Free Republic

In the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, about five-in-six American adults said they want to see the United States end all immigration from Mexico. The latest Harvard/Harris Poll asks Americans whether they would support or oppose an immigration moratorium on Mexico during the coronavirus crisis. Overall, 83 percent — or five-in-six — said they favor ending all immigration from Mexico at the moment.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that improved coronavirus testing and tracing of infected people's contacts will help the country eventually be able to ease up on measures like stay at home orders. Fauci, a top official at the National Institutes of Health, said during a White House briefing that he would like to see enough capacity to test a wide range of people and the ability to determine who those that test positive have been in contact with. That would help create a targeted approach and allow the country to ease up on blunter efforts currently in place, like stay...

SAN PEDRO, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- An engineer deliberately ran a train off the tracks at high speed near the Port of Los Angeles in an attempt to crash into and damage the USNS Mercy hospital ship, prosecutors say. The Pacific Harbor Line train derailed Tuesday, running through the end of the track and crashing through barriers, finally coming to rest about 250 yards from the docked naval ship. Federal prosecutors allege train engineer Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro intended to hit the ship, saying he thought it was "suspicious" and did not believe "the ship is what they...

A Florida man who was caught downloading thousands of images that contained either child pornography or child erotica said he viewed the graphic content as a “boredom killer” even though he knew it was wrong, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said they began investigating in April 2019 after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that led them to an address in Merritt Island. More tips related to the same user came again in April then in June of that year, which led to a warrant being drafted and executed for a...

Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice and two-time U.S. Senate candidate, will serve as an adviser for a Central pastor, and his church, during expected litigation over the religious leader's defiance of state orders limiting public gatherings to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Moore and the Rev. Tony Spell said Moore would represent Spell and the church, though it isn't clear yet in what capacity. Moore is a licensed lawyer in Alabama but isn't licensed to practice law in Louisiana. Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, was cited and arrested Tuesday with six...

A man was arrested by federal authorities Wednesday morning in Los Angeles after he was detained Tuesday by local police for allegedly driving a train locomotive at full speed and derailing it by ramming it through barriers about 250 yards from where the USNS Mercy is docked for relief of hospitals in the COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus crisis. The man was reportedly holding a lit flare in the train’s cabin. In interviews with law enforcement, the man allegedly made comments that he was suspicious about the Mercy and a possible government takeover. The Mercy was not harmed in the incident. *******...

After having crashed nearly 70 percent in the first three months of 2020, benchmark WTI prices are trying to form a bottom around $20 per barrel. But this psychological threshold is looking increasingly shaky as global crude storage facilities are filling up at an unprecedented pace. OPEC and its partners officially ended their output cut deal today, following the words of Russian Energy Minister Novak that every producer is ‘’free to pump at will’’.

German bishop: idea of coronavirus as God’s punishment is ‘terrible…un-Christian’ Bishop Heiner Wilmer said the 'corona crisis is not a punishment from God' April 1, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – German Bishop Heiner Wilmer has stated in a March 30 interview that he believes that the idea of a punishing God is “terrible and also completely un-Christian.” He goes on to say that “the corona crisis is not a punishment from God.”  Speaking to the German regional newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the bishop of the Diocese of Hildesheim in the north of Germany discusses the effects of the coronavirus crisis on the Faith,...

Heather Artrip, an out-of-work single mother of two sons, is facing down the prospect of a high-risk pregnancy in the middle of a pandemic. The 30-year-old Austin woman lost her job as a server two weeks ago when city officials shuttered bars and restaurant dining rooms to limit the spread of the new coronavirus. She wants to look for a new job, but doctors have deemed her pregnancy high risk. “I have a grade two prolapse. My uterus could fall out,” Artrip said. “I'd have to be bedridden for the majority of my pregnancy.” Artrip's plans to end the pregnancy...

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the administration was launching an all out assault on Mexican drug cartels using the U.S. Military.  “As governments and nations focus on the Coronavirus, there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists, and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain and we must not let that happen,” Trump said. “We will never let that happen. Today the United States is launching enhanced counter narcotics operations in the western hemisphere to protect the American people from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics.”“We must not let the drug...

This doesn’t mean that sheltering place won’t save lives. It will. For one thing, as John noted, lives will be saved by “flattening” the infection curve because if the same same number of infections is spread out over time, hospitals will be better able to prevent the infected from dying. Why? Because there won’t be the kinds of acute shortages of equipment, such as ventilators, that we experience during extreme peaks of infection. That’s not necessarily all. While the spread is delayed, we may find medicines that treat the infection effectively. Delaying the spread might also mean reducing the spread...

Adam Schlesinger, a musician and songwriter highly regarded for his work as a member of Fountains of Wayne and an Emmy-winning songwriter for TV’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” has died as a result of coronavirus complications, Variety has confirmed. He was 52. Schlesinger passed away Wednesday morning. He was divorced and is survived by two daughters. Schlesinger had previously been reported Tuesday morning as “very sick and heavily sedated” by his attorney of 25 years, Josh Grier. Schlesinger had been in an upstate New York hospital for more than a week at that time, Grier said. An EGOT contender, Schlesinger has been...

A Pennsylvania man who was distraught about the coronavirus pandemic and losing his job told his girlfriend, “I already talked to God and I have to do this” — then shot her in the back as she fled and killed himself, according to a report.

DES MOINES, Iowa — A Johnson County judge ordered Wednesday that some abortions can continue during the COVID-19 outbreak after Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered the procedures to stop. A lawsuit against Reynolds was filed by the ACLU after the governor included abortions as elective and non-emergency procedure, requiring them to be halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a combined statement from Planned Parenthood North Central States, ACLU of Iowa and the Emma Goldman Clinic, a judge ordered an agreement between the parties that allows physicians to make case-by-case decisions on whether patients will receive abortions. The statement said Planned...

In 1848, revolution swept across Europe and the world. The “February Revolution” in Paris lit the flame as the current world order was crumbling. In the days leading up to the overthrow of the French King Louis-Phillippe, the historian Alexis de Tocqueville commented on the state of Paris: “One thing was.. really ominous and terrible; and that was the appearance of Paris on my return. I found in the capital a hundred thousand armed workmen formed into regiments, out of work, dying of hunger, but with their minds crammed with vain theories and visionary hopes. I saw society cut into...

Pro-abortion attorneys general from 21 states sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration on Monday, requesting that important safety restrictions on the abortion pill be lifted. Mifepristone is the first drug of the two-dose abortion pill. It works to block progesterone, which is produced by the mother’s body to sustain the pregnancy. It cuts off blood and nourishment to the growing child. According to the Washington Free Beacon, in order to commit abortions through the abortion pill, mifepristone’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requires that abortionists be registered with...

Florida Sen. Rick Scott on Tuesday called for a congressional investigation into whether the World Health Organization pushed Chinese government misinformation to help the communist regime “cover up” the extent of the coronavirus pandemic. Scott, a Republican, also called for congressional hearings to consider whether the United States should continue funding WHO. The United States contributes nearly 15% of WHO’s annual budget, far greater than any other nation.

President Trump is correct to attribute the origin of the novel coronavirus pandemic to China. Looking more closely, it’s China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) that has sickened Chinese people – and by extension the world. It’s the totalitarian nature and callous dishonesty of the Chinese Communist Party that has brought about this public health catastrophe The novel coronavirus should therefore be called the “CCP virus” to accurately reflect its origin. Let's start with pinpointing the root cause of the suffering we have seen. Let’s start calling the novel coronavirus the CCP virus.

Michigan Democrat Governor Asks Feds for Hydroxychloroquine to Treat Coronavirus, Four Days After Banning Use… On Friday March 27th Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer threatened to revoke the medical licenses of doctors and pharmacists who prescribe hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus in Michigan. Four days later, March 31st, the same governor asks the federal government to send her hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. Go figure.

The Pentagon is looking into providing an additional 100,000 military-style body bags for civilian use, as the expected death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to rise. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has requested 100,000 body bags, officially called human remains pouches, and the Pentagon is looking to buy more body bags, as it dips into its stockpile of 50,000, Bloomberg reports. The request went through the Defense Logistics Agency, which oversees the distribution of the Pentagon's body bag stockpile. The Defense Department has already sent to two Navy hospital ships to New York and Los Angeles to help...