1) At Least Antifa and Black Lives Matter Have Ended the Insane Lockdowns
It’s done. The phased reopenings. The cautious pronouncements. The insane stay-at-home orders. The masks. It was all theater, to save face after the disease came and went.
A few days ago ABC became the first major network to admit there has been no increase in coronavirus disease burden in states that have been open, in many cases now for over a month:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/tracking-happening-states-reopen/story?id=70961608
And now we’ve seen several days of the same politicians who imposed lockdowns downplaying the disease risk from densely packed crowds — some protesting peacefully, others engaging in rioting, looting, and wanton violence and destruction of property.
The governors have to know it’s over. They should admit it, scrap all the unconstitutional dictates, and trust Americans to make our own risk assessment decisions and live our own lives.
2) Where Is Rosa Parks When We Need Her?
You may recall that several weeks ago Steve Moore was roundly attacked in the media and even parodied on Saturday Night Live for saying that anti-lockdown protesters on the right should emulate civil rights icon Rosa Parks and engage in peaceful rallies.
What a shame that no one on the left advised the mobsters who have taken to the streets to imitate Rosa Parks instead of burning down and looting immigrant businesses, spray-painting obscenities all over the churches and civic monuments, and endangering outnumbered police who are trying to protect these neighborhoods.
Here are our three takeaways from the events of the last few days and weeks:
1. Stay-at-home orders and social-distancing requirements must be adhered to by those on the right, but the righteous left gets a free pass.
2. When the left protests, they ransack and burn their neighborhoods, spray-paint obscene graffiti, and leave a mess of litter and trash everywhere for someone else to clean up. When the right holds rallies, the participants clean up after themselves. Yet leftists say they are the environmentalists.
3. Freedom protesters on the right carry the flag and celebrate America even as we air our grievances. How many American flags have you seen during the riots this weekend?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/01/where_is_rosa_parks_when_we_need_her_most_143337.html
3) Don’t Worry, Joe Biden Will Fix Everything with Economy-Crushing Tax Hikes
Just what the economy needs as it struggles to recover from Democratic lockdowns… massive, unprecedented tax hikes. You couldn’t make it up.
“Democratic lawmakers and policy aides worry little that planned tax increases on corporations and high-income households would hinder the economic recovery. If anything, they argue that economic disparities evident during the pandemic make these tax increases more necessary.”
From lockdowns to massive tax hikes… are they trying to induce another Great Depression?
4) 68% Making More on Unemployment Than Working
That’s the calculation from three researchers at the University of Chicago. They found:
“68% of unemployed workers who are eligible for UI will receive benefits which exceed lost earnings. The median replacement rate is 134%, and one out of five eligible unemployed workers will receive benefits at least twice as large as their lost earnings.”
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_202062-1.pdf
The median replacement rate is well above 100% in all 50 states, at this chart shows:
This policy is in place under current law until July 31; Nancy Pelosi has already tried to extend it for six months and Ron Wyden wants to essentially make it permanent. But to get the incentives right to get America back to work this policy needs to end as soon as possible.
5) Governor Pritzker Fights With Trump, But He’s Already Punched Out His Own State
President Trump and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker mixed it up during a video conference call with the nation’s governors on Monday.
“We’ve got to have national leadership in calling for calm and making sure that we’re addressing the concerns of legitimate peaceful protestors,” Pritzker told Trump. The president responded by saying “I don’t like your rhetoric much either because I watched it with respect to the coronavirus…. I think you could’ve done a much better job, frankly.”
As judges, we’ll give the round to Trump because he pivoted to Pritzker’s abysmal record on the economy and his dereliction of duty of protecting Chicago residents of all races from the criminal looters and arsonists.
A new study from the University of Illinois predicts the state will lose the equivalent of 550,000 full-time job years due to the lockdown with huge losses in trade, transportation and hospitality.
6) Stress Pandemic: Isolation Kills
A new study finds that social isolation — i.e., lockdown — is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke of more than 40%, and of all-cause mortality approaching 50%.
“These results are especially important in the current times of social isolation during the coronavirus crisis,” Janine Gronewold, PhD, University Hospital in Essen, Germany, told a press briefing.
7) One More Time: Coronavirus Not Dangerous to the Young and the Healthy
U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, via the Federalist:
“The final data offered by the Navy remains at 1,102 cases, with only one reported death. Doing some simple math, COVID-19 aboard the Theodore Roosevelt had a death rate of 0.09 percent, while the estimated death rate for the seasonal flu is 0.1 percent.”
Colorado, via Conservative Review:
“Colorado has published the results of ongoing antibody tests with a massive sample size of 56,000. The study found, as of Thursday, that 7.75% of the entire state has been infected. That means that an estimated 489,500 Coloradoans have already had the virus. If you divide Colorado’s 1,135 deaths by the number of infections, you get a 0.23% IFR.
“If you further divide the Colorado numbers by age group, you get a 0.03% IFR for everyone (sick and healthy together) under the age of 60. Even if you include all those under 70, the IFR comes out to 0.07%.”
8) Leaked German Report Warned Against Lockdown
Germany’s Interior Ministry is desperately trying to avoid questions about the leak of a report it prepared that challenges its official pronouncements on the coronavirus.
Some of the report’s key conclusions:
· The dangerousness of Covid-19 was overestimated: probably at no point did the danger posed by the new virus go beyond the normal level.
· The people who die from Corona are essentially those who would statistically die this year, because they have reached the end of their lives and their weakened bodies can no longer cope with any random everyday stress (including the approximately 150 viruses currently in circulation).
· The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses. There is no evidence that this was more than a false alarm.
· More people are dying because of state-imposed Corona-measures than they are being killed by the virus.
The 93-page report is being dismissed by government officials as the work of one employee, but in reality it was drafted by a scientific panel appointed by the interior ministry and composed by medical experts from several German universities.
9) Denmark Overruled Its Health Experts to Lock Down
Leaked emails showed that Denmark’s government knew that the virus was spreading much more slowly than previously reported. Kåre Molbæk, Denmark’s top epidemiologist, and Brostrøm, the Health Authority head, both wanted to release the new number.
But Brostrøm told Molbæk that this couldn’t be done until after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced an extension of the lockdown.
“I’m completely in agreement…” he said. “But this is not desired politically, and my understanding is that it can be announced on Monday at the earliest.”
Denmark’s Politiken newspaper also details how Frederiksen’s government in March stripped power from the Danish Health Authority, changing it from an “regulatory authority” to an “advisory” one.
This allowed the government to ignore the authority’s opinion that Covid-19 was not a sufficiently dangerous disease to allow the government to declare a lockdown under Denmark’s epidemic law.
10) Anti-Hero of The Day: LA Mayor Eric Garcetti
Small business owners in Los Angeles are beside themselves. Over 70 are facing threats of jail for violating various rules set by Mayor Eric Garcetti which block them from reopening because they are “non-essential.”
Yes this is the same Mayor who wants to keep L.A. shuttered for another two months.
Steve Hilton, a former policy advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, now lives in California. He notes the irony of the mayor threatening small businesses while “standing by while violent thugs destroy” many of them. ‘What is wrong with you?” Hilton concludes. “What kind of values are you teaching with this?”
11) Clever Churchgoers Avoid Arrest By Disguising Themselves As Rioters
Excerpt from Babylon Bee:
LOS ANGELES, CA—Religious people in Southern California have found a bold, creative solution for in-person meetings in spite of the continuing lockdown. This past weekend, several area churches attended church services disguised as righteously indignant rioters.
“We already have the righteous indignation thing down,” said one church elder. “Now, we’ve simply added black balaclavas, hoodies, Guy Fawkes masks, and baseball bats! We found that when we do this, we can meet in large groups without much interference from the local authorities. It’s been a delightful experience.”
