Free Republic

When my daughter and I helped coordinate Salem Radio Network talk shows broadcasting from CPAC 2020, we had no idea we’d be in the vanguard of “self-quarantining” which now has most of America in its grip. But a week or so after CPAC, as news broke that one—one—out of the 17,000 attendees had tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) placed himself in quarantine for 14 days after a brief encounter with the person, and…well, you know the rest. Happily, both of us were (and remain) asymptomatic, but “sheltering at home” did produce unexpected benefits: My...

Most people do recover from the coronavirus, more than 127,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, which keeps track of the virus and its spread. Corianne Goldstein, a 32-year-old New Jersey woman who was hospitalized after contracting the virus, is on her way to being one of them. Goldstein, of Matawan, was released from Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel earlier this week and is at home continuing to recover. “It’s nice to be back with my husband and my dogs, just really glad to have somebody who can be next to me for the rest of this journey,” said Goldstein,...

Governments can create money, but creating money does not create wealth. Wealth comes from productivity. Putting ink on small pieces of paper does not make wealth. You can visualize this fact quite easily. Imagine that our government officials keep businesses closed "to protect us from the virus," but they send everyone large checks every month. Our benevolent leaders made sure we had lots of money, so we are all taken care of, right? Without productive people, the true engine of wealth, Atlas would shrug, and the world would fall into its natural state, which is poverty. Anything that destroys productivity...

When it came to the fate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a credible sexual assault allegation alone, even absent any evidence or corroboration, was enough for most Democrats to cry “believe women” and demand the Senate reject Kavanaugh’s nomination. Now that it’s Joe Biden who faces a similar sexual assault allegation, Democrats must hold their party's presumptive nominee to the same standard — or reveal themselves as cynical hypocrites once and for all. A former Biden staffer who worked in his Senate offices in the early 1990s, Tara Reade, has come forward to accuse him of sexually assaulting her...

The extra-large pack of journalists who equate liberalism and professionalism in their work cannot stand that Fox News exists. They believe everything elected Republicans do should be "fact-checked" and routinely punished. For Democrats, the elite media offer damage control; for Republicans, only damage. The onset of the novel coronavirus is simply another occasion for the usual routine. The liberal media are prosecuting Fox for supposedly shoving Americans off a coronavirus cliff with misinformation. They're also equating misinformation with the argument that the pandemic gave them a new rationale to cripple President Donald Trump politically. The latter is not misinformation. It's...

House members will pass the coronavirus relief bill at some point today. The big question is what else they may pass around on the way back to hold a voice vote. Representatives are traveling quickly back to the capitol after Rep. Thomas Massie made it clear that he would force a voice vote on the CARES Act, and his colleagues are less than pleased to take a break from their social distancing: Massie’s unpopularity stretches to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, too. Trump urged House Republicans to expel Massie from their caucus this morning on Twitter: Thanks to...

21 million cell phone subscriptions disappeared in China, suddenly. Why did this happen?

Contrary to the narrative being advanced by the Mainstream Media and Democrats, the nation’s largest city has not been divided into competing districts like some sort of dystopian movie. There is no disputing that the coronavirus has caused suffering and death across New York City. There's also no disputing that the virus has upended millions of lives and disrupted the city's economy. But is the city in the throes of an apocalyptic nightmare as has been portrayed by Democrats and the Mainstream Media? Have hospitals really been turned into war zones? Mayor Bill de Blasio predicted as many as 4...

Watching the evening press conferences that President Trump and his team are holding nightly during this crisis, I am seeing something I was not expecting — and now understand why some Democrats and many media members are pushing networks to cut the live coverage and make sure they get to” filter” everything. The media calls to cut the mic made no sense after they had fits when Trump had stopped the daily press availabilities (because some media members had turned it into opportunities to grandstand.) Now I get it. It’s not hypocrisy. It’s because it works. And it works in...

Question: Should churches comply with government mandates to not hold worship services during the coronavirus pandemic?In the last few weeks, social media and the internet in general have been replete with debates about whether or not churches should comply with government mandates to suspend worship services and related church group activities as the country seeks to stem the spread of the incredibly contagious coronavirus.Many have said, “Yes, we have an obligation to obey the civil magistrate for conscience sake” (Rom 13:7). Others have responded, “No, we have special freedoms and protections under the First Amendment, and our ultimate loyalty must...

It’s just the flu, bro! Things to watch for: 1. Overstatement of deaths due to Corona 2. Democrat Governors maintaining strict lockdown rules after it is clear the virus is manageable 3. Pork being added to stimulus (too late on this stimulus but maybe not too late for any future things passed at federal or state level). 4. Tax hikes. 5. Mandatory Corona vaccines - I don’t want them and as I have said before I would rather my infant get Corona than get a common cold. Watch for politicians to be lobbied by big pharma for this and similar...

White evangelicals are less likely than most other groups to say COVID-19 poses a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, according to a new study released by the Pew Research Center.According to the Pew survey gathered as part of the Election News Pathways project, only about a third of white evangelical Protestants (32%) say the virus poses a major threat to the health of the U.S. population. Additionally, white evangelical Protestants (76%) are the most likely to think the media has made a bigger deal of the coronavirus crisis than is warranted.While most white evangelicals (64%) believe...

Comedian Kathy Griffin continued to dramatize her stint at a hospital coronavirus isolation ward despite being sent home with an abdominal infection. Griffin bashed the Trump administration when she revealed she was in a hospital Wednesday but could not get tested for COVID-19 “because of CDC (Pence task force) restrictions.” Though the 59-year-old entertainer showed none of the coronavirus symptoms and was sent home with a different diagnosis, she took to Twitter to claim she “still has no idea” whether she tested positive or negative for the virus.

Conspiracy theories claiming COVID-19 was engineered in a lab as part of a biological attack on the United States have been gaining traction online in recent weeks, but a new study on the origins of the virus has concluded that the pandemic-causing strain developed naturally. An analysis of the evidence, according to the findings first published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine, shows that the novel coronavirus "is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," with the researchers concluding "we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible." Researchers concluded that the novel coronavirus is...

House members will pass the coronavirus relief bill at some point today. The big question is what else they may pass around on the way back to hold a voice vote. Representatives are traveling quickly back to the capitol after Rep. Thomas Massie made it clear that he would force a voice vote on the CARES Act, and his colleagues are less than pleased to take a break from their social distancing: Several members on a conference call expressed concerns about traveling amid the coronavirus pandemic, noting they have health issues or live with someone with health concerns. Pelosi...

 Dr. Fauci in New England Journal of Medicine Concedes the Coronavirus Mortality Rate May Be Much Closer to a Very Bad Flu https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387  

I’m glad that I started paying attention to the dispute between the Imperial College and Oxford before watching this or I would have been confused as hell. But if, like me, you’ve been following that divergence, you get what she’s saying here. Bottom line: We still have no real idea how many people have this disease and aren’t showing symptoms, for whatever reason. It could be a small number. It could be an immense number. The death and hospitalization rates depend entirely on knowing, as does our national response. Pause here to watch the clip (or at least the first...

I’m glad that I started paying attention to the dispute between the Imperial College and Oxford before watching this or I would have been confused as hell. But if, like me, you’ve been following that divergence, you get what she’s saying here. Bottom line: We still have no real idea how many people have this disease and aren’t showing symptoms, for whatever reason. It could be a small number. It could be an immense number. The death and hospitalization rates depend entirely on knowing, as does our national response. Pause here to watch the clip (or at least the...

Among just adults, Trump's approval is 48%. 51% of adults and 52% of Registered Voters approve of the way Trump is handling the Coronavirus outbreak.

As the stock market implodes in response to COVID-19, there is an underlying economic virus that will soon be evident: America's grossly underfunded pensions.  With the market down 40% in from its high point (before rebounding March 24), many corporations may default on their pension promises.  consumption and thus gross sales will decline (further dampening corporate profits), and the widespread weakness of pensions will be exposed.  This in turn will cause a vicious cycle in which retirees and those planning retirement will have fewer disposable dollars and will divert more money to retirement savings — further weakening consumption and undermining the effectiveness...