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If these reports turn out to be accurate, they do not bode well for a strategy of getting back to normal in the near term. According to multiple media reports, Singapore and Hong Kong have had to reimpose lockdown policies due to a second spike in coronavirus cases. Both have had an influx of returning residents that might have re-seeded the COVID-19 virus back into the populations, but until the mechanism for these second waves are known, social distancing and closed borders are apparently back in effect.Sky News broke the story on Singapore earlier, and the semi-official China state...

Italian virologist says open borders & fears over “racism” crippled Italy’s response to coronavirus. Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the University of Padova Dr. Giorgio Pal told CNN that measures imposing travel restrictions and border controls were taken too late due to fears over political correctness. “There was a proposal to isolate people coming from the epicenter, coming from China,” Pal told CNN. “Then it became seen as racist, but they were people coming from the outbreak.” Italy is now the hardest-hit country in the world in terms of coronavirus deaths, with 63,927 confirmed cases and 6,077 people losing...

"By March 23 many of our largest cities & hospitals are on course to be overrun with cases."

Very soon after the coronavirus hit America, reports emerged that chloroquine, an older malaria drug, and its analogue, hydroxychloroquine, were helpful against the virus, especially when used in conjunction with azithromycin, an antibiotic.  Trump expressed a strong hope that these drugs would effectively treat those with serious coronavirus cases. The media reflexively struck back.  They first accused Trump of lying about the drugs' potential value.  Now that it's become clear that Trump was accurate, the media have a new tactic, which is to present chloroquine as a deadly drug that will kill more than it cures.  For the media, it's never about the actual...

Almost everyone acknowledges that the homeless population is at great risk of coronavirus, but so far as I have been able to determine, nobody is telling us the percentage of the hospitalized cases and the deaths are accounted for by that same population — nationally or in specific locales.  California's Governor Gavin Newsom authorized funding for housing homeless in trailers and hotel rooms, but so far, few of them have taken advantage of the offer. I know we are supposed to have nothing but compassion for the homeless, and my heart breaks for those of them who are not drug-addicted and irresponsible.  But the evidence...

Walls have been the norm for settlements since the earliest Neolithic days. Farmers have things, such as food and valuable implements. Other people want those things and are sometimes inclined to take them. Walls provide security so that people can live with some degree of peace. Throughout history, everywhere towns and cities, and even nations, have built walls to keep out the riff-raff. Why? Well, walls work! Walls come in many sizes and materials: stone, steel, bricks and wood. They come in many sizes, from protecting a small settlement to protecting an entire territory. Hadrian’s Wall, Offa’s Dyke and the...

U.S. equity markets surged Tuesday morning amid investor optimism that members of Congress will overcome their differences to reach a deal on a $1.6 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,079 points, or 5.8 percent, in the opening minutes of trading, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 5.3 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. The early gains came after the major averages plunged Monday despite the Federal Reserve announcing it would buy unlimited amounts of assets to support the economy. Monday’s 3 percent drop left the Dow at a three-year low and on track for...

The Washington Post's "fact-checker" column awarded four Pinocchios to a video tweeted out by 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden that claimed that a top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official had been "silenced" amid the coronavirus crisis. Tuesday's fact-check, which concluded the claim was "simply wrong" and created a "false narrative," came after the former vice president tweeted an informational coronavirus video that included Ron Klain, a former Biden aide who served as President Obama’s Ebola czar in 2014 Ebola. In the video, Klain alleges there was "immediate blowback" after Dr. Nancy Messonnier, "a career official at the...

How about a little old fashioned foot stomping knee slapping musicality to greet this Taco Tuesday? It’s a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll – served up with a grand splash of super funk. If you’ve been looking for an official Wuhan Coronavirus theme song this is it: music for the Great Undoing. If you haven’t had your coffee yet this studio version will suffice in its stead. If you have already had your covfefe and prefer to get up on your feet and dance with abandon to the Great Quietus, here is the live [she said...

DENVER – Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed the bill to repeal the state’s death penalty and commuted the sentences of the three men on the state’s death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Polis had been expected to sign SB20-100 since the House passed it in late February and sent the measure over to his desk this month. Colorado is the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty. The three men on the state’s death row – Robert Ray, Sir Mario Owens and Nathan Dunlap – will now serve life in prison without parole...

Who is John Galt? In 1957 Ayn Rand published her final novel, Atlas Shrugged. This magnum opus describing her philosophy of “objectivism” sought to call attention to the danger of socialism and communism and demonstrate the virtues of freedom and capitalism. Rand came to America from Russia following the 1917 communist revolution led by Lenin, which destroyed the social norms. Who is John Galt? He is the leader of the resistance to the statists of a dystopian United States. Galt has created the intellectual and emotional genesis for unravelling the suffocating government. He has secretly organized leaders of the private...

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Many other media outlets aren’t reporting that the Arizona man didn’t die after ingesting the anti-malaria drug chloroquine. He died after self-medicating himself with a product used to clean fish tanks:

If anything good can come from the coronavirus pandemic, it is the revelation of America’s over-reliance on China, especially when it comes to drugs. Interviewed by NBC News, retired Brigadier General John Adams said, “Basically, we’ve outsourced our entire industry to China. That is a strategic vulnerability.”

The Chinese government silenced whistle-blowers, withheld crucial information and played down the threat posed by the new coronavirus, allowing an epidemic that has killed thousands to take hold across the country. Now the ruling Communist Party, facing a storm of anger from the Chinese public over its missteps, is trying to rehabilitate its image by rebranding itself as the unequivocal leader in the global fight against the virus. [Read: ‘No way out’: In China, coronavirus takes a toll on other patients.] The state-run news media has hailed China’s response to the outbreak as a model for the world, accusing countries...

Taiwan accused the World Heath Organization of ignoring its questions at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, part of what it has long described as a pattern that puts it at risk because of Chinese pressure to exclude it from international bodies. Taiwan is barred from membership in the WHO under pressure from China, which views it as a province rather than a state. It responded early to the coronavirus outbreak in China, and has had notable success in limiting contagion so far, with just two deaths and 215 cases.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalms Psalm 134 A song of ascents. 1 Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord     who minister by night in the house of the Lord. 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary     and praise the Lord. 3 May the Lord bless you from Zion,     he who is the Maker of heaven and earth. New International Version (NIV)(End of Scripture Passage) . This is the "Top Step" in our Songs of Ascents. It is also the Shortest Psalm in the Psalter. New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®,...

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It’s telling, isn’t it? The one thing that our betters are fixated on in this Chinese virus scare is to chase down the racists and the xenophobes. Because, as the wokerati discovered 27 minutes ago, it is racist to call the COVID-19 thingy Wuhan Flu. Even the US Commission on Civil Rights has gotten in on the action. And the Good Little Girls in the media just can’t believe anyone would call it the Kung Flu. Of course Peter Alexander of NBC News just cannot understand why President Trump might be a little overenthusiastic about the potential of chloroquine for...

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a rare surge of online posts in Thailand questioning King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the monarchy. On Sunday a government minister subsequently warned that inappropriate posts could lead to jail. Insulting the monarchy is a crime, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since a 1932 revolution ended absolute royal rule, but the monarchy remains a central part of traditional Thai culture. Some Thais consider the king to be semi-divine.