that’s about 10 years after the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” was enacted in 2010.

Democrat Andrew Gillum, who ran for Governor in Florida, and is now a CNN political pundit, was involved in a crystal meth overdose incident last night in a Miami hotel room with two other men.

Education has lost one its most important disruptors: Clayton Christensen, PhD and distinguished professor at Harvard Business School. After a successful career as the CEO of CPS Technologies, Christensen returned to school at age 40 to earn his PhD in business from Harvard University. He became a well-known scholar, particularly for his key contributions to our understanding of innovation and disruption. Christensen died on January 23. Possibly one of his most important predictions of disruption playing out in the marketplace is about his own industry: higher education. After accepting an offer from the University of Phoenix to teach online lectures...