Free Republic

It may seem odd that hospitals are empty as planned medical procedures are canceled, but to subject your body to the stress of surgery and recovery would put you in danger needlessly. The recent article “I Can’t Get My Hip Surgery Because Of Coronavirus Even Though Nobody Is In Our Hospital” highlighted the very real problems coronavirus has created in all our communities. It is true that necessary preparations have compounded challenges and left many suffering in ways that are not immediately obvious. As a physician dealing with COVID-19, I have a different perspective.My heart goes out to you, Anonymous....

Beijing and the Hong Kong government are using the pandemic as a “golden opportunity” to crack down on dissent and the growing pro-democracy movement, according to a senior protest leader arrested over the weekend. The arrest of Lee Cheuk Yan, a veteran politician and activist, and 14 other high-profile people on Saturday, came amid a run of acts by authorities seen as alarming intrusions on Hong Kong’s autonomy, ahead of elections in September. Lee told the Guardian the arrests – which were condemned by the UK, US and Australian governments and human rights groups – would have seen people “pouring...

The coronavirus is hitting patients and staff at psychiatric facilities across the U.S., and caring for this population comes with unique challenges during a pandemic. Catherine Herridge reports on Western State Hospital in Washington, where there have been 34 confirmed cases. Some staff members are concerned the hospital isn't taking the virus seriously enough. VIDEO at link

... Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the volume of Saudi crude en route to the United States is seven times higher than the typical monthly intake of Saudi oil in 2019. The tankers were loaded before OPEC+ struck a new agreement to take 9.7 million bpd off the market in May and June when Saudi Arabia had embarked on an aggressive price war for market share after the previous OPEC+ deal collapsed in early March. ...

Good Morning/Afternoon, MEGAWELCOMEToTheOngoingCoronavirussongoingingsagaDITTOS!

CREAM RIDGE, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy’s administration today shut down the drive-through tulip farm in Cream Ridge, but allowed the owners to continue selling their tulips to their customers for curbside pickup. Owner Casey Jansen said his family owned farm makes about a one million dollar annual investment into planting tulips to operate the annual drive-through. This week, he was relayed a message from Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, “No drive through allowed”. “We planted all these tulip bulbs in the months of October and November. That’s when we make the investment, and my investment is just about a million...

3 outstanding videos (as re-tweeted by PDJT and then apparently removed from his feed)

Check https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/ for the latest start time. Some times the briefers are delayed.

The following is a news analysis. Slanted reporters and outlets, such as the New York Times’s Jeremy Peters and Carolyn Ryan; Vanity Fair, and Facebook have worked hard to controversialize and bully certain journalists and scientists reporting factually on coronavirus, and asking rational questions. It has made it difficult to get reasoned, factual information, at times. As far as some media outlets are concerned, only worst case scenario discussions are to be permitted, even if they are proving wildly wrong. Now, the far left host of HBO’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher, is calling much of the media coverage on the...

For many people, rats are unwanted guests in the house. But in China, they can be a delicacy on the dining table. Chinese bamboo rats, a possible coronavirus carrier, have been a sought-after food source in the country for centuries and hailed for their 'nutritional value'. Tens of thousands of farmers raised them, chefs cooked them in dozens of ways and web users celebrated '100 reasons to eat them' - until the pandemic brought the trade to a standstill.

To a new Senate website, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s staff uploaded the four Carter Page FISA applications, which were recently further declassified. Late last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham announced a webpage dedicated to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s probe into the Crossfire Hurricane illicit investigation into the Donald Trump campaign. Graham’s staff uploaded the four Carter Page Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications, which were recently further declassified. These declassifications reveal more devastating details in the SpyGate saga. Here are seven new revelations. 1. The FBI Always Intended to Spy on the Trump Campaign When news first broke that the Obama administration...

Our leaders are making decisions based on training, experience, intelligence, and wisdom, and they have our best interests in mind. But this does not mean they are always correct. I had a patient once with a liver lesion. At the community hospital where I worked, I reviewed her MRI with the radiologist carefully and we concluded it was a possible liver cancer. Unfortunately, I shared her care with a university hospital. In their opinion, the lesion was definitely cancer and they so informed her. She promptly drank herself to death. Of course, it could be argued that the university care...

Could liberal billionaire George Soros be more disgusting? He’s using his super PAC to exploit the coronavirus and attack President Donald Trump and using the issue of abortion to do it.Federal Election Commission data revealed that Soros’s Democracy PAC gave $1 million to the radical pro-abortion group NARAL Freedom Fund. "A new ad from the abortion rights group NARAL Freedom Fund features young women accusing the President and his allies of putting ‘ideology over science,'" National Public Radio (NPR) reported April 15. NPR also noted the ad accused Trump and his allies of “using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext...

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said social distancing is working but it is too early to detail a specific plan on when to reopen the economy.

Amid growing unrest in several states about the ongoing lockdown, Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging protesters not to demonstrate, and arguing that a premature reopening would “backfire.” Appearing on Good Morning America Monday, George Stephanopoulos asked the infectious disease expert what his message is for those who have been protesting. “I think the message is that, clearly, this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” Fauci said. “But unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not going to happen.”

The existential crisis in the Colorado beer world is palpable right now as an industry built on social gathering comes to realize that social distance is the new normal. As much as 15% of craft breweries expect to close by the end of the month if social distancing remains in place, according to a national survey from the Boulder-based Brewers Association, and more than 60% don’t expect to survive beyond June. If applied to Colorado — which now counts about 420 breweries — the projections suggest 250 would close by summer. That would represent a huge dent for an industry...

Meghan Markle gushed over elephants and how she 'understands them' in a never-before-seen interview that was taped last summer and aired on Good Morning America on Monday, a day after she and Prince Harry said they would no longer talk to four British newspapers. In the interview, Meghan said she was 'grateful' to have been involved in the Disney+ documentary Elephant which she hopes will teach people how similar humans are to elephants and how 'connected' we are. The film is her passion project and marks her return to showbiz after shunning royal life.

Congressional Republicans continue to face a significant fundraising disadvantage against their Democratic opponents, according to newly released first-quarter campaign finance reports. These money woes will only increase GOP panic over their prospects in hotly contested Senate and House races. The fundraising disparity is all-encompassing: Of the 10 most-competitive Senate races, Democratic candidates outraised their Republican rivals in eight of them—often by massive margins. Republican senators with built-in fundraising advantages were badly outmatched by lesser-known Democratic challengers. In the bellwether Maine and North Carolina races that will determine which party holds the Senate majority, Democrats raised more than twice the amount...

Opponents of the shutdown have said they will drive around the now empty Capitol in Harrisburg honking their horns to call for a resumption of economic life.

Today's AM Joy show on MSNBC provided a virtual parody of liberal-elite condescension to Trump supporters. Joy Reid kicked things off by finding it "confusing" that Trump's populist base supports him despite supposedly not "getting anything economically out of this plutocracy." It's a recycling of the old liberal complaint of "What's the Matter with Kansas?": those poor, benighted cultural conservatives allegedly voting against their own interests (against redistributing all the wealth). Ultraliberal writer Jane Mayer of The New Yorker [infamous for co-authoring a book trashing Justice Clarence Thomas with Jill Abramson while they were reporters at The Wall Street Journal]...