Free Republic

Small businesses shut down during the pandemic while "essential" big-box stores remained open... It’s been over a year since “two weeks to slow the spread,” and the pandemic is finally dragging to a finish. Cases are down, herd immunity has more or less arrived, and even in deep-blue Boston, Stop & Shop has announced it will end mask requirements before the month’s out. The pandemic saw a huge amount of power and money transferred to what Michael Lind calls the “overclass” of politicians, corporate managers and bureaucrats. Small businesses shut down while big-box stores deemed “essential” remained open. The laptop...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday that he won’t lift the COVID-19 restrictions until Memorial Day, despite requests to do so earlier. Earlier this month, Wolf said the state’s COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and gatherings would end on Memorial Day, May 31. Businesses, including restaurants and entertainment venues, can operate at full capacity starting Monday at 12:01 a.m. There will be no state-imposed limits on gatherings - including pro sports events - beginning on Memorial Day. Some lawmakers had asked the governor to end the restrictions on Friday, so businesses that have been hurting during the pandemic can move to...

Suicide attempts are rising and emergency room visits for mental health crises were up 90% last month. Mental health experts are asking for help. Colorado children are attempting suicide and arriving in emergency rooms in psychiatric crisis at levels never seen in this state, while abuse of alcohol and drugs to cope with mental health struggles is also on the rise. The youth mental health crisis has escalated to the point this spring that hospital beds are full and more parents are sending kids out of state for treatment, according to a Children’s Hospital Colorado panel of experts who sent...

Problems for New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham have largely flown under the radar as leader of a state overlooked by the legacy press corps.Searchlight New Mexico, an independent investigative non-profit organization, broke the news last week that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office supported using the encrypted messaging app Signal to conceal communications among staff.The potential violation of the New Mexico Public Records Act came to light after the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, which is overseen by the governor, fired two senior employees who raised concerns over the app’s use.“Department leadership then set many of those...

PORTLAND, OR—In a dark cave outside Portland, a burglar has reported that he spotted local liberal man Greg Frederic sitting on a rock in the middle of a pond, whispering sweet nothings to his mask. "It is my own, my precious," he whispered to himself, having been locked in the cave since last March. His eyes have adjusted to the dark, dank cave, causing them to grow into large green orbs. Since he's too scared to get DoorDash, he eats fish from the cavern's pool, causing him to evolve sharp teeth and slippery, wet, fish-like skin. The man reportedly grows...

Whoever wrote this is on bath salts. Is this for real? I mean I know media bubbles are dense, but this is something else. This is not even grounded in reality, folks Apparently, the COVID lockdowns didn’t trash the economy and it saved lives. Both are demonstrably false. That’s the hottest of hot takes regarding the virus. Dare I say, it may be worse than what Anthony Fauci has said about the vaccine and mask-wearing. It could rival that, maybe. The fact is that millions of jobs were lost, mental health issues spiked, our children weren’t learning, people did die,...

Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul unmasked and undressed Dr. Anthony Fauci at a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the National Institute of Health’s funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from where the Wuhan coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands likely escaped Despite the feckless Fauci song-and-dance on funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) deadly gain-of-function research, the fact is that Fauci fostered and funded such research here and illegally offshored it to Chinese researchers in Wuhan when the U.S. banned such funding here. As National Review reported: Paul asked Dr. Fauci if he still supports National...

In an interview for Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Atlas, a public health policy expert, suggested that the consequences of lockdowns, which he believes have been largely fear-driven, will be felt in the country for decades to come. The lockdowns implemented to curb the transmission of COVID-19 in the United States and across the globe have not only been a “heinous abuse of power,” but they have also failed to protect the elderly and vulnerable, according to former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas. “We will have a massive price to pay for what was done in the United...

Musician Ted Nugent brought down the house down this week during an interview with Rose Unplugged on WJAS 1320 AM. Nugent is very outspoken against Joe Biden and the Deep State Marxist. Ted Nugent blasted “punk boy” Fauci and said he was a scam. “I never said the virus was a scam. Punk boy Fauci was a scam. The government is a scam. WHO is a scam. CDC is a scam. The shut down is a scam!” Nugent said. AUDIO:

It marked the first time the Lone Star State reported no coronavirus deaths in about 14 months ================================================================= Texas reported zero deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, just two months after Gov. Greg Abbott drew heat from the White House for rolling back business restrictions and lifting the state's mask mandate. It marked the first time the Lone Star State reported no coronavirus deaths in about 14 months, according to state health data. Abbott said the case numbers reported on Sunday – 388 – were the lowest in more than 13 months, while the number of hospitalizations was the lowest in...

As of March 31, 2021, more than 552,000 Americans had died of Covid, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), quite a lot, but the killing did not stop there. An additional 83,000 Americans died in excess of average mortality on a weekly basis, comparing death rates published by CDC from 2014 through 2021, bringing excess mortality since the beginning of the pandemic to 635,000 since Jan. 2020. In 2014, the average number of deaths per week was 50,979; in 2015 it was 51,957; in 2016, it was 52,473; in 2017 it was 53,932;...

This has prompted questions as to why mask mandates are still in force.. Dr. Anthony Fauci has now declared that Americans who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 should have “no concern” at all about contact with unvaccinated individuals, prompting questions as to why mask mandates are still in force. Appearing on NBC News on March 13, the lockdown and mask-advocating Fauci responded to the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which stipulated that those who have received the full dose of their Wuhan coronavirus injection can continue with normal activities without wearing a mask. Meanwhile,...

We will stand side by side with people from all over the world for our freedom! One day - all together! Come together and show everyone that we will not silently stand by and lose the Freedoms that we hold so dear. Our Unalienable Rights are being given away in the name of Safety. Let's show everyone: #WeWillAllBeThere, #MyBodyMyChoice, #Freedom, #BelAirMaryland, #Maryland, #peace, #NoMask, #OpenOurSchools, #OpenOurCountry

Let's shake off the influence of those who would have us shrink back and stay silent. Let’s follow Pastor Pawlowski’s lead and be a bold church unafraid to serve God in a hostile culture.Last weekend the world saw a fearless man of God, Pastor Artur Pawlowski, arrested for leading a church service. This faithful pastor, who escaped the iron fist of communist rule in Poland as a child, was handcuffed on the streets of Canada and thrown in jail for refusing to shutter his church. Not too long ago, this shocking display of repression would be unheard of in the...

Germany’s antisemitism commissioner is urging a crackdown on protesters who don yellow stars to complain about the pandemic lockdown. Speaking Friday, Felix Klein urged authorities across Germany to bar protesters from using the symbol, saying it relativizes the Holocaust. The Nazis forced Jews to wear a yellow Star of David as a means of humiliating them and marking them for further persecution, deportation and murder. Some demonstrators have used the star, emblazoned with the words “non-vaccinated” in a Hebraicized script, to boost their claim of being persecuted for opposing coronavirus policies. Germany does not require that citizens be vaccinated, but...

Copper for delivery in July was up 1.71% by 1:42 pm (EDT), with futures at $4.6015 per pound ($10,123 a tonne) on the Comex market in New York, over the $4.58 per pound high reached in February 2011. The reopening of major industrial economies is sparking a surge across commodities markets from corn to lumber, with tin climbing above $30,000 a tonne for the first time since 2011 also on Thursday. Copper has gained 28.1% since the end of last year and is up 114.9% from its 2020 low, hit in March of that year amid the global economic fallout...

$3.4 billion. That’s how much bad roads and congestion in North Carolina costs its drivers in higher vehicle ownership costs, according to a report commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Fixing those roads—as well as repairing and replacing bridges, building new highways and any other large projects the N.C. DOT has on its schedule—takes money, and lots of it. Steve Abbott, a spokesperson for the N.C. DOT, said that to bring every bridge in the state to “good” condition would cost $3.8 billion, roughly 71 percent of the department’s $5.3 billion budget for the year. “As of now,...

States that consistently grew faster than the national average over the past ten years are in line to gain representation in Congress. Democrats will work to undermine people's vote with their feet.The U.S. Census Bureau released its once-in-a-decade national census on April 26. Most of the discussion about the census has focused on states losing or gaining seats in the U.S. House, a process known as reapportionment.For the 2022 midterms, seven states will be down one member of the House: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon each gained one...

A new study from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago has analysed the impact of stay-at-home orders on infections and deaths in U.S. states and found they made no difference. The peer-reviewed study, published in the scientific journal PNAS, found stay-at-home orders (also known as shelter-in-place orders or SIPs) were not associated with lower infections or deaths; furthermore, they were actually associated with a slight increase in infections and deaths, although this was not statistically significant. The results are summarised in the charts below, where dots above the dashed line indicate an increase and dots...

Irish Government (!) FORBIDS Receiving Communion, ConcelebrationAhead of "allowing" again Masses on May 10, the Irish government issued rubrics for religious services.In modern states which recognise religious freedom, it is an exclusive matter of the Church to decide how to worship - not so in Ireland where politicians believe they are entitled to decide over the liturgy. Thus, they imposed the following liturgical rubrics:• Those handing out Holy Communion must wear face masks or must stand behind a screen. Further they must disinfect their hands.• The faithful must use disinfects before receiving Communion.• The state suggests that “Communion could be...