Free Republic

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room  April 19, 2020 6:28 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  I’d like to begin by saying that we’re continuing to negotiate with the Democrats to get our great workers and small businesses all over the country taken care of.  I think we — we’re getting close to a deal.  It could happen.  It could happen.  A lot of good work has been going on, and we could have an answer tomorrow.  And we’re going to see what — what exactly does take place.We’re also looking at helping our hospitals and our rural...

On Sunday, Trump made an announcement about CNN Let it be known: The network is “pathetic.” One thing you can say about the guy is he’s not especially vague. During Sunday’s Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, a CNN reporter queried: “On President Xi, you now talk about the missteps that China made early on in this crisis and how it put the United States behind the curve. So, when you repeatedly praised Xi in January and February, you said he will solve the problem, you said he was doing a great job. Were you duped by President Xi?” Press Pause....

How many American Whos give a fig if the returnees to work don’t include Ice Cream Queen Nancy Pelosi? Well rested from not having to show up at work and invoking sanctimonious “prayerfulness” while overdosing on chocolate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has morphed over to the Granny Grinch who’s trying to rob Americans of their beloved country. But millions of Whos down in the Whoville called America are not buying into her bull. How many American Whos give a fig if the returnees to work don’t include Ice Cream Queen Nancy Pelosi?

Bottom line is there is very little storage remaining. Saudi's are shipping oil our way. F'n Shummer pulled money for the last COVID-19 bill to fill the strategic national reserve. Cushing, OK is about full. If future contracts fall below $0 and stay there until expiration, then oil producers will have to pay buyers to take oil off producer's hands.I don't want to think about the consequences of having no place to store oil. You can't just turn off all oil wells.

California authorities tried to stop skateboarders by dumping literally tons of sand into at least two area skateparks in an effort to enforce so-called “social distancing.” However, the effort was for naught, it seems. Young residents in California responded to the government’s extreme social distancing enforcement action by grabbing a few shovels, buckets, and booms and turning at least one sand-filled skatepark into a park for both skating and dirt biking. “Took advantage of all the sand the city dumped into the San Clemente skatepark then helped some local skaters dig it all out so they could do some social...

Right now the left is wetting itself in joy circulating a New York Times story suggesting Donald Trump knew early on about the Wuhan (COVID 19) virus. He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response. ... A week after the first coronavirus case had been identified in the United States, and six long weeks before President Trump finally took aggressive action to confront the danger the nation...

Former President Obama wasn’t identified with his typical title as the 44th president of the United States in the first installments of a Michael Jordan docuseries that aired Sunday on ESPN, but rather as a “former Chicago resident.” A graphic in "The Last Dance" identified Obama as a “former Chicago resident” and another labeled former President Clinton a “former Arkansas governor." Twitter users were quick to call out the designation as clever and an understatement. SNIP Sam Roberts Twitter

U.S. crude futures for May delivery, the near-term contract, sank to their lowest level on record ever Monday, falling below $10 a barrel as traders fretted over the capacity of storage facilities both in the U.S. and abroad. At last check, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 74% to $4.72 a barrel. Contacts for June delivery declined 23%. "In my view, the plunge in oil prices speaks to the decline of global growth as demand dries up," said Dan Russo, chief market strategist at Chaikin Analytics, a quantitative investment research firm based in Philadelphia. "This could be a concern for investors...

WO2020060606 - CRYPTOCURRENCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA Applicants MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC [US/US]; One Microsoft Way Redmond, Washington 98052-6399, US Inventors ABRAMSON, Dustin; USFU, Derrick; USJOHNSON, Joseph Edwin, JR.; USTitle (EN) CRYPTOCURRENCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA (FR) SYSTÈME DE CRYPTOMONNAIE UTILISANT DES DONNÉES D'ACTIVITÉ CORPORELLE Abstract (EN) Human body activity associated with a task provided to a user may be used in a mining process of a cryptocurrency system. A server may provide a task to a device of a user which is communicatively coupled to the server. A sensor communicatively coupled to or comprised in the device...

We have learned the hard way that the scientists who produce mathematical models predicting disaster are not to be granted the presumption of infallibility. Nor are their demands that we impoverish ourselves in order to avert a disaster a matter of "settled science." The coronavirus doom that the Cassandras of prestigious scientific organs predicted is nowhere to be found, and it turns out that models are based on assumptions and can be spectacularly wrong. Americans have sacrificed trillions of dollars and turned our lives upside-down based on predictions of millions of deaths if we didn't follow radically change our way...

This piece by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, is absolutely crucial reading, especially by Washington policymakers handling the COVID-19 crisis. It puts forth the steps that must be taken immediately if we are to reopen the economy as soon as possible without a resurgence of this ghastly disease. The key is a rapid ramp-up of testing: The COVID-19 pandemic is taking an unprecedented toll on Americans and on the country’s daily life. President Trump has said he wants to open up again—we all do. The real question is how we reopen in a way...

Fundamental constitutional liberties at stake. Americans understand the extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves as a result of the China coronavirus. But we will not allow ourselves to become infected with the disease of Chinese authoritarianism. We have been willing to radically alter our normal routines and obey strict social distancing guidelines to get past the worst of this pandemic. Indeed, the American people have made extraordinary sacrifices and endured economic hardships unprecedented in our lifetimes to slow the virus’s spread. But it’s one thing to temporarily disrupt the normal pattern of our day-to-day lives and the economy in...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that posts and pages attempting to organize protests against stay-at-home orders will be banned as “misinformation.” The Facebook CEO confirmed that the posts would be banned to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on a segment of Good Morning America. Stephanopoulos asked Zuckerberg how the company deals “with the fact that Facebook is now being used to organize a lot of these protests to defy social distancing guidelines in states. If somebody trying to organize something like that, does that qualify as harmful misinformation?” “We do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down,” confirmed Zuckerberg,...

Short sellers have revived their wagers against the stock market in recent weeks, taking their most aggressive positions in years. Bets against the SPDR S&P 500 Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund tracking the broad index, rose to $68.1 billion last week, the highest level in data going back to January 2016, according to financial analytics company S3 Partners. That was up from $41.7 billion at the beginning of 2020 and $41.2 billion a year ago.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Democrats are scrambling to defend Brett Kavanaugh against his accusers after he put on a Joe Biden mask Friday morning. "We believe you are a great man of upstanding moral character, and we do not believe your accusers," said Alyssa Milano to Justice Kavanaugh hiding behind the Biden mask. "It's disgusting that people would try to capitalize on this political moment to drag your name through the mud, Mr. Biden." "It is a disgrace -- a disgrace I say! -- that people are trying to discredit this great man!" shouted Senator Cory Booker, stabbing one finger in the air....

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). You have a part to play in becoming pure in heart. Purifying a heart is the gracious and miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, but there are some things we must do in response to His prompting. First, we must admit we can't purify our own hearts. Proverbs 20:9 says, "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'" The implied answer: no one! Next, we must put our faith in Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice on the cross is the basis for...

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) has introduced legislation called the Justice for Victims of COVID-19 Act. If passed, this bill would enable victims of the virus to sue the Chinese Government for damages. "There is overwhelming evidence that the Chinese Communist Party's lies, deceit, and incompetence caused COVID-19 to transform from a local disease outbreak into a global pandemic. We need to empower Americans and other victims around the world to recover damages." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) disagreed and insisted that "Trump, not China is to blame for the coronavirus global pandemic. For more than three years I've had the chance...

A link to chart from the economist, which shows where different countries are in their journey.

There’s no social distancing for criminals. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. While the authorities are cracking down on miscreants attending drive-in church services or surfing in the ocean, urban gangs are practicing social distancing by shooting their victims from passing cars. With 4 dead and 19 wounded over the weekend, Chicago’s gangs made it clear that they weren’t staying home. Either that or they thought that shooting rival drug dealers was an essential activity. And for them it probably is. While...

Adam Jonas covers the auto industry for Morgan Stanley. Barron's spoke with Jonas recently about how the car industry can survive the shutdown, and how it might be left changed. His edited comments follow... We don't think the [car makers] are going to fail the way some did back in 2008 and 2009. But the industry is going to need support. We expect a cash for clunkers program to be much larger in scope and longer in duration than what we saw. In 2008 and 2009, we saw a $3 billion package that stimulated about $14 billion of purchases... These...