Free Republic

Sweden's top virus expert has said the 'world went mad' with coronavirus lockdowns which 'fly in the face of what is known about handling virus pandemics'. Anders Tegnell, who advised Sweden to avoid full lockdown in favour of a 'herd immunity' strategy, said world leaders caved to political pressure amid panic - and that the crippling economic downsides of lockdown will far outweigh the benefits. Sweden has confirmed 68,390 cases of coronavirus and 5,230 deaths - far above its Nordic neighbours, but its economy is intact and actually posted slight growth in the first quarter of this year. Tegnell also...

We were told that the governmental interest in ensuring that hospitals aren’t overrun with too many COVID-19 patients was so strong that it superseded the Bill of Rights. All businesses had to be shut, masks must be worn, church services had to be canceled. As Chief Justice John Roberts said in upholding California’s ban on church services, “When those officials ‘undertake to act in areas fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties,’ their latitude ‘must be especially broad.’” The very first action one would expect a government to undertake to stem the tide of a virus is to not purposely admit...

A vocal group of Spring Grove Area residents on Monday night emphatically opposed any school reopening plan that requires district students and staff to wear masks. And at least two school board members backed their demands, with one calling the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to mitigate it "a crock of s—." At a Monday board meeting, several residents argued that no one is afraid of the virus and cited a petition with 400 signatures in support of their plan for a regular reopening of the district's schools that doesn't follow state and federal health guidelines. Health experts have said masks...

The Labor Department on Friday reported jobless rates in May for the 50 states, and the news is the greater than usual variation. Some state economies are recovering much faster than others, and the worst performing tend to be those that have imposed the most severe lockdowns. The national jobless rate was 13.3 percent in May, but 10 states still have unemployment rates above 15 percent. From highest down, they are: Nevada (25.3 percent), Hawaii (22.6 percent), Michigan (21.2 percent), California, Rhode Island and Massachusetts (16.3 percent), Delaware (15.8 percent), Illinois and New Jersey (15.2 percent), and Washington state (15.1...

Amidst the loneliness and suffering caused by the extended lockdowns, Americans have an opportunity to reconnect with their Creator. It seems to be part of human nature to postpone, for as long as possible, a realistic appraisal of looming catastrophe. At the start of the U.S. Civil War, both sides were so certain of a short, bloodless conflict that the first battle at Manassas was attended by hundreds of holiday picnickers from nearby Washington. Some sipped champagne, hoping to catch a glance what they assumed would be fleeting hostilities.The initial U.S. response to COVID-19 followed a similar pattern, as many...

By treating Black Lives Matters protests differently than other large gatherings, public officials and health experts have exposed themselves as hypocrites. We’re told a second wave of coronavirus infections is coming. As businesses open back up and states relax lockdown orders, the number of new cases is ticking up in a handful of states. We’ve heard warnings in recent days from the Centers for Disease Control and various public health experts and elected officials that a new series of lockdowns might be necessary.What these experts and officials don’t seem to realize is that Americans will never comply with their lockdown...

Liberty: "the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views; the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved." These are the days. These are the days when men and women accept draconian measures as if they were trifles. The nation and the world come grinding to a halt, and it is just another “interruption.” In 1776, there was a revolution against restraints from a foreign power. Now there is bleating from domestic governors about lockdowns, tracing, testing, vaccinating, and the majority of the populace obeys these tyrants...

Short-sighted negotiations between Major League Baseball owners and players are sabotaging the chance for a renaissance that the game desperately needs.Each passing day without Major League Baseball stands as a stain on America’s national pastime and represents a sad failure to capitalize on a golden opportunity for the game and the country. Today, we should be distracted from our work, glued to our televisions, computers, or smartphones watching otherwise meaningless spring training games with greater interest than ever before, in anticipation of the return to normalcy of the daily drama of baseball.At a minimum, our ailing nation could use the...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that widespread lockdowns may be needed again if coronavirus cases continue to increase. "If cases begin to go up again, and particularly if they go up dramatically, it’s important to recognize that more extensive mitigation efforts such as what were implemented back in March may be needed again," Dr. Jay Butler, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, told reporters on a conference call Friday.

Christian leaders who were quick to break social distancing guidelines to stand with Black Lives Matter protesters appear loathe to fight back against the ban on church services. American Christians saw something these past two weeks we’re not used to: People standing for their beliefs in the face of coronavirus.In cities and towns nationwide, millions crowded streets and parks, marching, singing and for some after dark, rioting. Many had been sheltered in place for nearly three months, carefully avoiding their neighbors, watching Netflix, wearing pajamas, and when outside, fleeing into busy streets for fear of unmasked joggers.But this — this...

Senate Urges Court to Enforce Resolution Ending Wolf’s Emergency Declaration Posted on Jun 10, 2020 (HARRISBURG) – Noting that Governor Wolf has refused to carry out his mandatory duty to act upon a resolution passed by the General Assembly that ends his emergency declaration, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-25) and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-34) today urged the state’s Commonwealth Court to “command” the Governor to terminate the declaration in accordance with the law. “Governor Wolf’s failure to issue an executive order or proclamation ending the COVID-19 state of disaster emergency is unlawful, unreasonable, and without just...

Millions of Americans remain subjected to unprecedented restrictions on their personal lives, their daily lives, their family's lives. The coronavirus lockdowns continue in many places. You may not know that because it gets no publicity, but it's true. And if you're living under it, you definitely know. As a result of this, tens of millions of people are now unemployed. A huge number of them have no prospects of working again. Many thousands of small businesses are closed and will never reopen. More Americans have become dependent on drugs and alcohol, seeing their marriages dissolve, and become clinically depressed. Some...

According to the Department of Labor's May report on employment, non-farm payrolls rose by 2.5 million and the unemployment rate fell to 13.3%—the biggest positive shift in more than 80 years. This confounded a Wall Street Journal prediction that these payrolls would decline by 8.3 million and unemployment would rise to 19.5%--the highest since the Great Depression. President Trump hailed the jobs numbers and said "the great enterprise of American business owners and workers is the key driving factor. As the lockdowns are being eased, the boom stimulated by the tax cuts and deregulation we implemented earlier in my term...

You must stay home to save lives. You must socially distance and lock down. Unless you're protesting racism and police brutality. This appears to be the message from some government and health officials, who for months enforced a rigorous and unprecedented economic shutdown in the name of stemming the spread of the coronavirus pandemic -- resulting in millions losing their jobs and students being sent home from schools across the country.

The establishment media and Democrats are encouraging Americans to go out and riot, which proves the coronavirus lockdowns are purely political. Item: You can’t social distance when you riot. Item: You can’t social distance when you protest. So we now know these lockdowns and all this crap about social distancing was a lie, because what you have here are the media encouraging their own viewers to riot and protest, and Democrats encouraging their own voters to riot and protest… And I think it’s safe to assume if the media and Democrats believed the coronavirus would kill their viewers and voters,...

President Donald Trump went to church Monday. That isn’t exactly accurate. There was no chorus of worship, no corporate prayer, no holy reverence, no gathering of believers, and thus no church. Just the leader of the free world and the charred, boarded-up shell of a building, marred with fire at the hands of mutinous rogues. Amid nationwide protests and riots over the needless death of George Floyd at the hands of dishonorable officers, the president stood outside the vandalized historic structure. St. John’s Episcopal Church isn’t the only desolate house of worship today. Church buildings across America stand as empty...

The National Senior Sendoff -- An inspirational virtual event for High School seniors and their families during the Pandemic MAY 28 6:00 – 7:00 pm MDT - (check website for time in local zone) High School Seniors have waited for these special moments for 12 long years. They’ve worked hard and overcome many challenges. This is THEIR TIME to celebrate this significant academic accomplishment. The Class of 2020 will be the first class in all of history prohibited from celebrating the memory-making milestones so many of us have taken for granted. In response, Greg Stier, Founder of Dare 2 Share...

The coronavirus lockdowns are America’s most regressive government actions since the draft. Even as liberals have quickly noted the virus’s disparate incidence, they have ignored the inequities of government responses. Ironically, these responses have been most regressive in states with the most “progressive” governments. In just four months, coronavirus has gone from takeoff to lockdown in the U.S. America’s first Wuhan virus case appeared on Jan. 21, and the first American died Feb. 12. California went into lockdown March 19, followed by New York the next day, and New Jersey on March 21. Two months later, America is only now...

Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker tweeted last week: "Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What's really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals." Before responding to Pinker's remarkably ignorant tweet, I want to praise him. He is one of the few professors in America to call out the left's destruction of our universities. Most human beings lack courage, but no group is more cowardly than academics. This has been true for 100 years. From the German universities to today,...

Churchgoers across the country are reasserting their fundamental rights of conscience—rights that too many political leaders have forgotten or denied. On Friday, President Trump said churches and houses of worship are “essential” and called on governors nationwide to allow them to open this weekend. If they don’t, Trump said he would “override” governors, citing forthcoming guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In remarks Thursday, the president criticized some governors who have “deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential” but not churches. “It’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential.”Trump is right,...