Free Republic

Many people are convinced that China’s lockdown worked, prevented infection and that we should immediately follow suit. I disagree. An article in The Lancet, a medical periodical, studied the early phase of China’s epidemic, and concluded that the virus had spread to all corners of China before they even started the lockdown in the Wuhan area. So by inference, they had positive cases that began probably in early December 2019, probably even in November. The so called lockdown started on January 23-24th, when they realized they had several atypical pneumonias in their hospitals in Wuhan, linked to the COVID-19 virus....

The coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic understandably has hundreds of millions of Americans worried about their families and livelihoods. This fear has prompted the federal government to take up “stimulus” relief as lawmakers consider creating an open-ended, multi-billion-dollar federal paid sick leave program. In their rush to force-feed the economy taxpayer dollars, elected officials are resorting to an old, failed playbook that is ill-suited to the current, peculiar crisis that America faces. Rather than consigning America to an “anti-stimulus” package of stagnation and excess debt for years to come, policymakers ought to use the tax code to help protect Americans from the...

Morning "Remember the poor." Galatians 2:10 Why does God allow so many of his children to be poor? He could make them all rich if he pleased; he could lay bags of gold at their doors; he could send them a large annual income; or he could scatter round their houses abundance of provisions, as once he made the quails lie in heaps round the camp of Israel, and rained bread out of heaven to feed them. There is no necessity that they should be poor, except that he sees it to be best. "The cattle upon a thousand hills...

“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3).

Early Tuesday morning, the waning crescent moon will be visible with the four planets down and to the left. As the sky begins to brighten, Mercury will rise and both Saturn and Mars will begin to fade from view. Both the Moon and Jupiter will remain visible as it gets lighter. By Wednesday morning, the moon will be closest to Jupiter and Mars. Jupiter is currently the brightest morning planet and it will be easy to pick out. Mars will be much dimmer in comparison. The moon will continue to get thinner as the week goes on. On Thursday morning,...

... In our current hours of COVID-19 despair, we must fight both the virus and the panic that the disease instills, given that the two can be equally deadly. All sorts of scary statistics about the coronavirus infection and lethality rates are being publicized, often to show contrasts with annual influenza strains and other viral epidemics. Some make the legitimate point that if the coronavirus has a lethality rate of over 1 percent to 3 percent in the United States, then perhaps 97 percent to 99 percent of those infected will survive the illness, albeit with varying degrees of seriousness....

Following the wisdom of mothers in the days of my childhood would be far less costly and disruptive than what is being done today to contain the Wuhan Virus, and it might be more effective. Back then, in the late 1950s, I remember my mother sending me to play with a neighbor kid who'd broken out with chickenpox. She wanted me to get infected so I would become immune. Sure enough, a few days later, I developed chickenpox and a short time later, I was immune for life. Large numbers of mothers doing the same thing helped limit the spread...

Polls across Chicago opened Tuesday morning amid a cloud of concerns about how the coronavirus pandemic could affect voter turnout. Days before Election Day, efforts to contain the virus escalated in Illinois with the announcement of schools temporarily shuttering and restaurants shifting to only take out or delivery services. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and the Cook County Clerk scrambled to find new election judges after many opted out of the role because of COVID-19. About 850 election judges, or about 10% of the people who had signed up for the role, told Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough’s office...

MADISON — As National Sunshine Week gets underway, darkness continues to shroud Wisconsin state government. In his first year-plus in office, Gov. Tony Evers and his administration have closed a lot of doors to open government, evidenced by the transparency and First Amendment lawsuits pending.In December, Fox6 News, represented by the Wisconsin Transparency Project, filed a lawsuit against the governor.You’ll recall that reporter Amanda St. Hilaire had filed a basic request seeking all emails between the governor and his chief of staff over a four-week period. Evers’ legal counsel rejected the request, insisting it was too broad and burdensome.St. Hilaire pared...

Once upon a time, Jennifer Rubin was an intelligent woman. Things started to go downhill when she went to work for the Washington Post, but what really flipped the switch in her brain was seeing Donald Trump become president. Not only did she lose perspective, but she also lost intelligence, self-restraint, and decency. Her latest flight of NeverTrump nastiness has her speculate about possible Republican deaths during a time of coronavirus. Her speculation not only reveals an even further degradation of mind and soul, but she's got things entirely bass-ackwards wrong – and a couple of maps prove it. Maybe...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalms Psalm 127 A song of ascents. Of Solomon. 1 Unless the Lord builds the house,     the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city,     the guards stand watch in vain. 2 In vain you rise early     and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—     for he grants sleep to[a] those he loves. 3 Children are a heritage from the Lord,     offspring a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior     are children born in one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man     whose quiver is full...

This virus thing has gotten crazy. San Francisco ... closed down due to the coronavirus' spread?! A whole American city on hold? And other localities set for like privations? Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders' contemporaries may remember (as I do, being one of them) a Gregory Peck/Ava Gardner movie from 1960: "On the Beach." Following a nuclear war, an unharmed American sub ventures to San Francisco for a look. There is only stillness; no one is in sight. No one. It gives one the willies to contemplate the shutdowns that government officials, here and abroad, are implementing or contemplating: so...

Illinois voters will still face a dizzying choice of 13 presidential candidates if they choose to vote in the state’s Democratic Primary — even though less than a handful are still in the race. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg became the latest to fold his candidacy on Wednesday, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is said to be reassessing her run. But both names are on early voting touch screens and will appear on March 17 ballots. With the dust still settling from Super Tuesday, the remaining candidates probably have other concerns than losing a few sympathy votes to departed...

While our nation fights the novel coronavirus for our health and physical well-being many Americans are also waging a daily battle in the financial markets as we see historic and unprecedented volatility. Many investors can only be left in a constantly shifting cycle of awe, confusion, and grief as one day the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 1,000-2,000 points, jumps up similarly or the same, and so on and so forth. Monday saw perhaps the worst of that as the 10% rally from the Friday prior faded as the day closed the day down almost 3,000 points.  In some ways...

Donald Trump’s department of justice is seeking to drop charges against two Russian firms indicted by Robert Mueller, amid concerns they are seeking to exploit the process to obtain sensitive information, it has been reported. The firms, Concord Management and Concord Consulting, were among 13 Russians and three entities charged by the special prosecutor in February 2018, claiming they tried to subvert the 2016 election and to support the Trump campaign. “The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy,” Rod Rosenstein, then deputy attorney general, told reporters....

LONDON - A piece of research that helped convince the British government to impose more stringent measures to contain COVID-19 painted a worst case picture of hundreds of thousands of deaths and a health service overwhelmed with severely sick patients. In a sharp toughening of Britain’s approach to the outbreak on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson closed down social life in the world’s fifth largest economy and advised those over 70 with underlying health problems to isolate. The projection study, by a team led by Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, used new data gathered...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — New data shows there’s been a decrease in violent crimes throughout the city of Memphis recently. It’s not directly linked to fears of the coronavirus, but there may be some correlation. FOX13’s Tony Sloan found out more details on these numbers. The possibility is that the city could cut half the number of violent crimes that have happened since late last month compared to the month before. ... According to city data, in the two weeks since Feb. 28, there have been 243 violent crimes like assault, homicide, and robbery with still two weeks left to fully...

Now a charity with nationwide reach, the nonprofit Code of Vets alleviates hardships faced by thousands of Americans who’ve come home from honorable military service. The cases they handle range from evictions and foreclosures to post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical issues. Yet their effort began not even three years ago as a mere Twitter page, recognizing the life and memory of one devoted patriot, Sergeant Danny Smiley. A Bronze Star Medal recipient who served in Vietnam and was exposed to agent orange, Smiley lost his battle with PTSD at the age of 57. His daughter is Gretchen Smith, herself...

Surrounded by amulets of the coronavirus crisis, I stare out my window at a city that may or may not be on the verge of disaster. To my right is a case of canned pasta. To my left are cartons of corned-beef hash from New Jersey and bottled water from Maine. I’m ready for whatever comes. Except, I’m not ready. In fact, even at my advanced 80-something age, I find the whole COVID-19 panic to be strange and troubling. I’ve lived through epidemics before, but they didn’t crash the stock market, wreck a booming economy, and shut down international travel....

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time," said Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey to a friend on the eve of Britain's entry into the First World War. Observing from afar as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the Old Continent, Grey's words return to mind. And as the Great War changed Europe forever, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be changing the way European peoples see each other. "All for one and one for all!" These were the words by which "The Three Musketeers" of Alexandre Dumas lived their lives. This...