Free Republic

AT&T revealed longtime CEO Randall Stephenson would step down from his post sooner than expected, with COO John Stankey (pictured) to take the helm on 1 July. While Stephenson will retire as CEO he will retain a role with the operator, as executive chairman of the board, until January 2021. Though Stankey will join the board in June, the company stated it would elect a new independent director after Stephenson departs. Stephenson steps down after 13 years as CEO. His departure comes months earlier than expected: he previously told CNBC he would stay on as CEO until at least the...

Why have the Democrats in Congress decided to punish small businesses? Make no mistake, that is exactly what Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the congressional Democrats are doing in their latest politically tone-deaf move by denying funding for the small business loan program. As of last week, the program officially ran out of money, leaving millions of small business owners and their employees wondering how they’ll survive the government-mandated lockdowns. It makes you wonder why Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues would possibly risk being so out of touch with the needs of our country’s small businesses—despite small businesses being the driver...

In my previous column, posted on April 6, I lamented that the actions of some police officers, ordered to carry out some of the sillier or more onerous restrictions attendant to the pandemic, will further erode the already strained relationships their departments have within their communities. As one might have predicted, things have only gotten worse. Since that column was posted, we have seen police officers issuing $500 citations for the crime of attending a drive-in church service, and others arresting an Idaho woman who dared take her kids to a closed playground. Indeed, social media is awash with similar...

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room5:48 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Later this evening, we expect the House to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.  I’m grateful that Congress is answering my call to deliver these additional $320 billion in relief for the American worker and for small businesses.At a time when many Americans are enduring significant economic challenges, this bill will help small businesses to keep millions of workers on the payroll.  You see states are starting to open up now, and it’s very exciting to see.  I think it’s very awe-inspiring. ...

Despite the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Britain is making scant effort to negotiate a far-reaching free trade deal in the wake of Brexit that would stave off a costly final separation at the end of the year, the European Union said Friday. EU negotiatior Michel Barnier said his British counterparts keep insisting on unrealistic deadlines and demands that could only lead to a chaotic trade rupture which would mount economic losses on both sides on top of those already expected from the coronavirus crisis. “I am worried,” Barnier said after what he described as another week of...

A reporter at The Washington Post learned that size does matter after trying to pin the exorbitant price of isopropyl alcohol on President Trump and his administration. The Post’s Amber Phillips posted and then deleted a tweet on Thursday announcing that the cost of isopropyl alcohol on Amazon was shockingly $2,375. Her tweet came after Trump’s coronavirus task force briefing at the White House Thursday where a Department of Homeland Security official spoke about the use of the product against the coronavirus.

Hillsdale College and its Barney Charter School initiative have launched a series of more than 40 free YouTube videos for parents and their children engaged in at-home learning during the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. The video series is specifically focused on at-home learning during this time and is based on an American classical approach to education. In one of the opening videos, Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education at Hillsdale College, said, “Classical education, at its root, is common-sense education.”

CHICAGO, Ill. (WTVO) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday he is extending the state’s stay-at-home order until May 30th and requiring residents to wear masks in public. In addition, the governor said wearing masks in public would be a requirement for all Illinois residents. The stay-at-home order was originally set to expire on April 30th. “On our current trajectory, the state is projected to see a peak or plateau of deaths per day between late April and early May, but if the stay at home order were lifted this week, the model anticipates a second wave of the outbreak...

The coronavirus pandemic and its fallout will usher in countless trends. The neoliberal consensus, already battered since the transformative populist 2016 phenomena of Brexit and Donald Trump's presidential election, will come under even greater scrutiny as we navigate the deepest global recession since the Great Depression. Nations the world over will grow more skeptical of the Davos class's peddling of free trade and free travel as unalloyed goods, preferring instead the comparative safety of self-sufficient critical supply chains and secure borders. Overall, the New World Order of President George H.W. Bush may have finally met its demise in Wuhan, China....

The walls of Russia’s new Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the Armed Forces will be decorated with the faces of President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Soviet leader Josef Stalin, the MBKh News website reported Friday. The 95-meter Armed Forces cathedral, a symbol of close defense-church ties in Russia, is expected to open on May 9 — the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II — at a sprawling military-themed park near Moscow. Once completed, the building will become one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world. One of the cathedral’s mosaics...

In early March, President Donald Trump was lambasted for saying on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show that he had a hunch the coronavirus fatality rate, which the World Health Organization pegged then at 3 to 4 percent, was in fact much lower, under 1 percent. Many commentators, myself included pointed out that the beginning of a pandemic medical crisis was not the time to be floating hunches. But, as we always knew was possible, it looks now like the president might well have been right.New data from random antibody tests conducted in New York State suggest that as many as...

Do you want evidence that the media has overhyped the dangers of the Coronavirus? You don’t need to look any farther than the Washington Post headline from Tuesday: “CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating.” The headline focused on a quote from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield: “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through. We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at...

Introduction: The first-line therapy for the intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) is sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). There is an urgent need to identify safe, well-tolerated and efficacious alternatives to SP due to widespread Plasmodium falciparum resistance. Combination therapy using azithromycin and chloroquine is one possibility that has demonstrated adequate parasitological response > 95% in clinical trials of non-pregnant adults in sub-Saharan Africa and where IPTp is a government policy in 33 countries. Areas covered: Key safety, tolerability and efficacy data are presented for azithromycin and chloroquine, alone and/or in combination, when used to prevent and/or treat P. falciparum, P....

John Jacob Astor, the richest man on board the Titanic, famously gave up a seat in the final lifeboat when he saw two young children still on the ship's deck. "Women and children first" was the order from the ship's captain, and the final numbers show just how much the men on board -- even the rich and powerful -- adhered to that call. Women on the Titanic had a 75% survival rate, compared with just 17% for men. Besides some crazed radical feminists, most of us view the chivalry displayed on that sinking ship with a sense of awe...

There is simply no other way to state this. Nearly everything we’ve been told about models, rates of infection, deaths, and recoveries was inaccurate. I’m not here to argue that it was malfeasance or ignorance — both are unacceptable. But the one thing that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s stunning announcement made clear on Thursday is that there are some pretty shocking — and what should be — reassuring truths. Cuomo announced that antibody testing in New York state, which only began four days previous, was already demonstrating that at minimum 13.9% of New Yorkers, had COVID-19 late stage antibodies. The implication...

Dr. Fauci, not only is connected to Bill Gates and together they are set to make millions on a coronavirus vaccine. But a little known story is how Dr. Fauci ruined the career of a brilliant young doctor who blew the whistle on the harmful consequences attributed to vaccines. Dr. Judy Mikovitz was a brilliant young doctor with a promising career, until she discovered what she considered to be harmful consequences with vaccines. After she came out with her warnings, she was jailed for identifying the link between vaccines and chronic diseases. In the first part of the video below,...

On picking up What Snowflakes Get Right: Free Speech, Truth, and Equality on Campus, one might expect a book urging those who dismiss today’s college students’ complaints about institutional racism, persistent sexism, and other societal ills to take them more seriously. To engage with their arguments and to try to empathize with them, rather than ignoring or lambasting them, even when they engage in what seems to many people like unjustified histrionics. What Snowflakes Get Right is not that book. In fact, on completing NYU comparative literature professor (and former vice provost) Ulrich Baer’s book laying out his views on...

Twitter blue checks were high on their own supply after President Donald Trump made mention of a few solutions that have been killing the COVID-19 virus. If you play the clip by itself, it does seem like something completely wacky to say. “So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked because of the testing,” Trump said. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other...

House Democrats have voted to begin yet another witch hunt. In a strictly partisan vote, 212-182, the House voted on Thursday to create a select committee to oversee the federal response to the coronavirus crisis — and examine President Trump’s response. The panel will be led by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) — a longtime Trump hater who has also endorsed Joe Biden. It will be comprised of seven Democrats and five Republicans — which means every vote will be 7-5 in favor of the Democrats. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis within the House Oversight and Reform...

Democrat lawmaker Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones who announced he was stepping down on Thursday due to backlash for endorsing President Donald Trump, has now reversed his decision after an outpouring of support.Jones became the first state-elected Democrat last week to endorse Trump.The Democrat described the president as a "transformative figure."