Free Republic

We began the month of May with a necessary interview with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, about a sexual-assault allegation. The questioning, of course, came after an introduction that included the unholy litany of accusations against the current president of the United States. The Biden interview came a few days after a midnight tweet from the president ridiculing a number of media personalities in cruel ways, including the journalist interviewing Biden. And before that tweet was another from the president, announcing that he would be virtually attending Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral the next morning. During the Mass,...

TEXAS CITY, Texas - "This is an experience of a lifetime," said Dr. Robin Armstrong. "This is something we will probably never experience again." Dr. Armstrong and others at the Resort at Texas City Nursing home knew time wasn't on their side. "Two of our residents had symptoms and that's when we tested everybody," said nursing home Executive Director Jan Piveral. 56 residents and 33 staff members were COVID-19 positive. "Our Goal was to make sure we could shelter them in place so we don't spread it to other people," Armstrong said. "Then also at the same time treat them...

In my lifetime, there was another deadly flu epidemic in the United States. The flu spread from Hong Kong to the United States, arriving December 1968 and peaking a year later. It ultimately killed 100,000 people in the U.S., mostly over the age of 65, and one million worldwide. Lifespan in the US in those days was 70 whereas it is 78 today. Population was 200 million as compared with 328 million today. If it would be possible to extrapolate the death data based on population and demographics, we might be looking at a quarter million deaths today from this...

In most countries in Europe and North America, governments have imposed lockdowns of their populations and economies. At first glance, this strategy would seem to strike a reasonable, if painful, bargain: pay the price of (hopefully temporary) limits on civil liberties and economic recession (if not depression) to slow virus spread. The price has been very high. In the U.S. alone, the bill has already reached trillions of dollars of lost economic activity and tens of millions out of work. The material pain may go beyond economic insecurity. Many Americans face the real prospect of food shortages. Sweden, however, has...

p>There are several things we know today about the Wuhan coronavirus that we did not know two months ago: ** It is not as dangerous as first reported. The mortality rate is somewhere around 0.1% to 0.3% similar to a seasonal flu unlike the 3.4% number that the WHO was throwing around in early March. ** The Wuhan coronavirus is not a threat for children especially children under 10 who are not transmitters of the disease. ** Dr. Fauci was wrong almost every step of the way in understanding and controlling the disease. ** Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx and...

My hunch about Kim Jong Un is that he’s hiding out in a remote, undisclosed location to avoid contracting the coronavirus, but can’t dare show his face without provoking a backlash among the rest of the Nork elite along whom the virus is rumored to be running rampant. Better to cultivate uncertainty and confusion. Meanwhile, Joe Biden came out of hiding, tan, rested, and ready. Um. . .

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times. CHARLESTON, Tuesday, May 1, 1860. At the evening session great confusion prevailed. A very serious parliamentary fight took place on the two-thirds rule. Gen. CUSHING's rulings were uniformly on the Southern side.

Tehama County, Calif. — The Palomino Room in Red Bluff has been shut down for eight weeks; but on Friday, they tried to bring people back in the door while stating they’re donating 100% of their proceeds made on May 1 to child abuse prevention in Tehama County. Tehama County has had one case of coronavirus (COVID-19) and many who live in the area have been arguing it's time to get back to normal for rural communities. On Friday, owner Carlos Zapata chose to reopen the dining room at The Palomino Room, and customers were eagerly waiting for the doors...

Editor's Note: This post was authored by Christian Watson.Americans rarely agree on political matters. Polarization has, unfortunately, infected seemingly every facet of American life. But one issue has historically drawn broad consensus across the political spectrum: The need to iron out serious holes in America’s notoriously abused tort system. We don’t know when it’ll be, but once this is all over, there will likely be a deluge of frivolous claims (for instance, if a customer contracts coronavirus and blames the business or restaurant they visited for it), which would strain our already-bloated legal system and leave cash-strapped businesses to the...

In the last three days, I have begun having issues using Google (I have to use Google for work, and I haven't seen the issue there) getting constant CAPTCHA, and this morning, out of the blue, my banking program refused to work saying that I had cookies blocked. Now, I haven't made any changes to my browser settings (I use Safari) so I made sure VPN was off, cleared all caches, history, and cookies, but was still unable to login. So I decided to change some settings I haven't touched in years, and one of them was the setting for...

Recently, I re-watched a 1969 episode entitled "The Way to Eden" in which the Enterprise rescues some space-age hippies searching for the quasi-mythical planet of Eden. The hippies, determined to live in peace and harmony with nature, take over the Enterprise to locate Eden. But when they land a shuttle on the planet, they find their paradise – as beautiful as it is – is deadly, with all the vegetation so acidic that it burns their skin and kills anyone who eats the fruit. The Tribal Gathering website touts the superiority of indigenous cultures over Western culture ("Let's put an...

Wednesday on TBS’s “Full Frontal,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) called for coronavirus pandemic resources passed by Congress to be distributed based on race. Harris said, “The disparities that have long existed based on race are now highlighted so of the things I’m calling for around this pandemic is that we make decisions about where the resources should go based on that issue.” Host Samantha Bee asked, “Why do you think so many other members of Congress have so much trouble calling this systemic racism? Is it because they have never faced anything like this in their entire natural born lives?”...

“Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:5).

Who would have ever believed that James Comey and Andrew McCabe might be arrested before Donald J. Trump? As the president said Thursday of this greatest scandal in American political history: “I wish I knew then what I know now.” Every day, in every way, this catastrophe of corruption by the FBI’s “human scum,” as the president so rightly describes them, metastasizes into something ever more appalling. Did these effete, crooked cops ever stop railroading their fellow American citizens and obstructing justice? And yet the Democrats and the media, but I repeat myself, just keep saying, nothing to see here...

A professor of mine at Princeton University once surveyed his classes and asked them how they would have responded to the unjust laws in Nazi Germany or the Jim Crow South. While history tells us that so few stood against these human rights violations, almost every student felt he would have volunteered to hide Jewish people in Nazi Germany or would have joined those marching for civil rights. I'd predict that most of these students would have also thought themselves one of the few to stand up for Japanese-Americans who were moved to internment camps during World War II. Were...

The country is beginning to open up again after the Great Wuhan Cootie Lockdown of 2020. It’s different state by state  and while California and a handful of other states are maintaining their indefinite stay-at-home orders most states are taking a measured, toe-in-the-water approach such as Colorado’s new phase called “Safer at Home.” In state’s that have announced they are beginning to lift the bans it is still far from business as usual. Retail businesses might be allowed to do curbside pickup, bars and restaurants might be allowed to open – at 25% capacity. Businesses such as salons, dog groomers,...

Former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder defended presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Friday night, saying an allegation of sexual assault against the former vice president is "inconsistent with the person I've come to know." HBO's Bill Maher welcomed Holder to his show "Real Time" to discuss the allegation hours after Biden denied the claims in an interview on MSNBC. Biden's interview on "Morning Joe" marked the first time he had addressed Tara Reade's allegation that he sexually assaulted her when she was a Senate staffer in 1993. She first raised the allegation in March. "A couple of months...

Since September 1987, millions of children, old as well as young, have amused themselves by searching in a series of puzzle books titled Where's Waldo (Wally in England and Charlie in France) to find a young man, wearing a red and white striped shirt, decorated ski hat, and glasses, hidden in the group of people and surroundings in the text. As the books continue, Waldo becomes smaller and harder to find. Today, millions are looking for clues in the serious game of Where's Kim Jong-un, the 36-year-old supreme leader of North Korea, who has not been seen publicly since April...

DeFord Bailey walked onto the Grand Ole Opry stage with a slight limp. Decked out in a bow tie, pocket square and polished shoes, he stood on a Coca-Cola crate to offset his 4-foot-11-inch stature. It was 1936. Bailey looked out at the audience, sitting on wooden benches in the Opry’s Dixie Tabernacle, just east of Nashville’s downtown core. He carried a harmonica, or “a harp,” as it was often referred to at the time, in his left hand. When he brought the harmonica to his mouth, he played a tune that sounded like the bold whistle of a locomotive...

Who would have ever believed that James Comey and Andrew McCabe might be arrested before Donald J. Trump? As the president said Thursday of this greatest scandal in American political history: “I wish I knew then what I know now.” Every day, in every way, this catastrophe of corruption by the FBI’s “human scum,” as the president so rightly describes them, metastasizes into something ever more appalling. Did these effete, crooked cops ever stop railroading their fellow American citizens and obstructing justice? And yet the Democrats and the media, but I repeat myself, just keep saying, nothing to see here...