Free Republic

Protective medical equipment made by US manufacturer 3M and bound for Germany was allegedly intercepted in Thailand and diverted to the US, leading a senior German official to accuse Washington of “modern piracy”. But 3M, which has come under intense criticism from the White House for producing face masks for overseas customers, said it had “no evidence” to suggest a mask order for the city of Berlin had been seized. According to the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, the German capital ordered 200,000 special FFP2 and FFP3 masks that are used to protect emergency staff and care workers from infection with coronavirus. Andreas...

On a Jan. 15 conference call, a leading scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assured local and state public health officials from across the nation that there would soon be a test to detect a mysterious virus spreading from China. Stephen Lindstrom told them the threat was remote and they may not need the test his team was developing "unless the scope gets much larger than we anticipate," according to an email summarizing the call. "We're in good hands," a public health official who participated in the call wrote in the email to colleagues. Three weeks...

On Thursday’s broadcast of CBS’ “Late Show,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that Democrats hope to get more funding for voting by mail into the coronavirus funding bill, and that Democrats want at least $2 billion “to protect the integrity of our election-critical infrastructure as well as to promote voting by mail.” ...... (see video)

U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the Russia investigation is putting increased scrutiny on former CIA Director John Brennan, searching for any undue influence he may have had during 2017’s intelligence community assessment of Russian interference. Durham, selected by Attorney General William Barr last year to lead this inquiry, drove to Washington, D.C., in March to ensure the investigation stayed on track during the coronavirus outbreak. The top Connecticut federal prosecutor is looking into highly sensitive issues, including whether Brennan took politicized actions to pressure the rest of the intelligence community to match his conclusions about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s...

A grand-niece of President John F. Kennedy and her son drowned after rowing into the rough Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to recover a soccer ball, authorities and witnesses said Friday. Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and her 8-year-old son, Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean, got into the canoe around 4 p.m. Thursday outside her mother’s home in Shady Side, according to the Washington Post. The child had been kicking a ball with other kids when it fell into the water, and the pair went to retrieve it amid high winds, her husband, David McKean, told the...

Novel coronavirus / COVID-19 guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the USA Center for Disease Control (CDC) suggests that peoople around the world should stay approximately 6 feet apart. Unfortunately, according to MIT associate professor Lydia Bourouiba, “pathogen-bearing droplets of all sizes can travel 23 to 27 feet.” In the study published here in late March, 2020, Dr. Bourouiba showed that current guidelines for Social Distancing is based on models published in the 1930s. The video below shows a slow-motion sneeze, filmed for a study on the physics of sneezes and coughs by Dr. Bourouiba. The video shows...

In the span of just a few days during the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion went from being banned in Texas, to allowed again, to banned yet again. Initially, a federal judge ruled that abortion businesses would be allowed to continue committing abortions, but an appeals court overturned that ruling just a day later. “The temporary stay ordered this afternoon justly prioritizes supplies and personal protective equipment for the medical professionals in need,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded in a statement. Texas Governor Greg Abbott had previously issued an executive order banning all medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures including abortion. But...

CNN news anchor Brooke Baldwin has tested positive for the coronavirus, the second on-air personality at the news network to come down with the disease. In an Instagram post Friday, Baldwin said that her symptoms — a fever, chills and aches — came on suddenly Thursday afternoon.

Things are getting interesting, potential ramifications are growing, as the FISA Court responds to the latest information from the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG). After a review of 29 FISA applications, from eight FBI field offices, the OIG informed the FBI and DOJ that none of the surveillance applications were compliant with the Woods procedures. Meaning zero applications had FBI evidence to support the validity of the claims within the FISA warrants. That’s a very big problem if those FISA warrants were used to gather evidence used to prosecute the 29 targets of the applications. In a FISC order...

Despite a worldwide health crisis due to COVID-19 and a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), a medical officer for the World Health Organization has declared that abortion must be seen as an “essential service” during a time of pandemic. Dr. Antonella Lavalanet of the WHO’s “Maternal and Perinatal Health & Preventing Unsafe Abortion Team” recently hosted an online presentation for the pro-abortion Sexual Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM) journal for almost 5,000 people, in which she emphasized the need for abortions to continue despite there being a global health emergency. Lavalanet even declared that it shouldn’t matter if abortion-minded mothers...

Capt. Brett Crozier was removed from his post as commanding officer of the San Diego-based USS Theodore Roosevelt, but he got a hero’s sendoff from his sailors as he left the aircraft carrier in Guam. Video shared by sailors on social media shows a significant number of the crew cheering, applauding and chanting Crozier’s name as he exited the vessel. The captain was relieved of command over the way he spread a memo wrote to Navy leadership desperately calling for swift action after a major coronavirus outbreak aboard the Roosevelt.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). Poverty of spirit is a prerequisite to salvation and to victorious Christian living. In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus tells of two men who went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee boasted to God about his self- righteous efforts; the tax collector humbly acknowledged his sin. The Pharisee was proud and went away still in sin; the tax collector was poor in spirit and went away forgiven. The Greek word translated "poor" in Matthew 5:3 was used...

A River Vale 7-Eleven owner was arrested Tuesday after she allegedly sold sanitzer that burned children. Manisha Bharade was hit with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Recent Stories from pix11.com Four boys were burned. One mother shared pictures of her son on social media as a warning to parents. Bharade allegedly mixed commercially available foaming sanitizer, which was not meant for resale, and water. Fourteen bottles were sold. Five bottles were turned over to police. Officers said nine bottles are unaccounted for. Many have been making their own version of sanitzer amid coronavirus-related shortages. Attorney General...

VANITY--Any Small Businesses out there suddenly having non-paying customers using Covid as an excuse?

Rome, Italy, Apr 2, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- Poor countries are suffering from the coronavirus because of the Chinese Communist Party’s negligence and repression, a cardinal from Burma said Thursday. “The Chinese regime led by the all-powerful Xi Jinping and the CCP — not its people — owes us all an apology and compensation for the destruction it has caused,” Cardinal Muang Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, wrote in an op-ed published April 2 by UCA News. Cardinal Bo, who is head of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, denounced the Chinese regime Thursday for withholding information about the coronavirus...

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Thursday that it will close the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul to the public during livestreamed Easter and Holy Week services as part of its “commitment … to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The decision came after The Inquirer reported that at least two dozen people attended Sunday’s 11 a.m. Mass and were served Holy Communion, despite Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez’s order last month suspending all public Masses in an effort to curb the coronavirus’ spread. A video of that service, shared by an attendee who asked not to be identified,...

President Trump is the "right" leader for this time. And that is exactly why the left is trying to convince us otherwise. The state of New York is in horrible condition fighting the China virus – but do you blame Gov. Cuomo for the situation? If not, then why blame Trump for the situation in the United States? The president did not bring the China virus to America. Trump acted quickly with the information that was provided to the U.S. by China and the World Health Organization. China and WHO lied by omission. They withheld information until late January. President...

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Ronald Reagan describes Democratic platform