Free Republic

...Last month Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti forcefully shut down business by cutting off their water and electricity. Garcetti also closed the beaches in LA to ‘slow the spread of COVID-19’ but the heatwave sitting over Southern California is putting people without air conditioning in danger... Instead of allowing people to go outside in the sunshine and heat, he’s telling thousands of people to funnel indoors to cooling centers during a pandemic. Makes sense.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has suspended the liquor license of a bar and grill in Salem related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Los Arcos Mexican Grill was charged with violating the state’s executive order banning on-site consumption of food and drink at restaurants to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Statesman Journal reported.

A welcome distraction from the lockdown blues Hundreds of Prescott Valley residents came out Saturday morning to either show of their cool cars or watch from their neighborhoods.

Link only - https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/25/reno-protesters-demand-end-economic-shutdown/3027660001/

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia Museum of Art was a scene of a protest on Saturday as demonstrators say they can’t afford to pay rent because of the coronavirus pandemic. They’re demanding that the payments are canceled. Protesters say they can’t work and just don’t have the money to pay rent, but landlords are naturally pushing back, saying not so fast. May 1 is less than a week away and with any calendar turn, come bills. “If we can’t work, we can’t pay and that the dignity of our people is of the utmost concern,” Lia Ferrante, with the Party...

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f5/14/ba/f514bac531597d4c40bbbfa4919df31f.jpg

Actress Elizabeth Banks and The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead are leading a star-studded day-long fundraiser to save abortion as millions of Americans have lost their jobs and healthcare workers are treating thousands of vulnerable patients who are now also afflicted with the coronavirus that originated in China. Banks and Winstead, founder of Abortion Access Front (AAF),are teaming up with W. Kamau Bell, Nikki Glaser, Jenny Slate, Sandra Bernhard, and Margaret Cho in the April 30 event dubbed “Operation Save Abortion” that will support independent abortion providers, says The Hollywood Reporter (THR). According to the report, the celebrities claim pro-life...

Link only - https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/04/25/kentucky-ag-daniel-cameron-target-frankfort-protesters/3027550001/

As global governments grapple with how to unlock economies without triggering another round of coronavirus infections, some economists are recommending that age should be used to determine who returns to work first. While the freezing of activity from Mumbai to Chicago is credited with saving lives, the downsides are evident in the International Monetary Fund's warning of the worst global recession in almost a century. How to balance lives and livelihoods is drawing the attention of economists, and a growing cohort propose authorities should first remove restrictions on those deemed at lowest risk of death or hospital admittance from the...

For months, Joe Biden has argued that under pressure and political duress, President Donald Trump may pursue increasingly extreme measures to stay in power. In November, Biden said he feared that “as the walls close in on him he becomes more erratic. And I’m genuinely concerned about what he may do in order to try to hold on to the office.” In January, Biden fretted: “He still has another nine or 10 months. God knows what can happen.” And Thursday, he added some urgency to his warnings, suggesting that Trump might try to delay or otherwise disrupt the election.

With more gorgeous weather forecast, Ventura County officials are loosening up coronavirus-spurred restrictions on its parks, golf courses and beaches. Los Angeles County officials’ plea to residents here: Stay home, folks. “I do want to beg people in LA County, please don’t go to Ventura to use their outdoor spaces,” said Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Public Health director this week.The neighboring county’s public and private golf courses will operate with some restrictions, allowing gatherings of no more than four masked and gloved golfers, and with physical distancing required. The City of Ventura also relaxed rules on parks and beaches,...

ENCINITAS, Calif. - At least three people were arrested on Saturday morning during a protest at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. The people were taken to patrol stations and were issued a misdemeanor citation for violating the stay-at-home order and stepping foot onto a closed beach. The three were cited for violating the stay-at-home order and congregating on a closed beach, according to Lt. Amber Baggs of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. "Several protesters walked onto the beach and sat as deputies began speaking to them regarding the county public health order," Baggs said. "The people were given multiple opportunities...

Thomas Ramirez, 39, a truck driver from Beaumont has spent the last month hauling cleaning supplies intended for hospitals in San Francisco and Sacramento from the Los Angeles and Inland Empire areas. While the coronavirus has brought most sectors of the economy to a halt, prompting mass unemployment, and keeping families shut in at home, thousands of truck drivers like Ramirez have continued transporting essential equipment and goods throughout California, such as medical supplies, food and clothes. Despite the risk of exposure to the disease as well as their essential role in keeping the wheels of society turning, even garnering...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police wearing riot gear and face masks tussled on Saturday with dozens of protesters demonstrating in central Berlin against the coronavirus lockdown on public life. Protesters shouted “I want my life back” and held up signs with slogans such as “Protect constitutional rights”, “Freedom isn’t everything but without freedom, everything is nothing”, and “Daddy, what is a kiss?” Police said on Twitter they had arrested more than 100 people. Some protesters tried to keep a distance from each other, sitting on the ground and wearing masks, but others clustered together. Like dozens of countries around the...

[Barf Alert] HAPPY EARTH DAY! (Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of Laudato Si) Francis being amazing... again To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day yesterday, Pope Francis issued a weird sort of papal confession to Pachamama during one of his increasingly bizarre Wednesday Audiences: "We have sinned against the earth,” confessed His Holiness, prompting Christians around the world to lament: Wouldn’t it be great if Francis cared this much about aborted babies?Understandably, several news agencies rendered this as a kind of blasphemous play on the words of the Our Father: “Pope says nature will not forgive our trespasses.”   Speaking from...

A speaker addresses the small crowd gathered for a "Rhode Islanders against excessive quarantine" protest in reaction to the state's mandatory stay-at-home order as an attempt to combat COVID-19 at the Rhode Island State House in Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday, April 25, 2020. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo has extended the stay-at-home order in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19 to May 8th and recently told schools that they will finish the year through via distance learning. Rhode Island has had 6,699 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 202 deaths as of Saturday.

It might have resembled a July 4th gathering - people wearing red, white and blue and waving American flags and signs quoting the Constitution as speakers blasted songs by Lee Greenwood and Bruce Springsteen with "U.S.A." in the titles. But the crowd clustered Saturday outside Minnesota's governor's residence in St. Paul was angry. About 250 people, few wearing masks and many standing within inches of one another, protested measures Gov. Tim Walz has implemented to limit the spread of COVID-19. "I believe that the governor, along with so many other governors throughout the nation, has practiced overkill," said W.H. Nieder...

Peter Dauo, a political activist and one-time fierce Hillary Clinton backer, took to Twitter Saturday to urge former Vice President Joe Biden to end his presidential bid over new developments in the sexual assault allegation against him. Dauo, who worked for Clinton during her first presidential bid and was a prominent defender of her in the 2016 cycle, took to Twitter Saturday morning to say "Biden should withdraw." In a "difficult" Twitter thread, Daou said the new information emerging in support of Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations against Biden prompted his stance. "Credible rape accusations are disqualifying or we have...

Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley would both earn themselves the reputation as Henry VII's hatchet men -- which is fair enough; but in addition they would be characterised by Polydore Vergil and others to characterize as extortioners... on Henry VII's death in 1509, Dudley was a fall guy for what was essentially his master's policy. He was tried in London in July 1509 and convicted of treason; the ludicrous accusation was that he planned to "hold, guide and govern the King and his Council" with a force of men. He probably did assemble a force of men given the political...

The future of steamy sex scenes in Hollywood movies or TV shows is hanging in the balance as the entertainment industry braces itself for new stringent rules associated with the spread of COVID-19. DailyMail.com has learned that many actors have expressed concern about filming scenes involving kissing or intimacy in future projects once social distancing restrictions are lifted. And major entertainment insurers are already drawing up new policies to protect A-list talent, on and off camera, which will likely lead to stars and production staff having to take coronavirus tests before stepping on set. A leading Hollywood intimacy coordinator told...