Free Republic

António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) video message on COVID-19 and misinformation.As the world fights the deadly COVID-19 pandemic – the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War – we are also seeing another epidemic -- a dangerous epidemic of misinformation.   Around the world, people are scared. They want to know what to do and where to turn for advice. This is a time for science and solidarity. Yet the global ‘misinfo-demic’ is spreading.Harmful health advice and snake-oil solutions are proliferating. Falsehoods are filling the airwaves. Wild conspiracy theories are infecting the Internet. Hatred is going viral, stigmatizing...

VIDEO Vote Blue No Matter Who? That memo might work for the Mainstream Media but as you can see in the reactions here to the endorsement of Joe Biden by Bernie Sanders, that idea will probably go over like a lead balloon. Don't be surprised to see many, if not most, Sanders supporters, go third party in the general election.

In February, during on appearance on Fox News, Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Az.) suggested that the Wuhan virus originated in a Chinese biological warfare laboratory. The leftist media instantly claimed that he was irresponsibly promoting a bizarre, discredited conspiracy theory (as always, holding themselves up as the arbiter of what’s valid and what is “discredited”). It turns out, though, that Cotton was correct. On January 31, President Trump had declared coronavirus a public health emergency and banned travel between the U.S. and China. The Democrat propaganda branch known as the American mainstream media instantly bashed Trump for doing so. Joe...

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits jumped by 5.25 million last week, as massive job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic continued to mount. That brings total claims over the four weeks ended April 11 to nearly 22 million workers, erasing the entirety of labor market gains since the 2008 financial crisis, a stunning sign of the colossal economic damage inflicted by the virus outbreak. Before the pandemic, the largest number of Americans to seek jobless aid in a four-week stretch was 2.7 million in the fall of 1982. With a labor force that totals about 162 million people,...

Facebook will begin to alert users after they’ve been exposed to misinformation about the coronavirus, the company announced Thursday, the latest in a series of actions meant to curtail the spread of wrong or misleading claims related to the pandemic. Users who have liked, commented on or reacted to coronavirus misinformation that has been flagged as “harmful” by Facebook and removed will now be directed to a website debunking coronavirus myths from the World Health Organization. The announcement came in a blog post written by Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity. “We want to connect people who may have...

The wet markets in Wuhan, China, are incubators of global pandemics. Dr. Anthony Fauci believes they should be shut down immediately. He said, “It boggles my mind how, when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface, that we just don’t shut it down.” Our U.S. intelligence community has evidence that Chinese government officials are hiding the truth concerning the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in China. Underestimating Chinese deaths and total cases of the virus only broadens the breach of trust between communist China and our nation. Even Chinese citizens of Wuhan, the epicenter...

Hall of Fame closer Goose Gossage attacked Democrats Tuesday and defended President Trump, who he said could be the only one to replace the Steinbrenner family as New York Yankees owner. Gossage, who has gotten political over the last few years and has been an outspoken supporter of Trump, told NJ.com he wants to see some of the top Democrats go to jail. “I’m hoping and I’m praying that these (expletive) go off the cliff to never be heard from again,” Gossage said. “All of them! Nancy Pelosi and that lying Chuck Schumer. And then (expletive) Robert Mueller and the...

The "jackass, loser, fat-tire biker" that CNN's Chris Cuomo berated on radio has filed a formal police complaint against the Prime Time anchor. The 65-year-old Long Island man, David Whelan, was the subject of a Cuomo tirade during a broadcast of "Let's Get After It with Chris Cuomo" over an alleged verbal confrontation between the two on Easter Sunday. According to the East Hampton police complaint, obtained by The Independent, Cuomo allegedly threatened Mr Whelan, saying he hadn't "seen the last of him" and that "he would beat the crap out" of him.

Petulant propagandists, disguised as journalists, have a new talking point. President Trump was asleep at the wheel earlier this year, eating Big Macs, sipping covfefe, watching Fox and Friends, totally missing the boat on the Chinese Coronavirus outbreak. Their new narrative is that Trump could have and should have acted sooner and if he had, all would be normal in the world. This is the latest chapter in the book of Orange Man Bad, previous chapters including the Ukraine phone call, Russian collusion, Mueller, Stormy, Avenatti, Omarosa, and Manafort, just to name a few. Say what you want about the...

“He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him” (Proverbs 16:26).

On Jan. 22, two days after Chinese officials first publicized the serious threat posed by the new virus ravaging the city of Wuhan, the chief of the World Health Organization held the first of what would be months of almost daily media briefings, sounding the alarm, telling the world to take the outbreak seriously. But with its officials divided, the W.H.O., still seeing no evidence of sustained spread of the virus outside of China, declined the next day to declare a global public health emergency. A week later, the organization reversed course and made the declaration. Those early days of...

Governor Northam has ordered local businesses to stay closed through May 8. He is operating under authority that he believes he has under Virginia law. Virginia’s emergency disaster law grants a Governor broad powers “to protect the public peace, health, and safety, and to preserve the lives and property and economic well-being of the people of the Commonwealth.” Governor Northam, like many other leftist authoritarian governors, used his emergency powers to shut down businesses in his state in order to “save” people from coronavirus. Did he act within his powers? Coronavirus, as of April 15, resulted in 195 deaths and...

In 2018 — nearly two years before the start of the global coronavirus pandemic — U.S. officials in China sent warnings to Washington expressing safety concerns over a Wuhan facility's research into coronaviruses in horseshoe bats, adding weight to the theory that the novel virus originated in a lab and not at a Wuhan wet market. The news broke in a report Wednesday by Josh Rogin of the Washington Post, who said that he obtained access to the first of two diplomatic cables sent from State Department officials who had visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in January and March...

Offshore vessel provider Telford Offshore's offshore accommodation and hook-up unit Telford 28 was attacked earlier this week while anchored in Mexico. One crew member was injured.

We are learning things about ourselves during our coronapocalypse shut-down aren’t we, dear readers? Forced to stay inside and find ways to occupy ourselves, most of us have found ways to cope and sometimes even flourish. Many of us are finding new hobbies. For example, five-time NFL pro bowl star J.J. Watt has developed an affinity for doing the dishes. I’ve never really disliked doing the dishes but maybe I can begin to see the nightly routine through Watt’s eyes and find some joy in the process. Hey, this is a time for dreaming. Many of us have been doing...

Marine Corps Cpl. Devan K. Gowans Former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the US fleet is facing an "acute problem" with the coronavirus pandemic and suggested it needed to make drastic measures. "People do not have any way to social distance on any Navy ship, but particularly a carrier," Mabus said. "You've got almost 5,000 people here. And they literally are on top of each other." "I think what they need to do is bring every ship in," Maybus said. "... Offload most of the crew ... leave a very skeletal force on board, sanitize the ship, quarantine people for...

n April 3, after new data was released showing that up to a quarter of people infected with the coronavirus are asymptomatic, the CDC announced new recommendations for wearing face masks. Its guidelines stipulate that everyone should cover their faces with a cloth mask while “in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain,” like the grocery store. This, of course, doesn’t mean we should rush to hoard the medical-grade masks desperately needed by health care workers. It means fashioning something yourself. The CDC specifically recommends using tightly woven cotton to make a mask. So those of...

City officials in Orange ordered a small motel operating as a birth tourism lodge to shut down by the end of the month. Council members on Tuesday night revoked the JR Motel’s conditional use permit, saying the owner did not operate the facility for its intended use. The JR Motel doesn’t have a sign or take reservations from the general public. Instead, it caters to well-off Chinese women who come to the United States while pregnant with the intention of giving birth to a child who, by law, will be an American citizen. Though the practice isn’t illegal, city officials...

Don’t worry, Underdog is on the way. But until then…Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

The move comes after President Donald Trump promised to help families, who accuse Saudi Arabia of complicity in the attacks. Barr says he cannot even explain why the material must stay secret without putting national security at risk. Months after President Donald Trump promised to open FBI files to help families of the 9/11 victims in a civil lawsuit against the Saudi government, the Justice Department has doubled down on its claim that the information is a state secret. In a series of filings just before a midnight court deadline on Monday, the attorney general, William Barr; the acting director...