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The Republican National Committee and President Trump’s reelection campaign haven’t “missed a beat” due to the coronavirus outbreak when it comes to grassroots outreach, RNC officials said. Party officials told Fox News that since transitioning to virtual and digital efforts on March 13, Trump Victory – the name of the combined field efforts of the national party and the president’s reelection campaign – has made over 20 million voter contacts and added more than 300,000 new volunteers. The national party committee also highlighted that Trump Victory’s strategic initiative teams, which are leading the charge, have held 100 virtual events since...

With Texas Governor Greg Abbott now moving fairly aggressively to reopen Texas and its economy (the 10th largest on earth), the differences in approach between Republican governors and Democrat governors are now becoming increasingly stark. Abbott now joins Republican governors like Brian Kemp in Georgia, Henry McMaster in South Carolina, Ron DeSantis in Florida, Kristi Noem in South Carolina and Kevin Stitt in Oklahoma in lending a sense of urgency to getting businesses reopened and people back to work, rescinding stay-at-home orders in the process. Noem, along with Republican governors in 6 other states (Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah...

BEHAR: I kind of feel sorry for the woman. At this point, she’s less of a doctor and more like an elderly care nurse to him. Like, he’s running around the house in his pajamas yelling at the TV set... He’s like the grandpa who walks out in the middle of the birthday party with his pants off and Dr. Birx, his surrogate at the party has to say, ‘Oh, grandpa’s just liberating himself.' It’s scary to see what’s going on in this country, it’s frightening.

Scientists in China appeared to dampen hopes that the coronavirus would eventually burn out for good and said the virus, which has been blamed for 200,000 deaths and decimating the world economy, will likely return each year. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a coronavirus press briefing earlier this month that the world may never return to the “normal” that was known before the outbreak. "When we get back to normal, we will go back to the point where we can function as a society,” he said. He continued, “If you...

My father is having surgery for colon cancer today in an Upstate NY hospital so any prayers would be appreciated. My next need is travel information. I need to get to my parents' house near Cooperstown from the Chattanooga, TN. area. My question is which is the best way to travel in these weird times of lock downs. I don't want to be stopped on the way up. I do have an essential personnel letter, but I don't think it will help out of state issued. I'm leaving early Friday. I don't know if I can do it in 1...

Kevin Watson, a sharp young traditionalist United Methodist at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, has written insightfully for First Things about the denomination’s impending schism. His previously written books stress the importance of early Methodism’s small spiritual accountability groups and their application for today. His more recent book is Old or New School Methodism?: The Fragmentation of a Theological Tradition, which traces current divisions to the mid 19th century. I hope to review this book soon. Here’s Watson’s conclusion in his First Things article: The agonies of the United Methodist Church and their roots in Methodist history teach an...

Like many Americans, I have watched too many movies during this seemingly unending stretch of glorified house arrest. Many of these films I have found on Turner Classic Movies. Even back in the good old days, when I was a free citizen of the United States -- remember that place? -- TCM was my default channel. Yes, I know, leftist TCM maven Ben Mankiewicz co-founded the proudly stupid “The Young Turks,” but he and the other hosts keep their politics out of it. Better still, TCM shows uncut movies others do not dare, Blazing Saddles included. By now, I have...

Dictators love their personal trains. Hitler had ‘Amerika’, an armoured beast equipped with anti-aircraft guns, which he used as a mobile headquarters for much of World War II. Mussolini and Stalin both insisted on luxurious bespoke carriages when travelling long distances. Fitting, then, that one of the world’s last old‑fashioned despots should also travel in his own unique version of this tyrant’s status symbol: one that may provide a vital clue as to the whereabouts of this stricken — and possibly deceased — autocrat.

It’s just the flu, bro. Good news in Texas - Governor Abbott rolled back the draconian mandatory mask rules imposed in some Democrat counties. So I am thankful that lawmakers are slowly allowing us to have some of our constitutional freedoms again. Herd Immunity - Apparently the science around herd immunity is settled. It is really settled and not just global warming “settled”. Herd immunity levels are known for many viruses and these levels are a function of how many healthy people the average sick person infects. It is a broad range right now but herd immunity for CV occurs...

Last week, you knew the anti-Trump opposition press was going to latch onto President Trump’s disinfectant remarks. It might not have been the most artful remark. In fact, the only reason why it was a terrible remark is that the liberal media would go ballistic over it, distracting us with their nonsense as we fight his Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. Partially, it wouldn’t shock me if Trump had the latter in mind, given the media’s pervasive tenacity to take everything he says literally. Frankly, I don’t care. Trump is president. They’re not. And given how badly the media has covered this...

The accumulating death toll from COVID-19 can be seen minute-by-minute on cable news channels. But there’s another death toll few seem to care much about: the number of poverty-related deaths being set in motion by deliberately plunging millions of Americans into poverty and despair. In the first three weeks since governors began shutting down commerce in their states, 17 million Americans filed for unemployment, and according to one survey, one quarter of Americans have lost their jobs or watched their paychecks cut. Goldman Sachs predicts that the economy will shrink 34 percent in the second quarter, with unemployment leaping to...

A coronavirus pandemic model has increased the predicted US death toll from the disease to 74,000 – up 14,000 from the previous estimate, according to a report. “Our forecast now is for 74,000 deaths. That’s our best estimate. The range is pretty wide because there’s a lot of unknown factors there, but our best estimate is going up, and we see these protracted, long peaks in some states,” Dr. Chris Murray, director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Help Metrics and Evaluation, told CNN. “We’re also seeing signs in the mobility data that people are getting more active, and...

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me" (Matt. 5:10-11). When you speak out for Christ, you can expect harassment, insults, and slander. Jesus mentioned three broad categories of suffering that Christians will experience. The first is persecution. "Persecuted" (Matt. 5:10) and "persecute" (v. 11) both come from the same Greek root meaning "to pursue" or "chase away." Over time it came to mean...

All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right ("America is headed to communism") and the left ("It can happen here" -- referring to fascism). It's not that I've ever believed liberty was guaranteed. Being familiar with history and a pessimist regarding the human condition, I never believed that. But the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking. People will argue that a temporary police state has been justified because of the allegedly unique threat to life posed by the new coronavirus. I...

Argentina has banned all internal and international commercial flights until 1 September because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The authorities said airlines should not be allowed to sell tickets for flights that may not go ahead in the next four months. Aviation industry groups said thousands of people could lose their jobs. Argentina closed its borders to non-residents in March, imposing tough quarantine measures. The country currently has nearly 4,000 confirmed infections, with 192 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. The country's National Civil Aviation Administration issued a decree on Monday, banning ticket sales for commercial flights to,...

No matter where you fall on the spectrum of coronavirus concern – anywhere between “it’s the greatest hoax every perpetrated on the public” to “we’re all going to die” – there is a dataset ready to reinforce your preconceived notion. These numbers are being used to manipulate the public for whatever ends the person conveying them has, and they work. The truth, on the other hand, is lost in the fog of it all. Is coronavirus a plague that will wipe out all of humanity, or is it an annoyance, a convenient boogeyman used to seize power by unscrupulous, power-mad...

Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump suggested he may seek damages from China over the coronavirus pandemic which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and spread around the world, prompting a furious response from Beijing on Tuesday. "We are not happy with China," Trump said at a White House briefing Monday. "We are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source. In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman on Tuesday accused US politicians of "telling barefaced lies", without naming Trump specifically, and of ignoring their "own serious problems". "American politicians...

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Maatje Benassi, a US Army reservist and mother of two, has become the target of conspiracy theorists who falsely place her at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she brought the disease to China. The false claims are spreading across YouTube every day, so far racking up hundreds of thousands of apparent views, and have been embraced by Chinese Communist Party media. Despite never having tested positive for the coronavirus or experienced symptoms, Benassi and her husband are now subjects of discussion on Chinese social media about the outbreak, including among accounts that are known drivers of large-scale coordinated...