Free Republic

Corona's corporate victims continue to pile up, from Playboy magazine and The Jewish Chronicle to airlines around the world. I had a crummy flight on Virgin Australia - Perth to Adelaide - a few years back, and have eschewed it ever since. But I may not be able to maintain my boycott: It has now gone into bankruptcy administration, and Virgin Atlantic looks to be heading the same way. Richard Branson has been forced to explain that, even though he's worth £4.7 billion, it's not kept in a silo on his private island where he ploughs it back and forth...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for protection of the environment on Wednesday's 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, saying the coronavirus pandemic had shown that some challenges had to be met with a global response. Francis praised the environmental movement, saying it was necessary for young people to "take to the streets to teach us what is obvious, that is, that there will be no future for us if we destroy the environment that sustains us". The pope, who wrote a major encyclical in 2015 on the defence of nature and the dangers of...

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she likely will extend her stay-at-home order beyond April 30 even if she relaxes restrictions to reopen parts of the economy. Whitmer said Wednesday that she hopes to talk more later this week about loosening the rules. "For the near future we know it is not going to be safe, especially for vulnerable populations, to be out in the open," Whitmer said during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. Her administration notified state employees of temporary layoffs necessitated by a drop in tax revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. The state will furlough 2,900,...

ROME — The Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica has announced the launch of a new edition of the magazine in simplified Chinese, Vatican News reported Monday. La Civiltà Cattolica, which is tied to the Vatican, said the new edition is meant “as a gesture of friendship, given the increasingly important role that the Chinese language plays in the contemporary world within the global context.” The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, praised the initiative as “fruit of the friendly encounter with the rich tradition of the Chinese people.” Cardinal Parolin has played an active role in the Vatican’s...

https://twitter.com/raoult_didier/status/1253045368377561093 Didier raoult @raoult_didier The study published in pre-print on 04/21 on Medrxiv by Maganoli et al has three major biases which invalidate its conclusions, in any case absurd and incompatible with the literature. We have detailed these biases in the letter below. https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/response-to-magagnoli-medrxiv-2020/ Response to Magagnoli, MedRxiv, 2020 Matthieu MILLION https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Response-to-Magagnoli.pdf In the current period, it seems that passion dominates rigorous and balanced scientific analysis and may lead to scientific misconduct. The article by Magagnoli et al. (Magagnoli, 2020) is an absolutely spectacular example of this. Indeed, in this work, it is concluded, in the end, that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)...

Video at link My notes: Day 90 Coverage of CV by PeakProsperity. Fighting war for Science and against bad science. California study retracted. US will reach 1,000,000 cases in 8 days. New cases have flat lined but not rolled over yet. Antivirals work best early in disease. Zinc important co-factor in the antiviral activity of cells. Virtually every study of HCQ was to intubated patients. Not early, too late. Virtually every US study has not included zinc. 1 & 2 Deliberate actions Studies that purport to be definitive are garbage if not controlling for timing and measuring/controlling zinc serum levels....

House Speaker sides against Little Sisters of the PoorWASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - For the third time, the Little Sisters of the Poor are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for protection from the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is gunning for their defeat. "Despicable," Pelosi said recently in a statement on the case, voicing "outrage" over President Trump's executive order exempting religious objectors from having to provide health insurance that covered contraception and abortifacients. In her press release, Pelosi said, "The Trump administration's despicable rule allowing private employers and health plans to deny women coverage for contraception is an...

The Defense Department’s inspector general who was appointed to oversee spending from the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus signed last week by President Donald Trump has been fired from his watchdog role at the Pentagon, according to a report by Politico. Reports say Trump removed Glenn Fine from his role as the acting inspector general, meaning the career government official is now ineligible to serve on the stimulus oversight board charged with monitoring spending and preventing any mishandling of the public’s relief funds. By law, only current inspectors general can serve on the audit panel. Fine’s appointment as the chair of...

(Reuters) - More states in the U.S. South and Midwest signaled readiness on Wednesday to reopen their economies in hopes the worst of the coronavirus pandemic had passed, but California’s governor held firm to sweeping stay-at-home orders and business closures.

Expanded and frequent Covid-19 testing has emerged as a necessary precondition for reopening America and resuming something like normal life. But political leaders and citizens need a better understanding of how testing works, how testing can go wrong, and why tests don’t necessarily indicate immunity to disease. As we move into the next phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, we also need a better understanding of viral antibodies and how serological tests differ from tests for the novel coronavirus itself. Tests can trick us into thinking we were never infected when we were, and vice-versa, which in some cases can present...

[Catholic Caucus] For and Against Mass on TV. A Letter from the United Kingdom The cry of alarm raised by Pope Francis against the danger that “virtual” Masses, televised in this time of pandemic, will replace the real and open the way to a “gnostic” Church no longer made up of people and sacraments, true body of Christ, has reanimated a discussion already underway:> The Pope Against Masses on TV: "This Is Not the Church"Evidence of this is in the letter reproduced below, from the United Kingdom.The five cases that the author of the letter examines, in reality - contrary...

This year, 2020, marks the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day. When I was growing up—not that long ago I might add—Earth Day was mostly focused on community trash pickups, planting trees, and other activities meant to make the entire planet, and one’s neighborhood, more beautiful and less polluted. My, how things have changed. In recent years, it seems that Earth Day has transformed into a day less about nurturing Mother Nature and more of an occasion for angry environmentalists to point their fingers at anyone and everyone who opposes their radical agenda. According to EarthDay.org, the mission of Earth Day...

~ The FReeper Canteen presentsÂ…. ~ ANZAC DAY - April 25th Last Post - click Come home! Come home! The last post is sounding for you to hear. All good soldiers know very well there is nothing to fear while they do what is right, and forget all the worries they have met in their duties through the year. A soldier cannot always be great, but he can be a gentleman and he can be a right good pal to his comrades in his squad. So all you soldiers listen to this - Deal fair by all and youÂ’ll...

The core of Fallout 76 still has numerous issues that need fixing... but adding in functioning non-playable characters is probably the most important and necessary update the game’s needed to make. The difference it creates is so huge that you have to wonder what the original thinking behind the NPC free launch was. NPCs change that, having someone else there in the wasteland alongside you simply because having someone else there adds a layer of meaning to everything you do beyond aiming for better gear. There are ramifications and results that affect more than your loadout now. And, if nothing...

As early as next week, Gov. Greg Abbott said Texans could be allowed to go back to movie theaters, hair salons, dine-in restaurants and return to church under a new executive order he is working on. On a Dallas-area radio program, Abbott said he’ll make an announcement on Friday this week or on Monday that will re-open “massive amounts of businesses” that have been closed since he issued a statewide stay-at-home order March 31. When he makes the announcement, Abbott said he will give businesses a week to do what they need to get ready to re-open.

UNREST broke out in parts of South Africa amid chronic food shortages sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Looters raided shops, attacked each other, the army and police after breaching one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the mobs but local community leaders fear more outbreaks of violence are imminent. The unrest comes after a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa warned that the coronavirus death toll across Africa could reach 3.3million people.

The Wuhan coronavirus in four countries In this post, I want to discuss pandemic related developments in four countries I have mentioned from time to time on Power Line. They are: Austria, Sweden, Singapore, and South Korea. My post draws no conclusions. I leave it to readers to draw, or not draw, them. All numbers I cite are from Worldometer.Austria has partially reopened its economy. It did so a little more than a week ago. Thus, it’s probably too early to look for trends in Austria’s reported coronavirus case numbers (the number of new cases is declining daily) and it’s...

No, not a Free Republic "opus" but the Flashback Quarantine song of the night. Whatever happened to this band? They had one great song back in 1985 and then just...disappeared. Opus - Live Is Life"

As Hillary Clinton delivered her concession speech, her supporters could not hide their emotions. CNN's Jeanne Moos has the faces of concession. Tears, hugs as Hillary Clinton delivers concession speech

There has already been reason to suspect that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is daydreaming more than usual about creating a socialist utopia in the midst of this crisis. The other day she said on Twitter that the collapse of oil prices was wonderful to see, ignoring the fact that it could mean hundreds of thousands of people will be out of work soon.AOC quickly pulled down the tweet in question and never really tried to defend the idea massive job losses were good news. But today there’s a preview of an interview she did with Vice in which she suggests...