Free Republic

The good people of Michigan took to the streets en masse on Wednesday to protest their Democrat governor’s tyrannical rules and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. They flooded the streets of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, demanding that the state be opened back up before it slipped into even more economic despair. The turnout was huge. The message was clear. And today, even after Governor Whitmer tried to double and triple down on her Hitler-like rules over the past few days, she has caved and said that she will work to reopen Michigan’s economy on May 1st. That’s a...

President Trump and Coronavirus Task Force News Conference 04/17/20 – 6:00 (Eastern) White House news conference today at 6:00 P.M. Eastern. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020 The White Househttps://www.whitehouse.gov/live/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr6pqCj1fW8 RSBNhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p5Xzo561IA Diamond and Silk via RSBNhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfxM-qE7K2U Golden State Timeshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEfeLtpxT3g FOX 10 Phoenixhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w9TLpHmAPE FOX Newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--4GVsUJFbw C-SPANhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?471279-1/white-house-coronavirus-task-force-briefing Because the T.V. Ratings for the White House News Conference’s are the highest, the Opposition Party (Lamestream Media), the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats &, of course, the few remaining RINO’S, are doing everything in their power to disparage & end them. The People’s Voice!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2020

Friday on “Democracy Now!,” leftist political activist Noam Chomsky said President Donald Trump’s supporters at his rallies remind him of listening to the crowds at Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies. Host Amy Goodman asked, “Can you talk about what he’s threatening to do right now? First, they reject the WHO tests, that would have been critical, and now saying they’re going to defund the World Health Organization.” Chomsky said, “Well, this is typical behavior of autocrats and dictators. When you make colossal errors, which are killing thousands of people, find somebody else to blame. And in the United States, it’s, unfortunately, the...

Democratic Sens. Mark Warner (Va.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) are calling on Justice Department watchdogs to investigate Attorney General William Barr's comments about the firing of intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. "This is a disservice to ICIG Atkinson. It also raises broader questions about whether Attorney General Barr is following Department policies and rules of professional conduct that demand candor and impartiality from lawyers, particularly those who serve the public trust," the senators wrote. "We request that you investigate whether Attorney General Barr's statements in matters involving the interests of the President violate applicable Justice Department policies and rules...

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has criticised the government’s plans to proceed with the costly High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link despite the UK facing “the worst economic crisis for 300 years”, calling the decision “sheer madness”. The Department for Transport announced on Wednesday that the government had approved the widely-unpopular HS2 high-speed network, which is projected to cost the British taxpayer more than £100 billion. In the statement, the government said that the go-ahead “provides a vote of confidence in construction companies and the wider supply chain supporting HS2” at a time of economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus...

It's been a couple of weeks since I put a 70's song out here.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced support on Thursday for the embattled World Health Organization (W.H.O.) while speaking to fellow Group of Seven (G7) leaders after President Donald Trump halted U.S. funding for the United Nations-backed organization. German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said Merkel reiterated her call for “strong and coordinated international response” to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic and expressed “full support to the W.H.O.”

Stone artifacts painstakingly shaped into spheres were part of the daily lives of early humans for more than two million years. They have been unearthed by archaeologists in East Africa, humanity's ancestral home, and they litter prehistoric sites across Eurasia from the Middle East to China and India. Yet experts have been puzzled by their function since the early days of research into our evolutionary history. Now, an international team of archaeologists led by Tel Aviv University archaeologist researcher Ella Assaf, has produced evidence that these enigmatic artifacts were used for a very specific purpose: breaking the bones of large...

A Facebook fact-checker that labeled a documentary about the origins of the coronavirus, including the theory that it escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, as “false” has worked at the lab in question. The fact-checker’s ties to the lab in Wuhan were first flagged by investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

...Consider the three leading causes of preventable deaths in the US: about 480,000 Americans die from smoking (some from secondhand), 300,000 die from obesity, and 88,000 die from alcohol, every single year...Look at it this way: if imprisoning people in their homes for weeks and months on end, destroying countless mom-and-pop stores around the nation, and even arresting fathers who play ball with their daughters in empty parks—while creating a culture where people are “rewarded” for reporting on their neighbors—are now deemed necessary evils, or the “new norm,” to save a maximum of 240,000 lives, then surely something as simple...

Mayor Bill de Blasio rolled out a proposed budget Thursday that shaved $6 billion from his initial request and begged the feds for a $7.4 billion injection of aid, linking New York’s recovery from the coronavirus to any national rebound. “Everyone wants a restart, everyone wants our economy to recover,” de Blasio said. “But, there has to be a really clear understanding, if we can’t provide the basics for our people then you can kiss the recovery goodbye.” He added: “If we are not strong, if our people are not safe, then this nation cannot recover.” De Blasio, who is...

TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey residents hoping to emulate anti-‘stay at home‘ protests in other states including Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, Wyoming and Virginia were thrown a curveball on Thursday when Facebook shut down their event page. The “Open New Jersey” rally – planned for Tuesday, April 28th at the Trenton War Memorial – was informed by Facebook that its event page violated the social media platform’s community standards. Specifically, Facebook warned that it was “coordinating harm and promoting crime.”

Jay Inslee, Washington state’s Democratic governor, sharply criticized President Trump on Friday for appearing to endorse those protesting coronavirus stay-at-home orders, accusing him of “fomenting domestic rebellion.” Inslee issued a statement asserting that Trump both encouraged “illegal and dangerous acts” and put millions in danger of contracting the novel coronavirus by issuing tweets earlier Friday that seemed to back the protests. "The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies even while his own administration says the virus is real and is deadly, and that we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted,” Inslee said. Inslee,...

China’s attempts to make the UN a tool for achieving its hegemonic ambition could end up destroying the body from within. The optimism of neoliberalism has been challenged by rising concerns about China playing a more active role in the United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies. Currently, four of the 15 UN specialized agencies are headed by Chinese nationals, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDP), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). And with its contribution rising to 12 percent of the UN regular budget, passing...

CNN and MSNBC on many days repeatedly cut in and out of the daily White House briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, with CNN the most eager to replace remarks from President Trump, Vice President Pence or any number of medical and logistical experts with derisive commentary by its anchors and reporters. MSNBC carried a little more than CNN, but its anchors also weren’t hesitant to chime in with their condemnations of Trump’s remarks. A Media Research Center study found that CNN has carried just 69 percent of the briefings’ runtime of those conducted March 30 through April 14. That’s 999...

The late Archbishop Job sings the 15th Antiphon at Matins for Great and Holy Friday. (appx 6 minutes)

The mayor of a Northern California city this week announced plans to step down after outrage erupted over recent social media posts comparing President Donald Trump’s supporters to members of the Ku Klux Klan, Fox News reported. The angry Auburn community, about 33 miles northeast of Sacramento, weighed in on Mayor William Kirby’s controversial comments on Facebook during a virtual City Council meeting by video Monday. Kirby addressed the controversy after several voicemails from residents were played. “I spent 40 years dedicating my life to serving the community of Auburn as a physician and through my volunteer efforts. Am I...

National Public Radio is planning significant cost cuts as the coronavirus pandemic hits sponsorship and donation revenue, the public broadcaster's chief executive, John Lansing, said in a memo to staff. NPR is facing a budget deficit of between $30 million and $45 million through its 2021 fiscal year, Mr. Lansing said in the Wednesday memo. Sponsorship money is drying up amid "a very tough marketplace," he wrote, and donations could also take a hit as foundations and individuals "will be thinking hard about gifts as they watch the swings in the values of their own portfolios." NPR will need to...

Someone needs to explain to Joe Biden that he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, not the presumptive next president. The Democratic candidate is reportedly assembling a White House transition team with over six months to go before the general election. During a virtual fundraising event, Biden announced his campaign has already begun building a transition team, and the candidate would not rule out announcing cabinet nominees before November's election. "Sounds presumptuous," Biden acknowledged. "I don't want to say we started thinking about it a month ago -- we did -- because that sounds like I was certain this was going to...

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked a federal court Thursday to allow the state to restrict elective abortions during the coronavirus pandemic, saying the abortion industry should not get “special treatment” when so many other medical procedures are being postponed. WDHN reports Marshall filed the appeal Thursday to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He also requested an emergency stay of a federal judge’s order blocking the state from enforcing the restriction. “At a time when all Americans are making significant sacrifices to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, it is remarkable that one class of providers demands to...