Free Republic

Music is always essential.

Europe has long been an attractive place for Chinese firms looking to invest and acquire — and the recent bout of weakness in stocks, particularly in key tech firms, could further pique their interest. According to one analyst, some of Europe’s key tech firms are “vulnerable” given the market slump, but a top politician in the European Union has urged countries to take a stake in those companies to stop the Chinese takeovers. The outbreak of the coronavirus in China, which has spread across the world, has led to a slump in share prices around the world. Some European tech...

The Senate Judiciary Committee has just released a bunch of documents, some of which were on the original 2018 congressional request for declassification. The documents are considerably interesting; perhaps even EXPLOSIVE. The documents include more Papadopoulos transcripts from wired conversations with FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper; and also for the first time less redacted version of all three Carter Page FISA applications. It’s going to take some time to go through this. The declassification and release includes some seriously interesting documents the DOJ submitted to the FISA court, as far back as July 2018, which completely destroy the prior...

The EU Commission president has offered a "heartfelt apology" to Italy for not helping at the start of its deadly coronavirus outbreak. Ursula von der Leyen told the EU parliament that "too many were not there... when Italy needed". Many Italians have criticised the EU's response to the pandemic, and say the bloc did not do enough to help. SNIP The commission president added that sorry "only counts for something if it changes behaviour."

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Thursday evening that diseases like the novel coronavirus “don’t just disappear.” Fauci was asked during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham if COVID-19 could "disappear" like SARS did in 2004. “Anything could, Laura, but I must say that the degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this is really unprecedented in anything that I’ve seen. It’s an extraordinarily efficient virus in transmitting from one person to another,” Fauci said. “These kinds of viruses don’t just disappear.” Earlier in the interview, Ingraham asked why the U.S. is “pegging on going back...

The UK will refuse to extend the Brexit transition period, even if the EU requested a delay, Downing Street says. A spokesman said any extension would keep the UK bound by EU rules when it instead "needs flexibility" to deal with coronavirus. The transition period, due to end on 31 December, was intended to allow the two sides to negotiate a trade deal. On Wednesday, UK and EU negotiators agreed to hold three further rounds of trade talks.

The Hubble Space Telescope, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, has been flying high for almost three full decades. That’s a long time to be peering into space and the telescope has provided mankind with some incredible discoveries and a wealth of celestial eye candy. Over the course of almost 30 years, it’s amassed quite a collection of images and there’s at least one spectacular shot for every day of the calendar year. NASA knows this and to help celebrate the spacecraft’s upcoming 30th anniversary, the agency put together a handy little web tool that shows you what...

18 page scribd link: Guideline for Opening Up America Again

“Hello, old chap, you got stuck with the big decision, didn't you?" ”Donald wheeled suddenly and said:“Why, it’s you, Andrew! I warn’t noticing.” “Say—I’m swimming in glowing press, I am. Don’t you wish you were? But of course you’d druther work on reopening the economy — wouldn’t you? Even if people gonna criticize you if it ain't picture perfect afterwards.” Donald contemplated the Governor a bit, and said: “What do you call work?” “Why, ain’t that work? ”Donald resumed his hard work, and answered carelessly: “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Donald Trump.” “Oh come, now,...

None of it happened. Dennehy had served in the US Marine Corps between 1958 and 1963 but did not set foot in Vietnam. The closest he came to combat was playing inter-service American football in Okinawa. Dennehy publicly apologised for his deception in 1999. But there are reports that he continued telling embellished stories of courage under fire to anyone silly enough to listen. Once an actor …

Just one day after the Trump administration announced it wanted to bring live sports back, the city of Los Angeles, which has at least one team in each of the country's four major sports leagues, is reportedly planning on not having any live sports until next year. A report from the Los Angeles Times reveals that an internal Los Angeles Fire Department email has the city holding off on mass gatherings until 2021

My parents have passed, but if they were in an infected nursing home/retirement community I would want to get him out.

Hang in there folks. Yes, it is new. Understand some things are more powerful than the markets of the World. It can be a welcome relief....... (yes, I lost half my net worth)

April 17 2020 Friday in the Octave of Easter Reading 1 Acts 4:1-12 After the crippled man had been cured, while Peter and John were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them, disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They laid hands on Peter and John and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word came to believe and the number of men grew to about...

The service of Matins for Great and Holy Friday (served on the night of Great Thursday) including the reading of the Twelve Gospels of the Passion. (English appx 3 hrs)

Key Points * China’s COVID-19 figures are not arithmetically sensible. The Communist Party has deliberately made estimation difficult, but, outside of Wuhan city and Hubei province, cases are low by a factor of 100 or more. * In late January, Chinese media provided information about migrant outflow from Wuhan before quarantine. Using a lower number than theirs, then conservative figures for migrants’ infection rate and time in circulation before national lockdown, generates an estimate of 2.9 million cases. * This is partly due to China’s huge population. That population can also hide COVID-19 among tens of millions of respiratory illnesses....

Harbin city in northern China is facing a second wave of the CCP virus outbreak. Locals have reported long queues in front of hospitals, while traffic police have blocked vehicles from entering local highways, and hospitals announced new rules to prevent the CCP virus from spreading. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, first broke out in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, in December 2019. From January, the virus quickly spread to other Chinese cities. Harbin is the capital of northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province. The city enacted partial lockdown measures last week. And...

A Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was visited by representatives from its Chinese Communist Party-tied parent company one month before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed at the facility, according to three employees. After the first illness was confirmed at the plant on March 26, the facility quickly became the epicenter of the state’s outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wrote in an April 11 letter that 238 plant employees had contracted the virus, accounting for 38 percent of the state’s confirmed...

The EU Has Failed Europe over Coronavirus by Con Coughlin April 16, 2020 at 5:00 am All the evidence suggests that the majority of European governments are ignoring the EU's advice, and acting unilaterally to tackle the impact of the pandemic on their citizens. The divergence in approach among various member states indicates that European leaders are -- as they have been from the outset -- acting selfishly in their own national interest rather than for the good of the EU as a whole. It also means they are in breach of some of the EU's fundamental principles, such as...

BREAKING: Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic began, revises death toll to 3,869, an increase of 50%