Free Republic

Large retail chains have started requiring customers to wear masks inside all of their stores, as coronavirus cases surge across the country and politicians and public health experts clamor for widespread use of face coverings to stem the spread of the disease. After Walmart, America’s largest retailer, announced on July 15 that it would mandate in-store mask-wearing, a flurry of other companies, including Kroger, Target and Walgreens, followed suit. This means that customers will be required to wear face masks in stores even in places without local mask ordinances. The National Retail Federation has encouraged companies to set nationwide mask...

Ultimately, perhaps we will all hunker down in our own ideological space, hoping to find respite from the mob, whether it be the metaphorical cancel culture, the CNN mob, or the real-life mobs running loose in our cities. Why confront mindlessness when it’s safer & less painful to avoid it? But for now, let’s suppose there are some thoughtful individuals left. A CNN opinion maker recently accused me of making wildly inaccurate comments about a coronavirus vaccine. My supposed sin was saying the left wing mob would likely forcibly vaccinate even individuals who already have immunity like myself. CNN argues...

TALLAHASSEE — Florida added 11,466 new cases of coronavirus Friday and another 128 deaths, with the caseload soaring by 21% since the beginning of the week. The state now has reported 327,241 total cases and 4,805 deaths since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in March. Congressional Democrats blistered Gov. Ron DeSantis' refusal to enact a statewide mask mandate and his earlier comment that the recent surge in cases represented a "blip," although he acknowledged it was a "higher blip than where we were in May and the beginning of June." U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said the Republican governor...

Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, thinks those of us who oppose scientifically dubious, constitutionally suspect, and dangerously overbroad face mask mandates are "selfish bastards." I think Polis is a pandering pandemic control freak endangering public health, safety, and sanity. There. Now that the name-calling is out of the way, let's talk facts. Contracting COVID can be fatal or debilitating for the elderly, immune-compromised, and physically challenged. But there is no catastrophic public health emergency justifying sweeping government orders and ordinances that would force healthy citizens to wear masks in an increasingly oppressive climate of manufactured fear — completely...

Group tracing quarantine breakers is busier than ever by: Max Rodriguez HONOLULU (KHON2) — Despite having to quarantine for two weeks, more visitors keep arriving in Hawaii, and among them are some who will try to avoid the state’s rules. It is getting harder to keep track of visitors for a group of volunteers who monitor that quarantine orders are being followed. Angela Keen, the Administrator of Hawaii Quarantine Kapu Breakers group, said she is getting reports of people breaking quarantine almost by the hour. Keen said, “Back in March, we had maybe one or two quarantine breaker reports a...

Elizabeth Mach, 45, allegedly approached a 50-year-old man after he removed his face covering while leaving a Costco store in Mettawa in Lake County, on June 16, the Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday. Police said Mach slammed her shopping cart into the stranger and told him to put his mask back on because he hadn’t fully exited the store. It sounds like he’d had his receipt checked and was exiting the warehouse store when Mach rammed his cart. That was her first mistake. She then, according to the report, goes into 2020 freakout mode on him. “I am a schoolteacher and...