Free Republic

Mainstream media journalists in Oregon including investigative reporter Rob Davis of the "Portland Oregonian/OregonLive" have been able to obtain detailed information about Covid-19 cases in the state including the race and ethnicity of those testing positive, the underlying conditions in reported deaths and details about reported cases at nursing homes and retirement communities.... President Trump issuing an executive order tonight to keep meat processing plants open in the United States..... Yesterday's ramming attack on two French police officers in a Paris suburb being investigated as a terrorist attack.... Rioting in northern Lebanon with one dead and dozens injured in the...

Weeks after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in the Russia investigation, Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, reassured WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a Twitter message that if prosecutors came after him, “I will bring down the entire house of cards,” according to FBI documents made public Tuesday. The records reveal the extent of communications between Stone and Assange, whose anti-secrecy website published Democratic emails hacked by Russians during the 2016 presidential election, and underscore efforts by Trump allies to gain insight about the release of information they expected would embarrass Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. The documents...

Today, I offer the full legal and scientific case against universal lockdowns and how they are actually making things worse on all fronts. First, you must know your rights. Second, know the basic science and concrete data we have from months of observing the virus. Why do pro-lockdown politicians and the media hate our seniors? In fact, it is those people who are ensuring more vulnerable people die by preventing herd immunity among the healthy and by draining needed medical resources.

“Mushrooms are here to help us—they’re a gift,” Ayers told NBC. “There’s so much we can do with them beyond just food; it’s so limitless. They’re our biggest ally for helping the environment.” The canoe is made of mycelium—the dense, fibrous, underground material that links together the various fruiting parts (the toadstools we see on the ground or our dinner plates).

As America battles the COVID-19 virus, speculation has started that a prolonged public health crisis could delay or even postpone this year’s presidential election. So how would the Constitution deal with such an unusual situation?In general, a combination of state or congressional actions could delay elections but not postpone the selection of a president and vice president. The only hard deadline spelled out in the Constitution is the end of a president’s term and a vice president’s term on January 20 of the year following a general election. (That same deadline applies regardless of term limits imposed on the president...

A Wuhan laboratory is the “most likely” source of the COVID-19 outbreak now ravaging the globe, according to a U.S. government analysis that catalogs the evidence and concludes that other explanations for the origin of the coronavirus are less credible. The document, compiled from open sources and not a finished product, says there is no smoking gun to blame the virus on either the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, both located in the city where the first outbreaks were reported. But “there is circumstantial evidence to suggest such...

Car maker draws more than $15 billion from credit lines, sees even bigger loss in the second quarterFord Motor Co. on Tuesday reported a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss and braced for steeper losses in the next quarter as the coronavirus pandemic continued to snuff demand for big-ticket items and kept factories closed. “I never had a business plan that was called pandemic,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett said on a call after the results. “We just never imagined the economy turning off” like it has to curb the spread of the virus. Ford US:F lost $2 billion, or 50 cents a...

...What if the president, governors, and mayors made us all close our businesses and churches and stay home, not for the plausible good of others, but just for our own good? Perhaps they decided that too many of us take risks when we drive, work, or play in the park. We would never have tolerated it! There would have been huge, bipartisan protests from the Atlantic to the Pacific... We’ve complied with the pandemic lockdown because it appeals not just to our vices — our fear and petty partisanship — but to our virtues — our love of elderly parents...

Animal Farm: They Are Culling the Herd -- Time to Wake Up *Video at link*

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis’ confidant: Sunday Mass obligation isn’t ‘indispensable,’ it ‘could fall’ Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández said that 'social distancing and quarantine' will require Catholics to 'reinvent' themselves April 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, a papal ghostwriter and personal confidant of Pope Francis, said in a recent interview that the precept of the Catholic Church that Catholics go to church on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation “is not indispensable” and could “fall.”  At the same time, Fernández also mentions the Sacrament of Penance, saying it “has changed a lot over the centuries,” implying a possible...

An artificial depression created around the coronavirus outbreak by American leadership will kill thousands of Americans, explained Jacki Pick, host of the Jacki Daily Show on BlazeMedia, warning of the consequences of varying economic shutdowns across the nation ostensibly aimed at addressing the viral spread. She offered her analysis on Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow. In her recently-published article, “What a Prolonged Shutdown Will Cost in Human Life,” Pick wrote: A prolonged shutdown could bring tens of thousands of deaths through spikes in rates of suicide, heart attack, missed cancer diagnoses, domestic violence deaths,...

The abortion lobby is using the COVID-19 pandemic to quickly expand access to the abortion pill… and in the process, they are placing women at greater risk. In part one of this series on “no-test abortion,” Live Action News introduced the protocol, which enables abortion profiteers to dispense the abortion pill without conducting any ultrasounds (to rule out ectopic pregnancy and accurately date gestational age) or lab tests/blood work. While the details of this protocol came to light during a recent webinar sponsored by the Society of Family Planning (SFP) — which included Gynuity Health Projects and others with profit...

China has a major reason for pushing the fake news story that the Wuhan coronavirus was created randomly in a wet market. Former New York Mayor and Trump supporter and Trump personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani interviewed former US Attorney Joe diGenova and his attorney wife and partner, Victoria Toensing, about corrupt Joe Biden’s activities in China and around the globe. At the 12:00 mark, Joe and Victoria state that the Bidens are more corrupt than the Clintons. A very shocking statement, indeed. The interview was excellent. After Rudy interviewed Joe and Victoria, he brought in K. T. McFarland, who at...

Republicans are feeling the heat as progressive leaders and liberal dark money groups launch a coordinated, full-throttled initiative demanding universal vote-by-mail in the upcoming general election. Progressive groups are quickly coming out of the woodwork in hopes of using the unprecedented circumstances created by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic to achieve a treasured Democrat Party policy goal of fundamentally changing the way the U.S. conducts elections. “Multimillion dollar programs urging mail voting in November are already coming together,” Politico reported, highlighting the efforts of organizations with ties to Soros-backed, dark money groups. Politico reported, noting the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) commitment...

When Allen Hargrove leaves his Brooklyn apartment to get groceries, he does so with an underlying feeling of worry. It’s not just the coronavirus pandemic: As a black man, he fears he could draw unwanted attention by wearing a mask in public. “I have a sense of anxiety wearing the mask,” said Mr. Hargrove, 33, who described himself as having a “football build,” at 220 pounds. “It makes me more aware of how I’m being perceived.”

April 29 2020 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Acts 8:1b-8 There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria and...

Conservative Twitter feeds and websites exploded with mirth Tuesday when Joe Biden appeared to fall asleep during a virtual town hall meeting with Hillary Clinton. The livestreamed event was designed to highlight Mrs. Clinton’s endorsement of Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. At one point, Mr. Biden closed his eyes, put his head down, and remained motionless for some 15 seconds or more, video of the event shows. Eventually, the 77-year-old candidate appeared to be startled awake, and he jerked his head up, eyes blinking.

Thousands of homeless New Yorkers have continued to seek shelter in the city’s subways, avoiding an overwhelmed and crowded shelter system that poses its own dangers during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the presence of the homeless in the subways, but they offered little in the way of solutions to the problem. Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for the MTA to close ten subway stations so NYPD and homeless outreach workers can help get the homeless into shelters, and so the MTA can clean the stations thoroughly. “We'll devote...

In late March it was reported that a 68-year-old man died after ingesting chloroquine. Only he didn’t ingest chloroquine — he drank fish tank cleaner and poisoned himself to death. But the media ran with the lie anyway, because orange man bad. You can read more here. But the story was a bit strange and now the Mesa Police Department are investigating the death of Gary Lenius as a homicide.

And on the 28th day of April during the pandemic, I heard God open Heaven, and the angels sang a familiar song, “It is time for these four kids of mine to go back to school.” In a conference call with governors regarding procedures to safely open up the states, Trump suggested that they consider opening up public schools. This is something that parents all over the country are wondering about to various degrees. All joking aside, I think kids should go back to school during May. Students would benefit socially and emotionally a lot more than academically, but I...