Free Republic

It’s just the flu, bro. Back in day 13 of the thread we discussed “Healthiness differentiated social distancing”. If you are vulnerable maybe you should socially distance but if you are healthy then you should be out and about. This is the proper way to get herd immunity. This way the healthy people build immunity and then, after contagious period passes, they can’t pass CV on to the vulnerable. Instead we are doing the opposite - protect the children at all costs and let the people in nursing homes get sick. Even Sweden has said that their method is great...

As I’ve noted before, the politicians and experts telling us to shut up, sit down and stay in our homes under virtual house arrest themselves all have jobs to go to and paychecks to collect. They are essential, we are told, as opposed to you and me and most of America, who are not. Leading the pack is Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, of which it is now being said -- if you can fake it there, you can fake it anywhere. Cuomo has been faking it as a truthful and competent leader of his state. At a recent...

Iran shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent comments about naval confrontation in the contested waters of the Persian Gulf, warning Wednesday a hard slap in the face awaits foreign perpetrators committing even “the merest violation” of the Islamic republic’s territory. Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi lashed the U.S. for allegedly causing disturbances in the Persian Gulf... He dismissed Trump’s threat last week that the U.S. Navy will fire at Iranian boats as “psychological warfare” aimed at distracting public attention ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Trump was reacting to ongoing reports of Iranian gunboats that continue harassing American ships...

Mitt Romney has slammed Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic mocking him as 'not the smartest guy in the room' and saying his initial response was not a 'great moment in American leadership'. The Republican Senator laid into the president while speaking live on the Georgetown Politics Forum Tuesday evening. As well as blasting Trump's leadership style, Romney also criticized his move to stop funding to the World Health Organization and said a more centralized approach from the federal government would have been 'more effective' in tackling the pandemic.

Deutsche Bank has published its financial report for the first quarter of 2020, revealing that the German lender has posted a bottom-line loss of €43 million attributable to shareholders during the three month period. Although the German bank posted a loss of €43 million, it is worth noting that it is still better than analysts had initially expected, with the figure reflecting higher revenues on the back of increased trading, which has been driven by COVID-19 related volatility. For the three month period, Deutsche Bank confirmed that it had achieved a Group profit before tax (PBT) of €206 million after...

One of the left’s standard attacks on the President is that he doesn’t listen to the science! Sadly, he did listen to the so-called experts who predicted wildly hyperbolic death and destruction and he agreed to the economic shutdown. The President surely realizes by now that he should have operated on his gut instincts which rarely fail him. Dr. Fauci, for example, sees no patients. He looks at computer models, all of which were wrong. Dr. Birx probably has more hands-on experience, but she too recommended closing up the nation. They were wrong.

* HSBC on Tuesday reported first-quarter earnings that missed expectations after the bank set aside more money for potentially larger loan losses due to the coronavirus pandemic and weakening oil prices. * The bank, Europe’s largest by assets, said its pre-tax profit fell 48% year-over-year to $3.23 billion in the first quarter of 2020, below an average analyst forecast of $3.67 billion. * HSBC shares in Hong Kong were flat after the earnings release when trading was resumed following a lunch break. The bank said it increased its expected credit impairment charges by $2.4 billion to $3 billion “due to...

On this date in 1818, on the authority of a military tribunal of doubtful legality, a general who would become a president hanged two British citizens for aiding America’s Indian enemies. The First Seminole War saw the ambitious General Andrew Jackson appropriate for himself authority considerably beyond that authorized by Washington to escalate border conflicts around Spanish Florida into an outright invasion.

FRANKFURT, April 29 (Reuters) - German auto supplier and technology company Robert Bosch on Wednesday said it expects automotive production to fall by at least 20 percent this year, as the coronavirus pandemic slams the brakes on factory production lines and saps demand. "We are bracing ourselves for a global recession that will also have a considerable impact on our own performance in 2020," Bosch CFO Stefan Asenkerschbaumer said in a statement. "Given the many imponderables, we feel unable to make a reasonable forecast for the Bosch Group for the year as a whole. It will take a supreme effort...

February 2020 seems like an eternity ago. But it was just a matter of weeks ago that the economy was booming, real-estate prices were soaring, and everyone was happy and healthy. Then in a matter of days, it all came crashing down. (snip) But the big questions deal with the long-term ramifications. In particular, how will this crisis impact the housing market? Two Schools of Thought When it comes to the immediate future of the housing market, there are a couple of different schools of thought. The first school of thought subscribes to the notion that this economic collapse has...

The most pressing problem facing Americans today is how and when states and local areas reopen after the coronavirus lockdowns. President Trump, stressing the terrible economic damage the lockdowns have done, has (mostly) pressed for reopening sooner rather than later. He has released detailed guidelines for officials in the states to consult when deciding when to reopen. Where does Joe Biden stand on all this? Even though he is the presumptive presidential nominee of his party, and even though reopening is the most urgent issue of the time, and even though he claims far greater competence and leadership ability than...

President Trump on Tuesday said the coronavirus is "going to go away," repeating a line he's said in the past that contradicts his own health experts. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administration's leading infectious diseases expert, has said the deadly virus will not disappear, and the U.S. should be prepared for another wave in fall. Mr. Trump, making the remarks in an East Room event with businesses that turned into a press conference, said a vaccine is looking promising, but he thinks the virus is going to go away, and if it does return in a "modified" form in fall the...

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden complained about states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 in a virtual endorsement from the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. (snip) FMR. VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, I have to tell you something completely, honestly straightforward. I wish this were us doing this and my supporting your re-election for present of the United States. You won the majority of the vote. I think the way in which some of the states acted was just, anyway we would not, we’d have problems (emphasis mine), we’d have the pandemic but you would have...

Going viral is good for social media accounts. Just ask Bill Belichick’s dog, Nike, who took the 2020 NFL Draft by storm and now has thousands of followers on Instagram. During the draft, right after the New England Patriots made their first selection — a shocker all by itself — the broadcast went to Belichick’s home where he was doing the draft from what appeared to be his kitchen table. Instead of Belichick sitting there, it was Nike in the chair staring at the computers — setting the NFL world into a frenzy on social media.

Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a military historian and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He has written two articles relevant to today's society. Last October he published, "Members of Previous Generations Now Seem Like Giants," and he recently wrote, "Is America a Roaring Giant or Crying Baby?" In the first article, Hanson starts with some observations and questions regarding the greatness of previous generations compared with today's Americans. He asks: "Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years? ......

This week, new evidence emerged in the sexual assault allegation by former Joe Biden staffer Tara Reade against the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. According to Business Insider, four people have stated that Reade told them contemporaneously about her accusation that Biden forcibly penetrated her with his fingers in 1993. Meanwhile, the Media Research Center uncovered a clip, purportedly of Reade's mother, calling into "Larry King Live" back in 1993 to obliquely refer to the allegation. While such evidence does not speak to the actual event at issue, it does demonstrate that Reade has been talking about the alleged incident...

BEIJING - A senior Chinese government official challenged President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., accusing him of wasting weeks after the threat posed by the virus first became apparent. In a wide-ranging interview with NBC News conducted in Mandarin on Tuesday, the official, Executive Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, also hit back at the politicization of the virus. Le, a rising star within the country's political establishment, rejected claims that China had covered up the initial outbreak or that it should be held financially liable for COVID-19. Instead, he termed the virus a "natural disaster"...

Sean Hannity has been the king of Fox News for two and a half years, the highest-rated host on the highest-rated cable news channel. His dominance has withstood network management changes and the vicissitudes of a news cycle driven by President Trump, the anchor’s close political ally. In April, however, Mr. Hannity slipped back. For the first time since moving to the 9 p.m. time slot in October 2017, “Hannity” ranked second in Fox News’s prime-time lineup. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” ranked ahead, with an average nightly audience of 4.56 million viewers, outpacing the 4.39 million who tuned in for Mr....

WASHINGTON - The White House has ordered intelligence agencies to comb through communications intercepts, human source reporting, satellite imagery and other data to establish whether China and the World Health Organization initially hid what they knew about the emerging coronavirus pandemic, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News. A specific "tasking" seeking information about the outbreak's early days was sent last week to the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which includes the National Center for Medical Intelligence, an official directly familiar with the matter said. The CIA has received similar instructions, according...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly recast his board of directors to cast aside dissenters and consolidate decision-making power at the social media giant. The campaign culminated in the recent departures of two directors from the board and the appointment of a longtime friend of Zuckerberg, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Kenneth Chenault, who was appointed Facebook's first black board member in 2018, left the board in March, reportedly over disagreements with Zuckerberg over the company's governance and political policies. Two weeks later, Facebook announced that Jeffrey Zients, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama who also joined...