Free Republic

he COVID-19 pandemic has brought the global economy to a halt. The geopolitical upheavals yet to come will dramatically change world history, in unpredictable ways. The United States is only three months into its struggle with coronavirus, and is experiencing an Icarus-like plummet from the economic heights. The tiny coronavirus will ravage the nations, and may even cause empires to fall. We have been here before. In his 2017 book The Fate Of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire, Oklahoma University historian Kyle Harper examined the roles that climate instability and plague played in weakening the Roman...

New York state joined forces with New Jersey and Connecticut to roll out a tri-state contact tracing program with the aim of preventing a future spike in novel coronavirus infections, according to NBC New York. Apple and Google Coronavirus Tool Business Insider Intelligence The initiative will be supported by $10.5 million in funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and is currently under development in collaboration with researchers from Johns Hopkins University. For context, contact tracing refers to public health workers' efforts to track down lists of people who have come into contact with coronavirus infected patients as soon as poss

The wife of CNN host Chris Cuomo is being criticized after revealing on her lifestyle blog that she poured half a cup of Clorox in her bath twice a week to help cure her coronavirus. Magazine editor Cristina Cuomo shared that the bleach is ‘technically salt’ and she used it to ‘combat the radiation and metals in my system’, in direct contrast to warnings given by Clorox that contact with skin should be avoided. Cristina, 50, claims the advice was provided by Dr. Linda Lancaster, who describes herself as an energy medicine and homeopathic physician and lists high-profile names such...

U.S.—The majority of the nation is "totally in favor" of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez boycotting her job permanently. After the congresswoman called for a job boycott once the economy opens back up, everyone said they were totally OK with it, as long as it's just her and maybe some of her associates who are boycotting their jobs forever. Approval of her job boycott was directly connected to her being the one who is doing the boycotting. "Please, never go back to work, AOC, for the good of the nation," said laid-off oil worker Pete Vik. "Heck, we're even fine if you...

Democratic leaders are making quite a name for themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vote for one, and everyday Americans will find themselves disappointed. Especially when a crisis comes knocking. Eight years of former President Barack Obama (body by Esquire and mind by Baby Einstein), taught us that Ivy League educations and sounding smart mean nothing – if you lack common sense and logic. If Obama's years showed us anything, it is that power is always Democrats' end game. They will lie, cheat, and seek advantage during a crisis to get what they want. Never let a crisis go to waste!...

Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East​​ ​ Seven Years Since the Kidnapping of the Bishops of Aleppo​ Beloved Brethren and Spiritual Children Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Brothers, we address you with the Pascha greeting, sharing your prayers in your home corners and bending with you the knees of the heart before Christ, who was crucified for our sake, who resurrected from the dead and made us resurrect by His divine Light, wiping away from souls the dust of bitter times and the ashes of desolation...

A New Jersey driver crashed head-on into a pole — after passing out from wearing an N95 mask for hours, police said Friday. Lincoln Park Police believe that the driver, who was not named, lost consciousness while behind the wheel Thursday from lack of oxygen and breathing in excessive carbon dioxide thanks to the mask, the department wrote on Facebook. “The LPPD responded to a lone occupant single car motor vehicle crash yesterday. The crash is believed to have resulted from the driver wearing an N95 mask for several hours and subsequently passing out behind the wheel due to insufficient...

The slab lay over the remains of several individuals dating from 14,000 to 12,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon analysis of several of the skeletons. However, the remarkable image on the slab was only noticed some years after its discovery, while the stone was being carefully studied in the laboratories of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Haaretz has learned. The image on the slab is an extremely rare example of an identifiable human figure made by Natufians, the researchers say. The Natufian culture existed from about 15,000 to about 11,700 years ago, and spanned from...

A collection of Lunchbucket Joe's gaffe-a-minute machine at full speed. Priceless.

I want to update all of you who prayed for my Aunt Florence who was diagnosed with Covid-19. It is with a heavy heart to tell you that she passed away last night only six days after being diagnosed. She went very peacefully on angel's wings and I have no doubt that your prayers brought this about with hundreds of others who prayed. I am deeply grateful at the outpouring of concern from all of you who prayed and sent me messages. You are all very special and wonderful Americans whom I'm proud to associate with and call friends. I...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stressed the new state approach of dialing up or down restrictions goes both ways and that businesses need to be prepared for renewed restrictions. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 em­ploy­ees could re­turn to work Mon­day un­der a plan by Gov. Tim Walz to dial back the state’s stay-at-home order, which was imposed to reduce or delay the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move is tailored to manufacturers and offices that don’t have face-to-face interaction with clients and weren’t deemed critical industries that were exempt from the stay-at-home order. Roughly 20,000 companies in this category now...

Diana West, author of... Death of the Grown-up, American Betrayaland The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy...tweets the following brief timeline: 1/10/17 #Obama WH science office issues guidelines to permit research which "could produce a potential pandemic pathogen (an enhanced PPP)." 1/12/17 #Fauci declares 'there will be surprise outbreak" during Trump admin. https://gumc.georgetown.edu/gumc-stories/global-health-experts-advise-advance-planning-for-inevitable-pandemic/ Fauci's quote on 'surprise outbreak during Trump's administration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=197&v=DNXGAxGJgQI&feature=emb_logo direct link to Diana West's tweet

Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine have no better chance of survival than those who don't receive the drug hailed by Trump as a 'game-changer', results of a New York state Health Department trial suggest. 'I think from the review that I heard basically it was not seen as a positive, not seen as a negative,' said Governor Andrew Cuomo during CNN's coronavirus town hall. Ultimately, the study, conducted by SUNY at Albany, is intended to involved some 4,000 coronavirus patients, but the preliminary results are from a sample of 600 patients. Survival rates were no better among the group treated with...

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). Christ’s atonement made it possible for man to be at peace with God. After World War II the United Nations was created to promote world peace. But since its inception in 1945 there has not been a single day of global peace. That's a sad commentary on man's inability to make peace. In fact, someone once quipped that Washington D.C. has so many peace monuments because they build one after every war! It hasn't always been that way. Prior to the Fall of man peace reigned...

In the clashing commentary about whether lockdowns and stay-at-home orders should continue, or whether businesses and stores should be reopened, one senses a yearning for consensus. Why can't everybody just agree? One reason is that we continue to be ignorant on many important points. How many people have been infected with the disease? Some fragmentary evidence has come in, but since many infected people are asymptomatic, no one knows the death rate per infection. How is the virus disseminated in different environments? No one really knows. Some attribute the high number of deaths in New York to transmission in the...

A scattering of protests aimed at state lockdowns erupted across the country last week, sparked not by social distancing guidelines but by politicians' unilaterally dictating what products citizens are permitted to purchase in box stores, attempting to shut down drive-in Masses at churches and closing parks and beaches, among other ill-conceived and gratuitous intrusions. Like any protest movement, this one is a mixed bag: some of the protesters are acting in bad faith, some are idealists, and some are merely terrified of losing their livelihoods, their homes and their careers while waiting around for a government check that might never...

Evidence that the virus is much less deadly than people feared weakens the case for maintaining lockdowns.... The way Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer framed the study's results raises a question that policy makers across the country will confront as they consider when and how to loosen sweeping restrictions aimed at curtailing the COVID-19 epidemic. Will they be guided by emerging evidence, or will they use it to support the policies they already favored?.. The Los Angeles County study, conducted by University of Southern California researchers in collaboration with Ferrer's department, tested a representative sample of 863 adults...

The Rolling Stones haven’t had a number 1 hit probably since 1981’s “Start Me Up.” They’ve had scattershot singles since then– they were never a great singles chart band. They certainly have never had a number 1 hit on iTunes, a relatively new service. But this morning the nearly 60 year old Best Rock and Roll Band in the world is number with “Living in a Ghost Town.” The single was dropped yesterday to great acclaim. With a nod to the Specials’ “Ghost Town,” the song by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards couldn’t be more timely. Ironically. the group recorded...

Prayers up for all the families suffering from the impact of this virus. And we're still praying that the spread starts fading with the warmer Spring weather and that an effective treatment and vaccine are developed before the next flu season starts. And we pray that our people are allowed to go back to work very soon and that our economy comes roaring back. Meanwhile, we may be hurt and slowed down somewhat, but we have faith in the long-run that "what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger." God willing, America will survive and we will survive and we...

New York Magazine writer and Twitter hot-taker Jonathan Chait shared a New York Times article over the weekend, describing it as a “portrait of a man killed by Fox News.” That tweet got around quite a bit, quote retweeted by dozens of blue check media personalities, ratioed by Twitter users at large, and ultimately becoming a de facto headline for the article, which was actually written by New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante.