Free Republic

This week, New York City added 3,700 deaths to its COVID-19 total. Mayor Bill de Blasio's press secretary Freddi Goldstein explained that "the Mayor pointed out that since the feds are paying $13,000 for each reported COVID-19 death we could improve the City's financial situation by attributing as many deaths to the virus as we could. So, we went through all the death certificates since the beginning of the year to see which could be plausibly revised to show COVID-19 as the cause of death." "Let me give you a couple of examples to illustrate what we've done. In cases...

This has gone on long enough. This was sold as 14 days, then the new pitch became Easter and "maybe" May 1, 2020. As I drive around the San Francisco Bay Area I see restaurant after restaurant "CLOSED!!!" I do not see how they come back. That is, I don't see how most of them come back. It takes so much capital to open a restaurant and then you are guessing how many people will come in that day, what your rush hours are and what will they order. That kills 30-40% of the restaurants currently closed. There are new...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the potential Speaker of the House if for some reason the Democrats hold the House in 2020. Scary times. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on...

Frustration is mounting as more families across the U.S. enter their second or even third week of distance learning — and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last. Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year. Others are cramming all their children’s school work into the weekend or taking days off work to help their kids with a week’s worth of assignments in one day. “We tried to make it work the...

The restaurant industry — and those that rely on it for employment — have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with most eateries around the country being forced to limit service, lay off workers, or shut down altogether. More than 8 million restaurant employees in the U.S. have been laid off or furloughed since the beginning of the outbreak, and the majority (61 percent) of restaurant operators say the government’s relief programs won’t prevent further cuts to the workforce, according to new numbers released by the National Restaurant Association on Monday. The White House last week had laid...

New White House strategic communications director Alyssa Farah already has her work cut out for her. One of her first orders of business was to correct fake news reports that Surgeon General Jerome Adams was "sidelined" from public appearances after some comments he made last week about how the coronavirus affects minority communities. "Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs,” Adams told minorities during a coronavirus task force briefing. "We need you to do this, if not for yourself, then for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy. Do it for your Big Mama. Do it for your Pop-Pop." PBS reporter Yamiche...

The Netherlands’ highest court ruled Tuesday that doctors can carry out euthanasia in patients with advanced dementia if the patient has earlier made a written directive. The Supreme Court ruling solidifies in law a practice that already was being carried out on rare occasions in the Netherlands. Dutch euthanasia advocacy group NVVE welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that the decision should help doctors “to feel strengthened and supported if they want to carry out euthanasia on a patient with dementia.” The case before the Supreme Court revolved around a district court’s acquittal last year of a doctor who...

The U.S. government should stop the inflow of foreign visa-workers for the rest of 2020, says an April 17 petition on the White House’s website. “50 Million Americans are unemployed, Please halt employment Visas for this year,” says the petition, which needs 100,000 signatures by May 17 to force a response from the White House. The petition may prove popular, in part, because opinions polls have shown the public strongly objects to companies hiring foreign workers before American employees. An August 2017 poll reported 68 percent of Americans oppose companies’ use of H-1Bs to outsource U.S.-based jobs that could be...

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said the administration and congressional leaders have struck a deal on a $450 billion coronavirus relief package and that he thinks the Senate will pass it on Tuesday. “I think we will be able to pass this today,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on CNN. “There are still a few more i’s to dot and t’s to cross, but we have a deal, and I believe we’ll pass it today.” The bill is expected to include about $300 billion to replenish a loan program designed to help small businesses make payroll, plus $150...

Companies with thousands of employees, past penalties from government investigations and risks of financial failure even before the coronavirus walloped the economy were among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses through the crisis, an Associated Press investigation found. The Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to infuse small businesses, which typically have less access to quick cash and credit, with $349 billion in emergency loans that could help keep workers on the job and bills paid on time. But at least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded, the...

For more than 17 years Jo Ann Emerson represented the 8th District of Missouri in the United States House of Representatives, one of the first Republican women elected to Congress in the state and a political force who regularly won re-election with more than 70% of the vote. In 2013, she resigned from Congress to become the first woman president and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Known for her spirit of bipartisanship and zeal for "putting people before politics," she fought for constituents at times at the expense of her own party. Today, she's fighting coronavirus.

As Hollywood begins mounting an industrywide effort to create protocols for films and TV shows to safely return to production, there will be a test case to draw upon. Australia’s long-running soap Neighbours will resume filming next week after a monthlong production shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is believed to be the first suspended TV drama in the English-speaking world to restart production. Here are the safety guidelines that being put into place by Neighbours‘ production company Fremantle Australia, which, in success, could be a road map for other shows and for reopening Hollywood. — The studio has...

Abrams said the goal of Project 100 is "to ensure that those communities that are not getting their stimulus payments because they either did not file taxes, because they made too little money, or because they're not banked, which happens with our lowest income workers, that they get access to direct cash payments they need. . . . "I look forward to hearing from vice president about his selection process, and all I can say is, if asked to serve, I'd be honored, but my responsibility is to ensure that today we're doing the work we need to prepare for...

Bank of America analysts today increased their target price for Gold by almost 50% to $3,000 an ounce. In a note titled : ” the Fed can’t print Gold” the analyts argue that fiat currencies will increasingly come under pressure from all the liquidity being pumped out by global central banks combating the Coronavirus. This is expected to make Gold more attractive as an asset class to investors.“As economic output contracts sharply, fiscal outlays surge, and central bank balance sheets double, fiat currencies could come under pressure” Bank of America analysts today increased their target price for Gold by...

As a small business owner in West Virginia, I have prepared for many different scenarios, but the coronavirus has left me feeling overwhelmed - not only for the future of my business but for my employees as well. This invisible enemy is forcing me to cope with a reality where our seven offices are closed indefinitely. Thankfully, Congress passed and President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which includes $349 billion in loans to small businesses as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza explains, "Our goal is to position...

CORONAVIRUS could be spreading through farts, a doctor is warning. One medic claimed people may be passing the deadly disease on to others through omitting bodily gasses - however experts aren't so sure. They say the chances of catching Covid-19 through farting is "tiny" and that Covid-19 is mainly transmitted between people through droplets spread from coughing and touching or shaking hands. Australian doctor Andy Tagg pointed out that farting could cause coronavirus after analysing a series of tests take from coronavirus patients earlier this year.

Misinformation related to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic consists of conspiracy theories and disinformation that emerged regarding the origin, scale, prevention, and treatment surrounding the COVID-19 disease and the ensuing pandemic related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some of them are fake some of them are clickbait and some of the are un-proven, but in all this mess there are some real truthseekers that want the public to know more about the COVID-19 pandemic. We found a video on the internet where the alleged whistleblower doctor says that the “virus” is a lie and he explains how the phony numbers are being...

GEAUGA (WJW) – The Fox 8 I-Team has learned the Geauga County Sheriff’s office arrested one, issued a summons for another, and charged two with underage drinking, following a large Amish party this weekend. Deputies were sent to a home on Bundysburg Road in Huntsburg Township shortly after midnight Sunday. A man called 9-1-1 to report the large party. “When we got there, there was a barn full of people some of them ran, “ said Geauga Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand. “There was one that was too intoxicated to run and that person had to be transported by ambulance. “ The...

EXCLUSIVE: Missouri became the first state to file a lawsuit against China on Tuesday, accusing the country of being responsible for the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and seeking damages to make up for "the enormous loss of life, human suffering, and economic turmoil" resulting from the disease. The suit in the Eastern District of Missouri follows at least seven federal class-action suits that have been filed by private groups, with one filed in Florida saying that China knew "COVID-19 was dangerous and capable of causing a pandemic, yet slowly acted, proverbially put their head in the sand, and/or covered...

How Adam Schiff secretly thwarted efforts to bring transparency in Russia probe Democrat demanded DNI keep evidence from Trump, holds transcripts that were supposed to be made public.In late September 2018 with a mid-year election approaching, the often bitterly divided House Intelligence Committee forged a rare bipartisan moment: Its Republican and Democratic members voted to make public the transcripts of 53 witnesses in the Russia collusion investigation.But what was hailed as an act of transparency has not been fulfilled 19 months later, even though U.S intelligence has declassified and cleared the transcripts for release.…Shortly after Schiff took over from Republican...