Free Republic

Anyone in the United States who thinks the coronavirus lockdown has led to an unconstitutional power-grab by local and state governments can handily point to Michigan and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as an example of bureaucratic overreach. She’s cracked down on landscaping, gardening, golfing, traveling from one home you own to another, and buying nonessentials like seeds and paint and car seats. (“Life-sustaining” abortion is exempt, of course.) Sheriffs have announced they won’t enforce her overreaching executive orders. She’s said that she’s not going to sign any bill that takes authority away from her. She’s also lobbying hard for Joe Biden’s...

Texans are growing weary of their stateÂ’s stay-at-home orders and putting people out of business and jobs. Few are growing more weary of these patently unconstitutional orders than the law enforcement personnel who are tasked by craven county judges, mayors and a weak Governor to enforce those edicts. We discussed the pushback that Harris CountyÂ’s child County Judge, Lina Hidalgo, received Wednesday when she issued an order that all residents of the county of 4 million must wear a mask anytime they go out into public. That order was met by immediate responses from Houston police and Harris County sheriffÂ’s...

A quasi-consensus has emerged among many policymakers and commentators that the U.S. should continue to close schools and non-essential businesses until coronavirus testing and immunity is widespread. But there is a significant possibility that we are many months, if not years, away from meeting these thresholds. Time is of the essence, given the severe human cost of a prolonged economic shutdown. The good news is that policymakers have an opportunity to strategically reopen the economy, by taking into account a unique feature of COVID-19: its heavy skew toward bad outcomes in the elderly and the near-elderly who also have other...

If you were still harboring naïve notions of free and fair elections when Democrats are involved, perhaps this will help disabuse you of those fantasies. From a Fox News report a few days ago: A prominent Democratic lawyer who represented Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign [Marc Elias] is threatening to sue the state of Nevada unless it immediately suspends prosecutions for ballot harvesting before the June 9 primary, among a slew of other demands, according to a letter obtained by Fox News on Tuesday. Writing on April 10 to Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, Elias first took aim...

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit” (Proverbs 26:4-5).

An appeals court has reinstated a California law requiring background checks for people buying ammunition, reversing a federal judge’s decision to stop the checks that he said violate the constitutional right to bear arms. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted the state attorney general’s request to stay the judge’s order. “This means that the same restrictions that have been previously in effect regarding ammunition in California are back for the time being,” the National Rifle Association, which hailed the judge’s injunction, said in a news release. The law, which took effect last July, requires Californians to pass...

There’s a lot of important news this week which is getting insufficient coverage. By way of example, we have these developments: There are increasingly plausible reports that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un may be dead, dying, or comatose. General Michael Flynn, in support of his motion that he be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, filed a new pleading this week. In it he notes that exculpatory material that he just now tardily received had been deliberately withheld from him, against the mandate of the Brady case. This material supports his motion that he was framed and his son threatened by prosecutors if...

It’s just the flu, bro. A fact that has come out of this CV hoax and the GW hoax is that people in government who claim that they are acting on behalf of science are leftists. They try and use their PhD to promote their leftist causes at every turn. Just look at University professors - 90% Democrat. This should be a learning experience for Trump and all future Republican presidents - when you come into office replace every single one of these supposedly politically neutral scientists with a scientist who you trust. If a Democrat appointed the scientist then...

Media Consumption in the Age of COVID-19 As the coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc across the globe, people’s time that would have otherwise been spent perusing malls or going to live events, is now being spent on the sofa. During this period of pandemic-induced social isolation, it’s no surprise that people are consuming vast amounts of media. Today’s graphics use data from a Global Web Index report to explore how people have increased their media consumption as a result of the outbreak, and how it differs across each generation. More Time to Kill Global Web Index found that over...

WASHINGTON -- Bless Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman for wanting to open up Las Vegas for business as soon as possible. Then breathe a sigh of relief that she doesn't get to make it happen. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered a nonessential business shutdown through April, which is likely to be extended into May. The Democratic governor's action gives the nonpartisan mayor license to spout her opinions without hurting anyone or anything other than her reputation. The 81-year-old mayor did her cause no favor when she appeared on CNN on Wednesday to make her case. Unfortunately, Goodman did so by...

A true Story from an Irish Sunday School Teacher. I was testing children in my Dublin Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven. 'I asked them, ' If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?' 'NO!' the children answered. 'If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the garden, and kept everything tidy, would that get me into heaven?' Again, the answer was 'NO!' 'If I gave sweets to all the children, and loved...

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS: ... McConnell says after four huge bailouts and stimulus he doesn't want taxpayer money to go to states that were deep in debt before the virus arrived. ... One of McConnell's chief critics who called him the Marie Antoinette of the Senate joins me now. Republican Congressman Peter King of New York, a member of the financial services committee.... That's the argument that ---- so much money is going out the door and some companies, as well as some states are going to look at this and as an opportunity to... fill their coffers to...

The Talk Shows Easter Sunday, April 26th, 2020 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-Okla.; Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Panel: Ben Domenech, Katie Pavlich and Mo Elleithee. “Power Player of the Week” segment with Broadway performer and The Actor’s Fund chairman Brian Stokes Mitchell. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Scarf-wearer Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force coordinator; Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J.; Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for...

On Friday evening, the 8731 Katy Freeway location of Federal American Grill in Houston, Texas, opened up its doors for in-dining room customers despite an ongoing order from state and local lawmakers to remain closed except for take-out. Owner Matt Brice told the Houston Chronicle that the restaurant has “complied 100 percent until now.” “What I don’t like is that the government is picking and choosing which businesses win or lose. They are sinking the economy,” Brice said. “We have to stand our ground and get people back to work.” Brice also told the Chronicle that precautions were being taken...

Are you enjoying your first taste of socialism? Life in America today is a sneak preview of life in Cuba or Venezuela. Democrats love it. This is the future they plan for you. The current economic catastrophe is exactly what America will look like if we institute the Green New Deal. The goal is to defeat climate change by killing your job, taking away your car, closing your business and turning America into Cuba or Venezuela. It's a progressive Democrat's rainy dream. And isn't it great? You don't need to go to work. Money magically appears in your bank account....

We face a pandemic that has not been seen at this level in a century, causing all levels of government to react. Health departments have issued specific guidelines in an attempt to slow down the infection rate, but how much will it help? Only time will tell. However, you can count on one thing when there is an opportunity to gain more power: the Democratic Party will find a way to obtain more authority. After the last six to eight weeks, one thing is evident. We can never allow the Democratic Party to own Washington, D.C. ever again. Otherwise, the...

These are incredibly stupid times. That should be the whole column right there, leaving it up to you to apply that unquestionably true statement to whatever it is you’d apply it to. But it doesn’t apply to one or two things or people, it applies to everything and everyone. You’re going to find something you agree with and to hate in this column, and that’s fine. Actually, it’s good. If you can’t get pissed off at someone you largely agree with every once in a while, well, you might as well be a Democrat. But these things need to be...

For the first time in the history of Minnesota, the adhan was broadcast over an outdoor speaker placed over the rooftop of Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. The adhan will be played five times a day throughout the month of #Ramadan, which begins tonight. pic.twitter.com/DDWcMo618s — Sahan Journal (@SahanJournal) April 24, 2020 The Muslim call to prayer echoed for the first time ever throughout a Minneapolis neighbourhood, in what is believed to be the first publicly-broadcast call to prayer in a major U.S. city. The prayer, known as the adhan, will echo from loudspeakers through parts of Minneapolis five...

Researchers at MIT; the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard; and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; along with colleagues from around the world have identified specific types of cells that appear to be targets of the coronavirus that is causing the Covid-19 pandemic.

PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update As of 00/00/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Counties InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:46 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Process JHU DataAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Document Core NumbersAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture States InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 00:00 PDST     WorldofMeters - Data Processing begins...As of 00/00/2020 ??:?? PDST    ...