Free Republic

To some lawmakers, there’s never been a better time to embrace pet projects and ideological wish lists. House Democrats recently introduced a $2.5 trillion “Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act,” which includes many ludicrous items, ranging from carbon offsets for the struggling U.S. airline industry to $15 minimum wage stipulations for businesses getting relief from the government. But, perhaps the most hare-brained scheme is an asinine proposal to bail out the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Americans need a simple, straightforward bill right now to get the country back on track, not misguided Postal “reform” and other insane non-priorities. According...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered citizens not to leave their homes starting at midnight local time to combat the spread of COVID-19. “To save India, every citizen of India is being banned from 12 o'clock tonight, on exiting homes, completely,” Modi said in a series of tweets Tuesday. The shutdown will be enforced for the next 21 days, Modi said. Like many other large countries, provinces in India have enacted varying levels of lockdowns and curfews. As U.S. health officials have also noted, Modi said that the lockdown is an effort to ensure the country's limited medical resources do...

An Arizona man is dead and his wife was hospitalized after the couple ingested a form of chloroquine, a chemical that has been hailed recently by President Trump as a possible "game changer" in the fight against the novel coronavirus, according to the Phoenix hospital that treated the couple. Banner Health hospital said in a statement that "the couple, both in their 60s, ingested chloroquine phosphate, an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks." The aquarium additive the couple ingested is not the same as the medication that has been used to treat malaria. "Within thirty minutes of...

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- China in the last week made several large purchases of American grain, sparking hope in the farming sector that the nation intends to make good on its promise to buy billions of dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products this year, industry groups say. "It is great to see China back in the market," said Ryan LeGrand, the president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Grains Council, a trade group that represents corn, sorghum, barely, distillers grain and ethanol. "We hope it is the start of many more purchases." Chinese buyers ordered more than 750,000 metric tons...

An Italian priest infected with coronavirus gave up a respirator his parishioners bought for him to a younger patient — and then died from the deadly bug, according to reports. The Rev. Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, refused to take the respirator while in a hospital after finding out the other patient — who was a complete stranger — also needed it, according to the BBC. The main priest in the town of Casnigo died last week in Lovere hospital, the broadcaster said, citing hospital officials. He was one of at least 60 priests who died in Italy this month

As Congress crafts a third taxpayer-funded coronavirus aid package totaling more than $1 trillion, it’s a good question to ask where some of our first monies were approved to be spent in this pandemic. As much as $2.3 billion of the first $8.3 billion in funding falls into the categories of foreign aid, foreign affairs or overseas disease surveillance. Here’s how some of that breaks down: $435 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Health Programs. $300 million for “international disaster assistance.” $300 million for global disease detection and emergency response under the Centers for Disease Control $200...

There’s hardly a busier, more burdened man in America right now than President Trump. And yet on Friday, when he heard that Vice President Mike Pence was about to jump on an FRC conference call with 700 pastors, he asked if he could join. Hearing his voice was a surprise, even to me — but hearing his earnest desire to stand with the faith leaders of America in crisis certainly wasn’t. “When I told the president I was going to be speaking to all of you,” Mike explained, “[he was] in the midst of an extraordinarily busy day. [But] he...

I have a bunch of friends who are wild bunch action shooters, and have taken to the shooting competition called BAMM (bolt action military match) with great enthusiasm. Lots of 03 and 03a3 in these matches, but there are lots of other great guns out there, and the question is by design, are any of them faster or slower than others? Not just for five shots but with reload under speed. Do the sights really make that much difference for fast shooting? What about cock on closing compared to cock on opening? Which ones are really faster? Everyone has an...

Appearing Tuesday on WMAL’s Morning on the Mall, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, accused D.C. journalists of attempting to pit him against President Donald Trump and affirmed there is no rift between himself and the president on how to combat the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.

Abortion activist Beth Vial helps women get abortions by providing financial assistance, arranging their travel and child care and assuring them that there is nothing wrong with aborting an unborn baby. She complained in a column at Newsweek this week that the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with abortion restrictions, is making it difficult for women to get abortions. “Coronavirus travel bans further complicate the problem. Patients could easily get stuck—either at home, without a clinic nearby, or in a new city with no way to get back after the procedure,” she wrote. Vial has no scruples about promoting elective abortions, even...

Something like 20 years ago the FDA overhauled its drug approval process for cancer patients. Hospitals had new experimental drugs, but were forced to withhold them from study control group patients while watching them die. The revised rules said oncologists can test drugs on terminally ill patients without feeding placebos to control group participants. Trump further changed the rules to allow experimental cancer treatments which have only been tested safe, not effective, to terminally ill patients. Trump overruled the previous FDA reasoning which said that we can't feed experimental drugs to terminally ill patients because it could kill them. Today...

I received a 2020 Census letter today. I live in NY and have no intention of completing the census; i prefer not to assist NY in any way- including filling out the census so they get more aid from Washington which they ten disperse to illegals, criminals, etc. The envelope claims "your response is required by law." What, if any, are the ramifications of not filling out the census? Thanks.

The third part of the Corona (Chinese Wuhan) virus has been twice stalled today by democrats. It was reported that last night that an agreement between Republicans and Democrats was reached on the relief bill. Instead, democrats pulled a a bait and switch with their own bill. In that bill is a democrat liberal fantasy wish list- a garbage grab bag. Among the things more important than your family dying: Airline carbon emission footprintPayment for up to $10,000 in student loansSame-day voter registration, early voting, voting by mail, ballot harvestingCollective bargainingThe expansion of wind and solar tax credits for solar panelsRequirements...

During the past nearly half century as Leftism slowly, almost imperceptibly insinuated itself into the Democratic Party, hostility to religion - especially Catholicism - has been one of the party’s main tenets. The irony is that anti-Catholic sentiment exists in the political party of the first and only Catholic president. How times change. This has manifested itself in several high profile incidents of derogatory comments about people of faith and particularly Catholics. One was Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential election campaign featured him infamously referring to Middle American voters in the Rust Belt - now known as Trump Democrats - as...

As Americans across the country grapple with uncertainly over the impact of Wuhan coronavirus, Democrats in Washington D.C. are doing everything possible to exploit the crisis. As reported Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi crammed a number of irrelevant and damaging provisions into a previously bipartisan relief process. Democrats in the Senate, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, took her bait. One of the major power grabs in Pelosi's bill would federalize elections and increase the chances of voter fraud. Here are the "top five most egregious provisions" of Pelosi's bill from the office of Ranking House Administration Committee Member Rodney...

When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari visited Washington in the spring of 2018, President Trump told him to put a stop to attacks on religious freedom, specifically “the burning of churches and the killing and persecution of Christians” by radical Muslims in his country. Things got better for a few months for Nigeria’s Christian community, which makes up about 40 percent of the 200 million people living in Nigeria.But the level of commitment has slipped, and activists in both Nigeria and the United States have concluded it is time for President Trump to step up the pressure on Buhari’s government to...

Democrats on Capitol Hill have now twice-rejected an economic stimulus packaged aimed at aiding Americans and businesses hurt by the coronavirus shutdown measures, as Republicans claim that their colleagues on the other side are attempting to cram a wish list of unrelated demands into the bill. Adding fuel to the fire, news began circulating last week that House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) had reportedly told colleagues that the bill provided "a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision." Clyburn's comments came during a conference call last Thursday featuring more than 200 Democrats, in which House Speaker Nancy...

The media are not reporting the fact they're fearmongering. They're fomenting and spreading exaggerated rumors of impending doom to raise the specter of fear for the express purpose of manipulating the public. And that by definition is fearmongering. Saturday morning my wife and I stopped by a friend's deli to pick up an item. My friend had CNN on the television that was typically tuned to a food channel. Predictably, listening to the reporting was like being connected intravenously to depressants. By the time we walked out of the shop, I needed a carafe of Valium with a carafe of...

Here is what I have found to be the most accurate and recent data on the coronavirus. These are from Johns-Hopkins. The clickable map is here: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 The raw data that drives the above interface and that I've been working with can be copied into a CSV file and then loaded into an Excel spreadsheet. It is found here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_time_series/time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv

Kirstie Alley not only ignited a frenzy on Twitter on Monday, she welcomed it, after praising Donald Trump for taking charge of the coronavirus pandemic. The actress, 69, caused an uproar on the social media platform after thanking the president for his "recent decorum, sincerity & care" for Americans. "You're taking charge and leading in a manner needed & wanted for this country," Alley tweeted to the embattled president, who has been vilified by celebrities for his response to the novel virus.