Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be back to prioritizing President Trump’s judicial nominations when the Senate returns to Washington on Monday. A Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for a controversial judicial pick has been slated for Tuesday, according to NBC News, which will be one of the first things senators tackle when work resumes. House Democrats announced Tuesday that they will no longer come back to D.C. on May 4, due to health concerns expressed by the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. “There was a risk to members that he would not recommend taking,” said House Majority...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday again pushed China to provide the world access to its virology labs in Wuhan, saying the world needed to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic originated and Beijing had an obligation to be transparent. “We still haven’t gained access, the world hasn’t gained access to the WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) there. We don’t know precisely where this virus originated from,” Pompeo told a news conference at the State Department, and added that U.S. concerns over the safety of Chinese labs persisted. “There are multiple labs that are continuing to conduct...

Jacksonville Republican Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer said Wednesday Illinois lawmakers should be called back to Springfield to vote on whether to extend the state-at-home order that Gov. JB Pritzker is planning to extend. Davidsmeyer, along with Reps. Norine Hammond of Macomb and Dan Ugaste of Geneva, contended that Pritzker does not have the authority to extend the order beyond its original 30 days. Pritzker declared the original order – which was to expire April 30 – will be extended until the end of May, although with modifications. “What we are talking about here is the governor’s authority to go past that...

Dozens of hippies who got stuck at a festival in Panama due to coronavirus realized that the collectivist utopia they sought after is actually “hell” as they bicker over food and territory. One doesn’t want to laugh too much at their misfortune, but dear God, this is funny. The Tribal Gathering Festival, billed as “paradise on earth,” was supposed to end on March 15, but 40 western hippies remain trapped at the site because Panama announced a national emergency due to COVID-19 and placed them under quarantine. A subsequent ban on all entry and departure flights now means the hippies...

The following email communication from the Woodford County State’s Attorney has made it clear to law enforcement in the county and the Mayors; Governor Pritzker’s extension of the stay-at-home order will not be prosecuted or enforced in Woodford County. Reading the email communication below it is crystal clear this State’s Attorney has identified the very same things we identified back on March 15, 2020, in this article. It is refreshing to see those who took an oath to uphold our Constitution actually follow through with upholding their oath. “Dennis,I sent the following to the Sheriff, Hillary, Kent, and John Krug...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has urged administration officials to support the development of a fully domestic rare earths supply chain and to reduce U.S. dependence on China for minerals essential for defense technologies manufacturing. In letters written to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (pdf) and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt (pdf), Cruz, along with Senate colleagues, cautioned about the risk of relying on the Chinese Communist Party for rare earths, noting that the United States currently only has one operating rare earth mine and no domestic refining capacity. “It is clear that our dependence on China for vital rare...

The federal funds being sent to states to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic shouldn’t be used on matters unrelated to the pandemic, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus from China. The $150 billion approved by Congress in legislation signed by President Donald Trump is being sent to states to cover CCP virus-related expenses, Mnuchin said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ve been clear that to the extent people have to use police to enforce coronavirus issues, public safety, things like that, that they...

A rigorous trial sponsored by the U.S. government showed remdesivir has a clear impact on hospitalization time for COVID-19 patients, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday. Fauci heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which provided funding for the clinical trial. An independent data and safety monitoring board, which analyzed results from the trial, notified researchers that the results show remdesivir “has a clear-cut, significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recover,” Fauci told reporters at the White House. “What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” he added. The median recovery...

Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party leader who created China's economic revival, rooted his Four Modernizations in Premier Zhou Enlai's 1975 statement that China must modernize. Deng called for comprehensive modernization in four sectors: agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense. Deng consciously placed the People's Liberation Army last in line, though its time would surely come. By invoking Zhou, Deng slickly connected his modernization drive to Chairman Mao Zedong. In 1979, Deng articulated his Four Cardinal Principles, which enshrine CCP authoritarianism: China must "uphold" the socialist path, support the "democratic" dictatorship, follow CCP leadership and follow Mao's thought. Deng's...

Parents have forced a council to pull guidance to schools which allowed transgender pupils to use girls’ toilets and dormitories. Warwickshire County Council said it had withdrawn its “Trans toolkit”, which offered advice to 300 schools, and placed it under review. Parents were furious that schools were being told to allow transitioning pupils to “sleep where they feel most comfortable” and use whichever toilets they wanted. Tessa McInnes, 50, who has two children in Warwickshire schools, told the Times: “The equal rights of girls are simply discounted and disregarded in this guidance. If they express any discomfort about a male...

FREE AMERICA NOW

A US Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed through waters near the Paracel islands in the South China Sea challenging China's claim to the area, the Navy said Wednesday. The USS Barry undertook the so-called "freedom of navigation operation" on Tuesday, a week after Beijing upped its claims to the region by designating an official administrative district for the islands. The US sought to assert the "rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law," the Navy said in a statement. "Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose an unprecedented threat to the freedom of...

The vessels are upgraded versions of a Jin-class sub and join the PLA fleet in time for the military wing’s 71st anniversary The subs are the latest in a long list of hardware additions to the navy over the last year Two new upgraded nuclear-powered strategic submarines have gone into service in China in time for the 71st anniversary of the navy, according to Chinese military sources. The vessels are revamped versions of the Type 094, or Jin-class, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) and will bolster the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s underwater combat strength, two military sources told the South...

President Trump has been mocked relentlessly for suggesting that ultraviolet light could be brought “inside the body” to kill the coronavirus, but there is ongoing research to do just that. For example, the pharmaceutical firm Aytu BioScience announced on April 20, four days before the Trump remarks, that it has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The center has developed and is testing a UV-A “Healight” designed to be inserted via a catheter inside the trachea to kill pathogens, including the coronavirus. Ultraviolet, or UV, light is commonly used by physicians to treat skin...

[…] As many as 250,000 guest workers seeking a green card in the U.S. — about 200,000 of them on H-1B visas — could lose their legal status by the end of June, said Jeremy Neufeld, an immigration policy analyst with the Washington, D.C., think tank Niskanen Center. Thousands more who are not seeking resident status may also be forced to return home, he said. […] H-1B visas, for instance, are tied to a specific location and employer that commits to paying the recipient a minimum salary. Furloughing recipients, reducing their wages and in some cases allowing them to work...

When famous African-American guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix was found dead in a London flat on September 18, 1970 aged a mere 27 years, newspaper reports claimed he had died from a heroin overdose while the autopsy report claimed he had drowned on his own vomit. It would take years to know the gifted entertainer was a victim of COINTELPRO which even in death slandered him. Jimi Hendrix was one of the highest paid musicians in the world by the end of 1969 after Woodstock festival – reportedly with a net worth of $175m (£141m) but life wasn’t always sweet....

More women are turning to an experimental at-home abortion program to abort their unborn babies during the coronavirus crisis. The TelAbortion experiment, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), mails abortion drugs to women in 13 states. In some cases, the women may never see a doctor in person before aborting their unborn babies. As states restrict travel, health care, business and other things deemed “non-essential” due to the coronavirus, more women are contacting the experimental program. New York Daily News reports TelAbortion saw a 30% uptick in “virtual visits” between February and March. The pro-abortion has group mailed...

Since 1985, the first year for which the Census Bureau has posted this nation's bilateral merchandise trade deficits on its website, the United States has accumulated $5.5 trillion in trade deficits with China. No other nation comes close. In 2019, America's seven top trading partners -- when measured by the total dollar value of the bilateral trade in goods -- were Mexico ($614.5 billion), Canada ($612.4 billion), China ($558.9 billion), Japan ($218.3 billion), Germany ($187.8 billion), South Korea ($134.4 billion) and the United Kingdom ($132.3 billion). By far, however, the least balanced relationship -- both last year and in recent...

Lower performing students hardest hit BOSTON – As we approach the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the United States Department of Education in May, shocking trends in student performance should lead us to reconsider the federal role in education and whether the initiative for policymaking should be returned to local schools, communities, and states. Breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago, according to a new...