Free Republic

The New York Times thinks it nailed Fox News. Over the weekend, the Times ran a blistering story that blamed the death of Brooklyn bar owner Joe Joyce on skepticism of the coronavirus panic. Supposedly assured by President Trump and Fox News that there wasn’t a problem, Joyce made the fatal mistake of going on a cruise.

The Senate Judiciary Committee released a declassified transcript of FBI source Stefan Halper’s conversation in September 2016 with George Papadopoulos. The transcript shows that Halper name-checked several former Russian intelligence officials who he has met throughout his storied career. The former Cambridge professor plied Papadopoulos with questions about the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia and WikiLeaks. It wasn’t long into his conversation with George Papadopoulos at a prestigious social club in London weeks before the 2016 election that FBI confidential informant Stefan Halper mentioned his links to several retired Russian spies. “I have a lot of friends in Russia,”...

The Miami Herald, the revenue-losing paper which is owned by a company that may be pursuing a coronavirus-linked taxpayer bailout, has a columnist who'd like half that taxpaying population dead. This tweet from a Miami Herald columnist tells you all you need to know about her, and based on their hiring choices, likely everything you need to know about the Miami Herald as well. Their flagrant bias continues to go on unchecked. Disgusting. https://t.co/FOmn5zxnaK — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 19, 2020 Here's the now-deleted tweet: It was a ridiculous tweet, because it turns out Florida doesn't have 'packed beaches.'...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: As always, President Trump’s humble modesty is his greatest asset. I know what you are thinking. Everybody knows he is a swashbuckling, loud-mouthed, crass-talking Yankee. You know … Don. Don from Queens. The real estate mogul who slaps his name in gold on everything he owns. The guy who picks fights with reporters in wildly entertaining beatdowns worthy of the pro wrestling circuit. “When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total,” Mr. Trump recently bellowed at reporters questioning his authority during this time of crisis. “And that’s the way it’s got to be.” Let’s put...

Joe Biden says he would take Michelle Obama to be his running mate for the 2020 presidential election. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told KDKA’s Jon Delano that the former first lady would be a strong addition as VP if he thought she would accept the nomination. “I’d take her in a heartbeat,” Biden said on Monday via Zoom. “She’s brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman.”

After weeks of being closed due to the Coronavirus, Liberty Counsel is calling on the churches to open and believers to start meeting again on Sunday, May 3, which is being called ReOpen Church Sunday. May 3 is also the beginning of the National Day of Prayer week, which culminates on Thursday, May 7. The website ReOpenChurch.org will provide information for churches. ReOpen Church Sunday should include appropriate measures of sanitization and appropriate social distancing between families. Churches may also consider reopening with a variety of service options, which may a combination of: (1) reduced seating inside the church; (2)...

President Trump is extending the closure of the United States’ northern and southern borders to migration and non-essential travel, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday. A month ago, Trump administration officials announced that the U.S. would be closing off its southern and northern borders for all non-essential travel to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. For an additional 30 days, the Trump administration will keep the closures in place. Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement: In close collaboration, the US, Mexico, and Canada have each agreed to extend restrictions on non-essential travel across...

"Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for president to restore the soul of the nation. He believes it's time to remember who we are. We're Americans: tough and resilient. We choose hope over fear. Science over fiction. Truth over lies. And unity over division. We are the United States of America. And together, there is not a single thing we can't do. Join Team Joe today." Buck Stops Here - Joe Biden For President (45 sec. ad)

LANSING, Mich. - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Monday that she will be taking a pay cut as the state works to balance its budget during the coronavirus pandemic. "I know that times are tough, and that we as a state are going to be confronting a tough budget as a result of the economic shutdown," she said. The governor will be taking a 10% pay cut and she asked her senior executive staff to take a 5% pay cut. According to Business Insider, Whitmer made $159,300 in 2019.

RUSH: “Dr. Fauci Condemns Protesters Clamoring for End of Lockdown.” “Dr. Fauci Urges Caution About Relying on Coronavirus Antibody Tests.” I predicted this. Folks, I was minding my own business on Friday, and I got a flag email from my friend Victor Davis Hanson, and it was a preliminary report on Stanford University’s research in Santa Clara County. It is bombshell. It was the prepublication. The file that he sent me was actually the preprint version, which is pre-peer review. But here is the take-away paragraph from the research. It suggests that one county’s cases, Santa Clara, California — which,...

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion on his failed presidential campaign, more than both Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and President Trump in all of 2016. Bloomberg spent a total of more than $1.2 billion on his bid for the White House in 2020, according to 2019 and 2020 Federal Election Commission filings. More than $1 billion of that was spent in 2020 alone before the former mayor dropped out of the race at the beginning of March. The former 2020 candidate, who self-funded his campaign, outspent Clinton’s and Trump’s totals from the last election...

Crude oil prices dropped into negative territory for the first time in history Monday, as financial fireworks collided with evaporating demand and scarce storage. The decline below zero means that sellers are effectively paying buyers to take the oil off their hands. By late Monday afternoon New York time, the front month WTI contract was sitting at minus $38.45/barrel, down an eye-watering 310.45% on the day. "It’s like trying to explain something that is unprecedented and seemingly unreal," said Louise Dickson, an oil analyst at Oslo based Rystad Energy. That descent into negative territory marks a remarkable, apparently unstoppable, decline...

Riot police in Peru have blockaded a major highway and fired teargas into crowds of people attempting to flee the capital city and return on foot to their rural hometowns as the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown entered its sixth week. Local television images on Monday showed hundreds of families, including young children, trekking along highways with their belongings on their backs as they made long journeys to family homes. Poor Peruvians have been trying to leave Lima since last week, many saying they had to choose between hunger or homelessness in the city or risking exposure to Covid-19 as they...

When we broke up, I cried every day for half a year.' Val Kilmer admits he's a slave to love in new memoir, recalling flings with Angelina Jolie, Cher and Cindy Crawford but reveals he still pines for Daryl Hannah Val Kilmer admitted he's a slave to love in his new memoir, I'm Your Huckleberry The 1980s heartthrob recalls flings with some of the world's most famous women including Cher, Angelina Jolie, Carly Simon and Cindy Crawford The 60-year-old admits he still pines for Daryl Hannah, writing: 'I'm still in love with Daryl. When we finally broke up, I cried...

RUSH: I’m the guy that’s been warning everybody about who the Democrats are and the modern-day leftists, but I swear, I don’t know how much more I can take of a political party and its governors actually attempting to extend this damage, to prolong the harm that is occurring to average, ordinary people. It is amazing to watch this. I’m asking myself, do they have no common sense? What are they gonna have left if they succeed with this? Governor Cuomo just said the most incredible thing, and I’ll bet you this is gonna be true of Illinois. Governor Cuomo...

It’s our favorite vice and our true national pastime: Here in the land of plenty, Americans love to overindulge. We eat too much, drink too much, snack too much, sit too much — then rely on the marvels of modern medicine to repair our battered bodies. And that makes us easy prey for a brand-new infection like the novel coronavirus. “This is on us,” Nicole Saphier, MD, told The Post. “We left ourselves vulnerable to this epidemic. Our health-care system would not be so overwhelmed right now if it was not already overwhelmed with our preventable chronic illnesses.”

Earlier this month researchers from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine set up drive-thru testing sites in six locations around LA County. The researchers used a proprietary database they say is “representative” of the entire county and gave people an antibody test. What they found is that far more people in LA County have had the virus than are aware of it. The research is unfinished and hasn’t been peer reviewed yet but LA County public health published the early results which show that around 4 percent of people have already had the virus: Based on...

There is no doubt spring is the most delicious time for outdoors enthusiasts. Even though many businesses and activities are closed, the outdoors is always open. Spawning crappies and walleyes provide succulent, white fillets. Turkey season can reward hunters with some of the tastiest wild game Mother Nature can offer. But perhaps the most valued delicacy this time of year are morel mushrooms. All of these activities also lend themselves perfectly for social distancing. They pop up almost overnight, their succulent fruiting bodies protruding above the forest floor. Although their life is short lived, throngs of probing Hoosiers anticipate this...

RUSH: There’s a guy out there — I have often praised this guy on this program. He’s an author. His name is Brian Rosenwald, and he wrote a book, Talk Radio’s America. And I have to tell you, his book came the closest of all the books that have been written by somebody other than me, his book came the closest to understanding how this show began, why it began, what its purpose was, how we define success, why it’s successful, how it succeeded. He came the closest. And I said so. Well, he’s losing ground. Unfortunately he’s losing ground....

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. ( Isaiah 24:21-23)Isaiah saw the day of the LORD, the...