Free Republic

Once upon a time we lived in a country where people knew there were risks to living. That was before the rise of the federal agencies striving to eliminate all chance of sickness or death. Why should we remain closed until a vaccine is developed? It took 30 years from the development of the Polio vaccine and mass public inoculations, to eliminate polio in the US. Vaccines for chickenpox, measles (both kinds), mumps, whooping cough, scarlet fever, etc. didn't exist until most of us were well into adulthood and had suffered through each (except scarlet fever). 57,000 people in the...

Poor Joe. He is clearly not up to the job of being President. Here he struggles to make a coherent sentence he started during a discussion on CNN with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Look at the look on Gupta’s face as Biden struggled for words. . . .

Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. will halt monetary contributions to the World Health Organization while the administration reviews the mistakes it made managing the pandemic. Now, president Trump has announced where the funds will be going instead — to two organizations fighting the coronavirus: Samaritan’s Purse and the Red Cross.

THE TALE OF DONALD TRUMP AND THE PICKET FENCE “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...

Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido is home to about 5 million people. When the coronavirus began spreading around the world in February, Hokkaido was the first place in Japan to declare a state of emergency. And that early decision appeared to work. The number of new cases dropped and the emergency order was lifted. When the emergency ended, Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki said, “There was no surge of infected patients that led to the collapse of the medical environment. We overcame without the fearful circumstance.”In essence, Hokkaido had flattened the curve without overwhelming the health system. The emergency was...

The happiest I’ve been in six weeks was reading this story.Investors read it too, with the Dow Futures market suddenly evincing joy as well. My layman’s understanding is that remdesivir has always been the best hope among scientists for a “miracle drug” that might put a real dent in the death toll. Hydroxychloroquine gets all the press because Trump has seized on it for whatever reason, but the evidence of its efficacy so far is mixed. The French study that put the drug on the world’s radar screen as a potential silver bullet against coronavirus was later withdrawn by...

Are masks and gloves all you need to save yourself from certain death from the Coronavirus?

How else would one interpret his presumptuous proclamation at his latest press conference? What in hell (no pun intended) would prompt NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to exclaim, in a most haughty manner, that in regard to "flattening the curve" (man, do I despise that term) "We brought the numbers down. God did not do that, faith did not do that..."? I mean, I realize that he ranks very high (top three by my calculations) on the list of America's most narcissistic public figures, but this is the next level arrogance.  If you think that this is even too much...

Ammar Campa-Najjar now bills himself the “most conservative” candidate in California House race. Ammar Campa-Najjar is running for Congress in California’s 50th District and outpacing his Democrat rivals in fundraising. As the California Globe notes, Campa-Najjar received $1.972 million in the first quarter, while Democrats Alex Balkin and Marisa Calderon raised only a combined $150,000. Campa Najjar’s out-of-state funding of $462,816 nearly triples opponent Darrell Issa’s $167,730. The money gap is hardly the only unusual feature of the campaign. In his 2018 race against Duncan Hunter, Campa-Najjar billed himself as a progressive “Latino Arab-American.” In a January interview with the...

Crew members from Ellen DeGeneres’ long-running daytime talk show are distressed and outraged over their treatment from top producers amid the coronavirus pandemic, numerous insiders affiliated with the series told Variety. The core stage crew for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” consisting of more than 30 employees, received no written communication about the status of their working hours, pay, or inquiries about their mental and physical health from producers for over a month, said two sources, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity. Higher-ups in production would occasionally answer phone calls but reveal little, added one of the...

The country I thought I knew is distorted beyond all recognition. “Get your bloody heads up! Get your heads up! Hopkins, you have a face that could melt glass, but I still want to see it – get your head up now!” The Academy Sergeant Major at Sandhurst drilled this into us pretty hard. As the military knows well, if heads drop bodies do too, so they demand you keep your head up so the men you are leading will look to you and know it will be OK, that you have your eyes on the horizon. But right now...

A little silver-haired lady calls her neighbor and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get started." Her neighbor asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?" The little silver haired lady says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a rooster." Her neighbor decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then...

The American coronavirus vaccine’s Phase 1 clinical trials are bogged down. They began on March 3 and are not scheduled to end until June 1, 2021.Why fifteen months for the first American vaccine’s clinical trials? The reason is simple. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases), is conducting them in Fauci Time.  (Fauci is also conducting the clinical trials to see if Remdesivir is effective against COVID-19 in Fauci Time – those trials are not scheduled to end until April 1, 2023.) Normally, during a health emergency, the U.S. gets out a...

The types of financial shocks hospitals currently face illustrate the problems inherent in Democrats’ proposed expansions of government-run health care. The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted such vast damage on the American economy that one damaged sector has gone relatively unnoticed. Despite incurring a massive influx of new patients, the hospital industry faces what one executive called a “seismic financial shock” from the virus. The types of shocks hospitals currently face also illustrate the problems inherent in Democrats’ proposed expansions of government-run health care. Likewise, the pay and benefit cuts and furloughs that some hospitals have enacted in response to these...

Military pensions are important, and it's natural that the agencies investing them would want to get them the best possible returns. But a new report from John Solomon's JustTheNews site suggests that something a little disturbing is going on: U.S. military and other federal pensions are apparently going to be invested Chinese entities if a new investment setup goes through. Christine Dolan of JustTheNews writes: In November 2017, FRTIB Chairman Michael Kennedy, who is Managing Director of Korn/Ferry International, and his board decided to change $50 billion in U.S. government retirement funds to a new global investment index known...

Covid County Map Dated: 04/16/20 The data for this map was pulled from: https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/tree/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_daily_reports I am validating data by comparing it with other sources: https://covidtracking.com/data/ https://infection2020.com/ https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en as well as various state .gov websites No claims of the use or accuracy of these maps is implied. Other parties may use these maps as their own.

“He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Proverbs 17:21-22).

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle suggested earlier this week that former Vice President and likely Democratic nominee in the 2020 race Joe Biden form “a shadow government” to counter President Donald Trump’s daily briefing on the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.“Do they (the Biden campaign) need to do it in a bigger way? What did you just call it ‘the President’s daily clown show’? That’s his press briefing? Should Joe Biden be counter programming that? Should he be creating his own shadow government, shadow cabinet, shadow SWAT team? And gearing up there at a podium every night saying here’s...

More than 100 people protested Wednesday in downtown Sonora against health orders that are keeping small businesses closed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has so far sickened three people in Tuolumne County. Some held signs stating “Honk if You’re Healthy” and “More Data Less Fear” and “Man Cannot Live on Walmart Alone” while they walked up and down Washington Street. As many as 75 people gathered in Courthouse Square between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., raising concerns from other Sonora and Tuolumne County residents who opposed the protest, saying it endangered the entire community to congregate in...

While public officials continue to be browbeaten by public cries to “shut everything down,” driven by a relentless media in hyperdrive to cover every step of this “COVID-19 crisis,” more and more Americans are waking up to the notion that the current “crisis” might not quite fit current facts. Part of the skepticism derives from the fact that national policy and practice seems to have taken the Tesla Roadster approach of 0-60 in 1.9 seconds. February 29th: President Trump called his first press conference regarding COVID-19. Here, Anthony Fauci said, “the country as a whole still remains at a low...