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Almost three-quarters of adults living in the United States are afraid that the coronavirus will diminish their personal freedoms. According to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Monday, 74% of respondents said they fear losing liberties as a result of the pandemic. The survey, which was taken from April 6 to 7, was conducted as governors around the nation began implementing aggressive social distancing policies. At that time, many governors had placed bans on gatherings of more than 10 people and barred residents from eating in restaurants, visiting movie theaters, and going to work for businesses deemed nonessential. The survey was...

PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update As of 04/20/2020 23:59 PDST Good morning everyone. Thank you for stopping by to check out the COVID-19 Update. Links to Data Sources Used to Create the COVID-19 Update: Located near the bottom of this post. Links to other resources: Near the bottom of this post. Commentary, Special Reports, and COVID-19 Update Information3: Interesting Tid-bits (hopefully) Another New Feature... I have been providing the percentage of world cases that are within the United States. Others have had certain miscomfort with that since a number of things can impact that. I...

Conservatives are mostly a passive lot, expressing their frustrations and anger over ideas they oppose by listening to or watching Fox News, talk radio or attending Trump rallies when that was possible. The duration of the COVID-19 lockdown and its associated unemployment “pandemic” are changing that. Recent arbitrary executive orders by some governors have driven many who have never before demonstrated for or against anything into the streets of state capitals, with more likely to come. They want their jobs and country back.

MEXICO CITY/PORT-AU-PRINCE - Mexico and Haiti have detected coronavirus infections among migrants deported recently from the United States, officials said on Tuesday, part of a growing trend of contagion among deportees. The new infections come after an outbreak among deportees to Guatemala, where the government at the weekend linked almost a fifth of all cases of the new coronavirus in the country to flights returning migrants from the United States last week. All three affected countries have far fewer confirmed cases of the disease than the United States. Three Haitians who arrived in the Caribbean country two weeks ago tested...

Protests once again occurred across the nation Monday, with protesters in Kansas City, Missouri facing off with counter-protesters who blocked traffic, and protesters in Pennsylvania carrying rifles and driving in a military truck.

Seoul (AFP) - Professional sport returned to South Korea on Tuesday as coronavirus restrictions ease, with the first pitch thrown in a baseball pre-season derby in front of empty stands. The Seoul-based Doosan Bears and LG Twins are Korea's biggest rivals in the country's most popular spectator sport and their shared stadium in the capital's Jamsil area would usually be packed. But with fans barred, the stands were empty as the Twins' Cha Woo-chan threw the first pitch. Even the cheerleaders -- an essential element of firing up the atmosphere at what would normally be a feverish encounter -- were...

As part of ongoing efforts to avoid layoffs because of budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, National Public Radio is cutting executive pay, the New York Times reported Monday. NYT reported that NPR CEO John Lansing will take a 25% pay reduction, while other NPR executives will see cuts ranging from 10% to 15%. In an email sent to employees on Friday, Lansing wrote that the cuts became necessary because the nonprofit will see donations from major corporate sponsors drop by as much as $12 million to $15 million as a result of the coronavirus shutdown. “We do...

The 193 members of the UN General Assembly on Monday adopted by consensus a resolution that calls for "equitable, efficient and timely" access to any future vaccines developed to fight coronavirus. The resolution also highlights the "crucial leading role" played by the World Health Organization, which has faced criticism from Washington and others about its handling of the pandemic. The resolution, which was drafted by Mexico and received US support, calls for strengthening the "scientific international cooperation necessary to combat COVID-19 and to bolster coordination," including with the private sector. The resolution asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to "to identify and...

I like to be touched, a lot. I am an affectionate person. However, I like to decide who touches me and when. I did not understand or have the words back then to describe how I felt, but only sensed power moves and body language that I did not like. There was not yet the framework as there is now. I did not like Joe Biden’s hand on me not for the reasons you think, it is because I am the alpha in the room too. Again, I like to be the one who chooses who enters my space and...

Greeks quickly put their revolutionary spirit aside, however, and largely heeded government advice to remain indoors. The result has been a remarkably low number of deaths - 81 by Tuesday, compared to more than 17,000 in neighbouring Italy. Even adjusted for population sizes, Italy's fatality rate is almost 40 times greater. Compared with other European Union members, too, Greece has fared better. Its fatalities are far lower than in Belgium (2,035) or the Netherlands (1,867), which have similar populations, but a much higher gross domestic product (GDP). .."Our schools closed before we had the first fatality. Most countries followed a...

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Scamvangelist: In a typical display of unbridled greed, sleazy televangelist Kenneth Copeland warns followers that even if they lose their job because of the coronavirus pandemic they must keep giving him money because Jesus.Copeland, appearing on his Victory Live TV show, declared: Fear of this coronavirus is faith in its ability to hurt you or kill you. The fear of ‘What are we gonna do? I’m getting laid off at work!’Hey! Your job’s not your source. If it is, you’re in trouble. Jesus is your source! Whatever you do right now, don’t you stop tithing! Don’t you stop sowing offerings.‘Well,...

HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says the budget for Fiscal Year 2021, which begins in June, will be worse than the 2016 budget when the city saw its first deficit in its history. The reason: The severe economic impact from the coronavirus. Turner said the casualties will include five full classes of police cadets -- among others. “Employees will be furloughed,” Turner said in a daily press briefing. “Payments, for example, even to the Houston Zoo, will be deferred.” KPRC 2 spoke to Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo about the expected cancellation of next fiscal year’s cadet classes and...

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea has seen no unusual signs suggesting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is ill, government officials said Tuesday, after CNN reported that Kim is "in grave danger after a surgery." "There is nothing unusual going on in North Korea. It's not true," a government official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity, referring to the CNN report that cited an unidentified "U.S. official with direct knowledge" of the matter. Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok also said that nothing unusual has been detected in the North. "No unusual signs have been identified inside North Korea," Kang said....

With increasingly politicized debates raging across developed countries whether or not to reopen economies as new coronavirus cases and deaths appear to be plateauing, India has made the decision to ease one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume after the economy suffered a sharp slowdown in recent weeks. India’s shelter-in-place orders were imposed on March 24 and halted all but essential services, sparking an exodus of migrant workers and people who survive on daily wages out of India’s cities and toward villages in rural areas. Authorities picked up travelers in a fleet...

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is reportedly in “grave danger” following surgery, CNN reported on Monday evening, citing an anonymous U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation. There have been rumors of the dictator’s declining health in recent days, after he reportedly missed the country’s most important political holiday last week — the birthday celebration of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and founder of the communist tyranny. NBC’s Kathy Tur sparked further speculation after deleting a tweet citing two U.S. officials who purportedly claimed that the authoritarian is “brain dead.” “North Korean leader Kim ing Un is brain dead,...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. People have deeply corrupted themselves as they once did at Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them because of their sins. . . For the things they do in secret are shameful to even mention. (Hosea...

....PBS KIDS has been hosting read-alongs of favorite books with children's book authors on its Facebook page and YouTube channel in order to encourage reading while children are at home. Now, former First Lady Michelle Obama will join in on the fun, with a weekly series, Mondays with Michelle Obama. Every Monday from April 20 through May 11 at 11:00 am CT, Obama will read....

President Donald Trump was criticized Monday for having a campaign rally in March while the coronavirus was spreading in the United States. Former Vice President Joe Biden had eight campaign events in the same month. The president’s March rally took place in Charlotte, North Carolina, but Biden’s rallies were in future coronavirus hot spots such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The Trump campaign called out PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor who criticized the president during the White House press briefing for having a campaign rally on March 2. “You held rallies in February and March,” she said to Trump, accusing...

With continuing protests surrounding California’s stay-at-home order and local governments asking to reopen their economies before statewide restrictions are lifted, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said he wants to keep the entire state on a similar timeline for reopening. Newsom’s statements came as dozens of demonstrators descended on the state’s capitol in Sacramento, after the governor says they were granted a permit by California Highway Patrol. “My understanding is the protest that CHP has supported has physical distancing that was allowable on the basis of people being in their vehicles and not congregating as a group,” Newsom said during his...