Free Republic

At the culmination of a national health or societal crisis in the United States, it has become de rigueur for the media and innumerable pundits ensconced within the professional class to perform a post-mortem on how the citizenry handled the crisis and what lessons the rubes in fly-over country should have learned. But in the current pandemic, the top levels of professional class that populates the ruling class and runs the media and the major institutional bureaucracies has irretrievably unmasked itself. And the in the postmortems that will come, they will be found deficient. Credulous Cowards An immutable tenet of...

When the nongovernmental National Coronavirus Recovery Commission was first formed in early April, commissioners requested that citizens submit comments and ideas to help it formulate recommendations that governments, businesses, and civil society could use to combat both the health and economic effects of COVID-19. Those comments have provided some critical insights into how Americans feel about America’s response to the coronavirus. Within 10 days, the commission received hundreds of submissions, most expressing frustration with the heavy-handed actions by states to halt everyday life, shut down businesses, and prevent people from earning a living. People also remain concerned about the intrusions...

The billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates have purchased an exquisite beach house outside San Diego-splashing out on $43 million for an oceanfront mansion in the coastal town of Del Mar, CA. The prodigious purchase price makes it one of the largest sales in the area's history. The luxurious six-bedroom, four-bathroom, 5,800-square-foot home was sold to the Gates family by Madeleine Pickens, a former wife of the billionaire oil baron T. Boone Pickens, according to the Wall Street Journal. The home originally landed on the market for $48 million in January 2019. The oceanfront property was built by the architect...

It is interesting, if nothing else. – One interesting aspect of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s decision to bring the Chief of the violent crimes and narcotics trafficking section for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., Anthony Scarpelli, onto his investigation team is that Scarpelli has been a specialist in RICO-type investigations over the last decade. His job has been to identify domestic and international drug trafficking networks and bring the major players to justice, as he and his team did in the example described at this link. In response to the piece on this that I posted last night,...

There have been a number of disturbing reactions in the press when it comes to the coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. From the distortion of the administration's actions to the contradictions in the critiques to the focus on only negative outcomes, the media complex has been notably obnoxious. One of the other truly disturbing actions has been the coverage of China and its role in all of this global pandemic strife. The press has ranged from excusing responsibility to spearheading the Chi-Com insistence that the term ‘’Wuhan virus’’ be deemed racist, in order to skirt blame for the outbreak’s origins....

Small business owners say some employees don't want to return to payroll Potentially thousands of workers who were laid off from small businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic are declining to return to work because the combined income they are receiving from federal stimulus benefits and New York's unemployment system is more than they made at their jobs. The fallout also has hindered the ability of small business owners to meet the conditions attached to federal Payment Protection Plan loans, which may be forgiven if the money is used to maintain employee payrolls. Business owners "have to spend that money...

As you read this, the State of Georgia has become the embodiment of the mantra that has been bubbling-up for weeks among quarantined Americans from coast to coast: “THIS MADNESS MUST END.” So-called “average” citizens—whose wisdom and common sense far exceed that of robotic, agenda-driven media hysterics—cheered the news that Georgia governor Brian Kemp had signed an executive order to allow barber shops, hair salons, movie theaters and bowling alleys to reopen on Friday, April 24th. (Note the word allow. Kemp did not order businesses to reopen. Weird concept: he simple eased restrictions imposed which helped bend the curve of...

COVID-19 is so new and information is changing so rapidly that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction and truth from partial truth. Like everyone else, I'm just trying to make sense of the evolving information. Many of us have been monitoring the daily reports measuring the number of deaths relative to the number of cases. We've been treated to crash courses in lay epidemiology via daily press briefings and voluminous articles. We understand that the administration and state governments have been trying to "flatten the curve" of the coronavirus by slowing its spread. The main purpose, as has...

It’s just the flu, bro. This is turning more and more into a freedom issue. This state of emergency is exactly what the far left wants - disrupt and destroy capitalism and replace with socialist utopia. Quarantining sick people is a legitimate thing to do to sick and contagious people. It has been done in the past in the USA and in other countries. Quarantining healthy people is a new concept that destroys freedom. To those with health conditions and who have a legitimate fear of CV (or any flu) - it is your responsibility to protect yourself. The misery...

The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be entering the containment phase. Tens of thousands of Americans have died, and Americans are now desperate for sensible policymakers who have the courage to ignore the panic and rely on facts. Leaders must examine accumulated data to see what has actually happened, rather than keep emphasizing hypothetical projections; combine that empirical evidence with fundamental principles of biology established for decades; and then thoughtfully restore the country to function. Five key facts are being ignored by those calling for continuing the near-total lockdown. Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not...

Everyone who has been paying attention knows that the epidemiological models on which the current shutdown mania is based have been proved to be wrong, wrong, wrong. Yet, zombie-like, they continue to influence our ill-informed policymakers. A reader who prefers to remain anonymous despite her apparent qualifications writes: I just want to follow up yet again on how extraordinarily wrong the projections for hospital demand have been, along with some detail about what’s going on in hospitals. In a number of states they’re about to reopen for nonemergency procedures. But over the past month they’ve been so empty that they’ve...

State Rep. Karen Whitsett has repeatedly expressed gratitude toward President Trump Michigan Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett, publicly expressed her gratitude toward President Trump for her coronavirus recovery, and now she is facing possible censure from her fellow Democrats. Whitsett has indicated that the president may have helped save her life by publicly discussing the drug hydroxychloroquine, which she says helped her to recover. The Detroit Free Press reported that when questioned about "whether she thinks Trump may have saved her life, Whitsett said: 'Yes, I do,' and 'I do thank him for that.'" Whitsett earlier this month met with...

Is anyone surprised that the path out of our COVID-19 nightmare is littered with political land mines? We have been good soldiers for weeks. But it is time to take steps to reclaim the lives we have willingly surrendered to protect fellow citizens from the spread of coronavirus. Elected officials of every political stripe agree that we can make plans to manage a path forward, permitting businesses to open, commerce to resume, lives to reset. The differences arise over how soon. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is allowing some businesses to gradually reopen with specific guidelines for caution. One would think...

PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update As of 04/23/2020 23:59 PDST 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, States Ranked with...

Meet Roo, a beautiful blue-eyed tabby. Roo is blind and paralyzed in his lower legs and also diagnosed with MPS (Mucopolysaccharidosis). Despite his condition, it doesn't stop him from enjoying being a cat and being pampered by his loving owners. Video, 11 minutes, 55 seconds

Declassified documents reveal the terror leader, who was killed in 2011, wanted to assassinate President Obama, leaving a "totally unprepared" Joe Biden in charge of the United States. A plan laid out in documents stored on Osama Bin Laden’s compound outlined a mission to send the United States into a crisis by assassinating then-President Barack Obama and leaving the “totally unprepared” Joe Biden in charge. First reported by the Washington Post in March of 2012, the terror leader’s plan was to take out a plane carrying the U.S. commander-in-chief, in addition to his top military commander, David Petraeus. “Obama is...

In a 5-4 vote Thursday, the state Supreme Court of Washington rejected a lawsuit calling for the release of thousands of inmates to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to reports. Those narrowly missing a shot at freedom included Gary Ridgway, the so-called “Green River Killer,” who in 2003 was sentenced to life in prison after confessing to killing as many as 49 women in the 1980s, Seattle’s KIRO radio reported. A lawyer representing the inmates being considered for release – about two-thirds of the state’s prison population, according to KIRO – argued that those behind bars aren’t...

LANSING, MI (WILX) -- Governor Gretchen Whitmer is going to release her plan to gradually reopen the state Friday. But first the State Senate will be voting to take away some of her powers. The Senate will vote on four proposals from Republican Tom Barrett of Potterville. He said current law gives the governor too much power during a state of emergency, and it's time for the legislature to take some of it back. Barrett's proposal would repeal a 1945 law Governor Gretchen Whitmer plans to use to extend her "stay home" executive order. Violating an executive order would become...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Photos released by Miami Beach police show what a luxury hotel room looked like when officers found former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum drunk and with two other men. The photos released Wednesday show vomit-stained and rumpled bed sheets, a box for a party light disco ball, spilled white pills on the carpet and a vial of a drug often used for erectile dysfunction. But the newly released photos and officer body-cam video shed no further light on what Gillum was doing or why he was there last month. Fire rescue crews and officers were called...

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