Free Republic

Berlin: The state finance minister of Germany's Hesse region, which includes Frankfurt, has been found dead. Authorities said he appears to have killed himself and the state's governor suggested Sunday that he was in despair over the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. The body of Thomas Schaefer, a 54-year-old member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, was found Saturday on railway tracks at Hochheim, near Frankfurt. German minister Thomas Schaefer commits suicide over coronavirus worries, body found on railway tracks File image of Thomas Schäfer (CDU), Minister of Finance of Hesse. AP

A housewife (Carol Burnett) returns home after running some errands.

Censored: Another US Firm Does The Chinese Communist Party’s Dirty Work March 29, 2020 The Watcher Propaganda, War, World 0 I write for Quora. Quora is a social media website owned by Google where people ask and answer each other’s questions. Like most social media sites, it trends Left and anyone with an opposing viewpoint has to be extra careful to avoid having their content pulled from the site. It has a BNBR policy – “be nice be respectful” that is supposed to deter trolls. The content policies are policed by algorithms under the supervision of humans. The site is...

President Trump on Sunday didn't offer the warmest greeting to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle amid reports that they had relocated from Canada to the U.S. A source told People Magazine last week that the royal couple relocated from Vancouver Island to Los Angeles, Markle's hometown. Markle, 38, and Harry, 35, have been staying in a secluded compound and have stuck close to home during the coronavirus pandemic, the magazine reported. It's unclear when the couple made the move. However, in a tweet from the president on Sunday, it became clear that U.S. taxpayers were not footing the bill for...

Cabinet Room4:06 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  First of all, I’d like to congratulate the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA and everybody else in the federal government, working with state government, but on the incredible job that the Army Corps and FEMA did on building the hospital in New York at the Javits Center.  Two thousand nine hundred beds.  They built them ahead of schedule.  They did it in four days.  And these are mobile hospitals that are very complex and very good.  Highest level.I want to thank, in particular, General Semonite, who many of...

Dear Hospital Administrator:On behalf of President Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force, I want to extend my gratitude for your tireless efforts to provide healthcare to Americans during this unprecedented pandemic.  Your hospital is on the frontlines of America’s response, each day providing lifesaving treatment for patients.  Your efforts are indispensable, and the Trump Administration values them deeply.The Coronavirus Task Force continues to take aggressive and proactive steps to address the COVID-19 pandemic as the health and safety of the American people remain a top priority.  FEMA is coordinating the full Federal response along with the Department...

Tim McGraw lightened the mood while supporting a serious cause, playing his upbeat 1999 hit "Something Like That" while dangling from his pool diving board for the iHeart Living Room Concert for America on Sunday night (March 29). Even though McGraw was isolated in his backyard, he was joined for the fun throwback by his bandmates playing from their own homes and beamed in for a four-screen performance -- kind of like a musical version of those Zoom happy hours you've been having with your friends while staying at home. The Living Room Concert for America -- hosted by Elton...

A break from the insanity. Stella the Leaf Jumping Dog. Video Here. The first four seconds shows it all.

The helicopters are dumping money out the door. You will pay for it down the road, one way or another. Might as well get a piece. And in fairness......some of you really do need it. This event is unprecedented, at least within living memory. We will cover: - $350 BILLION LOANS YOU DON'T HAVE PAY BACK - If You Apply for certain loans, you get $10k In 3 Days. If You Don't Get Approved That $10k Advance Gets Forgiven. - Avoid Penalties on Retirement Fund Withdraws; Can Put Money Back In - 10 BILLION OF DISASTER LOANS - Defer Your...

One of these Amarna letters (EA 39) came to light just before the turn of the previous century (1900). Researchers noted references to "ameluti Ia-u-du" and "ameluti tsabe Ia-u-du." The spelling of Ia-u-du is identical to that of later Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions referring to Judah (Judah is our Anglicized form of the Hebrew Yehuda). As such, we would have a translation of the above two passages as "men of Judah" and "soldiers of Judah." Prof. Morris Jastrow Jr. (1861–1921) wrote an article titled "'The Men of Judah' in the El-Amarna Tablets"... the inscription was related to territory in the extreme...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the state needs 30,000 ventilators if hospitals gets swamped with critically ill COVID-19 patients under the worst-case scenario. Yet there are only a total of 7,713 respiratory specialists licensed to operate the breathing machines in New York, plus an unknown number of highly skilled nurses and doctors trained to use them. “I read that Gov. Cuomo said that ventilators are to coronavirus what missiles were to WWII. While I am sure this is true, you would not have grabbed a front-line soldier off the battlefield, put him in the fighter cockpit and expect him to...

Japan is planning to ban foreign nationals from entering from the United States and most of Europe, as well as from the remainder of China and South Korea, to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, government sources said Monday. Some areas of China and South Korea such as Hubei Province and Daegu as well as more than 20 European countries had already been subject to an entry ban imposed by Japan.

If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.

Four men were arrested outside a Greensboro, N.C., abortion clinic on Saturday. Their alleged crime? Praying in public while the county is under a stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemicSeveral members of a group called Love Life, which is dedicated to praying to end the sin and tragedy of abortion, say they were detained and later arrested by Greensboro police after they gathered near an abortion clinic called "A Woman's Choice" to "pray in defense of the defenseless and minister (offering hope and help in Jesus name) to at-risk mothers and fathers." The group conducts weekly prayer walks in a...

‘In the current climate, anyone with a positive test for Covid-19 will certainly be known to clinical staff looking after them: if any of these patients dies, staff will have to record the Covid-19 designation on the death certificate – contrary to usual practice for most infections of this kind. ‘There is a big difference between Covid-19 causing death, and Covid-19 being found in someone who died of other causes. Making Covid-19 notifiable might give the appearance of it causing increasing numbers of deaths, whether this is true or not. It might appear far more of a killer than flu,...

CBS News is mourning the loss of Maria Mercader, a network veteran who covered breaking news for nearly three decades and, most recently, helped shape strategy for the network's correspondents and reporters. Maria was 54 and died from the Covid-19 coronavirus in a New York hospital. She had been on medical leave for an unrelated matter since the last week in February. Maria fought cancer and related illnesses for more than 20 years, and was an inspiration each time she returned to work after a setback threatened to end her life. "

Any FReepers with COVID-19? I’ve heard a couple today. Thought it might be good to have a repository of experiences.

Motorcycle documented traveling on Geha Highway (Highway 4) without a driver....

Posted: 5:01 PM, Mar 28, 2020 Updated: 5:08 PM, Mar 28, 2020 items.[0].image.alt BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center's Vice President for External Affairs, Laura Krolczyk, was fired Saturday after an investigation into her private Facebook posts. The screenshots of anti-Trump Facebook posts by Krolczyk, regarding COVID-19, were shared and criticized on Twitter by a local political consultant. On Friday night, Michael Caputo tweeted a screenshot of Krolczyk's Facebook post which showed an anti-Trump exchange.

Covid-19: The Reality Show has taken cable TV by storm. The plot is nominally about a war against an invisible Chinese invader that has already killed over 1,200 Americans. But on another level, it is a family sitcom, a successor to Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, and The Cosby Show. The star is Daddy Donald, a brilliant if erratic father figure, who sometimes rambles on, as fathers are wont to do. He is ably supported by his younger brother, Uncle Mike, who is loyal, steady, competent, and boring. With every strand of his snow-white hair perfectly in place,...