Unleash Prosperity Hotline
Issue #33 Written By Stephen Moore
1) The Lockdown Party
Excerpt from Steve Moore’s latest in The Hill:
“Democrats have defined themselves as the party of shutdown and, in the short term, that has served them well. The lockdown governors like Tom Wolf (D-Pa.) and Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) have lofty approval ratings. The Republican governors who have opened up their states’ economies are less popular.
“Come September and October, it is highly probable that the national economy and the stock market still will be greatly hobbled by the aftermath of the lockdowns. Americans also are likely to observe an economy that is getting better in the red states than in the blue states. Much better.
“The chaos in our Democratic-run cities — especially New York and Los Angeles- will be evident to all, as will be . They will see the stampeding of people and businesses from the blue Northeast to the red South and Sunbelt, where businesses are treated like assets, not criminals.
“And they will see a Democratic Party that stands for welfare, business closures, high taxes, and more government restrictions on the private economy.
2) Liberal Super PAC is bashing *Trump* for the lockdowns.
Per Axios:
“The $1.5 million buy from Pacronym, a super PAC with ties to President Obama’s former campaign manager and strategist David Plouffe, is running on digital platforms in five battleground states — Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The ads include combinations of videos, graphics and news clips tailored to each state, focusing on how local economies have suffered from the virus response.”
Arizona has a Republican governor who lifted lockdowns relatively early and has just 680 COVID deaths in a state of over 7 million people.
The other four target states are under iron-fisted Democratic governor lockdowns. Pennsylvania has the worst nursing home meltdown in the country — and little disease outside of long-term care facilities, but severe economy-wide restrictions anyway. Michigan has been catastrophically mismanaged. And Wisconsin and North Carolina have lockdowns wildly disproportionate to their low virus risk.
The super PAC argues that a bigger, better, bailout would have saved small businesses. But nothing can save a business for long when the governor forces its doors closed for months.
3) Police Walk Away From Gov. Murphy’s Law
A South Jersey gym owner has had enough of Governor Phil Murphy’s closure of all “nonessential” businesses and reopened his doors on Monday morning.
Police officers arrived at the Atilis gym in Bellmawr around 10:30 am and informed the owner that he was “formally” in violation of the shutdown order.
“Formally, you are all in violation of the executive order. On that note, have a good day. Everybody be safe,” the officer said before walking away. The crowd erupted in cheers. Patrons inside the gym were issued warnings.
Here’s the feel good video:
4) Moderna Claims Success in Phase 1 Vaccine Trial
Per the WSJ:
“The results offered a preliminary but promising sign about one of the most advanced coronavirus vaccines in development, and suggested Moderna was on track to meet its ambitious timetable for producing it for possible emergency use in the fall”
If the vaccine is safe and effective enough to become available later this year it would lift a significant amount of lingering anxiety and restore confidence for a return to life as normal. On the other hand, we should guard against excessive optimism on a vaccine timeline being used as a pretext to extend lockdowns.
5) Saved by the Cold?
Two new studies show significant cross-immunity to SARS-CoV2 from exposure to common cold coronaviruses. If proven, this could explain many mysteries about the disease, including why it seems to decline everywhere long before projected levels of herd immunity. One of the studies, already approved for publication in the journal Cell, estimates that 40-60 percent of the population may have some level of existing immunity from exposure to other coronaviruses.
6) Will Home Schools Replace Govt Schools?
Lockdowns have exposed millions of parents to the benefits and challenges of home schooling. Some – especially from two-income families – can’t wait for schools to reopen. But many others are seeing advantages in being directly engaged with their kids’ education.
A new Real Clear Opinion Research poll of 2,122 registered voters found that 40 percent say they are more likely to use homeschooling or virtual school education after lockdowns end. Most importantly, many are from groups that have long expressed dissatisfaction with their local brick-and-mortar schools. Among those more likely to consider home or virtual learning were 53 percent of Asian parents and 50 percent of African-American parents.
7) Unions Take Revenge On Elon Musk
Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to move his electric car factory from California to either Texas or Nevada if he wasn’t allowed to reopen. Local authorities blinked and Tesla’s production line is humming again.
But now the payback. California’s Employee Training Panel has voted to block $655,500 in funds that Musk’s Space X company wanted for the training and hiring of workers. Half of the panel’s eight members are union leaders and they provided the key votes for rejection. Observers say it was the first such corporate subsidy they could remember the panel rejecting.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-15/musk-s-spacex-faces-union-opposition-to-california-job-funding?sref=WtcBxYbo
8) More Media Insanity
The Washington Post has identified the problem, now that we have massively scaled up testing as they and the rest of the liberal media establishment demanded:
Related:
If only we had more sick people to test, we’d be safer from disease!
9) The Next Wisconsin?
A local judge in Oregon has tossed out statewide restrictions mandated by Democratic Governor Kate Brown. The governor asked the judge to stay his ruling until she could appeal it to the state’s Supreme Court, but he declined.
Similar to this month’s rulings in Wisconsin, Judge Matthew Shirtcliff of Baker County found that the governor failed to seek the legislature’s approval for extending stay-at-home orders beyond a 28-day limit.
In a seven-page opinion, Shirtcliff wrote that the damage to state residents was greater than the dangers presented by the virus. He noted that some businesses such as grocery stores were allowed to remain open even with large numbers of people present. Other businesses and churches have had to remain closed.
“The governor’s orders are not required for public safety when plaintiffs can continue to utilize social distancing and safety protocols at larger gatherings involving spiritual worship,” he wrote.
10) Hero Of The Day – Illinois Sheriff: “We are not stormtroopers. We are peacekeepers.”
James Mendrick is the sheriff of suburban Du Page County Illinois’ second largest with almost one million residents. In 2016, it went for Hillary Clinton by 14 percentage points.
But the Sheriff has had enough of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s lockdown orders. Last Friday, the governor pushed through an emergency rule imposing Class A misdemeanor penalties on any businesses that reopened.
Sheriff Mendrick then took to Facebook Monday morning to make an impassioned protest. “I feel my own 1st Amendment rights have been completely trampled on by a governor who has threatened my Offices’ reimbursement and grant funds as a tool to force me not to speak. I just can’t do this any more.”
https://www.facebook.com/100004050244932/posts/2016608998484089/?d=n
11) Is Better Healthcare At Dramatically Lower Costs Possible In The U.S.?
New Episode of Steve Forbes: What’s Ahead
Steve Forbes on why U.S. healthcare prices are the world’s highest without patients experiencing commensurate results, and what can be learned from other healthcare system models that could provide Americans with higher-quality care at lower costs.
12) It’s funny because it’s true.
