Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Well-to-do donors gathered last August at the sprawling Charlotte, North Carolina, home of Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, where they nibbled finger food, sipped wine and listened to Joe Biden. Last week they again joined Bowles and his wife, Crandall. But this time it was for a far less intimate affair: a fundraiser held by video conference that Biden joined from the makeshift studio in the basement of his Delaware home. The coronavirus shutdown has forced Democratic donors to forgo the opulent fundraisers that allow them to rub shoulders with powerful elected...

Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday he’ll give New Jerseyans a “broad blueprint” by the end of the week on how the state will begin to reopen from the near-lockdown orders he put in place to combat to the coronavirus and return to “some new normalcy.” The governor said the announcement won’t include a specific date on when people can expect to have the unprecedented restrictions lifted, but it will include key benchmarks that must be met, including the availability of broader testing. Murphy said during his daily briefing in Trenton he would unveil “principles” that “will guide us ... as...

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has been given a show by PBS starting next week, the taxpayer funded network announced Friday. The timing of the announcement comes after Democrats marked $75 million for PBS’s parent the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the coronavirus relief bill that passed at the end of March. Newsbusters reported the $75 million is on top of the $465 million given CPB in the current year’s federal budget, which is an increase of $20 million over the previous year. Local PBS and NPR stations receive funding from CBP as well as donations from the public, businesses and...

... After discussions with each country’s trade ministers, the leaders were under the impression that all that was left was to shake hands and smile for the cameras. For Vietnam, which was hosting the conference, the new deal was set to be a major diplomatic coup. The leaders noticed that Abe and Trudeau were late for the meeting and some murmuring broke out. Abe soon came striding into the meeting looking “very flustered,” according to Turnbull. When Turnbull asked him what was going on, Abe said, “Justin won’t sign. He’s pulling out.” Asked if Trudeau was trying to scuttle the...

While admitting on Monday that he could see the shutdown debate from both sides of the issue, Fox News contributor Dan Bongino said that it was a bit much to watch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ride out the pandemic from her multi-million dollar mansion while denigrating those who are protesting the shutdown in Michigan, Ohio, and elsewhere. Bongino said that Pelosi, who is insulated from the economic effects of a prolonged shutdown, should have more compassion for those who are not. Bongino said he was taken aback by Pelosi’s recent interview with Chris Wallace, in which she was “seemingly confused...

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has a nine-point lead over incumbent President Trump among registered voters. However, fluid support for both candidates suggests that a strong, post-coronavirus response could swing the election for the president, according to the Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen. The first JTN survey of the presidential race shows Biden with the single-digit advantage among registered voters and a seven-point lead among those most interested in the election. "Those results reflect an improvement for Biden compared to a poll I conducted last month," Rasmussen said. "At that time, Biden had a five-point edge...

Kentucky experienced its highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases after protests broke out in the state to lift lockdowns, according to reports. Gov. Andy Beshear announced there were 273 new cases Sunday, bringing the total to 2,960, news station WCPO reported. “We are still in the midst of this fight against a deadly and highly contagious virus,” Beshear said. “Let’s make sure, as much as we’re looking at those benchmarks and we’re looking at the future, that we are acting in the present and we are doing the things that it takes to protect one another.” The Bluegrass State is...

Click on link

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...

XJGSBEMTYBJOS BDS’U IGQO G IGS ZOOY DYB; TU’H UMO QSDLYOBXO UMGU MO’H IGJJTOB UD G XJGSBIDUMOJ. —X. SDJIGS EDYYTO

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,...