Free Republic

In retrospect, they should have been. By the 1990s, the Germans were purchasing cheaper fabrics woven in Bulgaria and Romania. Then, they shifted their sights to China. The German customers felt pressure to find savings because enormous new retailers were carving into their businesses — brands like Zara and H&M, tapping low-wage factories in Asia. Chinese factories were buying the same German-made machinery used by the mills in Prato. They were hiring Italian consultants who were instructing them on the modern arts of the trade. Some companies adapted by elevating their quality. One local mill, Marini, followed the American clothing...

Germany must step up efforts to prevent and counter extremism and neo-Nazism, the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said in a report published on Monday. The report also stated there is strong evidence for extensive racial profiling by German police. […] The report commended Germany’s efforts to fight racism and discrimination, noting that “Germany warmly welcomed an extraordinarily large number of asylum seekers in 2015” and “invested many resources” in their inclusive integration. However, the report said public discourse in the country has become increasingly xenophobic, noting “high levels of Islamophobia.” According to the ECRI,...

On July 31, 1976, the natural and man-made basins and reservoirs above Colorado’s Thompson Canyon reached a critical tipping point. Several unusual rain systems seemed to have snagged on the rugged Rocky Mountain peaks. It was as if the clouds were punctured by the craggy spears of rock and the rains gushed out relentlessly. Finally, somewhere up there, a tipping point was reached. A “tipping point” occurs when clusters of small events — like repeating cloudbursts — become weighty enough to cause sweeping destruction. So, somewhere in the Estes Park region a critical mass of rainfall had accumulated in a...

Groceries began reappearing on American store shelves this week, thanks to the strength of a supply chain that includes farmers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers — all of whom are literally risking their lives to stay on duty. A crucial part of that supply chain is the American trucker, who makes sure that goods are delivered in a timely fashion. That is always the case, but it is especially true in the sudden global emergency we face today.

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Rahm Emanuel. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Rahm Emanuel is a Democrat communist hack who helped Barack Obama institute his oppressive socialism on the US at the start of his presidency, and continued his malarkey in Chicago as its mayor. 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...

We can thank China for the current viral pandemic and crisis, but it's not the first time. China also gave us SARS in 2003, although it was first seen in Guangdong province in November 2002. In November 2002, doctors in the Guangdong province of southeastern China began to see the first cases of what would become known as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Over the next several months, 8,096 people in 26 countries contracted the new viral illness, leading to 774 deaths. Although the slow reporting of initial SARS cases helped the illness spread, globally-enforced medical practices eventually helped end the outbreak. The Chinese...

I offer this not to encourage complacency, of which there’s already been far too much, but as a purgative after feeding you a horse-sized dose of hopelessness this morning.John Ioannidis is a respected epidemiologist at Stanford. His specialty is “metascience,” i.e. calling BS on shoddy medical research. The point of this new piece isn’t to declare that the data on coronavirus is shoddy; the point is to declare that we just don’t have enough of it yet to feel confident about how dangerous the disease is. And that matters a lot when you’re implementing policies with massive social repercussions...

An unidentified young woman in Newark, which is New Jersey’s largest city population-wise, and sits about 10.6 miles outside Manhattan, is posing a “public health risk” and remains “at large” in the community after testing positive for the coronavirus, the mayor said Tuesday. In a video press conference, Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, said the unidentified woman arrived at East Orange General Hospital on Saturday, underwent a COVID-19 test, provided a false name and address and left. The test result later came back positive, and city health officials arrived to the address provided to notify her that she needed to...

I should point out up front that this isn’t my argument against curfews and related government mandates involving forced social distancing. It’s coming from Matt Welch at Reason. But by the time I finished reading it, I was once again experiencing this teeter-totter of emotions and reactions that’s become all too familiar lately. I know I can’t be the only one that’s been going through this, but I’d never yet taken the time to fully spell it out and see if any of our readers have been through something similar.First, however, let’s give the floor briefly to Matt. Being...

Of all the complaints about the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, griping about accurately noting its origin is easily the dumbest. The offensensitivity over the use of “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus” has skyrocketed lately, to the point where people are accused of racism for using a standard identification for epidemiological events. They didn’t call it the “Spanish flu” for decades after the 1918 pandemic because of racism, and “Wuhan” or “China” in this instance is even more accurate than “Spanish flu.” Does anyone remember the West Nile virus, or that MERS stood for Middle Eastern Respiratory...

Welcome, everyone! Every day is a grand adventure these days, and if you have children, you've been forced into the amazing world of homeschooling because America's schools are closed due to the Chinese COVID-19 pandemic. First, don't panic. I'm a veteran homeschooling mom, even though I sent my kids to private school a couple of years ago. I have six years of homeschooling and working from home under my belt. Even still, I felt the same twinge of the panic I know you are feeling when I found out we were going to do it again. But don't worry. Everything...

Voters are unnerved. Confusion is growing throughout the country as the coronavirus outbreak moves states to postpone primaries and change voting procedures in the midst of a presidential election year. It is all leading to a lot of speculation — sometimes uninformed — about what could happen in November if this virus is still spreading. Are there any guarantees the election will actually happen if congregating in public places, like polling stations, is still a risk come fall? Can voters be confident President Donald Trump can’t exploit this crisis to avoid facing them if he fears defeat? The short answer...

The "Russian collusion" case ended in an embarrassing whimper Monday. It turns out that in order to have a "Russian collusion" case, one must have "Russians" and "collusion." As we found out in the Mueller report from last year, there was no collusion with President Trump. On Monday, Mueller's prosecutors admitted they're running out of Russians, too. Left in the wreckage, the first three years of the Trump candidacy and presidency, his reputation, the erosion of confidence in American governmental institutions, his friends and advisors imprisoned on process crimes from the corrupt investigation and Leftist governmental bots who planned it...

A poll by the nonpartisan Jewish Electoral Institute (JEI) in late February, when it still seemed that Bernie Sanders was the Democratic frontrunner, found that Sanders “would overwhelmingly outperform US President Donald Trump with Jewish voters in a head-to-head match-up this fall”—to the tune of 65% to 30%. This was despite the fact of “only 52% of American Jews having a favorable view of Sanders and 45% having an unfavorable view of him.” Presumably, that relatively low approval rate reflected—at least in part—the fact that Sanders had called Israel’s government racist, called for cutting aid to Israel, and “surrounded himself...

It’s officially Hump Day. If you’ve been suffering from Wuhan Flu overload and could use a little boost to get you over the hump allow me to help. Read When Wuhan Virus Departs, World Will Be Changed by Michael Walsh. It will give you something to look forward to. Here’s a synopsis: Once the Wuhan wave recedes the ripple effects will reach every aspect of life as we know it today,and not necessarily in a bad thing: “when it finally runs its course, a whole lot of things are going to be very, very different…it’s an ill wind that blows...

I've been following the Rush Limbaugh advice for years where he states that if you don't like what you're hearing on the news, don't participate in it. I will not watch any of he talking heads on the alphabet soup national "news" including FOX. It's sensory overload and very rarely, reporting. Rather than stick my head in the sand, I've been following non-traditional reporting. One of the best political and social analysts I've found is on Twitter. His handle is @YossiGestetner He has some of the analysys (IMHO) than what you'll find anywhere when it comes to the WuhanFlu. What...

A decorated scientist with four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes the coronavirus pandemic is being used by the “Deep State” for its own purposes. Shiva Ayyadurai said on Twitter that “fear-mongering” over the outbreak is being used to push an agenda. “As an MIT PhD in Biological Engineering who studies & does research nearly every day on the Immune System, the #coronavirus fear mongering by the Deep State will go down in history as one of the biggest fraud to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, & push MANDATED Medicine!” he said. It is important to note that Ayyadurai...

Eight-term Democrat incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski lost in the primary to an ultra-left challenger who came close to unseating him in 2018. Marie Newman, owner of a marketing company and an up-and-coming voice of the far left, eked out a narrow victory over Lipinski, who had held the seat in Congress since 2005. His father, Bill Lipinski, had represented the district since 1983. In truth, the character of the district had changed dramatically since 2010, when it was redrawn to include some of the more liberal suburbs in Dupage County. And Lipinski, who was one of the last pro-life Democrats...

Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., a rare anti-abortion House Democrat, has lost his party’s primary race to challenger Marie Newman, a small business owner endorsed by far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Alexandra Nelson followed all the recommended protocols: Wash your hands. Use hand sanitizer. Don’t touch your face. Spray everything with Lysol. The St. Paul resident still contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. She tested positive on Sunday during a trip to Chicago.