Free Republic

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has failed to address Illinois’ broken unemployment system, which has been unable to deliver benefits to people desperate for a lifeline. He has been incapable of cutting through the confusion facing small business owners, gig workers, independent contractors and sole proprietors about the status of their benefits. And on Sunday, after the nation’s top infectious disease expert said some sectors of the economy might be able to start reopening in May, Pritzker finally hinted that the state is thinking about — just thinking about — how to safely get key sectors back online, but that remains a...

Connecticut doctors are finding some success in treating COVID-19 patients with a controversial malaria drug that has undergone very limited testing in its effectiveness against the coronavirus. In Bridgeport Hospital, virtually every patient in the intensive care unit has been given hydroxychloroquine - which is normally used to treat lupus, an auto-immune disease, as well as arthritis and malaria - said Dr. Zane Saul, chief of infectious disease there. “We use this more for its anti-inflammatory properties,” Saul said in a phone interview from the hospital. “We’re using this is our protocol.” He described the results so far as “positive”...

Over the last two decades the writings of Pat Buchanan have taught me so much that my own background and education, born into a progressive family, could never have taught me. He has converted me to conservatism. (Ron Paul and Aussie P.M. Tony Abbott helped.) What do Freepers think of Pat Buchanan’s analysis of the current crisis: https://buchanan.org/blog/what-price-victory-in-the-coronavirus-war-138432 ? I consider it brilliant.

A 17th Ward election judge died from COVID-19 just 15 days after he worked a South Side polling place on Election Day. Revall Burke, 60, a city parking enforcement aide who lived in the 7600 block of South Morgan, died April 1. On March 17, Burke was assigned to the polling place at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 1460 W. 78th St. Burke was the first city employee known to have died from the coronavirus, but his name was not made public when Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the death on April 1. The news reignited the debate about whether Illinois...

As Ed Driscoll points out, the Chicom terrorists have won. And, he asks, Is This Really the Sort of Hellish Dystopia You Want to Live In? COVID-19 Delays Release of New Emojis.Can you even imagine? A year without a single new emoji? Life has lost all meaning, or as commenter tu3031 put it: “unemployed Seattle sex workers, tranny's that can't get their surgeries, ignored feminists, fatphobia, no new emojis...how much can one nation be expected to take!”It’s not quite as bleak as it sounded at first though, as there are some new emojis already in the pipeline that can be...

PHOENIX (April 14th, 2020) –As Arizona residents endure a stay-at-home order and thousands of people suffer from coronavirus, President Donald Trump continues to fall in a head-to-head matchup with former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has expanded his lead over Trump in the April edition of OHPI’s Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP), now leading the president 52 to 43 with 5 percent of voters undecided. This nine-point advantage for Biden is a sign the former vice president continues to gain traction in a historically ruby-red state. After a December poll showed Biden trailing the president, capping off a summer and...

“A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies” (Proverbs 14:5).

President Trump: would-be dictator, or mental patient? Nice choice that Morning Joe offered us today! Scarborough opened the show by saying he and Mika "really differ" in their reactions to President Trump's statement yesterday that he had "total authority," superseding that of governors, to re-open the economy. Mika announced: "President Trump added another step yesterday in his march toward authoritarianism. He tried." Said Scarborough: "I know, we really differ here. You’re very, very concerned when he talks like that, about the Constitution and the country. I'm actually mainly concerned for his mental health." Get the rest of the story and...

Two Iraq War veteran brothers converted their distillery into a hand sanitizer factory and hired furloughed workers in order to serve their community during the coronavirus crisis. “We figured out a model that’s working so far and we’re able to keep all the donations going. Keep our lights on, keep our employees paid, and we’re up to 80 mostly furloughed bartenders and restaurant workers,” Travis Whitmeyer told “Fox & Friends First.” “We’ll keep doing it as long as we need it,” Whitmeyer said.

Doctors are now wondering if ventilators actually accelerate death or kill Covid patients.   And with death rates of 80% or more for those put on ventilators, they surely should wonder.  Anything that results in death 80% of the time should be questioned.  Remember, our harsh lockdown measures to “flatten the curve” are motivated in large part to help ensure there are sufficient ventilators for when people get sick.  Amazing if those ventilators now prove to be of little therapeutic value.    Covidien Puritan Bennett 840 Ventilator Likewise, except in a few hotspots, hospital beds and ventilators are not...

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, tweeted Monday that the number of coronavirus cases in China could have been cut by as much as 95 percent if Beijing had acted earlier, citing a study published in March. The research, which was posted on the medrxiv repository and has not yet been peer-reviewed, highlighted the need for fast interventions and quick government response to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The outbreak has now become a pandemic, affecting more than 1.9 million around the globe and impacting 185 countries. According to a report published in...

We are told that, on the one hand, heads should roll for not providing health-care workers with enough masks to save their lives, and on the other, that masks will not aid us the people in trying to survive the virus. We smell a rat. Further, the frail elderly among us have grown sceptical of the words of professional bureaucrats and politicians -- we would rather know the raw facts and live or die based on our own judgement. It’s all a bit life and death. So, here are the facts. They do not rely on an elevated position in...

And the picture is framed!To Democrats, a freedom-loving patriot like Donald Trump is to be looked down upon because he puts Americans first. And yet, they have no problem honoring – literally, honoring – racist, murderous tyrants.For anybody to have a framed picture of Che Guevara in their living room speaks volumes.But it’s even worse when you’re the daughter of the governor of New York.

SAN DIEGO — Federal authorities have charged a man known to have lived in Chula Vista with trafficking millions of dollars in illegal drugs through a tunnel that stretched from Mexico to a warehouse in Otay Mesa. Rogelio Flores Guzman, 54, a Mexican national with legal residency in the U.S., was charged Friday with trafficking in fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Flores, who was also known to have lived in Las Vegas and Victorville, was taken into custody Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport as he was boarding a plane to Guadalajara, Mexico. He was arraigned Friday afternoon in...

Australia’s prime minister is blasting the World Health Organization Tuesday over its stance on wet markets, calling it “unfathomable” that the U.N. agency supports them reopening in China. Scott Morrison made the comment just days after a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers urged WHO to shut down all wet markets globally. The markets recently began opening their doors again in Chinese cities like Wuhan, which have lifted their coronavirus lockdowns. “I think that’s unfathomable, frankly. We need to protect the world against potential sources of outbreaks of these types of viruses,” Morrison told the Nine Network television station. “It’s happened...

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York has laid off or furloughed more than 240 workers, while temporarily closing 11 of its 28 locations — including the Staten Island and Bronx branches. The nonprofit, facing losses of $32 million amid the coronavirus crisis, says it remains committed to providing health services to those in need and is still booking what it deems essential appointments, including surgical abortions. But multiple staffers told THE CITY that the pandemic has wreaked havoc internally, and they’re concerned about the impact of the sudden recent cuts. The job reductions that hit the statewide staff of 800...

While sitting at home with my bottle of hand sanitizer, I received an email from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) asking me which topics from a list of pressing concerns I would like to receive emails about. The UFT has 200,000 members in New York City alone and is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, which has 1.6 million members nationwide. Following is a list of some of the sixteen topics being advocated by the UFT: Environmentalism/Sustainability, Immigrant Rights, LGBTQ Rights and Issues; Literacy; Political Activism; Racial Justice; Restorative Justice; Student Debt Relief; Women's Rights and Issues. In...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly unleashed on President Trump in a call with colleagues Monday, calling his administration’s delay in ensuring coronavirus testing and supplies “almost sinful,” as he now weighs when to reopen the economy. During a phone call with House Democrats Monday, Politico reported, Pelosi, D-Calif., also claimed Trump was putting Americans in danger by allegedly rushing to bring life back to normal and end social distancing guidelines. Trump has not yet announced a decision on those measures, but has underscored his authority on the matter.

Former US Attorney Joe diGenova was on the Howie Carr Show. After Carr shared that the Wall Street Journal reported that the Durham investigation was still ongoing, diGenova shared the following about what he knew about the John Durham investigation: One of the more interesting revelations is what I have confirmed with my sources, is that John Brennan is in fact the focus, the main focus of the investigation. And, a number of former intelligence officers have been interviewed and apparently testified about a series of questions involving the production of the famous assessment done after the election which of...

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) released an update of its coronavirus model on Monday that dropped peak hospitalization projections for the United States by 34 percent in three days, from 86,479 total hospital beds needed to 56,831 total hospital beds needed. The IHME admitted in an update accompanying the release that the dramatic drop in projected peak hospitalization resources required was the result of the inclusion of three days of actual hospitalization data from April 10-12 that was remarkably different from the projections for those days released just three days earlier on Friday, April 10. A review...