Free Republic

Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to spend almost $1 billion in taxpayer funds to buy protective masks drew national attention as an aggressive move by California to solve one of the most nagging problems of the coronavirus crisis. But almost two weeks after he announced the deal during a cable TV interview, very few details have been disclosed. The governor's advisors have so far declined requests for information about the agreement with BYD, the Chinese electric car manufacturer hired to produce the masks, though the state has already wired the company the first installment of $495 million. Newsom, who has been praised...

Facial recognition systems threaten our privacy. They can track where you go and add that information to the massive amount of information already saved about each of us. Big Brother is watching you and enabled by AI. And when it makes a mistake reading your face, you could end up with criminal charges far worse than when the toll tag system misreads your license plate. Here are several methods for fooling and interfering with facial recognition systems.

More deaths, no benefit from malaria drug in VA virus study By MARILYNN MARCHIONE This Monday, April 6, 2020 file photo shows an arrangement of hydroxychloroquine pills in Las Vegas. According to a study released on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, the malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in an analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers report. ( Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a breathing machine, either. Researchers did not track side effects, but...

A Harvard law professor is under fire for her comments in an article about the "risks" of homeschooling as parents face closed public schools because of the coronavirus pandemic. In Harvard Magazine's May-June issue, Elizabeth Bartholet, a law professor and faculty director of the school’s Child Advocacy Program, worried homeschooled children will not be able to contribute to a democratic society. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR ACCUSED OF COVERING UP TIES TO CHINESE SCHOOL, RESEARCH PROGRAM "The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18?" Bartholet asked. "I think...

Visit Discoverthenetworks.org. When President Trump announced that his administration would withhold all U.S. funding from the World Health Organization, pending an investigation of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus promptly straightened the halo atop his head and proceeded to address the world in the sober tones of a selfless, afflicted martyr: “For now,” he said, “our focus, my focus, is on stopping this virus and saving lives. WHO is getting on with the job…. When we’re divided, the virus exploits the cracks between us.” But as a close look at Tedros’s handling of the current crisis...

Although there is still much we don’t know about the coronavirus, we know enough to say that it is far more dangerous and deadly than the flu. It took twelve months and 61 million infections for the H1N1 swine flu to kill 12,500 Americans in 2009–10. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that the seasonal flu killed 34,200 Americans during the 2018–19 flu season. In 2019, car crashes killed 38,800 Americans. As for the new coronavirus? On March 20, the death toll in the United States was 225. By April 20, the coronavirus had killed more than 42,000 Americans.

During a press briefing Tuesday, Newsom indicated there is no specific timeline for modifying restrictions but said Californians should not expect a return to “normal” life until there is herd immunity and a vaccine exists for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Governments pass ever-more restrictive rules in the name of saving us. How many of these rules are helpful? In Encinitas, California, police gave $1000 tickets to people inside cars - watching the sunset. Surfers were arrested, despite being far from anyone. Such excessive restrictions may even do harm, by preventing people from getting exercise. Michigan's governor condescended to allow big stores to stay open, but told them they must not sell "carpet, flooring, furniture, garden centers, plant nurseries, or paint.” The stores had to rope off those aisles. These rules are arbitrary, and excessive.

On the 21st of April 1836, Sam Houston turned around the disaster of The Alamo and won freedom from Mexico for Texas. In 18 minutes. He was a leader who did not like war, who cared about people’s lives, about education, about his state and his nation’s unity and about freedom. He backed these feelings up with actions. Any one of these things is hard to be good at. What can we learn now from his example? Is this a time to be brave and ready for sacrifice? Is Dan Patrick a Herd Immunity Hero? Is pursuing that immunity our...

We recently saw a photo of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, with an image of Che Guevara in the background. At first, I thought that the lady was photographed in the wrong place. I tried very hard to give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, she is the widow of a former attorney general and U.S. senator plus sister in law of a president who almost went to nuclear war over Cuba. We were later told that Mrs. Kennedy is a big fan of Che because she has a "subversive streak." With all...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed the key to navigating his contentious relationship with President Trump ahead of their coronavirus summit Tuesday at the White House: simple New York bluntness.

After the Great Pandemic has passed and we emerge from Great Depression II, what will be America's mission in the world? What will be America's cause? We have been at such a turning point before. After World War II, Americans wanted to come home. But we put aside our nation-building to face the challenge of a malevolent Stalinist empire dominant from the Elbe river to the Barents Sea. And after persevering for four decades, we prevailed. What, then, did we do with our epochal victory? We alienated Russia by moving our NATO military alliance into the Baltic and Black Seas....

A top U.S. regulator is considering taking steps to ease strains on mortgage companies facing a cash crunch as millions of Americans struggling with fallout from the coronavirus suspend their monthly payments, according to people familiar with the matter. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing whether to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage-finance giants, to buy home loans that recently entered forbearance, meaning borrowers have stopped making payments, the people said. That would help nonbank mortgage companies that lend to home buyers and then quickly sell the loans to Fannie and Freddie. The strategy was upended...

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...