Free Republic

They say that if you live long enough, you’ll get to experience nearly everything, and so it has been for Joe Biden, who has lived to see history’s first Zoom presidential campaign. Unfortunately for him, it’s his. Nobody looks good on Zoom—or FaceTime or Skype or any of the other online simulacra of human interaction that the lockdown has forced upon us. It diminishes all the distractions and intangibles that give life texture and zest, that make life seem rather pleasanter than it is. Did anyone fully understand just how unfunny late-night talk-show hosts are—take your pick; I pick Stephen...

The $3 trillion coronavirus aid package Democrats introduced Tuesday calls for the Treasury to make payments of up to $10,000 per student loan. The proposal, which Democrats plan to vote on Friday, calls for Treasury to make student loan payments until September 2021. Any unused portion of the $10,000 would be applied to the outstanding loan balance if it’s not reached by the 2021 deadline. Senate Democrats earlier this year proposed the cancellation of student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic in addition to wiping out at least $10,000 in student loan debt.

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a worker advocacy group's lawsuit alleging that Smithfield Foods Inc. failed to sufficiently protect employees at a pork processing plant in Missouri amid the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. District Judge Greg Kays ruled that Smithfield was already taking many of the health precautions that the Rural Community Workers Alliance had called for in its lawsuit, Reuters reported. The precautions include screening production-line workers for symptoms of the virus and installing barriers in facilities to help keep employees apart. Kay also said it wasn't within the court's purview to oversee working conditions. He noted that under...

WATERLOO, Iowa - Tyson Foods will begin limited operation Thursday of its huge pork processing plant in Waterloo, more than two weeks after closing the facility because of a coronavirus outbreak among workers, the company announced Tuesday. Tyson said workers have been invited to tour the plant Wednesday to see enhanced safety measures and social distancing procedures that have been implemented. The plant has been closed since April 22, and the Iowa Department of Public Health reports 444 workers have tested positive for the virus. The plant is Arkansas-based Tyson’s largest pork processing operation, with the ability to process 19,500...

A Sioux Falls meatpacking plant was forced to close when it became the epicenter of COVID-19 in South Dakota. Three weeks after executives from its Chinese owner, WH Group, visited the plant, a month after President Trump’s ban on travel from China, nearly 600 of Smithfield Foods’ 3700 employees tested positive for the virus, as have 135 additional people in close contact with employees. Smithfield Foods was started in 1936 by a family in Virginia. Today, the Chinese own Armour and the famous Smithfield hams, together with the most quintessential American brand of all -- Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, with...

The House cleared a new small-business and healthcare spending package on Thursday that will provide $484 billion in funding that responds to the impact of the coronavirus. The measure now heads to President Trump, who is expected to sign it into law immediately. ... House Democrats, who are in the majority, said the measure will be followed by a much larger and more costly economic aid package along the lines of the $2.2 trillion measure Congress passed a month ago.

We have some troubling news developing deep inside America’s food supply chain network, suggesting rapid food inflation could be dead ahead. In the last several weeks, six major US meatpacking facilities have shuttered operations because of the coronavirus outbreak. That means 15% of America’s hog-slaughtering capacity has been shifted offline, and there is an additional risk that beef and poultry capacity could be reduced in the weeks ahead, reported Bloomberg. With every virus-related plant closure, farmers have been denied access to meatpacking facilities/slaughterhouses, resulting in herd overcapacity and suggests euthanizing hogs could be next. Dennis Smith, a senior account executive...

A Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was visited by representatives from its Chinese Communist Party-tied parent company one month before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed at the facility, according to three employees. After the first illness was confirmed at the plant on March 26, the facility quickly became the epicenter of the state’s outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wrote in an April 11 letter that 238 plant employees had contracted the virus, accounting for 38 percent of the state’s confirmed...

Virginia-based Smithfield Foods announced Sunday that it is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls until further notice after hundreds of employees tested positive for the coronavirus — a step the head of the company warned could hurt the nation’s meat supply. The announcement came a day after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken wrote to Smithfield and urged the company to suspend operations for 14 days so that its workers could self-isolate and the plant could be disinfected. The plant, which employs about 3,700 people in the state’s largest city, has become a...

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history: more than $2 trillion. For once, both Republicans and Democrats agreed. The Senate voted 96-0. The House didn't even bother with a formal vote. At the White House, a reporter asked the president, pointing out that the bill includes $25 million for the Kennedy Center, "Shouldn't that money be going to masks?" "The Kennedy Center has suffered greatly because nobody can go there," Trump responded. "They do need some funding. And look -- that was a Democrat request. That was not my request. But you got...

Brian Anderson will make sure taxpayer money is spent correctly during the pandemic and recovery. President Trump on Friday named a White House lawyer to be the chief watchdog to oversee the spending of $2 trillion in coronavirus stimulus money. Brian D. Miller, a special assistant to the president and a senior associate White House counsel, will serve as Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery inside the Treasury Department. Miller served as the Senate-confirmed Inspector General for the General Services Administration for nearly a decade, where he led more than 300 auditors, special agents, attorneys, and support staff in conducting...

The Gateway Pundit has received audio of a video conference call between Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter, members of their human resources department, and 200 of their employees. The audio was first obtained by Jack Posobiec of One America News. As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts infamously received a controversial $25 million from Democrats in the coronavirus relief package — and just hours later they told their performers and employees that they will not be getting paychecks. During the leaked conference call, which took place on March 26, Rutter repeatedly makes...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that she believes President Donald Trump has done very little to help with preventing the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. In fact, she believes he's "fiddling" with making important decisions. "President Trump is considering relaxing federal guidelines for the coronavirus for some of the lesser infected parts of the country. Do you think he should?" Tapper asked. Pelosi referenced the number of people – roughly 2,000 – who have died as a result of the virus. "This is such a very, very sad time for us so we should be...

Total absurdity of a "Virus Bill" listed: Here's a review of what's in this stimulus package.. Courtesy of Dave Wukawitz ✅Here’s what’s in the stimulus deal. $100,000,000 to NASA, because, who knows why. $20,000,000,000 to the USPS, because why the hell not $300,000,000 to the Endowment for the Arts / because why not $300,000,000 for the Endowment for the Humanities/ because no one even knew that was a thing $15,000,000 for Veterans Employment Training / for when the GI Bill isn't enough $435,000,000 for mental health support / thats a lot of suicide hotlines $30,000,000,000 for the Department of Education...

Ammar Campa-Najjar deletes tweet saying voters in his district were 'enraged' by Pelosi bill The Democratic nominee in California's 50th Congressional District deleted a tweet criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D., Calif.) coronavirus stimulus bill. Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is running to fill the seat vacated by former Republican congressman Duncan Hunter, attacked Pelosi's plan in a now-deleted Tuesday tweet, saying voters in his district were "enraged" by the proposal and its inclusion of "unimportant items." "From the House bill: $35 million to the JFK Center. Can someone explain why this is a priority right now?" Campa-Najjar said. "I'm getting emails...

The Senate stimulus compromise package aimed at helping Americans cope with the economic woes caused by the coronavirus crisis includes millions for the arts. The inclusion in the Senate bill follows an outcry from conservatives over a host of provisions in the House Democrats' coronavirus proposal earlier this week, which critics said addressed liberal priorities rather than the coronavirus pandemic. The appropriations text, released Wednesday along with the draft bill itself, includes $25 million in funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. That is down from the $35 million that was included in...

You can tell when Speaker Pelosi recognizes a political backlash for her manipulative schemes because it’s the only time she blitzes the media. After suffering a very large political hit, beyond the capability of the media to defend, Pelosi said today the House will take up the Senate coronavirus bill. The writing was on the wall late yesterday as people started digging into the 1,400 page House proposal and exposing all of the far-left ideological efforts within it. Billions were earmarked for nonsense progressive projects and the House scheme was fraught with social engineering that had nothing to do with...

National Review’s Jim Geraghty reminded us Monday not to forget what Rep. Jim Clyburn told around 200 members of the House Democratic caucus on a conference call last Thursday: “This [the coronavirus relief bill] is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.” . . . Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks we’re all stupid, though, and told CNN’s Dana Bash Tuesday afternoon that everything House Democrats were suggesting in their relief bill had to do with COVID-19.

THE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 HAS UPENDED everything, including business as usual in Washington. In a matter of days, facing the reality of a nationwide shutdown and a worsening economic crisis, Congress got serious about spending money—a lot of it. A recovery package in the trillions of dollars is expected soon, and more stimulus bills are likely to follow. While the most powerful lobbies in Washington—the airlines, the oil companies, the chambers of commerce—are ready with their wish lists, the media and policymakers aren’t talking enough about how recovery and stimulus bills could help journalism. Free Press, the independent, nonprofit advocacy organization...