Free Republic

The pandemic has stripped millions of work, community, and hope. As local governments extend quarantine orders, urbanites like me are starting to wonder: what is the point of city life? This week marks just over two months since most states instituted shelter-in-place orders to contain COVID-19, and with this milestone came an apparent turn in the tide of public opinion—or at least, public behavior—on social distancing.Even as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and one of President Trump’s most prominent pandemic advisors, warned against rolling back lockdown orders in his testimony to Congress...

The raging public debate over statewide coronavirus lockdowns is running parallel to a series of legal battles in state capitals - and the lockdown skeptics got a big boost this week. The decision by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court on Wednesday to toss Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide shelter-in-place order set off a scramble in cities across the state to impose their own local restrictions. Elsewhere, bars and restaurants shut down by the order declared themselves open for business. And legal challenges are continuing to pile-up across the country - even as governors who extend their state’s shelter-in-place orders begin peeling back some...

https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-14-at-4.58.53-PM-998x725.pngMADISON, Wis. — Declaring that the state’s top health official wrongly bypassed legislative oversight, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Evers’ administration’s extended lockdown of the state.The 4-3 decision by the conservative-led court declares Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm’s Emergency Order 28 “unlawful, invalid, and unenforceable.”“Because Palm did not follow the law in creating Order 28, there can be no criminal penalties for violations of her order,” the ruling notes. “The procedural requirements of Wis. Stat. ch. 227 must be followed because they safeguard all people.”Palm’s extended order, issued before Evers’ first stay-at-home edict...

Emergency Press Conference - When Did Flattening The Curve Turn Into Finding The Cure https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1260721488241418240   

Gov. Tom Wolf pushed back forcefully - and with some apparent success - Monday on a brushfire of opposition in central and eastern Pennsylvania counties to his ongoing coronavirus pandemic lockdown. In uncharacteristically blunt language, Wolf accused local elected officials proposing to break out of the state’s phased reopening plan of “caving in” to the virus, and starkly warned any business owners temped to open ahead of his schedule that by doing so they are playing with liability issues and their customers and employees’ lives. “We Pennsylvanians are in a fight for our lives. The enemy is a deadly virus,...

Can you feel it? Can you feel the pace quickening? More cars on the road, more people in the stores, more ads crowding your inbox? Activity is picking up, even in my state of New York, where we’re still under lockdown. It’s palpable; Americans everywhere are going back to work. Democrats don’t like that one little bit. The worse things are, the better their chances in November. After all, Joe Biden is blaming President Trump for having helped throw the country into a deep recession; he sure doesn’t want the hard times to end. A recent tweet from the former...

In late April Dr. Tony Fauci made it clear he opposed the decision by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to lift the lockdown orders in his state. “If I were advising the governor, I would tell him he should be careful. Going ahead and leapfrogging into phases where you should not be … I would advise him not to do that.” But Dr. Fauci was wrong again. In fact, it starting to look like this guy is NEVER right about anything? It must be nice having a government job and not have to worry about getting fired! Fauci and the critics...

Tragic accounts and stories of loss make news during the crisis, but not every public voice is willing to accept the sentiment of the day. Prominent California Pastor Rick Warren of the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated Saddleback Church has stated that he wants to “help you confront this crisis and turn your fears into faith.” Asked on CNN about where God is amidst the pandemic, Warren gave two answers. First, God is present in the hearts of people. As Warren states to Anderson Cooper, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, people that are “out there helping others, that’s God in the hearts of...

With COVID-19, it is like that clichéd scene in the movies where the scientist looks up from the microscope and says, ‘This doesn't seem to behave like anything I've ever seen before.’ My father-in-law recently asked me if it is hard to see hospitals and death in film because their depictions are so inaccurate. Yes, it can ruin the realism for me and make me cringe. Then I realized that just watching the news or press conferences these days are giving me the same feeling.Everyone seems to be talking about intensive care units (ICUs) and COVID-19 patients. As someone who...

Right now all of us have decisions to make about how much freedom is too much freedom. On the national lockdown loosening in some states and stubbornly persisting in others, Americans are very much of two minds. For some, including most of the media, it is an inconvenience, but a righteous one that saves lives. For others, often with smaller megaphones, it is a powerfully destructive force economically and socially. But we should be able to agree that, whether justified or not, the lockdown has been a massive infringement on Americans’ basic rights. At least since women received the right...

Blessing In Disguise. It’s Evil Social distancing is not something to celebrate. It is, according to the experts, what we must do right now. But it’s a necessary evil, not a societal good. As the U.S. government’s “30 days to slow the spread” order expires, with no indication that President Trump plans to extend it, it’s time to start asking whether it was worth it. Have the extreme social distancing and economic measures to which we have subjected ourselves accomplished the desired result? Was any of it even necessary to begin with? It’s a question we’ll be debating for years....

The basic national divide between conservative America and liberal/left America that has existed for decades – really since the 1960s – is continuing on in the new environment caused by the coronavirus crisis. The American Right continues to want a society informed by its Judeo-Christian heritage, given force by a government in which the original intent of the Constitution prevails, and its objective of limited government. The American Left continues to want an expansive government with a messianic character, empowered to do whatever is deemed necessary for its vision of “a better world,” and aided by science and technology. The...

Yet another great segment from Tucker. Highlights: Even as Moochelle sends a recorded message to all DC residents to stay home and only go out for groceries, medication or to do an “essential job”, Obama drove 40 miles to Virginia to go play golf on a nice sunny day, even though the Governor of Virginia had banned everybody else from playing golf because lockdowns “save lives” apparently. The black mayor of Chicago bans everyone else from going to the hair dressers, but then continues to go to the hair dressers herself. According to her, she needs to look cute cause...

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

As the spread of COVID-19 begins to slow nationwide, some governors are proving to be more serious than others about what comes next. As the coronavirus spread slows, governors are responding in different, sometimes wildly divergent ways. Many of them, recognizing their states are not likely to see an outbreak on the scale of New York or New Jersey, have in recent days announced plans to loosen lockdown orders and get their residents back to work. Others have taken the opposite tack, extending lockdown orders and keeping businesses shuttered even as jobless claims mount.The first set of governors, generally speaking,...

As some states begin loosening coronavirus lockdowns, all eyes are on Texas to see if a phased reopening can be done safely. In what could be the beginning of America’s resurgence from the coronavirus pandemic, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday he will let the state’s stay-at-home order expire at the end of the month and allow some businesses to reopen Friday, with restrictions. It marks the boldest loosening of pandemic restrictions since states began issuing lockdown orders last month, and could mark a path ahead for reopening the rest of the country. Retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and malls...

Wake County, North Carolina continues to ban Christians from their central rite of communion while allowing hand-delivered food so long as it's served by restaurants instead of pastors. Like many other locales across the nation, in the name of reducing coronavirus transmission Wake County, North Carolina continues to ban Christians from their central rite of communion while allowing hand-delivered food so long as it’s served by restaurants instead of pastors. After I reported last week on threats against a local church for holding services within government social-distancing and hygiene guidelines while grocery, hardware, and other retail stores are allowed to...

The decisions that are being made during this crisis are far too important and complex to be based on such imprecise data and with such unreliable results. There’s been a lot of armchair analysis about various models being used to predict outcomes of COVID-19. For those of us who have built spatial and statistical models, all of this discussion brings to mind George Box’s dictum, “All models are wrong, but some are useful”—or useless, as the case may be.The problem with data-driven models, especially when data is lacking, can be easily explained. First of all, in terms of helping decision...

...In the survey of over 8,000 swing and “persuadable” voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Iowa provided to Secrets this morning, 63% said that they approve of Trump’s handling of the crisis. Just 21% disapproved. And they appear to support his gradual shift from focusing on fighting the virus to also reopening the economy, as well as a reliance more on businesses than Washington to lead the way. “Swing voters are concerned about the impact of the coronavirus and generally approve of Trump’s handling of the crisis. Moreover, they are more concerned with health risks than the economy —...

What some who don’t live in Georgia may not realize is that Gov. Brian Kemp’s original shelter-in-place order was not a total lockdown. Undeterred by his critics, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is moving forward with the bold decision to begin to reopen his state’s businesses and launch our return to normal life. According to an order Kemp promulgated Monday, nail salons, massage therapists, tattoo parlors, bowling alleys, gyms, and other businesses may reopen on Friday. In-person church services can reopen. On Monday, restaurants and movie theaters may reopen. Dentists’ and doctors’ offices and all other health care-related practices and services...