Free Republic

A Republican candidate for governor has sued Gov. Jay Inslee in federal court, claiming that Inslee's statewide stay-home ban amid the pandemic is a clear violation of First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of speech and religion. The candidate, Joshua Freed, filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court. It seeks a restraining order or injunction that would prohibit the enforcement of Inslee's order against religious gatherings. The suit also seeks a judgment from the court declaring that Inslee's order violates the U.S. Constitution's free speech, right to assemble and due process clauses. According to the lawsuit, Inslee's stay-home order carves...

Baseball is back. Play ball!

Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday launched into a fiery takedown of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying state and local governments with cratered finances because of the coronavirus pandemic should be allowed to file for bankruptcy rather than rely on federal aid. “Come on, man,” Murphy said. “That is completely and utterly irresponsible. There’s no level of responsibility associated with that. And I don’t care what party you’re in.” “Because that won’t happen,” the governor said. “We won’t go bankrupt. You have my word we won’t go bankrupt.” But without federal aid, Murphy said, states will be forced...

Editor’s Note: This particular story was popular at the time it originally made the news and is circulating again a second time for the important and applicable message that’s relevant today. Remember the Iran nuclear deal? The one President Obama pushed through and was touted as one of the biggest achievements of his presidency? Obama guaranteed it would keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon for 10 years. Let’s see how that’s working out. Luckily we have President Trump now unlike Obama where every strike had to be approved by Obama…Trump trusts the military enough to let them decide when...

On Tuesday, April 21, Biden said Obama tops his list of potential vice presidential candidates, and the country would be better served if she joined his ticket. Neither Obama nor her husband, former President Barack Obama, have commented on Biden’s statements, which he first made on KDKA television in Pittsburgh. Remarkably, the comments have not yet gained traction in the media, but a KDKA source pointed NNPA Newswire to the video clip that the station says has gained a lot of momentum in the Pittsburgh area. “I’d take her in a heartbeat,” Biden said of Michelle Obama in the video...

I mean, does anybody really want to advertise the fact that they have a 56" waist size? This is crazy!

Liberals claim to be appalled that Trump didn’t issue his stay-at-home protocols for the Wuhan virus back in January or early February. What do you think the media’s reaction would have been if Trump had started babbling about a viral pandemic in the middle of his impeachment trial? Let’s see. On Jan. 28, Trump released his long-awaited “Middle East Peace Plan,” which was immediately denounced by everyone except Jared Kushner and Sheldon Adelson. Still, the last 1 million Middle East Peace Plans led to tons of think pieces, analyses and arguments. Here’s how Trump’s “Peace Plan” was reported: “Tonight, impeached...

The Airbus A380 has all the prerequisites for cargo conversions on paper. However, the aircraft is too heavy and too costly to operate compared to other cargo aircraft conversions. This points to a single destiny for the type; ending up in an aircraft graveyard. On paper, the A380 would make an excellent cargo aircraft. Alas, there are some flaws in the A380 design when it comes to cargo. The first is how heavy the A380 is. Because the A380 has a heavier empty weight than the competitive Boeing 747-8F cargo carrier, it actually costs more to get the aircraft in...

Christopher Parris, a 39-year-old Atlanta, Georgia resident, was arrested today and charged in federal court in the District of Columbia with fraud for attempting to sell millions of nonexistent respirator masks to the Department of Veterans Affairs in exchange for large upfront payments, the Justice Department announced.The criminal complaint charges Parris with wire fraud.  It alleges that he made and caused to be made a series of fraudulent misrepresentations in an attempt to secure orders from the Department of Veterans Affairs for 125 million face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) that would have totaled over $750 million....

Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement:"In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the President has issued guidelines calling on all Americans to do their part to slow the spread of a dangerous and highly contagious virus.  Those measures are important because the virus is transmitted so easily from person to person, and because it all too often has life-threatening consequences for its victims, it has the potential to overwhelm health care systems when it surges.                           To contain the virus and protect the most vulnerable among us,...

Many hummingbirds spend the winter in Central America or Mexico, and migrate north to their breeding grounds in the southern United States as early as February, and to areas further north later in the spring. Hummingbirds fly by day when nectar sources such as flowers are more abundant. Flying low allows the birds to see, and stop at, food supplies along the way. They are also experts at using tail winds to help reach their destination faster and by consuming less energy and body fat. Research indicates a hummingbird can travel as much as 23 miles in one day. During...

Hundreds of Domains Disrupted Through Public and Private Sector Cooperative Efforts Federal authorities announced today that an ongoing cooperative effort between law enforcement and a number of private-sector companies, including multiple internet domain providers and registrars, has disrupted hundreds of internet domains used to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to commit fraud and other crimes.As of April 21, 2020, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received and reviewed more than 3,600 complaints related to COVID-19 scams, many of which operated from websites that advertised fake vaccines and cures, operated fraudulent charity drives, delivered malware, or hosted various other...

The UK will have to live with some disruptive social measures for at least the rest of the year, the government's chief medical adviser has said. Prof Chris Whitty said it was "wholly unrealistic" to expect life would suddenly return to normal soon. He said "in the long run" the ideal way out would be via a "highly effective vaccine" or drugs to treat the disease. But he warned that the chance of having those within the next calendar year was "incredibly small". "This disease is not going to be eradicated, it is not going to disappear," he said, at...

Caronaville song, as played on my radio station this AM

By Captain George Livingstone – As we witness the COVID-19 crisis spread around the world it seems this big problem could morph and spread into a myriad of problems with the end result being collectively bigger than the original. The crux of the matter being there no clear horizon looking forward. According to livescience.com, In the United States on 4/13/20 there were about 550,000 cases nationally of COVID-19. On 4/20/20 there were about 750,000, a national increase of nearly 30% in one week. At present 15 states are seeing a decline in cases while 35 states are still reporting increases....

And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord...

Citing massive revenue losses, UW Health and UnityPoint Meriter on Tuesday announced pay cuts and other measures that will put some nurses and support staff out of work to stanch the financial bleeding from the COVID-19 outbreak. “These are not easy changes and we had hoped to avoid them,” said UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan in a Tuesday morning email to faculty and staff. “While we were able to limit drastic reductions in the first few months of our response, the dramatic and continued deterioration of the health industry economics left us few options.” SSM St. Mary’s, the city’s third...

For most Americans, it’s just another day of anxiety-producing quarantine as the unemployment rates continue to skyrocket, and they wonder whether the coronavirus-induced recession is going to turn into a depression. For others, there’s a silver lining. This year’s celebration of “Earth Day” is giving environmental alarmists some grim satisfaction. While most people are lamenting the collapse of the economy, some activists are happy that the earth is being given a “rest” from the ravages of capitalism. In the weeks leading up to the annual environmental festival, there has been a steady stream of commentary on “the gifts of the...

Disney+ is developing a female-centered Star Wars series that will be written and showrun by Lesley Headland, a co-creator of Netflix’s Emmy-winning dramedy series Russian Doll. Deadline has confirmed the gist of the series. While the exact plot is under wraps, but the series is understood to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. Disney declined comment on the project, which was first reported by Variety. It marks the latest Disney+ original series in the Star Wars universe, following the successful The Mandalorian created by Jon...

When the IMHE models were introduced, there was a pretty high peak in the number of COVID-19 infections. Related to this high peak, there were a significant number of hospitalizations and deaths in a very short time period. The fear was we would run out of hospital beds and critical care resources such as ventilators. The Coronavirus Task Force extended their original guidelines to slow the spread from 15 days to 30. The goal was to flatten the curve on the IMHE model. What It Is What does “flatten the curve” mean? It meant we as a nation were buying...