Free Republic

Now is the time to consider the possibility that the coronavirus lockdowns ordered by some states will turn into a public policy calamity, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume argued Monday night. Appearing on "Fox News @ Night" with host Shannon Bream, Hume said that sustained damage to the economy and the lives of over 20 million recently unemployed Americans may not heal after implementing "draconian" measures.

The collapse of the price of a barrel of oil this week was something to see. It was cheaper for producers to pay people to take it away than it was to store it themselves, as capacity had been reached. They were offering almost $40 per barrel to take the oil. Made me wish I had an Olympic sized swimming pool I could fill up for a rainy day. While people watched dumbfounded at how this could happen, people working in the energy industry were terrified - what would this mean for the jobs, millions of them? The answer isn’t...

A heartbreaking photo of an English bulldog looking longingly at the children he used to play with before the coronavirus pandemic has gone viral — with thousands of fans admitting that they can relate to his quarantine woes. Costume designer Rashida Ellis, 38, from Atlanta, Georgia, took to Twitter on Tuesday to post a snapshot of her three-year-old dog Big Poppa looking dejected while sitting on their balcony. 'Big Poppa has been so sad today, I think he miss[es] playing with the kids in the building. He just watches them from the patio,' she captioned the image, which has attracted...

It’s just the flu, bro. Houston (Harris County) is starting a 1000 dollar fine for not wearing a mask in public. There is an exception for exercise and eating so I guess I will always be walking or carrying a granola bar. All this is happening at the same time as the Republican counties are relaxing restrictions. Flubros are the voice of reason but as the restrictions hit closer to home my mind started thinking about the panic/fear porn that grips the Fearbros. The panic porn in their nightmares involves seeing families having fun in public without a mask. My...

Appearing on VICE’s Seat at the Table with Anand Giridharadas, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) urged Americans not to return to work after states begin reopening their respective economies in response to updated information on the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. “We talk about this idea of ‘reopening society,’ only in America does [President Trump] — when the president tweets about liberation, does he mean ‘go back to work,'” Ocasio-Cortez said. “When we have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a lot of people should just say, ‘no, we’re not going back to that. We’re not going back to working...

The co-chair of the occupied GIRÊ SPî/ Tel-Abyed Canton Council, Hevin Ismail has considered Turkey's exploitation of the world’s preoccupation with Corona pandemic, and launched simultaneous attacks with Başûr (south Kurdistan) and north and east Syria, with the continued isolation on the leader Abdullah Ocalan, a new conspiracy against the people. "The partnership between Turkey and the Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP is a shame," Hevin Ismail, said "This partnership is pushing Turkey to continue its dirty plans in Başûr, north and east Syria." Attempts to transport infected people with Covid19 to north and east Syria saying: "With the occupation of...

Disney's world theme parks may not reopen until 2021 due to strict social distancing measures in force because of coronavirus, ultimately impacting profitability. Some of Disney's largest and best-known theme parks may have to wait for a coronavirus vaccine to be found before they can reopen, despite some sites advertising bookings as early as June. Social distancing, travel restrictions and recession brought on by the global pandemic are factors that contribute to the business becoming 'less profitable', until such time as a vaccine is 'widely available'. That is a financial analysis of Disney by investment banking group UBS, in a...

Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday most businesses would be able to reopen their doors when the state begins to loosen restrictions on movement early next month. Until May 4, Parson said at his daily briefing, the current state stay-at-home order remained in effect. And he said Franklin County, where officials plan to loosen restrictions this weekend, is still be under the state order. "We're working on the policy and the guidelines for that, but I will tell you almost every business in the state of Missouri will be able to open their doors," Parson said. "People will go back to...

After instituting pay cuts across its nonunion employees earlier this month, Tribune Publishing announced it will furlough employees across the company. Staffers will take three-week furloughs in one-week increments between May and July of this year to “ensure financial stability,” but will retain health benefits during those periods. Furloughs effect nonunion employees who make between $40,000 and $67,000 per year, the Chicago Tribune reports. As an alternative to a furlough, employees have the option of receiving a severance package and leaving the company. The move comes as the company experiences a further decline in advertising revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic....

We have some troubling news developing deep inside America’s food supply chain network, suggesting rapid food inflation could be dead ahead. In the last several weeks, six major US meatpacking facilities have shuttered operations because of the coronavirus outbreak. That means 15% of America’s hog-slaughtering capacity has been shifted offline, and there is an additional risk that beef and poultry capacity could be reduced in the weeks ahead, reported Bloomberg. With every virus-related plant closure, farmers have been denied access to meatpacking facilities/slaughterhouses, resulting in herd overcapacity and suggests euthanizing hogs could be next. Dennis Smith, a senior account executive...

It must have been in the Fall of 1960 that I went with some neighbors to watch our local high school football team, Wheaton, play powerhouse Richard Montgomery in the final game of the Montgomery County football season. Wheaton was hoping to gain a share of the County championship with Richard Montgomery. Optimism did not abound. Richard Montgomery had a star running back named Mike Curtis. Rumor had it that he was unstoppable. Curtis must have played on defensive side as well, but it was his ability as a ball carrier that had made him a local legend. If my...

London (CNN Business)Economists and investors had been bracing for dismal economic data for this month. But the latest readings of the closely-watched Purchasing Managers' Index, which surveys senior executives at private sector companies, are gut-wrenchingly awful. The numbers: The eurozone composite PMI, which tracks activity in the manufacturing and services sectors, hit 13.5 in April, down from 29.7 in March — easily the worst reading since the survey started in 1998. It's a sign of the extent to which Europe's economy has imploded as shutdowns to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus hit citizens from Berlin to Paris and...

Osama bin Laden planned to assassinate President Barack Obama to unsteady the United States by putting 'totally unprepared' Joe Biden in charge. Declassified documents seized from Bin Laden's Pakistan compound as he was killed in May 2011 reveal his plans to throw the U.S. 'into a crisis' by killing Obama while he traveled in a plane with U.S. military commander David Petraeus. The 45-page document, which were first reported by The Washington Post in 2012, is now available in full along with hundreds of others from the raid.

The world was a dangerous place before -- and will be after -- the coronavirus pandemic. While Americans debate the proper ongoing response to the virus and argue over the infection's origins, nature and trajectory, they may have tuned out other, often just as scary, news. Many Americans are irate at China for its dishonest and lethal suppression of knowledge about the viral outbreak. But they may forget that China has other huge problems, too. Its overseas brand is tarnished. Importers can never again be sure of the safety or reliability of Chinese exports. They will know only that their...

The Trump administration has been quietly adding military surveillance cameras at the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the coronavirus pandemic... Documents obtained by The Associated Press show the Department of Defense, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, sent 60 mobile surveillance cameras and 540 additional troops to the southwest border this month... The addition of the mobile cameras, which are are mounted in the back of trucks, bring the total to 192, according to the documents... As of Sunday, the 60 added mobile surveillance cameras planned to be manned and operational, according to the documents... With the...

Fair warning: There will be no v-shaped recovery for the U.S. economy. That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the narrative that was rolled out at Wednesday eveningÂ’s press conference at the White House. If we are lucky, there will be a u-shaped recovery, but the horizontal part of that u just keeps getting longer if President Trump and the nationÂ’s governors continue to allow the government to be run based on NIH and CDC opinions and statistical models that have proven to be disastrously wrong every step of the way. Last night at the White House,...

The Lancet chronicled the spread of this disease and noted that as early as December 1, "a 53-year-old woman who had no known history of exposure to the market, also presented with pneumonia and was hospitalized in the isolation ward" after her husband had contracted the illness.Had the CCP been open, transparent, and cooperated with the WHO at that time, imagine how we all could have reacted to this virus. But, it lied. It wasn't until late January when the truth was impossible to conceal any longer that the CCP finally acknowledged what was already quite clear.The CCP lied, it...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Hebrew Worship Words Calal (Salal) Psalm 68:4Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,     extol him who rides on the clouds[a];     rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. Isaiah 57:14  And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road!     Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” Proverbs 4:8Cherish her, and she will exalt you;     embrace her, and she will honor you. New International Version (NIV)(End of Scripture Passage) . "Salal" comes from a word meaning "to cast up" or "pile up". We...

PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update As of 04/22/2020 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, Counties (alphabetical / case no descending)Section: 08     the United States,...

Carolyn Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, on Wednesday said she would be willing to offer her city as a "control group" for the Wuhan coronavirus. "Every one of those lives is a tragic loss but when you count 150 versus 2.3 million, you have to say, 'We have to open up. We have to go back,'" Goodman told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Our bus drivers, our restaurants –" "Hasn't it been because of social distancing that the numbers have been what they are?" Cooper asked. "How do you know until we have a control group? We offered to be a...