Free Republic

My neighbors hunt. They can survive in the forest, hills, lakes, and rivers, here in Indiana. They understand the world of nature, its vicissitudes and savagery. Appreciating its transcendent beauty and cadences, they also accept its fierce cruelties. They do not worship nature. They seek reconciliation with it that they may endure and protect their loved ones. They admire the natural world, its towering majesty and microscopic complexity, but they do not hold it on a pedestal, pristine, and viewed from a distance. Theirs’ is a realistic appraisal of nature and its vagaries, and what they require to survive. Coming...

It’s an ill wind, they say, that blows no good. Even the coronavirus can produce a heartwarming story or two. The Guardian reports on the dire state of the U.S. newspaper industry: Media outlets across the US have already responded to a huge drop in advertising triggered by the economic shutdown by sacking scores of employees. Some newspapers, just as demand is at its highest, have stopped printing – reverting to a digital-only operation that is just as vulnerable to the whims of advertisers. The decrease in advertising was swift, as businesses tightened spending due to the economic impact of...

Topping the list of assaults on our Constitutional freedoms is the war on our right to speak freely and peacefully assemble as governors warn their citizens to stay safe, stay home, and shut up. Joining them is the social media giant Facebook which, in its general censorship of conservative thought and opinion, has now decreed that using their platform to communicate complaints about government overreach during the Wuhan virus crisis and to organize protests against said overreach violates Facebook’s Alice-In-Wonderland “community standards” In the age before cable, there was an iconic sci-fi program called The Outer Limits whose opening featured...

God bless the media. Without it, I wouldn’t have known that CNN’s Don Lemon indignantly demands to know, “Who the hell do you think you are?!” Yours truly has only a vague sense of who Don Lemon is and has never in my memory seen his program on TV or him in the supermarket or anywhere else. But I can answer his question. Mr. Lemon reportedly directed his question to armed protesters who, despite the nation’s lockdown and stay-at-home orders, had gone public to demand their constitutional rights to assemble, to lodge their grievances with their government and to arm...

From California to New Jersey, Americans are protesting in the streets. They are demanding an end to house arrest orders given by government officials over a virus outbreak that even according to the latest U.S. government numbers will claim fewer lives than the seasonal flu outbreak of 2017-2018. Across the U.S., millions of businesses have been shut down by "executive order" and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Americans, who have seen their real wages decline thanks to Federal Reserve monetary malpractice, are finding themselves thrust into poverty and standing in breadlines. It's...

Why are some leaders so reluctant to admit that in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, they were slow to realize the seriousness of the threat? That's the charge leveled against President Trump daily. Just look at the number of times various critics have said he has "blood on his hands." Trump has denied responsibility, and has argued that rather than being slow off the mark, he was actually quick to respond. There is much angry debate on that point. What is clear now is that more than a few officials around the country were slow to act. And...

Comrades, after the Meridian cornavirus enforcement police received several calls from compliant citizens, a dangerous group of subversive moms were identified engaging in non-approved playground activity against the interests of the state. Local authorities activated an emergency response task force & arrested the lead scofflaw mom at the park. According to video smuggled from the park by an underground network of rebellious female breeders, Mrs. Sarah Brady was instructed by the COVID-19 compliance officers to vacate the playground. Ms. Brady refused to comply with the order and was subsequently handcuffed and arrested for violations of the state lock-down, ie. misdemeanor...

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. Here you'll find... Section: 01     Commentary, Special Reports, COVID-19 Update InfoSection: 02     the Mortality ReportSection: 03     the United States SituationSection: 04     the Global Community Situation Outside ChinaSection: 05     the Global Community Situation Including China with reservationsSection: 06     Miscelanious Reports of InterestSection: 07     the United States, States & Counties (alphabetical / case no descending)Section: 08     the...

China, Iran and Russia are using the coronavirus crisis to launch a propaganda and disinformation onslaught against the United States, the State Department warns in a new report. The three governments are pushing a host of matching messages: that the novel coronavirus is an American bioweapon, that the U.S. is scoring political points off the crisis, that the virus didn’t come from China, that U.S. troops spread it, that America’s sanctions are killing Iranians, that China’s response was great while the U.S.’ was negligent, that all three governments are managing the crisis well, and that the U.S. economy can't bear...

I'm "social distancing." I stay away from people. I do it voluntarily. There's a big difference between voluntary -- and force. Government is force. The media want more of that. "Ten states have no stay-at-home orders!" complains Don Lemon On CNN. "Some governors are still refusing to take action!" Fox News' host Steve Hilton agreed. "Shut things down! Everywhere. That includes Utah, Wyoming..." But wait a second. People in Utah and Wyoming already socially distanced just by living there. Why must Utah and Wyoming have the same stay-at-home rules as New York? I find it creepy how eager some people...

His nightly TV audience in the U.S. is far smaller than those of other late-night hosts, but Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” has been winning lots of new fans – in communist China, according to a report. Chinese state-controlled media outlets have been posting Noah’s jokes about the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak – and audiences eager to bash the U.S. response have been loving them, The New York Times reported. “Trevor has the correct value system,” one commenter wrote on social media, according to the report.

One of the first lessons in an economics class is everything has a cost. That's in stark contrast to lessons in the political arena where politicians talk about free stuff. In our personal lives, decision-making involves weighing costs against benefits. Businessmen make the same calculation if they want to stay in business. It's an entirely different story for politicians running the government where any benefit, however minuscule, is often deemed to be worth any cost, however large. Related to decision-making is the issue of being overly safe versus not safe enough. Sometimes, being as safe as one can be is...

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s critics let him know how they really felt about him ordering New Yorkers to snitch on each other for violating social-distancing rules — by flooding his new tip line with crank complaints including “dick pics” and people flipping the bird, The Post has learned. One user sent the message “We will fight this tyrannical overreach!” to the service and got an automated message that in part said, “Hello, and thank you for texting NYC311.” see also Social-distancing complaints surge in NYC after de Blasio's call for tips “F–k you!” replied @MorganLSchmidt1, along with a meme showing...

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his week, the price of oil futures collapsed catastrophically. In fact, the prices collapsed into negative territory in the near term. This bizarre situation, prompted by lack of consumer demand and lack of storage facility, led the irrepressible Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to tweet: "You absolutely love to see it. This along with record low interest rates means it's the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet." This tweet was too dumb even for her -- an extraordinary bar, given her past commentary -- and she deleted it. But she then reiterated the...

Pritzker again made clear that the stay-at-home restrictions are not likely to be lifted in their entirety on April 30. “We will be making some changes to the stay-at-home order as it is, but it is true that it is working,” Pritzker said. “So to pull it off, the stay-at-home order ... to remove it entirely, is to simply open everything back up to infection.” Lightfoot offered her thoughts on the stay-at-home order during a teleconference with reporters... she said that the April 30 end to the stay-at-home order is no longer viable, reiterating her previous prediction that the order...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's plan to suspend immigration is distracting from efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and part of "inconsistent messages" that spread fear and put the public in "greater danger." Trump's pronouncements about freezing immigration are "scary" for immigrants, family members hoping to immigrate to the U.S., farmers who rely on seasonal migrant workers and Canadian nurses who work in Michigan, the Democratic governor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "These broad statements that come out I think are so problematic and counter to I think what we need right...

Attention Washington Post! If COVID-19 was truly putting supermarket employees in a “war zone,” their death rate would be higher, not lower, than the general population! Real world evidence shows that the fatality rate of COVID-19 is far, far lower than what has been portrayed by the mainstream media. Examples of this can be read here, here, here, here, here, and here.It has also been predicted that the shutdowns will kill more people than they save. Examples of this can be seen here, here, and here.If the COVID-19 virus was truly as big of a threat as is being claimed by...

A few states are moving toward reopening their economies amid the coronavirus pandemic, but some local leaders don't want their residents to go along -- even as idled workers weigh the benefits of getting paychecks again. In Georgia and South Carolina, Republican governors announced they'll ease restrictions this week despite neither meeting White House recommendations of a two-week downward trend in cases before lifting measures in phases. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, saying workers and business owners need relief, said businesses including bowling alleys, body art studios and hair and nail salons can reopen this week. Theaters and restaurants can open...

The government has decided to extend the circuit breaker for four more weeks till June 1, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced today (April 21). This is to keep everyone in Singapore safe, he said, after consulting with the multi-ministry task force (MTF) and assessing that "we will not be able to achieve our intended objectives by ending the circuit breaker on May 4." The MTF's two objectives are to ensure that transmission in the migrant worker dormitories is under control and that it does not spread further to the community. Current breaker measures will also be tightened further. He...