Free Republic

PROPAGANDA PUSH: Aid is much needed, but China is consciously exercising its soft power in supplying it, a Mercator Institute for China Studies analyst said. As Europe becomes the epicenter of the coronavirus, Beijing is stepping up its outreach to individual governments there. That is coming at the very moment that the US — and in some cases the EU — is seen to be turning away. The result is a battle for hearts and minds that China seems to be winning, at least for the moment. “It’s great that China has this availability and that it is currently in...

And now, a PSA regarding the Wuhan virus from our FLOTUS: "While changes need to be made now, this is not how we'll live forever. Our children will return to school, people will return to work, we will gather at the places of worship, concerts, and sporting events again," she said. "I urge you to stay connected to family and loved ones with video chats, phone calls, and social media.""Stay safe and remember, while many of us are apart, we are all in this together." Of course the anti-Trumpers lost no time proving her wrong, we are indeed not in this...

The majority of Americans now approve of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a change from just one week prior, according to a new Ipsos/ABC News poll.Of those surveyed, 55 percent said that they approved of the president's handling of the situation, while 43 percent said they disapproved. The numbers were basically reversed from one week ago when 54 percent said they disapproved and 43 percent approved. Trump's tone and approach to the outbreak has changed in recent weeks, with the president now appearing at daily briefings at the White House with his coronavirus task force. Trump said this...

Every once in a while, the liberal journalists at PolitiFact grant President Donald Trump a rare rating of "Mostly True." Most recently, they verified a Trump tweet about Joe Biden: "During the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Biden made reckless comments unsupported by science & the experts. The Obama Admin had to clean up his mess & apologize for his ineptitude." They explained that on April 30, 2009, Biden was interviewed by then-NBC host Matt Lauer on the "Today" show. Lauer asked, "If a member of your family came to you and said, 'Look, I want to go on a commercial...

"Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10). Conversion to Christ involves three elements: invitation, repentance, and commitment. Someday Christ will return to earth to reign in His kingdom. In the meantime He rules in the hearts of those who love Him. Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave us a mandate to evangelize the lost and teach them His Word (Matt. 28:19- 20). When we do, sinners are converted and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13). That's how His kingdom grows. Conversion is a work of the Spirit in the heart of unbelievers. He uses...

Bergamo is the epicentre of the hardest-hit province of Italy’s hardest-hit region, Lombardy, the site of hundreds of coronavirus deaths. Families here are deprived of a bedside farewell with virus-stricken loved ones, or even a traditional funeral, and the cemetery is so overwhelmed by the number of dead that military trucks transported 65 bodies to a neighbouring region for cremation this week. Provincial mayors are sounding an alarm that the virus-related toll fails to reflect a spike in deaths in the general population among those who have not been tested. Last week alone, 400 people died in Bergamo and 12...

Burr already let the country down by being AWOL and worse during the Russia collusion hoax that was perpetrated on the country. Mollie HemingwayBy Mollie Hemingway MARCH 20, 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr is being criticized by liberals and conservatives due to the news he sold up to $1.6 million in stock after receiving private briefings about the coronavirus but before the stock market began its sharp decline. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted of the North Carolina Republican: “Burr knew how bad it would be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalms Psalm 130 A song of ascents. 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2     Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive     to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,     Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness,     so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,     and in his word I put my hope. 6 I wait for the Lord     more than watchmen wait for the morning,     more than watchmen wait...

BRAINTREE — Funeral Masses and other forms of church funeral services will be suspended starting on Monday, the Archdiocese of Boston announced on its website Thursday. The archdiocese’s Office of Risk Management recommends that “the bereaved be offered the opportunity for a graveside committal service during this time and a memorial Mass when we are able again to offer the celebration of Mass and religious services at our parishes and churches.” This is the latest in a series of steps local Roman Catholic officials have taken in an effort to to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

[…] The government should leave businesses alone unless there are demonstrable market failures and it should leave people alone unless they are doing direct harm to others.In case it is not obvious, infecting somebody with a potentially fatal virus counts as direct harm to others.Let us assume that Coronavirus is far more dangerous than seasonal flu and has the potential to kill millions. If so, it is a classic public health problem. It carries serious negative externalities and can only be dealt with by collective action.[…] Lock-downs and quarantines are economically damaging and illiberal. They might be a last resort,...

President Trump announced in a press conference Thursday that chloroquine phosphate -- a substance found in drugs used to treat malaria and severe arthritis -- was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test as a treatment for the coronavirus. That same substance, outside its pharmaceutical form, is used as an additive in aquariums to kill microscopic organisms that might harm fish and other aquatic animals. And, the prices for chloroquine phosphate have surged online in late February and early March, according to a study published Thursday, sparking fears that people may be ingesting the fish-tank additive in...

Financial markets paused their slide Thursday, but no one should think this rolling economic calamity is over. If this government-ordered shutdown continues for much more than another week or two, the human cost of job losses and bankruptcies will exceed what most Americans imagine. This won’t be popular to read in some quarters, but federal and state officials need to start adjusting their anti-virus strategy now to avoid an economic recession that will dwarf the harm from 2008-2009. The vast social-distancing project of the last 10 days or so has been necessary and has done much good. Warnings about large...

TGIFF! Its Fiddle Friday and we have Aaron Solomon with a nice version of the great old tune Maggie (1998). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Idle teenagers are participating in a “disturbing trend” of coughing on grocery store produce and posting their pranks online as the nation fights the coronavirus, which is known to spread from human “droplets” spraying from mouths. The latest incident occurred in the Washington exurb of Purcellville, Virginia, some 55 miles from the White House. According to a Purcellville Police Department report, “an incident occurred at a local grocery store involving juveniles reportedly coughing on produce, while filming themselves and posting it on social media.” The report said that the store, identified on social media as Harris Teeter, immediately removed the...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to blame the Trump administration for not moving fast enough in Schumer’s view to counter the coronavirus. ===== break ===== “It has wasted precious weeks in downplaying the severity of the coronavirus--weeks that could have been spent in earnest in the preparation of building our testing capacity,” said Schumer.

“Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread” (Proverbs 20:13).

This morning news broke out that four Republican senators are being accused of dumping their stocks after being briefed on the coronavirus in private meetings. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. The mainstream media was quick to attack the GOP members as corrupt but it seems they are not alone. Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein of California is also accused of insider trading. Feinstein, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and her husband sold between $1.5 million and $6 million in stock in California biotech...

A photo of Donald Trump's notes from his Thursday press briefing shows his script had been amended so the term 'corona virus' read 'Chinese virus' - as the president doubled down on his use of the term which critics have branded racist. During the speech, Trump repeated his argument that China is to blame for the original spread of the virus, which has claimed thousands of lives around the world. But he has faced criticism for calling it a 'Chinese virus', as the deadly disease is now a global pandemic.

The deadly coronavirus has been met with a bit of a shrug among some in the under-50 set in the United States. Even as public health officials repeatedly urged social distancing, the young and hip spilled out of bars on Bourbon Street. They gleefully hopped on flights, tweeting about the rock bottom airfares. And they gathered in packs on beaches. Their attitudes were based in part on early data from China, which suggested COVID-19 might seriously sicken or kill the elderly - but spare the young. Stark new data from the United States and Europe suggests otherwise. (clip) A Centers...

As much of the nation adjusts this week to sudden and indefinite home confinement, prison and jail wardens across the U.S. are scrambling to forestall an outbreak of COVID-19 inside a crowded U.S. correctional facility. With the highest incarceration rate of any nation in the world, the U.S. faces unique challenges among its roughly 2.3 million inmates as the coronavirus surges silently through all 50 states. As projected staff shortages and fears of thinning medical resources cascade through the nation’s patchwork of federal, state, county and private prisons and jails -- where even rudimentary protective measures like alcohol-based hand sanitizers...