Free Republic

The new sale of 1,400 tons of beef, made in the week period beginning April 10, comes on top of a 1,500-ton purchase made earlier this month — the highest weekly purchase ever for China, according to U.S. Meat Export Federation spokesman Joe Schuele

Dear friends, in the last month and a half; because of the coronavirus quarantine, many of us have experienced things which we never thought possible! The closure of schools, businesses, churches, national sports leagues including March Madness college hoop! A collapsing stock market, massive unemployment, a two trillion dollar national stimulus package, a national shortage of toilet paper etc... etc...! We as a nation have been moving at light speed as a society and a nation and in the ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS Divine WISDOM and PROVIDENCE of Almighty God our Creator, He has allowed such events to say; Slow down and...

Some liberals keep ruining the idea that public radio is an oasis of civility and nonpartisanship. Take Bob Collins, a longtime political editor at Minnesota Public Radio. Anthony Gockowski of the Minnesota Sun site pointed out some Twitter savagery from Collins (account name @MyLittleBloggie). Many of his recent tweets are just the usual Democrat hack stuff -- Trump should resign, his supporters are rats. But on Friday, Collins erupted in hate, suggesting Republicans should commit suicide by shooting themselves in the chest.

A top senator said he would be "shocked" if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not dead or incapacitated. Kim has not been seen publicly in two weeks and North Korean media have been silent on the matter. A CNN report last week said Kim is in grave condition and the United States was monitoring intelligence of his surgery, but President Trump said on Thursday he believed the report was "incorrect." Still, reports swirled on Saturday claiming Kim is either in a vegetative state after receiving heart surgery or dead. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee...

We'll have a little bluegrass for our gospel tune today, Six Hours On The Cross by the Goins Brothers (1974). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) claimed Friday evening that 50,000 Americans died because the Senate failed to remove President Donald Trump from office during the impeachment trial in February. (snip) Schiff told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: There is one thing that, really, I have to say haunts me from the trial and it was before that snippet you showed where we knew we had to answer the question to the senators, okay, essentially, house managers, you’ve proved him guilty [sic] (emphasis mine), does he really need to be removed after all? we have an election in nine months....

Grace King came home to her parents in Janesville from UW-La Crosse on March 13. Her spring break had started. It was also the day the first positive test for COVID-19 was recorded in her home county. The family—Grace, her parents and little brother Owen—had planned a weeklong trip to Hawaii. The public knowledge of the pandemic was scant at that point. Rock County didn’t announce its first COVID-19 case until March 19. That was the same day Wisconsin announced its first two deaths. Grace’s mother, Sara, said Hawaii had fewer COVID-19 cases than Wisconsin at that point. She and...

The Westport Police Department, located in Connecticut’s hardest-hit county of Fairfield, has abandoned its idea to use high-tech drones that can detect symptoms of coronavirus infection from up to 190 feet away. The backtracking came after people expressed privacy concerns about the program. On Thursday, Police Chief Foti Koskinas and First Selectman Jim Marpe said the drone surveillance plan would not come to fruition because it was “not well-received,” according to Westport News. “In our good faith effort to get ahead of the virus and potential need to manage and safely monitor crowds and social distancing in this environment, our...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — MUSC Health will be the only health care system in South Carolina to participate in a carefully structured national clinical trial testing the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19. The launch depends on the arrival of the shipment of the medication and the placebo it will be compared to. Andrew Goodwin, M.D., a specialist in treating acute respiratory distress syndrome and an associate professor in the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, will lead MUSC Health’s part of the trial. “I think this is tremendously important for a number of reasons. First,...

MADISON — They’re as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore! Thousands of frustrated Wisconsinites turned out Friday afternoon for a ReOpen Wisconsin rally at the Capitol. They came even though the Evers administration denied event organizers a permit. They came even as government officials and members of the mainstream media labeled them as right-wing extremists, even murderers. They came to demand their state back. “We want Wisconsin back open,” said Tom Kienitz, who demonstrated Friday with his wife, Trish, and their son. Like many, they carried their message on their cardinal and white protest sign....

Minnesota Department of Health has updated its COVID-19 to reflect that 288 cases are hospitalized, with 109 in intensive care. With 23 new COVID-19 deaths attributed to the virus — for a new total of 244 — every new decedent but one was resident in a long-term care facility. The new decedents included one over age 100, 10 in their 90s, seven in their 80s, two in their 70s, and three in their 60s. Over 75 percent of those whose deaths have been attributed to the virus were residents of long-term care facilities with significant underlying conditions. The median age...

SALT LAKE CITY — State and local governments across the United States have obtained about 30 million doses of a malaria drug touted by President Trump to treat patients with the coronavirus, despite warnings from doctors that more research is needed. At least 22 states and Washington, D.C., secured shipments of the drug, hydroxychloroquine, according to information compiled from state and federal officials by The Associated Press. Sixteen of those states were won by Trump in 2016, although five of them, including North Carolina and Louisiana, are now led by Democratic governors. Supporters say having a supply on hand makes...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who already face criticism for leading what some have described as the worst, most botched response to the coronavirus crisis, now face even more scrutiny over allegations health officials took no action after being warned that a nursing home was being overwhelmed and needed some patients to be transferred elsewhere. According to multiple investigations, administrators at the nursing home in question, Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Health Center, sent desperate emails to state Health Department officials in early April asking if some patients could be transferred to one of...

Seth Abramson This thread summarizes the major-media investigative reporting on the TRUMP-CHINA SCANDAL, a bribery scandal involving Trump's hunt for dirt on Joe Biden in China, his debts to the Chinese government, and his decision to ignore life-saving COVID-19 intel. Please RETWEET. · Steve Schmidt The utter asininity of Trump’s briefings this week are testament to the blindingly obvious reality that there is no proverbial bottom floor when it comes the abject stupidity and delusion that flows from the Presidential podium like a toxic fog over the country. Trump is a fool. Paul Krugman I could be wrong, but somehow...

A federal judge has affirmed the right of a Pentecostal church in Mississippi to worship without fear of being shut down again or threatened by local police, allowing the congregation to hold drive-in services beginning Sunday. In a federal lawsuit filed by the conservative legal group, Thomas More Society, on behalf of the First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs, U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills issued the order against the city of Holly Springs, whose officers disrupted and shut down a midweek Bible study, 10 days after disrupting the congregation’s Easter worship service and issuing its pastor, Jerry Waldrop, a...

The driver of a single-car crash in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, is "believed" to have passed out behind the wheel after wearing an N-95 mask for too long, police said. Lincoln Park Police Department responded to an accident on Thursday where a vehicle careened, front bumper first, into a wooden pole. After the officers cleared the scene where the driver was the only occupant of the car, they posted photographs of the crash on their Facebook page with a caption that created an "overwhelming response." "The crash is believed to have resulted from the driver wearing an N95 mask for...

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness" (Matt. 5:10). There is a price to pay for being a Kingdom citizen. Unlike many today who try to make the gospel palatable for reluctant sinners, Jesus made it clear that following Him had its price. Rather than acceptance, fame, prestige, and prosperity, you can expect rejection and persecution. That's not a popular approach to evangelism, but it's honest. Also it insures that no one will try to enter the kingdom on the wrong basis. Jesus wanted His hearers to count the cost of discipleship. He knew that...

Research at Schengen demonstrates that already 300,000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis used a combination of throwing sticks, spears and thrusting lances. Prof. Nicholas Conard and Dr. Jordi Serangeli, who lead the research team, attribute the exceptional discovery to the outstanding preservation of wooden artifacts in the water saturated lakeside sediments in Schengen. The throwing stick was recovered in layer 13 II-4, which in the 1990s yielded examples of throwing spears, a thrusting lance and additional wooden tools of unknown function. Like almost all of these finds, the new artifact was carefully carved from spruce wood. The throwing stick is 64.5...

YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki‎ has declared that they will “remove any content that goes against WHO recommendations” on the coronavirus pandemic, essentially censoring any opinion other than that of the World Health Organization. This is not the first time YouTube has censored information with which it disagrees. Last year, the online streaming site said it would censor videos that do not agree with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s exaggerated claims about global warming. This move by YouTube sets a dangerous precedent for censorship and has the potential to restrict the flow of information from competing sources—something that...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Hebrew Worship Words Dagal Psalms 20:5May we shout for joy over your victory     and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Song of Solomon 6:4  You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling,     as lovely as Jerusalem,     as majestic as troops with banners. Song of Solomon 6:10Who is this that appears like the dawn,     fair as the moon, bright as the sun,     majestic as the stars in procession? New International Version (NIV)(End of Scripture Passage) . "Dagal" means to...