Free Republic

For kids and adults... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo43I4jRP7A

This week the Pentagon acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic -- which President Donald Trump has correctly called a plague -- has affected U.S. military operations. The disease has definitely reduced the combat effectiveness of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The virus threatens the lives of the warship's skilled personnel. Given the training and experience required to successfully operate an aircraft carrier for peacetime demands, much less combat, it would take a decade or more to replace the nuclear-powered behemoth's sailors, pilots and technicians. Thank God we're not in a shooting war -- hot war or kinetic war...

The Numbers Perhaps the most telling numbers are those that show the vast majority who have died suffered underlying illnesses or conditions: 4,732 out of 5,489 of the deceased, or 86.2 percent. For instance, of those victims 80 to 89 years old, 836 had high blood pressure, 488 had diabetes, and 227 had coronary artery disease. Another 157 suffered kidney disease, 148 had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 136 had cancer, and 132 had congestive heart failure. Those figures are similar in the 60-69 age cohort: 572 had high blood pressure and 444 had diabetes, while 133 suffered with kidney disease...

Mr. President, keep those daily White House briefings coming! The longer the better, take every question from every idiot so-called reporter out there. As the Godfather used to say, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” You know you’re winning when, for the first time in television history, the networks are threatening to pull the plug on the one show that’s delivering them their highest ratings – in the case of CNN, their only ratings. A month ago, the nattering nabobs of negativism were griping that there were no daily press briefings at the White House. Now they’re outraged...

A non-profit global science and security group says in a new report that Iran has built a plant to produce nuclear weapons despite its insistence that all its atomic endeavors are wholly peaceful. The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security said the 30-page report is based on documents from the Iran Nuclear Archive that were seized by Israel two years ago. The analysis, posted Wednesday, said Tehran has "clearly" been dishonest with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which relies on government cooperation and onsite inspections. "Iran should declare this site to the International Atomic Energy Agency and allow...

Hundreds of thousands of retail workers across the US have been furloughed from their jobs until further notice as their employers take drastic measures to cut costs during the coronavirus crisis. The retail sector has been hit hard over the past few weeks and months, and for conflicting reasons. While grocery chains and food delivery companies are scrambling to meet surging demand, other retail businesses deemed "nonessential" by the government have been forced to shutter stores and are now finding that a large portion of their business has dried up. Store closures across the country are taking their toll on...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Thursday against prematurely breaking from social distancing practices as President Trump and other administration officials hope to reopen swaths of the economy by May. Powell said that while it was “time to have a serious conversation” about how to restart normal economic activity, the Fed chair warned against causing a spike in coronavirus cases that forces the U.S. into another stretch of business closures and layoffs. “We need to have a plan nationally for reopening the economy. We all want it to happen as quickly as possible,” Powell said in a Thursday video interview...

Four Democrat congressmen, three of whom represent districts along the U.S. southern border, demanded the Trump administration halt border construction amid the coronavirus pandemic and direct the funds instead to fight the outbreak. In the letter dated Wednesday to the heads of the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security, Reps. Raul Grijalva, Filemon Vela and Ann Kirkpatrick and House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson demanded border wall construction immediately cease to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. "At a time when we are all taking extraordinary steps to limit the death toll and economic devastation...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—According to sources at the National Archives, doctors rushed the United States Constitution to the hospital and were forced to hook the document up to a ventilator after it began having trouble breathing Sunday afternoon. The document reportedly slipped into a coma en route to the emergency room and was in critical condition for many hours. Doctors confirmed the worst: the founding document of our nation was infected with the novel coronavirus. Finally, surrounded by one or two mourners, as most people in Washington abandoned it a long time ago, it slipped away Sunday night. "Between both political parties...

Prayers up for all the families suffering from the impact of this virus. And we're still praying that the spread starts fading with the warmer Spring weather and that an effective treatment and vaccine are developed before the next flu season starts. And we pray that our people are allowed to go back to work very soon and that our economy comes roaring back. Meanwhile, we may be hurt and slowed down somewhat, but we have faith in the long-run that "what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger." God willing, America will survive and we will survive and we...

Tux is ready to give you easy access to your Linux files. Earlier this year Microsoft shared its plans to integrate a full Linux kernel in Windows 10 — now it’s introducing Linux file access into the File Explorer. Users have been able to access Linux files since Windows 1903, but the new feature in build 19603 means you’ll be able to get them more easily. Open up File Explorer and you’ll see Tux, Linux’s penguin mascot, in the left-hand navigation pane. This icon will show you a view of all your distros, and selecting those will place you in the Linux...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become a beloved doom prophet fomenting mass hysteria among the American public amidst the coronavirus pandemic, once worked with technocratic oligarch Bill Gates on his “Global Vaccine Action Plan.” Anthony Fauci is, as you are starting to see is absolutely not one of the good guys, not by a longshot. He has lied repeatedly about the mortality rates, as recently as just last week calling for between 100-200,000 death bodies when nothing remotely close to that has happened. Not only that, he is a longtime member of the vaccine cabal with Bill Gates. Have you...

Local governments around the US are taking more draconian measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus by barring "essential" stores such as grocery chains or big-box retailers from selling "nonessential" items such as clothing and electronics. These stores, which have been allowed to stay open during state lockdowns because they sell groceries or offer pharmacy services, for example, are now required in some parts of the US to remove nonessential items or rope off areas of the store so customers can't access these products.

...cured his 96-year-old father of coronavirus"[snip]Over the past two months, about 50 percent of our news coverage has been focused on coronavirus. Our goal is not to make up the news but to share relevant information from reliable sources about this deadly virus. To date, the vast majority of our coverage has been focused on sharing news from researchers and scientists about effective treatments for the COVID-19 virus. According to doctors working in the front lines, one of the most effective drugs for treating coronavirus patients is hydroxychloroquine.[snip]Now that we get that out of the way, we would like to...

HARRISBURG, PA — All Pennsylvania schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Thursday. The governor said he made the decision in consultation with Secretary of Health Rachel Levine and Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera. Schools had been closed since March 13 due to the outbreak, which has killed more than 300 Pennsylvania residents.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news conference Tuesday that he believes COVID-19, the novel coronavirus responsible for the current global pandemic, was circulating in the state during this year’s Super Bowl game, which was held in South Florida, the area of the Sunshine State with the most positive cases of the virus. Super Bowl LIV was held Feb. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, but it wasn’t until about one month later, on March 1, that the governor announced Florida’s first positive cases of COVID-19. According to the Sun Sentinel, attendance at Hard...

BURLINGTON, VT—Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the presidential race since his campaign goals have already been achieved. These goals consisted mostly of locking everyone up in gulags and destroying the economy. As the coronavirus panic has already accomplished the aims of his socialistic policies, Sanders realized the country didn't need his public service anymore. Unemployment has skyrocketed, grocery stores have empty shelves, and everyone is confined to their homes on penalty of arrest. This "idyllic paradise" is exactly what Sanders wanted in the first place, so he says he can leave the race satisfied that his vision has been...

"You wanna pedal dope? Ok. Deal in white slavery? Ok. But if I ever hear the word "accident," I will rip your head off and use it for a radiator cap."

When I was young, my mother subscribed to Harper's Bazaar magazine. I devoured it every month, but I particularly looked forward to the annual "Over 40 and Fabulous" issue. Each year in that special issue, the magazine would feature -- on the cover and inside -- beautiful, accomplished and talented women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s. I can vividly remember being a teenager and poring over photos of and interviews with women like Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Lena Horne and Carmen Dell'Orefice. Their joie de vivre was infectious. Their self-assurance was inspiring. Some, of course, had...

(snip) -- Two reckonings are due on the Wuhan virus, and both should begin soon. Let’s call these two reckonings the Foreign Reckoning and the Domestic Reckoning, because our current national crisis of an imprisoned and dying economy has dual sources. The Foreign Reckoning, as has been discussed in this space and elsewhere, has to do with China. There are those in a panic over the idea that a Cold War might be in the offing with the Chinese communists, but perhaps after 30 years of watching our political elite pander to them and sell out our manufacturing base and...