Free Republic

After the arrest of more than two dozen members of a white supremacist group near a northern Idaho pride event, including one identified as its founder, LGBTQ advocates said Sunday that polarization and a fraught political climate are putting their community increasingly at risk. The 31 Patriot Front members were arrested with riot gear after a tipster reported seeing people loading up into a U-Haul like “a little army” at a hotel parking lot in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, police said. Among those booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot was Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, who...

VIDEOThe arrest of the Patriot Front in Idaho on June 11 has sparked widespread skepticism. For some reason few seem to believe what is being presented on the news. Perhaps the Whitmer "kidnapping" plot in which the undercover feds outnumbered the clueless real participants by a ratio of about 2 to 1 might be a factor in this skepticism. Or could it also have been caused when the FBI declined to answer whether Ray Epps was an undercover fed when Senator Ted Cruz asked about this? Or could it also have been due to the fact that the January 6...

For the duration of the pandemic, while hundreds of thousands died and the world economy was decimated by lockdowns, Moderna's highly effective vaccine was available. Few people realize that the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19—which the FDA has finally declared "highly effective," and which is now being distributed to Americans—has actually been available for nearly a year. But the government wouldn't let you take it. The vaccine, a triumph of medical science known as mRNA-1273, was designed in a single weekend, just two days after Chinese researchers published the virus's genetic code on January 11, 2020. For the entire duration of...

You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public in an act of scientific and humanitarian generosity that resulted in China’s Yong-Zhen Zhang’s being temporarily forced out of his lab. In Massachusetts, the Moderna vaccine design took all of one weekend. It was completed before China had even acknowledged that the disease could be transmitted from human to human, more than...

In a clinical trial testing whether a daily regimen of hydroxychloroquine could protect those most likely to be exposed to COVID-19, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found there was no difference in infection rates among health care workers who took the drug versus those taking a placebo. While the researchers observed a lack of effect associated with hydroxychloroquine, infection levels were low among the participants, which the researchers believe points to the effectiveness of other prevention measures in the health system: social distancing, use of personal protective equipment, and proper hand hygiene. The...

Speaking on the New York Times opinion podcast Sway, Musk told host Kara Swisher that he and his family would not be taking a coronavirus vaccine because he doesn't believe the virus poses a serious enough risk to their health. “I’m not at risk, neither are my kids,” Musk said. Musk said sweeping restrictions on movement and business enacted due to the coronavirus had “diminished" his "faith in humanity." The entrepreneur said that instead of sweeping lockdowns, governments should focus on isolating those most at risk while allowing the rest of society to continue with normal life. Musk told Fisher...

For German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, life was a process of constant change. The father of the "zeitgeist" was born 250 years ago. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the German philosopher who would go on to be one of the most famous thinkers of his era, was born on August 27, 1770, in Stuttgart, in southwest Germany. His parents practiced Pietism, a Lutheran reform movement that emphasized personal religious experience. Hegel, who showed an affinity for math and Latin, was at the top of his class in school. His parents hoped he would become a priest and sent him to...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Monday denied his office was at fault for the coronavirus deaths of more than 6,000 nursing home residents in the state, calling such accusations a "political charade." Cuomo defended his office's response to the pandemic during an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. “Yes, we had more people die in nursing homes than anywhere else, because we had more people die, because the federal government missed the boat and never told us this virus was coming from Europe and not from China,” Cuomo said. “And January, February, March, before they did the European travel...

My long-time doctor friends who have treated COVID-19 patients have been disappointed recently in some of the national and regional media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. They point out the over-emphasis often given to statistical information without proper understanding. For example, emphasizing the volume of reported cases without equally emphasizing increased testing and positivity ratios is misleading. Governors, doctors and hospitals seriously consider positivity ratios, and the media should not bury the lead here. It isn’t all about case volume. Also, some in the media and Democratic leaders, like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have recently been critical of President...

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, when we honor the sacrifice of the men and women who died for our country. Too often we forget the meaning of the day and head off to sales, the beaches, and the backyard barbecues. In those states still locked down, it will be a continuation of the grim economy and spirit-busting effects of overreaching dictators, little based on reason. It will be a particularly hard to celebrate day for the many friends and family members of those killed in nursing homes and assisted living residences due to outrageously misguided gubernatorial dictates. There still is a...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) is attempting to shift blame onto President Trump for a New York directive that sent coronavirus patients into nursing homes, risking the lives of elderly, vulnerable people. For weeks, despite access to the governor at daily press briefings, a fawning press failed to question the governor about an ill-conceived state directive that may be responsible for the staggering number of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes and adult care facilities. A March 25th state directive required such facilities to admit patients with either suspected or confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus. The directive even prohibited...

Even though many lives are at stake, the response to the coronavirus pandemic has been heavily politicized. A bit of research into the separate elements shows some disturbing connections, indicating the media war against hydroxychloroquine may be backed by some nefarious forces. On March 19, President Trump announced that the FDA would fast-track approval of unproven coronavirus treatments, including hydroxychloroquine. Two months later, after much heated debate and a media war over the drug, Trump announced he was taking hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis. One week after TrumpÂ’s hydroxychloroquine claim, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)...

VIDEO Today, May 25, is the birthday of the Hydroxychloroquine Queen herself, Amy Klobuchar.

...Based on this serology test, they were able to determine that 3% of the population (at the time) were infected and were therefore able to divide the numerator of those who died of COVID-19 by the extrapolated denominator of those who were likely infected and break out the infection fatality rate by age group. Study this chart for a few minutes and take in all the data – from the asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic rates to the hospital and fatality rates divided by age. You have to get to the 50-59 age group just to reach a 0.1% fatality rate, the level...

What is the true infection fatality rate of COVID-19, broken down by age and health status? This is a simple question for which the CDC should have a clear answer by now, accompanied by a readable chart – a chart showing everyone’s demographic risk assessment so that we can better target our infection mitigation efforts. Yet it’s the one thing our government hasn’t done. Wonder why?

Newsom is proposing to significantly shrink the footprint of California’s prison system, partly because of massive budget cuts prompted by the pandemic but also because of philosophy. The revised budget he sent to state lawmakers this week closing two state prisons in the coming years; cutting nearly one in five of the 43 inmate firefighter camps; and eventually closing all three state-run juvenile prisons. He’s also seeking unspecified increases to sentencing credits that allow inmates to leave prison more quickly. And he proposes to shorten parole to a maximum of two years, down from five years for felonies, and let...

This video clip is an altered video of the the presidential Speech from Independence Day II, President Trump and others standing in. It has 3.3 million views in a matter of an hour.Its well worth watching. Makes me want to get ready for July 4th! (Video at link)

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine offer no clinical benefit for people with COVID-19 and might cause serious heart-related side effects, according to a study published Friday in The Lancet. People with severe illness caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, treated with either drug -- either alone or with an antiviral medication -- were up to twice as likely to die than those in the control group, which received standard, supportive care, the researchers found. Those who died did so either as a result of COVID-19 or from side effects from treatment, the authors said. "This is the first large-scale study to find...

Coronavirus lockdowns have 'destroyed millions of livelihoods' but failed to alter the course of the pandemic given many US states have seen lower infection rates after easing restrictions, a JP Morgan study has claimed. The statistical analysis has raised questions about the effectiveness of the lockdowns put in place across much of the United States two months ago to stop the spread of COVID-19. It suggests that the lockdown measures have not only resulted in economic devastation but could have also resulted in more COVID-19 deaths.

..The authors estimated that the drugs put patients at up to 45% higher risk of dying from Covid-19 compared with underlying health issues. ... "Treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine does not benefit patients with COVID-19," said Mandeep Mehra, lead author of the study and executive director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston. "Instead, our findings suggest it may be associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems and increased risk of death." ... Despite Mr Trump's enthusiasm for using hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 treatment, his own government's Food and Drug Administration warns against...