Free Republic

**SNIP** If there ever was a real threat to our democracy in today’s rancid political climate, it emanates from Pelosi, Schumer, and the Democrats who follow them like lemmings. This coronavirus first appeared in November 2019. By December 31, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan knew about it and were on alert. Singapore knew on January 4. South Korea on January 8. By January 9 the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control were onto it. And what was Congress doing during this time? We all recall that December was consumed with impeachment, and that the...

"Our Father who art in heaven" (Matt. 6:9). With God as your Father, your life has eternal significance. Author H.G. Wells wrote of a man who had been overcome by the pressure and stress of modern life. His doctor told him that his only hope was to find fellowship with God. The man responded, "What? That—up there—having fellowship with me? I would as soon think of cooling my throat with the Milky Way or shaking hands with the stars." Poet Thomas Hardy said that prayer is useless because there's no one to pray to except "that dreaming, dark, dumb thing...

Old and busted: It’ll be 1968 all over again! New hotness: It’ll be 1368 all over again! DNC officials began to raise questions about the wisdom of holding a political convention in July, the Washington Post reports, as Wisconsin’s governor declared a health emergency two days ago. Instead of putting thousands of people into a crowded public venue in Milwaukee, some party officials want “contingencies” explored for a virtual convention, perhaps even a mail-in system: Some Democratic Party officials this week began to express concern about plans to bring tens of thousands of people to Milwaukee for the July...

On Thursday, John wrote about the recently announced nuptials of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and her then-campaign consultant Tim Mynett, the head of E Street Group. (The company denies having anything to do with Bruce Springsteen.) While Omar’s marital history still raises many questions, one of which I’ll get to in a moment, the current media scrutiny about this event has more to do with questions of potential campaign finance impropriety. At the WaPo, Michelle Ye Hee Lee looks back at the new groom’s involvement with Omar’s campaigns and the financial windfall it brought him and his firm. Since...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blasted the coronavirus response during her first virtual town hall Saturday, and ticked off a list of new priorities including universal basic income, student reimbursements and expanded health care. The Bronx progressive voted early Saturday morning for the new bipartisan House legislation to offer paid sick days, expanded food assistance, emergency paid family leave and free coronavirus tests because it signified progress. "It is a step forward, but it is completely insufficient," Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday during a video conference with her constituents on the pandemic response and the 2020 Census. Ocasio-Cortez called for working families to...

The Daily Caller reported Thursday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was trying to weasel in taxpayer funding for abortions in the emergency spending bill to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. According to senior administration officials, Pelosi lobbied for a mandate for up to $1 billion to reimburse laboratory claims. That mandate would have been taken as a loophole in health spending without protections outlined in the Hyde Amendment.The Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion with two exceptions – to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from...

I want to share with you some scenes that greeted me at my local Kroger today. These are scenes from a panicked populace. Like locusts, they are stripping the shelves bare. Kroger Toilet Paper aisle.Kroger Deli Meat aisle.Kroger bottled water aisle.

You could not concoct a worse scenario for a pandemic catastrophe than what is unfolding Syria.  Start with a regime that depends on troops sent from Iran, where satellites detect trenches being bulldozed for bodies felled by the plague of COVID-19.  Add the bombing of hospitals by that same regime and secretiveness to the point of punishing doctors who speak out about the coronavirus.  Then consider millions of refugees living in close quarters in camps and others fleeing their chaotic and impoverished homeland into Turkey, whose leader wants to send them into Europe. Snowy Syrian refugee camp near Turkey border last December.(YouTube...

A private university in Kentucky is the latest Christian school to draw criticism for adhering to biblical sexual ethics. Asbury University – like so many others in Christian academia – is being hard-pressed by the culture to adopt pro-LGBTQ doctrine. Ever since Asbury University reportedly declined to renew the contract of two "LGBTQ-affirming" educators – professor Jon Roller, founder of the school's Worship Arts Program; and assistant professor of music education and voice Jill Campbell – it has been under major scrutiny. "Jon was told in his tenure meeting, 'You do not belong here,'" worship leader Derek Chilton – who...

In a dramatic sign that the coronavirus crisis is improving in China, the last two of 16 temporary hospitals in the epicenter city of Wuhan have been shut down, according to a report. The final group of 49 patients walked out of the Wuchang temporary hospital in the capital of Hubei province on Tuesday afternoon to cheers, according to the Xinhua news agency. The 784-bed facility — which was converted from Wuchang Hongshan Stadium — opened Feb. 5 and received a total of 1,124 patients, according to the news outlet, which said 833 were discharged and 291 were transferred to...

If they weren't already gone, there goes the bars & restaurants.

In this era fraught with coronavirus worries and new advice coming seemingly every day, I'd like to propose a new replacement for the germ-filled handshake. Let's revive Mr. Spock's Vulcan salute from Star Trek, a simple and sanitary gesture that's just as useful as a handshake greeting, and 10 times more charming. Even if you're not a huge Star Trek fan, you likely know the gesture. Actor Leonard Nimoy, who died in 2015, invented it himself. The actor would raise his hand with the palm facing forward, thumb extended, and his middle and ring finger parted. It's often accompanied with...

The coronavirus is a very contagious disease.  In January, information coming from the Wuhan region suggested that an infected person could infect two to three others — a frightening exponential growth rate.  That may have led to Angela Merkel announcing up to 70% of Germany's population — around 58 million people — might catch the coronavirus.  Merkel said this even though 70% of China's population — 1,006,363,300 — people did not get infected.  Had Merkel paid attention to Nobel laureate Michael Levitt, she might not have said anything so foolish and frightening. Levitt is an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a structural biology professor at Stanford.  Although he's not a virologist...

Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, indicated his opposition Saturday to the coronavirus relief bill supported by President Trump and approved by the House of Representatives. ... In a statement, Mr. Johnson criticized language in the legislation that would require government employers and companies with fewer than 500 people on their payroll to provide paid sick leave to workers who contract COVID-19, the infectious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. “Although mandating that all employers must pay for sick leave might sound good, we need to consider the unintended consequences of this legislation. I fear that rather than offering a...

At a press conference announcing a state of emergency on Friday, NBC News reporter Kristen Welker asked President Trump if he takes responsibility for a lag in coronavirus testing, something she said Dr. Anthony Fauci called a "failing." Fauci, who was at the press conference, corrected the reporter and said the failure he was talking about was the CDC's system, that it was not designed for what was needed. Fauci said looking forward, "the system will take care of it." "Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was in fact a failing. Do you take responsibility...

On Friday Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) tweeted that it is easier to get an AR-15 rifle than a coronavirus test. He did not outline the steps for getting a coronavirus test, but the process for getting an AR-15 involves: Going to store to find rifle Showing proper ID to a retailer Undergoing an FBI background check Undergoing waiting period (where applicable) For example, there is a 10-day waiting period in California. On February 19, 2018, Breitbart News reported CBS News’ claim that it was easier to buy an “assault rifle” than anti-diarrhea medicine in bulk in Florida. They made this...

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has been tested for the coronavirus after experiencing a fever and flu-like symptoms, the organization said on Saturday. “Last night, Chairwoman McDaniel began experiencing a fever and flu-like symptoms, and she went to her local hospital in Michigan for treatment. Flu and strep tests were administered and came back negative,” Communications Director Michael Ahrens said. “Her doctor determined a test for COVID-19 was necessary given her symptoms,” he said. The RNC said it is contacting everyone she remembers coming into contact with recently, and she and her family are self-quarantining at home. The...

From almost the very beginning of the COVID-19/coronavirus crisis in January and early February, it’s often been asked whether it might be the “Chinese Chernobyl.” Could the crisis expose the weakness of the mix of oppression, information control, and social disgust that underpin the Chinese Communist regime and trigger its collapse? Others have suggested that it might instead be “president Xi Jinping’s Tiananmen,” meaning he will use all the tools at his disposal to tighten down and prevent, well . . . a Chinese Chernobyl. It is too soon to know what may happen. But it’s not too soon for...

Support each other no matter what ethnicity you are. pic.twitter.com/fbq5kP4tFw— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) March 14, 2020

The coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19, are spreading across the United States faster than we can track or test. This week the confirmed caseload jumped from 309 to at least 2,170 cases in 49 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A testing shortage has experts fearing the true number is likely thousands of cases higher. Public life in America has methodically ground to a halt. This week companies instituted mandatory work from home policies, hundreds of schools and colleges closed or switched to online classes, professional sports suspended play indefinitely — even Disney...