Free Republic

More than 300 individuals showed up in about 150 cars to Friday’s noon “Freedom Drive” at the Ventura County Government Center asking, pleading and even demanding that Ventura County Re-Open for business, social, education and religious life. 70 cars started off from the County Govt center at noon on 4-24-20 at the VC Drive for Freedom. Many were already driving the streets in the area and were joined by more, totaling about 150 cars. The cars which at one point stretched nearly half-a-mile on Victoria Avenue, then onto Telephone Road, Thille St,. and south past Ralston, had American flags waving...

One defiant NYC business owner — who’s been deemed “non-essential” during the pandemic — has a message to New York: “I’m opening my doors come hell or high water.” Eliot Rabin, whose Upper East Side boutique, Peter Elliot, is known for high-end men’s and boys apparel, refuses to follow a state order closing retail business not considered essential. He insists that his $85 pocket squares and $15,000 suits are part of the fabric of New York City: “Why is a liquor store essential and I’m not?” Rabin told The Post. He admitted that many of the customers who can afford...

There’s not much to laugh about these days, but the news that smokers might be protected from Covid-19 is certainly one of them. With study after study showing that smokers are under-represented in coronavirus wards, the renowned French neuroscientist, Jean-Pierre Changeux, is working on a randomised control trial to test the effect of nicotine patches on Covid-19 patients. This is far from being a crackpot theory. Changeux has explained his hypothesis at length here. In simple terms, he says that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors play a key role in the development of the disease and that nicotine can put a brake...

Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s office said Friday that Phase One of reopening the state under federal guidelines could last as long as two years as the state battles the novel Wuhan coronavirus. “I personally think Phase One will be a two year affair,” said State Health Commissioner Norman Oliver, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “There are a lot of people working on this, and I hope they prove me wrong, but I don’t see it happening in less than two years.” Phase One under federal recommendations feature a limited reopening of some businesses with strict safety restrictions, social distancing...

President Donald Trump floated a proposal that would see the government purchase years of tickets from airlines at a discount. Speaking Friday at a bill signing, the president said he spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “I told Steve we’re the biggest user of the airlines—the United States government. And one of the ways we can help the airlines is buy tickets at a very large discount, maybe 50 percent off or maybe more,” Trump said. “And you buy into four or five years’ worth of tickets, and you infuse them with some cash. And in the meantime, we’re flying...

During a crisis, state and local governments have the ability to make severe mandates in attempts to resolve the situation. The coronavirus crisis has plagued many states around the country, prompting some of them to engage in draconian measures they justify for the sake of public health. But the additional powers they have during emergencies must be tightly tailored, and former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker believes some have taken their lockdowns too far. Matthew Whitaker says stay at home orders equate with martial law and won’t be tolerated by the DOJ pic.twitter.com/LgamJ1I6oR — Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 26, 2020...

Fewer drivers on the road, means fewer and fewer people are filling up their tank. “With consumers are staying at home and the economy in troubled waters, I think that’s kind of the best summary. People are just not driving,” said GasBuddy Head Petroleum Analyst Patrick De Haan. At one point Friday morning, the Francis Creek Shell station was selling the cheapest gas in the country at just 75 cents a gallon. Experts say while you're saving now, you may have to pay for it later. “It’s exciting to see the gallon count go up as fast as the dollar...

Chinese company Da Jiang Innovations, the world’s largest maker of drones, has donated drones to 43 law enforcement agencies operating in 22 U.S. states to enforce social distancing rules. Police in Elizabeth, N.J., for example, are using the drones to surveil residents in places where patrol cars can’t easily reach, such as spaces between buildings and back yards. Top articles 4/5 READ MORE America Can’t Face China Alone “If these drones save one life, it is clearly worth the activity and the information that the drones are sending,” Elizabeth mayor Chris Bollwage told MSNBC. In 2017, the U.S. Department of...

During a press conference on Wednesday, California emergency room doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi of Accelerated Urgent Care told reporters that nationwide lockdown policies are not an appropriate reaction to what current data shows about the China-originated novel coronavirus but are instead causing measurable public health issues, like spikes in domestic violence, sexual abuse, depression, and spreading fear to non-COVID-19 related would-be patients that are skipping out on vital health care. “We understand microbiology, we understand immunology, and we want strong immune systems,” Dr. Erickson told reporters, rebuffing inconsistent shelter-in-place orders . “I don’t want to stay in my...

This video was filmed by a drone controlled by a man sitting in a lawn chair. He would move his location to different sections where wall construction was taking place. Music and title work were then added and VOILA ! ... the resultant video. The filming was done in January 2020.

Anyone in the United States who thinks the coronavirus lockdown has led to an unconstitutional power-grab by local and state governments can handily point to Michigan and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as an example of bureaucratic overreach. She’s cracked down on landscaping, gardening, golfing, traveling from one home you own to another, and buying nonessentials like seeds and paint and car seats. (“Life-sustaining” abortion is exempt, of course.) Sheriffs have announced they won’t enforce her overreaching executive orders. She’s said that she’s not going to sign any bill that takes authority away from her. She’s also lobbying hard for Joe Biden’s...

An appeals court has reinstated a California law requiring background checks for people buying ammunition, reversing a federal judge’s decision to stop the checks that he said violate the constitutional right to bear arms. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted the state attorney general’s request to stay the judge’s order. “This means that the same restrictions that have been previously in effect regarding ammunition in California are back for the time being,” the National Rifle Association, which hailed the judge’s injunction, said in a news release. The law, which took effect last July, requires Californians to pass...

Media Consumption in the Age of COVID-19 As the coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc across the globe, people’s time that would have otherwise been spent perusing malls or going to live events, is now being spent on the sofa. During this period of pandemic-induced social isolation, it’s no surprise that people are consuming vast amounts of media. Today’s graphics use data from a Global Web Index report to explore how people have increased their media consumption as a result of the outbreak, and how it differs across each generation. More Time to Kill Global Web Index found that over...

On Friday evening, the 8731 Katy Freeway location of Federal American Grill in Houston, Texas, opened up its doors for in-dining room customers despite an ongoing order from state and local lawmakers to remain closed except for take-out. Owner Matt Brice told the Houston Chronicle that the restaurant has “complied 100 percent until now.” “What I don’t like is that the government is picking and choosing which businesses win or lose. They are sinking the economy,” Brice said. “We have to stand our ground and get people back to work.” Brice also told the Chronicle that precautions were being taken...

Wisconsin stay-at-home orders were supposed to expire Friday. Instead, thousands of disgruntled Wisconsinites descended upon the capitol in protest after the Evers administration extended the Dairy State’s so-called Safer at Home order another month. Endless blaring honks turned to white noise as vehicles backed up East Washington Avenue before circling the capitol, with many waving signs and flags out of windows and sun roofs. One man drove a Yukon decked out with Trump 2020 gear, pulling a trailer he had transformed into a “Trump Unity Bridge” and leading passersby in a chorus of “M-A-G-A” to the YMCA song. One man...

Will our elected officials ever have the courage to talk honestly about COVID-19? That is the question asked by a reader who despairs over the countless millions of lives being devastated by governments’ shutdown orders: Here’s one of the crazier features of “expert guidance” as governors try to lay out criteria for reopening their states. With the exception of the Deep South governors (who are taking variable stances), it seems that most governors want to see declining counts of positive cases in the state. But everywhere we have tested a whole population (a ship at sea, all the women coming...

The Muslim call to prayer, known as the adhan, will echo from loudspeakers through parts of Minneapolis five times per day for the entirety of Ramadan in what is believed the be the first time the Islamic call has been publicly broadcast in a major U.S. city. Al Jazeera reports: Recited by different representatives from mosques around the city, the call to prayer is expected to reach thousands in the Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood in Minneapolis, according to Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of Minnesota's Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The first call went out late Thursday: An English translation of the...

On the menu today: The possibility of another wave of Americans moving out of the big cities, the likelihood of some future pandemic further down the road, and how the Red America–Blue America divide is likely to be altered when we emerge from this crisis. Yesterday on my work Facebook page, a reader asked, “Why is it that the places Covid-19 show up the most are in Democrat controlled areas?” As much as I’d like to believe that all the troubles in the world can eventually be traced back to Bill de Blasio, I responded, “Probably because ‘the places it...

As the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit higher education, a number of colleges and universities are furloughing and laying off staff to cut costs. The University of Arizona, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Montana, the University of Tulsa, the University of Louisville, Marquette University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Michigan, and Washington University in St. Louis are all schools that have announced plans to furlough or layoff staff because of the virus, according to a report by Forbes. "It would not be prudent – or even possible – for us to use...

Cubicle culture has gone dark. Open floor plans stand empty. Offices around the world are shut during the pandemic, making work from home the new normal for millions of white-collar employees. In the United States, remote work is still being encouraged under guidelines outlined by the federal government. But in webinars and conference calls, business leaders and management strategists are discussing what steps must be taken to bring workers back to America's offices. White House Plan For Reopening States Leaves Testing Question Unanswered Shots - Health News White House Plan For Reopening States Leaves Testing Question Unanswered The bar is...