Free Republic

Stacey Abrams is taking a break from running Georgia to campaign to be former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate. Pretty soon, she’ll be calling the veepstakes rigged, dragging the Democratic National Committee as racist, and claiming to be the nominee anyway. It’s become her signature formula since failing to capture the Georgia governor’s mansion in 2018. Just a year and a half later, ambition has once again come calling. This time it brings the romance novelist one step closer to reaching her self-inspired destiny of clinching power in the White House. Maybe the 27 lost souls in the Democratic...

The Convention met at 12 o'clock. Much confusion attended its early deliberations. SMALLEY'S voice was not heard twenty feet from the platform. During the first part of the prayer all was quiet. The latter portion was continually interrupted by conversation and moving.

Michigan’s stay-at-home order will be extended through May 15, with some modifications allowing certain industries to reopen, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told the Associated Press Friday. As COVID-19 continues to infect and kill thousands of Michigan residents, Whitmer has come under increasing pressure to reopen certain sectors of the economy perceived as safe to operate. She’s faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, and critics have rallied at the Michigan Capitol and in front of her residence Ahead of an 11 a.m. Friday news briefing, Whitmer unveiled to the AP her latest update to the stay-at-home order, which will replace the one...

My mother Phyllis Schlafly made quite a name for herself in the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment, but here are a few little-known facts about her. 1. She was painfully shy. It was easier for her to speak at a podium to a huge crowd than to engage in small-talk with one person. She spent her life trying to conquer her shyness. 2. She had a keen sense of humor and used humor to score debate points. She once sang “Bella’s Bunch is Coming to Town” to the tune of the Santa Claus version. 3. She recited the rosary...

In the modern marketplace of ideas, if you're a private citizen with a message you want to disseminate, the way to do that is to place your message on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or any other internet outlet in which the American people provide the content. No reasonable person can challenge the fact that these outlets monopolize people's ability to spread information and ideas. When outlets such as Facebook and YouTube try to block ideas or information about protests, they are just as bad as any tyrannical government. That there are several corporate different entities that offer Americans the ability to...

Perhaps this looked like a better idea in theory, but in practice, it looks more like a replay of Al Capone’s vault — as owned by Joseph Stalin. Spoiler alert — despite what CNN’s chyron and description say here, CNN’s David Culver only barely spoke with the widow of Li Wenliang, the Wuhan whistleblowing doctor who tried to warn the world that China was lying about what we now call COVID-19. Beijing had him arrested and detained in December, and kept him suppressed until he died of the virus in early February.The only thing Li’s widow had to say...

Yesterday we published two seemingly unrelated news articles. Yet the story they tell when placed next to each other and viewed in the same gaze with clear eyes is one every American should hear and ponder. First, we reported on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The darling of the "just left of Marx" camp, in an interview with Vice, stated that once the economic lockdowns are lifted, Americans should simply refuse to go back to work. Here's what she 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...

London — In the global scramble for a COVID-19 vaccine, a select number of human trials are now under way, but it's scientists from England's University of Oxford who appear most confident that they're onto a cure. Professor Sarah Gilbert heads the Oxford team behind the potential vaccine being developed in partnership with the Jenner Institute. She's said it has an "80% chance" of success, and it could be available for wide use by the public as soon as September. Human trials of the vaccine began Thursday in Oxford. It will be administered to 510 healthy volunteers between the ages...

3 Reasons Why States Shouldn’t Get a Congressional Bailout Rachel Greszler / April 19, 2020 Illinois State Senate President Don Harmon sent a letter April 14 on behalf of the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus to members of Congress requesting $40 billion in federal funds for the beleaguered state. Although the letter comes under the guise of unprecedented COVID-19 disruptions, the purposes for which Illinois and other states seek additional federal funds are anything but unprecedented. Opening the floodgates to federal taxpayer dollars to cover states’ self-imposed fiscal woes would only lead to even further fiscal recklessness. Here are three ways...

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Trump has pushed governors to reopen their states as fast as possible, and earlier this week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp followed suit, permitting businesses such as gyms, barber shops and tattoo parlors to resume business on Friday. But the president turned on the governor at a White House briefing on Wednesday saying, “I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he is doing — I think it’s too soon.” The rebuke came after Dr. Anthony Fauci told other officials on the White House coronavirus task force he could not defend the...

Muslims worldwide began Ramadan on Friday with dawn-to-dusk fasting, but many will have to forgo the communal prayers and family gatherings that make the holy month special, as authorities maintain lockdowns aimed at slowing the coronavirus pandemic. Ramadan is usually a festive season, with the daylong fast followed by lavish meals and evening get-togethers. But this year many are confined to their homes, travel is heavily restricted and public venues like parks, malls and even mosques are shuttered. Many are also weighed down by anxiety about the pandemic and widespread job losses resulting from the worldwide shutdowns. “This is too...

A mystery clouded the death of Patricia Dowd in early February. The San Jose, Calif., woman was a seemingly healthy 57-year-old who exercised routinely, watched her diet and took no medication. She had flu-like symptoms for a few days, then appeared to recover, family members said. Then she was found dead Feb. 6, and the initial culprit appeared to be a heart attack.

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has written a letter expressing thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the organisation's "generosity" and support tackling a deadly virus epidemic, state media said Saturday. The outbreak of the new COVID-19 strain has claimed 2,345 lives in mainland China and infected more than 76,000 people, with cases in more than 25 countries. Earlier this month the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed up to USD 100 million for the global response to the outbreak. "I deeply appreciate the act of generosity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and your letter of...

Americans could start to see shortages of pork, chicken and beef on grocery shelves as soon as May as major packing plants swept by the coronavirus remain shuttered and the nation’s massive stockpiles of frozen meat begin to dwindle. Any empty shelves to date have been the result of bumps in the supply chain, with stores being unable to restock as quickly as customers are buying. But bacon, pork chops and ham could be the first to face actual shortages: The amount of frozen pork in storage nationwide — more than 621 million pounds — dropped 4 percent from March...

Virus management is about power and control, the two things the elite always want and therefore don’t want to relinquish even when the virus recedes. The big-picture story of American politics of the last four years has been a battle royale between elite power structures and millions of ordinary Americans. Donald Trump’s 2016 election win, the Russia collusion hoax, and the impeachment drama were all essentially tussles between elite control and democratic norms, between the will of the powerful and the will of the 2016 voters, a.k.a. Trump supporters. A loose assortment of unelected bureaucrats, D.C. power players, Democratic leaders,...

TGIFF! Its Fiddle Friday and we have Kenny Baker with Chicken Under The Back Porch (1979). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Democratic governors and mayors are going around Congress to put money into the pockets of illegal immigrants who were excluded from receiving the $1,200 coronavirus relief checks that are part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus plan approved last month, according to a report. California Gov. Gavin Newsom created a private-public $125 million fund that illegal immigrants would be able to draw from and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expanded city benefits, including money from the city’s Small Business Resiliency Program, for illegal immigrants. Minneapolis, run by Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, is creating a $5 million funding package that would be available...

A black Georgia Democratic state lawmaker who announced his resignation Wednesday because of his support for Republican President Trump in the 2020 election has changed his mind. State Rep. Vernon Jones explained Thursday on Twitter "the outpouring of support I received was too great for me to ignore." "I will not allow the Democrats to bully me into submission. I will not let them win," Jones wrote. "I will NOT resign." In a video, Jones said he received a "barrage of attacks and name-calling by the far-left and the Democratic Party" in response to his endorsement of Trump.

One out of every four American adults say someone in their household has lost a job to the coronavirus pandemic, but the vast majority expect those former jobs will return once the crisis passes, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The economic devastation writ by COVID-19 is clear: 26.4 million people have lost their job in the past five weeks, millions of homeowners are delaying mortgage payments and food banks are seeing lines of cars that stretch for miles. Forty-six percent of all Americans say their household has experienced some form of...