Free Republic

The nation’s reaction to the current CCP Virus epidemic has been fascinating. It has revealed an impressive ability of many businesses to adjust their operations at a moment’s notice. It has demonstrated the great advantages offered by modern technology as tools like Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting and Facebook Live have enabled employees and students to move their tasks from office to home. It has shown the flexibility of the logistics network as we switched over to home delivery at a moment’s notice. It has reminded the world, once again, of the huge generosity of the American people, as Americans make...

...According to former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson the state of Massachusetts has suddenly changed the way they are counting coronavirus deaths.

Here’s the Deal similarly falls short of its other goal of humanizing Biden. Its most mocked moment involves Biden discussing his love of Fig Newtons, which he likes because he can “sneak” them without aides or family members chastising him. The story only makes him sound roughly 900 years old. It does, I suppose, get points for authenticity, the antithesis of Hillary Clinton’s “I keep hot sauce in my bag” shtick. But that’s the problem: The authentic Biden, a 78-year-old who loves Fig Newtons and Congress, seems increasingly divorced from life in America, and even more so in post-coronavirus America....

“Recently I have got the news that mosques are being set on fire, mosques are being burnt for the last two days. I think something is going to happen within a month. May Allah accept our prayers. May Allah send such a terrible virus to India that ten to twenty to fifty crore people die in India. Am I saying something wrong? It is absolutely blissful.” In what context would this statement be innocuous? And how long are Muslim clerics and spokesmen going to claim they were quoted “out of context” every time they are caught saying something hateful and...

A Justice Department internal investigation has found that there were at least two surveillance warrant applications in 2019 with material errors, according to a newly unsealed court filing. In the 54-page filing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) laid out not only the errors that were made but also gave a lengthy explanation of how it is working to address issues in its surveillance warrant process. According to the court documents, the DOJ's National Security Division conducted 30 accuracy reviews last year, and while it is still working on its final results...

What a deal for Democrats: They get to hold the economy for ransom, and the media blithely cover for them. On Thursday, Senate Democrats nixed a simple but urgent request to boost cash in the emergency small business loan program Congress set up this month from $350 billion to $600 billion. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin requested the cash because funds are running low, just weeks after the program launched. Rather than comply, Democrats issued demands: They insisted the new money include $60 billion for “community-based lenders” that serve minorities, women, nonprofits and other groups. And the bill also had to OK an...

Planned Parenthood and its allies in the abortion industry once again received the backing of Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, who rebuked Texas officials for including abortions as banned elective procedures during the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, Yeakel, a George W. Bush appointee, said he was allowing some abortions to continue after his initial ruling was reversed by a 2-1 decision of a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. Responding to Yeakel’s decision Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released the following statement:...

...This sounds like a shakedown. Many of Biden’s positions have already moved to the left in a big way. If he caves-in to these demands, there wouldn’t really be much of a difference between a Biden or a Sanders candidacy, except that Sanders can navigate his way around a salad bar. (Tucker Carlson was joking on his show. He asked if Biden could find his car in a three-tiered parking lot? Can he navigate a salad bar?) Strassel reminds us that, normally when a candidate captures the nomination, they begin shifting back to the center. But Team Bernie is effectively...

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Poland's ruling conservative government has held scaled-back commemorations marking the 10th anniversary of a plane crash in Russia that killed then-Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other high-ranking officials. Only a small group of senior officials, including Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of the late president and head of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, attended the wreath-laying ceremony at the Warsaw monument at the exact moment that the plane crashed on April 10, 2010, in the western Russian city of Smolensk.

The Trump campaign released an online ad Thursday that portrays Joe Biden as being soft on China, hitting the former vice president for protecting “China’s feelings.” “During America’s crisis, Biden protected China’s feelings,” the ad states, showing a montage of Biden with President Xi Jinping and news reports about how he was against President Trump’s coronavirus travel restrictions. “Or perhaps China’s investment?” then flashes across the screen along with news segments about Hunter Biden’s dealings with China. A line is also used from a Peter Schweizer and Jacob McLeod story in the New York Post about how “Joe Biden met...

Maybe you’ve seen the eyebrow-raising claims on the Internet or elsewhere in the media: rather than celebrating Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and triumph over crucifixion, Easter is really derived from a pagan holiday. Proponents of this theory point to symbols of rebirth and fertility, like eggs and bunnies, that we see at Easter as proof. But the foundation of the claim that Easter is a pagan tradition is the similarity in names: Easter, they say, is the English translation of Eostre, a Germanic goddess of fertility. (Others claim Easter got its name from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, or the...

If President Trump starts opening the economy on a roll-out basis, etc...Would state governments have to cooperate if their lockdown timelines extend beyond President's preliminary deadline of April 30th?

...While the cumulative totals of cases and deaths continue rising, the media are doing a lousy job of reporting the most important numbers: How many COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized? How many new patients are admitted to the hospital each day, and how many patients are discharged? The reason for “social distancing” policies was to slow the spread of the disease, to “flatten the curve” of the pandemic and avoid overwhelming the hospital system. We have reason to believe that these policies are succeeding in that regard, and something else may explain why we may be averting the “apex” crisis:...

A California woman is accused of licking nearly $2,000 worth of grocery store items at a Safeway supermarket near Lake Tahoe. The Los Angeles Times reported that the South Lake Tahoe Police Department responded to a report Wednesday of a customer “licking groceries inside of the store.” Employees say the woman, Jennifer Walker, 53, of South Lake Tahoe, licked and then stole several pieces of jewelry and other goods. A Safeway employee told the police the $1,800 in goods were “unsellable due to the cross-contamination” due to the coronavirus pandemic. Police arrested Walker on one count of felony vandalism and...

With a few exceptions such as the Schöningen spears and the recent finds of wooden tools at Pogetti Vecchi, almost all of our knowledge about the Middle Paleolithic comes from durable materials (bones and stone tools). We know from observations of our own surroundings, ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts that most of the material culture of humans (and Neanderthals) is comprised of perishable materials... Obviously, differential preservation of materials contributes to this bias. Previously, researchers have demonstrated that the microenvironment immediately surrounding a stone tool can preserve microscopic fragments of what is otherwise invisible archaeologically. This is also true for the...

A Kentucky court rejects the argument from Covington High School students that the comedian is subject to jurisdiction there because local people were asked to shame fellow citizens. On Thursday, comedian Kathy Griffin slipped one of the many lawsuits that followed for her minor role on Twitter, where she demanded names and shame upon the Covington High School students. U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman holds that Griffin's attempted doxing doesn't constitute acts committed in Kentucky and thus she's not subject to the jurisdiction of this federal court. In dismissing the suit, the judge adds that allowing Griffin to be...

Hunter Biden’s baby boy is a week old, but it may be months before his grandfather Joe Biden gets to meet him. Hunter’s wife, Melissa Cohen - who he wed last May, after knowing her for six days - gave birth to a “beautiful and healthy” son on March 28, according to her brother, Garyn Cohen. But presidential candidate, Joe, 77, is currently under a state-mandated lockdown at his home in Wilmington, Del., amid the coronavirus pandemic. **SNIP** Baby-boy Biden was born in Los Angeles, where the family is living in a $2.5 million home in the Hollywood Hills. He’s...

And now for something a bit more cheerful, Percy Faith and his orchestra playing Delicado. [This post is certified COVID-19 free.]

“I know that many of you were hoping we would get to the end of April and we’d be able to lift many of these restrictions, Ferrer said. “I am sad as you are to note that this is not the time to lift.” As part of the extended order, all indoor and outdoor private gatherings and events should not occur, beaches and trailheads as well as all nonessential businesses, remain closed. New measures taking effect next at midnight April 15: All essential businesses must provide all employees who are required to be around others a cloth face covering to...

A small Iowa town received a big surprise last week from an anonymous donor who shipped every household in town $150 worth of gift cards good at local small businesses. All 549 households in the town of 1,400 people received three $50 gift cards, according to the Des Moines Register, one each for West Side Bar and Grille, Hometown Market and Trostel’s Broken Branch. Collectively, the cards added up to $82,350, or $27,450 to each locally owned business. Mayor Jeff Lillie was in on the secret. On March 26, he was called by a man who said he was the...