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When, in 2016, I referred to Donald Trump's victory in the Republican primary as a symptom of an unhealthy American political system, I couldn't have known how such medical metaphors would sound today. But more than three years into his presidency, Trump -- facing an unprecedented crisis in the form of a deadly pandemic -- has shown himself to be a dangerous pathogen. Trump has spent his time in office weakening the nation's systemic immune system -- or institutions that hold him in check -- and setting the US up for a disaster when those institutions are needed more than...

Lots of incriminating stuff. Here's a good tweet explaining what's in there: https://twitter.com/AnonymousAda/status/1252708336514076672

More than 150,000 people have died with Covid-19, but there are still no drugs proven to help doctors treat the disease. So how far are we from these life-saving medicines?What work is being done to find treatments? More than 150 different drugs are being researched around the world. Most are existing drugs that are being trialled against the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the Solidarity trial aimed at assessing the most promising treatmentsThe UK says its Recovery trial is the the world's biggest, with more than 5,000 patients already taking partAnd multiple research centres around the world...

Being a teen in the 1990s and I would listen to a lot of national sports talk on the radio. I still remember back then hearing about the hate Chicago bulls fans had for both GM Jerry Krause and the owner Jerry Reinsdorf, near the end of the Bulls Dynasty , but I really never understood what they were trying to do and just how egotistical and stupid both of these guys were in prematurely breaking up a team while making a run at another championship with the best player ever still in his prime. Krause made some brilliant moves...

The letter was heartbreaking as it recounted the death of an 88-year-old woman in a New York nursing home. But it was also angry and accurate about a strange New York policy that is ­fatally wrongheaded. “I am wondering who will hold Gov. Cuomo accountable for the deaths of so many older people due to his reckless decision to place covid19 patients in nursing and rehabilitation homes,” the letter began. “I am writing as a daughter who lost her beautiful 88 year old mother who was receiving physical therapy at one such facility.” . . . . Mullin had another...

OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee Tuesday evening announced a road map for reopening Washington’s economy that could soon allow the return of some elective surgeries, outdoor recreation and certain construction projects. In a 5 p.m. televised public address, Inslee didn’t say when the stay-at-home order — scheduled to lift at the end of the day on May 4 — might start to be rolled back. The plan would only move forward, he said, once cases of the new coronavirus have fallen enough that the state is able to manage future outbreaks. But Inslee said that data on cases of COVID-19,...

Facebook announced Tuesday it will invest $5.7 billion in the telecom branch of Indian company Reliance Industries. Facebook said the investment, which makes it the largest minority shareholder in Jio Platforms Limited, will focus on connecting people with small businesses by linking its messaging platform WhatsApp with Reliance's e-commerce tool JioMart. “India is in the midst of one of the most dynamic social and economic transformations the world has ever seen, driven by the rapid adoption of digital technologies. In just the past five years, more than 560 million people in India have gained access to the internet,” the company...

My uncle got angry this morning on the phone. Said more police officers should be yelled at regarding Coronavirus enforcement and because they are not protecting and serving their communities. He says people should listen to BLM. I think he is off his rockers, but is he right about a big police-civilian disconnect?

I think it’s unconscionable just on a human level that folks were shown mercy and this is what some of them have done. In recent weeks, governors and local officials in several states across America have authorized early releases for some of the criminals they held behind bars in an effort to prevent the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus within the prison system. But along with the spread of the virus in hot spots like New York City has come a return to a life of crime for some of the inmates who were released, as the New York Post...

U.S.—America suffered its highest one-day increase in cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome yesterday, adding 317,259 new cases. This brought the number of U.S. cases to roughly 59 million, while worldwide cases of the deadly disease increased to 110 million. The peak in cases was brought on by President Trump’s growing urgency to reopen the economy and allow people to go back to work. Scholars have noted that this is equivalent to slavery. With the sharp increase in Trump Derangement Syndrome, U.S. officials see no real timeline for reopening the minds of Democrats nationwide. “We can’t take any chances here,” Dr....

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and 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.

The 2020 installment of Milwaukee Irish Fest—originally set for August 13-16 at Henry Maier Festival Park—has been canceled. Sigh. Irish Fest joins fellow Henry Maier Park festivals PrideFest, German Fest, Polish Fest, and Festa Italiana in canceling or postponing their 2020 events due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Only Mexican Fiesta and Fromm Petfest typically follow Irish Fest on the Summerfest grounds. (As of March 23, Mexican Fiesta was still going ahead with its annual festival.) Summerfest itself has been moved to September. Here’s a press release: After much discussion, monitoring and studying the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation, we have made...

Marines who haven't taken their physical fitness test yet this season will be able to skip it, the service's top general announced Tuesday. Commandant Gen. David Berger told Marines via tweet that the physical fitness test calendar period, which runs through June 30, is canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Our fitness to fight remains a priority, and I expect each of us to continue to maintain our fighting condition," Berger said. More details on how the change will affect Marines will be released in an upcoming force-wide message, he added.

[Catholic Caucs] In Easter interview, German bishops’ head calls for changing Church teaching on homosexuality The Church’s teaching, Bishop Bätzing claimed, 'is something that many people no longer want or can understand.' Bishop Georg Bätzing LIMBURG, Germany, April 20, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, has called for changing the Church’s official teaching on “practiced homosexuality” by “jumping over trenches.” “Here the statement of the Catechism is first of all that these people are to be met with esteem and respect,” Bätzing said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine...

KEY POINTS USS America is steaming into the disputed waters where a Chinese survey ship is operating The U.S. had previously demanded that China stop its "bullying behavior" China has increase maritime activities in disputed waters amid coronavirus pandemic

Self-explanatory. Positive and upbeat. Five years before Reagan won the WH. Back when there were reasonable interviewers such as Johnny Carson in contrast to today's crop. No transcript. Watch if you have not seen it or haven't seen it in a long long time. Always a pleasure IMO.

A Vietnamese woman filed a lawsuit against the Korean government on Tuesday over a massacre of civilians allegedly committed by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War, in the first of its kind filed some five decades after the atrocity. The plaintiff is Nguyen Thi Thanh, 60, who lost family members at the hands of Korean troops in Phong Nhi in Quang Nam province in February 1968. She seeks 30,000,100 won ($24,400) in compensation and an apology from the Korean government. According to her testimony, the incident took place when she was 8 years old, and she had to spend...

All available evidence points to the conclusion that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Chinese laboratory in the city of Wuhan. Whether it was created as a biological weapon or was the natural evolution of other viruses being studied in the lab, it’s apparent that through negligence of those involved in the research, the virus was released into Wuhan and then spread around the world. Even in the most favorable light, the pandemic is a direct result of the Chinese government’s intentional acts or gross negligence. ... That’s not nearly good enough. The president — as well as his COVID-19...

A bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday affirms the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a far-ranging influence campaign approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin and aimed at helping Donald Trump win the White House. The report rejects Trump’s claims that the intelligence community was biased against him when it concluded that Russia had interfered on his behalf in the election. It says instead that intelligence officials had specific information that Russia preferred Trump in the election, that it sought to denigrate Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and that Putin had “approved and directed aspects”...

Harvard University on Tuesday pushed back against President Trump's call for the institution to return funds it received from the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, saying the money it accepted would go toward assisting students financially impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. The university emphasized in a statement that it received the money from a $14 billion fund established under the CARES Act, called the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, and not a separate program designed to help small businesses retain employees amid the pandemic. “Harvard did not apply for, nor has it received any funds through the U.S. Small Business...