Note:  This page holds the coronavirus news and commentary from the dreadful year 2020.  It is anticipated that nothing will change on this page.

For timely news, click here.)

How to Steal an Election in Four Steps.  It was January and the Democrats had a problem:  things were too good in America.  No wars, improved border security, lower drug prices, lower taxes, and a bull market would likely conspire to get Trump reelected in November.  In February covid 19 reached our shores.  While most of us were trying to figure out how serious it was, America's top leftists formulated an ingenious if sadistic plan to use covid 19 to steal the presidency in November.  Step one: promote the virus as potentially world-ending.  Regardless of how severe it turned out to be in the USA, it would be publicized as contagious and deadly; people could not be allowed to assemble in groups for fear of spreading it.  Government agencies, prominent Democrats, and the media would paint it as a once-a-century pandemic like the one in 1918 that killed 30 million people.  They'd close businesses and mandate wearing masks to help embed the notion.

5 Reasons Why You're Not Crazy to Question the Election Results.  [Scroll down]  While Trump took hits for leadership lapses in the COVID response, complaints were usually uttered by leftists who wished he'd done more to lock down, force vaccinations, and take a greater hand in shutting down the economy.  Trump's approach and his sideline Twitter sniping let people know he didn't want a wholesale shutdown.  He'd hoped to reopen the economy "by Easter" and tried to cajole Democrat governors into lifting the reigns on the people and the shutdown of the economy.  Democrats like Governors Jay Inslee, Kate Brown, Gavin Newsom, and Gretchen Whitmer did the exact opposite.  Citizens organized recall efforts to respond to the governors' autocratic response.

42 people are mistakenly injected with the Regeneron antibody treatment instead of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in blunder at West Virginia clinic.  A review has been launched after more than 40 people were mistakenly injected with the Regeneron antibody treatment instead of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine at a West Virginia clinic.  The West Virginia National Guard announced the monumental blunder Thursday revealing that 42 people were given the antibody cocktail at a vaccination clinic in Boone County in the southwestern part of the state the day before.  Officials insisted the antibody injection is 'not harmful' to the individuals but said the health department will follow up 'regularly' with them anyway.  The group has also been prioritized and offered the real vaccine Thursday [12/31/2020].

Teachers Union Leader Encouraged Strikes to 'Stay Safe' From COVID, Then She Got Caught in a Compromising Position.  Is there any profession that has taken a bigger hit in the credibility department over the course of the COVID pandemic than teaching?  That's unfortunate given the fact that many teachers simply wanted to get back in the classroom as soon as possible, recognizing the dangers prolonged lockdowns represented to students.  Yet, there have been so many high profile cases of teachers and their union leaders ignoring science for their own personal gain and laziness that it has unfairly tarnished everyone.  One of the most recent cases involves a woman named Sarah Chambers from Chicago (because of course she's from Chicago).  Chambers, a member of the Chicago Teachers Union Board, was encouraging teachers to stay home because it was supposedly unsafe to return to work.  But it was what she had posted a few hours later that got her caught in a compromising position.

Canadian finance minister resigns after posting pre-recorded Twitter videos pretending to be at home on lockdown — from the beach in St Barts!  Ontario's finance minister has been forced to resign after going on a lockdown-busting St Barts vacation and posting a fake Christmas Eve video in an effort to hide his real location.  Rod Phillips shared a video of himself drinking eggnog in a sweater in front of a fireplace with a gingerbread house and a little Christmas tree.  He thanked Ontarians staying home and avoiding nonessential travel because of the pandemic over the Christmas holidays, telling them: 'I want to thank every one of you for what we are doing to protect our most vulnerable.'  Except that Phillips was enjoying a Caribbean vacation at the time on the French island of St. Barts, a popular spot for the rich and famous, Newstalk 1010 first reported.

Oregon Mayor Urges Residents to Disobey Governor's COVID-19 Restrictions.  Not every elected official in Oregon is going along with the COVID program.  Stan Pulliam, the Republican mayor of Sandy, Oregon, is encouraging business owners in the state to ignore coronavirus restrictions from Governor Kate Brown, who declared a state of emergency that will last through March 3, 2021 after the previous executive order was scheduled to expire on January 2, 2021.  "I think all Oregonians should take pause, stand up and say 'this must stop,'" Pulliam said on Fox News' America's Newsroom program.  "What we're talking about doing is having the mass movement opening across the state of Oregon throughout all of our local communities on January 1st, New Year's Day," Pulliam said, going on to argue that small businesses should open just "one level under" Governor Brown's guidelines, which includes wearing proper face masks while social distancing and sanitizing.  "We want to get the storefronts open and get employees back to work," he said.

Feds reverse course on $14k fee for distillers that made hand sanitizer.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has directed the Food and Drug Administration to cease plans to levy a $14,060 fee on craft distillers who produced hand sanitizer during the coronavirus pandemic.  "Small businesses who stepped up to fight COVID-19 should be applauded by their government, not taxed for doing so.  I'm pleased to announce we have directed FDA to cease enforcement of these arbitrary, surprise user fees.  Happy New Year, distilleries, and cheers to you for helping keep us safe!" HHS Chief of Staff Brian Harrison said in a statement.

Anti-Mask Flash Mobs Begin to Show Up in Stores Around the Country, Loudly Encouraging Freedom.  There's been a growing movement that's just starting to get some attention.  But it's spreading in various areas throughout the country, and it's not hard to understand why.  That's the anti-mask flash mob.  As more and more news comes out that asymptomatic spread is basically zero and the science behind the efficacy of masks is questionable, more and more people are saying enough:  open everything up and stop with the masks and restrictions.  The flash mobs go on masse to a store, speak against wearing masks and then go out again.  This one involved immigrants from Communist China who have some experience with oppressive government regulations and were urging others not to go along with it.  [Tweet]

COVID "Mutation" Stories Show That The Lockdowns Are Designed To Last Forever.  For many months now I have been warning that the design behind the pandemic lockdowns is a perpetual one; meaning, the lockdowns are MEANT to last forever.  We can see this in the very commentary of the establishment elites that are pushing for the mandates; their most frequent argument being that the pandemic restrictions are the "new normal". This assertion is outlined by globalists like Gideon Lichfield of MIT in his article 'We're Not Going Back To Normal'. [...] The so-called "great reset" and "Fourth Industrial Revolution" has been in development since at least 2014 when the terms were first being injected into the mainstream economic media.  The ideas of a cashless society, the "sharing economy", biometric mass surveillance, social credit scores, etc, have all been part of the globalist agenda for decades.  The coronavirus is merely a useful crisis for them to exploit as a rationale for the draconian measures they have always wanted.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me a Face Diaper.  We were going to enjoy our unmasked walk no matter how many compliant sheep we had to pass.  Lone bikers, near no one, were masked.  Lone joggers were masked.  One jogger would pull up her mask when she passed someone and then pull it down after passing.  Little kids were masked.  Mothers, fathers, teens on dates, and young guys were all masked.  I couldn't help but think how government school indoctrination had worked wonders on these obedient serfs.  Have years of helicopter parenting created such a pathetic generation of infant like rule followers?  Are they so willfully ignorant they can't do the basic research to realize masks don't work, based on CDC studies and the actual case rates in states and cities with mandatory masking and lockdowns?  Based on my observations, at least 60% of these people, out getting exercise and fresh air (not too fresh with a filthy diaper on their faces), were obeying their tyrannical politicians and bureaucrats, or entrapped in fear by a flu with a 99.7% survival rate.

Silent Obedient Consent.  I am saddened by how easily the totalitarians have been able to use fear, propaganda, lies and misinformation to turn the vast majority of Americans into compliant sheep.  It is so clear to me that this engineered flu panic is nothing more than another chapter in the scheme to enslave global populations under the thumb of global elitist billionaires who want to control us and enrich themselves.

Minnesota man thrown from an automobile listed as a Covid death in Minnesota.  Minnesota state Representative Mary Franson and Senator Scott Jensen conducted a little research, collecting 2800 death certificates provided by the Minnesota Department of Health.  Franson had a team comb through them for causes of death.  They both had a suspicion that Covid deaths were being overcounted.  Senator Jensen is himself a doctor. [...] He came to some notoriety back in April when he first sounded the alarm bells noting the financial incentives for attributing deaths to Covid. [...] As Jensen explains, typically you look to the "UCOD" or "Underlying Cause Of Death" for classification purposes.  There may be a more immediate cause, say, pneumonia, but had the pneumonia come about due to some coronary issue, the UCOD would identify the coronary issue.  As he put it, you have an "immediate" cause, "intermediate" cause(s) and then an "underlying" cause.  The practice the CDC had always required in classifying deaths was to use the UCOD.  That changed with Covid.

Salon Owner Files Lawsuit Over Oregon Governor Threatening to Have CPS Take Her Kids for Defying Lockdown.  An Oregon salon owner has filed a $100,000 lawsuit against Gov. Kate Brown for threatening to have Child Protective Services take her children away.  The lawsuit also outlines damages she sustained due to extended closures and excessive fines issued against her.  Glamour Salon owner Lindsey Graham says that the governor began "terrorizing" her after she defied lockdown orders and reopened her salon in May.  She was fined $14,000 for the defiance.  "As soon as I tried to open my doors against the governor's mandate back in May, she came at me with the full weight of the state," Graham told Fox News during an interview with The Ingraham Angle on Monday [12/28/2020].

Buffalo Bills' plan for testing fans could be the new normal for events.  There will be fans on the stands at the upcoming Buffalo Bills playoff game, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at his press briefing Wednesday, joined by Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula.  "We're all so excited about the Bills," Cuomo said.  It's the football team's first home playoff game in over two decades, and 6,700 fans will be allowed inside the outdoor stadium to take part in a pilot test.

Really?  When kwanzaa is over, will the pandemic be over?
Bill de Blasio urges New Yorkers to embrace 'Kwanzaa principles to see them through pandemic.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says New Yorkers trying to navigate through the confusion caused by the coronavirus pandemic should turn to "the Kwanzaa principles" of "cooperative economics" for answers. [...] "We're here in the Kwanzaa season," Mr. De Blasio said.  "It's a time that really helps us think about principles that are so powerful for guiding our lives, particularly in a crisis.  I gotta tell ya, the Kwanzaa principles, they make so much sense any time, but particularly in the tough times we're going through, they really shine through.  So, today is the fourth day of Kwanzaa.  Today's principle is Ujaama, or cooperative economics.  It's a powerful concept."

The Editor says...
That sounds a lot like a state endorsement of a specific religion to me.

More about Kwanzaa.

China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins.  Deep in the lush valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats with the closest known relative to COVID-19.  The area is of intense interest because it may hold clues to the origins of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide, but has become a black hole of no information because of political sensitivity.  A bat research team that visited recently had their samples confiscated, two people familiar with the matter said.  And a team of Associated Press journalists was tailed by plainclothes police in multiple cars who blocked access to sites in late November.  More than a year since the first known person was infected with the coronavirus, an AP investigation shows the Chinese government is strictly controlling all research into its origins while promoting fringe theories that the pandemic originated elsewhere.

COVID Madness, California State Authorities Raid Beauty Salon, Local Authorities Refuse Cooperation.  A slight shift in this COVID compliance and resistance example.  The California state regulatory authorities raid a beauty salon citing COVID compliance demands; however, the local authorities refuse to cooperate with the state intent.  Pomp Hair Salon in Stockton California was raided by state officials who cited the salon for continuing operations.  The subsequent misdemeanor citation comes from the state.  However, local law enforcement and county prosecution say they will not participate in the enforcement mechanism.  This creates an unusual dynamic as the state has threatened to revoke licenses for the salon and the workers; but what "enforcement" action could the state undertake?

LA Orders Everyone to Stay Home; Asks Hollywood to Maybe Pause.  If anyone needed any further reminders that not only are we not all in this together, but a handful of powerful special interests are calling all the shots.  The essential and non-essential categories are gigantic scams.  In California, not only is Hollywood considered essential, but while people are being ordered to stay home, Hollywood is being asked nicely if it wouldn't possibly consider pausing production. [...] This isn't the treatment that restaurants are getting.  It's also not the treatment that so many other businesses are on the receiving end of.  Small businesses that are told to close and don't close, are harassed by inspectors.  [B]ut Hollywood is politely requested to maybe please consider pausing production.  Don't expect the entertainment industry, which pays the bills of California Democrats, to abide by this any more than they abided by the early proposed curfew for filming, which was almost immediately rescinded.  We're not all in this together.

Top Pandemic Scientist Admits Emulating Communist Chinese Model To Strip Civil Liberties Away.  Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist who played a key role in convincing the British government to adopt lockdowns, revealed that the country's lockdowns were meant to emulate those carried out by the Chinese Communist Party — modeled to strip civil liberties and exert authoritarian control over citizens.  In Ferguson's recent interview with The Times, he revealed that lockdowns he championed as part of Britain's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) Board, were rooted in those carried out by the Chinese Communist Party.  Dubbed "Professor Lockdown" by many for his contributions to swaying the British government to adopt stringent lockdown measures, Ferguson ultimately stepped down from the SAGE board after he violated his own lockdown protocols.

The Editor says...
Covid-19 is not about public health.  Maybe it was at first, but now it's about authoritarianism and control.

Anti-mask flash mob shows up loud and proud at CVS as trend catches on across US.  In what is being described as a purported anti-mask flash mob, a woman shouting "freedom" accuses CVS of working with communist China and what the company is doing "is illegal under the U.S. Constitution."  In the footage that has gone viral with about 470,000 hits so far, the woman says "do not ever touch us," and claims that while she was shopping, "CVS customer service attacked me," possibly for not wearing a face mask, although the specific details behind this incident, and at which pharmacy it occurred, are as yet still undefined.  According to one Twitter user, "These customers are freedom-loving immigrants."  Pro-or con mask confrontations have consumed a lot of online video bandwidth in 2020. Most people have complied with mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, whether imposed by government or by the private sector, to help stop the spread or as a cost of doing business.

Holiday in Handcuffs?  Our state is governed by a petty tyrant.  We've had a mask mandate since June and because he has unchecked power and was just reelected, he extends mandates in perpetuity.  He has done his best to suck joy out of everything.  Unlike Cuomo, our southern king issues edicts in secret.  He actively avoids the press and has deputized a legion of Karens to help with enforcement.  Unfortunately, we ran into one at church.  We arrived to Mass early and sat in our usual pew.  As we have done since the church reopened in May, we went maskless.  I've learned to ignore the stares and no one has ever said anything.

UK Woman Arrested For Filming Inside Empty Hospital.  A woman in the UK was arrested by police after she filmed a video inside an almost completely empty hospital and posted it online.  The clip shows the woman walking through virtually empty corridors and filming empty wards at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.  "This is a disgrace... it is so dead... all the people in our country desperately waiting for treatment, cancer treatment heart disease, honestly this is making me so angry," she states as she films a row of empty waiting chairs.  The woman expressed shock at how quiet the hospital was, saying she expected there to be "a few more people around, there's absolutely nobody."  [Video clip] [...] While the footage shows the inside of the hospital to be virtually empty, UK health authorities have continually asserted that the NHS is at risk of being "overwhelmed" as a result of rising COVID-19 infections.

4 California Small Business Owners Share Their Struggles to Survive Under Lockdowns.  California small businesses are crumbling under the weight of a new stay-at-home order and a lack of meaningful financial assistance.  Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued a new region-based lockdown order for California on Dec. 3, forcing more California businesses to close their doors or severely limit operations.  "We are at a tipping point in our fight against the virus, and we need to take decisive action now to prevent California's hospital system from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks," Newsom said in a statement announcing the new restrictions.

The Editor says...
Various governors and county kingpins have been saying things like, "We are at a tipping point in our fight against the virus," for almost a year now.  According to them, we're always at a critical moment in history:  We must act immediately if we are to forestall disaster!  This moment is critical!  Don't ask any questions, just do as we say!  It's only for a few (more) weeks!  Trust us!

2nd Circuit Court Takes On 'Essential' Discrimination.  After practically a year of this, the courts are finally tackling some of the basic lockdown questions.  One of the most basic of these is the entire premise that some businesses are essential while other businesses are non-essential.  And that these decisions about which business is essential and which business is non-essential can be made by political leaders.

Spain to create registry of people who refuse COVID-19 vaccine.  Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Monday that his country will create a registry to keep track of citizens who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19.  He told Spanish television channel La Sexta that the names of people who refuse to be vaccinated "will be kept in a register" that would be shared with other European Union nations, according to the New York Times.  "We all see that the best form to defeat the virus is to get all vaccinated, the more, the better," Illa said.  He added that being vaccinated should be seen as "an act of solidarity toward our loved ones and our citizenship."

Russia admits its Covid death toll is the world's third worst at 186,000 — three times higher than it claimed.  Russia has admitted having the world's third highest Covid death toll with more than 186,000 fatalities — three times higher than previously acknowledged and a higher per-capita rate than in Britain or America.  President Vladimir Putin has previously claimed the country has done a 'better' job managing the pandemic than Western nations, despite some Russian experts saying the government was playing down the outbreak.  But the Rosstat statistics agency said that 186,057 people had died from coronavirus in the country between the start of the pandemic and November, compared to the official death count of just 55,265.

ER nurse tests positive for COVID-19 eight days AFTER he received Pfizer vaccine.  A California nurse has tested positive for COVID-19 eight days after receiving the vaccination.  ER nurse Matthew W., received the Pfizer vaccine on December 18, according to a post from Instagram. [...] But on Christmas Eve, Matthew, who works at two different hospitals in San Diego, began feeling sick after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit.  Regulators of the Pfizer vaccine have found that the best immunity against coronavirus comes seven days after the second dose, which is given three weeks after the first, meaning there is a possibility that someone who had received the vaccine could still contract the virus within that time frame.  All patients need two doses of the vaccine to achieve immunity.

ER Nurse Gets Sick, Tests Positive For COVID 8 Days After Getting Vaccinated.  Health experts are weighing in after a local nurse tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after receiving the Pfizer vaccine.  In a Facebook message posted on December 18, Matthew W., an ER nurse at at two different local hospitals, talked about receiving the Pfizer vaccine that day.  He told ABC 10News his arm was sore for a day but he suffered no other side effects.  Six days later on Christmas Eve — after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit — he became sick.  He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue.

Where the Real Stupidity and Delusion About COVID-19 Is.  Two things can be true at the same time about COVID-19.  For one, people can take the virus seriously, believe it's an issue, and believe everyone needs to take the necessary precautions in order to limit the spread of the virus or avoid it altogether.  On the other end, the same person who takes the COVID-19 virus seriously can also be a person who recognizes that a societal collapse could do far more damage to the people than this virus can, and do what's necessary to keep society afloat by living out their lives as normally as possible.  In the age of the internet, nuance tends to get lost on people.  We're practically encouraged to retreat to one side or another and hold that ground no matter what.

Rubio Writes Scathing Piece About Fauci Lying to America to Manipulate Us.  If you didn't know that Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that he lied to the American people in order to manipulate us into behaving in a way he thought was right, I wouldn't blame you.  The bombshell revelations didn't exactly make it into mainstream consciousness thanks to the media nearly shrugging it off completely.  The story was reported by only a handful of places, including this one.  "When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent ... Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, 'I can nudge this up a bit,' so I went to 80, 85," said Fauci.  "We need to have some humility here....  We really don't know what the real number is.  I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent.  But, I'm not going to say 90 percent."  CNN asked Fauci about the lie themselves but Fauci's answer effectively amounted to saying that he has no real numbers to achieve herd immunity, he's just guessing.

2 Men Charged After Two Large Gatherings Held at Ontario Church.  Two men were charged by police over large gatherings in a Wheatley, Ontario, church this weekend.  Chatham-Kent police said they received reports of large gatherings held at the Old Colony Mennonite Church on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 respectively.  When police arrived on both days, they found over 100 people not wearing masks inside the church.  A 50-year old man from Merlin, Ontario, who took responsibility for the gathering, was charged on the first day, and another 43-year old Merlin man was charged on the second day.  Both men were charged for failing to comply with the Reopening Ontario Act, police said.  The Act prohibits churches to hold services with more than 10 people indoors or outdoors during lockdown which went into effect on Dec. 26 at 12.01 a.m.

The Editor says...
The First Amendment doesn't operate in Canada.

"I'm Not Crazy!" — This American Has Had Enough.  As [2020] comes to an end, public outcries against various officials' authoritarian orders grow louder in the face of an increasing body of scientific studies exposing the lies (that Fauci just admitted to).  As more and more 'members of the public' educate themselves on the reality of the virus — its contagiousness, its deadliness, the ineffectiveness of mitigation techniques, and the fallacies of COVID test results — at least one American has "had enough", in her own words, "I'm not crazy... I'm done!"

New York passes strongest COVID-19 eviction moratorium in the nation.  New York State passed the strongest COVID-19 eviction moratorium in the nation Monday [12/28/2020].  State Senator Brian Kavanagh wrote the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act.  "We estimate that there are 4.1 million renter households in New York and we think about a quarter of them, maybe 20 or 25% of them, are behind on their rent," Senator Kavanagh told PIX11 News.  Under the new law, tenants will be able to use a standardized form to declare a hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Tenants can file the form in court or directly with their landlord.

The Editor says...
That's wonderful news, unless you're a landlord.

De Blasio's Perfect Patsies.  Are the Jews to blame for spreading COVID-19 throughout New York City?  That's what Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested in an inflammatory tweet back in April, which, in his typical bumbling fashion, he defended for six months before kinda, sorta walking it back.  Never mind all that.  The city is serious!  It believes in science!  Earlier this week, the mayor's office launched its "NYC Vaccine for All" campaign, announcing that it will begin offering the COVID vaccine soonest.  Who will get it first?  Naturally, the neighborhoods "hardest hit" by the pandemic, the mayor's office assured us, 27 of them in total.  Hallelujah!  So now we have an official record of the hardest hit corners of New York, which means that if the mayor's criticism was correct, we should find many familiar ZIP codes among those singled out for urgent care.  Let us, then, turn to the list and search for the neighborhoods heaviest populated by Orthodox Jews, the clear target of the mayor's ire.

California Bar Owner Reaches Desperation Point — Blocks COVID Health Dept Enforcer, Confronts Police.  Carlos Roman is the owner of a Bread & Barley restaurant in Covina, California, who reached his breaking point with health inspectors and COVID compliance officers when a public health dept. official ordered his restaurant to shut down.  Mr. Roman decided if he was going to lose everything; if his employees were going to lose their livelihoods; if the system was going to destroy them under the weight of unilateral decrees and fiats; then he was going to block the health inspector from doing his job.  The police were called-in to deal with Carlos Roman's act of defiance.

Liberals Keep Trashing Florida, and It's Obvious Why.  If you simply listened to the mainstream news media, you'd get the impression that Florida has been hit uniquely hard by the coronavirus pandemic.  At obsessive levels, the Sunshine State has been lambasted for daring to keep their economy open while not enacting pointless, draconian mitigation measures.  Of course, the reality is far different from the media's perceptions.  Florida still only has about half the deaths per 100,000 compared to New York and New Jersey despite countless challenges to "just wait two weeks" that date all the way back to the spring.

Cashing in on COVID: Pandemic turns 50 doctors and scientists into Billionaires-with more than half hailing from China, Forbes reveals.  The COVID-19 pandemic has helped 50 healthcare leaders become billionaires, with 28 hailing from China, where the virus first emerged in December 2019.  The first case of the coronavirus was reported in Wuhan last year before quickly spreading across the world and killing more than 1.7 million people.  In the US alone, there are more than 19 million confirmed infections and at least 332,723 Americans have died.  Government officials immediately turned to the healthcare industry for help with rolling out a vaccination.  Moderna and Pfizer have both made good on their promises to create a vaccine for the virus by the end of 2020.

Rubio is right:  Fauci has repeatedly lied because he thinks you're stupid.  Nearly a year into our 15 days to slow the spread, our political class still refuses to call out our supposed medical experts for repeatedly discrediting themselves with noble lie after noble lie.  Finally, Sen. Marco Rubio has rightly called out Anthony Fauci for lying to the public because our ruling class believes us plebians to be too stupid to understand the actual science about the coronavirus.  [Tweet]  In the year since the Chinese Communist Party unleashed the novel coronavirus across the globe, we've learned an abundance about the virus that could have informed far less onerous mitigation measures.  If we had known as we do now that young children are not significant vectors spreading the virus, we would have never shut down the kindergartens and elementary schools.  If we had known that the outdoors, especially in direct sunlight, are orders of magnitude safer than indoors, we would have never closed off beaches and hiking trails, and city centers would have almost certainly closed off streets to allow restaurants greater capacity for outdoor dining.

Also posted under Liberals think you're stupid.

Still More Evidence That Biden Is Wrong About Mask Mandates.  A poll out last week found that 75% of Americans say they support a nationwide mask mandate to fight COVID-19. Why shouldn't they, since the public has been told repeatedly by politicians and public health officials that these steps will slow the spread of the disease and save lives.  Yet new research provides clear evidence that — whatever the lab results of mask-wearing and disease spread might suggest — real-world mask mandates do little, if anything, to slow COVID-19.  The survey, conducted by STAT and the Harris Poll, found there is a partisan split on a mask mandate: 60% of Republicans favor a mandate, compared with more than 85% of Democrats.  Joe Biden promises that, once in the White House, he will order masks on federal property and interstate travel, while pressing state and local leaders to push for mandates.  The oft-repeated claim is that this would save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Study Finds 'No Statistically Significant' Link Between Gyms and COVID Cases.  In the Philadelphia suburb of Bellmawr, New Jersey, the owners of Atilis Gym are currently facing over $1 million in fines.  Why?  They stayed open when the state has decreed gyms must be closed.  Also, let's be clear:  It's not as if they stayed open and New Jersey officialdom just sighed, shrugged and began issuing pro forma fines.  The gym has been boarded up and padlocked; the owners had to break in to their own business.  They've also been arrested.  The police have been frequent visitors.  And yet, after all this, the state of New Jersey has linked not a single case to the gym.

Bill Gates' Savior Complex Spirals Out of Control, Funds Sun-Dimming Plan To Save the Human Race.  Bill Gates is now best known as a philanthropist, not the guy who started Microsoft or was the avatar for everyone's annoyance with Windows 95.  He's also known for wanting to save us from ourselves.  Now, apparently, he wants to save us from the sun.  Gates, for those of you who don't follow these things, has been big on both vaccination and pandemic prevention.  Fair enough.  That certainly means his moment has arrived.  However, he's about as much of a lockdown guy as you can get — which is just fine if you're a billionaire who can afford to hide away as if this were Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," but the real-world consequences for the rest of us can be, ahem, problematic.

Most Healthcare Workers Are Not Heroes, Many Are Sociopaths and We Must Keep That in Mind When Dealing With Them.  [Scroll down]  To be clear, I don't know this person but just want to make the observation that getting up, going to work, caring for your family, and participating in the social/political life of your community [...] is not heroism, it is something that adults have historically done.  If you are in the healthcare field, working around people with infectious diseases is what you chose to do for a living.  Don't complain about doing your job and then claim to be heroic.  As the "public health emergency" has dragged on, we've been treated to all manner of self-proclaimed healthcare heroes trying to inspire us through their pluckiness.  [Tweets]  Nice to see those supplementary payments hospitals get for classifying heroin overdoses and gunshot-riddled gangbangers as Wuhan virus cases are being well used on staff overtime.  They have hectored us with their self-righteousness.

Photos: A really good way to catch COVID, for free.  I thought it might be a good course to take a COVID test.  The County of San Diego offered them at several locations for free.  They'd collect data of course, but it seemed low risk in exchange for some important information.  Was I in for a surprise. [...] Long lines, extended exposure, some waiting inside, it seems outright ideal conditions for catching COVID, even with everyone wearing flimsy non-medical-grade masks.  Are the officials dismissing everyone in line as already having COVID? A lot of people in line seeking the free test probably did have it.  Their presence there could well have spread it to those who didn't. [...] For all the complaints and fears about voting lines, the long lines at the COVID testing sites seem strikingly unaddressed.  Is it just politics that activates press scrutiny?  Why is no one asking about this?

5 Armed Police Disgracefully Shuts Down California Hair Salon!  Without warning, Wednesday, uniformed officers with the California Department of Consumer Affairs entered the Pomp Salon in North Stockton's upscale Lincoln Center.  "About five armed state police officers burst into our salon shouting drop everything you're doing.  Stop, you're being shut down," said Vicki Kirk, salon co-owner.  [Video clip]

Restaurant Owner Gives The Speech Of A Lifetime For Freedom.  Not sure who this gentleman is or which business he owns but his speech about a revolution that needs to be had is one for the ages.  This man is correct, there will never be a return to normal, now that the dark forces have discovered what control America's overlords can have over the people, bypassing the Constitution in the name of a so-called pandemic.  [Indeed], they were even to steal an election in broad daylight while using COVID as a battering ram.  [Video clip]

A Lone Woman Stands Up To COVID Tyranny IN CVS, Spits Facts, The Sheep Keep Sheeping.  This woman has had enough and isn't going to take it anymore.  While in CVC [sic], this unmuzzled woman was confronted by CVC [sic] staff and told to obey her overlords and place her face shackle back on and get back into the heard.  The brave lady was having none of it.  She knows this video will be posted on Reddit and Twitter and all the low information robot Millenials and gen x-ers will mock her and call her Karen but she is 100% correct.  A new study proves that asymptomatic and nonsymptomatic people can not spread COVID.  [Video clip]

Fauci warns of 'post-seasonal surge' as U.S. cases pass 19M.  Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned of a "post-seasonal surge" of COVID-19 cases following holiday gatherings as the United States nears 19 million cases.  When asked during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union if he believes the "worst is still yet to come" in the pandemic Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "I do" citing high levels of holiday travel.

UNITE, Now is The Time — If Not Now, When?  Now is the time to unite, resist and push back against the unilateral decrees of local and state officials who have weaponized COVID compliance to destroy our nation.  An impassioned plea directly into the heart of patriots from coast to coast. [...] Those who construct the systems of control need to weaponize fear.  Fear of arrest; fear of losing a business; fear of losing liberty or financial security.  Local, regional and state officials rely on fear.  As soon as the people are no longer fearful, the control ends.  The overwhelming majority of dictates around COVID-19 mitigation are not laws.  There was no debate; no input from representative government; and no option for the public to weigh-in on the decisions.

Chinese citizen journalist jailed for four years for Wuhan virus reporting.  A Chinese citizen journalist was jailed for four years for her livestream reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak unfurled, her lawyer said Monday, almost a year after details of an "unknown viral pneumonia" surfaced in the central China city.  Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, was sentenced at a brief hearing in a Shanghai court for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" for her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak.

If you want to travel next year, you may need a vaccine passport.  Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the US and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again.  But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application.  Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries.

The First COVID Christmas.  There was plenty of space under the tree this year.  Not anything to do at all with being good or bad.  Rather, that the usual bulk of boxes, fruit baskets, bangles, and bows have been replaced by a coterie of cute little string-handle bags containing a variety of personal protective equipment and all of its accoutrement.  Ugly Sweaters with mismatched patterns have given way to costly designer masks, and perfumes and colognes to hand sanitizers.

The Real Reason Why Your Kids Can't Go Back To School (Hint:  It's Not COVID-19).  Schools have been closed for the better part of a year now, for the putative reason that COVID-19 makes them unsafe.  Only distance learning and Zoom and other online classes are safe enough for both teachers and kids, we're told.  Even though the science says otherwise, powerful teachers unions keep schools closed anyway.  But why?  Let's start with a blunt fact:  The teachers unions — including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), along with a host of radicalized local unions — don't have your kids' best interests at heart, despite their well-funded, slick propaganda to the contrary.  They oppose reopening schools, despite overwhelming evidence they should be reopened immediately.

This Tennessee Data for Masked vs. Unmasked Counties Would Be on Every Front Page, if the Results Were Different.  As you may have heard, we've sort of got a "casedemic" problem here in Tennessee.  That means lots and lots (and lots) of people are testing positive for COVID-19.  That's about all we know for sure, of course.  Nevertheless, hand-wringing from media, politicians, and local 'health authorities' is seemingly neverending, as are local reporters in my neck of the woods being filmed standing in front of that FEMA body truck they don't bother to tell us has been sitting in front of the regional hospital, unused, SINCE MARCH.  Hospitals aren't overwhelmed by any measure, and even the death toll isn't really all that impressive either considering that Tennessee is actually below the national average in deaths per million and most people who are dying are either already super old or super sick.  Indeed, while COVID does tragically hit some people hard, most 'cases' are quite mild and often non-symptomatic, driven by panic at every sniffle or people being forced to test for work and other reasons.  And there is increasingly solid evidence that not everyone counted as a 'COVID death' is really a death caused by COVID, but rather someone who had a positive PCR test at some point in 2020 before dying.  When you have a highly contagious respiratory virus going around, particularly one that is seasonal and seems to be boxing out the flu, an increasing percentage of those who die will likely have it.  These 'scary' numbers lie at the root of the ongoing panic and give continued justification for our overlords to continue to exercise control over society.

After Review, Minnesota Lawmakers Say COVID Deaths [are being] Heavily Inflated.  Two Minnesota lawmakers, Rep. Mary Franson and Sen. Scott Jensen, are causing waves after making a bombshell claim that COVID deaths are being heavily inflated.  This happened last week after a review of thousands of death certificates.

Anthony Fauci Has Known Since January That There's No Such Thing As Asymptomatic Spread.  [Tweet]  Remember that the reason you're wearing a diaper on yourself face and locked up at hone is because of fear of asymptomatic spread.  Turns out — that's not a thing and we've known that since January.

Brooklyn clinics face criminal probe over unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines.  A health-care network with clinics in Boro Park, Bensonhurst and Williamsburg is under a criminal investigation for giving unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines, officials said Saturday [12/26/2020].  ParCare Community Health Network "may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public," state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a news release.  The statement came hours after The [New York] Post questioned a state health department spokesman about ParCare giving the coveted inoculations.  The network's actions appear to violate the state's plan to administer the limited supply of vaccines first to frontline healthcare workers, along with nursing home residents and staffers, Zucker said.

Donald Trump was right again, this time about UV light and Coronavirus.  UV light kills 99% of the coronavirus, just as Donald Trump suggested.  He was mocked for it.  Ultraviolet radiation is a common method of killing bacteria and viruses.  Now, researchers from Tel Aviv University have proven that the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can be killed efficiently, quickly, and cheaply using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) at specific frequencies.  The Jerusalem Post reports.  "We discovered that it is quite simple to kill the coronavirus using LED bulbs that radiate ultraviolet light," said Prof. Hadas Mamane, head of the Environmental Engineering Program at Tel Aviv University's School of Mechanical Engineering, who led the study with Prof. Yoram Gerchman and Dr. Michal Mandelboim.

How the 'pandemic' will change if/when Biden takes office.  Going forward into 2021, it will be interesting to see just how the left plans to deal with the pseudo-pandemic.  The way I see it, they have two options.  Well, I guess actually three, but the third is a non-starter, which is coming clean and admitting to everyone that they lied about the severity of COVID for most of the population and they purposely inflated both the contraction and death rates to gain an election advantage.  The other two are 1: Now that a Democrat is president (assuming this ends up being the case), COVID will magically begin to lose its planet-killing status, and, thanks to our new president, things will begin to normalize a bit.  Or 2: Lockdowns will increase, despite vaccinations.  Masks will become mandatory inside and out.  All other controls will remain or be ramped up.  But there will be one change:  The press will all of a sudden begin to put a happy face on the whole mess.  We will start to see the brighter side of the pandemic.

Democrat Governors Freed the Criminals and Killed the Elderly.  In March, Governor Cuomo's administration ordered nursing homes to accept infected coronavirus patients and prohibited even testing incoming patients for the virus.  The same month that Cuomo began the process of infecting countless nursing home residents with the virus, he also began freeing thousands of criminals from prison to protect them from the virus.  Over 3,000 criminals have been freed from New York State prisons to protect them from the virus, and New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio freed 1,500 criminals, and they swiftly began committing a variety of crimes, but despite the media hype claiming that prison was a death sentence and a campaign by woke celebs like John Legend, criminals were not at risk.  Only 19 inmates in New York State actually died of the virus.

What the Lockdown Leviathans Don't Get.  Sure — usually "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" by, say, the end of November.  But Meredith Willson's classic Holiday tune didn't quite come true this year.  After all, here's just a starter list of things that were either banned or restricted this holiday season:  Christmas family gatherings; Christmas concerts; Christmas tree lighting ceremonies; Christmas parties; Christmas worship services; Christmas sing-alongs; Christmas season sporting events; Christmas shopping trips; and even Christmas visits with Santa.  More broadly, nearly every conceivable social activity, aside from popping out to a grocery store to stave off starvation (or, possibly, suicide) for another week, was either banned or severely restricted this year for millions of us.

China's Oppressed Uighurs [Slaves] Made COVID-19 Protection Sold Throughout Europe.  Medical masks and protective equipment made by Uighur laborers in China are being sold across Europe by at least two major distributors, and have been bought by governments and health bodies in at least five countries, an investigation by OCCRP and partners has found.  The workers are ethnic Uighurs from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang who have been sent to factories in other parts of the country under a controversial "labor transfer" program that experts say is coercive and prone to abuses. [...] Campaigners have been pushing for Western companies and governments to stop buying products made with Uighur labor.

Michigan House Repeals Emergency Law Used by Whitmer to Decree COVID Restrictions.  Michigan's Governor, Gretchen Whitmer (D), has used every tactic at her disposal to keep the State of Michigan in an almost terminal lockdown because of the COVID virus.  But the Michigan State Legislature has started to unravel the convoluted web of her authority.  In an early vote Friday morning [12/18/2020], the Michigan House of Representatives voted to repeal the Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945; the legislation used by Whitmer to claim authority to use public health orders to close down her state.  The 1945 Emergency Powers law authorized the governor to declare a state of emergency but it also excluded an oversight role for the state legislature so that any decree might be rejected or that any extension might be denied.  It also fails to establish a time limit on such an emergency declaration.

COVID-19 and Resisting Government Malfeasance.  The COVID-19 pandemic was at first a mysterious adversary.  Its infectiousness and deadliness were unknown.  So the citizens initially accepted the imposition of limits to their innate rights to move freely and work, but since the arrival in our country of this new virus, we have clearly learned that:
  [#1]   COVID-19 is not as deadly as initially feared.
  [#2]   The risk of death is very much limited to those who are elderly and infirm.
  [#3]   Various low-cost and low-risk medications effectively treat the disease.
  [#4]   Public health officials cannot accurately forecast the spread of the virus.
  [#5]   Tabulations of deaths from the virus are inflated.
  [#6]   Nobody knows how effective masks are.
  [#7]   And government directives are arbitrary, inconsistent, and contradictory.
Our governments cannot credibly refute any of these seven lessons learned.  They have had a year to deal with this supposed emergency, yet they offer no specifics regarding why it should continue to be treated as such.

Media idolatry of Dr. Fauci becoming patently and verifiably absurd.  Dr. Anthony Fauci is willing to lie about measures to control the Chinese virus in order to manipulate public opinion, and is therefore an extremely useful tool for those who seek to shut down American as long as possible.  As Peter Barry Chowka discovered nine months ago, when he challenged the cult of personality being built around him, the mainstream media already were ready to viciously attack those who raised questions about Fauci.  Now that Fauci is moving the goalposts around herd immunity to preserve the lockdown, all sorts of phenomena are being attributed to him, as if he were a prime mover of the social universe, faintly resembling the cults built around Mao Tse-tung and Kim Il-sung.

'It's Like Wearing Your Underwear' on Your Face:  Sen. Paul Blasts Mask Mandates in Interview.  Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky slammed coronavirus mask mandates in an interview Saturday [12/19/2020], saying they're unscientific and comparing the effectiveness of most masks to "wearing your underwear" on your face.  Paul, a physician, noted that places with strict mask mandates have experienced a spike in COVID-19 infections.  "Every one of the mandates — and you look in country after country, state after state — you look at when the mask mandates went in — the incidents went up exponentially after the mandates," the senator told Breitbart News.  "Restaurants, nobody can eat in a restaurant, there's no science behind any of that."

Rand Paul:  Americans Should Never Have Allowed Governors to Become 'Dictators' Over COVID.  Sen. Rand Paul [M.D.] is sounding the alarm again over our continuing loss of liberty in the age of the coronavirus, and he's certainly not wrong.  In particular, the Kentucky Republican says Americans should really be pushing back — hard — on governors who have become "dictators" with their lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates, none of which, at this point, have anything at all to do with 'the science.'  "You know, nobody ever intended that governors would be sort of czars or dictators in charge of the economy," said Paul in a Christmas morning interview with Newsmax.

Giving the Vaccine Based on Race Will Actually Kill More Black and Hispanic People Than It Saves.  Throughout the summer, public health professionals ignored perfectly obvious dangers surrounding mass protests over alleged racial injustice; many of those top health professionals suggested that the risks of racism in American society amounted to a health problem all their own.  Throughout the pandemic, public health officials have caved to the political incentive toward overboard lockdown policies, simultaneously exempting themselves from the rules.  Now we learn that public health officials pushed for vaccine distribution not based on health risk but on racial factors.  As the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported this week:  "Every US state has been advised to consider ethnic minorities as a critical and vulnerable group in their vaccine distribution plans, according to Centers for Disease Control guidance.  As a result, half of the nation's states have outlined plans that now prioritize black, Hispanic and indigenous residents over white people in some way."  This insanity is rooted in eugenic concerns.

It Is Long Past Time for the CDC and NCHS to Clean Up the COVID-19 Death Counts.  Some of us have been questioning the COVID-19 death counts reported by the CDC through the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for some time.  Of course, CNN and the corporate media love the likely elevated counts to push their narrative.  Lockdown Inc. loves them to justify their destruction of lives and livelihoods.  A report from the Freedom Foundation, a Washington State think tank, explains why.  The foundation's original analysis of deaths in the state found the number may have been inflated by as much as 13%.

We Had the Vaccine from the Start — You Just Weren't Allowed to Take It.  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 the pandemic, while hundreds of thousands died and the world economy was decimated by lockdowns, this highly effective vaccine has been available.  But you, and all the people who died, were prohibited by the government from taking it.

Nationwide analysis suggests masks increased the spread of COVID-19.  A analysis of all fifty states suggests the mandate to wear masks might have actually increased the spread of COVID-19 rather than reduced it. [...] Under the mandates, everyone uses and reuses the same mask, wearing it continuously for hours, or if not, putting it on and off and storing it in an unsanitary manner in-between.  People also touch the mask continuously, and allow it to get wet and dirty without a second thought.  As the above WHO graph (that I have repeatedly posted) bluntly notes, doing this actually makes the mask a pathogen bomb that you wear on your face.  The data of the above report reinforces this fact.  That this reality has also been documented by scientific research and common sense for more than a century should also carry some weight as well.  Sadly, in today's society it does not.  I have repeatedly agreed that it is likely true that if everyone wore the right kind of masks, and wore them properly, for short periods and only when exposed to a symptomatic individual or when symptomatic themselves and in the presence of others, than maybe, maybe, masks would have a benefit.  (Note that the data now confirms that only symptomatic individuals can infect others, and that if you have no symptoms you are almost certainly not going to spread the disease to others.)

The Thanksgiving Surge Never Happened, But That Won't Stop Them From Banning Christmas.  For weeks, Democrat governors, their pet public health experts, and the media threatened the public with a "Thanksgiving surge" if people spent the holiday with their families.  When the threatened surge never materialized, they ghoulishly kept holding out hope for more deaths.  "Mayo Clinic says a possible post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 surge is still looming," is how a media outlet headlined a story reporting that the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients and positive tests had actually dropped at its facilities.  Because you've gotta have hope.  "The travel, the congregate setting, not wearing masks — the chances are that you will see a surge superimposed upon a surge," Dr. Fauci had claimed.  "What we're doing now is going to be reflected two, three weeks from now."  Early December brought with it a wave of, "When Will We See the Thanksgiving Surge of COVID-19 Cases?" stories, with reporters waiting breathlessly for the bodies that didn't come.

New studies indicate immunity to virus lasts at least 6-8 months after recovery.  New studies are boosting assessments that immunity to COVID-19 lasts at least 6-8 months after recovery from the disease.  Research published in Science Immunology this week examined 25 patients recovering from the illness.  Though antibodies — the immune system proteins that attack virus particles — began dropping in blood samples some 20 days after symptoms appeared, memory B cells that produce antibodies continued to rise in the blood for 150 days and remained high until the 240-day point.  This signals subjects' bodies were primed to fight off the virus for some eight months.

Vitamin D and COVID 19: The Evidence for Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus (SARS CoV 2).  Professor Roger Seheult, MD explains the important role Vitamin D may have in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.  Dr. Seheult illustrates how Vitamin D works, summarizes the best available data and clinical trials on vitamin D, and discusses vitamin D dosage recommendations.  Roger Seheult, MD is the co-founder and lead professor at MedCram[.]  He is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine and Assistant Prof. at Loma Linda University School of Medicine[.]  [Video clip]

Bidens, First Responders Serenade Fauci; Fauci Violates His Own Rules.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has been getting a lot of coverage today [12/24/2020].  As we reported earlier, even CNN folks posted about him for his birthday, calling him the "lord and savior of 2020" and brandishing a bobblehead doll of their cult god.  The adulation was effusive, despite the report that Fauci admitted that he hadn't told Americans the truth when he started talking about herd immunity, because he had judged we weren't capable of handling the truth earlier.

Fauci Admits He Didn't Tell Truth, Moved Goalposts Because People Not 'Ready to Hear Truth'.  [A]ccording to the edict of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, it's "Dr. Anthony Fauci Day," a day to celebrate Fauci for all he has done.  So perhaps it's appropriate that there's a report today about Fauci admitting that he hasn't been telling us the truth about the virus.  We already saw him say something like this when it came to masks.  Initially he said in March that he didn't think people generally should be wearing masks because they really weren't all that effective in preventing the spread.  But on the other hand, the constant touching, fiddling with and adjusting of the mask could make it worse.  He later backtracked on that, saying that he'd said that to discourage people because masks were scarce and he wanted there to be enough for medical workers.  So was he lying then about masks or lying now?  The problem with stuff like this is that when you do this, you torch your credibility, not to mention thinking you can manipulate people and treat them like children.

Report: Fauci Admits He Lied Because 'Country Wasn't Ready' To Hear The Truth.  Dr. Anthony Fauci reportedly said in a phone interview that he has been deliberately changing his public statements regarding the COVID-19 pandemic because he didn't think people were ready to hear his true beliefs, according to the New York Times.  Fauci has been slowly increasing the number of Americans he says need to be vaccinated for the U.S. to reach "herd immunity" in public statements, the New York Times reported Thursday morning [12/24/2020].  He reportedly told the Times he has done so "partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks."

Restaurants That Refused To Shut Down After Gov. Tom Wolf's Indoor Dining Ban Lose Lawsuit.  Two restaurants from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and a restaurant association have lost their lawsuit against Democratic Governor Tom Wolf's indoor dining ban after a judge refused to block the order from the governor.  The lawsuit was filed by the Hershey Independent Restaurant Association (HIRA), and two Hershey restaurants, Fenicci's of Hershey and the River House Bar and Grill, according to Pennlive.  The judge, Christopher C. Conner of the U.S. Middle District explained that he understood the stressful situation restaurant owners are in, but that his court would be unable to intervene since the HIRA, Fenicci's of Hershey and the River House Bar and Grill lacked proof of a civil rights violation.

British Government Contracts Firms To Make COVID 'Freedom Passports'.  The British government has contracted two firms to develop COIVD 'freedom passports', that would be used to segregate society between those who have been tested or vaccinated against COVID and those who have not.  While the government is still saying that it will not introduce such a system, the firms have been given instructions to develop an app based system to integrate a QR code linking to a digital passport.  The QR code would be used to gain entry into pubs, clubs, venues, cinemas, basically anywhere in public.  "After scanning in the code, the venue could refuse entry to those without a recent negative result," the Daily Mail notes.

Travel numbers spike despite calls to cancel Christmas.  Americans are hitting the road in record numbers despite government warnings that people should stay home during the Christmas holidays to limit the spread of COVID-19.  A fresh load of infections, hospitalizations and even deaths — on top of an already devastating year — has prompted a new round of travel bans and lockdown measures in some states.  There is no blanket restriction nationwide, though, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened more than 1.1 million passengers at airline security checkpoints nationwide on Wednesday, the most since March 16.

Black doctor dies of COVID after alleging hospital mistreatment: 'This is how Black people get killed'.  Lying in a hospital bed laboring for breath despite being on oxygen, Dr. Susan Moore, a 52-year-old Black physician, stared into her cell phone and recorded a video alleging her battle with COVID-19 was made worse by the treatment she received from a doctor at a suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, hospital.  Moore died on Sunday [12/20/2020] from complications of coronavirus, her son said.  She had claimed that a physician treating her repeatedly ignored her complaints that she was in excruciating pain, and wanted to send her home.  That doctor, she alleged, initially told her he felt uncomfortable giving her painkillers and "made me feel like a drug addict," she said on social media.

WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website.  Maybe you have some sense that something fishy is going on?  Same.  If it's not one thing, it's another.  Coronavirus lived on surfaces until it didn't.  Masks didn't work until they did, then they did not.  There is asymptomatic transmission, except there isn't.  Lockdowns work to control the virus except they do not.  All these people are sick without symptoms until, whoops, PCR tests are wildly inaccurate because they were never intended to be diagnostic tools.  Everyone is in danger of the virus except they aren't.  It spreads in schools except it doesn't.  On it goes.  Daily.  It's no wonder that so many people have stopped believing anything that "public health authorities" say.  In combination with governors and other autocrats doing their bidding, they set out to take away freedom and human rights and expected us to thank them for saving our lives.

Singapore's Covid Experience and Overestimated Death Rates.  [Scroll down]  What has happened in Singapore is certainly a human rights violation but it has also acted as an unintentional controlled experiment that has yielded interesting information about Covid-19. There are few if any places in the world that such a controlled and thorough natural experiment occurred.  The virus was let to spread rapidly through a population of low socioeconomic status, in universal as well as unsanitary living conditions, and what can be assumed to be working age.  The result was only two deaths and 25 ICU admissions out of an infected population of over 152,000. Such an occurrence runs entirely counter to the prevailing narrative surrounding Covid-19.

France: People Who Refuse Covid Vaccine Banned from Public Transport.  To put it simply, France (and soon other countries, that's the modus operandi of the NWO) is now saying: okay peasants, we are not FORCING you to take the vaccine, but if you choose to not take it, you will not be able to function in society.  As in, if you don't take the vaccine, we will socially punish you.  ["]French citizens who decline to take the coronavirus vaccine will be barred from public transportation, among other places, under a controversial 'Green Passport' plan set out in a draft law that's now on its way to parliament.  Gaining the support of Prime Minister Jean Castex's cabinet earlier this week, the bill proposes to deny 'access to transport or to some locations, as well as certain activities' to those unable to prove that they received a 'preventative treatment' for Covid-19, including a vaccine, or produce a negative virus screening.["]

Prominent doctor fired for questioning coronavirus lockdown.  A prominent California doctor says he was fired after questioning his county's coronavirus stay-at-home orders.  Dr. Michael Deboisblanc — the trauma medical director for John Muir Health before he wrote to health officials in Contra Costa County, California — explained in an interview Wednesday he was advocating for parents who want their children to go back to school.

Mask Mandates Seem to Make CCP Virus Infection Rates Climb, Study Says.  Protective-mask mandates aimed at combating the spread of the CCP virus that causes the disease COVID-19 appear to promote its spread, according to a report from RationalGround.com, a clearinghouse of COVID-19 data trends that's run by a grassroots group of data analysts, computer scientists, and actuaries.  Researchers examined cases covering a 229-day period running from May 1 through Dec. 15 and compared the days in which state governments had imposed mask mandates and the days when they hadn't.  In states with a mandate in effect, there were 9,605,256 confirmed COVID-19 cases, which works out to an average of 27 cases per 100,000 people per day.  When states didn't have a statewide order — including states that never had mandates, coupled with the period of time masking states didn't have the mandate in place — there were 5,781,716 cases, averaging 17 cases per 100,000 people per day.  In other words, protective-mask mandates have a poor track record so far in fighting the coronavirus.  States with mandates in place produced an average of 10 more reported infections per 100,000 people per day than states without mandates.

The Real War On Women:  Nearly 1 Million Women's Jobs Lost Due to Liberal Lockdowns.  A recent report shows that more than 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce this fall.  However, the news got nary a look from liberal feminists who often complain about the effects of one political party's policies on women.  Those who did notice used the occasion to suggest that more government services are needed (read: universal free childcare, more stimulus, universal basic income, and a litany of the usual progressive, big-government remedies).  Yet, no one bothered to examine the real root of the problem: liberal leaders' lockdowns from New York City to California had women running for the emergency exits of their careers.  Naturally, liberals don't understand business owners in general so it's understandable how they missed the mark.  However, to misunderstand the plight of small businesses owners and working Americans altogether is to misunderstand women, given the significant role that women play in the workforce today.

The Year Populism Was Right and the Experts Weren't.  [Scroll down]  Little did we know about the appalling nature of government — or perhaps we knew but momentarily forgot.  And the ordeals got worse and worse and worse, while the virus did its own thing, entirely unperturbed by whatever measures the experts invented to conquer it.  The longer the farce went on, the more the people started to ignore them: almost as many Americans travelled for Thanksgiving as usual, despite our overlords publicly chanting against it.  Societies developed this game where officials made grandstanding speeches before they themselves cheated the very rules they imposed; the rest of us cheated the rules too, whenever we got a chance: ignore masks when nobody sees; go outside even when we're not allowed to; have friends over when nobody noticed; visit the park or the countryside even when prohibited; hold mass protests if your woke issue is important enough. [...] Deep down 2020 has taught us that officials don't have a clue, that they don't control what they pretend to control, and that their measures aren't targeted to or calibrated for stopping the spread of a virus.

NSA Whistleblower Kirk Wiebe Exposes Digital Election Rigging Using CIA's Hammer and Scorecard.  Is all talk about the use of CIA computer programs called Hammer and Scorecard to digitally change millions of votes and steal the election for Joe Biden sheer "nonsense"? It is according to Snopes, as well as the other establishment-anointed "fact checkers" such as PolitiFact.com, FactCheck.org, BuzzFeedNews.com, and MSN.com.  So that settles the matter, right?  Actually, it does not.  As has been reliably shown in critical reports by diverse sources (see here, here, here, and here), including The New American (see here), Snopes is notorious for its left-leaning bias.  Ditto for many of the other "fact checkers" that comprise the gaslighting chorus that pretends to debunk any claim that contradicts the party line laid down by the Fake News industrial complex:  "Nothing to see here, just silly conspiracy theories, move along."

Vaccines Have Arrived — Along With More Answers, More Questions.  America's Christmas present is not one but two vaccines for COVID.  Operation Warp Speed lived up to its name despite assurances from the media and political smart set that a vaccine would never be available this year.  President Trump promised a vaccine this year but last April, Dr Anthony Fauci, "Poured cold water on Trump's estimate, saying it would be more like a year to a year and a half."  For once the medical and government bureaucracies moved like a hare rather than a tortoise. [...] It's ironic that many who would not dare eat a genetically modified apple or tomato are happy to be injected with a vaccine that genetically modifies the person injected.

Good news, bad news... the left can't discern the difference.  The most puzzling thing about leftists is their stubborn resistance to good news.  Tell them the actual death rate for COVID sufferers is 0.05% and they will come after you like a rabid animal.  Explain to them that the COVID numbers are hugely inflated — nearly all deaths of the usual things people die of are now attributed to COVID — and they will do everything in their power to silence you.  Let a Stanford doctor suggest that face masks are useless in preventing the spread of COVID, a fact that should be obvious to everyone by now, and that doctor will be cancelled, shadow-banned, deleted.  Months ago, if any doctor uttered the truth about hydroxychloroquine, he or she would be called a charlatan, a freak, a liar, all because President Trump mentioned it early on as one possible treatment.  Thousands of lives might have been saved had the media told the truth about HCQ — used early, it works.

I'll be Home for Christmas.  This year, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," tells a different story.  It tells the story of the millions of Americans, at home, who will spend Christmas alone.  And not because they want to, but because their governors and mayors have obligated them to do so.  Christmas is canceled due to COVID.  It is now your moral duty to remain home.  Skip that Christmas Mass at your local church, cancel your visit to Grandma's, decline any holiday party that might make you feel human again.  Apparently, nine months of lockdowns, shutdowns, mask directives and social distancing, haven't done a thing to quell the spread, so let's throw in a few more unconstitutional mandates to keep the tyranny going.  In fact, according to the CDC, if you forgo their first guideline to "limit gatherings," you are encouraged to eat outdoors.  I guess catching pneumonia in the frigid cold is a small price to pay in stopping the spread of COVID.  Wear masks, even in between bites, according to California governor Gavin Newsom, a request so ridiculous he himself chose to forgo wearing a mask as he wined and dined on "Oysters and Pearls" at the lavish French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley.

'Put your [...] mask on,' the man on the plane snarled.  "Put your [...] mask on" said a guy three seats behind me on a Southwest Airline flight heading to Washington, D.C. to the passenger walking down the aisle.  The man's mask had slid down under his nose as he negotiated his carry-on bag while holding his little daughter's hand.  I turned around to see who was making such a demand so rudely.  Just as I suspected, it was the guy who came aboard sporting a full N95 mask, face shield cover and surgical gloves.  Forget for a moment that the father's mask slipping actually posed zero risk to the hazmat-protected, delusional passenger.

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine causing more allergic reactions than expected.  The chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed said the frequency of allergic reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is higher than what would be expected for other jabs, according to a report.  Dr. Moncef Slaoui said the last time he was updated on allergic reactions was Tuesday, when there were six cases, and added that the data on COVID-19 immunizations is lagging behind the actual numbers, CNN reported.  "That frequency, as it stood yesterday, is superior to what one would expect with other vaccines," he said.

Yet another Democrat leader tells people to stay home for Christmas, then announces she will travel to visit her relatives.  Democrat leaders like Governors Gavin Newsom, Andrew CVuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, and J.B. Pritzker, Mayors Lauri [sic] Lightfoot and London Breed, and now Mecklenburg (Charlotte), North Carolina County Executive Dena Diorio, have all exposed themselves as outright hypocrites and elitists by telling ordinary people to obey restrictions on their personal freedoms while flaunting those same limitations themselves.  It is as if some madness has gripped Democrat elected officials, compelling them to flaunt their contempt for those they are supposed to lead and their belief that they alone are capable of making rational decisions about which risks to take, while the ignorant sheep must be told what to do and contrained.  Yesterday [12/23/2020], in a virtual news conference, County Executive Dena Diorio made a fool of herself by telling county residents to stay home for Christmas, and then under questioning admitting that she would be traveling by car to Durham (142 miles) to spend Christmas with her family.

Former CDC director says COVID-19 'immunity passports' for vaccinated Americans could be the solution to getting U.S. 'back to a new normal'.  The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday COVID-19 'immunity passports' for vaccinated Americans could be the solution to getting the United States 'back to a new normal'. Dr. Thomas Frieden told CBS that 'done right immunity passports could be one of a series of things that could help us get to a new normal as soon as possible'.  An alarming new red wave map shows that the vast majority of the US is currently one huge COVID-19 hotspot.  The country on Wednesday recorded its second deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic with 3,400 deaths.

The Editor says...
Did 3,400 people die on the same day, or were there 3,400 deaths reported on the same day?

California Gives Criminals Vaccine Before Elderly.  Criminals are currently the top victim class among Democrats.  And that means privileging killers, muggers, and rapists above everyone else.  California, as usual, leads the way in the pro-crime dystopia.

NC county manager told everyone to stay home for the holidays — And then this happened.  Mecklenburg County (NC) Manager Dena Diorio unwittingly made a point in favor of personal responsibility instead of government mandates during a virtual press conference.  She told county residents to stay home for the holidays and only associate with those in their own households.  And, just like that, she admitted that she would not be doing that herself.  Ms. Diorio plans to hop in her car and go to visit a home with two people in it for Christmas.  A reporter asked about that — isn't that precisely what she told people in the county not to do?  Well, yes, was her response, but she knows these people and there will be only two of them, you see.  She feels perfectly comfortable going for the visit.  She will travel to Durham, N.C. "to see some close family, small group."

The Sovietization of California.  [Scroll down]  Yet, here I am, sitting in a state where corruption reigns (one of the leading Democrats of the last half-century told me years ago that politicians in California are window dressing; the real power in California is wielded by unions) and where, for nine months, normal life has been shut down, schools have been closed and small businesses have been destroyed in unprecedented numbers.  During these last five days in Florida, a state governed by the pro-freedom party, I went anywhere I wanted.  First and foremost, I could eat both inside and outside restaurants.  At one of them, when I stood up to take photos of people dining, a patron who recognized me walked over and said, "I assume you're just taking pictures of people eating in a restaurant."  That's exactly what I was doing.  I even took my two grandchildren to a bowling alley, which was filled with people enjoying themselves playing myriad arcade games as well as bowling.  None of that is allowed almost anywhere in California.  It is becoming a police state, rooted in deception and irrationality.  Restaurants have been shut down (except for takeout orders), even for outdoor dining, for no scientific reason.  After ordering Los Angeles county restaurants closed, the health authorities of Los Angeles county acknowledged in court that they had no evidence that outdoor dining was dangerous; they ordered restaurants closed, even to outdoor dining, solely in order to keep people home.  The left's claim to "follow the science" is a lie.  The left does not follow science; it follows scientists it agrees with and dismisses all other scientists as "anti-science."

New Study Shows Mask Mandates Had Zero Effect in Florida or Nationwide, But the Lie Continues.  Obviously, no amount of evidence, data, trends, facts, studies, or science will ever convince most 'public health officials' that masks aren't doing squat to stop the spread of COVID-19.  Cases and deaths continue to spike (yes, many of these are super-sensitive PCR test-driven numbers, but still) despite the fact that well over 90% of the country are complying with their absurd mandates.  Yet, predictably, the virus keeps going right on virusing, as highly contagious respiratory viruses, unfortunately, tend to do, especially once cold weather hits.  Nevertheless, those of us who are mask skeptics have a difficult chore in front of us.  Given that most of the country is under a mask mandate of some form or another, we can point to spikes all day AFTER these mandates were put in place only to have our opponents simply say, "Look how bad it would have been WITHOUT masks!" [...] So, how DO we prove that things wouldn't have been worse without masks?  One way is to look at data from the few free states remaining.  In Florida, for example, most counties have so far bravely refused to implement mask mandates while others, usually in high population centers, have done so.

It's A Miracle!  The Flu Has Incredibly Disappeared In Colorado!  Colorado flu-related hospitalizations decreased by about 97% compared to this time last year, data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) says.  This year the state has only reported 12 flu-related hospitalizations, compared to 471 this time last year, the CDPHE data says.  The sudden and miraculous drop in flu cases is in line with the CDC's sudden and miraculous drop in car accident deaths, heart attack deaths, and many other types of deaths we normally see from year to year.  [Video clip]

What a mess the US Congress is!.  Typically, an illegal taking is a term used when government grabs private land.  But it applies to any government taking, and current onerous government COVID restrictions have resulted in the demise of countless businesses and a plethora of bankruptcy filings.  Thus, we are witnessing illegal COVID governmental takings on a colossal scale.  There has been no compensation.  After months of inactivity, Congress has come up with a big fat multi-trillion-dollar COVID stimulus dud.  Legislators have endorsed Dostoyevsky-sized legislation for soaring handouts for foreign gender education enhancements and millions for border walls in foreign lands, while our border wall is sneered at.  In fact, putative president-elect Biden has talked of tearing down the southern border wall.  Struggling Americans, whose businesses have been decreed nonessential and arbitrarily shut down, are being belatedly doled out a measly $600.00 per person.  What an insult.

Study of Almost 10 Million Finds No Asymptomatic Covid Spread; Media Silent.  Whether or not coronavirus can be spread asymptomatically is perhaps the most important question surrounding the disease.  After all, the assumption that it can has been used to justify mask mandates and life-ravaging lockdowns.  This is why it's striking that a major study, involving almost 10 million people, has found zero cases of asymptomatic transmission — and that our COVID-panic-porn-peddling mainstream media have met it with deafening silence.

Trump deserves gratitude of all Americans for Warp Speed vaccine.  It is now an established fact that the numerous naysayers who predicted President Trump could never deliver a vaccine this year were wrong.  Thankfully, he did what they insisted couldn't be done.  But the no-can-do crowd now has a second puerile act: a miserly and grudging recognition of the miracle Trump and his team performed.  Those expressing pinched gratitude for a fact they can't deny include the man who has reason to be the most thankful of all Americans.  "I think that the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed," Joe Biden said as he got his Trump vaccine shot.  "Some credit?"  Then who deserves the rest of the credit?

Unexplained explosion and fire destroy world's second largest pharmaceutical factory producing precursors for hydroxychloroquine.  Prepare for supplies to tighten for the cheap, effective therapeutic treatment for early stage Covid-19 infection, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).  Just as the medical establishment in the US is relaxing its absurd and lethal suppression of the cheap, generic drug, following President Trump's endorsement of it early in the pandemic, HCQ's continued availability may suffer.  The world's second largest pharmaceutical facility producing the precursors for HCQ has been destroyed by an explosion and fire.

The five key events in the fake pandemic.  ONE: The false claim that a new virus was discovered and isolated.  No true isolation has been performed.  The so-called genetic sequencing of the virus was actually a concoction, a cobbling together of pieces of data referencing segments of RNA.  These segments were PRESUMED to be parts of the new virus — but researchers didn't have the virus, so their presumptions amounted to fraud.  TWO: The erecting of a diagnostic test (PCR) for the virus they didn't have.  Obviously, no such test has meaning.  It is built on the same sorts of absurd assumptions that led to the fictional discovery of the virus.  However, strategically speaking, the test has produced millions of "positive results," which are taken to mean "infected by the virus."  On this foundation of sand, the lockdowns were declared.  THREE: The Chinese lockdown of 50 million citizens, for no medical reason.  This unprecedented event provided the model for other governments, and for the CDC and the World Health Organization.  Now it was "acceptable" to imprison the global population and wreak economic devastation across the planet.  FOUR: The absurd computer prediction of 500,000 deaths in the UK and two million in the US, made by historically failed modeler, Neil Ferguson.  His institute at the Imperial College of London is bankrolled by Bill Gates.

Seniors Hostages of Left's Vaccine Hijacking.  You were warned about this first in July.  Now it's happening.  On Sunday [12/20/2020], the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommended that seniors ages 65 to 74 be moved toward the back of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine.  The reason, says ACIP, is that "racial and ethnic minority groups [are] under-represented" in this age group.  Put another way:  Seniors are too white.  Vaccines are already being administered to health workers and nursing-home residents.  The question is, who comes next?  ACIP want to push tens of millions of essential workers — such as transit workers, supermarket employees and uniformed public servants — to the front of the line, forcing 32 million seniors to wait.  Vaccinating these essential workers will consume the vaccine supply for several months.

CDC's Flawed Epidemiology: 299,000 'Excess' Deaths in 2020.  On Oct. 20, two weeks before the presidential election, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published online a flawed epidemiological study that claimed "299,000 excess deaths" occurred in America between late January and early October 2020.  The CDC report attributed 198,000 of these misleadingly labelled "excess deaths," or 66%, to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Focusing on the "age, race and ethnicity" of these 299,000 deceased Americans, the study inexcusably ignored a small group of incompetent Democratic governors, who are responsible for a disproportionate majority of the several hundred thousand additional deaths in 2020.

I Moved From Locked-Down Virginia To Open Florida, And Faces Came Back To Life.  Until recently, I've been at school in Loudoun County, Virginia, where Gov. Ralph Northam has been busy inflicting harsher shutdown orders.  Masks are required almost everywhere up there, and big gatherings are out of the question.  Multiple friends had to cancel their wedding receptions this month due to the new restrictions.  I got so used to wearing a mask that every time I watched a movie it seemed odd for the actors to be bare-faced.  Leaving a store, sometimes I'd make it all the way to the car before even realizing I still had my mask on.  It wasn't until I came home to Florida — where COVID-19 restrictions are much freer and usually left to local government — that I noticed how different life was.

A Pandemic of Misinformation.  America has been paralyzed by death and fear for nearly a year, and the politicization of the pandemic has made things worse by adding misinformation and vitriol to the mix.  With vaccines finally being administered, we should be entering a joyous phase.  Instead we endure still more inflammatory rhetoric and media distortion.  Americans need to understand three realities.  First, all 50 states independently directed and implemented their own pandemic policies.  In every case, governors and local officials were responsible for on-the-ground choices — every business limit, school closing, shelter-in-place order and mask requirement.  No policy on any of these issues was set by the federal government, except those involving federal property and employees.  Second, nearly all states used the same draconian policies that people now insist on hardening, even though the number of positive cases increased while people's movements were constrained, business activities were strictly limited, and schools were closed.  Governors in all but a few states — Florida and South Dakota are notable exceptions — imposed curfews, quarantines, directives on group gatherings, and mask mandates.

COVID-19 has now reached Antarctica, infecting 36 at research base.  It's now a global pandemic in every sense of the word.  The coronavirus scourge has affected all seven continents after COVID-19 cases were recorded in Antarctica for the first time Monday [12/21/2020].  The virus reportedly infected 36 people at a Chilean research base.  That number included 26 members of the Chilean army along with 10 maintenance workers, Newsweek reported.  The infected, who were stationed at General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, tested "positive for COVID-19" after the "administration of a PCR test," according to a statement by the Chilean army to local news outlet 24 Horas.  At least some of those infected exhibited symptoms before the positive tests.

Woman Gets Assaulted By Vancouver Cop For Now Wearing Mask Even With Medical Exemption Card.  This Vancouver cop confronts a woman without a COVID mask on the metro.  The woman shows him her medical exemption card as is required in Canada to go maskless.  The cop completely disregards the woman's medical condition and pushes forward on his request.  The two exchange words and eventually, the cop gets aggressive.  The woman gets assaulted by the officer as she grabs her to drag her off the train car.  [Video clip]

What the COVID Relief Deal Means for You.  Congressional leaders on Sunday [12/20/2020] announced they had finally reached a deal to provide a second round of coronavirus-relief stimulus.  With a vote expected Monday, the $900 billion package will include a direct $600 payment to most Americans and a $300-per-week bonus to unemployment insurance for eleven weeks.

British Airways says it will now force passengers to test negative for COVID before they fly to New York City.  British Airways and Delta say they will require passengers traveling from the UK to New York City to test negative for COVID-19 before they fly after being asked by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take action to stop the new mutant variant of the virus arriving in the US.  The airlines agreed on Monday [12/21/2020] as 40 countries around the world banned travel from the UK over a new strain of COVID-19 that has been detected there.  The new strain is 70 percent more infectious than what has been seen previously.  Cuomo had asked the federal government to ban all travel from the UK but having had his request fall on deaf ears, he went to the airlines instead.

With only herself to blame...
Dr. Birx says she will retire after 'overwhelming' holiday travel scandal.  Dr. Deborah Birx has announced she plans to retire after being outed on Sunday [12/20/2020] for not following her own holiday travel guidance, calling the experience "overwhelming."  In an interview with Newsy, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator said she would help the incoming Biden administration but then planned to head for the exits.

Priority COVID Vaccine for Congress Sparks Feuds, Accusations of 'Cutting in Line'.  Lawmakers who have been among the first Americans to receive the coronavirus vaccine in recent days have been met with backlash and congressional infighting over the ethics and optics of politicians receiving the shots ahead of some frontline workers and at-risk groups.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell received the vaccine on Friday.  A number of other lawmakers received shots over the weekend including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey, Marco Rubio and Joni Ernst.  Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu tweeted that it was "ridiculous" that lawmakers were "cutting in line" and receiving the vaccine ahead of long-term care residents.

2020 exposed the teachers unions for the frauds they are.  The coronavirus pandemic has brought too many failures of leadership to count.  But chief among them is remote learning and teachers unions' continued lobbying against reopening schools.  When the virus was still a novel concept and schools shut down in response, we understood why.  There was too much we did not know about COVID-19, and the risk of endangering students and teachers was too great.  As time went on, however, the science became overwhelmingly clear that COVID-19 posed little risk to children and that schools were not a major source of transmission.  It also became clear that distance learning has been a disaster both for students and for parents, especially those with limited resources.  Over the course of the year, it has become glaringly obvious that unions insisting on long-term school closures were not concerned about their students' health or teachers' safety so much as they were interested in what they could gain from the shutdown.

Our Government is Full of Egomaniacs, and Fox News is Playing Along.  Dr. Anthony Fauci got his coronavirus vaccine on live TV today.  Never one to turn down a television appearance, he exposed his slender arm, received his shot, mumbled that he has no questions or concerns, and then, as if he had just instituted world peace, gave two thumbs up for the camera.  And with that, yet another government official got their vaccine before the little people are privy to it.  [Video clip]

New Study Shows Mask Mandates Had Zero Effect in Florida or Nationwide, But the Lie Continues.  Obviously, no amount of evidence, data, trends, facts, studies, or science will ever convince most 'public health officials' that masks aren't doing squat to stop the spread of COVID-19.  Cases and deaths continue to spike (yes, many of these are super-sensitive PCR test-driven numbers, but still) despite the fact that well over 90% of the country are complying with their absurd mandates.  Yet, predictably, the virus keeps going right on virusing, as highly contagious respiratory viruses, unfortunately, tend to do, especially once cold weather hits.

AOC Claims 'National Security Policy' [is] Why She Got Vaccine Before More Vulnerable People.  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) explained over the weekend why she received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine before more vulnerable populations, attributing it to a national security policy that aims to "ensure the continuity of governance during national emergencies."  "I was actually surprised by this too," Ocasio-Cortez said during a Q&A posted to her Instagram over the weekend, taking questions after sharing a video of herself receiving the vaccine:  [Video clip]

UK Police Will Fine Britons Leaving Tier 4 Without Excuse.  The National Police Chiefs' Council has said that it will instruct forces to fine people trying to leave Tier 4 areas of England; however, the Police Federation has said officers have no power to stop travellers to check if they are making "unlawful" Christmas visits.  Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had promised citizens five days of relaxed lockdown rules over the five days of Christmas, only at the last minute on Saturday to throw London and most of the South East of England — encompassing some 16 million people — into a newly-revealed Tier 4, not only prohibiting travel outside of the zone, but banning all households mixing without exception, effectively outlawing family Christmases.

Overdose Deaths Far Exceed COVID-19 Deaths In San Francisco.  The number of San Francisco residents who have died from drug overdoses during the past year far exceeds the number who have died from COVID-19.  A record high number of 621 people died from overdoses in 2020 compared to the 173 who have died from COVID-19, according to statistics reported by The Associated Press.  In 2019, 441 people died from drug overdoses in the city, which gives 2020 the grim distinction of having experienced a staggering increase of more than 40%.  The overdose statistics of 2019 were a 70% increase from those in 2018.

Were COVID-19 Vaccine Dangers Covered Up Prior to FDA Authorization?  There are ongoing reports of the COVID-19 vaccine causing severe allergic reactions in recipients throughout the world.  There is information that suggests that such allergic reactions, along with other dangers, were known to be associated with the COVID-19 vaccines but were covered up or wrongly downplayed prior to and during the emergency use authorization process.  Before providing that information, one should be reminded of what "Emergency Use Authorization" means.  Another COVID-19 vaccine has received Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Much of the mainstream media and many public health officials are wrongly portraying the COVID-19 vaccines as "FDA-approved."  That is not true.  Emergency Use Authorization is not FDA approval.

Waffle House CEO reveals no evidence of coronavirus spread from 2,000+ locations.  There have been zero links to coronavirus spread across any of Waffle House's 2,100 U.S. locations, according to the breakfast chain's CEO Walter Ehmer.  Since the science doesn't match up with how state officials are responding, by closing dining rooms and restricting restaurants, Ehmer told Fox News' "America's News HQ" that the American people are just being unnecessarily harmed.  "We have proven, over these nine months, we have zero evidence of any spread being traced back to our restaurants for our people or our customers," he said.  "We've traced back all of our infections... and it all traces back to something away from the restaurant."

The Stupid Establishment's Lies Will Be Its Undoing.  The vaccine may actually be quite good — real doctors have told me it is.  I have no dog in the fight, since my bloodstream surges with powerful antibodies that have already defeated the puny COVID virus and render me invulnerable to its .05 percent death rate for my demographic.  But other people could use a vaccine, and yet tens of millions of them won't believe the vaccines are safe and/or effective entirely because the Establishment is stupid.  Here's how the Establishment is stupid.  It decided that we citizens were stupid and acted accordingly.  The Establishment decided that instead of having a vigorous debate and discussion over the safety and efficacy of these prophylactic potions, they would just short circuit the whole messy truth determination process that Western civilization has relied upon for a millennium — argument, debate, and eventually consensus after everything is fully and freely hashed-out — and move right to the Official Truth.

COVID-19 Study of Almost Ten Million Finds No Evidence of Asymptomatic Spread, Media Quiet.  An interesting article from the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) is gaining increased attention as questions about asymptomatic spread of COVID-19, the baseline for all COVID mitigation, is being reconciled with the latest tracing data.  In essence, the larger question being asked is:  can people without coronavirus symptoms spread the COVID-19 virus?  This question is at the heart of all current COVID mitigation efforts.  If there is no asymptomatic spread then what is all of this mask wearing nonsense and shut-down mandates all about?  A research paper published on November 20th highlights a case study of almost 10 million people in China.  What the study found was there were 300 cases of Coronavirus in the population being carried without any symptoms at all.  So the scientists then tracked the asymptomatic carriers.  The contact tracing of 1,174 "close contacts" with the asymptomatic carriers showed ZERO transmission.

PA restaurant owner opens in defiance of shutdown orders.  Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has continued to shut down or severely limit the operations of restaurants and bars around his state as part of his COVID response plan.  While this isn't unique in terms of what other states have done, the constant cycle of closing and opening has put a lot of owners on the brink of extinction and kept tens of thousands of workers in the food service industry on the unemployment lines.  But out in Washington County, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh, one owner of a popular eatery decided this week that enough was enough.  Michael Passalacqua, the owner of Angelo's Restaurant, announced earlier this week that his restaurant would be reopening on Friday with the usual social distancing protocols in place and the public was invited to come down for a meal.  And what will he do when Governor Wolf sends in the troops to bring him to heel?  He says he'll deal with it.

A thread on this viral map, which attempts to paint a very scary picture.  [D]epending on where you live, it is almost certain someone at your Thanksgiving gathering will have COVID.  Look at all that red!  But, the map has massive problems.  The map comes from the Washington Post, but it is based on the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning tool from GA Tech.  The goal of which is to show what the chances are of having a COVID positive person attend a gathering.  A worthwhile project. [...] This is the Washington Post map, side by side with the map from the actual data source.  Same map, but Wapo makes the "artistic" choice of making the reds much darker and scarier. [...] The larger problem lies at the bottom of the Wapo map.  It says the map "assumes actual case prevalence is 10 times as high as laboratory-confirmed case count."  This, for lack of a better word, is bonkers.

'New Variant' of COVID-19 Spurs Massive Lockdowns in Great Britain.  A new variant of the coronavirus in Great Britain that researchers say spreads 70 percent more effectively is causing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to shutter many parts of the country for Christmas.  The new strain of COVID-19 is no deadlier than the original virus, nor does it appear to make people sicker.  But it does spread more easily, and that has spooked the British government into basically canceling Christmas.  The researchers believe the vaccine developed by Pfizer will still be effective, but scientists are scrambling to confirm that.

Tulsi Gabbard: 'Heartless, Arrogant, Unelected CDC Bureaucrats' Giving Vaccine to Healthy Americans Before Elderly.  Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) says "heartless, arrogant, unelected" bureaucrats with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) are prioritizing healthy Americans for the coronavirus vaccine before elderly Americans who are the most vulnerable population.  In a video message posted online on Monday, Gabbard torched CDC officials for distributing the vaccine to healthy "so-called 'essential workers'" and politicians while elderly Americans and those with underlying health conditions have yet to receive the vaccine.

The study of 10,000,000 the pro-COVID lobby won't talk about.  Make no mistake, there are people out there who love COVID, people who view it as manna from Heaven, people who can't get enough of COVID and would extend it forever and ever.  Most, of course, are not restaurant or gym owners, ordered to shut down and wait.  They're the overclass and they're about amassing money and power.  Which may be why a gargantuan study on COVID transmission by asymptomatic individuals, from the city of Wuhan, China, is getting no attention, at least not here in the states. [...] Now why would anyone listen to anything coming out of Wuhan, given the Chinese record on the matter?  Quite simply, because the city was where the problem started, and the city has since gotten back to normal.  Over in America, things are another story.  The lockdowns extend and extend, with some so-called experts saying there won't be relief until 2022.  The vaccine won't do it, the masks and stay-at-home-orders, the business shutdowns and the school closures have got to remain in place forever.

TN Gov. Bill Lee Bans Public Gatherings Exceeding 10, Asks Residents to Limit Holiday Events to Household.  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) is the latest state leader to urge residents to drastically limit their holiday gatherings by spending them only with members of the same household, signing an executive order limiting indoor public events to ten.  In a Sunday evening address, the Republican governor identified Tennesee as "ground zero for a surge in sickness," describing the ongoing pandemic as a "war."  Approximately 10,000 Tennesseans are getting sick daily, the governor said, largely attributing the spike to holiday gatherings — namely, the Thanksgiving gatherings.

The Editor says...
I have a couple of recommendations for Governor Lee.  Here is the polite one:  Turn off your television, take off your mask, and you will discover that nobody is sick and tyranny is worse than disease.  The virus fight is now almost a year old.  It is not a war.  Politicians who call it a war are exaggerating for political gain.

COVID Vaccines — A Deeper Dive into the Data.  Operation Warp Speed was well named.  The typically tortoise-paced government and pharmaceutical bureaucracies moved with hare-like speed bringing several vaccines to market and available to millions.  Hopefully this will soon return America to normal, although don't hold your breath on that.  The all-knowing Dr Fauci tells us that masks and social distancing will be with us for at least another year, despite his earlier assertions that distancing and masks were unnecessary in the early days of the pandemic.  So why the hoopla over a vaccine?  Vaccines are not the destination, but merely a pathway to the final goal of herd immunity.

AOC, Omar, and Squad Want to Free 500,000 Fat Criminals.  Obese rapists, insane serial killers, and child molesters over 55 years old could be on the loose in your neighbrohood if the Squad's latest social justice bill becomes law.  The bill to free all the fat criminals, sponsored by Rep. Tlaib, Rep. Lee, and Rep. Pressley, and co-sponsored by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Omar, and eight other Democrats, and endorsed by Black Lives Matter, calls for a mass jailbreak to protect criminals from the coronavirus.  The existing wave of coronavirus criminal releases already helped boost crime rates in major cities with double digit increases in homicides.  Robberies have shot up like a rocket with criminals stealing cars and looting businesses while knowing they won't be jailed.  But that's not enough for the Squad.  They want to free all the criminals.  Especially the fat ones.

More affected mentally by the crisis than infected by the coronavirus.  What if the isolation of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders and voluntary quarantining is causing more harm than the coronavirus itself?  More Britons have considered suicide because of the pandemic and the lockdowns than those who have been infected with coronavirus, numbers from multiple studies suggest.  To be more precise, the increase in suicidal thoughts over the course of the pandemic, when compared to past years, is greater than the infection rate in the United Kingdom.  There's no reason to think the United States is different.

Second wave of school closures is killing our children.  We know how many people have died from the coronavirus.  We know how many people have tested positive for it.  We know which states have the most cases.  We even know how many people are in hospitals because of it.  The numbers are shoved down our throats by the media daily and are being used to justify a new wave of lockdowns and school closures as 2020 winds down.  There's no question the coronavirus is harmful to some people — chiefly elderly people and those with preexisting conditions.  But the lockdowns have been deadly, too — a portion of the narrative that has conveniently been left out of the conversation.  Children are especially prone to the unintended consequences.

Legislators must reclaim power over health and elections or risk being sidelined.  In the Missouri state House, we represent the people.  Because of state legislators' small districts, we are more accountable to the electorate than either federal representatives or the governor.  The governor is not the "legislators' boss."  Rather, the branches are separate and equal.  It's time to remind legislators in every state of not only our power but also our obligations.  In 2020, when state legislators across the country faced massive executive overreach due to the pandemic and a deeply contentious election, it's more important than ever that we step up to defend our constitutional role as the mouthpiece of the voters.  This year, executive overreach has been more contagious than COVID-19.  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued 192 executive orders with far-reaching consequences, making would-be laws on everything from school closures to turning Michiganders into criminals for operating their businesses — or even boating on the lake.

25 States Pledge To De-Prioritize White People For Vaccine Treatment.  States have considered an important component to their vaccine plans "racial equity" but equity isn't exactly what is being rolled out. [...] Equity as defined by Oxford is "the quality of being fair and impartial."  Prioritizing certain groups over others on the basis of race is not exactly fair or impartial.  Perhaps some racial minorities contract the virus at a higher rate.  However the common denominator is likely not their race, but their economic stance.  As we know blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately in poverty as compared to whites and this likely contributes a higher likelihood of becoming sick unfortunately.  So rather than prioritize people based on their skin color, would it not make more sense to prioritize those in poverty regardless of their race?

Every single US state is being advised to consider ethnic minorities as critical groups for vaccination.  Every US state has been advised to consider ethnic minorities as a critical and vulnerable group in their vaccine distribution plans, according to Centers for Disease Control guidance.  As a result, half of the nation's states have outlined plans that now prioritize black, Hispanic and indigenous residents over white people in some way, as the vaccine rollout begins.  According to our analysis, 25 states have committed to a focus on racial and ethnic communities as they decided which groups should be prioritized in receiving a coronavirus vaccine dose.

German virologist downplays fears about new mutation of COVID-19.  A leading German virologist on Monday downplayed fears about the new mutation of the coronavirus spreading through the UK — and questioned Prime Minister Boris Johnson's claim that the strain is 70 percent more infectious, according to reports.  "I wonder whether a scientist gave an estimate, perhaps asked what he would say if he had to give a figure, and then it takes on a life of its own," Christian Drosten said, the Daily Mail reported.  "Then it enters politics and politicians use this figure and the media takes it up.  Suddenly there's a figure out there — 70 percent — and nobody even knows what it means," he told Deutschlandfunk radio, the UK outlet reported.

The American Left Has Now Fully Embraced Racism.  There is no issue more important to the future and soul of our nation right now than the leftist bigotry threatening the very concept of what it means to be an American.  On the medical side, Dr. Harald Schmidt, a supposed expert on ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times that essential workers, not the elderly, should be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines.  His reason?  "Older populations are whiter," he told the publication.  "Society is structured in a way that enables them to live longer.  Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them, we can start to level the playing field a bit."  To be clear, the term "level the playing field" here means allowing people to die because of the color of their skin.  What's amazing about this is that just months ago to even question the efficacy of lockdowns meant to stop the spread of COVID-19 was met with accusations that one was killing grandma.  Now, it doesn't matter because grandma is probably white.

Democrats Have to Choose Between Ending the Pandemic and Open Borders.  Democrats are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the COVID vaccines.  I'm not talking about the fact that they are struggling to try to find a way to steal credit for it — the media will help with that — I'm talking about the choice they have between reopening the country safely and their desire for open borders.  Democrats may not realize it yet, but they can't have both.  The only downside with Operation Warp Speed's success and the speed with which it worked is we have no idea how long the immunity lasts.  Whether it lasts months or years, we won't know for a long time.  If it is temporary, perhaps only six months to a year, that means a constant influx of people from third-world countries could and would easily reintroduce the virus and set us right back to where we are now.  People sneaking across the border from countries with unreliable medical systems and/or corrupt governments will be breeding grounds for false documents claiming vaccination, which would make any official documents unreliable.

Operation Warp Speed General:  Sorry about that vaccine snafu.  United States Army General Gustave Perna is the man who was put in charge of Operation Warp Speed and coordinating the shipments of COVID vaccines around the nation this month.  The process in the early going has not been entirely smooth, however.  Some states are winding up receiving considerably fewer doses than anticipated for a variety of reasons and complaints have been coming from the governors of some of those states.  In Michigan, for example, they're going to be getting nearly 25,000 fewer doses in the first shipment than had been anticipated.  This led Governor Gretchen Whitmer to quickly politicize the situation and accuse the President of "slow-walking" the distribution.  For his part, General Perna did something you rarely see when dealing with politicians, as opposed to military professionals.  He went on camera, stepped up to the microphone, and took full and complete responsibility for the shortfalls.  And he did this despite the fact that he probably bears almost no personal responsibility for the inaccurate projections.

A Look at the COVID School Insanity in Minnesota.  [Scroll down]  The discredited Anthony Fauci told us not to wear masks until he did.  The World Health Organization told us to lock down until it didn't.  Scientific journals told us to avoid hydroxychloroquine at all costs until they didn't.  Kamala Harris said she wouldn't take the vaccine if it came from a Trump administration until she did.  Add school reopenings to the COVID list of mendacity and incompetence.  As far back as June, President Trump and prominent doctors declared that schools should be open by the fall.  This was based on sound empirical data and scientific literature garnered from observing the response of many European nations to keep schools open and initial data from American schools themselves.  Students seemed little affected by the virus, nor did they appear to be a significant vector of transmission, even to their adult (and potentially vulnerable) teachers.  Amazingly, even the director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, and the Academy of American Pediatrics both supported the president's position on preparing schools to welcome schools back for fall term.

Robert Kennedy Jr Warns of COVID Compliance Creating The Dystopian End Game.  There are many issues where we may disagree with Robert Kennedy Jr., the weaponization of COVID fear is not one of them.  In this short video Robert Kennedy Jr, a passionate advocate against forced vaccinations of all types, talks about how professional politicians will lie to create the underlying source of their power, dependency.  [Video clip]

Anti-lockdown protesters scuffle with police in London as city heads into new Tier 4 lockdown.  Anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police officers at a demo in London this afternoon (December 19).  Protesters were demanding an end to covid lockdown restrictions, and comes as the capital and South East were plunged into new 'tier 4' restrictions.  [Video clip]

How Fake Are The CDC COVID Death Counts?  This FAKE!  The Grand County, Colorado coroner is calling attention to the way the state health department is classifying some deaths.  The coroner, Brenda Bock, says two of their five deaths related to COVID-19 were people who died of gunshot wounds.  "[T]hese two people had tested positive for COVID but that's not what killed them," she said.  "The gunshot wound killed them."  The state of Colorado classifies COVID deaths in two ways:  A death due to COVID, where it was the underlying cause, and a death with COVID, where there was a positive test but it wasn't listed as the cause of death.  "Today, Colorado's reporting 4,156 COVID deaths, these are actually deaths among cases.  Then they show 3,230 deaths due to COVID, and so they're differentiating that, but I think it can maybe go a little further and I think the policy could be changed," said Richard Cimino, Grand County Commissioner for District One.  [Video clip]

California Dems Shut Down State Over Lack of ICU Beds, After Adding Only 7% More ICU Beds in 8 Months.  Governor Newsom's latest shutdown order closes down small businesses and warns residents to stay at home if their area's number of available beds in intensive care units drops below 15%.  "By invoking a Stay at Home Order for regions where ICU capacity falls below 15 percent, we can flatten the curve as we've done before and reduce stress on our health care system," Governor Newsom, fresh from partying at the French Laundry, declared.  Spring had given way to summer and then to autumn and winter, and California Democrats are still using the pretext of preserving "ICU capacity" and "flattening the curve".  The rationale of shutting down an entire state, not so much for the sake of stopping the virus, but for keeping enough beds open in intensive care units, never made much sense even back then.  It's insane now.

Choose Christmas Joy Over Covid Fear.  Christmas, a time of joy, family, birth, and renewal is just days away.  It is a time and season that we need now more than ever.  Since March the entire world has been running under a heavy umbrella of doom and gloom.  The virus has dominated everything.  Government intrusion into our lives, businesses, churches, and more has become all encompassing and, quite frankly, unConstitutional on many fronts.  As we noted this fall, the CDC was issuing guidelines on how to cancel Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Times of joy and family must now be suppressed.  And we are supposed to be ok with that.  We are supposed to follow and adhere to the latest warnings by Anthony Fauci.  He is canceling Christmas.

FDA investigates allergic reactions to Pzifer coronavirus vaccine.  It was bound to happen.  Every vaccine brings with it the possibility of side effects and the new coronavirus vaccines are not an exception to that rule.  As it turns out, some reports of side effects are already being reported after the initial rollout this week.  Reports of side effects are being reported in Alaska and in Illinois.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating cases in multiple states.  The head nurse of a hospital in Tennessee fainted after taking the vaccine on live television as she took questions from the press.  She later said her reaction was not from ingredients in the vaccine but that it is a common reaction to pain for her.  She has a condition that causes her to faint when she experiences pain.  "It's common for me."  I'll take her at her word.

The Dehumanization of the Non-Compliant.  Way back at the beginning of the year, in what now seems like another life and another country, we were asked to wear masks and cut down on "non-essential" travel.  Maybe watch a movie at home this weekend instead of going out to the theater.  Maybe do take-out instead of dining out.  It's just for a few weeks.  We just need to flatten the curve a bit.  It's just to help out.  Except weeks turned into months.  Businesses closed forever.  Employees didn't get paid.  People feared how they'd support their family but they feared getting the virus more, and so they bought into it all... and bought everything they could get their hands on.  It wasn't just toilet paper that disappeared; any paper products, soaps, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, and canned food flew off the shelves.  Milk and meat were in short supply too.  As the year has wore on, the concept of "lockdown" started as a necessary evil.  Putting massive numbers of people on what effectively amounts to house arrest was seen as The Right Thing To Do.  But that's the problem, isn't it?  Historically whenever a tyrannical government wants to control its people or use them for its own ends, they package their control efforts as "for your safety" or "for your own good and that of others."  The reason for this is because people are easily manipulated by social influences.

COVID Panic To Rule Biden's First 100 Days.  Team Biden will wring every last infected droplet out of the COVID-19 panic for at least the first 100 days of a Biden Administration.  Democrats and the Biden campaign shamelessly exploited the health crisis to damage President Trump, push for an unprecedented volume of absentee ballots that overwhelmingly favored the Democratic presidential nominee, and leveraged "social distancing" dogma to keep Republican poll watchers far away from mischievous Democratic canvassers in several key cities.  Why give up the political gift that keeps on giving?  The incoming president only has hosted a smattering of public appearances while successfully avoiding tough questions about investigations into his son.  A frail Biden coughed repeatedly during another "acceptance" speech Monday night and had to be guided out by his wife; the media dutifully reported later that Biden has a minor cold.  The coronavirus cover-up of Biden's obvious lack of focus, energy, stamina, and patience — he snaps at any reporter who dares to even mildly confront the next leader of the free world with legitimate questions — will continue into the foreseeable future.

COVID-19 Is Killing More Illinois Nursing Home Residents Than Ever, According To State Data.  COVID-19 case and death numbers in Illinois have been dropping for weeks following a fall surge, but nursing-home residents are contracting the illness and dying from it at their highest reported rates.  State public health regulators have recorded 605 deaths among residents of long-term care facilities, assisted-living centers and other congregate care sites over the past week, according to data posted Friday [12/18/2020].  Those fatalities account for nearly two-thirds of the state's 965 total coronavirus deaths reported over the past week.  Friday's nursing-home death tally also clobbers a record-setting 480 fatalities among residents reported for the week ending Dec. 4.

8,000+ Nursing Home Residents and 49 Criminals Died in Pennsylvania.  Guess Which Group Democrats Care About.  One of the most important and least discussed coronavirus subjects in this election was the decision by Democrat governors to infect huge numbers of nursing home residents by forcing nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients.  Governor Wolf in Pennsylvania and his health expert, Richard 'Rachel' Levine, were one of the worst offenders. [...] Let's compare and contrast.  8,047 nursing home residents dead isn't a crisis.  But 49 criminals dead is a death sentence.  These are Democrat priorities.  Free the criminals and kill the elderly.

Every year there will be another strain — in more ways than one.
London Under Lockdown as U.K. Struggles to Contain New Coronavirus Strain.  U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson placed London and parts of southeast England under a full lockdown Saturday as the government struggled to stop the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus.  Johnson had planned to ease pandemic restrictions for five days around Christmas, but will now ban household mixing in London and southeast England and will restrict inter-household social gatherings in the rest of the country to just Christmas Day, according to Bloomberg News.

Do you see the difference?  In casinos, theaters, and bowling alleys people don't talk to each other.
Michigan extends indoor dining ban but allows casinos, cinemas, bowling alleys to reopen.  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state officials have extended a ban on in-person dining at restaurants through Jan. 15, while reopening casinos, bowling alleys and stadiums as well as allowing for in-person learning at Michigan high schools.  The casinos, cinemas, bowling alleys and stadiums are allowed to reopen on Monday [12/21/2020] with restrictions, according to a Department of Health and Human Services document obtained by The Detroit News.  Their capacity will be capped at 100 people, food and drink concessions must remain closed and social distancing must be observed.  "These past few weeks, Michiganders across the state stepped up and did their part to slow the spread of COVID-19, and because of our collective hard work, we are now able to begin the steps to carefully lift some of the protocols we have in place," Whitmer said.  "I am encouraged by the progress we have made since early November, and will continue to monitor the data closely during and after the holidays."

A Christmas Message for Dr. Fauci.  No one can be this clueless.  Not even Democrats.  Not even moronic Democratic governors.  Not even nanny-state government bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Fauci just asked Americans to cancel Christmas.  He said, "...it's just one of those things you're going to have to accept."  He reported he would not even allow his own three daughters to come home for Christmas this year.  He wants all Americans to "painfully" isolate.  He says he and his wife will be spending the holiday alone.  I have a message for Dr Fauci: "[...] This is America.  This is a free country.  If we want to celebrate Christmas, we will.  If we want to go to church, we will.  If we want to spend the holidays with our children, we will.  We're adults.  We make our own decisions.  This isn't a nanny state.  It's not the Soviet Union.  It's not Nazi Germany.  We don't need government bureaucrats telling us what to do, how to live our lives or how to spend the holidays.

Another bad idea from Democrat Andrew Yang.  Andrew Yang is what passes for 'innovative' among Democrats, and he's brimming with bad ideas.  The loopy tech entrepreneur is all in for industrial processes and one-size fits all technology, not applied to tech, but applied to people.  He favors a guaranteed income for all Americans whether they work or not, not exactly a Capt. John Smith, convinced such a concept could be administered by an all-reaching government, both efficiently and without corruption.  Now he has another doozy among his proposals:  Bar codes.  Kid you not.  Bar codes to prove you've been vaccinated. [...] Which is an unusually repugnant idea, redolent of stamping USDA Choice onto such grades of meat.

Tennessee Nurse Passes Out On Camera Minutes After Taking COVID-19 Vaccine.  A Tennessee nurse passed out on camera ten minutes after taking the COVID-19 vaccine.  Critical care nurse Tiffany Dover at CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga was having a lucid discussion with WRCB-TV following her vaccination, when she became visibly impaired — holding her hand to her head and swaying.  She then apologized to the news crew, turned away from the camera, and fainted.  "Ten minutes after the shot, Dover became light-headed and passed out while speaking with us," the outlet reported.  [Video clip]

Woman born without hands kicked out of bookstore for not masking.  A Vancouver woman who was born with no hands was kicked out of an Indigo Chapters bookstore location for not wearing a mask.  When attempting to explain her medical disability exemption, staff threatened to call the police.  Elisabeth Walker-Young is a four-time Paralympic swimmer.  She was denied entry to a Vancouver Indigo location for not wearing a mask.  Walker-Young is physically unable to put on a mask because she was born with no hands, according to Global News.

Top Ranking Catholic Cardinal Says COVID-19 Used To Advance 'Godless And Murderous Agenda', Usher In 'Great Reset'.  In early November, an Italian archbishop and Pope Francis foe, Carlo Maria Vigano, launched an attack against those behind pandemic lockdowns across the globe, warning President Trump in a letter of the coming "Great Reset" whose architects are "a global élite that wants to subdue all of humanity, imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual freedoms and those of entire populations."

Malia got married?  This is news!  Oh, wait...
Obama reveals daughter Malia's boyfriend quarantined with the family in the early days of the pandemic.  The Obamas had a guest during the early days of the pandemic:  daughter Malia's boyfriend, Rory Farquharson.  Like most families across the United States, the Obamas quarantined as the coronavirus pandemic began to rage in mid-March.  In comments made on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Thursday [12/17/2020], Barack Obama noted that Farquharson was part of the family's early quarantining.

Illegitimate Government and Control Mechanisms Require The Elimination of Communication.  It is not coincidental that bars and taverns have been targeted for closure and control under the auspices of 2020's COVID-19 fear and mitigation.  It is not coincidental that churches and fellowship gatherings have been targeted for closure and control under the auspices of COVID-19 fear and mitigation.  Both of these assembly points and gathering places have a deep history within the American rebellion. [...] Fast forward 250 years later and the modern rebellion against leftist authoritarianism is now facing an identical issue.  Individual members of the rebel alliance are having to use covert methods just to meet and discuss issues, grievances and concerns about liberty.  Additionally, modern social media communication has been intentionally throttled.  As seen in the recent actions by Google/YouTube any challenge to the command and control authority will not be permitted.  Any voices who raise questions about the legitimacy of our government will be silenced.  The effort to block communication is happening in real places (bars and taverns) and in the digital space (the internet).

The New Oligarchs Will Not Tolerate Secession.  Perhaps most important was the Wuhan virus, which provided an unexpected weapon for the oligarchy not only to consolidate their power but to terrorize the public into accepting oppressive government regulations that will probably extend into the indefinite future.  Some of the regulations have been exercises in raw power, having little or no rational basis and little effect on curbing the pandemic.  Most telling, however, is the fact that the pandemic has resulted in the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the lower and middle classes to the wealthy and corporate classes.  Whether the pandemic was an accident or not, the massive transfer of wealth was intentional.  The reaction to the pandemic was the beginning of the end of President Trump's attempt to survive the all-out assault mounted against him by combined forces of oligarchy.  Without the pandemic, Trump, in all probability, would have won reelection, and would have been better positioned to deal directly with the minions of the deep state, the Masters of the Universe, and those who supported them.

NYC mayor:  Restaurants need to close, but everyone should ride the subway.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that subways are safe and encouraged New Yorkers to use mass transit on the same day he said the city should be ready for a full shutdown after restaurants were ordered to halt indoor dining amid a surge of coronavirus cases.  Speaking at his daily briefing Monday, de Blasio said, "it is important to let people know the subways are safe."  Prompted by a reporter, he floated the idea of setting an example by riding the subway himself to show there's nothing to fear, similar to how he plans to publicly take the COVID-19 vaccine, the New York Post reports.  "I like the idea of having a period of time to really emphasize to people that they're safe, by being out there," he said.

Gunshot Deaths Counted Among COVID-19 Fatalities in Colorado.  A pair of gunshot deaths that counted among COVID fatalities have earned the ire of a county coroner in Colorado.  Grand County, in the sparsely-populated (but breathtaking) northwestern quarter of the state, is home to fewer than 15,000 people and has been lucky enough to endure only a handful of deaths related to the Wuhan Virus.  But of those five deaths, County Coroner Brenda Bock says two actually died of gunshot wounds.  Bock sounded furious in her interview with CBS4 News in Denver, and with good reason.  Grand County's economy is heavily reliant on tourism, and as Bock told CBS4, "It's absurd that they would even put that on there."

Unemployment Claims Rise to Highest Point Since September as States Reimpose COVID Lockdowns.  The Labor Department announced on Thursday [12/17/2020] that about 885,000 Americans filed unemployment claims last week, the highest weekly total since September.  Last week's claims rose from the 862,000 recorded during the previous week, and come amid rising coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths across the U.S. Average weekly jobless claims from before the pandemic totaled roughly 225,000.  "The next few months will be pretty rough for the labor market as you do see businesses having to contend with this latest wave of Covid cases," Wells Fargo Securities senior economist Sarah House told the Wall Street Journal.  "You are seeing those government restrictions coming into play again."  There are currently 20.6 million Americans receiving some kind of unemployment benefits.

AMA Lied — How Many Died?  The American Medical Association has been adamantly against hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic for COVID for the past year.  Just a few days before the presidential election they reversed course, reversing their opposition. [...] When the AMA talks, media and the public listen, due to their perceived clout.  Last spring, the AMA issued a statement critical of hydroxychloroquine as it was being used off-label in the treatment of COVID, not FDA-approved for this purpose with supposed "dangerous side effects."  Quietly at the end of October, the AMA issued a new statement, conveniently overlooked by the media, giving the green light to doctors prescribing HCQ to their COVID patients.

Minnesota AG sues bars that defied Walz ban on dine-in service.  The day after Alibi Drinkery co-owner Lisa Monet Zarza opened her business in defiance of state orders for bars and restaurants to remain closed to dine-in business, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took her to court.  On Thursday [12/17/2020], Ellison's office announced that he has filed lawsuits against the Lakeville restaurant and a Princeton business called Neighbors on the Rum.  Later in the day, he filed for a temporary restraining order to force Alibi to close.  Both businesses opened to in-person dining in defiance of Gov. Tim Walz's executive order meant to curb the spread of COVID-19.  On Wednesday, Walz adjusted the order that expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday to continue the prohibition on indoor dining at restaurants until Jan. 11.  "Alibi Drinkery in Lakeville proudly announced its dangerous decision to increase the risk of community spread of COVID-19 in its community, recording multiple videos of its violations and promising to pack more people into enclosed indoor spaces in a period where the virus is still spreading" in the state, Ellison's office said in a statement Thursday.  "When asked what she would do if officials asked her to close, Alibi Drinkery's owner stated that she would 'see them in court.'"

Fauci tells Americans not to see their kids for Christmas.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said this week that he and his wife will not be seeing his three adult children for Christmas or for his birthday on Christmas Eve amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and urged other Americans to do the same.  Fauci made the comments during an interview with the Washington Post's Power Up newsletter.  He said it would mark the first Christmas not spent with his three daughters since they were born.

Even With Vaccine Rollout Democrats Still Demand COVID-19 Lockdowns Into Unknown Future.  Many people are starting to wonder why the far-left is still relentlessly drum-beating the fear of COVID-19 and purposefully inflicting massive economic damage, despite the vaccine rollout currently underway throughout the nation.  Why are state and local officials still shutting down businesses and the media still pushing the overall narrative of fear?  Recently the highly manipulative left have stated that even after a person receives two vaccine shots, they must still wear a mask, remain socially distant, adhere with lockdowns and comply with all of the rules and restrictions.  If there is no life benefit, then why get vaccinated?  What many fail to realize is the purposeful deployment of COVID-19 was weaponized to achieve an objective.  Those who are using COVID to create the great societal reset they desire are not going to let up.  They need COVID-19 as a justification for the expansion of government and the fundamental changes they are attempting to initiate.

Democratic governor tells people to 'stay home except for essential activities,' then is spotted at a wine bar without a mask.  Democratic politicians have been caught openly disobeying their own COVID-19 lockdown orders for months:  The latest hypocritical offender is the governor of Rhode Island.  Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, was reportedly photographed at a wine bar.  The photo shows Raimondo, who is not wearing a face mask, enjoying a glass of wine at Barnaby's Public House in Providence.  The photo was taken during a "wine and paint" event last Friday [12/11/2020], according to Erica Oliveras, who took the photo.  However, only days earlier, Raimondo instructed her constituents to "stay home except for essential activities."

Who Goes to Jail?  One Governor's Perverse Answer.  We have often written here about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and, among other things, his irrational response to the COVID virus. [...] Walz is now explicitly threatening to imprison Larvita McFarquhar for the "crime" of trying to feed her family by operating her restaurant, Havens Garden, in a small town in southwestern Minnesota, in defiance of an executive order by Walz that Larvita believes (correctly, I think) to be a violation of her constitutional rights.  Meanwhile, Walz and his Attorney General, Keith Ellison — the only AG in America who has come out in favor of political violence by supporting Antifa — are freeing a gang banger who killed an 11-year-old girl from prison.

Denny's Waitress Quits Because A Group Won't Wear A Mask Because Of The.  A Denny's worker quit out of frustration after a pair of maskless patrons walked into the diner and demanded to be seated.  One of the men tells her they have a "religious exemption" before fumbling to say they "just don't want to wear a mask."  The employee responds by reiterating that they are required to wear a mask.  The man then claims they are covered by the "Civil Rights Act of 1964."  [Video clip]

Rhode Island Governor Tells Citizens To 'Stay Home' Before Heading To Wine Bar.  Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo was seen drinking at a wine bar just four days after reminding citizens to comply with coronavirus restrictions and stay home except for essential activities.  Photos published by Turtleboy Sports and the libertarian group Liberty Rhode Island reportedly show Raimondo sitting in a local restaurant for a "wine and paint" night without a mask.  The photo was taken by Erica Oliveras, who said she was also at the event at Barnaby's Public House in Providence, Rhode Island, according to ABC 6 News.

Tweet of the day.  Here's the visual representation of the total and complete failure of "interventions" in California[.]  I don't know if it's possible for a profession to discredit itself as much as "public health" has in 2020, but here we are[:]  [Chart]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Recommits To All Florida Restaurant and Bar Owners, Will Always Stay Open, These Folks Have The Right To Work.  As many state and regional leaders crush their small business owners under the weight of insufferable and unscientific COVID-19 restrictions, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis goes in the exact opposition direction.  Governor DeSantis highlights his concern about the economic and financial impact to businesses and workers in the state.  The Florida Governor holds a press conference at a local restaurant today promising that all small business owners, restaurants and bars in the state will remain open and free to conduct business.  COVID-19 will be managed, but we will not destroy families with arbitrary rules and dictates holding no foundation in science.  God Bless DeSantis!  [Video clip]

COVID Hysteria Serves Desire for Power.  We finally reached peak COVID-19 madness last week, when a family was ejected from a United Airlines flight because their two-year-old girl could not tolerate a muzzle.  So, on the apparent theory that you can't be too safe or too careful, even from a two-year-old, the airline enforced its zero-tolerance policy and booted the girl and her family from the plane.  "The health and safety of our employees and customers is our highest priority ... everyone onboard two and older wears a mask," said the airline.  "These procedures are not only backed by guidance from the CDC and our partners at the Cleveland Clinic, but they're also consistent across every major airline." In case you're unaware, doctors, immunologists, and epidemiologists are now the highest authorities in the land.  Under their very own mini-Mussolini, Dr. Anthony Fauci, they can override our constitutional liberties, such as freedom of assembly and religion, severely constrict our freedom of speech, limit our movements, commandeer our businesses, and eliminate our livelihoods with complete impunity.

When 2-Year-Olds Are Thrown Off Airplanes, You Know America Has Changed.  You may have seen the video of the family thrown off a United Airlines airplane because the 2-year-old daughter would not wear a mask.  Though the family wore masks and the father promised to cover his daughter's face with a mask that he placed on her face, it made no difference.  Though the child was completely asymptomatic, and though it is exceedingly rare for a child to transmit COVID-19 to an adult — that is why Sweden kept its schools open all spring and summer, with its students not wearing masks — the airline had its orders, and the flight attendant duly obeyed them.

Despite lax rules, COVID-19 claims few lives in Haiti.  Scientists want to know why.  In Haiti, they are acting like COVID-19 doesn't exist.  Mask-wearing is an exception and not the norm; bands are playing to sold-out crowds; and Kanaval, the three-day pre-Lenten debauchery-encouraging street party is back on for February.  This is not a case of a population simply in denial.  In a country of roughly 11 million people, there have been an astoundingly low 234 confirmed deaths related to the novel coronavirus.  Across the border in the neighboring Dominican Republic, with roughly the same population, the pandemic has killed almost ten times the number, 2,364.  Jet off to Miami-Dade County, home to one of the larger Haitian communities in the United States, and the death toll is even higher: 4,002 in a population of 2.7 million.  What's going on?  Nobody is sure.

The Editor says...
It's almost as if the Haitian people have functional immune systems, and they aren't elderly or obese, and their hospitals don't offer monetary incentives to find Covid-19 patients.

What the American Aristocracy Has Wrought.  Truth isn't even a value in public health.  Anthony Fauci has been so wrong about so much that it is hard to imagine he hasn't been purposely wrong.  The CDC apparently admits to creating a new category for mortality, called "PIC."  That stands for Pneumonia, Influenza, and COVID-19.  They report PIC death numbers, and that is widely distributed as COVID deaths.  Why bring up the lies that are told in the name of public health?  Because in COVID, the aristocracy has found the most profound avenue for its authoritarianism.  The aristocracy demonstrates their contempt for the American people by killing their pathetic little businesses, taking away their precious little holidays and church gatherings, denying them an equal vote, replacing news with propaganda, letting their cities be looted and burned, tearing down their wicked little statues, and mocking the pride they have in their country.  As ordinary people suffer, the response of the aristocracy adds up to "Let them eat cake."

COVID Vaccination — Warp Speed Ahead.  The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca for COVID-19 uses a different mechanism.  The good news is the AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures for up to six months.  The bad news is it is only about 70 percent effective.  This vaccine, however, may become the preferred one in third-world countries because of the storage issues.  Is there controversy connected with the use of these new vaccines?  Yes.  Here are some of the areas of concern: [...] I am not opposed to vaccinations, per se, including the COVID-19 vaccination.  I am very hopeful that the vaccines will be safe and effective for those at highest risk.  But I am opposed to any government requirement for the vaccination or any private or public dictate about the vaccine that infringes on a citizen's freedom of choice.  I strongly support informed consent for all vaccinations, which currently is not the U.S. standard.

The Governor of Rhode Island Joins the Democrat COVID-19 Hypocrisy Tour.  It seems that when it comes to COVID-19 restrictions, there are rules for everyone else, and then the rules for the Democrat leaders in the various states and municipalities.  For months we have covered the hypocrisy of the left in many of these cases, from California Governor Gavin Newsom ignoring his own orders to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards country club visits, to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday, tweeting orders to stay home while at the airport.  Now, out of Rhode Island comes this story:  Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo believes that her orders are only for the common folk, as she was seen out at a wine and paint night at a Providence area bodega.  What is worse is that she was seen maskless in close quarters with other attendees, creating a firestorm of outrage at her hypocritical behavior.

Health worker in Alaska had serious allergic reaction after Pfizer's vaccine - NYT.  An Alaskan health worker had a serious allergic reaction after getting Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine, but is now stable, public health authorities said on Wednesday [12/16/2020].  The adverse reaction in the person, minutes after taking the Pfizer shot on Tuesday, was similar to two cases reported last week in Britain.

Ted Cruz to MSNBC's Puffy Haired TV Doctor: 'This is a Bizarre, Lunatic, Totalitarian Cult'.  Ted Cruz wrecking people on Twitter has become a commonality during the Trump era, and he's not showing any signs of slowing down.  Yesterday, I wrote on MSNBC's puffy haired TV doctor asserting that people still can't travel or stop wearing masks even after being vaccinated.  Cruz also saw that clip and responded accordingly, savaging the far-left network's proclamation by a man who doesn't actually know anything more about this topic than you are I do (Vin Gupta is an ER doctor, not an epidemiologist).  As I've said before, we have the dumbest experts.

Joe Biden's Inaugural Committee: 'Stay Home,' 'Limit Gatherings During the Inauguration'.  Joe Biden's Inaugural Committee does not want supporters to travel to Washington, D.C., in January for the swearing in of the 46th president.  The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) consulted "with medical experts advising President-elect Joe Biden" and announced "initial protocols to protect public health during the inauguration," an event that takes place outside on the Capitol lawn.  Biden's advisors said in a press release that the "historic ceremony" will include "vigorous health and safety protocols," and "honors and resembled sacred American traditions while keeping Americans safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus]."

The Editor says...
I wish they were more concerned about keeping us free than keeping us safe.

As COVID Vaccine Nears, Government Coercion Begins in Earnest.  The New York Times, in a recent cultural exposition on the lingering social effects of the evolving COVID-19 response, quotes several epidemiologists.  The sources also offer their prognostications.  The fully unsurprising consensus among the managerial class?  "Normalcy" (i.e., life before the pandemic) will never be revived.  The measures instituted in March massively restricting freedom of movement (and virtually every other civil liberty) are here to stay. [...] What kind of a life is this?  To pacify a U.S. public they knew would object to being locked out of social life forever, politicians and policymakers paired the early economic shutdowns with assurances that they would be temporary.  After a vaccine has been developed, they promised, life will go back to the way it was before. [...] Without adequate explanation (does royalty explain decisions to the masses?), Fauci and Co. turned on a dime.  They are now predicting that economic and social life remain off-limits until fall of 2021 at the earliest.

The Wuhan Virus and Hospitalizations.  Back in the early-to-mid-spring of this year, heeding the rampant Wuhan virus fearmongering, all across the U.S., hospitals shut down almost all care and procedures that they could.  This was done in preparation for what we were repeatedly told was going to be a significant Wuhan virus patient surge.  Of course, such a surge never materialized.  Thus, U.S. hospitals were left with a massive patient shortage.  In other words, the health care demands of the Wuhan virus were grossly overestimated.  As I noted back in August, these demands were so "grossly overestimated" that billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent — in other words, wasted — on "field hospitals" that were supposedly meant to help "handle" the pandemic as states fought to "flatten the curve."  Numerous hospitals that cost tens of millions of dollars each never treated a single patient.  Others treated only a few dozen.  Additionally, the hospital patient shortage was so massive that numerous U.S. hospitals suffered unprecedented, albeit self-inflicted, financial devastation.

Time To Heel — Or Fight.  I'm infuriated every time I see an Applebees, Walmart, or Amazon commercial touting their bravery and fortitude during these troubled times.  These mega-corporations, with powerful lobbying departments and unlimited financial resources, have reaped tremendous profits and seen their stock prices soar to all-time highs, while hundreds of thousands of small restaurants and retailers have closed for good.  Somewhere between one-third and one-half of all small businesses in America have closed or will close permanently.  The [disingenuous] slogan "We are all in this together" has been beaten to death by the propaganda media, while our wealthy elite overlords work remotely in their multi-million-dollar mansions, doing their daily Peleton workouts, sending their kids to expensive private schools and dining on white truffles and caviar at the French Laundry for $1,200.  We are not in this together.  It's us and THEM.  You know who THEY are.

Fauci made a 'joke' in 2018 that gave the COVID game away.  [Scroll down]  Coincidentally, Fauci's "just kidding" moment is now being played out in 2020, where medical experts, the media, and early Armageddon pandemic models have messaged COVID-19 as the mother of all diseases.  Unlike other deadly pandemics, most recently H1NI in 2009 with more than 60 million Americans infected, the coronavirus has become a 24/7 news story.  Daily, sometimes hourly, case and death counts from state officials are now part of the national consciousness.  Beginning in March 2020, Dr. Fauci recommended mitigation measures never before put into place by state governors.  COVID-19 from Wuhan, while not related to "every other disease" as Dr. Fauci jokingly predicted in 2018, might as well be.  The coronavirus is the lucrative disease the NIH researcher had been waiting for throughout his entire 50-plus-year government career.  A pandemic is "globality at its highest level," he said, affecting the global economy and security.  It has also affected Dr. Fauci's bottom line.

N.J. Gym Owner Fined $1 Million for Refusing to Close Has a Message for Gov. Phil Murphy.  Atlas Gym has been continuously harassed by the government of New Jersey for refusing to shut its doors or impose mask mandates on its clients.  Owner Ian Smith has made headlines for staying open despite orders from the state to close up shop.  But now he's back with a viral video message he made for Governor Phil Murphy.  I don't think the state's sanctions on him are working, do you?  Filming in a full gym, Smith stands defiant against government interference with his right to work and feed his family.  I wish every business owner in America was this courageous.  That's all it would take to end the unfair targeting of small businesses while huge corporations are allowed to turn profits without fines.  Resist!

Vitamin D & Ivermectin [are] Better Solutions to COVID than Vaccines.  People are dying, but what are they dying from?  Is it an all-powerful virus that is doing hundreds of thousands of people in, or is it medical ignorance and medical malpractice?  Ignorance is deadly in medicine and is usually sourced in arrogance and pharmaceutical greed and power, which is in full view with the American government's premier medical organizations.  The NIH, the FDA, and the CDC should be held accountable for every COVID death at this point.  The official line is still there is no treatment for COVID-19, so half the population and most politicians are waiting for a vaccine to come in to save the day even though the long-term side effects are unknown.  No vaccine is needed for an easily treated disease, and the cover-up of this fact is [condemnatory].  It is a terrible crime.

Mayor de Blasio will ride subway to prove it's safe amid COVID-19.  Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday [12/14/2020] agreed to set an example and eschew his SUV and driver to ride the subway in a bid to encourage more New Yorkers to get back onto mass transit despite the coronavirus pandemic.  "It is important to let people know the subways are safe," the mayor said during his daily briefing, in response to a reporter's suggestion that he ride mass transit for a week to show it's safe, just as he plans to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Editor says...
Of course the subway is always safe for the mayor, because he's surrounded by cops.

Will Vermont have child COVID informants for Christmas?  Vermonters have not been advised whether their families will be allowed to gather for Christmas.  Vermont governor Phil Scott's Thanksgiving prohibition of family gatherings raised eyebrows nationally.  Post-holiday, schoolchildren were quizzed by teachers and sent home if they reported visitors in their homes.  Will Christmas be similarly policed?  Meanwhile, the Vermont Department of Health officially left citizens free to "have sex with others outside your household," advising, "Take precautions ... with people at risk for severe COVID-19 illness such as people over 65 years of age or those with serious medical conditions."  Few contrasts could more openly demonstrate how arbitrary Vermont's COVID rules have become than prohibiting family meal gatherings while advising strangers they can have sex freely.

Big Tech and IT Security.  Big Tech is impairing and maliciously exploiting the nation's critical IT and communications infrastructure for their own benefit and the benefit of third parties.  During COVID-19, a declared national emergency, they have:
  •   Interfered with medical advice and communications of doctors and other medical practitioners regarding COVID-19.
  •   Prevented patients and doctors from accessing medical information and/or blocked medical advice about COVID-19.
  •   Banned accounts and/or deleted content from physicians and scientists who recommended specific COVID-19 treatments, such as Hydroxychloroquine.
  •   Threatened to block all medical advice contradicting recommendations of the World Health Organization.
  •   Replaced (rather than merely deleted or restricted) medical content which they do not like with their own content and denigrated the original content.
Almost all the interventions related to COVID-19 went against any useful treatments and prophylaxis, but spread panic, and promoted lockdowns, and masks.  This nicely aligned with their own interests — reducing interpersonal communication, leading to increased reliance on their services, and thus, increasing their profits and power.  Big Tech profits have skyrocketed during this pandemic.  This also coincided with the strategy of the Democrat party to use COVID-19 as a pretext for adopting fraud-ridden mail-in voting, for blaming President Trump for COVID-19 suffering, and for blanket house arrest orders (lockdowns).  Big Tech also interfered with the bidirectional communications between the government and the public in general.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla explains why he hasn't taken COVID-19 vaccine yet.  Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Monday [12/14/2020] he hasn't taken the COVID-19 vaccine yet — but only because he doesn't want to be seen as jumping the line.  "I haven't taken it yet and we are having an ethical committee dealing with the question of who is getting it," Bourla told CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  Bourla noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has agreed that front-line health care workers and nursing home residents and staff should be prioritized.  "Given that there are very strict allocation rules that the CDC has voted [on], we are very sensitive not to cut the queue and get vaccinated before," Bourla said.  But he hasn't ruled out getting the shot soon if it'll improve confidence in the vaccine.

Scientists pinpoint genes common among people with severe coronavirus infections.  Certain gene variants are linked to severe coronavirus infections, according to a team of scientists in Europe who studied the genomes of 2,200 critically ill covid-19 patients.  Their results provide robust support that genetic makeup plays a role in the potentially fatal illness experienced by some people infected by the coronavirus.

Austrian MP Tests Coca Cola For COVID.  It Tests Positive!  The Austrian politician Michael Schnedlitz dips a Corona rapid test into a glass of Coca Cola.  The video is widely shared on the internet as evidence of the unreliability of the test.  [Video clip]

Two Reasons Before Noon On Sunday To Obstruct, Resist & Punish Democrat-Media Establishment.  Seeing little kids in masks makes me sick to my stomach because masks really only do two things well:  1) promote fear, and 2) compromise the still-developing immune systems of children.  There's nothing else cloth masks do well.  I mean don't get me wrong they do a lot of things poorly.  Like, for example, stopping viruses from spreading.

Bill Gates "Sadly" Says Businesses Will Have To Shut Down Again For Coming Wave Of Coronavirus Cases.  Bill Gates sat down for an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper and the topic was the coronavirus pandemic.  The billionaire spoke about the severity of the coming winter wave of coronavirus outbreaks.  When asked by Tapper if shutdowns should be put in place again, he was in favor of it.  "Sadly, that's appropriate."  Tapper began by asking if governors who have been hesitant to shut down businesses again should do so since the prediction is that the coming wave of the virus will be the worst one yet.  Gates began by saying that wearing face masks is an easy way for everyone to fight the spread.  Then Gates specifically chose restaurants and bars as examples of businesses that should shut down for four to six months.  Jake Tapper just sat there and allowed Gates to opine without any pushback at all.  I guess it's easy for a billionaire to say that the owners of bars and restaurants should suffer in order to curb the spread of the virus.  It's no skin off his nose.

The Editor says...
Allow me to remind you that Bill Gates is not an elected official.  He has a lot of money, but no authority of any kind.  Unless you work for him, or unless your organization wants a hefty grant from his foundation, you may ignore his opinions.  Mr. Gates will soon enough discover that "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 'New COVID Vaccine Should Be Avoided At All Cost'.  I would like to draw your attention urgently to important issues related to the next Covid-19 vaccination.  For the first time in the history of vaccination, the so-called last generation mRNA vaccines intervene directly in the genetic material of the patient and therefore alter the individual genetic material, which represents the genetic manipulation, something that was already forbidden and until then considered criminal.  This intervention can be compared to genetically manipulated food, which is also highly controversial.  Even if the media and politicians currently trivialize the problem and even stupidly call for a new type of vaccine to return to normality, this vaccination is problematic in terms of health, morality and ethics, and also in terms of genetic damage that, unlike the damage caused by previous vaccines, will be irreversible and irreparable.

COVID-19 Vaccine Bombshell:  FDA Documents Reveal DEATH + 21 Serious Conditions As Possible Adverse Outcomes.  Public discussion and documents reveal that the FDA knows that rushed-to-market COVID-19 vaccines may cause a wide range of life-threatening side effects, including death.  Unless the public is made aware of their real effects, and is given a choice, their widespread coercive promotion as "safe and effective" and "necessary" violates the medical ethical principle of informed consent.

Death and illness due to lockdowns is higher than deaths due to COVID-19.  Lockdowns are not effective, as seen by many scientific studies, common sense, and worldwide observation.  Locking down entire communities was never before done in all of recorded human history, but it swept the globe in 2020.  In addition to not stopping the transmission of a tiny respiratory virus that fortunately does not permanently harm the vast majority of people, lockdowns cause insurmountable negative health effects.  These range from the worsening of chronic stable conditions, to missing new serious diagnoses, to missing necessary treatments, and very often death.  And where lack of medical care and social isolation intersect, the tragedy of addiction, substance abuse, depression, trauma, and crime repeats itself in ever escalating numbers.

Put on the handcuffs, hide under the bed and stay there.  We've never seen anything like it, have we — some state governments not just advising people on how to spend Thanksgiving with their families, but dictating how they do it or whether they do it at all?  Here was totalitarianism unknown in American history, cops just maybe arresting you if there were too many people at the table, and it did not stop there.  Some states have also dictated how many people can go to church despite precautions being taken.  And, yes, it is totally proper to give advice, to say lives could be at stake from COVID-19 if large numbers were gathering in close proximity, and, to go further, to say this isn't just about you but about the harm you can do to others through transmission.  But here's the thing.  If government travels an autocratic, unprecedented route with the pandemic, what's going to happen to liberty generally and with other matters, such as climate change?

NIH Director Collins Works With Church Leaders to Promote COVID Vaccine.  NIH Director Francis Collins is doing full-court press these days in preparation of the vaccine distribution in the United States.  The Washington Post, NPR, and other legacy media outlets are slathering over this political appointee as the perfect oracle to convince people of faith that the vaccine is safe and should be taken. [...] Typical WaPo:  You anti-science rubes need help understanding this!  Thoroughly discounting (or mocking) the number of doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel who are people of faith, but still have legitimate concerns about not only how this pandemic has been handled medically and socially, but about this coming vaccine.

Blue State Hypocrisy: 15 Democrats Who Don't Follow Their Own Rules.  There have been many examples of blue state hypocrisy as of late.  The Democrat hypocrites create stricter and stricter rules to deal with the phantom menace of Covid but then refuse to follow those rules themselves.  Democrat mayors and governors shut down small businesses, didn't let spouses and children mourn the passing of loved ones, ruined the academic experience of millions of students, and wrecked the dreams of many more millions of Americans.  Those people are despicable.  It's one thing to create and follow strict lockdown orders because you think that's the right thing to do; I, and many others, might disagree with the necessity and efficacy of those lockdowns, but there is no moral issue there.  That's a debate over governance and what powers the government can and should use in the event of an emergency.  But it is evil to create an order that ruins the lives of millions of your citizens and then to ignore that lockdown order yourself when it becomes inconvenient to do so.

As leftists double down on lockdowns, are we being played?  I'm a pandemic skeptic.  I know the Wuhan virus is real and very dangerous for some people.  Still, I cannot get excited about a disease with an average 99% survival rate.  I believe the Democrats weaponized the virus to defeat President Trump, and I think that Democrats are still working the virus to weaken working- and middle-class Americans (i.e., Trump supporters) while enriching the Democrats' corporate cronies. [...] We keep being told that Americans are dying like flies, far in excess of their normal numbers.  I accept that there are excess deaths.  I'm sure it increased our annual death rate in spring when many elderly people died in the first wave after Democrat governors trapped them in retirement homes and then sent in infected people.  I'm also sure that more Americans are dying from cancer, heart disease, depression, suicide, murder, and spousal abuse thanks to the cruelty of the lockdowns.  What offsets all this is that fewer Americans are dying from the flu.

COVID-19 And The Great Reset:  Global Effort "to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies".  Quite a few people today appear to have opted to give up a great deal of their liberty for what they perceive as safety, yet few of them are starving or especially threatened.  What they seem to want is absolute safety or something close to it, as so many people's reaction to COVID has demonstrated.  The COVID pandemic was a big test of an approach called The Great Reset, and the reaction to the rules promulgated in response to the disease has led The Great Reset's leftist boosters to feel that they can go ahead without too much objection.  The Great Reset is no shadowy conspiracy theory, either; its basic outline is right out there in the open.

Chinese Virus, Chinese Vaccine?: CCP Leak Confirms Pfizer, AstraZeneca Employed 123 Communist Party Members.  A leaked list of 1.95 million Chinese Communist Party members, containing apparently thousands of names of individuals living in the West and employed in government or top corporations, includes 123 names of individuals who work for pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca.  Both companies are currently engaged in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination effort.  As National File previously reported, a list of nearly 2 million CCP members was leaked to international media outlets in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, and Sweden earlier this year.  The list contains names of individuals currently living and working in the West, including in the British government, and in top military, financial, and medical companies across the West.  The Daily Mail now confirms that a "detailed analysis," now "reveals that pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca — both involved in the development of coronavirus vaccines — employed a total 123 party loyalists."

Now that the election is over...
American Medical Association Rescinds Previous Statement Against Prescription of Hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 Patients.  The American Medical Association (AMA), in a surprising move, has officially rescinded a previous statement against the use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, giving physicians the okay to return to utilizing the medication at their discretion.  Previously, the AMA had issued a statement in March that was highly critical of HCQ in regards to its use as a proposed treatment by some physicians in the early stages of COVID-19.  In addition to discouraging doctors from ordering the medication in bulk for "off-label" use — HCQ is typically used to treat diseases such as malaria — they also claimed that there was no proof that it was effective in treating COVID, and that its use could be harmful in some instances.

Gleeful Bill Gates:  Keep Restaurants and Bars Closed for Six Months, Allow Slow Return to New Normal Activity in 2022.  The technocrats of modern globalism have a way of carrying inappropriate gleefulness as they laugh, smile and pontificate their detachment from life under their control.  Thus the ever present smirk, smile and laughter from Bill Gates as he describes how workers on Main Street USA must accept their economic destruction as part of their larger responsibility to the global community.  [Video clip]

Life-Long Firefighter And Now Commissioner Arrested For Not Wearing A Mask OUTSIDE In Key West.  East Like Fire Commissioner James Dalrymple was arrested in downtown Key West on Wednesday and charged with obstruction of justice after an incident that unfolded after he refused to wear a mask as required by city ordinance.  According to a Key West Police report, officer Leonardo Hernandez saw a group walking south on Duval Street around 6:40 p.m.  A few in the group were not wearing masks.  After the officer asked them to put on masks, which the city requires while outside of residences, Dalrymple, 64, responded that "the governor's order says we do not have to," according to the incident report.  [Video clip]

The COVID-19 Vaccine Requires Careful Vetting.  The currently reported COVID-19 "surge" arrived just in time for many to use it as an excuse for emergency authorization of vaccines. [...] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that millions of doses of the vaccine be given to health care professionals first.  Health care professionals and Americans in general need to know what follows.  Numerous previous articles described the dishonesty of public health officials, including the CDC, regarding the definition of "COVID-19 death" and COVID-19 data in general.  It was mentioned that if misleading language was used to describe COVID-19 death data, then one may reasonably question whether public health officials and influential collaborators in the pharmaceutical industry would be misleading when describing future COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy data.  It appears as though such misleading language is being used to describe the safety and the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine recently authorized for emergency use in the U.S.

As COVID-1984 Accelerates, Bill Gates Blames "Freedom" For Spread of the Virus.  Recently, Bill Gates gave an interview to the Rothschild partially owned Economist.  In this interview, Gates was asked about how he views the U.S. response to the outbreak.  His reply was:  ["]Aside from the high 'risk money' the US ponied up for vaccine research and development, he think the U.S. is doing a poor job overall.["]  Gates proceeded to directly blame the poor response on lack of preparation, but also freedom.  Yes, Bill Gates blamed our freedoms for the spread of the virus.  Bill Gates then went on to praise China's authoritarian response and said, despite the fact that people's rights were violated, China's response was really amazing!  This is right out of the 2010 Rockefeller Lock Step document that laid out a scenario for a world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership.

Scientists Link This Superspreader Event in February to Around 300,000 COVID Cases.  The New York Times reported that researchers analyzing the genetic markers of the virus were able to conclude that between 250,000 and 300,000 cases of the coronavirus can be blamed on a Boston medical conference hosted by drugmaker Biogen.  "In hindsight, many people have criticized Biogen's decision to continue with its leadership meeting in late February, which was attended by vice presidents from European countries already hit by the virus," The Times reported.  "Others in the industry fault Biogen for being too tight-lipped about the outbreak."  "The smartest people in health care and drug development — and they were completely oblivious to the biggest thing that was about to shatter their world," John Carroll, editor of Endpoints News, which covers the biotech industry, told The Times.

COVID-19 tyrants now set sights on Christmas.  Watch out.  One of Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board members told CNN that Americans need to give up their Christmas parties in order to help contain the spread of COVID-19.  Who died and made these political hacks the keeper of the constitutional rights?  Look, we know the coronavirus is harmful to health — fatal even to some.  But we know, too, that the coronavirus is not a fraction as fatal or even harmful as what the political hacks say.

Consent Withdrawn, Entire Town of Mossyrock Washington Defies Governor Inslee's Latest Set of COVID-19 Restrictions.  Many people talk of a foreboding sense.  A sense that something is very close to erupting on the surface.  I believe, and have said for months, the final eruption will come as a result of overreach by control authority in reference to COVID dictates.  We are close.  In Washington State the entire town of Mossyrock has united to defy the COVID-19 dictatorial fiats of the State Governor Jay Inslee.  This is how the rebellion will succeed.

United Airlines Kicks Family Off Flight Because 2-YEAR-OLD Wouldn't Keep Mask On.  United Airlines enforced its "no-tolerance" mask policy on a family with a 2-year-old girl who would not wear a mask.  And it seems like the whole world has lost its sanity and decency.  Eliz Orban posted a video on Instagram and Twitter explaining that she, her husband, and daughter were all KICKED OFF the United Airlines flight and then BANNED FOR LIFE from the airline because their 2-year-old wouldn't keep her mask on.

Gov. Wolf announces new COVID-19 restrictions on indoor dining, entertainment until 2021.  Pennsylvanians' holiday cheer will have to be served at home for the rest of the month.  Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday announced a series of restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the commonwealth, including shutting down indoor dining and on-site alcohol consumption.  "This virus continues to rage in Pennsylvania and over the past several weeks, it's become clear that we need to take further mitigation actions to protect Pennsylvanians and stop the spread of COVID-19," Wolf said.  "We all hoped to not come to this."

The Editor says...
Covid-19 restrictions are always implemented for just a few weeks at a time, and are always extended.  They never end.  Have you noticed?

Cuomo orders New York City restaurants to suspend indoor dining, effective Monday.  New York City's restaurants must stop serving meals indoors on Monday as COVID-19 hospitalizations fail to stabilize and the infection rate for the virus rises in the densely populated metropolis, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday [12/11/2020].  The governor acknowledged that indoor dining accounts for only a fraction of the city's new cases, but said he was concerned about an "Rt 1.3" transmission rate, meaning that one infected person transmits it to 1.3 others.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo Shuts Down Indoor Dining in NYC; Less than 2% of Coronavirus Cases Traced to Restaurants.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) announced Friday that he will shut down indoor dining in New York City, despite the fact that contact tracing does not show restaurants as a primary source of coronavirus transmission.  Earlier this week, Cuomo warned that the suspension of indoor dining in New York City could be forthcoming if hospitalization rates did not stabilize in the region.

NJ gym now facing over $1.2M in fines for defying Gov. Murphy's coronavirus lockdown orders.  Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's COVID-19 restrictions have now resulted in more than $1.2 million in fines to a gym for defying the lockdowns in recent months.  "Governor Murphy has thrown everything he possibly could to shut us down.  He has arrested my partner and I, given us over 60 citations, some of them criminal.  He fines us $15,497.76 per day for every day we're in operation.  Our fines are totaling over $1.2 million, but every single day, Frank and I open our gym," Atilis Gym co-owner Ian Smith told "America's Newsroom" Thursday.  The Atilis Gym owners have had a drawn-out, ongoing public battle with their local government in Bellmawr, N.J., over coronavirus restrictions.  Gov. Murphy has said the reason for limiting gyms is to stop the spread of the virus, but Smith argues there's no scientific data to back up this claim.

'Don't let a man in a dress rule us': Road sign mocks Pa. health secretary amid COVID crackdowns.  A message board entering the Erie County town of Waterford prompted a social-media stir this week by mocking Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania's secretary of health.  The sign along U.S. Highway 19 read "don't let a man in a dress rule us Waterford!" on Wednesday [12/9/2020].  Dr. Levine, who has been the public face of Pennsylvania's controversial COVID-19 related lockdowns, was born Richard Levine and fathered two children, but transitioned to female in 2011.

Webster's New World Dictionary, College Edition, 1959, page 1549.

Biden COVID Adviser Said Hospitals Would 'Collapse' In Three Weeks.  That Didn't Happen.  Just a few weeks ago, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an adviser to Democratic Nominee Joe Biden, falsely predicted that hospitals would be "collapsing" by early December.  "We need somebody to say this is what's happening," Osterholm said on MSNBC in mid-November.  "This is how bad it is, we're going to see hospitals collapsing in the next two to three weeks, and this is what we've got to do to address that."  "Just remember one thing for the next three weeks," he continued.  "The cases are already in the pipeline, but people who are infected this morning, will be the cases of next week in the hospital, and few days after that will be in the intensive care rooms and dying."

First Nonprescription At-Home Coronavirus Test Has Been Approved.  The first at-home test for the coronavirus that does not require a prescription has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  LapCorp's Pixel COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit is intended for people 18 years of age and older.  The test kit allows the user to collect a nasal swab sample at home and send it to LabCorp for testing.  The method of transmittal of the test's result is determined on the urgency of the need for action or not.  The customer will receive a phone call from a health care provider for a positive result or a result deemed invalid.  A test that receives a negative result will be relayed via email or an online portal.  The test kit can be purchased in a store or online.

Canadian Restaurant Owner Charged With 'Trespassing' [on his own property] After Reopening in Defiance of Lockdown Orders.  At 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 24, Adam Skelly opened his BBQ restaurant in Toronto and began serving customers.  Under ordinary circumstances, this would have been unremarkable.  But on that day, it was an act of political defiance, because a recent lockdown order prohibited restaurants like his from providing indoor and outdoor dining services.  Skelly, a 33-year-old husband and father of two, was specifically ordered to close by Toronto Public Health later that day, but he opened again on Wednesday and made it clear that he would continue operating as normal.  Then, early Thursday morning the police changed the locks on the restaurant to bar his access, and when Skelly showed up later that morning he was met by a significant police presence.  Police allowed him into a back part of the building behind the restaurant, but then he and his employees secretly broke into the restaurant from the back and kicked down the newly locked front door.

Vaccine Whistleblower Found Dead After Saying She'd Never Commit Suicide.  Brandy Vaughan was a whistleblower of Big Pharma and vaccines has been found dead roughly a year after she released a public statement saying she'd never commit suicide.  Her body was discovered by her nine-year-old son earlier this week, according to reports.  The cause of death is currently unknown.

Cuomo Given Award Named For Another Democrat Leader Who Killed And Got Away With It.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo received another award for his mishandling of COVID-19 in his state, which included making courageous decisions like keeping schools closed despite the science and directing positive COVID-19 patients into nursing homes, leading to thousands of preventable deaths.  Cuomo announced on Twitter Wednesday he would receive the Edward M. Kennedy Award for Inspired Leadership.  "I learned about humanity, leadership and putting people first from the great Senator Ted Kennedy," he tweeted.

The Editor says...
Yeah, putting people first.  Unfortunately, Mary Jo Kopechne is unavailable for comment.

Biden commands nation to 100-day mask mandate.  Biden just wants us to wear a mask at all times for 100 days, supposedly in federal venues, whether we are atletes, stay-at-home moms, Zoom denizens working from home, postal delivery people, bums on the street, bureaucrats who don't follow rules, baristas, farmers, wood cutters, fishermen, ranchers, divers, illegal immigrants (good luck with that one), CEOs, babies, or elderly people in convalescent homes.  One size fits all, whether you are in Barrow, Alaska, the empty swaths of Wyoming, or the Lower East Side of Manhattan, all 300 million must wear them.  He makes his Woody Allen-'Bananas'-like call as if no one had thought to wear them earlier, or federal indoor spaces weren't doing this, or that everyone is always on federal property or in federal transport in any case, as they would be in a communist state.  So why 100 days?  What happens when someone forgets or gets robbed or refuses?  Do we reset the clock so that everyone is on again?  Set the clock back to zero?  We can do this for the next thousand years actually.  And why 100 days?  Why not 99?  Why not 101?  This is supposed to be based on 'science' after all, not rounded numbers.  Where is the science?

The Editor says...
This is somewhat off-topic, but here it is:  "The First 100 days" is a media construct that goes back many years.  The news media exists to sell advertising.  Immediately after a predident is sworn in, there is a sudden vacuum in the news business, as there is every January.  With the exception of the final few games of the football season, news gets even more sparse in February.  Advertisers won't buy TV commercials in local "news" shows unless the "anchors" have something to report.  The fixation on "The First 100 days" gives the TV newsrooms an excuse to extrapolate a three-month sample into the next four years.  All of it is meaningless.  If the president is a Democrat, the news media (local and national) will amplify and praise everything the president or the Congress accomplishes.  Otherwise the news media will interpret every event as sinister, dishonest, or harmful.

No Science Justifies Bans on Indoor or Outdoor Dining.  In a video that is simultaneously gut-wrenching and infuriating, a Los Angeles restaurant owner exposed the hypocrisy of Mayor Eric Garcetti's order to ban outdoor dining in his city.  Angela Mardsen, the owner of Pineapple Hill Grill and Saloon, showed a large outdoor dining area erected for a movie studio about 50 feet from the now-shuttered outdoor section of her restaurant.  "I'm losing everything," an emotional Marden said.  "Everything I own is being taken away from me and they set up a movie company right next to my outdoor patio.  We cannot survive, my staff cannot survive." [...] But government decrees to close bars and restaurants — especially service outside — are more than ridiculous.  They are cruel, unconstitutional, and devastating to the hospitality sector, the nation's second-largest private employer.  In a December 7 letter to congressional leaders, the National Restaurant Association detailed the "stark" condition of the industry.  More than 110,000 restaurants have permanently closed their doors this year; 10,000 establishments have shut down in just the past three months, according to the trade group.

As Lockdowns Kill Businesses in California and New York the Politicians Ensure that Hollywood Is Thriving.  Recently entertainer Seth MacFarlane made a quiet announcement that his sci-fi space satire television show "The Orville" was going back into production.  This is a somewhat unsettling announcement for a couple of reasons.  For one, over the past months Seth had been a loud proponent of shutdowns, quarantines, and basically any limitations done in the name of safety.  We can guess that the virus has been scientifically shown to avoid television productions.  The other issue is that as Seth's show ramps back up California's Governor Gavin Newsom has imposed tougher lockdown standards on citizens and businesses, as well as instilling a curfew.  However, for this new round of clamps placed on the public, Newsom has seen fit to grant Hollywood an exemption from his lockdown, declaring that industry as "essential."  It becomes another example of politicians freeing up the studios from restrictions; one class of elites favoring another class of elites.

Joe Biden, the Manchurian President.  [Scroll down]  China, not Russia, clearly interfered with the 2020 elections.  The only question about this interference is whether the release of COVID-19 was accidental or on purpose.  Before the pandemic crippled the U.S., Trump was headed to reelection by a historic landslide.  The economy was roaring, and a record number Americans were enjoying prosperity and freedom.  In spite of Democrat efforts to remove Trump from office by impeachment and the economic shutdown because of the virus, the president still earned ten million more votes than 2016 and in any other election would have crushed his political opponent.  The virus not only had a horrific detrimental impact on our economy, it was used as an excuse for making substantive changes to the electoral process through unprecedented millions of mail-in votes.  Even if it was an accidental release from a Wuhan lab, the Chinese are responsible for the criminally negligent deaths of U.S. citizens and the economic damage caused by the virus.  If the virus was deliberately released, it was an act of war.  So, are we at war with China?

Covidgate (Part 3) — Attack on informed consent.  Informed consent matters more than ever because we are entering the most coercive era of medical tyranny in human history.  If the public health-industrial complex gets its way, you may not be able to work, travel, shop or go to school without proof of a COVID-19 vaccination.  Who needs government to do the mandating when corporations, airlines and educational institutions will do all the dirty work for Big Brother?  The unthinking surrender of our autonomy to global pandemic blackmailers is horrific. [...] A review of COVID-19 vaccine protocols published in the October issue of the International Journal of Clinical Practice determined that an alarming phenomenon called "antibody-dependent enhancement" — which could worsen COVID-19 — "was obscured" by vaccine manufacturers.  Timothy Cardozo of the New York University Langone Health and Ronald Veazey of the Tulane University School of Medicine concluded that the vaccine-enhanced disease risk "should have been prominently and independently disclosed to research subjects."

Don't Let COVID-19 Lockdowns Become a Permanent Power Grab.  [Scroll down]  Throughout the pandemic, one set of rules has applied to America's most ardent lockdown advocates, and another set of rules has applied to everyone else.  LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl voted to ban outdoor dining ... and then went to an outdoor restaurant later that evening.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom is currently locking down some 33 million citizens but had no problem eating indoors with members of the California Medical Association at The French Laundry.  Mayor London Breed of San Francisco ate at that same posh restaurant the next day.  Austin Mayor Steve Adler told his constituents, "stay home if you can" in a Facebook video filmed from his vacation timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, where he'd just headed with seven others after a wedding in Austin.  Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago got her hair cut and called it an "essential" business activity while promoting lockdown.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo told everybody to stay home for Thanksgiving and then announced he would be getting together with his daughters and his 89-year-old mother, only to then reverse himself.  The message is obvious:  Our intellectual and moral betters in politics are free to make their own rational calculations on COVID-19 risk.  The rest of us are to be locked in our homes until further notice.  When these political actors suggest that we must act out of an abundance of caution, they mean that they ought to enjoy abundance while benefitting from our caution.  You and your family are capable of making the same decisions Cuomo, Garcetti, Newsom, Lightfoot and Adler do.

Ohio Will Stop Verifying Antigen Tests, Count Them All Positive.  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, whose party is considering impeachment and overriding his veto of a recent dually-passed bill to limit the pandemic powers of the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), called a COVID briefing on Monday [12/7/2020] to update Ohioans on the state's response to the virus.  The most significant announcement was that beginning on Tuesday, December 8 the state will no longer trace people who test positive from antigen tests to confirm results.

Testing Positive for Coronavirus.  [Scroll down]  The spectacle of VIPs "in the know" who take off their masks, off-camera, should convince everyone that the mask/distancing syndrome is a scam and that punishing violators is a criminal corruption of justice.  Nothing this absurd and outrageous would ever have been tolerated before 2020, year of an extremely important presidential election.  In short, the unnatural and dehumanizing lockdowns and measures against infection being drummed into us by leftist media and rammed into us by leftist public officials, have no support in common sense, history, or science.  Why then is it "necessary" to get "tested for coronavirus" if you aren't sick and have no symptoms of illness?  Could it be that a viral infection with a recovery rate over 99%, even for the elderly, is being used to spook the public into compliance with orders from power-hungry politicians and moguls with a respect for human rights and the Constitution that approaches zero?

People With Severe Allergies Shouldn't Get Covid-19 Vaccine, Says U.K. Regulator After Reactions.  Two of the first people vaccinated in the U.K. on Tuesday [12/8/2020] with the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE shot responded adversely to the injection, the country's National Health Service said, prompting the regulator to issue new guidance warning those with a history of significant allergic reactions against having the inoculation.  "Both are recovering well," said Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS.  The two people are NHS workers, part of the first tranche to receive the vaccine in line with front-line staff having initial access.

No Alcohol for 2 Months, Russia Tells Coronavirus Vaccine Recipients.  Recipients of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine should abstain from alcohol for nearly two months before and after immunization, the head of Russia's consumer safety watchdog said Tuesday [12/8/2020].  Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova's instructions follow Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova's recommendations to avoid alcohol and immunosuppressants for 42 days because the two-shot vaccine is administered with a 21-day gap between doses.

Rand Paul:  No scientific evidence COVID-19 lockdowns work.  Republican Sen. Rand Paul says there's no scientific proof that locking down society is limiting the spread of COVID-19.  Infections have been rising for the last few weeks after ebbing since its peck in April, despite the fact that Americans have been wearing masks and social distancing for months.  "We ought to at least still use logic to try to figure out how we stop this," the libertarian-minded Paul said in an interview Monday [12/7/2020] on Fox News.  "I don't see any evidence that crowd control, hand washing, standing six feet apart, all of these things they tell you to do — closing down the restaurants, closing down the schools — there's no real evidence that they are changing the trajectory of the disease."

Costs Must Be Weighed Against Benefits.  Much of the medical profession and politicians say that lockdowns, social distancing, and mask-wearing are the solutions.  CDC data on death rates show if one is under 35, the chances of dying from COVID-19 is much lower than that of being in a bicycle accident.  Should we lock down bicycles?  Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University, biostatistician, and epidemiologist, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University and an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician and epidemiologist were the initiators of the Great Barrington Declaration.  More than 50,000 scientists and doctors, as well as more than 682,000 ordinary people, have signed the Great Barrington Declaration opposing a second COVID-19 lockdown because they see it doing much more harm than good.

Will Biden give in to the Hydroxy Effect?  There is as yet no known, easily accessible cure for COVID-19.  Over the past year, lots of old and new drugs and supplements — Ivermectin, azithromycin, Remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, Pepcid and others — have shown at least some anecdotal value in ameliorating the effects of early-stage COVID-19.  Clinical physicians treating patients in hospitals often disagree with the research scientists conducting trials on the efficacy of all these treatments.  Yet only hydroxychloroquine has prompted furious partisan debate over its possible usefulness.  Why?  Probably because Donald Trump endorsed its usage months ago.  Almost immediately, the media, the university and government medical community, and the progressive political opposition declared hydroxychloroquine useless and dangerous.  A recent media study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that positive news stories about the research and development of COVID-19 vaccines barely outnumbered negative stories about Trump and hydroxychloroquine.

Chicago minority communities skeptical about COVID-19 vaccine.  There have been big concerns in many minority communities about the safety of the new COVID-19 vaccine.  Medical experts and activists are working on ways to change the perspective these groups have toward the vaccination.  Kerri D. and her 20-year-old daughter Mya Jones said they would not take a COVID-19 vaccine.  The multi-racial Chicago residents, who are of Native American and Puerto Rican decent, question the speed of how quickly the vaccine was developed as well as its ingredients.  "I don't know what's in it.  Why risk it?" Kerri D. said.

Lockdown!  Quarantine!  Stay in your homes!  Oh, BTW there is now a tax on deliveries.
New Yorkers May Have to Pay Package Delivery Surcharge to Help Fund MTA.  With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority facing a budget crisis, New Yorkers may have to dig into their pockets to help out.  Under a new proposed bill, New York City residents would be required to pay a $3 surcharge on packages they ordered online, with the exception for medicine and food.  Assemblyman Robert Carroll, who proposed the bill, says the online shopping fee would raise more than $1 billion a year "to fund the operating costs of buses and subways in the city of New York."

Cornell Requires Its White Students to Get Vaccinated.  If you're a student at Cornell, you'll have to take a vaccine.  Unless you're black.  Or Asian.  Or Hispanic.  Or American Indian.  Or have any other kind of skin that isn't white.

Cornell vaccine mandate only applies to white students.  One of the amazing things we learned in 2020 is that the novel coronavirus can't infect people who attend Black Lives Matter protests.  Science!  Apparently the seasonal influenza is even more considerate, at least at Cornell University.  The Ivy League school offers a race-based exemption from its new mandatory flu shot, requiring only white students to get immunized before returning to the area.

The Science and Politics of COVID-19.  One of the most important lessons of the past nine months is that epidemiological models are predicated on assumptions and that statistical data can be manipulated to conform to a variety of desired outcomes.  They are therefore an alluring target for political exploitation.  It was therefore noteworthy when a November 22 study published by Johns Hopkins University was subsequently deleted by the university because an official stated that it "was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies about the impact of the pandemic."  The study, titled "A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19," was conducted by Dr. Genevieve Briand, assistant program director of the applied economics master's degree program at the university.  Her analysis made the astonishing conclusion that "in contrast to most people's assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming.  In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States."

Despite promise, few in US adopting COVID-19 exposure apps.  Six months ago, Apple and Google introduced a new smartphone tool designed to notify people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus, without disclosing any personal information.  But for the most part, Americans haven't been all that interested.

NYC COVID-19 cases linked to Burning Man-style Tulum festival.  A Burning Man-style festival in Mexico turned into a coronavirus superspreader event — with several attendees bringing COVID-19 back with them to New York City, according to a report on Monday [12/7/2020].  Private COVID-19 testing company Checkmate Health Strategies said over half of its recent positive cases in the Big Apple were directly tied to the Art With Me event in Tulum, the Daily Beast reported.  "I would say that 60 to 70 percent of my positives in the last couple weeks in New York City have been a direct result of either people coming back from Art With Me — or who have been directly exposed to someone who attended Art With Me," said founder Eleonora Walczak.

Public needs to prep for vaccine side effects.  This summer, computational biologist Luke Hutchison volunteered for a trial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.  But after the second injection, his arm swelled up to the size of a "goose egg," Hutchison says.  He can't be sure he got the vaccine and not a placebo, but within a few hours, Hutchison, who was healthy and 43, was beset by bone and muscle aches and a 38.9°C fever.  "I started shaking.  I had cold and hot rushes," he says.  "I was sitting by the phone all night long thinking: 'Should I call 911?'"  Hutchison's symptoms resolved after 12 hours.  But, he says, "Nobody prepared me for the severity of this."  He says the public should be better prepared than he was, because a subset of people may face intense, if transient, side effects, called reactogenicity, from Moderna's vaccine.  Some health experts agree.

CNN: Chinese Covid-19 Coverup Documents Leaked.  Looks like President Trump was right about China lying about Covid cases.  According to leaked documents revealed by CNN, China grossly underreported the scale of the Covid outbreak in Mainland China. [...] Meanwhile the Chinese Communist Party is desperately trying to distract attention from their catastrophic mismanagement of the Covid outbreak; their persecution of whistleblowers, callous disregard for other nations and authoritarian coverups.  Now they are trying to claim Australia is the source of the Wuhan Covid-19 outbreak.

Coronavirus Patients from Mexico [are] Crossing [the] Border and Straining U.S. Hospitals.  In late October, the El Paso television station KFOX-14 aired video of fire department ambulances lining up at the international bridge picking up Covid-19 patients who had just crossed from Mexico and driving them to hospitals, the ones now filled to crisis proportions.  Along with the video footage, the local TV station quoted one of the fire department's paramedics describing an assembly-line operation where the whole ambulance fleet at times was pressed into transporting Mexicans from the international ports of entry to El Paso hospitals.  Projecting one of the nation's reddest Covid-19 hotspots, El Paso and its filled-beyond-capacity hospitals are now at the epicenter of national news coverage [...]

The Constitution is immune to coronavirus power-grabs.  In a matter of 244 years, we have gone from the understanding that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" to "shut up, mask up, and obey your governors."  Amid the reams of debate written on the data, science, math, and policies undergirding the unprecedented governmental response to coronavirus, there is shockingly very little discussion about the legality of crushing the most foundational rights imaginable.  Can executive officials merely tout "COVID" in a sentence at a press conference and rule over our lives in any way they want for as long as they want?  This is the discussion that was needed eight months ago, but there's no time like the present to embark on it.

Cops raid home of fired Florida data analyst Rebekah Jones who accused state of misleading citizens on COVID.  Florida state police raided the home of a former data analyst for the Florida Department of Health on Friday, who claims Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) "sent the gestapo" to get her to "shut up."  Rebekah Jones was fired from her position in the DeSantis administration in May for allegedly modifying the state's COVID-19 dashboard unilaterally without authorization.  She claims the state was misleading citizens on the coronavirus numbers, and now she runs her own COVID-19 tracking sites from her house.  Jones tweeted Friday that state police served a warrant at her home that morning and seized property, claiming that officers "pointed a gun in [her] face" and "pointed guns at [her] kids."  She posted accompanying video showing the purported scene from inside her home as police entered.  Armed officers can be seen walking through the hallway, and pointing their firearms upward as they called for Jones' husband to come down the stairs.  Neither Jones' husband nor the couples' children are seen in the footage.

Cops raid home of Rebekah Jones, who said she was fired for not doctoring COVID-19 data.  Florida police on Monday [12/7/2020] raided the home of a former state data scientist who claimed she was fired from the Department of Health for refusing to doctor coronavirus figures.  Rebekah Jones posted video on Twitter showing officers with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement drawing their guns as they entered her house in Tallahassee.  "They pointed a gun in my face.  They pointed guns at my kids," she wrote.  Jones — who has been a vocal critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis' handling of the pandemic since she was canned in May — said agents seized her phone and computer.  "They claimed it was about a security breach.  This was DeSantis.  He sent the gestapo," she wrote.  [Video clip]

Cuomo and Fauci Laugh and Joke During Coronavirus Briefing:  Video.  New York Governor and Dr. Anthony Fauci had a grand time laughing and joking during a coronavirus briefing on Monday with Cuomo saying he and Fauci are like the famous movie actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.  As of Sunday about 288,000 Americans were reported to have died from the COVID-19 China coronavirus.  New York state has the most deaths in the nation at about 34,000.

Task Force Issues Strong Warnings To States "In A Very Dangerous Place".  The White House coronavirus task force issues weekly updates to states.  The latest report urges health officials to bypass state leaders if they deem measures being taken by lawmakers aren't as serious as coronavirus outbreaks warrant.  States are being told to perform "aggressive impact testing" for anyone under 40 years of age to determine who may be affected after the Thanksgiving holiday period.  Health officials are concerned about a new wave of cases created by Thanksgiving gatherings.  The risk of the coronavirus to Americans is at a "historic high."

The Editor says...
Wow.  It's almost as if the Harris-Biden ticket won the election and took over immediately, without waiting for the inauguration.

Cuomo says indoor dining in NYC will end if coronavirus hospitalization rate doesn't stabilize.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday threatened to implement tighter restrictions on indoor dining statewide if hospitalization rates don't improve.  "If after 5 days a region's hospital rate has not stabilized, indoor dining will close or be reduced," Cuomo tweeted.  In New York City, indoor dining would close entirely, he said.  Meanwhile, indoor dining would be reduced to 25% capacity in the rest of the state.

Trump to sign coronavirus vaccine executive order prioritizing Americans over foreign nations.  President Trump is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday [12/8/2020] that will ensure all Americans have access to the coronavirus vaccine before the U.S. government begins aiding nations around the world, Fox News has learned.  Senior administration officials told Fox News Monday that the president will reemphasize to the American people that the "priority has been an America First approach," during a vaccine summit at the White House Tuesday.  The news of the executive order comes just days ahead of the Food and Drug Administration's Thursday meeting regarding Pfizer and BioNTech's application for emergency authorization of their coronavirus vaccine, three weeks after the companies filed for it.  The FDA also plans to meet on Dec. 17 to discuss Moderna's vaccine.

White House Coronavirus Task Force members Fauci, Giroir at odds over California lockdowns.  Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force clashed Monday over new lockdown orders in California, with Dr. Anthony Fauci saying state officials didn't have "any choice," and Admiral Brett Giroir arguing that the "evidence" and "science" do not support shutdowns, calling them "counterproductive," as cases of COVID-19 surge in California.  Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a strict stay-at-home order over the weekend after the state fell below 15% capacity in intensive care units.  Newsom warned last week that the lockdown would be triggered regionally when ICU capacity dipped under that level.  The new order, the most restrictive since March, would close hair salons, bars and indoor dining and allow retail to operate at only 20% capacity, among other restrictions, and would last for at least three weeks — covering the Christmas holiday.

Government officials' coronavirus hypocrisy has created another public crisis.  Multiple reports in just the past week have revealed blatant acts of hypocrisy committed by leaders who would like to live by a different set of rules than their constituents.  In California, for example, Gov. Gavin Newsom was caught attending an indoor birthday party at a fancy French restaurant in the Bay Area after discouraging Californians from gathering with groups of more than 10 people.  A few days later, it was reported that San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended a similar event at the same restaurant, even though she had urged city residents not to mingle with people outside their immediate household.  And, perhaps worst of all, Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, posted a video last month urging residents to "stay home if you can" to prevent the spread of the virus.  He conveniently failed to mention that he filmed the video from his timeshare in Cabo, Mexico, where he was vacationing with several members of his immediate and extended family — having traveled there with a large group on a private jet.

Doctor Who Told 'Stop the Steal' Ralliers to Remove Their Masks Has His License Revoked.  Dr. Steven hasn't seen hide nor hair of the Wuhan Flu in months:  "Please don't be duped.  You have an immune system.  I treated 75 cases.  They were all better in a week.  Not one of my patients went to the hospital, not one of them was admitted for coronavirus.  Do not let them put you into a state of fear.  That is oppression."  Additionally, he claimed the virus is "rapidly-mutating, and that "COVID-19 is no more.  It has already mutated."  The self-described "retired Air Force officer" and ordained minister said he was there to "expose" "coronamania."  Well, it seems the medical board caught revokemania, and now the doctor's without a means to work.

Study Finds Asymptomatic Spread Not a Significant Source of the CCP Virus Pandemic.  The most recent study from China on the prevalence of infection after a lockdown found no transmission of the CCP virus among people who were in close contact with asymptomatic patients, contradicting the current narrative that asymptomatic transmission plays a major role in the pandemic.  An asymptomatic carrier is someone who has not displayed symptoms after being infected, but may spread the virus to others.  This is different from someone who is presymptomatic, meaning the person doesn't feel or look sick, but eventually shows symptoms later, and does transmit the virus during that presymptomatic phase.

Aurelio's Reopens Dining Room: 'It's All About Survival'.  At a time when many Joliet area restaurants and bars are not following Governor JB Pritzker's rules outlawing indoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic, Aurelio's Pizza has announced it is joining that group.  If Aurelio kept obeying Pritzker, Joliet's long-time pizzeria at 3101 West Jefferson St. will be an empty building at this time next year, the restaurant management predicted.  Aurelio's Pizza recently announced that its dine-in restaurant is now open as of Dec. 2.  Aurelio's has also brought back its buffet.

California Sheriff:  I Won't Enforce Gov. Gavin Newsom's 'Ridiculous' COVID-19 Rules.  Riverside County, Calif.  Sheriff Chad Bianco published a video on Friday saying he will not enforce California Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest lockdown orders that will devastate local hospitals, businesses, schools, and civil liberties.  "These closures and stay-at-home orders are flat-out ridiculous," he added.  "The metrics used for closures are unbelievably faulty and are not representative of true numbers, and are disastrous for Riverside County."

LA County Sheriff:  Deputies will not enforce Gov. Newsom's stay-at-home order at businesses.  Deputies in Los Angeles County are not expecting to go all-out in enforcement at businesses if — or when — Governor Gavin Newsom's new stay-at-home order kicks in for Southern California.  LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva explained enforcement at businesses is the health department's job, not his deputies.  "I want to stay away from businesses that are trying to comply the best they can," Villanueva said.

More than half of FDNY say they'll refuse COVID-19 vaccine.  More than half of New York City firefighters say they won't be vaccinated for COVID-19 when the potentially life-saving shot becomes available to first responders in a matter of weeks, according to a new internal survey.  About 55 percent of 2,053 smoke-eaters polled in the last three days by their union, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, answered "No" when asked, "Will you get the COVID-19 Vaccine from Pfizer when the Department makes it available?" UFA President Andy Ansbro told The [New York] Post.  The responses account for about 25 percent of the UFA's 8,200 active members.

Whole families in quarantine:  Virginia officials wait to see impact of Thanksgiving on the coronavirus' spread.  It may take two to three weeks to know whether Gov. Ralph Northam's pandemic restrictions imposed before the holiday are working to stem Virginia's rise in cases.  But things aren't looking good.  At a news conference Wednesday [12/3/2020], Northam said local health departments already are getting troubling signs:  For instance, reports that whole families in Mount Rogers Health District, which includes Bristol, Galax and neighboring Southwest Virginia counties, are quarantining after exposure at Thanksgiving gatherings, he said.

The Left-Wing Media Fell for China's COVID Lies.  This week, CNN aired an "exclusive" report about a "vast trove of leaked documents" showing "China underreported Covid-19 numbers, took weeks to diagnose new cases and didn't disclose a December flu spike in Hubei."  Well, yes.  Anyone willing to be honest about the longtime antics of the Chinese Communist Party concluded this in January. [...] When the White House Coronavirus Taskforce was officially launched on January 29, 2020, newsrooms in Washington, D.C., missed an enormous opportunity to deliver crucial information to the American people.  Editors and executives could have swapped out political reporters in the White House Press Corps for healthcare reporters.  This way, there would have been a higher chance legitimate questions about the disease would have been asked.  Instead, they chose to keep their partisan, anti-Trump reporters in the room and focused on President Trump's (accurate) language rather than the details of the disease, lockdowns, hospital preparation and more.

Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks.  If you're tired of wearing a visible sign of massive government overreach and ginned-up hysteria everywhere you go, do not despair.  Help could be on its way, courtesy of the most unlikely source:  al-Qaeda.  According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the jihad group is refusing to accept the State Department's complacent assertion that it is on the ropes, and has just published a new magazine with the catchy title Wolves of Manhattan, in which it calls on the warriors of jihad who find themselves in the U.S. to murder people by means of poisoned coronavirus masks.  So now it's wear a mask or the coronavirus will get you (unless you're at a Black Lives Matter protest, of course; the virus knows better than to infect the righteous), or don't wear a mask so that al-Qaeda doesn't get you.

What Leftists Don't Get about Evil and the Law.  [Scroll down]  Churches have been meeting together for prayer and fellowship since before Pentecost.  During the early days, when the Roman Empire declared Christianity an outlaw religion, Christians were forced to meet secretly in caves and basements to avoid arrest, imprisonment, and death by torture, crucifixion, or lions.  Today, we're seeing a return to that same mentality among the secular left.  Governors and mayors around the country have used the excuse of the Wuhan virus to crack down on religious services, particularly of the Jewish and Christian variety (I dare say they're being somewhat more circumspect in their dealings with Muslim gatherings.)  Churches met regularly for services during the Black Plague in Europe (1346-1353) and every other pandemic or disease outbreak before and since.  Individuals were understood to have the capacity to make their own rational decisions about what was best for them and their families without being forced to obey a one-size-fits-none government mandate.

Canceling Christmas:  The COVID Straw to Break the Camel's Back?  "Christmas is going to be a lot harder," Joe Biden told an audience in a virtual briefing on December 2.  "I don't want to scare anyone here, but understand the facts.  We're likely to lose another 250,000 people dead between now and January ... because people aren't paying attention."  The purpose of Biden's statements was clearly to scare people into canceling their holiday travel plans and embracing lockdowns, making his opening disclaimer a complete lie.  He certainly aims to provoke panic, but any reasonable person knows that this particular prediction is a desperate attempt at fear-mongering. [...] Biden's purposefully exaggerated and dark prediction, thankfully, isn't "likely" to happen at all.  What's more, Americans all know it.  That's why they traveled for Thanksgiving and will travel for Christmas, too.  That's a problem for the media and progressives, because they like to imagine the American people to be children who can't be trusted with access to the cookie jar, and that's why, for their own good, daddy government and mommy media need to hide it from time to time.

The Election Fraud, The Usefulness of COVID, and The Big Picture.  [Scroll down]  The COVID-19 narrative becomes a tool to achieve a variety of objectives:  debate controls; the deployed 'excuse' for a very visible lack of voter enthusiasm for the puppet (Biden); the use of fraudulent 'mail-in ballots'; the keeping of socially distant physical auditors, etc.  Without COVID as a tool the manufactured process is more difficult.  The 'never let a crisis go to waste' strategy includes the creation of a crisis.  Why? — Why all of this effort?  why such extremes?  [W]hy would blue state governors willingly destroy their economy?  Follow the money, it's always about the money.  The global ideology is worthless without money.

Should we build football fields around our churches?  Nothing illustrates the absurdity of COVID rules and regulations more than college football.  As coaches and players make a mockery of the "scientific" and idolatrous government ritual of mask-wearing, maybe we should ask if healthy young men who play a game in which brain injuries, broken bones, and joint dislocations frequently occur should really be concerned about COVID-19.  A Google search of "athletes who have been hospitalized or died with COVID" finds only one, a 20-year-old, 6'3", overweight (355lb) football player.  Even in this tragedy, it is unclear from official reports if this young man died from or with COVID.  What is clear is that virus policies that allow players to go maskless as they huddle on the field but require masks when they huddle on the sidelines have little to do with saving lives.  COVID's purpose is to create a fearful and obedient American population and to destroy America as we know it.

LA Restaurant Owner Rips Garcetti Hypocrisy:  Why Shut Me Down While Allowing A Hollywood Canteen In My Parking Lot?  Earlier this week, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti banned outdoor service at restaurants in response to the COVID-19 transmission spike.  That includes Pineapple Hill Grill and Saloon in Sherman Oaks, whose owner Angela Marsden sunk $80,000 into social-distanced outdoor dining infrastructure and had planned to reopen today.  Marsden went to the store yesterday to collect a few items for a planned protest, but got a big surprise when she arrived at the parking lot adjacent to her dining patio.  [Video clip]

Democrat governors are the new royalty.  Power is intoxicating.  Until the COVID lockdowns I was unaware of the fact that so many Democrat governors and mayors want to destroy the small entrepreneurs — especially restaurant owners — who give our cities so much of their energy and vigor.  Who knew?  Well, now we know.  People are fighting back. [...]

Prof Sir John Bell Says 60 to 70% Of Those Who Take COVID Vaccine Will Be Sterilized!  Sir John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford University, and a part of the GAVI team developing AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine said in an interview with Jon Snow that "These vaccines are unlikely to completely sterilize a population.  They are very likely to have an effect which works in a %, say 60 or 70%."  Believe him, someone who has these levels of credentials doesn't misspeak without correcting himself.  [Video clip]

New Covid rules for Ohio high school wrestling say students can wrestle but they can't shake hands..  It's 'rastling season and to try and limit the spread of Covid officials with the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) have done the responsible thing and released some updated requirements for players and coaches.  The students are still being allowed to wrestle.  In fact, they don't even have to wear face masks while they do so.  But they will no longer be allowed to shake hands before and after the match.

Government Prepares to Issue COVID-19 Vaccination Cards.  You knew it was coming, and now it is official.  COVID-19 vaccinations could begin distribution in the next three weeks, according to WSAV in Savannah, Georgia. [...] They were nice enough to make them wallet-sized.  This will allow a whole range of businesses and services to require you to show the card in order to shop, get a haircut, or use other services.  Hotels and airlines may decide to require proof of vaccination to travel.  This is despite no significant outbreaks on planes or associated with hotels.  This is insane for several reasons.  First, the news regarding immunity in recovered patients is very positive.  Studies of those who have had COVID-19 demonstrate that while antibodies provide the initial response, a long-term response from T & B memory cells in the immune system is durable and provides protection from reinfection.  If COVID-19 is similar to SARS, studies have shown this long-term immune response is still active after 17 years.

Governor Wants Kids to Rat Out Their Parents for Covid Violations.  Just before Thanksgiving, the Governor of Vermont hopped on Twitter — which is apparently the only platform now for making important announcements.  He started by shaming and guilt tripping anyone who dared to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.  He continued:  ["]Unfortunately, we know some will still get together and schools have asked for help.  @VTEducation will direct schools to ask students or parents if they were part of multi-family gatherings and if the answer is yes, they'll need to go remote for 14 days or 7 days and a test.["]  So the Vermont Department of Education instructed schools to interrogate children about what they did over Thanksgiving weekend, so that they can inform on their families.

Democratic senators want mask-wearing mandate included in negotiated COVID-19 relief package.  Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) want to see a "mask-wearing mandate" as part of the next coronavirus relief package that Congress passes.  "Our goal is going to be, you know, to work towards including it inside of the coronavirus relief package," Markey said during a news conference on Friday about the Encouraging Masks for All Act.  "We think this is kind of common sense."  Congressional leaders and the White House are currently negotiating another coronavirus relief bill.  "Making this mask-wearing mandate a part of that pandemic relief is an imperative; it's a moral imperative," Blumenthal said at the news conference.

The Editor says...
Hypocrisy alert:  A Senator from the Abortion Party presumes to tell us what is "a moral imperative."

Democrat hypocrites are undermining COVID with 'Do as I say, not as I do' attitude.  As the nation tires of quarantines, boredom and loneliness, the same politicians who find glee in slapping wrists and dooming small businesses regularly break the rules, in letter and in spirit, when they want to.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom dining maskless and indoors with lobbyists at the tony French Laundry restaurant the same week he warned against Thanksgiving gatherings.  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot having her hair done and joining in a riotous Joe Biden victory celebration in violation of her own restrictions — then having the gall to call her actions "essential activities."  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unmasked at a hair salon that wasn't even supposed to be open, even as she decried President Trump's reluctance to wear a mask — then claiming she'd been entrapped.

Bar Owner Forced To Close Her Business in LA Livid After Movie Studio Gets Approval for Food Tent Next Door.  Bar Owner:  "And I walked into my parking lot and obviously Mayor Garcetti has approve this, has approve this being set up.  This is being set up for a movie company."  [Video clip]

The Plot Against the Small Businesses.  As we near a year of lockdowns and sheltering in place, the long-term effects of pandemic policy on the economy are becoming clearer.  Almost every piece of legislation ostensibly designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus and protect workers has wreaked devastation on small businesses — while benefiting the largest corporations.  Roughly 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed due to COVID-19, while big-box retailers, tech giants, and pharmaceutical manufacturers have seen record profits.  America's small businesses currently face an attack on all fronts.  First, there are the more visible policies (e.g., lockdowns, mask mandates, and social distancing requirements) that strongly discourage people from patronizing brick-and-mortar retailers and restaurants.  These policies impact small businesses more than large chains and corporations.

The Second COVID Wave Was Avoidable.  [Scroll down]  The science says extended lockdowns will only temporarily delay the spread of the virus.  It is like playing slow-motion whack-a-mole.  As soon as previously uninfected people re-emerge from hiding, the cycle repeats until herd immunity is achieved either naturally or from a vaccine.  A vaccine is preferable because it minimizes hospitalizations and deaths.  Thanks in part to Trump's Operation Warp Speed, vaccines should become available in the U.S. before the new year.  However, the MSM will likely claim that it is dangerous, and identity politics will cause disagreement over who has first priority.  So far, the data confirm that there are real concerns.  However, a greater question is whether most of the total COVID-19 deaths and damage from lockdowns could have been avoided.  Evidence has existed from the start that an inexpensive drug was available that could have tamed the beast.

Dehumanizing Americans.  As was the case in the USSR, powerful entities such as the media, academia and radicals in seats of power, visible and invisible, are openly hostile to the majority of American citizens.  Covid-19 regulations have psychologically strip searched every citizen.  Nearly the entire populace has been under the equivalent of house arrest. [...] Isn't it apparent that millions of Americans are enduring the equivalent of solitary confinement as the lockdowns continue indefinitely?  Isn't it clear the universal masking of the human face and the forced distancing from one another has distorted all relationships?  How many millions search for a human glance from individuals rendered featureless?

Hospital chief says likely summer before [Illinois] reaches COVID-19 immunity.  A COVID-19 vaccine could soon be on its way to Illinois, but don't expect it to immediately stem the pandemic as the phased-in release is expected to take months.  Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration had said Illinois could get 400,000 vaccines the first round.  Then, Tuesday [12/1/2020] that changed to 109,000, which Pritzker said would be two doses for 54,500 people.  By Wednesday, Pritzker had more information.  "We'll be able to give those, put those into people's arms, 109,000 people, and then they'll be able to get the second dose of Pfizer 21-28 days later, those 109,000," Pritzker said.  "So we will be able to serve more of the healthcare and long term care facility and do it at the same time."

Dr. Anthony Fauci accepts Joe Biden's offer to be chief medical adviser.  Dr. Anthony Fauci said he accepted 'on the spot' an offer from Joe Biden to be his chief medical adviser and warned Americans may continue to need to wear face masks beyond the 100 days the president-elect advocated.  'I said yes right on the spot,' Fauci told NBC's 'Today Show' on Friday morning about Biden's offer.  Fauci also will remain the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  He also praised Biden's plan to ask Americans to wear face masks for 100 days but said it may need to go beyond that.

The Editor says...
Stop crowing about "100 days" if it's already well known that it won't be the last 100 days.

To put it another way:  Will you be required to forfeit your stimulus check for refusing a vaccine?
Would you be willing to get a Covid vaccine in exchange for a $1,500 stimulus check?  How one bold proposal would work.  Millions of Americans are still hoping for a second round of stimulus checks to help them cope with the financial fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Meanwhile, the U.S. government is preparing to distribute vaccinations to the American public in order to put an end to the public health crisis.  Now, one proposal aims to help both efforts by giving people $1,500 stimulus checks in exchange for getting immunized.  The idea comes from entrepreneur John Delaney, a former Democratic congressman for Maryland who also ran for president in 2020.

Newsom Unveils New 'Temporary' Lockdowns for California.  California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is implementing new lockdowns in the state for regions impacted by rising hospitalizations due to COVID-19.  The governor's order divides the state into five regions, with each region falling under a stay-at-home order that will last at least three weeks.  The lockdowns will take effect when ICU hospital capacity in a region dips below 15 percent.  Currently, four out of five California regions are expected to meet the governor's new threshold for a lockdown in the coming days, although no regions are currently affected.  The four regions include Northern California, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.  The fifth region, the Bay Area, is on track to fall below 15 percent capacity later this month, ABC 7 News reported.

The Editor says...
As I understand it, the hospitals try to operate at 85 percent of capacity, because that's when they make the most money.  Therefore, if a hospital is 86 percent full, that's not a justification to shut down every other business in the state.

Receipt-filled thread about COVID found in Red Cross blood samples show virus was likely HERE in 2019.  Every once in a while we come across a thread on Twitter where we stop, read the whole thing (even if it is CRAZY long and ... well, crazy), and think to ourselves, 'Hey, you know what?  We should totally share this with our readers.'  This thread qualifies.  [Numerous tweets]

Will Underdog Arrive In Time To Save The Day?  I honestly expected the cootie hysterics to abate after the election.  Yes COVID is still here, yes the most vulnerable need to take extra precautions until such time as a safe vaccine is available.  But, especially since they believe Biden won, I thought the autocratic lockdowns and illegal closures would end because the Dems wouldn't want to continue to destroy their own states' economies.  I was clearly wrong; either they don't actually believe Biden won (they do) or they've already become addicted to the power and control they've been able to exert.

NM City Council Bucks Dem Governor, Votes To Reopen: 'No Evidence' Lockdowns Beat Virus.  A New Mexico city council voted to disregard Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's coronavirus lockdown measures and reopen businesses and schools.  The Roswell City Council held an emergency session on Monday evening [11/30/2020] over the governor's lockdown regulations, many of which have remained in place since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States in March.  The council had voted in July not to enforce the governor's orders, leaving all enforcement actions up to the state police.

Trump Won His Other 'Campaign' — To Destroy Media Credibility.  [Scroll down]  Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein shared the mood of much of the Trump-hating left when he accused Trump of "homicidal negligence" in his handling of the coronavirus.  But Dr. Anthony Fauci, post-election, also sounds Trumpian.  On the possibility of further lockdowns, Fauci recently said:  "There is no appetite for locking down in the American public, but I believe that we can do it without a lockdown.  I really do. ... You could still get businesses going.  You could still have economic forward thinking while you're doing that.  You don't necessarily have to shut everything down.  Hopefully we won't have to do that."  No "appetite" for another lockdown?  What happened to "follow the science"?

Should people who've already had COVID go to the back of the line for the vaccine?  My first-blush reaction to that question is "no" because scientists don't yet know for sure that recovery from the disease provides immunity.  And even if it does, they don't know how long that immunity might last.  But hold on.  There have been around 14 million confirmed cases of the disease in the U.S. yet only a few reports of people being reinfected.  If reinfection were common rather than an occasional fluke, we'd have many thousands more examples of it than the handful we actually have.  Clearly some sort of immunity is being conferred by recovery.

Follow the Science (Except When the Results are Inconvenient).  During the COVID pandemic, much science is at play, treated either as gospel or hate speech, enough for science professionals to lose their jobs or be suspended from social media platforms if their views are inconvenient to the establishment's narrative.  The all-knowing, all-caring, anointed guru of all things COVID, Dr Anthony Fauci, has been wrong at least as often as he has been right, with a predictive value of a coin flip.  Yet any scientific utterance from him is treated in the media as a scientific law, on par with gravity, as long he speaks convenient science.  The CDC and WHO also have a long string of flip flops regarding the Wuhan flu.  Were they following the science when they made their incorrect pronouncements?  Or were they sticking a finger in the air, following the political winds?

Supreme Court sides with church challenging Calif.'s COVID-19 restrictions.  The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday [12/3/2020] ruled against a pandemic-related order by California Gov. Gavin Newsom banning some indoor religious services, agreeing with critics that it is unconstitutional.  In a one-page order, the high court granted a petition from lawyers for Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, Calif., seeking to set aside a lower court ruling upholding Newsom's ban.

SCOTUS to 9th Circuit:  Rethink your approach on worship restrictions pronto.  Consider this a tacit endorsement of the new status quo on stare decisis at the top in dealing with restrictions on worship in the pandemic.  The order overruling Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 rules for churches in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn got lots of heated debate in the concurrences and dissents leading to the 5-4 decision.  It also drew heavy criticism as politically and culturally motivated jurisprudence, and some wondered whether the court would adhere to it in following cases.  Wonder no more.  In a brief order this morning, the Supreme Court told the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling upholding similar restrictions in the Harvest Rock Church case in California.  The case had a pending cert petition, but instead the court vacated the original ruling and instructed the appellate court to remand it back "for further consideration in light of Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo."

Biden to urge mask-wearing for first 100 days in office.  President-elect Joe Biden plans to call on Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office, he announced Thursday [12/3/2020].  Biden has long urged Americans to wear masks to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.  During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday, he put a specific time frame on what his request will be.  "Just 100 days to mask, not forever.  100 days.  And I think we'll see a significant reduction" in COVID-19 infections, Biden said, according to a preview of the interview that will air Thursday evening.

The Editor says...
Politicians are quick to say things like, "It's only for 100 days."  What they never say is, "This will be the last 100 days, and the problem will be solved."  There will always be an extension, a renewal, a second (third, or fourth) wave, accompanied by some lame excuse.  The ugly truth is that wearing masks is all about showing your submission to the state.  Wearing masks accomplishes little else.

My doc and I agree about the coronavirus.  Where's your medical degree?  That's the common response to those critical of media reports on the coronavirus.  Who are you to question the experts?  So I talked to a physician in our community with decades of experience.  His skepticism echoes mine.  "I would never say there's not a pandemic," the doctor told me.  But, he said, "it's all political," noting that people are ignoring science and "I see doctors on TV who are lying."  Nine months ago, when this all began, he and I had a conversation where we agreed that it was difficult going into a health crisis without news media we could trust.  In my recent discussion with him, I added that I now consider public health officials in general as also being untrustworthy.  He did not disagree.

Garcetti issues stronger warning to Angelenos: 'Hunker down ... cancel everything'.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is again asking Angelenos to cancel all non-essential activities and "hunker down" as the city experiences a dangerous surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.  The city revised its "Targeted Safer at Home Order" late Wednesday [12/2/2020]. While the new restrictions and allowable activities mirror those issued by Los Angeles County last week, the language and messaging is far stronger than before.  "Subject only to the exceptions outlined in this Order, all persons living within the City of Los Angeles are hereby ordered to remain in their homes," the mayor's order states.

What is the difference between this and martial law?
Los Angeles Orders Residents to 'Remain in Their Homes' or Face Fines, Jail Time.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday ordered residents to stay in their homes, with some exceptions, or face fines and jail time.  "Subject only to the exceptions outlined in this Order, all persons living within the City of Los Angeles are hereby ordered to remain in their homes," Garcetti, a Democrat, said in a public health order.  All public and private gatherings of any number of people from more than one household are prohibited, except for outdoor faith-based services and outdoor protests.  All travel, including travel on foot, bicycle, and scooter, is prohibited.  Only people participating in so-called essential activities are exempt from the order.  Those activities include all health care operations, grocery stores, and all media outlets.

CDC urges Americans to 'avoid all travel' to Mexico after the country surpasses 1.1M COVID-19 cases with a 9.5% fatally rate — the second worst in the world.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging Americans to avoid all travel to Mexico as cases of COVID-19 continue to surge across the Central American nation.  Within the last two weeks, Mexico has surpassed more than 1.11 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and reported over 105,000 deaths — the fourth highest virus death toll in the world, behind the US, Brazil and India respectively.  Mexico also has the second-highest case fatality rate per every 100,000 residents of any country in the world at 9.5 percent.  Only Yemen, with a fatality rate of 28.3 percent, has fared worse.

Speaking of Mexico...
As mayor urged Austin to 'stay home,' he was vacationing in Mexico following daughter's wedding.  Austin Mayor Steve Adler has confirmed to the KVUE Defenders that, after hosting his daughter's wedding, he vacationed to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, last month with a group of people.  Both happened in early November, just as top health officials began urging families not to gather with others outside their households and the mayor himself asked people to stay home if they could in order to slow the number of coronavirus cases.

Austin Mayor Tells Residents To Stay Home... From His Condo In Mexico.  Austin Mayor Steve Adler is concerned for the health and safety of his constituents.  So much so that he repeatedly warns Austinites about the dangers of resuming normal activities.  Adler has been a staunch advocate of COVID restrictions, begging people before Thanksgiving to stay home to save lives.  The Austin Health Authority even issued a statement saying "it's important that we drive the (COVID-19) numbers down in advance of Thanksgiving."  Adler agreed, and just ahead of Thanksgiving he posted a video to his Facebook page once again encouraging Austinites to stay home, avoid travel and forgo Thanksgiving with family in the name of safety.  He suggested that Austin may have to close again if people did not comply.  What he did not disclose is that he sent the message from his family timeshare in Cabo San Lucas.

Renowned scientist tells Laura Ingraham the Covid-19 vaccine is 'downright dangerous' and will send you 'to your doom'.  On Wednesday [12/2/2020], The Ingraham Angle on the Fox News channel broadcast a mind-boggling live interview with a world-renowned microbiologist who said the "looming" COVID-19 vaccine is "downright dangerous" and will send you "to your doom." [...] Bhakdi is the co-author of Corona:  False Alarm?, a massive bestseller in Germany that was published in English here on October 2.  The book is currently the #1 bestseller in the Amazon categories of Microbiology, Pulmonary Medicine, and Health Law.  It has a 4.8 out of 5 rating after 363 ratings.  [Video clip]

Will CA Liberals Wake Up Now?  SF Mayor London Breed Also Caught at French Laundry.  Monday [11/30/2020] we learned that LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who represents the ritzy areas of Malibu and Santa Monica, went out to eat "al fresco" just hours after voting to uphold "Dr." Barbara Ferrer's unscientific, draconian order shutting down all restaurants in the county for the next three weeks.  We also learned that San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo attended a family Thanksgiving dinner where five separate households were represented, despite the "guidance" from Gov. Newsom that no more than three households gather for the holiday. [...] And now we know that Gavin Newsom wasn't the only San Francisco politician to go to a birthday party at the French Laundry last month.  Just two days after Newsom's infamous soiree, San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended the 60th birthday party of socialite Goretti Lo Lui at the exclusive restaurant — in the very same private dining room Newsom's party occupied.

CNN Medical Analyst On Christmas: 'We Just Can't Do It This Year'.  Since progressives feel the need to ruin anything that is awesome, they have already started telling the nation not to celebrate one of the biggest holidays of the year.  A CNN medical analyst recently appeared on the network to lecture its audience on handling this holiday season.  Dr. Jonathan Reiner on Saturday appeared on the network to announce that Americans can't do Christmas in 2020 [...] But Reiner didn't only have advice for Christmas.  He also had words for people who celebrated Thanksgiving like regular folks.  He stated that these people should quarantine themselves.

Webster's New World College Dictionary, Third Edition, 1997, page 92.

Switzerland halves new infections without national lockdown as pubs and restaurants stay open.  Switzerland is emerging as a model for how the coronavirus can be contained without a national lockdown, after daily new infections halved since the start of November despite pubs, restaurants, gyms and sports remaining open in much of the country.  The figures were hailed as a triumph for the "Swiss special way" by Swiss government doctors last week, and will be seen as evidence that regional tiers can work in the UK.  Rather than ordering a general lockdown, Switzerland allowed regions to decide their own measures and only the worst-hit imposed tough restrictions.  But critics have charged that the success came at too high a price, after the country experienced some of the highest death rates in Europe.

So Long to Social Distancing, Part II.  For months Governor Newsom has been telling Californians that they shouldn't socialize outside the home and when they socialize do so outdoors and in small groups.  State health officials have said gatherings should be limited to 10 people from only three households.  On November 6th, the governor and his wife attended a dinner party for 12 people.  It was a birthday party for a former campaign aid of the governor, who is now a lobbyist.  They held the party at the ritzy Napa Valley restaurant, the French Laundry, which has a $350 per person prix fixe menu.  Another diner took pictures of Governor Newsom and his wife sitting maskless with equally unmasked diners.  The meal was supposedly in an "outside" space, but because the group was so loud, other diners complained and doors were closed, thereby making the space "inside" and compounding the groups' violation of one of Governor Newsom's orders.  The rules, you peasants, are for thee, not me.

Coronavirus was spreading in the US by December 17 - Weeks before China admitted that people there were being infected.  Coronavirus was likely spreading in much of the U.S. last December - weeks before China told the officially recognized the new virus, a new study suggests.  Blood collected by the Red Cross between December 13 and January 17 was later sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be tested for antibodies to coronavirus.  Testing revealed antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19 in 39 samples from blood donated between December 13 and December 16.  Those donations were made in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Coronavirus Hysteria Is Simply Too Ridiculous to Continue.  The ignorance and the lies concerning the Wuhan virus cant continue much longer, because time is simply revealing the truth about it.  As we continue to suffer under foolish Wuhan virus restrictions, and as many parts of the U.S. — especially those under the rule of Democrats — are again ramping up the shutdowns and the lockdowns, more and more Americans are beginning to see what many of us have long known:  the Wuhan virus data simply don't match the Wuhan virus hysteria. [...] Even Dr. "follow the science" Fauci finally agrees that schoolchildren are not significant spreaders of the Wuhan virus!  Yet, in U.S. schools, sporting events continue to get postponed or canceled, and many schools remain in remote learning mode or are threatening to move back in that direction.  Again, every instance of this is driven by "cases."  Yet the vast majority of students and student-athletes are not getting sick, and if they are, they are certainly not sick to the point of death or even hospitalization.

Black, Brown communities should get first dibs on coronavirus vaccine, minority leaders say.  A group of minority leaders gathered Sunday [11/29/2020] to urge members of Congress and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to prioritize the distribution of any coronavirus vaccine to Black and Brown communities hit hard by the pandemic.  "We're sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we're asking and demanding that we have a sense of trust by allowing us to be considered to be first when it comes to distribution," Pastor John Harrell, of Proviso Baptist Church in Maywood, told reporters gathered outside the JLM Abundant Life Community Center on the Near West Side.  The speakers, who included state Rep. La Shawn Ford, acknowledged that any vaccine would first be doled out to other high-risk groups, like health care professionals, essential workers, those at a higher risk of infection and the elderly.

L.A. Supervisor Sheila Kuehl Dines at Outdoor Restaurant After Voting to Ban Outdoor Dining.  Los Angeles County Suprevisor Sheila Kuehl reportedly dined at an outdoor restaurant in Santa Monica, hours after casting a decisive vote to ban outdoor dining in the county. [...] Los Angeles County has shut down outdoor dining for three weeks, effective Nov. 25.  The county, and the state, are experiencing a coronavirus spike.  Fellow supervisor Janice Hahn, who voted against the outdoor dining ban, told KTTV's Elex Michaelson that the danger of public officials doing what they have told constituents not to do means that they are "beginning to lose the trust of the public."  She said there was not sufficient scientific evidence to support the ban on outdoor dining, given the economic cost before the holidays.

The Editor says...
It seems a little like insider trading, when a politician goes out for a nice sit-down meal in a restaurant, knowing there is about to be a county-wide ban on such activities.

Face Masks Are A Religion Now.  Masks can't possibly have ANY negative side effects on health or society, we are told, even as social media giants censor legitimate medical professionals who conduct studies that suggest otherwise.  In their zeal to worship the Almighty Face Mask, zealots even insist that high school athletes cover their faces with what soon becomes a wet washcloth while competing outdoors in the rain, their omnipotent power and glory being such that no negative health ramifications will ever occur.  Masks are the "best tool" we have to "stop the spread of COVID-19," our overlords constantly tell a population that is ALREADY well above the 80 percent mask compliance so-called "experts" once promised in May it would take to make cases "plummet."  But cases aren't "plummeting," now are they?  Quite the contrary, they are exploding all over Europe and the U.S., despite the fact that Joe Biden once insisted that if only the Trump administration would have been more like Europe we would have stopped this virus in its tracks, or something.

Why It Matters When New York's Governor Spits on SCOTUS's Defense of Religious Freedom.  During the COVID-19 epidemic, Gov. Cuomo of New York and other governors have tried to shut down or limit attendance at America's churches.  Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Cuomo's COVID response, which limited church attendance to as few as ten or lower, violates the constitutional right to freedom of religion. [...] Religious liberty is at the heart of our national identity.  For a top liberal opinion-maker to say defending it is just "politics" is horrifying.  Sadly, in another display of judicial impotence, Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the 5-4 ruling.  He wrote that since conditions had changed, the Court should avoid addressing "a serious and difficult question."  Bizarrely, he justified inaction based on the fact that it is "a significant matter to override determinations made by public health officials."  Isn't the Supreme Court designed specifically to decide "serious and difficult" questions?  Doesn't the Supreme Court of the United States have the authority to override the determinations of New York state health officials?  If it lacks that authority, it has no authority at all.

Another Democrat is caught violating the rules she imposes on others.  Every closed restaurant represents several people's lives going down the drain.  The owner who sank all of his money in the restaurant, the employees who worked there, the suppliers who were dependent on its custom, and the surrounding stores who counted on the foot traffic it brought — all of it's gone.  And I might add, there's no reason to believe that these horrific losses made a damned bit of difference to the course of a virus that is relentlessly working its way through the population.  While the people have suffered, the politicians imposing this suffering, like European royalty of old, have flaunted their special status.  Denver's mayor, Michael Hancock, flew to his family within 30 minutes of telling Denver citizens to stay home for Thanksgiving.  Andrew Cuomo, having reinstated the lockdown across New York, boasted about his family coming home for Thanksgiving.  Illinois's Governor J.B. Pritzker, another Democrat millionaire, was happy to see his family travel during the height of the spring lockdown.  Pennsylvania's health secretary, "Rachel" Levine, who leftists pretend is not a mentally ill man telling people he's a woman, forced sick people into nursing homes in May, even as he secretly removed his own mother.

Donald Trump Coronavirus Adviser Scott Atlas Resigns.  President Donald Trump's special adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, Scott Atlas, resigned in a letter published on Monday [11/30/2020].  Atlas joined the White House in August as a Special Government Employee, which has a 130-day detail limit that will expire this week.

Former Pfizer Vice President Says COVID Is Effectively Over, No Need For Vaccine.  According to an article published in Lockdown Sceptics, Dr.  Michael Yeadon, former vice president and Chief Scientist of Pfizer wrote:  "There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic.  I've never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines.  You do not vaccinate people who aren't at risk from the disease.  You also don't set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn't been extensively tested on human subjects."  [Video clip]

Fellow Republicans file articles of impeachment against Ohio governor.  Several GOP state lawmakers have filed 12 articles of impeachment against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, over their fellow Republican's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.  The articles, which were filed by Rep. John Becker, accuse Mr. DeWine of numerous abuses of power in the past several months, including threats to veto a bill to limit the governor's emergency powers.  "Governor DeWine's mismanagement, malfeasance, misfeasance, abuse of power, and other crimes include, but are not limited to, meddling in the conduct of a presidential primary election, arbitrarily closing and placing curfews on certain businesses, while allowing other businesses to remain open.  He weaponized the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to bully and harass businesses and the people; to enforce a statewide mask mandate and other controversial measures of dubious 'value,' making Ohio a hostile work environment," Mr. Becker said in a statement reported by WTVG-13, the Toledo ABC affiliate.

Our Overlords Are Using The 'Big Lie Technique' To Convince Us Masks Work.  [Scroll down]  Now today, we thankfully don't have an all-powerful "State," not yet anyway, but we do have what I'll call the 'System,' a toxic mishmash of do-gooder Big Tech overlords, power-hungry 'public servants,' liberty-hating 'health officials,' and frightened corporations bullied into both submitting and forcing others to submit to this nonsense.  And that 'System,' as it were, is most certainly busy repressing dissent in order to bolster its very own, albeit new, "Big Lie," that "face masks work to stop the spread of COVID-19."  Not a soul could have possibly predicted this eight months ago when established science laughed at the idea that a piece of cloth over people's faces would somehow abate the spread of a highly contagious respiratory virus.  Everyone is aware of the extreme course-reversal our overlords took on forced public masking almost overnight.  We're supposed to believe they simply told us a "noble lie" to preserve masks for healthcare workers, but the problem for them is that back then they gave us solid reasons backed up by decades of science to make their case.  "There's no reason to be walking around with a mask when you're in the middle of an outbreak," Dr. Anthony Fauci said back in March.

The New New Normal.  Terrorist attacks, no-go zones and long lines at airports were formerly dubbed the "new normal."  The new new normal consists of COVID ordinances, masks, lockdowns, blatant political tyranny and timid public compliance.

Renowned Pathologist Calls Coronavirus: 'The Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated... It's Just Another Bad Flu'.  Renowned pathologist, Dr. Roger Hodkinson spoke at the Edmonton City Council Community and Public Services Committee zoom meeting on November 13, 2020 about the city's move to extend its coronavirus face-covering bylaw.  Hodkinson, an expert in pathology, slammed the Canadian government's coronavirus response and blamed politicians and media for generating false fear.  A recording of Dr. Roger Hodkinson's testimony was released were he called coronavirus crisis "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public." The doctor condemned the government's overblown response to the virus and its negative [effects.]

Japan Is Only One Country Where the Lockdowns Suicide Rate Is Outpacing the Pandemic.  In California Governor Gavin Newsom is contemplating extending his lockdown orders in his state to even more strident levels as the cases of Covid are growing.  This reactionary totalitarianism defies many common sense realities, including the fact that his already oppressive control measures have only led to higher case loads in his state.  But this call for tighter lockdowns ignores the mounting problems that have been created.  I covered previously how the lockdowns have led to a rise in mortality concerning numerous other health issues.  Whether it is foregoing doctor visits addressing serious health issues, avoiding emergency room visits, or missing out on tests diagnosing a serious condition, there are numbers showing a greater threat than Covid.

The COVID Case Con Continues.  The Washington Post claims that Wuhan coronavirus cases are "skyrocketing" while the New York Times wails that "It has hit us with a vengeance."  Yet the media is oblivious, either ignorantly or deliberately, to the reality that positive tests are not the same thing as cases.  A "case" has a very specific definition, apparently beyond the intellectual realm of Wolf Blitzer or Neil Cavuto.  The CDC provides a specific "case definition."  A case is not just a positive test.  Instead, what is needed is "presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence."  Notice the AND, meaning not simply a positive test.  The current COVID surges are positive tests, and even those are suspect, without regard to whether those who test positive are actually sick or not.

CDC warns eight COVID-19 infections are missed for every one counted.  The record surge in coronavirus cases across the US is likely far worse, with an estimated eight infections unreported for every one infection counted, according to a government report — which would put the true tally closer to 100 million.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calculated that by the end of September there had really been as many as 53 million Americans contract the deadly bug — just under eight times the confirmed cases reported at the time.  Of those, the CDC believes about 45 million were sick at some point and about 2.4 million were hospitalized.  The true tally is likely now far higher, with November continually breaking case records across the US — with now 12,778,256 cases officially reported, according to Johns Hopkins University data Thursday morning [11/26/2020].

CDC Admits Their Numbers on COVID Are off by a Huge Amount.  According to the Center for Disease Control, many more millions of Americans so far have caught the COVID-19 and they now say it could be as high as 1/3 of the country.

Type O blood linked to lower COVID risk, taking Vitamin D unlikely to help.  A large study adds to evidence that people with type O or Rh-negative blood may be at slightly lower risk from the new coronavirus.  Among 225,556 Canadians who were tested for the virus, the risk for a COVID-19 diagnosis was 12% lower and the risk for severe COVID-19 or death was 13% lower in people with blood group O versus those with A, AB, or B, researchers reported on Tuesday [11/24/2020] in Annals of Internal Medicine.  People in any blood group who were Rh-negative were also somewhat protected, especially if they had O-negative blood.

Saying, 'Trust The Science' Showcases Democrat Ignorance.  [Scroll down]  Instead, as we've seen throughout history, anything that challenges the "accepted science" gets ridiculed and censored.  Dr. Scott Atlas, a professor of neuroradiology and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, certainly someone who knows something about science, has consistently made the case against lockdowns due to their severe consequences.  For instance, the World Food Programme reports the economic consequences from shutdowns will push 135 million worldwide to the brink of starvation.  Yet Atlas is consistently censored on Twitter and ridiculed in the media.  Similarly, a Danish group completed the largest study of mask use ever, over 4000 people back in April, but only managed to find a publisher for this important work this November.  Why?  Perhaps because their study showed — what every peer-reviewed study has shown over the past 20 years — "no statistical significance" of mask effectiveness.  Not surprisingly, the "accepted science" community has been suspending accounts tweeting the link to the study.

NYC Pub Borrows a Page From Leftists in Lockdown Dispute.  A clever bar owner in New York City is borrowing a tactic from left-wing anarchists in an ongoing spat with the government over coronavirus lockdown restrictions.  The pub, located in Staten Island, declared itself an "autonomous zone" as a new ban on indoor dining at bars and restaurants took effect on Wednesday.  The New York Post reported on Saturday [11/28/2020] that a sign outside Mac's Public House in Grant City read, "!ATTENTION! We hereby declare this establishment an !!!AUTONOMOUS ZONE!!!"  "We refuse to abide by any rules and regulations put forth by the Mayor of NYC and Governor of NY State," the message continued.  Despite a shutdown order from the state Health Department and multiple $1,000 fines, the bar owners are refusing to close their doors.

Censored: How Many People Are Really Dying Of This Pandemic?  According to the legacy media, there have been more than 250,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the so-called pandemic began.  That means to the average American that there are 250,000 plus Americans who are dead today who would otherwise still be with us.  Those people were killed by the virus.  That seems a matter of common sense.  Is it true?  Genevieve Briand, assistant program director of the Applied Economics master's degree program at Johns Hopkins University, recently critically analyzed the effect of COVID-19 on U.S. deaths using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in her webinar titled "COVID-19 Deaths:  A Look at U.S. Data."  Her conclusion?  COVID-19 is having no significant impact on deaths in the United States. [...] While deaths attributed to COVID-19 dramatically increased, deaths attributed to all other causes suddenly plummeted.  Most notable perhaps was the decrease in deaths attributed to heart disease.  Somehow, suddenly, according to the data, in the midst of worldwide pandemic, Americans were much less likely to have heart attacks or strokes.

Johns Hopkins University Newsletter Ran Study Saying COVID 'Relatively No Effect on Deaths' in U.S., Then Deleted It After Publication.  Earlier this week, Johns Hopkins University Newsletter ran a study from Genevieve Briand, assistant program director of the Applied Economics master's degree program at Hopkins, that looked at the effect of the COVID-19 on U.S. deaths according to data from the CDC.  What the study concluded and the article said was something quite profound.  The study concluded that the virus had "relatively no effect on deaths in the United States."  So how could that be?  How does that match with the facts of over 200,000 people listed as dying from the virus?  How can that be?

Media said Trump's COVID-19 vaccine prediction would take 'miracle.' They were wrong.  Back in May, just after COVID-19 spiked across America, President Trump made a bold prediction about a coronavirus vaccine.  "We're looking to get it by the end of the year if we can, maybe before," Trump said May 14 in a White House Rose Garden event.  The next day, he wrote on Twitter:  "Vaccine work is looking VERY promising, before end of year."  The mainstream media didn't like that prediction, not one little bit.  "But experts say that the development, testing and production of a vaccine for the public is still at least 12 to 18 months off, and that anything less would be a medical miracle," NBC News wrote May 15 in a "fact check."  The network cited Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  "I think it's possible you could see a vaccine in people's arms next year — by the middle or end of next year," said Offit.  "But this is unprecedented, so it's hard to predict."

Three million care home residents will be offered Vitamin D this winter to help combat the coronavirus.  Nearly three million people in England will be offered free Vitamin D supplements this winter.  The Government will deliver doses of the 'sunshine vitamin' to all care home residents as well as people classified as 'clinically extremely vulnerable'.  Deliveries will be free of charge, starting in January, providing four months' worth of supplements to last 2.7 million people through the winter months.

We Can't Allow Coronavirus Politics to Dictate Science.  In these past couple of weeks, two important studies have been published that could dramatically increase our understanding of COVID-19.  Adding to the science of how we understand and treat this disease is something that should be welcomed, because properly understood it can save lives.  The only problem is that because the results from these two studies challenge what the media has established as conventional wisdom about the disease, the reports are at best being ignored and at worst being openly distorted by the mainstream media.  This is in my view a dangerous and foolish subjugation of science to politics and it may well end up causing many more unnecessary deaths.  First is the Danish mask study, which was completed several months ago but was only recently published in a peer-reviewed journal.  The study took two groups and gave the first group masks to wear with instruction on how they should be used.  The other group was the mask-free control group.  The study found that coronavirus spread within the statistical margin of error in each group.  In other words, wearing the mask did little if anything to control the spread of the virus.

SCOTUS Swats Cuomo:  You Can't Shut Down Churches While Keeping Businesses Open.  As Justice Neil Gorsuch writes in a scathing concurrence, "It is time — past time — to make plain" that the Constitution applies at all times, even in pandemics.  In a 5-4 vote late on Wednesday evening [11/25/2020], the Supreme Court issued an injunction against Governor Andrew Cuomo's order that allowed businesses to operate at the capacity of their choosing but limited religious services to either 10 or 25 people at a time. [...] This comes down to the issue of scrutiny.  When government actions proscribe or interfere with a constitutional right, especially an explicit right enumerated in the Constitution, it requires a strict-scrutiny review.  That means New York has to identify a compelling state interest, for which public health and pandemic control certainly qualify, but also demonstrate that the intrusion is narrowly tailored and rationally based.  The state has no evidence that worship services when following proper social-distancing protocols and disinfecting regimes present any more risk than the businesses that the state allows to operate with lesser or no restrictions.  That means it's plainly discriminatory and arbitrary as well as unconstitutional.

CDC Issues Warning On Travel To Mexico — Don't Do It.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a new travel warning this week — a Level 4 warning.  If you are considering a holiday vacation trip to Mexico, the CDC strongly advises against it.  There is a "very high level of Covid-19 in Mexico."  The agency has warned about travel, in general, this year and as the holidays approach the warnings are not stopping.  Air travel surged this week to levels not seen since the coronavirus pandemic began this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Rebellion rising; the people have had enough.  Large anti-lockdown protests are sweeping across Europe.  Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland.  The media are trying to put a lid on coverage of these momentous events.  In Southern California, five sheriffs of populous counties (17 million people) are refusing to enforce Governor Newsom's new curfew order.  A petition to recall the governor is gaining steam.  In New York, members of the Chasidic sect held a wedding attended by several thousand people, sitting closely packed without masks.  In a more intimate setting, up close and powerfully personal, gym members and owners in Buffalo, New York, shouted down cops and a public health officer, who had entered the gym because the gathering exceeded the prescribed limit.  The gym personnel drove out the cops and followed them, to make sure they left the property.

John Hopkins Pulls Down Their Own Study Showing COVID Deaths Are HUGELY Inflated.  A new massive study by Dr. Genevieve Briand at Johns Hopkins University, who went over CDC data came to the conclusion the 262k deaths so far by COVID are very dubious at the very least.  Earlier this week, on Nov 22nd, Johns Hopkins took down the report along with the accompanying video.  Soon after, Johns Hopkins issued an apology on Twitter stating:  Though making clear the need for further research, the article was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies about the impact of the pandemic.  It is unclear why the report was removed but it is important to note that Johns Hopkins receives the most federal funding for medical research in the country.  [Video clip]

Trudeau's COVID Gestapo Shuts Down Well Known BBQ Place In Toronto.  A Toronto barbecue restaurant owner has been ordered to close by the city's medical officer of health after openly defying Ontario's COVID-19 regulations Tuesday, and police now say they will enforce that closure after letting the eatery stay open earlier.  Toronto police said at first that the restaurant, Adamson Barbecue, would be permitted to stay open all day on Tuesday, however later on during the day, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa issued an order for its closure under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, effective immediately.  Police, bylaw officers and public health officials first arrived at the restaurant in Etobicoke that opened for indoor dining Tuesday morning in direct violation of provincial COVID-19 rules, but said they were unable to close it at the time.  [Video clip]

American Governors — COVID Crisis Actors.  My local Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, "Traveled by air to see family for Thanksgiving, following recent public statements he made urging people to avoid gathering with others outside their households."  Hancock is a mayor of the largest city in Colorado, whose Department of Public Health advises, "Staying home and celebrating with your immediate household, or celebrating with friends and family virtually."  Hancock flying to celebrate with family in Mississippi, who are in a different household, flouts the state's recommendations.  The mayor could easily have followed Colorado's Turkey Day diktat, "Video chatting or talking on the phone with friends and family who don't live with you."  Or this one, "The safest thing to do right now is to stay home."  But he did not.  Perhaps Mayor Hancock doesn't believe COVID is really a crisis.

The Editor says...
If you like Mississippi so much, don't come back!  If you hold a state-wide political office, you should not vacation in another state.

Conservatives must stop quitting before the battle is over!  [Scroll down]  The overall message is to surrender.  But we don't need to stand down, America; we need to step up.  We have to start with these drunk-on-power governors.  They have no right to issue, much less enforce unconstitutional orders.  And we don't need to wait on courts to set us free.  It's already done with the Constitution and ruled on by the Supreme Court.  Norton vs. Shelby County, 118 US 425, 442:  "An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed."

COVID Shutdowns and Masks.  Many are hysterical over the second COVID wave that has hit a number of states, and governors are responding with harsh shutdown orders.  Here in Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz blames our citizens for not wearing masks, deeming it self-evident that if his brilliant anti-viral strategies are not working, the fault must lie with us. [...] What is really going on?  This map, from the New York Times, shows new cases per 100,000 people over the last week: [Map]  It is pretty obvious what is happening.  The Wuhan flu is surging in the Midwest, especially the Upper Midwest.  Why?  Because the weather has gotten colder.  The cold and flu season is under way.  The states where cases are rising fast cover the gamut from harshest restrictions (like Minnesota and Illinois) to least intrusive (South Dakota).  These factors — shutdowns and mask mandates — make no apparent difference.

Barbecue Guy Tries to Get Back Into His Restaurant in Defiance of Lockdown Orders, It Doesn't End Well.  Adam Skelly of Adamson Barbecue said he'd finally had enough.  He said he complied with two weeks to flatten the curve and the initial lockdowns to stop the virus.  But enough was enough, he said, with the latest lockdown.  He was going to open his restaurant in Toronto, Canada, despite the provincial lockdown on indoor dining. [...] Then, the long arm of the authorities dropped on Skelly today [11/26/2020].  The police broke into his restaurant and then tried to lock him out of it.  When he showed up and tried to get in, they put him under arrest.  There was a big contingent of police and a bigger contingent of Skelly supporters.  One man even intervened and tried to pull him away from the cops.  That man was taken to the ground and likely arrested as well.

The Editor says...
Apparently Canada is just like California, only colder.

UK Govt:  Lockdown Likely to Last 12+ Months, 'Hard Winter' Coming, Repeated Vaccinations May be Required.  Lockdowns won't end until anticipated vaccines "come to our aid" in the future and the country can expect a "hard winter", the Prime Minister has said, as the government's science advisor warned it is quite possible the coronavirus will simply mutate to outperform vaccinations.  Speaking at the Downing Street press conference hours after the details of the new post-lockdown-lockdown were revealed to the country, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made clear to the nation that there was no reasonable hope of lockdown ending soon, saying merely that there was "reason to hope" that spring would see an end of "this era of restrictions".

The Editor says...
Announcements of this sort always follow this pattern:  [#1] This is only for a short and reasonable period, e.g., two weeks.  [#2] You must sacrifice, because it's for the common good.  If you do not comply, you are an enemy of the state.  [#3] We are all hopeful this shutdown/lockdown/curfew will fix the problem.  [#4] Our most recent lockdown has now been extended because it didn't work.  (Loop back to step 1.)

Time to Abolish Unconstitutional and Useless Mask Mandates.  Do Americans have the right to walk around without masks in public spaces?  Without question, they do.  How do we know that?  Because the Constitution does not explicitly grant the government power to institute or enforce laws around masking in public.  Nothing about this is rocket science, but nothing could be more vital to the principle of self-governance.  The federal government clearly has no power to enact or enforce mask mandates.  That much seems clear even to Joe Biden.  Whether state legislatures can craft laws around mask mandates is a bit more of an open question, I'll admit.  The Tenth Amendment suggests that states wield "powers not delegated to the United States" by the Constitution, while the incorporated "due process clause" of Fourteenth Amendment suggest that the states cannot "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."  In the most conservative appraisal of this legal landscape, we can conclude that states may technically legislate mask mandates.  However, as mask mandates, like lockdowns, deprive Americans of liberty and individual agency, they cannot be arbitrarily designed, implemented, or enforced.

Come the Grinches.  No governor yet claims jurisdiction over the International Space Station but the astronauts have a lot of explaining to do when they return to earth.  It's not as though they lacked for space.  Governors ordering around people 250 miles above their states seems far-fetched.  But so, too, did the notion of governors usurping the role of legislatures.  Eight months after the initial coronavirus lockdowns, citizens docilely accept the idea of a single person dictating the laws that govern millions of people.  This is a health crisis.  This is a civics crisis more.  Coronavirus is healthier than fascism.  Surely the spacemen ran afoul, if for those brief moments that they orbited above Burlington, Bennington, Barre, and Brattleboro, the Orwellian edict of Vermont Governor Phil Scott that forbids dining with people outside of one's immediate household.  He instructs teachers to question students on how they spent their holiday when they return to school this Monday.

N.J.'s largest city begins 10-day 'shelter in place' request as coronavirus cases surge.  Newark residents were asked to stay home for 10 days citywide, beginning the day before Thanksgiving, in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus in New Jersey's largest city.  Though not enforced or mandated by executive order, Mayor Ras Baraka strongly encouraged the move due to skyrocketing cases of the virus in Newark.  "We are, from Wednesday before Thanksgiving to Dec. 4, going to lock the city down," Baraka previously said in a radio appearance on WBGO 88.3FM.  "We want people to shelter in place.  We only want folks to come out for essential purposes.  Do not go outside if you don't have to.  Don't mingle with other people if you don't have to.  Stay (with) your family in your immediate household."

The Editor says...
As long as it's just a suggestion or a request, I'm okay with it.  If a politician attempts to forcibly manage my health, I'm not okay with it.

First, They Came for Thanksgiving; Now They Are Coming for Christmas.  Kate Brown, the Governor of Oregon, was rather ambivalent in her approach to violence during the time Portland was torched by radical mobs.  In fact, she thanked "Oregonians for expressing their free speech rights largely through joyful celebrations..."  But Gov. Brown apparently did some soul searching since the election.  She found a joyful celebration about to be held by unquestionable enemies of the people.  It turns out actual domestic terrorists are Oregonians who wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It's extremists who wished to dine on turkey and all the trimmings who are dangerous, as they are potential super-spreaders of disease and destruction.  Therefore, it's Thanksgiving celebrations that need to be tightly regulated.  It's Thanksgiving celebrants who need to be fined and sent to jail if they transgress the regulations the governor has established by executive order.

Go Ahead and Celebrate Thanksgiving.  Minnesota is one of a number of states that are living under what amounts to martial law.  Our proto-fascist dictator Tim Walz, in his latest edict, purports to ban traditional Thanksgiving get-togethers:
["]Saturday, Nov. 21 through Friday, Dec. 18, Executive Order 20-99 requires all Minnesotans to:
  •   Limit social gatherings to one household.
  •   Not gather outside of your household.
  •   Postpone all celebrations, events, receptions, and parties, including any social gatherings for weddings and funerals.["]
So it is "illegal" for me to invite any of my four kids to Thanksgiving dinner.  Better send the heat, Timmy, because I have no intention of complying with your grotesque order.  For a while, Governor Walz told us he was "following the science," and his dictatorial orders were required by "the data." That pretense has been abandoned, as Scott reported, with Walz now saying, pathetically:  "It's not about numbers.  It's not about data.  It's about neighborliness."  So one naturally wonders:  is there any rational basis for Walz, and like-minded governors, to purport to ban Thanksgiving dinners?

Thankful for the Rights That Democrats Want to Take Away.  This ungodly Chinese Bat Flu has brought out the worst in a lot of people, most of them Democrat elected officials.  There have been some Republican transgressors as well, but the majority of the bad actors have been liberal leaders in traditionally liberal states and cities.  Basic rights have been getting trampled upon in the name of public health.  Yesterday [11/25/2020], Stacey wrote about the latest egregious overreach:  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is placing law-enforcement COVID checkpoints around the city, giving it a Cold War East Berlin feeling just in time for the holidays.  Here in Arizona, we haven't been subjected to a third job-killing, pointless lockdown... yet.  For that I am most grateful.

AstraZeneca manufacturing error clouds vaccine study results.  AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Wednesday acknowledged a manufacturing error that is raising questions about preliminary results of their experimental COVID-19 vaccine.  A statement describing the error came days after the company and the university described the shots as "highly effective" and made no mention of why some study participants didn't receive as much vaccine in the first of two shots as expected.  In a surprise, the group of volunteers that got a lower dose seemed to be much better protected than the volunteers who got two full doses.  In the low-dose group, AstraZeneca said, the vaccine appeared to be 90% effective.  In the group that got two full doses, the vaccine appeared to be 62% effective.

Of Course:  Doctors Want Us to Know That the COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects Could Be Awful.  At this point in 2020 I don't think that many of us would be dumb enough to ask for maybe just one thing to go smoothly.  We've got conservatives being arrested for breathing now, after all.  Strap in kids, it's gonna be a bumpy landing.  One of the few bright spots in the news this month was hearing that not one, but two COVID-19 vaccines have proven effective in trials and will soon be available.  This news came after several months of the Democrats and their flying media monkeys calling President Trump a crackpot for saying there would be a vaccine available by the end of the year.  It was a little suspicious that none of it was announced until just after the election but that's in the past now.  The vaccine is going to be a two-dose affair, and some are worried that the side-effects from the first dose may put people off of returning for the second.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott says Vermont schools will question kids about Thanksgiving plans.  Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Tuesday that school officials will question returning students about whether they attended gatherings with people outside their household during Thanksgiving to determine if they need to quarantine over coronavirus concerns.  "Unfortunately, we know some will still get together and schools have asked for help," the Republican governor tweeted Tuesday [11/24/2020].  "[The Vermont Agency of Education] will direct schools to ask students or parents if they were part of multi-family gatherings and if the answer is yes, they'll need to go remote for 14 days or 7 days and a test."

Supreme Court rules against Cuomo's coronavirus limits — with Barrett playing key role.  The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night [11/26/2020] blocked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from reimposing strict attendance caps at worship services in areas hit hard by the novel coronavirus.  The court ruled 5-4 to bar Cuomo from enforcing his Oct. 6 "Cluster Initiative" against houses of worship that sued to challenge the restrictions.  The order was also the first in which Justice Amy Coney Barrett played a decisive role.  Barrett, who was President Trump's third Supreme Court nominee, joined the court Oct. 27, after winning Senate confirmation following the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Images Show Zombified Americans More Concerned With Toilet Paper Than Food.  Back in March ANP published a piece titled "Due To An 'Outbreak Of Stupidity' People Will Die Of Starvation Surrounded By Toilet Paper," because when the initial quarantine lockdowns began, clueless Americans were more worried about paper products [...] than they were about eating.  The food shortages and limits on purchases came well after the toilet paper runs on any store that carried the product.  We are now looking at another round of quarantine lockdowns, and readers are once again sending ANP exclusive images, the majority of which are... Yup... toilet paper aisles and other paper goods shelves quickly emptying, while a much smaller percentage of reports and images are showing food aisles, and those are from canned good shelves.

The correct word is disinvite.  If he shows up anyway, he's uninvited.
Oregon governor encourages residents to 'uninvite' people such as the 'drunken uncle' from Thanksgiving gatherings.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown called on the state's residents to "uninvite" people from their Thanksgiving gatherings.  "This is hard, but making difficult sacrifices now will save lives," Brown said on Twitter.  "This Thanksgiving, keep it small.  Uninvite them."  A video attached to the tweet scrolls through a list of people to "uninvite" from a Thanksgiving gathering, including "your new boyfriend," "drunken uncle," "argumentative aunt," "favorite aunt," "bragging brother," "best friend," "half-sister," and "vegan niece."  "This holiday, keep your gathering small," it continued.  "Limit groups.  Save lives."

Supreme Court rules in favor of Christian and Jewish groups who challenged New York's COVID restrictions on religious gatherings.  The Supreme Court late Wednesday temporarily barred New York from enforcing certain attendance limits at houses of worship in areas designated as hard hit by the coronavirus.  The court on a 5-4 vote granted requests made by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and two Orthodox Jewish congregations.  An October 6 decision by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down non-essential businesses in targeted areas where infections have spiked, including some Brooklyn neighborhoods.

NYC Will Have Covid Checkpoints at Key Bridges and Crossings.  New York City will have vehicle checkpoints at key bridges and crossings, and will strictly enforce the travel quarantine, Sheriff Joseph Fucito said.  The sheriff's office will conduct spot checks when out-of-state buses drop riders off at the curb.  Test and tracing teams will be on the ground to direct individuals to testing sites and provide education on quarantine, Fucito said.  The 14-day quarantine mandates that travelers quarantine or test out.  Violations of self-quarantine will be enforced, and may carry fines of $1,000 to $2,000, according to the mayor's office.

Amazon versus Alex Berenson (& me).  Alex Berenson brings and independent mind and a formidable set of skills to his heterodox coverage of the COVID-19 epidemic.  He is a former New York Times investigative reporter and a writer of spy thrillers.  He has just released his third pamphlet in the series Unreported Truths About COVID-19 and Lockdowns.  When the first pamphlet in his series was published this past June Berenson had a close encounter with Amazon of the kind with which we have become all too familiar.  His pamphlet was rejected by Kindle Direct Publishing.  And then ensued the usual dance: [...] Berenson published the third pamphlet in his Unreported Truths series this week and went through the same routine with Amazon.  One had to follow the story via Berenson's Twitter feed.

Colorado County Refuses to Enforce Lockdowns as Civil Disobedience Spreads Across America.  Colorado officials last week announced that several counties had moved into the "red level" — the second-highest measurement on its COVID-19 dial — and would be forced to implement new regulations on restaurants, gyms, and other parts of the economy to combat the virus.  Then something remarkable happened.  Weld County, a county in the northern part of the state with a population of roughly a quarter million people, politely said no.  "Instead, county government continues to do what it has done since March, which is promote and encourage residents and business owners to take individual responsibility and make decisions to protect themselves, their families, their community and their businesses," the Board of Commissioners said in a statement.

New Mexico governor shuts down grocery stores for two weeks.  A dozen grocery stores around the state have been forced to close for two weeks because of a public health order issued by Gov.  Michelle Lujan Grisham at a time when the state's residents are suffering from record high unemployment and food insecurity, critics say.  The order requires businesses with four or more rapid responses of COVID-19 cases reported within in a 14-day period to close for two weeks.  More than 25 essential businesses were shut down as of Monday afternoon, including a number of grocery stores and major retailers.  The closures include two Walmarts in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe, an Albertson's in Roswell, a Smiths Food & Drug Center in Albuquerque and New Mexico Food Distribution Center in Albuquerque.

Joe Biden urges nation to 'forgo family traditions' on Thanksgiving.  President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday [11/25/2020] called on Americans not to gather with extended families for Thanksgiving, saying it was a "patriotic duty" to limit the spread of COVID-19.  Biden said during an at times campaign-like speech in Wilmington, Del., that he and his family were setting an example by not celebrating the holiday as a large group.

Study finds 84% fewer hospitalizations for patients treated with controversial drug hydroxychloroquine.  A peer-reviewed study measuring the effectiveness of a controversial drug cocktail that includes hydroxychloroquine concluded that the treatment lowered hospitalizations and mortality rates of coronavirus patients.  The study, set to be published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents in December, determined that "Low-dose hydroxychloroquine combined with zinc and azithromycin was an effective therapeutic approach against COVID-19."  A total of 141 patients diagnosed with the coronavirus were treated with the three-drug cocktail over a period of five days and compared to a control group of 377 people who tested positive for the virus but were not given the treatment.

Denver mayor is branded a 'hypocrite' for jetting to Mississippi to celebrate Thanksgiving just 30 Minutes after he warned constituents not to travel.  The mayor of Denver has been branded a 'hypocrite' for jetting out of the city for Thanksgiving, just 30 minutes after he posted a message urging residents to stay home for the holiday.  A spokesperson for Democrat Mayor Michael Hancock admitted Wednesday that the politician was flying to Mississippi to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter's house.  'As he has shared, the Mayor is not hosting his traditional large family dinner this year, but instead traveling alone to join his wife and daughter where the three of them will celebrate Thanksgiving at her residence instead of having them travel back to Denver,' Hancock's deputy communications director told ABC 7 in a statement.

These Governors Told Citizens To Stay Home.  Then They Broke Their Own COVID Rules.  Several Democratic governors who pushed Americans to stay home or to forgo Thanksgiving celebrations with their families have been accused of violating their own coronavirus restrictions.  A plethora of lawmakers across the country have been caught flouting the coronavirus restrictions, attending protests and ignoring their own social distancing guidelines.  The mayor of D.C. and the governor of New York traveled to "high risk" states, Democratic leaders in New York were photographed attending a mostly maskless birthday party, and the governor of California and mayor of Philadelphia were photographed on separate occasions ignoring their own state restrictions on dining.  These incidents sparked outrage across the country in the past week.

Families don't need help from Democrats on deciding whether to see each other for the holidays.  Because the pandemic has given Democrats and liberals in the news media yet more reason to be self-important, we've been hearing nonstop in recent weeks that families should forego holiday gatherings this year.  It should be done, we're told, so that we can more quickly return to normal (psych!) and "keep each other safe."  Like almost everything else we've been lectured about, the advisement comes with that condescending tone perfected by Democrats and "experts" who believe in their hearts that people can't evaluate their own unique circumstances and make the best choices for themselves without the nagging.  But, of course, they can.  And the "experts" don't know why your family, or anyone else's, would be perfectly right to have gatherings, even when if it means catching a highly contagious virus.

Longmont mayor wants hospitals to refuse COVID patients from places not enforcing restrictions.  The mayor of Longmont said he wants hospitals to refuse treatment to COVID-19 patients from places not enforcing the state's restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.  In a letter sent Tuesday [11/24/2020], Mayor Brian Bagley directed the city manager and city attorney to prepare an ordinance that would make it illegal for any hospital or health care provider to treat a resident of a county or municipality where officials have refused to comply with Gov. Jared Polis' emergency orders.

CEO of Midwest health system leaves after refusing to wear mask.  The chief executive of one of the nation's largest regional health systems is leaving his job after refusing to wear a mask in the office.  Sanford Health said it "mutually agreed to part ways" with CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft after he reportedly sent an email to employees last week claiming he didn't need to wear a face covering after recovering from the coronavirus.  Krabbenhoft argued that using a mask would be a "symbolic gesture" because his bout with COVID-19 had made him immune to the virus for "at least seven months and perhaps years to come," according to the Associated Press.

Fauci Makes Final Desperate Plea: 'Sacrifice' Your Thanksgiving Because COVID, America.  If Anthony Fauci made yet another dramatic plea about COVID and nobody listened, would he really make a sound?  Better:  If nobody other than the Democrat Party and the liberal media lapdogs listened, and clapped like trained seals in response to everything he said?  The latter was the case on Wednesday morning when Fauci hooked up with Scooter George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America" in an attempt to scare tens of millions of Americans into "sacrificing" their Thanksgiving in the name of all-things COVID.

After warnings to avoid travel, Denver Mayor Hancock flies to visit family for Thanksgiving.  Denver Mayor Michael Hancock boarded a flight to Houston ahead of Thanksgiving despite his warnings that people should stay close to home and only spend the holiday with their own household if they can.  His spokeswoman confirmed that Hancock was traveling to Houston Wednesday [11/25/2020] to visit his daughter in Mississippi, and that his wife is already there.

Hancock travels to Mississippi for Thanksgiving after pleading with Denverites to stay home if possible.  Denver Mayor Michael Hancock flew to Mississippi Wednesday to have Thanksgiving with his wife and daughter at his daughter's home after pleading with Denverites not to travel for the holiday if possible.  On Wednesday morning [11/25/2020], Mike Strott, deputy communications director with the Office of the Mayor, confirmed that Hancock had left the state to celebrate the holiday.

Qantas CEO: Must Have COVID-19 Vaccine to Fly Internationally, It's a 'Necessity'.  In an interview with Australia's A Current Affair, the CEO of Qantas airlines said his company is looking at changing its rules to require that people flying internationally must be vaccinated against COVID-19.  "We think that's a necessity," he stressed.  During the Nov. 23 interview, host Tracy Grimshaw asked CEO Alan Joyce, "When there is a vaccine, are you going to require all of your passengers to being vaccinated before they get on a plane?"  [Video clip]  Joyce said, "Yes, we are looking at changing our terms and conditions to say, for international travelers, that we will ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft.  Whether you need that domestically, we'll have to see what happens with COVID-19."  "But certainly for international visitors coming out or people leaving the country, we think that's a necessity," said Joyce.

New Mexico governor shuts down grocery stores with new public health order.  Just when we thought that liquor sales restrictions in Pennsylvania by Governor Wolf were arbitrary and, frankly, stupid, along comes Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico with a "hold my beer" response.  She has shut down a dozen grocery stores across the state.  Why would a governor make such a draconian move?  A public health order from the governor's office shut down more than 25 essential businesses Monday [11/23/2020] with four or more rapid responses of COVID-19 cases reported within a 14-day period.  The order requires the businesses to close for two weeks.  That's right, any business that reports four or more positive COVID-19 tests in a two week period must then shut down for two weeks, essential business or not.

Pasadena Bucks Gavin Newsom's Prohibition on Indoor Dining at Restaurants.  The city of Pasadena, California, is refusing to comply with Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom's strict coronavirus restrictions prohibiting restaurants from serving customers inside.  Restaurants in Democrat-run states are barely surviving and even shuttering as the government repeatedly closes them through lockdowns.  "The City of Pasadena will continue to assess our COVID [Chinese coronavirus] numbers and work closely with Huntington Hospital and give as much advance notice as possible if the City's Order is going to change in any respect," city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said in a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles report.

New York:  Oppression imposed because of almost no COVID-19 deaths.  In the last few weeks the Democratic Party governments that control the state and city of New York imposed new and incredibly oppressive new rules, clamping down hard on the freedoms of their citizens, as well as the ability of visitors and tourists to come there.  The justification used by Democrats Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio for these new edicts against freedom?  Both claimed that an increase to 3% of what they called "the positivity rate" required more restrictions.  This increase comes from increased detection of COVID-19 due to increased tests, but it does not mean there has been a significant rise in actual illness.

German Police Raid COVID Lockdown Critic During Livestream of Non-Compliant Thoughts.  Dr. Andreas Noack was reportedly under investigation by German authorities for being non-compliant with the COVID-19 lockdown laws enacted by the government.  During a livestream broadcast of his views on the authoritarian COVID-19 rules, the German police broke down his door and arrested him.  The arrest was made after the German Parliament passed the "Infection Protection Law".  [Video clip]

De Blasio's reason for failing to stop huge Hasidic wedding: 'It's a big city'.  Clueless Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday [11/24/2020] dismissed the fact that the city incredibly failed to pick up on a Hasidic wedding attended by thousands amid COVID-19 this month — scoffing to a reporter, "It's a big city."  De Blasio spouted the tone-deaf brush-off even after he acknowledged just how dangerous the Nov. 8 Brooklyn wedding was by announcing late Monday that the city would slap the involved synagogue with a $15,000 fine for breaking coronavirus safety regulations.  In crowing about the fine, de Blasio told NY1 of the dangerous gathering, "That's just not acceptable, I mean, we've been through so much.["]

Florida Nurse Blows The Lid Off Of How The COVID Numbers Are Inflated Via Re-Testing.  This Florida nurse made a Tik Tok video explaining how the COVID cases are being massaged via re-testing.  She explains, if the same person is retested during their illness, each positive result shows up as a new case in the stats.  [Video clip]

The science is unsettled!
CDC to shorten length of quarantine for those exposed to Covid-19.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is finalizing plans to shorten the recommended length of quarantine for those exposed to Covid-19.  The CDC currently recommends that individuals quarantine for 14 days after being exposed to people with the coronavirus.  The two weeks is based on how long scientists believe it can take the virus to incubate in the body.  "CDC is always reviewing its guidance and recommendations in the light of new understandings of the virus that causes Covid-19, and will announce such changes when appropriate," a spokesperson for the agency told NBC News on Tuesday [11/24/2020].  The updated approach will likely incorporate testing.

Sorry, Dr. Fauci.  You, too, Joe Biden:  Americans refuse to cancel Thanksgiving.  To judge by the election results, assuming you believe them, Americans want more lockdowns, given that Joe Biden ostensibly won.  Biden campaigned on a lockdown platform, vowing a national mask mandate along with a campaign promise to run the government's COVID response better than President Trump, plagiarizing much of Trump's already-done actions and calling them his own.  President Trump hammered Biden on his eternal lockdown plan in the final days of the campaign, and Biden retreated a little, denying he vowed no such thing.  But once he was convinced he won, he came out full bore for national mask-wearing again, along with obedience to science and government officials.  Now that Thanksgiving is on, nobody's listening.

Will Thanksgiving Mark The Beginning Of The Lockdown Resistance?  A country that's about to observe a holiday in which we express appreciation for our unique American blessings appears ready to shrug off the chains of petty tyrants.  For that, we give thanks.  Governors in, most infamously, California, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota, but also other states, have told constituents to limit their celebrations and travel.  They might not in every case have specifically cited Thanksgiving.  But it's obvious that the nagging has accelerated because of the holiday.  It's just as obvious that, after more than eight months of various lockdowns, some Americans have had enough.  In an unmistakable rebuke to Andrew Cuomo, sheriffs in New York have said they won't be enforcing the governor's 10-person limit at private gatherings.  Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo, for instance, said he didn't "see how devoting our resources to counting cars in citizens' driveways or investigating how much turkey and dressing they've purchased is for the public good." Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard has promised he will do what the busybody governor refuses to do and that is "respect the sanctity of your home."

It's a pathetic country in which freedom requires a license.
'Freedom Pass, Please': Boris to Introduce Covid Passports as More Lockdowns Loom.  The British government will reportedly introduce "freedom passes" and specialised passport certificates to people who have tested negative for the Chinese coronavirus, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce further regional lockdown restrictions following the end of the latest national lockdown in December.  The British prime minister will outline his plans for further localised lockdown restrictions on Monday, as well as a plan to introduce mass testing, in what the government is describing as a roadmap to some sort of normality next year.

Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!  King Newsom Issues Thanksgiving Directives.  California's Governor Gavin Newsom has recently re-upped the COVID totalitarianism he thrust upon the Golden State earlier this year, but this time he's banning Thanksgiving gatherings.  Oh, and the rules don't apply to him.  Ahead of Thanksgiving, California banned gatherings that include people from over three households and mandated that all gatherings be held outside.  The same rules mandate that everyone stay six feet apart, wear a mask and that everyone must be washing their hands "frequently," whatever that means.  Any holiday gatherings must also be "two hours or less," according to Emperor Newsom.  These rules include a stipulation suggesting whisper-singing, if one must sing.  As well as cloth coverings over the sound holes of wind instruments, if one must play a wind instrument at such a gathering.  Clarinet masks.  "Singing, chanting, shouting, cheering, playing of wind instruments and similar activities are not permitted in indoor gatherings," which are only allowed, but still strongly discouraged, for counties outside of the "purple tier."

Pennsylvania bans alcohol sales at bars and restaurants on Thanksgiving eve.  Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ordered restaurants and bars to halt the sale of alcohol on the evening before Thanksgiving to try and mitigate possible upticks in coronavirus cases.  According to KDKA of Pittsburgh, Wolf cited Thanksgiving eve as the "biggest day for drinking" and said the one-night ban is necessary despite the hard economic hit the service industry has taken from the pandemic.  "The thing that we can't do is ignore reality and say, 'Yeah, you folks, for no fault of your own, have been hit hardest by this virus.'  But the virus is what's doing this.  It's not me.  It's not the administration.  It's not the government," Wolf, a Democrat, said.

The Editor says...
The Governor blames Covid for the unpopular decision to stop the sale of alcohol on Wednesday.  It is a small man who tries to hide behind a virus.

PA's Democrat Gov Orders Statewide Alcohol Sales Ban Right Before Thanksgiving.  [Scroll down]  This bit is worth reading again, for the sheer hubris:  "But the virus is what's doing this.  It's not me.  It's not the administration.  It's not the government."  An authoritarian is only doing what's best for you, citizens.  Amazingly, this isn't the first time during the China flu pandemic that a PA official has ordered alcohol sales suspended.  Would you be surprised if I told you Allegheny County (which includes Pittsburgh) banned alcohol sales the weekend before Fourth of July?  At that time, the county led the commonwealth with 100 new cases a day.  That's right, 100.  But why would their top health official order something for all of PA that was ordered back in July for one county, if it worked so well the first time?  And why does the governor make noises like he's sorry restaurants and bars are hanging on by their fingernails.  But, never mind that, because reasons.

NY Dems Busted at Packed Indoor Birthday Party Without Masks, Their Reaction to Being Caught Tells Us Everything.  We're seeing some states now really cracking down on renewed Wuhan coronavirus rules especially places with crazy Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom in California and Andrew Cuomo in New York. [...] But we saw Gavin Newsom get nailed with several people at a birthday party at the French Laundry without masks despite his edicts.  He was even accompanied by top doctors from the California Medical Association — the group responsible for advising Newsom on virus restrictions.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo also has dropped Thanksgiving rules, telling people they should have a small dinner with only the people in their own household and no more than ten people.

This is War.  We are at war with enemies of liberty, domestic and foreign.  Domestic enemies are now pressing relentlessly. [...] In the name of public health, our churches, synagogues, businesses, and schools suffer shutdowns at the whim of petty tyrants like Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio.  Tens of millions of Americans are injured as a result.  All of us have been injured by degrees in assaults on our God-given rights.  We've been forced to wear masks to "stop the spread," but, in fact, to compel subservience.

Could Today's COVID Surge have been Avoided?  [Scroll down]  What if after the initial wave of cases last spring we protected the vulnerable and let everyone else live their lives, attending school, church, family gatherings, and so on?  What if testing was only performed when a physician deemed it necessary?  What if the media and politicians did not obsess over case counts, death counts, and Trump's tweets on a daily basis?  Could we have reached "herd immunity" by now?  That is the only way viral pandemics end, when enough people have been infected or vaccinated that there are not enough susceptible for the virus to infect.  Vaccines, despite "Operation Warp Speed," take time to develop, proving both safety and efficacy, earning FDA approval. [...] Viruses die off in the heat and sunshine, both of which were abundant in the summer.  Could we have been encouraged people to be out and about, passively spreading the virus, which has a death rate of a fraction of a percent among the general population, getting the country closer to herd immunity?

Pay £120 to reduce quarantine to five days:  Travellers arriving in the UK are told they can buy test and will be free if they are negative.  Quarantine for UK arrivals could be scrapped altogether early in the New Year, Grant Shapps said today - as he announced that the self-isolation period will be slashed to five days next month.  From December 15 travellers will be able to pay around £120 for a private Covid test in order to reduce their time in limbo from two weeks.  Under the government's 'test to release' plan, those who are negative will immediately be free to go about their normal lives.

AstraZeneca Reports COVID-19 Vaccine [is] up to 90 Percent Effective.  Trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca CCP virus vaccine showed it had an efficacy rate of between 62 percent and 90 percent depending on dosage combinations, researchers announced on Monday [11/23/2020].  The vaccine was 62 percent effective at preventing CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus infections when patients were given two full doses one month apart, but up to 90 percent effective when given a half dose followed by a full dose one month later, AstraZeneca said in a statement.  The trial, which consisted of over 23,000 volunteers from the UK and Brazil, gave half the volunteers the AZD 1222 vaccine and the other half a placebo.  Global trials involving countries such as the United States, Japan, and Russia, are expected to eventually involve up to 60,000 volunteers.

7 Things That Used to Be "Crazy Conspiracy Theories" Until 2020 Happened.  [#3] Mandatory GPS tracking of humans:  "Don't be silly.  Nobody is actually tracking you with your phone.  You're not Jason Bourne."  Whoops.  2020 proved that was a lie when they rolled out contact tracing apps to make sure you didn't breathe the same air as somebody who got a positive COVID test.  Not only do sick or potentially sick people need to worry about being phoned or questioned by contact tracers, but there's also a whole new world of dystopian technology being rapidly developed. [...] [#6] Mandatory vaccines:  Remember back when nobody thought that adults would ever be forced to take vaccines except for "crazy conspiracy theorists?"  Well, that day is coming sooner than many people expect.  A much-heralded COVID vaccine could be rolled out in a matter of days.  Pfizer and BioNTech have both concluded Phase 3 of rushing their jabs to market.  There are still many, many questions.

CEO Of Waffle House Slams Lockdowns, Won't Shut Down Unless Absolutely Necessary.  While many states and cities across America are experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases and shutting down for the second round of lockdowns, forcing many businesses to once again shut their doors the CEO of Waffle House Walt Ehmer is not too keen on having to shut his business.  Currently, all but two of the Southern breakfast food chain's 1,920 locations across the country are still open and allowing for inside dining, Business Insider reported.

WHO Director Dr. Tedros Moves the COVID-19 Goalposts Right Off the Playing Field.  There is a new movement afoot.  Even though Operation Warp Speed has delivered two highly effective vaccines and several very promising therapeutics, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), wants you to know it won't really change anything in response to COVID-19.  His Twitter statement defies the management of any virus, ever.  And it only works if you believe COVID-19 is some super-virus that behaves in a way fundamentally different from all other viruses, even other coronaviruses.  There is no science to support that.  Remember when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said we could never reopen until we had an effective vaccine?  Now that is not even good enough.

Study: Asymptomatic and secondary infected individuals do not infect others.  A new study published in the journal Nature has found that people who are either asymptomatic or undergoing a secondary illness of COVID-19 are simply not infectious, and don't give the virus to others.  In other words, it appears that the only time people can infect others is when they have the virus for the first time, and only when they are symptomatic.  Lock downs and the use of masks by the healthy accomplish nothing.  All you need to do is quarantine the symptomatic patient, as human societies have been doing for centuries and centuries.  To once again emphasize this point, wearing masks if you are healthy and not sick protects no one.  Social distancing if you are not sick protects no one.  Shutting down businesses, such as reducing capacities at restaurants so they can't make a profit, protects no one.  Curfews protect no one.  When you see someone on a hiking trail, it is not necessary to run ten feet off the trail, put a mask on, and bow your head away in fear and terror of that other person.  That they are on the trail guarantees they are not sick.  They can't infect you.  And that you are there also means you can't infect them.  Burn the mask.  Smile.  Live like a human again.  And most of all, stop being afraid all the time.

Nevada Democrat Governor Calls New Mandates 'Statewide Pause'.  Lockdowns and mandates and curfews, oh my.  Americans are losing their civil liberties at an alarming rate, being handed down by political leadership that does not practice what they preach.  Over the weekend, Nevada's Democrat Governor Steve Sisolak wrapped the civil liberties infringement orders in a tight little bow and titled it a 'statewide pause.'  That 'pause' will occur for at least three weeks.  On Sunday, Sisolak tweeted, "As of today, 13 of 17 of our counties are flagged for elevated risk of transmission.  In the beginning of October, only 2 counties were flagged.  Our statewide positivity rate is at a record 16.5 percent, and as I mentioned, we've surpassed 2,000 deaths."

National Guard Deployed To El Paso As Morgues Are Overwhelmed By COVID-19 Deaths.  The Texas National Guard has been deployed to El Paso to help manage the number of bodies at morgues due to the coronavirus pandemic.  El Paso is a hot spot with a spike in cases.  The border city has received the help of a 36-member team from the Texas National Guard to help out in the morgues.  The Texas National Guard team replaces jail inmates who were being used, volunteers who helped move bodies.  In El Paso, 855 people have died since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, 300 since October.  Local leaders are offering increased pay to try and recruit more morgue workers.  Temporary morgue assistants are being offered $27.20 an hour to move bodies, which is both physically and emotionally taxing work.  Public notices are being posted with a job description.

Utah hospitals have begun informal rationing of care, doctors say, as they cope with surge of COVID-19 patients.  With a combination of luck, new hires and creative reorganizing of staff and patients, Utah's hospitals haven't had to eject anyone from intensive care units due to the coronavirus.  But several doctors say the solutions still amount to rationing, with the quality of care deteriorating as hospitals are stretched thinner and thinner.  And with record numbers of new patients being admitted every day, they say the breaking point is all but inevitable.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown urges residents to call cops on shutdown violators.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown wants residents to call the police on their neighbors over violations of the state's latest coronavirus shutdown, which includes a six-person limit on in-home gatherings.  The temporary "freeze," which went into effect Wednesday, restricts indoor at-home and social gatherings to six people from no more than two households, with no exceptions for Thanksgiving dinner get-togethers.  In a Friday [11/20/2020] virtual interview with KGW-TV, Ms. Brown agreed that Oregonians should contact authorities if they see their neighbors hosting more than six people.

Also posted under Snitch on your neighbor.

Andy's Emmy and Other Misguided Awards.  Remember Andrew?  He's the guy who celebrated late-term abortion by illuminating the World Trade Center with pink lights.  Now, after failing to protect the Empire State from a virus he prides himself on handling like a boss, Hollywood's International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, "in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world," granted an Emmy Award to Andrew Cuomo.  Even though upwards of 34,000 deceased NY residents occupy newly dug graves, in honor of that sort of exemplary leadership a shiny gold statue is destined for the Albany mantle of the governor's mansion.

Anti-lockdown protesters rally outside Minnesota governor's home.  Demonstrators rallied outside the Minnesota Governor's Residence in St. Paul on November 21, to protest measures enacted by Gov Tim Walz to limit the spread of the coronavirus.  Organizers of the so-called 'Stuff your mandate protest' said they were "protesting the unconstitutional mandate" enforced on the state's citizens.  Footage from Tucker Luskey shows protesters outside the front gate singing The Star-Spangled Banner, followed by chants of "let us work," "open schools," and "no more masks."  Many protesters are seeing with pro-Trump flags and clothing.

Covid Hypocrisy is the Least of it.  Gavin Newsom's infamous dinner with lobbyists at the French Laundry is the latest example of a political leader who prescribes rules for the rest of us, and then flouts them himself.  We have seen this over and over again, as Karol Markowicz reminds us (via InstaPundit.)  She cites many examples of our supposed betters who hector us to wear masks, social distance, close down our businesses, avoid restaurants, associate with no one outside our immediate families, and so on, but who wouldn't dream of limiting their own lives in such fashion.  Is this hypocritical?  Of course.  But that isn't the most important point.  The real significance of politicians flouting their own rules is that it shows they know those rules are unnecessary or useless.  Take the case of Governor Newsom's ritzy dinner.

China [is] now blaming Italy for starting [the] Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.  Now that the election is over, and the media is portraying Biden as the "President Elect" despite looming legal challenges by President Donald Trump, China appears to be looking to lay blame elsewhere for the coronavirus pandemic.  That way, the nation can come in and resume its American-prosperity-draining relationship with what the Chinese hope to be a more friendly administration without the taint of initiating a series of biological release response actions to a new pathogen that guaranteed the virus would circuit the globe.

Big Botherer — Ben Garrison Cartoon.  All countries have sociopathic predators who crave political power.  It's a drug to them.  Our Founding Fathers knew this and so they designed a government with checks and balances to help thwart the power-hungry.

NY Business Owner Stands Up To Cuomo's COVID Gestapo, Chases Out Sheriff And Health Inspector.  It was an angry atmosphere inside the Athletes Unleashed gym in Orchard Park Friday night as a group of concerned business owners and citizens were gathering to discuss the current COVID restrictions on certain businesses.  Tim Walton attended the meeting that began at around 7 pm Friday and tells WBEN there were more than 100 people attending the meeting inside the gym.  In a press release and blog post, Walton says the Erie County Sheriff's Department and Health Department entered the facility and confronted the gathering, telling them they were in violation of the limit to mass gatherings of no more than ten.  [Video clip]

Take a Wild Guess Why Cuomo Is Receiving an Emmy Award.  Cuomo is beyond hypocritical.  He has a book out about being a leader during COVID... while the pandemic is still going on.  Cuomo is receiving an award for his leadership... while the pandemic is still taking place.  Oh, and he's being recognized for his leadership decisions when he irresponsibly forced nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients.  Aren't awards supposed to applaud people for good things?

Gathering at Orchard Park gym turns confrontational as health inspector arrives.  A gathering of about 50 business owners and their supporters inside an Orchard Park gym shut down by Covid-19 restrictions turned into a confrontation with Erie County authorities Friday night.  The owner of the gym, Athletes Unleashed on California Road, described the gathering as a protest of the state's "orange zone" regulations that have closed gyms, salons and other businesses deemed nonessential.  No one was cited and no arrests were made, according to two people who attended, but video of the incident shows an Erie County health inspector accompanied by three sheriff's deputies arriving about 20 minutes after the gathering began.

If We Want People To Accept A COVID-19 Vaccine, We Should Stop Lying To Them About The Disease.  [Scroll down]  While the coronavirus is highly infectious, the death rate is extremely low (depending on age, country of treatment, and pre-existing conditions) and appears to be falling even lower.  For smallpox it was a stunning 30%, and survivors were often left with horrible scars.  This introduces a problem unique to the Covid-19 vaccine, no matter who makes it, the technology behind it, or how long it takes.  Many people have lost faith in what governments, non-governmental health officials, and the media have told us about coronavirus in general.  Despite the steady stream of slogans like "We're all in this together" we are all by now long aware that young people with no pre-existing conditions are at almost no risk of severe illness.  This notwithstanding the media's desperate effort to comb through every obituary and local news story on the planet for possible exceptions.

Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs.  Asymptomatic people who are infected with Covid-19 exhibit, by definition, no discernible physical symptoms of the disease.  They are thus less likely to seek out testing for the virus, and could unknowingly spread the infection to others.  But it seems those who are asymptomatic may not be entirely free of changes wrought by the virus.  MIT researchers have now found that people who are asymptomatic may differ from healthy individuals in the way that they cough.  These differences are not decipherable to the human ear.  But it turns out that they can be picked up by artificial intelligence.  In a paper published recently in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, the team reports on an AI model that distinguishes asymptomatic people from healthy individuals through forced-cough recordings, which people voluntarily submitted through web browsers and devices such as cellphones and laptops.

Left Attacks Scott Atlas For Saying Same Things About COVID As The New York Times, Six Months Earlier.  The evidence continues to accrue that the dominant policies sold to mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak were catastrophically wrong, yet those who pointed this out early on continue to be reputationally crucified by media and Democrat elites.  A premiere case in point is White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Scott Atlas, who has been making science-based arguments against locking down healthy people since the earliest months of the pandemic.  Because he has courageously presented evidence that gums up the media's goal of ending Trump's presidency by using coronavirus to punish Americans, the knives have been out for the views Atlas represents since the beginning.

What they Don't tell you about Covid.  With the nation's health at stake, it was revealed this week that GCHQ has embedded a team in Downing Street to provide Boris Johnson with real-time updates to combat the 'emerging and changing threat' posed by Covid-19.  The intelligence analysts will sift through vast amounts of data to ensure the Prime Minister has the most up-to-date information on the spread of the virus.  But what exactly should Mr Johnson be looking for? [...] Are hospitals close to full capacity?  The answer is 'no' — contrary to what the Government experts would have you think after they last month published a chart that gave the impression that hospitals were close to overflowing, when at least half didn't have a single Covid-19 patient.  Currently, only 13 percent of NHS beds are occupied by patients with Covid-19.

Los Angeles Area Sheriffs Refuses To Enforce Gov. Newsom's Ridiculous Coronavirus Curfew.  Less than a week after the Sacramento County Sheriff announced that his office would not be enforcing California Gov. Gavin Newsom's COVID curfew, more departments followed suit.  In fact, most law enforcement agencies in southern California have indicated that they have no intention of looking for people violating the curfew.  Reporter Bill Melugin with Fox's Los Angeles affiliate, KTTV-11, posted a series of tweets announcing that a slew of sheriff's offices have told the news outlet they will not enforce Newsom's orders.

Shutdown Blues.  Today the latest shutdown order by Governor Tim Walz took effect in Minnesota.  COVID cases have been rising across the Upper Midwest, so our "emergency" continues.  This time, the shutdown applies to restaurants, bars, gyms and youth sports. [...] The current shutdown has several noteworthy features.  First is the fact that it does not apply to retail establishments.  Last Spring, Governor Walz decreed that small businesses must close down while big businesses (Target, Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Total Wine) remained open.  As a result, thousands of small businesses were devastated, and many went bankrupt.  The Walz administration has now stated that retail establishments are not a source of COVID spread.  So, sorry about that, small businesspeople.  And one wonders:  what was the scientific basis for the retail shutdown last Spring?  Obviously, there wasn't one.  Second, there is no significant empirical basis for the current restaurant and bar shutdown, either.

Our hypocritical leaders refuse to obey their own COVID-19 rules.  Wearing a mask is important.  For you and those around you.  For elected officials?  Not so much.  Actually, all the COVID rules are for us, not them.  COVID-19, and the accompanying lockdowns, have made it painfully clear:  We plebes have to follow the rules; the elites do not.  Start with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last week groveled for forgiveness after being caught attending a large birthday dinner at The French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley.  When pictures from the event surfaced, the hypocrisy was glaring:  The governor was seen with his wife at a large table full of maskless lobbyists, all sitting in close proximity.  But, hey:  You're not the governor — so if you want to celebrate Thanksgiving in his state, remember:  "No more than three households, including your own," at the gathering, and keep your distance.

More New Research Shows Only Those With Symptoms Spread COVID-19. Masks School Closings & Lockdowns Couldn't Have Been More Pointless.  [Scroll down]  But it wasn't just the blind eye turned to all the misery, hardship, and death lockdowns were sure to cause.  The benefits accrued were just as purely theoretical as the catastrophic consequences were inexorably real.  Indeed, the idea that lockdowns were going to accomplish anything at all depended on a number of assumptions there was every reason to think were false!  For one thing, there was never a shred of scientific evidence that putting healthy people in quarantine would do anything to ameliorate the spread of COVD-19.  Moreover, everything we knew about viruses made the idea of quarantining people who aren't sick completely absurd.  Even the CDC's most recent pandemic planning guide from 2017 admitted that "direct evidence for the effectiveness of these measures is limited."  And by "limited" they meant non-existent.  There wasn't a single study that supports the idea that quarantining healthy people was going to do [anything] to stop a virus from spreading.

Lockdowns Are Serial Killers.  End them Now.  We are constantly told by our political leaders and the compliant media that a pandemic lockdown is absolutely necessary if we are ever to defeat the COVID virus.  Mask mandates, quarantine camps, self-isolating, limited sociability, the stoking of public fear and panic, the shuttering of businesses and the attendant cratering of the economy have become, once again, the false solution to a politically ginned-up crisis — déjà vu all over again.  The trouble is:  none of this works, none of this is necessary.  Texas Tech professor Gilbert Berdine sums up:  "After taking the unprecedented economic depression into account, history will likely judge these lockdowns to be the greatest policy error of this generation."

Americans, like the famous downtrodden worm, are starting to turn.  We've all noticed that, thanks to the Wuhan virus, the rich have gotten richer.  By trapping people in their homes and destroying small business, Democrat governments have allowed oligarchs such as Bezos, Zuckerburg, and Gates, to increase their wealth by exponential amounts.  What's flown under the radar, though, is that for many months, government employees and politicians haven't shared the people's pain.  In Buffalo, New York, beleaguered business owners finally had enough.  Conservative publications have focused heavily on the fact that leftist cities used the overdose death of an ex-felon as an excuse to "reimagine" policing by destroying it.  However, there doesn't seem to have been the same fallout for those government employees charged with enforcing the lockdowns.  Around the world, they are still employed and extremely powerful.

Australian officials say massive COVID lockdown was based on false claim from pizza worker.  Officials in the Australian state of South Australia are claiming that the state's recent COVID-19 lockdown was precipitated by a false statement from a pizza worker.  The state ordered its roughly 1.8 million residents to stay home and indoors after health authorities deduced that an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 had contracted the virus after a brief visit to a pizza restaurant.  Officials were concerned that the strain of the virus was extremely contagious given the ease with which the subject reportedly caught it.  However, the man in question was actually an employee of the restaurant, not a patron, and he had caught COVID-19 after working alongside another individual who was positive for it.

The perfect test group for the COVID vaccine.  Assuming that the vaccine is perfect... that it's exactly the antidote to the COVID poison...  obviously it would be delivered to medical personnel, first responders, and the elderly or otherwise ill.  But what if it is far less than perfect?  Do we still give it to these same people and risk their health in a different way?  Is this why there has been some talk about delivering it to third-world nations first?  Is someone looking to use black and brown people around the world as a mass group of guinea pigs? [...] I have 535 test candidates for the first round in mind right now.  Make that 537.  Our esteemed senators, congressman and so-called president-elect and vice president-elect should be the first ones to get poked.  After all, they are "essential," aren't they?  Once that wave is finished, the next ought to be every employee of any media corporation that has a regular seat in the White House Press Room.

From Ruling Class to Oligarchy.  [Scroll down]  When the coronavirus hit, Americans did not realize how thoroughly their ruling class had already jelled into an oligarchy with the intention above all to crush them.  Neither did they comprehend how assuredly it would not waste this opportunity to do so.  Tragically led astray by Donald Trump's misplaced faith in the objectivity of "the experts," personified by Dr. Anthony Fauci, conservatives were persuaded to respond to an epidemic with an infection/fatality rate comparable to the average flu as if it were the plague.  But even plagues, once endemic, follow ineluctable courses through populations.  Thus, by following the ignorant promise of safety through masks, etc. did conservatives at first agree to suspend face-to-face relationships.  They suffered to disarticulate social life even more than economic life, to put aside one's friends and God.  They agreed to restrict their understanding of things to what the mass media would allow them to hear.  They did all of this even as evidence mounted that the "experts" were nothing but agents of the oligarchy.

Cuomo Suggests Sheriffs Who Don't Enforce 10-Person Thanksgiving Limit Should Be Decertified.  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted county sheriffs who are refusing to barge into people's homes to break up gatherings of more than 10 people, arguing that his executive order limiting the size of private gatherings is the equivalent of law.  Cuomo said the sheriffs who have vowed to ignore the mandate he issued last week are "arrogant" and "frightening to democracy," the Democrat & Chronicle reported.  The governor claimed that his executive order is no different than a codified law, and that he issued it in order to force people to stop the "living room spread" of the novel coronavirus.

Irony Abounds As The Left Politicizes The Coronavirus.  [Scroll down]  States such as California are under near-complete lockdown.  Draconian measures will abbreviate Thanksgiving gatherings in a way unprecedented in U.S. history.  Yet elites such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have violated the quarantines they have endorsed.  Following the media announcement that Joe Biden would likely become president, crowds swarmed into the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles.  They violated every state mandate requiring masks and social distancing.  Authorities did nothing — just as they had done nothing during the summer-long protesting and rioting.  Apparently, some outdoor gatherings were correct; others, not so much.  A similar warping of science accompanied news about the possible rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 reinfection unlikely for at least six months, study finds.  People who've had COVID-19 are highly unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after their first infection, according to a British study of healthcare workers on the frontline of fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Lockdown Addicts.  Biden and other leaders claim to be following "the science," but that obviously doesn't include the research showing the high costs and low benefits of lockdowns and school closures.  Closing schools was a dubious move in the spring, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that it would likely do little to stem the pandemic (and noted that school closings in other countries had failed to make a discernible impact).  Today it makes even less sense in light of the accumulated evidence.

Tell Us Again... Why Was Mail-in Voting So Important?  [Scroll down]  The effort to shift from in-person voting to mail-in voting was never about protecting citizens from COVID-19.  In April, Wisconsin conducted their primary elections with virtually no mail-in voting and over 400,000 folks voted in-person.  COVID-19 cases actually declined in the following weeks.  People can vote safely in person by following the masking and social-distancing guidelines; this fact has been obvious for months.  It worked in Wisconsin, and it apparently worked in Florida two weeks ago.  What was the motivation then, of the discouragement, and in some cases prohibition of in-person voting?  Was it done so that government officials could appear prudent and concerned in the eyes of their constituents?  Maybe.  Was it done for more nefarious reasons, perhaps to facilitate voter fraud?  We don't know for sure, and we may never know.

The Left's Utter Nonsense.  I'm at the end of my cooperative, benefit-of-the-doubt tether. [...] I have been asked to accept one too many ridiculous things.  We are being asked to believe that a miniscule speck of protein, just because it has the audacity to set up temporary housekeeping in the human body, can determine whether or not I get to see my children and grandchildren at Thanksgiving.  We are supposed to believe that a mask can keep such a critter away from us when we know that it's too small to be dissuaded by mere cloth.  We're expected to buy into the idea that six feet of separation will thwart this shred of RNA.  Why not five and half feet?  Why not 12 feet?  Do we have any clear idea how far this thing can travel?  No.  And even worse, we're supposed to accept without question any statistics spouted by any government mouthpiece as if statistics can't be used to tell damnable lies.

Governors Cancelling Thanksgiving in Favor of Misery.  [Scroll down]  It started with "15 days to slow the spread" back in March.  Americans dutifully stayed home and washed our hands, as government experts told us.  Did we slow the spread or exacerbate it?  A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that draconian quarantine measures with strict social distancing and constant mask wearing did not stop the spread of COVID in their study population of Marine recruits.  These measures may have actually exacerbated the spread of COVID as the control group of non-participants had almost half the rate of COVID positivity at the end of the study compared to those under strict rules.  But our governors and health experts know better.  Safety measures they imposed on us for months worked so well that nine months into the pandemic, COVID is still not under control.  Or at least positive tests are not. [...] Most of America suffers COVID fatigue and now we are being told to get used to our new normal.

COVID-19 is getting less deadly.  The Swedish COVID-19 statistics, as published by Worldometer, suggest that COVID is simultaneously becoming more communicable and less deadly.  To see the latest, check out the Daily New Cases and the Daily Deaths on the Worldometer webpage for Sweden.  Daily New Cases are rising, suggesting that the disease is getting more communicable.  Meanwhile, Daily New Deaths are falling, suggesting that the disease is getting less deadly.  These results are not surprising to those who know about The Evolution of Virulence in infectious diseases.

The Editor says...
The number of new cases is used to justify new lockdowns and restrictions, while the declining number of deaths is ignored.

Rand Paul:  New coronavirus lockdowns are 'completely arbitrary'.  Kentucky Senator Rand Paul slammed the coronavirus lockdowns Thursday on FOX Business for distracting from the one thing that actually works: vaccines.  "Let's hope, in this case, the courts will intervene," Paul said of the new statewide lockdowns, adding, "I've been calling my governor for months, DWP, drunk with power, because he's taken this power without any consent from the legislature."  "They're completely arbitrary," he said of the lockdowns.  "They're not based on any kind of science.  There is really very little objective science to prove that any of this works."  While commenting on mask mandates, Paul, an eye doctor, said the data shows that cloth masks objectively don't work.

The return of lockdown lunacy.  In the wake of rising numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, as many states, notably those run by Democrats, are going back toward economic lockdowns.  They include New York, Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, California, and Washington.  Those like California and Washington have considered full shutdowns.  This means lockdowns of schools, churches, businesses, restaurants, and office buildings.  California Governor Gavin Newsom even issued orders on how to celebrate Thanksgiving with no singing, no laughing, and no more than ten people at the table.  Who thinks of these unrealistic edicts?  Much more worrisome is the discussion from the transition team of Joe Biden over a national lockdown that could last several weeks.

Great video of all the bad things Dr. Fauci told President Trump to do.  Democrats and their new president, Joe Biden, continually told Donald Trump to follow the doctors' and scientists' advice on COVID. He did that.  The Democrat hero at the time was Dr. Fauci.  Democrats aren't taking as much credit for him now as they once did.  And, Joe didn't appoint him to his COVID team.  Yet, all we heard for months was Trump isn't listening to Fauci, where's Fauci, did he fire Fauci?  Wonder why they don't rely on Fauci now.  [Video clip]

Experts: Tens of thousands of nursing home residents died from neglect and 'despair' during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Experts found that tens of thousands of people in nursing homes "have died from neglect and sorrow related to the pandemic," according to an eye-opening report from the Associated Press.  The report stated that there have been more than 97,000 residents of U.S. nursing homes who have died during the coronavirus pandemic.  A nursing home expert analyzed 15,000 U.S. long-term care facilities and estimates that for every two coronavirus victims in nursing homes, there is a person who died prematurely of other causes.  The report stated that the "excess deaths" in nursing homes could total over 40,000 since March.

Three ways the COVID hospital data is being inflated.  In George Washington's republic, the contours of fundamental rights and the scope of governmental authority were defined by natural law and the Constitution.  In Anthony Fauci's new America, those rights and powers are defined by coronavirus case and hospitalization data.  As such, if hospitalizations are to be the new Constitution, shouldn't we at least demand answers about misleading data being used to impose an authoritarian and deleterious lifestyle on us?  Putting aside the fact that these lockdown measures don't work to stop the spread of the virus, are we even measuring the spread properly?  In addition to governors failing to provide historical context to the current hospital levels compared to flu seasons, there are several other recent factors inflating the numbers.

Man dies after falling 10 feet from a ladder.  Doctors declare COVID-19 killed him.  A 51-year-old Croatian man is dead after falling from a 10-foot ladder — but medical experts at the Journal of Forensic Pathology reported that COVID-19 killed him.  According to a Thursday report from the New York Post, the man — a construction worker — fell from the ladder while working at a job site in Croatia.  He was declared dead at the scene and was discovered with cuts and bruises to the head, but doctors performing an autopsy determined that COVID-19 caused the accident because "effects of the illness were disorienting."

New York school shutdown angers parents as gyms, bars stay open.  New York's public schools closed Thursday, sparking debate over whether the measure will help fend off a second coronavirus wave when classroom transmission is low and non-essential businesses remain open.  While European countries have so far kept schools open, focusing instead on shutting down indoor dining, bars and gyms, America's most populous city has taken the opposite approach.

[Mayor] de Blasio Has Sent Spies With High Power Lenses Into Jewish Neighborhoods To Catch Them Congregating.  These two New York City workers were caught taking photos with high power lenses of Jewish apartments to catch them congregating in apartments.  Indoor gatherings in New York are limited to 10 people max and masks must be worn at all times.  This comes only a month after Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted he and his administration should have done a better job of communicating the dangers of the coronavirus to the city's Orthodox Jewish communities.  de Blasio [has] caught heat for singling out the Jewish community in a tweet about people who are not following the city's social distancing rules earlier this year.  [Video clip]

Here's where NorCal law enforcement stands on COVID-19 curfew.  Law enforcement agencies released statements Thursday in response to California's new COVID-19 public health orders and enforcement of the order.  Officials made the announcements the same day California health officials ordered a "limited" curfew, which will be in place from Saturday to Dec. 21.  The new stay-at-home order stops nonessential travel from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in counties in the purple COVID-19 tier.

NY Governor "Furious" That Cops Won't Enforce His Thanksgiving Crackdown.  On Tuesday [11/17/2020], we covered the news of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's edict stating that no more than ten people could gather in private residences for Thanksgiving and the response he received from numerous law enforcement agencies around the state.  To put it kindly, none of the police departments or sheriffs were enthusiastic about taking on the job.  To put it more bluntly, a lot of them flatly refused, pointing out the impossible scope of even attempting such a task.  The Governor was asked about that response in a press conference yesterday and it's obvious that his famously short temper had gotten the better of him again.

Huh?  The virus only spreads at night?
Gov. Newsom announces COVID curfew for California.  Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced a limited curfew designed to curtail the nighttime movements of more than 90% of Californians, the state's latest attempt to slow a rapid surge of COVID-19 cases.  The new rule largely mirrors the March stay-at-home order that was the nation's first to shut down much of the economy, except for one major detail:  It's only applicable at night.  Starting Saturday, the vast majority of Californians are asked to avoid gathering with other households from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.  Restaurants must close at 10, with the exception of takeout and delivery.  But grocery stores and other essential businesses can remain open, and Californians can pick up a carton of milk or walk the dog late at night with others in their households without violating the order.

New Study:  Wearing Masks Does Not Prevent Spread of COVID-19.  An accurate survey requires 2,000 participants.  This Danish study saw over 6,000 people participate.  Therefore, there's a good chance it is highly accurate.  That being said, that stupid mask you have to wear everywhere you go is decidedly useless.  Pass the word.

Danish study finds face masks provide limited protection to wearer.  A Danish study released on Wednesday found face masks provide the wearer with only limited protection against COVID-19 infection, but said this should not be used to argue against their widespread use to prevent people infecting others.  In the study, which was carried out in April and May when Danish authorities did not recommend wearing face masks, 6,024 adults were divided into two groups, one wearing face masks and one control group.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest.  Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning "conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin" was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.  The emails obtained via public records requests show that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the Lancet statement, and that he intended it to "not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person" but rather to be seen as "simply a letter from leading scientists". Daszak wrote that he wanted "to avoid the appearance of a political statement".

Greg Abbott Says No Further Lockdowns are Coming to Texas.  If Texans are worried about a second lockdown coming to the state, then they can rest easy as Governor Greg Abbott has promised that no new lockdown measures will be taken, even as cases in Texas rise.  "We are not going to have any more lockdowns in the state of Texas," Abbott said during a radio interview with Dallas's Mark Davis on Thursday [11/19/2020].  "Our focal point is gonna be working to heal those who have COVID," he added, "get them out of hospitals quickly, make sure they get back to their normal lives."  This focus on quickly treating COVID-19 positive patients and getting them back to their normal lives means certain medications being distributed to hospitals.  Abbott tweeted last Friday that bamlanivmab will be distributed across the states to medical facilities at no cost to patients.

Gavin Newsom's apology for flouting his mask and social distancing regs make him the most obvious liar since Joe Isuzu.  I am enjoying the squirming of Nancy Pelosi's nephew, California Governor Gavin Newsom, now that he has been exposed as completely disregarding the COVID guidelines he is trying to force 40 million Californians to follow.  The very same man who told us that when dining out we should put a mask on in-between bites, that we should have no more than 10 people (from no more than 3 households) at our outdoor Thanksgiving celebrations was spotted and photographed violating all of his strictures on the rest of us.  Even worse, the party was held at The French Laundry, one of the fanciest and most famous restaurants in the world.  And it was a 50th birthday party for one of his old friends, who just happens to be a lobbyist.  Also in attendance:  The CEO and chief lobbyist of the California Medical Association, who like Newsom obviously don't believe the mask and social distancing regulations are genuinely important.  You've probably seen the utterly phony "apology" he made to Californians at a press conference.  But take a good look at his smiles as he lies like a Persian rug.  He seems to think that the rubes, who are expected to give up their family gatherings at Thanksgiving, are so dumb that they will buy it.

Gavin Newsom Manufactures a COVID Crisis to Make California Miserable Again.  Fresh on the heels of the Sacramento Bee's criticism of Gavin Newsom's multi-family extravaganza at the famous French Laundry, a swanky $350-a-person-before-the-wine-is-ordered restaurant in Yountville, California, and after having his wrist slapped by the state Judiciary for exceeding his constitutional authority in issuing emergency lockdown orders, he's decided that he really doesn't care what the plebs of his state think or what the law says about his executive limitations.  He's locking the state down again.  The reason, as he and the media would have you believe, is that California is experiencing a surge in positive COVID-19 tests, having just crossed the one million mark in cases.  You're supposed to focus on that big, scary number and not Gavin Newsom's blatant hypocrisy or his unlawful executive overreach, and certainly not the many questions swirling about the looming prospect of the Trump legal team's potentially exposing massive election fraud, which could have an enormous impact on the future of our republic.

Rules For Us and Rules For Them.  Of all the quotable lines in George Orwell's Animal Farm, few resonate as much as this one:  "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." [...] That quotation has been referred to often in recent days after Gov. Gavin Newsom — fresh off of issuing a new set of edicts admonishing Californians to dine alone at home and curtail their Thanksgiving celebrations — was caught dining with his wife and 10 other friends at a birthday party for a prominent lobbyist at the French Laundry in Yountville.  It's bad enough for the governor to seemingly violate his own edicts, but to do so in Napa Valley, at one of the nation's toniest restaurants, certainly gave off the wrong vibe.

Don't [Bring California's Problems To] The Rest Of America.  California's political class is widely regarded as among the most corrupt, irresponsible, hypocritical, hard left and incompetent of any comparable group of state politicians in the country, which is saying a lot.  The troubles have been on full display this week.  A week after imposing sweeping new restaurant closures across much of the state and telling Californians not to gather in groups for Thanksgiving, California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted on Monday that he attended a birthday party for an old friend at an ultra-swank Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry.  Never mind that the party for his buddy, himself a lobbyist, also included a bunch of medical industry lobbyists.  The photos show not only more people in attendance than allowed under state guidelines, neither the governor nor his wife were wearing masks.

Party-Poopers at CDC Say We Can't Drink, Sing, or Play Loud Music at Parties During Holidays.  The Centers for Disease Control have issued their guidelines for how to make merry during the holidays, and if it's any indication of how the epidemiologists, researchers, doctors, and bureaucrats let their hair down for Christmas, I'll take a pass.

PA gov announces new COVID rules, including wearing a mask in your house.  Pennsylvania is planning to take additional steps to address a sharp increase in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, including requiring masks to be worn indoors with limited exceptions, officials said Tuesday [11/17/2020].  In addition, starting Friday, anyone who enters Pennsylvania must be tested at least 72 hours before arrival, and if they can or do not get a test, they must quarantine for 14 days.  The order does not apply to people who commute to neighboring states for work or health care, officials said, and will be largely self-enforced.

Prepping for More Lockdowns?  If You're in Florida or Texas, There's No Need.  Are you ready for more shutdowns?  Reports show virus numbers rising, and some governors are cracking down.  But if you're in America's two largest Republican hotbeds, you may not have to worry about singing the shelter-in-place blues.

Justice Alito's speech infuriated the Left, but it was entirely appropriate.  The liberal media meltdown about last week's speech by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is silly and hypocritical.  The speech was not only acceptable but insightful and appropriate. [...] Alito's main point was that the coronavirus pandemic "has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty."  Secondarily, he put that observation in the context of what already are "emerging trends in the assessment of individual rights," such that the First Amendment's free speech and religious liberty rights and the Second Amendment's right to bear arms seem threatened.  Despite how the media reacted, he was not making a value judgment there.  He was actually making a rather uncontroversial, almost inarguable observation.

Reminder:  Joe Biden has no authority until at least January 20, 2021.
COVID 1984: Joe Biden Announces His Absurd Thanksgiving Recommendations for Americans.  With mayors and governors issuing edicts about Thanksgiving celebrations that are unlikely to be followed, it's good to see that the presumptive president-elect is getting on with it, too.  During the question-and-answer portion of a speech delivered Monday in Delaware ostensibly focused on the economy, Joe Biden said he would "suggest five people, maximum 10 people" who have previously quarantined attend Thanksgiving celebrations so "that we're able to be together next Thanksgiving, next Christmas."

Science As God:  Tech Hearing And COVID Show Us Exactly Where Censorship Is Headed.  [Scroll down]  COVID-19 provided the first preview of the new alliance, where even doctors and scientists were censored for carefully — we once said "scientifically" — questioning the alarmists' narrative of the day.  At the same time, Democrats, corporate media, and even corrupt, foreign bodies like the World Health Organization have been permitted to push whatever information supports that day's goal post.  Completely rational appeals are met with absurdities like "the science is decided," as if constantly evolving experimentation in search of knowledge can be bottled into some oracle-like decree to support the mob's latest demand.  Rather than decided science, these decrees are mere hypotheses susceptible to support and opposition, but through the alliance of Democrats, corporate media, and Silicon Valley, they become unquestionable edicts ranging from No Business to Eternal Mask-Wearing to No Family For Thanksgiving.

Sorry Cuomo, we're doing Thanksgiving.  New York governor Andrew Cuomo took the last can of Who-hash by announcing a ban on both indoor and outdoor private gatherings larger than 10 people.  It is just the latest flash of insanity from our nation's leaders in trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it provoked an even larger backlash than usual because it attacks two sacred American institutions:  Thanksgiving and the family.  Cuomo's order is insulting to our intelligence and is disgustingly authoritarian.  COVID science suggests gathering outdoors is relatively safe (it's why so many states have offered restaurants money to winterize their patio dining), yet Cuomo tells families they cannot do it for Turkey Day.  What if you live in a rural area and have a large backyard that makes social distancing possible?  Cuomo's rule offers no such exceptions.  Nor are there exceptions if families are responsible and decided to self-quarantine for a period of time before meeting their relatives for the holidays.  There's something very eerie about the thought of government authorities going door to door and fining people for gathering with their own family members.  It shouldn't be surprising, though, from the same governor that has targeted the Orthodox Jewish community for continuing to hold religious services.

What if the virus that causes COVID was man-made?  The idea that SARS-CoV-2 — the virus which causes COVID-19 — could have man-made origins has been rejected by many scientists, dismissed by some as nothing more than a conspiracy theory.  A different view, however, has been put forward by Rossana Segreto of the University of Innsbruck in association with Yuri Deigin of Canadian genetics company Youthereum Genetics.  In a paper published on Wiley Online, they have again raised the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could indeed be a man-made virus, and that its passage into the human population could be the result of a laboratory accident.  'The artificial creation of SARS-CoV-2 is not a baseless conspiracy theory that is to be condemned,' they write.

More Than 3 Million People [are] Believed [to be] Contagious With COVID-19.  A Columbia University epidemiologist and his colleagues estimate that 3.6 million Americans are infected with the coronavirus, which they are shedding to others.  Dr. Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at the university, created a COVID-19 projection model that shows a 34% week-to-week increase but does not include a potentially equal number of latent infections that are still incubating.  "It's bad; it's really, really bad," Shaman said, according to The Washington Post.  "We're running into Thanksgiving now and that's going to make it worse."  Researchers at the University of Washington also estimated Tuesday that 3.2 million people have been infected since Election Day, Nov. 3, according to their Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, or IHME.  These figures, according to the Post, are much higher than official case counts.

Dems Using COVID to Gain Power, Reset US to Tyranny.  Democrats used the pandemic as an excuse to change the manner of voting in 2020 — and to possibly steal the election.  Now, it's being used to fundamentally change our society, our very beliefs, and traditions.  As President Trump was winding up what was arguably the most successful 4-year presidential term in American history, Democratic politicians latched onto the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to enact universal mail-in voting.  Although they didn't quite get what they wanted, a sufficient number of states promoted vote-by-mail that, when added to other irregularities, a significant number of voters lost confidence in the election results.  Now, they're focused on using the pandemic to finish what the previous administration promised — to fundamentally transform the United States, as well as to answer the call of the Senate minority leader — to change the world.

Pandemic Hoarding:  Shoppers Empty Shelves in Fear of Another COVID-19 Lockdown.  Some shoppers are stocking up on supplies and emptying shelves once again as fears of another coronavirus lockdown rise.  Several retailers in the Bay Area have posted signs warning customers of shortages of paper goods and limiting how much can be purchased.  A business professor said the aisles should not say bare for too long.

Are Pandemic Lockdowns A Dry Run For The 'Climate Crisis'?  Observant and cunning politicians have gone to school since March and are now likely convinced they can use the pretext of a climate emergency to control Americans and break the back of capitalism.  No, we're not likely to see the open-ended lockdowns we're enduring during the coronavirus outbreak.  Those would be too obvious.  Politicians can be sneaky sorts so we expect something more subtle and incremental.  For instance, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who clearly relishes having near absolute control over the most populous state in the country, could issue an executive order next summer which says, beginning in January 2022, all businesses except the few deemed essential must be closed every other Friday, and car travel on those days will be restricted solely to those who can demonstrate an absolute need to be on the roads.  Or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose pandemic lockdown rules have been among the most prohibitive, pointless and imbecilic (and have stoked efforts to impeach her), might decide she has the authority to limit the automobile miles driven each month by Michiganders, ration fuel, and dictate thermostat settings in private homes.

The Right to Worship Even in a Pandemic.  New York's dictatorial governor, Andrew Cuomo, may have met his match.  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to strike down Cuomo's Oct. 6 executive order shutting down "houses of worship" in areas of Brooklyn and Queens, while allowing "essential" businesses, like pet stores, groceries and big-box stores to stay open.  Cuomo insists he's battling COVID-19.  The Diocese says Cuomo's making a value judgment that going to Target is "essential" but taking communion isn't.  Truth is, for devout communicants who are already suffering social isolation during the pandemic, finding the church doors closed can be soul crushing.  Before Cuomo's executive order, churches were already following safety precautions including roping off every other pew, requiring masks and urging social distancing.  The executive order disregarded that and capped attendance at 10 people — even for large churches with a capacity of 1,200.  Sounds arbitrary.  Where's the science here?

Gavin Newsom's Thanksgiving hypocrisy:  Witness at 3-star Michelin restaurant says governor ate inside and NOT outdoors like he claims.  California governor Gavin Newsom dined indoors when he joined friends for a birthday dinner earlier this month, a witness has claimed, challenging the governor's account of the celebrations.  The witness, a woman who has not been identified, said she was eating at the French Laundry restaurant on the same night as Newsom — who was dining in a private room with 11 other people.  She said a sliding glass door to the room was initially left open, but was pulled across because the governor and his party were being 'very loud'.

New York Sheriffs Say They Refuse To Enforce Cuomo's Thanksgiving COVID-19 Restrictions.  It looks like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Thanksgiving restrictions are already dead in the water.  A number of sheriffs declared that they would not be enforcing the governor's private gathering limit on the holiday.  Fulton County Sheriff Richard Giardino published a Facebook post on Saturday indicating his refusal to enforce the 10-person cap on gatherings and parties in private residences.  "Frankly, I am not sure it could sustain a Constitutional challenge in Court for several reasons including your house is your castle," he wrote.  "And as a Sheriff with a law degree I couldn't in good faith attempt to defend it Court, so I won't."  Giardino also explained that his officers can't enter private homes unless they are invited, possess search warrants, or are dealing with an "emergency circumstance."

Feinstein, Who Pushed For Nationwide Mask Mandate, Seen Maskless In Public.  Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein chatted with her aides maskless in the corridors of a government building before entering a Tuesday hearing, video showed.  The footage showed Feinstein standing outside a doorway in a building as she spoke with two men, both of whom were wearing masks.  Feinstein then walks through the doorway maskless as another masked man holds the door open for her, video from The Recount shows.

Seattle restaurateur:  WA state ignores data that doesn't support shutdowns.  Governor Inslee announced over the weekend a return to COVID lockdown requirements where restaurants and bars have to be closed for indoor dining, and can only do takeout, delivery, and, in some instances, outdoor dining.  [Video clip]

Texas Officials Keep State's Re-Opening Plans In Place, Despite Other States Moving To Harsher Measures.  Governor Abbott is not imposing new restrictions on Texas businesses or changing course on re-opening plans for the state despite cases of the coronavirus exceeding one million.  He isn't allowing county officials to issue stronger measures than are in place now, either.  The governor's approach tries to balance mitigating the latest wave of the coronavirus in the state while continuing to oversee the economic recovery in Texas.  Abbott is resisting calls to further limit gatherings, re-close nonessential businesses, or issue stricter mask requirements.  This doesn't mean the state is wide open, it's not.  Statewide restrictions and mandates are in place.

Have too many people over for Thanksgiving in Oregon go to jail, but no sweat if you riot.  Some lawmakers are criticizing Oregon's limits on group activities so close to the Thanksgiving holiday while proponents of the measures stay quiet on the nightly riots in Portland involving hundreds of people.  Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, ordered a two-week freeze that includes limiting indoor and outdoor gatherings to no more than six people from no more than two households in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.  "For the last eight months I have been asking Oregonians to follow the letter and the spirit of the law and we have not chosen to engage law enforcement," Brown said Friday.  "At this point in time, unfortunately, we have no other option."

Newsom considering statewide curfew as he orders emergency business shutdowns.  Nearly three-quarters of California counties must now operate under the state's most stringent pandemic restrictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday, and health officials are considering a statewide curfew as coronavirus cases surge more dramatically than they did during a summer spike.  Indoor dining, gyms and movie theaters, among other businesses, must either remain closed or shut down in 41 of the state's 58 counties.  The governor said he is "sounding the alarm" due to "the fastest increase California has seen" since the pandemic began.  Coronavirus cases have doubled in the last 10 days across the state, which hit the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus cases last week.

While Newsom Locked California Down, Legislators Were Jet-Setting to Hawaii.  While California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is busy locking down the state again because of a surge in Wuhan coronavirus cases, a number of legislators decided it was a good idea to head to Hawaii for the Independent Voter Project's annual conference.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 50 rooms were booked for 120 conference attendees, 20 of which are legislators from California, Texas and Washington State.  Not only did corporate sponsors, including Eli Lilly, AT&T, Walmart and Pepsi, pay for attendees' rooms but they're also forking over the dough for airline tickets as well.  Some take even more issue with the conference because attendees attend workshops in the morning and have the rest of the day to enjoy on their own, something that's seen as a "cozy relationship."

Coronavirus Ushers in an Unconstitutional Hell for America.  Thanks to the dreaded Covid-19, it's good-bye Thanksgiving and, soon enough, farewell Christmas.  And after that, who knows?  Having discovered that Americans have lost their spines and are now easily penned inside their homes like two-legged sheep, the petty potentates who rule — not govern, rule — far too many states and municipalities have concluded that we will never fight back, never resist, and never reject their latest whimsical edicts.  For proof, look no farther than California, where 41 of the state's 58 counties have just been returned to most-restricted status, and a statewide curfew is now being bruited in Sacramento. [...] There are vague promises that things might begin to open again next year, but don't hold your breath.  "Two weeks to slow the spread" and "fifteen days to flatten the curve" have long since morphed into a semi-permanent nanny state in which the very act of slowing and flattening ensures that the virus will go on indefinitely by guaranteeing a continuous stream of new "cases" with which to frighten the public and increase government power.

California lawmakers, lobbyists mingle on Maui at getaway, pandemic or no pandemic.  Although the coronavirus pandemic has largely grounded the global travel industry, it did not stop the annual political conference that brings California lawmakers to Hawaii for five days of policy discussions and schmoozing with corporate sponsors.  The conference, which has been hosted by the Independent Voter Project every November for more than a decade, is taking place this week at the Fairmont Kea Lani on Maui's southwest shore.  "Somebody has to be first to say, 'OK, we're going to do a group event safely,'" Dan Howle, chairman and executive director of the Independent Voter Project, said in a phone interview from Maui.

Houston Announces Plan to Randomly Knock on Doors to Collect Blood Samples to Better Understand COVID.  In the name of fighting COVID-19, Harris County (Texas's largest county) health officials announced a plan that includes randomly knocking on doors to collect blood samples.  "Teams of health workers wearing yellow vests will make their rounds from Nov. 15 through Dec. 15, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m." reports the Houston Chronicle.  Their plan, they say, is to better determine how many people have been infected with Coronavirus by conducting antibody tests. [...] Nothing about these numbers suggests justifying a door-to-door campaign.  Nothing.  1% fatality rate.  ONE PERCENT.  Particularly considering Houston is the fourth largest city in the country.

Unending public health crises will keep authoritarians busy forever.  Indiana University Health recently announced that it will bravely stand against racism, injustice, and inaction." [...] Apart from the fact that the only systemic racism in America today is that universally and incessantly directed at white people and their supposed (and assumedly "systemic") "privilege," treating racism of any form as a health crisis is just another way of allowing government to dictate every aspect of our lives.  "Health experts" and progressives are labeling more and more things as "public health crises" every day.  If the COVID-19 pandemic ever goes away, the "systemic racism public health crisis" can seamlessly take its place.  Rampant homelessness is waiting in the wings, too, as are depression, alcoholism, opioid abuse, and heart disease. [...] In light of these terrible "public health crises," lockdowns and mail-in voting will become as inescapable and eternal as death and taxes.

Justice Alito is right:  The pandemic brought an assault on our basic rights.  The usual mainstream-media suspects wasted no time in blasting as inappropriate Samuel Alito's address last week to the Federalist Society.  Which is another way of saying they didn't like what he had to say.  The Supreme Court justice warned that "religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right," that freedom of speech is also "becoming a second-tier constitutional right."  He was exactly right — and his wake-up call was urgently timely:  Democrats threaten to "reform" the high court by packing it with liberals, while the pandemic has imposed what Alito called a "stress test" on the Constitution, creating a new ranking order of fundamental rights.  Simply put:  Basic respect for some rights is dying.  The justice made clear that he wasn't "diminishing the severity of the virus' threat to public health," nor even "saying anything" about whether lockdown rules are "good public policy."  Even so, "the pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty" — and this happened "by executive fiat, rather than legislation."

Lockdown fatigue.  [Scroll down]  Unfortunately, the U.S. enters this season with the public health community having squandered its credibility with the American public.  Early on, the American people were told that they had to go into lockdown for just a few weeks.  The purpose, everybody was told, was to "flatten the curve," so there wasn't a huge spike in cases at a given time that could collapse the medical system.  The problem was that even after the curve had been flattened, and the medical system was in no way in danger, officials for months lobbied against efforts to reopen activity.  "Flatten the curve" was replaced by some vague notion of returning to normal when things were "safe."  While the nation did not remain in perpetual lockdown as it had in March, large public gatherings have still been canceled.  People have done without typical rituals from Memorial Day to July 4 to Labor Day.  And most importantly, in much of the nation, schools remain closed, despite the detrimental impact on children and families and the scant evidence that the virus poses a danger to either students or teachers or that schools have been a source of community spread.

Illegitimate President.  [Scroll down]  The fact is only 6% of the 245,000 deaths were from Covid.  The other 94% died from something else, while they had Covid. [...] We know virtually no one under the age of 50 dies from this over-hyped flu, but government school teacher unions refuse to teach children in person.  Only 450 deaths between 5 and 24 years old is far less than the annual flu deaths in this age group. [...] In April the deaths per case was 7%.  Two months-ago the deaths per case was 2.1%.  Today the deaths per case is 0.8%.  For the math challenged, the death rate has plunged by 88% since April. [...] It's the flu bro!  And you have a 99.7% chance of not dying from this scary virus.  Does anyone really think it was a coincidence Fauci and Pfizer withheld the results of their vaccination trial until a few days after the election?  Do you think that news would have swayed some votes?  What I have realized is there are no coincidences.  This is all part of the plan.

The Main Threat From Covid Is Not the Disease.  The Covid Deception was used in the US to justify fraud-ridden "vote by mail" in order to steal the election from President Trump.  Covid's next use is to assault civil liberty.  If the Democrats' theft of the election stands, we are likely to get the national lockdown that Biden's Covid adviser favors.  Little doubt that mandatory vaccination will be sold as the way to get released from lockdown.  There have been large protests in Britain and most of Europe against the lockdowns and restrictions on civil liberties mandated in the name of public health.  British journalist Chris Sweeney says he no longer recognizes the Britain that he knew. [...] It does look like more control over people, their ability to work, and their movements is what we are headed for.  Soren Korsgaard sees the alleged Covid pandemic as another assault on civil liberty like the police state measures ushered in by 9/11.

Horowitz: Pro-mask study withdrawn after virus spread in counties analyzed by researchers.  Call it the divine rule of masks.  You shall not utter a negative word about them.  You shall never question their effectiveness, even when they've failed to work for six months.  You shall never be caught without the idol on your face — even on the face of your two-year-old, for that matter.  You shall worship the cloth until the bitter end.  It doesn't take a scientist to see that masks don't work.  The experience of unprecedented universal mask-wearing for months — even in places that had few COVID cases to begin with but then skyrocketed after mask use — demonstrates that the idea of wearing a mask to block a respiratory virus is sheer lunacy.  Yet one group of researchers tried to cherry-pick data from a selected counties to show that cases dropped after the mask mandate, without any regard for the fact that each wave only lasts for about 6-8 weeks in a given area before dissipating — regardless of what actions are taken by the local population.  Then it comes back a few times until everyone has been exposed to the virus.

Michigan governor gets tough, announces brand-new lockdown.  Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced new restrictions Sunday evening [11/15/2020] meant to combat the worsening coronavirus pandemic.  The restrictions, which begin Wednesday and extend through the end of November, include the closing of high schools, colleges, indoor dining, casinos and movie theaters, Whitmer said in a press conference Sunday.  Michigan has recorded record amounts of virus cases in the past week, raising the state's seven-day average of daily new cases to 6,200, resulting in spikes in hospitalizations and deaths across the state as well, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Lockdown for thee, but not for me:  California governor attends swanky dinner party.  Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is now saying he made a mistake by attending a Nov. 6 birthday party in Napa that appears to have violated state COVID-19 rules.  The about-face came after aides initially defended the governor, who has imposed aggressive lockdowns around the state and recently castigated state residents for not following the rules.  As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, went to a restaurant for a 50th birthday party for Jason Kinney, one of the governor's political advisers.

Britain has become a Covid-obsessed police state.  Yes, the pandemic is a serious situation and we should not be complacent about 48,000 people dying.  Precautions have to be taken.  But what is happening across the UK is nothing short of barbaric.  Our police have turned into robots, carrying out whatever they are asked to, no matter how cruel or wrong.  The government has forgotten what a wonderful population they are tasked with representing, and are treating us all like North Korea does dissenters.  They say you never really truly appreciate something until it's gone.  And I'm petrified that the courteous, courageous sprit that defines Britain is on the point of disappearing for good, crushed by the uncaring iron first of the Covid-obsessed authorities.

Anthony Fauci Declares That Christmas May Be Canceled Because He Needs to Control What You Do.  As I've written about for some months, it is very, very obvious that the reaction to the epidemic of Chinese Lung Aids sweeping the nation by "public health professionals," Democrats, and panicked and gutless Republicans has nothing to do with saving lives (check out the death rates of the most vulnerable citizens in New York, New Jersey, and Michigan, if you doubt me) and everything to do with creating a "public health" exception to the Constitution, in general, and to the First Amendment, in particular.  The various rules promulgated have never been shown to be particularly useful in combatting the spread of disease, and the people making the rules show daily, by their own actions, that they don't believe what they are saying.

Voters Had a Chance to Reject COVID Tyranny, Now a Price Will Be Paid.  As I wrote some days ago, Chicago and the state of Virginia are already falling back into regulations that are reminiscent of the late spring.  Stay at home orders, limits on gatherings, closed churches, etc. have become a staple in Democrat run areas, and it appears there will be no slowing of that.  Now, Michigan and New Jersey are following suit after feeling emboldened by the election.  [Tweet]  Meanwhile, America's favorite little tyrant is out there letting you know that you'll need to wear masks and socially distance even after a vaccine that is 95% effective.  Think about the numbers involved in that. [...] While a flu vaccine is typically only 40% effective, new vaccines for COVID have shown effectiveness rates of 95%.  That means that once the vaccine is deployed, COVID will be far less of a problem than the regular flu.  Yet, Fauci still wants you to wear ineffective masks and socially distance for years afterward.  For what?

Trump adviser clarifies 'rise up' tweet against Michigan COVID-19 orders.  Dr. Scott Atlas, a special adviser the novel coronavirus to President Trump, tweeted to his almost 90,000 followers on Sunday [11/15/2020] that citizens should rise up against new Michigan COVID-19 restrictions.  He tweeted Sunday night:  "The only way this stops is if people rise up.  You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp"  [Tweet]  He later followed up with a tweet to state he didn't condone violence. [...] Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration on Sunday ordered high schools and colleges to stop in-person classes, closed restaurants to indoor dining and suspended organized sports — including the football playoffs — in a bid to curb the state's spiking coronavirus cases.  The restrictions will begin Wednesday and last three weeks.

The New 9/11: A Global Virus Pandemic.  [Scroll down]  The "terrorist laws" that were rolled out subsequently to 9/11 were widely regarded as extreme, unconstitutional, and infringing upon basic human rights; however, the laws being implemented in numerous countries, right now, make the 9/11 laws pale in comparison.  The citizens of Australia have been thoroughly disenfranchised.  In the state of Victoria a Stage 4 Lockdown has been imposed, which means you must wear masks outside the home (fine for not wearing a mask, about $1,000).  The citizens can only exercise outside the home for one hour a day, cannot travel more than 5 km, must go alone for shopping or medical purposes, and there is a curfew from 8 pm to 5 am.  Those who break the curfew are penalized with a fine of about $5000.  If this is not prison there has never been one. [...] By exploiting the coronavirus crisis, totalitarian laws were quickly proposed and enacted across the world with a high degree of coordination and with very little variability.  In several countries, it is now a crime to spread information contrary to the controlled explanations.

Why a Mandatory COVID Vaccine is Unconstitutional.  A mandatory COVID-19 vaccine might save lives, but that doesn't mean it would be constitutional.  Many say "we must do what the doctors say" without any thought for constitutional restrictions.  Neither medical nor constitutional factors may properly be analyzed in a vacuum.  When they're brought together, there is no question that a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination law would conflict violently with the U.S. Constitution. [...] The legal question of the constitutionality of mandatory vaccinations is thus dependent on the medical evidence.  How deadly is COVID-19?  COVID-19 occupies a relatively innocuous position on that spectrum of deadly scourges, and the rates of mortality are declining.  That is, the medical evidence falls far short of surmounting that legal standard of strict scrutiny required by the United States Constitution.

COVID-19 is distracting us from another medical emergency.  On sheer death toll alone, COVID-19 has killed more people this year than measles — approximately five times as many.  The total COVID victims recorded by WHO so far is 1.29 million.  Yet there are two very big differences.  Firstly, while COVID is mainly carrying off the old and already-sick, the vast majority of last year's 200,000 measles victims were previously healthy children.  Had they not been killed by the disease they would have had a good chance of living into their eighties themselves.  If you measure the loss of life in potential life-years lost — which would be a vastly more sensible way of doing it than the metric we are fed with daily in the case of COVID: people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus — there would be little question as to which is the biggest killer:  measles.  The second difference is that we already have a measles vaccine.

South Australia Hit by Growing Cluster of Covid-19 Cases.  South Australia state is battling a growing number of Covid-19 infections, with 17 cases now linked to a family cluster in the capital, Adelaide.  "It is a very, very dangerous situation we're in," state Premier Steven Marshall said Monday, urging residents to get tested if they had symptoms.  He said his government would consider tougher social-distancing restrictions if necessary, adding "we will do whatever it takes to get on top of this cluster."  He urged people to work from home if possible, wear masks when social distancing wasn't feasible and cancel unnecessary travel plans, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The Editor says...
Seventeen people get sick, and for that they lock down the whole country?  Chances are pretty good that all 17 have already recovered.

Washington governor bans Thanksgiving gatherings, announces new COVID business restrictions.  Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will implement new sweeping restrictions on businesses and activities as the state reported over 2,000 cases a day over the weekend and average coronavirus cases in the state have doubled in the past two weeks. [...] According to Inslee's new order, bars and restaurants will no longer be allowed to offer indoor seating.  Outdoor seating will be allowed as long as proper safety protocols are followed, including tables being limited to no more than five people at a time.  Restaurants will still be able to offer their customers to go orders.  All in-store retail, including grocery stores, will be limited to 25% capacity, and lingering in seated areas is off-limits.  Religious services will also be limited to 25% indoor occupancy or no more than 200 people, with face coverings required at all times.  No choir, band, or ensemble shall perform during the service.

The Editor says...
Yep, I'm sure all that sounds perfectly reasonable, to a resident of Cuba or North Korea!  No more indoor seating at restaurants — just in time for chilly winter weather in the far northwest.  No more singing in church, by order of the commissar!  Oh, that's okay, nobody in Washington goes to church anyway.  And you must wear a mask at all times, to signal your sheepish compliance.  All those in favor of Washington, Oregon, and California seceding from the U.S. to form a new socialist country, say bon voyage!

Sources: New Orleans Saints face significant discipline over videos of locker room celebration.  The New Orleans Saints are facing significant discipline for not wearing masks during their postgame celebrations last Sunday night — as seen in videos they posted to social media, including the team's own Twitter account — after their victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, league sources told ESPN.  Video of Saints players and head coach Sean Payton dancing and celebrating their 38-3 victory over Tampa Bay trended last Sunday night.  Multiple players were clearly not wearing masks during the celebration in the locker room, which is a violation of the NFL's COVID-19 protocols — and the league noticed, according to sources.

Democrats Hold Big, Fancy Dinners While Telling America To Cancel Thanksgiving.  While leftist lawmakers and unelected bureaucrats are hard at work canceling Thanksgiving for Americans, congressional Democrats are holding big, fancy dinners on Capitol Hill to welcome new members ahead of the fall holiday.  "It's very spaced," though, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly told NBC correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell to justify the dinner.  The dinner comes several months after the Democratic leader was caught getting an illegal haircut in San Francisco without a mask.  The congressional dinners fly in the face of Democrats urging Americans to stay home instead of visiting relatives for the holidays as coronavirus cases increase across the United States.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who declared war on Thanksgiving with sweeping restrictions limiting household gatherings, was also caught attending dinner with "a dozen attendees from several different households" just last week, according to the Daily Beast.

COVID-19 Is The Agenda — Biden is Merely The Delivery Vehicle.  There is a COVID-19 virus; however, COVID is not more dangerous than all other flu-like viruses that impact the respiratory system.  COVID-19 is very manageable and doesn't carry a higher fatality rate.  Why is COVID-19 being disproportionately hyped as such a dangerous threat, when the reality of the statistical danger is much less than the intense level of hype?  That is the key question.  The answer is:  social changes under the guise of COVID-19 mitigation, are the entry point for the goals and aspirations of the political left on a national and global scale. [...] Joe Biden is an avatar; a political pawn; a cognitively declining guy who has no idea what is happening around him.  The people behind the Biden campaign, those in real control of what this is about, have not hidden their goals and aspirations.  These are not stupid people.  They are scheming, conniving, ever-planning, ever-manipulating & Machiavellian types within the political system; lusting for power, influence and affluence.  What they are planning to do is weaponize COVID-19 to attain ideological objectives.

California governor attended birthday party in defiance of state's rules against gatherings involving multiple households.  If I'm not mistaken, he was exempt from the state rules pursuant to the overarching national rule that liberals are entitled to ignore social distancing guidelines so long as it's for an Important Cause™.  Like holding mass demonstrations against police brutality.  Or smoking weed in a park with strangers to celebrate Trump losing. [...] I'd much prefer to believe that Newsom thinks he's above the law than that California's state guidance really does amount to "no gatherings of more than three households *unless* you're at a restaurant."  That's completely idiotic, as restaurants have been flagged by the CDC and other experts as the engines of COVID transmission this past spring.  The masks come off, people talk and laugh, aerosols are exchanged in close proximity.  It's good that Newsom's event was held outdoors, at least, but it's inexcusable to have a rule in which you're allowed to bring a small crowd together so long as you make sure to do it in one of the riskiest possible venues.

Celebrate Thanksgiving [notwithstanding the] COVID Crusaders.  [Scroll down]  "Encourage guests to avoid singing or shouting, especially indoors.  Keep music levels down so people don't have to shout or speak loudly to be heard."  That is not a passage from some dystopian novel or a command by a Marxist dictator or a parody in The Onion.  It's guidance posted on the Centers for Disease Control website courtesy of the United States government.  Think about that:  Some federal bureaucrat, probably a highly credentialed "expert" with a messianic complex, is telling 330 million Americans that they should not sing.  In their own homes.  So they don't spread a mostly harmless virus to other people.  And that's only one part of the lengthy decree detailing how, when, and where families should gather.  People who refuse to organize a preposterous "virtual" dinner and selfishly meet in person, the CDC admonishes, should "avoid direct contact, including handshakes and hugs, with others not from their household."  Masks should be worn at all times and relatives from different households should stay six feet apart.

Pfizer, Biden, and the Birth of 'Socialism With American Characteristics'.  One of the more disturbing events of our disturbing times was the revelation Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla informed the Biden campaign of the success of his company's COVID-19 vaccine before the current president and his administration.  In fact, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he learned about the breakthrough from media reports — this although President Trump and his people gave significant support, financial and otherwise, via Operation Warp Speed, to Bourla's company, something the Pfizer CEO tried to deny.  Now that Trump has signed the executive order he promised making the vaccine free for all, the company stands to make a killing at taxpayer expense.  But Bourla himself had already done that.  He sold $5.6 million of shares on the day of the announcement when Pfizer stock rose 8 percent.  A watchdog group is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate.

Virginia orders new COVID restrictions:  Social gathering sizes cut, mask mandate expanded as virus cases rise.  Virginia is ordering a sharp reduction in the number of people who can gather and is expanding its mask mandate to young children in response to the latest rises in new COVID-19 cases.  The order from Gov. Ralph Northam, which takes effect at midnight Sunday, says all public and private in-person gatherings must be limited to 25 individuals.  The current cap is 250.  This order applies to outdoor and indoor settings.  It does not, however, apply to restaurants which have their own distancing and seating restrictions, said Alena Yarmosky, Northam's press secretary.  All Virginians 5 and over must wear face coverings in indoor public spaces.  The current mandate, in effect since May 29, requires individuals aged 10 and over to wear face coverings.  The new order from Gov. Ralph Northam also says violations of state guidelines for retailers on masks, maintaining distances between customers and staff and enhanced cleaning will be prosecuted as class 1 misdemeanors, which subject offenders to up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Grocers, food brands prepare for the new wave of coronavirus, bring back purchase limits.  The latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic is bringing back purchase limits in grocery stores.  This unhappy development is due to the anticipation that the approaching cold and flu season will bring a third wave of the virus, as some parts of the country are beginning to experience.  Retailers are trying to avoid the kinds of empty shelves that shoppers saw during the initial outbreak of the pandemic.  In order to prevent hoarding or large purchases of specific items during a single shopping trip, many major retailers are limiting purchases.  Items like paper goods and frozen foods are being limited for the first time since the spring.  With people at home more because of lockdowns and social distancing measures, there is a renewed demand for items like paper towels, toilet paper, and frozen food for easy meals.  New shortages of some items like spices and butter and other staple ingredients in cooking are being reported.

Dr. Anthony Fauci Says It Is Time for Americans to Shut [...] up and Do What Their Betters Tell Them to Do.  Today [11/13/2020] in an interview, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told an audience his solution for stopping the dread Chinese Lung AIDS epidemic dead in its tracks:  ["]I was talking with my UK colleagues who are saying the UK is similar to where we are now, because each of our countries have that independent spirit, I can understand that, but now is the time to do what you're told.["]  Bingo.  [Shut up] and do what you are told.  This is and has always been the agenda.  From the earliest day of this Wuhan pandemic, I've contended that the primary goal of all the "public health" types is not to save your life or keep you healthy because they [don't care] whether you live or die.  The real game is to create a "public health" carve-out to the First Amendment that gives unelected bureaucrats and elected officials the right to rule by fiat.  Early in this self-generated crisis, the first target was church attendance.  Now we're seeing the same nasty little fascists who locked down entire states, while sending patients still infected with Wuhan virus into nursing homes in what appears like a conscious effort to slaughter the elderly and infirm.

Fauci says U.S. has 'independent spirit,' but now is the time to 'do what you're told'.  Whitehouse [sic] coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci thinks that Americans have an independent spirit, but that there are times when it's in our best interest to follow the rules.  Fauci, speaking on Thursday at Washington National Cathedral with other top health experts on the pandemic, noted that it is a bit unfair to compare the United States' coronavirus response with other countries.  The United States isn't an island with five million people that can easily be shut down, he notes.  So suppressing and controlling the virus is a lot more of a challenge.  "I was talking with my U.K. colleagues who are saying the U.K. is similar to where we are now, because each of our countries have that independent spirit," he said on stage.  "I can understand that, but now is the time to do what you're told."

Media incompetence alert!
The White House is a place with a well-known name.  "Whitehouse," as a single unhyphenated word, is not an adjective.

New Mexico Governor Issues Stay-At-Home Order, Closes Non-Essential Businesses.  Amid a spike in coronavirus cases in the state, Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lynn Lujan Grisham has issued a stay-at-home order and demanded nonessential businesses close for 14 days.  According to Grisham, a two-week shutdown, set to begin on November 16, will attempt to curb the spread of the virus in the state.  "We are in a life-or-death situation, and if we don't act right now, we cannot preserve the lives, we can't keep saving lives, and we will absolutely crush our current health care system and infrastructure," Grisham said.  Non-essential businesses include hair salons, gyms, and spas.  During the 14 day shutdown, indoor dining will also be suspended.  Restaurants in the state will be allowed to offer curbside pickup and delivery.

Officials implement new coronavirus restrictions as cases skyrocket, but face angry backlash.  With the coronavirus raging out of control and hospitals nearing capacity, state and local leaders are facing once more the gut-wrenching decision of whether to order shutdowns.  But many are finding the call much harder to make this time — eight months after cities and states last implemented weeks-long shutdowns — amid angry backlashes, deeply polarized constituents and dire economic consequences.

LA Times Blames Seven COVID Deaths On Small Maine Wedding That Victims Did Not Attend.  The Los Angeles Times featured a story on Thursday about a wedding in Maine, which the CDC believes "likely" caused a COVID-19 outbreak, to argue that people should reconsider their small holiday gatherings.  "If you want to know why public health officials are so nervous about how much worse the COVID-19 pandemic will get as the holiday season unfolds, consider what happened after a single, smallish wedding reception that took place this summer in rural Maine," the article states.  The LA Times claims that while only 55 people were actually at the reception, one guest reportedly spread the virus before the onset of their symptoms, causing 176 others to test positive within less than 40 days.  Seven died.

Deutsche Bank recommends 5% work-from-home tax after pandemic.  A major world bank proposed a 5% tax on anyone working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.  Deutsche Bank researchers argued that people working from home enjoy economic privileges that do not extend to those forced to work in person.  "Remote workers are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy whilst still receiving its benefits," analyst Luke Templeman wrote.  In its "What We Must Do To Rebuild" report, Deutsche Bank said such a tax was long overdue.  Researchers argued that remote workers don't make as many daily purchases as in-person workers, therefore they should contribute to the economy in some other way, namely taxation.

The Editor says...
If you can be taxed because you don't use roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, why are the users taxed, too?

Wisconsin Supreme Court tosses governor's stay-at-home order.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers' coronavirus stay-at-home order Wednesday [11/11/2020], ruling that his administration overstepped its authority when it extended it for another month without consulting legislators.  The 4-3 ruling essentially reopens the state, lifting caps on the size of gatherings, allowing people to travel as they please and allowing shuttered businesses to reopen, including bars and restaurants.  The Tavern League of Wisconsin swiftly posted the news on its website, telling members, "You can OPEN IMMEDIATELY!"  The decision let stand language that had closed schools, however, and local governments can still impose their own health restrictions.  In Dane County, home to the capital of Madison, officials quickly imposed a mandate incorporating most of the statewide order.  City health officials in Milwaukee said a stay-at-home order they enacted in late March remains in effect.

Roman Catholic diocese seeks Supreme Court emergency relief over Cuomo coronavirus restrictions.  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is turning to the Supreme Court over coronavirus restrictions that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposed that include limits on how many congregants can gather for religious services.  The emergency court filing, submitted Thursday [11/12/2020], compares the prohibitions houses of worship face with the relative freedom afforded to many businesses under an order that Cuomo issued in October, in which he designated color-coded zones with varying degrees of limitations.  "While this Executive Order effectively closes churches and other houses of worship, all businesses deemed 'essential' by the Governor — including everything from supermarkets to pet stores, huge hardware stores to brokers' offices — are permitted to remain open without any capacity limitations whatsoever, even in the most restrictive 'red' zones.  In 'orange' zones, even the vast majority of nonessential businesses, including department stores, can remain open without limitation — yet churches cannot," the filing said.

Biden [was] Informed Of Pfizer's Vaccine News Before Government Health Officials.  Former Vice President Joe Biden was informed of Pfizer's successful coronavirus vaccine news before the nation's incumbent chief health care administrator, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.  "I, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, learned about this from media reports on Monday morning," Azar said Wednesday [11/11/2020] during an interview with Washington D.C. radio station WMAL.  On Monday, the pharmaceutical giant announced that its coronavirus vaccine candidate showed to be 90 percent effective in large-scale clinical trials, putting the end of the pandemic that has claimed the lives of almost 250,000 Americans since March on the horizon.

We'd planned to live here our whole life.  Thanks to Democrat policies, we're moving.  I came to Minneapolis in 1972, lived in the western burbs until I married in 1991, and bought a house in a small but growing suburb northwest of town.  We have been very happy here.  We like the place and the people.  It was our intent to spend the rest of our days here.  Then the Chicoms sent us a little biological warfare experiment.  If anybody else had done that, we would have called it an act of war.  The Dems and the Beltway swamp-dwellers had tried everything in the book and not in any book to put down the administration of the duly elected president.  Nothing worked until we got that little bio-gift from the Chicoms.  The "free press" ran with it.  They ramped up the fear, counted the cases, counted the deaths, counted everything and made the counts look as bad as they could.  If a foreign country had done that, we would have considered it an act of war.  But since our own "free press" spread the fear, it was just news. [...] It was not much more of an epidemic than other bad flu strains of the past.  It mostly kills people who were about to die anyway.  But with help from the "free press," we have made this epidemic into a panic and thus a pandemic.

Projection: 2,000+ COVID Deaths Per Day In U.S. By December 2.  This comes from Trevor Bedford, who was one of the first scientists in the country back in February to claim via statistical analysis that "invisible" community spread of coronavirus had already begun in the U.S. Within a few weeks, the spread was no longer invisible.  His point today is straightforward.  It takes about three weeks for a severe case of COVID to proceed from the point of infection to death; thus, based on the case fatality rate so far, we can guesstimate how many deaths there'll be on a given date based on how many new cases there are on a given date three weeks earlier.

Lockdown Joe:  Biden Wants Everyone To Live In Their Basement.  Should Joe Biden survive the election legal challenges ahead, he will roll into the Oval Office fully intent on doing what Democrats do — rob Americans of their liberty.  We have every expectation he will try to shut down the country, not because the coronavirus makes it necessary but because the oxygen of the political left is controlling other people's lives.  The Bongino Report tells us that Biden's coronavirus adviser is proposing a lengthy national shutdown to mitigate the spread as positive test results climb during the early weeks of the North American flu season.  "Under a Biden presidency (God forbid) we'd return right back to a full lockdown," writes Matt Palumbo, "and this time they're not pretending it'll only last 15 days."

The New Normal: By Any Means Necessary.  [Scroll down]  Consider another example that emerged only this week:  how the public announcement of the blockbuster result from the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine test was delayed until after Election Day.  The best coronavirus strategy that any president could come up with has always been to be president when vaccines start rolling out.  Thus Trump long claimed that a vaccine would succeed real soon now, while Democrats downplayed that idea and spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines.

California Businesses Sue Gov. Newsom Over Pandemic Lockdowns.  Two small businesses in central California are suing Gov. Gavin Newsom over his strict continuing lockdowns purportedly aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic.  The 109-page lawsuit, Ghost Golf Inc. v. Newsom, filed in Fresno County Superior Court by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest law firm based in Sacramento, claims the governor lacks the power to unilaterally shutter businesses.  "An emergency doesn't give the governor authority to decide fundamental policy for the State; only the legislature can make law, and that remains true even in a time of crisis," said PLF attorney Luke Wake, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing a mini-golf venue and a restaurant free of charge.  "The governor can't just make up whatever rules he wants for as long as he wants to.  California's courts need to uphold the state's separation of powers."

Memo To Joe:  COVID Is Skyrocketing In States That Already Have Mask Mandates.  Ever since the mainstream media declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, he's been prattling on about how a nationwide mask mandate is vital to slowing the spread of the coronavirus.  But has anyone noticed that the disease is spreading like wildfire in states that already have mask mandates?  The day after he made up his "President Elect" signs, Biden declared that he would call on governors around the country to impose mask mandates.  One Biden official told NBC News that "If a governor declines, he'll go to the mayors in the state and ask them to lead.  In many states, there is the capacity of mayors to institute mandates."

New York Times report may prove Rand Paul correct in cross-immunity disagreement with Dr. Anthony Fauci during testimony.  Sen. Rand Paul seized on a New York Times report showing many school-aged children already have antibodies from infection with other coronaviruses associated with common colds that could block the new SARS-CoV-2 strain causing the pandemic.  During a testy Sept. 23 Senate hearing, Paul repeatedly questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, on the role preexisting cross-reactive immunity could play in stopping the spread of COVID-19.  Paul cited countries in Asia that had seen slower spreads of the disease, noting that it's possible their success could be attributed to immunity built up through coronavirus strains present in widespread common colds in those countries.  Fauci insisted no evidence suggested that was the case, instead pointing to mask mandates and social distancing efforts as being solely responsible for slowing the spread.

Dr. Fauci Shows He's Just Another Political Hack.  To say that I'm not a fan of Dr. Anthony Fauci is an understatement.  His honeymoon period, at least in regards to me and many on the right, ran out long ago.  His near constant media appearances, his undermining of the current administration, and the simple fact that he's been wrong about so much have made him an easy person to dismiss.  That he does all that with a completely undeserved arrogance makes it all the worse.  Now, as if he's wanting to ensure that everyone knows he was always just a political hack, the good doctor has decided to completely change his tone and his pronouncements following an election that appears to have gone his way.  Remember, this is a guy who has already been promised a top job in the Biden administration.

Dr. Scott Atlas Attacks Fauci, Raising Tensions Among Task Force Members.  Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, publicly criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci Tuesday night, calling him a "political animal" and accusing him of adjusting his outlook on the pandemic once Election Day had passed.  Atlas's remarks came on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" after host Laura Ingraham juxtaposed earlier comments that Fauci made about the timeline of a vaccine with more optimistic comments he made Tuesday after Pfizer announced that their vaccine was over 90% effective.  "There's all kinds of prognostications that were made — all negative, all to undermine what the reality of the timelines were, all to undermine the president," Atlas said.  "And I think, you know, once you do that sort of thing and make yourself a political animal, basically, you lose your credibility."

C'mon, man!  It's only six weeks — until it gets extended again and again.
Biden's Coronavirus Advisor Is Already Flirting With Another 4-6 Week Shutdown.  On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised the American people that he wouldn't shut down the country again if he was elected President, but that has turned out to be another gigantic lie.  As President Trump continues his legal battle to overturn the fraudulent result of this election, Joe Biden's "transition team" is trying to sell the public on another devastating shutdown. [...] Looks like Joe Biden lied again, folks.  He said he wouldn't shut down the country again, yet his top "experts" are already advising to do just that.

Biden Covid advisor says U.S. lockdown of 4 to 6 weeks could control pandemic and revive economy.  Shutting down businesses and paying people for lost wages for four to six weeks could help keep the coronavirus pandemic in check and get the economy on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, a coronavirus advisor to President-elect Joe Biden.  Osterholm, who serves as director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said earlier this week that the country is headed toward "Covid hell."  Cases are rising as more people grow tired of wearing masks and social distancing, suffering from so-called "pandemic fatigue," he said Wednesday.  Colder weather is also driving people indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.  A nationwide lockdown would drive the number of new cases and hospitalizations down to manageable levels while the world awaits a vaccine, he told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday [11/11/2020].

People could be asked to prove they've had Covid vaccine to get into sports events and concerts.  Ticketmaster could allow venues to ask people to prove they've had the coronavirus vaccine to get into sports events and concerts.  Drug company Pfizer announced earlier this week that early data shows their vaccine is 90 percent effective raising hopes that venues will be able to start hosting events again in 2021.  Ticketmaster says it has been working on a post-pandemic plan that could use fans' phones to verify their vaccination status or confirm they have tested negative before an event.  The company says the plan would be based on their own ticket app, third party health information firms and vaccine distribution providers.

'Trump vaccine'-trashing Cuomo snubbed Azar, skipped 17 White House meetings.  He's been trashing the Trump administration's COVID-19 vaccine plan but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stopped taking part back in June — skipping more than a dozen White House meetings and snubbing a one-on-one with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, The [New York] Post has learned.  Cuomo skipped out on 17 consecutive governor calls with the White House Coronavirus Task Force designed to brief state leaders on the vaccine development and rollout process, while calling them "circuses" and "a joke" in a recent interview, a White House source confirmed.  Cuomo on Monday blasted President Trump's vaccine plan as "flawed" amid news of a Pfizer vaccine breakthrough, going so far as to threaten to block its distribution in New York, saying, "We can't let this vaccination plan go forward the way that Trump and his administration is designing it."

Biden Advisors [are] Already Suggesting "America Last" Strategy On COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution.  Joe Biden's premature status as "president-elect" has caused him to already begin assembling advisors, specifically on how to handle COVID-19.  More ridiculous is that his advisors are already doing what Democrats do and are putting together a plan that effectively puts America as a secondary concern.  According to Fox News, oncologist Dr. Zeke Emanuel has suggested that America not "hoard" the vaccine and advised that we don't resort to — and he actually said this — "vaccine nationalism."  Emanuel has created a guideline called the "Fair Priority Model," which calls for a "fair international distribution of vaccine."  According to the model, this distribution of the vaccine to the globe occurs before Americans get to it.

Dr. Anthony Fauci's weird obsession with killing off bars and restaurants.  Eight months after Dr. Anthony Fauci began urging the public not to eat at restaurants or "congregate" at bars, the restaurant industry has lost $240 billion in revenue and 100,00 restaurants have closed permanently across the nation.  The devastation has also meant the loss of millions of jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association.  Yesterday [11/10/2020], in a CNBC interview, Dr. Fauci says he "feels badly" about restaurants losing business.  The infectious disease doctor also feels it's obligatory in a "neighborly" way to order takeout a few times a week from those eating places near his $1.8 million home in Northwest D.C.  No doubt the career bureaucrat heading up the National Institute's of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has seen the numbers coming out of the National Restaurant Association.  As a key member of the White House's coronavirus task force, Dr. Fauci was the leading voice in setting individual states' public health policies for lockdowns, mask-wearing and social distancing.

The calls for unity are falling on deaf ears, at least for now.  As soon as the television networks began to call the election for Joe Biden on Saturday morning [11/7/2020], spontaneous dance parties began in the streets of major cities.  Just like that, the coronavirus was not on anyone's mind as joyful Biden voters smushed together like sardines in the street.  Social distancing and masks don't matter if the right people are ignoring such guidelines.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold millions in stock on same day of vaccine reveal.  Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla cashed in on his company's coronavirus vaccine breakthrough.  The executive sold more than $5.5 million worth of Pfizer stock on Monday [11/9/2020] — the same day the drugmaker said its experimental COVID-19 shot was more than 90 percent effective, records show.  The groundbreaking development sent Pfizer's share price surging as high as $41.99 that day, its highest level in more than a year.  Bourla dumped more than 132,000 shares for $41.94 apiece, just five cents shy of that peak, according to a Tuesday securities filing.  Those shares amounted to more than 60 percent of Bourla's Pfizer stock holdings, the filing shows.  He still owns 78,273 shares directly plus another 3,539 that are held indirectly.

My Pfizer vaccine is 90% effective, but why weren't we told sooner?  Along with 40-some thousand other people around the world, I'm enrolled in the clinical trials for the Pfizer COVID vaccine.  All has gone well for me, and I've had no side effects.  Of course, I've followed closely the progress of the trials, and I occasionally receive updates from Pfizer.  Pfizer announced yesterday that its early review suggests that the vaccine is astonishingly effective — over 90%. The FDA has previously said that it will approve a safe vaccine that exceeds 50% efficacy.  These early Pfizer results are based on 94 COVID cases that have been identified in the tens of thousands of trial patients.  The company's 90% efficacy determination suggests that all or nearly all those cases occurred in the 50% of the patients who received the placebo, and hardly any or perhaps none at all occurred in the other 50% who received the actual vaccine.

New study reveals the locations at highest risk of spreading COVID-19.  Most COVID-19 cases in large US cities stem from visits to just a few types of places, a new study suggests.  Restaurants, gyms, hotels and houses of worship are among the 10 percent of locations that would appear to account for 80 percent of the infections, according to research published in the journal Nature on Tuesday [11/10/2020].  "These are places that are smaller, more crowded, and people dwell there longer," said study co-author and Stanford University Professor Jure Leskovec at a media briefing on the research, CNN reported.  Reducing the establishments' capacity to 20 percent, as opposed to shutting them down entirely, could curb transmissions by 80 percent, the prof said.

Biden Plans To Create An Army Of 100,000 'Culturally Competent' Contact Tracers.  As if lockdowns and forced mask mandates aren't enough, there is another chilling detail of the hellish authoritarian state that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will preside over if he is installed into the White House.  Get ready for the creation of an army of political enforcers who will be imbued with the power of the federal government to act as "contact tracers" to keep tabs on Americans under the pretense of fighting COVID. [...] Biden has already made it clear that he is going to threaten Republican governors in order to pressure them into lockdowns as well as forced mask mandates but the conscription of at least 100,000 "culturally competent" contact tracers is directly out of the playbooks of history's most oppressive totalitarian regimes.

Joe Biden's taking a bow for the COVID vaccine.  [Scroll down]  President Trump pointed out that Pfizer, which embraced a $2 billion incentive from the feds to buy vaccines, should they develop one, was part of the vast operation of Operation Warp Speed, cutting useless regulations and red tape on the government side, providing funds, ramping up industrial production, so that the private sector could find a way to destroy the coronavirus.  This was Trump's baby, Trump's unheralded response to COVID-19, the one thing he could do to stop an imported virus, and did.  Biden, though, was the one standing up there on the podium, offering his congratulations to Pfizer, and commanding everyone to go out and wear masks.  No thanks of course to President Trump.  The victory was all his and he was patting the participants on the back.

Effective COVID-19 Vaccine Miraculously Announced Days After Election.  Nobody could have predicted this... and by "nobody", we mean everybody of course.  As the political media and democrats simultaneously drop their COVID-19 social distancing concerns to celebrate Joe Biden in the streets and DNC venues, as anticipated an effective vaccine is announced.  Within the announcement Pfizer admits they stalled announcing the results of the study in October, preferring to wait until after the election.  Not only was COVID fear hyped and weaponized for maximum political narrative engineering value, but news of the COVID vaccine was withheld for the same intents.

Biden Calls for Unity After Blaming Trump for Killing Over 200,000 Americans.  If the president had done his job," said Joe Biden at a CNN town hall in Moosic, Pennsylvania, on September 17, "all the people would still be alive.  All the people.  I'm not making this up.  Just look at the data.  Look at the data."  Every person who died from COVID-19 was Donald Trump's fault.  So said Joe.  CNN was mum in response to this cruel charge, not daring to challenge this viciously handy campaign narrative weaponized by its candidate.  Biden's shot was shameless, so much so that even PolitiFact rushed to Trump's defense.  But that hardly stopped liberals.  Four days later, several Democrats gathered outside the White House hoisting a neon sign that glowed, "Trump lied, 200,000 died."  The sign was paid for by the Democrat National Committee.

Newly appointed Biden coronavirus task force member accused of profiting off of lockdowns he advocated for.  Presumptive President-elect Joe Biden named Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel to his coronavirus task force.  Emaunel has been accused of profiting off lockdowns he has advocated for earlier this year.  Emanuel serves as a consultant for COVID-19 RECoVERY Consulting, which works with businesses on reopening and operating during the coronavirus pandemic by navigating laws regarding the virus.  The work earned him the ire of former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson in September, who said Emanuel was profiting off the "lockdown that he's pushing."  "Zeke is doing good by doing well and doing well by doing good.  He has his own consulting firm where he consults with people for profit to make money from giving them recommendations about how to get around and get past the lockdown advice that he's pushing.  The lockdown that he's pushing," Berenson told Fox News's Tucker Carlson in September.

After Heated Testimony, Twin Falls Council Reverses Course, Abandons Mask Mandate.  The Twin Falls City Council abruptly reversed course Monday, voting to indefinitely table a discussion on a face mask mandate after nearly four hours of heated testimony.  The motion to table came from Councilperson Shawn Barigar, who had proposed the discussion on a face mask mandate a few weeks earlier.  It passed 6-1. Councilperson Craig Hawkins voted against the motion to abandon the face mask discussion.  This week's vote follows a motion that passed 5-2 last week, instructing city staff to draft a face mask ordinance, which they presented on Monday.  Councilmembers Barigar, Chris Reid, Ruth Pierce and Greg Lanting were in favor of moving forward with a mandate the week before, but voted to table the mandate on Monday.

The Editor says...
A few public hearings would bing the mask nonsense to a halt.

Joe Biden Coronavirus Adviser:  Vaccine Should Be Distributed Globally, Not to America First.  Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who was named to Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory team on Monday, published a paper in September arguing that any coronavirus vaccine should be distributed globally according to something called the "Fair Priority Model."  Emanuel, the lead author on a paper in Science called "An ethical framework for global vaccine allocation," argued that there should be a "fair international distribution of vaccine," rather than what he and his co-authors call "vaccine nationalism."

Report: Yale professor to co-chair Biden's COVID task force.  A professor with the Yale School of Medicine will serve as a co-chair of President-elect Joe Biden's task force on the coronavirus, according to a report from CNN.  Marcella Nunez-Smith, associate professor of internal medicine, public health and management and founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center, will be among three co-chairs of the group, two sources reportedly told CNN.  Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler will also helm the group, CNN reported.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith:  Racial discrimination could be the key reason for high mortality rates of COVID-19 among African Americans.  The COVID-19 has claimed over 190, 000 American lives.  There is increasing evidence that African Americans are being disproportionately hit hard by the virus.  Black people continue to experience the highest actual COVID-19 mortality rates nationwide — more than twice as high as the rate for Whites.  The new CDC data — made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — reveals a clearer and more complete picture.

Reaction to the article above:
We're Saved!  Biden's COVID Science Team Will Have Intersectional Pokemon Points Galore.  In contrast, high COVID death rates among blacks couldn't possibly have anything to do with problems that blacks could actually do something about on their own initiative, like lose weight or like, as movie director Tyler Perry has suggested, get more Vitamin D during colder seasons.

Biden Buyer's remorse will hit with the next lockdown.  A former adviser to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore said over the weekend that she would not have voted for President-Elect Joe Biden if she knew about the lockdowns.  Author Naomi Wolf wrote on Twitter that lockdowns are a "historically unprecedented" and "terrifying practice," Townhall reported on Monday [11/9/2020].  She said the elites love them.  [Tweets]  Joe Biden was sold as a moderate who would heal the divide and conquer the virus with compassion and science.  The campaign lied about his intentions on many issues, including COV.  We noted yesterday that Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is on Biden's task force, and he is a staunch supporter of another 12-18 month lockdown.  He's not the only one on that task force who wants to lock us down again.

Fauci said Trump 'asking for trouble' with potential super spreader rallies — but [he is] silent on Biden celebrations.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top disease expert, warned last month that President Trump was "asking for trouble" by holding large rallies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but has so far been silent on celebrations being held nationwide over President-elect Joe Biden's projected win.  Fauci, 79, made the comments during an Oct. 12 interview on CNN to discuss Trump's decision to hold campaign rallies despite having recovered from COVID-19.  "We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that," Fauci told host Jake Tapper.  "We've that when you have situations of congregate settings where there are a lot of people without masks, the data speak for themselves."

Celebrating Biden Fans Decide Mass Gatherings For Political Causes Are Okay After All.  We knew from this summer's massive BLM demonstrations that liberals, especially younger liberals, don't mean what they say when they call Trump's rallies irresponsible amid a pandemic.  They're right to single him out for criticism since he's the president and should set an example, but at the end of the day they have no problem with throwing caution to the wind on COVID in the name of politics.  It's purely a question of whether the cause is righteous enough.  Trump holding a rally?  No way.  Protesting racism?  Most definitely.  Getting drunk in a crowded park to celebrate your guy winning the election?  Sure, why not.

The Church of COVID.  Pet Valu, the specialty retailer of pet food and supplies in the U.S., announced it was closing all of its 358 stores by year's end. [...] One reason Pet Valu suffered, while others boomed, is they embraced the cultural aspects of the panic.  Rather than begrudgingly going along with the nutty rules cooked up by local tyrants, Pet Valu made a point of being on the cutting edge of the Karen revolution from the start. [...] Their stores were festooned with signs telling the world that they cared about the safety of the customers and employees.  After all, "we're all in this together" and "it is about being safe" during these "uncertain times."  Employees were instructed to repeat these slogans to customers, who were allowed into the store one at a time.  Those employees operated behind barricades of Plexiglas.  It turns out that treating your customers like plague carriers is not the best way to draw people into the store.

Biden coronavirus adviser Dr. Zeke Emanuel once argued it's not worth living past 75.  Oncologist Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of 10 advisory board members named to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus task force, argued in a 2014 essay that he doesn't want to live past 75.  Emanuel, 63, wrote that "by 75, creativity, originality and productivity are pretty much gone for the vast, vast majority of us" in his 2014 essay "Why I Hope to Die at 75."  Biden is 77.  "Since 1960, however, increases in longevity have been achieved mainly by extending the lives of people over 60.  Rather than saving more young people, we are stretching out old age," Emanuel wrote in the essay.

The Unholy Trinity:  The co-chairs of Biden's COVID-19 panel.  On Saturday [11/7/2020], in what it said was a "scoop," Axios reported that three medical experts have been chosen to co-chair what is anticipated to be Biden's twelve-member COVID-19 panel.  This will be an outside group of individuals not currently employed by the government.  Therefore, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will not be joining — or leading — the Biden effort until after Biden — God forbid — is certified and legally declared the winner and takes office next Jan. 20.  These three individuals, the first ones to be tapped by Biden to play major roles in a critical area of public health and the country's life in general, should give conservatives and Trump-supporters reasons for major concern.  First on the list is Vivek Hallegere Murthy, M.D., who served as President Obama's last surgeon general.

Biden's task force includes doctor calling for 12-18 month lockdown.  Joe Biden has formed his COVID-19 response task force.  It reads like a whos-who of Trump critics and Obama officials and supporters.  The panel includes Dr. David Kessler, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general under the Obama administration, and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor of internal medicine, public health and management at Yale University.  Also on the board:  Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an architect of the Affordable Care Act and former special adviser for health policy during the Obama administration.  Emanuel recently called for another lockdown for 12-18 months.

As de Blasio Allows Tens Of Thousands To Protest In The Streets, He's Going After Single Mother Business Owners In Red Zones.  Last night, as thousands of New Yorkers partied in the streets, sheriffs entered this pottery shop, owned by a single mom of five.  With no income coming into her "red zone" business, the owner was harassed while preparing craft kits to sell for the upcoming holiday.  [Video clip]

Cuomo would rather see body count rise than COVID vaccine under Trump.  It's probably the lowest thing Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ever done, and that's saying something.  On Monday morning, when everyone else was celebrating the spectacular news that Pfizer's vaccine for COVID-19 looks 90 percent effective, Cuomo, as is typical, reverted to politics.  "We can't let this vaccine plan go forward the way Trump is planning it," Cuomo said.  "We need to fix it or stop it before it does damage."  First he let people die in nursing homes because of his ineptitude.  Now Cuomo wants the body count to keep climbing because God forbid President Trump oversees a vaccine effort.

Democrats Pack Streets Celebrating Biden.  Following legacy media announcements proclaiming Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, thousands of people packed the streets of cities around the country to celebrate.  On Sunday [11/8/2020], Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, whose husband tragically lost both his parents to COVID-19 while they were residents of assisted living facilities or nursing homes in New York, fired off a powerful Twitter thread denouncing authorities for prohibiting families from being together during holidays or while their relatives were dying, but permitting huge gatherings of people celebrate Biden's results.

Millions of elderly and vulnerable will get free Vitamin D from government as evidence grows that it helps in battle against Covid-19.  Millions of vulnerable people will be sent supplies of Vitamin D by the Government as evidence grows that it helps in the battle against Covid-19 infection.  Care-home residents and people shielding because they suffer from conditions such as cancer will be sent enough supplies of the vitamin to last four months, with the first packages due to arrive early next month.  The move comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock decided he had to act fast in light of the emerging evidence about the benefits of Vitamin D.

Biden plans to meet with governors to initiate nationwide mask mandates.  Joe Biden has plans to implement nationwide mask mandates if elected president.  Over the weekend, he updated his 'day one' administration priorities.  This came after multiple mainstream media outlets declared him the winner of the election.  The Democrat's first stated goal would be to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.  His plans include expanding testing, distribution of personal protective equipment and petitioning all governors to issue mask mandates.  During a town hall event in October, Biden already admitted he wouldn't be able to order a sweeping mandate and would, instead, need to get all governors to agree.

Already Struggling Queens Business Owners Say Summonses, Fines Over COVID Guidelines Are 'Unfair'.  Business owners already struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic are getting hit again, this time with summonses and fines for not following COVID-19 guidelines.  Lorraine Gericke, manager of Best Tress Hair Salon, was told by a city inspector she was doing it all wrong, using a notebook to write down customers' temperatures and information for contact tracing.  "They're slapping us with a $1,000 fine, which is so unfair," she told CBS2's Dave Carlin.  The penalty is because they did not use city forms instead.  "We were not aware that we needed these," Gericke said.

Biden's first move as president-elect?  Mask mandate for all.  One of Joe Biden's first priorities as president-elect will be implementing mask mandates nationwide by working with governors.  The future 46th president, however, says if they refuse than he will go to mayors and county executives and get local masking requirements in place.  Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel believes that while masks are "the icing on the physical distancing cake" and should be worn properly both indoors and outdoors, especially when people are too close together, a more punitive approach to mask wearing may have the opposite impact of what the administration intends.  "I think masks are quite useful, but they have a place and they're not the be all and end all," Siegel said.  "I'm worried that mandating this with fines and such may actually lead to more of a rebellion against it."

Biden names fired surgeon general as a head of his COVID-19 taskforce.  President-elect Joe Biden has already selected the heads of his coronavirus task force, including the surgeon general who was fired soon after President Trump took office.  Vivek Murthy, who was the nation's top doctor when Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama, will be named as one of the co-chairs along with former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler, Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday [11/8/2020].

Sorry Joe Biden, COVID-19 Restrictions Are Over in Red States, So Please Stop the Drama.  Once the CDC told Americans they could leave quarantine to vote, they lost the lockdown argument.  And when we see Biden supporters by the thousands congregating, playing musical instruments, shouting, and singing, authorities will be hard-pressed to shove otherwise healthy adults back into their homes.  So, this message from self-declared President-elect Joe Biden is pretty confusing.  Especially if you live in Georgia, Florida, or any other state that has been open and operating for months:  [Tweet]

Official data is 'exaggerating' the risk of Covid and talk of a second wave is 'misleading', 500 academics tell Boris Johnson.  The doctors and scientists said the Government's response to the coronavirus pandemic has become 'disproportionate' and that mass testing has distorted the risk of the virus.  They said tests are likely to be producing high numbers of 'false positive' results and the Government must do more to put infection and death rates within the context of normal seasonal rates.  The letter criticised the Government's handling of coronavirus for 'causing more harm than good'.

'Is Covid over?' Suddenly Dems like Schumer lead 'Super Spreader' events, but it's ok for them?  Now that Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden has been declared by the media to be the winner of the 2020 presidential election, it appears the coronavirus pandemic has magically disappeared — just as had been expected.  How so?  The same Democrat politicians and liberal media figures who spent months promoting authoritarian decrees pertaining to masks, large gatherings and lockdowns have seemingly jettisoned all of their prior concerns.

Pro-Biden crowds are okay.  Pro-Trump crowds are forbidden.
Brit Hume Asks a Brutal Question, as Video Emerges of Crowd Celebrating Biden Win.  For over six months, Americans have been told that they can't leave their homes except to patronize companies seen as providing "essential services," they can't open their business store fronts to customers, kids can't go trick-or-treating on Halloween, and most recently, they cannot gather with their family members to celebrate Thanksgiving.  And most definitely, people who support President Donald Trump can't rally in large groups, or it's a superspreader event for the China plague.  They've also been assured that so many people were afraid to leave their own homes to vote at the polls, mail-in voting needed to be provided to everyone possible across the country.  So, what's the explanation for what we're seeing taking place today, after a wide swath of the legacy media has projected Joe Biden as winning the White House Saturday?

Liberals Suddenly Don't Care About COVID; Celebrate "Victory" By Gathering And Shouting In Large Groups.  For months, Democrats have been using the Coronavirus to scare people to death.  They pushed lockdowns and "social distancing" at every turn.  The far-left Governor of CA wants to cancel Thanksgiving and "limit" loud talking and signing.  However, now that the left has prematurely crowned Biden as "President-elect", their fear has apparently evaporated!  Make no mistake, we still believe in President Trump's ability to fight this fraud election in court, but the networks are celebrating like it's certain.  In several big cities, liberals are celebrating in the streets without masks and SHOUTING to the skies in celebration!

Chicago COVID-19 : Coronavirus surging, worse than 1st peak in spring, health officials say.  Chicago COVID-19 cases are surging in a way the city has not ever seen before, in an outbreak that is worse than the first coronavirus peak in April and May.  Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady emphasized Thursday that all Chicagoans needed to immediately take steps to contain the spread of COVID-19, including wearing masks, avoiding gatherings, washing hands and staying home.

Massachusetts is calling for a curfew to curb rising COVID-19 infections.  Experts say it's probably not enough.  Starting Friday night [11/6/2020], Massachusetts residents will be breaking the law if they're out between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., unless on the way to or from work or school.  The curfew is the latest effort to stem the growing COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts, which was hard-hit in the spring but enjoyed a low infection rate in the summer and early fall.  In the last week, the state, which had around 200 cases a day for most of the summer, has routinely seen daily caseloads above 1,200.  And it's likely to get worse instead of better.  Across the country, the story is much the same, with skyrocketing COVID-19 caseloads.

The Editor says...
What are the definitions of case and caseload?  It could be that more and more people test positive for the virus, because there's more widespread testing, but how many are sick enough to be hospitalized?  I suspect very few are.  Healthy people should not live under lockdowns and curfews just because a few others are sick.

Fed Chair Powell:  Wearing masks will help bring U.S. economy back.  Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated on Wednesday that the economic recovery is dependant on how the country handles the coronavirus pandemic.  "As we have emphasized throughout the pandemic, the outlook for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain, and will depend in large part on the success of efforts to keep the virus in check," Powell said.  "The recent rise in new COVID-19 cases both here in the United States and abroad is particularly concerning," he said during his press conference following the decision to keep interest rates at record lows.

Newsom's Latest COVID Regs [are] Nuttier Than a Holiday Fruitcake.  Not many Californians will be trekking over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house for the holidays this year if Gov. Gavin Newsom has his way.  According to guidelines issued by his office, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in the Golden State can include members of no more than three households, including everyone present — hosts as well as guests.  Granny will obviously have to be a little more careful about which set of aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews she invites this year.  And for those who do wrangle an invitation, forget about singing any Christmas carols — or music of any kind, for that matter.  Newsom's edict directs that:
  •   instrumental music will be allowed, but only if the musicians maintain at least a six-foot physical distance between themselves (and all musicians must be from one of the three households; playing of wind instruments is strongly discouraged);
  •   everyone singing or chanting should wear a face covering at all times;
  •   all those singing, shouting, chanting or dancing should maintain physical distancing beyond six feet; and,
  •   they are strongly encouraged to do so quietly (at or below the volume of a normal speaking voice).

How modern democracy has given rise to lockdown totalitarianism.  hen a British police commissioner publicly threatens to invade people's homes at Christmas to break up "illegal" family gatherings, you know that you have entered a new political landscape.  At least, new for modern liberal democracies.  That sort of edict would scarcely have been noticed in the totalitarian states of the old Soviet bloc, or in the distant darker periods of Western history.  [Paywall]

The CDC said it was O.K. for COVID patients to vote in person?  We are told that we can't gather together even if we haven't tested positive for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  That's what the CDC and other state bureaucracies told us.  The CDC carved out an exception for protestors and rioters.  We can't go to church if we have no symptoms and haven't tested positive, nor can we go to indoor dining or many other places[.]  For months we have been told that even if we are asymptomatic, we can be spreading the disease.  We close down businesses, sporting events, schools, and other things if so much as one person has tested positive.  But if you have tested positive CDC says you can still vote in person.  They have to stay home for fourteen days unless they go to vote?

Anthony Fauci should've been fired long ago.  President Donald Trump suggested to a Florida rally crowd he might fire Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, once Election Day has passed.  This is called an About Time moment.  Fauci should've been fired long ago.  Truth be told, Fauci never should have been granted the wide-scale, nationwide public platform at the White House in the first place.  He should've been kept behind scenes, as one of many COVID-19 advisers to the president.  He only should have been given the media platform when he was speaking a tightly controlled administration-penned message.  Why?  The guy's done nothing but push economic, social, education and political policy for months — all under the guise of giving good medical advice — all the while pretending he's stayed far and clear from policy and politics.  He's been a tool of the left.  And my, how the left has taken hold and used him to jab this president.

Restaurants must collect diners' data under latest Gretchen Whitmer order.  Meals at Michigan restaurants came with a new side dish Monday:  What's your name and phone number?  The latest order kicked in from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's health department.  Restaurants must be able to contact customers if there's a virus case linked to the business.  Michigan's coronavirus cases have risen significantly, setting a new daily high Saturday at 3,792, the health department said.

The Graphic Truth:  Two different pandemics - EU vs US.  Although the United States and the European Union have comparable population sizes, until recently the trajectories of their COVID-19 outbreaks have been vastly different.  The US just surpassed nine million total infections as most states are fighting a third wave of the coronavirus.  But now Europe is doing worse:  the continent is fighting a full-blown "second wave" that has seen its latest average infection and mortality rates surpass those of the US, and led France, Germany and the UK to implement fresh national lockdowns.

The Mainstream Media's COVID Cover-up Continues.  On October 5th, The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) was released to the public, almost three full weeks before Biden's interview.  For those who've never heard of the GBD, you shouldn't feel left out.  Our mainstream media has barely covered its existence, and are in fact doing everything they can to ignore it.  Written by three renowned infectious disease epidemiologists — one each from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford — the GBD makes several recommendations that sound suspiciously similar to what Dr. Atlas has advocated for, and what President Trump has pitched to the American public.  Among other things, the document advises:
  •   "Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal."
  •   "Restaurants and other businesses should open."
  •   "Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching."
The GBD advises that communities and countries strive for herd immunity.  The very mention of herd immunity has become verboten in many circles, with opponents such as Dr. Anthony Fauci of the CDC suggesting such an approach will kill people.  But the credibility of the GBD is not simply limited to the credentials of its three authors, though their résumés are thoroughly impressive.  To date, there have been over 11,000 medical and public health scientists from around the world that have also signed the declaration, along with another 32,000 medical practitioners.  But Joe Biden told 17 million Americans that "no serious doctor around the world" agrees with Dr. Atlas?  And Norah O'Donnell just went right along with the lie?  As Joe might say, "C'mon man."

Something Happened at Trump's Rally Last Night that Should Single-Handedly Win Him the Election.  Last night, Trump barnstormed the country, doing five rallies in a single day.  If that has ever happened before, at least in regards to the geographic breadth, it has to be exceptionally rare. [...] But it wasn't just that the rally happened that made it newsworthy.  One segment involving Dr. Anthony Fauci stood above the rest because it may be the most important action that this country could take over the next several months.  [Video clip]  I don't think you need me to translate that for you.  If Trump is re-elected, he essentially just indicated that Fauci is going to be shown the door and kicked off the COVID task force, and if the President weren't going to do anything else in his next four years, that would be enough to justify putting him back in the White House.

Trump suggests he may fire Fauci after the election.  President Trump suggested in Miami on Sunday that he might fire infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election.  Chants of "fire Fauci" broke out about 25 minutes into Trump's fifth campaign rally of the day.  In response, Trump indicated he was open to the idea.  "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait till a little after the election," he said.  "I appreciate the advice."  Technically federal civil service regulations prevent a president from directly firing Fauci, but someone higher up his chain of command does have that ability, including the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Candace Owens: 'If You Believe That Government Can Stop a Virus, Then You Are an Idiot'.  Conservative author, commentator, and political activist Candace Owens has had enough of Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, the Democrat Party, and the liberal media ragging on President Donald Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.  If you're among those who continue to blame the president, declared Owens in a mini-tweet storm, you're an "idiot." [...] Owens has also had enough of dictatorial governors like Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, Oregon's Kate Brown, California's Gavin Newsom, et al., and their draconian lockdowns and other heavy-handed edicts that fly in the face of studies, including continued bans on in-person education, as I reported in late October.

Biden stumbles through another campaign speech:  "America is dead because of COVID-19".  Joe Biden is running a campaign based on the principle that this presidential election is a referendum on President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic.  Team Biden has put all its eggs into one basket — Americans are dying because Trump has botched the response to the virus.  To hear Joe Biden speak, it is as though Trump has the power to flip a switch and the highly contagious, deadly virus will just magically disappear.  Instead, he's left America in the dark.

White House rips Fauci for praising Biden, trashing Scott Atlas.  The White House has lashed out at Dr. Anthony Fauci — after the nation's leading infectious disease expert praised Joe Biden and warned that the US is "in for a whole lot of hurt" from COVID-19 this fall and winter.  White House spokesman Judd Deere called Fauci's comments "unacceptable and breaking with all norms."  "Dr. Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he's not done that, instead choosing to criticize the President in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the President's opponent," Deere said in a statement late Saturday.  "Dr. Fauci knows that the risks today are dramatically lower than they were only a few months ago with mortality rates falling over 80 percent."  In the lengthy interview with the Washington Post on Friday, Fauci said the country is in for "a whole lot of hurt" this winter.

Michigan Governor:  Up To Six Months In Prison If Businesses Don't Surveil Customers For Contact Tracing.  The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is requiring restaurants, barbershops, tattoo parlors, recreational facilities, and entertainment establishments to record the names, contact information, and visit times of all customers to "aid with contact tracing." Any establishment that does not comply is threatened with a maximum $200 fine and a misdemeanor charge punishable with up to six months in prison.  The order, announced Friday [10/30/2020], comes as Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her administration began backtracking on the state's latest reopening plan and tightening COVID-19 restrictions, citing rising hospitalizations and deaths.  Other states including New York have implemented similar contact tracing rules, requiring restaurants to record diners' information in the case of an outbreak.  In addition to scaling back the number of people at gatherings at indoor venues from 500 to 50, the order also advised against shouting and screaming at events, claiming that cheering could spread the virus in the air 30 times more than speaking.

Winnie the Flu from the Land of Wu.  Huh.  Well this is interesting.  The current ratio of deaths to cases seems to be the inverse of what it was last spring.  Closer now to what you'd see from — oh, I don't know, a normal flu season perhaps?  Seems maybe we've learned a thing or two since then about testing for and treating the Wuhan virus.  Either that and/or it's mutating into a somewhat less lethal strain.  Meanwhile, in the USA, President Trump's approach has been to clear bureaucratic paths (no mean task) for drug companies to develop, manufacture and distribute a vaccine post haste without sacrificing safety or efficacy.  I'd vote for that approach over more lockdowns every day of the week.

Eight hard questions for the Democrats.  [#2] Why do you want to prolong the damage of the Wuhan virus to our economy?  Why extend lockdowns with endless "states of emergency" in supposed respect for bogus "science" when Texas's, Florida's, and other states' experiences show that the economy-murdering lockdowns of businesses and schools do not lessen virus contagions over the long term — they just extend individual suffering through unemployment, economic suffering, isolation, and harm to children?

Summarizing Joe Biden.  The Biden plan to end the pandemic is basically to take credit for what Trump has already done.  Trump's "Operation Warp Speed" is about to produce (in record time) a vaccine that will immunize us against the virus.  Trump's other efforts — increased testing, providing personal protective equipment and such — is all that can be done.  All that Biden adds is to threaten economic shutdowns if the "experts" advise him to do that.

Boris Johnson announces four-week national Covid lockdown in England.  A second national lockdown will be imposed across England from midnight on Thursday with all nonessential shops, restaurants, pubs and leisure facilities to close for at least four weeks, Boris Johnson has said.  The prime minister dramatically escalated the country's response to the pandemic in a press conference on Saturday evening, telling the public "the time has come for further measures" which will remain in place until 2 December.  People have been told to "stay at home as much as possible", but will be allowed to leave their homes for education, medical appointments and to shop for essential goods.

For Biden:  Three Strikes... You're Out!  [Scroll down]  Strike Three — which should be the one that totally disqualifies Biden from consideration — is his extremist attitude toward the COVID virus and his promise to continue the shutdown with its inevitable disastrous economic consequences and the emotional/mental health toll it is taking on the nation's citizens.  We've seen the economy bounce back from the partial reopening of businesses and greater mobility for the vast majority of citizens who are not especially vulnerable to the COVID virus.  We've learned how to deal with the virus and those who needs extra precautions.  We've increased our testing capacity and have achieved widespread distribution of needed equipment and medicines thanks to the Trump administration effectively working to mobilize private industry.  Although there are still questions about where and how people get the virus, we now know a lot more about how best to treat it.  The Trump protocols have worked; now, the number of people who recover far exceeds the number of people who die from it.  Dr. Ben Carson has cited research showing about 98% of people who get the virus recover from it and the survival rate of those under 50 exceeds 99%.

Bar Talk.  [Scroll down]  I cannot help but notice that the risk of death from COVID by age resembles very closely the risk of death by age from all causes:  That is to say, at a low age the risk is negligible, rising slightly and then very rapidly after the age of 65 — though there is no age at which the risk is zero.  In the age group to which I have the honor of belonging (though membership of it is not entirely voluntary), which is said to be at high risk of dying of COVID, though only a sixteenth as high as that of people over the age of 90, I noticed that in Britain, which had one of the highest levels of death from the disease, the chance of someone of my age dying of it during the height of the epidemic was 1 in 807.  The normal risk, that is to say without COVID, would have been about 1 in 1,200.  This is not the Black Death, then, though I suppose the death rate might have been much higher had it not been for the government measures taken.

Travelers to New York must quarantine for three days, then get coronavirus test.  Most people arriving in New York state must quarantine for at least three full days before taking a coronavirus test, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday as he overhauled one of the strictest quarantine regimes for travelers in the United States.  If that test comes back negative, the traveler can leave quarantine.

The Next Populist Revolt.  This week, when Italian authorities reimposed curfews, restrictions on business, and bans on communal gatherings, violent protests broke out in Turin, Milan, and Naples.  Consider it a taste of the next populist revolt.  Lockdowns remain the preferred tool of governments whose public health authorities decide the coronavirus is out of control.  In September, Israel shut down for a month during the Jewish holidays to reduce its coronavirus infection rate.  In October, New York City targeted certain neighborhoods.  In recent days, Newark ordered "nonessential" businesses to close at 8 p.m., a county judge imposed a curfew on El Paso, and Massachusetts has gone back-and-forth on whether schools should be open or closed.  This response has placed the public under extraordinary strain. [...] Governments resort to shutdowns to impose discipline on an unruly population.  But shutdowns do not solve the problem.  They turn public health crises into economic and social ones.  After a while, the price of shutdowns grows too high.  The government reopens the economy.  The virus returns.  Before long, the cycle repeats.

Police to Raid Homes, Break up Christmas Dinner to Enforce Lockdown Rules; Riots Expected.  It's that time of the year: tinsel on trees, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, sleigh bells ringing — and the cops coming through the door and breaking up Christmas dinner.  No, this isn't neo-fascist China, but Britain, where police chiefs warn that this can be the consequence if people violate lockdown rules this Yuletide season.  This notice comes on the heels of the South Wales Police breaking up a church service in Cardiff, a move that inspired a comparison with pseudo-communist China.

Keith Ellison Wields Power to Restrict Freedom of Assembly of Political Opponents at Minnesota Trump Rally.  The venue for President Donald Trump's political rally in Minnesota scheduled for Friday will be restricted to only 250 people after Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison put pressure on the business owners of multiple locations.  The rally was initially planned at the Rochester airport, but Ellison's office demanded a "COVID preparedness plan" from officials from the City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and the Rochester airport, as well as the Republican National Committee to ensure the event was safe.

President Trump Blasts Minnesota Governor and AG for Blocking Rally and Undermining First Amendment.  President Trump blasted Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and State AG Keith Ellison for their transparent political scheme to block his campaign event.  The same state officials who allowed Black Lives Matter to organize and march without restrictions under the guise of political protest, are the same officials now limiting attendance to 250 people at Trump's rally in the state.  Meanwhile just outside the venue thousands of supporters defied the arbitrary state rule and gathered together near the entrance.  So President Trump stopped to talk to the media, blast the state officials, and then went to talk to the assembled crowd that could not attend the rally.  [Three video clips]

New Jersey's Gov. Murphy won't rule out another coronavirus lockdown as cases spike.  New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday that "all options are on the table," including another lockdown, amid a spike in coronavirus cases in the state, according to reports.  "If we have to shut the whole place down we will," Murphy told Yahoo Finance.  "We were one of the first, if not the first state to do that in March.  I just hope we can avoid it again this time."  The governor had warned Thursday that a second wave of the virus has hit the state as cases and hospitalizations surged, according to NJ.com.  Murphy said the state hadn't seen daily cases numbers over 2,000 since May and urged residents to wear masks and social distance.

I won't stop fighting until these ruinous Covid lockdowns are thrown out by the courts.  Today [10/30/2020] my legal case against lockdown is being heard in the Court of Appeal.  This brings the UK's long and tortuous battle, with a virus, to a pivotal point.  Will the British public see its embarrassment of a Government held to account for its failures?  Will the meaning and significance of individual liberty be reasserted?  Or will the Court stand by and let our leaders win, condemning 66 million Brits to a cancelled Christmas in the process?  The significance of this legal case has been steadily growing since we launched proceedings back in March.  Once seen as outsiders, we have watched the tide of public opinion turn in our favour.  As the deleterious impacts of lockdown have so clearly begun to outweigh the fabled benefits, we now have the voices of thousands behind us.  This is no surprise.  No member of the public will have missed the stories: of the price of untreated illnesses, of broken mental health, of the poverty, desolation and heartbreak which the downfall of our economy will cause.

These 12 Graphs Show Mask Mandates Do Nothing To Stop COVID.  Masks are not merely a small inconvenience.  They have inadvertently become a key impediment to returning to a more normal life, a desirable goal for those seeking to twist the pandemic for political and electoral purposes.  Masks dehumanize us, and ironically serve as a constant reminder that we should be afraid.  People can now be spotted wearing masks while camping by themselves in the woods or on a solo sailing trip.  They have become a cruel device on young children everywhere, kindergarten students covered by masks and isolated by Plexiglas, struggling to understand the social expressions of their peers.  Face coverings are causing real harm to the American psyche, provide little to no medical benefit, and distract us from more important health policy issues.  The mask dogma had many cracks in it from the start.  For one, the U.S. surgeon general and the Centers for Disease Control both previously said that "masks are NOT effective in preventing [the] general public from catching coronavirus," so they were already starting with a credibility deficit.

Tens of thousands of heart attacks caused by preexisting conditions are being counted as COVID-19 deaths:  CDC.  As a general rule, if you're going to pay someone extra to tell a "little white lie," they'll do it.  After all, what difference does it make how someone died?  That seems to be the case with many hospitals across the nation as they're counting pretty much any death as a COVID-19 death.  Why?  Because they government will pay them more for it.

CDC Reveals Hospitals Counted Heart Attacks as COVID-19 Deaths.  The latest numbers from the CDC reveal hospitals have been counting patients who died from serious preexisting conditions as COVID-19 deaths.  One America's Pearson Sharp has more, as the CDC counts over 51-thousand patients who actually died from heart attacks, as opposed to the coronavirus.  [Video clip]

Study finds 20 percent of grocery workers had COVID-19, most without symptoms.  Grocery store workers — particularly those who interact with customers — are at serious risk of infection by the coronavirus, according to a new study in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.  These workers likely became a "significant transmission source" for the illness without even knowing it because most in the study were asymptomatic, CNN reported.  The study found that 20 percent of 104 grocery store workers tested at a Boston store in May had positive nasal swab results, according to the network.  The analysis is the first to demonstrate the significant asymptomatic infection rate, exposure risks and psychological impact such workers have felt during the viral outbreak.

Polling places in Iowa are closing due to COVID-19, which could affect close races.  Voters in Iowa are facing shuttered polling locations less than a week away from Election Day, largely due to the various outbreaks of COVID-19 that have gripped the state.  Iowa is one of the several Midwest states experiencing record upticks in new coronavirus infections, with 1,133 Iowans testing positive for the virus yesterday [10/28/2020].  Two days prior, Iowa set a record for the number of new cases, reporting 2,691 on Oct. 26.  In total, more than 121,000 people in Iowa tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Editor says...
The right to vote must not be suspended due to irrational fear over positive test results.  Let me vote at my own risk!  I am not sick, and I am not afraid.

Sally the Salad Robot is replacing the traditional salad bar at Piggly Wiggly.  Salad bars have been mostly shut down since the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Wisconsin.  Fox Bros.  Piggly Wiggly is bringing back its salad bar with Sally the Salad Robot for a contactless experience.  The Piggly Wiggly in Oconomowoc will start using Sally the Salad Robot to prepare individualized salads for customers Friday, the grocery store company said in a statement Thursday [10/29/2020].  Fox Bros.  Piggly Wiggly is an employee-owned grocery chain with nine locations in Milwaukee's far northern and western suburbs.

The Editor says...
The Piggly Wiggly mascot looks a whole lot like Porky Pig.  I wonder if there has been any legal friction about this trademark issue.

Trump Team Tells Off Mitchell:  Biden & Media 'Colluded' to Exploit COVID.  Appearing on MSNBC Thursday afternoon [10/29/2020], Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told off anchor Andrea Mitchell as he exposed how the Biden campaign and the leftist media "colluded" to exploit the coronavirus pandemic and turn it into a "political weapon" against the President.  To Mitchell's utter contempt, Murtaugh also called out Biden's "anti-vaxxer rhetoric" and the press sowing doubt about COVID-19 treatments.  "We are inches away from a vaccine in record time.  Meanwhile, you have Joe Biden on the other side using this anti-vaxxer rhetoric, scaring people away from taking the vaccine, and then the media happily trumpeting the polls that say that people are afraid of the vaccine," Murtaugh hammered.  He emphasized how irresponsible the rhetoric was:  "Joe Biden, a candidate for President, is warning people that it could be dangerous, that's reckless."

Paris police check shoppers are not flouting new COVID lockdown laws after tough restrictions came in at midnight, sparking exodus to the country.  Police in Paris have begun carrying out checks on shoppers to ensure they are not flouting France's new national lockdown laws which came into effect at midnight.  Pictures from the French capital showed officers patrolling the mostly empty streets around some of Paris' most recognisable attractions and checking on the few people who had chosen to venture outside.  The pictures from today offered a stark contrast to just a week ago when people could still freely move around the city during the day while bars and restaurants serving food remained open before the 9pm curfew.

The Covid-19 shutdown is on the ballot!
If Biden Wins, Dr. Fauci Will Lock Us Down for 111 Days.  [Scroll down]  The mortality rate for COVID-19 is plummeting.  The death rate is way down.  There isn't any reason for this panic.  There isn't any reason for this.  One-hundred-and-eleven days of lockdown?  We've been there, done that.  We destroyed livelihoods.  We blew up people's dreams.  We still have parts of cities and towns boarded up.  I don't even know if Shepard's right here.  I think it might have been New Zealand that shut down for 111 days.  Regardless where it was, it isn't necessary, and they're gonna face a spike.  If you shut down for 111 days, you're not getting rid of the virus.  You are not destroying the virus.  You're not wiping it out.  When you reopen after 111 days, you're gonna have a spike.  You're gonna have a COVID spike.  All they're doing is delaying the inevitable.

Will anti-lockdown sentiments spur the next populist revolt?  As the nation frets over the possibility of the "dark winter" that Joe Biden recently predicted, we're already seeing signs of renewed authoritarian lockdowns in many parts of the nation.  Curfews are being put back in place in a number of cities.  Orders forbidding gatherings of more than a certain number of people have accompanied them.  Far too many schools are still either closed or holding "virtual classes" that have been failing spectacularly.  There have already been signs of growing resentment toward yet another round of crippling restrictions on the activities of private citizens and businesses, along with the mounting damage these policies have done to what was one of the most thriving economies our nation has experienced prior to the arrival of the novel coronavirus.  So how much of this will people stand for before enough is declared to be enough?

Oregon's Public Health Authority Announces Covid Deaths While Dressed as a Clown.  In what has to be one of the most bizarre and mind-warping decisions of all time, Claire Poche, a senior official of the Oregon Health Authority gave a Covid update today while wearing a complete clown costume.  The makeup, the red tie, the polka dots.  The whole thing.  It's hard to even express how awkward this is.  [Video clip]

Bar Owners Vow to Defy Illinois COVID-19 Lockdown Order.  Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has issued an Order re-implementing restrictions on bars and restaurants in southwestern Illinois ("Region 4") due to a rising COVID positivity rate.  (Three consecutive days of positive test rates above 8%.)  The Order, which went into effect yesterday, limits them to outdoor service only and imposes an 11:00 pm curfew.  Many of these establishments were only recently permitted to reopen and, heading into late fall and cooler temperatures, will likely not be able to ride out another lockdown.  Some have stated they don't intend to obey the Order.

The Editor says...
This is a lockdown based on "positive test results," not hospitalizations or deaths.  The state could conduct a massive series of tests for every living person, and come up with a great number of "positive test results," but that wouldn't necessarily indicate a real problem:  Almost certainly not a problem that would justify restrictions on small businesses.

Death Rates Have Dropped for Seriously Ill Covid Patients.  The coronavirus struck the United States earlier this year with devastating force.  In April, it killed more than 10,000 people in New York City.  By early May, nearly 50,000 nursing home residents and their caregivers across the country had died.  But as the virus continued its rampage over the summer and fall, infecting nearly 8.5 million Americans, survival rates, even of seriously ill patients, appeared to be improving.  At one New York hospital system where 30 percent of coronavirus patients died in March, the death rate had dropped to 3 percent by the end of June.

Do Masks Work?  I encountered a Washington Post figure making its way through social media, suggesting that not wearing masks is conclusively the reason for COVID spread:  [Graph] [...] There is no correlation whatsoever.  The "trend line" I plotted has a 0.02 correlation (1.0 means full correlation).  When you take the outliers out (WY, RI, MS, DC, SD), the correlation drops to 0.01.  In fact, some of the states with the worst RTs right now (NJ, CT, MA, RI) have the highest "mask wearing" percentages!  Furthermore, the graph is titled "Fewer covid-19 symptoms reported in states with higher rates of mask use" — which is completely wrong!  The data do not graph symptoms, only the loose perceptions of individuals who "know" someone, who were surveyed.  The fact that this passes off as "journalism" or "science" is incredibly pathetic — and it is being "liked" on social media by people who should know better.  The reasons for this are the obvious political implications.

A New Round of COVID-19 Restrictions Drives Illinois Eateries to Rebellion.  With their survival on the line amidst a new round of government restrictions targeted at slowing the spread of COVID-19, many Illinois restaurants and bars are refusing to comply.  It's the sort of defiance that erupted during the early days of the pandemic, but more widespread and better organized by business owners who say they have nothing to lose, since their only other option is disaster.  This is a rebellion that could have been foreseen by anybody who understands how people necessarily respond when their backs are against the wall.  In fact, it was predicted, repeatedly.  That needs to be taken into account by government officials already imposing new lockdowns and poised to inflict yet more pain on a public growing increasingly unwilling to submit.  "Unless the state of Illinois takes a more reasonable approach to mitigation, thousands of restaurants are at risk of permanent closure," the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA) warned last week.

Study finds over 80 percent of COVID-19 patients have vitamin D deficiency.  Over 80 percent of 200 COVID-19 patients in a hospital in Spain have vitamin D deficiency, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.  Vitamin D is a hormone the kidneys produce that controls blood calcium concentration and impacts the immune system.  Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a variety of health concerns, although research is still underway into why the hormone impacts other systems of the body.  Many studies point to the beneficial effect of vitamin D on the immune system, especially regarding protection against infections.

Hours after Lightfoot announces new COVID-19 restrictions, Birx warns during Chicago visit that closing public spaces won't be enough.  Just hours after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced new restrictions on businesses in response to rising COVID-19 cases, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx cautioned that closing public spaces won't be enough to stop the illness's spread.  Birx said it's possible some of the recent spread is happening in people's homes, during family gatherings, as the weather gets colder.

Parents sue Sarasota County School Board over requirement that students wear masks.  A group of Sarasota County parents has sued the Sarasota County School Board, arguing that its policy requiring children to wear masks while at school denies them their right to an equal education.  The 59-page lawsuit was filed Oct. 21 in Sarasota County by Amy Cook and Gustavo Collazo, as well as Nicholas Eastman and Catherine Gonzales.  The School Board is named as the defendant.  Several Sarasota County School Board members did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday [10/26/2020].  Board member Caroline Zucker said the board had not received a copy of the lawsuit as of Monday afternoon.

There's a Reason Why Trump Keeps Telling Voters He's Immune to COVID-19.  Early in the final debate, President Trump made a comment, almost an aside, about his personal battle with COVID-19 that the media have largely ignored but that could have considerable impact on the election results.  "I got better very fast," Trump said, "and now they say I'm immune.  Whether it's four months or a lifetime, nobody's been able to say that, but I'm immune."  The next night at a rally at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, Trump reiterated his claim that his medical team has declared him immune to COVID.  From that day on, Trump has repeated this message to rally audiences in North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Nebraska and to the millions of voters watching the rallies nationally.  "But the fact is, I had it.  It worked out well.  Now I'm immune," Trump declared to an Ohio audience.  At rally after rally, amid seemingly innocuous personal anecdotes about his recovery from the disease, Trump weaves an unspoken message that subtly undermines his opponent even without directly mentioning him:  President Trump is immune to COVID-19, and Joe Biden is not.

More COVID Charts Democrats — And The Press — Don't Want You To See.  Joe Biden emerged from his bunker in the summer long enough to declare that "while other nations took steps to get control over COVID-19, Trump took no responsibility."  So how do Joe and company explain the fact that coronavirus cases are now exploding in Europe at rates far higher than the U.S., that the share of positive test results is higher in Europe, as is the case fatality rate?  "There's no question that the European region is an epicenter for disease right now," said the World Health Organization's Dr. Michael Ryan.  "Right now we are well behind this virus in Europe so getting ahead of it is going to take some serious acceleration in what we do."  The chart [left] shows daily new cases per 100,000 population in the U.S., Europe and a sampling of European countries.

France must accept new national lockdown, says hospital professor.  Professor Philippe Juvin, a leading member of Paris' Georges-Pompidou hospital, told RTL radio on Wednesday that France had to accept a new, national lockdown to tackle a resurgence of the COVID-19 virus.  "We must take it up," said Juvin.  French President Emmanuel Macron will give a televised address on Wednesday evening.  His government has been exploring a new, national lockdown from midnight on Thursday, BFM TV reported, albeit a slightly more flexible one than the two-month shutdown that began in mid-March.

The Great COVID Lie.  If this election had been held in February, Trump likely would have won.  And he likely would have won rather easily.  That's because Trump's often-terrible rhetoric would have taken a back seat to his actions, and Americans' pessimism about Trump's character would have taken a back seat to their optimism about his agenda.  Then COVID hit.  The economy, thanks in large part to overwrought lockdown policies, collapsed.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans died.  And Trump's rhetoric blunders took on renewed seriousness as Americans looked for steady leadership and instead found the usual Trumpian stew of bloviation and exaggeration and ire.  COVID has become the Democrats' chief electioneering ploy.  Their argument is patently wrong and immoral.  It is an argument repeated ad nauseum by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as well as their allies in the media.

If We're Doing a Mask Mandate, Do It Right!  The alleged "party of science" is condemning the president for failing to "control" the novel coronavirus, which is the most unsciency thing ever because it's impossible to control a virus without the widespread use of immunizations over a long period of time and even that isn't a guarantee.  Only a few deadly viruses in history, perhaps unbeknownst to the Democratic Party's credentialed class, have been completely eradicated.  The annual flu vaccine can combat just a handful of influenza strains.  The Centers for Disease Control admits that "Flu viruses are constantly changing so it's not unusual for new flu viruses to appear each year."  Despite Herculean efforts to "control" influenza, a vaccine is only about 40 to 60 percent effective.  Millions of Americans still contract the illness and tens of thousands, including children, die each year.  This year's vaccine targets a form of the Hong Kong flu first identified in 1968, the year I was born.  But somehow, Donald Trump was supposed to contain, control, or completely stop a novel (that means new) coronavirus within a matter of months.

The Editor says...
It certainly sounds like the Democrats have very high expectations of Mr. Trump!

Scott Atlas shoots down Biden's claim that 'no serious doc' agrees coronavirus restrictions should be loosened.  Dr. Scott Atlas hit back against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's claim that "no serious" doctor agrees with Atlas that coronavirus restrictions should be loosened.  "Dr. Scott Atlas ... is advocating young people go about their business and older people sequester," CBS's Norah O'Donnell said to Biden.  "Nobody thinks he makes any sense," the former vice president responded.  "Nobody.  No serious doc around the world."  Atlas took issue with the video clip, saying there are more than 11,000 other doctors who agree with him.

Anti-lockdown riots convulse Italy as resistance spreads in Europe.  Europeans are in open rebellion over the reimposition of harsh anti-Coronavirus lockdown measures.  Severe limits on personal freedoms have failed to arrest the spread of the China virus in Italy and Spain, as positive tests for the virus have surged in both nations after relaxing the measures imposed last spring. [...] Rioting resumed Tuesday night [10/27/2020], though there is scant coverage from our media, other than Fox News.  With Joe Biden endorsing a national mask mandate and discussing a national lockdown, media committed to his victory are loath to let Americans know that citizens in Europe are in open rebellion over such measures that have already failed.

French doctor warns his country has 'lost control' of virus.  A French doctor warned Monday that his country has "lost control of the epidemic," a day after health authorities reported more than 52,000 new coronavirus cases as nations across Europe enact more sweeping restrictions to try to slow surging infection rates.  Spain — the first European country to surpass 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases — declared a state of emergency Sunday that included a nationwide overnight curfew, a cap of six people on social gatherings and possible travel bans in and out of the hardest-hit regions.  The effect was clear on Barcelona's famed Las Ramblas promenade, which was deserted Sunday night when it normally would have been teeming with people.

L.A. County Sends Health Department Workers To Fine Church That Sued Newsom.  A Catholic church in Los Angeles County is alleging that the local government dispatched two health department officials to harass them in retaliation for their priest suing Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials.  On Oct. 15, two health officials showed up at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Arcadia, California, a congregation affiliated with the dissident Society of St. Pius X.  The officials watched approximately 11 parishioners leave the building from the sidewalk and then cited them for holding indoor worship services in violation of COVID-19 restrictions, according to a copy of the citation forwarded to The Daily Wire.  The citation carried with it a $1,000 fine.

NBC Report Intentionally Spreads COVID Fear Like Virus.  Based on IFR studies, Human Events created a hypothetical for readers to consider:  What if everybody in America got the disease at once?  There are two important things to consider under such a scenario.  The first is that if everyone got the disease at once, the impact on the healthcare system would be such that the IFR would most certainly increase.  This would not be because of an inherent change in the disease, but because the number of critically ill people in need of specialized advanced care would exceed the capacity to deliver such care.  Demand would exceed supply.  The other consideration to keep in mind is that it would be impossible for everyone to contract the disease at once.  That simply would not happen.  It is worthwhile simply to show the raw numbers for the purpose of understanding possibilities and setting responsible public policy.  Using 2019 Census Data (population 324,356,000), under the three different IFR scenarios provided by the CDC, the total number of deaths, ceteris paribus, would range from 1.201 million to 4.122 million with a likely number of 2.351 million.  Of the total in the likely scenario 81% would be in the over 70 and up age range.  Further, 98% would be over the age of 50.

Rob Reiner Claims Trump's Closing Strategy Is to 'Kill as Many Americans as Possible'.  Far-left Hollywood actor and director Rob Reiner belted out another wild rant exactly one week before Election Day, claiming that President Donald Trump's "closing strategy" is to "kill as many Americans as possible."  "Trump's closing strategy:  Blanket the country with super spreader rallies and kill as many Americans as possible," wrote Rob Reiner on Tuesday [10/27/2020], bizarrely suggesting that the president is trying to kill his own countrymen.

The Editor says...
[#1] There is a reason this man is known as "Meat-Head."  Think for just a moment about what he's claiming.  President Trump is a politician, running for re-election.  Why would he go around the country attempting to demimate his voter base, by spreading disease?  [#2] If someone wanted to "kill as many Americans as possible," the Coronavirus would be a very ineffective weapon — masks or no masks.

NYC eateries beg Gov. Cuomo to reopen — or at least get some info.  New York City's struggling restaurants have given up hope that they will be allowed to double their indoor seating on Nov. 1 amid rising infection rates and radio silence from Albany, The [New York] Post has learned.  Restaurant owners and lobbyists say they've heard zilch from Gov. Cuomo on his promise to consider increasing indoor dining capacity by the end of this month.  That silence has left them unable to plan — and bracing for another wave of closures.  "I think we would have heard by now if indoor dining was going to expand by November first.  People need time to prepare," said restaurant consultant Donny Evans.  "Restaurateurs are scared," Evans added.  "Without expanded indoor dining, there will be a tsunami of closings."

The Cult Of The Brave New Normal.  In March, it was just a three-week lockdown, to flatten the curve so as not to overwhelm the NHS.  The narrative has quickly evolved.  It has progressed from what seemed a reasonable idea of keeping NHS bed space free based on the completely false Neil Fergusson prediction that hospitals would be overwhelmed by patients suffering from COVID19.  This never happened.  Many weeks passed where face masks were not needed and then suddenly in July, long after the majority of supposed COVID19 deaths had occurred, face masks were made compulsory.  Indeed, the UK government advice from the likes of Chris Whitty and the World Health Organisation was that face masks were not effective in stopping the spread of COVID19 or in contracting it; science does not change that quick — anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.  The result is that we have now fallen deep into a Covidian Cult, a totalitarian psychotic narrative that has little connection to reality or to the facts. [...] Cult leaders do this to their followers to short circuit their critical thinking.  Cult leaders will also change the rules or the narrative at a whim for no apparent reason.  Hence the change of now being able to get married without a face mask, even though the COVID19 restrictions are being tightened again all over the UK; it makes no sense, its not meant to, and the masses are meant to follow, not question and obey.  Cult leaders want to make the masses follow chaos.

California's Gavin Newsom goes bonkers issuing Thanksgiving COVID orders.  For someone whose previous career was in San Francisco's trendy restaurant industry, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has some bizarre ideas about why people gather; what a comfortable dining experience is; and how people, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, will do what they do.  Nope, he's got some weird stuff up, motivated, he says, by a supposed new wave of COVID: [...] Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that neither he nor his constituents are going to observe these ridiculous diktats on the country's biggest family holiday from the comfort of their own homes.  The arbitrariness of these regulations is incredible.  Two hours together?  Why not one point five hours instead?  Thousands of lives could be saved!

Chicago Public Schools Says Teachers Union 'Refuses to Even Discuss' Returning to In-Person Classes.  Chicago Public Schools on Friday pushed back against the Chicago Teachers Union, which filed an unfair labor practice charge last week accusing the city's school district of illegally refusing to negotiate with the union on how to safely resume in-person classes amid health concerns.  The union has "refused to even discuss" returning to in-person classes, school district spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement.  "We are disheartened that CTU continues to obstruct and mislead the public about the necessary planning measures needed to prepare for a potential return to safe in-person learning," Bolton said.  "While the district is doing everything in its power to plan for all possible scenarios, the CTU refuses to even discuss a return to in-person learning, even as hundreds of private schools in Chicago are open."

Also posted under Chicago and Unionized teachers.

34 Abstracts with Face Masks (Lack of Safety and Ineffectiveness) Research.  [34 links to various studies.]

Airborne coronavirus particle (<0.125 micron) will pass directly through a N95 face mask..  In December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause was linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China.  A previously unknown betacoronavirus was discovered through the use of unbiased sequencing in samples from patients with pneumonia.  Human airway epithelial cells were used to isolate a novel coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, which formed a clade within the subgenus sarbecovirus, Orthocoronavirinae subfamily.  Different from both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, 2019-nCoV is the seventh member of the family of coronaviruses that infect humans.  Enhanced surveillance and further investigation are ongoing.

Penetration of cloth masks by influenza particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%..  The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of cloth masks to medical masks in hospital healthcare workers (HCWs).  The null hypothesis is that there is no difference between medical masks and cloth masks.

The Coronavirus Experts Were Wrong, Now They Need Scapegoats.  The problem isn't just the China Virus.  It's that we adopted the China Model to fight it.  Public health experts adopted China's draconian lockdowns without knowing how well they really worked and in a country that, fortunately, lacks the power to truly enforce them.  China's deceptiveness and lack of transparency meant that we did not know how well anything that the Communist dictatorship did to battle the virus that it spawned actually worked.  Despite that, our public health experts, and those of most free countries, adopted the China Model.  We don't know how well the China Model worked for the People's Republic of China, but it failed in every free country that tried it.  Lockdowns eventually gave way to reopenings and new waves of infection.  This was always going to happen because not even the more socialist European countries have the police state or the compliant populations of a Communist dictatorship.

Researchers Find Light Frequency That Kills COVID-19 Virus Without Harming People.  Columbia University and Japan's Hiroshima University researches found that a UVC light wave of 222 nanometers works.  [Video clip]

Majority Are Already Immune Against SARS-CoV-2.  Several studies suggest immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection is far more widespread than anyone imagined, and that the threshold for herd immunity is far lower than previously estimated[.] [Paywall]

Media Weaponize COVID Fear to Cover Biden Disappearance.  With reports of Joe Biden cancelling all in-person campaign events, the Club members are trying to carry their Potemkin candidate across the finish line.  Everyone is now aware Joe Biden is a cover for the real person the puppeteers want in the oval office, Kamala Harris.  That said, the DNC needs to weaponize the COVID-19 threat as a cover story to explain the lack of campaigning by the Democrat candidates; hence, the media hype of the coronavirus is back this week in full swing.  COVID fear is a narrative cover-story to hide the lack of support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  Part of that cover-story is needed because the MAGA community was showing up in overwhelming numbers at Biden-Harris events, and the false illusion of support — propping up the Potemkin village — was being exposed.  All of these machinations are part of a remarkable attempt at psychological operations in this election.

Are Recent Reports of COVID Surges an Attempt to Suppress In-Person Voting?  Back in March, the COVID mantra was, "15 days to slow the spread", meaning flattening the curve.  The purpose was to avoid overwhelming the medical system as no one really knew what we were up against with the Wuhan virus.  This allowed time for the system to adapt and recalibrate to this new illness.  As the virus peaked in mid-April, the subsequent months should have been the normal course of a viral pandemic, some getting sick to varying degrees, others unfortunately dying, but eventually reaching herd immunity, itself a longstanding concept — suddenly controversial.  This has been the course of past flu seasons and other viral pandemics, but none lead to shutting down economies all over the world, causing incalculable financial and social devastation to cities, states, countries, and individuals.  Just when we see a light at the end of the tunnel there is a reported surge in cases, often timed to political events.

Anarchy in New York?  The Covid-19 pandemic led to the release of inmates from jails and prisons across New York.  "The number of New Yorkers held in NYC jails has plummeted, shrinking by 27% in ten weeks, a steeper population decline than in all of last year," boasted the mayor's Office of Criminal Justice.  "The jail population is at a number not seen since 1946."  That would be good news if the incarcerated population were tracking the crime rate, but the exact opposite is true.  Crime is up dramatically, as released inmates, now adjusted to a climate of permissiveness, resume criminal activity.  Advocates for reform sneered at the suggestion that bail reform or pandemic-related releases were responsible for the lawless surge, but arrests have plummeted across the city.  It goes against common sense to assume that the rise in crime has nothing to do with the release of thousands of career criminals into the community.

The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving.  Governor Gavin Newsom's Department of Health has issued an updated "Guidance for Private Gatherings" in time for Thanksgiving.  Basically, fun is illegal in California:  ["]Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited.  This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests.["]  So if you have three kids, you can invite two of them.  ["]All gatherings must be held outside.  Attendees may go inside to use restrooms as long as the restrooms are frequently sanitized.["]  This would not work well in Minnesota.

New York City Restaurateurs Can No Longer Swallow Subjective, Unscientific COVID Restrictions.  Restaurants, delis, and pubs are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods.  They're places we go to congregate with colleagues, celebrate with family, and catch up on "hyperlocal" news and gossip with neighbors.  Much of the character and vibrancy of a neighborhood is found in its eateries.  On April 13, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a Northeast regional plan to reopen the state's economy in coordination with New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware:  "We have reached a plateau in the number of cases and ... should start looking forward to reopening but with a plan.  The art form will be doing it smartly, in a coordinated way, cooperatively and share intelligence."  Unfortunately, Cuomo long ago ditched the idea of coordinating the full reopening of New York City with nearby states, and the Big Apple lagged months behind other regions in the state — and in the entire Northeast — to allow indoor dining and drinking.

'Truth' Over Facts.  [Scroll down]  While it is certainly fun to mock this stuff, the salient point here is that the people in charge believe the narratives they create. [...] The petty tyrants imposing crazy rules on people in response to the COVID virus really believe they are engaged in a life-and-death struggle to save their people from the virus. [...] Can a society carry on when it is ruled by giant toddlers obsessed with fantasy stories, rather than adults doing the hard work of governing a people?  What happens when a significant portion of the people collectively realize that the people in charge are dangerously nuts?

Multiple journals reject major mask study amid hints that it shows masks don't stop COVID.  A major study out of Denmark that sought to examine the efficacy of face masks at limiting the spread of COVID-19 has reportedly been rejected by multiple academic journals amid hints that the study found face coverings are not effective in protecting individuals from the coronavirus.  Masks have been among the most persistent and controversial flashpoints of the COVID-19 epidemic for months.  Health officials around the world initially argued strongly against their use, claiming that studies over the years had demonstrated that masks were ineffective at stopping respiratory viruses and unnecessary for the current pandemic.

How Expert Worship Is Ruining Science.  The coronavirus pandemic has put a spotlight on the question of science as a whole and biology and drug research in particular.  Now, the popular narrative is that if only we listened to the scientists, we would have prevented this, presumably contrasting scientists against "politicians" and perhaps some un-specified "non-expert" others.  The pandemic is happening against a completely unprecedented backdrop of censorship of what seems to me like normal-people discussion about the effects of different drugs and therapies.  The CEO of YouTube has specifically said that the platform would block people suggesting vitamin C has beneficial effects on helping one recover from coronavirus.  This is, of course, done "in the name of" science, because everything ought to be done in the name of science in the West.  My current view is that large numbers of fields which are considered "scientific" in the West are a complete mess and lack the essential feature of what it means to be a science in the first place.

Joe Biden Promises to Push Elected Officials into Issuing Mask Mandates Nationwide.  Former Vice President Joe Biden is promising that, if elected, he would urge state and local governments to issue mask mandates nationwide.  The Democrat nominee, who has shifted on his support for a federal mask mandate, told supporters in Delaware on Friday that it was vital for the government to implement a "national strategy to position our country to finally get ahead of this virus."  As part of the strategy, the former vice president promised not only to get a spending bill, that deals with both the economic and public safety aspects of the novel coronavirus, through Congress by January, but also to push for comprehensive mask mandates.

Joe Biden Promises Forced National Mask Mandate and Regulatory COVID Nightmare When Elected.  Earlier today those behind the Biden campaign dropped all pretense, openly having their candidate state publicly his intention to control the lives of all Americans using the authority of a weaponized federal government to advance national COVID-19 regulations.  As you watch this video from Biden's campaign today it is important to remember state government officials have already moved to define "essential businesses" and "essential workers" during the forced shut-downs.  That is going to become a bigger issue downstream; however, for now just watch closely what Joe Biden is saying here:  [Video clip]

Major Denmark Study May Show Masks Are Largely Ineffective, 'Science' Promptly Censors It.  With the United States reaching it's highest daily case total of the pandemic yesterday, the case for masks continues to become more perilous.  At no point has the country had more widespread mask mandates and usage than now, yet once again, we see almost no correlation between face coverings (most of which were never previously thought to be effective) and infection numbers.  One study may have shown just that, and it may have happened all the way back in June.  Unfortunately, the "scientific community" has decided that religious devotion is more important than an honest assessing of the facts.

Schoolchildren Seem Unlikely to Fuel Coronavirus Surges, Scientists Say.  Months into the school year, school reopenings across the United States remain a patchwork of plans:  in-person, remote and hybrid; masked and not; socially distanced and not.  But amid this jumble, one clear pattern is emerging.  So far, schools do not seem to be stoking community transmission of the coronavirus, according to data emerging from random testing in the United States and Britain.  Elementary schools especially seem to seed remarkably few infections.

Take your mandates and shove it.  "I've been preparing you for this for a while," Buck Sexton said this week on the establishment's assertion that lockdown measures and mask mandates may be a long-term necessity.  "Fifteen days to slow the spread" has become "life for the foreseeable future," he added.  "To that I say no, I refuse... They're gonna have to arrest me."  Sexton condemned the overkill of those in the media and elsewhere who continue to call for lockdowns and mask mandates regardless of circumstances.  [Video clip]

Decimal points are so inconvenient!
Kamala Harris Claims 220 Million Americans — 66% of the Population — Died from CoVID.  Senator Kamala Harris raised the eyebrows of voters across the United States this week when she claimed the Coronavirus is responsible for 220 million fatalities in the United States alone; roughly 66% of the entire population.

The City is Killing America.  New York City, with the highest population density in the country, also accounted for the highest death toll.  San Francisco, the second highest among large cities, was a major incubator.  Pandemic maps of the death toll show the deaths concentrating around major cities before making the slow trek from urban into suburban and eventually rural areas.  The urban lockdowns didn't stop the spread of the virus.  What they really did was trap poor and middle class residents in urban areas, while the wealthy fled, and the virus spread to urbanites with the least mobility.  The people with the worst immune systems, in the densest living conditions, and the least ability to get up and leave, suffered the most, from nursing home patients to minorities with large families. [...] But the coronavirus is an urban problem and all the official solutions to it are urban solutions.  And the urban problems and their solutions are killing us and taking down the whole country.

Is China Now In Control of Our Flow of Information?  The focus on China as a formidable enemy was quickly squashed by many American institutions from academia, sports, Hollywood, press, and the mainstream media.  The attention upon China was quickly replaced with the onus on our president with unfounded accusations for the spread of the virus and for not doing enough to stem it.  Regardless of President Trump's effort to halt the spread of the virus as early as Jan. 31, by instituting a travel ban on China, ordering production of ventilators, and using of our military's floating hospitals, the media perpetuated the lie that President Trump was guilty of mishandling the virus.

Trump: On Cable News, 'All You Hear Is COVID, COVID, COVID.  The coronavirus pandemic "is rounding the corner," President Donald Trump told a rally in Gastonia, N.C. on Wednesday [10/21/2020].  "They hate it when I say it," Trump said, pointing to reporters: [...] ["]That's all they put on because they want to scare [...] everyone.  And you know, the more testing you have, the more cases.  They say cases are up — yeah, testing is up.  We have more testing than India, China and almost every other country put together. [...] ["]

Lawmaker demands COVID-19 contact tracing data from Pritzker administration.  Gov. J.B. Pritzker said bars and restaurants are among the places where people are contracting COVID-19 and that's why he's targeting them throughout the state.  One state lawmaker wants to see the raw data.  State Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield, used to own a restaurant and said businesses in his district are upset at possibly having prohibition on indoor service.  While Region 3 that includes Springfield isn't under stricter prohibitions, there are still limits to how many can be served inside an establishment.

Chris Cuomo is threatened with a $500 fine by his apartment building for not wearing a mask despite lecturing his CNN viewers for months on their importance.  Chris Cuomo's New York City apartment building threatened him with a $500 fine in August because he was seen not wearing a mask, despite lecturing viewers for months about the importance of face coverings.  According to an August 6 letter from the building's management, Cuomo was seen on several occasions without a mask.  A copy of the letter was first obtained by Tucker Carlson of Fox News.  It comes after Cuomo spent months telling viewers about how important masks are — and in defiance of an official mandate issued by his NY Governor brother Andrew.  The letter was leaked just weeks after the CNN host blasted a virus-stricken President Trump as a 'COVIDIOT' for removing his face covering after returning to the White House from the hospital.  'You have been observed entering and exiting the building and riding the elevator without the required face coverings,' the letter reads.

In Staying Closed, Schools Ignore Low COVID-19 Rates, Needs of Families.  Evidence continues to mount that COVID-19 affects children the least, and ad hoc school district e-learning platforms, hastily assembled in the spring, are driving families away from assigned schools.  Some of the largest school districts in the U.S. are still offering only online instruction, despite reports of losing contact with thousands of students, from Philadelphia to Houston to Los Angeles, when districts went online earlier this year.  According to reports, districts have still not been able to reach those students.  School officials have the unenviable task of balancing health and safety concerns with student learning, but those leaders should be considering the research on the spread of COVID-19 and the needs of local families and children in making reopening decisions.  Yet some district leaders are doing neither.

Delusional psychosis drives Americans to enforce fear-based COVID restrictions.  From the beginning, fear hasdriven the government response to the coronavirus pandemic.  Americans have been told they should be afraid.  More important, they have been instructed that expressing fear, through the wearing of masks and self-isolation by the healthy, is their moral duty.  For the first time in United States history, fear is no longer seen as an emotion to overcome, like jealousy or greed, but rather as one to embrace.  We should be proud to be afraid, we are told, and we should call out anyone who isn't.  In fact, any act of courage must be condemned as immoral as well as illegal. [...] This mass psychosis would be tragic if it affected only the sufferers themselves.  Its greatest danger, however, resides in what directly follows from it:  group control.  In the beginning of the coronavirus government response, mandates issued by politicians and bureaucrats compelled behavior that served their interests of consolidating power.

Small COVID Victory — Pennsylvania Restaurant Owner Wins Fight Against Unilateral State Decrees.  A Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, restaurant took their COVID-19 $10,000 state fine to court and said "not guilty."  The judge agreed with their legal position that Governor Tom Wolf's unilateral decrees were arbitrary, unconstitutional and not enforceable.  If one restaurant and/or bar opens, the state can and will target the owner.  But if every bar and restaurant in town opens; and if everyone ignores and dispatches the silly dictates of the local, regional or state officials; there isn't a [...] thing they can do about it.  Unfortunately, the cost of fighting back against these dictates is considerable.  Lawyers and legal fights cost money; thus the state enforcement authorities start out with a massive advantage to deny freedom.

Twitter removes anti-mask tweet from Dr. Scott Atlas.  Twitter removed a tweet from a top White House coronavirus adviser, saying that, contrary to official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, masks don't prevent the spread of the virus.  On Saturday [10/17/2020], Dr. Scott Atlas tweeted that evidence showed masks don't work, according to NBC News.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidance in April urging Americans to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of coronavirus after weeks of recommending the opposite.

US surgeon general to be in court on Hawaii virus citation.  The U.S. surgeon general is set to be arraigned Wednesday in a virtual court hearing in Hawaii on charges he illegally entered a public park that was closed because of the coronavirus. [...] Adams told a police officer who cited him that he was visiting Hawaii to work with Gov. David Ige on COVID-19 and didn't know parks were closed.  Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell had closed them at the time to try to prevent crowding that could spread the virus.

Trump pounces on CBS News star for not wearing a mask with him.  [Scroll down]  President Trump's White House has had strict rules about staff and visitors using masks in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.  And the president sometimes has used one despite the fact he's not often actually mingling with crowds.  There also are requirements for testing.  Democrats have claimed the president personally is responsible for the more than 200,000 deaths attributed to the Chinese virus.

Court: San Quentin must release prisoners due to lack of COVID care.  Finding that state officials have acted with "deliberate indifference" to the health of prisoners at San Quentin — where 75% of them have tested positive for the coronavirus and 28 have died — a state appeals court took the unprecedented step Tuesday of ordering at least half of the prison's 2,900 inmates transferred or released.

Will Changes to American Life Become Permanent?  During the pandemic, government has become more intrusive and yet seemingly more impotent and incompetent.  Pick a month and some government official issues yet more contradictory orders on mask wearing, social distancing, and lockdowns — all to be soon reversed. [...] When institutions and politicians cannot accommodate radically changed circumstances, people will no longer value institutions and politicians.  In their place, citizens will seek to ensure their own livelihoods, leisure, and safety in ways that are more reliable and affordable — with their circumstances in their own hands rather than in those of distant others.  And their adjustments won't always be calm or polite.

Trump calls Dr. Fauci an 'idiot' and 'disaster'.  In a phone call Monday [10/19/2020] with campaign staff that included reporters, President Trump called White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci "an idiot" and said people are "tired of hearing about COVID."  "People are saying whatever.  Just leave us alone.  They're tired of it.  People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots," Trump said, according to Politico. [...] The president called Fauci a "disaster," who is a "bomb" in TV interviews but a "bigger bomb if you fire him."

The Editor says...
Obviously, Dr. Fauci will be fired in early November, unless Joe Biden wins the election.  Who do you suppose Dr. Fauci is rooting for?

Restaurant Won't Have to Pay Fines for Opening During Shutdown, Judge Says.  A Pennsylvania restaurant that was fined $10,000 for violating Governor Tom Wolf's coronavirus executive orders was found not guilty and will not have to pay the fines.  Pennsylvania Magisterial District Court Judge Carl Garver ruled Friday [10/16/2020] that "the family business was unconstitutionally cited and the restaurant was found not guilty," reported Harrisburg's WHP.  "The crux of the legal argument is that orders that have been issued by the governor and the Department of Health are legally unenforceable.  Judge Garver agreed with that argument," said Eric Winter, attorney for siblings Michael Mangano and Christine Wartluft, owners of Taste of Sicily restaurant in Palmyra.

Michigan Barber Who Defied Shutdown Mandates Has Charges Dropped.  Karl Manke, a 78-year-old barber in Owosso, Michigan, who has been cutting hair for 59 years, can rest a little easier.  Charges for violating local health orders and defying Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's COVID mandates were dropped last Friday [10/16/2020].  Manke gained national attention and notoriety as a "folk hero" among many who saw that Whitmer's edicts went far beyond the law.  When she shut down the state initially, Manke complied.  But after she unilaterally extended her mandates beyond April 30 without gaining approval from the legislature to do so, Manke reopened his barbershop, saying at the time, "I feel the governor is not my mother, never has been."  When reminded that he was violating Whitmer's mandates, Manke said, "I could care less.  If they want to put me in jail, put me in jail. ... I will be governed ... but not ruled.  This is a police state action."

Sweden: Lockdown Facts Fauci Won't Tell You.  As their history also tells us, Swedes are not given to mass hysteria, fear, or believing in hasty actions.  So, when COVID-19 appeared they examined the threat and dealt with it calmly and logically.  Unlike the U.S. and other industrialized countries, they did not lock down their country.  Instead, the Swedish government simply banned meetings of more than 50, asked citizens to use social distancing, and asked senior citizens to avoid contact with others as much as they could.  Masks were not required or even suggested.  Instead, Swedes were asked to exercise, work, keep their businesses open, and lead their lives as if they were experiencing an annual flu season.  Schools, shops, restaurants, and industry remained open.

Large Group Of International Doctors And Health Scientists Argue For New Approach To Coronavirus.  A large group of doctors and health scientists — over 30,000 to date — have signed onto the Barrington Declaration.  That declaration states that: current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health.  They further note these effects "include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, and deteriorating mental health — leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden." In addition these specialists say that keeping children out of school "is a grave injustice."

More "Experts" [are] Being Silenced By Big Tech — What Did They Say?  America's Frontline Doctors held their 2nd Summit in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday [10/17/2020].  They are a group of physicians and researchers who feel strongly that mass lockdowns, masking requirements and the prevention of early COVID-19 treatment has caused immeasurably suffering — and likely unnecessary deaths — in our fight against COVID-19.  As of early this morning, their video and tweets appear to still be spreading on Twitter and YouTube. [...] America's Frontline Doctors held its 1st Summit in June of this year and articles, tweets, Facebook posts, and videos were widely censored online.  Just days ago, Dr. Scott Atlas — a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force was suspended from Twitter for posting that masks don't work particularly well in the fight against COVID-19.

Fauci's COVID-19 Folly.  [Scroll down]  On May 22, 2020, the U.K. medical journal The Lancet joyously published a paper stating that hydroxychloroquine doesn't work.  Medical authorities around the world reacted by withdrawing hydroxychloroquine from treatment of the Wuhan virus.  Death rates spiked up dramatically about two weeks later.  This is illustrated by the experience in Switzerland, as shown by the following graphic from France Soir:  [Graph]  The gray-shaded area is the period of increased deaths in Switzerland due to the study in The Lancet.  The death rate jumped 13 days after the administration of hydroxychloroquine was withdrawn, and then it dropped 13 days after the resumption of dispensing hydroxychloroquine.  That was just Switzerland.  The Lancet retracted the paper on June 4, more over the damage it was doing to its reputation than embarrassment at the number of deaths it caused.  Nobody in the media has displayed any interest in who was behind this hit job.  It has been estimated that the fatwa against hydroxychloroquine resulted in 80,000 deaths around the world.

Studies: Fatality Rates From COVID Are Dropping Sharply Everywhere.  For the second straight day, a bright light shines through the gloom of a darkening COVID outlook this fall.  Yesterday [10/19/2020] the good news was that fears of schools becoming mass incubators of coronavirus appear to be overblown.  Positivity rates across a sample of tens of thousands of students and staff in NYC are minuscule.  Maybe we can have safe in-class instruction this fall.  Today's news is even better.  As cases explode in Europe and climb towards a new peak in the U.S., a tantalizing mystery has emerged:  Why aren't we seeing the same crushing death tolls in hot spots that we saw in the spring?  Deaths are rising in Europe from their summer lows (upwards of 150 daily on bad days in the UK and France recently) but they're nowhere near the gory levels of April even though both countries are setting records in the number of daily cases.

China's economy is booming during the pandemic it unleashed.  How galling it is to see China bouncing back from the global pandemic that it unleashed.  While the rest of the world wrestles with fear, mistrust, unemployment, recession, stagnation, non-Covid health catastrophes, countless blighted lives and a 'second wave' of the virus, China is set to enter 2021 stronger than it was in January 2020.  That was the month when Chinese complacency, deceit and the ruthless diktat of the Communist Party allowed coronavirus to get its first foothold among humankind.

The Editor says...
The Chinese economy may be recovering, but it comes at a price:  Nobody knows how many people died after being forcibly sealed inside their cheap little apartments at the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak.

A very San Franciscan president.  [Scroll down]  Another new development is Gavin Newsom adopting, in lieu of COVID, the rule by decree.  California legislator Kevin Kiley has counted over 400 laws which Newsom unilaterally changed since he imposed the statewide shelter-in-pace orders in March.  It is no wonder that Californians are leaving the state, and that the exodus sped up after the quarantine orders.  Since then, San Francisco, the epicenter of lockdowns fundamentalism, saw a 20 percent drop in rents and a 53 percent drop in sales.  Meanwhile, just 133 people have died from the illness in the city over the last seven months.  It's fair to say that if you want a vision of what Kamala Harris's America will look like, look at California.

Idaho Teachers Go on 'Sick-out' to Protest School Openings — Every Last One of Them Should Be Fired.  The first day of in-person public school in the West Ada School District in Idaho was canceled on Monday [10/19/2020] after over 600 teachers called off work in an apparent "sick-out."  Fire every last one.  Fire them for being science-deniers.  They're teachers, for crying out loud.  It shouldn't be that hard to find the transmission numbers among students and see that COVID transmission is nearly non-existent and, in fact, there is ample evidence that children don't even pass it on very well.  They are less "sticky", meaning the virus, for whatever reason, doesn't really "stick" to them and then "shed" elsewhere.  All of the school numbers from March of 2020 up until this very moment support that.  We need teachers who believe in science and information and data.  We need teachers who go find information instead of waiting for it to be delivered to them.  We need curious teachers.  If you're denying science you really have no place in the public school system. [...] If you feel you can't do the job you've agreed to do — for whatever reasons — it is your responsibility to quit.  Go find other work that doesn't require you to be in a classroom with children.

Dr. Birx Rips the Mask Off and Goes After Scott Atlas.  Dr. Deborah Birx has been less combative and openly partisan compared to Dr. Anthony Fauci, but that doesn't mean she's anymore open minded.  According to a new report, which itself is rife with false, biased information, Birx has gone after Dr. Scott Atlas, attempting to get him fired from the coronavirus task force.  More recently, she apparently praised the decision by Twitter to ban Atlas for posting factual information on masks.

Cuomo threatens to withhold eventual COVID-19 vaccine from New York until his own doctors deem it safe because he doesn't trust Trump administration.  Governor Andrew Cuomo is threatening to withhold a COVID-19 vaccine from New York until his team of doctors deem it safe because he doesn't trust the FDA or CDC, raising serious questions about how and when it will eventually become available and who will be the arbiter of it.  Cuomo said during an interview with Good Morning America that the American people will be 'skeptical' about a vaccine because of how the federal administration has handled the pandemic and that he won't rush to recommend it.  It's unclear if, once the FDA approves it, Cuomo will have the power to stop it from being administered across the state.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer:  If You're Tired of Masks And Wish You Could Go Back to Church, Vote for Biden.  Are you sick of watching family-owned stores and businesses in your neighborhood fold because of reopening restrictions?  Are you saddened as you watch your favorite watering holes and restaurants close their doors for good, as unconstitutional lockdowns drag past the 200-day mark of "15 days to slow the spread"?  Have you had to move your family out of your state just to find a school your child can attend?  Do you find yourself wondering just when all this madness will end, and how?  Well, look no further.  There's a solution on the horizon and it's a mere 15 days away.  If you want COVID and the ensuing restrictions to disappear forever, all you have to do is... Vote for Biden/Harris 2020.  Don't shoot the messenger.  This logic came straight from the horse's mouth this past Sunday [10/18/2020] on "Meet the Press" — the horse being Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and the mouth being one adorned with bright red lipstick and frothing with Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander praises Fauci after Trump slams infectious disease expert.  Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander voiced his support for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, after President Donald Trump blasted Fauci on Monday [10/19/2020].  Trump called Fauci a "disaster," a day after Fauci said in an interview that he was unsurprised that Trump got COVID-19.  Fauci said it was because Trump regularly flouted the use of masks "as a statement of strength."  Alexander released a statement Monday afternoon praising Fauci.  "Dr. Fauci is one of our country's most distinguished public servants," said Alexander, R-Tennessee.

Illinois governor blames Trump's allies for state's wrong direction on coronavirus.  Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on Sunday [10/18/2020] that his state was not going in the right direction when it came to fighting the coronavirus, attributing its failures to President Trump's allies.  "People are not following the mitigations, because the modeling is so bad at the leadership level, the federal level," Pritzker told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday.  "We are trying to get the word out and you're trying to continue to convince people to do the right thing but it is the president's allies in our state, all across the state, who are simply saying to people don't pay any attention to the mitigations, don't follow the rules."  Tapper noted that Illinois had recently broken its record for the most cases recorded in a single day with over 4,500 people testing positive on Friday.

The Editor says...
Really?  Did 4,500 people test positive on Friday, or were 4,500 positive test results reported on Friday?  There's a difference.

5 Other Things We'll Learn About Biden After The Election.  [#2] Biden doesn't have any plans to solve the COVID-19 problem.  Biden endlessly claims that Trump fumbled his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, without ever saying what he'd do differently.  When he has tried to make the case that he would have acted sooner, he comes up against his own contemporaneous statements undercutting his claims of better foresight.  Don't be surprised, then, that Democrats and the press suddenly "discover" that the threat from COVID-19 has been exaggerated.  They'll point out that the CDC has been counting deaths with COVID-19, not from COVID-19.  They'll further note that the deaths that have occurred were almost entirely concentrated among the old and very ill.  They'll discover that schools can and should reopen without posing undue risk.  They'll note that the case fatality rate has been steadily dropping.  They'll point to evidence that shutdowns don't work.  They'll call for calm and for people to get back to their normal lives.  And the press will suddenly lose interest in coronavirus death counts.

Here's how the media is misreporting COVID-19's death toll in America.  On Sept. 22, CNN triumphantly announced that 200,000 people had died from COVID-19 in the United States.  CNN tried various ways of rubbing in the 200,000 figure.  Their best effort was an infographic blaring, "US COVID-19 deaths are equal to having the 9/11 attacks every day for 66 days."  Here's a less biased, but less catchy, comparison: 2020's attributed COVID-19 deaths were equivalent to having another 2017-2018 flu and pneumonia season boosted by 13 percent.  The CDC estimated that about 177,000 Americans died during the 2017-2018 flu season, from either the flu itself or by complications of pneumonia. [...] That was a bad year, noted at the time, but mostly by medical professionals.  Those with good memories will recall seeing more "Wash Your Hands" and "Cough Into Your Elbows" posters.  Still, nobody remembers a panic.  Just as nobody remembers mask mandates or political leaders shutting down small businesses and locking the healthy in their homes.  Because, of course, none of that happened.

CDC's Method of Estimating 'Expected Deaths' and 'Excess Deaths' Is Misleading.  [Scroll down]  There are more examples of the CDC and other public health officials skewing or otherwise misrepresenting COVID-19 data.  There is the CDC's March 2020 guide to death certificate-certifiers stating that "the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID-19 being the underlying cause more often than not."  There is the observation that the CDC is ignoring their own COVID-19 severity criteria, which suggests that COVID-19 is not nearly as severe as they are claiming, using fear appeals to artificially heighten risk perceptions.  There is the observation that the CDC is apparently ignoring basic medical facts on pneumonia and respiratory viruses in favor of potentially wrongfully increasing COVID-19 death counts.  Such questionable interpretations, misrepresentations, and methods could collectively lead one to question the reliability of some or all of the CDC's COVID-19 data — including the CDC's weekly COVID-19 anecdotes.

Casket outside Brooklyn nursing home filled with 6,500 covers of Cuomo's book.  A silver casket was wheeled to the front of a Brooklyn nursing home Sunday — and 6,500 copies of the cover of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new book were dumped into it in protest of his COVID-19 policies.  The number of covers was equal to the roughly 6,500 people who have been reported killed by the coronavirus in nursing homes in the state — although the ralliers said they believe the figure is much higher.

Birx confronted Pence about Atlas.  White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx recently confronted Vice President Pence about the increasing influence of Scott Atlas over the administration's handling of the pandemic, a person familiar with the exchange confirmed to The Hill.  Birx raised concerns about the information Atlas was giving President Trump and suggested he be removed from the White House coronavirus task force.  Atlas is not an infectious diseases expert but has emerged as one of Trump's most influential advisers on the pandemic.  The exchange was first reported by The Washington Post, which said Pence asked Birx and Atlas to work out the strife on their own and to present data to their colleagues supporting their viewpoints.

Whatever happened to Deborah Birx?  Deborah Birx is nowhere to be found at the White House these days.  Though she retains the title of coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, Birx has not attended any of President Trump's press briefings on the pandemic since he started them anew in late July, nor was she at a recent event to tout the administration's advances in testing.  Instead, Birx has been on the road, visiting 36 states and 27 different colleges and universities since the end of June to meet with state, local and university leaders to advise on best practices for containing the coronavirus and to gather information on what's been working in each place.

Trump never had COVID, say three of 'The View' hosts who now believe he faked the whole thing.  Two of the hosts of the ABC talk show "The View" admitted this week that they believe President Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis was fake.  Their admission came Thursday, a day after tech giants Facebook and Twitter began suppressing an unconfirmed story about Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden's youngest son, Hunter, that media pundits had claimed was a "conspiracy theory."  The first admission was made by co-host Whoopi Goldberg as she was responding to a fellow co-host's complaints that the idea of herd immunity — which is currently being considered by the White House — "seems cruel, seems callous."  "It doesn't look good anywhere," Goldberg responded before suddenly trotting out what could be the conspiracy theory of the year.

There's Never Been a More Important Time to Choose Wisely.  [Scroll down]  Consequently, intellectuals also have a huge personal stake and fierce resistance to risking their exalted status by testing their theories.  This dishonest approach is found in everything from alarmist global warming theory to paper face mask mandates.  Proponents presume the conclusions.  No debate permitted.  Progressives say CO2 emissions will devastatingly heat the planet, and wearing face masks will stop transmission of microscopic virus.  Even when testing these suppositions demonstrates CO2 is an essential food to grow crops and harmless in historic atmospheric concentrations far greater than today's; even when rigorous scientific testing repeatedly demonstrates face masks' utter ineffectiveness to prevent spreading viruses, intellectuals remain unpersuaded.  They know better, they say.  Not only do they reject testing, but they demonize anyone who suggests that their theories should be tested.

The Chinese Virus — Why We Panicked and Why We've Got to End the Panic Now.  [Scroll down]  It's safer, the Quarantine Karens say, to wear a mask, to "socially" distance.  Then they say it's imperative.  Safer, in a way, but only in an exaggerated and half-blind manner, and most certainly not imperative.  The rationality is never questioned ("my science beats your science").  And most especially, the negative aspects, including the negative effects on one's health, are ignored.  They don't exist for Quarantine Karens.  Look, either we pull out of this or we will be sucked in to it like into a black hole.  (Half of Great Britain is being locked down again; Germany is doing much the same; all this with a decreasing death rate.)  We've got to pull out now, because they've got something ready and it's coming down the pike.  (They had to come up with something new because the vaccine is nearly ready and even without the vaccine we have fabulous treatments [like the one that restored the stricken president in a few days]).  They're saying the lockdowns and restrictions are here forever — not because of the Chinese virus — but because of ... wait for this ... the flu.

Modern science:  Celebrating a "high priestess" instead of data.  [Scroll down]  Moreover, she [Trisha Greenhalgh] — along with the writer of this Science article — also copies another global warming dishonest tactic, posing a false argument by claiming that the opposing scientists requried a "randomized controlled trial" to demonstrate the usefulness of masks.  This is an absurd misstatement, as it ignores decades of research that already exists and was referenced by those opposing scientists, that showed that mandating widespread mask use was generally a bad idea, and would accomplish nothing good.  Greenhalgh, who belongs to a WHO committee that she forced to change from "claiming masks are harmful" to now endorsing mask use, very clearly falls into this mindset.  She is outraged that scientists would dare defy her opinion on masks.  Despite the clear uncertainty of the science and the solid evidence that improper use of masks can be harmful (as illustrated by the WHO graphic to the right), she forged ahead with her political campaign and got WHO to comply.  Apparently the editors and writers at Science also agree with her approach of ignoring data for the sake of an political agenda, as this article lovingly endorses her campaign and tactics.

Fear The Walking D(r)ead.  Richard Feynman wrote "science is the belief in the ignorance of experts," and nothing could demonstrate that point more readily than the public's growing disaffection with the experts of the public health apparatus — the WHO, the CDC, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Their proscriptions (often conflicting) respecting the handling of Covid-19 were simply not "scientific." They were, in fact, nothing more than guesses which did not work out.  Not that that stopped them from silencing those whose experience, both medical and non-medical, contradicted their guesswork.  Ignoring cost-benefit analysis and utterly discounting the contradictory experience of thousands of medical doctors who were actually treating patients with the dreaded Covid, they've wreaked havoc and hardship throughout the world and doubtless contributed to many more deaths than necessary.  Unfortunately, much of the media still insist that their actions were based on pure science, and many of our fellow citizens — driven to neurosis by it all — have been propagandized to thinking this is akin to the Black Death.  It's hard to know where to even begin answering this.

Pritzker's COVID-19 Positivity Rate 'Not Scientifically Founded'.  In case you missed it — and you probably did — Belleville News Democrat reporter Kelsey Landis pulled back the veil on Gov. J.B. Prtizker's biggest coronavirus crisis fib.  I'm talking about Pritzker's claim that his administration's coronavirus response has been "guided by science and data," a refrain he repeats so often that otherwise reasonable people believe it to be true.  Landis told me she didn't intend to unearth evidence that Pritzker's administration has been intentionally citing less-than-scientific statistics to justify executive orders implementing regional coronavirus restrictions.  But there it was, tucked in the scrappy downstate newspaper's story that Landis says aimed to help readers better understand the state's coronavirus "positivity rate."

15 Crazy Things Joe Biden Said at the ABC Town Hall.  Aside from many factually-challenged statements, Biden said a number of truly outlandish things. [...] [For example,] Trump could have kept schools and businesses open during the pandemic.  Biden:  "The president had an opportunity to open and allow schools and businesses to stay open if they got the kind of help they needed."  (Didn't he say Trump should have shut everything down sooner?) [...] Biden:  "Inject bleach in your arm, and that's going to work.  I'm not being facetious, he's actually said these things." (No, actually, he did not.) [...] America has 20% of the world's coronavirus deaths.  Biden:  "W[e] make up 4% of the world's population.  We have 20% of the world's deaths."  (That presumes China and other "developing" countries are providing accurate figures — a big presumption.)

Denver limits gatherings to 5 people, will require face masks in certain outdoor settings.  Citing an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the City & County of Denver will now require face masks in certain outdoor public settings as well as reduce gathering limits from 10 to five people.  "We are, as a county, brimming on the edge of a crisis that could further endanger individuals' health as well as damage our economy," Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said during a virtual news conference announcing the two new public health orders.

The Editor says...
The First Amendment guarantees "the right of the people peaceably to assemble."  It doesn't say anything about crowd size.

We have all bitten enough bullets already.
Dr. Fauci Tells Americans to 'Bite the Bullet and Sacrifice' Thanksgiving.  First, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield warned that sharing Thanksgiving dinner indoors with a group of loved ones was very, very dangerous.  Now, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Mendacious Midget™, is joining the chorus.  In an interview with Norah O'Donnell on CBS News, the media darling said the following about the holiday:  [Omitted for brevity, among other things.]  It is impossible to express the level of disdain I have for this man.  The Mendacious Midget™ has been all over television, speaking out both sides of his mouth for months.  As an example, early in the pandemic, Fauci said public masking would do absolutely no good.  In fact, he said that improper use could cause infection.  Now, if you don't wear one between bites while eating at an outdoor restaurant, you are trying to kill grandma.  Still, he is ubiquitous on television and radio, complete with leisure magazine covers.  One could believe Fauci is enjoying his notoriety, with attention lavished on him largely because he is a foil to President Trump.  To maintain that position, he often uses weasel words to avoid the president's wrath.

Risk of COVID-19 exposure on planes 'virtually nonexistent' when masked, study shows.  United Airlines says the risk of COVID-19 exposure onboard its aircraft is "virtually non-existent" after a new study finds that when masks are worn there is only a 0.003% chance particles from a passenger can enter the passenger's breathing space who is sitting beside them.  The study, conducted by the Department of Defense in partnership with United Airlines, was published Thursday.  They ran 300 tests in a little over six months with a mannequin on a United plane.

Biden Muddles Through Gentle, Hunter-Free Town Hall.  Joe Biden came into Thursday night's [10/15/2020] town hall, which was originally supposed to be a debate, stung by new allegations of influence-peddling involving his son Hunter. [...] Joe appeared with Greek heartthrob George Stephanopoulos.  They started off with a question from a Democrat who was dismayed by Trump's response to COVID-19.  What would Biden have done differently?  Now listen, carefully.  He wanted more access to China; so did Trump.  After that?  Biden wrote a USA op-ed.  But he can point to nothing he would have done substantively differently from Trump's response.  Nothing.  This is important.  According to Democrats, Trump killed 200,000 people, but they can't say what they would have done differently.  Biden's big plan going forward seems to be a mix of big signs about masks in stores, ventilation systems, and bearing the example of wearing a mask.

Tennis star Sam Querrey flees Russia on private jet after positive COVID-19 test.  Mixing tennis with a global pandemic just got even more wild.  Amid quarantine bubbles and Novak Djokovic's disastrous Adria Tour, the sport has endured a rocky ride in its bid to restart but Sam Querrey's response after testing positive to COVID-19 takes the cake.  In a lengthy Twitter thread, New York Times tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg detailed the series of events that saw Querrey flee Russia on a private jet with his family after contracting coronavirus. [...] "Sam received an unexpected call from someone with the Russian health authorities who said that the family would be visited by a doctor, and if they were found to have symptoms they could be forced to be hospitalised," Rothenberg reported on Twitter.  "The Querreys, who were experiencing what they considered mild symptoms, feared any or all being hospitalised in Russia, especially so given that they were travelling with their eight-month-old son, from whom they did not want to be potentially separated in a foreign country.

Scott Atlas:  The Other Doctor on the COVID Task Force.  Dr. Scott W. Atlas joined the president's coronavirus task force in August, but after two months, he has yet to sit for a photo shoot or throw out a first pitch or inspire a single artisanal cocktail.  No one has impersonated him on "Saturday Night Live" either, and there certainly isn't any grassroots campaign to get him nominated as People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive."  Although he has a medical degree from the University of Chicago, Atlas is the other doctor, and he knows it.  "I'm not here to make friends.  Okay?" he tells RealClearPolitics in a rare interview.  "I'm here to help the president save American lives.  Period."  Every other member of the commission would say the same.  Combating the coronavirus is the whole point, and saving lives through disease mitigation and prevention remains their goal.  But Atlas, a neuro-radiologist and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, has different ideas about how to beat COVID-19. He says publicly that children do not frequently spread the virus.  He questions the efficacy of mask mandates.  He condemns lockdowns as not just ineffective but deeply destructive.

US Army Wants To Make COVID Social Distancing 'Permanent' Even After Pandemic Ends.  For the majority of Americans wondering when this socially distanced dystopian nightmare of '6 feet apart' and 'wear a mask!' and 'mandatory hand sanitizer' will finally be over, the Pentagon has just given serious cause for concern.  When will it all end?  Perhaps leading the way as an example of where we all might be headed as a country, the United States Army has strongly hinted that it's looking to make its coronavirus protective measures permanent.

Destroying the Institutions We Inherited.  The World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is the first person without a medical degree to hold that position.  Why?  No one really knows.  In the critical first days of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic, almost every statement issued by Tedros and the WHO about the origins, transmission, prevention and treatment of the virus was inaccurate.  Worse, the announcements predictably reflected the propaganda of the Chinese government.

The Democrats' Abuse of Children in 2020.  [Scroll down]  Democrats and their indoctrinated followers constantly tell us rubes that coronavirus is not like the flu; they're right, it's less deadly.  In response to this natural biological event, the Democrats' response has been endless and harmful lockdowns.  Schools in particular have been emptied, both out of the irrational fear of many teachers (who, by no coincidence, are overwhelmingly Democrats themselves) and the same irrationality of parents.  Again, if those parents don't remove their kids from school during flu season, it's a losing argument they're making.  School closures undoubtedly hurt academics, but that's fine, because many schools have replaced traditional learning with heavy doses of white privilege and white supremacy sessions anyways.  Where school closures make a lasting impact, though, is on the emotional well-being of our young people, who rely on social interactions to meet emotional and psychological needs.

Michigan's Comrade Whitmer Declares COVID-19 Will Attack if Standing, But Not if Seated.  In the latest example of corona madness; and in the face of state supreme court rulings declaring her unilateral dictates unconstitutional; Comrade Gretchen Whitmer of the Michigan Directorate declares an even more bizarre state rule:  "... bars are now allowed to operate but they may only serve alcohol to people who are sitting down and 6 feet apart."  Apparently the moonbat-science is settled.  If standing with beer, the COVID-19 virus will swoop down and attack; however, if you take a seat with beer your are protected.  Thus continues the abject nuttery from the Michigan Directorate of COVID Compliance.

Does Recent CDC Data Show That Mask Wearers Are More Likely To Contract COVID-19?  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study in late September which revealed that over 70% of "case-patients" who tested positive for COVID-19 got the virus despite "always" wearing a mask.  Additionally, over 14% of those infected with COVID-19 in the July study reported wearing masks "often."  The study results appear to show fairly conclusively that the results strongly indicate that "always" and "often" mask-wearing individuals were more likely to test positive for COVID-19.  Many doctors and scientists have been stating for months, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s Dr. Fauci, that mask-wearing has not been proven effective in preventing the spread of viruses — including the SARS-CoV-2 — in community settings.

Black Trump Supporter Is Kicked Off Southwest Air Flight For Pulling His Mask Down To Eat Peanuts.  A black man wearing a Black Voices For Trump hat was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for pulling his mask down so he can eat some peanuts.  The person filming the incident before the flight had taken off asked the flight attendant repeatedly what the airline regulations were for eating on a flight.  She specifically asked if there was a rule against pulling the mask down to eat.  The flight attendant didn't appear to want to answer the passenger's questions in the video.  [Video clip]

The Globalist Elite Are Getting Ready To Lock You Down Again, This Time For Global Warming, Calling It 'The Great Reset'.  Sky News host Rowan Dean says the next World Economic Forum in Davos has morphed from a "jet-setter climate gabfest" into a sinister "anti-democratic enterprise designed to destroy your job, steal your prosperity and rob your kids of a future".  "It's a hardcore leftist eco-horror show replete with quasi fascism," he said.  Mr Dean highlighted what he described as a "disturbing trend among many of the world's left-wing elites to increasingly conflate COVID-19 with climate change.  "Many are going so far as to suggest that all the measures applied to the coronavirus, the lockdowns, the destruction of businesses, the suppression of dissent, curfews, strong-arm police tactics, should become the 'new normal' for dealing with climate change.

Hawaii "Has Committed Suicide" — Local Rages "Hardly Anyone Is Sick, But We're All Broke".  While we have grown used to the people (well, at least those who are capable for thinking for themselves) of Michigan and California complaining that the tyrannical COVID lockdown rules imposed by Governors Whitmer and Newsom are arbitrary and capricious (if not downright unconstitutional), it is less often we hear from those living on the beautiful islands of Hawaii. [...] ["]The new travel requirements will trap Hawaii residents here as securely than if they were slaves.["]

There is no good evidence for a circuit-breaker lockdown.  The Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has high confidence that planned, short, stay-at-home orders — now better known as a "circuit breaker" — would have similar effects to the national lockdown in spring.  According to newly released minutes from a meeting in September, the group believes that such a break would put the epidemic back 28 days and reduce the prevalence of infection in December.

Yale Scientist:  Fauci 'in Bed with Forces,' 'Decisions not Based on Science,' 'Killing Americans.' Why Is No One Investigating This Man?  You may not have heard, but on August 23, a guy named Harvey Risch made some shocking accusations against Anthony Fauci.  Of course, that by itself doesn't say much since a lot of people have accused Anthony Fauci of a lot of things since he stepped into the spotlight as the de facto leader of America's response to COVID-19.  But Harvey Risch isn't just anybody.  Risch is a professor of epidemiology at Yale University.  He has an M.D. from UC San Diego, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and he's published over 300 papers in a career that spans four decades.  Harvey Risch can't be dismissed as a "crackpot conspiracy theorist."  You can't brush aside such unbelievably serious accusations with some mantra about "following the science" when a world-renowned scientist is the one making them.  Yet what's in a way more alarming than Risch's accusations themselves is the way they, nonetheless, have been completely brushed aside.  There hasn't been a single call by anyone to investigate whether there's any truth to what Risch is saying.

Ten Lessons from a Tumultuous 2020.  [#1] The Chinese Coronavirus pandemic has revealed that virtually all Democrat elected state and local government officials are fully capable of doing the unthinkable: creating a de facto police state. [...] [#2] A plurality of the American people have shown that they are willing to sacrifice their freedoms and way of life in order to empower a potential police state in the guise of conquering a pandemic.  Thus, they are emboldening those who seek political hegemony through the vehicle of the Democrat party, as governments never easily surrender power once attained.  They only seek to normalize it. [...] [#3] Far too many scientists in the medical field, once respected and revered, have been exposed to be in the thrall of corporations, political parties, foreign entities and governments as they have, for political reasons, aided and abetted the police state tactics of elected officials.

COVID-19 Lockdowns Have Been A Disaster — End Them Now.  For those who don't recall, the initial lockdowns were sold to the public as an emergency move to "flatten the curve" for 15 days during March to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.  Americans, wanting to do their part, grudgingly agreed to the two-week suspension of normal economic and social activities.  Unfortunately, governors used the opportunity to keep their economies closed indefinitely, in some cases clearly for political reasons.  In California, where the shutdown has been devastating, recent re-opening guidelines included "equity measures" ranging from gauging neighborhoods' "tree canopy" to alcohol availability and voting statistics.  To be absolutely clear, these benchmarks have nothing whatsoever to do with COVID-19.  They are merely an effort by far-left California Gov. Gavin Newsom to pander to his increasingly extreme base of voters.

The Great Barrington Declaration Is A Spark of Sanity In A Mad World.  In an era in which every dubious decision is "due to COVID-19," we hear policymakers repeating the same mantra:  "If just one life is saved," it's worth relinquishing our freedoms, our sanity, and possibly our future.  More often than not, this ethical dilemma is presented without mentioning the obvious trade-offs or long-term consequences.  Imagine you're an administrative dictator.  If you could "save just one life" — or even thousands — by crippling the youth, vaporizing a million careers, wiping out small businesses, crushing your nation's civic culture, severing the ancient continuity of religious rites, forcing healthy people into paranoid isolation, traumatizing an entire generation with viral terror, ending hugs and handshakes, depriving the elderly of intimate care in their final days, wrecking the national economy, unleashing a dystopian surveillance state, and turning your neighbors into neurotic germaphobes, would it be worth it?  It's a serious question.

Dystopia USA.  Democrats have [struck] fear in the hearts and minds of Americans over COVID — far worse than warranted.  According to the Gallup poll, Democrats are especially terrified.  They are terrified enough to ruin a school prom.  1984 is now a documentary — just the wrong year.  This is the dystopian existence we face:  [Video clip]

Nursing Home Residents Protest Cruel Anti-Science Lockdown: 'I'd Rather Die of COVID Than Loneliness'.  You know what they do when a criminal in prison misbehaves and needs a little extra punishing?  Exactly what government officials across America have been doing to our elderly nursing home residents for over six months now — they deprive him of companionship with other human beings.  It's the most effective way to punish someone without getting your hands dirty — apart from keeping him in a relentless state of dread.  But, of course, we did that too.  Deprived of visitors and even forced to keep away from fellow residents — the frailest among them unable to even leave their beds — many were left with nothing but the TV for companionship.  So they found themselves terrorized nonstop for months by fake news about a virus that, in reality, is at worst no more deadly than than a typical seasonal flu.

Another Leftist Hypocrite:  St. Louis County Executive Sam Page Orders Strict Mask Mandates for All Local Citizens Then Is Caught Out in Public Without a Mask.  St. Louis County Executive Sam Page has some of the strictest lockdown measures in nation.  The Democrat has extended unnecessary lockdowns on children and has ruined youth sports.  His outlandish rules have caused hundreds of county businesses to close down for good.  Poor and middle class county residents are hurt the most and their children are suffering.  In August Sam Page toughened his orders requiring face masks, in an effort to keep the coronavirus from spreading.  Under Page's crackdown businesses are not able to serve people who aren't wearing masks, and children over age 5 will have to wear them in school.  People will also need to wear masks at indoor and outdoor businesses.  Page also forced children to wear masks in public parks on the way to their soccer games even though others in the park were not wearing masks.  On Saturday [10/10/2020] Sam Page was caught at a local business sitting, chatting and having drinks with friends without a mask.

Dr. Fauci Isn't Stupid, He Just Thinks You Are.  Over the last year, I've tried to be fair to Dr. Anthony Fauci.  I understand that a situation like the current pandemic is unpredictable and that even well thought out positions can often be wrong.  But what I've never had patience for is arrogance in failure from bureaucrats who we have no way of holding to account because it takes an act of God to remove a government employee.  Dr. Fauci is now at that place.  He doesn't deserve to have his job anymore, leaving a string of highly damaging failures in his wake which he's now couching in an incredibly insulting arrogance.  Here's one of his latest whoppers.  [Video clip]

Dr. Fauci's Mind-Numbingly Stupid Remarks About COVID Deaths.  Dr. Anthony Fauci isn't an idiot, but [...] man — are you for real with this remark about COVID deaths?  The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief who has been a trainwreck on masks now has a new mind-numbingly stupid hot take on COVID deaths.  He simply doesn't see how there could be excess deaths in this year besides those from COVID.  He said this during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.  Tapper was teeing up whether the COVID death count has been undercounted.  Some study showed that the U.S. saw 20 percent more deaths between March and August of this year.

After supporting coronavirus lockdowns for months, the WHO just made the reversal of the year.  As recently as July, the World Health Organization was still scaring people around the world — who'd either just started coming out of months-long, localized coronavirus lockdowns or whose communities were about to clamp down for the first time — by saying that "total lockdown" might be needed to nip the COVID-19 pandemic in the bud in some places.  Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said as much during a press conference in early July.  "We all want to avoid whole countries going back into total lockdown," he said.  "That is not a desire that anybody has.  But there may be situations in which that is the only option."  The WHO was warning countries at that point that they should only very "slowly" come out of any coronavirus lockdown they'd imposed, and that every nation around the world needed to answer the "fundamental question" for itself as to when and how (and whether) there might be a need for another future lockdown period.  "Once lockdowns were ended, there was always the risk that the disease could bounce back," Ryan continued during the press conference.

Rebellion Virus.  As a second wave of infections surged in Europe, lockdown-weary populations sought another way to contain the coronavirus pandemic.  ["]Police said 'several thousand' people marched through Berlin on Saturday [10/10/2020] in a silent protest against restrictions.  Protesters also rallied in Rome, Warsaw and London against mask-wearing requirements and virus curbs.  Governments across the globe are struggling to keep up with a sharp rise in infections and manage growing public frustration over a new restrictions as the pandemic enters a second wave.["]  The costs of quarantine were taking their toll even in Spain, initially one of the worst-hit countries in Europe, where a Madrid court rejected government orders to lock down the Spanish capital.

NYT: Experts Confident Pandemic To Be Over 'Far Sooner' Than Expected, Trump Efforts 'Working With Remarkable Efficiency'.  A new report from The New York Times indicates that experts have "genuine confidence" that the coronavirus pandemic will end "far sooner" than originally expected and that President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed — the administration's efforts to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics — has been "working with remarkable efficiency."  The report, published on Monday [10/12/2020], comes with just over three weeks left in the presidential race between Trump and Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Even the New York Times Is Admitting Trump's Strategy on COVID-19 Is Working Now.  The New York Times may have just given President Donald Trump one of the greatest nods they've ever given him, even if they didn't mean to.  The Democrats have been attempting to sell the idea that Trump failed the coronavirus response and that there are so many dead here in America because he failed to act in a timely manner.  This is, of course, a whopping falsehood.  When Trump was closing off countries from the United States in order to limit the spread, Democrats were calling him xenophobic for doing so.  In fact, it was Democrats who were out in the streets telling everyone to come out and not be afraid of the virus at all.  Now, the New York Times released a report citing experts who have "genuine confidence" that the pandemic will be over far faster than many anticipated and that Trump's plan to combat the virus called "Operation Warp Speed" is "working with remarkable efficiency."

Idaho is arresting psalm singers.  Christians were arrested in Idaho of all places for singing Psalms and allegedly not social distancing. [...] Are the Californians moving into Idaho?  Who are these people arresting people singing and maybe not social distancing?  Is this America?

How a Feud Between Cuomo and de Blasio Led to a Chaotic Virus Crackdown.  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had barely finished a fairly routine coronavirus briefing earlier this month when he got word that the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, had just blindsided him.  The mayor unexpectedly announced that he intended to close down schools and nonessential businesses in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, where the coronavirus was surging in communities with large Orthodox Jewish populations.  Mr. de Blasio asserted that he had been in contact with the state, whose approval was needed.  It took less than 24 hours for Mr. Cuomo to fire back.  He halted the mayor's plan to shutter businesses, calling it imprecise and incomplete, and sped up the closure of schools.  By the next day, the governor unveiled his own plan:  another phased-in lockdown, complete with color-coded maps and a barely veiled message for Mr. de Blasio.

Did the lockdowns worsen the COVID outbreak?  The response to the COVID-19/Coronavirus/Wuhan Flu is unquestionably unprecedented.  Never before have we shut down the majority of society worldwide — economic and societal concerns be damned, quarantined large groups of healthy people — sometimes indefinitely, cancelled weddings, funerals and religious services — then allowed mass protests and riots and implemented large-scale masking requirements.  Never before, at least in free nations.  The impetus for these restrictions was to save lives.  The goal was to 'flatten the curve,' so the hospital systems were not overwhelmed, but that morphed into "crush the virus."  This mimicked the Chinese response, as they allege it was successful.  In reality, the Chinese government is known for its dishonesty so we cannot know the true effects lockdowns had in mainland China.  New York Governor Cuomo, who presides over the state with the highest coronavirus deaths and one of the most draconian lockdowns succinctly put it this way; "And if everything we do saves just one life, I'll be happy."  Semantic grandstanding aside, did these measures save lives?

Oops: WHO Now Says Lockdowns Are a Bad Idea That Should Be Avoided.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its position on government lockdowns as a measure for combating the Wuhan coronavirus.  The WHO now believes that lockdowns have unintended consequences and should be avoided.  "We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus," Dr. David Nabarro, the WHO's Special Envoy on Covid-19 told The Spectator.  Dr. Nabarro then cited some of the harmful negative consequences of prolonged lockdowns that conservatives and President Trump have been warning about for months.  "Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer," Dr. Nabarro warned.

Coronavirus: WHO backflips on virus stance by condemning lockdowns.  The World Health Organisation has backflipped on its original COVID-19 stance after calling for world leaders to stop locking down their countries and economies.  Dr. David Nabarro from the WHO appealed to world leaders yesterday, telling them to stop "using lockdowns as your primary control method" of the coronavirus.  He also claimed that the only thing lockdowns achieved was poverty — with no mention of the potential lives saved.  "Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer," he said.  "We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus," Dr Nabarro told The Spectator.

No social distancing here!

Store Opening with crowd.  Video shows crowd crowding through the store.  Representative of the store was taken to give testimony and can be served for a crime against public health.  [Video clip, location:  Belém, Brazil]

Are COVID Case Surges More Fake News?  COVID cases are on the rise, or so we are told daily by a hysterical media.  Newspaper headlines scream panic as this recent USAToday article proclaimed, "COVID-19 cases rising in 39 states — 9 months into the pandemic:  We are overwhelmed."  It's the American people that are overwhelmed.  Nine months into masks and lockdowns, with a presidential election just weeks away, facing a daily barrage of doom and gloom from the media.  Are cases really on the rise or are these simply positive tests? [...] What exactly is a "case"?  The USA Today article doesn't say.  Neither do other articles or cable news doctors and other "experts."  Is a "case" simply a positive test?  The CDC answers this question with a "case definition."  A case is not just a positive test.  Instead what is needed is, "Presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence."  Notice the AND, meaning not simply a positive test.

Schools Aren't Super-Spreaders.  Fear and bad press slowed down or canceled school reopenings elsewhere.  Many large urban school districts chose not to open for in-person instruction, even in places with relatively low positivity rates.  Chicago, L.A., Houston — all remote, at least so far.  It's now October.  We are starting to get an evidence-based picture of how school reopenings and remote learning are going (those photos of hallways don't count), and the evidence is pointing in one direction.  Schools do not, in fact, appear to be major spreaders of COVID-19.

WHO official urges world leaders to stop using lockdowns as primary virus control method.  The World Health Organization's special envoy on COVID-19 urged world leaders this week to stop "using lockdowns as your primary control method."  "We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus," Dr. David Nabarro said to The Spectator's Andrew Neil.  "The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we'd rather not do it."

DoD Test of Viral Spread on Commercial Planes Reveals Good News, General Says.  The head of U.S. Transportation Command offered a sneak preview Wednesday [10/7/2020] of the results of a Defense Department test of particulate spread on commercial aircraft — and they are surprising.  Speaking at the National Defense Transportation Association's annual fall meeting, Gen. Stephen Lyons cited an aerosol test held Aug. 24-31 aboard two large passenger aircraft:  the Boeing 767-300 and 777-200.  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, teamed up with biodefense company Zeteo Tech Inc. to evaluate in-flight spread of airborne particles.  Industry partners included Boeing and United Airlines.

Some Facts You're Not Hearing That Might Dampen Your Enthusiasm for a Shot of COVID-19 Vaccine.  [Scroll down]  On the frightening side:  Two of the leading contenders in the race to produce a vaccine are using experimental technology that artificially stimulates an immune response by... hold on to your seats... genetically altering your cells with RNA from the virus so they start producing proteins from its outer shell.  Though it probably won't be described this way in any ad campaign, it's tough to see what's inaccurate about saying mRNA technology works by genetically modifying you into a human-coronavirus hybrid.  Moreover, not only are these potential COVID vaccines being developed with never-before-witnessed haste, mRNA technology has never been approved for use before.  In fact, this will be the first time it's even been tested in a large-scale clinical trial!  There's always some risk attending the introduction of any new medication.  But put all of this together, and it's hard to see how the impending COVID-19 vaccine won't be one of the riskiest if not the riskiest pharmaceutical product ever marketed.  The pharmaceutical companies racing to be the first to develop it certainly seem to think so.

Also posted under What's the rush?

Warren vows Biden will 'hold Trump accountable' for pandemic.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren made a vow to "hold Trump accountable" should Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election.  Warren stumped for Biden in Maine and New Hampshire Saturday [10/10/2020], during which she spoke more about Trump than about her own candidate.  She said a Biden-Harris presidency would hold Trump "accountable" for his response to the pandemic, his alleged remarks about those in the military and his response to climate change.  "For me, accountability, at this moment, means 210,000 Americans have died from a virus that we should have under control," Warren said to a crowd of 65 gathered in Manchester, N.H.

The Editor says...
The last figure I saw was 9,683. That's the number of people in the U.S. who have died from Covid-19 alone.  Not 200,000.  The virus itself will probably spread to everyone in the country, sooner or later, and there is little or no hope that the movements of a virus will ever be controlled by the government.  But that doesn't mean the situation in the U.S. is "out of control."

Trump [is] no longer considered a risk to transmit COVID-19, doctor says.  President Trump is no longer considered a risk to transmit COVID-19 to others, according to a memo released late Saturday by the White House physician, though the White House did not say that the president has tested negative for the virus.  "This evening I am happy to report that in addition to the President meeting the CDC criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning's COVID PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognized standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others," physician Sean Conley wrote in a memo released by the White House.  The White House still has not made clear when Trump last tested negative for COVID-19, but Conley's memo provides some cover for the president as he resumes holding public gatherings and speaking to supporters.

President Trump working hard to distribute 'free' doses of new treatment he credits for swift recovery.  President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday afternoon [10/7/2020] from the White House that he'd like every American to benefit from the same medications and treatment that were offered to him after he was diagnosed with the coronavirus last week.  "I walked in, I didn't feel good.  A short 24 hours later, I was feeling great, I wanted to get out of the hospital, and that's what I want for everybody.  I want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president because I feel great," he said.

No Spike in Florida Coronavirus Cases Despite Lack of Enforceable Mask Mandate.  There has been no spike in cases of the Chinese coronavirus in Florida over the last two weeks, despite Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) lifting key coronavirus restrictions and nixing the enforcement of local mask mandates across the Sunshine State last month.  On September 25, Gov. DeSantis took a major step, lifting key coronavirus restrictions at the state level.  The order allowed businesses, such as restaurants, to operate at full capacity at the state level and required local governments to "justify" any restrictions on capacity moving forward.  Additionally, DeSantis suspended all penalties related to local mask mandates, as he never issued a statewide mandate despite mounting criticisms from the left.

Mask-Shamer Joe Biden Literally Removed His Mask to Cough.  Some things you just have to see to believe.  During a drive-in campaign event in Las Vegas, Nev., on Friday, Joe Biden did something really stupid.  First, as you can see in the video below, he was unnecessarily wearing a mask while alone at his podium.  Second, he was wearing it wrong, with his only his mouth covered, and not his nose.  But the real absurdity came when he had to cough, and he literally pulled his mask down to cough into his hand, before readjusting his mask (correctly) and placing his now germ-ridden hand on the podium that some campaign intern would then be tasked with removing.  [Video clip]

Biden accidentally reveals the mask con job.  Yesterday [10/9/2020], while campaigning in Nevada, Joe Biden behaved spontaneously and demonstrated that he does not really believe masks offer protection against the spread of Covid-19. The mask mandate that Biden proposes is useful for demagoguing President Trump as a "super spreader" because he does not wear them 100% of the time but only when he is in close proximity to others.  The governmental mandates and constant drumbeat of propaganda forcing people to wear masks whenever in public serve to accustom us to automatically do what we are told by government authorities, and symbolize our submission to them, while crippling nonverbal communication among a population that may wish to resist authoritarianism.  Watch Biden pull down is mask in order to cough into his hand while speaking at a podium in Nevada, well more than 6 feet distant from other humans:  [Video clip] [...] Were President Trump to cough into his hand, you can be certain that MSMers would claim he has "blood on his hands."  The truth is that masks offer little protection, unless they are tightly-fitted (and difficult to breathe through) N95 masks.

Trump Is Now One With Countless Essential Workers.  [Joe] Biden has no real idea of who is keeping this country in general, and his own household in particular, alive — much less how hard that task is at a time of plague and quarantine.  Class differences, considerations, and interests are the real themes of this election. [...] So COVID, the quarantine, and the president's illness alike have now become class issues.  On the one hand, are the elite and entitled "Karens."  They scream and rant when they see a slipped mask.  They worship Lord Zoom and His Highness Skype.  They brag about their near-perfect quarantine, and become insufferable when talking of "the science" and "Dr. Fauci." [...] Dr. Fauci may be a saint.  But take any key issue of the last six months — from wearing masks, to quarantining, to taking cruises, to blind dating, to projecting viral loads and likely lethality — and he has not just been mistaken, but predictably self-contradictory.

World's first Covid passport technology will be trialled on flights from Heathrow this week.  Coronavirus passport trials are taking place at Heathrow this week to test technology to let people travel the globe without risk of being quarantined.  Passengers on United Airlines and Cathay Pacific are trying out an app called the CommonPass.  The phone software is a digital health pass which can hold a certified COVID-19 test status or show someone has been vaccinated in future in a way designed to satisfy various governments' different regulations.

Another Lecture:  New England Journal of Medicine Wants Trump Voted Out.  Another medical and science publication is going far left.  The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday [10/8/2020] endorsed Joe Biden, calling for the incumbent to be voted out of office because he and his administration have "failed at every step" when responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.  According to an article posted by Lydia O'Connor, a reporter for the liberal HuffPost website, the "rare political statement from a scientific journal" was the first such recommendation in the publication's 208-year history.  Quoting information from the journal's editorial, O'Connor declared:  "November's election will have life-or-death consequences for people across the country regardless of party alignment" since truth "is neither liberal nor conservative."

Thousands of Michigan criminal charges and fines under question under now-unconstitutional coronavirus orders.  Thousands of Michiganders are wondering if criminal charges and fines levied against them are still valid after the Michigan Supreme Court last Friday ruled Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's COVID-19 executive orders issued after April 30 are illegal.  Some don't have answers — yet.  Owosso barber Karl Manke's attorney David Kallman told The Center Square he's expecting Attorney General Dana Nessel's office to drop criminal charges against Manke, who operated his barbershop in violation of Whitmer's orders.  The administrative charges through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs are unclear.  "We've got criminal cases all over the state for gym owners," Kallman said.  "I'm expecting all of those to be dismissed shortly."

The End of Covid Hysteria.  Most of the nation was stunned by the news that Donald and Melania Trump had contracted COVID.  I found out early morning the night after it was announced.  Already the Democrat/media complex was gleefully hoping for death, reportedly focusing on Trump's "cavalier attitude" towards COVID precautions.  As the center-right media began to report the left's response, the obvious was clear.  Few on the right would have reacted that way had Biden contracted it. [...] Fact is, most of the country is sick of the hysteria.  Most simply want to live their lives, intelligently with caution, and return back to what we all remember was a decent life.

COVID & The Escalation Of Medical Tyranny.  The coronavirus crisis has served as a powerful tool in highlighting many of the faults that previously existed in society.  It exposed which politicians have an inherent need to control and which ones are guided by humility.  It reminded us of the political power that lies in fear, and how crucial it is to be skeptical of prevailing narratives.  It emphasized the different economic realities for those who live paycheck to paycheck and those who benefit from economic financialization.  Already we have seen agents of the state, at various levels, seek to leverage a viral medical crisis to expand their power.  Governors and local officials have sought to use vague "emergency" powers to lock down businesses and to create criminal penalties, and have then attacked any attempts by judiciaries to rein in their actions.  Judges have sought to leverage the power they hold in deciding child custody to force citizens to make medical decisions they disagree with.  Anointed government experts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, in spite of his own inconsistencies, have been held up as the final word on science, at the expense of the voices of other credible scientists.  Whether by design or by the instinctual reaction, we have seen a concerted effort of government authorities — amplified by a corporate press with a particularly vivid political agenda, and supported by the credentials of an academic landscape that suffers from ideological capture — to weaponize a centralized scientific narrative for the purpose of achieving certain policy ends.

Biden's Pseudoscientific Masquerade.  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden insists that, if he wins the November election, his COVID-19 policies will "follow the science." This would certainly be a welcome departure from his rhetoric regarding the pandemic.  Biden's public statements, particularly on mask mandates, general lockdowns, and in-person education, are clearly at odds with the recommendations of an increasing number of epidemiologists and public health scientists.  His continued advocacy of countermeasures that have proven ineffective or even harmful suggest that the former vice president is scientifically illiterate or has deliberately ignored the discoveries made by genuine scientists about COVID-19 since it claimed its first U.S. victim in February.  The most risible manifestation of Biden's imposture concerning COVID-19 involves his science-free claims that mask mandates will somehow ameliorate transmission of the virus.

First Man Charged with Crime Because he Ignored Pandemic Rules.  A man from Kentucky is set to face charges in November.  John Pennington was travelling from Alaska to the lower 48 in the United States.  He has now been charged with violating Canada's Quarantine Act with accusations that he failed to follow Coronavirus public safety rules while in Banff.  If he's found guilty, he could be fined up to $750,000 or sentenced to six months in jail.  It started with a call from the Rimrock Hotel to police in late June.  "Staff at the hotel were concerned about an American guest they thought was breaching the quarantine," Staff Sgt. Michael Buxton-Carr told the News.

COVID-19 Hype is Needed In Order to Justify "Virtual Debates" Between Biden and Trump.  In order to support the most important political objectives of the DNC writ large in the 2020 election, COVID-19 hype is essential:
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot easily achieve 'mail-in' voting; which they desperately need in key battleground states in order to control the outcome.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot shut down rallies and political campaigning efforts of President Trump; which they desperate need to do in key battleground states.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot block the campaign contrast between an energetic President Trump and a physically tenuous, mentally compromised, challenger.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats do not have an excuse for cancelling the DNC convention in Milwaukee; thereby blocking Team Bernie Sanders from visible opposition while protecting candidate gibberish from himself.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats do not have a mechanism to keep voters isolated from each-other; limiting communication and national debate adverse to their interests.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot keep their Blue state economies easily shut down and continue to block U.S. economic growth. [...]
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot easily keep club candidate Joe Biden sealed in the basement; where the electorate is not exposed to visible signs of his dementia.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic it becomes more difficult for Big Tech to censor voices that would outline the fraud and scheme.  With COVID-19 panic they have a better method and an excuse.

On Trump and the virus.  President Trump was discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center a few days ago. [...] Trump can now speak from personal experience, and his authority on the matter will make a difference in the COVID narrative as we hurtle toward the election.  Bear in mind:  we do not have one new piece of information about how the virus works, how fatal it is, or how to cure it, that we did not have last week.  But all this — the lockdowns, the masks, the thunderous moralizing — was never about information.  This is a virus which, according to the CDC, has a survival rate of over 99% for everyone under 70 (for those over that age, like Trump, it's 94.6%).  There is little evidence to suggest its spread can be meaningfully curbed by masks, except those of the N95 variety when used in confined spaces.  And yet Democrat rulers and their media apparatchiks have been insisting — demanding — that we practice ever-more baroque and elaborate forms of meaningless antiviral gestures.  Wear masks outdoors.  Shut down the gyms and the churches (but riots are fine). Your life must be disrupted, your livelihood ruined.  Obey or be mocked, unpersoned, condemned.  What is this all about?  Not a virus, but a story — a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

A Failed Experiment:  The lockdowns must end.  Lockdowns are typically portrayed as prudent precautions against Covid-19, but they are surely the most risky experiment ever conducted on the public.  From the start, researchers have warned that lockdowns could prove far deadlier than the coronavirus.  People who lose their jobs or businesses are more prone to fatal drug overdoses and suicide, and evidence already exists that many more will die from cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, and tuberculosis and other diseases because the lockdown prevented their ailments from being diagnosed early and treated properly.  Yet politicians and public-health officials conducting this unprecedented experiment have paid little attention to these risks.  In their initial rush to lock down society, they insisted that there was no time for such analysis — and besides, these were just temporary measures to "flatten the curve" so as not to overwhelm hospitals.  But since that danger passed, the lockdown enforcers have found one reason after another to persevere with closures, bans, quarantines, curfews, and other mandates.

Over 4,000 Doctors, Public Health Professionals Sign "Great Barrington Declaration," Urging End to COVID-Restrictions.  Over 40,000 people, including over 4,000 epidemiologists, doctors, and public health professionals from around the world, have signed the "Great Barrington Declaration" that urges nations to return to normal life as the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

When Fear Rules.  We know now that demeaning confidence and courage is fashionable among hacks — two more American virtues to be ground under in a transformed America.  Of greater urgency, the November elections loom, so displays of courage are precisely what Democrats and their media enablers fear.  For courage in just one man can spread, serving as a remedy to fear in many others.  Voters who aren't scared into masks aren't as likely to vote for Democrats. [...] Democrats champion masks because masks acknowledge the rule of fear.  They're symbols of subordination and surrender — yes, subordination to fear of a germ, and surrender of rights and freedoms. [...] You see, fear is a means.  It's a weapon in the hands of Democrats.  The mainstream media are eager henchmen.  Power lust drives Democrats to use fear to gain what they covet.  A virus, like a crisis, isn't to be wasted.  A contagion that helps manufacture a crisis is too tempting to pass up.

White House Physician:  Donald Trump Has COVID-19 Antibodies.  White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said Tuesday that the president's blood was showing antibodies for COVID-19.  "Of note today, the president's labs demonstrated detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG (COVID-19) antibodies from labs drawn Monday, October 5th," Conley wrote in a memo sent to reporters.  He added that the president's blood work drawn on Thursday did not show any antibodies.

Dr. Fauci's Worst Is yet to Come.  Dr. Anthony Fauci is playing the long game.  That's my suspicion given his change in demeanor over the last few months and his latest comments.  Any deference he used to show to the White House is gone, and he's regularly making the media rounds to contradict and push back against Trump's handling of the coronavirus.  Now, he's predicting doom again if we don't do exactly what he says we should do, as if the lockdowns weren't disastrous and ineffective enough the first time around. [...] New York, where 33,000 people have died, was being held up as a shining light of progress by the media not too long ago.  Now, they are seeing spikes in cases and deaths again.  If that level of lockdown hasn't worked there to "crush the virus", why in the world would anyone assume something similar would work elsewhere?  There is no scientific answer to that question and Fauci knows it.  But what Fauci is doing here is setting himself up for the future.  He sees Joe Biden possibly winning the presidency, and the former VP has already pledged to retain the doctor as a top advisor.

CNN's Sanjay Gupta Makes Wild Claim About Steroid Drug Trump Was Prescribed, Then Facts Get Dropped.  As I wrote earlier this week, the media-driven hysteria over President Trump being prescribed the steroid drug dexamethasone as part of his Wuhan virus treatment plan got out of hand fast.  This misinformation being spread on cable news networks and the social media feeds of "journalists" on this issue was so bad that actual pharmacists pushed back big time against TV "medical experts" who suggested that prescribing it to Trump was "evidence" his condition was far more serious and grave than his medical team had led the public to believe.  Another "medical expert" with a credibility crisis in progress this week is CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has been a regular fixture on the network since the pandemic started.

Texas to Re-open Bars and Saloons.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an order on Wednesday that will allow bars and other entertainment establishments to re-open beginning on October 14. The order allows county judges to work with the Texas Alcoholic Beverages Commission to re-open, as long as they assist in enforcing health protocols.  In a video from the Office of the Texas Governor, Abbott announced protocols for re-opening bars and other entertainment facilities across the state to 50 percent capacity in areas of the state with "low #COVID19 hospitalizations."

Jane Fonda Says What Democrats Are Thinking:  "COVID is God's Gift to The Left" Because It May Defeat Trump.  Hanoi Jane is out stumping for Biden and during a Zoom call, said what many Democrats are thinking — COVID is great for Biden's election chances.  The Washington Free Beacon grabbed the video:  [Video clip]

Jane Fonda says coronavirus is 'God's gift to the left' because it could help Biden defeat Trump.  Actress Jane Fonda called coronavirus "God's gift to the left" because it allowed Americans to see President Trump isn't helping the working class.  The far-left star was busy urging Americans to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden and said the upcoming election is a crossroads for the nation.  "We are people who can help determine which way humanity goes.  What a great gift, what a tremendous opportunity, we're just so lucky, we just have to use it with every ounce of intelligence and courage and wherewithal we have," Fonda said in a video published online.

Thousands Of Health Experts Sign Declaration Calling For End To Lockdown, Warn Of 'Irreparable Damage'.  Thousands of medical and public health experts have signed on to a declaration calling for an end to lockdown policies in favor of a more targeted approach to combatting the coronavirus pandemic.  Harvard University professor Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Oxford University epidemiologist Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and Stanford University physician and epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya wrote and published "The Great Barrington Declaration" on Sunday.  It has since drawn tens of thousands of signatories.  By Wednesday morning [10/7/2020], nearly 3,200 medical and public health scientists, nearly 4,800 medical practitioners, and over 73,100 others had signed onto the declaration.  The declaration comes as some elected officials in the U.S., such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are cracking down again on their states with renewed lockdown measures.

Doctor, 28, who died from COVID-19 wore same mask for 'weeks if not months'.  A 28-year-old doctor who died fighting COVID-19 had been wearing the same mask at the Houston hospital where she worked for "weeks if not months" when she became infected with the illness, her family said.  Dr. Adeline Fagan, who was from Syracuse, started experiencing symptoms while doing a rotation in July treating coronavirus patients at HCA Houston Healthcare West, the Guardian reported.  It's unclear how she became infected, but her family believes that her alleged lack of proper PPE likely played a role.  "Adeline had an N95 mask and had her name written on it," her sister, Maureen Fagan, told the outlet.  "Adeline wore the same N95 for weeks and weeks, if not months and months."

Orthodox Jewish community erupts in protests over new COVID-19 restrictions.  Hundreds of Orthodox Jewish men gathered in the streets of Brooklyn, New York, lighting bonfires and defying orders to disperse, in protest of the state's new COVID-19 restrictions Tuesday night.  The demonstrations came in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's decision to reinstate restrictions on public gatherings and to shutter schools and businesses in neighborhoods where COVID-19 cases are surging.  The move aims to restrict capacity at houses of worship, schools and nonessential businesses in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the state's rising hot spots.  Many neighborhoods affected by the new restrictions are home to large populations of Orthodox Jews, and some protesters said the community was being unfairly targeted by the policy.

Are Bill De Blasio and Andrew Cuomo Targeting New York City's Jews?  The leftists running the Big Apple and the Empire State have settled on a convenient COVID-19 "super spreader" scapegoat of choice.  Their choice should be surprising to no one: the Jews.  In a Monday press conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo did not merely single out New Rochelle, in Westchester County, as the first outbreak hotspot — he emphasized, for good measure, the "Orthodox Jewish" identity of the culprit.  "We know religious gatherings have been a problem... for weeks," he continued, belying any semblance of neutrality as to which particular community he had in mind when TV producers flashed images of black hat-clad Haredi Jews across the screen.  In Kafkaesque fashion, as Jewish Insider's Jacob Kornbluh pointed out, one of the photos appeared to be from 2006.  Cuomo's press conference followed his flagging, on Twitter last week, "20 hotspot ZIP codes" — clustered around the New York City metropolitan area — of locations to "target[]."

Sweden has destroyed the case for lockdown.  [Scroll down]  The most stupid of these excuses is that Sweden has a low population density (59 people per square mile). Forgive me for insulting your intelligence but it seems some people need to hear this:  Swedish people are not evenly spread out across the country.  Scotland also has a low population density (65 people per square mile) because most of the country is wilderness.  This has not stopped Glasgow becoming a Covid-19 hotspot.  The country with the highest per capita death rate from Covid is Peru, which has a population density only slightly higher than Sweden at 65 people per square mile.  Brazil and Chile have also had more deaths per capita than Sweden, despite having low population densities of 65 and 60 people per square mile respectively.  Like Sweden, these countries have vast areas in which nobody lives.  There is no reason to think that this should help combat the coronavirus.  It is not as if everyone in Sweden lives in little villages, either:  88 percent of Swedes live in urban areas.

October Surprises Everyone.  Anyone who has witnessed the last six months impartially is aware that from the first appearance of COVID-19 as a serious threat, the Democrats and their media allies have made unheard-of efforts to frighten the country, provoke a profound economic shutdown, and blame every death on the president personally.  It has been one of the most cynical political operations in American history.

Big Pharma's Experimental COVID-19 Vaccines Cause Horrific Side Effects During Human Trials.  The early trials of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines are showing horrific side effects, including fever, headaches and sustained exhaustion as Big Pharma rushes to get them approved for the masses.  Pharmaceutical giants Moderna and Pfizer are already injecting these dangerous shots into patients, and many of the people involved are reporting terrible side effects. [...] Tens of thousands of individuals are participating in these trials, with some receiving experimental drugs while others receive placebos.  The pharmaceutical giants are underplaying the negative side effects in order to protect their cash cow.  They stand to make billions, if not trillions, from the vaccines after the media has primed the masses with hysterical and irresponsible propaganda for months.

Fear Versus Freedom.  [Scroll down]  It's clear what is happening here.  President Trump is telling the American people to be careful, but live your lives and don't let the fear of the virus dominate your life.  Biden and the media are telling you the opposite.  The bigger question is:  Why?  It's obvious, isn't it?  Fear is what allows the government to tell you you can't go to church.  Fear allows the government to close the public schools you pay for.  Fear allows the government to regulate and control behaviors you would never allow them to control.  If you aren't afraid and don't believe the government will protect you from that thing you aren't afraid of, you will never allow them the power they have snatched in the past few months.  One national politician, President Trump, is trying to wrestle this culture of fear out of our lives and allow us to return to our liberty-loving status.  The other, Biden, wants you to continue living in that fear and is indignant that Trump would suggest that you transcend that fear.  And the media is clearly on Biden's side.

Medical experts:  Lockdowns do more harm than good.  As infectious-disease epidemiologists and public-health scientists, we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental-health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.  Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people.  Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short- and long-term public health.  The results (to name a few) include lower childhood-vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular-disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health — leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.  Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.  Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.

Finger-wagging Maxine Waters confronted for not wearing a mask.  Rep. Maxine Waters spent months wagging a finger at Americans and lecturing about wearing protective face masks but, in the end, did not even follow her own orders.  The California Democrat was caught on camera recently without a face covering, making excuses about her non-compliance and hypocrisy.  Fox News host Tucker Carlson shared a video clip of Waters on Tuesday [10/6/2020] in a segment on the double standards of Democrats who refuse to abide by the same rules they impose on everyone else.

Trump, Atlas:  Time to Face Down Coronavirus Fear.  The uproar over the president's COVID-19 diagnosis made one thing abundantly and terrifyingly clear:  Coronavirus hysteria is here to stay — and there are signs it might be getting worse seven months after we first confronted the unknown disease.  Rather than accept that nearly all the early advice dispensed by self-proclaimed "experts" was not just wrong but resulted in devastating consequences that will impact the country for years to come, lots of Americans — including the entire news industry and leaders of both political parties — are endorsing more punitive government decrees to "stop" a virus that poses almost no serious health threat to the overwhelming majority of Americans.  People are fixated on masks; the president of the United States isn't allowed to take a brief ride in an SUV with people trained to take a bullet on his behalf without enduring widespread condemnation for "risking the lives of others" even though everyone wore a mask and other protective gear.

The final four weeks of the campaign will be fought over re-opening the economy.  Sacrificing the economy, the education of our children, and our collective mental health for the purported purpose of slowing the spread of a disease that is survived by more than 99% of those under 70 who contract it is no longer tolerable, and President Trump is waging his presidential campaign on ending the madness.  Here is the CDC's best estimate of the lethality of COVID for each age cohort:
  •   0-19 years: 0.00003
  •   20-49 years: 0.0002
  •   50-69 years: 0.005
  •   70+ years: 0.054
Now that we know how to treat it, COVID is not something to panic over unless you are very old and already have health problems (comorbidities) that are very likely to shorten your expected lifespan even without COVID.  President Trump's rapid recovery, despite being 74 and overweight (which caused the MSM to go insane, predicting his impending demise over the weekend), stands as dramatic evidence that the panic used to justify devastating the economy and closing schools is foolishly overblown.

Mourners Admonished For Moving Chairs Closer Together At British Funeral.  Video from the UK shows a worker at a crematorium scolding mourners during a funeral because they moved their chairs to be closer to each other during the service.  Under draconian covid rules, funerals services are limited to 30 people, and they must all wear masks and sit 2 metres apart from each other.  The Daily Mail reports that Craig Bicknell, attending his father's funeral last week, was chided during the ceremony for attempting to comfort his mother.  [Video clip]

More Melbourne Insanity:  Mom Arrested At Beach For Traveling "Outside Her Permitted 5km Radius".  We've previously detailed protests that have sprung up in various major cities across the Australian continent over authorities' ultra-restrictive coronavirus lockdown measures, which are especially stringent and far-reaching in the southeast state of Victoria.  There's been multiple instances caught on video of police cracking down on elderly people and even pregnant women for merely resting outside on park benches, supposedly in "violation" of coronavirus social distancing measures, even as case numbers have significantly dropped since August.  And now here's the latest incident to go viral as citizens flock to newly reopened beaches, after Victoria slightly relaxed some of its more severe lockdown restrictions: [...]

The Cult of Covidism Has Invaded the Church.  What should have been a purely scientific response aimed at control and cure of a disease quickly evolved into the political-religious cult of Covidism.  Objective scientific analysis of and responses to what is the contagious pathogen COVID-19 were almost immediately suffocated by a plethora of arbitrary pseudo-religious rituals.  The capitulation of the churches to rituals radically modifying and even antagonistic to Christian rites may be because the Church, continually rent by internal crises and scandals, did not recognize the rival religion when it appeared.  It may be that the budding religious cult prevailed rapidly because Covidism was purported to be based on science.  But it is actually an offshoot of the religion of scientism, which elevates speculative metaphysics and mystery rituals on the basis of scientific-sounding but untested suppositions.

Gov. Tony Evers' administration limits capacity at bars, restaurants and stores to 25% as virus surges.  Gov. Tony Evers took action Tuesday [10/6/2020] to limit indoor gatherings including in bars and restaurants as coronavirus cases surge in the state and despite repeated legal challenges from Republicans to such measures.  The move by his administration to cap businesses at 25% of capacity starting Thursday comes as Wisconsin suffers from some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the country and as the presidential campaign moves into its final phase.  "There's no other way to put it, we are overwhelmed," Evers told reporters in a media briefing on Tuesday.

Bias alert!
What the presidential campaign has to do with this story is a mystery to me.

Gavin Newsom Edges Ahead in the Country's Dumbest Governor Competition.  COVID-19 has certainly exposed one of two things.  Either some of the dumbest people in the country are leading our states, or they are so hyperpartisan they will beclown themselves to toe the Democrats' preferred narrative on the virus.  The latest ridiculous instructions come from Gavin Newsom's office:  ["]Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend?  Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites.["] [...] One of the primary reasons that masking is controversial is because people don't know how to use [them].  Apparently, this lack of knowledge goes straight up to the governor's office in California.  As a former healthcare worker trained on how to don and doff personal protective equipment (PPE) properly, this is painfully stupid.

Reports: Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are quarantining due to coronavirus concerns.  The top U.S. general, Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are quarantining after a top Coast Guard official tested positive for coronavirus, several U.S. defense officials tell CNN.  CNN reported several members are quarantining, but soon after, ABC News reported that all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are doing so.  The vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Charles Ray, tested positive on Monday.

Scientist: No Shame In Talking About Obese Folks' COVID-19 Risk.  While the nation debated the veracity of conspiracy theories on President Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, I began to worry about the one thing that The Donald, quarantined Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, hospitalized former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and 42.4 percent of Americans — including me — all have in common.  We're dangerously fat.  As soon as Trump tweeted his positive test results, news stories quoted respected physicians and "Dr. Oz" dropping the O-word — "Obesity," that is — issuing speculative warnings that Trump's fast-food physique might cause the president extreme suffering, or worse.

The Editor says...
Until two weeks ago, it was forbidden to mention obesity as a risk factor for those infected with Covid-19, because any discussion of obesity is considered "fat shaming."  But now that Trump has had the virus, it's okay to bring up the topic.  Obese or not, Trump beat the virus at age 74.

Why Won't the Media Listen to These Scientists?  This week dozens of esteemed medical experts with blue-chip academic credentials published a warning about the destructive policies adopted to address Covid-19.  Since the Sunday publication of this "Great Barrington Declaration" more than a thousand biological scientists and more than 1,500 medical practitioners have added their names to the petition.  Yet it's been almost entirely ignored by the media outlets that spend much of their days presenting themselves as obedient to science.  [Paywall]

Saturday Night Live PAID audience members $150 to attend the premiere.  Saturday Night Live paid audience members $150 to attend the season premiere in order to meet state coronavirus requirements of only allowing hired staff on the premises.  Audience members lucky enough to receive free tickets to the NBC show in New York where 'hired' as cast members on Saturday [10/3/2020].  The show opened its 46th season this weekend, having not aired a new episode since March 7, but concerns were raised about how it would allow for its usual live audience.  New York state health guidelines only allow for 'paid employees, cast, and crew' in a studio audience.

Newsom's office tells Californians to wear masks 'in between bites' of food when dining with members from same household in public.  Gov. Gavin Newsom's office told California residents they should wear masks "in between bites" of food while dining in public spaces with people from the same household.  "Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend?  Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites," the office of the governor tweeted over the weekend.  "Do your part to keep those around you healthy," the tweet added.

The Editor says...
Fortunately, a tweet is not a law.

California governor's office tells diners to wear masks 'in between bites'.  The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom has told residents in the Golden State that if they go out to eat, they should be wearing a mask "in between bites" to protect themselves from COVID-19. [...] For emphasis, the tweet shows an image of someone at a dining seat wearing a mask, then not wearing a mask while taking a bite, and then putting the mask on again.  However, the image then advises people to "minimize the number of times you take your mask off."  California has allowed limited indoor dining to resume in a number of counties.  San Francisco allowed indoor dining last week at 25% capacity.  California has had more than 800,000 cases and more than 16,000 deaths due to the virus.

The Editor says...
That is not true.  The total number of deaths from Covid-19 is less than 10,000 nationwide.  The number of people who have died with the virus (not from it) is much higher.

Gavin Newsom goes 'Bananas': 'Don't forget to keep your mask on in between bites'.  So Gavin Newsom of California has gotten excited about masks again, just as Joe Biden and assorted leftists have made it mask-wearing the most recitable part of the Democrats' party platform in the wake of President Trump's diagnosis of COVID.  Joe Biden is out preaching for the wearing of masks, but for Newsom, merely wearing them at the grocery store is no longer enough. [...] It's also a day late and a dollar short, being ordered a time when COVID cases are way down in California and deaths are precipitously declining. [...] A ridiculous order like this, detrimental to public health, is nothing short of the whims of a dictator drunk on power.  It's like a scene from Woody Allen's 1971 Bananas about a fictional tropical dictator who looks like Fidel Castro.

Against Fear.  The United States has wiped out decades of hard-won prosperity by following the spirit-crushing injunction to "stay safe." The lockdowns have destroyed the dreams of thousands of entrepreneurs and have put millions out of work, leaving cities like New York moribund ghost towns.  The school closures are consigning millions of children worldwide to stunted lives due to delayed, if not now permanently deferred, acquisition of reading, writing, and socialization skills.  Children are being inculcated into a culture of fear. [...] It is not even clear that a more work-friendly policy would lead to more deaths.  While the profile of the typical coronavirus decedent has been known for months — median age 80, suffering from co-morbidities that likely would have killed the person anyway — the exact path of transmission remains mysterious.  There is no correlation globally between degree of lockdowns and coronavirus death rates.  Countries such as Britain that imposed strict lockdowns have massively higher death rates than many countries, such as Japan, that mandated no lockdowns.

Biden and the Modern-Day Front Porch Campaign.  It did not matter that Biden had revealed during the early primaries that he was neither mentally nor physically capable of carrying out the duties of the most grueling job on earth, much less of campaigning the length and breadth of the country attempting to garner voter enthusiasm for a candidate so devoid of charisma, gravitas and mental acuity.  Thus, a modern variation of the old front porch campaigning was formulated using fear of the Chinese Virus pandemic as a cover.  This was done by dramatically exaggerating the dangers of the virus, keeping lockdowns in place in blue states and precipitating a never-ending drumbeat of mandatory, but in reality, needless mask usage at all times and in all places.

Yelp data shows 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are now permanent.  Yelp on Wednesday [9/30/2020] released its latest Economic Impact Report, revealing business closures across the U.S. are increasing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic's economic toll.  As of August 31, 163,735 businesses have indicated on Yelp that they have closed.  That's down from the 180,000 that closed at the very beginning of the pandemic.  However, it actually shows a 23% increase in the number of closures since mid-July.  In addition to monitoring closed businesses, Yelp also takes into account the businesses whose closures have become permanent.  That number has steadily increased throughout the past six months, now reaching 97,966, representing 60% of closed businesses that won't be reopening.

New Possibility as to Virus Exposure to White House Officials Puts Media on the Hot Seat.  News came out today that White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus.  Jim Acosta tried to blame her for not wearing a mask at a briefing yesterday, when she was outdoors and socially distanced from anyone. [...] The White House Press Corps had three members diagnosed with the virus last week on Friday, according to CNN.  So the reporters had it before McEnany did, so it's more likely she got it from them.  Three coming down with it ,and a White House staffer who sits in the lower press area and has close contact with reporters also getting it, suggests that's where a concentration might be.

President Trump Announces He Is Planning on Participating in October 15th Debate with Joe Biden and His Former Intern.  President Trump recorded a stirring address to the nation immediately upon his return from a three-day stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland for treatment of an infection by the COVID-19 China coronavirus.  Trump was diagnosed with the virus early Friday morning after showing symptoms on Thursday and then Friday during the day.  Monday night Sean Hannity announced that President Trump is planning on participating in the October 15th presidential debate.  The president will debate Joe Biden and his former intern Steve Scully.

Americans really are drinking more during the pandemic.  Americans really are drinking more during the COVID-19 pandemic.  New research suggests that alcohol consumption in the United States rose 14% during pandemic shutdowns.  The most dramatic increase was in heavy drinking episodes in women, defined as four or more drinks within two hours.  Women reported a 41% increase in episodes of heavy drinking in the spring of 2020 compared with their drinking level in the spring of 2019.

Cruise ships in the scrap yard:
Drone view of a ship graveyard as cruising market collapses in pandemic.  Dozens of workers stripped walls, windows, floors and railings from several vessels in the dock in Aliaga, a town 45 km north of Izmir on Turkey's west coast.  Three more ships are set to join those already being dismantled.  [Video clip]

Don't tell me the COVID-19 virus could not have been manufactured by China.  So far, the global scientific community has been unable to identify a natural origin of, or a logical evolutionary pathway for, the COVID-19 virus.  In contrast, the entire history of coronavirus research is punctuated by the ubiquitous use of genetic engineering to produce new viral combinations, which makes a laboratory origin a far more likely scenario.  In 2008, just five years after the first 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic, Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina published an article entitled "Synthetic recombinant bat SARS-like coronavirus is infectious in cultured cells and in mice," in which he described the creation in the laboratory of an entirely new virus capable of producing a human SARS-like infection.

Massive Fight Breaks Out On Phoenix Flight Over A Mask.  A fight broke out between two passengers on an Allegiant Air flight from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Oct. 3 after one passenger confronted another for allegedly refusing the flight attendant's request to wear a face mask in addition to a face shield.  A spokesperson for Allegiant Air confirmed that an altercation happened on Flight 607 to Provo, Utah, after a passenger refused to comply with airline policy.  [Video clip]

Corporate Media Is Vomiting Trump Coronavirus Reporting All Over The Bed.  The latest news cycle over President Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis illustrates yet again how destructive the U.S. corporate media are to national unity and a clear understanding of reality.  While we are all aware that COVID-19 can be a truly devastating and deadly disease for some, despite the volume of media coverage dedicated to it in the past seven months, the American public still lacks crucial context for understanding Trump's diagnosis.  Not only has major media coverage not brought clarity, but it has also, as usual, obscured reality.  This is especially harmful to a story with such significant potential ramifications for the nation and world.  As the president himself has alluded to in his post-diagnosis social media posts, it's common knowledge that the Wuhan virus hits the elderly especially hard.  Trump is 74.  Yet even among his age demographic, surviving the disease, not death, is by far the norm.

Joe Biden Proposes 'Nationwide Mask Guidance' Instead of 'Mandate'.  Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden has dropped a "national mask mandate" from his platform but instead proposed a "guidance" on Saturday [10/3/2020]. Speaking to the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Biden went through a litany of changes he would implement, including ordering his Department of Transportation to create a "nationwide mask guidance".

Fauci Looks To UN To 'Rebuild The Infrastructure Of Human Existence'.  Dr. Anthony Fauci is a United Nations wolf in sheep's clothing telling America why it is so important to save lives from the dreaded COVID-19 virus while pandering for the most radical parts of United Nations agenda for the world.  That is, Sustainable Development, aka Technocracy. [...] I am mildly put off by Fauci's relishing embrace of worldwide celebrity.  I thought it a bit frivolous, for example, his agreeing to be interviewed for a cover story in the fashion magazine, In Style. [...] But now, Fauci has crossed a line that should sound the alarm — audaciously declaring that combatting infectious disease requires the mindboggling task of "rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence."  Not only that but he opined that accomplishing these top-to-bottom "radical changes" requires "strengthening the United Nations and its agencies, particularly the World Health Organization."

How Long Does the Coronavirus Live on Surfaces?  The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 mainly spreads from person to person.  When someone who is infected coughs or sneezes, they send droplets containing the virus into the air.  A healthy person can then breathe in those droplets.  You may also catch the virus if you touch a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touch your mouth, nose, or eyes.  The coronavirus can live for hours to days on surfaces like countertops and doorknobs.  How long it survives depends on the material the surface is made from.  Here's a guide to how long coronaviruses — the family of viruses that includes the one that causes COVID-19 — can live on some of the surfaces you probably touch every day.

CDC revises coronavirus guidance to acknowledge that it spreads through airborne transmission.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its coronavirus guidance Monday [10/5/2020], acknowledging that it can sometimes spread through airborne particles that can "linger in the air for minutes to hours" and among people who are more than 6 feet apart.  The CDC cited published reports that demonstrated "limited, uncommon circumstances where people with COVID-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away or shortly after the COVID-19-positive person left an area."  "In these instances, transmission occurred in poorly ventilated and enclosed spaces that often involved activities that caused heavier breathing, like singing or exercise," the CDC said in a statement.  "Such environments and activities may contribute to the buildup of virus-carrying particles."

The Editor says...
[#1] If the CDC thought the virus did not spread through airborne transmission, what were the masks for?  [#2] Now it sounds like normal ventilation and fresh air will keep the virus from being an issue, which is just common sense (at last).

How Whitmer Plans to Circumvent MI Supreme Court's Lockdown Orders.  The Michigan State Supreme Court on Friday delivered a blow to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and her Wuhan coronavirus lockdown orders.  Whitmer was relying on the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act to lock the state down without legislative approval.  The high court, however, voted 4-3 saying Whitmer's moves were unconstitutional.  A separate law, the 1976 Emergency Management Act, also prevented Whitmer from extending her original shutdown orders without legislative approval.  That means that the lockdown should have expired on Apr. 30th, unless the state legislature decided to extend it.  "Our decision leaves open many avenues for the governor and Legislature to work together to address this challenge, and we hope that this will take place," Justice Stephen Markman wrote in the majority opinion.

Michigan AG Dana Nessel Won't Prosecute People For Breaking Whitmer's Lockdown Orders, Leaves It Up To Local Law Enforcement.  Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Sunday [10/4/2020] she will not continue to enforce Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's executive orders "through criminal prosecution" after the state Supreme Court ruled the orders unconstitutional Friday.  "In light of the Supreme Court's decision on Friday, the Attorney General will no longer enforce the Governor's Executive Orders through criminal prosecution," read a statement from Nessel's press secretary posted to Twitter on Sunday.  "However, her decision is not binding on other law enforcement agencies or state departments with independent enforcement authority." [...] The court issued a split decision Friday, ruling that Whitmer's extension of emergency declarations used to mandate lockdown restrictions were unconstitutional, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Why Big Names Are Getting COVID-19.  It's a common belief that our well heeled betters live in a different world than we do.  If they wish to, people of power and means can enjoy the very best nutrition, housing, and health care available.  When it comes to buying personal protective equipment, money's simply no object to them.  So why are luminaries like the president, members of the Senate, White House correspondents, and NFL stars coming down with COVID-19?  Because the measures the so-called experts keep blathering about, wearing face masks and social distancing, are next to useless.  COVID-19 is simply working its way through the population, regardless of catchy slogans like "New York Tough" and "A small ask, wear a mask!" [...] Fact is, viruses gonna virus.  This particular pathogen is very democratic.  Its effect on the poor and homeless is well documented.  But the rich and powerful are surely following the rules to the best of their ability, using the finest PPE, yet they're still catching COVID.  Does shutting down stop the virus?  No, it merely slows it, the primary goal of a shutdown being to keep the health system and infrastructure from being overwhelmed.

35 Years of Research Into Coronavirus Infections Show Long-Term Immunity Is Unlikely.  Even once a person gets sick with a coronavirus that's no guarantee they won't contract it again, new research suggests.  While SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that has the world's attention right now, there are numerous others that we've known about for decades, which are not only known to infect humans, but are highly seasonal.

Stats Hold a Surprise:  Lockdowns May Have Had Little Effect on COVID-19 Spread.  In 1932, Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis famously called the states "laboratories of democracy." Different states can test out different policies, and they can learn from each other.  That proved true in 2020.  Governors in different states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic at different times and in different ways.  Some states, such as California, ordered sweeping shutdowns.  Others, such as Florida, took a more targeted approach.  Still others, such as South Dakota, dispensed information but had no lockdowns at all.  As a result, we can now compare outcomes in different states, to test the question no one wants to ask:  Did the lockdowns make a difference?

President Trump and Top Republicans (But No Democrats) Contract COVID — Now Cleveland Announces Outbreak Connected to Presidential Debate.  With only top Republicans, including the President, contracting the China coronavirus this week, Americans are curious why no Democrats contracted the virus.  Now authorities have been able to determine that a recent outbreak started in Cleveland at the site of the Presidential debate.  Now let's see if authorities can tell us who these people are and how this happened.  FOX News provided a list of Americans who have contracted the China coronavirus along with the President — note all of these people are Republicans.

Trump actions on coronavirus saved hundreds of thousands of lives, new report shows.  When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced a new select subcommittee to investigate and oversee the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans knew we were in for a fight.  Democrats were going to use this subcommittee to relentlessly hamper, harass and pass blame on the Trump administration in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century.  Over the past months, I've led Republicans on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as we've tried to cut through the noise and partisanship.  After over a dozen hearings, Democrats have still failed to uncover any major fault in the Trump administration's pandemic response[.]  However, despite Democrats' best efforts to obstruct our investigations, select subcommittee Republicans established several key takeaways about the Trump administration's pandemic response, as well as some shocking revelations about Democratic governors' deadly "must admit" orders in nursing homes.

Don't blame the lack of masks for Trump's illness.  Many Democrats have responded to news of Trump's Wuhan virus diagnosis by blaming him.  He wouldn't wear a mask, they say, so he did this to himself — and so did the other Republicans who have tested positive.  There are two problems with this claim:  (1) Trump and the other Republicans did wear masks or were in carefully screened and tested environments; (2) there's no evidence that the masks that most people wear make any difference.  Normal, decent people, upon hearing about President Trump's Wuhan virus diagnosis, wished him well.  That included all conservatives and a small number of Democrats.  Mostly, though, Democrats obsessed about masks and blamed Trump for his illness.  They then extended this blame to those other Republicans who were diagnosed with the virus.

Pritzker Is Keeping Illinois Locked Down Not For Health But For A Federal Bailout.  Having moved past the initial shock and panic due to the frightening presence of an unknown virus, we've learned much about SARS-CoV-2 and have accustomed ourselves to new social practices.  Across the country, state governors are lifting restrictions and encouraging commerce.  We're returning to work, opening our storefronts, and sending our children to school.  Most Americans are, anyway.  In Illinois, unfortunately, life hasn't changed much since spring.  Although hospitalizations and deaths in the state have remained flat since mid-June, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker refuses to fully reopen the state.  While much of the country returns to normal (more or less), he's reimposing and heightening restrictions.  Pritzker says his restrictions are based on science.  In reality, they're political calculations based on opportunism and election-year math.

AG William Barr to self-quarantine for several days out of caution.  Attorney General William Barr will self-quarantine for several days out of caution, a spokeswoman said on Sunday [10/4/2020].  Barr, who has tested negative for the coronavirus, has remained at his home since attending a meeting at Justice Department headquarters on Friday.  All four of Barr's coronavirus tests since Friday have come back negative, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said.  But she said the AG plans to self-quarantine for several more days.

Trump 'doing very well' and has no difficulty breathing, medical team says.  President Trump is "doing very well" and has no difficulty breathing, his medical team said Saturday — although a senior administration official warned that the next 48 hours will be "critical."  White House physician Dr. Sean Conley and other members of the medical team briefed reporters on Trump's condition.  Conley said they were "extremely happy with the progress" Trump is making.

Trump coronavirus symptoms 'resolving and improving,' doctor says.  President Donald Trump's symptoms are "resolving and improving", his physician said Saturday, and he said doctors were "extremely happy" with the president's progress, after news early Friday that Trump had COVID-19.  "The team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made," said Dr. Sean Conley at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where the president is staying.  "He had a mild cough and nasal congestion and fatigue, all of which are now resolving and improving," said Conley.  Conley said that Trump had no fever for 24 hours and that the president was not currently on oxygen.  But he did not say whether Trump had ever been on oxygen despite reporters' repeated questions.

The Editor says...
Rabid Democrats in the news media were among those rooting for the HIPAA laws, 20 years ago, which keep your "protected health information" from being revealed to anyone else, such as random strangers and newspaper reporters.  Now they want to ignore those laws and demand the details of President Trump's medical treatment.

Regeneron co-founder on the antibody cocktail Trump is taking to fight coronavirus.  President Trump's physician is treating his coronavirus diagnosis with Regeneron's experimental treatment and his one infusion "seemed to go through very well" and "will last a long time," the company's chief scientific officer explained to "CAVUTO Live" Saturday.  White House physician Dr. Sean Conley and other members of the medical team briefed reporters on Trump's condition.  Conley said they were "extremely happy with the progress" Trump is making.  "It's all about beating the virus and so we're just helping the natural immune system beat it, by supplementing it with this antibody cocktail," Dr. George Yancopoulos, the co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, explained to host Neil Cavuto.

Trump Praises Walter Reed Staff: 'With Their Help, I Am Feeling Well!'.  In his latest Twitter update from Walter Reed Military Hospital, President Donald Trump heaped praise on his medical team, adding that he is "feeling well" as he continues to battle the coronavirus.  "Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!!" the president tweeted Saturday afternoon [10/3/2020].

China Says No Need To Vaccinate Entire Population Against COVID-19.  According to reporting from CNN, the government of China has announced that they do not intend to vaccinate their entire population.  China's head doctor Gao Fu, Director of China's CDC made the statement at a vaccine summit in the city of Shenzhen on Saturday, according to state-run news agency China News Service. [...] Fu said that they planned to focus on vaccinating frontline workers and did not see the necessity to attempt to vaccinate their entire population.  China's policy is a departure from other countries who are focussed on a broader implementation of vaccines against COVID-19.

Mississippi is first state to lift mask mandate as COVID cases fall.  Mississippi became the first state in the union to lift a mask mandate to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as cases fall.  Mississippi's statewide mask mandate has been in place since Aug. 4. Gov. Tate Reeves Reeves, a Republican, has chosen to extend the mandate several times since then.  However, on Wednesday, he said the declining number of confirmed virus cases and hospitalizations are positive developments that call for the lifting of some restrictions.  The new executive order ending the statewide mask mandate, effective Wednesday at 5 p.m. and expiring Nov. 11 — after the presidential election — also limits group gatherings where social distancing is not possible to 20 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.  These restrictions do not apply to voting precincts, religious entities and schools, according to the order.

Literally Thousands of Doctors and Scientists Have Come Out Against Fauci's Lockdowns Including a Nobel Prize-Winning Biophysicist.  The Media Just Doesn't Want You to Know.  [Scroll down]  But, even putting aside how their advice seems to change with the political winds, the idea that there's some scientific consensus in favor of the extreme measures inflicted on us in response to COVID-19 couldn't be further from the truth.  Though you don't hear their perspectives on CNN, countless scientists and doctors have tried to warn us not only that COVID-19 isn't nearly as deadly as we've been led to believe; they're also confident that the real threat to public health we're facing is from the lockdowns.  For example, though the establishment media has somehow failed to make it widely known, in May, over 600 physicians from "all specialties and from all states" signed a public letter to President Trump describing, not COVID-19, but the lockdowns as a "mass casualty incident." Since the letter first appeared, the number of doctors signing on has grown into the thousands.

The Unscientific Attack On The Science Of Dr. Scott Atlas.  The news media until recently had rarely criticized the medical advice of experts — especially those who worked for federal bureaucracies, international organizations or elite universities.  Yet the much-praised Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has demonstrably weakened the effort to fight COVID-19.  During the critical initial weeks of the virus's spread, Tedros parroted Chinese propaganda.  He falsely assured a complacent world that the virus was likely not transmissible between humans and did not warrant travel bans.  That Tedros was the first WHO director not to have a medical degree was seldom cited by the media.

Doctors: COVID-19 case counts, hospitalization numbers, and death counts are "meaningless".  It has all been lies upon lies upon lies:  According to an editorial written by Kristin Held, president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the case counts, hospitalization numbers, and death counts published by government agencies across the United States are "meaningless" and "manipulated."It has all been lies upon lies upon lies:  According to an editorial written by Kristin Held, president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the case counts, hospitalization numbers, and death counts published by government agencies across the United States are "meaningless" and "manipulated." [...] This article also maybe explains some of the strange numbers that have come out of New Jersey (on June 25th) and Arizona (beginning on July 25th).  On those dates both states showed sudden and unrealistic spikes in their death or hospitalization counts.  Could it be that the new definitions imposed by the CDC just prior to these dates encouraged a redefining of many deaths and hospitalizations as COVID-19, in order to cash in on government money?

COVID-19 Statistics and Facts:Meaningful or a Means of Manipulation?  The COVID-19 case counts, hospitalization numbers, and death counts are meaningless in their current fluid form.  Their malleability primarily serves those who seek to distort reality.  The morphable numbers are reported, then manipulated by federal, state, county, city, and hospital authorities and agencies.  The manipulation is driven by power and money and fueled by fearmongering, panic stoking, and promise of monetary and political gain.  All this is bought and paid for under the guise of trying to save the world from the COVID-19 pandemic.  We must ask the appropriate questions and demand answers, which must then be verified.  We must answer the question of what happened in Texas, Florida, and current "hot spot states" around Jun 14-16.  Something did, according to the statistics.  Did redefining what constitutes a COVID-19 case, hospitalization, or death change the numbers?  Did federal financial aid to hospitals change admitting thresholds and practices?

Chris Wallace Rips the Mask Off Completely, Sinks to a New Low.  Chris Wallace has been a hot topic of discussion since his recent performance as a moderator of the first presidential debate.  To be frank, he was absolutely awful in the role, exhibiting bias that not even I thought he had in him, and I've been a critic of his for a long time.  Wallace hasn't stopped since though.  He's actively chosen to lie about some of Biden's answers, claiming that the former VP answered the question about packing the Supreme Court when he clearly didn't.  In fact, it was Wallace who saved him by moving on instead of pressing.  Now, Wallace is weighing as if he's a medical expert, trashing Scott Atlas, who is serving as a senior advisor to the President during the current pandemic.

Time to End COVID Lockdowns and Mask Mandates.  Draconian lockdowns invoked by governmental fiat with little basis in science are nonsensical and unconstitutional.  I live in Washington state and I have a mustache.  I went to my barbershop when they were first allowed to open on a limited basis and got a haircut and mustache trim.  Last week, they were able to cut my hair but not my mustache.  We the people, should not blindly follow these mandates and surrender our civil rights without question.  State public health agencies during outbreaks of epidemics do have limited police powers to isolate or quarantine people who are sick or are coming from foreign areas that have highly infectious and deadly diseases.  The federal government has the same power for people entering the US and traveling between states. [...] Our public health quarantine laws are antiquated and require updating.  Notwithstanding their antiquity, one thing is obvious; there is a right of due process and equal protection.

'Never Happened': Cuomo Claims Coronavirus Patients Were Not Sent Back to Nursing Homes.  New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D.) said Wednesday that the widely reported readmission of coronavirus patients to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic in the state "never happened."  Cuomo said that despite a March 25 advisory issued by his administration barring nursing homes from denying admission to patients "solely based on a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19," readmissions never took place.  He claimed that, because the state "never needed" those nursing home beds, readmitting COVID-positive patients "just never happened."  Cuomo admitted his administration implemented the policy but said it was only an "anticipatory rule," in case hospitals became overwhelmed with patients.

Gavin Newsom Moves Goalposts on Reopening AGAIN, Now Adding 'Equity' Measures.  On the 197th day of "15 days to slow the spread," California Gov. Gavin Newsom (Democrat, of course) has moved the reopening goalposts yet again.  Originally counties had to meet metrics aimed at ensuring adequate rates of testing and the availability of hospital/ICU beds/ventilators.  (Contact tracing was supposed to be a part of that, but that effort's been a big fat joke).  Once hospitalization rates, ventilator usage, and death rates plummeted over the summer Newsom changed his strategy and enacted by gubernatorial fiat a tiered system that completely ignored those metrics and instead focused on daily new cases and positivity rate.  Now that more counties are set to move out of the most restrictive tier, Newsom's changed the game again and has added an "equity requirement" counties must also meet before they can move down a tier.

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump Test Positive for Coronavirus.  President Donald Trump announced shortly after midnight [10/2/2020] that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for coronavirus.  The president said he and the First Lady will be going into their "quarantine and recovery process immediately."  The First Lady added in her own tweet that she and the president are "feeling good" and she has "postponed all upcoming engagements."

Chris Wallace rips Dr. Scott Atlas' credentials after he predicts Trump will make full and fast recovery.  Fox News anchor Chris Wallace has joined the Beltway chorus throwing shade on Dr. Scott Atlas, who has been advising President Trump on the federal government's pandemic response.  In an on-air discussion, colleague Sandra Smith teed it up by asking Wallace — who in the exchange described himself as a truth teller — for his opinion about the doctor's optimism for the president's possibly quick recovery from COVID.  Wallace is neither an expert on public health nor apparently debate moderation, the latter based his disastrous performance in emceeing the presidential debate on Tuesday night.  But lack of medical credentials isn't stopping Wallace from dismissing Atlas' claim that President Trump and wife Melania will make a rapid and complete recovery from COVID-19.

Michigan Supreme Court rules against Whitmer on emergency powers.  The Michigan Supreme Court issued a split decision late Friday that ruled against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a battle over her power to extend emergency declarations used to mandate COVID-19 restrictions over the last five months.  The court's opinion throws into question dozens of orders issued by Whitmer related to the coronavirus pandemic, appearing to void them.  At the same time, however, since the decision came as a response to questions submitted to the court by a federal judge — and not as part of a state case before it — it wasn't immediately clear what would happen next or when it would take effect.  Whitmer issued a statement denouncing the decision.

President Trump Skips Scheduled Conference Call, Pence Takes Place.  President Trump skipped the only function on his public schedule Friday [10/2/2020], with Vice President Mike Pence taking his place apparently at the last minute for a 12:15 p.m. conference call on the COVID-19 China coronavirus and the elderly.  There was no prior announcement that Pence would take Trump's place on the call. [...] Trump reportedly has a cough and a fever while First Lady Melania is reported to be asymptomatic.

Trump delivers video message saying he thinks he is 'doing very well,' after testing positive for coronavirus.  President Trump thanked Americans for their "tremendous support" and said he is "doing very well" in a pre-recorded video he tweeted out Friday as he was being flown by Marine One to Walter Reed Military Medical Center where he will be treated for mild symptoms after testing positive for the COVID-19.  The president's message was upbeat, though his tone was more subdued than usual in the video, which is believed to have been shot just before he was transferred to Walter Reed "out of an abundance of caution," according to the White House.

'Pray for him': Trump diagnosis roils Capitol.  Lawmakers in both parties struggled to digest the news Friday that President Trump has contracted coronavirus, a disease Democrats said he did not take seriously, but which may now threaten his life.  For Democrats, the news forced many to confront their own disdain for the president, and it raised new concerns about the lack of a formal coronavirus testing program within Capitol Campus.  Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, announced Friday that he, too, had tested positive for the virus, adding his name to dozens of staff and more than one dozen lawmakers who have contracted the disease.

Trump has mild symptoms, will remain on job: chief of staff.  President Donald Trump has mild symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19 but he was expected to remain on the job, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Friday [10/2/2020].  "The American people can rest assured that we have a president that is not only on the job, will remain on the job and I'm optimistic that he'll have a very quick and speedy recovery," Meadows told reporters at the White House.

Trump and first lady test positive for COVID-19.  President Donald Trump said early Friday [10/2/2020] that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, a stunning announcement that plunges the country deeper into uncertainty just a month before the presidential election.

With Some Restrictions, Trick-Or-Treating Will Be Allowed For Halloween In Chicago.  Kids in Chicago will be able to go trick-or-treating this Halloween, but there are restrictions for those getting candy and those giving candy.  And forget about house parties.  "You can only meet in groups of six or less.  And you have to stay moving.  We must simply avoid congregating in front of houses on streets.  Keep it moving folks," Lightfoot said.  "People passing out candy are also asked to try to maintain social distancing.  That means no parties and traditional haunted houses, simply cannot be allowed for Halloween in Chicago.  We really want to give our kids, something to look forward to."  Dr. Allison Arwady of the Chicago Department of Public Health said everyone who's participating must wear a mask, and not the costume kind.

The Editor says...
Why doesn't "the costume kind" of mask suffice?  What if a costume includes a bandana over one's face?  That's completely permissible for coronavirus purposes, even though it's also completely ineffective.  These ad hoc rules and revisions will continue to pop up at random until all the mask nonsense is ended — right after the presidential election.

Every leftist [is] a doctor now:  President Trump gets fact-free hectorings on mask use.  Is there anything more obnoxious than a health scold?  About 40% of Democrats are "happy" that President Trump has caught COVID, according to a MorningConsult poll.  Some have popped out of the woodwork and expressed just that, making their "I hope he dies" tweets the words they'll be remembered for.  But some are a little smarter than that bunch, recognizing how repellent such a response is to normal people.  Instead of death-wishing, they're concern-trolling.  They're the Karens, hectoring President Trump and Republicans in general that he didn't wear a mask and of course he should have worn a mask, they know for sure he caught COVID by not wearing a mask and (they would have us think) they simply care so much about Trump's health.  Democratic pols such as Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are particularly prominent in this, as is Julian Castro.

Coronavirus is the Democrats' all-purpose excuse for delaying, blocking, or restricting everything.
Democrat Chris Murphy: 'No Business Should Proceed' in Senate After Trump Coronavirus Diagnosis.  Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) wrote in a statement Friday that "no business should proceed" in the Senate, which would include the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, until the Senate understands the scope of the coronavirus spread in Washington, DC.  Murphy released a statement after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, as Breitbart News reported.

NY Times:  Up to 90% Who've Tested COVID-Positive Wrongly Diagnosed!  TRUTH: A Whole Lot Worse!! (Pt 2).  The [New York] Times looked at three sets of PCR testing data from Massachusetts, New York, and Nevada and discovered that, because of faulty procedures used at every single testing site in the country, "up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus" at all.  The experts they talked to were astonished that such cases are even getting classified as infections.  Yet, for some reason, the Times ran a weak-sauce headline completely downplaying their scandalous discovery: Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive.  Maybe It Shouldn't Be.  But those eye-popping stats exposing the pervasive fraud propping up our regime of mass COVID-19 testing aren't just absent from the headline.  Readers don't find out about the enormous percentage of faulty diagnoses the Times discovered until their article's half over!

NY Times:  Up to 90% Who've Tested COVID-Positive Wrongly Diagnosed!  TRUTH: A Whole Lot Worse! (Pt 3/3).  [Scroll down]  The New York Times goes on to say that the "C.D.C.'s own calculations suggest that it is extremely difficult to detect any live virus in a sample above a threshold of 33 cycles."  But, this is a deceptive way of stating what the CDC's data shows that significantly understates how using 40 or even 37 cycles is going to result in massive amounts of positive diagnoses that ought to be negative.  The CDC didn't just have "extreme difficulty" finding any live virus in samples whose cycle threshold was above 33.  They were straight-up unable to find any.  Moreover, they were frequently unable to find any live virus even in samples with lower cycle thresholds.  But the worst is yet to come.  Though the CDC replied to the Times by saying they were "examining the use of cycle threshold measures for policy decisions," the New York Times either didn't know or didn't want you to know that the CDC already has guidelines that recommend... wait for it... 40 amplification cycles.  Even though their own researchers were unable to find any live virus in samples with a cycling threshold greater than 33!

Could The COVID Vaccine Be Canceled Before The First Injection?  [Scroll down]  The vaccine companies, forced to enroll tens of thousands of live humans in their clinical trials, need to decide:  who will these volunteers be?  Will they be the elderly, most of whom are already ill with prior conditions, their immune systems already very weak — who could — as even public health agencies warn — keel over from any vaccine injection?  Of course not.  The volunteers will have to be healthy adults.  Yes.  But that presents a huge and fateful problem.  Remember, these volunteers, after they receive either the vaccine or the placebo, will be sent back to live their lives while everyone waits.  Waits to see who "catches COVID-19."  What sort of COVID-19 illness?  Very mild?  Quite serious?  The answer is obvious.  It can't be "quite serious."  That would mean pneumonia.  The vaccine companies could wait around for 10 years and still not record 150 cases of real pneumonia among these healthy volunteers.  No, the vaccine companies would wait for 150 mild cases of COVID-19.  Meaning, nothing more than a simple cough, or chills and fever, and a positive PCR test.  Can you see it yet?  The vaccine companies are in a box.  They're trapped.

Keywords: dictator, monarchy, tyrant.
October Surprise:  Michigan Governor Extends Her Executive Orders.  There has never been a person who has loved bypassing a State Legislature more than Governor Gretchen Whitmer.  I think she dreams of ways to bypass them and can't wait until the morning where she can excitedly run into her staffers with her crazy new idea.  On Tuesday [9/29/2020], Whitmer continued her odd balancing act of allowing the peasants to open stuff up while extending her overzealous control of the State and deciding that she and no one else should have a say in how the State is run. [...] Hopefully, the Michigan State Supreme Court will end this very soon.  They heard a case regarding the authority she is claiming she has in the Michigan Constitution to continuously do this on Sept 9th and a decision should be coming any day now.

New York City imposes $1,000 fine for people who don't wear masks in public.  New York City residents who refuse to wear a mask while in public will be subject to a fine of $1,000.  On Wednesday [9/30/2020], Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the new fine as the rate of positive COVID-19 tests in the city rose above 3% for the first time in months.  The Democrat said that the penalty is being put in place as a means to protect residents of the city from contracting the disease ahead of the flu season.  "We don't want to fine people, but if we have to, we will," de Blasio told reporters.  New York state health officials and police will be in charge of enforcing the rule, and de Blasio said that both will be instructed to offer a mask to a person without one before levying a fine against an individual.

Dallas salon owner jailed for defying lockdown orders wins spot in run-off for state senate seat.  Remember Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who reopened her business during the coronavirus shutdown?  She decided to turn her story into action and is running for a seat in the Texas State Senate.  Tuesday night [9/29/2020], she earned a spot in the run-off for that seat.  While everyone else was consumed with the presidential debate, a special election race was being held in the Dallas area.  Sen. Pat Fallon (R-Prosper) is running for Congress so his seat has been vacated.  The district is a solidly red district and stretches to the northwest around Dallas-Fort Worth.  With 100% of precincts reporting, she and state Rep. Drew Springer of Muenster ended in a dead heat.  The third-place finisher was the only Democrat running.

NWO Police State Ramps Up In NYC: "Mask Patrols" Will Fine People Who Don't Comply.  New York City is ramping up the New World Order police state.  The city now has "mask patrol" that will fine those who disobey the NWO order commands to mask up.  Apparently, 9 ZIP codes in New York City are seeing a spike in new COVID-19 cases.  Because of this, NYC mayor comrade Bill de Blasio says he will use the "Trace Corps" to punish anyone who won't comply with their own enslavement and wear a face mask.  De Blasio says this campaign to catch people and fine them if they don't wear a mask will be rolled out "aggressively."  "That will happen aggressively.  Clearly, our goal, of course, is to give everyone a free face mask and get them to wear it," de Blasio said.

COVID-19 Case Number Lies Continue.  A record number of COVID-19 cases were reported on September 24 in Alabama.  Just two labs reported that there were 2,451 positive test results, but those included old numbers.  The lies continue as those who seek ultimate power and control try to lie their way through this scamdemic.  At this point, no numbers from any mainstream media source or government agency should be trusted.  There's more than enough evidence to prove this is all manipulated in order to push fear on the public.  More People Died Of Suicide Last Week In Tennessee Than COVID-19.  The department of public health says that the "record-breaking" number of COVID-19 cases is due to the fact that two labs provided test data to the state after not providing any information to ADPH (Alabama Department of Public Health) the entire pandemic.  About 1,500 of the positive test results were reported from those labs.  Some of the results dated back to June.

Pennsylvania Democrats Busted Admitting Masks Are Just "Political Theater".  Pennsylvania State Representative Wendy Ullman and Governor Tom Wolf were caught joking on a hot mic about taking their masks off just before they spoke at a press conference. [...] Just as Wendy Ullman was preparing to speak behind the podium at a press conference north of Philadelphia on Tuesday, Tom Wolf can be heard off-camera to her left, saying:  "So Wendy, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take my mask off when I speak."  Ullman walks toward Wolf, off-camera, and says:  "I will as well, just, I'm waiting so that we can do a little political theater."  [Video clip]

Mask Madness.  Back in April, during the peak of The Virus, the New England Journal of Medicine — one of the most prestigious of medical journals and one within the pages of which Anthony Fauci and CDC head Robert Redfield themselves published this past spring — said this:  "We know that wearing a mask outside of health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.  Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures...."  It continued:  "The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. [...] ." [...] Masks, particularly of the kind that are in vogue among the public, are theater.  For the elites that mandate their use, they are a means to augment their power and exert control over the masses.

No shutdown and no nationwide panic resulted from this:
The Pandemic On Biden's Watch Killed 13 Times As Many Children As COVID.  Imagine the reaction of the public to a new virus outbreak that targeted children, sending 10 times as many to hospitals, and killing 13 times as many as COVID-19.  Would you call the government's handling of this pandemic a success?  That is what happened in 2009 when the H1N1 — aka, the swine flu — pandemic swept across the land.  While the total number of deaths from the swine flu was much lower than COVID-19, its impact on children and younger adults was far more severe.

Mask Empire.  In a monologue on a recent episode of his top-rated show on the Fox News Channel, Tucker Carlson notes that within the last six or seven months, America has become a "different country."  Whether America has become a different country or current events have simply revealed what has always been, the bottom line is that 2020 has been [quite] a year.  And not for the better.  In this monologue of his, Tucker was referring primarily to the Virus Internment:  the transformation, under the pretext of waging "war" to prevent citizens from catching a cold virus, of America's states, cities, and homes by power-obsessed politicians into what essentially amounts to an internment camp.  There is no more ominous symbol of the present state of the union than that of... The Mask.

People Are Arrested For Not Wearing A Mask During OUTDOOR Prayer Service In Moscow Idaho.  Three people have been arrested after an Idaho church held a psalm-singing event without masks in a city hall parking lot in violation of a town's mask order.  Christ Church pastor and event organizer Ben Zornes told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News that Wednesday's event in the community of Moscow was aimed at criticizing what he called a "largely groundless" mask order.  It was issued by the city council in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.  [Video clip]

Denmark Nears Pre-COVID Normality:  No Masks Or Distancing In Schools, Just Common Sense.  One of the more diabolical aspects of the protracted COVID 'crisis' in countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, is the intellectually dishonest claim that Coronavirus in their countries is somehow different from the Coronavirus in other western countries.  It's like there are two parallel universes now.  While the Anglosphere continues to ramp-up its emergency 'pandemic' measures and mandatory mask and quarantine policies, their Scandinavian counterparts like Sweden, Norway or Denmark have already returned to life as normal; no masks on public transport (although Norway just introduced a new rule today advising masks on crowded carriages), no obsessive social distancing rules, no snap lockdowns, and certainly no draconian laws and threats of £10,000 fines made by government leaders, or holding the country hostage until a wonder vaccine arrives in the spring.  The contrast couldn't be more extreme.

I got locked out of Twitter for having the 'wrong' opinion on Covid.  I woke yesterday morning to find that I had been locked out of Twitter for "violating our rules against abuse and harassment".  I was dumbfounded.  Which of my recent tweets had been abusive or harassed anyone?  I glanced down the email to see something I had posted last week in response to yet another We're All Doomed! report on the BBC news.

Four graphs prove the utter failure of lockdowns and masks.  The data is now in.  Not only is the coronavirus nothing more than a very bad flu, harmless to the vast majority of the population, the bad policy imposed by almost all governments worldwide has done nothing to alleviate it, and in fact has probably helped kill people, from both the virus and their bad policy.  This conclusion is starkly illustrated in the following four graphs, all of which show the history of COVID-19 during the entire 2020 epidemic, now clearly ending.  All four graphs are updates of graphs I've referenced previously, but now they take us through the epidemic's present waning, and give us a better context of both the virus' flu-like nature and the terrible policies imposed by governments in their panic over it.

Mike Pence's Superb Coronavirus Response.  Ever since President Donald Trump tapped Vice-President Mike Pence to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force at the end of February, he has presided over more than 340 briefings including 35 governors' briefings, with over 156,000 state, local, and tribal participants.  He has discussed the federal government's strategy of deploying financial resources, supplies, and technical assistance.  He has coordinated the delivery of critical PPE, and helped ramp up testing for states, localities, and tribes.  He has stressed the importance of implementing best practices for slowing the spread of the virus, and has spoken at great length about the safety procedures and guidelines for reopening the country.  He has discussed strategies that will allow students to safely return to school.

Just 1,800 out of 110,000 occupied beds are taken up by Covid-19 patients.  Covid-19 patients are currently occupying fewer than 2 percent of all hospital beds in England, official data suggests.  The most NHS recent snapshot — released three weeks ago — shows just 478 out of 110,000 beds in use were by Covid-19 patients on September 3.  This has since risen to 1,883, according to Department of Health data.  Health chiefs have yet to update the total beds occupied figure since but it barely changed over the summer.

That's okay, the California tourism industry was already dead.
The Most Miserable Place On Earth:  Disney Firing 28,000 Workers.  In what may be the biggest mass layoff in recent history, after the market close Walt Disney unveiled its transformation to the most miserable place on earth, announcing that it would lay off 28,000 workers in its U.S. resort business, in the latest confirmation that the covid pandemic continues to devastate all tourism and communal experiences.  "As heartbreaking as it is to take this action, this is the only feasible option we have in light of the prolonged impact of Covid-19 on our business," Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of the parks division, said in a memo to workers.

Tragic kingdom:
Disney to lay off 28,000 employees as COVID-19 continues to hammer its theme parks.  The Walt Disney Company's Chairman of Parks, Experiences and Products, Josh D'Amaro, announced Tuesday evening that approximately 28,000 employees — known as "cast members" — will be laid off at its theme parks due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.  Citing "limited capacity due to physical distancing requirements" and the uncertainty of the duration of the pandemic D'Amaro said the company has made "the very difficult decision to begin the process of reducing our workforce."  As recently as Sept. 22, D'Amaro and Disney pleaded for help from the State of California.  In making the announcement D'Amaro noted the decision was "exacerbated" by the "State's unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen."

De Blasio Tweets He Will Keep New York Under COVID-Unism Forever.  "Two weeks to flatten curve."  Remember that?  It was several months ago now.  The deal elected officials struck with the American people was to trade lockdowns for hospital capacity.  The fear in the early days of the COVID pandemic was that hospital capacity would be overwhelmed if we didn't lock down, curb activity, and so forth.  So we got "two weeks to flatten the curve." [...] Well, Mayor Bill de Blasio has altered the deal.  ["]We've made great progress on COVID-19, but we're not done until we hit zero.["] [...] The likelihood that we ever get to zero cases is, well, zero.  Coronavirus is a virus.  Once virii hit human populations, they tend to come and go seasonally.  Despite all the promising news we've heard about vaccines lately, vaccines don't mean the virus cases zero out anytime soon, if ever.

The Church Has Spectacularly Failed the COVID Test, and the Faithful.  When logic is denied to us it will literally drive us insane.  Logic has long ago left the COVID discussion and the result is that people like my friend are breaking.  They've had enough.  But where do you turn when you've had enough of the status quo but every coping mechanism you've had in your life is now off-limits?  This is where the Church (the Body of Christ in general) has failed, at least here in California.

Media Gunning For Scott Atlas Because He Keeps Exposing Coronavirus Lies.  "Dr. Scott Atlas is arming Trump with misleading data" about COVID-19, Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Robert Redfield told a colleague Friday [9/25/2020], according to a Monday report by NBC News political reporter Monica Alba.  Within hours, numerous outlets ideologically allied with NBC amplified the coverage.  Here are some screenshots of the Google News results for the story just a short while later, but is Redfield's assertion correct?  The Federalist spoke to numerous epidemiologists to find out.

Dianne Feinstein Caught Not Wearing Mask At Private Airline Terminal.  The wearing a mask dogma does not live loudly in Diane Feinstein.  Like most liberals, California Senator Dianne Feinstein believes rules aren't for her — even the rules she wants to create[.]  Tucker Carlson exposed Dianne Feinstein's hypocrisy on Monday evening [9/28/2020].  Feinstein was photographed in an airport without a mask just months after she called for a nationwide mandatory mask policy for airport passengers. [...] I wonder if the pilot is carrying Senator Feinstein's bag and dog.  After all, she can no longer rely on her former driver/Chinese spy to carry her bag and dog, or to even remind her to wear a mask.

There's a game-changer out there that should end the Wuhan virus paranoia.  The 15-day lockdown that Americans agreed to in March to prepare hospitals for a possible influx of Wuhan virus patients has lasted for over half a year in some places.  It's disrupted businesses, education, and family life while harming people's mental and physical well-being.  On Monday, though, a game-changer hit the scene when President Trump announced an affordable rapid test for the Wuhan virus.  The new test can be self-administered and will produce a result in around 15 minutes.

Tucker Carlson Shows Dianne Feinstein Not Wearing Mask At Airport After She Wrote Letter Demanding 'Mandatory Mask Policy' At Airports.  Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired photos on Monday night that allegedly show Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) not wearing a mask while at an airport, which Carlson claims came after she wrote a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration demanding that "all airport and airline employees and passengers" wear masks.  Carlson began the segment by showing a news report from June in which a reporter states:  "More and more lawmakers are calling for nationwide rule on wearing face coverings.  Senator Dianne Feinstein has written to federal agencies asking for a mandatory mask policy both in the air and on public transit."

Trump administration will deploy 150 million new COVID-19 swabs for schools.  Tens of millions of new COVID-19 rapid tests will be made available for the nation's teachers and students as schools begin to reopen across the country, President Trump announced Monday [9/28/2020].  "The support my administration is providing will allow every state to, on a very regular basis, test every teacher who needs it," Trump said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.  In coming weeks, more than 150 million new swabs from Abbott Laboratories will be sent to vulnerable communities, nursing homes and state governments, he said.

The Editor says...
There are 56.4 million kids in public schools, so 150 million swabs should be plenty.

Teachers, walk away from unions that keep fighting against reopening schools.  More than a month into the new school year, it is already evident that in-person school instruction is not causing mass outbreaks of the coronavirus.  Researchers at Brown University have found extremely low levels of infection among students and teachers.  To be specific, the rate of suspected and confirmed student infections is just 0.21%. [...] Unfortunately, no one seems to have informed the union bosses about any of this.  The Little Rock Education Association is only the latest union to threaten or to encourage teachers to walk out of the classroom based on deliberately exaggerated and thoroughly unscientific fears about the coronavirus.

The corruption of science.  With summer 2020 finally in the rearview mirror, and after seven months of "two weeks to flatten the curve," I'm getting a little sick of "the science."  Not science, mind you, but theee science, the thing that leftists keep assuring us exists — a singular, canonical truth we all must obey.  Mind you, it sure seems like there's not a great deal of agreement about "the science" regarding COVID:  You don't need masks/You do need masks.  Hydroxychloroquine doesn't work/Hydroxychloroquine totally works.  Sunlight doesn't help/Sunlight helps.  COVID doesn't linger in the air/COVID totally lingers in the air/COVID doesn't linger after all.  Large crowds spread COVID/Large crowds don't spread COVID (if it's a BLM crowd).  Theee science is whatever today's CNN home page says it is.  If that happens to contradict yesterday's home page, well, that's your fault for having a memory.

A great deal of confusion and uncertainty': Trump coronavirus adviser infighting breaks into open.  White House Coronavirus Task Force advisers are openly disagreeing with each other, sending mixed messages about the pandemic.  Both Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in recent days, have criticized Dr. Scott Atlas, a conservative neuroradiologist from Stanford who has become the top adviser to President Trump on the coronavirus.  "Everything he says is false," Redfield said about Atlas during a phone call made in public on a commercial flight and overheard by NBC News.  Redfield's comment came after Atlas accused him of "misstating" the facts about the coronavirus.

Was the COVID-19 Test Meant to Detect a Virus?  [Scroll down]  You don't have to shout, "Stay safe!' to your neighbors.  We are safe.  We have an immune system that is a miracle like The Sistine Chapel.  It withstands toxic, microbial inundation on a grand scale at all times, while operating a super-highway of adaptive life-sustaining genetic information, on cellular bridges, emitting telegrams of vital evolutionary code, slandered as "viruses" or "retroviruses."  People die — yes.  But people don't die the way Bill Gates would have you believe, at the mercy of malicious, predatory pathogens, "lurking" on every surface, and especially other humans.  That's not "science." That's social engineering. [...] The people who have taken all your freedoms away in recent weeks, they're social engineers, politicians, globalist thought leaders, bankers, WHO fanatics, and the like.  Their army is composed of "mainstream media," which is now literally a round-the-clock perfect propaganda machine for the Gates-led Pandemic Reich.

CDC Admits There is No Proof COVID-19 is Airborne Virus and They Have Been Misleading the Public All Along.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has admitted that the organization has deceived the public throughout the entire coronavirus pandemic, backtracking on their claim that COVID-19 is an airborne virus.  "CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2," the CDC explained in a note published earlier this week.  "This was an error on the part of our agency and I apologize on behalf of the CDC," said John Brooks, chief medical officer for the CDC's COVID-19 Emergency Response, while on a call with medical professionals on Monday [9/21/2020].

New CDC Estimates:  Fatality Rate For COVID-19 Drops Again And May Surprise You.  What's are the real chances of dying if you are infected with COVID-19?  You'll probably be surprised how low they are according to new numbers from the Center for Disease Control.  We'll state those numbers simply for those of you who aren't crazy about math.  The CDC's new estimate, for the first time, is broken down by age groups.

It's a COVID Casedemic, not a Pandemic.  [Scroll down]  We later found out that deaths were over counted, with health authorities making no distinction between dying "with" or "from" COVID. George Floyd would be classified as a COVID death since he tested positive at autopsy, despite his true cause of death being a fentanyl overdose.  Gunshot deaths and alcohol poisonings were counted as Chinese virus deaths simply because of a positive test.  The CDC recently revealed that only 6 percent of COVID deaths were solely from the virus, without confounding comorbidities that may have contributed to but not necessarily caused death.  Now it is case counts, every positive test hysterically trumpeted by the media in doomsday fashion. [...] A flu virus that has been in this country for the better part of a year is ubiquitous with many individuals exposed at some point.  After exposure, the virus replicates, but not enough to cause any symptoms, much less serious illness.  Dead viral fragments may stick around deep within the nasal cavity for months, triggering a positive test, and what the media now describes as "a case".

Fauci backpedals on COVID immunity theory he previously touted.  In a testy exchange with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul at a Senate hearing last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci distanced himself from his earlier support of an encouraging COVID-19 immunity theory.  Fauci, who has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984 and has played a pivotal role in the federal response to the coronavirus, was appearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.  At the hearing Wednesday, Fauci at one point got into an argument with Paul, who argued in part that New York City had developed a degree of herd immunity sufficient to prevent another explosion of COVID-19 cases there.

Viral Loads In COVID-19 Infected Patients Drop, Along With Death Rate, Study Finds.  A new study has found signs that the severity of COVID-19 — and the viral loads those infected carry — may be fading.  Researchers at Wayne State University say that viral loads, which is the amount of the virus in a patient's system, continue to drop, which could explain why the death rate is falling.  "Dr. Said El Zein and his team analyzed viral loads of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, coming from patient nasal swabs over two months," Study Finds reported on Sunday [9/27/2020].  "From April 4 to June 5, a downward trend in the amount of virus detected in patients at Detroit Medical Center was discovered."

The Progressive Medusa.  We do not know fully yet the lasting effects upon city living from the virus, the quarantine, Zoom and Skype telecommuting, and urban violence.  Certainly, millions are questioning the wisdom of living in high-rises, predicating their existence on constant elevator use, and riding on crowded mass transit in this age of globalized viruses.  Add in filth, crime, high taxes for terrible services, and the chance to work at home — and home can become far, far away.

News media fearmongering continues:
Surviving the plague planet.  How long till the world returns to "normal" is unknown.  The BBC writes that "a vaccine would normally take years, if not decades, to develop.  Researchers hope to achieve the same amount of work in only a few months ... Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become widely available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the new virus ... That would be a huge scientific feat, and there are no guarantees it will work."

Andrew Cuomo has gone loco on crime and vaccines.  Gov. Cuomo was really losing it last week.  Strike one:  His absurd vow that New York will do its own testing on any COVID-19 vaccine the feds approve. [...] The gov named a committee of 20 to advise him on distributing any vaccine — but it's stacked with his donors and labor cronies.  And it's just nuts to say he's assembling a panel of experts tasked with "double-checking" any Trump-administration-approved vaccine for efficacy and safety.  Sorry:  The work on vaccines is all being done by professionals — some of whom would be sure to scream if politicians (insanely) tried to push a bad vaccine.

Stanford expert blasts COVID lockdown failures: 'We quarantined the healthy ... exposed the sick'.  Citizens and public authorities fixated on society-wide lockdowns as a key measure to combat COVID-19 have failed to account for the devastating effects those measures can have on society as a whole, a Stanford professor of medicine says.  Jay Bhattacharya, the director of Stanford's Program on Medical Outcomes as well as the director of the school's Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, said in an interview this week on the John Solomon Reports podcast that he found it "shocking" that, as countless countries earlier this year moved to shut down ahead of COVID-19, so many had forgotten to "think about both the cost and benefits" of such policies.  "Country after country made the same decision with a couple of exceptions," Bhattacharya said.  "And I think that was a major problem."

Massive Anti-Lockdown Protest In London Turns Violent When Police Come To Crush Speech.  London police clashed with demonstrators Saturday as they broke up a protest against COVID-19 restrictions in Trafalgar Square amid rising tensions over limits on everyday life as the government tries to stem a sharp rise in infections.  Police and protesters were injured when officers moved in after three hours of speeches in front of thousands of people who packed the iconic square in London, waving placards opposing mandatory vaccinations, face mask requirements and limits on civil liberties.  Police said they intervened because the demonstrators refused to comply with the very social distancing rules they were there to protest.  [Video clip]

Media's Wuhan Lies Lengthen, Deepen.  Make no mistake about it:  we have suffered an unprecedented loss of jobs and businesses, the shutdown of schools, entertainment, and hospitals; the mandating of masks and "social distancing"; and the like, not because of a global pandemic, but because of our foolish and unprecedented reaction to a global pandemic.  In other words, much of what was "unprecedented" in the fight against the Wuhan virus was simply unnecessary. [...] Probably the most repeated lie in this evil episode is the near-endless reporting on Wuhan virus "case counts."  As has been noted multiple times, these reports are filled with numerous deceptions. [...] The vast majority of those 300,000 cases in Georgia saw the person infected require no hospitalization and completely recover, or, more often than not, have no symptoms whatsoever.

Florida Governor Reopens State — Removes Restrictions on Restaurants, Nullifies All Local Mask Ordinances, Blocks Fines and Penalties.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has moved the entire state into phase three of the COVID-19 recovery plan.  All restrictions against restaurants and businesses are removed by executive order and all local mask ordinances are nullified by the same order.

'We do not consent': London rally against Covid-19 measures draws huge crowds.  Demonstrators descended on London for the second straight weekend to air their disapproval of the coronavirus guidelines, with police warning they will break up the rally if protesters don't follow social distancing rules.  Several thousand protesters assembled at Trafalgar Square on Saturday, with some eyewitnesses claiming that attendance was even higher than the turnout at a similar event held last weekend.

From a Small Town in Idaho, COVID's 'New Normal'.  We have been in this lockdown for over 6 months.  By any rational standard, by now, we ought to be able to go back to normal.  When I talked to our governor's office here in Idaho, I was informed that it was now up to our local health district.  When I talked to our local health official to find out what was the standard they would use before we could go back to normal I was informed it would probably be some time next spring.  Thus, we are told that we will just have to get used to a New Normal.  Things will never be normal again. [...] People die of the flu every year.  So what is different about this year?  Many medical professionals insist that this year is no different than any other flu year and there was no reason for an emergency lockdown.  The end result of all this activity is to give the government more power.  These orders by our governors have violated the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.  Some people saw that right away, but governors were not listening.  What the CDC said was gospel permitting no other suggestions.  Some states did not require lockdown of businesses and they have had no more cases of virus than those that did.  In one state, the governor was recently sued and the court set aside those decrees, saying they were unconstitutional.

Democrats Blame a Church 120 Miles Away for Corona Deaths in a Nursing Home Owned by a Democrat Mayor.  There's over 200 miles of distance between the Tri Town Baptist Church in East Millinocket, a small Maine town with a population of under 2,000, and York County, with over 200,000 people.  But when prison inmates at the York County Jail began testing positive for coronavirus, Democrat officials chose to blame the Tri Town Baptist Church for the sins of York County Jail.  The story is a familiar one because the media loves to tell it so often.  A wedding was held at the small Tri Town Baptist Church which with its white wooden steeple and whitewashed clapboard walls looks as if it had been plucked from a picture postcard.  Democrat officials claimed that the wedding then spread the virus across Maine and to the jail.  The inmate's death can't be confirmed as due to the virus until another 50 years have gone by because of HIPAA privacy restrictions, but that hasn't stopped the media from doing it anyway.

The sickening effects of the news cycle.  [Scroll down]  Now for some positive news from the pandemic you may have missed.  "We have very much replicated what's been seen worldwide, which is over time the mortality in ICUs have decreased," Dr. Craig Coopersmith, director of the Emory Critical Care Center, recently explained on NPR.  "We should applaud and appreciate the medical community for being able to find rapid ways to improve the outcome of this life-threatening illness," Dr. George Lemp, an epidemiologist and former director of the HIV/AIDS Research Program at UC's Office of the President, tells The Mercury News.  "New data reveals that while patients are still being rushed to intensive care units, a greater proportion are coming out alive.  Since the pandemic began, the cumulative death rate for Californians with COVID-19 has fallen by more than half in the past three months," writes the Mercury News' Lisa Krieger.  Coopersmith, who oversees ICUs at five hospitals in the Emory system, notes that mortality in ICUs has decreased in the range of 20% to 50%.

Harris makes misleading statement on COVID-19 business loans while campaigning in Michigan.  Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris made a misleading claim while campaigning in Michigan on Tuesday regarding the supposed disparities in COVID-19 relief funds to Black restaurant owners, according to a report.  While visiting Flint and Michigan, Harris claimed that out of the hundreds of restaurants in Michigan that received relief funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, only one was Black-owned, The Detroit News reported.

Is The Wuhan Coronavirus Really A Chinese Bioweapon?  After nearly one year, questions remain unanswered about whether the Chinese coronavirus was natural or man-made and whether its release into the world was accidental or malicious.  Chinese scientist Li-Meng Yan has stirred up media attention with her claim that the coronavirus connected with COVID-19 is the result of Chinese bioengineering.  She's been saying this for a while, but the renewed attention follows a paper she and her coauthors uploaded to a public research repository.  Tucker Carlson recently interviewed her on his popular Fox News show, where she went so far as to claim that Chinese authorities not only created the bug but released it on the world intentionally.  These claims, which we should treat separately, have been in the air for months.

Victoria's health minister resigns after being accused of botching Covid-19 quarantine program.  Jenny Mikakos, the health minister of Victoria, Australia, has stepped down after the state's premier claimed she mismanaged a hotel quarantine scheme.  Victoria has seen nearly five months of strict Covid-19 measures.  Her resignation comes a day after Premier Daniel Andrews told an inquiry that he "regarded her accountable" for the decision to use private security guards, instead of police or military personnel, at hotels that had been converted into quarantine centers.

Governor DeSantis reopens Florida restaurants and bars at full capacity and ends fines for not wearing a face mask.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday lifted all COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, including restaurants and bars, and dropped penalties for not wearing a face mask — sparking a protest among upset residents.  DeSantis made the announcements during a noon press conference in St. Petersburg, and quickly drew ire from residents who protested the new protocols.  He argued that threat of the coronavirus pandemic — which has surpassed seven million cases and 203,000 deaths — had eased sufficiently to allow the state to enter Phase 3 of its reopening.

Biden's Authoritarian America.  [Scroll down]  For example, Biden said he would shut down the country if necessary in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, even though the direct oversight of public health is not a power delegated to the president or the federal government.  Only the states have the power, under the 10th Amendment, to determine what is in the best interest of public health and the police power to enforce it when necessary.

Trump's New C19 Advisor Cites Research Showing Widespread Immunity!  Calls Out CDC Head Redfield's False Testimony to Stunned Press.  Most of our readers probably already know that Trump appointed Dr. Scott Atlas of Stanford University's prestigious Hoover Institution to his COVID-19 task force last month. [...] Way back in April, Dr. Atlas tried to save America from the deadly quack medicine we were convinced to guzzle down like a junkie who's stumbled on a gallon jug of cough syrup in an op-ed titled:  ["]The Data Is in — Stop the Panic and End the Total Isolation.["]  He explained five facts that were already apparent a month after lockdowns started and some of which should have prevented anyone from ever even suggesting the heretofore unheard-of lunacy.
  •   Fact 1:  The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.
  •   Fact 2:  Protecting the older, at-risk population would have been sufficient to prevent hospital overcrowding, (which it turns out was never a danger anyway).
  •   Fact 3:  Total isolation policies, if effective, PREVENT vital herd immunity and, hence, only PROLONG the problem.
  •   Fact 4:  People are dying because medical care for other ailments was shut down due to hypothetical COVID-19 fatality projections (that were produced by a guy with a history of massively inflated projections and, predictably, turned out to be total garbage).
  •   Fact 5:  We have a clearly defined population at risk who could've been better protected by adopting targeted measures.

Democrats Are Making a U-Turn on Mail-In Voting.  Democrats used COVID-19 as a pretext to try and change the way America votes.  In fact, mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, and other various and sundry election law changes were part of the reason Democrats refused to debate a narrow COVID relief bill.  Because Republicans wouldn't agree to give up every election security feature we have, you and your family couldn't get your unemployment benefits extended, schools lost money, and small business owners were left without assistance.

Oregon's youngest COVID-19 victim did not actually have the virus, according to CDC test.  An Oregon family is searching for answers after new testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that their son, once presumed to be the youngest COVID-19 victim in the state, did not actually have the virus.  Matthew Irvin, 26, died suddenly in early July after falling severely ill just a few days prior.  At the time, state health officials said his death was likely the result of the coronavirus due simply to the fact that he displayed several of the symptoms.

Dogs Deployed at Helsinki Airport Can Detect COVID-19 With Almost 100% Accuracy.  Passengers alighting at Helsinki Airport in Finland starting from earlier this week will have a speedier — and much fuzzier — way of getting tested for COVID-19.  A team of dogs has been deployed to fill their snoots with eau d'arriving passenger to sniff out those infected with the virus behind the current global pandemic.

COVID-19 surveys halted in Minnesota amid racism, intimidation.  A door-to-door COVID-19 testing survey has been halted due to multiple incidents in greater Minnesota of residents intimidating and shouting racial and ethnic slurs at state and federal public health survey teams.  The CDC pulled its federal surveyors out of Minnesota this week following reports of verbal abuse and intimidation, including an incident in the Iowa border town of Eitzen, Minn., in which a survey team walking to a house was blocked by two cars and threatened by three men, including one who had a gun.  Frustration with the state's pandemic response "is totally understandable," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist, "but that is distinctly different than taking out frustration on another human being who is trying to help and is especially galling when there is a taint of racism.  There is no justification for this — the enemy is the virus and not the public health workers who are trying to help."

The Editor says...
The enemy not the virus, it is door-to-door tyranny.  Covid ain't the plague.  If there is a bona fide public health emergency, with honest statistics and rational reporting, you'll get a lot more cooperation.  But what you've got today is an overblown reaction to (essentially) the flu, and a never-ending series of power grabs by petty dictators.  Don't come knocking on my door looking for DNA samples of everybody in the house, using Covid-19 as your fig leaf.

President Trump Says New FDA Standards On COVID Vaccine Are Politically Motivated.  President Trump has said the health of the American people is his primary concern when considering new FDA guidelines on a vaccine.  On Wednesday, the President announced the White House may not approve tougher guidelines on the emergency use authorization of a coronavirus vaccine.  According to reports, the FDA was gearing up to announce the stricter standards ahead of the election.  As part of the new guidelines, manufacturers seeking authorization would have to follow trial participants for at least two months after a second vaccine shot.

Civilization Requires Collective Common Sense.  The World Health Organization initially swore that the virus was not transmissible by humans, did not warrant travel bans or mask-wearing, and was not a significant global threat.  The organization's Chinese patrons had given WHO an unscientific party line.  And its director then branded the propaganda with superficial scientific authority.  American experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal health agencies were often inconsistent on travel bans, testing, masks, quarantines and medical therapies, and intolerant of dissident medical research.  Authorities rarely could consistently explain to the public how the virus was spread; why children, who were rarely stricken, were kept from attending school; and whether quarantines were aimed at flattening the curve of infection, eliminating it altogether, or just waiting out the virus.  The elderly were rightly deemed the most vulnerable.  But then, inexplicably, they were often exposed to newly arriving infected patients in their long-term care facilities.

Senator Rand Paul Confronts Dr. Anthony Fauci For Months of Lies and Manipulative Statements.  Senator Rand Paul confronted Dr. Anthony Fauci today about his history of false claims, lies and manipulative statements surrounding the COVID-19 virus and direction for U.S. mitigation efforts.  It's about time someone called the baby ugly.  Anthony Fauci, a political ideologue and leftist advocate, was the primary government influence that has led to trillions in economic damage and impacted the lives of all Americans with false assertions and brutally political virus mitigation efforts.  [Video clip]

Predicted Mass Infections From Reopening Schools Fails to Materialize.  Last month, we were inundated with stories from teachers' unions, school administrators, and public health officials about the coming catastrophic outbreak of coronavirus in the schools.  It's still happening, with New York City schools ready to partially reopen and many other school districts allowing only virtual learning.  But experts tracking the pandemic have been surprised that the expected disaster of tens of thousands of kids getting sick hasn't happened — yet.  It still might get very bad as large school districts begin to reopen, but so far, the number of infections among K-12 students has been far less than public health officials feared.

Idaho Christians Arrested for Singing Hymns Maskless Outside City Hall in County with Zero Covid Deaths.  It seems Moscow, Idaho, is going the way of its Soviet namesake, arresting a group of unmasked Christians who had peaceably assembled outside the city hall to sing psalms and protest an extension of the city's masking order.  On Wednesday, Moscow's Christ Church, whose pastor is famed Christian theologian Douglas Wilson, announced that a "Psalm Sing" would be held outside city hall that afternoon. [...] On Tuesday, the city council extended the mandatory masking order, set to expire on October 6, until January, despite the fact there have been no deaths, or even hospitalizations, due to the COVID-19 virus in Latah County.

Mother Tased & Arrested for Not Wearing a Mask at Son's Middle School Football Game.  An Ohio mother who drove an hour and a half to watch her seventh-grade son play football was tased and arrested for reportedly refusing to wear a mask.  Did I mention the football game was played outside?  As reported by the Ohio Star, Alecia Kitts was rooting for her son's visiting team from the Marietta City School District when she was reportedly approached by a police officer for not wearing a mask.  In the video below, Kitts appears to be properly "social distancing" from other families in the stands.  The encounter gets physical as the police officer attempts to arrest Kitts, and she resists.  Kitts repeatedly tells the officer to "get off of me!" and at one point screams:  "You're not arresting me for nothing, I ain't doing nothing wrong!"  After a two-minute struggle, the officer tases Kitts.

Why Biden's Repeated Mask Mandate Flip Flops Matter.  Over the course of five weeks, Joe Biden has stated five different positions on a national mask-wearing mandate.  This is the guy who says he long ago worked out a comprehensive plan to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and who keeps promising steady leadership if elected president.  For those who haven't been able to keep up with Biden's shifting position on masks, here's a timeline. [...] So why does this kerfuffle over masks matter?  It matters because Biden has made the pandemic the single issue on which he wants voters to decide who should be president.  Yet he still can't articulate a position on one of the key containment policies.  And it matters because Biden and everyone around him keep chanting about his "steady, unifying, experienced leadership."  How does that square with his wobbliness on this relatively simple issue, and what is his experience worth if still can't understand the limits of presidential power?

The Moral Case for Reopening Schools — Without Masks.  If you're a public-minded student or teacher committed to reducing the death toll from Covid-19, what is the morally correct way to behave?  According to the epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, you should do just about the opposite of what's being preached by college presidents, teachers' unions, political leaders, and the scientific and media establishment.  Unless you're elderly or particularly vulnerable, you shouldn't be wearing a mask all day, or shaming others for going unmasked.  You should be careful not to endanger the vulnerable, but otherwise you should be exposing yourself to the virus in order to promote herd immunity.  Gupta, 55, wants to teach her classes at Oxford in person, without a mask, and she is appalled at her colleagues' reluctance to go back to the classroom.

Melbourne Police Surround & Arrest 2 Elderly Women Resting On Park Bench For 'COVID Violation'.  "Victoria Police have lost all commonsense," one Australian eyewitness quipped upon posting a video showing police telling a 38-week pregnant woman she can't sit down due to coronavirus and social distancing enforcement measures.  It's one of many recent viral videos to come out of Australia's southeast state of Victoria, home to Melbourne, showing absurd "crackdowns" by police for alleged coronavirus policy violators.  "As a pregnant woman I can't sit in the park?" the incredulous woman whose story was covered widely in local media asked the couple of officers who harassed her.  Apparently not... because COVID.  "You can only be out of your house for one of four reasons," the officer responded.  "One of those would be exercise.  Sitting in a park is not one of the four reasons."

Nancy Pelosi and the Party of 'Science, Science, Science'.  It should come as no surprise that "ardent Catholic" Nancy Pelosi is once again at odds with a bishop.  This time, the disagreement is with her local shepherd, archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Joseph Cordileone.  The archbishop has started to complain publicly at the way California's lockdown rules are specifically aimed at keeping houses of worship shuttered, and he wants his churches re-opened.  Pelosi, on the basis of no scientific evidence at all, says that because it's not yet "scientifically safe" for people to attend Mass in person, it will be "jeopardizing people's health" to follow Archbishop Cordileone's rash counsel.  "With all due respect to my archbishop," Pelosi says, "I think we should follow science on this."  But the archbishop hasn't got any problem with science.  He just wants an answer to one parishioner's question:  "I can spend three hours indoors in Nordstrom, why can't I go to Mass indoors?"

Some Coronavirus Facts Democrats And The Media Want To Keep Buried.  For those who feel as if the coronavirus crisis is never going away, we offer some optimism.  Get it here, because lockdown Democrats and their pandemic-cheerleading media allies want to keep the pessimism running high.  On two separate occasions in recent weeks, we've presented data that indicate the crisis is winding down.  No, this doesn't mean that infections and deaths will drop to zero.  The virus isn't going away.  What it does mean is that the virus isn't the threat it was when deaths spiked in the middle of April.  This is primarily based on deaths in excess of the expected numbers of fatalities.  The Centers for Disease Control chart [sample at left] shows that total deaths, the blue bars, have fallen below the threshold for excess deaths.  Stanford biophysics professor and 2013 winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry Michael Levitt called it "a huge milestone."

Store operators outraged at Subway's COVID-19 demands.  After getting kudos for its early response to the coronavirus, Subway Restaurants is now being blasted by store operators for demanding that they return to business as usual despite still-sagging sales in the midst of the pandemic.  Subway this month told its roughly 23,000 US restaurants to resume operating 84 hours a week, or an average of 12 hours a day, as they did before the pandemic, sources said.  It has also demanded franchisees begin repaying royalties fees that the company graciously deferred in the early days of the health crisis after it shuttered the restaurant industry.  The demands, franchisees say, come as Subway sales continue to lag — leaving store operators unnecessarily exposed to both the coronavirus and added expenses, including higher payroll costs.

CDC Says It Mistakenly Posted Guidance Saying Virus Spreads Via Air, Travels Beyond 6 Feet.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week it erroneously published new guidance acknowledging that the coronavirus spreads through tiny particles that can linger in the air and travel beyond six feet.  CDC officials have been saying for months that the virus primarily spreads between people in close contact (within about 6 feet) via large droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks that end up in the mouths or noses of people nearby.

NFL teams, 3 coaches fined over $1 million over masks.  The NFL has fined teams and head coaches over $1 million over their failure to wear protective face masks during games on Sunday [9/20/2020].  Following a memo last week with a strong reminder about wearing face coverings during games, three head coaches and teams were hit with hefty fines totaling $1.05 million, sending a clear message about how seriously the coronavirus guidelines are being taken by the league, CBS Sports reported.

The Editor says...
[#1] Wearing a mask while playing football is like trying to win a NASCAR race with a restrictor plate in the carburetor.  [#2] Does anyone at the NFL think the players are at risk from virus exposure during a football game, and that such a risk is greater than the risk of concussions, broken bones, and torn ligaments?

Trump Blasts China On Coronavirus Pandemic In United Nations Speech.  President Donald Trump on Tuesday ripped China and the World Health Organization (WHO) for mishandling the virus that led to a pandemic.  In recorded remarks to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump blamed China for the coronavirus that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans and almost 1 million worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering.  "As we pursue this bright future, we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world:  China," Trump said in the speech, filmed Monday [9/21/2020] in Washington, D.C.  "The Chinese government and the World Health Organization, which is virtually controlled by China, falsely declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.  Later they falsely said people without symptoms would not spread the disease," Trump said.  "The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions."

Man Is Dragged Out Of School Board Meeting By Police For Refusing To Wear A Mask.  A defiant anti-masker was dragged out of a South Dakota school board meeting by police for refusing to wear a face covering, according to footage shared on social media.  The man, identified as Reed Bender, was asked repeatedly to wear a mask at the Mitchell Board of Education meeting Monday [9/21/2020] before cops were called to the scene, local newspaper the Mitchell Republic reported.  [Video clip]

FDA Nears Approval of Injectable Biochip Implants for COVID Detection, Linked to Computers.  The Department of Defense, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have partnered with a Silicon Valley company, Profusa, to implement a technology which could control our minds and bodies.  What may seem like science fiction, is in fact happening in real-time.  A permanent chip made of an advanced material called hydrogel irreversibly ties humans to the Internet "cloud." The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, provides feedback to a database on changes in body chemistry and other biometrics.  The company says technology will be used to detect COVID in the general population, before symptoms show.  The latest revised CDC overall survival rate for the COVID virus is 99.8%, versus 99.9% for the common flu.  Nevertheless, nearly 150 days after governments proclaimed that 15 days of "lockdowns" and social distancing would be necessary to "flatten the curve" so that hospitals would not be overwhelmed, US governors still exert emergency powers based on the announcement of "new cases."

More about RFID technology and its impact on privacy and freedom.

Coronavirus cases and deaths continue to decline, but officials vow to continue restrictions.  Numerous high-ranking public authorities throughout the United States have pledged to continue enforcing COVID-19 restrictions — including social distancing rules and mask mandates — even as cases of and deaths attributed to the virus continue a steady two-month decline throughout the country.  Those officials have signaled that the restrictions will not be lifted unless and until an effective vaccine is developed, approved, distributed throughout the country and utilized by enough of the population to create functional herd immunity.

The Editor says...
"Officials" without names think of us as a herd.

SF archbishop asks why people can shop at Nordstrom, but not go to church inside.  The Catholic archbishop of San Francisco led a protest on Sunday criticizing the city's restrictions on reopening churches during the coronavirus pandemic.  Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone delivered an impassioned sermon at an outdoor mass at the Cathedral of St.  Mary of the Assumption after a march through the streets, calling for the right to worship indoors.  Cordileone condemned city leaders for allowing retail to operate indoors before houses of worship.

Doctors [are] studying why obesity may be tied to serious COVID-19.  Excess weight increases the chances of developing a number of health problems, including heart disease and diabetes.  And those are among the conditions that can make COVID-19 patients more likely to get very sick.  But there's some evidence that obesity itself can increase the likelihood of serious complications from a coronavirus infection.

Precaution Can Kill — During a Pandemic and Beyond.  Regulation frequently can cause more harm, in the long run, than the risks from which regulations are supposed to protect us.  Consider, for example, "chemicals-of-concern lists."  Such reports from government bureaucrats, flag chemicals that might — might — be risky, and, as a result, tend to scare firms away from developing or creatively deploying substances that likely benefit millions.  Canadians, however, stand to gain by their government's taking of a different approach.  Although Canada maintains a list of potentially dangerous chemicals, in evaluating those substances, lawmakers in Ottawa have subjected the precautionary principle to some welcome, tough scrutiny, clearing a number of chemicals as not harmful — unlike regulators in Europe and the U.S., which continue to be hostages to the idea.

Unwarranted Fear Has Won The Covid Narrative, At An Enormous Cost to the Country.  Today we live in a nation where nearly half of all U.S. citizens deeply believe they will get the Covid virus and die.  This fear is pervasive, and it is false.  Data on who is infected, who becomes ill, and who has died from Covid isn't subject to many questions; it is objective, available and knowable data.  So how can there be such a wide gap between data and fear?  It has been half a century since existential events pierced the psyche of the American mind with such abject fear.  The possibility of a global atomic attack sent children to protective bunkers in the basements of schools.  Polio outbreaks terrorized minds with the profound angst, "My entire family can be paralyzed, especially our children."  A century ago, the Spanish Flu was a virus everyone feared with good reason as it was both indiscriminate and lethal.  Covid19 has now earned its stripes as a fear-inducing menace, and yet the data across America is quite different from other historical threats to public health and safety.

From the beginning, the COVID pandemic has been shrouded in lies.  For months, as coronavirus brought the American way of life to a halt, our scientific establishment ignored the most basic question of all:  Where did this illness come from?  [Video clip]

More Coronavirus Lawsuits Have Been Filed Against Andrew Cuomo Than Any Other U.S. Governor, Complaint Tracker Shows.  Thousands of lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as citizens, business owners, government officials and more contested the legality of measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus.  Government officials quickly became a popular magnet for legal challenges as local and state leaders began implementing stay-at-home orders, instituted mask mandates, restricted businesses' indoor capacities and more during the spring.

Pseudonymous commentator who called pandemic a 'massive fraud' revealed to work for Fauci.  A harsh critic of the federal government's response to the coronavirus has been revealed to work as a public affairs specialist for the government health agency headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.  William Crews, who has been editing and writing for the conservative site RedState under the pseudonym "streiff," has railed against his colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, accusing them of being part of an anti-Trump conspiracy.  He has also called Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert and the director of the NIAID, "attention-grubbing" and "media-whoring," the Daily Beast reported on Monday [9/21/2020].

Government's COVID Response Makes Us All Subjects in a Cruel Experiment.  A story in the Washington Post headlined "Pandemic isolation has killed thousands of Alzheimer's patients while families watch from afar" provides a stark and disturbing example.  The story tells the tale of those suffering from irrecoverable dementia.  Since the pandemic broke, over 130,000 of these victims have died of their dementia.  They have died all alone.  They have essentially been put in glass-windowed cages where their relatives can view them, like some wild beast.  But to enter the room and hug them or kiss them or even to just touch them is forbidden.  A wife may not kiss her husband.  A son or daughter may not hug his mother.  Its forbidden.  By whom?  Why?  Are we that worried a patient suffering severe and fatal dementia might catch COVID?  Touch is the one language still understood by someone with dementia on that scale.  Such pure cruelty.  Are we so worried about COVID that we deny this most basic human kindness?  Men and women in white coats from prestigious institutions give these cruel and inhumane orders.  But we are the ones who follow them.

GOP Report Claims China Tried To Cover Up Scope Of COVID-19, Could Have Prevented Pandemic.  A new Congressional report claims China could have prevented a vast majority of coronavirus cases before the end of February if officials followed international health guidelines after the first outbreak occurred in Wuhan.  The report, released Monday [9/21/2020] and authored by Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, found that China initially covered up the spread of SARS-CoV-2 — which causes COVID-19 — and that the World Health Organization (WHO) was complicit because it "parroted" Chinese propaganda.

Why mass PCR testing of the healthy and asymptomatic is currently counter-productive.  The CDC has updated their testing guidance to say the asymptomatic "do not need a test," a change that has, according to the New York Times, "prompted confusion and alarm from experts." [...] In a review of data from three labs, the New York Times found that "up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus," meaning that only about 10% of people who test positive may actually need to isolate and submit to contact tracing.

E-MASK-ulation: How we have been lied to so dramatically about masks.  If you are looking for the scientific rationale behind universal mask-wearing, you certainly won't find it now that the issue has become as political as guns, abortion, and taxes.  We are now at a point where Canada's chief public health officer is calling on people to wear masks when engaging in sexual activities and 19-month-old babies are being forced to wear them on airplanes.  There is no rational thought in a political cult.  But what did the governmental and scientific literature say on the issue before it became political?  On April 3, already several weeks into the unprecedented lockdown over coronavirus, but before the big media push for universal masking, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued guidance for respiratory protection for workers exposed to people with the virus.  It stated clearly what governments had said all along about other forms of airborne contamination, such as smoke inhalation — [...]

CDC removes guidelines saying COVID-19 can travel beyond six feet.  The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pulled its updated guidance that the coronavirus is airborne and can travel distances beyond 6 feet — saying a draft version was posted in error on its website.  "It is possible that COVID-19 may spread through the droplets and airborne particles that are formed when a person who has COVID-19 coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes," the CDC said in an update posted Friday [9/18/2020].  The CDC had said for months that the disease is mainly transmitted between people in close proximity through large droplets.  But after adding last week that tiny particles known as aerosols could transmit the virus, the agency restored its earlier guidelines about how the deadly pathogen is spread, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Editor says...
[#1] The CDC's version of what's safe and what's not safe is constantly changing.  [#2] Unless you're a surgeon, there will always be viruses in the air wherever you go.  That's what your immune system is for.  If you're already sick, you're at greater risk from whatever new germs you encounter.  That's nothing new.

The Brave New World of Coronavirus Safetyism.  We have entered the seventh month of coronavirus panic, with large parts of America still partly or wholly shut down.  What began as a 15-day expedient designed to "flatten the curve," has gradually become the norm in American life.  The goalposts have continued to shift.  First, the focus was on hospital overcrowding; then it moved to overall deaths; then it moved to number of positive cases; now it seems to be shifting to the availability of a vaccine.  The real endgame appears to be the November election. [...] Some day, however, the pandemic will be behind us.  When we look back, how will our unprecedented response to this virus be remembered?  Will it be remembered as an authoritarian and financial nightmare, something to learn from and to never again be repeated?  Or will it be viewed as the model response and a template for the future?  Dr. Anthony Fauci has left little doubt which side he's on. [...] As journalist Jordan Schachtel noted, Fauci seems to believe that we are living in a "permanent pandemic era," which is the fault of human progress, and one that requires immense action to combat.  Simply put, Schachtel said, "they are now blatantly attempting to leverage the pandemic to permanently change the way we live."

Will the Lockdowns Outlast the Coronavirus?  There is a popularly repeated regret that COVID-19 resulted in the shuttering of so many small businesses and in the loss by so many of jobs.  This rumor is false.  Coronavirus was not the disease that did such lasting damage to the economy of the United States; tyranny was.  Tyranny is a virus that once it develops in the body politic always spreads and infects all the members until the body is left lifeless or until the cure is deemed more traumatic than the disease itself.  After the arrival of the coronavirus, state legislators and governors across the union began issuing statutes and orders mandating that residents remain "quarantined" inside their homes and that businesses close up shop until the healthcare community could catch up to the predicted press of victims of the virus.  This was the so-called "flattening of the curve."  The curve was flattened, but the trajectory of tyranny was ever upward.

Buried News Reports.  [Scroll down]  On August 26, 2020, the Center for Health Statistics, a federal agency connected to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), issued an update on the number of deaths due to COVID-19 as of that date.  It stated matter of factly that the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 alone was only 6 percent of the 160,000 deaths reportedly caused by the disease since its outbreak early in 2020.  In other words, most of the deaths attributed to the Coronavirus by the CDC resulted from people dying with COVID-19, not because of COVID-19.  These were far and away mostly older people who had separate health problems such as pneumonia, diabetes, heart condition, obesity, and more.  It cannot be stated too often — or too loudly — that COVID-19 has not been the major cause of the 160,000 deaths reported then, or a larger number reported later.  Yet the American people are being told repeatedly that all of these deaths are from the coronavirus — which is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.  In numerous previous years, many Americans died during flu season without draconian mandates issued by government.  All of this means that the mandated lockdown destroying many small businesses, and the so-called social distancing, quarantines, and mask wearing have converted truly free people into obedient servants of government.  All of this has been unnecessary from the outset of worry about COVID-19.  They have been necessary, however, at gaining control of our nation's economy and its people.

It's looking like Sweden's herd immunity strategy worked.  In the global battle against the pandemic, few countries drew as much scrutiny and frequent criticism as Sweden during the early days.  While the United States and most of Europe shut down their economies and put everyone on lockdown, the Swedes largely went about their business with no mandates for the wearing of masks or prohibitions on public gatherings.  Sweden initially experienced a surge of novel coronavirus cases as compared to its neighbors.  And then it felt like we stopped hearing about them quite so much.  So what's been going on?  As this report from the Associated Press indicates, what's been going on has largely been... not much, at least in terms of the virus.  Sweden only made slight modifications to its policies after the initial surge, but largely stuck with the herd immunity strategy.  And now, just as much of Europe is experiencing a second surge in cases, Sweden has some of the lowest numbers in all of Europe.

HHS Secy. Azar Touts Progress In Fight Against COVID-19.  Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recently announced the nation has made "incredible progress" in combating the coronavirus, thanks to the vigilance of the American people.  On Sunday, he emphasized how well the American people have responded to the President's call to action and taken individual responsibility during the pandemic.  He reported cases and hospitalizations are down by 50%, while deaths have declined by even greater rates.  Azar also highlighted the progress the administration has made to develop a vaccine.

The Covid-19 Election.  The 2020 election presents us with the mother of all kitchen table issues, the COVID-19 pandemic, because it directly affects everyone's lives.  How much danger do we have of getting the disease or even dying from it?  Does Dad or Mom — or both — still have a job?  If not, how can we pay our bills?  The virus is about 90 nanometers in size, which is about four millionths of an inch, and even the best N95 masks at most filter out particles that are about a thousand times larger.  Why wear masks that don't filter out the virus?  When will we be able to get a vaccine that can protect us against the virus?  There have been over 200,000 American deaths related to COVID-19.  Last week Biden said that all of those people would be alive if Trump had done his job.  That's utter nonsense.  Let's look closely at what Trump has actually done — which Biden criticizes so harshly — and what Biden promises he would do if he is elected.

2022: A Vaccination Passport.  The EU Keeps Quiet Over Suspicious Documents.  Surprise, surprise, the European Commission (EC) had a "Roadmap on Vaccination" ready months before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.  The Roadmap should lead to a "commission proposal for a common vaccination card / passport for EU citizens by 2022".  Last updated during the third quarter of 2019, the 10-page document was followed, on September 12th, by a "global vaccination summit" jointly hosted by the EC and the World Health Organization (WHO).

China's Pandemic Strategy.  There has been considerable controversy of late regarding expatriate Chinese virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan who claimed that China used a secretive virological process called gain-of-function to modify the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome and hide its origin prior to facilitating its release.  Yan, a virologist working on a vaccine study formerly at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, told Spicer & Co. that the process made "this not harmful virus into the human, highly contagious and dangerous virus" and that the Chinese government meant "to make it harmful."  Her appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight generated the predictable backlash.  Facebook suppressed the video, "presumably on behalf of the Chinese government," Carlson said.  Instagram followed suit and Twitter suspended Dr. Yan's account.  But Dr. Yan's credentials, Carlson points out, are impeccable.

Coronavirus:  WHO sets rules for testing African herbal remedies.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed rules for the testing of African herbal remedies to fight Covid-19.  Sound science would be the sole basis for safe and effective traditional therapies to be adopted, it said.  Any traditional remedies that are judged effective could be fast-tracked for large-scale manufacturing.  Madagascar's leader has been promoting an untested product he says can cure the disease despite the WHO warning against using untested remedies.  The WHO said the new rules were aimed at helping and empowering scientists in Africa to conduct proper clinical trials.

Big Orange Man Make Big Orange Sky.  [Scroll down]  Fail to wear a mask, and you will view the world through the bars of a cell.  Set your thermostat too low in a heat wave, and your assets will be frozen.  Still, the ultimate threat is that silence could come with the highest price tag of all.  If left unchallenged, the use of fear and stupidity for political gains could, over time, reverse the course of civilization.

What Has 2020 Taught Us?  [Scroll down]  I also hope we've learned to question "the experts."  Up until COVID we kowtowed obediently to anyone with any kind of fancy degree, anyone with an important-sounding government position, anyone wearing a lab coat.  I suspect that after nearly seven months of Fauci and Birx and their contradictory attempts to sterilize the world, that we take to questioning the so-called experts a little more carefully.  We should have learned that from the climate-change nonsense, but it evidently took a second dose for the lesson to sink in.  What is the lesson? — When an "expert" opinion contradicts common sense, common sense has more clout.  Let's not forget that. [...] I hope we've learned how precious freedom is — for a free people to be suddenly told to stay home, to always wear masks, to try sterilizing everything we touch should have been a major alarm bell to us all.  What?  We can't go to church?  We can't have weddings?  We can't have funerals?  We can't sing??  Government control of everything is not what any of us want to live with.

Biden-Harris Ticket All Over the Place on Nationwide Mask Mandate.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have struggled to deliver a consistent message on whether they would enforce a nationwide coronavirus mask mandate in office.  [Video clip]

Van Morrison Attacks 'Fascist Bullies' In Anti-Lockdown Protest Songs.  Irish singer-songwriter Morrison has released three new protest songs railing against the 'pseudoscience' surrounding Chinese Coronavirus and accusing the UK government of being 'fascist bullies disturbing our peace.' [...] Last month, Morrison called on his fellow musicians to protest against misguided coronavirus policy.  "I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this.  Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up."

Michigan infant with COVID died from serious birth defect.  The immediate cause of death for a 2-month-old the state's top medical doctor said died because of COVID-19 was a birth defect called gastroschisis, a condition in which a baby is born with intestines located outside the body, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner.  Necrotizing enterocolitis and COVID-19 also were listed as other conditions on Hudson King's death certificate, according to a medical examiner report obtained by The Detroit News.  Hudson was announced, but not named by the state, as Michigan's youngest victim of COVID-19 Wednesday, but no details were given as to the infant's gender, hometown or any underlying conditions.

'Until We Are Done With the Elections'.  Did the official in charge of public health in Los Angeles County give the political game away in early September about the true purpose of the lockdown in her area?  In a conference call with school administrators, obtained by Steve Gregory of the radio station KFI, Barbara Ferrer spoke these words:  "We don't realistically anticipate that we would be moving to either Tier 2 or to reopening K-12 schools at least until after the election, in early November... it seems a more realistic approach to this until we are done with the elections."  Ah.  And what does the timing of the November election have to do with the spread of a virus that has afflicted this country since January?  Ferrer insists on being called "doctor" — the honorific is all over every bio of her on the Internet, which, of course, she wrote — but she is not a medical doctor.  She has a "Ph.D. in social welfare," whatever that means, from Brandeis.  Which is to say, she is neither physician nor epidemiologist, but a left-wing political activist and an official appointed by a liberal Democrat.  What role do you think she was playing on that conference call?

Sit, stay, and roll over, America.  Sit!  Yes, sit still and await your next command.  Sit in front of your cell phone, tablet, or television and watch as we tell you one thing and then reverse it later.  Sit at your window and look out longingly at a world that is rightfully yours, America.  You may look, but you cannot go out and enjoy it.  Stay!  Stay in your homes till we tell you it's safe to go outside.  Stay away from your church.  Stay away from your fitness centers, restaurants, bars, parks, and other places of enjoyment.  Stay away from your jobs that we, the all-powerful politicians, have deemed unessential, even if you go broke and cannot pay your bills.  Force your puppies to stay at home, away from the schools that your taxes have paid for as we continue to pay the teachers who do not want to go near your children.  And most importantly, Roll Over, America, and surrender your constitutional rights!  Listen to us, your elected officials, whom you hired to manage the taxes we take from your pay to provide safety, roads, utilities, and schools.  We are not your employees; we are your Ruling Class.

Covert Covid Collaboration.  To all but the willfully blind, contends Angelo Codevilla, Fauci is a deep-state fraud.  The NIAID boss based his call for a lockdown on various "models," not hard data about the true mortality rate.  In the early going, Fauci said the pandemic was no threat, masks were no help, and so forth.  With new coronavirus cases now declining, Fauci tells anybody who will listen "Don't ever, ever underestimate the potential of the pandemic.  And don't try and look at the rosy side of things." [...] "Dr. Fauci said we're entering a 'pandemic age.'  What does that mean?" runs the headline on a September 2 Mic.com report by Joseph Lamour.  Fauci's prediction is based on a paper he authored with his NIAID colleague David Morens.  He believes that coronavirus might be only the first of a series of worldwide diseases and "the phenomenon is similar to the exponential growth of climate change." [...] As Tucker Carlson of Fox News has noticed, the pandemic and climate change share a curious connection.  "Both are useful pretexts for mass social control," Carlson explains.

Federal judge in Pittsburgh declares Wolf's key COVID-19 restrictions unconstitutional; Wolf plans appeal.  A U.S. District court judge in Pittsburgh has struck down the most significant portions of the Wolf administration's efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that state-imposed limits on outdoor gatherings, its stay at home order, and its business shutdown orders were unconstitutional.  Officials in four southwestern Pennsylvania counties:  Butler, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties, brought the action.  They were joined by businesses and Republican office-seekers.  "The Constitution cannot accept the concept of a 'new normal,' where the basic liberties of the people can be subordinated to open-ended emergency mitigation measures," U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV wrote in a 66-page opinion.  "Rather, the Constitution sets certain lines that may not be crossed even in an emergency."

Emails show Nashville mayor intentionally HID low numbers of COVID cases from bars, restaurants.  The Nashville Democratic mayor's office is in very hot water.  It's just been revealed they intentionally hid the very low numbers of new covid cases that came from bars and restaurants from the public and there are emails to prove it. [...] [Councilmember Steve] Glover notes that they raised taxes 34 percent and put thousands of people out of work based on bogus data.  He's furious and says 'that should be illegal'.  You know this is exactly what Trump has said is happening, that certain Democrat officials would keep businesses closed just because of the election.  And that appears to be what's happening here.  Why else would he and his office lie about these numbers?

The 'Whistleblower' Who Told Tucker Carlson COVID-19 Is a Chinese Bioweapon May Be Playing a Very Devious Game.  [Scroll down]  But, if what Dr. Yan is saying is true, the enthusiasm Chinese authorities showed for hyping the virus is tough to explain.  You'd think that they'd want to keep their bioweapon a secret, so it does as much damage as possible before it's detected.  Why would the CCP want to identify the bioweapon they'd unleashed and its Chinese origins months before it even struck its targets?  For that matter, why would they release it in China first and let it make its way to the West, instead of starting it off in one of the countries they were targeting? [...] But the problem here is that, even if you buy all the official stats, COVID-19 just isn't very harmful at all.  And it's not just a problem for Dr. Yan's first response to Carlson.  It's another reason on top of the fact that China tried their [best] to make us anticipate their bioweapon that shows COVID-19 can't be any such thing.

Email Records Show Democrat Nashville Mayor Hid COVID-19 Data To Intentionally Inflict Economic Hardship on Bars and Restaurants.  While the background story of data manipulation to intentionally inflict economic damage is stunning, the severity of the position of Nashville Democrat Mayor John Cooper is actually not a surprise.  It must be remembered this is the same Nashville Mayor who created COVID-19 internment camps to forcibly detain people in a quarantine camp at a fairground.  When one person jumped the fence to escape the police hunted him down and Nashville authorities charged him with "escaping a penal institution."  COVID-19 was criminalized.  Two months after the internment camp incident a non-domiciled Nashville citizen named Joseph Bryant (61) was arrested for refusing to wear a face mask outside.  His bail was set at $500 and he was incarcerated for not wearing a face mask.  So it doesn't come as a complete surprise to discover the same officials hid data showing low COVID-19 infection rates in order to inflict the maximum amount of economic pain on business owners.

The Editor says...
The mayor appears to be making the virus threat look worse than it is, in order to give himself more power.

When cameras at town hall are off Biden, he violates social distancing rules.  When it comes to wearing a face mask and obeying all the other rules of COVID-19 etiquette, the Left is more interested in selling the sizzle than the steak.  Ben Bowles noted a prime example yesterday in the person of CNN's Kaitlan Collins.  At a press briefing on Wednesday, Collins sardonically asked, "So have any medical experts told the president that masks aren't good or is he only citing non-medical experts like [sic] he did last night?" But the second the presser ended, Collins doffed her mask despite being well within the 6-foot limit of the nearest reporter.  But Collins is small potatoes when it comes to self-righteous lectures on mask wearing.  If you need an example of hypocrisy at the highest levels, seek no further than Joe Biden, [...]

Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper slammed for scrapping social distancing as the cameras pull away.  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and CNN host Anderson Cooper were criticized on social media Thursday night, after viewers noticed that the two threw social distancing out the window as the cameras pulled away after carefully staying far apart during the nominee's town hall.  Pundit Steve Krakauer shared footage of the incident, tweeting, "Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper are making a point of social distancing during the CNN Town Hall while on the stage.  But when they think they've gone to commercial break, they get so close to each other that Biden is whispering in Cooper's ear[.]"  [Video clip]

Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like Europe?  This Is Why.  The left has been touting the "success" of European countries in fighting the coronavirus and wondering, why can't the U.S. be more like the EU?  Probably because the Europeans' rates of infection are now worse than they were when the coronavirus first hit the continent in March.  For a while, there were many success stories in Europe and life was beginning to get back to some sense of normalcy.  But the coronavirus is now raging across the continent, and the WHO is warning of "alarming rates" of infection.

Modern fascist America:  No mask, no healthcare.  Today I learned unequivocally that in today's America, you will be denied healthcare if you do not wear a mask, even if you have legitimate medical issues for not doing so.  I have both asthma and heart issues, and according to numerous long-standing advisories by both doctors and government health agencies (until May of this year), wearing a mask when you have such conditions is a mistake. [...] Yet now doctors are demanding all patients, no matter their health, wear these feel-good useless muzzles, or they will deny you all treatment.  In late May I simply raised this issue with my long-standing GP, only to receive a letter from him the next day telling me he had cancelled me as a patient.  Just raising the issue with him was verboten.

The Party Of Panic.  The latest contrived issue to bedevil the left is President Trump's statement to Bob Woodward in March that he was downplaying the virus to avert panic.  Leftists have interpreted this attempt to avert panic as a "lie," even though they have never shown any ability to discern truth from lies in the past.  So this week, the leftists are betting their chips on the Woodward book.  Missing from this discussion is any description of the events of March 2020.  We all had good reason to want to stop the panic at that time.  As news of the virus began to dominate public discussion, the left did its best to create panic and oppose solutions each step of the way.

The CDC director has doubled down on masks, but is he wrong?  The CDC has had more prominence this year than usual, thanks to the Wuhan virus.  However, when America looked to it for help, it wasn't ready, whether with tests or useful advice.  Its lack of preparedness might have been because the CDC's been expending its time and your money training its people in Critical Race Theory (CRT) rather than disease control.  And while I'm currently agnostic about a vaccination's efficacy (I need a lot more information), I'm also suspicious when the CDC's director, Dr. Robert Redfield, announces that his surgical mask is what will save him and what will save all of us.  Aside from being inherently distrustful of the CDC thanks to its epic run of errors and unpreparedness, I'm also suspicious about the timing of Redfield's attack on Trump's plans for the vaccination.  The CDC just engaged in a small but significant power struggle with Trump.  Days after Trump exercised his constitutional executive authority to end CRT seminars in federal agencies, the CDC announced that it would proceed with a mandatory 13-week CRT seminar.  The administration has canceled the training, but it's clear that the CDC is at war with the administration.

Joe Biden says he would mandate masks on federal land.  Democratic nominee Joe Biden went after Attorney General Bill Barr for saying that coronavirus lockdown orders were the 'greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history' since slavery — and called Donald Trump's handling of Covid 'close to criminal.'  'Quite frankly they're sick,' Biden remarked of Barr's comments at a Thursday night [9/178/2020] CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper, held just outside his hometown of Scranton, PA.  'I never, ever thought I would see such a thoroughly, totally irresponsible administration.'

Biden says if Trump acted sooner on coronavirus 'all the people would still be alive'.  Joe Biden indicated during a CNN town hall Thursday that President Trump is responsible for every single coronavirus death.  "If the president had done his job... had done his job from the beginning, all the people would still be alive," the Democratic presidential nominee told the audience in Pennsylvania.  "All the people — I'm not making this up.  Just look at the data.  Look at the data."  Critics on social media were quick to jump on Biden for his comments.

Biden Claims Trump Is Responsible For 'All The People' Who Died From Coronavirus: 'I'm Not Making This Up'.  Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden claimed without evidence on Thursday night that President Donald Trump was responsible for every single person who has died from the coronavirus, which originated in China.  "If the president had done his job, had done his job from the beginning, all the people would still be alive.  All the people — I'm not making this up.  Just look at the data.  Look at the data," Biden stated.  One study suggested that a large number of people may not have died if certain measures had been implemented weeks earlier, but the study in no way stated that earlier action would have saved "all the people."  It's worth noting that Biden held eight rallies in March while Trump only held one.

William Barr Speaks Truth to (Illegitimate) Power.  The attorney general, bucking the behavior of attorneys generally, displays all the emotion of a mortician, approaches an audience with the calm detachment of a psychiatrist, and speaks in the reading-room volume of a librarian.  His bearing rarely proves contagious.  "The person in the white coat is not the grand seer who can come up with the right decision for society.  A free people makes its decision through its elected representatives," Barr noted in a speech Wednesday [9/16/2020].  "Putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest," Barr explained.  "Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history."  He continued, "Most of the governors ... treat free citizens as babies that can't take responsibility for themselves and others."

Eyes Are Rolling After 'Journalist' Jon Karl Equates Covering Trump Rallies to Taking Family Trip to Fallujah.  Every once in a while, the masks completely slip off and supposedly objective journalists accidentally reveal in no uncertain terms what their political colors to their readers and viewers.  Such was the case earlier this week when former White House Correspondents' Association president and ABC News White House correspondent Jon Karl talked to National Journal, which did a story on how "the White House press corps finally drew the line" Sunday on covering President Trump's indoor campaign rallies, which they apparently find hazardous to their health in the age of the Wuhan coronavirus.

The Editor says...
The left-wing news media wants everyone in America to live in constant fear of the coronavirus (and the rioters, and the Russians, and 5G telephone service, and earthquakes, and hurricanes).  They want Americans to believe that it's dangerous to walk into a crowd without a face mask.  I'm not buying it.  It wasn't unsafe a year ago, and it's not unsafe today.  From where I'm sitting, it appears that the coronavirus crisis, if there really was one, is over now.  As soon as the presidential election is over, the news media will forget all about it, because America can go back to (the old) normal at any moment — just as soon as somebody sends out the "all clear" decree.

HCQ was found beneficial:  Govt.  Limited use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for treatment of Covid-19 patients was allowed as it has proved to be clinically beneficial in small single centre studies, the Centre told Parliament on Tuesday [9/15/2020], reports Mohua Chatterjee.  Junior health minister Ashwini Choubey was replying to a question on whether the government had accurate data regarding efficacy of HCQ.  The minister said, "The government has re-purposed the drug HCQ for treatment of mild (but high-risk cases) and for moderate cases.  However, the drug is not recommended for severe cases and those with pre-existing cardiac disease...."

New York City again delays in-person learning at public schools.  With only four days' notice, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday [9/17/2020] delayed in-person learning at public schools for a second time for most students as the nation's largest system struggles to find enough staff willing to teach in classrooms during the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 emails from Nashville mayor's office show disturbing revelation.  The coronavirus cases on lower Broadway may have been so low that the mayor's office and the Metro Health Department decided to keep it secret.  Emails between the mayor's senior advisor and the health department reveal only a partial picture.  But what they reveal is disturbing.  The discussion involves the low number of coronavirus cases emerging from bars and restaurants and how to handle that.  And most disturbingly, how to keep it from the public. [...] Again, FOX 17 News wasn't told by the mayor's office this wasn't true.  We were told to file a freedom of information act request.  Which allows us now to ask the question, why are you keeping this from us?  Why would you even want to?

US District Judge Stickman Rules PA Governor Wolf's Coronavirus Restrictions Unconstitutional.  Governor Tom Wolf's (D-PA) COVID-19 restrictions have been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.  The complaint was filed back on May 7, arguing that the governor's orders, limiting the size of gatherings, the stay-at-home order, and the closure of non-life-sustaining businesses, were unconstitutional.  The original complainants in the suit were the counties of Washington, Butler, Greene, and Fayette, (although the judge dismissed the county governments from the case), Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly, Republican State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, and various businesses including hair salons, a farmer's market vendor, a horse trainer, and drive-in movie theaters.  US District Judge William Stickman IV, ruled on Monday [9/14/2020] in a 66-page opinion that the restrictions were overreaching, arbitrary, and violated citizens' constitutional rights.

Judge rules Gov. Tom Wolf's pandemic restrictions are unconstitutional.  Gov. Tom Wolf's pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered "non-life-sustaining" businesses to shut down are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday [9/14/2020].

Americans [are] against unconstitutional mask mandates.  Good news:  The anti-mask mandate movement is gaining steam.  Americans yearning to breathe free are waking up from their pandemic stupor.  Common sense and constitutional principles, now more than ever, are vital to a sovereign nation's health.  On Monday [9/14/2020], a federal judge rescinded Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's shutdown orders restricting gatherings, forcing "nonessential" business closures and directing citizens to stay at home to combat COVID-19.  U.S. District Judge William Stickman determined that the sweeping measures violated "the right of assembly enshrined in the First Amendment."  He noted Wolf's hypocrisy in severely limiting indoor and outdoor fairs, festivals, concerts and other gatherings and condemning a small anti-lockdown protest of small-business owners (whom he called "selfish," "cowardly" and "unsafe") — while marching with thousands of non-socially distancing Black Lives Matter radicals in Harrisburg in June.

Why are Casinos Treated More Favorably than Churches During a Pandemic?  [Scroll down]  Consider the recent decisions of the Supreme Court to deny emergency relief to churches that have been subjected by states to restrictions that are more onerous than to casinos and other secular institutions and businesses.  The churches sought emergency relief under their First Amendment right of the free exercise of religion.  The Supreme Court, in two 5-4 decisions, has denied that relief, with the swing vote being cast by the deeply religious and strongly conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the four liberal justices.  The other four conservative justices dissented in both cases.  The first amendment's approach to religion is anything but clear or simple.  It contains several relevant provisions:  it prohibits "an establishment of religion."  It also protects against laws "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion.  Finally, it guarantees "the right of the people peaceably to assemble," although that provision seems geared more to political than religious assemblies — a distinction that may be difficult to make in an age in which everything, including religion, is political.

Horton Hears a WHO.  The editor-in-chief of the United Kingdom-based medical journal The Lancet, Richard Horton, continues to mislead the world, this time about the Communist Party of China's and the World Health Organization's responsibility for the worldwide spread of the Wuhan virus, aka the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).  I have written about their responsibility for AT [elsew]here.  Several months ago Horton [misled] the world about a drug being used to treat the virus.  On June 5, 2020 The Lancet retracted an article that falsely maligned the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the Wuhan virus.  The article was used by the propaganda division of the Democratic Party, aka the mainstream media, to attack President Donald Trump.  It is time for another retraction, but this time, for statements made during an interview.

Report: Coronavirus May Permanently Replace Human Jobs with Machines.  The coronavirus pandemic could potentially see jobs for humans permanently replaced with machines according to a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.  Jobs that are at risk of disappearing include retail salespersons, parking attendants, slaughterhouse workers, and toll collectors.  Bloomberg reports that a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia claims that the coronavirus pandemic could potentially see many jobs previously held by human workers taken over by robots and machines.

The Editor says...
[#1] How much of the automation is due to the virus, and how much is due to the excessively-high minimum wage?  [#2] Any time an employer can find a machine that will competently do the work of a human, or multiple humans, the employer will buy the machine, even if it doesn't save a lot of money.  Why?  Because machines don't require an HR Department, a restroom, a lunch room, a telephone, or a parking spot.  They work 24 hours a day, they are more easily forgiven, and nobody keeps track of what color they are.  The biggest down-side might be that if a machine is performing its job incorrectly, it will keep doing its job wrong indefinitely, and machines are more difficult to retrain.

The Executioner's Face Is Always Well-Hidden.  Personally, I am not reassured when scientists who have no experience in offensive biological warfare and who are not privy to sound intelligence tell us COVID-19 was not produced in a lab.  I am even less reassured when, each time we see the argument, it is an argument from individual ignorance:  "COVID-19 does not have property X.  I, distinguished Professor J, would have engineered a biological weapon with property X.  Therefore, the Luxembourgeois did not engineer COVID-19."  But even if COVID-19 was not a deliberate attack or an escaped lab product, the damage it has done — and that we have done to ourselves in responding to it — requires us to think anew about the prospects of a biological attack.

Biden says he may have authority to implement nat'l mask mandate.  Joe Biden has reiterated he will implement a national mask mandate if he's elected president this year.  During a news conference in Delaware, the Democrat presidential candidate said his legal team believes he has the authority to mandate mask wearing.  This came after he previously stated he's not sure whether that order would even be enforceable.  Biden claimed if he can't impose it, he will propose the mandate to every U.S. governor.  He added, "We must do it."

Questions for Dr. Fauci.  As you may be aware, health-care providers across the country and around the world have reported great success in using Hydroxychloroquine + Zinc + Azithromycin (the "HCQ cocktail") to treat COVID-19.  According to these physicians and researchers, the key to success is to use the HCQ cocktail within the first seven days after onset of COVID-19 symptoms.  Nevertheless, ever since President Trump endorsed Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), its use has become a highly politicized and controversial matter.  The opposition to HCQ started with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  At the same press conference that the president first expressed hope about using HCQ to treat COVID-19, Dr. Fauci challenged its effectiveness and stated that he would not take it outside the confines of a clinical trial.  Since then the opposition to HCQ has increased even to the point where it is almost impossible to find physicians willing to prescribe it and pharmacies willing to provide it.

Donald Trump Opposes National Mask Mandate During Pandemic:  A Lot of People Don't Want to Wear Masks.  President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated that he did not want to issue a national mask mandate during the coronavirus pandemic.  "There is, by the way, a lot of people who don't want to wear masks," Trump said.  "There are a lot of people that think the masks are not good."  The president commented on masks after a voter from an ABC News town hall hosted by George Stephanopoulos asked him why he did not support a national mask mandate.

Reich Down Under:  Police Drag Woman From Her Car At COVID Checkpoint In Australia For A Charging Cell Phone.  Confronting footage shows the moment a young woman was dragged from her car screaming as she attempted to pass through a coronavirus checkpoint in Victoria.  Natalie Bonett said she was making her way through the COVID blockade in Wallan, north of Melbourne, on Sunday when she was stopped by police.  They informed her it was against the law to have her phone attached to a car charger which was mounted onto her windshield.  Following a brief and tense exchange, video shows the officer reach in and attempt to scoop up the masked woman and drag her from her car.  [Video clip]

COVID-19 Should Not Become a Tool for Releasing Detained Immigrants.  An investigator is calling for the release of "high-risk" detainees at Farmville Detention Center in Virginia after more than 80 percent of the center's 300 inmates contracted the coronavirus earlier this year.  U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered an inspection of the facility by two investigators in a response to a lawsuit by inmates over coronavirus conditions.  The outside investigator, Dr. Homer Venters, a former medical officer for New York City jails, inspected the detention center last month and released his report on Friday, September 4, citing poor screenings for COVID-19 symptoms.  He claims that high-risk detainees face significant health risks as the center's response is often "slow."  He also claims that the outbreak was a result of transfers from other facilities facing COVID cases.

Falling for the Biggest Hoax in History.  It will probably take months if not years for the truth of the Covid-19 pandemic to emerge, but when it does will any politician take responsibility for the lies and disinformation or the damage this hoax caused this great nation?  I don't think so, but what it did prove was what happens when the Democrats are in charge.  They may not be in the White House but it is the House that wields the power over legislation and our money.  Couple this power with the useful idiots in the mainstream media to promote the widespread hysteria, and we then had the total capitulation of a frightened nation that accepted an unprecedented total lockdown of its existence.  Shame on us.  If the fourth estate had done its job or had any integrity left, it would have reported the actual figures of the coronavirus' impact instead of what would generate the most fear.  So what is the truth?  Why did hospitals and doctors count practically all deaths, even motorcycle accidents and cancer deaths, as Covid-19 deaths?  Could it be because of extra government funding for these cases?

Joe Biden Can't Debate.  [Scroll down]  The mask has become a symbol of fear.  And in times like this authorities want people afraid because they have learned, they have deduced that people are more acquiescent when they're afraid.  And if they believe that the suggestions being made by the authorities will keep them safe or safer, then they will follow the instructions. [...] And the mask conveys something.  It conveys either fear or trouble or danger, something.  And it also conveys people following orders.  It conveys people acquiescing and doing what they're told to do.

Is The Coronavirus Crisis Finally Over?  A Nobel Laureate Says It Might Be.  A few weeks ago, we asked this same question about the pandemic — is it safe to go outside yet?  The data made a good case that it was.  Today, they look even better.  According to the Centers for Disease Control's latest data, released six days ago, shows that, through Aug. 29, predicted excess deaths have moved below the threshold for excess deaths.  When we last wrote about this, after total deaths had for months exceeded the threshold, the two numbers were moving closer.  Stanford biophysics professor Michael Levitt, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, says the pandemic might have come to an end.

Twitter Shuts Down Account of Chinese Professor Who Has Evidence China Created the Coronavirus in a Lab.  Twitter is at it again.  This time shutting down individuals who tweet information detrimental to the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese Scientist Says COVID-19 was Created by China's Military.  Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who investigated the origin of the COVID-19 virus during the initial outbreak in Wuhan China as a medical researcher in Hong Kong, has now provided unequivocal evidence that the virus was not of natural origin.  In the article, "Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route," Dr. Yan and her colleagues have offered a detailed description of how the virus was synthesized in laboratories controlled by China's military.  The Chinese Communist Party and some Western scientists have long insisted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a naturally-occurring outbreak, acquired by humans after exposure to infected animals, an unsubstantiated conclusion eagerly promoted by a politicized media.

The Carnival Cruise Ship That Spread Coronavirus Around the World.  At about 6 a.m. on March 19, William Wright, a retired Australian mortgage broker, woke up feeling a little off.  He had a cough and his nose was running, though it didn't seem too bad.  In any case, there was no time to linger in bed.  Wright and his wife, Lucia, had just docked in Sydney after a 10-day journey around New Zealand on the Ruby Princess, a 950-foot, 1,542-cabin vessel operated by Carnival Corp.'s Princess Cruises subsidiary.  The couple's disembarkation time was 8:05 a.m., so they quickly packed up and had breakfast.  They arrived on schedule in the Explorers Lounge, the nightclub where they'd been told to assemble with other passengers leaving at the same time.  Unloading a cruise ship is a complex process, and delays aren't unusual.  But the Wrights waited only a short while before being told they could go.  They made their way through the corridors, past crew members waving goodbye and offering high-fives.  Getting through Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal took only a few minutes.  Despite the accelerating Covid-19 pandemic, Australian officials had cleared the Ruby to disembark without restrictions.

The Conservative Argument Against Mask Mandates is Stronger than the Media Pretends.  People in red/conservative states are far less in favor of government mask mandates than those in the blue/liberal states (today has even been declared a day of "Mask Off" protests in some portions of the country).  This disparity was most obvious at the recent political conventions and campaign events, showing that Donald Trump supporters are very likely to not wear masks, while Joe Biden backers would rather go out naked in public after gaining the "Lockdown 15" than being seen without a facial covering.  The news and entertainment media, to no rational person's surprise, has gone all in on masks in every possible way.  Reporters regularly wear them in the field even when it appears they are not absolutely necessary, and those who dare to not wear masks, whether at a Trump rally, or at a football game (even on the sidelines of an NFL game where everyone has just tested negative), are routinely subjected to intense public shaming and ridicule in nearly every variety of media.

The Truth About Our Pandemic Response.  The curve has been flattened for some time now.  Hospitals never had to choose life or death between an elderly patient and a younger patient.  We ended up manufacturing more ventilators than we needed.  Free COVID-19 tests have been available for months across the country.  We have been experiencing a shortage of personal protective equipment because we've been relying so heavily on China to provide that PPE, but now we understand why it's so important to keep critical manufacturing within the United States. [...] On March 19, the Washington Post reported that 2.2 million people in the United States could die if we didn't flatten the curve and mitigate our chances of spreading COVID-19 unhampered.  In fact, the same article noted that if we did the mitigation, we would still see 1.1 million people perish.  Six months later, and the death toll is 190,714 — as of this writing, only a fraction of what experts were expecting.

The use of coronavirus as a red herring:
Murphy's Law and Vote Fraud in New Jersey.  Since early March, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy has besieged Jerseyans with more than 70 pandemic-related diktats restricting the freedom of movement, commerce, and the practice of religion.  Some have loosely followed science; others appear to be triggered by mere hunches, random predictions, and temper tantrums.  Many were handed down with a blind eye to the Bill of Rights, a document the governor openly called "above my pay grade."  On August 14, Murphy once again skirted convention, subverting federal election laws, breaking the protected custody of an e-vote, and evoking pandemic fears by issuing Executive Order 177.  E.O. 177 writes off COVID downtrends by implying that in-person voting in a general election is a viral super-spreader.  The governor has dusted off the state's voter rolls and will soon mail unrequested November ballots to six million registered voters still presumed to be alive and living at their last known addresses.

Michigan residents get enough signatures to repeal Governor Whitmer's emergency powers, if certified.  More than 400,000 Michigan residents have signed a petition that would trigger a statewide referendum on lockdown-loving Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's draconian emergency powers provided that state authorities determine that at least 340,000 of the signatures turn out to be legitimate.  During the pandemic, Gov. Whitmer has relied on a 1945 law to enforce open-ended COVID-related restrictions, and the referendum outcome could mean the repeal of that mandate.

Spirit passenger removed from flight after bizarre tirade about white privilege.  A passenger was removed from a Spirit flight for being a royal pain — after claiming she is a queen from California during a tirade about white privilege and a trip to the toilet, according to a report.  The unidentified black woman got up to use the bathroom at the back of the plane after it landed in Sacramento last week, Fox News reported.  A passenger's video captured the woman arguing with a flight attendant who was trying to get to the front of the aircraft.  "Don't push me," she says.  "Did you see what she did?  She put her hands at me.  She wants me to go to jail, y'all.  See how she's antagonizing me?"  The woman, whose mask hangs below her chin, then tells the crew member that she has "white privilege."  "It's over with — it's 2020.  Wake up, you got a mask on.  So you're under the government, too.  You're confined and you don't have white privilege anymore," she says.

Federal Judge Rules Pennsylvania "Lock-Down Rules", and COVID Compliance Decrees, Unconstitutional.  A federal judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania had ruled that Governor Tom Wolfe's dictates, decrees and rules were/are unconstitutional restrictions on liberty.  U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV concluded the governor's stay at home orders, limits on gatherings and closure of "non life-sustaining" businesses violated citizens' Constitutional rights.  The judge was responding to a lawsuit brought by a group of Pennsylvania businesses.

The left isn't fighting against fascism, they are fighting FOR authoritarianism.  [Thread reader]  Leftist-run cities have shown what happens when police and federal law enforcement are demonized and unsupported by elected leaders; when local leadership can seize "emergency powers" — then pick and choose who to punish:  rioters are exempt from lockdowns; you can sing in the streets but not in churches; masks are required, but not for them.  They can tell you what counts as a substantive meal, essentially holding businesses hostage to their arbitrary and incoherent edicts:  pot dispensaries and large warehouse stores can open; gyms and restaurants cannot.

Addiction and COVID-19: Study finds link between substance abuse and infection risk.  A new study's findings have uncovered a link between substance abuse and a higher risk for infection.  It was a global health crisis long before SARS-CoV2. Opioid use disorder.  Now researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse say those abusing the highly addictive drugs may suffer worse when it comes to COVID-19.  Compromised lung and heart function may play a role, but experts say there are other factors at play.

Scientists discover antibody that 'neutralizes' virus that causes coronavirus.  Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have isolated "the smallest biological molecule" that "completely and specifically neutralizes" the virus that causes coronavirus.  The antibody component is 10 times smaller than a full-sized antibody, and has been used to create the drug Ab8, shared in the report published by the researchers in the journal Cell on Monday.  The drug is seen as a potential preventative against SARS-CoV-2.  According to the report, the drug has been "highly effective in preventing and treating" the SARS-CoV-2 infections in mice and hamsters during tests.  The drug also reportedly does not bind to human cells, which suggests it will not have negative side-effects in people.

What took him so long?
Federal judge rules Gov. Wolf's shutdown orders were unconstitutional.  A federal judge in Pittsburgh on Monday [9/14/2020] found that orders issued by Gov. Tom Wolf restricting the size of gatherings and closing non-essential businesses to protect against the spread of covid-19 were unconstitutional.  In a statement, Wolf said his office will seek an immediate stay to halt the order and file an appeal.  U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV wrote in his 66-page opinion that even though the actions taken in the spring by Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine were laudable, they violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly, and the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.  "It's a complete and total victory for the counties, the businesses and the representatives," said attorney Thomas W. King III, who represented the plaintiffs in the case.  "You can't order the entire population of Pennsylvania to stay at home."

If Masks Work, Why Don't They WORK?  Remember back in May and June when they said, "Hey, if everyone would just wear masks for a few weeks, it'll all be over and we can go back to normal!" Remember that? [...] Remember them telling us it was only temporary, that masks had the power to stop COVID-19 right in its tracks and save grandma?  Except, neither the masks nor the lockdown measures every really stopped COVID-19 in its tracks, did they?  Nope, the virus just kept right on virusing, as highly-contagious respiratory viruses are prone to do.  You can lock down and delay the inevitable, but as soon as you peek your nose out the virus will be waiting.  You can mask up 'till the cows come home, but even the CDC now admits that, with or without masks, 15 minutes of close contact with an infected person will spread the virus.  And given the fact that it has ALWAYS taken 15 minutes of close contact with an infected person to spread the virus, that means masks are generally useless.

Why More Americans Distrust the Experts.  [Scroll down]  Now comes a CBS poll that reveals that only 54 percent of Americans trust the CDC for the health information they provide concerning the Wuhan virus.  Down from 86 percent just a few months ago.  There was a time before science was politicized when health experts were trusted implicitly.  No more.  The experts have squandered their credibility largely by stifling honest scientific debate.  Anyone who questions the official narrative must be silenced.  It is sophomoric.  Witness the arrogant treatment that dozens of brave clinicians have received over their use of hydroxycholoquine.  Not satisfied with simply being dismissive, several governors (including Minnesota's) actually banned its distribution.  Our FDA now publicly discourages its use outside hospital settings.  The FDA must know that the proponents have consistently argued that once people are sick enough to be hospitalized, the benefits are largely lost.

Fauci Spills The Beans:  A Vaccine Won't End COVID-19 Restrictions.  Dr. Anthony Fauci just spilled the beans:  contrary to the implicit promise numerous politicians made that COVID-19 restrictions would only last "until there's an effective vaccine," Fauci says the arrival of a vaccine won't mean life will return to normal, perhaps for more than a year.  "If you're talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it's going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021," said the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Friday [9/11/2020].  A safe and effective vaccine produced this quickly would be a stunning scientific accomplishment that could save thousands of lives.  But Fauci warned that widespread distribution and getting "the majority, or more, of the population vaccinated and protected" won't happen until perhaps the end 2021, and therefore means we cannot be free from oppressive lockdown measures until at least that point.

Do you want to be controlled or do you want to be free?  Some people want everyone else to be mandated to wear face masks and social distance at all times and in all situations (other than Black Lives Matter protests, of course).  Others want the freedom to open up the economy, send our kids to school, and live without face diapers.

Akron's Highland Tavern becomes first Ohio bar to have liquor license revoked for violating coronavirus health orders.  The Ohio Liquor Control Commission has revoked the liquor license of Akron's Highland Tavern in connection with three violations of the state's health orders to curb the spread of the coronavirus.  Highland Tavern, on West Market Street in the city's Highland Square neighborhood, has also received a fourth citation, for which the commission has not yet held a hearing.  The bar's liquor permit is set to be revoked effective at the close of business on Oct. 2, according to an order issued by the Liquor Control Commission.

Kids went to open-air schools during this epidemic.  In winter.  In New England.  Nine schoolchildren sat at their desks wrapped in chunky layers of flannel, their feet resting on heated soapstones as the frigid New England air stung their faces.  In January 1908, amid a tuberculosis epidemic, these Rhode Island students were part of a unique experiment to combat the infectious disease:  America's first open-air school.  More than a century later, educators are touting outdoor classes as a way to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus among America's schoolchildren.  In the early 1900s, it was estimated that as many as 30 percent of school-age children in Providence carried tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that often attacked the lungs.  Although many of the infected children showed no outward symptoms, the infection could lie dormant for years and ultimately contribute to death in adulthood.  To combat this, medical experts urged the importance of plenty of sunshine and fresh air.

What's Happening in Las Vegas Will Destroy America.  Our clueless or suicidal (take your pick) governor made the decision to shut down the Nevada economy back in March, thereby killing the entertainment capital of the world.  Six months later, while casinos are open, bars are still closed, and churches are limited to 50 congregants. [...] Although pools are open, our guests have to wear masks while sitting by the pool, in direct sun, with temperatures around 110 degrees most of the summer.  How refreshing!  We're now the mask-at-the-pool capital of America.  While you have to wear a mask while sitting by the pool, even though you're outdoors and chairs are six feet apart, only steps away, hundreds of guests are in the pool without masks, kissing, dancing, gyrating and drinking in a tangled mass of human anatomy.  Obviously, COVID-19 only attacks people lying in a lounge chair, not dancing in the pool inches from one another.

The 'rule of six': what are the new UK coronavirus restrictions?  The phrase "rule of six" was used by Boris Johnson in his press conference last week, where he announced a ban on meetings of groups of more than six people in England, applying indoors and outdoors [beginning] Monday [9/7/2020].  The law replaces existing guidance on no more than two households meeting indoors, meaning that the six individuals can be from up to six households.  Households and support bubbles of more than six people are exempt.  In England, the "rule of six" will not be changed to exempt children under 12, Michael Gove has insisted.  Similar rules in Wales and Scotland do not include children under 11 and 12 respectively.  But Gove said the England rules were "absolutely right".

Boris Johnson needs to bin the rule of six.  When Boris Johnson returned to work in April after his brush with coronavirus, he warned that lockdown restrictions must remain to prevent a second wave.  Ever since, beset by anxieties, doubts and fear, and surrounded by a platoon of advisors, the PM has made one cautious, catastrophic error after another.  Last week's roll of the dice with the 'rule of six' could well be the policy that tips the British public over the edge.  For it is a disturbing decision that has no scientific evidence to back it up, and may well end up having major social consequences.  The government has decided to blame young people for the latest restrictions, having spent August asking them to revive the economy.  What was the purpose of Chancellor Rishi Sunak's 'eat out to help out' scheme if at the first sign of a rise in cases the PM's hasty response is to lockdown again?  We were told to get back to work, what did the government expect?  Increased activity at the end of summer leads to an increase in acute respiratory infections, as it does every year.  This is not rocket science.

Sarcasm:
The Religion of Covid.  [Scroll down]  As for the extensive list of eminent COVID whistleblowers, asserting that the global response to the disease has been blown out of proportion by orders of magnitude, these individuals are indisputably charlatans.  And there is more.  City News reports that a group of 18 prominent health experts in Canada, including two previous chief public health officers, has been calling since early July for an end to attempts to eliminate the coronavirus.  "It's a fool's errand," says Dr. Neil Rau, an infectious disease specialist with the University of Toronto.  "We're not going to win with that strategy."  The physicians argue that "business closures, mandatory masks, and complete border closures are doing more harm than good."  City News plainly must be a fascist news service.  Similarly, Common Law Assembly officials for two communities on Vancouver Island have passed a Public Safety Bylaw prohibiting COVID restrictions such as distancing, masking, quarantines and vaccinations as "unlawful, unwarranted and medically unsound."  Thankfully, these officials are being threatened with arrest.

Ten Great Deceptions Designed to Destroy the Republic.  There are at least 10 major lies that are now so ubiquitous that most people never question them: [...] Lie #7 — The Lie of the Mask:  Remember The Minority Report in which "criminals" are prosecuted before they've committed a crime?  Welcome to the machine.  Because it's all about potential, proof is not necessary, but we all need to be afraid.  Very afraid.  If it isn't the end of all life with climate changes, it's a virus that will end yours soon if you don't wear the solidarity mask even if you have no symptoms.  In this version of leftist Utopia, we are faceless disease vectors, quarantined forever in pursuit of an impossible level of safety.

Administrative Discrimination.  My own interest of the administrative state began when I became aware of its threat to scientific inquiry and publication.  Though I had long been familiar with administrative power from my practice in tax law, I became academically engaged with it only when, about two decades ago, I learned about Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).  To my astonishment, my friends in the sciences and social sciences were being censored.  IRBs were preventing access to information, delaying research, and even precluding publication.  And already then, some of the scientists were worrying about lost lives.  In order to prevent a relatively small amount of dangerous research on "human subjects," IRBs impose prior administrative licensing on the full array of such research, regardless of whether it is federally or privately funded.  I am not talking about the use of IRBs to review testing of unlicensed drugs and devices under the Federal Drug Administration, but the use of IRBs to license human-subjects research, mainly under the auspices of Health and Human Services.

Let's Not Pretend That the Left Would Have Ever Listened to Trump.  Some of the statements made by Democrats go a little something like this:
    "Trump knew it was more severe than it was and didn't do anything."
    "Trump knew it was deadly and lied to the American people about it."
    "Trump knew it was going to spread and made it worse!"
Except there's one problem.  Everything Trump has done up until this point to combat the Wuhan Virus has been opposed by Democrats.  Literally, everything.  At what point have Democrats ever listened to or gone along with literally anything Trump has ever said or done?

Chinese virologist who fled to the US after claiming Beijing covered up Covid-19 vows to publish evidence PROVING the virus is manmade.  A virologist who claimed the Chinese government covered up the coronavirus outbreak says she will produce scientific evidence the virus was man-made.  Respected Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan, who specialised in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, claimed that Beijing knew about the coronavirus well before reports began to emerge.  She has since been forced to flee Hong Kong fearing her life is in danger, and appeared today [9/11/2020] on Loose Women from a secret location, revealing that the Chinese government had 'removed all her information' from government data bases.  Dr Yan claimed that reports that Covid-19 originated at a wet market in Wuhan are a 'smoke screen', and that she plans to publish a report she claims has evidence the virus is manmade.

Vitamin D reduced the rate of ICU admission from 50% to 2%.  Given that people with dark skin are more likely to be deficient in Vitamin D, wouldn't studies like these be the best way to show that black lives actually matter?  Would you like training in cultural sensitivity or to avoid the intensive care unit?  In the Castillo study in Spain, 76 patients were randomly assorted into Calciferol treatment (0.532 mg Vitamin D).  Of the 26 who didn't get it, 13 were admitted to the ICU.  Of the 50 who got Vitamin D doses on days 1, 3, and 7 — only one ended up in the ICU.  It's worth noting that all patients got HCQ as well, and azithromycin too.  A second study tested 500 people to find out if they were deficient and followed them to see if they caught Covid.  Why has it taken 6 months of pandemic to do these small studies?

Dakotas lead US in virus growth as both reject mask rules.  Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.  The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses.  The city was forced to move its meeting to a local arena to accommodate intense interest, with many citizens speaking against it, before the mask requirement ultimately passed.

The Editor says...
Beware of one-dimensional statistics:  "virus growth" in this case apparently means an increase in the number of people who have tested positive for the Covid virus.  That number will never decrease.  It is an aggregate.  The number of deaths per capita per month is the most important number to watch, and in the Dakotas, that number is near zero.

Group tops 400K signatures to repeal Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's virus powers.  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, faced with lawsuits challenging her use of emergency powers to fight the coronavirus, could continue to prevail in court.  But she may be unable to stop a Republican maneuver that would rescind a 75-year-old law that has enabled her to issue and lift COVID-19 restrictions unilaterally.  A ballot drive said Friday it was in the "home stretch" after collecting more than 400,000 signatures in just two months.  Its goal is 500,000.

Judge Grants Injunction Barring Grace Community Church From Constitutional Right To Worship.  Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff of the Los Angeles Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction Thursday [9/10/2020] that prohibits Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church from "conducting, participating in, or attending any indoor worship services."  The ban also extends to services held outside "unless onerous restrictions are followed."  Since the church first began meeting in-person and defying local lockdown orders in July, Los Angeles County officials have threatened fines, arrest, and even terminated the lease held between the church and the county for parking lot space claiming health and safety concerns.

School district suspends student for attempting to come to school.  Officials at William Floyd High School in New York recently hit Maverick Stow, a 17-year-old student, with a five-day suspension for coming to school on a Tuesday in early September, a "designated remote learning day" for Stow.  The school district said Stow believed he should attend school in person five days a week, not four.  That's right, Stow was suspended for not skipping school.  To make matters worse, the student-criminal returned to school on the Wednesday [9/9/2020] and Thursday following his suspension and was promptly arrested by the Suffolk County Police Department for unlawfully entering school grounds.  Though the district said it agrees with Stow's view that in-person instruction should take place five days a week, it also said it was required to follow state social distancing regulations and labeled his actions as "irresponsible and selfish behavior."  And a "publicity stunt."  Huh?  State social distancing regulations allow students to attend school "in person" four days a week but not five?  Do the powers that be think trimming the number of students allowed on campus by 20% makes all the difference?

No, Biden Didn't Support Trump's China Travel Ban.  Joe Biden's national press secretary claimed Thursday [9/10/2020] that the former vice president was in favor of President Donald Trump's decision to restrict travel from China, but all of Biden's public comments, including from the day the decision was announced, indicate otherwise.  "Joe Biden has been clear that he was not against that travel ban at the time," TJ Ducklo told Fox News anchor Bret Baier.  Ducklo's claim contrasts with Biden's previous statements on the travel restrictions, including some made on the very day the policy was announced.

I Just Got a COVID-19 Test.  Who Now Knows I Got It?  Anytime a person gets tested for COVID-19, it creates a data point public health officials can use to track the spread and prevalence of the virus — but it also creates a financial opportunity for a private company administering the test.  There is a multibillion-dollar market for health data in the United States, and those same companies that are now scaling up coronavirus testing, like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics, have been making money from patients' medical data for years.  When a patient gets tested at a private lab, that lab often removes the patient's name, then feeds the test information to third parties like pharmaceutical companies, advertisers, researchers, and other companies with an interest in analyzing large quantities of health data.

The Data Clearly Shows That the Dem Panic Not the Pandemic Caused the Excess Death We've Suffered:  Pt 1, the Official Stats.  The stats you've heard on COVID-19 fatalities are complete garbage.  In the U.S., we were told months ago that anyone dying while diagnosed with the virus gets counted as dying from it.  Doesn't matter how mild a case they had or how clear it is they really died of something else.  Doesn't matter if they died in a motorcycle accident or from a gunshot wound.  We've since found out that it's even worse than that.  Standard practice is to count anyone dying within 60 days of a positive PCR test for COVID-19 as a fatality.  Again, that means anyone, regardless of how patently obvious it is that something else killed them.  [Tweet]  Furthermore, the standard PCR test for the virus is itself complete garbage anyway.  It doesn't test for live virus.  It massively amplifies the number of small segments of dead viral remains until there's enough to detect.  And even the CDC admits they can remain in your system up to 9 weeks after you've beaten the infection.

Quebec city will isolate 'uncooperative' citizens in secret corona facility.  Authorities in Quebec City, Canada have announced they will isolate "uncooperative" citizens in a coronavirus facility, the location of which remains a secret.  During a press conference, Dr. Jacques Girard, who heads the Quebec City public health authority, drew attention to a case where patrons at a bar were ordered to wait until their COVID-19 tests came back, but disregarded the command and left the premises before the results came back positive.  This led to them being deemed "uncooperative" and forcibly interned in a quarantine facility.

Up to 90% who test positive for Covid barely carry any virus & aren't contagious, making it hard to grasp true scale of virus.  It has been revealed that standard tests being used in parts of US to diagnose Covid-19 cases are extremely sensitive, with the vast majority of those marked down as "positive" turning out to be asymptomatic non-spreaders.  Top US virologists have been stunned by revelations about the laxity of the US Covid testing regimen.  It turns out that tests that deliver a simple binary "positive or negative" result are not fit for purpose, as they tell us nothing about the contagiousness of each person.

The 1% blunder:  How a simple but fatal math mistake by US Covid-19 experts caused the world to panic and order lockdowns.  In February, US Covid guru Anthony Fauci predicted the virus was 'akin to a severe flu' and would therefore kill around 0.1 percent of people.  Then fatality rate predictions were somehow mixed up to make it look ten times WORSE.  When you strip everything else out, the reason for lockdown comes from a single figure: one percent.  This was the prediction that Covid, if left unchecked, would kill around one percent of us.  You may not think that percentage is enormous, but one percent of the population of the world is 70 million people — and that's a lot.  It would mean 3.2 million Americans dead, and 670,000 Britons.  But where did this one percent figure come from?  You may find this hard to believe, but this figure emerged by mistake.

The Hard Facts on Covid-19 Science Denial.  [Scroll down]  One key fact revealed by death rates is that there is not a fixed relationship between the number of C-19 cases and deaths.  For example, the people currently contracting C-19 in Florida are relatively young, and thus, they are far less likely to die from it.  During Florida's first infection peak in April, about 25% of reported C-19 cases were among people aged 65 and older, but this figure plunged to 13% by August 5.  Death rates can also cut through the noise caused by changes in testing capacity.  This is important because the vast majority of C-19 cases are mild or asymptomatic, and greater testing rates can detect such cases and distort trends.  Between April 1 and July 13, the number of tests per day in Florida increased by 6.5 times.  This can create an illusion of "exploding" cases when, in fact, Florida's tame death rate suggests that a sizeable portion of the rise in cases is from more testing, which is a positive development.

New Mass Transit Mask Refusal Fine Takes Effect in New York Monday.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he expects substantial upticks in mass transit use as New York City and the rest of the tri-state area take more reopening steps in the coming months — and he wants people who ride subways and rails to feel safe.  To that end, the governor said Thursday he was ordering the implementation of a $50 fine for MTA passengers who refuse to wear masks on public transportation.  Cuomo said that part of the reason behind the measure is that New York City doesn't need an influx of vehicular traffic, which has been the case as people tenatively return to work amid the pandemic.  The goal is to convince people it's safe to ride the subways, buses, LIRR and Metro-North with COVID precautions.

The Editor says...
No, the goal is to see how much the American people will tolerate before a widespread rebellion occurs.  If they really thought you were spreading a deadly disease, would the fine be only $50?

Also posted under The police state on wheels.

LA County's Public Health Director says what we suspected about the lockdown.  A Democrat bureaucrat finally said what we all have known to be the truth:  The Wuhan virus limitations that Democrat politicians and bureaucrats have imposed on Americans will go away after the election because that was the plan all along.  As 2019 ended, the Democrats knew that Trump was cruising to reelection. [...] The Democrats' troubles continued in 2020.  In January, their impeachment imploded.  Worst of all, the Democrat primary candidates did not excite the base. [...] The Wuhan virus was an extraordinary and unlooked-for blessing for the Democrats because they used it to destroy Trump's economy.  Right now, some might say, "That's harsh.  The Democrats have been trying to save lives.  It's worked out well for them that their efforts wrecked the economy, but that doesn't mean that they deliberately manipulated the economy, destroying thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands, even millions, of lives, only to win the election."  Sorry, but it's true.

South Dakota Officials Blast 'Blatantly Faulty' Study Calling Sturgis Rally a Superspread Event.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and South Dakota officials are pushing back against a study from the left-wing IZA Institute of Labor Economics claiming that last month's Sturgis motorcycle rally was a "superspread" event.  The dubious study, which has not been peer reviewed, estimates that 267,000 COVID-19 cases nationwide, which accounts for 20 percent of the overall cases across the country over the time span, were caused by the Sturgis rally, costing the U.S. $12.2 billion in healthcare costs.  They came to these numbers, according to Newsweek, by analyzing "anonymized cellphone data to track the smartphone pings from non-residents and movement of those before and after the event."  The city of Sturgis released a press release disputing this ridiculous fear-mongering study and its implications.

A Tale of Two COVID Treatments.  There are only a few ways out of this quagmire.  Herd immunity has been the traditional endpoint for past viral pandemics as it occurs relatively quickly.  Sweden has likely achieved herd immunity without shutting down as did their neighbors.  Israeli Professor Isaac Ben-Israel used statistical analysis demonstrating, "The spread of COVID-19 peaks after about 40 days and declines to almost zero after 70 days — no matter where it strikes, and no matter what measures governments impose to try to thwart it."  Other options include therapeutics or a vaccine.  Viruses are notoriously difficult to cure with medications.  Vaccines provide varying degrees of protection against viruses but take many months or years to develop and earn FDA approval.  Short term, therapeutics are the best option aside from waiting for the virus to burn itself out as in past pandemics.

Fact Check:  Did Biden Deplete the National Stockpile of Face Masks and Not Replenish It?  CLAIM: The Obama-Biden White House depleted and did not replenish the nation's emergency stockpile of medical supplies, including N95 masks.  Joe Biden is attempting to rewrite history, pretending that he and Obama didn't deplete the nation's stockpile of medical supplies and leave it empty after the pair's eight years together in office.  It's the same revisionism they're attempting to do with travel restrictions that President Trump placed on China in the early days of the pandemic.  Biden not only opposed those restrictions — restrictions that even Dr. Fauci credits with saving an untold number of lives — Biden attacked the restrictions as "racist" and "xenophobic."  The Democrats didn't care about saving lives.  They were using the opportunity to smear Trump as a racist.  In a now-deleted tweet, Nancy Pelosi invited everyone to ignore the president and head on down to Chinatown.  It's pathetic, and now Joe Biden is pretending like he didn't set the whole country up for disaster when he and Obama burned through our stockpile of medical supplies and never replenished it.  So, what's the verdict?  Is it true?  VERDICT: Yup.  It's TRUE, according to USA Today.

The pandemic is history.  A curious but fortunate characteristic of virus epidemics is their limited life spans.  No one knows why, but guesses include herd immunity and mutations of the virus. [...] There's nothing unusual about the fact that the coronavirus death count is dying a natural death.  That should have been anticipated, and it should now be widely publicized.  Why are we pretending not to know this good news?  These facts are easy to find.  We ought to be celebrating as we did when WWII ended.  This COVID-19 death profile is extremely significant yet is almost totally ignored by the media.  Their focus is on cases, not deaths.  The number of cases has not decreased as rapidly as the number of deaths.  Only a small percentage of cases now end in death, and the death count is vastly more important than the case count.  The case count may linger, but that problem is becoming increasingly manageable.

The CDC Accidentally Admits Cloth Masks Are Not Effective.  [Scroll down]  They just told us that smoke particulates are too small to be stopped by a cloth mask.  While N95 masks will protect up to 95% of particles, down to .1 microns in size.  A quick Google search will tell us that smoke particles and debris are usually .4 to .7 microns in size.  According to the CDC, cloth masks are not effective in stopping materials that size.  Another quick Google search will tell us that the Wuhan Virus is .12 microns in size, about a quarter in size of the smoke and fire debris particulate.  Even if we factor for the "respiratory droplets" that are allegedly to blame for the spread of coronavirus, those droplets are as small as .5 microns, or as small or smaller than smoke and fire debris particulate.  These factors and figures aren't hidden in some CDC vault that only their scientists are capable of accessing.  Yet another quick Google search will show these figures within seconds.

Fight — or the Dems Will Steal This Election.  [Scroll down]  As Gore tried to do with his, "we count until I win" strategy in 2000, in 2020, the Democrats and their newly hired 600 lawyers are going to insist that every vote be counted no matter how long it takes.  And when the mail-in votes suspiciously turn a Trump landslide into a Biden victory, they will declare Democrats believe in science and were afraid of COVID and therefore, voted by mail.  Why do you think Biden wears the mask and keeps mentioning the pandemic?  Why do you think Democrat governors are keeping economies closed even though COVID is fast disappearing as a threat?

Biden spokesman cries foul when asked if Biden uses a teleprompter.  [Scroll down]  The virus was not the Democrats' fault.  What was the Democrats' fault, though, was the insane over-reaction to the Wuhan virus.  Initially, the American people were willing to sign on to a vast societal experiment:  A 15-day lockdown to slow the spread of the disease, which would allow health facilities all over America to prepare for a possible onslaught.  That would also give the federal government time to do what Trump, in fact, did:  Mobilize the private sector to produce the masks, ventilators, medicine, and other supplies necessary for Americans to deal with the disease.  As we say at Passover, Dayenu!  (It would have been enough.)  But for the Democrats, it wasn't enough.  Instead, they saw a wonderful vista spread before them:  A ruined economy that would wipe out Trump's chances of reelection.  Who cared if people's life savings were wiped out, if clinical depression and drug and alcohol abuse ran rampant through society, if suicides increased, if treatable diseases went untreated, if spousal and child abuse rocketed, if divorces multiplied, and if businesses were destroyed?  Beating Trump was worth it.  And so we suffered.

Washington Post January 2020: POTUS "Hyping" COVID Panic — September 2020: POTUS "Downplayed" COVID Panic.  After watching political narrative engineering for years, this attempt was predictable.  The reason why CTH maintains a "pinned thread" on the White House COVID-19 response from January and February of 2020 is specifically because we knew the narrative engineers would attempt to weaponize the politics of the virus later in the election year.  We knew the narrative engineers would flip the script.  Today [9/9/2020] they did exactly that.

Flight canceled after feud about toddler not wearing face mask.  A Canadian flight was canceled after a feud with a family over their young children not wearing masks on a flight.  Safwan Choudhry said crew members approached the family on the WestJet flight Tuesday from Calgary to Toronto about putting masks on their 3-year-old and 19-month-old daughters, CBC News reported.  "It started with my toddler and once we got a mask on her, they turned to my 19-month-old infant and said, 'Every person on the plane has to wear a mask or the plane can't take off,'" Choudhry said.

Canadian Flight Cancelled After Toddler Refused To Wear Face Mask.  A WestJet flight from Calgary to Toronto was cancelled this week after a family was ejected from the flight for refusing to make their child, a toddler, wear a face mask.  Safwan Choudry and his family were removed from the flight on Tuesday after an argument broke out about whether or not the man's 19-month-old toddler should be wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. [...] "It started with my toddler and once we got a mask on her, they turned to my 19-month-old infant and said 'every person on the plane has to wear a mask or the plane can't take off," he said.

Are Video Arcades More Dangerous Than Casinos During a Pandemic?  Casinos and video arcades, both of which feature rows of electronic games that people use in close proximity to each other, pose similar risks of COVID-19 transmission.  Yet in Massachusetts, casinos have been open for two months, while video arcades remain closed under an order that Gov. Charlie Baker originally issued in March.  Like many of the distinctions drawn by the COVID-19 lockdowns that all but a few governors imposed last spring, this one makes no medical sense.  A federal lawsuit filed last week argues that Baker's discrimination against video arcades is unconstitutional because it is scientifically indefensible.  Baker originally included video arcades in Phase III of his reopening plan, which took effect on July 6, but changed course without explanation on July 2.

At this point, the Covid-19 scare is entirely political.
Audio: Los Angeles County Health Director Says She Expects Schools To Reopen 'After The Election'.  On Wednesday [9/9/2020], audio surfaced of Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer saying that K-12 schools in America's largest county likely will not open until after the November election.  KFI News radio reporter Steve Gregory said he received a partial audio recording of a conference call between Dr. Ferrer and "a collection of school nurses, school administrators, other education and medical professionals."  During that discussion, Ferrer indicated that she does not expect schools to reopen before the November election.

Michigan Supreme Court justice pushes back on Whitmer's emergency powers.  A justice of the Michigan Supreme Court raised pointed and repeated questions Wednesday [9/9/2020] about whether the 1945 emergency law relied on by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was ever intended to deal with a health pandemic.  Justice David Viviano pressed the issue during oral arguments, pointing out that the Emergency Powers of Governor Act was enacted in the wake of Detroit's 1943 race riot, as it is known, and was referenced in news reports at the time as providing the governor with the police powers needed to respond to such events without having to declare martial law.  The 1945 law says it is intended to "invest the governor with sufficiently broad power of action in the exercise of the police power of the state."

Biden botches military coronavirus death count, campaign says he accidentally cited Michigan number.  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden misspoke during a campaign stop in Michigan, incorrectly saying that over 6,000 U.S. military members have died from the novel coronavirus.  Speaking in Warren, Mich., Biden cited the number of confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 in Michigan as being the numbers for the military, saying the armed forces had seen 118,984 cases and 6,114 deaths.  Shortly after the event, Biden's campaign quickly clarified that Biden had mixed up the numbers for Michigan with those from military.  As of Wednesday, only seven members of the military had died from COVID-19.

The media had hoped for the worst, but got nothing.
Cringeworthy Study Debunked:  There Was No 'Sturgis Superspreader' COVID-19 Event.  There was not a "Sturgis superspreader" event infecting hundreds of thousands with COVID-19 at a cost of billions to American taxpayers.  A recent study claimed that the annual motorcycle rally held last month in Sturgis, South Dakota was a "superspreader event" infecting more than half of the 460,000 attendees at a cost of $12 billion to our public health institutions.  The Sturgis event happened, in that same wonderfully crazy way that the Sturgis rally always happens.  The "Sturgis superspreader" event did not happen.  Not even a little.

8,000 cargo planes are needed to distribute COVID-19 vaccine, group says.  Roughly 8,000 jumbo jets could be needed to distribute coronavirus vaccines around the globe — a massive logistical challenge that will require careful planning from governments worldwide, an airline trade group warns.  The staggering estimate is how many 747 cargo planes it would take to carry just a single dose of a COVID-19 inoculation for each of the world's 7.8 billion people, the International Air Transport Association said Wednesday, calling the task of delivering the vaccines "the mission of the century for the global air cargo industry."

The Editor says...
Who says the vaccine must be delivered by air?  Who says everyone in the world wants it?  Who's going to pay for all that jet fuel, not to mention the vaccine itself?  Where are all the left-wingers who constantly moan about "carbon footprints?"

Reports of Superspreader Outbreak From Sturgis Rally Go Down in Flames.  As my colleague Brad Slager reported two weeks ago, MSM reporters were chomping at the bit over the possibility they might get to declare the annual Sturgis rally in South Dakota a coronavirus "superspreader" event because mask-shaming and guilting people for allegedly being irresponsible during the pandemic has become the MSM's gig (with left-wing protests, riots, and haircuts for high-profile Democrats being the exceptions to the rule, of course).  At the time of Brad's report, 103 cases had been confirmed, which is a tiny percentage of the 366,000 people who were said to be in attendance.  Fast forward to now, and the mainstream media are eagerly reporting on a study they believe confirms their suspicions and which alleges the rally may have caused a widespread outbreak.  Here are some of the headlines: [...] The big problem with the "study" the MSM is falling all over themselves to share on their websites and social media is that it's garbage, according to some investigative digging done by Reason.com[.]

This Obama-Biden Administration Failure Killed More Americans Than COVID-19.  What the Democrats and the media don't want us to know is that their scaremongering campaign against hydroxychloroquine, a drug Trump touted as a potential game-changer back in March, could have saved thousands of lives had they not turned public opinion against the drug simply because Trump had brought attention to it after a French study showed it had promise in treating the virus.  In fact, countries that are widely using the drug early to treat patients have much lower death rates than those that aren't.

Supermarket chain:  U.S. flag face masks too 'offensive' for employees to wear.  North Carolina-based grocery chain Food Lion will now permit its employees to wear American flag-themed face masks while working at its stores.  The company went viral earlier this week after one of its employees revealed he quit after being told to avoid wearing his American flag-themed mask.  According to a recent report from WCTI-TV, the move appears to be in response to the employee — as well as his supporters — demanding such masks after the company initially prohibited them.

Lifeguard Arrested, Led Away in Handcuffs by Hazmat Cops for 'Surfing with Coronavirus'.  Remarkable footage has revealed the moment police officers — dressed head-to-toe in hazmat suits — frogmarched a young woman up a beach in handcuffs after she went surfing after being diagnosed with coronavirus.  A professional lifeguard was reported to police by her own colleagues in San Sebastian, in the Bay of Biscay in Spain's Basque country on Monday [9/7/2020] after she was spotted surfing while placed on medical leave by her employer following a positive coronavirus test.

The Editor says...
[#1] If she's surfing, she must not have any serious symptoms.  That's how horrible this disease is:  You may not even know you've got it.  [#2] Who is going to catch Covid-19 from a surfer?  Everyone else who's surfing is young and fit, and, we now know, at little or no risk.

Andrew Cuomo Rants: 'Donald Trump Caused The COVID Outbreak In New York'.  Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday [9/8/2020], New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ranted, "Donald Trump caused the COVID outbreak in New York," then immediately chanted again, "Donald Trump caused the COVID outbreak in New York." [...] As Fox News has noted, over 6,200 elderly residents may have died from COVID-19 in New York nursing homes according to state health department statistics.  On March 25, the New York Department of Health issued an advisory that stated nursing homes had to accept residents returning from hospitals whether or not they had a diagnosis of COVID-19.

Dr. Anthony Fauci Defends Trump on Coronavirus: 'I Don't Think He Ever Distorted Things'.  Dr. Anthony Fauci defended President Donald Trump from claims Wednesday that he lied about the coronavirus, telling Fox News:  "I don't recall anything that was any gross distortion in things that I spoke to him about."  On Wednesday [9/9/2020], it was revealed that Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he had downplayed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent the public from panicking.

Why Don't Alternative COVID Therapies Get More Trials in America?  In case anyone still thinks it is, the COVID-19 pandemic is not a hoax.  How and why it originated may never be known for certain.  How societies ought to respond to it, and who are most vulnerable to the disease, are both topics of intense debate.  But deaths in America from all causes are up year-to-date by over 200,000 compared to recent years, and while we may hope the worst is behind us, this is not over.  The single most authoritative source for statistics on deaths in the United States is the CDC website, and a way to eliminate any doubt about the cause of death is simply to bypass the categories and look at deaths from all causes.  If that number is only marginally up this year, then you can argue that COVID-19 is overhyped.  If that number is up significantly, then something terrible is going on, and COVID-19 probably accounts for most of that.

Los Angeles County bans trick-or-treating this Halloween due to coronavirus.  Traditional Halloween activities won't be allowed for residents in Los Angeles County this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to local health officials.  The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced a ban on door-to-door trick-or-treating, carnivals, festivals, live entertainment and haunted houses.  "Door to door trick or treating is not allowed because it can be very difficult to maintain proper social distancing on porches and at front doors especially in neighborhoods that are popular with trick or treaters," officials said in a news release detailing guidelines for the annual tradition.

Update:
Los Angeles quickly reverses trick-or-treat ban.  Los Angeles pulled a Halloween switcheroo on Wednesday — first banning, and then quickly unbanning, trick-or-treating.  Less than a day after saying the door-to-door candy grab is banned due to coronavirus concerns, county officials changed course and said the popular children's tradition is now just "not recommended."  The revision came after parents and businesses "went apoplectic with outrage," Deadline reported, citing a press briefing by LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.  Also not recommended — but no longer outright banned — are LA's popular "trunk-or-treat" events, in which costumed kids go car to car instead of door to door.

Save Yourself: Stop Believing in Lockdown.  As Voltaire wrote during the Enlightenment — when society still had time away from the screen to reflect on philosophy, morality, and fundamental truth — "those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."  This has never been more true than in the age of social media, when information and opinions constantly bombard us from all sides, isolating us from our own thoughts and values.  We have a moral duty to critically examine our beliefs — especially our belief in "lockdown," the most oppressive and universally destructive public policy implemented in our lifetimes.  Is it the least-restrictive means available to minimize casualties in this pandemic?

Are Democrats Hiding the Truth about COVID?  COVID is not the first viral flu pandemic America has faced, yet the reaction is unprecedented.  The entire economy has been shut down for months, some sectors still closed.  Elective yet necessary medical care has been postponed leading to excess sickness and death well beyond that caused by the Chinese virus.  Many schools remain closed, as do restaurants, hair salons, and churches.  We are forced to keep six feet away from each other at all times and are expected to wear masks, whether outside and alone or inside sharing an intimate moment with a loved one.  Are these rules and restrictions for the public good or are they a means of power and control over the people?  The most draconian measures are being pushed by Democrats at the local, state, and national levels.  Yet personally they often ignore the mandates they impose on the rest of us. [...] New York quarantines travelers visiting from out of state hot spots, but waived these mandates for those attending the recent VMA award show in New York City.  Are the VMA attendees all healthy?  Or is the virus no longer the big issue that we are being told it is?

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris need to quit playing politics with COVID-19 vaccine.  Are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris trying to prolong the pandemic?  That might be the result of their reckless efforts to erode confidence in a vaccine — even as they blame President Trump for doing that.  "I would want to see what the scientists said" about any vaccine, Biden huffed Monday.  "I want full transparency." That is:  Don't trust a vaccine OK'd by Team Trump.  Harris was even more blunt:  She'd "trust the word of public-health experts" but not the president — and insisted those experts won't have the final say:  They "will be muzzled, they will be suppressed, they will be sidelined."

Trump asks politely, reporter stubbornly refuses to remove mask momentarily at press conference.  President Trump sent his critics into a tailspin when he asked a reporter to remove his face mask during a White House news briefing.  The president told a Reuters correspondent that he couldn't hear his "muffled" question during the press conference on Labor Day and asked if he would remove it, sparking instant criticism on social media and accusations of "bullying."  White House reporter Jeff Mason was hailed as a hero by liberals for his refusal to remove his mask.

The Editor says...
The virus crisis — if not the virus itself — is long gone.  Face masks are now 100 percent political.  For a left-wing Democrat "journalist" to remove his mask on camera is a concession to President Trump, and that just can't happen.  If you are a television reporter, let us see your face.  If you insist on covering your face, find another line of work.

Kamala Harris:  Mask Mandate Not About "Big Brother," It Is Making A "Sacrifice For The Collective".  Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris strongly rebuked President Donald Trump for politicizing the issue of wearing a pandemic mask during an interview Sunday with CNN's Dana Bash.  Harris, minutes earlier in the same interview, said she would be skeptical of a coronavirus vaccine distributed by the Trump administration but said a big part of the problem with pandemic response "is that we have a president of the United States who made this a partisan issue and made it a political issue."  "This is not about punishment.  It's not about big brother," Harris said about wearing a mask.

What will happen to Seattle's empty office towers when COVID-19 ends?  As many white-collar employers extend into next year the work-from-home policies they instituted in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a vast amount of vertical space in downtown Seattle is leased but empty.  The vacant space amounts to more than 700 football fields, by one estimate — acres of desks, with knickknacks and mementos that few but cleaning staff, maintenance crews and interior landscapers have seen for nigh on six months.  It's not clear when workers might begin trickling back into that space or what could become of it in the meantime.

The Editor says...
A glut of office space is nothing new.  Dallas had the same situation, as I recall, back in the 1980s.  The quickest remedy, in this case, is an immediate return to 2019:  Take off your face masks, turn off your television, and get back to normal.  It only takes a few seconds to get used to seeing people without face masks.

It's now looking like the lockdowns may have been a huge mistake.  Were lockdowns a mistake?  To that nagging question, the answer increasingly seems to be yes.  Certainly, they were a novelty.  As novelist Lionel Shriver writes, "We've never before responded to a contagion by closing down whole countries."  As I've noted, the 1957-58 Asian flu killed between 70,000 and 116,000 Americans, between 0.04 percent and 0.07 percent of the nation's population.  The 1968-70 Hong Kong flu killed about 100,000, 0.05 percent of the population.  The US coronavirus death toll of 186,000 is 0.055 percent of the current population.  It will go higher, but it's about the same magnitude as those two flus, and it has been less deadly to those under 65 than the flus were.  Yet there were no statewide lockdowns; no massive school closings; no closings of office buildings and factories, restaurants and museums.  No one considered shutting down Woodstock.

We have Had Enough Lockdown.  Take off the masks and remove the "social distancing" circles from the floors.  Open the schools, liberate college campuses, fill the restaurants and the gyms and the churches and the salons.  Enough.  If 2020 wasn't twisted enough, the current political imbroglio centers around a verboten visit to a California boutique for a routine blow-out.  Americans are lining up either behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who claims she was "set up" to visit the San Francisco salon, or the salon's owner, a woman struggling to keep her business alive amid cruel and unscientific edicts issued by her governor months ago.  The incident is the latest in a series of "rules for thee but not for me" gut punches from the ruling class; whether it's mask-free trips to the park or crowded funerals for anointed heroes or casual meals munched indoors, the government-ordered shutdowns apply to everyone except the sadists running government who order said shutdowns.  But here's the rub:  No one should be talking about Pelosi's coif controversy because it should not even be a story.  It shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Why do You Support Joe Biden?  There are a lot of unanswered questions for Biden supporters.  Part of the frustration with the left and those that support it is that they never offer a convincing rationale for their actions.  Why are you voting for him?  It seems simple enough to ask.  For the purpose of understanding the headspace of liberals, what follows are a series of questions that will offer these people an opportunity to explore their vote.  The question is followed by a short description that places them in context.  Where and how exactly did Trump mess up and how would Biden have handled the coronavirus pandemic differently? [...] How exactly can Trump be criticized for the economic slowdown at the same time Biden is being promoted for proposing more of it?

Seattle accused of discrimination for closing park to Christian rally amid left-wing protests.  Seattle plans to shut down a park to prevent a Christian rally from being held there on Labor Day even as left-wing protesters descended on the city for a holiday weekend of mass anti-Trump and anti-police demonstrations.  Sean Feucht Ministries had scheduled a worship rally Monday [9/7/2020] at Gas Works Park, but Seattle Parks and Recreation said in a Friday statement that the park would be closed that day "due to anticipated crowding that could impact the public health of residents," citing the risk of novel coronavirus transmission.  "Out of concerns for the safety of all those who visit Gas Works Park we have opted to close the entire park for the day," said the department.

San Francisco gym owners livid after discovering gyms in government buildings have been opened for months.  Gyms within government buildings in San Francisco have been open for months, despite privately owned establishments being ordered to close due to the coronavirus.  "It's shocking, it's infuriating," Daniele Rabkin, of Crossfit Golden Gate, told a local NBC station.  "Even though they're getting exposed, there are no repercussions, no ramifications?  It's shocking."  The gyms that have been open for government employees include those for police officers, judges, lawyers, bailiffs, and paralegals, according to the report.  One such gym, the Hall of Justice gym, has been open since July 1.

Biden Now Says National Mask Mandate 'Probably Unconstitutional' — Gives Bizarre Non-Answer to Reporter Asking When He will Visit Arizona.  Basement-dwelling Biden did a total 180 during an interview with Arizona's Family Political Editor Dennis Welch on Sunday [9/6/2020] and said that a national mask mandate is probably unconstitutional.  A few weeks ago Biden called for a national mask mandate.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris delivered remarks after their Covid-19 roundtable in mid-August and called for a "nationwide mask mandate starting immediately."  "Let's institute a mask mandate nationwide, starting immediately and we will save lives." said Biden.  "The estimate is that we will save over 40,000 lives in the next 3 months if that is done."

Why Does the Media Let Dr. Fauci Get Away with Major Contradictions About Coronavirus?  The media has turned Dr. Anthony Fauci into an instant saint, but in their rush to use Fauci as a weapon against Trump, the media have completely ignored the many times that Fauci said we should not worry about the coronavirus at all because it wasn't going to be a big deal.  Fauci, presidential adviser and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, can do no wrong as far as the lying, left-wing media is concerned.  They hang on his every word and now they are even going to him — not the Trump administration — to find out when we lowly Americans should be allowed to get back to normal life.  But even as the media beatifies Fauci, they have necessarily washed away all the times he said that we should not worry over much about the coronavirus outbreak.  And he said it not just once but many times.

50+ Questions No Reporter Dares Ask Joe Biden And His Campaign.  On COVID: How do you plan on enforcing a national mask mandate if you are elected?  Should states that abide by your national mask mandate use police to enforce it?  Won't that necessarily create more interactions with cops at a time of tension?  Given its outsized role in the numbers of virus deaths in America, should there be a federal investigation into why New York patients were forced into nursing homes by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's policy directive?

Masks are political, and a constant source of friction and resentment.
Food Lion reverses policy banning employees from wearing US flag masks after Air Force veteran quits in protest.  Grocery chain Food Lion has reversed course on its policy banning employees from wearing face coverings emblazoned with the American flag after an Air Force veteran employee quit his job rather than comply with the rule.  "Food Lion deeply respects the American flag," the company said in a statement posted on Twitter.  "We listened to our associates and customers about our uniform policy.  We require that associates wear masks without writing, insignia or symbols.  We will allow associates to wear masks with the American flag that meet this standard."

Northeastern University Suspends Students For Not Social Distancing, Won't Refund $36,500 Tuition.  Eleven students were suspended from Northeastern University for the rest of the fall semester after staff members found them congregated in a temporary dorm room at the Westin Hotel in Boston.  According to the Boston Globe, the students' $36,500 tuition and housing charges will not be refunded due to the policies of a "first-year international experience" program called N.U.in.

Wall Street could empty out post-COVID-19 pandemic.  Wall Street could soon become a home office and a computer.  The big brokerage firms and banks that are headquartered in New York City aren't going to admit this publicly, at least not yet.  With the COVID pandemic waning here in the Big Apple, banks have announced that their return-to-work plans will begin roughly after Labor Day, with about half their employees returning to the city by the end of the year, and the rest sometime in possibly early 2021.

The U.S. Open Descends Into Pandemic Precaution Chaos.  For two weeks, all seemed well with the plan to hold the United States Open in New York just a few months after the city had become the epicenter for the coronavirus in the Western world. [...] The plan that leaders of the United States Tennis Association had developed closely with city and state public health officials — including closing the tournament site to spectators, regular testing, education, behavior monitoring and contact tracing — appeared to be working.  And there were protocols in place for what would happen if a player tested positive — protocols that players had agreed upon.  Organizers thought they had all the bases covered.  Then, two days before the U.S. Open, Benoît Paire of France, a 31-year-old veteran known for his smooth strokes and his stylishly bushy beard, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Anthony Fauci, the great 'humanist,' sets U.S. sailing on globalist, anti-freedom course.  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, along with his agency colleague, the epidemiologist David Morens, warned in a report in the science journal Cell that if humans don't make significant changes in all activities, that more diseases — more terrible health issues like COVID-19 — will soon come.  Beware this report.  It's a globalist dream come true, a real treatise for elites to control nearly every facet of human activity, human life, human freedoms. [...] It's called "Emerging Pandemic Diseases:  How We Got to COVID-19," and it's presented as a scientific look at why we're where we are today with the coronavirus, and more importantly, what we can do to keep from facing such dramatic disease-tied devastations in the future.  But a better title might be, "How to Take Over the World, One Medical Fear At a Time."

Aerial Banner Slamming Andrew Cuomo Flies Over New York Beaches.  An aerial banner attacking Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo flew over several of the state's most popular beaches Labor Day weekend.  The banner, towed behind a small plane like a typical shoreline advertisement, read "THE GOV KILLED NANA."

Fauci goes full pseudoscience:  COVID-19 is due to 'extreme backlashes from nature'.  [Thread reader] "Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence, from cities to homes to workplaces... to recreational and gatherings venues."  "In a human-dominated world, in which our human activities represent aggressive, damaging, and unbalanced interactions with nature, we will increasingly provoke new disease emergence."  Huh.  Sounds like human domination is the real problem here?  "COVID-19... should force us to begin to think in earnest and collectively about living in more thoughtful and creative harmony with nature."  Fortunately, Dr. Anthony Fauci can lead the way.  I believe this is known as mission creep.  There are other words for it too.

Massive crowds expected at beaches on Labor Day weekend amid of fears of COVID surge.  Amid a sweltering temperatures and and an ongoing pandemic, hundreds of thousands of beachgoers are expected to flock to the sand in Southern California on Labor Day weekend.  Officials urged people to conserve electricity to ease strain on the state's power grid and, in an effort to prevent a surge in coronavirus cases, to follow physical distancing and mask requirements when they hit recreational areas.

The Editor says...
Somebody may be in fear of a COVID surge, but it's not the people at the beach.

A TN Woman Just Got a COVID Diagnosis & Quarantine Order in the Mail.  Just 2 Problems — She's Neither Alive nor Unique.  The bad news about the unprecedented dangers of COVID-19 just keeps piling up.  We've known for months that we're dealing with the first virus known to cause motorcycle fatalities.  And health officials have warned that COVID-19 is causing fatal crashes even when there are no underlying conditions! [...] Local News station WKYC is reporting that Shelby County, Tennessee health officials just sent a woman who passed away on February 16 a letter informing her that she's been diagnosed with COVID-19.

COVID-19 Power Trips of Leftist Politicians, Teachers Unions Must Stop.  The COVID-19 pandemic has brought out political power trips like America has never seen before.  Governors and mayors have seized "emergency powers" that effectively shut down our economic engine and social culture.  Never before had Americans seen the day when they would be told they couldn't open for business, attend worship services, hold weddings or funerals, or send their children back to school.  Americans never anticipated they'd be forced to wear facial coverings if they so much as left their homes. [...] Many of these edicts are obvious political power grabs in order to keep people uncomfortable and inconvenienced, in hopes of affecting the November elections, but they will have destructive consequences we haven't yet fully realized and can't even anticipate.

Wun Flu over the Cuckoo Nest, brought to you by power-mad Left & media elites.  WuFlu positive test results are meaningless; death totals are bogus; masks don't work; lock-downs are ineffective; America's NOT threatened [...] They've taken a seasonal flu, turned it into Black Death, added hysterical reporting over every positive case, and turned Americans into cowering, quivering mounds of flesh.  This hasn't been 'science' driven, it's been politically driven.  If we allow their efforts to succeed, we expose ourselves to this manner of manipulation every flu season.

Drain the Swamp, Or Be Drowned By It.  It must be disquieting to the Republican campaign that the Democrats and their Siamese twins in the rabidly partisan media have been so durably successful in terrorizing the country about COVID-19.  It is difficult and requires exquisite care to explain in politically acceptable terms the very slight chances of serious illness or fatality, but we've reached the point where that task must be undertaken in earnest.  Those who are not immunocompromised have a minimal chance of a serious problem; the people of the United States, and broadly, people as a species, must be emboldened to be less exaggeratedly frightened.

Australia Goes Full Communist:  Cops Break Down Door To Arrest ANTI-Lockdown Citizen.  Dramatic video has emerged of police breaking down the door of what police call a 'conspiracist; accused of inciting an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne.  The man, who identifies himself on Facebook as James Bartolo and the leader of a 'conspiracy' group the Conscious Truth Network, live-streamed his arrest on Friday morning after police arrived at his front door with a search warrant.  He is the latest person to be arrested for allegedly inciting an illegal protest against Melbourne's tough stage four lockdown that is planned to take place at the Shrine of Remembrance on Saturday.  [Video clip]

Coming to America soon if we continue to put up with the Corona hoax.  The mask police aboard mass transit vehicle, possibly in Scotland.  [Video clip]

Cherry-picking COVID stats.  While the United States deals with a continued pandemic, it is also battling misinformation about the virus.  The United Nations secretary-general himself said that "journalists are key to countering the 'dangerous outbreak of misinformation' accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic."  But journalists across American mainstream media have repeatedly added to the misinformation.  These journalists have devoted dozens of articles to fighting COVID-19-related misinformation, largely blaming social media for its spread.  But according to a Gallup poll, the media is partly responsible for creating division on COVID-19.  And Americans' distrust of the media is growing.  Repeated misrepresentation of data within even the most respected outlets will only drive more Americans toward the very sources the media has blamed.  Major outlets have more competition than ever, so many have capitalized on what will get them the most clicks and the highest ratings:  content scary enough to share.

Rand Paul calls for Gov. Cuomo to be impeached over his handling of COVID-19.  Sen. Rand Paul called for the impeachment of Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the number of deaths among New York nursing home patients during the coronavirus outbreak this spring.  "I think Gov. Cuomo should be impeached for what he did, for the disastrous decision he made to send patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes," Paul (R-Ky.) said on Fox News' "Rundown" podcast on Wednesday [9/2/2020].  "And virtually half his people who died were in nursing homes."  Paul was criticizing the lockdowns and other measures that were taken to stem the spread of the virus when he made the comments about Cuomo, a Democrat.

Democrats Mistake Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for Instruction Manual.  An exceedingly strange phenomenon has been seen recently in American cities run by longtime Democratic Party machines such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  While many Americans remain locked down inside their homes, unable to open their businesses or go to work or school, or even to church, other Americans have been allowed to freely gather in large numbers.  And it has become starkly evident that what puts a person in one group, or the other is their political views.  It cannot be denied that this is a completely political phenomenon.  And that's what makes new societal development both revealing and dangerous.  Early in the CCP Virus pandemic, a case could be made for taking great precautions to stop the spread because so little was known about this new strain of the COVID virus.  At this point, it's been revealed that for those under the age of 60, the mortality rate for COVID-19 is .004%.  How then to explain the rampant hysteria that gripped the entire globe for the past eight months?

Macomb County's Hackel, a Democrat, backs petition to limit Whitmer's emergency power.  Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, the top Democrat in Michigan's third largest county, says he supports repealing the 1945 law that gives Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the ability to declare a state of emergency and keep the declaration in place without input from the GOP-controlled Legislature.  The 1945 Emergency Powers of Governor Act gives one person, the governor, "endless ability to create law," Hackel said in a Wednesday night interview.  He said he was surprised there wasn't more resistance to the Democratic governor's use of the 75-yer-old law to declare emergencies, which give her the ability act unilaterally to shutter businesses or require masks be worn.

The numbers are clear:  COVID is no real threat to kids.  CDC confirms — again:  Youth aren't at COVID risk[.]  The latest data on COVID-19 cases and fatalities from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm that young people face a negligible risk of dying from the disease, while people 65 and older face a much higher risk.  That latter group accounts for about 16 percent of confirmed cases but four-fifths of deaths.  The fatality rates are even lower among minors:  0.04 percent for children 4 or younger and 0.02 percent for 5-to-17-year-olds.  The crude case fatality rate indicated by the CDC's numbers — deaths divided by confirmed cases — is about 0.25 percent for patients younger than 50 and nearly 16 percent — 63 times higher — for patients older than 64.  While the overall crude CFR is 3 percent, the rates among adults range from 0.07 percent for patients in their late teens and 20s to 29 percent for patients 85 or older — more than 400 times higher.

Joe Biden's Denial of DNC Mask Mandate Is Pure Panic.  Joe Biden is becoming so defensive, he's being forced to blatantly lie about his own call for a nationwide mask mandate.  "We'll have a national mandate to wear a mask," Slow Joe said during his acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention. [...] He called for all of this in front of the whole world.  It's on tape.  There's video.  And now, he's lying about it.  Says he never said it.

Democrats won't live by the pandemic standards they force on everyone else.  The public has been subjected to coronavirus lockdowns of varying degrees for over five months and counting, but prominent Democrats have decided that they should be exempt from the restrictions everyone else must abide by.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi openly flouted these restrictions recently when she got her hair coiffed at a San Francisco salon that remains closed to the public.  Local ordinances only allow for outdoor services, and Pelosi was captured on security video not wearing a mask.  Despite the evidence, her spokesman declared that the speaker "always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements."  Pelosi's not the only one.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly been caught not wearing a mask despite his incessant demands that everyone else do so.

Up to 90 percent of people diagnosed with coronavirus may not be carrying enough of it to infect anyone else.  Up to 90 percent of people tested for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada in July carried barely any traces of the virus and it could be because today's tests are 'too sensitive', experts say.  Health experts say PCR testing — the most widely used diagnostic test for COVID-19 in the US — are [sic] too sensitive and need to be adjusted to rule out people who have insignificant amounts of the virus in their systems because they're likely not contagious.  Today the PCR test, which provides a yes or no answer if a patient is infected, doesn't say how much of the virus a patient has in their body.

The Lockdown Has Gone From a Mistake to a Crime.  [Scroll down]  The world should have followed Sweden's example.  That country never locked down and has even kept children under 16 in school the entire time.  As Reuters reported on July 15, the number of Swedish children between 1 and 19 years of age who have died of COVID-19 is zero.  And the percentage of children who contracted the illness was the exact same in Sweden as it was in Finland, which locked down its schools.  As regards teachers, Sweden's Public Health Agency reported that "a comparison of the incidence of COVID-19 in different professions suggested no increased risk for teachers." Nevertheless, with few exceptions, teachers in Los Angeles and elsewhere refuse to enter a classroom that has students in it.  Their disdain for their profession has been superseded only by that of the Los Angeles teachers union, which announced that teachers will not resume teaching until the police are defunded.

Queen Nancy Personifies the Democrat Party's Contempt for Ordinary Americans.  [W]hy do we care where Queen Nancy gets her hair done? — The answer to that is simple, isn't it?  It's because she has been one of the loudest Democrat voices over the last six months lecturing the little people of America to stay locked up in their homes and only venture out when wearing a mask.  She's been one of the most ardent fans of the lockdowns mandated by despicable Democrat governors like her step-nephew Gavin Newsom, putting millions of little people out of work and shuttering hundreds of thousands of businesses.  Even worse than her act of intentionally violating nephew Gavin's lockdown/mask orders on Sunday by intimidating a single mother salon owner to open her shuttered business just for her decrepit, stringy mane was Queen Nancy's response to getting caught.  She couldn't lower herself to do the simple thing:  To admit her wrongdoing and ask to be forgiven.  Instead, she haughtily claimed at a press conference to having been "set up" and demanded that the salon owner she had intimidated apologize to her.

Virologist Explains His Quest To Track Down The Origin Of COVID-19.  Jonathan Latham, Ph.D., and Allison Wilson, Ph.D., a virologist and a geneticist, respectively, have a plausible story to tell about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 — the cause of COVID-19.  It begins with a mystery disease that struck six Chinese miners in Yunnan province in 2012.  These miners became ill while shoveling bat feces (guano) produced by Rhinolophus sinicus, a species of horseshoe bat, which was abundant in the mine.  The illness of the miners was later described in detail throughout a master's thesis entitled "An Analysis of Six Severe Pneumonia Cases Related to Unknown Viruses," written in 2013 by Li Xu.  The patients were remotely observed by Zhong Nan Shan, noting the following symptoms: dry cough, shortness of breath, fever, limb soreness (myalgia), headaches, and low blood oxygen.

Florida Gov. DeSantis: 'We Will Never Do Any of These Lockdowns Again'.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) promised Floridians during Monday's press briefing "we will never do any of these lockdowns again."  "We will never do any of these lockdowns again, and I hear people say they'll shut down the country, and honestly I cringe," DeSantis said during the briefing in Central Florida.  [Video clip]  The peak of the pandemic is now behind the Sunshine State, the governor said, explaining the number of positive coronavirus patients hospitalized is "down nearly 60 percent statewide from our July peak."

The Covid-19 Pandemic is Ending.  Covid19 has already passed through all 50 states as a single major contagious wave in each state.  There were 33 early states where the epidemic was over by June, and 14 late states where the epidemic now is ending.  Every week in America about 51,000 people die from all causes.  This number rises and falls during the winter due to flu-like illnesses and goes back to baseline in the summer.  No one panics about it, and most people don't even realize that it happens.  This year was worse than normal, but we've almost returned to baseline.  But this year — everyone panicked!

The Editor says...
Yes, "everyone panicked" because the sensationalist news media fanned the flames 24/7 for months.  If the news media had only mentioned Covid-19 in the same matter-of-fact manner that they mentioned Ebola when Obama was president, none of the lockdowns would have happened, and the economy would still be roaring.

Charts compare COVID deaths in countries that used hydroxychloroquine early and those that didn't.  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile, the left's successful war against hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) rages on. [...] It has been my personal quest to find some hard proof that compares countries that have widely used HCQ early in the pandemic with those who did not.  Some key data finally emerged from a site devoted to climate change in a 23 August article by Leo Goldstein titled "Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Treatment, Actual Usage in the USA."  The needed comparisons were found in one of the author's references, titled ["]Early treatment with hydroxychloroquine: a country-based analysis.["]  This is not an easy report to read, but it does provide some easy-to-understand visual comparisons between the countries known to have very limited use of HCQ use and those with widespread early HCQ use.

The Big COVID Con Exposed.  In the past week, two pillars of the COVID Con collapsed:  deaths and positive tests.  Back in April, the news was all about death counts.  Fox News ran a death tally on the screen, much like the running score of football game.  Cable news shows talked about nothing but rising death counts, spreading fear porn to justify recommendations for staying at home and shutting down the U.S. economy.  The first crack in the pillar occurred in early May when task force member Dr. Birx claimed, "There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust."  She believed the CDC was inflating Wuhan flu mortality by as much as 25 percent.  The pillar of COVID deaths crumbled just days ago when the CDC updated their mortality numbers to reflect deaths "from COVID" versus deaths "with COVID."  Death with COVID means that George Floyd is counted a COVID death because he tested positive at autopsy.  This is similar to the case of a Colorado man dying of alcohol poisoning but the death was later blamed on COVID. Washington public officials counted gunshot fatalities as COVID deaths.  The new CDC statistics show that only 6,640 deaths are due to COVID alone, rather than the commonly reported 164,280 deaths allegedly associated with COVID.

Pennsylvania mayor who banned indoor dining caught dining inside in Maryland, and chefs are roasting him.  Chefs and restaurant owners in Philadelphia are sizzling hot over a photo showing Mayor Jim Kenney, who banned indoor dining in Philly due to COVID-19, enjoying an indoor restaurant meal in Maryland.  The restaurant is owned by the mayor's friend; but the chefs fume that the mayor is a job-killing hypocrite.  6ABC in Philadelphia reports the mayor's office confirmed that he went to a friend's restaurant in Maryland on Sunday [8/30/2020].

The rules apply to you, not to her.
Pelosi used shuttered San Francisco hair salon for blow-out, owner calls it 'slap in the face'.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited a San Francisco hair salon on Monday afternoon for a wash and blow-out, despite local ordinances keeping salons closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News has learned.  In security footage obtained by Fox News, and timestamped Monday at 3:08 p.m. Pacific Time, the California powerhouse is seen walking through eSalon in San Francisco with wet hair, and without a mask over her mouth or nose.  The stylist doing her hair can be seen following her wearing a black face mask.  Salons in San Francisco had been closed since March and were only notified they could reopen on Sept. 1 for outdoor hairstyling services only.

Wake Up America.  You've Been Conned.  Only An Estimated 9,683 Covid-19 Only Deaths So Far In 2020, Not 180,000.  Oh.  You mean America is not undergoing a pandemic?  On average, abut 8000 people die per day from all causes in the United States.  In the first 8 months of 2020 there were only ~1200 excess deaths per month or 40 extra deaths per day exclusively due to COVID-19 coronavirus infections, with 80% of those among American age 65 and older.  By extrapolation, there were only ~8 excess COVID-19 only deaths per day among working-age adults and school-age children.  Translation:  of the 161,392 accumulated COVID-19 RELATED deaths reported as of August 22, 2020 (80% being among Americans age 75 and older), only 6% or ~9683 accumulated deaths were classified as COVID-19 only.  Among these COVID-19 only deaths, ~60% were age 75 and older; 80% were age 65 and older.

Charlie Baker should become a Democrat and stop kidding himself.  Why doesn't Gov. Charlie Baker just get it over with and switch parties and become a Democrat?  By the numbers, he's the worst governor in America.  Highest unemployment rate in the U.S.:  16.1%.  Third-highest death rate in the U.S.:  131 per 100,000.  Of the 8,791 deaths in Massachusetts, 5,781 have been in the nursing homes the governor is responsible for keeping safe.  And the nursing-home slaughter continues unabated — 26 of the last 36 deaths this week have occurred in those same death houses whose operators gave $52,000 to the governor Joe Biden calls "Charlie Parker."  Average age of Massachusetts decedents:  85.  Charlie Parker's prescription?  Pinball machines (but not casinos) shut down, no high-school athletics.  And now his latest overreach — mandatory flu shots for most children over the age of six months.  No hearings, no legislation, no expiration date — just another imperious, tyrannical order, to be enforced selectively against any parent who gets out of line and needs to be slapped down, like a gym owner who wants to reopen.

A look at the weekly CDC report on "COVID-19" deaths and what it really means.  This weekend, there was a great deal of social media discussion on a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) table that releases information on reported deaths that were or were presumed to be from the Wuhan coronavirus.  I would have shared with Legal Insurrection readers the tweet that got the discussion started, but the Masters of Twitter decided it did not meet their standards.  Therefore, I will begin by highlighting the source material for the discussion, the CDC's Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics — Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). [...]

DOJ Seeks Data from Four States That Issued COVID-19 Orders for Nursing Home Deaths.  On Wednesday [8/26/2020], the Department of Justice issued a press release announcing the data requests from Governors of States that issued COVID-19 orders that may have resulted in deaths of elderly nursing home residents.

New Report Suggests COVID Cases were Overblown by... 90 Percent!?  Remember how we were told to "trust the experts" and to shutdown our entire way of life out of "an abundance of caution"?  Remember how we just needed "15 days to flatten the curve" in order to "slow the spread" and stop hospitals from being flooded with coronavirus patients?  Recall all businesses which have been ruined or altogether erased from our economy?  Remember the destruction wrought on people's lives? [...] And, at least according to the latest from The New York Times, which is hardly an anti-masking crowd, as many as 90% of people who tested "positive" for COVID-19 carried "insignificant" amounts of the virus and were likely not contagious. [...] What went so wrong?  Firstly, people bought into COVID-PANIC hook, line and sinker with nary a critical thought to the bigger picture.  Here's looking at you mask-nazis.  At least you can one day recycle that dirty cloth mask to wipe the egg off your face.  But second to that, turns out the testing methods were too sensitive.

You're Still Exempt.  Just Say "I Am Unable to Wear a Face Mask Safely." Nothing More.  Many millions cannot safely wear a face mask.  With the one-size-fits-all face mask approaches, this presents a problem.  Those who can't safely wear a face mask are pressured into wearing one, to their own detriment, or they are alternately, discouraged from using vital services due to the heavy-handed enforcement measures that place personal safety secondary at best.  The reasons for not being able to safely wear a face mask are many:  from obvious issues such as chronic lung ailments and terminal heart conditions, to less obvious issues like panic attacks, dyspnea (shortness of breath), angina (chest pains), cephalalgia (headaches), migraines, internal physical deformations from injuries, or genetic abnormalities.  Since my previous writing on the topic, in addition to my own experience, I have received many correspondences from people crossing face mask compliance checkpoints and sharing what works and doesn't work for them.

Why would the FDA ban a drug that safely saves the lives of patients?  Aimed at getting to the bottom of the disparity between doctors' pro and con beliefs regarding the use of hydroxychloroquine to fight the Wuhan virus, on Sunday, August 23, radio talk show host Mark Levin had Dr. Harvey Risch on as one of his cable show guests.  Risch, a distinguished cancer epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, has published over 300 papers and is viewed in the medical profession as an expert at evaluating research data.  Risch, who recently wrote a review article in the American Journal of Epidemiology that cites evidence that he believes supports hydroxychloroquine's use on an outpatient basis against the Wuhan virus, told Levin that the evidence that the drug has saved many lives is "overwhelming."  He also stated that there are studies that indicate no harmful effects using the medicine under strict protocol — something the FDA did not consider when it evaluated the drug.

Examples Of Word Inflation And Effective Ways To React.  As a diligent student of the contemporary face mask orders, it is my strong recommendation that every reader of a compliance order view the word "mandatory" when spoken by a bureaucrat or functionary as "recommended."  The phrase "Absolutely no exceptions!" means "Mask are advised, talk with us if that's a problem."  "You will be fined if you don't comply!!!" means "We'd really like you to wear your mask, but we probably have no legal authority nor the will to fine you, especially if you claim any of the eight different exemptions to this policy, but we'd just like to express to you, and mainly to our insurance company, how incredibly serious we are about this policy, like literally."

It seems that the Wuhan virus's risks have been grossly exaggerated.  Without the Wuhan virus, the Democrats have no meaningful opposition to Trump.  Not only have the Democrats weaponized the Wuhan virus to destroy the economies under their aegis, but they've also repeatedly claimed that Trump killed 161,000 Americans.  However, new CDC data show that, of those Americans who died in the past seven months, only 6% died from the virus alone.  The other 94% had serious comorbidities that (sadly) put them at a higher risk of death from anything that came along — and certainly from having sick people funneled into their nursing homes. [...] When the dust settles on the year 2020, we will finally accept that the United States shut down the greatest economy in the world, that the governors in the worst hit states issued executive orders turning their nursing homes into death traps, and that we significantly increased deaths from otherwise treatable illnesses — all because of a bad flu.  It's understandable that, in the beginning, as the ugly scenes from Wuhan province emerged, we may have panicked and, in retrospect, overreacted.  Thinking back to the early days, the plan was not to overreact.  It was, instead, to have a limited, two-week lockdown to flatten the curve.  Six months later, Democrats states are still flattening that curve without letup.

Shelley Luther, Dallas hair salon owner who defied Covid-19 shutdown, is running for office in Texas.  Dallas hair salon owner Shelley Luther is running for state senate in Texas to represent local business owners and individuals who want to make their own informed decisions during the pandemic.  Luther, a Republican, appears to be pro-choice as far as freedom of movement and face masks are concerned.  Moreover, Luther described Gov. Greg Abbott's statewide mask mandate as "ridiculous" and believes that any further measures related to COVID should be subject to the approval by the state legislature "otherwise, we'll turn into a communist state."  "I feel like if a business owner wants to require a mask to come in, then that's their right," she told Texas native Will Cain on Fox & Friends.

CDC: Just 6% of Covid Deaths Occurred Without Co-Morbidities.  This past week the CDC finally seemed to get fed up with the coronavirus hysteria that has existed in this country since March.  First, the CDC released new guidelines saying there was no need for asymptomatic people to get tested if they were otherwise young and healthy.  That's even if you were exposed to someone who had tested positive for the virus.  Then the CDC put up on their official website the following details for people who have covid symptoms:  "If you have symptoms of COVID-19 and want to get tested, call your healthcare provider first.  Most people will have mild illness and can recover at home without medical care and may not need to be tested."  So, yeah, the CDC is telling you to treat covid like any other illness.  Stay home if you're sick, you'll probably be fine.  That's because for most people covid is a mild illness.  If, however, you get sick enough to need treatment, go seek treatment.  This is the advice we should have had since March.  And in retrospect we should have never, ever shut down at all.

CDC says of coronavirus: 'for 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned' — Twitter called this false information.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released information which revealed that the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths were the result of underlying health conditions, called comorbidities.  President Trump tweeted out this information, which is directly stated on the CDC website, but Twitter took down the tweet, saying that it was false information.  According to CBS, Trump's retweet said that "the CDC 'quietly updated the Covid number; to show a small fraction of all deaths — 6% — from the coronavirus were 'actually' a result of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.  The vast majority of deaths, the post claimed, were because of 'other serious illnesses.'"

Getting to the bottom of Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home scandal.  Janice Dean reports on the weather for Fox News.  She lost both of her in-laws to the Wuhan coronavirus.  Both contracted the disease at long-term care facilities, but her mother in-law died at a hospital.  New York apparently does not include cases like the mother-in-law's in totaling up the nursing home death count.  Thus, New York is under-counting the number of deaths that arose at such facilities.  Dean has long wanted to testify about New York state's disastrous response to the coronavirus in nursing homes.  However, she was removed from the witness list for a hearing by the legislature on this subject.  Dean says a Republican New York Senator told her the Democrat majority was "uncomfortable having [her] as a witness."  Dean believes the majority was responding to pressure from Governor Cuomo or his associates.  Cuomo's office denies the charge.

Sturgis mass testing results announced.  The City of Sturgis conducted mass COVID testing for its citizens after welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors for the 80th annual Motorcycle Rally.  Now, the city is announcing the results.  A total of 650 people took advantage of the free testing, with 26 people testing positive for COVID-19.  All of them were asymptomatic at the time of testing.

CNN and Twitter Target President Trump and The Gateway Pundit.  CNN and Twitter are at it again.  Today CNN slandered President Trump and the Gateway Pundit and encouraged Twitter to take down a tweet based on CDC data that the President retweeted.  CNN and Twitter don't want Americans to know the full truth about COVID-19.  Last night we posted an article about COVID-19[.] [...] The gist of the article is that COVID-19 is not nearly as deadly as first projected by the WHO and then by Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx.  Based on CDC numbers this past week only 6% of all deaths attributed to COVID-19 were instances where the only factor in the individual's death was due to COVI9-19.

This Week CDC Quietly Updated COVID-19 Numbers — Only 9,210 Americans Died From COVID-19 Alone - The Rest Had Different Other Serious Illnesses.  [Scroll down]  Today we now have empirical evidence that the WHO, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx were all wrong.  They were charlatans.  They lied.  The CDC silently updated their numbers this week to show that only 6% of all coronavirus deaths were related to the coronavirus alone.  The rest of the deaths pinned to the China coronavirus are attributed to individuals who had other serious issues going on.  Also, most of the deaths are related to very old Americans. [...] Not only are the number of deaths related to the China coronavirus minuscule, the virus is naturally dying out.

A Tyranny Perpetual and Universal?  Nothing has made this clearer than the COVID-19 lockdowns, mask mandates, and other executive directives by governors and mayors who make no pretense of even consulting legislative bodies, much less going to the trouble of passing actual laws.  They just decree what they want, and that's that.  Americans initially were willing to go along because they feared that COVID-19 would turn out to be what the ruling class and the "experts" still lyingly insist that it is: a once-in-a-century plague primed to kill millions within months.  By now it's obvious that this virus is not that.  But the "state of exception" remains.  Will we ever get our liberties back?  And if so, how many and to what extent? [...] Whatever COVID-19 is, its effects so far in no way justify the measures taken allegedly to stop it.

Democratic senator says Trump 'deliberately killing people' by holding rallies.  Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Saturday [8/29/2020] President Trump is "deliberately killing people" with his rallies amid the coronavirus pandemic.  "Can we take the gloves off and tell the truth?  Trump is deliberately killing people," Murphy wrote on Twitter.  "He holds rallies where people get infected.  On Thursday, no social distancing or masks, sending a clear message that the CDC should be ignored."  "His plan is to kill people.  Let's just say it," Murphy continued.  On Friday, the president held a rally in New Hampshire for supporters, however masks were mandatory as were temperature checks.

The Editor says...
[#1] Think about it.  Why would President Trump kill his own supporters?  [#2] Where is the Senator's concern for the spread of coronavirus among the rioters in Democrat-controlled cities?  [#3] The pandemic (if it ever was a pandemic) was over at least a month ago.

Oops: It Looks Like the Vast Majority of Positive COVID Results Should Have Been Negative.  Testing, testing, testing — that's how Pelosi and the Democrats say we'll defeat the coronavirus.  Meanwhile, President Trump and his administration are conducting "operation warp speed" at breakneck pace to develop therapeutics, diagnostics, and a vaccine for the Wuhan flu.  Unlike testing, treatments will actually do something for you when you come down sick with the disease.  But now we're learning the overwhelming majority of those who have tested positive for the coronavirus should really have been found negative after all.

Scandal-ridden WHO 'listening in' on online conversations to counter 'fake COVID-19 news'.  The scandal-plagued World Health Organization (WHO) is working with an analytics company to "social listen" and monitor "millions" of people's social media accounts to combat "coronavirus misinformation."  According to an August 25 WHO news post titled "Immunizing the public against misinformation," the WHO, which is the health arm of the United Nations, claims there is "an overabundance of information and the rapid spread of misleading or fabricated news, images, and videos" regarding the coronavirus.  "We're not just battling the virus," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying in the news release.  "We're also battling the trolls and conspiracy theorists that push misinformation and undermine the outbreak response."

Joe Biden's unserious pandemic response.  If it were up to Joe Biden, the national shutdown implemented due to the coronavirus pandemic would never end.  When he accepted the nomination for president on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, he promised that if elected, he would pass a federal mask mandate as part of his effort to defeat the virus.  "It's a patriotic duty," he declared.  Of course, Biden didn't bother to elaborate on this proposed mandate or explain how his administration would enforce it — because he knows that such a heavy-handed restriction would be legally dubious and almost impossible to enforce.

De Blasio's inability to make a decision could be death knell for NYC restaurants.  City restaurateurs reacted with shock and disbelief to Mayor de Blasio's lack of urgency to reopen eating places indoors — an industry that employs over 300,000 people and is an indispensable part of the Big Apple's social and business fabric.  More than 1,000 of the city's 25,000 sit-down eateries have closed since the start of the pandemic — and a prolonged shutdown without a blueprint to reopen threatens to sink many more by winter's end.  "When outdoor dining is done, when PPP loans and SBA loans are spent, it's over," said Aquavit owner Hakan Swahn.  "Any restaurant will quickly run out of cash.  Without indoor dining and any additional government financial assistance we will not be open very long."

South Bay Baptist Pastor Fined for Violating Ban on Indoor Church Services.  A Santa Clara pastor posted a video this week after being slapped with $10,000 in fines for violating the health order.  "This is not a hot spot, we were told that thousands were going to die," said North Valley Baptist Church pastor Jack Trieber.  "There's not a pandemic here."  In the nine-minute video, Trieber uses the county's death rate to justify opening his doors to his congregation.  As of Thursday, the county reported 16,607 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 240 deaths.  Trieber was fined $5,000 twice over the weekend for holding indoor services and singing, which are both against the state's order.  According to the Mercury News, the pastor was fined another $5,000 on Wednesday for, once again, holding indoor services.

Moderna and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidates require ultra-low temperatures, raising questions about storage, distribution.  The COVID-19 vaccine candidates being developed by Moderna Inc. and BioNTech and Pfizer Inc. will require stringent standards for refrigeration, and that may hamper how they are distributed to the hundreds of millions of Americans expecting to receive them.  Shares of Moderna fell 3.5% in trading on Thursday [8/27/2020], following a rally on Wednesday after the company's disclosure that people older than 55 years old who participated in the Phase 1 trial had demonstrated neutralizing antibody titers.  Pfizer's stock was down 0.5% in Thursday trading, while BioNTech tumbled 3.4%.

Don't Get Too Excited About a Coronavirus Vaccine.  In principle, testing a vaccine might seem simple — you give the vaccine to one group of subjects, a placebo to a second, then compare how many in each group develop COVID-19.  In practice, however, the process is diabolically complex.  Vaccine development raises many questions:  how well does the vaccine work?  (None is 100% effective.)  How much of the active material (antigen) should be in each dose?  Does one dose suffice to elicit immunity, or do you need two (as is the case for the second-generation shingles vaccine) or more (three were required for the first hepatitis B vaccine)?  Is the addition of an "adjuvant," a chemical booster, necessary to elicit a sufficient immune response?  How well does the vaccine work in the elderly, who are highly vulnerable to Covid-19 infection but who tend to mount a poor immune response?  Does immunity last long enough to make immunizing billions of people worthwhile?

Sun rising on role of Vitamin D in COVID-19 fight.  As a recent front-page Los Angeles Times report reminded us, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck America's second-largest city, its homeless population was viewed as a "time bomb" about to go off.  Estimated to be more than 41,000 individuals, beyond issues of shelter and food, many suffered from health problems that predispose them to severe illness.  It was projected that they were at risk of succumbing in high numbers to the worst ravages of COVID-19.  Yet, to date, according to the Times' Gale Holland, there has been little spread of the novel coronavirus in Los Angeles' street encampments.  "Of the more than 1,300 cases among homeless people in (entire) L.A. County, fatalities by mid-August stood at 31, a mortality rate comparable to or better than that of the overall population," she writes.  Throughout the state, as well as the nation, similar numbers related to the homeless are being recorded.  As experts look for explanations, it is believed that one reason for this outcome could be the environment where nearly three-quarters of LA's homeless people live — outside.

Kamala Harris promises national mask mandate if elected.  Kamala Harris said on Friday [8/28/2020] that a nationwide mask mandate would be among the first orders of business if she and Joe Biden were elected to the White House in November, calling it the "responsible" thing to do.  The Democratic vice presidential nominee expanded on the three-month plan that Biden has promised to enact if he won the White House, explaining that every American would be expected to wear a face covering amid the pandemic.  "Yes," Harris, 55, said when asked if that would be one of their first actions in power during an interview on NBC's "Today."  "It's a standard.  I mean, nobody's going to be punished," Harris continued when asked how it would be enforced.

The Editor says...
You might wonder, what's the point of a mandate if it's not enforced?  Such a "mandate" would be an excuse for low-level Democrat tyrants to perpetuate and enforce their own mask ordinances, with or without public hearings or referenda.    "It's a standard" means it's a way to tell the compliant from the non-compliant — the obedient from the disobedient.  The masks are all about conformity, not disease.

77 Positive NFL Coronavirus Tests Were a False Positive Due to 'Isolated Contamination'.  Over the weekend, 77 individuals from 11 NFL teams, including players, coaches and staff, tested positive for COVID-19.  The results led to altered practice schedules on Sunday, with affected players and coaches staying home and attending team meetings virtually, ESPN reported.  Then, the NFL retested the samples.  Retests of all 77 samples came back negative.  The NFL is currently testing its personnel daily using a firm called BioReference, which claimed the false positives were the result of an "isolated contamination" incident while the tests were being prepared.

New York's Big Brother Has Gone Bananas.  [Scroll down]  Last week, I flew into Buffalo. [...] Coming from Missouri, a state on New York's travel advisory, I had to fill out a two-sided form promising that I would quarantine in place for 14 days.  As if.  Missouri has had about 25 COVID-19 deaths per 100,00 people.  New York has had about 165.  In the western part of Missouri where I live, the rate is considerably lower.  No matter.  By some perverse calculation, my return to New York threatened to put the state's residents at some elevated risk.  To visit my own cottage, I had to promise not to be in public or otherwise leave the quarters that they have identified as "suitable." These "quarters" — how quaint — had to have "separate bathroom facilities for each individual or family group."  More than that, I had to have "access to a sink with soap and water, and paper towels." [...] Come what may, Cuomo has an assured place in history.  He will be the first head of a state to enact a costly, self-defeating law that absolutely no one will follow and, quite likely, no one will be punished for not following.

Germany Imposes Fine For All Non-Mask Wearers In New National Crackdown.  It should surprise nobody that this happens first within the EU.  While much of the world takes to mask-wearing more out of a social and health consciousness "most people are on board" type attitude, the government of Germany has announced fines as punishment for people not wearing them.  Chancellor Angela Merkel announced during a virtual meeting Thursday with state governors that almost the entire country will be under a 50 euros minimum ($59) fine for breaching the national mask mandate.  After the meeting it was announced that all federal states except the east's Saxony-Anhalt agreed on setting a minimum fine.

The Resistible Rise of Andrew Cuomo.  Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's transition from Albany's long-jowled bullyboy to America's lockdown lovebug was as swift as it was unlikely.  The Empire State early on had become America's coronavirus killing ground, and who would have thought a hero could emerge from that?  Especially one best known for bombast, a withering stare, backroom brawling, and the joy he derives from tormenting the hapless mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.  By midsummer, total coronavirus deaths in New York were far and away the highest in the nation — seven times those in Florida; nine times Texas's; and four times those in California, a state with a population more than twice that of New York.  Even so, the most trusted medical voice in America on the virus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was telling the country in July that because New York's numbers had fallen, the state "did it correctly." He said this even though he knew about New York's nursing-home calamity — a disastrously ill-considered Cuomo executive order that sent virus-infected patients directly from hospitals into nursing homes, where infections spread wildly and thousands died, quickly and quietly.  The governor, characteristically, blames others for the debacle, but the fact is that such things didn't happen elsewhere.

5-Year-Old with Autism Kicked off School Bus for Not Wearing Mask.  In Arizona, a school is facing backlash for its poor treatment of a 5-year-old student with autism who did not wear a mask on the bus for his first day of school, as reported by the New York Post.  On Wednesday [8/26/2020], Jack Griffith was heading to his first day of Kindergarten at Bush Elementary School in Mesa.  His mother, Beth, recalled to a local newspaper how Jack was nervous about his first day, but at the same time was excited to finally start school.  However, despite his condition being made known to the school, which had already arranged for him to be in a special-needs classroom, a bus driver refused to let Jack board the bus in the morning.  When Jack's parents, Beth and Troy, were told by the driver that Jack had to wear a mask in order to ride, Troy countered by pointing out that the school's guidelines had an exemption for students with special needs.

Is The Coronavirus Crisis Finally Over?  Much of America has been in some phase or another of a lockdown since the middle of March.  Most of us want to know when we can return to normal.  But the officials who have cooped us up, shut down businesses, ruined personal finances, outlawed gatherings, and created an environment of fear won't tell us when we'll be free of their grip.  To call our situation discouraging is to understate the case.  Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control's most recently posted data set are reason for optimism, though.  The chart below shows the most current figures available, through the week of Aug. 15.

The Editor says...
In the chart above, notice that the number of deaths nationwide always surges in the winter.  That's one reason why a few degrees of global warming wouldn't be all that bad.

Lockdowns and Mask Mandates Do Not Lead to Reduced COVID Transmission Rates or Deaths, New Study Suggests.  A new National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper by Andrew Atkeson, Karen Kopecky, and Tao Zha focused on countries and U.S. states with more than 1,000 COVID deaths as of late July.  In all, the study included 25 U.S. states and 23 countries. [...] The paper's conclusion is that the data trends observed above likely indicate that nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) — such as lockdowns, closures, travel restrictions, stay-home orders, event bans, quarantines, curfews, and mask mandates — do not seem to affect virus transmission rates overall.  Why?  Because those policies have varied in their timing and implementation across countries and states, but the trends in outcomes do not.

Democrats May Have Violated Civil Rights By Forcing Nursing Homes to Admit COVID-Positive Patients.  On Wednesday [8/26/2020], the Department of Justice (DOJ) formally requested COVID-19 data from Democrat governors who required nursing homes to admit patients who had previously tested positive for the disease caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.  "Protecting the rights of some of society's most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country's most important obligations," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband said in a statement.  "We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk."

Judge once again refuses to shut down in-person worship at Los Angeles County church.  Earlier this week, we looked at the story of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California and Pastor John MacArthur's battle with the county and the state over holding in-person, indoor services at his church.  Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff had ruled in favor of the church based on the fact that there were "no previous court rulings" forbidding the church from holding such services.  But at the same time, the judge left open the question of whether or not the county could impose fines of up to $20,000 on the church for violating executive orders issued by the county government regarding large assemblies during the pandemic.  Now the second round of appeals has been heard and Judge Beckloff appears content to allow things to continue as they have been thus far.  The county had moved to request a restraining order on the pastor, preventing him from continuing to hold indoor services.  The judge shot them down yet again, but he still failed to rule on the larger question of whether or not the county's rules violated the church's First Amendment rights.  Instead, he went with yet another technical argument.

The COVID Testing Scam Was Just Exposed in One Graph.  [Scroll down]  Businesses are also being forced to stay closed or limit the number of patrons due to manufactured hysteria over a rise in case numbers that occurred while testing was massively increasing.  In Maine, the Governor is even forcing restaurant workers to wear their COVID shields upside down attached to a collar like a dog cone!  [Illustration]  And, again, since people without symptoms aren't spreading the virus, the continued decimation of the entire restaurant industry and concomitant destruction of people's ability to earn their daily bread serves no legitimate purpose even if the "second wave" of COVID infections were real.  Given that the virus only poses a real threat to the elderly and antecedently ill, all we ever needed to do was keep sick people away from them instead of, you know, forcing infected patients into nursing homes like the man Anthony Fauci singled out for doing such a bang-up job handling the virus, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did.  But, just like Congress and the DOJ, let's totally ignore that the U.S. officials charged with guarding public health engaged in a deliberate campaign of disinformation in order to get Americans to accept a bunch of completely unnecessary restrictions that rained down untold hardship, misery, and death.

Oregon Business Owner Says State Forces Him to Discriminate Against Certain Customers, Levies Huge Fine.  The only pharmacy in a sparsely populated Oregon county has come under scrutiny by the state's Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) for failing to enforce mask regulations on customers.  The owners are now speaking out, saying that the State of Oregon is requiring them to discriminate against the large number of customers they serve who also have disabilities.  In addition, OSHA has slapped them with $10,000 in fines.

We could 'beat' COVID-19 before a vaccine is ready.  Is a vaccine the only way to return to normal after COVID-19? New research into the virus suggests not — that the infection rate may drop to tiny levels before then.  Since the spring, scientists have known the virus's infection fatality rate — how many people it kills compared to the number it infects — is under 1 percent, perhaps as low as 0.2 percent.  That lower figure translates into one death for every 500 people infected.  We have also known that deaths are seriously skewed by age.  The media says older people are at "more" risk from the novel coronavirus than younger people.  That's true, but it understates the reality.  Most people do not realize that the risks to people over 80 are hundreds or thousands of times higher than those younger people face.  The fatality rate for children, meanwhile, is very small.

Northwestern University asks Evanston residents to report students who ignore COVID-19 precautions in off-campus gatherings.  Northwestern University's campus in Evanston is going to feel less crowded this fall, with residence hall capacity reduced to about 70% and more than half of all employees still working from home, school officials said Tuesday [8/25/2020]. [...] As universities nationwide navigate reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, a large share of student infections have been traced to illicit off-campus gatherings, forcing some schools to abandon plans for in-person learning.  Mona Dugo, interim dean of students, said NU is taking a stricter approach to policing off campus behavior this year and will urge students to act on behalf of the most vulnerable members of their community.  NU plans to offer a mix of online, remote and a small portion of face-to-face classes — but only to students who abide by the rules. [...] Dugo said that anyone who sees students failing to comply with public health precautions can report incidents to her office using an online form.  Dugo said the forms should include specific details and even photo evidence so NU can follow up.

Also posted under Snitch on your neighbor.

Oregon governor considers releasing 400 prisoners as coronavirus precaution: report.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is considering commuting the sentences of as many as 400 prisoners in the state's detention centers as a coronavirus precaution, according to reports.  The move would come as police in the state's largest city, Portland, have their hands full with nightly riots and destruction for three straight months — with protests in other cities as well.  The prisoners eyed for early release would include those who are within two months of the end of their sentences — as well as about a dozen inmates deemed "medically vulnerable" to the virus, OregonLive.com reported.

Department of Justice wants COVID-19 data on Michigan nursing home deaths.  The U.S. Department of Justice says it wants "COVID-19 data" from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as it examines executive orders during the pandemic that "may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents."  The Wednesday move escalates a long-brewing fight over policies implemented by some governors to care for elderly individualswith the virus in nursing homes amid fears of hospitals being overrun.  The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is evaluating whether to launch investigations under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects the rights of persons in state-run nursing homes, a press release said.

Celebs Attending VMAs Exempt From NY Quarantine.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will exempt celebrities attending the Video Music Awards from out of state from his own COVID-19 quarantine orders, city officials confirmed to the New York Post this week.  The event will take place on Sunday at several outdoor venues "with limited or no audience" and will feature performances from prominent singers Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and others.

Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Treatment, Actual Usage in the USA.  [Scroll down]  The analysis was focused on Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).  This study has found that Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was used for the treatment of COVID-19 in the US since January 2020.  From January to August 16, 13.5% of COVID-19 patients ages 40+ were prescribed Hydroxychloroquine in the US.  The New England and Middle Atlantic census divisions suffered from the largest COVID-19 mortality and accounted for most COVID-19 deaths from mid-March through mid-June.  This study has found that they had the lowest utilization of HCQ (average 6.1% for patients ages 40+) in the matching period early March [to] late May.

Ron Paul:  More Experts Concede:  Covid Lockdowns Were A Disaster.  From mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal to top government health advisors in the UK, a consensus is building that the sledgehammer of Covid lockdowns has been an unmitigated disaster.  It's good news that more mainstream sources are coming our way, but the dark forces of authoritarianism are not about to release their grasp so easily.  Also today — Plasma treatment is getting the HCQ treatment in the MSM and New York sees introduction of mandatory detention and vaccine bill[.]  [Video clip]

Five COVID-19 Charts Democrats Can't Let You Know About.  If the Democratic National Convention made anything clear, it is that Democrats are entirely invested in making the coronavirus pandemic look worse than it is in the United States.  Almost every speaker decried the response and blamed President Donald Trump for the scale of the disease in the country. [...] But the number of infections and deaths is meaningless out of context.  What matters is how many have died per capita, how many who've been infected have succumbed to the disease and where the trends are right now.  When you do that, the picture looks far less bleak. [...] Democrats don't want you to know any of this, and neither does the Trump-hating press.

Biden off on another planet:  Charts show the U.S. is beating the coronavirus.  What planet does Joe Biden live on?  In his campaign for president, he's promised more lockdowns if the "experts" tell him to do it, maybe permanent lockdown, lockdown as a lifestyle, which means shutting down the entire country.  It's bizarre stuff, given that it's already been done, with plenty of unintended consequences.  It's a supposed leadership redo of President Trump's supposedly bad leadership on COVID.  This, according to Joe, is how one really does it, so rewind the reel to March 2020 and let him start the lockdowns from there as if nothing had at all changed.

Corruption Cries Mount Over Pandemic Spending in El Salvador.  On August 9, the website on which the El Salvador government publishes all of the country's contract expenditures suddenly went dark.  The shutdown came amid allegations of corruption by the administration of President Nayib Bukele related to coronavirus spending.  When the website came back online, all information pertaining to the Bukele presidency had been eliminated, El Diario De Hoy reported.  The information was removed a day after Salud Con Lupa, an investigative news site focused on health care in Latin America, published a report alleging that Bukele's health minister, Francisco Alab', had spent $50,000 to remodel his office during the pandemic.  An investigation by Gato Encerrado also revealed that Alab' gave a $225,000 contract for rubber boots to an auto parts company of which his aunt is president.  The boots were part of emergency spending measures for medical supplies.

'No jab, no play' [is] the wrong approach to COVID-19 vaccine, doctors warn.  Doctors are urging governments not to compel Australians to get a COVID-19 vaccine, warning the fast-tracked approval process could create a risk of harmful side effects.  Australian Medical Association President Omar Khorshid said while the peak body was "very supportive of vaccination generally because of its extensive science behind the safety, it's not going to be the case for a COVID vaccine, at least initially."

Woman in Australia jailed for six months over quarantine breach.  A woman has been jailed for six months in Australia for breaching coronavirus quarantine rules.  Asher Faye Vander Sanden, 28, had spent a month in the state of Victoria, which has been hit heavily by Covid-19.  She was permitted to fly home to Perth, Western Australia, and quarantine in a hotel for 14 days at her own expense.  But she instead arrived secretly in the state in a truck and stayed at her partner's home, where she was later arrested.  In Western Australia, people found to have broken quarantine laws face a maximum penalty of 12 months' imprisonment or a $50,000 (£27,000) fine.

The Wrong-Way Washington Post Inadvertently Admits Trump Saved Over 900,000 Lives From Virus.  On March 19th of this year The Post predicted this for 2020:  "In the worst-case scenario, America is on a trajectory toward 1.1 million deaths."  As this is written this last week of August, Fox News reports that there have thus far been 176,816 thousand deaths in the United States from the COVID virus since the virus first arrived in America in January.  Doing the math?  Subtract the actual 176,816 deaths from The Post prediction of 1.1 million deaths — and that means there has been no "worst-case scenario" and that the Trump administration's relentless efforts to control the spread of the virus has in fact saved the lives of 923,184 Americans.

COVID's Gonna Do What Viruses Do.  Viruses do what viruses do, regardless of the pronouncement of pandemic modelers, elected officials, or the all-knowing Dr. Fauci.  And this won't end until the movie ends on November 4.  A recent article in Scientific American put it succinctly, "The only job of this virus is to replicate itself.  It will make its way through all the susceptibles that it can find."  The Wuhan virus is not racist, sexist, or phobic toward any political identity group, despite claims to the contrary by the left.  It is not interested in diversity, tolerance, reparations, or wokeness.  In the early days we heard incessantly about "flattening the curve."  In terms of official policy, the White House set forth a plan in mid-March, "15 days to slow the spread."  President Trump announced this initiative from the podium along with a somber looking Dr. Fauci and other task force members.  Interestingly when the virus was at its worst, Dr. Fauci didn't feel it necessary to don a large mask, unlike now when the pandemic is losing steam.

Conservative lawmakers want to impeach Gov. Mike DeWine over COVID-19 response.  Some of Ohio's most conservative lawmakers want to impeach Gov. Mike DeWine over how he's handled the novel coronavirus.  But new Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, said impeachment isn't the right path forward, effectively killing the effort on the same day it was pitched.  Cupp said the impeachment effort was an "imprudent attempt" to escalate disagreement with the governor to "a state constitutional crisis."

Democrats plan to project COVID-19 deaths outside DC hall holding RNC events.  As Republicans deliver convention speeches at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Democrats plan to use a projector to cast a slideshow about the ever-rising number of coronavirus cases and deaths outside the historic building.

The Editor says...
The Democrats hope to convince easily-duped voters that the presence of the coronavirus is the fault of President Trump.  Anyone who spends two minutes away from the television to think for himself can see that's not true.

Get on with your lives!  Professor says as coronavirus 'not as deadly as first thought'.  Coronavirus is not as deadly as was thought and the public fear that is stopping the country returning to normal is unfounded, a leading expert says.  Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, called for the government to intervene and "proactively reassure the population". [...] Professor Heneghan — whose work led to a lowering of the official death toll after he revealed Covid deaths were being counted even if someone had subsequently died of other causes — spoke as he released new data revealing the infection fatality rate had fallen from 2-3 percent in the height of the pandemic to 0.3 [percent].  He said if the downward trend continues the pandemic may end up no worse than a bad flu season.  Reasons for the fall, he said, could not only be down to the consequences of lockdown because cases are continuing to drop despite society opening up.

We are the victims of the greatest crime in history.  International best-selling author, Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA, explains how governments have used mind control techniques to manipulate us during this alleged crisis.  [Video clip]

From DNC Irony to Parody.  There is one rule that Governor Andrew Cuomo should follow in all discussions of COVID-19.  Given his own disastrous record, he should never claim success in battling the virus by disparaging the successes of other states or nations in combating the contagion, especially on the basis of deaths per million residents. [...] Cuomo demanded all sorts of instant federal relief.  He screamed nightly about the need for thousands of ventilators.  He wanted a federal hospital ship, a tent city hospital, and stocks of protective equipment.  So terrified of repercussions over his prior laxity and so clueless as to the proper course of action and so eager to get infected patients out of sight and out of mind, Cuomo both praised Trump's cooperation to the skies as his wish list was granted and ordered rest homes and assisted living centers to admit active COVID-19 patients.  The result was predictable: somewhere between 10,000-15,000 previously uninfected residents died needlessly from the virus.  What did Cuomo do then?  In the best tradition of progressive projection — accuse others of what one is guilty of — Cuomo immediately quashed investigations into his role in the tragedy.

Now Democrats Are Stuck With Biden.  [Scroll down]  Now there's no getting rid of Joe van Winkle; he's locked in when he should be locked up.  His first post-speech media confab, even with Kamala right by his side, super-friendly interviewer David Muir spoon-feeding him his mush, and a shock collar under his shirt, was a disaster.  The headline is that three months from now, he wants to order us into face thongs again.  Huh?  So many unasked follow-up questions come to mind, like "What about a guy alone hunting elk in Montana?" or "What part of the Constitution gives the president the authority to order us into cough burqas?"  Biden insists he would do what the scientists tell him, and you have to wonder which scientists, since a bunch of them think this pandemic paranoia is stupid — you just have trouble finding that out since his Big Tech masters do their best to squelch dissent.  Does he disagree with Dr. Fauci?  Dr. Fauci insists Trump has taken all his recommendations (for better or worse).  So, we should ignore Dr. Fauci now?

Contact tracing app at Michigan college is a surveillance-state nightmare.  Make way for the U.S.S.A. — the United Surveillance States of America.  And it's all due to COVID-19.  A contact tracing app that administrators at a college in Michigan forced on all students as a condition of their presence on campus not only identifies the app user by name — not only pinpoints the app user by geographic location — not only generates a specific code that labels the app user as either "certified" or "denied," based on required coronavirus test results — but also sends an alert to school bureaucrats about "denied" students behaving against COVID-19 protocols.  Administrators then, in turn, can lock these students' identification cards remotely and prevent them from accessing certain buildings and campus facilities.  Think about that for a moment.  An app that tattles; hmm, what could go wrong?

Farmers' Market:  Worse Than Hitler!  Edition.  Now that people have been conditioned to automatically don masks that is no longer sufficient to virtue signal how much your local officials care about your safety.  So now the good people running the Saturday market have the larger vendors barricading their produce from the riff raff (us) displayed on their tables behind orange plastic construction/snow fencing.  [Illustration]  I wish I was kidding but I am not.  It is there to prevent you from touching anything.  So now the process of buying tomatoes consists of queuing up safely (behind your face mask) to wait your turn to point at the size, color, variety you wish to exchange for cash — which is, surprisingly, still accepted and returned to customers as (contaminated) change.  But that's not the worst of it.  The local Nazi squad has also implemented a one way only traffic flow through the market — also to "keep you safe."

Trump Announces FDA's Emergency Use Authorization For Convalescent Plasma Treatment.  President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma in treating patients with coronavirus, expanding access to a potentially lifesaving therapy.  "Today I'm pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives," he told reporters gathered in the White House briefing room.  "The FDA has issued an emergency use authorization and that's such a powerful term, emergency use authorization for a treatment known as convalescent plasma."  The treatment involves injecting coronavirus patients with the liquid portion of blood containing coronavirus antibodies, and Trump urged any Americans who were diagnosed with coronavirus "to go to Coronavirus.gov and sign up and donate plasma today."

In the Soup!  [Scroll down]  As for everyone else, it's time to get back to being Americans ourselves.  Take off the [...] mask and start asking your governor what right he/she has to demand this sacrifice.  In the early days, well, no one knew what was going on, but now, there is no defense for a mask mandate.  There is no defense to keep businesses closed.  Whatever sense that might have made in the early days has been destroyed by now, repudiated.  A certain amount of people will die from this virus as die from every virus that enters a free and open society and there is nothing to be done about it.  We can wear all of the masks we want, shut down all of the businesses we want and yet, when they are ultimately opened up again, there will be a spike in cases and the few individuals who have been spared a few months will contract the virus and go through the process of overcoming it or dying from it.  I don't know why we thought that in 2020 we could do something other than suffer these losses as we have during every other pandemic in history, but we tried and failed.  The virus will pass through society and claim what it will claim and doing all of the economic damage we have done to ourselves will stand out as nothing more than some sort of ritual flagellation to prove ourselves socially pious.  What a waste.

Trump to reveal coronavirus 'breakthrough' therapeutic, WH press secretary says.  President Trump plans to hold a news conference Sunday evening regarding a potential major therapeutic "breakthrough" for treating the coronavirus.  The president will announce the development at 6 p.m., accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Dr. Stephen Hahn, head of the Food and Drug Administration, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany posted on Twitter late Saturday [8/22/2020].  Earlier in the day, the president suggested someone at the FDA was purposefully trying to delay clinical trials for therapeutics and vaccines for political purposes.

Biden Hasn't Tested for Covid as Campaign Enters Busiest Period.  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden hasn't been tested for coronavirus, a top aide said on Sunday, as the campaign enters its busiest period.  "He has not been tested," Kate Bedingfield, deputy manager for Biden's presidential campaign, said on ABC's "This Week."  "We have put the strictest protocols in place, and moving forward, should he need to be tested, he certainly would be."  She also said Biden hasn't had the virus, although it's not clear how this would be known without a test.

Did Biden's Deputy Campaign Manager Accidentally Reveal Why He's Hiding in His Basement?  Former Vice President Joe Biden has been hiding in his basement for months since the start of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. [...] Despite being asked about what they're doing, the Biden campaign has refused to answer whether or not the former vice president has been tested or came up positive for the Wuhan coronavirus.  Because of that, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield what's taking place. [...] Interestingly enough, Bedingfield said Biden hasn't had the virus, but he also has not been tested.  "We've put the strictest protocols in place and, moving forward, should he need to be tested, he certainly would be, but he has not been tested yet," she said. [...] If Biden hasn't been routinely tested for the Wuhan coronavirus, how do we know that he never had it?  Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are routinely tested for the virus out of an abundance of caution.  Shouldn't the same thing be happening with the Biden campaign?

Why isn't Joe Biden being tested for COVID-19?  Joe Biden has faced questions on his mental and physical acuity throughout his presidential bid.  For example, he first said he is cognitively tested 'all the time' and then clarified to say he has not had a formal cognitive test[.]  But there is a larger issue lingering over the 77-year-old — Joe Biden has not been tested for COVID-19.  Joe Biden receives Secret Service protection and intelligence briefings similar to that of the President.  So why is he refusing to be tested regularly, as the President is, for a highly contagious virus that has killed 173,000 Americans?  As of August 19, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of approximately 41,000 Americans aged between 74 and 85.  Joe Biden is an American aged between 74 and 85.  The last time Biden personally spoke about being tested was July 28, almost a full month ago.

Here Is Joe Biden's Worst Campaign Pitch If You Live In a State That Still Feels Like America.  Joe Biden has some awful ideas for those of us living in Georgia, Florida, or South Dakota.  For now, these states still feel like America despite COVID-19.  I can speak to Georgia specifically.  We have no statewide mask mandate, and leaders are not allowed to mandate them at the local level.  Businesses are open, with some requiring masks for service.  Other than that, life is 94% back to normal.  We have college football starting in the SEC with limited stadium attendance.  Outdoor festivals are back, and restaurants are operating indoors and leaving it up to patrons to determine their distancing preference.  We are going to the gym, and the kids are back in school.  If we stopped testing asymptomatic people, they would be highly likely to stay in school.

A Pandemic of Socialism.  In mid-March of 2020, the United States of America became a socialist country, despite President Trump's promise in his State of the Union address one year prior.  To those who lost their non-essential jobs, those who met empty shelves, those who discovered that their "free" education was too costly, those driven insane by incessant fear-mongering, and those faced with capricious and nonsensical restrictions — welcome to socialism.  Deceived by the arrogance of science and appeal to authority, or perhaps with false science to mask nefarious motives, public health and safety were used as a contrivance to replace liberty, freedom, and democracy with the Game of Socialism, in which (elected) tyrants play with our lives.  Do health and safety trump liberty and freedom, and must we sacrifice one for the other?

Here's Yet Another Graph That Shreds the COVID Lockdown Hysteria.  I admit that I overreacted to the coronavirus with the lockdown stuff.  Mid-March the Dow Jones lost close to 10,000 points in a week.  The daily 1,800-2,000-point drops were brutal and unsustainable.  Maybe a 15 [to] 20-day stay-at-home order was agreeable, but then these Democratic governors from King Murphy in New Jersey to Adolf Whitmer in Michigan kept tacking on arbitrary extensions.  No one knew anything.  We still don't, given that the so-called experts are too busy sewing panic and anti-Trump vitriol than studying the virus. [...] It's been an endless parade of nonsense.  Mayor Bill de Blasio first said that New York City schools would be closed, but the daycare centers would be open.  Makes no sense.  He also banned large gatherings, except Black Lives Matter protests.  Makes no sense.  And finally, tried to ban the 9/11 Memorial lighting ceremony over COVID concerns, whereas he has no qualms about the COVID cases that spiked... because of the mass protests.  And did I forget to mention that he ordered city officials in the contact tracing program to avoid asking new COVID patients if they were at any demonstrations?  Democrats are trash.  And lo and behold, we have a new graph based on data from New Zealand shows that cases reduced dramatically when the lockdowns were eased.

Where is the Wuhan virus researcher was named as Patient Zero?  The US government's leading health research body has raised a series of bombshell concerns over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and the activities of a secretive Chinese laboratory that was investigating bat diseases.  The National Institutes of Health has asked if Covid-19 was linked to the deaths of three miners eight years ago and questioned whether the high-security laboratory in Wuhan possessed samples of the virus prior to the pandemic's outbreak late last year.  The agency also demanded to know more about the 'apparent disappearance' of a scientist at the lab rumoured to be Patient Zero, and questioned if roadblocks were placed around the Wuhan Institute of Virology between October 14 and 19 last year.

It's time to organize protests, lawsuits against lockdowns and other COVID-19 mandates.  [Scroll down]  It's time to organize protests, file lawsuits, and engage in civil disobedience as a united group.  There are plenty of patriotic Americans who have done so already, but not nearly enough.  These "lone wolf conservatives," as I like to call them, need our support.  We MUST address this situation as an existential threat to the United States of America, the Constitution, and our future as a nation.  They said the pandemic was the existential threat.  It wasn't.  But these draconian mandates definitely are.  Suicides and drug overdoses are skyrocketing.  Destitution is rampant.  Jobs and businesses are being lost indefinitely.  The psychological effect this is having on adults but more dramatically on children is inexcusable.  We are destroying our nation and quashing our own future.  We're doing so because of a disease with a 99.96% recovery rate for everyone under the age of 40.  And yes, that includes those with pre-existing conditions.  If we were to eliminate those with co-morbidities from the statistics, the death rate would be infinitesimal.

Origin of the virus.  President Trump refers to COVID as the "China virus" or "Wuhan virus," but the Democrats have labored hard to shield China from any blame.  Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's running mate, introduced legislation condemning the phrases "Wuhan virus," "Chinese virus," and "Kung Flu," for perpetrating "anti-Asian stigma." And Governor Andrew Cuomo, in his featured speech at the Democrats' National Convention, insisted on calling it the "European virus."  The Democrats are so eager to obscure the virus's origin that Nancy Pelosi blocked a Congressional investigation into millions of U.S. tax dollars that went to Wuhan Institute of Virology.  However, Q has pointed to two items that may shed some light: the arrest of Dr. Charles Lieber, Chairman of Harvard University's Chemical and Chemical Biology Departments, for not disclosing his highly-paid research for Wuhan University of Technology, and an Australian study that indicated that the virus is man-made, and not of human origin.  These facts might indicate that American talent and tax dollars contributed to the laboratory creation of this virus in China, and that Democrats want to hide that information.

Whither Coronavirus?  Every year, tens of thousands of Americans die from the seasonal flu.  This has never been considered a crisis or emergency.  As COVID joins the ranks of around 150 viruses that are currently active worldwide, that number likely will rise for years to come.  On the other hand, given the extraordinary publicity that has been given to the Wuhan flu, it is likely that many more Americans will get flu shots, including Wuhan shots if and when they become available.  Perhaps that factor will balance out the addition of COVID to the roster of viruses.  In my opinion, the tragedy of the COVID-19 epidemic is that the inevitable damage done by the virus, which no plausible government action could have prevented, was compounded by hysteria.

Twenty (Uncomfortable) Questions.  [#12] So, you can protest, riot and loot, but I can't go to a 12-step meeting, a place of worship, or a gym?  Why are grocery stores a supposed sanctuary from the virus?  [#13] Why do people wear masks while they are alone in their cars?  [#14] Why are we supposed to trust Anthony Fauci, a man who was wrong about every element of the AIDS virus — from how it spreads and among which demographic groups to the likelihood of a vaccine 25 years ago — and who has repeatedly contradicted himself about the coronavirus?

Governor Cuomo Bans Dancing.  Governor Cuomo has become Reverend Shaw Moore from the movie Footloose after issuing a new set of commands for New Yorkers that includes a ban on dancing.  This is not a joke. [...] ["]There is no dancing allowed in New York's bars and restaurants, even at a wedding reception, according to the New York State Liquor Authority.  To control the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's liquor authority has also specifically banned darts, pool, cornhole, karaoke and exotic dancing.["]  Bar owners are already struggling to stay open after being shut down for months.  The new rules are causing a lot of anxiety as business owners are being threatened with their licensing if they don't comply.

We now have the best evidence yet that everyone develops long-term coronavirus immunity after infection — and it's not just about antibodies.  Scientists may now have an answer to one of the most crucial lingering questions about COVID-19:  whether people develop long-term immunity.  Early research suggested that coronavirus antibodies — blood proteins that protect the body from subsequent infections — could fade within months.  But in their concern about those findings' implications, many people failed to consider our immune system's multilayered defence against invading pathogens.  Specifically, they discounted the role of white blood cells, which have impressive powers of recollection that can help your body mount another attack against the coronavirus should it ever return.  Memory T cells are an especially key type, since they identify and destroy infected cells and inform B cells about how to craft new virus-targeting antibodies.

Utah Students Who Are Caught Without Masks In School May Be Hit With Criminal Charges, Even Kindergartners.  Students in Utah who are as young as being in kindergarten may be hit with criminal charges if they are caught not wearing a mask in school amidst the coronavirus pandemic.  The office of Republican Governor Gary Herbert reportedly confirmed the potential for K-12 students and staff getting misdemeanors for violating the mask mandate, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.  However, spokeswoman Anna Lehnardt added that it will be up to the schools whether to press charges, which are anticipated to be rarities.  "It's enforced on a district and superintendent level," she added.  "But we're not thinking, 'Let's slap a bunch of kids with misdemeanors.'"  This comes one month after Herbert issued a mask mandate for public schools.  Violators of the mandate can be punished with sentences of up to six months in jail and fines of up to $1,000, which is the same as a first offense for driving drunk.

The Editor says...
What exactly is the name of the law they are allegedly violating?  Disturbing the peace?  Disorderly conduct?  No matter what law the government chooses to criminally prosecute the refusal of a healthy person to wear a mask, it's bound to be thrown out on appeal.

Is a mask really this important?
Man Is Asked To Wear A Mask On The Train, Knocks Out Man Who Asked Him.  A man was knocked out during an argument over face masks at Clapham Junction station.  Police are investigating after the victim, who asked the Press Association news agency to only identify him as 'William', was punched by a fellow passenger at the London railway stop.  [Video clip]

If Cuomo won't allow outside review of NY nursing home COVID-19 horror, he admits guilt.  Will Gov. Andrew Cuomo allow anything resembling an outside review of New York's coronavirus nursing-home horrors?  The test case is a bipartisan bill from state Sen. Jim Tedisco and Assemblyman Ron Kim.  At the height of the pandemic, the state's March 25 mandate put infected patients among the elderly — who Cuomo has acknowledged are the most vulnerable to the virus.  The gov insists any criticism of that order is pure politics.  The bill calls for an independent investigation to, as sponsors put it, "fully examine policies that led to the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers in nursing-home facilities" during the pandemic.  Team Cuomo has stonewalled all efforts to get answers, and lawmakers are furious.

I Am Sick of COVID Supremacists.  I am old enough to remember when Americans who were scrambling for masks in the name of safety were insulted by political leaders as being unnecessarily panicked, selfish hoarders and morons.  Dr. Fauci himself told us then that masks were only helpful for medical personnel.  Cut to this very day when the pro-mask segment of America has damn near become a cult, with Fauci as the golden idol.  A thinking person would ask themselves why they would trust this directive now when they got it so wrong — or flat out lied — then.  But leaving all that aside, and leaving aside my personal feeling that masks are more of a placebo than anything, I am willing to lean on my previously stated understanding of national compromise and don the mask.  I'm even willing to admit that I might be wrong about my feelings on masks.  I will concede all of that.  The problem is that the other side of this debate isn't willing to concede a single inch.  All or nothing is a dangerous game, especially when it is only one side that agrees to it.  Reasonable people who are forced into unreasonable acts can only be stretched so far.  When they snap they will retreat to "nothing" and then that's when real problems start.  We can already see that happening.

Biden to ABC Reporter: 'I Would Listen to the Scientists and Shut the Entire Country Down' to Stop the Spread of COVID-19.  2020 Democrat nominee Joe Biden on Friday told ABC reporter David Muir that he would shut down the entire country to stop the spread of COVID-19 if the scientists recommended.  Biden called for a mandatory nationwide mask mandate during his unhinged Democrat nomination acceptance speech in Delaware.  "I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists," Biden told Muir Friday [8/21/2020] in his first joint interview with his running mate Kamala Harris.  Of course Biden failed to explain how he would even have the authority to shut down the entire country.

Forgotten Parents Tune Out DNC to Fight for a Rational COVID-19 School Policy.  ichelle Mitchell stood behind a microphone in a mask before the Blue Valley School District board in Overland Park, Kansas.  "We as parents are not asking you as the district leadership to decide if it's too risky for our kids to participate in sports and activities," she told board members on Tuesday night [8/17/2020].  "We're asking you to give us the choice and let us evaluate the risk and do what's best for our families."  This wasn't how the meeting was supposed to go.  County health officials had just finished presenting an incomprehensible slide show to roll out their "recommendation" to end in-person learning options along with public school sports and activities.  The bureaucrats were not prepared for discussion or debate.  In the current state of things, politicized health officials simply announce new "recommendations" with an authority that supersedes all law, including the Constitution.  Good citizens obey.  They don't question.  Mitchell was not like the polished politicians of the Democratic National Convention who were being aired as she spoke.  Unlike the pre-taped doublespeak messages Democrats broadcast to the willingly-deceived, Mitchell had no pliant media to cheer and uncritically amplify her message.  She was nervous but articulate and resolute.

Governor of Maine Orders Restaurant Staff to Wear COVID Visors Like Dog Cones.  The Governor of Maine has ordered restaurant staff to wear anti-COVID visors upside down so they resemble dog cones in order to direct breath upwards.  Yes, really.  Governor Janet Mills' decree states that "front-of-house staff in restaurants who choose to wear face shields must now wear them upside down so that they are attached at the collar instead of the forehead, so that their breath is directed up, not down," reports Maine Public Radio.  Given that air conditioning units can facilitate the spread of coronavirus, Mills' order looks like another ridiculous and pointless measure.

Court Affirms Right Of California Church To Meet Indoors.  Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California is affirmed in its right to host indoor worship services after a Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that there is no court order preventing it.  The ruling comes just a mere week after an emergency order enacted by the California Court of Appeals made it again illegal for the church to meet indoors.  "We are pleased with the outcome today.  Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff correctly found there is no court order prohibiting Grace Community Church from holding indoor services," said Jenna Ellis, one of the Thomas More Society attorneys representing the church and Pastor John MacArthur.

Virginia Health Commissioner says he'll mandate a COVID-19 vaccine.  State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver told [WRIC] on Friday [8/21/2020] that he plans to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for Virginians once one is made available to the public.  Virginia state law gives the Commissioner of Health the authority to mandate immediate immunizations during a public health crisis if a vaccine is available.  Health officials say an immunization could be released as early as 2021.  Dr. Oliver says that, as long as he is still the Health Commissioner, he intends to mandate the coronavirus vaccine.

The Stench of Mendacity at the Democratic Convention.  The opening two nights of the Democratic national convention this week produced the greatest deluge of monstrous political falsehoods in any two evenings of American television history.  The champion mythmaker was the venerable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). [...] It is supremely irritating to have Democratic hypocrites call for unity and promise to "bring the nation together" while denouncing the incumbent president as akin to a Nazi all while failing even to mention, much less criticize, the urban mob violence they have helped provoke and have effectively condoned.  "By rejecting science," Sanders continued, the president "has put our lives and health in jeopardy, refusing to produce the masks, gowns, and gloves our healthcare workers desperately need."  In fact, Trump showed great executive ingenuity in producing those items in great quantities with astounding speed, emancipating the country from the absolute shambles in public health emergency response capability bequeathed to him by Obama and Biden.

Sweden's disease expert says just wearing face masks could be 'very dangerous'.  Sweden's top infectious disease expert has resisted recommending face masks for the general population — arguing it's "very dangerous" if people believe the coverings alone will stop the spread of the coronavirus.  Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden's Public Health Agency, has repeatedly expressed skepticism that face masks will control virus outbreaks, the Financial Times reported.  "It is very dangerous to believe face masks would change the game when it comes to COVID-19," said Tengell, who is considered the country's equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci from the White House COVID-19 task force.  He noted that countries with widespread mask compliance, such as Belgium and Spain, were still seeing rising virus rates.

Final Day of the Democrat Pros and Cons — As PR Pros Combine to Con America.  The night closes with Joe Biden's speech. [...] An enormous amount of the speech is about the coronavirus.  He blames Trump for the impact of COVID, an impact that is the same all over the world.  Not a word recognizing what Trump had done for the economy until the tragedy of the pandemic hit.  Biden tells us that he could have done so much better, as happened when Ebola was controlled.  But Ebola is not COVID-19 because, if COVID were so simple to control, it would not still be rampant and devastating population groups all over the world more than six months after arriving, with great pharmaceutical companies racing to find a treatment and with nearly two dozen vaccines in various stages of trials.  It is the ultimate lie to end a convention of lies, to suggest that Biden could have done better.  Biden even opposed Trump's order to restrict flights from China when the virus hit.  And his plan now, he tells us, is to enforce a law that we all will have to wear masks.

Democrats Have Proven They are Unworthy of Power.  If a person or entity has proven to be abusive or irresponsible with power, then it is the duty of the people, while freedom still prevails, to resist and to ensure that such a person or entity is never entrusted with such power ever again or, at least until they have regained the confidence of the people.  Such is the case with today's Democrat party. [...] In six months, with the pandemic and nationwide riots, Democrat leaders have revealed that their natural penchant is not for freedom, but tyranny.  The past six months have shown that we are long past the days of mere policy differences between the two political parties.  Now our battle is against Democrats, a party that has been usurped by the radical left, is literally for the preservation of America as founded.  This election is about whether America will remain a light of liberty or descend into the darkness of Soviet-style communism with elements of Nazism.  This is not hyperbole.

De Blasio donor scored $120M in city COVID-19 contracts, board seats.  A big-bucks donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio's political campaigns not only scored $120 million in no-bid coronavirus contracts — he also won seats on two influential city boards.  Manhattan resident Charles Tebele, who owns the New Jersey-based computer business Digital Gadgets, has showered Hizzoner with at least $22,750 in political contributions since 2016 including $12,800 to de Blasio's failed 2020 presidential bid, records show.  Those contributions to de Blasio were Tebele's first to a federally regulated campaign since he gave to 2012 Connecticut congressional candidate, Dan Roberti, who lost the Democratic primary that year.

The Case for Masks, School Closings, & Social Isolation Just Collapsed!  [Scroll down]  All that stuff we were told about how super-contagious COVID-19 is was just as much BS as the garbage about its unprecedented deadliness.  In fact, if Anthony Fauci and CDC director Robert Redfield wanted us to know the facts rather than to scare us out of our wits and the press weren't so corrupt and incompetent, we all would have known the former way back in March just like the latter.  The first official U.S. case of COVID-19 wasn't diagnosed until she developed pneumonia a week after returning from China.  Her husband, who hadn't accompanied her, was hospitalized 8 days later and then diagnosed with it as well.  As you might expect, the CDC went to extraordinary lengths to track down anyone who came into contact with either.  As you ought to know darn well since nothing about this was reported by the press, it turns out they wound up infecting very few others, whether before or after symptoms appeared.  In fact, neither passed the virus on to anyone else at all.  Of the 372 people the CDC found who had contact with her in the week before she was hospitalized or with him in the 15 days he was out and about, not a single one contracted the virus.  The only person she transmitted it to was the man with whom she lived.  And he transmitted it to no one.  Moreover, despite the fact that they lived together as husband and wife, he didn't become infected until she started showing symptoms.

Hydroxychloroquine is why Uganda, with a population of 43M, has only 15 COVID-19 deaths.  Uganda, a country in east-central Africa, has a 2018 population of 42.729 million, which is 13% of the United States' population of 328.239 million in 2019.  And yet Uganda has 1,603 COVID-19 cases and just 15 deaths, wherease the U.S. has 5,656,744 COVID-19 cases and 175,105 deaths. [...] How can that be, when Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita GDP of $769, where 37.8% of the population in 2012 lived on less than $1.25 a day.  This is why:  Uganda is afflicted with malaria, a disease caused by parasites that enter the body through the bite of a mosquito.  Malaria is common in Africa.  In 2012, Uganda had the 6th highest annual deaths from Malaria in Africa.  Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat or prevent malaria[.]

HCQ Works.  Banning Its Use Causes Needless Suffering and Death.  For most of the spring and summer, after President Trump mentioned that he thought hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) might be effective at stopping COVID-19, the mainstream media and the medical and public health establishment engaged in a wholly unprecedented smear campaign designed to demonize the drug and take it away from doctors who might try to follow the science and treat COVID patients with it.  That science might have been somewhat debatable in April, but it isn't really debatable now.  Early investigations showing HCQ having anti-viral efficacy in vitro led some high-profile doctors in France and the United States to use it to treat patients suffering from COVID.  Alone to a lesser degree, and especially in combination with zinc and azithromycin, the results they obtained pointed to the drug's continued potential.  Subsequent retrospective studies have been even more encouraging.  It is increasingly clear that HCQ, an old antimalarial drug that has also been used to treat some autoimmune disorders, can be an effective option for COVID-19, if used properly in treatment guided by a skilled physician.

The Politicization of COVID-19 Science Is Dangerous and Inexcusable.  When science is being characterized as "right-wing" because it doesn't fit the Democrats' and the media's preferred COVID-19 narrative, we are living in a dangerous world.  The mental and physical health of millions of Americans is on the line, and the media wants to play politics with what kind of information you can read.  Take the case of Dr. James Todaro.  He was a member of America's Frontline Doctors, the group that went to Washington, D.C., to try and cut through the panic porn being pushed by the media.  After sharing their experience with early outpatient treatment with HCQ, zinc, and azithromycin, they were censored, smeared, and, in at least one case, fired.

'Our families are starving.  We'll become revolutionary citizens soon'.  A military veteran in Northern California expressed the frustration of many when he addressed elected leaders in a recent public hearing over California's business and social lockdowns.  Carlos Zapata, who owns a martial arts studio in Redding, took the Shasta County Board of Supervisors to task at a public forum this month, saying the coronavirus restrictions are threatening the lives of his and other families.  "At first we sat as concerned citizens, and we all wanted to best figure out how to navigate our way through this COVID thing," he said.  "As we realized that it's not as quite as dangerous as we thought it would be, I was absolutely appalled."  "I'm a business owner and I'm telling you, our families are starving," he continued.  "You guys can sit here with your jobs — you're going to sit here and get paid to fall asleep in your chair like that gentleman's doing behind his mask right there."  "I don't blame you for wearing masks because I would be hiding my face if I was you for what you're doing," he added.  [Video clip]

Veteran Tells County to 'Take The Masks Off,' Says 'It's Not Going To Be Peaceful Much Longer'.  Video footage shows military veteran and business owner Carlos Zapata tongue-lashing the Shasta County Board of Supervisors in Redding, California for invasive mask and lockdown policies related to COVID-19.  In the footage, Zapata reprimands local bureaucrats for their "cowardice," and states, "It's not going to be peaceful much longer" if the county does not reverse its harshest restrictions.  "As you're sitting there with your masks on, I don't blame you for wearing masks, because I'd be hiding my face too if I were you for what you're doing," the military veteran and local business owner noted.

TX GOP Chair Allen West Slams Coronavirus Mandates.  Newly-elected Republican Party of Texas chairman Lt. Col. Allen West gave an exclusive interview to National File on Wednesday, in which he criticized government officials pushing unconstitutional mandates and edicts on the American people under the guise of protecting public health during COVID-19.  Asked how the party should approach the issue of coronavirus, the strongly conservative West stressed the need for the party to take a balanced approach, rather than the reactive and politically motivated one pursued by Democrats.  "I think the party should take the position of realism, the party should take a position that's based upon fact and not worry about innuendo or not worry about political posturing," West said.

Michigan remains at coronavirus plateau, but Whitmer not planning to remove State of Emergency.  Michigan remains at the coronavirus plateau Gov. Gretchen Whitmer described last week with new case counts around 500 to 600 per day.  While Michigan's coronavirus situation remains better than other states with stable daily increases, she has no plans to remove the State of Emergency that allows many of her orders aimed at preventing the illness from spreading.  Whitmer said the State of Emergency may remain in place until a vaccine is approved and widely distributed in Michigan.

The Editor says...
Or until the next time her job is put to a vote.

Andrew Cuomo publishing a victory lap book about coronavirus is a sick joke.  Second only to New Jersey in deaths per capita from the coronavirus, New York has suffered more than 32,000 deaths from the pandemic overall, roughly 20,000 more than any other state in the union.  And unlike other states, New York's horrific death toll can be attributed to two specific decisions: first, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's refusal to shut down the New York City subway system, which functioned as a petri dish of the pandemic and became a main vector of its spread, and second, his disastrous nursing home directive which forced facilities to readmit patients who tested positive for the virus, forcing the city's most vulnerable to contract a disease that is disproportionately deadly for the elderly.  To date, roughly a third of New York's coronavirus deaths came from nursing homes.  When faced with a crisis, Cuomo failed worse than every other governor within his own state and then let his residents unleash the coronavirus on the rest of the country, where the pandemic rages on.

Man Pulled Gun On Group Not Wearing Masks:  Police.  A Bourbonnais man has been arrested on accusations he threatened to shoot three people in a Jewel-Osco parking lot Tuesday night for not wearing masks inside the store.  According to the Daily Journal, 60-year-old Marc L. Bourdreau was in a checkout line inside the store in the 600 block of Main Street NW while three people were behind him, not wearing masks, Bourbonnais Deputy Police Chief Dave Anderson said.  Bourdreau is accused of pulling a handgun on them in the store's parking lot after he waited for them to come outside, and asked them, "How would you like to get shot in the head?"Anderson said, according to the Daily Journal.  Anderson told the Daily Journal that Bourdreau had a concealed carry permit and valid FOID card.  Bourdreau was stopped by officers while trying to drive from the parking lot.  He faces aggravated assault and unlawful use of a weapon charges stemming from the accusations.

This New York Diner's Response to Snitches and the Overzealous Health Department Will Make Your Day.  The effects of coronavirus mandates on small businesses, and especially restaurants, have been catastrophic.  New York, outside of New York City, went into "Phase 3" in July, and restaurants were able to open back up under severe restrictions, including reduced capacity.  Very few of them are doing well under this arrangement. [...] One diner in Seneca County, N.Y., has had enough and took to social media to tell the public what the county is doing to them.  The trouble started when a snitch ate a meal at A.J.'s Family Diner and then called the health department to report too many people in the establishment.  This prompted the restaurant to post a notice telling people who are uncomfortable and living in fear to stay out of their business.  But the harassment had only just begun.  The snitch prompted a full-scale inspection by the health department that sent an inspector to rearrange all the tables and threaten a fine of $1000.

Hydroxychloroquine: A Morality Tale.  Early in the coronavirus pandemic, a survey of the world's frontline physicians showed hydroxychloroquine to be the drug they considered the most effective at treating COVID-19 patients.  That was in early April, shortly after a French study showed it was safe and effective in lowering the virus count, at times in combination with azithromycin.  Next we were told hydroxychloroquine was likely ineffective, and also dangerous, and that that French study was flawed and the scientist behind it worthy of mockery.  More studies followed, with contradictory results, and then out came what was hailed by some as a definitive study of 96,000 patients showing the drug was most certainly dangerous and ineffective, and indeed that it killed 30% more people than those who didn't take it.  Within days, that study was retracted, with the editor of one of the two most respected medical journals in the Western world conceding it was "a monumental fraud."  And on it went.  Not only are lay people confused; professionals are.

Fishing boat outbreak may offer virus immunity insight: study.  Three crew of a Seattle fishing boat who were found to have antibodies able to neutralise the new coronavirus remained uninfected in an outbreak that swept through the ship, sickening most people on board, researchers have reported.  The small real-world study, which has not been peer-reviewed, is among the first in humans to suggest a link between neutralising antibodies — those that stop the virus latching onto host cells — and protection from infection.

MN Governor Quietly Reverses Course on Hydroxychloroquine.  This past week Minnesota became the second state to reject regulations that effectively ban the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine for use by COVID-19 patients.  The decision, which comes two weeks after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed an effective ban of its own, was rightfully praised by local health care advocates.  "We are pleased that Governor [Tim] Walz lifted his March 27 Executive Order 20-23 restrictions on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine," said Twila Brase, president of Citizens' Council for Health Freedom.  The reversal by Walz, a first-term Democrat, clears the way for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria and other conditions but one the FDA has declined to recommend for COVID-19 treatment.

Cuomo's Deadly Mistake Was Likely Even Worse Than First Reported.  Yesterday [8/10/2020], New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed an executive order forcing nursing homes in his state to accept patients who tested positive for the coronavirus in March, informed reporters there was no need for an independent inquiry into his deadly mistake because no one can be deemed reliable enough to investigate him.  "There is no such thing as a person who is trusted by all Democrats and Republicans.  That person doesn't exist.  The Department of Health — those are just numbers.  They report our numbers.  You can see you what you want in the numbers, but the numbers are the numbers," Cuomo explained.

7 Big Stories Corporate Media Is Ignoring Because The Truth Might Help Trump.  [#5] COVID-19:  Corporate reporting on COVID-19 provides another stark example of the Trump litmus test it constantly applies to news:  Does the story help the president or hurt him?  Coverage of hydroxychloroquine as a possible therapeutic provides the clearest proof of this, as best illustrated by the national coverage of the death of a man who "ingested" fish tank cleaner, spun as a Trump-induced death.  But more subtle bias by omission is prevalent as well.  For instance, under other circumstances, the harm widespread school closings cause to especially low-income and at-risk children would be the nightly news narrative.  Personal interest stories featuring single moms, unable to work and supervise the online schooling of their children, would run.  Special-needs children struggling without individualized educational plans would be profiled.  Heartstrings would be pulled, and pressure would be brought to bear on leaders refusing to open schools.  But because Trump wants the schools open, the coverage has focused instead on the risk to children and teachers of returning to the classroom.

Andrew Cuomo, Serial Killer.  In an opening night convention speech stunning for the depth and breadth of its chutzpah and hypocrisy, New York governor Andrew Cuomo ignored his own criminal negligence in ushering patients infected with the Chinese Wuhan virus into New York nursing homes, sentencing tens of thousands of vulnerable seniors to death.  It was perhaps fitting that the first night of the party of death's national convention, a party that supports the killing of unborn life on demand up to and even after the moment of birth, featured New York's angel of nursing-home death.  Cuomo spent the evening obfuscating the disease's origins, denying the immediate and effective response by the Trump administration, and not mentioning the federal help he received — and ignored — which could have saved untold lives.

How Will Humanity Respond to Threats to Its Survival and Freedom?  Some experts say the next pandemic could kill a billion people.  Recent research suggests Covid-19 may have been lurking in Chinese caves from as early as 2012, hinting at horrors of nature still waiting to spring out at mankind from the bowels of the earth.  Certainly an event on the scale of the current pandemic had been foreseen as far back as 2006 by epidemiologists in the George W. Bush administration as inevitable.  Significantly, they warned that with a politicized reaction a "manageable epidemic could move toward catastrophe".  Not just a medical catastrophe but one of governance.  Crisis creates irresistible opportunities for ambitious bureaucrats to build empires.  All across the world politicians are now using the virus to radically expand their authority, as they have done in the past.

COVID and Climate Policy Following the Same Playbook.  As we approach six months of lockdowns, mandates, and restrictions previously unfathomable in a free society, it is important to ask if what we are being told to do is either necessary or effective in combating this viral pandemic.  Or are these empty gestures, efforts of totalitarian wannabees serving as mayors or governors, trying to control those they are charged with leading and protecting, trying to advance a political agenda rather than preserving and protecting the Constitution?  One can see numerous parallels between COVID and climate policy.  Both create fear, to a frenzy level, of the world ending, massive death and destruction, all due to a warming planet or an aggressive flu virus.  If we don't wear a mask, we are murderers and should be imprisoned.  If we don't believe in man-made global warming, we should also be locked away in jail.  Both movements have famous, often media-fabricated, leaders and spokespersons to push the agenda.  Aside from politicians, the climate movement uses Al Gore and Greta Thunberg while the COVID evangelists are Drs.  Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.  At least the latter two, on paper, have expertise in their fields unlike the former two who are self-, or media-created experts.

A Director's Note on COVID and the Theatre.  [Scroll down]  Lockdowns that were supposed to last for two weeks to "flatten the curve" and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed persist, as does the attendant hysteria, despite the flattening of the curve, and the failure of hospitals to be "overwhelmed."  The Entertainment Industrial Complex, the purveyors of all of what passes for entertainment in our culture, have passionately embraced the narrative that this Chinese virus is so unprecedentedly dangerous, so deadly, that we must decimate our economy, the arts, sports, and education to protect a vanishingly small number of people from dying of (or with) a disease from which 99.74% of those infected recover.  This, despite ample evidence that masks are ineffective, and that draconian "social distancing" and other "safety" measures are doing more harm physically and psychologically than the disease which the measures are designed to fight.  And so, like a postmodern cargo cult, we wear our Magic Masks and perform our Rituals of Ablution and Sanitation in the hope that maybe, the Angel of Death will see the mark of our virtue signaled clearly on the lintels of our homes, and pass us over.  The narrative that all of this is unnecessary and downright dangerous is suppressed, and we have been propagandized into believing that those of us who reject the Approved Narrative are anti-science "rat lickers" who care not at all for anyone but themselves.  This serves only to aggravate an already poisonous atmosphere in America, polarizing citizens along political and ideological lines that really have nothing to do with science, and everything to do with determining the extent to which a population can be frightened into submissive compliance with anything anyone in authority tells us we must do, despite our misgivings and principled objections to the violation of our liberty.

Cuomo calls coronavirus the 'European virus' in Trump-bashing DNC speech.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic during his Monday night speech to the Democratic National Convention, accusing the White House of "negligence" even as his own administration drew flak for thousands of deaths in New York's nursing homes.  "Our collective strength is exercised through government.  It is, in effect, our immune system.  And our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent.  It couldn't fight off the virus.  In fact, it didn't even see it coming.  The European virus infected the northeast while the White House was still fixated on China," Cuomo said during his speech, an apparent counterpoint to Trump's labeling of COVID-19 as the "China virus."

Day One of the Democrat Con-vention: Pros and Cons — Watching PR Pros Combine to Con America.  [Scroll down]  Next we get lectured on COVID-19, on how President Trump has not handled the coronavirus battle the way the Democrats would.  Who lectures us?  The inadvertent though recklessly liable mass killer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who singularly has killed more people by leveraging government to mishandle COVID-19 than has any other person alive.  Details here.  His direction killed more than 10,000 people.  Gov. Cuomo, we thank you for your service.  And for your advice on how much better your approach to COVID would have been.  And for having told us previously that America "was never that great."  Actually, Covid Cuomo was never that great.  An Arizona young lady named Kristin Urquiza next comes to blame President Trump for her father's death from coronavirus.  It is Trump's fault that her 65-year-old father got infected by coronavirus and died.  So now she is her dead father's spokesperson.  Did she turn against Trump just now, with her Dad dying?  No. [...] Ms. Urquiza was ideologically radical-left long before COVID and long before the Trump presidency.

"We Know it's Curable; It's Easier than Treating the Flu" — Professor Thomas Borody.  Australian radio host Luke Bona interviewed this August 12 Professor Thomas Borody, from the Centre for Digestive Diseases in Sydney, Australia, about Ivermectin-based therapies for COVID-19.  The interview is short and to the point, and should be of interest to everyone in the world.  Based on existing research and his analysis of therapeutic results using Ivermectin in combination with 2 other widely available generic drugs — Doxycycline and Zinc — he asserts that COVID-19 is now curable and even easier to treat than the flu.  Here are some excerpts.

It's Time to Roll Back the Mask Mandates, Not Ramp Them Up Ridiculously.  Joe Biden recently made an effort to turn the mask hysteria up to 11, saying, "Every single American should be wearing a mask when they are outside for the next three months at a minimum.  Every governor should mandate mask wearing."  Why should America broadly expand masking now?  The proverbial "curve" could hardly be flatter in most places in America, and those states that experienced a summer surge, like Texas, Florida, and California, all appear to already be on the other side of their respective "curves."  Here are three reasons why it's time to roll back the mask mandates, rather than ramp them up to ridiculous new levels like Biden suggests. [...]

Trump goes on coronavirus offense, hitting Biden as candidate of lockdowns and mandatory masks.  Long on the defensive about the federal coronavirus response, President Trump is starting to go on the offense against his Democratic challengers.  "Today, we saw Joe Biden continue to politicize a pandemic and to show his appalling lack of respect for the American people," Trump declared at a White House press conference.  "That's what it is.  At every turn, Biden has been wrong about the virus, ignoring the scientific evidence and putting left-wing politics before facts and evidence."  Trump argues that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee opposed travel bans and supports one-size-fits-all national policies that would keep economy-crippling lockdowns in place past the recommendations of scientific advisers.

Coronavirus is a long-lasting, all-purpose crisis, and the perfect excuse for all kinds of legislative mischief.
Pelosi calls members back to Capitol Hill to consider USPS legislation, calls post office 'Election Central' amid coronavirus.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested members could be brought back from August recess to address issues regarding the U.S. Postal Service, while urging Democrats to appear at their local post offices amid the battle to protect mail-in ballots for the 2020 presidential election.  Pelosi, D-Calif., on Sunday said the post office has become "Election Central" due to the coronavirus pandemic even as President Trump and Republicans have warned for months that universal mail-in ballots would cause widespread voter fraud in the election.

Swedish Coronavirus Chief May Have Broken Law Deleting Experts' Emails.  Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell may have broken the law by deleting emails from experts and government employees during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.  Media law lawyer Jeanette Gustafsdotter said that if Tegnell had deleted emails containing content showing how public health decisions were made, the deletion could be a violation of the law.

The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back.  Many Americans may understand that testing has failed in this country — that it has been inadequate, in one form or another, since February.  What they may not understand is that it is failing, now.  In each of the past two weeks, and for the first time since the pandemic began, the country performed fewer COVID-19 tests than it did in the week prior.  The system is deteriorating.

The Editor says...
An alternative explanation is that the general public is waking up and realizing that the virus isn't as bad as the television would have us believe, that the restrictions are all political, and testing is therefore unnecessary.  Healthy people don't rush to the doctor for testing, unless they're hypochondriacs.

Louie Gohmert has recovered from COVID-19, credits hydroxychloroquine for making 'huge difference'.  U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert has not only recovered from COVID-19, he is crediting hydroxychloroquine for helping him combat the virus and now feels "really great."  The Texas Republican, who tested positive for the coronavirus last month, told the Washington Examiner he is now feeling better and hopes to donate plasma in an effort to help others who get infected.  He tipped his hat to the vitamins and the drug touted by some medical professionals and President Trump for helping him get back to health.

The Coronavirus lockdown is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of this country.  [Scroll down]  The news readers on MSNBC and CNN can barely suppress their glee at reporting new hotspots and big increases in the numbers dying or testing positive, especially if they are in so-called red states with Republican governors.  Because of their absolute virulent hatred for President Trump, they are also eager to report bad economic news and seemingly grimace when they have to report that the stock market has gone up once again.  Blue state governors and mayors are doing as much as they can to keep things shut down and acting very heroic or holier than thou in doing so. [...] All businesses, large and small, should have been allowed to stay open.  Were it not for the fact that history is often written by the victors, this shutdown would soon be looked back upon as one of the biggest mistakes this country has ever made.

Biden's National Mask Mandate is Absurd and Despotic.  The new Biden-Harris ticket is off to a despotic start.  Biden, armed with his new running mate Kamala Harris, held a press briefing on Thursday in which he called for a nationwide mask mandate. [...] I'm not an anti-mask zealot. [...] If a mask can reduce the chances of transmission for a nurse or doctor, then the same mask, used properly, would do the same for a civilian.  This is logic, not epidemology.  Of course, officials from Anthony Fauci to the head of WHO to our surgeon general have long since lurched to the other extreme.  In March, masks for plebes were officially a bad idea.  Now, in August, the Democratic candidate for president is calling for a mandate for all Americans to wear them outside. This is absurd.

Fauci: In-Person Voting in November Can Be Done Safely.  Voters can safely vote in-person in the upcoming election if proper precautions are followed, according to a top infectious disease expert.  "I think if carefully done, according to the guidelines, there's no reason that I can see why that not be the case," Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an event broadcast Thursday [8/13/2020].  "For example, when you look at going to a grocery store now in many regions and counties and cities that are doing it correctly, they have X's every six or more feet.  And it says, "Don't leave this spot until the person in front of you left their spot."  And you can do that, if you go and wear a mask, if you observe the physical distancing, and don't have a crowded situation, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do that," he added, after being asked about in-person voting at the National Geographic event.

After students balk at demand to wear 'BioButton' health-monitoring device, university backs down.  Oakland University in Michigan is encouraging its students to wear BioButtons in order to keep track of potential symptoms of COVID-19.  At first, the request was framed in some written material from the university as a requirement, but the university clarified the policy after students objected and a petition titled "Make the BioButton Optional for Staff and Students at Oakland University" drew nearly 2,500 signatures.  The coin-sized BioButton is worn to monitor temperature, respiratory rate and resting heart rate through a smartphone app, according to the company.  The button will notify the user, through the use of an algorithm, whether or not he or she is well enough to attend classes in-person.

Bill Gates says hydroxychloroquine has 'severe side effects,' but little evidence they're common.  Bill Gates this week added more flame to the fire in the ongoing debate over the usage of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, claiming that using the drug to treat the coronavirus carries with it the risk of "severe side effects" and arguing that medical officials should instead pursue the numerous "good therapeutic drugs" currently in development.  Yet there is at present little evidence that "severe side effects" are common in COVID-19 patients who take hydroxychloroquine, with the majority of reported adverse events being relatively mild and only a small fraction of reported effects so far being dangerous and/or fatal.

What month is it?  Joe Biden's big mask mandate has been in place since March.  Democratic candidate Joe Biden has been stuck in his basement all these months and now wants us all to be mandated by law to wear masks.  That's his big idea. [...] Where ya been, Joe?  Governors have already been there.  Here in California and in most big-population states, we've been wearing masks for months — in the Walmarts, in the Targets, at the Costcos, to the doctors' office, to the post office, on our walks — the very few places we've been allowed to go, and during that brief period when we could go to the gym and indoor church services.  Masks do do some good, and people generally follow the idea.  So to put that idea out there as if none of us have noticed is rather obnoxious.

Soros sees 'revolutionary moment' in pandemic: 'The range of possibilities is much greater'.  Billionaire liberal activist George Soros told an Italian newspaper that he sees the coronavirus epidemic as a "revolutionary" opportunity.  In an interview with La Repubblica, the Hungarian-born Mr. Soros also denounced President Trump as a "transitory phenomenon" but expressed hope that the COVID-19 crisis has opened up politics in a radical direction.  "I would describe it as a revolutionary moment when the range of possibilities is much greater than in normal times," he said.  "What is inconceivable in normal times becomes not only possible but actually happens.  People are disoriented and scared."

Chicago Spent $66 Million on Hospital That Treated 38 Coronavirus Patients.  Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot's (D.) decision to renovate a local convention center into a makeshift coronavirus hospital cost taxpayers nearly $66 million — though only 38 patients received treatment at the facility, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Friday [8/14/2020].  The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the agency Lightfoot tasked with overseeing the project, overlooked a bid from a construction company that offered to waive fees or donate them to coronavirus pandemic relief organizations.  Instead, officials gave the bid to Walsh Construction, a politically connected contractor, which billed the city $65.9 million to renovate the McCormick Place convention center.  The decision cost taxpayers more than $1.7 million per patient.  In contrast, the city spent $50 million total to equip three other centers in the Chicago area.

Democrats Dance with the Devil.  Joe Biden wants you to be miserable when you vote.  This is not an unusual wish for out-of-office politicians.  Miserable people tend to vote against the incumbent.  Earlier this year, Joe Biden faced daunting odds.  The economy was stronger than it had ever been, ISIS had been defeated, North Korea had been silenced, Iran had been cowed, bad trade deals had been renegotiated, and the border wall was being built.  People were happy.  Then the China virus hit.  It was a godsend to Democrats.  It's real.  It can kill you.  And best of all, it has stopped Trump's huge rallies.  Naturally, Democrats want the virus to appear as deadly as possible for as long as possible.  They've done a terrific job of it.  They (including their supporters in the press and the bureaucracy) have kept the China virus in the headlines for the past five months by exaggerating its effects (overstating the numbers of infections and deaths), maximizing its inconvenience (shutting down businesses, schools, and sports), and mandating a constant visual reminder of the ever-present danger (masks for everybody all the time).

Is the coronavirus 'the worst virus in the history of medicine'?  San Diego City Councilmember Jennifer Campbell is expressing her frustration with local residents' resistance to outdoor mask-wearing and social distancing, even saying that the county sheriff should be arresting them.  "This is the worst virus in the history of medicine," Campbell, a physician, exclaimed in a Tuesday press conference on Ocean Beach, California.  But that claim isn't even close to being true, no matter how you slice it.

It's only for three months, unless Biden wins.
Biden and Harris call for three-month nationwide mask mandate.  Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are calling for a three-month nationwide mask mandate to limit the spread of coronavirus.  During a briefing by public health experts in Wilmington, Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told reporters that all the nation's governors should require this.  "Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months, at a minimum.  Every governor should mandate mandatory mask-wearing," Biden said, suggesting that widespread mask use could save 40,000 lives over the next three months.  "Let's institute a mask mandate nationwide starting immediately, and we will save lives."

Cuomo's nursing home death blame game.  A major Associated Press report this week dove into New York's nursing home COVID-19 death count and found the numbers outright wrong.  The story was shocking.  Reporters Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky and Meghan Hoyer noted that 'unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.'  But it wasn't new.  In fact, AP had sounded the alarm on the miscount as early as May.  They learned New York's Health Department wasn't even trying to count the numbers: 'New York's Health Department told the AP May 8 it was not tracking how many recovering COVID-19 patients were taken into nursing homes under the order.'  Back then, when AP presented their own tally, the Health Department told them it couldn't 'comment on data we haven't had a chance to review, particularly while we're still validating our own comprehensive survey of nursing homes admission and readmission data in the middle of responding to this global pandemic.'

"Be a patriot": It's time for a national mask mandate, says Biden.  There's no reason to think the president or even Congress has the power to require Americans to wear masks.  The Commerce Clause ain't what it used to be in a post-ObamaCare world, after all.  The Congressional Research Service recently took a deeper dive into the issue and also concluded that federal power to mandate masks is perilously thin.  The Public Health Service Act allows HHS to promulgate regulations to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases, but only between states or from a foreign country into the U.S. And the regulations have typically been limited to temporary quarantine measures, not an indefinite mandate on how to live daily life.  Congress can pressure states to enact their own mandates by threatening to withhold federal funds but they probably can't issue a mandate themselves.  And even if they could, how would they enforce it?  Which federal agency is going to walk the beat making sure 330 million people are wearing their masks?  Under the Tenth Amendment, the feds can't make state and local cops do it.

Nasal spray could offer protection against COVID-19: scientists.  Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have devised a nasal spray to administer synthetic antibodies, which they believe will help stop the spread of the coronavirus.  A team led by graduate student Michael Schoof engineered the synthetic molecule that "straitjackets the crucial SARS-CoV-2 machinery that allows the virus to infect our cells," according to a report on the university's website.  A paper posted on the preprint server bioRxiv says experiments using the live virus show the molecule is among the most powerful COVID-19 antivirals yet discovered.  While it's not a traditional vaccine, the researchers believe one spray a day of the synthetic antibodies, dubbed "AeroNabs," from a nasal spray or inhaler could offer protection from the deadly bug until a vaccine becomes available, according to ABC 7 News.

Now the World Health Organization is meddling with our teeth.  With the Wuhan virus plaguing the world for almost eight months, things are getting better, especially here in America. [...] And we're seeing that the disease, having worked its way through vulnerable populations, while still deadly, has a diminishing fatality rate.  Meanwhile, the fact that various governments have an obsessive focus on putting masks on everyone, not just those who are vulnerable, is creating problems.  These aren't only the problems of the loss of civil rights as police, in ways that range from polite to brutal, get free rein to enforce ... well, not laws, because legislatures aren't involved, but ruling class mandates.  Even without the politics of masks, these face coverings have issues.  Some people struggle with a lower oxygen flow.  Others are finding that masks are damaging their skin.  Holland and Denmark have officially turned against masks, saying that they make a bad situation worse.  And then there's the damage to teeth and overall health.

Hawaii officials 'looking at' delaying tourist return amid spike in COVID-19 cases.  Hoping to vacation in Hawaii in September?  You might have to rethink those plans.  Given the state's rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts, officials are "looking at" delaying the start of a much-anticipated program that would allow out-of-state visitors to vacation there without quarantining for 14 days by presenting a negative COVID-19 test, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said during a news conference late Thursday [8/13/2020].  The program, announced in June, is set to begin September 1.  It was already delayed once, a month ago, due to rising cases on the mainland and in Hawaii.

First Georgia doctor dies from COVID-19.  The cancer patient was old and frail, so after the examination, Dr. John D. Marshall Jr. helped the man to his car.  This simple act of kindness may have cost Marshall his life.  Marshall, 74, a family-practice doctor in Americus for more than three decades, contracted COVID-19 from his elderly patient, family members said.  Marshall died Wednesday after spending 111 days on a ventilator, apparently the first practicing Georgia physician killed by the novel coronavirus.

107-year-old New Jersey woman who beat Spanish flu survives COVID-19.  A 107-year-old New Jersey grandmother who survived the Spanish flu a century ago is now a two-time pandemic survivor after beating COVID-19.  Brooklyn native Anna Del Priore, who turns 108 next month, was diagnosed with the coronavirus in May and her granddaughter, Darlene Jasmine, had assumed the worst, the Asbury Park Press reports. [...] But Del Priore, who contracted the Spanish Flu during the influenza pandemic in 1918 that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, didn't succumb to the virus.  Instead, she's still mobile, dancing whenever possible at Brighton Gardens, an assisted living facility in Middletown.

U.S. CDC director issues a dire warning for fall if coronavirus measures are not followed.  A top federal health official is issuing a dire warning:  Follow recommended coronavirus measures, or this could be "the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had."  According to a report by CNN, Johns Hopkins University says coronavirus has infected more than 5 million people and killed over 166,000 nationwide.  There were 55,910 reported new cases and 1,499 deaths, on Wednesday alone — the highest number of fatalities since May.

Southwest Airlines boots family after toddler with autism refuses to wear mask.  A Texas mom says Southwest Airlines kicked her off a flight from Midland to Houston after her 3-year-old autistic son refused to wear a mask.  "He is 3 and has autism and sensory processing disorders, so he wouldn't keep the mask on," Alyssa Sadler, of Houston, told ABC affiliate KTRK.  "They're trying to talk to him, tell him, 'You have to wear it.  It's not an option,' and I'm trying to explain to them, you know, he doesn't understand what you're saying."  The mom said her son "doesn't like things touching his face."

Panic buying breaks out in New Zealand after announcing 2nd lockdown.  Panic buying appears to have broken out in Auckland, New Zealand, as the city prepares to re-enter a snap stage three lockdown on Tuesday (August 11).  Auckland will be placed under 'level three' restrictions from Wednesday noon until Friday midnight.  People started to make a line in front of supermarkets to stock up on foods.  [Video clip]

Florida sheriff bans mask-wearing for employees despite COVID-19 pandemic.  A Florida sheriff is banning mask-wearing for all police officers and anyone visiting his offices — despite the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating effect on the state.  Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods wrote that "masks will not be worn" by on-duty employees, according to an email obtained by ABC News.  Exceptions include at courthouses, jails, schools and hospitals. [...] Woods said for as many health professionals who would vouch for wearing a mask, he "can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn't."

Hydroxychloroquine works in high-risk patients, and saying otherwise is dangerous.  As of Wednesday [8/12/2020], some 165,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19.  I have made the case in the American Journal of Epidemiology and in Newsweek that people who have a medical need to be treated can be treated early and successfully with hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and antibiotics such as azithromycin or doxycycline.  I have also argued that these drugs are safe and have made that case privately to the Food and Drug Administration.  The pushback has been furious.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has implied that I am incompetent, notwithstanding my hundreds of highly regarded, methodologically relevant publications in peer-reviewed scientific literature.  A group of my Yale colleagues has publicly intimated that I am a zealot who is perpetrating a dangerous hoax and conspiracy theory.  I have been attacked in news articles by journalists who, ignorant of the full picture, have spun hit pieces from cherry-picked sources.  These personal attacks are a dangerous distraction from the real issue of hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness, which is solidly grounded in both substantial evidence and appropriate medical decision-making logic.  Much of the evidence is presented in my articles.

I'm increasingly convinced that #SARSCoV2 is a creation of the media/technology complex.  [Thread reader]  No, I do not mean it's not real or was bioengineered.  What I mean is: aside from a couple of weeks in a handful of cities worldwide — including, sigh, the world's media capital, the overall effects of this epidemic have essentially been impossible for the average person to see without a microscope.  Hospitals are not overflowing.  Bodies are not piling up in the streets.  Most of us will never know anyone under 55 (65? 70?) who has died of #Covid.  But instead many people feel like the world is ending?  Why?  More than anything else, it's the obsessive — almost sordid — fascination with death counts, updated in real time and presented without context (average age of victims, how many people generally die in a year, etc).  Why are we counting deaths this way?  We've never done this for any other illness.  Never.  And there are lots of reasons, but maybe the most important is that we're doing this largely because we can — because the technology now exists to aggregate these counts almost instantly.  And then both conventional and social media are blasting out these figures not just every day but every second — from the CNN deathmeter to NY Times heatmaps to everyone screaming on Twitter.

Investigation of COVID-19 cover-up in New York nursing homes is bad news for CNN.  An Associated Press investigation showing that more than 11,000 people may have died as a result of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's order forcing infectious coronavirus patients into long-term care facilities is obviously bad news for the state's chief executive.  It is also bad news for CNN, which has done more than any other news outlet to reframe Cuomo's disastrous handling of the pandemic as a success story.  "New York's coronavirus death toll in nursing homes, already among the highest in the nation, could actually be a significant undercount.  Unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there," the AP reports.

A smoking gun on the genesis of the coronavirus lockdowns.  [Thread reader] According to [a New York Times] article, the CCP launched a massive social media campaign in Italy to advertise its coronavirus lockdown measures in early March.  The fact that CCP's disinformation campaign focused on Italy is crucial.  Italy was the first country outside China to lock down.  The rest of the world followed Italy's lead.  But CCP's campaign wasn't limited to Italy.  The article states that this Tweet advertising China's lockdown policy to the world is fake.  It has 142,000 likes.  Tweets like this prove CCP was actively selling the world on Wuhan-style lockdowns in early March.  [Tweet]  Next, if you search for the URL of that fake Tweet, you'll find it retweeted by many accts around the world.  Each acct is suspicious — they Tweet incessantly about COVID until Floyd's death, then solely BLM.  The sheer scale of this operation and the number of accounts involved, and its influence around the world, is really remarkable.  Thousands of accounts tweeting incessantly about COVID hysteria, then pivoting to incessant BLM and anti-police propaganda, in every country.

Wisconsin Forces Employees to Wear Masks at Home Alone During Zoom Meetings.  Wisconsin's state government is forcing government employees to wear masks while at home alone during Zoom meetings. [...] Even if you are in your own home alone (not that that should matter), the fascist Democrats who now run the Wisconsin state government are forcing employees to wear masks during online meetings.

How Houston Defied Doomsday COVID Predictions.  [Scroll down]  Houston also had some good fortune.  Unlike in New York, Houston's surge took months to come to fruition.  Early on, Houston's 85-plus hospitals saw less than 100 COVID hospitalizations a day, a trend that continued for several months and gave the city's hospitals vital time to prepare.  At the same time, inpatient and outpatient procedures fell dramatically, in part due to a ban on "all surgeries that are not medically necessary," which Governor Greg Abbott implemented on March 22.  The pause on visits, coupled with the slow burn of cases, allowed Houston's hospitals to gain experience with treating the virus — as well as to gain a secure handle on PPE.

COVID-19 death rates reveal the states that failed the test:  New York and New Jersey.  It's hard to know what's worse — the dying or the lying.  More than 32,000 New Yorkers have died from the coronavirus, a toll higher than any other state.  New York also ranks second to the worst out of all 50 states, in deaths per million residents.  Only New Jersey did worse.  You wouldn't know it, listening to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who brags that his administration "tamed the beast."  Or the media that praise him and chide states with much, much lower death rates.  Cuomo is doing everything he can to cover up the errors.  He's stonewalling bipartisan efforts in Albany to investigate the deaths of thousands of elderly in nursing homes ravaged by the virus.

Cowards: New York Legislators Boot FNC's Janice Dean From Hearing.  On Monday [8/10/2020], Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean was set to address a committee of New York legislators investigating the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic and specifically Governor Andrew Cuomo's nursing home policy, but she was never given a chance to speak due to fears that her presence would be uncomfortable.  Of course, Dean's story hasn't been covered from the newscasts and websites of ABC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC/NBC since they all don't want to upset Cuomo and take themselves out of the running for any future lovefests with the "love gov."  It must be nice to know that most of one of the country's most powerful forces won't consistently hold you to account.  In other words, they don't really care.

Kamala Harris Lies Repeatedly in [her] First Speech as Biden's Running Mate.  In her first speech since Joe Biden selected her as his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris told multiple lies.  To wit: [...] "Six years ago, in fact, we had a different health crisis," Harris said.  "It was called Ebola.  We all remember that pandemic."  Incorrect.  Ebola was an outbreak, not a pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.  "This virus has impacted almost every country," Harris said.  "But there's a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nation.  It's because of Trump's failure to take it seriously."  Wrong.  Several advanced nations have suffered more fatalities per million population than the U.S.:  Belgium, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Sweden.  Donald Trump is not in charge of any of these countries.

The Wuhan coronavirus in North America.  The number of new coronavirus cases reported daily in the U.S. is decreasing.  Late last month, the number of such cases exceeded 70,000 many days.  Lately, the number has been more like 55,000 cases and we haven't exceeded 70,000 since July 31.  (Except as otherwise indicated by a link, all numbers here are from Worldometer.)  One would expect the number of daily deaths attributed to the virus to reflect the level of new cases from about a month ago.  Thus, it's not surprising that we haven't seen the daily death count decrease yet.  That number is holding steady in the 1,250-1,500 range, except on weekends when the reported number always tends to be lower than during the rest of the week.

Major League Baseball games set to add cameras in stadiums that detect fans who are not wearing a mask.  Major League Baseball teams are looking into introducing camera technology to ballparks that could detect whether or not fans are wearing masks in the stands.  The software could also flag attendees who are wearing them improperly, like leaving their nose uncovered or dangling them around their neck.  Several teams are in talks with Airspace Systems Inc, a California security firm with technology that can scan security footage for mask 'hot spots.'

The Editor says...
How is a baseball fan supposed to drink a six-dollar beer and eat a five-dollar hot dog while wearing a mask?

A Public Health Doctor's 10,000-Foot Take on COVID-19.  The severity of public health counter-measures overwhelmingly reflects a political calculation.  Public health authorities and civilian government leaders weigh multiple factors beyond the epidemiology or health care policy implications of interventions.  All too frequently, when making decisions on interventions to improve the health of a population, the medical discipline of preventive medicine/public health takes a back seat to non-health care considerations. [...] Massive disruptions in individual and societal norms and liberties have been implemented by government authorities of all levels.  Why have the political/public health calculations of infringing on freedom changed so dramatically?  The institutions that protect constitutional freedoms are severely damaged.  This is vastly different from the constitutional Prohibition/Repeal efforts.

New York City's Downward Spiral.  Mask compliance is almost universal on the Upper West Side: easily 90 percent.  The area is defined by college-educated white folk over 40.  These are rich people, they're rule-followers, and if following one more rule might help them ace the virus the way they aced every other test in their lives, they're going to follow it to a T.  Mask wearing, like every other habit, is also a kind of class signifier.  Less affluent-looking people are far more likely to wear them pulled down like a chin strap.  When it's 85 degrees out and you wear a mask out of doors for any length of time, though, your face starts to sweat, and breathing can become a chore.  Because there are so many people on the sidewalk and you can't avoid passing close to others, you have to spend much more time with a mask on here in the city than in a more sparsely populated place, which makes mask wearing a kind of extra New York tax or burden, along with all of the others. [...] Some of the most irritable people on earth now have a major additional reason to be irritable.

NJ gym that defied coronavirus restrictions gets license rescinded: report.  A New Jersey gym had its license rescinded during a town vote on Tuesday, ending a long-running saga that saw its owners repeatedly defy a state order to remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports.  The Bellmawr council in Camden County voted 5 to 1 to rescind the mercantile license of Atilis Gym following an hourlong hearing that featured arguments from lawyers on both sides, according to NJ.com.  The decision came amid a monthslong standoff between the gym's owners and Gov. Phil Murphy over the importance of limiting the spread of the virus or the livelihood of local businesses.

CDC Study Shows No COVID-19 Spike from Wisconsin's April Elections.  Despite fears that Wisconsin's April election would serve to spread the coronavirus, a new report by the Centers for Disease Control confirms that it didn't.  Symptoms of COVID-19 typically develop 2 to 14 days after an infection.  Yet the CDC notes that only 14 people out of nearly 19,000 who voted in person in Milwaukee on April 7 are known to have tested positive for the virus between April 9 and April 21, with the caveat that in about half of the new cases reported in Milwaukee during that time period, whether the person voted is unknown.

Study zeroes in on most effective face mask to block Covid-19.  At a time when face coverings of different types and sizes have flooded the markets, a study by Duke University in the US has thrown light on which masks are the most effective at preventing the spread of droplets emitted by people when talking — a crucial aspect in reducing the transmission of Covid-19.  For the study, published in the journal Science Advances, the Duke University researchers (Emma Fischer, Martin Fischer, David Grass, Isaac Henrion, Warren S Warren, and Eric Westman) devised a low-cost laser sensor device and used it to compare 14 different types of masks and face coverings.  The study revealed that the best face mask for preventing spread of droplets were N95 masks without valves while fleece coverings and bandanas were the least effective, with researchers finding them "worse than not wearing any kind of facial covering".

Trump Taps Esteemed Anti-Fauci Stanford Doc for COVID Team — Huge Game Changer.  The last couple of weeks have been frustrating for the sizable chunk of Trump's base who think lockdowns, untargeted social distancing, and forcing everyone to wear masks are neither effective nor necessary responses to COVID-19 and, in fact, are a much greater menace than the virus itself.  They believe we ought to finally start listening to the thousands of doctors and scientists that the drive-by media have gone out of their way to silence instead of blindly following the dictates of life-long bureaucrats who've been puffed up, pushed, and placed on a pedestal by professional purveyors of fake news like Jake Tapper and Chris Cuomo.  Many of the president's strongest supporters agree with Tucker Carlson that the measures being hyped the hardest by Jerry Nadler and his fellow Democrats as well as the relentless state of panic the president's enemies in the press have created don't merely contradict the data.  They think we're witnessing a deliberate attempt to create a climate of fear and inflict maximal misery on the American people to give Biden a shot at beating Trump in November.

Anti-Lockdown Dr. Scott Atlas Joins Coronavirus Task Force:  Is Fauci Finally Out?  President Trump announced Monday that Dr. Scott Atlas is joining the White House Coronavirus Task Force.  Dr. Atlas is a former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.  Before joining the team, Atlas penned an op-ed in The Hill that showed his approach to the coronavirus outbreak is much different than that of Anthony "Chicken Little" Fauci, who favors draconian lockdowns and now wants people to wear goggles to avoid getting a virus that most people recover from easily.

Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans.  Many unknowns exist about human immune responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  SARS-CoV-2 reactive CD4+ T cells have been reported in unexposed individuals, suggesting pre-existing cross-reactive T cell memory in 20-50% of people.  However, the source of those T cells has been speculative.

The Editor says...
Translation:  Some unexposed people already have immunity, and nobody knows why.

Councilwoman Karen snaps, demands arrest of the unmasked.  A San Diego city councilmember heatedly criticized those not following social distancing mandates or wearing masks in Ocean Beach, urging authorities to arrest non-compliant people.  Covid is "the worst virus in the history of medicine," fumed Councilmember Jennifer Campbell in a press conference next to a popular beach park.  "The county sheriff should be here arresting people who are not wearing masks, who aren't distancing.  Behave or you're going to be in big trouble."

Victoria Cop Strangles Woman For Not Wearing A Mask.  A Victoria Police officer has been filmed grabbing a young woman by the throat and forcing her to the ground she struggles and screams, "He's choking me!"  The distressing footage of the woman being arrested — apparently for not wearing a face mask — was uploaded to Twitter on Tuesday [8/11/2020].  [Video clip]

Cuomo pulls out all stops to avoid responsibility on NY's massive COVID nursing home death count.  Andrew Cuomo's got a load of nerve.  Imagine being one of the relatives of the thousands of elderly nursing home residents who died as a result of their residences becoming sealed incubators for COVID, which Andrew Cuomo literally ordered.  These people were banned from visits from their own families for their own "safety," they said.  Yet it was Potemkin stuff; they had no protection from COVID, as they had to breathe the air of coughing, infected patients all around them, with absolutely no way to get away from it.  Once they got it, they died alone.  It's the biggest scandal of the COVID era.  Cuomo's policy killed at least 6,000 nursing home patients, with a new report out today that the number looks grotesquely undercounted.

Ignore Dr. Fauci, Mr. President.  It is time for President Donald Trump to start ignoring Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Is Fauci trying to save lives?  Or to elect Joe Biden?  On July 2, 2020, the Henry Ford Health System released a massive study proving that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which sometimes causes the COVID-19 disease, at least when employed early in the disease's progress.  This massive medical organization of 30,000 employees announced:  "Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 — and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by Henry Ford Health System."

Doctor Dispels Coronavirus Fears: '99.8 Percent of People Get Through this with Little to No Progressive or Significant Disease'.  Dr. Dan Erickson, owner of Accelerated Urgent Care, spoke at Monday's [7/27/2020] "White Coat Summit" on Capitol Hill as part of a greater effort to extinguish fears surrounding the Chinese coronavirus and reminded the public that "99.8 percent of people get through this with little to no progressive or significant disease."  Erickson addressed the dominant narrative of rising cases of the virus within the U.S. and pointed out that it is causing undue fear.  "A case is a person, healthy, that tested positive.  The vast majority.  But the public hears cases and thinks, 'Oh my goodness.  These are sick people!'  No the vast majority — 99.8 percent of people get through this with little to no progressive or significant disease," Erickson said.  The focus should not center on cases, he continued.  Rather, the narrative should focus on hospitalizations and deaths that "are appropriately coded on a death certificate," he said, stressing "appropriately coded."

COVID Nonsense and Lockdown Stories.  This video clip is 18 minutes long and well worth your time.  Just watch the first half and your should be well agitated.

A scientific look at the mask fallacy — and why we're told to wear them.  It is unfathomable to me the number of people who believe fear-mongering politicians and their media cohorts who convey the idea that catching Covid is a death sentence. [...] In ping pong-like fashion, we've heard conflicting stories on masks.  We have video of Anthony Fauci telling us that masks are useless for preventing viral spread, and then we have video of Fauci telling us facial coverings will prevent the spread.  We have the World Health Organization telling us not to wear masks unless we're sick or caring for someone who is, and then we have them telling us the public should wear masks.  A little digging revealed a likely reason for this change of advice:  Neither the CDC nor the W.H.O. suggest any Covid outpatient treatments.  In other words, these agencies have zero suggested treatments for Covid UNTIL an infected person lands in the hospital.  With this, one can understand why they started recommending masks.  These organizations will make big bucks once vaccines come out, so it makes no sense for them to promote the Zelenko Protocol or Bartlett's Nebulizer Protocol.  Yet because these treatments have been successful against Covid, the powers that be had to do something.

Los Angeles:  Why politicians' COVID bullying attacks will work.  Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has learned how to govern like a third-world dictator.  His threat to shut down the water and power to large house parties that violate the city's coronavirus guidelines is right out of the totalitarian government handbook. [...] Starting on Friday [8/7/2020], Mayor Garcetti announced that the city would shut off the power and water to houses, businesses, and other venues that violated the strict corona virus safety guidelines.  This is in response to a large house party that police attempted to shut down.  It turns out these parties are cropping up because the bars and nightclubs are closed as the city institutes greater restrictions as reported cases increase. [...] And it will work.  In the Third World, which is what many of these cities have come to resemble, practical and authoritarian solutions prevail, especially when there is no one to enforce the rule of law.

Second wave?  Not even close.  hy did politicians ever lockdown society in the first place?  Can we all agree that the stated purpose was to "flatten the curve" so our hospital system could handle the inevitable COVID-19 patients who needed care?  At that point, at least, back in early March, people were behaving rationally.  They accepted that you can't eradicate a virus, so let's postpone things enough to handle it.  The fact is, we have done that, and so much more.  The headlines are filled with dire warnings of a "second wave" and trigger-happy Governors are rolling back regulations to try to stem the tide of new cases.  But, is any of it actually true and should we all be worried?  No, it's not a second wave.  The COVID-19 virus is on its final legs, and while I have filled this post with graphs to prove everything I just said, this is really the only graph you need to see, it's the CDC's data, over time, of deaths from COVID-19 here in the U.S., and the trend line is unmistakable:  [Graph]

This is highly technical, but here it is:
Far-UVC light (222 nm) efficiently and safely inactivates airborne human coronaviruses.  Abstract:  A direct approach to limit airborne viral transmissions is to inactivate them within a short time of their production.  Germicidal ultraviolet light, typically at 254 nm, is effective in this context but, used directly, can be a health hazard to skin and eyes.  By contrast, far-UVC light (207 [to] 222 nm) efficiently kills pathogens potentially without harm to exposed human tissues.  We previously demonstrated that 222-nm far-UVC light efficiently kills airborne influenza virus and we extend those studies to explore far-UVC efficacy against airborne human coronaviruses alpha HCoV-229E and beta HCoV-OC43.  Low doses of 1.7 and 1.2 mJ/cm2 inactivated 99.9% of aerosolized coronavirus 229E and OC43, respectively.

New York's true nursing home death toll [is] cloaked in secrecy.  Riverdale Nursing Home in the Bronx appears, on paper, to have escaped the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, with an official state count of just four deaths in its 146-bed facility.  The truth, according to the home, is far worse:  21 dead, most transported to hospitals before they succumbed.

Good News:  Dr. Scott Atlas Added to Coronavirus Task Force.  It looks like Sweden is over the COVID-19 circumstance.  And if that's the case, then it portends good news for the rest of the world.  Scott Atlas is now part of the coronavirus task force meeting with the president.  And he is countering Fauci.  I have to tell you something, folks, just to show you how pervasive this is.  You know, I read tech blogs.  It's my hobby.  There are a couple of them that literally treat Fauci as a deity.  Whatever Fauci says is the lead item, and it's never questioned.  It is always amplified.  It is always reported as though there can be no question about it.  These are young kids in their late twenties, early thirties, that populate these blogs and do most of the writing.  And it's scary how sycophantic they are.  And it's not just Fauci.  It's anybody in government.  Any official government representative who is not affiliated with the Republicans is automatically correct, never wrong, never questioned, never doubted.

How Fauci's Stubborness Costs Lives.  Dr. Anthony Fauci [...] seems to have forgotten the cardinal rule of medicine — first, do no harm.  By downplaying the effectiveness and highlighting the alleged dangers of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), it can be argued he has cost American lives, and will cost more, coming as he has between real doctors and real patients and real world experience with a drug that has been safely used to treat conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for six decades without any serious side effects.  Fauci is in love with clinical studies, which are fine to determine effectiveness and risk of vaccines, but pale in comparison to the results of actual use.  One can understand the opposition of Big Pharma and Democrats in Congress to HCQ use against the Wuhan Chinese virus.  There's no money in a commonly available drug that costs something like 50 cents a pill.  And if its widespread use were as effective here as it has been worldwide, it destroys a key rationale for the lockdowns which give liberals unconstitutional power to control every aspect of our lives[.]

6 Questions An Honest, Intelligent Reporter Would Ask Dr. Fauci About COVID-19.  If you had been going down the rabbit hole of COVID-19 research for long enough, a few things would be astounding to you.  First, how uninformed, uncurious, or deceptive reporters in the corporate media are on a matter of life and death.  Second, how much publicly available information about COVID-19 is on the internet contradicts what is reported and said by Health Experts™ on cable news.  Finally, it is impossible to believe Dr. Anthony Fauci enjoys a 62% approval rating.  Of course, part of the reason Dr. Fauci enjoys this level of trust is that reporters who interview him put a sort of religious faith in every word he utters.  Having worked with doctors for years, I don't suffer from any such affliction.  There are some great ones, some awful ones, and some who are great at one thing and not another.  It is also quite reasonable for doctors to disagree.  Medicine is the art of applying science and it is rarely "settled."

Mask Madness.  [Scroll down]  The truth is, there is no reason to think any of these measures have a positive impact on the progress of the pandemic.  That's the first important thing to know if you want to think about a pandemic.  It is a process.  Assuming the new bug is not 100% lethal to those exposed and humans can develop an immunity to it over time, a pandemic follows a predictable pattern.  There is the initial outbreak, where the most vulnerable succumb, then it spreads through the population and eventually burns out.  A pandemic burns out because eventually there is a critical mass of people who are immune to the virus.  Maybe they have a natural immunity or they have developed one, but over time, the ability of the virus to find a new host diminishes and it can no longer spread to new victims.  Of course, in the extreme, the virus just kills all those vulnerable to it and the rest survive.  Some researchers think this could have happened in Philadelphia during the Spanish Flu outbreak.  The theory behind these counter measures was to slow the spread, so hospitals would have time to gear up for patients.  The fact that the spread was not impeded in the slightest is a pretty good real-world test of the measures.  Maybe in theory they could work, but we don't live in theory.  In reality, months of social distancing and mask wearing have had no impact on the course of the disease.  In fact, in places like New York, their policies probably made it worse.

Lockdowns Never Again:  Sweden Was Right, and We Were Wrong.  In life, we encounter things which may work in theory, but not in practice.  Communism is famously one of those things.  Time travel is another.  With any luck, Americans will soon come to realize that strict social distancing, economic lockdowns, and mask-wearing all belong in that category of supposedly sound ideas that simply don't work in reality.  For evidence, let's look to Sweden.  As Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, an ER doctor at a hospital in Stockholm, writes on his blog, "COVID is over in Sweden.  People have gone back to their normal lives and barely anyone is getting infected anymore."  Unlike so many other countries, "Sweden never went into complete lockdown," Dr. Kendrick writes.  Non-essential businesses remained open, people continued frequenting restaurants, the kids stayed in school, and "very few people have bothered with face masks."

Cuomo rejects independent investigation of nursing home coronavirus deaths as political.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said "you'd have to be blind" to think calls to further calls to investigate the coronavirus deaths linked to state nursing homes amid the pandemic are "not political."  Cuomo, during a press conference Monday [8/10/2020], said he "wouldn't do an investigation" into the nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic in the state of New York.  "I wouldn't do an investigation whether or not it's political, everybody can make that decision for themselves," Cuomo said.  "I think you'd have to be blind to realize it's not political."

After 150 days of the COVID-19 pandemic, here are the best- and worst-performing stocks.  Last Friday was the 150th day since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic.  During that period of unprecedented volatility, stocks extended gains.

Selective enforcement:
Evidence Is Mounting That Governor Cuomo Is Targeting Bars That Criticize Him for Suspension.  A week after starting a petition calling for Governor Andrew Cuomo to reverse New York's mandate requiring that a substantial amount of food must be served with any alcohol purchase, Abby Ehmann, the owner of East Village dive bar Lucky, found out her liquor license was suspended.  "Ehmann says that two State Liquor Authority representatives visited the bar on Monday night at 8 p.m. to observe if the bar's eight customers had ordered food with their drinks," according to Eater New York.  "After the visit, Ehmann received her first warning from the SLA on a piece of paper that did not list out the specific violations, she says.  Shortly afterward, and with no further warnings, Lucky's liquor license was suspended."

To leftists like Lori Lightfoot they are not people they are automatons.  President Donald J. Trump isn't the only public official prone to Twitter rants.  Yesterday after a trip to Chicago's lakefront on a hot and humid day, the city's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, let loose on her constituents.  "It's called a pandemic, people," she Tweeted.  "This reckless behavior on Montrose Beach is what will cause us to shut down the parks and lakefront.  Don't make us take steps backwards."  That "reckless behavior" consisted of people gathering at the beach.  Chicago's 18-miles of lakefront parks were closed — they were guarded by Chicago police officers for most of the spring and much of this summer.  The cops remained posted at these parks during the riots and looting in May — by people presumably spreading the COVID-19 virus.  Riots of course are now, by the liberals, viewed as free speech.  After the Lake Michigan parks opened, Lightfoot dispatched an army of "social distance ambassadors" to enforce safe-distancing.

COVID-19 Is No Reason to Empty Prisons.  In America today, millions of churchgoers are not allowed to practice their faith in their place of worship and certain business owners are not allowed to welcome customers, but hardened criminals are being released from prison.  This insanity is producing predictably deadly results.  Under the guise of protecting prisoners from the spread of Covid-19, large numbers of dangerous criminals are being freed from custody.  This is creating a horrific situation that is endangering the public and has now led to the death of a witness in a rape case. [...] This disturbing trend of releasing prisoners and endangering the public has been going on all over the country since the beginning of this pandemic.  Liberals are using the fear of Covid-19 to accomplish their goal of emptying the prisons.  There has been an undue concern for the health of prisoners during this pandemic.  In fact, the priority should not be the health of prisoners, but the safety of the public.

World's Top Epidemiologists — Masks Don't Work!  Denmark boasts one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world.  As of August 4, the Danes have suffered 616 COVID-19 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.  That's less than one-third of the number of Danes who die from pneumonia or influenza in a given year.  Despite this success, Danish leaders recently found themselves on the defensive.  The reason is that Danes aren't wearing face masks, and local authorities for the most part aren't even recommending them.  This prompted Berlingske, the country's oldest newspaper, to complain that Danes had positioned themselves "to the right of Trump."

Mayor Lightfoot Blasts Crowd Near Montrose Beach.  While Chicago's beaches remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, dozens of people gathered in an area near the city's Montrose Beach Saturday, prompting criticism from Mayor Lori Lightfoot.  Lightfoot posted a social media showing several individuals, many of them who appeared to not be abiding by social distancing guidelines, in a grassy area near boat docks.  "It's called a pandemic, people," the mayor tweeted.  "This reckless behavior on Montrose Beach is what will cause us to shut down the parks and lakefront.  Don't make us take steps backwards."

The Editor says...
All the foolishness about masks and six-foot spacing is no longer about the virus.  Maybe it never was.  Now it's all about conformity and control.  You must submit, or the government will really crack down.

7-year-old boy in Georgia died 'from COVID-19'? Media leaving out key details.  [Scroll down]  So it seems that the boy died not "from COVID-19," but rather as the result of a seizure and a fall in the shower.  It seems that, prior to his death, the child had zero Wuhan virus symptoms, and that after he was pronounced dead, "a rapid test showed evidence of COVID-19 positivity."  I don't know about you, but I've followed the news and the science on this virus as closely as most anyone, and I have yet to hear any reports of the Wuhan virus causing seizures.  If this were the case — especially where children are concerned — it is a virtual guarantee that the media would have daily told us so.  It would seem that fair and accurate reporting of this incident would include all of the circumstances surrounding this terrible tragedy and that this is almost certainly another example of someone dying with the Wuhan virus and not from it.  All the media have done here is give us another reason not to trust them in this grave matter.

To mask or not to mask?  Americans are being urged to, forced to, guilted into, and bullied into wearing masks.  If we don't wear masks, Democrats smugly tell us, we're selfish killers who have no regard for the life and safety of others.  But is that true?  It turns out that the science about masks is anything but settled — and that masks come with some significant downsides.  Even as Fauci the Hypocrite says masks for thee but not for me, serious scientific authorities are moving in the other direction.  Holland's scientific community holds that masks don't help and could hurt:  ["]'Face masks in public places are not necessary, based on all the current evidence,' said Coen Berends, spokesman for the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.  'There is no benefit and there may even be negative impact.'["]

Why are black Americans likelier to die of COVID than Latinos?  Only part of the dramatic racial differences in age-adjusted COVID-19 death rates can be explained by racial differences.  The remainder reflects a substantially lower black survival rate because, we are told, of poverty and inadequate access to healthcare.  Once taking into account Latino outcomes, however, these factors alone are unlikely to explain the lower black survival rate.  Why are the outcomes for Latinos so much better than for black Americans?  There is no comprehensive national measure of cases by race and ethnicity.  The CDC has estimates for only 57 percent of national cases.  Using these partial estimates, together with population data, I estimated that the black case rate is 2.53 times the white rate, and the Latino rate is 11.4 percent higher than the black rate.

'Mask mouth': Dentists coin new term for smelly side effect of wearing a mask.  Some bad breath just can't be covered up.  Now that dentists have reopened their doors, they're having patients show up with a nasty set of symptoms, which the doctors have dubbed "mask mouth."  The new oral hygiene issue — caused by, you guessed it, wearing a mask all the time to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — is leading to all kinds of dental disasters like decaying teeth, receding gum lines and seriously sour breath.

Christians Sidestep Coronavirus Restrictions By Meeting In State-Approved Venues.  In footage of two instances that went viral on Thursday [8/6/2020] and Friday, Christians gathered in the government-approved venues of a Pennsylvania Walmart and a Las Vegas casino to engage in the worship that authorities have deemed non-essential.  In a Thursday tweet that was retweeted by Vice President Mike Pence, Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed posted footage of a worship service in a Vegas casino, writing, "Packed house at #EvangelicalsForTrump prayer & praise event in Las Vegas.  NV Governor banned church services but casinos can operate at 50% capacity.  So we are praying in a casino."

NYC Councilman Paul Vallone credits Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 recovery.  A Democratic New York City Councilman says hydroxychloroquine saved his life after a near-fatal run-in with COVID-19 in March.  Paul Vallone, who represents northeast Queens, took the drug along with a standard flu Z-pack, and came back from the brink almost immediately.  "I couldn't breathe, very weak, couldn't get out of bed.  My doctor prescribed it.  My pharmacy had it.  Took it that day and within two to three days I was able to breathe," Vallone told The [New York] Post.  "Within a week I was back on my feet."

Is dying with COVID-19 and dying from COVID-19 the same thing?  In Oregon, it is.  Fred Creasy was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the end of June.  Doctors gave the 81-year-old just 30 days to live.  He died at the end of July while in hospice care at Avamere Rehabilitation Facility in Newport.  "They told my daughter you better come down here because it's going to be today.  And within five hours he was gone," said daughter Rhonda McCrary.  McCrary said her father tested positive for COVID-19 around the same time of his cancer diagnosis.  "He had no symptoms.  He wasn't even quarantined," said McCrary.  McCrary said her dad died from advanced cancer and Avamere considered Creasy recovered from the coronavirus.  A few days after his death, Lincoln County Public Health reported Creasy as the county's ninth COVID-19 death.

Why coronavirus occurs less in children than adults, according to new study.  The human cell receptor that the novel coronavirus latches onto in its victims is less prevalent in children than adults, which is likely why children may not be as susceptible to COVID-19, according to a new study.  In the recent report published in JAMA, the study authors stated that children account for less than two percent of reported COVID-19 cases.  The researchers hypothesized that this may be due to the gene expression of a specific cell receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2(ACE2).  The virus enters the human body through the ACE2 receptor, which is located on the surface of certain human cells, according to the study. [...] [Dr. Supinda] Bunyavanich's study is one of only a few examining the relationship between ACE2 in the airway and age, according to the release.  These findings could lead to a potential indicator of susceptibility to the novel coronavirus, the researchers said.

Fighting Leftists' Assault on American Small Business.  Masks are the mark of the times, symbolic of so much more than a means for virus protection.  The true masking in America is the nefarious hidden agenda of the Democrat party, co-opted by socialist ruffians.  The good news is that portions of the electorate are moving from the bewilderment stage on what is happening to our country to revealing the left's inner sanctum on how and why they are attacking our nation.  The more our minds dig for the ground truth, the more the subversive anti-America plot is revealed. [...] It is amazing, the speed with which private property rights of businesses were suspended by government dictates under the umbrella of pandemic lockdowns. [...] Traditional tools for inhibiting small business growth include stifling regulation and burdensome taxation.  The weapon of choice is now COVID-19-sanctioned lockdowns and restrictions.

Rape suspect freed from jail amid COVID-19 allegedly kills accuser.  A Virginia rape suspect was released from jail over coronavirus concerns — and then shot dead his accuser, authorities say.  Ibrahim E. Bouaichi, 33, of Greenbelt, Md., had been indicted on charges of rape, strangulation and abduction after Karla Dominguez, a native of Venezuela, told cops in Alexandria, Va., that he sexually assaulted her in October, the Washington Post said.  Bouaichi turned himself in 11 days later, and a judge ordered him held without bond.  Then, despite objections by an Alexandria prosecutor, lawyers for the man, who was charged with six felonies, successfully argued on April 9 that he be released on $25,000 bond — with a condition that he only leave his Maryland residence to meet with lawyers or pretrial services officials, the newspaper said.

As always, fear of the virus does far more damage than the virus itself.
Girl Slaughtered After Her Alleged Rapist Was Released From Jail Over COVID Concerns.  An alleged rapist killed his accuser after being released from jail over concerns he and his lawyers would contract coronavirus.  According to the Washington Post, Ibrahim Bouaichi hunted and killed his accuser, Karla Dominguez, after being released from jail because of concerns the Wuhan coronavirus would put Bouaichi and his lawyers at risk of falling ill.  Bouaichi was indicted on charges of rape, strangulation, and abduction after Dominguez, a native of Venezuela, told law enforcement in Alexandria, Va., that he sexually assaulted her in October.  Eleven days after his indictment, Bouaichi turned himself into authorities, and a judge ordered him to be held without bond.  Bouaichi's lawyers requested bond, arguing their client could not be safe from the Wuhan virus because it was "impossible" to provide adequate social distancing and other safety measures behind bars.  The men added that the arrangement also put them at risk, explaining that lawyers seeking a contact visit would "also expose themselves to contaminated air and surfaces."  Jail spokeswoman Amy Bertsch pointed out that the jail implemented increased cleaning and health screening in early March "and there were no cases of covid-19 at the jail during their client's incarceration."

Italian Study:  Hydroxychloroquine Cut Death Risk 66 Percent.  An Italian study found that hospitalized coronavirus patients who took anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin were 66% less likely to die.  Science Direct reports that the study also indicates a "larger effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in patients with less severe COVID-19 disease."

An Effective COVID Treatment the Media Continues to Besmirch.  On Friday, July 31, in a column ostensibly dealing with health care "misinformation," Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan opened by lambasting "fringe doctors spouting dangerous falsehoods about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 wonder cure."  Actually, it was Sullivan who was spouting dangerous falsehoods about this drug, something the Washington Post and much of the rest of the media have been doing for months.  On May 15, the Post offered a stark warning to any Americans who may have taken hope in a possible therapy for COVID-19.  In the newspaper's telling, there was nothing unambiguous about the science — or the politics — of hydroxychloroquine:  "Drug promoted by Trump as coronavirus game-changer increasingly linked to deaths," blared the headline.  Written by three Post staff writers, the story asserted that the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 is scant and that the drug is inherently unsafe.  This claim is nonsense.

Bad medicine:  Fauci's HCQ Waterloo.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has been hailed in the press as the nation's top infectious disease expert.  He's been feted with presidential honors and high praise for his medical acumen.  His policy disagreements with President Trump, supposedly as the voice of "science," have made him a hero on the left. [...] But it's about time this idol topples, based on this summary about Fauci's startlingly bad medicine and bad medical policy on COVID, which has in fact cost thousands of lives.  And yes, he is very specifically to blame.  Virologist Steven Hatfill, writing in RealClearPolitics, summed up just how disastrous Fauci has been for America's COVID response, based on Fauci's suppression of evidence about hydroxychloroquine, the safest and most effective treatment for COVID based on all reputable studies, and the political power he's used to halt its treatment even as the rest of the world got well from the inexpensive medication's use.

Checkpoint Charlie:
Quarantine 'checkpoint' opens at New York City's Penn Station to enforce travel rules.  A few dozen travelers got off a train from Miami at New York City's Penn Station on Thursday and were greeted by a team of public health workers and mayoral office staff who handed them informational fliers about the state's new COVID-19 quarantine rules.  The team, comprised of Mayor Bill de Blasio's public engagement unit and the city's COVID-19 Test & Trace Corps, were running a "checkpoint" starting at Penn Station on Thursday to ensure that visitors from any of the 35 states on New York's travel advisory were aware of the 14-day quarantine mandate.

DeWine tests negative for virus after earlier positive test.  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday after testing positive earlier in the day before he was to meet with President Donald Trump, according to a statement from his office.

The Editor says...
If someone tests positive and negative on the same day, what does that tell you?

Fauci Knew About HCQ In 2005 — Nobody Needed To Die.  [Scroll down]  This means, of course, that Dr. Fauci has known for 15 years that chloroquine and its even milder derivative hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) will not only treat a current case of coronavirus ("therapeutic") but prevent future cases ("prophylactic").  So HCQ functions as both a cure and a vaccine.  In other words, it's a wonder drug for coronavirus.  Said Dr. Fauci's NIH in 2005, "concentrations of 10 µM completely abolished SARS-CoV infection."  Fauci's researchers add, "chloroquine can effectively reduce the establishment of infection and spread of SARS-CoV."  Dr. Didier Raoult, the Anthony Fauci of France, had such spectacular success using HCQ to treat victims of SARS-CoV-2 that he said way back on February 25 that "it's game over" for Coronavirus.

Cover Up:  Fauci Approved Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine 15 Years Ago to Cure Coronaviruses.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose "expert" advice to President Trump has resulted in the complete shutdown of the greatest economic engine in world history, has known since 2005 that chloroquine is an effective inhibitor of coronaviruses.  How did he know this?  Because of research done by the National Institutes of Health, of which he is the director.  In connection with the SARS outbreak — caused by a coronavirus dubbed SARS-CoV — the NIH researched chloroquine and concluded that it was effective at stopping the SARS coronavirus in its tracks.  The COVID-19 bug is likewise a coronavirus, labeled SARS-CoV-2.  While not exactly the same virus as SARS-CoV-1, it is genetically related to it, and shares 79% of its genome, as the name SARS-CoV-2 implies.

The Two Horsemen Of The Apocalypse:  Fauci And Redfield.  America's number one health official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, because of those ballgame photos, should be the most notorious unmasked person since the Phantom of the Opera.  But, he insisted to Fox News "I had my mask around my chin.  I had taken it down.  I was totally dehydrated and I was drinking water, trying to rehydrate myself," Fauci.  Actually, the published ones either show his hands together or wrapped around a cell phone.  Further, in a virtually empty stadium, he also found no room for "social distancing," sitting between two others seat-to-seat.  Still, it may be hard to accuse the director of the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, "the nation's most trusted disease expert," of hypocrisy on anything since he has been all over the map on masks, epidemic severity, and pretty much every other aspect of COVID-19.

Philippines had the harshest lockdown and most mask wearing.  It didn't work.  Nowhere is the circuitous insanity and national masochism of lockdown policies more evident than in the Philippines.  This nation of over 100 million holds the distinction of having undergone the longest and most severe lockdown.  They also have the highest rate of mask wearing in the world, according to a recent survey.  In other words, they've done everything the propagators of corona panic porn every dreamt of.  Yet... Cases are surging because you can't run or hide from a respiratory virus.

New York Cops stationed at tunnels and bridges to scan license plates.  Travelers coming into New York City from 35 COVID-19 hotspot states were met at road entry points Wednesday under a program announced earlier in the day by Mayor Bill de Blasio.  At a press conference on Wednesday morning, de Blasio said those who do not self-isolate for 14 days once they arrive in the city from those locations could face a $10,000 fine.  He failed to explain how he would enforce the order.  Pictures taken by DailyMail.com show police officers stationed at the Goethals Bridge toll plaza Wednesday evening.  The sheriff's department scanned plates and pulled people over, onlookers say.

Why Georgia Could Be Blowing the Lockdown Meme Out of the Water.  Georgia was one of the last states to cave to a statewide lockdown.  It was also one of the first to start reopening.  Republican Gov. Brian Kemp resisted calls to mandate a statewide closure, leaving it to local governments.  When reopening was an option after guidelines were published, Kemp ensured that all Georgians would be allowed to participate in the reopening and prohibited local governments from implementing more restrictive guidelines than he did at the state level.

Trial lawyers looking for a $100 billion coronavirus jackpot.  Not everyone is suffering job loss, income declines and financial devastation from the coronavirus pandemic.  Some people are looking to get rich off the tragedy.  Trial lawyers see COVID-19 casualties and images of asbestos and tobacco lawsuits dancing in their heads.  They are drooling over the prospects of a $100 billion COVID-19 jackpot.  The Democrats in Congress who the trial bar has spent years buying and paying can't wait to help in the grand heist.  They aren't wasting any time.  The Wall Street Journal reports, "Employers across the country are being sued by the families of workers who contend their loved ones contracted lethal cases of Covid-19 on the job, a new legal front that shows the risks of reopening workplaces."  Who's in the bull's-eye?  So far, the deep pockets include Walmart Inc., Safeway Inc., Tyson Foods Inc., nursing homes and hospitals.  They are seeking millions for gross negligence or wrongful death, and the cases are mounting.  So far, the number of suits is approaching 5,000.

Dr. Zev Zelenko Gives Insightful Talk On HCQ And Deep Medical State Corruption With Debbie Aldrich.  [Video clip]

Mayor Eric Garcetti Says DWP Will Shut Off Water And Power At Homes That Throw Large Parties.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday [8/5/2020] announced the city was taking action against those who throw large parties.  He called recent gatherings of mostly young people in the Hollywood Hills and Calabasas "flagrant violations of health orders."  "While we have already closed all bars and nightclubs, these large house parties have essentially become nightclubs," said the mayor.  He then indicated he would hold them to similar scrutiny.  "The same thing we would do with businesses," said Garcetti.  If the LAPD responds to repeated complaints and verifies that there have been violations at a home, the city will within 48 hours have the DWP shut off service at that home.

The Editor says...
Who decides what a "large party" is?

Britain's gone from lockdown to la-la-land!  Grounded in dubious science and cowardly politics, the grievous wounds we have inflicted upon ourselves with the Covid-19 lockdown are becoming more evident every day.  Britain's economic outlook is dire and job losses are mounting daily.  It is clear many of those currently bankrolled by the Government's furlough scheme to lie on the beach, lawn or sofa will soon discover that they have no employment to return to in the autumn.  Meanwhile, disturbing figures reported in the Mail yesterday [8/4/2020], reveal how alarm is spreading among doctors and patients at the continued mothballing of sectors of the NHS.  Measures designed to help the health service withstand coronavirus cases served their purpose.  But now tens of thousands of people with cancer, heart disease and diabetes find themselves consigned to ever-longer waiting lists, left undiagnosed and untreated.

NYC looks more like a terrorist country than a city in a free nation.  On Wednesday [8/5/2020], NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio announced travel checkpoints and fines for those who do not comply with NYC quarantine restrictions.  The new rules were on top of state restrictions on out of state travelers that visit New York.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo had expanded on the already vast restrictions applying to 35 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico.  If you fail to fill out the travel form that is required, you will be fined $2,000, just for landing in a NYC airport.  He announced random checkpoints to be established on the cities bridges and tunnels.  Suppose you break the rules, it is a $10,000 fine.  In his comments, De Blasio said this was not to punish people, but to help them understand the rules.  Just let that sink in a little bit.  Random checkpoints across NYC access points where they will determine if you are compliant or not.  Is this a free country?

The Bigger Covid-19 Picture Has Come Into Sharp, Clear Focus.  As Professor [Steven] Ferry had proven within this linked ANP story, most Americans are missing the ties between Bill Gates, a Covid 19 vaccine and the globalists long-held push for digital ID's and the Covid-19 deception has offered the globalists the perfect opportunity to bring about the full implementation of their 'Global Control Grid' as we're now seeing rolled out in various locations across the world.  With the lead story over at Reuters reporting that the government in Singapore will begin using 'electronic tags' to enforce Covid-19 quarantines hinting at the Orwellian direction we're now heading in, with the devices tracking their wearers' every movement and any attempts to leave their 'home detention' location triggering an alarm that alerts authorities, a new story over at Infowars gives us an even bigger taste of where the world is heading if the democrats/globalists get their way.  As Infowars reports in this new story, police in Melbourne, Australia now have the power to enter people's homes without a warrant and perform 'spot checks' to enforce compliance with new coronavirus lockdown rules.

NBC News Reportedly Laying Off Staff Due To COVID-19.  NBC News will reportedly be laying off staff due to declining revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to Page Six.  The network's parent company NBCUniversal is planning cuts countrywide, according to Tuesday [8/4/2020] reports.  These cuts include employees at NBC News, sources told Page Six.  A little less than 3% of employees at NBC News are reportedly being laid off, the publication added.  These cuts come as NBC News' "Today" producer Jackie Levin leaves the network.  Levin worked at NBC for 26 years and recently accepted a buyout, Page Six reported Tuesday.

Federal Judge Rules Cuomo, De Blasio Exceeded Authority by Restricting Religious Services While Condoning Protests.  A federal judge on Friday [7/31/2020] ruled that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo violated the Constitution by restricting religious services to stem the spread of the coronavirus while simultaneously condoning mass protests that took place across the state.  U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe granted a preliminary injunction blocking New York from enforcing its stringent coronavirus restrictions on religious services.  The state's current restrictions require houses of worship to operate at 25 percent capacity and later at 33 percent capacity when New York enters Phase Four of its re-opening plan.

COVID and the Red States.  The death rate per 1000 cases in the 12 most conservative states has improved to the point that it is currently five times lower than the corresponding average rate in the 12 most progressive states.  [Graph at left]  Note that nearly all improvement for COVID-19 survival took place in red states.  Data for political affiliation for 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016 was provided by Gallup.  Coronavirus data (accessed on May 14 and July 23, 2020) was provided by USA Today.

U.S. sees fewer than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases for 2nd day.  For the second day in a row, researchers say new COVID-19 cases in the United States have numbered under 50,000.  About 45,400 new cases were recorded Monday [8/3/2020], according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the first time since late June with two straight days under 50,000.  There were about 47,500 on Sunday.  U.S. cases averaged about 60,000 per day in July.

What or Who Decides This Election?  [#1] The virus.  The coronavirus is like an out-of-control grass fire.  It dies down only to flare up without much predictability — making fools of yesterday's experts, proving them yet again today's geniuses, only to render them idiots tomorrow.  Trump's polls climbed in May when it looked as if the vicious virus was waning.  But after the public relaxed its guard, or protesters gathered for much of June in massive demonstrations that were politically correct mockeries of social distancing, masks, and disinfects, or the virus got its natural second wind, it caught fire again — and abroad as well. [...] [#2] The lockdown/quarantine.  Depending on how poll questions are framed, most Americans either want to take their chances and get back to work, or they care little about the data and simply are terrified of COVID-19.

Seven Major October Surprises Awaiting Democrats.  [#6] The China Virus.  So far, the politics of this haven't played out either way.  The public seems divided on whether to take the doctors' initial advice (that increasingly seems wrong) and mask up/social distance or to go with the more recent reports of a variety of treatments working that do not involve a locked-down country.  Suffice it to say, the small business community in the USA is getting crushed by the lock-downs, while the corporate giants seem fine with more regulation and separation.  Trump addressed this today, noting the wealth disparities that are not good for the country.  This is the same populist message, albeit with a slightly different twist, that fueled Trump's 2016 victory.

The Case-Fatality Rate Chart That Backs Up Trump's "Positive Thinking".  [Scroll down]  We learned yesterday that the hospitals are now admitting that there's money to be made in every death that can be chalked up to COVID-19.  Remember the controversy we had in Florida where 300 different testing sites, testing locations were reporting 100 percent positives?  In other words, everybody that came in tested positive for COVID-19.  It's not possible.  And yet they were reporting it at 300 different sites.  So the same thing happens with the death rate.  They're reporting people dying from COVID-19 even if they haven't died from it, but if they've got it.  If they die of kidney failure, if they die of diabetes, if they die of cancer but they also have COVID, guess what?  They're said to have died from COVID.  Why?  Well, there's a bunch of reasons, A, there's money in it.  B, there's politics in it.  Right now the more people dying of COVID, the better for the Democrat Party.  Who's reporting these numbers?  Who is in charge of reporting and interpreting these numbers?  The Drive-By Media is.  And if they want the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 to go up and rise, they can do that and then they can blame it all on Trump.

COVID-19 Lies Go Viral.  Beware of three widely circulating COVID-19-related lies and the partisan motives behind them.  These lies are dangerous to your children and how you cope with this virus.  Lie No. 1: "The United States' response stands out as among the worst of any country."  House Majority Whip James Clyburn leveled that charge, as he kicked off a hearing Friday [8/31/2020] into the virus.  Don't buy it.  A staggering 183,639 Europeans have died from the virus as of Monday.  Deaths per capita have been far higher in the U.K., Spain and Italy than in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins.  After a lull, cases are spiking in several European countries.  That hasn't stopped New York Times columnist Paul Krugman from asking, "Why Can't Trump's America be like Italy?"  Is he crazy?  A patient with the coronavirus has faced three times the risk of dying from it in Italy as in the U.S., Johns Hopkins data indicate.

Comedic rant sums up anti-mask position, 'wins the internet for 2020!'  The argument against being forced to wear protective face masks was summed up by one young woman in a short but scathing video.  Twitter users gave the woman a virtual standing ovation and agreed that her anti-mask rant won the internet after the video was shared by YouTuber Jordan Sather.  [Video clip]

Bloody brawl breaks out after woman throws coffee in man's face for not wearing mask.  A bloody brawl broke out in Manhattan Beach after a couple confronted two men for not wearing masks, causing an argument that turned violent when the woman threw coffee into the face of one of the men.  The brawl was all caught on video, recorded by James Hernandez's bodycam, which he says he has to wear as a Trump supporter.  "Because I wear a trump hat I've had a lot of confrontations, I guess," he said.  His camera was rolling on Friday when he says he and his friend, Matthew Roy, were eating burritos outside without masks on, and a couple criticized them.  "Y'all need to be wearing masks," the woman can be heard saying.  "No we don't," Hernandez replies.  "We're locals here but were on the other side of the fence, we don't believe in this stuff."

Social Media Censorship Won't Keep Trump from Being Reelected.  Remember a couple of months ago people were all excited about Dr. Robert Epstein claiming Google preventing Trump-related searches or banning Trump ads was going to throw the election to the Democrats and Joe Biden?  I certainly do, because at the time Dr. Epstein went public with his predictions about the forthcoming 2020 election, my Twitter account blew up from people bringing it to my attention.  Dr. Epstein is a prominent American psychologist and author.  He was formerly editor-in-chief of Psychology Today magazine and a distinguished professor at the University of California — San Diego.  Epstein has been involved in controversies and criticisms of Google and other Big Tech platforms since 2012 when Google began placing security warnings on links to his website, which reduced his site traffic.

Crazy Mask Karen Goes Berserk in Walmart, Screams at and Punches Teen Boy For Not Wearing Face Mask.  A crazy mask Karen went berserk in a Post Falls, Idaho Walmart over the weekend when she spotted customers without their faces covered.  The enraged, overweight woman began screaming at a group of teenagers:  "You guys are abusing your freedom!  Stop it!" the woman screamed as she punched the teen boy who was recording her with his cell phone.

NYC Health Commissioner Resigns Over Deep Disappointment' With Mayor De Blasio's Handling Of The Pandemic.  New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot resigned after clashing with Mayor Bill de Blasio over how to confront the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times reported Tuesday [8/4/2020].  "I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department's incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been," Barbot wrote in her resignation email, a copy of which was shared to The NYT.

NYC Health Commissioner Resigns with 'Deep Disappointment' after Clashing with De Blasio.  New York City health commissioner Oxiris Barbot resigned on Tuesday [8/4/2020], after clashing with Mayor Bill de Blasio for months over the city's coronavirus response.  De Blasio has a history of clashing with health department officials.  In May of this year the mayor opted to place city hospitals in charge of coronavirus contact tracing efforts, despite the health department's experience with contact tracing for AIDS, measles, and other outbreaks.

CDC director admits hospitals, medical folks have 'perverse incentive' to falsely count Covid deaths.  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield has confirmed that, despite claims otherwise from the left, there is indeed a "perverse incentive" for hospitals to overcount their coronavirus deaths by falsely attributing unrelated deaths to the virus.  Asked during a House Oversight and Reform hearing Friday to comment on what Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Republican, described as a "perverse incentive for medical folks to claim that somebody died of COVID versus an automobile accident, for instance," Redfield admitted that the congressman had a point.  [Video clip] [...] Similarly, because of the CARES Act passed by Congress in March, hospitals receive a 20 percent premium when seeking payment for Medicare patients who died allegedly of the coronavirus.

"You Don't Have a Choice — Normalcy Only Returns When We Largely Vaccinate the Entire Population" — Creepy Bill Gates Gets Creepier.  This creepy video of Bill Gates is making the rounds again today [8/2/2020].  Bill Gates told The Financial Times, "You don't have a choice... Normalcy only returns when we largely vaccinate the entire population."  For the coronavirus flu.  [Video clip]

Texas Downgrades COVID-19 Deaths After 'Automation Error'.  The Texas Department of State Health Services revealed this week that an "automation error" in a new method of reporting COVID-19 deaths led to hundreds of people being mistakenly reported as having died of the coronavirus.  The statistical error put 225 fatalities on the state's COVID-19 related death toll.  A local Texas NBC affiliate stated:  "On July 27, the state said 675 deaths were being added to the list of those killed by COVID-19 and that the increase was due to a change in reporting method that relied on death certificates rather than reports from various public health departments."

The Real Reason Democrats are Pushing for Mail-In Ballots.  [Scroll down]  The surges in cases we are seeing across the country means that more and more of the population have been exposed to the virus.  The vast majority are not getting sick; in fact most don't even know they are ill and they are getting tested due to potential exposure, for return to work, travel, or simply because the tests are widely available and free under most insurance plans.  Once the virus tears through a population, there are fewer left to infect, and it goes away.  A summer surge in positive tests brings us closer to herd immunity and this will likely burn itself out by fall.  Normal colds and seasonal flu may complicate things, but that's another story.  The compassionate Democrats say it's too dangerous to wait in line to vote.  Yet it was fine for hundreds to wait in line for John Lewis's funeral procession.  Hypocrisy is on full display when it comes to the Chinese coronavirus.  The all-knowing, all-caring Dr. Anthony Fauci donned a large mask while standing all alone on the pitcher's mound waiting to launch his ill-fated pitch closer to the dugout than home plate.  Yet in the bleachers, he was yucking it up with some pals, forgetting all about masks and social distancing.

A New Prohibition Is Silencing the Deplorables.  Due to the draconian responses to COVID-19, America has been seeing the temporary triumph of the new ax wielders.  A whole network of institutions that are the bedrock of neighborhoods are under attack, including shops, bars, pubs, restaurants, concert halls, movie theaters and churches.  Even some church choirs are silenced by a 'no singing' rule.  The smashers of neighborliness and camaraderie are, like Carrie Nation, doing so in the name of righteousness and the improvement of American's physical health — a principle that seems fair enough.  But if the health of Americans was truly the issue, there would not be so much arbitrariness and inconsistent application of rules and regulations.  The people who are under the laws of the new Prohibition can see the inconsistencies clearly.  It seems odd to them that COVID-19 virus is apparently far more active in churches, small businesses, and eateries, than it is in densely packed crowds of protestors whose righteous ideology apparently immunizes them from the virus's deleterious effects.

Rand Paul Harshly Slams Fauci:  You Praised Andrew Cuomo.  Why Not DeSantis?  On Monday morning [8/3/2020], Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul, angered by Dr. Anthony Fauci having lavished praise on New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo for his response to the coronavirus pandemic while studiously ignoring Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis' much more successful response, fired off a tweet targeting Fauci. [...] As of August 3, according to The New York Times, New York had reported 421,008 cases of coronavirus with 32,401 deaths; Florida had reported at least 487,100 cases with 7,083 deaths.  That amounts to 7.7% of the cases reported in New York eventuating in death, while in Florida roughly 1.5% of the cases resulted in death.

In New Interview Bobby Kennedy Jr. Claims Dr. Fauci will Make Millions on Coronavirus Vaccine and Owns Half the Patent.  Robert Kennedy Jr. and Harvard Attorney Alan Dershowitz debated on the topic of the coronavirus vaccine back in July.  During the debate, Kennedy Jr. claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci invested $500 million in the vaccine that is not safe by any means and Fauci owns half the patent so he's due to make millions.

These Two Charts Should Land Dr. Fauci in Prison.  The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a leading non-partisan professional association of physicians across the United States.  Today [8/3/2020] the AAPS filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to compel the release to the public of hydroxychloroquine by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).  Here are two charts that show hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness in treating the coronavirus. [...] And Fauci continues to push the ridiculous notion that hydroxychloroquine treatments are not successful in treating the coronavirus.

Disconnect between FDA and doctors prescribing hydroxychloroquine.  A disconnect appears to have arisen between the Food and Drug Administration and a sizable number of physicians when it comes to prescribing hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients.  The situation garnered extra attention last week when a group of physicians billing themselves as America's Frontline Doctors insisted that the drug could treat COVID-19 in a high-profile press conference in Washington.  Clips of the event went viral on social media before being blocked on some platforms as misinformation.  At the root of the disconnect is a medical practice known as "off-label prescribing."  "Let doctors be doctors," said Dr. Alieta Eck, a primary care physician in New Jersey.  "We treat people off-label all the time."

Gambler Removed in Cuffs From Las Vegas Casino For Not Wearing Face Mask.  A Las Vegas gambler was cuffed and removed from 4 Queens casino Saturday night for not wearing a face mask.  Nevada's Democrat Governor Sisolak recently ordered a statewide mask mandate amid the Coronavirus panic.  Anyone who enters a casino must wear a face mask, or else face arrest.  According to the person who took the picture of the arrest, bystanders were wearing masks under their chin, so why weren't they arrested as well?

Sweden's No-Lockdown COVID Numbers are Even Better Than They Look.  In case you hadn't heard, Sweden is one of the very few western nations that didn't respond to COVID-19 by imposing any lockdowns.  Given the obvious hardship, misery, and death lockdowns bring, Sweden's leaders decided it made more sense to just isolate the sick and elderly.  They let the infection burn through the strong and healthy members of their population at its normal rate instead of trying to slow it down and thereby delaying herd immunity.  Way back in May, I pointed out that, if lockdowns were effective, Sweden's neighbors would see a dramatic increase in cases after opening back up.  Lockdowns, at best, only slow down the rate of infection.  They don't reduce the number required to reach herd immunity and, hence, only serve to increase the amount of time the virus lingers.  The point of locking down is to make sure hospitals don't get overrun by a surge of new cases on any given day, not to decrease the number of people ultimately infected.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank boss Neel Kashkari: 'Hard' shutdown can save economy.  Locking the country down "really hard" for a period of several weeks could save the economy from long-term pain, the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank said Sunday [8/2/2020].  In an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," Neel Kashkari said that the only way to have "a real robust economic recovery" is to quash the flare-ups of the coronavirus that continue to pop up across the country.  Shutting things down "for a month or six weeks" would allow the nation's case count to get low enough that the government's testing and contact tracing efforts could effectively contain future spreading, Kashkari said, adding that if serious action isn't taken, the country will "have this raging virus spreading ... with flare ups and local lockdowns for the next year or two."

The Editor says...
[#1] No disease is bad enough to warrant this kind of action.  The Covid-19 disease certainly isn't.  [#2] If you have learned nothing else this year, you must have learned that "just a few weeks" lasts about six months.  [#3] Anyone with any awareness of the state of this country (and how we got here) knows that the detrimental side-effects of the earlier shutdowns has greatly outweighed the benefits.

One Swedish Model To Copy:  No More COVID-19 Lockdowns.  Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is the latest to create a stir by saying he favored a "really hard" four-to-six week lockdown of the economy to get the virus under control and help the economy rebound later.  The only problem is, we already had lockdowns.  We were told it would be a couple of weeks, so we could "flatten the curve."  Then, even as the infection rate fell, governors and big city mayors decided to keep their economies shut.  It didn't work, unless you count destroying people's dreams, small businesses, jobs and life savings.  Another "really hard" lockdown?  Sorry.  Recent research shows the lockdowns didn't do anything but make Americans miserable by killing small businesses by the hundreds and laying off millions of workers.  A Fed president should know better.

COVID-19 Deaths Are a Tiny Percentage of the Overall Mortality Rate.  [Scroll down]  If you walk down the steps, you risk dying from a slip-and-fall.  If you took a shower, same thing.  If you plugged anything into an electrical outlet, you risked death.  If you walked across the street, you risked death. [...] So throughout your normal course of the day you risk death 2,000 times a day, minimum.  We're afraid of COVID, which has a 98.3% recovery rate unless you have one of comorbidity issues?  Are you kidding me?  Should you be scared of COVID at this point, based on what you know, that 1.6 million people died so far this year of other things?

Dr. Harvey Risch on War Room After CNN Hit Job.  Dr. Harvey Risch joins Steve Bannon, Raheem Kassam, and @JackMaxey1 on War Room: Pandemic right after his appearance on New Day with John Berman where the host attempted to "put words in his mouth."  [Video clip]

Jake Tapper scolds Trump for airport 'mini-rally' in Florida, but John Lewis crowds still ok.  [Scroll down]  There were multiple memorials and funeral extravaganzas held for John Lewis during the past two weeks.  Most were held indoors, where attendees were packed together like sardines.  Meanwhile, countless Americans were not allowed to hold funerals for their loved ones who had recently died.  Under the District of Columbia's coronavirus rules, individuals who travel to "high-risk areas" are required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon re-entering the District.  The state of Georgia is considered a "high-risk area" for the coronavirus by Mayor Bowser's office.  However, Bowser confirmed that anyone who attended Congressman Lewis' funeral in Georgia is not required to self-quarantine upon re-entering D.C.  "Government activity is essential, and the Capitol of the United States is exempt from the Mayor's Order," Bowser's press secretary told Just the News.

Sit down, Nancy:  Pelosi doubles down while Birx forcefully pushes back.  Good for her.  A Sunday morning [8/2/2020] political show gave Dr. Birx a chance to respond to Speaker Pelosi's snide remarks about her as she was interviewed on CNN.  She was asked about Pelosi's criticism of her during a private meeting with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchen on Friday night.  Birx delivered an unequivocal response.  Pelosi's remarks against Birx were leaked to the press, of course, and it seems that her vitriol toward Birx came from a New York Times article in July. [...] She predicted that the virus would rise dramatically but then peak and begin to decline.  No one from the NYT bothered to interview Dr. Birx before publishing the hit piece, by the way.  When the coronavirus moved aggressively to southern states, her prediction was proven to have been overly optimistic.

Scientists say public transport may not be a major source of coronavirus spread after all.  Catching coronavirus on public transport is far less likely than once feared, fresh data suggests.  Trains, buses and planes were earmarked as potential Covid-19 hotspots by experts around the world at the start of the crisis.  This is because Covid-19 thrives in enclosed indoor spaces with little ventilation and densely packed crowds of people.  But research suggests that, if masks are worn and social distancing is adhered to, the chance of the virus spreading on public transport is minimal.  Contact tracing studies looking into hundreds of Covid-19 clusters in France, Austria and Japan linked fewer than 1 percent of 'super-spreader' events back to public transport.

The Editor says...
The trains in Japan are notorious for overcrowding, to the extent that there are "pushers" whose job is to push people into the trains before the doors close.  [Video clip]  Thus it is highly unlikely that anyone conducted a study and found that if "social distancing is adhered to," the virus doesn't spread on mass transit vehicles.  There is no six-foot "social distancing" on overcrowded mass transit vehicles.

Houston Doctor Stella Immanuel Doubles Down — When Was the Last Time Fauci Saw a Patient?  Dr. Stella Immanuel M.D. from Houston is a courageous woman in an insane world.  Earlier this week Dr. Immanuel joined several other front line doctors in Washington DC at the "White Coat Summit" to announce the amazing success they were having treating coronavirus patients on the front line using hydroxychloroquine.  Dr. Stella Immanuel bravely came out on Monday and said that she has personally treated over 350 patients suffering from COVID-19 with Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, and Zithromax and they have all recovered.

When a Mask Becomes Part of the Required Work Uniform.  In general, the older and less healthy a person is, the more he can expect wearing a mask to cause physical trouble.  Yet, the reaction of one's body to the imposing of a new impediment, in this case on breathing, can be surprising.  People who can run a mile easily can also suffer physical problems from wearing a mask while going about their daily activities.  And psychological harm from mask wearing can afflict people of all ages and physical fitness levels.

CNN Analyst Says Non-Maskers Should Be On Their Own 'Terrorist' List.  Don't you just love CNN? [...] If there is a more target-rich environment in the news business — with MSNBC running a close second — I have yet to find it.  That said, it comes as no surprise that the dumpster fire of cable news pays on-air "talent" to say stupid [things], 24x7.  Such was the case on Sunday morning [8/2/2020] when CNN "analyst" Juliette Kayyem and the ever-irascible Ana Cabrera decided [...] that people who refuse to wear masks should be put on a "terror suspect" list.

Texas school trustee under fire for comparing COVID-19 face masks to Islamic face coverings that Muslim women are forced to wear all the time.  Red Oak Independent School District teachers and residents are debating a controversial statement made by a school board trustee earlier in the week.

Fauci Hasn't Changed — He's The Problem Not The Solution.  [Scroll down]  It should be kept in mind that hydroxychloroquine is not a new drug.  It has been widely used around the world for many decades to combat malaria.  When I served overseas it was handed out by the bottle-full to me, my coworkers, and our family members to take to head off the contraction of malaria.  The drug is also widely prescribed for the treatment of arthritis.  In many countries, it is available over the counter without a prescription.

Tucker Drops a Truth Bomb About Dr. Fauci Being a 'Total Fraud'.  Fox News host Tucker Carlson slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci for being hypocritical about his stance on the Wuhan coronavirus, particularly when it has to do with churches reopening and ongoing protests and riots across the country.  "Anthony Fauci is likely the most powerful physician in the history of this country.  He is one of the forces behind the mass quarantines that tanked the economy and put millions out of work.  He says it's worth it though because the threat is so profound, so profound, so imminent that you should wear goggles and stop shaking hands, in the name of science.  So it's interesting in light of that that one thing Anthony Fauci doesn't seem concerned about at all are the riots going on, the mass protests where thousands of people are crowded into together touching each other without goggles," Carlson explained.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Vetoes Bill to Prevent COVID-19 Patients From Being Housed in Nursing Homes.  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a bipartisan bill on Friday that would have protected the elderly and vulnerable by banning COVID-19 patients from being quarantined in nursing homes. [...] Senate Republicans are firing back at Whitmer for her cruel and callous decision to veto the common sense legislation.  "In a mean-spirited move, Gov. Whitmer announced she vetoed a plan that would have prevented COVID-19 patients from entering our nursing homes," they wrote.  "Only a few governors had allowed this reckless practice in the first place, and all except Gov. Whitmer have since changed course and stopped the practice, including embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo," Senate Republicans continued.

Someone is Lying About Covid.  Contrary to claims by the media and the ego maniac Dr. Fauci about a tidal wave of Covid infections, I have first hand, albeit anecdotal evidence, that there is a lot of [nonsense] surrounding reports of people who have "tested" positive for Covid.  My old friend Janet, who was the GM of a very popular hair salon, heard yesterday from two of her former employees that they had "tested positive" for Covid.  At first she was very alarmed and concerned for their welfare until she heard the rest of the story (Paul Harvey's signature line).  Both reported neither had been to any testing facility nor had they provided any sample of any body fluid.  But both were notified in the mail that they had "tested positive."

Democrats Sure Love A Funeral.  Political rallies are a thing of the past, at least this year.  Conventions are not happening, not in any recognizable way at least.  But this reality hasn't stopped Democrats from having a slice of both, only it comes with a side of death.  More accurately, death comes with an opportunity to have a rally or a convention-esque speech.  It's pretty sick, actually.  There are states that have allowed their entire population fewer funerals with fewer attendees than either George Floyd or John Lewis had.  Nothing against either man.  I'm sure their families miss them dearly, but there are bodies in refrigerator trucks that can't be claimed by family members because of state-imposed restrictions.  Their families miss them dearly too, and would love, and need, to memorialize them as well.  It's an important part of the grieving process.  Yet, they can't, or at least can't have more than a few people.  Who wants to be the person to tell family members they didn't make the cut for attending grandma's funeral because a governor said there could only be 10 people there?  Meanwhile, Floyd and Lewis were taken on tour, with Floyd receiving three services and Lewis six.  While they were allegedly subject to some restrictions, you'd be hard-pressed to spot them from the pictures and videos.

Holland's top scientists say there's no solid evidence coverings work and warn they could even damage the fight against Covid-19.  As I walked around the sun-dappled streets of Amsterdam, something felt strange in this world swept by fear and pandemic.  There was laughter coming from barges sliding along the famous canals, clusters of cyclists clogged the streets, shoppers dipped into chic boutiques, the barber shops seemed busy and cafes served couples chatting over coffee.  I heard many voices of tourists in bars and restaurants, while even the seedier sides of this celebrated Dutch city had people strolling through them.  It took me a moment to realise what was so weird.  Then it struck me.  It felt like I had stepped back in time, returning to the pre-pandemic normality of a bustling city filled with human beings whose faces were not covered by cloth.  For while 120 countries in the world, including much of Europe, have ordered citizens to wear masks in public places to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the Dutch are doing things differently.

Lawmakers returning from John Lewis funeral [are] exempt from D.C. quarantine order.  Washington, D.C. attendees to the Atlanta funeral of the late Rep. John Lewis are exempt from following the District of Columbia's strict quarantine rules after returning home from Georgia, the D.C. mayor's office says.  Lewis, a longtime member of Congress and one of the major figures of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, died on July 17 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.  After lying in state at the United States Capitol, his body was returned to Atlanta for a funeral at that city's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.  Among the attendees at that funeral were dozens of members of Congress, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senators Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maryland House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Jim Jordan Confronts Dr. Anthony Fauci on Disparate COVID Concerns.  Ohio representative Jim Jordan does a good job in this testimonial segment contrasting the political hypocrisy within the COVID shutdowns and decrees.  The political elite can assemble without issue at the funeral of John Lewis, but don't you dare try to have a funeral for your loved-ones because it's not allowed.  Within that contrast the fuel for COLD ANGER rages in the veins of ordinary Americans.  Jim Jordan gives voice to some of the most ridiculous aspects of the COVID political rules.  [Video clip]

Social Media Censorship Is Scary.  One of the many great things about being an American is that we have the right to freedom of speech.  I may not agree with what my neighbor has to say, but I will fight to the death for his or her ability to say it.  This concept was a founding principle that is now in jeopardy because of the monopoly power wielded by social media giants.  An example of this disturbing trend occurred this week when a video from several frontline doctors who questioned the status quo position on COVID-19 treatments and protocols was summarily scrubbed from most top internet and social media sites.  After going "viral," the video was immediately taken down by Twitter, YouTube, and several other prominent platforms.  Unfortunately, many Americans missed the opportunity to watch the video before it was removed.

Ohio Board of Pharmacy Reverses Hydroxychloroquine Ban After Governor's Request.  The Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed a ban on the use of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of coronavirus infections after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) asked for a reversal.  "I agree with the statement from Dr. Steven Hahn, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, that the decision about prescribing hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 should be between a doctor and a patient," DeWine said in a statement.  "Therefore, I am asking the Ohio Board of Pharmacy to halt their new rule prohibiting the selling or dispensing of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19."  "The Board of Pharmacy and the State Medical Board of Ohio should revisit the issue, listen to the best medical science, and open the process up for comment and testimony from experts," DeWine said.

Fauci's Daughter Ali Fauci Is A Software Engineer For Twitter.  NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, facing harsh criticism for his response to the Coronavirus outbreak, has a daughter named Alison ("Ali") who is a software engineer for Twitter.  This comes as Silicon Valley increasingly cracks down on so-called misinformation about the virus from truth-minded individuals who do not automatically accept what the experts like Fauci have to say.  Fauci's daughter's software engineer job at Twitter was confirmed in articles by Heavy and Deseret.  Twitter has some explaining to do to convince independent-minded people that there is no conflict of interest when it comes to censoring information critical of Ali's father Dr. Fauci.

Election Interference:  Twitter Just Censored a Doctor, Public Health Expert, and GOP Chairwoman.  Twitter informed me that my account was suspended for sharing content they disagree with, and while I suppose I should be flattered by joining such august company as Donald Trump Jr., this issue is bigger than me:  it is a question of censorship.  The reason I was given by Twitter for why my account was suspended was because, according to them, I spread "false information" about COVID-19, or rather, information that goes against "accepted science."  Is it possible that the geniuses at Twitter are referencing the medical journal Lancet, which published a study claiming hydroxychloroquine was not effective in fighting the coronavirus and that this drug, which has been used for decades with great success to treat malaria, may cause cardiac problems?  Because, if so, that study was later retracted after it was discovered that the underlying data the company used was totally falsified.

By Suppressing Medical Debate, It Is Twitter that Endangers Americans.  Twitter has once again acted as judge, juro, and executioner.  For four days, Twitter prevented the @BreitbartNews twitter account from posting, only restoring its permissions earlier today.  This is in no small part because Twitter dragged its feet on Breitbart News's appeal[.]  Twitter initially locked Breitbart News's account because it posted a video of a press conference featuring Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and licensed doctors sharing their views and opinions on coronavirus and the medical response to the pandemic.  The event was held by the organization America's Frontline Doctors and organized by the Tea Party Patriots.

DC Mayor Exempts John Lewis Funeral Attendees From City's Quarantine Restrictions.  Lawmakers who attended the funeral of late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) in Atlanta earlier this week are exempt from Washington, D.C.'s, self-quarantine restrictions, according to District Mayor Muriel Bowser's office.  According to the mayor's July 24 order, titled "Requirement to Self-Quarantine After Non-Essential Travel During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency," any residents who travel to "high-risk" areas for "non-essential" reasons must self-quarantine for 14 days and monitor themselves for symptoms of the virus. [...] The order, which remains in effect at least until Oct. 9, goes on to define "high-risk areas" as "locations where the seven (7)-day moving average daily new COVID-19 case rate is ten (10) or more per one hundred thousand (100,000) persons."  By such a metric, the entire state of Georgia is considered "high-risk," and a recent federal report listed it in the "red zone" because of its skyrocketing cases of the virus.  Atlanta's Fulton County averaged 228 cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, according to most recent statistics from The New York Times.

The New Ten Commandments.  [#1] Thou shalt wear a mask.  Wearing a mask is now the epitome of social awareness and virtue.  "There is no greater love than this, that thou apply one's mask before going out."  There seems to be no concern about what kind of mask or how we wear it, or dispose of it, but wear one, we must.  It shows concern for one's fellow man, whether one has that concern or not — it's handy that way.  It is also handy as riot-wear so no one can identify you breaking into a jewelry store or kicking in a cop car.  [#2] Thou shalt stay home. unless there's a riot going on nearby.  Attendance at those events is mandatory for guilt-ridden millennials, and will earn an earnest rioter merit badge to wear on his/her Che Guevara T-shirt.  Bricks will be provided, but bring a personal shopping bag.  Babies and young children are welcome.  White people are welcome as well as long as they really hate being white and still live with their parents.

2020: The Year That Boiled the Frog.  China, rocked back on its heels by America's newfound resistance to its cheating and bullying, released a plague upon the world. (Whether the outbreak was planned or not, it is clear that the Chinese Communist Party intentionally suppressed information and warnings about the novel coronavirus, and allowed it to spread around the globe.  What better way to smash its enemies, America in particular, than to destroy their economies?)  America responded with a robust immune response that nearly killed the patient.  (It may kill it yet.)  A drastic quarantine was imposed upon the nation, and a roaring economy bludgeoned to its knees.  Unemployment, which had been at the lowest levels in half a century (and for blacks and Hispanics, the lowest ever recorded) soared to Depression-era levels.  Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have failed.  Governors and mayors imposed quarantines, severely restricting commerce and assembly, entirely at their whim.  The determination of "essential" businesses and activities — which, for many smaller enterprises, meant the difference between life and death — was glaringly, often contemptuously, capricious.

The Misery Compact.  The wisecrack in MAGA world is that coronavirus hysteria and the catastrophic consequences of related lockdowns have an expiration date:  November 4, 2020.  That, of course, is the day after the presidential election, which our political experts currently predict will be won by Joe Biden.  Panic over the flu-like virus will disappear; power-grabbing governors will ease house arrest orders; children will go back to school; face coverings will be torched; and the news media's coronavirus dashboards will be archived for history.  Further, inner-city unrest magically will be cured.  Antifa thugs will go back to Starbucks or their bedroom in mom's Westport mansion or their Ivy League dorm rooms.  Crisis over.  But that scenario is more than just the cynical view of Trump supporters wary that the current turmoil is the latest attempt to oust the president from the Oval Office — it appears to be the election strategy of the Joe Biden campaign, the Democratic Party, and the news media.  And they are making no effort to keep it a secret.

HCQ-touting doctor says she has been fired after appearing in viral video touting the drug as a COVID-19 treatment.  Dr. Simone Gold, the Los Angeles-based physician behind America's Frontline Doctors, a group advocating for hydroxychloroquine to be used in the fight against COVID-19, says she has been fired for expressing her medical opinion.  Gold shared the news in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Thursday night, saying she was removed from her job due to her appearance in a viral video touting the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine.  "I'm a board-certified emergency physician for 20 years, and in fact, it seems like until five minutes ago I was considered a hero and people would be clapping and glad that I was doing what I was doing, and then the video came out and I was summarily fired for appearing in what was told to me is an embarrassing video," Gold told Carlson.

Physician behind 'America's Frontline Doctors' says she was fired, warns attackers she's hired attorney Lin Wood.  Dr. Simone Gold, a Los Angeles-based physician and founder of America's Frontline Doctors, said Thursday night she has been fired for expressing her medical opinion.  Appearing Thursday night [7/30/2020] on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," the doctor who appeared at a press conference Monday with other physicians during a "White Coat Summit" in Washington to tout the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 patients, confirmed that she lost her job.  "I'm a board-certified emergency physician for 20 years, and in fact, it seems like until five minutes ago I was considered a hero and people would be clapping and glad that I was doing what I was doing, and then the video came out and I was summarily fired for appearing in what was told to me is an embarrassing video," Gold said.

The War on Hydroxychloroquine.  [Scroll down]  With COVID-19, the nation's petty tyrants in state government took the opportunity presented by the crisis to revoke the rights and freedoms of the American people and impose mass house arrest.  The next phase of the war immediately followed in the form of the terrorist riots that have resulted in widespread property destruction and the sowing of intense fear among the law-abiding, who are increasingly left to their own devices in defending themselves against the tide of violence.  In total, the entire campaign is aimed at forcibly limiting what Americans do, say, and even think — trying to make social controls "the new norm."  As an integral part of this "new norm," the elitists who desire total power have devised another strategem:  institute a vaccine program — ostensibly to safeguard us against coronavirus — that will allow elites to track us at all times and control the lives and activities of people around the world.  The scheme has been heavily promoted by Bill Gates and the controlled international menagerie of NGOs and world government bodies. [...] Thus, we have an all-out campaign of demonization waged against the drug, convincing Americans to abandon hope of a non-vaccine treatment.

The Democrats' Jihad Against Hydroxychloroquine.  The Democrats' holy jihad against any medical professional who suggests the safe, controlled application of Hydroxychloroquine could provide therapeutic benefit to certain patients who are experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus has reached a new level of insanity.  In recent days, the big tech, social media behemoths inserted their own medical opinion into the national conversation over the use of this long-approved prescription drug for COVID patients.  They censored and removed a video with multiple medical professionals, including a professor at Yale's schools of medicine and epidemiology, providing a second opinion to the overwhelming media narrative that this drug is somehow dangerous despite the fact that malaria and lupus patients have safely used the drug for decades.

Wisconsin Orders Mandatory Face Masks.  Some Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce It.  Wisconsin this week is joining the growing number of states to issue a mandatory face mask order to counter the media-stoked fears about rising COVID-19 cases.  The order, signed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers, declared a "Public Health Emergency and issued an Emergency Order requiring individuals to wear face coverings when indoors and not in a private residence, with some exceptions as clarified and defined in the order."  Effective August 1, the order argues that widespread mask wearing is essential to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

The Worthlessness of Congressional Hearings.  [Scroll down]  Amazon is the all-time undisputed king of merchandise sales, making owner Jeff Bezos the Richest Man on Earth.  Last week, Bezos' net worth jumped $13 billion in a single day.  He's worth just shy of $200 billion, or so.  Bezos is so rich, his ex-wife is the Richest Woman on Earth, and the source of her wealth is her divorce from Jeff Bezos.  His unimaginable wealth is so enormous that his mountain of money is still far-and-away the biggest even after peeling off a huge chunk to make his ex the Richest Woman on Earth.  And Bezos is one of the very few Americans whose business is booming due to the never-ending coronavirus shutdowns that are destroying businesses across our country, making his wealth skyrocket by the day in ways never even imagined just six months ago.

Politics, Not Science, Keeping Schools Closed.  Politicians speak about following the science to set COVID-19 policy, but their decisions are more about political objectives than they are about medical efficacy.  Why else did California Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down retail businesses in March when the state had under 300 cases per day but allow them to be open in July when the state clocked in at over 10,000 cases per day?  Why else would Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear allow liquor stores to stay open but close down churches?  Why did Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer insist that buying lottery tickets remain legal but made it illegal to buy garden supplies?  And how did New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo use "science" to prohibit outdoor funerals but allow outdoor protests?

Hydroxy Hysteria Reaching a Fever Pitch.  COVID-19 can cause a fever, but nothing like the fever of hysteria gripping broadcast and social media over hydroxychloroquine, a potential treatment for the Wuhan flu.  Ever since President Trump mentioned hydroxy as a possible therapeutic, the media have castigated it as worse than rat poison.  They've criticized any use of it in a constant barrage of fear porn, telling everyone that this 60-year-old drug would kill anyone who dared take it.  When Trump mentioned he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative, Fox News crank Neil Cavuto had a seizure, telling his audience, "I cannot stress enough.  This will kill you."  Tell that to those Americans taking hydroxy to the tune of five million prescriptions written each year.  Hydroxy was FDA-approved in 1955 and is taken for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.  FDA approval means the approved drug is both efficacious and safe. [...] If it is so unsafe, why did the FDA not rescind its 60-year-old approval?

Is a Face Shield or Goggle Mandate Coming to Your Town, Next?  If Dr. Anthony Fauci has his way, you may be a seeing an addition to the mask mandate that many governors are issuing around the country.  For better protection, he says, you should wear a face shield or goggles, during an interview with ABC News.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoes bill directing COVID-19 patients away from nursing homes.  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed Friday a bill from the GOP-controlled Legislature that would have shifted elderly people with COVID-19 away from nursing homes and into entirely separate facilities.  The bill was a direct challenge to the Whitmer administration's current handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has focused on caring for those with the virus in isolated spaces of existing homes.

Four Months of Unprecedented Government Malfeasance.  Over the last four months, Americans have lived through what is arguably the most consequential period of government malfeasance in U.S. history. [...] Americans huddled in their homes for months on end, believing that if they went outside, death awaited them.  This panic was occasioned by epidemiological models predicting wildly unlikely fatalities from the coronavirus.  On March 30, the infamous Imperial College London model predicted 2.2 million deaths in the U.S. by September 1, absent government action.  That prediction was absurd on its face, given the dispersal of the U.S. population and the fact that China's coronavirus death toll had already levelled off at a few thousand.  The authors of that study soon revised it radically downwards.  Too late.  It had already become the basis for the exercise of unprecedented government power.

Matt Schlapp accuses Fauci of 'playing into the politics' of coronavirus pandemic.  American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp decried what he described Friday [7/31/2020] as attempts by Democrats to politicize the coronavirus pandemic in a way that reflects negatively on President Trump.  Schlapp joined House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on "Hannity" to discuss Dr. Anthony Fauci's testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

51 Global Studies Find HCQ Effective in Treating COVID-19 — 16 Find HCQ Not Effective — But 10 of Those are Late Treatment Studies.  It is becoming more and more apparent with each new day and as more information is accumulated that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, the CDC and the FDA failed in their response to the China Coronavirus.  Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx pushed a completely fraudulent Imperial College study to lockdown and destroy the greatest economy in US history.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has made at least 15 critical mistakes and contradictions since the start of the pandemic in March.

Sorry, Wearing Masks Is Anything but Harmless.  Here are 5 Reasons Why.  [#3] The establishment media makes it a point to run headlines containing meaningless scary-sounding factoids and manipulative stories about those who've allegedly succumbed to the virus.  When its supposed death tally was climbing, we couldn't escape hearing about it.  As it started to fall, they started ignoring the number of deaths and shifted over to reporting about rising cases, also neglecting to mention that rising cases and falling deaths is a good thing.  The media has done nothing to make the public aware that a local CBS affiliate looked into 589 alleged Palm Beach fatalities and discovered that far less than a third (169) had actually died of the virus.  Nor have they reported that the COVID-19 death tally they terrorized the nation with for months includes motor-cycle fatalities and gunshot victims.  Most people who did hear about these stories were shocked.  But, if the press had been doing its job, they wouldn't have been.  Another crucial fact of which they've failed to inform the public is that counting vast numbers who didn't die from COVID-19 among its fatalities is a feature, not a bug.  Everyone who dies with the virus is being counted as dying from it.

Despite What You've Heard, The COVID Crisis Probably Peaked Two Weeks Ago.  As we have reported in this space before, the press is using daily reports from states to paint a picture of a runaway virus.  What the mainstream press keeps forgetting to tell people is that it can take the government days, if not weeks, to record a COVID-19 death.  The daily reports aren't telling us what's happening now, but what happened earlier in the month.  The chart [left] shows the impact of this.  The gray bars represent when deaths are reported by Florida, and the red bars are when the deaths actually occurred.  Notice that Florida's daily reports undercounted actual deaths in the first half of July (by more than 400).  That's when most of the deaths being reported now happened.  If anything, what the numbers show is that the virus peaked in that state around mid-July.

Just A Few Political Leaders And News Agencies Caused People To Abandon Their Senses During Coronavirus.  On first glance, the current crisis may look like a recession triggered by an exogenous shock akin to a natural disaster.  When the pandemic started, many of us hoaded flour, rice, and toilet paper and stopped going to restaurants.  These responses are not much different than what you would do if a hurricane was headed your way.  But this is more than an instantaneous capital shock.  There is something about this recession that makes it more significant than an exogenous shock.  Before we return to normal, the economy has to adjust to a new fear of others as threats.  This fear will last at least as long as our mindset is one of panic, and may be a more permanent change to our human interactions.  Just like in previous recessions, supply chains have rebounded from the initial shock and stores again carry plenty of staples and paper products.  But store inventory changes are an example of a short-run adjustment.  Longer-run adjustments must confront the fundamental change in our use of the existing capital structure.

HCQ censorship, cubed:  Social media giants shut down doctors testifying from experience that hydroxychloroquine works.  Picture it:  A robust middle-aged doctor of matronly dignity commanding CNN pampered prince Fredo Cuomo to come on in and take a urine test for her like a good boy.  It was an image not unlike that of Saddam Hussein opening his mouth for his dental inspection, but with crybaby Cuomo, it's simply funnier.  She wanted the self-important CNN anchor to prove that he's not the hypocrite she thinks he is, because, yes, those who get well from COVID-19, such as he had, very commonly do it by taking hydroxychloroquine.  That really happened, in so many words, when Dr. Stella Immanuel, a fiercely passionate doctor based in Texas, called for Cuomo to prove he hadn't been using HCQ because he was such a loudmouth about denouncing it.  For her, it was pretty obvious the treatment was easy and effective, based on her own experience as a doctor saving lives.

Big Tech Kingpins Weasel Around in Congressional Hearing.  On Wednesday [7/30/2020], kingpins from AppleAmazonFacebookGoogle slithered into a congressional hearing to shuck and jive about their predatory, politically biased companies.  Many good questions were asked, lots of spin in response but we know that these tech companies have become the gatekeeper of information disseminated to the public and the sad fact is that most people have no idea how their information is sanitized.  Zuckerberg was asked about taking down a video of a group of doctors, practicing physicians, discussing their experiences with the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.  YouTube, owned by Google, also removed the videos.  But why?  Zuck claimed the video was immanently [sic] harmful. [...] But how?  A viewer of the doctor's press conference cannot hop over to 7-11 and swallow a handful of HQC because the drug is only obtainable via prescription.  From a doctor.  By what authority can these tech monsters claim medical authority over your personal physician who assists you in making your health decisions?  NONE.  They have none.

Thousands of Americans were sacrificed in their insane strategy to get rid of Donald J. Trump.  [Thread reader] ... as President by attacking a cheap drug that WORKS to combat the CCP Virus.  The 'expert' class won't recover from this either, thanks to the antics of the clown known as Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Here he is still lying — even now — about HCQ's ability to prevent/cure the CCP Virus:  [Video clip]  HCQ is so cheap, it's already so widely available, how are any of the 'expert' class going to make any bank on it?  Besides blaming Trump for pushing a 'dangerous drug' that 'doesn't work', this is the other reason for the anti-HCQ crusade we've seen.

'Can the virus die in a day?' FOX6 viewers report testing both positive and negative for COVID-19.  They tested positive for COVID-19, then negative, all within 24 hours.  Which test was right?  Two FOX6 News viewers who have never met share a similar story of conflicting results, and a top health official says he knows which result they should trust.  "I didn't know what to think," said Charlie Jones of Union Grove. [...] On July 16, the heavy equipment operator went to the UMOS National Guard testing site in Milwaukee to find out if he was infected with COVID-19.  They told him it could take a week to get results.  "I wanted people at work to know sooner than later," said Jones.  So Jones convinced his doctor to get him a second test at an Aurora Health Care drive-up site in Burlington the next day, but the results gave Jones a mixed message.  One test was positive, and one negative.

DeWine asks Ohio Board of Pharmacy to reconsider ban on hydroxychloroquine sales.  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is responding to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy's decision to ban the sale of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. [...] The Ohio Pharmacy Board's rule prohibits pharmacies from selling or dispensing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for use as a coronavirus treatment without approval from the board's executive director.  It also specifies that all prior approvals for the drugs are no longer applicable.  The rule does not apply to board-approved clinical trials.  Participants must have documentation that they are part of such a trial.  It does not apply to prescriptions to treat other conditions.

Ohio pharmacy board withdraws rule prohibiting use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.  Hours after Governor Mike DeWine asked the Ohio Board of Pharmacy to reconsider its decision banning the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19 in Ohio, the board has withdrawn the rule.  The board said the decision was made "as a result of the feedback received by the medical and patient community and at the request of Governor DeWine."

Dr. Simone Gold:  Squarespace Shuts Down America's Frontline Doctors Website.  Website hosting provider Squarespace has shut down the website of the group America's Frontline Doctors following a press conference they held in Washington D.C., according to Dr. Simone Gold.  According to a screenshot posted by Gold, the web hosting service shut down the group's website for "activity that's false, fraudulent, inaccurate or deceiving."  Breitbart News recently reported that the Masters of the Universe quickly censored a live stream published by Breitbart News of a press conference held in Washington D.C. by the group America's Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots.  Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was featured at the event and doctors at the event shared their views on the coronavirus pandemic and the medical community's treatment of the virus.

Watch Dr. Immanuel's amazing speech of COVID — banned from FB, Twitter, YouTube.  Dr. Stella Immanuel personally treated over 350 people and counting, elderly people, people with diabetes, asthma with a drug cocktail, and she put her patients, herself, and her staff on the drug, Hydroxychloroquine.  She has not lost any patients with COVID-19. All of her patients lived.  Dr. Immanuel said "no one needs to die" if they are on Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, and Zithromax.  "It works," she said. [...] The FDA and The WHO came out against Hydroxychloroquine so this was BANNED. Read more on this link.  It was taken down from all social media and Breitbart was punished for posting it.

Are Lockdowns Necessary?  What Data From 10 Countries Show.  The 10 countries we studied have taken vastly different approaches to handling COVID-19 with varying degrees of success.  The evidence suggests that full lockdowns, such as those implemented in Italy and Norway, are not as effective as the more targeted approaches taken in other countries, such as in South Korea and Iceland.  In fact, as we discuss, those two countries have fared considerably better than the United States has in handling COVID-19 without shutting down their economies.  Another key finding is that Australia and New Zealand, two neighboring countries with similar climates, have had similar outcomes regarding COVID-19, even though they took very different approaches to dealing with the virus.  In particular, New Zealand virtually locked down the entire country in the spring, while Australia took a less restrictive approach.  Yet, both countries have contained the virus at similar levels.

Houston's paramedics told to assume everyone has COVID-19.  Houston firefighters and paramedics fighting on the frontlines of the pandemic will no longer be alerted to potential COVID-19-positive individuals they may encounter on the scene when responding to a call.  This change in procedure ends a practice dispatchers have been implementing since early in the pandemics outset, where 911 callers asking for help have been asked additional questions about whether anyone on location has or is suspected of having the novel coronavirus.  This information was then relayed to Houston Fire Department personnel responding to any type of call, from a house fire to a shower fall.

Could Face Masks Be Spreading the Coronavirus?  [Scroll down]  So now, here we are months later.  Has anything changed with these folks?  No.  Even more unsettling, the experts appear to be grasping at straws, adding more confusion to an already confused populace.  One of those straws:  face masks.  There have been many discussions about face masks here on American Thinker.  I'm going to take a different path in that discussion.  In June of 2018, five researchers published a study titled "The Spread of a Norovirus Surrogate via Reusable Grocery Bags in a Grocery Supermarket."  What they analyzed was the possible spread of a norovirus via reusable grocery bags.  Think "bring your own bag" (BYOB).  They used a viral surrogate, a virus that infected only bacteria, and contaminated reusable bags with it and had volunteers shop at three grocery stores.  The result?  They demonstrated that the viral surrogate in the bags was spread throughout the stores, with specific areas of high concentration.  So now, in 2020, here's my concern:  we may have virus-contaminated face masks worn by people with absolutely no concept of face mask hygiene and viral contamination.  They are unwitting agents for spreading this pathogen.  Is anyone looking at this?  If so, I'm not aware.

The Latest, Fast-Moving Developments in the 2020 Election Season.  I often write about the latest developments in the election area, including court decisions and legislative and regulatory changes.  An unprecedented number of lawsuits have been filed by the radical left (at last count over 150 and counting) trying to use the COVID-19 health crisis as an excuse to nullify state requirements like voter ID laws.  They are also trying to force states to make numerous unwise changes, such as taking away the ability of voters to vote in person by forcing them to vote by mail.

Perspective: St. Louis Has 12 Coronavirus Deaths in July and 47 Homicides in July.  There have been 167 coronavirus deaths in St. Louis City this year.  And there have been from 143 to 150 homicides in St. Louis so far this year.

Now Democrat Tyrant Govs and Mayors Are About To Force Everyone Into Goggles too?  [Video clip]

Ohio sees peak in coronavirus hospitalizations, bans hydroxychloroquine.  The Ohio Department of Health reported 1,122 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday [7/28/2020], which is the highest daily number seen in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, reports say.  The previous high was in late April, when Ohio reported 1,103 coronavirus hospitalizations, according to Cleveland's Fox 8 News.  By Wednesday, the department reported 1,100 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with 348 people in intensive care.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says Marlins' coronavirus outbreak could endanger MLB season.  The Miami Marlins' coronavirus outbreak could endanger the Major League Baseball season, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday, although he doesn't believe games need to stop now.

The Editor says...
Why is Dr. Fauci seen as the final authority on nearly everything?

Why is Big Tech censoring doctors who have treated COVID-19 patients?  [Thread reader]  We organized a group of practicing physicians, many of whom have personally treated COVID-19 patients, and we spoke directly to the American people about our experience and understanding of the virus and its treatment options.  As a result:
  •   Facebook removed the livestream of our conference that had 15 million+ views
  •   Twitter forced us to delete video testimonials from our physicians
  •   Our web host removed our website and claimed a "violation of their TOS"
  •   The media smeared us with lies & falsehoods
Why are social media company employees with no medical degree or clinical experience censoring the perspectives of practicing physicians?  Why are journalists claiming hydroxychloroquine is ineffective when there are numerous studies showcasing its efficacy against COVID-19?  Why are state governors restricting physicians from prescribing an FDA approved medication for 65 years and empowering pharmacies to over-rule your doctor?  These actions are unprecedented and have never happened before in medicine.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Remove Video Of America's Frontline Doctors Disputing Media Lies On COVID and Hydroxychloroquine.  This video is being posted to Vidmax to give one more source to view and share it from.  From Breitbart News:  Facebook has removed a video posted by Breitbart News earlier today, which was the top-performing Facebook post in the world Monday afternoon, of a press conference in D.C. held by the group America's Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots.  The press conference featured Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and frontline doctors sharing their views and opinions on coronavirus and the medical response to the pandemic.  YouTube (which is owned by Google) and Twitter subsequently removed footage of the press conference as well.  [Video clip]

Breaking COVID News That Could Save Your Life.  During the first six days of July, SIX positive clinical studies of HCQ were released:  three from the United States (one from Michigan at Henry Ford Health System, and two from New York state, including one primary care outpatient study by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko [and] three from other countries (Portugal, India, and Brazil).  All six studies showed that HCQ given early in COVID-19, alone or with zinc and azithromycin, reduces hospitalizations and deaths, with no serious heart or other adverse events.

The Establishment Has No Clothes.  [Scroll down]  Many of the richest men in America didn't even graduate from college.  Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg certainly didn't.  Gates and Zuckerberg, and the rest of Big Tech, hardly conduct themselves in a manner one would term as elite.  Gates engages in suspicious, if not nefarious, activity in the realm of vaccines; there are credible stories of his having corrupted the public health bureaucracies in this country and others.  Zuckerberg and his cohorts in social media are busy attempting to censor the very free speech that made them billionaires.  So much so that on Monday and Tuesday a newly formed group of physicians called America's Frontline Doctors held a two-day summit in Washington to bring public attention to the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a treatment for COVID-19 and to call for an end to economic lockdowns and mask mandates, and by Tuesday afternoon social media and Big Internet was actively engaged in scrubbing any evidence they had bothered to speak.  The doctors speaking out on behalf of HCQ were calumnied and insulted.

Hydrogen Peroxide As Treatment For Coronavirus Infection:  Does It Work?  Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) appears to be another potential treatment for COVID-19. Health experts said the compound could help prevent virus from spreading across the body and from causing damage.  Hydrogen peroxide can be found both in stores and the human body.  The immune system uses the compound to boost the natural functions of cells and prevent viral infection, Live Trading News reported Thursday [4/9/2020].  Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, H2O2 may help fight the coronavirus, according to Dr. Thomas Levy.  He said people can utilize hydrogen peroxide using its aerosolized form in a standard nebulizer.

Medical Community Declares You a Psychopath for Not Wanting COVID Microchip.  In a truly shocking development, the medical community has decided on a label for anyone who does not want to cooperate with government "contact tracing" spies.  If you don't want to rat out your family members and friends and get them sent to a 14-day quarantine, you are now medically considered a "psychopath."  Rockland County, New York is leading the charge into America's brave new medical tyranny.  After launching an aggressive contact tracing program and hiring a bunch of new workers, they've discovered that a surprising number of Americans don't want to cooperate.  Imagine that! [...] Big Tech is all-in on America's new Medical Reich.  At some point over the past three months, both Apple and Google quietly inserted a contact tracing app on everyone's smartphone.  If you didn't know it was there already, you have to go into your phone's settings to disable it if you don't want the medical Fuhrers to track your every movement to see if you went to the grocery store or the beach while an infected person was there.

A Once in a Century Fiasco in the Making.  Back in March at the beginning of the COVID 19 outbreak, the highly respected Stanford Epidemiologist John Ioannidis drew heavy criticism for expressing his view that governments were making decisions without reliable data. [...] In a recent interview June 27, 2020, Dr Ioannidis spells out the accumulated data which is now available.  Sadly, he was right all along.  Regarding the infection fatality rate, remarkably, Dr John Ioannidis says for people younger than age 45, the infection fatality rate is ZERO!  And, for people age 45 to 70, the infection fatality rate is probably about 0.05-0.3%, historically similar to other seasonal respiratory viruses.  However, fatality rate for frail nursing home patients may be as high as 25%.

Placing deadly faith in 'the models'.  Between 2 million and 3 million Americans will die!  That was the prediction from "experts" at London's Imperial College when COVID-19 began.  They did also say if there was "social distancing of the whole population," the death toll could be cut in half, but 1.1 million to 1.46 million Americans would still die by this summer.  Our actual death toll has been about one-tenth of that.

No, New York did not get coronavirus 'under control'.  Someone is going to have to explain how exactly the media are defining "under control" as it pertains to the coronavirus because it's a phrase that appears to mean nothing.  Reuters over the weekend continued the campaign to rehabilitate Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's image by asserting, as other news outlets have laughably done before, that New York is in tip-top shape, especially compared to that Republican-led state Florida.  (Ew!)  "The surge in Florida has continued as the state's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has repeatedly said he will not make mask-wearing mandatory and that schools must reopen in August," Reuters reported on Sunday [7/26/2020].  "On the contrary, New York state has managed to get the virus under control, with stores and restaurants shuttered and the wearing of masks mandatory."

Librarians Get Me Thrown in Jail for 6 Days over Covid in Williston, North Dakota.  I can't believe how aggressive the cops were to me, by throwing me in jail for having such a nice conversation about where I need to go for Covid seating.  [Video clip]

The left isn't fighting against fascism.  Instead, they are fighting FOR authoritarianism.  [Thread reader]  They claim that their political message transcends the law; that it allows them to control cities; that it allows them to destroy property; that it justifies their designs on canceling heretics; that it permits them to block roads, create no-go zones for non-rioters, prosecute those who stand against them while themselves avoiding persecution.  Leftist-run cities have shown what happens when police and federal law enforcement are demonized and unsupported by elected leaders; when local leadership can seize "emergency powers" — then pick and choose who to punish:  rioters are exempt from lockdowns; you can sing in the streets but not in churches; masks are required, but not for them.  They can tell you what counts as a substantive meal, essentially holding businesses hostage to their arbitrary and incoherent edicts:  pot dispensaries and large warehouse stores can open; gyms and restaurants cannot.

Woman Maces Couple Enjoying Lunch In Park For Not Wearing Masks.  A woman maced a couple who were eating — obviously without a mask — at a San Diego dog park.  According to the couple, the woman called them "idiots" and flipped them off.  She came up to the table where they were having lunch, pointed the mace canister in the woman's direction, and sprayed her.  Her husband then got a heavy dose before wrestling the can away from her.  [Video clip]

America's Faucian bargain.  Anthony Fauci's embarrassing face-plant on Opening Day at Nationals Park was not because he threw a crazy sidewinder rainbow that looked more like a bad throw toward first base than a ceremonial first pitch towards home plate.  To be sure, that was embarrassing.  His weak performance on the mound gave a bad name to bespectacled nerds everywhere.  Maybe it was his facemask cutting off the oxygen required for elite athleticism.  Nor was it because cameras later caught the government's top disease expert using his facemask as a chin-bikini, rather than the proper virus-guard he endlessly harangues U.S. citizens over.  Of course, that was humiliating as well.  But that was not his terrible mistake.  Dr. Fauci's great sin on Opening Day was his suffocating, intolerable arrogance.

Brave Frontline COVID Doctor Calls Out Fake News, Challenges CNN's Chris Cuomo to Take a Urine Test to Prove He Isn't Taking Hydroxychloroquine.  How many Americans died of COVID-19 because the Democrat-media complex lied about Hydroxychloroquine?  Frontline doctors from across the US held a "White Coat Summit" on Monday in Washington DC to dispel the misinformation and myths surrounding the Coronavirus.  The fake news media, including CNN, NBC, CBS, WaPO and NY Times all waged a war on Hydroxychloroquine just because Trump touted the anti-malaria drug as an effective treatment for COVID-19.  Dr. Stella Immanuel said on Monday that she has personally treated over 350 patients with COVID-19 with Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, and Zithromax and they have all recovered.

Twitter Censors Videos of Doctors' Capitol Hill Coronavirus Press Conference, Locks Breitbart Account.  Twitter deleted Breitbart News' Periscope livestream of a Washington D.C. press conference held on Monday by the group America's Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots.  Breitbart News recently reported that the Masters of the Universe quickly censored a live stream published by Breitbart News of a press conference held in Washington D.C. by the group America's Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots. [...] A Twitter spokesperson told Breitbart News:  "Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.  We are taking action in line with our policy here: [link]

The Editor says...
In other words, Twitter will decide what's true and what's not.

Head of CDC Admits Lockdown Killing Way More Americans Than COVID!.  [Scroll down]  Anyone who isn't a psychopath would take the news that lockdown deaths of despair are more than doubling COVID fatalities to mean cruelly inflicting isolation on people already struggling under the weight of depression and addiction was a horrific mistake that ought not be repeated.  But not Renfield Redfield.  The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was warning us of the dialed-up carnage our most vulnerable, fellow Americans might have to face if we don't do what we're told and stop showing our faces in public.  So much about the response to COVID-19 betrays, at best, unspeakable incompetence and, at worst, a willful effort to inflict mass casualties on the American people — without the expense or spectacle of dropping bombs.  It's impossible to single out any one of the countless criminally flagrant derelictions of duty as the most egregious.  But the way Fauci, Redfield, and their enablers in the media never once bothered to mention any potential negative side effects of the course of treatment on which they insisted does stand out for its blatant violation of the Hippocratic Oath's central injunction, First, Do No Harm.  Even those of us who saw all along that we were, at worst, dealing with a virus no more deadly than a severe seasonal flu — the assessment, by the way, that Fauci himself quietly gave to his fellow experts when you weren't looking — have a lot to be ashamed of.

Welcome To Medical Tyranny 2020.  [Video clip]

Hanging with the Silenced Majority in Covid Country.  [Scroll down]  Neither in Chautauqua County nor in Kansas City have I heard a Covid story.  In New Jersey, I heard tons of them.  I found myself the odd man out in a group of ten people the other night, eight of whom have had the disease, and the ninth was married to a guy who did.  The victims ranged in ages from mid-30's to mid-70's.  The symptoms ranged from a two-day headache to a two-week fever that topped out at 102.  No one went to the hospital.  No one wanted to, the consensus being that your chances of dying were greater in the hospital than out.  Although the death figures have been inflated, people have died.  One of them was a first cousin of mine, 60 at the time of her death.  She had two major points of vulnerability, one of which I will mention only as a public service, and that is obesity.  The front-line doctors with whom I have spoken cite morbid obesity as the dominant factor in high risk cases.  The science here is real, but the media suppress it for fear of being accused of "fat shaming."

Florida Is A Case Study In Media-Induced COVID-19 Panic.  What do all these news accounts have in common?  "Florida Sets Yet Another Coronavirus Record: 173 Deaths In A Day."  "A record 173 Floridians died from the virus Thursday, an average of more than one every eight minutes."  "The 134 new confirmed deaths is the second-largest increase on record, coming five days after the largest one-day jump of 156 last week."  "COVID-19 has ravaged Florida, with more than 237,000 people testing positive and 2,013 dying from the virus in July alone."  So what characteristic do all of the reports share?  They are all false.  It is not true that 173 people died from COVID-19 "in a day" in Florida.  Nor did 134, or 156 on previous days.  It is also untrue than 2,013 had died in July when that story was published.  All of these scary headlines are based on the number of deaths reported by the state on any given day.  This is not the same as the number of deaths that occurred on those days.

If you're under 25, you're 50 times more at risk to die from drowning than COVID-19.  [Video clip]

Fauci's Lies and the Political Cowardice of Mask Mandates.  Like anyone who's paid the slightest bit of attention during this pandemic, you've probably noticed how the narrative regarding cloth face masks has evolved.  Back in March and April, the surgeon general assured Americans that masks are "NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus," so people should "STOP BUYING MASKS!"  The pre-eminent Dr. Fauci similarly assured us that there's no reason for Americans to be wearing masks, because they offer a false sense of security, they cause people to incessantly touch their faces to adjust them, and most people don't wear them correctly, anyway.  The World Health Organization concurred, saying the general public should not be wearing masks.  An interesting theory has emerged to explain how this once-government-sanctioned, sage advice evolved to become "everyone must wear cloth masks in all public settings or others will die," followed by statewide mandates to have everyone wear masks in public places. [...] I've seen an awful lot of people wearing masks around since the beginning of the pandemic, and few of them are wearing anything resembling medical equipment.  Many of them are wearing nothing more than ordinary pieces of cloth.  If Dr. Fauci had actually believed, as he seems to believe now, that loosely wearing any common rag over your face might be effective in preventing COVID-19 spread, there would have been nothing to prevent him from saying so.  If masks truly work, how many millions were infected before he advised Americans to wear them?  How many died as a result of his lie?  Inescapably, we must conclude that either Dr. Fauci was lying to the American people back in then, as he now says he was, or, much more likely, he's lying to us now by telling us he was lying to us back then.

600,000 people were told they had COVID-19 despite not being tested.  The healthcare program Tricare at the United States Department of Defense Military Health System falsely told more than 600,000 people they had been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the Daily Wire.  [Video clip]  Turns out they had never been tested.  The email, apparently sent in error, read:  "As a survivor of COVID-19, it's safe to donate whole blood or blood plasma, and your donation could help other COVID-19 patients," the email stated.

Police chiefs, sheriffs refuse to enforce mask mandates: 'You have the freedom to choose'.  Lang Holland, the chief of police in tiny Marshall, Arkansas, said he thinks the threat of the coronavirus has been overstated and only wears a face mask if he's inside a business that requires them.  He doesn't make his officers wear them either.

The Campaign Against Hydroxychloroquine Continues.  [Scroll down]  People are talking about the vaccine as though it's a fait accompli, as though it's gonna just a matter of time.  We don't have vaccines for very many viruses.  We don't have a vaccine for AIDS yet, for example.  We don't have a vaccine against the flu.  We've got flu shots, but we don't have a vaccine to prevent it.  We don't have a vaccine for the common cold.  These are all viruses, and yet everybody's out there talking about a vaccine that we're gonna have for... I mean, I hope we do.  But I wonder where all that happy talk is coming from.

NJ gym owners arrested after repeatedly ignoring COVID-19 lockdown orders.  Two New Jersey gyms owners who have repeatedly reopened in defiance of the state's coronavirus lockdown have been arrested, police said Monday [7/27/2020]. Atilis Gym owners in Bellmawr — Ian Smith, 33, of Delanco Township, and Frank Trumbetti, 51, of Williamstown — were charged with contempt and violation of a disaster control act, according to the Camden Couty Prosecutor's Office.  The two owners have continually railed against Gov. Phil Murphy's executive order amid the pandemic COVID-19 and even sued lawmakers claiming their constitutional rights were violated when they were forced to close their South Jersey gym.

A Top Doctor Answers My Burning Questions About Coronavirus.  With all the hysteria, misinformation and just overall questionable coronavirus-related media coverage out there these days, have you ever wanted to just get in front of a nationally prominent physician who has studied the issue — someone who knows what the heck they are talking about — and ask the questions you've always wondered about but don't see the media asking?  Well, I sure have, and you'll find responses to several of my own burning questions below.  Dr. David Samadi is a urologic oncologist who specializes in robotics and minimally invasive surgery for prostate cancer.  A former Fox News contributor and member of the network's "Medical A Team," he currently serves as Director of Men's Health at St.  Francis Hospital in New York.  Dr. Samadi has also made various media appearances over the past several months on the topic of COVID-19, so he seemed like the perfect expert to field my questions.

"The Next One": A Truly Creepy Bill Gates Moment.  Everyone's favorite non-scientist is back in a new interview.  Bill Gates, the cutthroat businessman who magically turned into a nice guy philanthropist, has something on his mind.  Yes, the man whose many investments in pharmaceutical companies that are somehow all related to COVID-19 has spoken.  And what Gates had to say is chilling.  [Video clip]

Miami mayor asks residents to wear face masks at home.  A Florida mayor advised residents to wear face masks at home to try to reduce coronavirus transmission between family members.  Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) is urging residents to wear a mask inside their house because COVID-19 spreading among families is reportedly the most common type of transmission.  "Our messaging has always been, if you're outside or if you're indoors you need to wear a mask and you need to socially distance," Suarez said on Thursday during a COVID-19 press briefing.  "I would tell our residents — and this is voluntary, this is not something that we can mandate — that they should consider, particularly if they have a multigenerational household, wearing masks indoors, at times, with their multigenerational residents and also respecting social distance when they're at home," he added.  "Because again we're seeing the largest center of spread being our house."

Yale epidemiologist says hydroxychloroquine could save up to 100,000 lives.  While speaking with Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Monday, July 20, Yale epidemiology professor Dr. Harvey Risch said hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), if used properly, could save between 75,000 and 100,000 lives and can also be taken safely as a preventative.  His findings were published in the May 27 American Journal of Epidemiology to no effect.  A similar French study in early March reported similar evidence of success using HCQ to combat COVID-19.  The French report was dismissed as anecdotal.  Dr. Risch insisted that HCQ is effective and safe, but he has become the victim of a "propaganda war" ever since President Trump recommended it back in March.  The Lancet even published a study claiming that HCQ is ineffective and increases the risk of death.  By June the journal's false claim was retracted, but lasting damage was done.

Palm Beach CBS News Finds Suicide and a Fall Listed as COVID Deaths — Only 169 of 581 COVID Deaths Did Not Have Contributing Illnesses.  This local TV report from CBS 12 News in Palm Beach county shows that the the inflation of COVID deaths in Florida is huge!  Florida officials included falls and at least one suicide as COVID-19 deaths.

NYT Fudges Data To Claim Huge Spike In COVID-19 Hospitalizations.  The New York Times on Wednesday [7/22/2020] reported that coronavirus hospitalizations have risen dramatically and are nearing their April peak.  The Times, however, either overlooked or ignored a serious factor:  Way more states are reporting hospitalizations now than were reporting at the April peak.  "The rising hospitalizations reflect the scale of serious illnesses," the Times said.  "Nearly as many people are in hospitals now as there were when New York was at its worst."  The latter part is true.  The Times notes that as of July 22, 59,628 people were being treated in hospitals for the Wuhan virus.  During the peak of the outbreak on April 15, when New York was the nation's hot spot, 59,940 were hospitalized for the virus.  The data comes from The Atlantic's COVID Tracking Project, which collects virus data daily from all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories.

Non-Peer Reviewed Study Shows FDA-Approved Drug Might Reduce Coronavirus Symptoms To Those Of Common Cold.  A non-peer reviewed study released by Israeli scientists, working in conjunction with other researchers in New York, found that treating the coronavirus COVID-19 with a drug already approved by the FDA could possibly reduce the symptoms to those of a common cold.  Two of the scientists, Hebrew University of Jerusalem's professor Ya'acov Nahmias and New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center's Dr. Benjamin tenOever, said their treatment using Fenofibrate (Tricor) could hinder COVID-19's capacity to reproduce or even make it vanish.

Outdoor religious gatherings draw warnings and rebukes from health officials.  [T]he evangelical worship event took place on the sand near Lifeguard Tower 20 for the fourth Friday in a row, despite warnings that it was violating public health orders and permitting rules, officials said.  Its organizers estimate as many as 1,800 people attended for nearly two hours of musical performances, baptisms and prayers.  Days earlier, minister and musician Sean Feucht urged his fellow Christians to join him under the Sundial Bridge in Redding for a night of worship.

Is There a Connection between Coronavirus and Air Conditioning?  [Scroll down]  There are a few possible explanations for the South's infection spike.  The first is that a widespread lack of mask-wearing is causing these increases.  The national media have been quick to note that Republican governors such as Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis were reluctant to impose a mask mandate.  The second, that these states opened up too soon and busy restaurants, beaches, and bars — and a fair bit of demonstrating — resulted in close contact.  High infection rates among young people seem to confirm the consequences of increased public socialization.  The third possible reason, and the one we will be examining in this article, is how summer temperatures forces southerners into their homes where the HVAC (Heat, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning) system could be recycling the airborne virus throughout homes, grocery stores, and office buildings.

Enraged Woman Maces Couple Picnicking Who Weren't Wearing Masks.  On Thursday [7/23/2020], a woman enraged by a young couple enjoying a picnic in a dog park in San Diego while not wearing masks reportedly maced the couple.  Ash O'Brien, her husband Jarrett Kelley and their three-month-old puppy were enjoying the sun in Rhodes Dog Park when a woman in a black face mask targeted the couple with pepper spray, prompting Kelley, who was temporarily blinded, to attempt to grab the canister from the irate woman, who was accompanied by her dog.  One female witness admonished the woman, "'What are you doing?  You just maced him!  You just maced them and their food because you disagree."

Walmart, Home Depot Won't Enforce Face Mask Rules Following Violent Confrontations.  Nearly every day there's another story about a fight breaking out over the wearing of masks.  Just a couple days ago, a Starbucks barista in California was allegedly punched in the face for asking the customer to put a mask on.  And a couple weeks ago, a New York man allegedly assaulted a manager and bartender after being asked to put on a face mask to comply with their COVID-19 safety protocols.

San Francisco bus driver beaten with baseball bat after asking passengers to wear masks: police.  A San Francisco bus driver was allegedly beaten with a wooden baseball bat last week after asking three passengers to put on face masks to comply with the city's coronavirus public health order.  Three men boarded the bus operated by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency — or Muni — in the city's South of Market neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, San Francisco Police Department Officer Robert Rueca said in a statement Friday.  The driver asked the passengers multiple times to wear a mask but they refused, so the driver pulled over to let them off.

Why the CDC Is Stressing the Importance of Schools Reopening This Fall.  COVID has created another new and intense debate: should schools reopen in the fall?  If you watch CNN, you'd think to send kids back to school was akin to the death march to Bataan.  It's not.  In fact, the socioeconomic impact of a whole generation of kids not learning for a year is probably more devastating than anything COVID could dish out.  Accountability standards are spotty with this online learning protocol school boards are adopting.  In some locations, like Nashville, around 30 percent of the 86,000-student body doesn't have a home computer.  In New York City, there are horror stories about how we really cannot gauge if students there learned... anything.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a pretty thorough post about why it's key for kids to return to school.  First and foremost, kids don't appear to be heavily impacted by this virus.  Transmission among kids is also low.  And yes, that New York Times piece about schools being possible areas of spread from South Korea was flawed [...]

Roaming Mask Cops Writing Tickets for No Masks, Improper Wearing of Masks — 'We'll Arrest You Right Here'.  Another sad day for civil liberties in America — or what's left of it.  [Video clip]

Man Wanted For Apparently Punching Starbucks Barista Over Mask Policy; Tip Jar Reportedly Stolen.  Police asked for the public's help Friday to identify a man they say punched a barista over what may have been a dispute over the chain's face mask policy.  The assault happened at a Starbucks on West Avenue I in Lancaster.  According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, a man punched a barista when employees asked him to put on a mask as he entered the coffee shop.

Americans kept from funerals, work, church fume over jammed demonstrations allowed in city streets.  A growing number of Americans concerned about continued coronavirus restrictions are questioning the need for such policies like business closures and mask mandates as tens of thousands gather in the streets around the country to demonstrate and protest.  Video clips from such gatherings, often involving thousands of mostly mask-less people, are replete on social media, drawing ire from Americans who are pushing for COVID restrictions to be lifted so that businesses can fully reopen, along with schools, sporting and concert venues, and others.  "It turns out you can attend church services in America.  As long as it's the church of social justice," tweeted journalist Barrett Wilson on Friday [7/24/2020], along with a Daily Caller video featuring scores of people in a tightly-packed crowd singing and holding candles.

Cuomo: Nursing Home Policy Criticism Is 'All Politics'.  During a press conference on Friday [7/24/2020], New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) stated that the criticism of his nursing home policies during the coronavirus pandemic is "all politics" and that the issue is being pushed by those who are "politically motivated" at the New York Post and Fox News.

The Key to Defeating COVID-19 Already Exists.  We Need to Start Using It.  As professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, I have authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and currently hold senior positions on the editorial boards of several leading journals.  I am usually accustomed to advocating for positions within the mainstream of medicine, so have been flummoxed to find that, in the midst of a crisis, I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines.  As a result, tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily.  Fortunately, the situation can be reversed easily and quickly.  I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine.  When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc.

Florida: Death Related to a Gun Shot Wound and Deaths from Weeks Ago Are Suddenly Counted as Covid Deaths in Official Mortality Reporting.  The miscounting and fraudulent numbers related to the China coronavirus just keep coming.  Unrelated deaths are being counted as COVID-19 related and deaths from days and weeks ago are suddenly being attributed to today's COVID-19 mortality counts.

Walmart, Home Depot, Walgreens and CVS are among stores saying they WILL serve customers who don't wear masks.  Days after announcing customers are required to wear face masks while shopping in their stores, major U.S. retailers appear to be showing leniency in how the rules are enforced.  Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, Walgreens and CVS had initially required shoppers to wear masks but now in the hope of avoiding confrontations between angry customers and employees it appears to be little more than a suggestion, rather than a legally enforceable instruction.  Having retailers take on the role of the 'mask police' puts them in an uncomfortable position at a time when many shops are in no position financially to refuse business.

The Editor says...
As far as I can tell, Walmart has no qualms about refusing business.  Walmart makes it abundantly clear that customers are not welcome unless they comply with arbitrary local and state edicts.

When the Virus 'Experts' Come After Your Chicken Wings.  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ordered thousands of seniors infected with Wuhan coronavirus back into nursing homes — resulting in the deaths of thousands — has moved to regulating what does and does not count as a "substantive food."  In California, the same rules apply.  "To be a bar, you had to have food available — soups, sandwiches, etc.  More than just hors d' oeuvres, chicken wings.  You had to have some substantive food — the lowest level of substantive food were sandwiches," Cuomo said this week during a taxpayer-funded press conference.  Arbitrary.  Capricious.  Enraging.  How does this stop the spread of Wuhan coronavirus?  It doesn't.  Why is Cuomo talking about chicken wings at all?  Because he's allowing bars to serve alcohol to seated patrons, as long as they order food.  He's moved the goalposts from food to "meal" after some New York City bars offered things like "Cuomo Chips" for $1. He deserves the mocking.  This isn't about bars, alcohol, or food.  It's about people's lives.  People are struggling to survive as the government continues to bear down on them without data or explanation about why their efforts this time will pay off.  Studies now show lockdowns did little to slow the spread.  In fact, keeping mass amounts of people indoors may have made things worse.

CDC Sides With Trump, Says Students Need To Go Back To School.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidance on Friday warning about severe consequences to children if schools do not reopen for in-person class in the fall.  The CDC's updated guidance now aligns with recommendations made by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which endorsed school reopenings with limited exceptions last month.  The new guidance also resolves what many had said was a conflict between the White House and the CDC on the safety of in-person learning amid the pandemic.

Medical Experts Urge Another Shutdown As Coronavirus Cases Surpass 4 Million.  As the US hit a sobering 4 million cases of COVID-19 and the rising daily rate of confirmed cases and hospitalizations suggest the virus is far from under control, medical experts are urging political leaders to shut down the country and start over to contain the pandemic.

The Editor says...
[#1] If those "experts" have names, I didn't see them in the article above.  [#2] The Number of "cases" is all but completely immaterial, since at least half of the "cases" are asymptomatic.  The number of hospitalizations is high, because the hospitals are happy to admit as many customers as they can hold.  The number of deaths from coronavirus alone is now near zero, and that's what should make headlines.

The rules are for you, not for them.
Cuomo violated his own mask rules while in Georgia, declined to self-quarantine on return to N.Y..  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was recently spotted in Georgia violating the mask and social-distancing rules he has imposed upon his own state.  Cuomo, a Democrat, also declined to self-quarantine after returning to New York, despite his emergency orders dictating quarantine protocols for many New York residents who have traveled to Georgia and other states.  Cuomo in April ordered that "any individual [in New York] who is over 2 and able to medically tolerate a face-covering shall be required to cover their nose and mouth with a mask or cloth face-covering when in a public place and unable to maintain, or when not maintaining, social distance."

Socialist Distancing:  Sacrificing science to destroy American community.  When The Great Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 hit the United States, many Americans were more than willing to wear masks and maintain social distancing to "flatten the curve."  Then came George Floyd's death in police custody.  Then came protests featuring thousands of activists across the nation — social distancing [notwithstanding].  Not even Drs.  Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, the pandemic's two most visible experts, initially expressed concern — let alone alarm — about the blatant disregard of health protocols when the protests began.  Indeed, Fauci waited 12 days after Floyd's death to comment publicly.  Many Americans now realize that they have been — and continue to be — deceived.  Meanwhile, their emotional and psychological health rapidly deteriorate because of draconian mandates ostensibly designed to protect them.

Why Do Mass Media Keep Propagating Unproven Speculation about Coronavirus Origins?  Could the coronavirus that caused the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic evolve naturally?  Based on what is publicly known at this time, it probably could, but there is no scientific evidence that it actually has.  As of today, no animal has been found to carry the coronavirus that infected Chinese individuals in Wuhan with COVID-19 in the fall of 2019.  Yet the mass media and their so-called "fact-checkers" keep propagating the unproven speculation that the virus did not leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as if it were some kind of "settled science."  A Washington Post article titled "State Department releases cable that launched claims that coronavirus escaped from Chinese lab" is a recent example of this kind of sustained propaganda.  It downplays the fact that, as reported by the State Department in 2018, the personnel at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were not properly trained to safely handle live samples of contagious coronaviruses.

Fauci Finally, Falsely, Invokes the 'Spanish Flu'.  Ten years ago I published an article called "No More Crying 'Spanish Flu,'" in part because with every pandemic or potential pandemic that's exactly what public health service gurus and the media were doing.  And in part because the comparison to the 1918-19 flu was always ludicrous, based not on science but primal fear.  Well, it's happened again.  And this time the klaxon-ringer is no less than the nation's top health official, National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Fauci's advice and counsel during the coronavirus pandemic has been "uneven," to say the least.  Most recently, he said of New York, the state with the second-highest COVID-19 deaths per capita, that the state did it "correctly."  But he's never been particularly reliable.  In 1983, he made a huge splash with a medical journal article stating that AIDS could be transmissible through casual contact.  Fauci repeated the pattern during successive disease panics, such as when he declared 16 years ago that we're "due" for "massive person-to-person" spread of Avian flu H5N1.

The Media and the Virus.  During the early stages of the unfolding crisis, the WHO failed to take the coronavirus threat seriously, to question China's official claims about its outbreak, and to coordinate a global response.  In January, February, and early March, while the WHO was still declining to label the coronavirus a pandemic — partly because that label carries, according to Tedros, "significant risk in terms of amplifying unnecessary and unjustified fear and stigma" — the American media were also failing, systemically, to sound the alarm.  As it unfolded in the media, the story of the pandemic was initially that of a nonevent.  On January 31, Vox ran a supposedly comprehensive "explainer" about the coronavirus.  There was no need for Americans to wear protective face masks, Vox said, and "really no reason to worry."  On Twitter, Vox was still more blunt:  "Is this going to be a deadly pandemic?  No."  The hectoring tone and sham certitude are Vox specialties.  But Vox wasn't alone in dismissing the virus.

No students in class until January?  Yes, one N.J. union leader says in urging big delay.  The local teachers' union president in Paterson says Gov. Phil Murphy should hold off on reopening school buildings until January, and possibly longer, due to the coronavirus pandemic.  John McEntee, president of the Paterson Education Association, said he prefers all-remote learning to the hybrid model embraced by Murphy, in which classes will start on time in September but parents may choose to keep their children home for online learning.

'I just don't trust them': Canadian truckers afraid of coming to US.  Last week, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the Canada-US border would remain closed for most people until at least Aug. 21, with additional extensions of the border closure possible beyond that date.  Basically, it means that non-essential travel can't take place between the two countries right now, which is no surprise given how the situation regarding the coronavirus pandemic in the US is continuing to spiral out of control. [...] Canadian truckers can still continue their work as normal — but, increasingly, they don't want to.  That includes people like Leanne Steeves, a long-haul truck driver from Ontario who told CBC News she's concerned about being in the US because we don't seem to be taking the virus seriously enough.  "It's like they don't care," she said of Americans.  "Life is normal.  Nothing's changed for them."

The Editor says...
How I wish that were true!  How I wish life was back to normal as if nothing had changed!  As soon as we are allowed to take off these pointless and worthless face masks, life will begin to return to normal, but that day is a long way off — probably around the middle of November.  As for you Canadians, you may continue to live in baseless fear for the rest of your miserable lives, worshiping at the altar of big government, and conforming to whatever the nanny state demands.

UIL pushes start of Texas high school football season back to end of September.  The University Interscholastic League has pushed the first games of the Texas high school football season for its biggest districts to the end of September due to the coronavirus.  The modifications to the 2020-2021 UIL calendar and updated COVID-19 risk mitigation guidelines are set to take effect August 1st.

The Editor says...
Football itself is far more dangerous than the coronavirus.  An average of twelve high school and college football players die every year. [1] [2] [3] If the UIL wanted to save lives, they'd do away with football.

No known case of teacher catching coronavirus from pupils, says scientist.  There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the government's leading scientific advisers.  Mark Woolhouse, a leading epidemiologist and member of the government's Sage committee, told The Times that it may have been a mistake to close schools in March given the limited role children play in spreading the virus.  Schools in England are preparing to reopen in full from September.  Some primary year groups were invited back for lessons before the summer holidays but most pupils have had no face-to-face teaching for four months.

Hydroxychloroquine could save up to 100,000 lives if used for COVID-19: Yale epidemiology professor.  Dr. Harvey Risch, an epidemiology professor at Yale School of Public Health, said on Tuesday that he thinks hydroxychloroquine could save 75,000 to 100,000 lives if the drug is widely used to treat coronavirus.  "There are many doctors that I've gotten hostile remarks about saying that all the evidence is bad for it and, in fact, that is not true at all," Risch told "Ingraham Angle," adding that he believes the drug can be used as a "prophylactic" for front-line workers, as other countries like India have done.  Risch lamented that a "propaganda war" is being waged against the use of the drug for political purposes, not based on "medical facts."  [Video clip]

Word Salad in the Time of Coronavirus.  [For example,] "Social Distancing."  Why "social" distancing?  Standing six feet apart is physical distancing.  There's nothing social about locking yourself at home and not seeing other people.  Meanwhile, we're communicating via "social" media, making us more physically distant than ever.  It's a safe bet our health — mental and physical — would be in a better state if we did actually socially distance, that is, distance ourselves from Facebook and Twitter. [...] "New normal" is a perfect example of doublethink.  "Normal" is what we are used to.  If it's new, we're not used to it — it's different.  Don't tell us we will have a "new normal" when what you actually mean is that things are going to be different.  And this is precisely what politicians don't want to say.  The power of the concept of "normal" is its utility for weasel politicians.  "Normal" is something invisible.  We don't think about it; we consider it metaphysically preordained, something we have no control over; it's just, well, normal.  The verbal construction "new normal" leads us unconsciously to accept as inevitable a radically different society crafted by the powers-that-be — there's nothing to see here; accept it, that's just the way it is — it's "normal.'

Rand Paul:  Lockdowns Were A 'Big Mistake'.  Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has frequently criticized the extended lockdown strategy and Dr. Anthony Fauci, denounced the current spate of lockdowns as a "big mistake" for what they have done to the U.S. economy and society at large.  Speaking on the "Fox News Rundown" podcast on Wednesday [7/22/2020], Paul said that the lockdowns have caused tremendous damage and did little to curtail the actual virus.  For example, Paul noted that states with lockdowns saw spikes in cases alongside states that didn't have lockdowns.

Several state governors announce orders requiring face masks in public.  Officials from a number of states have issued orders requiring people to wear masks when out in public.  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday [7/22/2020] announced a mandate that will require people to don facial coverings while out in public, starting on Thursday evening.  In addition to requiring masks indoors when not at a residence, people will also be required to wear coverings outside if they will not be able to stay six feet from people who are not members of their own household.  The order applies to ages 10-years-old and up.  People can forego a mask while consuming food and beverages and while working out or engaging in sports.  Individuals with medical issues or disabilities are included on a list of carve outs.

The Editor says...
I don't have to reveal my medical issues to you.  Isn't that what the HIPAA laws are all about?

And now, here is a public service announcement:
Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.  The Privacy Rule calls this information "protected health information (PHI)."  "Individually identifiable health information" is information, including demographic data, that relates to:
  •  the individual's past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
  •  the provision of health care to the individual, or
  •  the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual,
and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual.

Pompeo: The World Health Organization is corrupt.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is sharpening his denunciation of the World Health Organization, saying that "corrupt" leadership bears responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic.  "It's become corrupt," Pompeo told a Danish radio outlet while traveling in Copenhagen.  "An epidemic broke out, killing hundreds of thousands of people all across the world.  Trillions of dollars lost in economic wealth.  All as a direct result of the Chinese Communist Party covering up and doing it with a complicit World Health Organization."  Pompeo offered that rebuke to explain the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO.  The attack comes on the heels of a private accusation, reportedly delivered in London, that drew a public response from the United Nations agency.

Pompeo: US Spent Half Billion Dollars a Year Supporting 'Corrupt' WHO.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continues to rip the World Health Organization, blaming its "corrupt" leadership pushing the United States away from the group.  "It's become corrupt," Pompeo told a Danish radio station during his trip to Copenhagen.  "An epidemic broke out, killing hundreds of thousands of people all across the world.  Trillions of dollars lost in economic wealth.  All as a direct result of the Chinese Communist Party covering up and doing it with a complicit World Health Organization."  "That's not an organization that the United States wants to spend roughly half a billion dollars a year supporting," Pompeo said."

AP-NORC poll:  Very few Americans back full school reopening.  Only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open this fall without restrictions, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs.  Most think mask requirements and other safety measures are necessary to restart in-person instruction, and roughly 3 in 10 say that teaching kids in classrooms shouldn't happen at all.

The Editor says...
In a way, I am in agreement:  The public schools should be scrapped, and the kids should all be enrolled in private schools, where the parents have far more control over the curriculum, and there is likely to be tighter discipline and more actual education rather than socialist indoctrination.

Delusional Democrats intent on trying to fool Americans.  Every day, evidence mounts that Democratic politicians are delusional by design.  They may or may not believe their increasingly absurd versions of unreality, but they are intent on fooling the rest of us until Election Day.  Take New York's version of Dumb and Dumber, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio.  This dimwit duo doesn't just deny the errors that have made New Yorkers' lives worse than they needed to be during the pandemic.  Like true delusional Dems, Cuomo and de Blasio actually pose as our saviors.  The governor's shameless vanity poster celebrating his leadership through the pandemic took the cake.  It did not mention the more than 32,000 deaths on his watch, nor his disastrous nursing-home policy, and it pretended the virus originated in Europe, rather than China.

Fauci Files:  Celebrated doc's career dotted with ethics, safety controversies inside NIH.  Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci offered a pointed response to those who have challenged his stewardship of the pandemic as the nation's infectious disease chief:  "I think you can trust me," he declared, citing his long record of service in government medicine.  That is exactly what Fauci's National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) agency declared years ago to foster children in New York, Illinois and elsewhere, many of whom were enrolled in an AIDS drug trial without the promised patient protections.  An investigation concluded the NIAID's AIDS research division that reported to Fauci had failed in many cases to provide patient advocates to monitor the foster kids' health as promised, and in some cases, as required by law.  In other words, a trust was broken.

If the panicmongers were consistent, we'd close the schools every flu season.  The reality is that every flu season, many more children die from this common ailment than have from COVID-19.  And unlike with COVID-19, where the rare pediatric deaths are among those who have serious conditions, many of the flu deaths occur in perfectly healthy children.

Were the Lockdowns Effective at All?  [Scroll down]  Translation:  Lockdowns had little effect on the course of severe COVID-19 cases, with the exception of helping with recovery rates, which ratifies the "flatten the curve" logic so as not to overwhelm hospitals.  More important were social distancing practices, and bans on foreign travel.  (Or as the authors put it in the main body of the study, "government actions such as border closures, full lockdowns, and a high rate of COVID-19 testing were not associated with statistically significant reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality."  My emphasis.)  This means that if what we care about most is mortality risk rather than mere infection rate, total lockdowns should be viewed skeptically.  But as the full study makes clear, much more important in the outcomes were underlying demographics and health co-morbidities, and the general economic profile of the country — essentially another ratification of Aaron Wildavsky's shorthand axiom that "wealthier is healthier."  (Hard to believe such a common sense idea needs empirical demonstration.)

New York City's Reported COVID-19 Hospitalizations and High Hospital Death Tolls.  [Scroll down]  Looking at hospitalization statistics sheds light on the topic.  First, some general information on hospital occupancy; the COVID-19 pandemonium has included many attempts to scare Americans with hospital data.  The fear concerns hospitals filling up and not having enough space.  Unmentioned by politicians and public health officials is that hospitals apparently normally try to stay at greater than 85% occupancy rate.  This is particularly helpful to know: for hospitals, "an industry accepted benchmark for the volume necessary to break-even" is "an inpatient occupancy rate that is greater than 85%."  (Page 15)  That is, hospitals apparently try to stay near full.  Regarding specifically the COVID-19 situation that occurred in New York City, one significant piece of information is what the occupancy rate was at the beginning of the reported SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.  How many were already hospitalized when the COVID-19 outbreak reportedly began and how many more could NYC hospitals reasonably have hospitalized thereafter?

New York Times-Hyped Korean Report Actually Shows Kids Are Not Spreading Coronavirus.  In an incredible redux of when they hyped the Christian Drosten fake paper claiming children were highly infectious — when his math actually showed the opposite — the New York Times and Chicago Tribune pushed screaming headlines that a new Korean government report proves children ages 10 to 19 are highly infectious.  The Korean government report, based on data from March and ignoring all newer research, does make that claim, with qualifications, in its narrative summary.  Its actual math, however, shows exactly the opposite.  Do the elite newspapers even bother to consult anyone numerate?  As Professor Francois Balloux of the University of Lausanne Genetics Institute immediately replied, the New York Times writer completely misunderstood the report.

Time to Reopen the Schools.  It seems almost incredible that in a number of states, serious consideration is being given to keeping the public schools closed in the Fall.  Given that the coronavirus is rarely dangerous to children — less so, in fact, than the average seasonal flu — it is hard to understand the rationale for continued school closures.  The most commonly offered excuse is that the children may infect teachers.  Presumably that is possible, but a U.K. epidemiologist said yesterday that "Scientists are yet to find a single confirmed case of a teacher catching coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world."  Teachers' unions are the main proponents of continued school closings, apparently because some teachers and administrators would like to be paid in full for working relatively little.  The impulse is understandable, if not commendable.  As usual, teachers' unions are happy to throw kids under the bus.

Why Are Potentially Viable COVID-19 Treatments Being Suppressed?  [Scroll down]  What is inexcusable is the ongoing and blatant suppression of valid debate over how to treat COVID-19. We're not talking here about an irresponsible meme that recommends somebody drink bleach.  We're talking about distinguished, credentialed doctors and scientists, with decades of front line experience in virology, infectious diseases, pandemics, microbiology, pharmacology, emergency medicine, and a host of related fields, whose opinions are being banned.  When it comes to treating COVID-19, not only are dissident opinions offered by medical experts ignored by the media or only featured in the context of being "debunked," but their postings on YouTube and Facebook routinely are taken down.  Alternative websites that attract far less viewership are the only recourse.  The most notorious example of this bias and suppression is with respect to the treatment alternative that relies on hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and zinc as an outpatient therapy.  There is growing evidence that this treatment is effective in the early and mid-stages of a COVID-19 infection, before the patients end up in the hospital.

Michigan House OKs bill keeping COVID-19 patients out of nursing homes.  The Michigan House approved Wednesday a bill that would direct elderly people with COVID-19 away from nursing homes and into designated care facilities, a challenge to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's nursing home order.  If the Senate concurs on the bill, the legislation would be sent to Whitmer, where she is expected to veto it.  The bill, which was approved by the House 74-34, bans nursing homes from admitting or retaining an individual starting Sept. 1 who tests positive for COVID-19 unless the person had recovered or unless a nursing home could provide care in a separate building.  Seventeen Democrats joined Republicans in approving the bill.

The mask police are here.
Miami Enforcing Mandatory Face Coverings with Dedicated Unit.  Miami, the area of Florida hit hardest by the Chinese coronavirus, is doubling down on its mask order, reportedly deploying a team of dedicated police officers to enforce the requirements.  Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez announced the updated mask order on July 1, requiring masks "in all public spaces inside and outdoors throughout Miami-Dade County."  The order essentially expanded on his April mask order, requiring coverings to be worn outdoors "with few exceptions."

Yale professor says hydroxychloroquine could save 100,000 lives — but it's being stifled by a 'propaganda war'.  Yale epidemiology professor Dr. Harvey Risch said Tuesday [10/21/2020] that he believes the President Trump-touted drug, hydroxychloroquine, could save up to 100,000 lives if used properly to treat the coronavirus.  Speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham Monday night, Risch insisted that the controversial drug is proven to be effective against the disease and safe for people to use, but lamented that it has become the victim of a "propaganda war."  "It's a political drug now, not a medical drug," Risch said.  "I think we are basically fighting a propaganda war against the medical facts, and that colors not just population people, how they think about it, but doctors, as well.

CNN Reporter Melts Down After Trump Campaign Spox Uses CNN Link to Disprove Her Coronavirus Claims.  CNN anchor Brianna Keilar had Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh on the network earlier today to talk about the Trump administration's Wuhan virus response.  As things often do on CNN when a Trump official is part of a segment, the interview got contentious fast.  Keilar disputed numerous claims made by Murtaugh, including statements about how Dr. Anthony Fauci has recommended the use of the Trump-touted hydroxychloroquine and how some studies have shown it's an effective drug when used in concert with other treatments.  You'll remember that the media and Democrats have spent almost the entirety of the outbreak trying to downplay the drug as a possible coronavirus treatment because Orange Man Bad.  Studies have been mixed on it, with some showing some successes in using the drug and others not.  Some of the studies the media have definitively touted as debunking the idea of using hydroxychloroquine as a treatment either used flawed methodology (read about another one [elsew]here), were discredited, or were actually retracted.

Covid-infected Patients Are Fleeing Mexico for American Hospitals.  Last month, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey uttered forbidden words that drew such hot-stove backlash that neither he nor any other border state governor has dared repeat them.  Mexican Covid patients with dual U.S. citizenship, Ducey told President Trump's coronavirus task force during a June 22 governor's conference call, were driving Arizona's spiking numbers by crossing the border and "seeking the superior healthcare of our system in our border counties."

The Editor says...
If the coronavirus cases are coming across the border into Del Rio, Brownsville, Laredo, and El Paso, and that pushes the state's coronavirus numbers up, it means I have to keep wearing a stinkin' mask (in July!) in Dallas County, which is at least a 6½ hour drive to any of those cities.

Medical directors in Texas border counties:  We're treating patients from Mexico.  Who would have thought it:  That when a neighboring country without stable medical care gets hit by the virus, anyone with the ability to come here would seek care in our hospitals when they get sick?  I've written a six-part series detailing how the border counties have a worse crisis than anywhere else in the country because of a mix of cross-border travel, medical tourism, and dual citizens traveling back and forth.  You can read the series [elsew]here.  Until now we have seen remarkable data that shows the the timing and severity of the surge in relation to the sister cities and states in Mexico.  California hospital directors have gone on the record admitting that they have been treating patients from Mexico.  Now we have on-the-record proof that this is happening in Texas as well.

Also posted under illegal immigration puts a strain on our health care system.

The Big Surge In Coronavirus Deaths Is A Media-Fed Myth.  Almost daily now we've been reading about how daily deaths from COVID-19 have reached record highs.  It's a scary prospect.  But the truth is the mainstream press is grossly misleading the public by misreporting the death counts. [...] According to PBS in Arizona, the state "on Saturday (July 18) set a record for coronavirus-related deaths reported in one day, with 147, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services."  The last story is particularly illuminating because the website the PBS article links to includes a chart of daily deaths in the state.  It lists only six deaths on July 19.  What's more, the chart shows that there have only been two days where deaths exceeded 65.  So where did that scary 147 number come from?  The same place all the other "surging" numbers come from.  Each day Arizona and other states file reports on how many people died from COVID-19.  It's not a measure of how many died that day.  In most cases, the people died days or even weeks earlier.  In fact, in Arizona's case, 106 of the reported deaths on Saturday resulted from a periodic review of death certificates.  None of those caveats made it into the PBS story.

Not likely, unless you like high taxes, crowds, rampant crime, and snow.
Andrew Cuomo Knows What You're Thinking:  Let's Frantically Flee to 'Safe' New York.  Despite pandemic problems and — at least in the Big Apple — a surge of murder, apparently, The Empire State's the place to be.  During his Monday [7/20/2020] press conference, the governor declared a major victory in the fight against COVID-19, given a July 12th report of no coronavirus deaths.  The state hasn't been able to make that claim since March.  Andrew explained that NY's pandemic progress has taken the lead over other states, and so people are running into its safe arms.  But here's the rub:  He also said the throngs of refugees may cause a corona uptick.

Media Malpractice on COVID Numbers.  [Scroll down]  Context includes what defines a positive COVID test.  Is it an actual positive antigen test result or a presumed positive case?  Some counties in Texas were classifying a neighbor or co-worker of a test-positive case, suffering from a cough or sore throat, as having COVID, even without an actual test.  This could result in 10 to 20 additional reported positive cases based on only one actual case.  Antibody test-positive individuals, having previous, but not current active infections, are also positive cases.  That would be like classifying retired military members as active duty.  Context also includes asking whether these individuals are symptomatic or not.  We never test asymptomatic individuals or contacts of those with the seasonal flu.  In fact, most with the flu treat it symptomatically until they get better, and do not get tested unless they are sick enough to journey to the hospital.  Asymptomatic individuals exposed to someone with the flu certainly don't get tested.  Why then is there such a push for COVID testing?  Unless the goal is inflated numbers to fuel a media narrative and damage President Trump.

We Can't Stop Coronavirus, But We Can Limit the Damage We're Doing to Ourselves.  [Scroll down]  While I've never been for the lockdowns and in fact spoke out against them at the time, part of me could at least understand the logic of some measures to slow things down, especially given the fear of the unknown that existed at the beginning.  There was some common sense in measures intended to "slow the spread," even though in reality they didn't actually work all that well.  We had "15 days to slow the spread," then 30 more.  Then, seemingly overnight, the narrative changed.  The expectation went from "slow the spread" and "flatten the curve" to, oddly enough, "no cases at all."  As we began to find out just how large the infection denominator was, as death rates plummeted infinitely lower than the two to five percent many were fearing at first, as actual deaths declined and flattened to less than 1,000 a day (even using their cooked-up numbers where someone who dies of a car accident or heart disease and had COVID is lumped in as a COVID death), the media-induced panic was only getting started.  California is shut down again with calls for other states to do the same, and leftists seemingly won't be happy until masks are legally required at all times on every man, woman, and child from the wilderness of Alaska to the streets of New York City from now until the end of time.

Never Have So Few Done So Much Damage to So Many.  [Scroll down]  And I'm not thinking of just the protesters.  I'm thinking of health experts, the health experts who have ratcheted up the fear and continue to ratchet up the fear.  They continue to portray every new case of coronavirus as an eventual death.  We don't even know the accurate numbers involving the death rate.  I got a chart I found at the CDC website.  And if it's accurate, the death toll from this virus is plummeting.

Editor's note, added 8/2/2020:
The CDC chart is located here.  The chart tapers off rapidly during the last two or three weeks due to delays in reporting virus-related deaths.  Even so, there is some doubt about whether some of those deaths are related to the virus or not.

Officials: Viral report of a surge in COVID-19 cases in south Texas infants is false.  A viral report of a sudden surge of coronavirus cases in infants in a single county in Texas is inaccurate, a local official said on Saturday [7/19/2020]. On Friday, the top health official for the Corpus Christi area said at a press conference that the county currently has 85 cases of newborns with coronavirus.  "We currently have 85 babies under the age of one year in Nueces County that have all tested positive for COVID-19," Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, said at the press conference. [...] But Rodriguez was mistaken, according to Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales.  According to KRIS 6 News in Corpus Christi, Canales said that 85 infants have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic several months ago.  "On Friday, July 17, during a press conference, a spokesperson mentioned that 85 infants under the age of one had tested positive for coronavirus," Canales said in a statement, KRIS 6 reported.  "This number reflects the cumulative total of positive tests for infants under the age of 1 since the beginning of testing in mid-March, which has resulted in 8,171 positive test results."  "Stating this number during our press conference led many to believe that we had a sudden surge in infants under the age of one testing positive.  We have NOT had a sudden surge of 85 infants testing positive," she said.

Lockdown Myth:  All The Data We Have From Every Country Completely Proves Lockdowns Were Pointless.  As the United States experiences a surge in COVID-19 outbreaks with most of it concentrated in regions that avoided the earlier wave that struck the Northeast back in March and April, the media has adopted a new explanation to continue its longstanding rationalization of society-wide lockdowns.  As the argument goes, most European states (including those that were harder hit than the US) followed a "responsible" pattern of quashing the virus through heavy-handed lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders, and only began the reopening process when its data-driven models said it was safe to do so.  By contrast, the United States allegedly waited too long to lock down, did so ineffectively, and "rushed to reopen" before the virus was under control.  It's a convenient narrative for justifying the reimposition of lockdowns, as well as politically chastising anyone who questioned their efficacy in the first place.  But is it based on any evidence?

An American Refuses to Sign Coronavirus Documents.  Here's How the Local Health Department Responded.  Kentucky resident Elizabeth Linscott was planning to visit her mother in Michigan.  Despite having no symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus, Linscott decided to get tested out of an abundance of caution.  Her results turned up positive and she was told to self-quarantine at home.  "My grandparents wanted to see me, too," Linscott told WILX-TV.  "So, just to make sure if I tested negative, that they would be OK, that everything would be fine."  Once the health department alerted her to her positive test results, they wanted Linscott to sign the Self-isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order, a document stating she would not leave her house without first asking the health district for permission.  She refused to sign the documents.

Oxford University Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Produces Strong Immune Response.  An early human trial of Oxford University's experimental coronavirus vaccine has yielded a strong immune response in hundreds of people, according to newly released data.  The potential vaccine, which the U.K. university developed in partnership with drugmaker AstraZeneca, was administered in a trial that involved 1,077 people and caused an immune response in people aged 18 to 55 that lasted two months or slightly longer, according to data published Monday [7/20/2020] by the medical journal The Lancet.  The vaccine, which is made from a combination of coronavirus genetic material and a virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees, caused the body to produce antibodies against the coronavirus and caused a reaction in T-cells, a type of white blood cell that also helps stave off infection.

Democrats, The Party Of Science (Fiction).  Before the pandemic, Democrats called anyone who didn't kneel before the shrine of Al Gore and activist researchers trafficking in climate fear to be a "science denier," just as they will again once the coronavirus no longer dominates the headlines.  "The Republican War on Science," written by journalist Chris Mooney, summarizes as well as any other rant the Democrats' contention that the political right is anti-science.  The Publishers Weekly reviewer, no doubt eager to join the charge, said the tome "is the first to put the whole story, thoroughly documented, in one place."  This is all rather funny, because the "science" the Democrats put their faith in is often little more than a set of baseless theories that fit their policy agenda.  They treat their own share of "settled science" as if it's witchcraft.

The COVID Coup.  Panicked by fears manufactured by the ruling class, the American people assented to being put essentially under house arrest until further notice, effectively suspending the habits, preferences, and liberties that had defined our way of life.  Most Americans have suffered economic damage.  Many who do not enjoy protected status have had careers ended and been reduced to penury.  Social strains and suicides multiplied.  Forcibly deferring all manner of medical care is sure to impose needless suffering and death.  In sum, the lockdowns' medical and economic dysfunctions make for multiples of the deaths and miseries of the COVID-19 virus itself.  Bad judgments and usurpations — the scam, not the germs — define this disaster's dimensions. [...] In short, COVID-19 is not America's plague.  It did not shake America.  The ruling class shook it.  They have not done it ignorantly or by mistake.  They have done it to extort the general public's compliance with their agendas.  Their claim to speak on behalf of "science" is an attempt to avoid being held accountable for the enormous harm they are doing.  They continue doing it because they want to hang on to the power the panic has brought them.

The Editor says...
The article immediately above is an excellent overview, and I encourage you to read the entire thing.  Print it out and keep a copy of it.  Or better yet, send it to your state's governor.

They're Lying to You — Florida:  Motorcycle Crash Listed as Coronavirus Death.  They're lying to you.  The Orange County Health Officer admitted this week that on of the coronavirus victims listed on their website — died in a motorcycle crash.  And yet they are pushing these numbers to the public to cause a panic?

CDC Employees Made More Than 8,000 Federal Contributions To PACs And Politicians Since 2015.  Only 5 Went To Republican Causes, FEC Records Show.  Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have made more than 8,000 contributions totaling over $285,000 to Democratic candidates and causes since 2015, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of political contributions.  Only five contributions were sent to a Republican PAC or candidate.  Out of these five contributions, which totaled just over $1,000, three sent money to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign efforts, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records indicate.  The contributions were made by more than 550 people who listed the CDC as their employer on FEC forms.

The Quixotic Quislings of Quarantine Have No Clothes.  Today we are inundated by "authorities" who insist that we must wear masks everywhere, seemingly even in the shower.  They flood us with panic porn about a "spike in cases," and how we must consider a new lockdown to avoid having the virus overwhelm us.  But they (intentionally?) ignore the fact that deaths continue to decline.  New hospitalizations are younger people with less severe disease who have shorter stays, using fewer resources.  In other words, things are getting better.  In a hurry.  But let us suppose that there remains some sort of need to defend us from SARS-CoV-2.  Are masks a good answer?  If I listen to Dr. Carl Heneghan, the Director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, "aside from people who are exposed on the frontlines, there is no evidence that masks make any difference."  This is in keeping with previous posts from Nobel-winning biophysicist Michael Levitt Ph.D., former Stanford Chief of Neuroradiology Scott Atlas MD, John Iaonnidis MD, Lisa Brousseau ScD, and a host of others.

Will Teachers' Unions Reelect Trump?  During the next six weeks the nation's 51 million public school students, with the assistance of their parents, would normally be preparing for the next phase of their education.  This year, despite the absence of scientific data indicating that a return to in-person class attendance increases the risk that students or educators will contract COVID-19, the teachers' unions are resisting school reopening.  This flouts the will of parents whose taxes pay the teachers, disregards the failure of large-scale distance learning, and ignores the emotional damage children suffer pursuant to the social disruption that accompanies school closures.  According to a recent Gallup survey, a clear majority of parents want schools reopened.

Bob Hall Hosts Medical Townhall, Criticizes Abbott's Approach.  As Gov. Greg Abbott continues to enable local governments to enforce mask orders and impose other restrictions ostensibly engineered to contain the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, a lawmaker critical of those actions is seeking input from medical leaders and challenging his decision.  On Wednesday evening [7/15/2020], State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) hosted a Facebook conversation with six Texas medical doctors, who all described the success they are having in early intervention medical treatments for COVID-19 patients.

Abbott Tells Republicans He Shares Frustrations Over Coronavirus Orders.  Amid growing frustration from conservative grassroots over his string of unilateral executive orders in response to the Chinese coronavirus, Gov. Greg Abbott defended his actions to Texas Republicans on Thursday [7/16/2020].  In the first recorded address on the first day of the Republican Party of Texas' virtual convention, Abbott acknowledged the frustration and defended his actions, specifically his recent statewide mask order.  "I know that many of you all are frustrated.  So am I," said Abbott. [...] On the Texas GOP's Facebook page, party activists were near unanimous in criticizing the governor.  "We knew Abbott is a tyrant, now we know that he is a liar, too," wrote Lubbock activist Jim Baxa.  "Funny Abbott had to use his video slot to try and convince us he believes in the Constitution," wrote True Texas Project's Julie McCarty.  "He would have been roundly booed at a live convention.  This is how he avoided it," said Jim Pikl, a conservative activist and attorney from Collin County.  "He also lied about what the Fifth Circuit held.  Sad."  The comments come as more and more counties across Texas pass resolutions censuring Abbott for his unilateral executive actions under the Chinese coronavirus emergency.  Convention delegates may also approve a legislative priority calling for the governor's emergency powers to be limited.

Jacksonville sheriff casts doubts on Republican convention.  The sheriff of Jacksonville, Florida, said he isn't sure his department has the money or the manpower to provide the Republican National Convention's security.  "As we're talking today, we are still not close to having some kind of plan that we can work with that makes me comfortable that we're going to keep that event and the community safe," Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams told Politico on Monday [7/20/2020].  The Republican Party selected Jacksonville at the last minute to host aspects of the 2020 iteration after Democratic leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, refused to guarantee a crowded gathering could take place amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  Jacksonville's program includes President Trump's acceptance of the nomination.

Reopening Schools and the Limits of Expertise.  The last thing you want to hear from your brain surgeon (aside from "Oops") is "Wow, I've always wanted to do one of these."  You'll feel a lot better hearing, "I've done 30 operations like this over the past month and published several articles about them."  Expertise like that is essential for brain surgery, building rockets, constructing skyscrapers, and much, much more.  Our modern world is built upon it.  We need such expert advice as we decide whether to open schools this fall, and we should turn to educators, physicians, and economists to get it.  But ultimately we, as citizens and the local officials we elect, should make the choices.

The murder rate is out of control in Chicago, but the mayor is worried about masks and six-foot spacing.
Lightfoot tightens regulations on bars, restaurants, gyms after COVID-19 spike among young people.  Mayor Lori Lightfoot wasn't messing around when she warned of a rollback if young people didn't stop their risky behavior.  Now, bars, restaurants, gyms and salons are paying the price.  With the 7-day "rolling average" of coronavirus cases now at 233 — up from 192 a week ago — Lightfoot on Monday authorized a series of "surgical steps" aimed at preventing an even broader retreat.

Mesh "Anti-mask" Masks:  A New Way of Protesting Mask Mandates.  A new form of protest is "taking the mask off" the establishment's coronavirus hysteria and exposing the absurdity behind mandatory mask-wearing.  Known in some circles as "anti-mask masks," these thin face masks are made of permeable materials such as mesh and marketed as having no protective qualities whatsoever against the spread of COVID-19.  The idea behind the masks is that the wearers are still allowed to enter public places that require masks, even though their particular choice of covering is no different than wearing no mask at all — highlighting the fact that mask mandates are largely more about compliance than actual public health.

Riding the COVID Wave, Non-citizen Flippy, at $3 an Hour, to Replace White Castle Workers.  Well, Flippy finally has a new job.  It was March when I reported on the burger-flipping kitchen worker, who does his job dutifully, never goes home, doesn't get sick or take bathroom breaks and won't unionize — and can be had for $3 an hour.  He's also a non-citizen who doesn't need a visa and doesn't care if you have a beef with his taking your job.  Flippy, you see, is a robot.  Buck Jordan, the chief executive of the company that birthed Flippy, Miso Robotics, had stated in February that the robot could appear widely in restaurants as soon as early 2021.  But now it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic has improved Miso's fortunes further, as there's a desire to reduce worker contact with restaurant victuals.  (While the chances of contracting the Wuhan coronavirus from food is low, there have been outbreaks affecting restaurant workers and patrons.)

Florida Health Officer Labels Motorcycle Crash Victim a Coronavirus Death.  An individual who was killed in a fatal motorcycle crash in Florida was recently listed as a COVID-19 death for the Sunshine State, according to a state health official.  The truth about the death was brought to light after FOX 35 News asked Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino whether the two individuals in their 20s who were listed as coronavirus deaths had any underlying conditions.

Doubts.  [Scroll down]  When did we start having doubts about the masks, that they were being used as a political emblem, rather than as simple and reliable devices to slow the spread of the virus?  From the very beginning.  But in the beginning that was a fringe-kookburger idea to have, even in an election year.  But now?  As possibilities go, it's unavoidable!  Liberals have made it abundantly clear they want the visual of masks masks masks... it's the only chance Biden has.  And oh by the way, these "Biden buttons" worn on the face may also retard the spread of the virus... possibly.  We wear our masks when they make sense, because the masks can be both.  We recognize non-mutual-exclusivity; it doesn't have to be all of one thing and none of another.  We want our grandmothers to live and we comprehend functional overlap.  We have doubts about the masks themselves.  We see something is wrong when "a mask" is what's being ordered upon us — no exceptions!  Don't even think about going out bare-faced or we'll report you!  And yet... a cloth mask is the same as N95 is the same as a surgical mask.  Not how it works at all.

Montreal police tackle and arrest man in Tim Hortons for not wearing a mask.  As masks become mandatory in Quebec, many are having a hard time adjusting to the new rules.  On Saturday afternoon, a man who refused to wear a mask was tackled to the ground and arrested by police in a Montreal Tim Hortons.  A video of the incident was posted on Facebook by user Sandra Bourgoin and has since gone viral.

How COVID-19 fatality reports are distorting the data on daily death rates.  Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, state governments and media outlets continue to publicize confusing, misleading data on the spread of the disease here, perpetuating fears that deaths from the virus are skyrocketing on a daily basis even as those fatalities are generally distributed across a period of days, weeks or even months.  At issue is how state health departments publicize daily reports of fatalities within the state's borders.  State health officials have for months been publishing two sets of mortality statistics:  deaths that occurred on the publication date in question, and deaths that have only recently been catalogued from state backlogs.

Epidemic Mask Theatre, Past and Present.  [Scroll down]  Here's another example that you've undoubtedly seen or experienced.  At your local grocery store, you are standing in a line that is several customers long.  Everyone's wearing masks, but still standing several feet apart.  When you finally get to the cashier, you observe that the mask she's wearing couldn't be looser, with large gaps between the cloth and her face that you could drive a Buick through.  But, in the unlikely event she's infected, somehow the mask might still prevent coronavirus-carrying, microscopic droplets of moisture from escaping her mouth to infect anyone else, we all suppose.  There's a clear acrylic barrier annoyingly placed between you and the cashier for some reason, so you move a foot or so to the right so you can comfortably communicate with her around it.  It's time to pay, so you look down at the card reader, and there's a thin layer of translucent plastic covering it (which looks suspiciously like the plastic food wrap from aisle 13), though you notice it hasn't been changed by anyone since the six customers before you used it, and you assume hasn't been changed for hours before that.  But you confidently insert your card and press the keys with your bare fingers, anyway, knowing that the barrier provided serves as some sort of protection from the invisible coronavirus that is potentially lurking on every surface that you touch.  You don't have to be a scientist to recognize that what I've described above are nothing more than useless symbolic rituals, and it's all practically ineffective at stopping coronavirus spread, just as a plague mask was practically ineffective is stopping the spread of plague.

Los Angeles mayor says city is 'on the brink' of declaring another stay-at-home order.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday [7/19/2020] that Los Angeles is "on the brink" of another stay-at-home order.  Los Angeles County has seen a surge of cases recently, with new record high hospitalizations and infections.  The city has more than 150,000 cases.  "A lot of things went wrong," Garcetti said.  He pointed out that cases haven't increased as quickly in LA as in some cities, but said there is "no national leadership" in efforts to slow or stop the pandemic.  "It was politicized when it should have been unified."

Anti-mask protesters with armed militia stand up to BLM in Ohio: 'I will not wear someone else's fear'.  Hundreds of open-carrying anti-mask-mandate protesters congregated Saturday afternoon [7/18/2020] outside the Ohio Statehouse to display their displeasure with the state's mask mandate, but unlike Black Lives Matter protesters, they actually behaved themselves.  During the protest, there was reportedly no vandalism, no arson, no looting, no harassment and almost no violence, though one guy did reportedly try to throw a punch at someone, but he was quickly overpowered by police and hauled off to jail.

Here's what I saw in the first half of 2020.
1. China lied to everyone and infected the rest of the world with SARS-CoV-2.  President Trump restricted immigration and travel from China.
2. Joe Biden and other liberals asserted, without evidence, that the travel restrictions were xenophobic.
3. Trump listened to the experts, Drs.  Fauci and Birx.
4. Some talking head predicted 2.2 million Americans eventually dead.
5. The pandemic fatalities petered out in late June with 130k +/- deaths.  Hopefully they stop there.  Trump saved 2,060,000 to 2,070,000 lives.
6. Liberals asserted, without evidence, the Trump rally would be a super spreader event.
7. Liberals asserted, without evidence, that the "George Floyd protests" would not be.

Hillsdale College to hold in-person graduation in defiance of Dem Gov. Whitmer's coronavirus order.  A conservative college in Michigan is planning to hold an in-person graduation ceremony that could draw as many as 2,600 guests and students, in defiance of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's social distancing guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  Officials at Hillsdale College say they have notified county health officials of their plans to hold the in-person graduation over the weekend even as coronavirus cases rise in the area, reports noted.  In internal emails, county health officials criticized the college's plans, but noted that there was little the state could do to prevent the ceremony.

The 'Fatal Conceit' of Dr. Fauci.  ore than four months after abruptly saying goodbye to the daily life we once knew, Americans still live in a surreal and virus-induced dystopia.  Summer, essentially, has been canceled:  no big family weddings, no trips abroad, no open public beaches and pools, no baseball.  Tens of millions remain out of work while small businesses close up shop, permanently altering the landscape of big cities and small towns across the country.  Mini Gestapo populated by once-friendly neighbors police face coverings and six feet of separation.  Power-grabbing, attention-addicted governors hog local news cameras each day under the guise of "Coronavirus Update!" to riff about their keen abilities to fight a virus or spew invective at Donald Trump or issue another decree to inflict further misery upon their willing subjects.  As school children and their parents anxiously check email boxes for any update about the fall semester and working parents with small children are scrambling to develop backup plans for online learning, Democrats are pushing hard to keep kids and teachers at home — at least until Election Day.

Are the state-led pandemic shutdowns a trial run for the Green New Deal?  Consider it a warning.  Meaning to get where they want, when the Green New Deal gets going, whether in 2021, 2025 or whenever Democrats reclaim the White House and majorities in both houses of Congress will require even greater restrictions on the economy and liberty.  It will be a tyranny the likes of which has never been seen in human history.

Filings show all but five political donations from CDC employees since 2015 have gone to Democrats.  The majority of political contributions made by employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2015 have gone to Democratic candidates or causes, federal election records show.  Donors who list the CDC as their employer have made more than 8,000 contributions totaling over $285,000 to various political campaigns or organizations.  An analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation found only five contributions were sent to a Republican political action committee or candidate, totaling just over $1,000.  Only three people donated to President Trump's 2016 campaign.

Coronavirus good news for a change.  [Scroll down]  I roughly estimate the following: for August, 5.4%; September, 4.0%; October, 2.1%.  On the day you go to the polls to vote for either Orange Man or Senator Senex, by my estimate, 62% of the country will be immune to COVID-19, which is close to herd immunity.  The pandemic will be long gone everywhere except in the lying media and in the hearts of the mask fascists and those afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome.

A modern day parable:  Living during malignant mask madness.  [Scroll down]  As a buffoonish example of how medical "community" (the new buzz definition) Dr. Fauci, 79-year old with a medical degree and a bureaucrat's job has opined within four months that masks should be worn, and also not worn.  Over four months he has changed his opinion.  He supposedly ran tests via the scientific method during this period?  Of course not.  Then we get television M.D. stars like Dr. Oz (the wizard of Oz?) telling us we must wear then for everyone's protection.  When did he run his tests?  Between T.V. spots?  Of course, he has "experts" like Sean Hannity to support him because Sean says he wants to protect "granny."

Over 3,000 Cases Removed From COVID+ Count After San Antonio Health Dept Labeled Them As "Probable".  From NBC 4 San Antonio:  "Right now there's a discrepancy in the numbers reported by Metro Health and those reported by the State Health Department.  The State Health Department has removed more than 3,000 cases classified as 'probable' from the Bexar County and state totals, which puts our local cases at over 17,000.  Those are cases confirmed with 'antigen' or mouth swab tests."  Nothing to see here, folks, just another case of a state reporting "probable" cases as "positive" cases.  Texas had to remove 3,484 "probable/positive" cases because these cases only had the antigen.  Not all cities in Texas use the antigen test since its approval in May, and Texas wants Apples-Apples comparison between its cities.

Hydroxychloroquine: The One Chart You Need To See.  With conflicting reports over the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating COVID-19, and large-scale studies pending, it would be really great to have a 10,000-foot view of everything we know about the anti-malaria drug that a host of doctors swear by — and which has been standard treatment protocol in some countries but not others.  To that end, Twitter user Gummi Bear has conducted a 'deep dive' into virtually everything we know about HCQ — which starts with this must-see chart comparing country-level case-fatality rates (CFR) by HCQ use.

Unmitigated propaganda:
Gov. Cuomo Launches 'Mask Up America' Campaign.  The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, launched a "mask up" campaign featuring the likes of actors Morgan Freeman and Robert De Niro on Thursday, with the aim of pushing people to wear face coverings amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  The campaign, entitled "Mask Up America," comprises of eight videos, two of which were released on Thursday.  Directed by Oscar-winning director Katheryn Bigelow, the videos include prominent celebrities Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Jamie Foxx, Jeffrey Wright, and others preaching the importance of wearing a mask.

Dr. Samadi Says Fauci Appearing On Magazine Cover Is 'Not Appropriate' During Pandemic.  Dr. David Samadi, the director of Men's Health at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York, joined the Daily Caller's Stephanie Hamill to discuss the effort to reopen schools, mask mandates and Dr. Anthony Fauci's latest magazine spread.  "I think it's not appropriate for him right now to be posing for the cover of a magazine," said Samadi.  "This is not a celebrity contest, the lives of a lot of people are at stake, millions of jobs have been lost, many families have been affected."  Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, invited photographers into his home for a photo shoot for InStyle magazine for a "special digital cover," according to reports.

Now We Have Proof Dr. Fauci [...] Can't Be Trusted.  According to a recent poll, two-thirds of voters trust Dr. Anthony Fauci, not President Trump, when it comes to information on the coronavirus.  Well, if you think you can trust Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, you now have every reason to question his judgment.  In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Dr. Fauci, the trusted expert, actually lauded New York's response to the coronavirus.  "We know that, when you do it properly, you bring down those cases.  We have done it.  We have done it in New York," he told PBS's Judy Woodruff.  "New York got hit worse than any place in the world.  And they did it correctly."  I used to have faith in Dr. Fauci's judgement, but that faith has waned over the past few months, and is now completely gone.  How exactly does anyone look at what happened in New York and say that's a model example for fighting the coronavirus?

Fauci holds up New York as model for fighting coronavirus — 'They did it correctly'.  White House health advisor Anthony Fauci has praised New York for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the state responded "correctly" to bring its outbreak under control.  "We know that, when you do it properly, you bring down those cases.  We have done it.  We have done it in New York," Fauci said in an interview with "PBS NewsHour" that aired Friday evening [7/17/2020].  "New York got hit worse than any place in the world.  And they did it correctly by doing the things that you're talking about," he continued.  New York was once the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States with more than 10,000 new cases a day during its peak outbreak in April.  The state has dramatically reduced daily new infections to 776 as of Thursday.

Fauci: Cuomo Did a Great Job Killing 6,400+ Nursing Home Residents.  I'm not a Fauci hater.  As regular readers know.  I think he's a perfectly typical representative of the expert class with a pretty good bedside manner.  And like most of the expert class, he's failed badly in the face of the virus.  But I don't see that as a personal failing.  It's, as Marxists would say, a failure of his class.  The same failure that helped bring on much of the coronavirus death toll.  So of course Fauci happily praises New York.  As Governor Cuomo, who killed thousands of nursing home patients by forcing nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients, keeps saying, he follows the science.  Not actual science, but whatever nonsense the expert class pushed out there.  That included the false claim that unless we got everyone out of hospitals, coronavirus patients would be dying in hallways.  So instead, 6,400 New York nursing home residents died of coronavirus in the homes, and countless more died in hospitals because Cuomo's science-based regime doesn't count nursing home patients dying in hospitals.

Dr. Fauci's latest lie is HUGE, and easily debunked.  According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, New York handled the coronavirus "correctly."  Yes, the state with by far the most COVID-19 cases and deaths is being vaunted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director as having most properly handled the pandemic.  It doesn't take mental gymnastics for him to come to this conclusion.  It just requires a nefarious agenda and a willingness to tell bald-faced lies in hopes that we're all just too simple-minded to look at the facts ourselves.  Sadly, he may be correct.  Too many Americans rely on mainstream media promoting Fauci's agenda through their propaganda.  When he makes statements like he made yesterday, alarm bells should be going off ubiquitously.  Instead, the vast majority of people are taking him at his word and dismissing critical analysis.

It's Time to Shame the COVID-19 Liars.  They are everywhere!  From Dr. Anthony Fauci slyly working yet another media opportunity to the nursing assistants in my friend's doctor's office to the members of the newly formed Hysterical Church of Karen on social media.  They seek to manipulate or have been manipulated everywhere they turn, and in every direction that they look.  They are the ones who need to stop.  They need to read more, dig deeper, and attempt to do some critical comparison in their thinking process.  If after doing those things they still have reasons to keep their kids out of school, stay at home out of circulation, and demand that all in their households wear masks indoors and outdoors then they can choose to do so.

Guess How Much Money the WHO Spent to Fix Their Public Image.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has botched the entire Wuhan coronavirus saga from the beginning.  Taiwan attempted to alert the WHO about the pandemic that is now wreaking havoc on the world.  Instead, the WHO looked the other way.  The organization continually parrotted the Chinese Communist Party's talking points, particularly that the Wuhan coronavirus was not transmitted from human-to-human.  To make matters worse, President Xi Jinping personally asked Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to delay publishing vital information about the Wuhan coronavirus.  While the Center for Disease Control was recommending people wear masks, the WHO had completely different recommendations, saying only those who are sick or treating someone with coronavirus should wear a mask.  Less than a week later, the WHO told people everyone should wear a mask.

Can a Whole Country Go Mad?  The other day I was watching TV.  (We're quarantined.  Sometimes there is little else to do.)  In any case, in the mindless surfing that approaches an altered state, I saw an ad that left me nearly apoplectic.  It consisted of a series of faces covered by masks of all types and sizes.  The voice-over repeated like the peeling of bells over St. Patrick's Cathedral on Easter:  "This is not a mask.  This is not a mask.  This is not a mask.  This is solidarity."  It propelled me off the couch.  I screamed, "IT'S A MASK."  It's a mask that we would not have been allowed to wear into a bank or a federal or state office or municipal office a mere three months ago.  It's a mask.  It's a mask.  It's a mask.  Like a man condemned to psychological torture in the Gulag, I started to recount all the lies we were being told under the guise of erudition and belonging.

Coronavirus: Why everyone was wrong.  The coronavirus is slowly retreating.  What actually happened in the past few weeks?  The experts have missed basic connections.  The immune response against the virus is much stronger than we thought.

Until We Have Faces:  The American Niqaab.  [Scroll down]  This is a harbinger of a few things that are deeply troubling to me, and should be to you.  Because despite the fact that fewer people have become ill in this pandemic than during an average flu season, and despite the medical data that show not only the futility of a rag over the face but the potential harm, and despite the fact that herd immunity suffers from artificial "flattening of the curve," people are persisting in the illusion that a facial covering can make them safe.  Why is the left so adamant about masks?  Is it a delusion about safety?  Is it something more insidious?  I think it may be both.

On WuFlu Masks.  As the Nazi Party grew more powerful, they required Jewish people to sew large yellow Star of David emblems on their outer garments.  This mask nonsense is in the same vein.  An N95 mask has a pore size of 300 nanometers — it will NOT reliably stop a virus particle that is smaller than that (the COVID-19 particle is 125 nanometers — barely 1/3 the size.)  It doesn't get any simpler than that. [...] Slowing the spread of the virus among the asymptomatic hampers the building of herd immunity, what virologists and epidemiologists of any integrity will readily admit is the ONLY way a respiratory virus is rendered inert.  And maybe that, concomitant with the psychological manipulation of constant fear mongering (frightened people are easiest to control), is the real intent.  As for claims to the contrary, where are the data that support that?  How has that data been analyzed and has it been subjected to peer-review?  In general, people shouldn't take medical advice from a politician or career bureaucrat, nor accept offhand remarks as credible.  If someone wants to carry around a rabbit's foot for good luck, be my guest.  But don't prosecute those who don't buy into superstition.

Walmart, Kroger weigh in on national debate:  Here is how your next shopping trip will be different.  Two of the country's largest retailers have jumped feet first into the national debate on face masks.  Both Walmart and Kroger have decided that all customers must wear a face mask in order to shop in their stores, regardless of local mandates.  It doesn't matter if your town doesn't require face masks in public if you are headed out to Walmart or Kroger, grab one on your way out the door.  Lots of local stores have put the policy into place, this is not anything new for them.  This is news because this is a nationwide mandate for customers.  It's a blanket, one-size-fits-all approach that overrides local government. [...] The face mask wars are real.  The issue has been politicized and it is absolutely a 2020 kind of craziness.  Wear one, don't wear one, it's your choice because you accept the risks involved with your decision.  And, we all remember how opinions have changed from the beginning of the pandemic when the CDC, Dr. Fauci, the Surgeon General, and every 'expert' around was telling us that wearing a mask wasn't necessary to mitigate the outbreak.

Georgia governor sues Atlanta mayor for defying order ending mask mandates.  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is suing Atlanta's mayor after she defied his order that revoked mask mandates.  Kemp filed a lawsuit against the state's capital city Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday for defying his earlier order eliminating mask mandates and pulling the city back to "phase one" of coronavirus restrictions.  "This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times.  These men and women are doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth," Kemp said in a social media post on the lawsuit.

Data expert Justin Hart breaks down hospitalization data from a major San Diego hospital.  Data expert Justin Hart has been closely following the numbers from all over the country, especially here in San Diego County.  Hart is sure that the numbers show the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media reports, and uses the data to prove his point.  Hospitals around the country and here in San Diego are reporting their ICU beds are over 90% capacity, but when you look at the data, most of the people in ICU are not COVID patients.

Regarding the Wuhan virus, if you think you're being lied to, you're right.  Ever since the Wuhan virus appeared on the scene, Americans have been bombarded with information, misinformation, re-information, and disinformation.  In the beginning, this information soup was understandable, given that the virus was new.  For that reason, many communities agreed to be shut down for a couple of weeks "to flatten the curve."  Since those murky beginnings, though, we've learned a lot about the virus, including how to treat it and how to protect the elderly, making it significantly less lethal.  Still, politicians — usually Democrats — are using the virus as an excuse to achieve non-virus goals.  For example, they're pushing for more government handouts and dependency, a weakened economy favorable to Biden, mail-in voting, and limited religious worship. [...] What's starting to leak out, though, is that these new data about rising cases and deaths are being manipulated, whether intentionally or accidentally.  This is especially true for data coming from Florida and Texas, two states that seemed to be handling the virus successfully without destroying their economies.

Media Should Do a Mea Culpa as French Analysis Offers a Stunning Observation About Hydroxychloroquine Use.  We have been told repeatedly by health experts to demonstrate the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and the other meds prescribed with it we need strict clinical trials.  These are studies where some patients receive medication, and some do not.  For many healthcare providers, this is a noxious thought if there is evidence to believe a treatment may work.  How do you ethically deny a potential treatment to an eligible patient to conduct a study?  So-called double-blind studies described above are the preferred method advocated by Dr. Fauci.  These double-blind studies allow people to die in the name of "science" if a drug is effective.  They are in the "control group."  There are ethical issues with this approach that researches at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center addressed with a new concurrent trial based on machine learning developed following the H1N1 pandemic.  This method has been ignored by the NIH and FDA approval processes.

The Science Is Very Clear:  Schools Should Reopen This Fall.  Progressives like to brag that they prize science over politics.  Indeed, it's a major talking point in their effort to "transform" America from the greatest nation on Earth to, well, something else.  But one look at the debate over reopening schools this fall shows just how absurd that assertion really is.  Los Angeles, home to the nation's second-largest school district, is a case in point.  The city has long been governed by far-left Democrats, to its detriment.  But the local teachers' union really takes the cake when it comes to extremist positions on COVID-19 and school closures.

Teachers are so worried about returning to school that they're preparing wills.  Back-to-school is looking a little different for many teachers nationwide this year, as they grapple with returning to their classrooms amid a pandemic.  Added to their list of concerns:  Death. [...] Her comment comes after the Orange County Board of Education voted this week to return children to schools without face masks or social distancing, despite a surge in coronavirus cases and more than 7,000 Covid-19 deaths in the state.

The Editor says...
The teachers are at far greater risk from the violent hoodlums in the classrooms than from any germs in the air.

Texas health officials remove over 3,000 'probable' coronavirus cases from overall count.  Texas health officials removed more than 3,000 reported coronavirus cases from an overall count after "probable" cases for people who were never tested were counted as confirmed.  "Since we report confirmed cases on our dashboard, we have removed 3,484 previously reported probable cases from the statewide and Bexar County totals," Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the state health agency, said to the Austin American-Statesman.  "The State of Texas today had to remove 3,484 cases from its Covid-19 positive case count, because the San Antonio Health Department was reporting 'probable' cases for people never actually tested, as 'confirmed' positive cases.- TDHS," Fox 4 Dallas Evening News anchor Steve Eagar tweeted Wednesday [7/15/2020].  "What other departments make this same mistake?"

11th San Quentin inmate's death tied to COVID-19.  San Quentin inmate Jeffrey Hawkins, who was sentenced to death in two Sacramento County murders in 1987, died Wednesday at an outside hospital of complications from COVID-19, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  Hawkins, 64, is the 11th inmate at San Quentin whose death has been linked to COVID-19.  Across California, 37 state prison inmates with confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, according to the CDCR website tracking illnesses and deaths related to the pandemic.

What the Media Won't Tell You About the United States' Coronavirus Case Fatality Rate.  Without fail, the media seems intent on making America out to be the lone failure in the world in the battle against the coronavirus.  Many media outlets have described the United States as "losing the war" against the coronavirus because of the number of cases keeps going up.  Axios, for example created a chart show that if all coronavirus patients (confirmed cases) were a city, it would be the third-largest city in the country.  The recent trend of the media to focus on the total number of cases seems to be a result of the recent spike cases that failed to produce a similar spike in deaths.  So far, we've only just seen a small bump in fatalities, and there is evidence that data dumps of backlogged data could be inflating those numbers.

Georgia's Republican Governor Suspends All Local Mask Mandates, "Unenforceable".  Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp suspended all local mask mandates in an executive order on Wednesday [7/15/2020]. Kemp overruled all local governments that issued an unconstitutional, mandatory mask 'law.' [...] Last week Kemp blasted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' executive order mandating face masks in public.

Georgia Governor Kemp Issues Order Banning All Local Mask Mandates.  Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order Wednesday prohibiting local municipalities from establishing mask mandates for people who go out in public.  His order prevents any municipality from enforcing a mask order that is more restrictive than the one at the state level, The Hill reported.  The order nullifies more than 15 mandates that have already been issued by local governments throughout the state, according to The Associated Press.  Instead of a mask mandate, the state order says that masks are "strongly encouraged," except when eating, drinking or exercising, according to The Hill.  "Previous executive orders — and now this order — state no local action can be more or less restrictive than ours.  We have explained that local mask mandates are unenforceable.  The Governor continues to strongly encourage Georgians to wear masks in public," said Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for Kemp, The Hill reported.

A permanent state of emergency, disguised as a series of small extensions:
Gretchen Whitmer extends Michigan emergency declaration until Aug. 12.  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday extended her COVID-19 emergency and disaster declaration.  The extension will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 11.  Executive Order (EO) 2020-151 marks the third time Whitmer has extended the declaration since EO 2020-4, issued on March 10.  Whitmer's subsequent EO 2020-67 and EO 2020-68, issued April 30, also extended her emergency and disaster declarations, but were challenged by the state legislature.  The Michigan Court of Claims ruled on May 21 that the governor possessed the authority to issue EO 2020-67 under the state's Emergency Powers Act but lacked the authority to issue EO 2020-68 under Michigan's Emergency Management Act.  Both rulings are under appeal, and oral arguments are scheduled for August.

Why the push to shut down Florida?

It's just a mask.  [Thread reader] It's just six feet.  It's just two weeks.  It's just for non essential businesses.  It's just for non essential employees.  It's just a bar.  It's just a restaurant.  It's just a salon.  It's just to not overwhelm hospitals.  It's just until the cases go down.  It's just to flatten the curve.  It's just a few inmates.  It's just to keep others from being infected.  It's just a few more weeks.  It's just church.  It's just until we get a vaccine.  It's just an app.  It's just for tracing.  It's just to let people know you have no temperature.  It's just so others know who you've been in contact with.  It's just a few more months.  It's just a few more inmates.  It's just for large gatherings.  It's just until the clinical trials are complete.  It's just an account.  It's just to prevent hateful speech.  It's just to stop hateful content.  [...] It's just to protect the children.  It's just a little fine.  It's just to prevent a spike.  It's just to achieve distancing.  It's just some skewed statistics.  It's just a few places that won't take currency.  It's just so people can safely vote.

Florida Labs Acknowledge "Major Errors" After Reporting Positivity Rates Of 100%.  Florida health officials left COVID-19 trackers slackjawed on Sunday [7/15/2020] when it reported more than 15k new infections in just 24 hours on Sunday (the data were gleaned from the prior day).  But as hospitalizations surge, questions have grown about whether the state is still trying to 'juke' its data, something that a now infamous whistleblower alleged before she was fired (she has since started her own COVID-19 data portal relying on public info).  Journalists scouring the reams of daily data for discrepancies have apparently happened upon bombshell they had been hoping for:  Orlando Health has just confirmed that some of the data it shared over the weekend were wrong, after journalists reported more than 50 labs showing 100% positivity rate, or roughly around there.  One local Fox affiliate looked into the numbers and contacted a few of the labs to confirm that their internal data matched the public data released by the state.  As it turned out, some of these discrepancies were pretty extreme:  Orlando Health, one of the organizations contacted by Fox, confirmed that it's positivity rate was actually 9.8%, not the 98% that had been reported to the state.

Are Face Masks & COVID Rituals Occultist Symbols For Submission?  For the past few weeks, I have been trying to figure out the reason behind the mandating of face masks that are ramping up even as the deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic have wanned [sic].  Since there is no logic to it, could it possibly be something else more sinister?  As with everything you see, read, hear, or are commanded to do; use your discernment.  Some will think this is crazy, but as we know, the people who are trying to take over the world to create a New World Order are Luciferian occultists, and they believe this stuff, whether you do or not.  I don't know how much stock to put in this, but again, use your own critical thinking skills and discernment and see if any of this information resonates with you.

Our Insidious New Normal.  Four months into our national coronavirus hysteria, the media's appetite for scare-graphs, doomsday headlines, and wild predictions of death and destruction continues unabated. [...] So far, 135,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 — allegedly.  That is a minuscule portion of the total population:  roughly .04 percent.  What percentage of these actually had respiratory symptoms or died from other causes is unclear.  What is clear is that America saw a short-lived and moderate spike in excess deaths in April.  The normal average of 58,000 deaths per week in April jumped to 78,000 before rapidly restabilizing in mid-May.  It isn't clear that the lockdowns or mask mandates actually saved any lives.  Sweden, which never locked down, followed a similar trajectory of excess deaths as the rest of the West.  Perhaps nature is merely mocking our efforts.  It would not be the first time.  Regardless, in a country where 3 million people die every year, 130,000 deaths is not an apocalypse.  Would the average American have noticed a 4 percent change in overall mortality without media fanfare?  Probably not.  At present, the country is in limbo.  When does all this end?  When we have a vaccine?  When there are zero deaths?  If so, this "pandemic" could last for years.

Time is Running Out for Coronavirus Course Correction.  Let's begin with a fact that undoubtedly contradicts the hysterics that you've routinely heard about the viral pandemic of 2020 — COVID-19 is anything but an indiscriminate killer of those infected by it.  A new study, released by the CDC on July 10, finds that the median age of death where COVID-19 is involved is 78. [...] Here's the first of a few inconvenient yet undeniable truths.  Half of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 have occurred among less than seven percent of the population, and the other half occurred among the other 93 percent of the population.  Already, we have a pretty good idea as to who is most at risk when it comes to the risks of infection.  But we can actually demographically narrow down COVID-19 victims much more closely than that.  Not only are those dying with COVID-19 often quite old, but they're usually very unhealthy as well.

A Pandemic of Democrat Proportions.  [T]he U.S. response to the Wuhan coronavirus has been gratuitously overblown.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current infection fatality rate for the virus is less than 0.26%.  The inordinate response to the virus resulted in the contraction of a once robust economy by 5% during the first quarter of 2020 thus ending the longest period of economic expansion in our nation's history.  An unemployment rate under 4%, the best in half a century, jumped to over 13% in a matter of weeks. [...] Never have so few done so much to debilitate so many Americans.  The medical "experts" issued frequent contradictory and increasingly draconian guidelines adding to the prevailing fear.  Don't wear a mask.  Wear a mask.  Go to the grocery store; but, don't go to church.  Protest, riot, loot, shoot, burn and run rampant through the streets of cities; but, don't go to school.  No swimming, fishing, commuting, traveling, working, eating out, going to bars, partying or sunbathing until a vaccine is developed.  Stay in your homes.  Socially distance.  Eat "contact free" pizza and tacos.  Be together alone.  Don't pay your bills.  Go bankrupt.  Do your part because we're all in this together!

Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on:  Peter Navarro.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.  In late January, when I was making the case on behalf of the president to take down the flights from China, Fauci fought against the president's courageous decision — which might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.  When I warned in late January in a memo of a possibly deadly pandemic, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was telling the news media not to worry.  When I was working feverishly on behalf of the president in February to help engineer the fastest industrial mobilization of the health care sector in our history, Fauci was still telling the public the China virus was low risk.  When we were building new mask capacity in record time, Fauci was flip-flopping on the use of masks.

Peter Navarro just said what many people were thinking.  White House economic adviser Peter Navarro broke from the administration on Wednesday and released an opinion article criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has been advising President Trump throughout the coronavirus pandemic.  In the article, Navarro alleges that Fauci has been wrong about almost everything, and he urges people to treat Fauci's advice with skepticism.  Navarro's approach deserves criticism.  He went behind the White House's back and published this piece without the president's approval, according to White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah.  In doing so, he created a faux rift between Trump and Fauci that shouldn't be there.  But the truth is that Navarro just said what many people in the United States have been thinking:  Can we trust the health experts?  Fauci is certainly qualified, and I believe he has the best intentions.  But he has been wrong about several things throughout this crisis, as have many other leading experts we trust to guide our policy decisions.

OSHA Covering Up Face Mask Danger?  Why hasn't US Occupational Safety and Health Administration bothered to do any testing on the potential negative effects of mandatory workplace face masks?  An increasing number of individuals have tested C02 level build-up inside masks using OSHA-approved equipment and the results have been concerning.  Why doesn't OSHA take the time to either disprove or confirm whether it is safe for face masks to be mandated on workers?  Plus in today's program:  corruption in Covid testing across the country and another look at the big hype over new "cases" in Texas and Florida.  [Video clip]

Mask mandates are a public health menace.  Contracting COVID can be fatal or debilitating for the elderly, immune-compromised and physically challenged.  But there is no catastrophic public health emergency justifying sweeping government orders and ordinances that would force healthy citizens to wear masks in an increasingly oppressive climate of manufactured fear — completely untethered from pragmatic realities and risk assessments.  According to the federal government's own COVID-19 data, 120,675 deaths in America have been tied to the virus.  Tracked weekly by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, fatalities peaked on April 18, 2020, with 16,897 succumbing to the disease.  (Keep in mind that many medical whistleblowers have reported that these statistics are inflated by including "COVID"-related deaths uncorroborated by lab results and also by including patients who died with COVID infections, but not necessarily, from the virus itself.)  In the 12 weeks since April 18, as states have reopened and protests (or riots) of all kinds have brought tens of thousands of people in close contact, deaths have fallen precipitously.  For the week of July 11, 2020, guess how many deaths were attributed to the virus?  181.

Maybe the media should do their job and fact check people like Fauci instead of just repeating what they are told.  In [January] WHO and others said COVID-19 would not spread human to human.  In Jan., Feb., and early March, Fauci, the CDC, most of the media, and other Democrats said the virus wasn't very dangerous in the U.S.  In late Jan., Trump put a travel ban on China, and he was widely criticized by the experts, Democrats, and most of the media.  They called it an overreaction and called Trump racist and xenophobic, which is what they have called Trump for four years.  In early March, the CDC, Fauci, the NIH, and others said don't wear face masks.  On March 9, Fauci said it was OK to go on cruise ships.  Then, suddenly, on March 13, Fauci and the CDC made up numbers and said millions would die and hundreds of millions would get the disease.  There was no science to support this. [...] After months of saying COVID-19 would pass easily on surfaces, they said never mind.  Essentially, they just made it up, just like making up the original modeling numbers.

Sunbelt Covid 'Spike' - Just A Lot Of Hot Air?  The scare headlines are screaming: record spike in "cases" in Arizona, Texas, and Florida!  Other states are mandating face masks even where deaths and the death rate continues to decline.  New York City has for the first time since March reported zero Covid deaths.  So, is there anything to this "spike" in the Sun Belt?  Is the hype justified?  [Video clip]

Citizens Forced to Breathe Deadly Climate Change Gas.  You may recall that back in 2009 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) went on record as designating carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant that was contributing to manmade climate change. [...] Of course humans exhale CO2 as a natural part of the respiratory process.  People need a constant flow of fresh air for proper brain function and for our immune system to operate optimally.  But now we're seeing a massive push to mandate mask wearing allegedly due to Covid-19.  Way back in March of this year the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were on record saying masks should only be worn by people who were around sick people.  Healthy people didn't need to wear masks.  But all that has changed.

Locking America Down Again Is Exactly What China Wants Because It Will Ruin Us.  The governors of Texas and California, the nation's two most populous states, recently reimposed coronavirus lockdowns despite falling death rates and health-care capacity far beyond hospitalization rates.  Numerous other governors have delayed reopenings or reversed them in similar situations.  Lockdowns are not necessary to prevent coronavirus deaths, since the current capacity for treating cases is far above what is needed and people are going to get this disease until there's a cure.  Further, lockdowns accelerate systemic weaknesses such as our national debt, poor education, large numbers of working-age men who do not work, failure to pay for decades of overspending at both the national and state levels, tendency to bail out corrupt institutions such as schools, big business, and hospitals, and bloated health care system.

In the Face of COVID-19, We're Not Acting at All Like Americans.  What are we gonna do?  Are we gonna keep going back and forth?  We're gonna open up and then we're gonna shut down a little bit, then we're gonna open back up, then we're gonna shut down.  Do you realize this is gonna be a cycle in California at least until November 3rd or at least until there's a vaccine?  We can't live this way.  We can't do this.  This is not who we are. [...] We're not acting at all like Americans.  Some of us are, don't misunderstand.  But we're not cowards.  We don't retreat.  We don't find the nearest corner to curl up in and cower away from things.  We don't look for excuses for inaction.  We don't look for excuses for status quo failure.  We're Americans.  We beat back every enemy we have faced.  And we have been fearless in confronting every enemy we have faced, in large part, because every enemy has come after us.  Every enemy.  I don't care if you want to talk about Hitler in World War II, the Japanese in World War II, the so-called Korean Conflict, whatever it is we came together and triumphed.  This is missing.

Masks Are Neither Effective Nor Safe:  A Summary Of The Science.  Masks are proven ineffective against coronavirus and potentially harmful to healthy people and those with pre-existing conditions.  My wife and I dined out last night in a very empty restaurant and the young waitress was required to wear a cloth mask.  I asked her how she was doing with the mask and if there were any side effects.  She related that was consistently short of breath (when away from the table, she lowered the mask below her nose) and that she had actually passed out because of it a few days earlier, taking her straight to the floor. [...] The purpose of this paper is to examine data regarding the effectiveness of facemasks, as well as safety data.  The reason that both are examined in one paper is that for the general public as a whole, as well as for every individual, a risk-benefit analysis is necessary to guide decisions on if and when to wear a mask.

German study finds no evidence coronavirus spreads in schools.  Schools do not play a major role in spreading the coronavirus, according to the results of a German study released on Monday [7/13/2020].  The study, the largest carried out on schoolchildren and teachers in Germany, found traces of the virus in fewer than 1 percent of teachers and children.  Scientists from Dresden Technical University said they believe children may act as a "brake" on chains of infection.  Prof Reinhard Berner, the head of pediatric medicine at Dresden University Hospital and leader of the study, said the results suggested the virus does not spread easily in schools.

Perspective: St. Louis Has 159 Coronavirus Deaths, 125 Homicides and 50 Children Shot So Far This Year.  St. Louis has seen 159 coronavirus deaths so far this year.  St. Louis has seen 125 homicides so far this year.  And 50 children were shot in St. Louis so far this year.  If coronavirus continue to trend downward as they have in every country after around two months of pandemic then homicides will soon pass the number of coronavirus deaths in the city.

Second Wave Myth:  South Dakota Reports No Surge In New Cases Amid Residents Gathering By The Thousands to Celebrate 4th Of July.  South Dakota has just reported there was no surge in cases after residents gathered by the thousands in huge parties to celebrate Independence Day.  This is coming after mountains of data show the hospitalization and death rates for Coronavirus have been plummeting.  Hopefully this evidence America can safely open up will make it to Washington, D.C. and if not there then other state and local governments so we can get our economy moving again and stop drug overdoses, child starvation, and suicides, in addition to domestic abuse.

Celebrate: Navarro Op-Ed Signals White House Break With Fauci.  Peter Navarro, the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy for President Donald Trump, grew weary of Dr. Anthony Fauci's grandstanding and chronic flip-flopping in public long ago.  Back in April, Axios reported on a confrontation Navarro had with the little menace to American society during a Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House: [...] Yesterday [7/14/2020], in response to Fauci's continuing efforts to undermine national policy in his myriad media appearances, Navarro penned a sterling op-ed for USA Today.  As is his habit, Navarro is devastatingly succinct and precise in laying out the many reasons why Fauci deserves to be ignored in the nation's ongoing efforts to effectively deal with the Wuhan Virus pandemic.

Illinois Costco shopper spits in man's face for removing mask while exiting store: police.  A woman who claimed to be a teacher assaulted a man and spat in his face when he took his mask off while exiting a Costco store in Illinois, police said.  Elizabeth Mach, 45, allegedly approached a 50-year-old man after he removed his face covering while leaving a Costco store in Mettawa in Lake County, on June 16, the Sheriff's Office announced Thursday [7/9/2020].

Mask Shamer Crashes Into Man's Shopping Cart and Spits In His Face - And Claims She Has COVID.  There are so many things wrong with the alleged spit-taker's actions in this story. [...] It sounds like he'd had his receipt checked and was exiting the warehouse store when Mach rammed his cart.  That was her first mistake.  She then, according to the report, goes into 2020 freakout mode on him.  "I am a schoolteacher and I have COVID-19," Mach allegedly told him, before taking her mask off and spitting in the man's face, police said.  She left the store, but was later identified by police, who arrested her on Wednesday [7/8/2020].  Claim of superior virtue — "I am a schoolteacher" — followed by brandishing of weapon — "I have COVID-19."  Followed by a potential assault with a deadly weapon — her saliva bearing a deadly virus.  She also violated social distancing and took off her own mask to shout and spit... in the name of shaming someone else for taking off his mask a few feet earlier than she would have liked.  Question:  Should someone with COVID be shopping at Costco or anywhere else?  Mask or no mask?  If Mach knew she had COVID and was out shopping, well, that's a problem.

Stanford Doctor: 'Anyone Who Prioritizes Children Would Reopen The Schools'.  Dr. Scott Atlas said it "feel(s) like I'm living in a Kafka novel" when watching politicians' "hysteria" against school reopening, in an TV interview Monday [7/13/2020] with Martha MacCallum.  According to the renowned doctor, school closings severely damage children's' development and generate next to no gains for public health.  "I'm not sure how many times it has to be said, but the risk to children for this disease, for fatalities, is nearly zero.  I mean, this is totally antithetical to the data," he said.  Atlas is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a health-care expert, and former professor and chief of neuroradiology at the Stanford University Medical Center.

The Shameless Gaslighting by Andrew Cuomo's Defenders.  On March 25, New York governor Andrew Cuomo made one of deadliest mistakes of the coronavirus crisis, signing an executive order forcing nursing homes in his state to accept patients who tested positive for coronavirus.  Around 4,800 New Yorkers died from COVID-19 in those nursing homes from March to May — approximately 25 percent of all fatalities in the state.  Many medical professionals opposed the policy.  A report by ProPublica, certainly no right-wing outlet, found that deaths had spiked after Cuomo's order.  States issuing similar policies — Michigan and New Jersey — saw similar disasters unfold.  By any standard, the New York tristate area's numbers are the worst in the country.  By most measures, the numbers are some of the worst in the world.

Fake news!
Did the [New York] Times Print an Urban Legend?  This week, the Times brings us a story from Methodist Hospital in San Antonio.  The headline is:  "Texas Hospital Says Man, 30, Died After Attending a 'Covid Party,'" and what we get is a story with one source. [...] It's a morality tale, really.  Don't believe it's a hoax!  Or that you aren't at risk because you are young!  Maybe don't live in a bad red state where they aren't taking COVID seriously, or go to these parties.  The only thing missing was a MAGA hat and a rueful dying admission, "I shouldn't have trusted Trump or my Republican governor!"  But, as I read the story originally earlier this week, I realized the details didn't quite add up.  If you believe COVID is a hoax, why would you attend a "Covid Party?"  And, in a pandemic for an airborne disease, aren't all parties potentially COVID parties?  Chicken pox parties were aimed at spreading a local infection purposely to younger children who have milder cases.  People don't hold them because they are skeptics.  Something doesn't make sense.

CNN'S S.E. Cupp Lectures on Masks at Beaches, Then Posts Beach Selfie Without One.  The Never-Trump Republican who's had a contentious relationship with the party over her support for gay marriage and continuing foreign wars used her CNN show S.E. Cupp:  Unfiltered and Twitter account to scold Americans who forgo wearing masks.  Despite tweeting "Just wear a mask.  It so effing simple."  [A]nd implying President Trump is "not well" for refusing to wear one, Cupp posted a picture of herself on July 12th on a public beach without a mask.

How to Create a Pandemic Panic, and Keep it Going.  If nothing else, the coronavirus pandemic is a textbook example of how to create fear and anxiety that is out of proportion to the threat, and spur panic-induced policies that needlessly kill people (like seniors in New York nursing homes). It also demonstrates how to keep the panic going, even as evidence piles up that the initial fears were wildly exaggerated. [...] Here are five steps that the got the coronavirus panic started and why it continues to this day.  [#1] Wildly exaggerate the deadliness of the disease. [...]

Does Trump have a secret well of unreported support?  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile, it was revealed that the data for COVID-19 infective rates in Florida is shockingly wrong.  It appears that many labs have forgotten to report the negative results and have provided only positive infections.  In some areas, the reported positive tests were up to 100%, a virtual impossibility, which alerted skeptical reporters.  Some wonder whether the state laboratory data are intentionally being inflated for political purposes.  The media has consistently argued that the Florida situation is proof of Trump's failure regarding the infectivity rates.  They conveniently forget to mention the generally lowering national death rates per 1,000 persons.  As this information becomes available, the support for Trump in Florida will increase.  Further, the reopening of the Disney World parks will help the economy and provide reassurance that schools can reopen, too.

Scientists from Wuhan coronavirus laboratory have 'defected to the West'.  Experts from the Chinese laboratory at the heart of global suspicion over the coronavirus pandemic have "defected" and are in the hands of Western intelligence, it is claimed.  Steve Bannon, who was Donald Trump 's White House chief strategist and retains close links to the administration, said spies were building a case against Beijing on the basis the global pandemic had been caused by a leak from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan.  The 66-year-old former naval officer alleged the subsequent cover-up had amounted to "pre-meditated murder".  "I know that certain defectors are working with the FBI here to try to knit together what happened" in the Wuhan institute, which he said was "horribly run and terribly mismanaged," Mr Bannon said.

Florida man shamed in viral clip for not wearing mask fires back after [his] life [is] destroyed.  A man who was recorded on cell phone video arguing with another customer about shopping without a mask in a Florida Costco claims he was doxxed and received death threats after the clip went viral on social media.  He subsequently lost his job at a local insurance company.  In the brief video (embedded below) during which he objects to being filmed, the man yells to the other customer behind the cell phone that "You're harassing me.  I feel threatened.  Back off," along with some expletives.  Viral is an ironic term these days, but the clip has logged 12 million views on Twitter plus thousands more on YouTube and other platforms.

GOP-Run Coronavirus Hotspots TX, FL Have Fewer Cases, Deaths.  The two hardest-hit states by the coronavirus as of Tuesday evening, Democrat-run New York and California, are not getting the same level of negative attention by the leftist mainstream media as the GOP-governed hotspots of Florida and Texas, which have lower deaths and cases.  Although the ongoing spike in cases and, to a lesser, extent a rise in deaths, has spared New York, the sheer number of infections and fatalities in NY and surge-impacted California exceed those in Florida and in Texas, respectively.  Amid the recent record surge in cases, the Democrat-controlled states of New York (1) and California (2), remain the top two hotspots for the most infections, followed by GOP-governed Florida (3), and Texas (4), data from Worldometer revealed.

New York Owes America an Apology.  The grim reality of New York's coronavirus outbreak soon outpaced the worst fears anyone might have imagined in early March.  By mid-April, Cuomo's state was reporting as many as a thousand deaths a day, mostly in New York City and its suburbs, with the city's pandemic also driving up the death tolls in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.  By late May, those three states accounted for 45 percent of all U.S. coronavirus deaths.  Furthermore, as the New York Times reported May 7, researchers found that "the city became the primary source of new infections in the United States," as infected New Yorkers fled their disease-riddled city by the thousands, ignited COVID-19 "outbreaks in Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and as far away as the West Coast."  Hindsight is 20/20, but many in the major media (including CNN, which employs the New York governor's brother) have sought to distort public perception of what went wrong with America's response to the Chinese virus.  Liberal journalists have devoted enormous effort to blaming President Trump for this catastrophe, and this anti-Trump bias obscures the unique role that Democrat-controlled New York played in the deadly pandemic.

The most important evidence regarding pediatric transmission comes from Iceland.  [Thread reader] [Scroll down]  The study isolated SARS-CoV-2 samples from every positive case, sequenced genome of virus, and tracked the mutation patterns.  This analysis, along with contact tracing, allowed the authors to identify definitively who passed the virus to whom.  This is unique.  Based on this, the senior author concluded that "[E]ven if children do get infected, they are less likely to transmit the disease to others than adults.  We have not found a single instance of a child infecting parents."

Jaw-Dropping New England Journal of Medicine Report:  School Closures [are] Based on Politics, Not Science.  This is huge.  The genetic analysis in this study is the most direct evidence of the direction of transmission.  And this evidence shows that children must be less likely to transmit than adults.  No other way to view this.  These datasets are basically irrefutable. [...] Though these accounts usually proclaim hysterically that children are super-spreaders, their conclusions seem never to be based on actual tracing (much less deeper genetic analyses).  Never.  Yet these stories are getting more press than Iceland.  This is especially weird here, as Iceland is not an outlier.  It's results are also corroborated all over the world.  In fact, at this point so many datasets on point, it's overwhelming.

COVID Madness — Comrade Newsom Shuts Down California Indoor Activities.  This is nuts.  In an effort to fundamentally destroy the livelihoods of millions of California small businesses, Comrade Governor Gavin Newsom has declared that all indoor activities must shut down to top the spread of COVID-19.  The overwhelming majority of dictates around COVID-19 mitigation are not laws.  There was no debate; no input from representative government; and no option for the public to weigh-in on the decisions.

It's just nuts to praise New York's 'success' against coronavirus.  If only the rest of the country could handle COVID as well as New York:  That's the lament of progressive commentators as COVID cases spike in the Sun Belt and the South.  Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin hailed New York City the other day after it reported no deaths for the first time during the pandemic.  This is what competent government can accomplish, she gushed.  Former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett tweeted, "Short term sacrifice saves lives!!!" [...] This is all perverse given that New York is only now emerging from one of the worst COVID debacles on the planet.

Literally Thousands of Doctors and Scientists Have Come Out Against Fauci's Lockdowns Including a Nobel Prize-Winning Biophysicist.  As RedState's very own Sister Toldjah reported earlier today, the doubts President Trump recently expressed about the wisdom of Dr. Fauci's advice on COVID-19 have elicited a chorus of smug accusation from the usual suspects that he's "ignoring the experts."  Sister Toldjah pointed out that it's hard to know what their complaint even means given how often Fauci and other media-anointed authorities have done total 180s.  But, even putting aside how their advice seems to change with the political winds, the idea that there's some scientific consensus in favor of the extreme measures inflicted on us in response to COVID-19 couldn't be further from the truth.  Though you don't hear their perspectives on CNN, countless scientists and doctors have tried to warn us not only that COVID-19 isn't nearly as deadly as we've been led to believe; they're also certain that the real threat to public health we're facing is from the lockdowns.

Hospitals confirm mistakes in Florida's COVID-19 report.  After FOX 35 News noticed errors in the state's report on positivity rates, the Florida Department of Health said that some laboratories have not been reporting negative test result data to the state.  Countless labs have reported a 100 percent positivity rate, which means every single person tested was positive.  Other labs had very high positivity rates.  FOX 35 News found that testing sites like one local Centra Care reported that 83 people were tested and all tested positive.  Then, NCF Diagnostics in Alachua reported 88 percent of tests were positive.  How could that be?  FOX 35 News investigated these astronomical numbers, contacting every local location mentioned in the report.  The report showed that Orlando Health had a 98 percent positivity rate.  However, when FOX 35 News contacted the hospital, they confirmed errors in the report.  Orlando Health's positivity rate is only 9.4 percent, not 98 percent as in the report.

Florida Investigation By Real News Station Shows Labs Are Massively Inflating Positive Cases, Some Show 100% POSITIVE!.  The Florida Department of Health released its daily coronavirus testing report showing a statewide positivity rate of 11 percent, but FOX 35 News investigated and quickly noticed some shocking positivity rates.  Countless labs have reported a 100 percent positivity rate, which means every single person tested was positive.  Other labs had very high positivity rates.  FOX 35 found that testing sites like Centra Care reported that 83 people were tested and all tested positive.  Then, NCF Diagnostics in Alachua reported 88 percent of tests were positive.  [Video clip]

More Florida Covid Craziness — One Local News Station Finds Multiple Clinics Errantly Reporting 100% 'Positive' Test Results.  It is becoming apparent that injecting politics into coronavirus reporting is contagious.  The state of Florida has become the ever-growing focus of activities surrounding the coronavirus and the way it is handled by the politicians.  The reasons for this are numerous:  Florida is a swing state in November, GOP leadership is at the helm, the press is desperate to cover for the incompetence seen by the Mayor and the Governor in New York, and any good news on the COVID front cannot be allowed to make President Trump look good in any fashion.

Panicdemic! Record Number of Coronavirus Cases Hyped — But Deaths, Recoveries Downplayed.  [Scroll down]  Alex Berenson is former New York Times.  They have no desire to have him working for them anymore because he's one of these guys that just instinctively violates conventional wisdom.  He stays outside it.  He doesn't conform to it. [...] He's been doing research and tweeting on the virus and on all the numbers related to the virus.  And he tweeted yesterday [7/12/2020], the same day that this record number of cases came out in Florida, quote, "And after a week of nightmare headlines about Florida and about 70,000 new cases," which really is nothing more than positive tests...  And, by the way, that is an important distinction, folks.  When you see these numbers, like 15,299, what do you think happened to create the number? [...] This is the result of positive tests, for the most part.  There are [sick] people showing up, but it's not the entirety of the number.  This is the result of improved or increased testing and positive results.  But it doesn't even tell us how many of this number are symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Ohio County Creates Hotline for Neighbors to Report Non-Mask Wearers.  Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has rolled out a hotline for residents to snitch on those of their neighbors who do not wear masks, in line with an executive order by Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, mandating masks in public when "social distancing" is not possible.  County Executive Armond Budish made the announcement, telling the people of Cuyahoga that individuals who witness others not wearing a mask in public spaces should make complaints to the new hotline or file on a website titled "Mask Experience."  Once a complaint has been filed, county workers contact the subject of the complaint, whether it's an individual or business, to let them know.  The complaints are also forwarded to the Board of Health and the relevant village or city.  "This is not intended to be going out and finding people not wearing masks.  We want people to wear their masks....  We want people to do it voluntarily," Budish said.

Fight for Freedom.  Ask anyone in state government and they will say they are not a communist, but they work all day enforcing communist principles with relish.  It gives them a sense of individual power to enforce state dictates.  The mask is a symbol of that systematic communism worn by those who do not see the connection, who no longer recognize the individual as supreme, the only way it can be in a republic.

No more pandemic panic, please.  As expected by most observers, the number of cases of Covid-19 continues to increase across the country.  There are primarily three reason for the spike in cases:
  [#1]   More testing is being performed
  [#2]   People are moving about as the economy opens up
  [#3]   Massive protests and riots across the country
The next statistic that will be used to frighten the American people will be the increase in hospitalizations that will follow the expanded number of cases.  Days or weeks after hospitalizations grow in number, even more deaths are likely to arise.  What will not be reported in the gloomy news roundups is the fact that we now have effective treatments for Covid-19.  More appalling, many doctors and hospital systems are refusing to use these effective therapeutics.  Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a New York family medicine physician, has pioneered a treatment strategy that works well but is still shunned by most of the medical profession and ignored by the mainstream news media.

Did the state legislature pass this law, or is it a unilateral decree?
Cuomo threatens $2K fine if you break coronavirus quarantine rules.  Travelers flying into New York from states with high infection rates of COVID-19 will be required to provide their contact information upon arrival or face a fine and court summons, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Monday [7/13/2020].  Passengers flying in from the 19 states on New York's rolling quarantine list are now required to fill out a form detailing where they came from and where they're going before they leave the airport, Cuomo announced during a press conference Monday.

Comrade Cuomo Announces Visitors into New York Must Show Papers and Register With State or Face $2,000 Fine.  Comrade citizens, those who travel in the Northeast zone should beware, Minister Cuomo is going all-in with the COVID compliance mandates.  All travelers into New York from "high-COVID" states, must provide their papers upon arrival or face a summons and $2,000 fine.

Covid-19: Is a real search for the truth now taboo?  Are public health officials telling the truth when they state they are seeking information about possible early cases of COVID-19? Similarly, is it possible some members of the "watchdog" press are unwilling to publish any story that presents compelling evidence the novel coronavirus was spreading in America in November or December?  As a freelance reporter who's been investigating this hypothesis for two months, I've come to believe the answer to both questions could be "yes."  The account below shows how I reached these conclusions and why I came to believe that lessons gleaned from working on a COVID-19 story might be more frightening than the virus itself. [...]

Gov. Cuomo pummeled online for selling poster touting New York's COVID response.  Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing intense backlash for selling a poster touting New York's response to the coronavirus outbreak.  On Monday [7/13/2020], Cuomo debuted a poster he designed called "New York Tough" that he suggests captures the journey his state went through while addressing the pandemic. [...] The poster depicts a mountain with essential workers pulling a rope symbolizing the "flattening of the curve."  On top of the poster reads a quote attributed to the governor, "Wake up America!  Forget the politics, get smart!"

The Editor says...
The last two things a Democrat will ever do, during a manufactured crisis, are [#1] forget the politics and [#2] get smart.

Groundbreaking: Scientists create an air filter that kills the coronavirus.  The coronavirus is spurring on all kinds of innovation and creativity from the scientific community as well as the business community.  The main focus now is on developing a vaccine and therapeutic drugs to combat the virus.  Businesses have shut down normal production of products and switched to manufacturing essential medical equipment, like ventilators, as well as personal protection equipment to meet the needs of hospitals and first responders.  All of this is good.  Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Houston (UH) have developed an air filter that kills the coronavirus.  It is a "catch and kill" filter and it sounds really promising.

The masks have been largely symbolic for at least two months.  Now the government admits it!
Amid coronavirus surge, health officials urge people to wear masks as a symbol of respect.  Amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases across the United States, public health officials are asking everyday Americans to do their part.  Their message?  A face mask is more than a piece of cloth.  It's a sign of respect.  "Wearing a mask, ladies and gentlemen, is respect," Dr. Padmini Murthy, professor and global health director at New York Medical College, said during a United Nations panel.

The Editor says...
Alarm bells should go off at the first favorable mention of the United Nations in any "news" article.

White House releases list of Dr. Fauci's 'mistakes'.  Anonymous Trump administation officials are distributing a list of every instance in which Dr. Anthony Fauci and others have made statements about the coronavirus pandemic that have turned out to be wrong, reports CNBC.  It includes Fauci saying in January that the virus, which now is confirmed to have infected more than 3 million in the U.S., was not a "major threat."  In March, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "people should not be walking around with masks[.]"  "Several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things," an official said.

Newsom shuts bars, indoor dining and most gyms, churches amid rise in virus cases.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday extended the closure of bars and indoor dining statewide and ordered gyms, churches and hair salons closed in most places as coronavirus cases keep rising in the nation's most populated state.  On July 1, Newsom ordered 19 counties with a surging number of confirmed infections to close bars and indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, zoos and family entertainment centers like bowling alleys and miniature golf.

HCQ Helps Contain COVID-19 Cases:  New Evidence and a Major Retraction.  Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) — the controversial COVID-19 treatment touted by President Donald Trump — might be gaining new traction in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus.  The latest positive results come from Vadodara, India, where city officials have conducted a major study involving more than 300,000 people, including "health workers and other frontline staff." [...] Local health official Dr. Devesh Patel told the paper, "It has shown positive results.  We have the numbers and not one person has complained of complications.  The only side effect reported is mild gastritis, which is common with administering heavy medicines and can be effectively handled." [...] Also on Friday, Retraction Watch reported that The Lancet, the prestigious Britsh [sic] medical journal — had quietly retracted and replaced an anti-HCQ editorial by Christian Funck-Brentano it had published in May.

Dr. Scott Atlas decries 'ludicrous' level of 'hysteria' among Democrats over school reopenings.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that school reopenings present the "biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus" is "completely wrong" and "contrary to all the science," Dr. Scott Atlas told "The Story" Monday [7/13/2020].  "I'm not sure how many times it has to be said, but the risk of children from this disease and the fatality is nearly zero," Atlas, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and former chief of neurology at Stanford University Medical Center, told host Martha MacCallum.  "The risk of children for a significant illness is far less from the seasonal flu.  This is totally antithetical to the data." [...] Atlas said he was amazed by the "ludicrous" level of "hysteria" among Democrats who are pushing to keep schools closed for the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

Never Letting a Crisis Go to Waste.  It's difficult to grasp the amount of collective suffering, anxiety, and fear experienced by Americans in the past few months as the coronavirus made its deadly way through cities like New York.  States shuttered schools and announced that families had to isolate indefinitely at home.  Forty million filed for unemployment.  The news media were filled with mixed messages from public-health professionals and politicians — you don't need to wear a mask, you must wear a mask — sowing confusion among Americans who were desperate for guidance and leadership.  By the end of May, more than 100,000 people had died.  As people did their best to adjust to a new world of empty streets, strict lockdown orders, and, for many people, the loss of jobs and loved ones, a strange reaction arose in certain quarters.  Where some saw an unrelenting crisis, others saw opportunity.  This crisis wasn't merely something to survive; it was fertile ground where an ideology could thrive.

The Wrong Governors.  [Scroll down]  The decisions of Cuomo, Whitmer, Newsom, and Murphy regarding the movement of infected patients from hospitals to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities might be the worst and most consequential of the crisis.  Whitmer made odd and difficult-to-justify decisions, including banning the purchase of seeds, and her husband apparently "jokes" about being exempt from state orders.  California's coronavirus-testing programs stumbled right out of the gate.  Murphy violated his own order on large gatherings.  Very little of this has affected the job-approval ratings of these governors — in part because only some portions of the media world are interested in the flaws of the records of these governors.  The others prefer to stick to their preselected happy narrative.

COVID spikes might be the result of bad tests.  [Scroll down]  Epidemics do not grow exponentially forever.  As people recover from infections and become temporarily immune, the numbers of people that can catch or spread the virus diminish.  The rate of new infections bends down into a "bell curve" or Gaussian.  After peaking, the number of new infections exponentially diminishes.  The longevity of a respiratory virus epidemic is about 120 days; they vanish almost as fast as they come.  For 2019-nCoV, we completely missed the rise.  PCR testing from the USS Theodore Roosevelt showed positive for 1100 of the 4850 person crew, with 60% of those testing positive showing no symptoms.  Antigen testing later showed that 60% of the crew, 2900 sailors may have been infected.  That means 2019-nCoV produces no symptoms in 78% of infected people.  Of the likely 2900 infections, only 9 (0.3%) were bad enough for hospitalization, and only 1 (0.03%) died.

How to End the COVID-19 Epidemic in the US.  Hydroxychloroquine + Azithromycin (HCQ + AZ), with optional Zinc, given upon early symptoms, is a cure for COVID-19. This combination is a strong antiviral against the Wuhan coronavirus, quickly reducing the viral load and risk of transmission to other persons.  It is a cure both for the treated patient and the epidemic in the country when it adopts this treatment widely, including middle age and young adult population. [...] If a large fraction (30% [to] 70%) of COVID-19 patients receive HCQ-based treatment early and isolate themselves for 5 [to] 7 days (until the viral loads drops to a reasonably safe level), the virus reproduction rate R drops below 1. The number of cases drops exponentially, and the epidemic ends.  This has happened in Italy, Spain, and other countries that adopted this treatment when the infection was already widespread.

Put structure back into your day:  Reclaim your life from the coronavirus.  Many people's lives have been turned upside down as a result of the coronavirus crisis.  The way we all generally structure our workdays and weeks has suddenly disappeared.  In fact, you and I don't know when the old normal structures will return, or even if they will ever return. [...] Being constantly at home with your spouse, kids and pets, combined with a lack of outside social interaction can add up to that familiar upside-down feeling.  Moreover, for working parents who are now teleworking, dealing with childcare can create additional problems.  If your child is used to you working out of the house, and now, all of a sudden, you are working from home, setting new, if temporary boundaries can prove very helpful and reassuring.

Poll: 30% of Christians Have Stopped Attending Church During COVID-19.  A third of practising Christians haven't tuned in to online services during the coronavirus pandemic, new research by Barna reveals.  Broken down by age, the survey — of adult American Christians — discovered that half of practising Millennials hadn't attended church in the last four weeks.

Video: Church Uses Tiny Remote Controlled Truck to Gather Tithes During Pandemic.  A church is using tiny remote-controlled cars equipped with money buckts strapped to their roofs in order to collect tithes in a socially-distanced way.  The video, [...] show[s] the little RC trucks going from aisle to aisle as money is dropped into the bucket on top.  At one point, however, a man tries to give but the little buggy, which is being driven by someone who definitely needs a few lessons, drives off back to the front, leaving him hanging.

A test of the CO2 concentration inside a face mask:
This Live Mask Test Shocks Viewers.  'The HighWire' host Del Bigtree and son, Ever, conducted a test, using an OSHA-approved Carbon-Dioxide meter, which revealed something about masks which YouTube, Facebook, and other video platforms are trying very hard to censor.  [Video clip]

Bannon Claims Wuhan Lab Employees Have Defected, Are Working With FBI.  One day after a report that a respected Chinese virologist fled Hong Kong to accuse Beijing of a COVID cover-up, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon told the Daily Mail that scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other labs have defected to the West and are "turning over evidence" against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for their role in the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed over 560,000 lives worldwide since last December.

To Mask or Not to Mask?  Medical practitioners wear masks to reduce the chance of infecting open wounds with spittle from their mouths as they talk above their patients and to protect themselves as patients sneeze and cough within a couple feet of their health care providers.  Despite the protective equipment, nurses and doctors still catch infections from and give infections to their patients, but properly worn equipment reduces close quarters spread by as much as 75%.  Great for the E.R. and ICU, but masks have been mandated to prevent spread from the asymptomatic in the general population, who rarely cough, sneeze, or spit into the faces of others except as a form of assault.  If the droplets emitted from coughing and sneezing fall to the ground within six feet, does it make sense that a virus spreads even without masks?  A garden hose on mist is good for plants two feet away, but not so good for plants four feet away.  Moreover, are the asymptomatic coughing and sneezing at all?

'How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?'.  Several states — including Pennsylvania, the site of one of the country's largest outbreaks, as well as Texas, Georgia, and Vermont — are blending the data in the same way.  Virginia likewise mixed viral and antibody test results until last week, but it reversed course and the governor apologized for the practice after it was covered by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Atlantic.  Maine similarly separated its data on Wednesday; Vermont authorities claimed they didn't even know they were doing this.  The widespread use of the practice means that it remains difficult to know exactly how much the country's ability to test people who are actively sick with COVID-19 has improved.  "You've got to be kidding me," Ashish Jha, the K. T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard and the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told us when we described what the CDC was doing.  "How could the CDC make that mistake?  This is a mess."

Why Aren't We Outraged?  This article will be another expansion on my regular coronavirus updates, which I've posted regularly in recent weeks.  I would think there would be, at very least, a modicum of outrage over the truth versus the hyperbole being promoted by a corrupt media.  Shockingly, there isn't!  In spite of the fact the vast majority of people I talk to, many of them wearing masks because they have to for their jobs, who believe this is all nonsense.  Oh, there are those who are panicked, make no mistake about that, but almost every one of the people I talked to agreed infectious diseases are a part of life, that people get sick, and people die, and it happens every year, and will happen every year hereafter.  But no one shut down the economy over it.  So that bodes well these two questions:
  •   Are we to shut down the economy and destroy people's lives every year from now on for every new infectious disease that strikes?
  •   Are the rantings of a corrupt and hysterical media to be the criteria for deciding public health issues from now on?

COVID Hysteria Is the Disease and It Comes from Dirty Politics.  It's frightening how many ordinary people are being sucked into the whirlwind of COVID hysteria.  We see it every hour of every day now as a biased media hoping to score points for their favorite pols and against those they hate hype the data on news cases, while ignoring the reality of the deaths and who is most responsible for them. [...] The idea was to "flatten the curve," not eliminate it and if younger people are getting it and survive with few symptoms and contribute to community immunity, isn't that good thing?  Of course it is, although there will always be tragic exceptions.  That's the case with the flu, too, but we don't go into COVID hysteria over the flu; just the WuFlu. [...] How long will the COVID hysteria continue?  As long as the media and politicians arming themselves with it continue to benefit.  Sadly, that's a simple fact.  The only cure for this disease is to spread the facts, which is the point of this post.

It's All About November 3.  As we look around at American society today, what do we see?  A confusing mélange that seems partly mindless, partly vicious.  Our response to the latest Chinese import, the novel coronavirus — what was that?  How long will we be in sorting out the petty and sometimes murderous tyrannies enacted by various state governors and other officials? [...] A new, flu-like virus is abroad in the land.  The anti-Trump establishment goes to work:  How can we blame it on Trump?  He shuts down flights from China at the end of January:  charge him with being racist and xenophobic.  He consults experts.  They tell him it is not a serious threat.  He goes on television and says that: hysteria!  Then he swings into action, mobilizes American manufacturing prowess and turns out more ventilators, protective gear, testing kits, and new therapies than anyone thought possible.  The curve flattens.  The political weapon that was COVID-19 falters.  No problem.  Declare a race war!  Smash up the storefronts.

Censored: A Review Of Science Relevant To COVID-19 Social Policy And Why Face Masks Don't Work.  Masks and respirators do not work.  There have been extensive randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, and meta-analysis reviews of RCT studies, which all show that masks and respirators do not work to prevent respiratory influenza-like illnesses, or respiratory illnesses believed to be transmitted by droplets and aerosol particles.  Furthermore, the relevant known physics and biology, which I review, are such that masks and respirators should not work.  It would be a paradox if masks and respirators worked, given what we know about viral respiratory diseases:  The main transmission path is long-residence-time aerosol particles (< 2.5 µm), which are too fine to be blocked, and the minimum-infective dose is smaller than one aerosol particle.  The present paper about masks illustrates the degree to which governments, the mainstream media, and institutional propagandists can decide to operate in a science vacuum, or select only incomplete science that serves their interests.  Such recklessness is also certainly the case with the current global lockdown of over 1 billion people, an unprecedented experiment in medical and political history.

Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy.  Dr. Russell Blaylock warns that not only do face masks fail to protect the healthy from getting sick, but they also create serious health risks to the wearer.  The bottom line is that if you are not sick, you should not wear a face mask.  As businesses reopen, many are requiring shoppers and employees to wear a face mask.  Costco, for instance, will not allow shoppers into the store without wearing a face mask.  Many employers are requiring all employees to wear a face mask while at work.  In some jurisdictions, all citizens must wear a face mask if they are outside of their own home.

How To Read Emergency Orders And Avoid Wearing Face Masks.  Every city, county or state that issues a "mandate" to wear face masks and practice social distancing must published it publicly and make it available for you to read.  Download it and read it!  Don't ever believe what the local media or other individuals say about the mandate, you must read and examine it for yourself.  The city of Englewood, Colorado issued an emergency order on March 10, 2020, that required all citizens to wear face masks when outside of their home.  The entire emergency order is reproduced below, and the emphasis is added for clarity.  The ultimate penalty for not wearing a face mask in Englewood is a fine of up to $2,500 and up to one year in jail.  It is not clear if the City Manager just made this up or if it was embedded in the ordinance approved by the City Council.  If any court action were ever brought against a citizen, it is highly unlikely that the city would prevail.

Heads Need To Roll At The CDC Following The Entire Covid-19 Fiasco.  Mr. Trump has been proved right again with another shockingly successful hydroxychloroquine study, done by the Henry Ford Health System and published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.  This new explosive study proves the experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been proved wrong — again.  Those experts have often said that the drug, typically used for malaria, was useless for the Chinese coronavirus. [...] The new study is additional proof that corruption at the CDC and NIH is deep and wide.  That would almost always be true when piles of money in research funds, federal grants, personal gifts, royalties, and patent rights are involved.  Interwoven in all this are egos, reputations, and fear of exposure.  Even highly educated people lose control when they are threatened with a loss of salary, subsidies, and status.

Won't Talk To Contact Tracers?  There's A Subpoena For That.  Rockland County, New York is ramping up to issue subpoenas to Constitution-minded citizens who tell contact tracers to pound sand.  If you don't obey the subpoenas, the court can issue an arrest warrant and the police show up at your door.  Those who were actually served with subpoenas didn't have as much backbone as they professed:  "County officials said Thursday that after issuing eight subpoenas, all eight people were now cooperating with contact tracers."

Misguided left-wing activists have been trying to rid the world of air conditioning for years.  This is their latest excuse:
Turn off your air conditioning, experts say after WHO shifts stance on airborne coronavirus.  Air conditioning units that recirculate the same air in a room should be switched off or only used with open windows, experts have urged, amid mounting concern around the role of airborne transmission to spread Covid-19.  Experts told the Telegraph that air conditioning units that only used recirculated air could exacerbate the spread of virus particles if someone was infected with Covid-19.  Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, a fellow at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said there were two types of air conditioning units — ones that take air in from outside and expel it out again, or those that recirculate the same air.

Coronavirus: Why everyone was wrong.  The coronavirus is slowly retreating.  What actually happened in the past few weeks?  The experts have missed basic connections.  The immune response against the virus is much stronger than we thought.

Global Cooling Gives Nightmares To Global Warming Alarmists.  Cycles of sun spots are fairly predictable and the current cycle is looking more and more like the Maunder Minimum that created the "Little Ice Age" between 1650 and 1715.  The story below is largely propaganda that minimizes the story of impending global cooling.  The article also cites Imperial College London, which was directly responsible for the Great Panic of 2020 when it released Professor Neil Ferguson's trashy computer model on the COVID-19 pandemic.  With global warming's dead horse, this alarmist crowd needed a new champion to drive the world into their coveted deep transformation, and the coronavirus was the perfect replacement.

Hydroxychloroquine lowers Covid-19 death rate, study finds.  The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine helped lower the death rate in Covid-19 patients in the most recent study of the drug conducted by Henry Ford Health System.  Cardiologist Dr. William O'Neill, a medical director at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, first spoke with "Full Measure" about the study while it was underway in May.  The findings have just been published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Infectious Diseases.  The large scale analysis examined 2,541 patients who had been hospitalized in six hospitals between March 10 and May 2, 2020.

OPV as Potential Protection Against COVID.  Since the 1960s, studies have shown that oral polio vaccine (OPV) may have beneficial non-specific effects, reducing morbidity and mortality from other infections than polio.  Such beneficial non-specific effect have been observed for other live vaccines, including measles, smallpox and BCG vaccine.  For BCG, the vaccine for which the mechanism has been studied the most, the effects appear to be mediated through the innate immune system.  The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has now caused over 7.1 million cases and >400,000 deaths worldwide.  As everywhere else, it is anticipated that in Africa the older part of the population will be at risk of severe COVID-19.

MSNBC Evening Shows Gave 137 Mins to Expert Who Said He Had Coronavirus (He Didn't).  For almost two months in his Fourth Watch newsletter, the indispensable Steve Krakauer has been chronicling the strange case of MSNBC/NBC medical and science contributor Joseph Fair, who had claimed in May that he not only contracted the virus, but was hospitalized.  Even worse yet, he surmised he contracted it through his eyes on a flight.  But as Krakauer's reporting showed, it was all a lie as Fair "had at least five negative coronavirus tests" and tested negative for COVID-19 antibodies.  MSNBC and NBC predictably kept their heads in the sand despite this breach of journalistic ethics and peddling of bona fide fake news.

NBC News Spent Weeks Reporting On A Contributor's Journey Battling Coronavirus — But He Never Had It.  NBC News spent weeks documenting its science contributor's battle with COVID-19, but now he admits that he never tested positive for it.  Dr. Joseph Fair, a virologist, believed he had the virus and appeared on air numerous times to discuss his struggle with illness in May and June.  On Tuesday, Fair admitted that he tested negative for the virus multiple times but had originally believed he had it regardless.  Fair also tested negative upon taking an antibody test.

NBC Contributor Reveals He Never Had Coronavirus After Network Documented His Recovery.  An NBC medical expert who was brought on air nearly a dozen times to detail his struggle with COVID-19 never had the virus, he revealed this week.  After believing he had the coronavirus in spite of getting negative tests, virologist and NBC News science contributor Dr. Joseph Fair tweeted Tuesday [7/7/2020] that he had tested negative for the antibodies and that the illness that hospitalized him in May "remains an undiagnosed mystery."

It Would Appear NBC Buried Some Key Details About Their Medical Expert's 'Coronavirus Battle'.  For two weeks, not really a lot of COVID coverage and when the rioting began to subside, we needed to get back inside.  Yeah, not happening.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, one of the most insufferable clowns in office, issued an edict banning large crowd gatherings unless you're protesting in support of Black Lives Matter.  They don't even hide their hypocrisy anymore.  Well, over at NBC News, there was something they tried to hide as well regarding COVID, which is that one of their contributors who they peddled as having the virus... never had it.  Former CNN producer Steve Krakauer touched upon this, noting that the network appeared to just ignore that Dr. Joseph Fair had five negative tests regarding COVID.  Oh, and it gets worse, Fair had scores of interviews because he was the man who "recovered" from the virus.  He never had it.  Either this is willful deception or just an epic screw-up.  If it's the former, then welcome to the fake news hall of fame.

America Can't Take Another Lockdown.  Protect The Vulnerable And Carry On.  [Scroll down]  As I read what is left of our newspapers and consult online sources — all with an eye to the current epidemic — it's striking how nearly everything I read is noise, not news.  Take the supposed surge in coronavirus cases.  Does it matter?  I think not.  To begin with, what is being reported is the number of newly diagnosed cases.  We are rarely told this, but much of this has to do with the increased prevalence of testing.  It does not mean that the virus is spreading with alarming rapidity.  What it really tells us is that the journalists and their editors are doing a fairly poor job assessing the significance of what they report.  This means they do the general public a disservice.  The most revealing metric, the one that genuinely matters, is the fatality rate.  While deaths from COVID-19 are not down in every state, deaths are down nationally. [...] But on one question there is professional consensus:  the spread of the coronavirus cannot be stopped.

Data suggest Florida's record-breaking coronavirus days may have been inflated by as much as 30%.  Florida health officials appear to have inflated recent record coronavirus case numbers there by as much as 30%, according to an analysis of data released by the state's Department of Health.  U.S. health officials have been warning for several weeks that COVID-19 case trends in Florida are pointing to a possible looming catastrophe as the state records ever-increasing numbers of the disease.  After several months of flat infection rates, positive case results in Florida began rising slowly in mid-June before beginning a steep climb near the end of the month.  Deaths in the state have remained largely flat over that time period, leaving experts struggling to explain why surging case rates have not resulted in an uptick in mortality.  One possibility, according to data provided by the state itself, is that the new case numbers regularly posted by Florida health officials have been significantly inflated in recent weeks.

Phoenix Mayor Lied About Morgues Bringing In 'Refrigerator Trucks' To Store Overflow COVID Bodies.  As the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Maricopa County climbed to new highs late this week, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego appeared on MSNBC Friday morning for an interview with Chuck Todd and Katy Tur to discuss the situation in the state, which has moved to close bars, and rollback other reopening measures to combat the outbreak.  During the interview, Gallego claimed that the county's public health agency had just put in an order for refrigerated trucks because they were running out of space in the morgue.  Hours later, as the mayor's comments started proliferating through the media, representatives for the hospital system called and complained that the mayor's comment wasn't true, despite the fact that she made the claim -- seemingly with a high degree of certainty — on a popular cable new show.

Texas Republicans sue Gov. Abbott over ongoing coronavirus restrictions amid minuscule death rate.  Republicans in Texas have filed a number of lawsuits while sanctioning GOP Gov. Greg Abbott after he reimposed restrictions on businesses and other sectors of the economy after coronavirus cases reignited across the state.  The suits come as critics of Abbott's actions note that despite major increases in the number of coronavirus positives across the state, the vast majority of them involve patients who are asymptomatic or suffering mild conditions.  They also note that the coronavirus death rate in Texas is remarkably low.  A suit filed last week in Travis County District Court by Houston GOP activist Steven Hotze, former Republican state Rep. Rick Green, former chair of the Republican Party of Texas Cathie Adams and two Houston business owners argue that Abbott's orders, as well as the law that gave him the authority to issue them, violate the state constitution.

Why In-Person Schooling Would Be One of the Safest Activities to Reopen.  Most students around the country haven't been to school since March, when large parts of the country began to lock down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Now, the data increasingly suggests that reopening schools entails the least risks and should be a goal of every level of government.  The early hope was that the closures would be temporary, such as Michigan's school-closure order that was originally meant to end in April — but that was extended for the rest of the school year.  Now, with the 2020-2021 school year fast approaching, what do we do about schools?

Man arrested after allegedly pointing gun at Walgreens customer for not wearing a mask.  A Boston man has been arrested after police said he pointed a gun at a man in a parking lot for not wearing a face covering inside a store.  Todd Goulston, 59, has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace for allegedly aiming a gun at a man who did not wear a face mask inside a Walgreens despite a statewide coronavirus mask order, according to the Boston Herald. [...] Ghoulston's license to carry a firearm and the firearms he kept in his home were seized by police.

Security guard charged with murder after fighting man who refused to wear a mask.  A security guard at a Southern California market fatally shot a man who refused to wear a mask, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.  Prosecutors said that Umeir Corniche Hawkins, 38, was charged with murder in the death of Jerry Lewis, 50, according to the district attorney.  Lewis entered the undisclosed market without a mask on July 5 and he and Hawkins got into an argument, officials said.

Up to 8,000 California inmates could be released early to stop crowding at prisons during COVID-19.  Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced (CDCR) announced new programs that will allow for the early release of up to 8,000 inmates by the end of August to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 as outbreaks continue to flare up across the state prison system.  "These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff," Ralph Diaz, Secretary for the CDCR, said in a press release on Friday.  "We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety."

Head of Emergency Management Says Texans Should Wear Masks Inside Their Own Homes.  The head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management gave an interview in which he said that people should wear masks inside their own homes in order to stop the spread of coronavirus.  Appearing on Fox News at Nine, Chief Nim Kidd insisted that people should wear masks indoors if they have potentially exposed themselves to the virus by being outside.  "We still need people to wear the mask out in public, we still need people to keep social distance and isolation," Kidd said.  "Ryan, the one thing I want to try to get across today is we need to do that when we're in our homes also." [...] If health authorities are now moving towards patrolling behavior inside the confines of private property due to COVID-19 hysteria, how far away are mandatory vaccinations?  As we have previously highlighted, the media is continuing to peddle alarmist hysteria by hyping rising coronavirus cases, despite the fact that the death rate has been consistently falling for over two months across the country.

DNC Platform Proposal:  Flood the U.S. with Migrants.  Tens of millions of Americans are, at present, unemployed.  Tens of millions of Americans are unemployed because of an artificial economic shutdown due to the coronavirus.  They're not out of work because the American economy failed them.  They're out of work because government leadership failed them.  There was never any need to shut down.  There was no need to destroy the world's number-one economy.  But they did it.

Fauci Is a Deep State Fraud.  I knew for sure that Anthony Fauci is a fraud after listening to him for about 10 seconds — as anyone who listens carefully would have known as well. [...] A reporter asked Fauci if he agreed with Trump that the Chinese have not been fully forthcoming about the scope of the pandemic.  Fauci answered that although the Chinese had lacked candor in previous years, this time they had turned over "the sequence of the virus."  Spoken like a wily swamp reptile!  His words were factually correct.  The Chinese had turned over all they knew about the virus's "sequence" — namely, its genetic structure.  But the reporter and the audience neither knew nor cared about that.  They were interested in the Chinese government's misrepresentations of the virus's contagion, fatality rate, and so forth.  That is what they had dissembled and lied about.

A Nightmare Campaign of Outright Idiocy.  As we get into high summer, there must be a very large number of Americans now actively considering whether the country is going mad. [...] Fatalities from the coronavirus have declined by nearly 90 percent and evidence has piled up in nearly 40 million coronavirus tests that large numbers of healthy Americans have contracted the disease and had no or minimal symptoms.  This progressively immunizes the public from it, yet in a barefaced attempt to prolong economic miseries and public hysteria, the Democrats uniformly agitate for a resumed economic shutdown.

America Needs To Stop Reacting To Coronavirus Like A Bunch Of Hysterics.  America is in an epic battle with the Wuhan coronavirus.  It's not fun.  It's been messing with us.  It behaves oddly.  But Americans should want America to win.  Instead, it seems like a lot of our media and other institutions are rooting for the virus and have an attitude suggesting the virus has us dead to rights.  See, for example, "Georgia's experiment in human sacrifice."  One of the ways the media root for the virus is by hyping it like they hype local sports teams.  It's not that it's not a horrifically deadly and contagious virus — it is.  But the media routinely amplify its actual risk by many multiples.  What we know about the virus is that it is particularly bad for older Americans and those in long-term care.  It's no fun for the younger folks who have gotten it, but it's far less deadly for them.  Children are more likely to die from a flu infection than a coronavirus infection.  The country is seeing a small uptick in cases, centered around a few major cities.  That's true and concerning, but it need not be hysteria-inducing.

Some areas of New York City may have reached a 68% coronavirus immunity rate.  Some areas of New York City have recorded a nearly 70% rate of immunity to the novel coronavirus, in what scientists are calling a "stunning" finding.  Sixty-right percent of those tested for coronavirus antibodies in the Corona neighborhood of Queens received positive results, while a neighboring clinic saw results of 56%.  The findings suggest that percentage of people have already contracted the virus and at least some among them could, as a result, be immune to a second wave.

Michiganders required to wear masks in indoor public spaces or face $500 fine, Whitmer order says.  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order Friday requiring people to wear masks when they are in an indoor public space and in crowded outdoor spaces.  The order requires any business that is open to the public to refuse entry or service to people who aren't wearing a face covering, with limited exceptions.  Governors in Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Washington have imposed similar requirements on businesses, a news release from the governor's office said.

Press Now Plumbs Its Own Depths Of Depravity.  [Scroll down]  In the same spirit, the national political press have simply dismissed the administration's view of the evolution of the COVID-19 crisis.  The fact that weekly fatalities have descended by nearly 90% in two months is never mentioned.  Also rarely mentioned are the facts that large increases in detected coronavirus cases have occurred because almost 40 million Americans have now been tested and most of these new discoveries are cures, and that a large number of healthy people have contracted the virus with no or minimal symptoms as the country has reopened and are essentially progress towards the general immunization of the country, as second infections are rare and comparatively resistible.  The failure of the administration's COVID-19 policy has been enthroned as conventional wisdom despite these contrary facts.

Maryland man may be first person successfully vaccinated against COVID-19.  A Maryland man believes he may be one of the first people to be successfully vaccinated against the coronavirus after participating in a trial that has reported promising early results in producing antibodies, according to reports.  David Rach, a graduate immunology student, was the first person to be injected in the trial at the University of Maryland in May, where US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech are working together in the global race to create a vaccine, the Daily Mail reports.  Now, early indications show the vaccine is working by stimulating the growth of antibodies at rates equal or higher to those who have the illness, according to WJLA.

NBC Guest Doctor Who Was Suffering from Coronavirus in Hospital in TV Interviews — Never Had Coronavirus!.  Dr. Joseph Fair appeared on NBC and the Today Show nearly a dozen times in May during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.  Dr. Fair appeared in a hospital bed fighting off the disease with oxygen tubes in his nose when he appeared on NBC.  In one segment Dr. Joseph Fair told the Today hosts, "If it can take me down, it can take anybody."

NBC Science Contributor Who Reported About Having Coronavirus Admits He Never Had It.  NBC and MSNBC science contributor Dr. Joseph Fair documented his battle with coronavirus — until admitting he did not actually have it after all.  The Daily Caller reported Friday:  "Dr. Joseph Fair, a virologist, believed he had the virus and appeared on air numerous times to discuss his struggle with illness in May and June.  On Tuesday [7/7/2020], Fair admitted that he tested negative for the virus multiple times but had originally believed he had it regardless.  Fair also tested negative upon taking an antibody test."  Fair's timeline on Twitter documents his journey over the past two months, from announcing that he had "come down with COVID" on May 13, to revealing on July 7 that he had not.

Atlanta Mayor:  Okay, Now That I Have The Virus, Everyone Has To Wear Masks.  As we learned over the holiday weekend, Atlanta Mayor (and potential Biden running mate) Keisha Lance Bottoms has been diagnosed with COVID-19.  Her husband has tested positive as well.  While she reportedly remains asymptomatic, she maintains that she has "no idea" where or when she could have been exposed to the novel coronavirus.  As I asked at the time, is it possible she might not have contracted the disease if she'd worn a mask more often?  Perhaps she's taken that possibility to heart because it was announced this week that she was signing an order to make masks mandatory in her city.  And yesterday [7/8/2020] she did just that.

Texas Republican convention in Houston canceled; Montgomery County judge offers to host.  Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Wednesday, July 8, that Houston First agreed to his request to cancel the upcoming state Republican convention.  The convention was expected to bring some 6,000 delegates to the George R. Brown Convention Center from July 16-18.  "Houston is a hotspot in a global pandemic, and we cannot have thousands of people gathering at GRB," Turner said.  "This convention is not moving forward because of the public health risk it poses."  "Mayor Turner's hypocritical flip flop on public gatherings is a political stunt," Harris County GOP Chairman Paul Simpson said.  "While he joined in massive marches in the streets last month, he has now blocked Republican grassroots activists from peaceably assembling even under the most stringent health safeguards."  The mayor said Houston First's contract with the state GOP included the right to cancel during a health crisis and said the decision had nothing to do with politics.

The Editor says...
This decision was 100 percent politics.  That's why the announcement was made four days before the convention started, when it could do the most damage.  (The committee meetings were to start on Monday, but the delegates attend Thursday through Saturday.  I've been to a few of these.)  That aside, there is no health crisis.  The crisis — if it ever really existed in Texas — was finished at least a month ago.  The mayor's actions will immediately rob the city of a week's worth of tourism income, and jeopardize much of Houston's convention business from now on.

Also posted under obstructionism.

Dan Bongino Vows To Defy Mask Order.  Conservative radio host Dan Bongino vowed to defy officials who passed a mandatory mask order this week in his county of residence.  "You can take your mask mandate and shove it [...]," Bongino said Wednesday on "The Dan Bongino Show," a shot across the bow to Martin County, Florida commissioners who voted 5-0 to pass the ordinance after a lengthy Tuesday meeting that saw most residents in attendance opposing the mandate.  "They have no authority to do this," the former policeman and Secret Service agent said.  "These people are just fabricating new tyrannical powers drunk on their own power."

The Press Is Already Trying To Whip Up A New Pandemic Panic.  Oh, no!  With the planet still unlocking and some parts still tightly buttoned down, and with the world economy plummeting, "China Researchers Discover New Swine Flu with 'Pandemic Potential,'" blares CNN.  "Scientists Say New Strain of Swine Flu Virus Is Spreading to Humans in China," shrieks the New York Times.  Say it ain't so!  Okay, it ain't so.  Not in any meaningful way.  The media should go back to "murder hornets," or find another asteroid with a chance in a zillion of hitting Earth.

Yakima Mayor donates to legal expense fund for Selah gym fined by state.  The city of Yakima's mayor has donated to a GoFundMe account for legal expenses for Anytime Fitness in Selah, the first business in Washington to be fined by the state for violating "Safe Start" mandates.  Yakima Mayor Patricia Byers donated $10 to the account, which has raised $9,680 over the past five days from more than 150 donors.  The state's "Safe Start" program does not allow gyms to reopen until Phase 3.  Yakima County recently moved to Phase 1.5.

First-hand account of Chinese COVID-19 censorship underscores just how much our media failed us.  It was obvious in March, back when members of the free press first began to praise China for supposedly defeating the coronavirus pandemic, that many journalists and commentators were parroting literal Chinese Communist Party propaganda. [...] "We were all familiar with China's growing censorship and had avoided using words and phrases that the Chinese government didn't like," writes freelance journalist Tracy Wen Liu, "but we fell victim to an expanding system anyway. ... A wave of new censorship has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, most of it focused on covering up the stories around COVID-19 itself."

"To Those Who Cheer Against Hydroxychloroquine — I Regret to Inform You I Am Doing Well" — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.  On Tuesday [7/7/2020] Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced he had tested positive for coronavirus.  In early April Jair Bolsonaro urged residents to keep the economy going despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. [...] On Wednesday President Bolsonaro shared some excellent news and took a swipe at his socialist critics by tweeting out that he is doing very well with the hydroxychloroquine treatment.

COVID Deaths Plummet, But the So-Called News Remains Negative.  Now, let's get into some COVID-19 news and, folks, are you asking yourself what of any of this is true and what isn't?  It's almost like the tale of two viruses.  We have an entire group of stories that are about how much worse the virus is. "[...] It's worse than we thought.  We haven't even gotten to the second wave.  Dr. Fauci says, Dr. Fauci says, Dr. Fauci says."  Whatever Dr. Fauci says, it gets amplified.  We are told how so many more people are getting it.  The number of cases is skyrocketing, but then deaths are down.  We demonstrated this yesterday.  The number of deaths associated with COVID-19 are way down.  It's why they're not being reported.  The game here is to scare you into siding up with a new lockdown.  They want you to hear all these brand-new numbers of cases as deaths.  But deaths are down.  The curve was flattened.

This Doctor/GOP State Senator Faces Investigation for COVID-19 'Misinformation' 'Recklessness'.  Minnesota State Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Carver County), a doctor who was named the Family Physician of the Year in 2016, now faces an investigation for alleged "misinformation" and "recklessness" in his public statements about the coronavirus pandemic.  The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice is investigating him for warning that coronavirus deaths may be inflated due to financial incentives to put "COVID-19" on death certificates and for comparing COVID-19 to the common flu.

CDC: Official U.S. COVID Death Count Has Plunged 88% Since Mid-April.  The number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the United States peaked at 16,394 in the week ending on April 18, 2020, according to the provisional COVID-19 death counts published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  By the week ending on June 20, deaths involving COVID-19 had dropped to 2,287 — a decline of 86 percent from the peak of 16,394.

The media says hospitals are out of beds, but here is the real story.  [Scroll down]  In a recent report by Miami-Dade, it shows that they have a capacity of 434 ICU beds typically.  The other interesting number is that they can convert 532 additional beds to ICU beds if needed.  So the media would have you to believe that they are entirely out of ICU beds, but that's simply not the case.  Yes, this is a strain on the healthcare system.  Yes, the virus has spread much more than previous, but we need to be honest, we knew it would.  In every instance of guidance that was given by the CDC, the information was clear.  Extreme measures would only slow the spread of the virus.  Every safety precaution that is taken only attempts to slow the spread; it does not stop the spread.  Many states and the media are pushing the initiative that wearing masks and handwashing will stop the spread of coronavirus.  The truth is, it cannot stop the virus.  There is not a magic fabric or chemical in hand sanitizer that prevents it.  We can only try to contain it.  This is where the mainstream media and many state health leaders have continued to mislead the American people.

Because of widespread testing...
Texas says new coronavirus cases jumped by more than 10,000 for the first time.  Texas reported more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, a record-breaking daily surge as the state responds to a growing outbreak and rising hospitalizations.  The Texas Health and Human Services Commission reported 10,028 new cases, which surpasses the state's previous record of nearly 8,260 cases set on July 4.  It's the first time since the beginning of the outbreak that the state has reported more than 10,000 additional new cases in a single day.  There were 9,268 people in the state's hospitals with Covid-19 as of Tuesday [7/7/2020], another daily record, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.  Public health officials keep a close watch on hospitalizations because it can indicate how severe an outbreak is in an area.  It's considered a better measure than new cases because it's not as reliant on the availability of testing.  The state has also reported a jump in the percentage of total positive tests since mid-June, now hovering around 13.5% on average as of Monday.

The Editor says...
Ten thousand people testing positive for the virus, or some smaller number getting admitted to the hospital, is no reason for the rest of us to live under tyranny.  The five-digit figure was probably the result of a long holiday weekend holding up the results. There are about 29 million people in Texas, so ten thousand is about one person out of every 30,000.  How many people tested negative?  That's apparently not worth reporting.  The disease isn't as deadly as the news media and the power-hungry left-wing politicians would have us all believe.

This Is How the Media Lies to the American People:  The Carsyn Leigh Davis Coronavirus Story.  We really are at a point in America that you can no longer trust the mainstream media on even the most basic reporting.  They will always put their personal spin on a story to sway your thinking.  Florida teenager Carsyn Leigh Davis died on June 23rd in Fort Myers, Florida from "complications from coronavirus." [...] This is the latest example of the panic porn promoted by the liberal mainstream media.  What the media is hiding from the public in their headline is that Carsyn battled cancer and suffered from an auto-immune disease.  Her parents gave Carsyn hydroxychloroquine but the 17-year-old succumbed to the disease anyway.  It's not until you read into the reporting that you find out about Carsyn's battle with disease.  The headlines were specifically written to make you feel that teens are at great risk.  They're not.

Trump, in push to reopen schools amid coronavirus outbreak, vows 'pressure' on governors.  President Trump, at a White House event Tuesday with first lady Melania Trump, said his administration would "very much put pressure" on governors to reopen their states' schools in the fall amid the coronavirus outbreak.  "We don't want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons, they think it's gonna be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed, no way," Trump said after noting that the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced plans to reopen schools in that state starting in August.  "So, we are very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools."

Dallas County Judge Asks Governor to Close Restaurant Dining Rooms.  As COVID-19 infections soar across Dallas and Tarrant counties, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has asked Gov. Greg Abbott to close bowling alleys, gyms and restaurant dining rooms.  "If the governor says, 'let's leave the restaurants open for another week or two and let's just see what happens,' well, we know what will happen," Jenkins said.  "We don't even have that luxury anymore.  This thing has gotten so out of control."

The Editor says...
County Judge Clay Jenkins is making a mountain out of a molehill, even after the molehill has all but disappeared.  In my opinion, he is doing so because he likes wielding power and he likes publicity.  He is solving a problem that no longer exists.  The virus is not "out of control" by any means. The number of people dying per day is down in the area of negligible.  The virus appears to be almost completely dead, and even if substantial numbers of people were still dying from this disease every day, it's not the government's job micro-manage restuarants and dictate face mask orders without end.  It's all a political power trip now.  There will always be germs in the air.  Let us all take our chances, and wash our hands.

No, Gov. Cuomo, New York's nursing home carnage is your fault.  Another day, another scapegoat.  Or two.  For months, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been desperate to find somebody, anybody, to blame for the nursing-home carnage he helped to cause.  The list of those he blamed was blasphemous — it started with God.  It was ludicrous when he later aimed at President Trump and The [New York] Post.  His latest bid is simply scandalous.  Cuomo has the nerve to blame grieving family members and heroic nursing-home staffers, charging they were the ones who infected and killed as many 12,000 elderly and helpless residents.  Desperation is no excuse.  This is shamelessness on stilts.  And it is heartlessly cruel to blame the victims.

Is The Pandemic Coming To An End At Last?  he media and many politicians inside the Democratic Party continue to shriek over the recent jump in the number of recorded coronavirus cases, seeking to keep the economy closed at all costs — and we mean that literally.  Don't fall for the argument.  The data show that, in fact, our pandemic nightmare might well be coming to an end.

The Editor says...
The nightmare will only end when the politicians end it.  Some of them seem to think it's a joyride, and not a nightmare at all.

COVID and the CDC.  Some have rightly noted the double standard shown by numerous public health officials and politicians regarding "social distancing."  Were public health officials indicating that COVID-19 is not as dangerous as originally stated by their apparent approval of rioting throughout America?  Multiple statistics can be provided here to answer the question and show that SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is not the "threat to all Americans" that it has been made out to be.  One need not be an epidemiologist to arrive at this conclusion. [...] One should not trivialize life and death; this article is not making light of those deaths.  Instead, it is merely evaluating the statistics from the standpoint of the CDC's severity criteria to make the point that SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are not as severe as many have stated.

Know Your Enemy:  Undeniable Truths About the Left.  [Scroll down]  Leftist governors and mayors have gone full communist under the guise of safety in their removal of freedoms during the Wuhan virus lockdowns.  Think about the three areas the left focused upon.  They went after our right to peaceably assemble, our free exercise of religion, and our right to free speech.  The left went after our right to peaceably gather by limiting the number of people we could congregate with and initiating social distancing.  Next, they impeded our free exercise of religion by deeming churches as non-essential and forbidding us from gathering for church services; even if they were drive-thru services.  Finally, free speech was attacked when leftist social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter censored any posts or tweets that went against the COVID-19 media narrative.

Not dying is bad for headlines.  As the bumpy COVID-19 path back to normalcy bounces along, you would never know that we were headed in the right direction.  Teasers on television and headlines in newspapers report a "surge" in new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations.  The teasers and headlines fail to mention that the most important measure of our progress in getting ahead of the virus is the number of deaths recorded.  The fact that the rate of fatalities to infection is very low now is seldom if ever mentioned. [...] The CDC data show that as of July 1, 2020, death in people younger than 25 is less than 170 out of a total of 120,000.  It is almost non-pronounceable to state a fatality rate — too many zeros after the decimal point.  My point is this:  if you are young and healthy, you have nothing to fear from the coronavirus except the fear-mongering from the media.

NYT wonders:  Say, maybe cheering the BLM protests has undermined epidemiologists' COVID-19 credibility.  This flash from the Paper of Record only surprises to the extent that the New York Times covered this issue at all.  "Are protests unsafe?" their headline asks, and then adds, "What experts say may depend on who's protesting what." [...] The shutdown protests usually involved dozens of people, sometimes hundreds, with inconsistent-at-best distancing and masking practices.  They were also generally one-off events, with Michigan being the most obvious exception.  The protests that followed the Floyd homicide, on the other hand, have been continuous, involve thousands if not tens of thousands of people, and have zero distancing and a middling use of masks.  If the lockdown protests were a crisis for future spikes, then so are the Floyd protests.  The latter would be higher risk because of their size, density, and the length of time.  So why aren't epidemiologists warning about them?

The Coronavirus is dying — One Chart says it all.  This virus is dying.

The Media Outright Lied About Hydroxychloroquine Just to Destroy Trump.  The media has spent the last four months outright lying about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine just to destroy President Donald Trump.  Washington D.C. journalist Drew Holden recently took the time to compile a large number of stories built entirely on lies pushed by the left-wing media.  Holden jumped to his Twitter account with an amazing thread that has to be seen to see the lies spread by our sold-out, anti-American media.

A Second Wave of Stupidity.  First we were warned about an exponential increase.  Cases were doubling and tripling in as many days.  Soon millions would be sick and dying.  Then we were warned of rising deaths, even though many of these deaths had other causes.  We were told to flatten the curve.  We needed to stay home.  We should not wear masks.  Then we should wear masks.  The whole experience has been dizzying.  The media and experts then began selling tests as the key. [...] Most people have not been tested.  People with mild symptoms do not run to the doctor for tests, nor do the asymptomatic.  Thus, millions of people only minimally impacted by the coronavirus are not ending up on the radar of the health authorities.

Minn. physician, lawmaker under investigation by the Board of Medical Practices for his comments regarding COVID-19.  A Minnesota physician and lawmaker is under investigation by the Board of Medical Practices for his comments regarding COVID-19.  In a Facebook video Senator Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) said that he was notified by the state Board of Medical Practices that he is under investigation for allegedly spreading misinformation regarding death certificates in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.  They also say that he provided reckless advice as a physician by comparing COVID-19 to the flu.  Jensen has accused the state of inflating the number of deaths from COVID-19[.]

The Editor says...
My guess is that Dr. Jensen is more right than wrong.

Dems and Media to Blame for Countless COVID-19 Deaths After Anti-Hydroxychloroquine Hysteria.  Last week, a new peer-reviewed study of hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness at treating the coronavirus was published, and it found that the drug significantly reduced mortality rates.  And by significantly, I mean it literally cut the mortality rate by more than half.  The study also determined that despite previous reports, there were no adverse effects on the heart.  President Trump has been touting hydroxychloroquine as a potential game-changer since mid-March after small studies showed it potentially served as an effective treatment for coronavirus patients.

How Joe Biden's Health Plan Would Stiff Coronavirus Patients.  Given the dramatic impacts of coronavirus on our daily lives — killing tens of thousands and shutting down hundreds of thousands of businesses — most Americans would find it unthinkable to deny patients access to COVID-19 treatments on the grounds of cost.  But that is just what presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden proposes to do.  It is simply the latest in a long string of examples of how the left's support for centralized health care will harm patients and the economy.  Gilead Sciences recently announced pricing plans for its new coronavirus treatment named remdesivir.  It set the price for the drug at $3,120 for a five-day course of treatment; government payers will pay roughly one-third less than that ($2,340), in another case of individuals with private insurance subsidizing those on Medicare and Medicaid.

CDC: After 10-Week Decline In COVID-19 Deaths, It May Soon No Longer Be An Epidemic.  The United States now has so few deaths due to COVID-19 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday it is approaching the threshold for dipping below the level of an epidemic.  The CDC defines an epidemic as an outbreak from which the number of deaths per week exceeds a given percentage of total deaths within the nation.  The number of deaths from COVID-19 has steadily declined since hitting its peak in early May after it began spiking in the second week in March.

Can We be Allowed to be Adults, Please?  Our states' Governors have decided that executive orders allow them to become little kings, in some cases little tyrants, in their respective states making law by fiat without the legislature's consent.  Worse, the legislatures have decided that is just fine with them and we complied without any resistance.  There seems to be no limit to the executive powers that governors can take for themselves.  All of this is done in the name of "protecting" us from a virus. [...] The early fears about the virus have been steadily proven to be wrong.  An overwhelming majority of people who get the virus recover.  The mortality rate has been steadily going down as more testing has been conducted and now sits at lower than 1% which is not any worse than other seasonal diseases we've already dealt with.  The truly vulnerable can take precautions, they can stay at home they can wear a mask, they can avoid large gatherings.  The one thing they shouldn't have the right to do is expect the rest of the world to stop living in a vain attempt to protect them.  Even if we did, they aren't going to be protected.

About All These "New" Positive COVID Cases — State Health Departments Manipulating Data, Changing Definitions.  This is very interesting.  The document described in the video below is available HERE. Research into state health regulations by Fog City Midge shows that new guidance for the definition of COVID-19 positive infections is likely the biggest background cause in a dramatic upswing in positive test results. [Video clip]  This revelation would explain exactly why those who construct the reporting systems are pushing so hard for contact tracing.  According to the new guidance anyone who comes into contact with a person who tests positive is now also considered positive.  Nice convenient way to inflate the infection rate. [...] In order to support the most important political objectives of the DNC writ large in the 2020 election, COVID-19 hype is essential:
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot easily achieve 'mail-in' voting; which they desperately need in key battleground states in order to control the outcome.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot shut down rallies and political campaigning efforts of President Trump; which they desperate need to do in key battleground states.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats do not have an excuse for cancelling the DNC convention in Milwaukee; thereby blocking Team Bernie Sanders from visible opposition while protecting candidate gibberish from himself.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats do not have a mechanism to keep voters isolated from each-other; limiting communication and national debate adverse to their interests.  COVID-19 panic pushes the national conversation into the digital space where Big Tech controls every element of the conversation.
  •   Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot keep their Blue state economies easily shut-down and continue to block U.S. economic growth.  All thriving economies are against the political interests of Democrats.
[...] There is ZERO benefit to anyone other than Democrats for the overwhelming hype surrounding COVID-19.

Texas' coronavirus hospitalizations hit new daily high as overall cases slip.  A record 8,181 Texans with the coronavirus were hospitalized Sunday, a new daily high as overall cases slipped during the coronavirus pandemic.  Texas reported 3,449 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Sunday, after a record high of 8,258 Saturday [7/4/2020].  State health officials also reported 29 additional deaths, bringing the totals to 2,637 deaths and 195,239 confirmed cases.

Ector County GOP censures Abbott over executive power amid coronavirus, state Sen. Charles Perry calls for special session.  The Ector County Republican Party voted Saturday to censure Gov. Greg Abbott, accusing him of overstepping his authority in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, while state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, called for a special session so lawmakers could have a say in how Texas proceeds amid soaring caseloads.  The party executive committee in Ector County, home to Odessa, passed the censure resolution 10-1, with one abstention and three voting members who were not present, according to the chairperson, Tisha Crow.  She said she was among those who supported the resolution, which accuses Abbott of violating five party principles related to his exercise of executive power during the pandemic.

We've all turned from normal humans into muzzled masochists.  When this madness began, I behaved as if a new and fanatical religion was spreading among us.  Be polite and tolerant, I thought.  It may be crazy and damaging but in time it will go away.  Now it is clear that a new faith, based on fear of the invisible and quite immune to reason, has all but taken over the country.  And it turns out to be one of those faiths that doesn't have much tolerance for those who don't share it.  My guess is that about 85 percent of the population now worship it and will continue to do so.  The rest of us are, as each day goes by, a persecuted minority, forced to go along with beliefs we do not hold.  Its evangelists will not leave you and me alone, but constantly seek to force us to join.  This is why I make such a fuss about the demand to make us all wear muzzles.  This is not about health.  There is simply not enough evidence to compel us to do so.  It is an attempt to force submission on Covid unbelievers.  That is why it spreads, despite the absence of any good case for it.  In a creepy development, one of the most powerful scientific papers arguing against it, Why Face Masks Don't Work:  A Revealing Review, last week suddenly vanished from its usual place on the internet (I still have a copy and you may read it here.

Why Face Masks Don't Work:  A Revealing Review.  [Scroll down]  Cloth or cotton gauze masks have been used since the late 19th century to protect sterile fields from spit and mucous generated by the wearer.  A secondary function was to protect the mouth and nose of the wearer from the sprays and splashes of blood and body fluids created during surgery.  As noted above, in the early 20th century masks were used to trap infectious "droplets" expelled by the wearer thus possibly reducing disease transmission to others.  Since the mid-20th century until today, face masks have been increasingly used for entirely the opposite function:  that is to prevent the wearer from inhaling respiratory pathogens.  Indeed, most current dental infection control recommendations insist that a face mask be worn, "as a key component of personal protection against airborne pathogens".  Literature reviews have confirmed that wearing a mask during surgery has no impact whatsoever on wound infection rates during clean surgery.  A recent 2014 report states categorically that no clinical trials have ever shown that wearing a mask prevents contamination of surgical sites.  With their original purpose being highly questionable it should be no surprise that the ability of face masks to act as respiratory protective devices is now the subject of intense scrutiny.

Fauci omits context, feeds alarm with warning of 100,000 coronavirus infections a day.  Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the Senate this week that the United States could soon see as many as 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day, feeding alarmist narratives that have spread rapidly through the media:  Surging COVID-19 infections, hospital systems under strain, and the prospect of a "second wave" of the virus potentially throwing much of the nation back into open-ended lockdowns.  Yet estimates cited by other U.S. public health authorities and academic researchers indicate we may have already far surpassed 100,000 new infections per day, the vast majority of them mild and/or asymptomatic.  If so, the U.S. would now be significantly closer to herd immunity — and the end of the pandemic — than widely assumed.

Yet another stunning revelation about the true origin of COVID-19.  In 2013, Zheng-Li Shi, the "bat woman," and her team from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were asked to investigate the virus profile of a mine shaft in Yunnan Province after six miners contracted pneumonia with symptoms similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).  After sampling the mine shaft for a year, the researchers identified a diverse group of bat coronaviruses, one of which was designated RaBtCoV/4991 (GenBank KP876546) and partially sequenced as a 440-base pair fragment targeting the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp).  Despite being unique enough to be considered a new strain and associated with a human SARS-like outbreak as a Potential Pandemic Pathogen, thereafter, RaBtCoV/4991 disappeared from the scientific literature.  That is, until 2020.

Tracing the origins:  COVID-19 is not naturally-occurring.  According to the Wall Street Journal, China has now backed away from its claim that the COVID-19 outbreak originated in the Wuhan Seafood Market through transmission from animals to humans.  Since the onset of the pandemic, China has flooded the scientific literature with that claim, but now has been forced to admit that it is false.  The search for the truth has been hampered by the global media, which have been eagerly and uncritically regurgitating the Chinese Communist Party's narrative that COVID-19 is naturally-occurring.  That is, while circulating in animals, a bat coronavirus mutated, perhaps through another intermediate animal host, acquiring the ability to infect humans, presumably workers in the market.  That argument was never scientifically viable.

An Industry of Untruth.  Unfortunately few in authority have been more wrong, and yet more self-righteously wrong, than the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Given his long service as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his stature during the AIDS crisis, he has rightly been held up by the media as the gold standard of coronavirus information.  The media has constructed Fauci as a constant corrective of Trump's supposed "lies" about the utility of travel bans, analogies with a bad flu year, and logical endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a "what do you have to lose" possible therapy.  But the omnipresent Fauci himself unfortunately has now lost credibility.  The reason is that he has offered authoritative advice about facts, which either were not known or could not have been known at the time of his declarations.  Since January, Fauci has variously advised the nation both that the coronavirus probably was unlikely to cause a major health crisis in the United States and later that it might yet kill 240,000 Americans.

It is not a game.
COVID Cheerleaders Change the Rules in the Middle of the Game.  One hopes they are recommending and acting based on a desire to do good and an avoidance of harm.  Yet looking beyond cable news sound bites, the motives of many are sinister and in service to their political agenda rather than the public good.  Looking back at how COVID events unfolded this year, one can reasonably conclude that reactions to the virus are more about politics and an upcoming election than a viral pandemic.  The DNC media is cheerleading any and all bad news while they bury good news such as the success of hydroxychloroquine in cutting the death rate from COVID in half.  Infection data is of utmost importance in guiding decisions about stay-at-home orders, masks, businesses opening and Americans peacefully assembling.  Case fatality rates and R-naughts are more of interest to epidemiologists and don't lend themselves to newspaper headlines and cable news banners.

FDA commissioner 'concerned' quarter of Americans could reject coronavirus vaccine.  Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said it was "concerning" that a new survey found more than a quarter of adults would "definitely" or "probably" not accept a free coronavirus vaccine.  During a discussion about the possible timetable for developing a vaccine, Hahn was asked what happens if all of those people refuse.  "It is a sizable number.  And it is concerning.  And, of course, the issue of vaccines in this country has been around for a number of years," he said on ABC News' "This Week."

The Editor says...
I don't want any vaccine for a virus that most people don't even know they have!  If the government can force you to accept a vaccine, they will then force you to carry papers (or an RFID chip) to prove you've had all your shots.  Just like dogs; or, more accurately, just like cattle.

America Must Hold the Corrupt News Media Accountable in Order to Survive.  [Doctor] Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is closely tied into and receives support from those same pharmaceutical manufacturers.  Those Pharma companies essentially serve as NIAID's lobby before congress, which helps to explain why a government institute that has consistently failed in its mission sports a $5 billion budget.  Oh.  HCQ is cheap, it is widely available and it has been used for decades mainly as a malaria treatment all over the world.  There is no money to be made from HCQ.  For the corrupt, corporate news media, the motive initially seems less clear.  That is, until you get to the next commercial break and suffer through yet another 90-second ad for some new drug with a mysterious name that was made up by a million dollar consultant.  This drug won't cure you — because, hey, there's no money in curing you — but it will dampen your symptoms at a very high price if you take it every day for the rest of your life.

The Editor says...
The Editor has often said that it should be illegal (again) for prescription drugs (and lawyers) to be advertised on television.  The county would be much better off.

How many people died because mainstream media panned Hydroxychloroquine?  President Trump was right.  Even CNN and other Trump-hating mainstream media outlets had to admit this morning that an encouraging comprehensive study has shown Hydroxychloroquine as part of COVID-19 treatment saved lives.  Granted, CNN is already trying to spin their way out of the news, but the cat is mostly out of the bag.  What President Trump said may be effective, many in mainstream media said was dangerous.  What President Trump took himself as a preventative, some in mainstream media said could kill people.  The President was right.  The media talking heads were wrong.  Now, we have to ask the morbid but important question:  How many people died as a result of mainstream media's Trump Derangement Syndrome?

Fascist Fauci makes political decision, not practical or medical ones.  People have generally been wearing masks in public for months and now there's a "surge" in cases.  That surge is coming from more testing, of course, but facts aren't stopping the authoritarians such as Fauci from forcing more lockdowns and demanding everyone wear masks in public at all times.  It's all a big contradiction.  It's all a big con.  We cannot trust Fauci.  Not one bit.  He makes decisions based on what's best for him, whether professionally or financially.  This guy needs to be out of the White House and back to his real talent of making money off patents.

Media Get Absolutely Exposed In Epic Thread On Their Hydroxychloroquine Bias.  Last last week, a study came out that posited to show what anyone paying attention already knew.  Namely, that the drug hydroxychloroquine does appear to help coronavirus patients when taken early in the infection in conjunction with other drugs.  You would think such information would be relatively uncontroversial.  Anything that helps people recover from the virus should be welcome news.  But because Donald Trump touted the drug early on, mostly in April, the media have spent months trashing it and feverishly reporting on flawed studies that claim the drug not only doesn't work, but that it kills people.  In fact, you'd think hydroxychloroquine was one of the most dangerous drugs on earth, not a drug that's been around for decades and used to treat a variety of illnesses. [...] Needless to say, hydroxychloroquine has been ridiculously politicized by a media that is obsessed with sniping at Trump.  In the end, it probably cost people their lives.

Mark Levin: 'Lying media' should apologize after study finds hydroxychloroquine helped coronavirus patients.  Conservative commentator Mark Levin lashed out at the media after a study found a controversial anti-malarial drug may have helped coronavirus patients recover.  Levin, a staunch ally of President Trump, argued that this was evidence that newsrooms were in the wrong to dedicate critical coverage of the commander in chief for touting hydroxychloroquine.  "The disgusting, lying media fought the president tooth and nail for months telling us this drug was deadly," Levin tweeted Saturday morning.  "Every damn newsroom repeated this crap.  Now they tell us it helped.  How about apologizing to the American people and the president, you frauds."

Evidence is in:  Hydroxychloroquine works.  The media is doing its best to ignore the solid new evidence that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) works.  Although they claim to be pro-science, they only report scientific studies that agree with their narrative.  Although they claim that black lives matter to them, they purposely keep knowledge about successful treatments away from COVID-19 patients, a disproportionate number of whom are black.  Here are some details of the two new studies that almost all of them are ignoring: [...]

With the Wuhan virus, Gavin Newsom discovers the perils of crying 'Wolf'.  In March, California Governor Gavin Newsom put California in lockdown to flatten the Wuhan virus curve.  Newsom, like Gov. Cuomo, placed virus patients in nursing homes, which may have contributed to the 2,531 resident and 93 care worker deaths in those homes.  The government also had a hand in the virus's rampage through San Quentin prison, which killed three death row inmates.  In other words, Democrat policies in California managed to produce 42% of the state's 6,263 virus fatalities.  With its lockdown, which initially was to last for two weeks and that instead continued for months, Newsom weakened the California economy, drove its citizens to despair, prevented people from getting healthcare for other potentially deadly conditions, and deprived citizens of their constitutional rights.

NY County Issues 'Costly' Subpoenas to People for Refusing to Talk to Coronavirus Contact Tracers.  Officials in New York's Rockland County announced on Wednesday that they had issued subpoenas to eight people allegedly infected by the coronavirus for refusing to speak with contact tracers voluntarily.  "The health of our county" will not be "compromised because of ignorance, stupidity, or obstinance," Ed Day, the county executive, told reporters.  "Failure to comply will be costly: $2,000 per day," Patricia Rupert, the county's health commissioner, added, referring to the subpoenas, according to the Hill.  Officials are using the subpoenas to compel the people to talk with the contact tracers about contracting the COVID-19 disease at a June 17 party in Clarkstown, located north of New York City, Rubert said.

Trump official claims China 'deliberately' sent coronavirus to US as cases soar across country.  Donald Trump's top trade adviser has suggested China deliberately allowed hundreds of thousands of people infected with coronavirus to leave the country "to seed and spread the virus" abroad.  Peter Navarro's remarks follow the White House's accelerated rhetoric against China, where the virus is believed to have originated, as the crisis in the US grows nearly four months after a pandemic was declared.  As the US approached its Fourth of July holiday weekend, more than a dozen states saw record numbers of new cases.

Michael Cohen, Who Was Released To House Arrest Over COVID Fears, Is Spotted Dining At NYC Restaurant.  Michael Cohen was released from prison in May to home confinement because of the coronavirus, but the threat posed by the bug isn't stopping the former Trump lawyer from dining at restaurants in New York City, a hotspot for the pandemic.  The New York Post spotted Cohen on Thursday night [7/2/2020] eating at Le Bilboquet, a French restaurant near Cohen's Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan.  The newspaper reported that Cohen and his wife were dining with two other guests until 11:30.

The Coronavirus Lockdowns are Over, and These Studies Really Deliver a Death Blow.  After weeks of being told to stay inside, not be selfish, and prevent medical workers from being overrun, it was suddenly okay to go outside and riot over the officer-involved death of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.  If these so-called experts could flip like that, then this virus was never a big deal from the start. [...] Yes, this virus is real and it's still contagious, but death rates have not spiked to April highs.  If that's the case, I couldn't care less about all these new cases that the media is peddling in their panic porn addiction.  It's over, clowns.  The lockdowns are done.  And the best part is that once the nationwide unrest, rioting, and protests were dying down, you knew the media was going to pivot and say we had to go back inside.  Nope.  We're not going back inside.

The Most Powerful Argument Against Forced Universal Masking That You Won't Read In The Establishment Media.  Anytime things go from widely disputed to sudden, virtually-overnight national "scientific consensus," it's probably a good idea to be a wee bit skeptical.  So it goes with the forced universal masking issue.  We've obviously run quite the gamut on this, from being told not to wear them at all while the pandemic was at its peak — and everyone and their neighbor was crowding and swapping moisture particles in Lowe's and Walmart aisles across America — to the now almost cultlike, lockstep message from politicians, the media and every leftist still too frightened to come out of their basement that not wearing masks in every possible setting is pretty much the equivalent to stabbing grandma in the heart.  It's all a farce, of course — absurd theater forced upon us by people who would have probably believed in witches a few centuries ago. [...] No, the ongoing, relentless, unceasing crusade to force every American to wear masks to "stop the spread" of coronavirus isn't about to end anytime soon, if ever.  Even with deaths declining, they keep the pot stirred up with panic porn about spikes in new cases and hospitalizations in southern and western states.

Are we being lied to about how coronavirus is spread?  On March 31, a nurse friend of mine — someone who is with Physicians for Informed Consent — posted in a private group about how people with negative COVID nasal swabs were testing positive for the whole virus in their feces, and why aren't we being told that it's spreading through the fecal-oral route?  It's been 90 days and we're still hearing nothing outright about this, yet the signs are all around us that coronavirus is spread the same way as polio or typhoid: through poop and unwashed hands.  For starters, the whole live SARS-coV-2 virus is found in poop.  These aren't little RNA fragments that require PCR testing.  It's the whole [...] virus, and it's alive.  Of course, public health knows this, so when Italy wanted to pinpoint the date at which the virus was first in their population, what did they do?  They went to the poop.  Italian sewage water samples showed it was circulating since December 18, 2019.

Anthony Fauci:  The Consummate Unelected, Unaccountable, Technocrat.  When National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and other infectious disease specialists instructed us to self-isolate, President Donald Trump "shut it [the economy] down."  Governors issued executive orders shuttering restaurants and hair salons.  Mayors banned private gatherings.  Funerals — even at the graveside — became grieving ceremonies that most were forbidden to attend.  As for beaches and public parks, they became ghost zones.  The policy purpose behind our national quasi-home arrest was to "flatten the curve" of new COVID-19 cases to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed — as happened terrifyingly in Northern Italy. [...] But that laudable success came at a terrible toll.  Tens of millions were thrown out of work.  Despite concerted government efforts to shore up the economy, the small-business sector imploded — some shops and restaurants never to reopen.  Uber and taxi drivers lost countless fares.  Parking lot attendants and airport shop workers became unemployed.  Major corporations faced bankruptcy.

Wolf administration recommends quarantine for Pennsylvanians who visit 15 states with high coronavirus rates.  The Wolf administration is recommending that Pennsylvanians self-quarantine if they have traveled or plan to travel to 15 states where coronavirus cases are on the rise.  Officials said Thursday [7/3/2020] that people should stay at home for 14 days when they return to Pennsylvania.

CNN Hardest Hit:  Michigan Study Shows Hydroxychloroquine 'Significantly' Lowered Coronavirus Death Rate.  Remember when the media and leftists trashed President Donald Trump for hyping hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  Trump received more vindication from a study at the Henry Ford Health System. [...] Always talk to your own doctor instead of relying on government officials and doctors who never met you.

Vindicated? Trump-touted COVID-19 drug hydroxychloroquine works, according to new study.  The anti-malaria drug that President Trump touted as a possible treatment for coronavirus, hydroxychloroquine, successfully lowered the death rate among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the most recent study of the drug.  The large-scale analysis, conducted by Henry Ford Health System, was published Thursday in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Infectious Diseases.  The study examined 2,541 patients who had been hospitalized in six hospitals between March 10 and May 2, 2020.  More than twenty-six percent (26.4%) of patients who did not receive hydroxychloroquine died.

China Never Reported Existence of Coronavirus to World Health Organization.  Contrary to claims from both Chinese officials and the World Health Organization, China did not report the existence of the coronavirus in late 2019, according to a WHO timeline tracking the spread of the virus.  Rather, international health officials discovered the virus through information posted to a U.S. website.  The quiet admission from the international health organization, which posted an "updated" timeline to its website this week, flies in the face of claims from some of its top officials, including WHO director general Tedros Adhanom, who maintained for months that China had informed his organization about the emerging sickness.

Keeping schools open worked in Sweden.  UNESCO estimated in March that 91.3% of the world's students were out of school.  But Swedes under 16 were not among them.  Sweden's iconoclastic approach was based on the belief that students faced little risk from coronavirus and far more from missing months of school.  What they're saying:  Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist, admits there were flaws in the country's permissive approach to the virus — Sweden has a high death rate, particularly in nursing homes — but says there's little evidence schools exacerbated the outbreak.

Texas Governor Issues Statewide Mask Mandate.  In a sweeping reversal of prior policy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott released an executive order today mandating masks for Texas residents.  The order will take effect at noon Friday and applies to counties with 20 or more confirmed active cases of COVID-19. [...] Abbott hopes that wearing masks may allow economic activity to increase while minimizing the spread of the virus:  "Given the current status of COVD-19 in Texas, requiring the use of face coverings is a targeted response that can combat the threat to public health using the least restrictive means, and if people follow this requirement, more extreme measures may be avoided."

The Editor says...
I challenge you to find a list of the Texas "counties with 20 or more confirmed active cases of COVID-19."  Those are the only counties affected by this "state-wide" order.  But where's the list?

Texas governor issues mandatory face mask policy.  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has issued an order making it mandatory for all Texans to wear a face covering of some kind while out in public as the state faces a surge in coronavirus cases.  The governor's office said the order applied to all counties in Texas with 20 or more confirmed cases of COVID-19, saying the move was necessary with other efforts to curb the spread of the disease.  "Due to recent substantial increases in COVID-19 positive cases, and increases in the COVID-19 positivity rate and hospitalizations resulting from COVID-19, further measures are needed to achieve the least restrictive means for reducing the growing spread of COVID-19, and to avoid a need for more extreme measures," Abbott said in his executive order issued Thursday afternoon [7/2/2020].

The Editor says...
Governor Abbott is headed in exactly the wrong direction.  The crisis, if it ever existed, has long dissipated.  The remaining public health problem isn't enough to justify Governor Abbott's action on July 2.  He's the Governor of Texas, not California, not New York.  This mandatory face mask order is exactly what someone like Ann Richards or Dolph Briscoe would have done.

As face mask requirements pop back up across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott faces criticism from local leaders and fellow Republicans.  [Scroll down]  In his Capitol Report newsletter Friday, state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, criticized the way the orders are now placing the enforcement responsibility on business owners, saying it is "bizarre, convoluted, and confusing."  "Business owners will become a de-facto law enforcement arm, but the only tool they will have to enforce the mask requirement is to refuse to sell to their customers and to kick them out of their store," Hall wrote.  "These are the same businesses that the Governor recently declared non-essential and ordered shut down for months."  State Reps.  Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, and Mike Lang, R-Granbury, also denounced Abbott in a Thursday letter, telling him to "stop playing games."  "It is inconsistent to say you believe Texans should be free to make their own decision on whether to wear a mask or not but use the heavy hand of the government to punish business and make them enforcers of tyranny on freedom loving Texans," they wrote.

List of Texas counties and cities that have mandatory face mask orders.  As of June 20, 2020.

All Texans must wear face coverings, Gov. Greg Abbott orders.  On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order that requires all Texans to wear face coverings over their nose and mouth in public spaces, with exceptions.  According to the order, which is effective at noon on Friday [7/3/2020], this applies to residents of counties with more than 20 positive cases of COVID-19.

Texas Executive Order GA-29.  The Texas Division of Emergency Management has promulgated the following criteria for a county to be exempt from the face-covering requirement of GA-29:  1. The county must have 20 or less active COVID-19 cases.  2. The county judge of a county with 20 or less active cases must submit an exemption form affirmatively opting out.  3. Counties approved for exemption from the GA-29 face-covering requirement will be listed below.  [There are no counties listed!]

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick:  Dr. Fauci Doesn't Know What He's Talking About.  Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci for suggesting his state is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases because they didn't follow guidelines.  Fauci, testifying before Congress on Tuesday, said he was "quite concerned" about rising infection rates in certain states such as Texas and Florida, adding "they need to follow guidelines that have been very carefully laid out" for them.  Patrick, speaking with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, wasn't pleased with the good doctor's comments.  "Fauci said today that he's concerned about states like Texas that skipped over certain things," the Republican Lt. Governor said.  "He doesn't know what he's talking about," continued Patrick.  "We haven't skipped over anything.  The only thing I'm skipping over is listening to him."  [Video clip]

Third Reich Redux.  Major media, government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, and politicians have pressured Americans to follow onerous lockdown orders put out by governors, such as ones from Michigan that both "prohibit in-person work that is not necessary to sustain or protect life" yet allow liquor stores to remain open.  Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued edicts seemingly as whims struck her: allowing hardware stores to open yet not allowing large department stores to sell hardware supplies, allowing kayaking while not allowing boating in motorized boats, and encouraging food delivery but not allowing furniture delivery.  For the most part, those on the ideological left have strongly supported the mandates — in words, at least, if not always in deeds — while those on the right supported precautions so that people could make up their own minds about how to respond to the disease and railed against mandatory lockdowns wherein government chose workplace winners and losers.

Lethal Lockdowns:  The WHO-CDC Global Genocide.  Dr. Fauci's dictatorial lockdowns were instituted (so we are told) to save lives from the dreaded COVID "pandemic."  But the lockdowns have very likely already taken more lives globally than the virus ever would have, as we will show below.  And here's the most important point:  The COVID "cure" will keep on killing for many years to come.  The full extent of COVID cure-related deaths is only beginning to be revealed, even as the CDC finally admits that its earlier death-rate estimates for the virus were way overblown.  Yes, the wild estimates that were used by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the media to create panic and justify totalitarian edicts are now thoroughly discredited — while the far-greater death tolls from the lockdowns and the socio-economic havoc they are causing are only beginning to be tabulated.  And the fatality numbers from the "cure" that are coming into view are horrific.  As a result of the COVID lockdowns and mandates, many millions more people worldwide will die of famine, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, cancer, heart failure, kidney failure, stroke, diabetes, tuberculosis, pneumonia, depression, loneliness, and other conditions.

Want to Kill the Economy Again?  Keep Threatening More Lockdowns.  The first time governments imposed business closures in the name of fighting the spread of COVID-19, the job market imploded. [...] It remains to be seen if the country even began anything that could realistically be called a "recovery" in June.  After all, new unemployment claims were still at over a million new applicants according to the most recent data.  That's still off-the-charts bad.  Nonetheless, we continue to hear about how, any day now, we'll see evidence of a "V-shaped recovery" in which jobs and economic growth will come roaring back.  But now we're already seeing governments — by which I mean a small cadre of governors and unelected bureaucrats who currently rule by decree — announcing another round of business closures and ongoing government regulations that micromanage every aspect of a business's daily interactions with customers.

Suburban NYC County Uses Subpoenas as People Resist Contact Tracing.  Officials in Rockland County, New York, say they will have no choice but to issue subpoenas to get people to talk to contact tracers trying to combat the spread of coronavirus.  Local NBC affiliate NYC Channel 4 reports that health officials are looking into at least eight COVID-19 cases in the county that likely are the result of a large party held earlier this month.  But the county is running into a problem: people are not cooperating with contact tracers.  In order to force people to speak to contact tracers, the county says it plans to issue subpoenas.  It won't be the first time, either.  Rockland County issued subpoenas during a measles outbreak several years ago.

COVID-19 Herd Immunity Is Much Closer Than Antibody Tests Suggest, Say Two New Studies.  The prevalence of immunity to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may be much higher than previous research suggests according to an intriguing new study by researchers associated with Karolinska Institute in Sweden.  In addition, a new German study by researchers associated with the University Hospital Tübingen in Germany reports that people who have been previously infected with versions of the coronavirus that cause the common cold also have some immunity to the COVID-19 virus.  If these reports stand up to further scrutiny, it would be very good news because they suggest that the pandemic could be over sooner and ultimately be less lethal than feared.  First, a few caveats:  Both studies are based on small sample sizes and neither have yet been vetted by peer review.

Is the COVID Surge More Fake News?  We are told new cases are rising by double-digit percentages, including:  "The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus."  Hospitalized with or from coronavirus?  Is this really a surge or simply fear-mongering fake news?  Texas features prominently in the surge scare.  Coincidently Texas is a red state that if flipped to blue would prevent a Republican from ever winning the White House for the foreseeable future.  Everything is bigger in Texas, including the Chinese coronavirus surge.  A Texas hospital CEO lets the fake news cat out of the bag.  ["]Health officials in Texas are logging every single COVID-19-positive hospital patient in the state as a COVID-19 hospitalization, even if the patients themselves are admitted seeking treatment for something other than the coronavirus.["] Most hospitals require a COVID test before elective surgery.  This means that patients coming to the hospital for a non-COVID reason are tested for COVID, and if positive are being counted as a "COVID hospitalization."

Massive CDC Fraud Uncovered — CDC Grossly Overcounting Active China Coronavirus Cases Causing States to Keep Their Economies Closed Indefinitely.  The CDC is over counting the number of China coronavirus cases in an apparent effort to keep the country shut down throughout the summer. [...] On May 21, 2020, the Atlantic reported that the CDC was over counting the number of cases of individuals with the China coronavirus: [...] The CDC's method of reporting the number of active cases is totally flawed.  It is fraudulent.  The CDC counts individuals who show that they had the China coronavirus in their counts of individuals who are identified currently with the virus.  This data is then used by states to determine whether to open our shut down their economies.

Many People Lack Protective Antibodies After COVID-19 Infection.  Individuals who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 were more likely to have neutralizing antibodies than those who hadn't been hospitalized, suggesting that those with more severe illness are more likely to be immune in the future.  Overall, this is fairly concerning.  Without neutralizing antibodies, an end to coronavirus transmission seems unlikely.  But let's also remember the empiric data:  We don't yet have any significant numbers of individuals who have been documented to have cleared COVID-19 and then become reinfected.  And even without high levels of neutralizing antibodies, a second infection is likely not to be as bad as the first.

Too Woke to Fail.  Lockdowns were unquestionably onerous.  Yet America was not allowed to question them, because they were deemed in the public interest.  So schools closed, businesses shuttered, medical treatments were curtailed, church services ceased.  Most external, normal behavior stopped.  Those seeking to evade lockdowns faced swift repercussions, from fines to jail.  This cessation of otherwise normal behavior came at great cost.  Over 44 million have filed for unemployment.  GDP fell 5 percent in the first quarter, and the second will be worse.  The government — through legislation and Fed action — has pumped $8.5 trillion into the economy (roughly 40 percent of America's GDP) to compensate for the lockdown's effect.  It will take years for many to recover lost savings — if they ever do. [...] Then, in the wake of George Floyd's killing, protests erupted across America.  Everything changed in the coronavirus lockdown universe.  Suddenly, it was all right — even encouraged — to do everything we had been told and forced to not do for three months.

'We won't be social distancing, South Dakota governor expects packed house for Trump Mount Rushmore event.  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has no plans to limit the crowds that are expected to gather to watch the fireworks over Mount Rushmore during Independence Day weekend.  Noem, a Republican, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday that she will not enforce the social distancing guidelines that are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to limit the spread of the coronavirus.  She said that those who are concerned about the virus can make other plans.

Fauci's Remdesivir Costs $9 Per Dose, Will Be Sold at $3,000 per Treatment — China Company Linked to Soros Will Also Mass Produce the Drug.  Never in history have we seen such a determined effort by the scientific community and pharmaceutical industry to downplay and lie about the use of a successful drug to treat a deadly disease.  Hydroxychloroquine is the first choice in a study of 6,000 doctors treating the coronavirus.  In the field and in independent testing hydroxychloroquine displayed amazing results in treating the COVID-19 virus.  But there was great pushback against hydroxychloroquine for two reasons.  The first reason was because it was safe and very inexpensive.  The second reason is because Donald Trump promoted its use.

Mask Wars.  As states begin to reopen and America tries to recreate normalcy, masks have replaced social distancing as the new moral statement.  Just as adherence to lockdowns was framed by many as a sign of virtue — with some arguing that those who refused to abide by the lockdown orders should forfeit medical care for Covid-related indications — masks have become a face-borne signal of righteousness.  As a virologist, I find this perplexing, considering the limited evidence in favor of masks.  More than anything, the scientific rationale behind masks appears to be that wearing them does little harm. [...]The viral particles that spread Covid-19 are tiny bundles of proteins and nucleic acids, about 0.1 micron in size — or one hundred-thousandth of a centimeter.  The CDC generously describes the evidence in favor of cloth face masks' efficacy as "emerging," but by the standards we use to assess clinical interventions, the efficacy of masks, especially nonsurgical masks, is undetermined.

The Editor says...
Okay, for the moment, let us agree that wearing a mask "does little harm."  The harm comes from forcing or coercing people to wear masks when those people don't feel it is necessary.  My local grocery store won't let me in without a face mask now, so I shop in another county!  It's a 25 minute drive to my new grocery store.  But I won't wear a mask just because some downtown bureaucrat tells me to, because I am not sick, and I am not afraid.  Now that July is here, masks are not about protecting public health.  Now it's all about making everyone comply and conform to whatever mandate comes forth from the government.  If the little tyrants discover they can demand that you wear a face mask, and then you actually do it, the next step is mandatory vaccinations, followed by mandatory RFID chips, followed by the day (which, I assure you, will definitely arrive) when one can no longer buy or sell without the right credentials.  These incremental changes don't come and go.  They are irreversible.  You set a precedent by complying to the mask order, and you've lost a little more of your freedom.

Covid-19 pandemic is 'fire drill' for effects of climate crisis, says UN official.  The coronavirus pandemic is "just a fire drill" for what is likely to follow from the climate crisis, and the protests over racial injustice around the world show the need to tie together social equality, environmental sustainability and health, the UN's sustainable business chief has said.  "The overall problem is that we are not sustainable in the ways we are living and producing on the planet today," said Lise Kingo, the executive director of the UN Global Compact, under which businesses sign up to principles of environmental protection and social justice.  "The only way forward is to create a world that leaves no one behind."  She said there were "very, very clear connections" between the Covid-19 and climate crises, and the Black Lives Matter protests around the world, which she said had helped to reveal deep-seated inequalities and "endemic and structural racism".

The Editor says...
This pandemic, or the next big scare (whatever it may be) has nothing to do with global warming, racism, 5G cellphones, Civil War statues, polar bears, or same-sex wedding cakes.  It's all about control.

'He could be Joe's running mate': Ingraham accuses Fauci of 'working for the Biden campaign'.  Fox News's Laura Ingraham claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci is working on behalf of Joe Biden's presidential campaign.  Ingraham ran a segment critical of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Tuesday night following his testimony before a Senate health committee hearing in which he warned that the number of new coronavirus cases could double to about 100,000 each day if people don't begin taking social distancing protocols more seriously.  "Well, Dr. Doom himself at a Senate hearing today spreading more COVID panic," she stated, while a fake "Biden Fauci 2020" graphic appeared on-screen.  "Now, at this point, can we all just admit that Fauci is working for the Biden campaign?  Now, for all we know, he could be Joe's running mate.  Why not?"

Are Prolonged Shutdowns Deadlier Than the Virus?  The COVID-19 pandemic caught the entire immune-defenseless world off guard.  No one knew what the "novel" virus was; how it spread; how lethal it was, and for which population segments; how to cure infected victims; or how to "lower the curve" (slow its spread) to avoid overwhelming medical response resources.  Medical authorities and government policy leaders were forced to make terribly difficult responsive judgement calls with very incomplete, often competing and conflicting, information.

A Doctor a Day Letter.  [Scroll down]  Millions of Americans are already at triage level red.  These include 150,000 Americans per month who would have had a new cancer detected through routine screening that hasn't happened, millions who have missed routine dental care to fix problems strongly linked to heart disease/death, and preventable cases of stroke, heart attack, and child abuse.  Suicide hotline phone calls have increased 600%.  Tens of millions are at triage level yellow.  Liquor sales have increased 300-600%, cigarettes sales have increased, rent has gone unpaid, family relationships have become frayed, and millions of well-child check-ups have been missed.  Hundreds of millions are at triage level green.  These are people who currently are solvent, but at risk should economic conditions worsen.  Poverty and financial uncertainty is closely linked to poor health.  A continued shutdown means hundreds of millions of Americans will downgrade a level.

Media Begging for a 'Second Wave'.  The media is churning out countless alarmist stories each day about the threat of COVID-19 and the dangers of societal reopening.  "Risk of new lockdown rises with fear of second COVID-19 wave," writes Reuters, as one example of the genre.  These stories generally incite, rather than inform.  They cherry-pick facts and lack context.  Only when the COVID picture is viewed in perspective are people able to make wise decisions about their actions.  It should be safe for society to continue broadly reopening while directing resources to specific at-risk populations, such as nursing homes and prisons, which are more vulnerable.

Questions remain about 'temporary morgue' as COVID-19 deaths decline.  The administration of Gov. Tim Walz made a decision in May to spend up to $6.9 million to buy a building in St.  Paul and convert it into a temporary morgue for a possible surge of COVID-19 victims.  The decision was largely based on a COVID-19 model by the University of Minnesota and Minnesota Department of Health that projects the possibility of 16,000 to 44,000 deaths over the first year of the pandemic.  Then came June.  Instead of deaths surging, they dropped from 696 in May to 402 in June for a total so far of 1,411 since March.  If one thing is certain about COVID-19, it's the uncertainty about what comes next.  But for now, the decision to spend millions on the temporary morgue will continue to be a target for the governor's Republican critics in the legislature.

Arizona governor sued by gym over coronavirus closure.  The CEO of an Arizona health club company said he is suing Gov. Doug Ducey over his "arbitrary" decision to re-close gyms as coronavirus cases surge.  "I asked the governor, where's the proof that this decision came from any evidence of what is happening in any health club here in Arizona or across the country," Mountainside Fitness CEO Tom Hatten said at a press conference on Monday [6/29/2020].  Hatten planned to keep Mountainside health clubs open on Tuesday despite Ducey's order to close Monday night, he said.  He is seeking a stay of the governor's order like some Michigan gym owners are doing.

Friendly Fire:  Are NY Patients Dying Of COVID Because Of Doctors?  A retired army sergeant and war veteran turned whistleblowing nurse alleges horrific medical malpractice at a Queens hospital.  Erin Olszewski's abbreviated tenure at Elmhurst Hospital Center was during the months that New York was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, suffering the highest number of COVID deaths in the nation.  Her claim that the standard of medical care at Elmhurst was commensurate with "a third world country hospital" is based on shocking undercover videos she made of conversations with colleagues, supervisors, and other hospital personnel over many weeks — and they are chilling.

Multiple Scientists:  Coronavirus Altered in Lab to Better Attach to Humans.  Multiple highly regarded scientists who have studied Coronavirus say that the VlRUS has been manipulated in labs to better attach to human cells.  Turns out, research on that very thing was conducted here in the United States until the research was banned in 2013.

Are Americans a Pride of Lions or a Herd of Cattle?  Democrats are using COVID19 to purposely turn Americans into a herd of cattle that can be easily controlled through fear and subtle intimidation tactics.  Governor Cooper just announced he is keeping the State in phase 2 lockdown and is still refusing to allow gyms and bars to reopen.  In addition he is trying to get all of us to wear masks outside if we cannot guarantee the 6 ft. recommended distancing.  Let us look at the facts about the virus. [...] The actual virus death rate nationally is about 5%.  In North Carolina the numbers are similar yet better.  There have confirmed approximately 56,500 people to have the disease.  Yet the Death rate is just over 1300 or a rate of about 2.3%.  In New Hanover County there are 611 confirmed cases with 5 deaths or a rate of .008%. [...] Kids need to go back to school or we will never end this virus lock up.

Preliminary Data Suggests Low-Dose Radiation May Be Successful Treatment For Severe Covid-19.  Human medical trials have begun on severely ill COVID-19 patients using low-doses of radiation.  The first results on a very small group were published this week in a non-peer-reviewed journal that exists to get critical results out quickly to the scientific and medical community.  The results were quite extraordinary.  Researchers at Emory University Hospital, led by Dr. Mohammad Khan, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, treated five COVID-19 patients with severe pneumonia who were requiring supplemental oxygen and whose health was visibly deteriorating.  Their mean age was 90 with a range from 64 to 94, four were female, four were African-American, and one was Caucasian.

Rand Paul rips Fauci's coronavirus response, says schools should be reopened.  Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday ripped into Dr. Anthony Fauci and what he called government "central planners" during a hearing on COVID-19 response, asserting that Americans should not be "sheep" — and that US schools should reopen.  "It is a fatal conceit to believe any one person or small group of people has the knowledge necessary to direct an economy or dictate public health behavior.  I think government experts need to show caution in their prognostications," Paul, a Republican and libertarian, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing featuring the Trump administration's top coronavirus experts.  "It's important to realize that if society meekly submits to an expert and that expert is wrong, a great deal of harm may occur when we allow one man's policy or one group of small men and women to be foisted on an entire nation," Paul continued.

The Media Is Lying About The 'Second Wave'.  For months, the Washington Post and the rest of the mainstream media kept a morbid Covid-19 "death count" on their front pages and at the top of their news broadcasts.  The coronavirus outbreak was all about the number of dead.  The narrative was intended to boost governors like Cuomo in New York and Whitmer in Michigan, who turned their states authoritarian under the false notion that destroying people's jobs, freedom, and lives would somehow keep a virus from doing what viruses always do:  spread through a population until eventually losing strength and dying out.  The "death count" was always the headline.  But then all of a sudden early in June the mainstream media did a George Orwell and lectured us that it is all about "cases" and has always been all about "cases."  Death, and especially infection fatality rate, were irrelevant.  Why?  Because from the peak in April, deaths had decreased by 90 percent and were continuing to crash.  That was not terrifying enough so the media pretended this good news did not exist.

Houston Hospital Boss Shatters Media's COVID Fearmongering:  "Only About 3 Or 4 More People In ICU".  Headlines like "Houston facing 'apocalyptic' July 4" sparked fear and panic across most of America's media over the weekend as talk of max'd out ICUs and soaring case-numbers dominated every pixel (with very few able to see any link to this resurgence in cases and the riots and protests that began to take place a few weeks ago).  As per usual in this highly politicized world, another leading voice has emerged to clarify that this heightened state of alarm was all for naught, since Houston actually has the situation in its hospitals well in hand.

Is Covid immunity more common than we think?  Antibody tests on random samples of the population have so far shown much lower levels of general infection than the government's scientific advisers claimed would be necessary to attain 'herd immunity'. In London, for example, tests have shown that 17 percent of the population have antibodies to Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.  In New York, the figure is 21 percent.  At the beginning of this crisis, on the other hand, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, suggested that at least 60 percent of the population would have to be infected in order to achieve herd immunity.  But are antibodies the whole story?  Not according to a team from Sweden's Karolinska Institute, which has found that 30 percent of Swedish blood donors in May this year were found to have an immune response to Covid-19 in their T cells — white blood cells that are an essential part of the immune system.  Remarkably, many of these people had no detectable antibodies — suggesting that their T cells had fought off the disease without any need to produce antibodies.

Cash4Covid — How hospitals are making money off the coronavirus.  Hospitals in the US are getting money for diagnosing Covid19.  They get more money if those patients are then put on ventilators.  It's time we really started thinking about what that means.  Early on in the launch of the Sars-Cov-2/Covid19 "pandemic", it was revealed by Dr Scott Jensen that hospitals in the US were getting paid bonuses for diagnosing Covid19 in their patients, and then larger bonuses again if those patients were put on ventilators.  We're not fact-checking that.  We don't need to.  It's already been done.  As soon as his words were aired, the "independent fact checkers" descended upon them in an effort to prove him wrong.  They could not.  Resorting instead to weasel words and obfuscations.

No symptoms, big problems:  Scientists still puzzled by asymptomatic coronavirus cases.  Months into a pandemic that has caused more than 500,000 deaths worldwide, scientists are still trying to answer crucial questions about the coronavirus.  Chief among them: everything about asymptomatic patients.  People who contracted COVID-19 but didn't get sick and had no symptoms have been one of the most confounding factors of the public health emergency.  The United States has more than 2.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, but it's likely that many asymptomatic people have fallen through the cracks of official counts.

There is no scientific data that shows masks save lives.  In Illinois, our governor and his health experts say continuously that they base all their dictatorial edicts that have destroyed our economy on science and data.  They chastise other states for reopening too soon and having less strict standards.  We are lectured that our health will be jeopardized if we travel into surrounding states with less strict standards, including not requiring face masks.  What we don't see are data from other states to support those statements. [...] We were told that cases and deaths would spike after big crowds on Memorial Day-They were 100% wrong. [...] We were told cases and deaths would spike after Republicans beat the tyrannical governor at the Wisconsin Supreme Court and because of an in-person primary.  They were 100% wrong.  The dictatorial edicts have greatly harmed the citizens from their states and there is no statistical data that shows better health and death results.  The cure is worse than the disease.

Jacksonville, site of Republican convention, orders wearing of masks.  The city of Jacksonville, Florida, where mask-averse President Trump plans to accept the Republican nomination in August, ordered the wearing of face coverings Monday, joining the list of state and local governments reversing course to try to beat back a resurgence of the coronavirus.  Less than a week after Mayor Lenny Curry said there would be no mask requirement, city officials announced that coverings must be worn in "situations where individuals cannot socially distance."

Aerial Footage Shows Thousands Closely Packed In Chicago For Pride Festival.  I think this is gonna be one of those articles where I give you "just the facts ma'am".  Not a lot of opinion, just some basic reporting on some basic facts.  Sound good?  And I have a hunch you're all smart enough to draw your own conclusions.

Lockdown Hypocrisy:  Why Are BLM And 'Pride' Exempt?  Tens of thousands marched in a joint BLM/'Pride' rally over the weekend in Chicago (and elsewhere) with the blessing of the same officials who are threatening churches, forcing face masks, and ripping liquor licenses from bars that won't shut their doors (again).  Claiming that "cases" are skyrocketing, officials from Texas and across the country are trying to return us to devastating lockdown.  But why aren't they talking about the falling death rate?  [Video clip]

Gilead sets price of coronavirus drug remdesivir at $3,120 as Trump administration secures supply for 500,000 patients.  Gilead Sciences, the maker of the first covid-19 treatment found to have worked in clinical trials, remdesivir, said Monday it will charge U.S. hospitals $3,120 for the typical patient with private insurance.  Soon after the announcement, the Trump administration said it had secured nearly all of the company's supply of the drug for use in U.S. hospitals through September, with a contract for 500,000 treatment courses, which it will make available to hospitals at Gilead's price.

Anarchists and Trump's Reelection.  Leftist governors and mayors are tripling down on their absurd overreaching COVID-19 mandates to depress Americans and stop the remarkable comeback of Trump's unprecedented booming economy.  One of Mary's favorite stores in Virginia was empty of merchandise.  "Are you going out of business?" she asked a clerk.  The clerk said, "No."  He explained that upon reopening, customers purchased everything.  The store had not restocked its shelves yet.  His explanation was in keeping with the 2.5 million new jobs and amazingly swift comeback of our economy.  Maryland mandates that shoppers wear masks.  However, stores and shoppers have begun relaxing the absurd decree.  With a 98% recovery rate, more and more Americans realize the COVID-19 hysteria was created to shutdown our country to destroy our economy to block Trump's reelection.

Coronavirus In One State (65).  The Minnesota authorities attributed five new deaths to COVID-19 yesterday — all five among residents of long-term care facilities.  That brings the respective totals to 1,411 and 1,112.  LTC deaths constitute 79.3 percent of total deaths attributed to the epidemic.  Four of the five decedents were in their 80's and 90's.  One was in his 60's.  Deaths and hospitalizations have declined while new cases have increased over the past three days.  The latter, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm noted at yesterday's press briefing, was on a high testing volume.  It should be hard to sustain the panic in Minnesota.  The rationale for Governor Walz's shutdown orders has long since dissipated, but Walz continues to modulate the dials of our lives.

Man wears a mesh face mask to prove mandatory masks in Florida is not about protection but compliance.  A man decides to prove a point that masks are not for protection but compliance when he decides to use a mesh face mask rather than a filter mask in Walmart that is mandated in Tampa, Florida.  "I visited a local Walmart in a county that put an ordinance in place that mandates masks," the filmer, Russ Ward, said.  "I wore a mask that is designed for protecting your face in a paintball battle.  You can easily breathe through it.  I walked all around the store, talked to employees, and other shoppers, and every one of them could see my mouth."  [Video clip]

Guess What's Missing in These Coronavirus News Reports.  [Video clip]

Here are 150 reasons why I'm against the COVID-19 lockdowns.  The COVIID-19 lockdowns will end up killing far more people than they save, in the form of increased suicides, increased drug and alcohol overdoses, and canceled and postponed medical procedures.  For young and middle aged people who have healthy immune systems, being and poor and unemployed is more dangerous than having COVID-19.  The lockdowns are totalitarian.  The lockdowns are based on bogus computer models.  The real fatality rate of COVID-19 is far, far lower than the bogus, overinflated rate that was used to justify the lockdowns.  The alleged purpose of the lockdowns was to flatten the curve, and prevent the hospitals from being overwhelmed.  But the hospitals were never even close to being overwhelmed. [...] Many politicians and other high ranking government officials violated their own lockdowns.  Lockdown supporters want to destroy other people's jobs, but not their own.  Previous pandemics did not destroy the economy, because there were no lockdowns.  Fresh air, sunshine, and exercise are good for your immune system, and actually reduce your chance of dying from COVID-19.  The government is falsely overstating the number of COVID-19 deaths by including people whose deaths were not actually caused by COVID-19.

COVID-19 Protection Advice from a Doctor, albeit a Dentist.  [Scroll down]  So imagine my bewilderment in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic at all the politicians, pundits, and talking heads who've suddenly become experts in infection control — not to mention all the lay people wearing masks of every conceivable design and standing six feet away from others, as if six feet were some magic number.  Poor sheeple — they think they're safe, they're following the "science," and far be it from me to disabuse them of their imaginary sense of security.  As I was saying, I'm just a dentist — with forty-five years of studying and practicing infection control — and here's how I see it.  We live in a sea of bacteria, viruses, and Spirochetes (Lyme Disease, syphilis), a veritable Grand Central Station of pathogens, all of them vying to take us down.  They're on doorknobs and newspapers, in our air and water, and emanating from the mouths (and other orifices!) of our fellow human beings.  One way to protect yourself from these ubiquitous bugs is to raise your immune status.  Eat better, exercise more, get your sleep, and manage your stress.

Does anyone still listen to this guy?
Dr. Fauci warns coronavirus vaccine may not lead to herd immunity in US.  Dr. Anthony Fauci says he would "settle" for a coronavirus vaccine that's 70 percent to 75 percent effective — but warned that the US may not achieve herd immunity to the contagion if too many people refuse to be vaccinated, according to a report.  "The best we've ever done is measles, which is 97 to 98 percent effective," the top US infectious disease expert told CNN.  "That would be wonderful if we get there.  I don't think we will.  I would settle for [a] 70, 75 percent effective vaccine."  Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that the incomplete protection and the fact that many people say they will skip the vaccine makes it "unlikely" that the nation will achieve sufficient immunity to stem the outbreak.

Keeping Us Alarmed Is the Main Goal.  Here it is, summertime, and although we're trying to come out of the lockdowns, we're still battling COVID-19 and we may be doing so for quite some time given the recent surge of cases, particularly in the southern United States.  Add in the turmoil surrounding Black Lives Matter, riots, and statue-toppling, and it seems we're stuck in a quagmire which will never resolve itself.  In the midst of these continuing problems, I came across an article that got me thinking.  The article, compiled by several seasoned journalists, dug into the COVID-19 numbers and found some good news for a change.  Drawing from various sources, they lay out an interesting case that many of the official numbers may not be as bad as they seem.  For example, they cite Dr. Deborah Birx and her concern that the CDC's COVID-19 death count may be 25 percent higher than reality.  Many of the deaths attributed to the virus are not primarily caused by COVID-19.  Why is this?  The authors explain: [...]

Nancy Pelosi Says Every American Should Be Forced to "Wear The Mask".  Nancy Pelosi says today that every American should be forced to wear face masks.  However, proving that her position is purely a political division strategy, notice how she is not asked about passing a law that demands it then.  The reasoning is simple.  First, Pelosi knows a law forcing Americans to wear a mask would never pass; and even if it did it would be an unconstitutional, and unenforceable demand.  Second, Pelosi would never attempt such a bill because it would put Democrats in a minority position; Americans do not support such nonsense.  Third there is no factual evidence showing face masks prevent COVID-19 spread; even the boxes of masks specifically state: "will not provide any protection against COVID-19."  Instead, by playing the politics of COVID Pelosi presents the nonsensical face mask issue as a political virtue-signal.  [Video clip]

NPR: "Mounting Evidence" Suggests COVID Not As Deadly as Thought.  Did the Experts Fail Again?  Many people will recall the fatality risk debate that took place prior to and in the early stages of the lockdowns.  There was much discussion over how deadly the virus was and what the collective response to the virus should be.  Some voices exercised caution.  "The public is behaving as if this epidemic is the next Spanish flu, which is frankly understandable given that initial reports have staked COVID-19 mortality at about 2 [to] 3 percent, quite similar to the 1918 pandemic that killed tens of millions of people," Jeremy Samuel Faust an emergency medicine physician and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, wrote in Slate.  "Allow me to be the bearer of good news.  These frightening numbers are unlikely to hold."

May 28, 2020:
Antibody Tests Point To Lower Death Rate For The Coronavirus Than First Thought.  Mounting evidence suggests the coronavirus is more common and less deadly than it first appeared.  The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person's blood rather than the virus itself.  The tests are finding large numbers of people in the U.S. who were infected but never became seriously ill.  And when these mild infections are included in coronavirus statistics, the virus appears less dangerous.

March 31, 2020:
Wear a Mask.  Maybe.  After weeks of encouraging healthy people to save the masks for sick people and medical professionals, there is now serious consideration of reversing course.

Coronavirus Drug Remdesivir To Cost More Than $3,000 For Treatments.  Pharmaceutical giant Gilead has announced pricing for its coronavirus drug remdesivir, and it's just short of an arm and a leg.  Gilead said the drug will cost $520 per vial, or $3,120 for a six-vial treatment, for private insurance companies.  And that's for the short treatment.  The long treatment will cost $5,720.

Did Your iPhone Secretly Install a COVID-19 Tracker?  Users are reporting that the latest update for iOS (the iPhone's operating system) automatically installed coronavirus contact-tracing software onto their phones.  The change appears to have come with update iOS 13.5 back in May and all subsequent updates.  The tracking option was installed discreetly on users' phones without announcement.  It can be toggled on and off by going to settings > privacy > health.

Reopening Is Not a Failure.  The coronavirus hasn't gone away.  As the Northeast, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. for months, has seen steep, persistent declines in confirmed cases, other parts of the country have spiked.  A month or so ago, most of the increased cases were a function of increased testing.  Now, states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona have seen worrying increases in their positivity rates — the percentage of tests that are positive — in a sign of accelerating community spread.  The media's tone about this trend is, of course, apocalyptic, with many commentators portraying the Republican governors of these states as callous extremists hell-bent on reopening, come what may.  The fact is that states all over the country have been reopening, and California and North Carolina, both with Democratic governors, have seen spikes in new confirmed cases, too (although not dramatically increasing positivity rates).

The Good News About COVID-19 the Corporate Media Keeps Hidden.  As the pandemic panic porn continues because identified cases are rising, Dr. Fauci is back on television, and the media is once again demanding a national response.  However, there is news they don't share with you that could help reduce the already unwarranted levels of fear.  Obviously, that doesn't fit their partisan agenda.  Many commentators have noted that rising case numbers are not necessarily a reason to sound the alarm.  The fear with COVID-19 was always of overwhelming the hospital system. [...] A doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center said in a press conference Wednesday that people who are testing positive do not appear to be getting as sick as they did earlier in the pandemic.  Dr. Donald Yealy also noted this trend was being seen in the wake of massive protests.

One of the very biggest reasons yet for why the lockdown is a scam.  [Scroll down]  Here are some examples of Cuomo's and de Blasio's hypocrisy:  De Blasio broke up a rabbi's funeral, citing the virus as the reason, but allowed a funeral for George Floyd.  De Blasio threatened to shut down synagogues and churches, but not mosques.  De Blasio said he still supported quarantine measures that limited attendance at houses of worship to 10, even as he supported much larger gatherings for Black Lives Matter protests.  Cuomo criticized anti-lockdown protestors, but defended Black Lives Matter protestors who violated the lockdown.  And one of the most absurd examples of the lockdown's double standards:  A Jewish children's gathering turned into a George Floyd protest so De Blasio wouldn't shut it down.

Don't fear a coronavirus spike.  Mainstream media are sounding the alarm about coronavirus cases spiking across the South and West.  They're distorting the facts to cause panic, instead of reporting the whole truth.  Gov. Cuomo is piling on, accusing states that have reopened of playing politics instead of acting "intelligently." Sorry, but "intelligent" isn't the word that describes his administration's pandemic response.  He caused carnage by forcing nursing homes to take in infected patients.  He also has no good answer for why New Yorkers unfortunate enough to catch the virus had a worse chance of surviving it than people in other states.  The Empire State ranks 48 out of 50 states for survival rates.  Dodging accountability for these [...] facts, Cuomo is bragging about his results and bashing President Trump for encouraging states to reopen.  Cuomo is flat wrong:  The US daily death count from the virus is down nearly 80 percent from its peak in March.  It's telling that the likes of Cuomo and his media allies don't focus on death and hospitalization rates anymore, but almost exclusively on infection rates, to build their doom-and-gloom scenarios.

Coronavirus Death Rates Stable or Falling, Even in States with Rising Cases.  The latest data show that death rates from coronavirus or COVID-19 are stable or falling in many states, including those that have shown a recent spike in the number of coronavirus cases.  On Friday [6/26/2020], Texas and Florida paused their re-openings, as both states showed a surge in new COVID-19 cases.  At the same time, data from the New York Times COVID-19 dataset, obtained on GitHub, shows that death rates in Texas and Florida are falling, at least for now.

Journalist savagely destroys officials over face masks, lockdowns.  This week Los Angeles-based conservative radio talk show host John Ziegler chewed out the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for being as [mistaken] as Fauci.  He specifically slammed them for believing every claim by Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin, a man who's been as wrong about everything as Fauci. [...] "We now have panicked over 51 total hospitalizations in a county with eight hospitals.  Can you people do math?  Can you please do basic math and understand where we are on this?  This is not a crisis.  You however have created one.  You, in an effort to try to prevent all death, have now ended all relevant life!" Ziegler continued.  "And you should all be ashamed of yourselves.  And this will never be forgotten. [...]"

Zoos reopen in Chicago, but they now require reservations.  Zoos in Chicago got the green light this week to reopen under new capacity limits, even as coronavirus infections in the U.S hit an all-time high.  To get in, though, guests will need to reserve a spot.  That's among a slate of changes in store at the Lincoln Park Zoo, Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium.  The sites will only admit 25 percent of their usual capacity, indoor habitats will remain closed, and most guests will be required to wear face masks.

Where are the deaths?  The coronavirus doomsayers could not even wait until the fall for the apocalyptic announcements of the dreaded second wave.  Because the red states recklessly loosened their lockdowns, we are now told, the US is seeing a dangerous spike in coronavirus cases. [...] The high to date in new daily cases was on April 24 — 39,072.  Since April 24, the daily case count started declining, then began rising again after around June 9.  What virtually every fear-mongering story on America's allegedly precarious situation leaves out, however, is the steadily dropping daily death numbers — from a high of 2,693 on April 21 to 808 on June 24.  That April high was driven by New York City and its environs; those New York death numbers have declined, but they have not been replaced by deaths in the rest of the country.  This should be good news.  Instead, it is no news.

Federal judge:  Cuomo and de Blasio can't limit the size of outdoor religious services if they didn't care about limiting the size of protests.  The subtext of the ruling, wrote Peter Spiliakos, is that "the NY state and city governments were treating left-wing protest as a de facto state religion and were discriminating against other faiths."  Gotta treat all creeds equally under the law.

Judge: New York State wrong to restrict religious gatherings while allowing protests.  A federal judge ruled on Friday that New York State is violating the First Amendment by restricting religious gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic while simultaneously allowing both much larger protests sparked by the death of George Floyd and the opening of other activities and businesses.  Senior U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and sits in Albany, issued a preliminary injunction that voids parts of an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo three months ago that included a fine against anyone who gathered in excess of set limits.

UN says the world cannot return to 'previous normal' after coronavirus.  The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told an international forum Friday [6/27/2020] that society cannot return the "previous normal" as he laid out socioeconomic responses amid the coronavirus pandemic.  "We must keep in sight the gravity of the situation," Mohammed said Friday [6/26/2020], addressing the severity of the coronavirus globally.  "A return to normality in some regions must not lull us into a false sense of security."

CDC: Fewer people dying in COVID-19 surge than March, April.  The coronavirus surge across the South and West is concentrated in younger adults, meaning fewer people are dying compared to March and April, though people with underlying conditions must be cautious and the long-term effects of any infection aren't fully known, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday [6/25/2020].  CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said the shift in median age may indicate that older people are taking greater precautions and that increased testing is finding more cases, as the virus continues to rifle through parts of the U.S.

Joe Biden:  I Will Force Americans to Wear Masks in Public.  Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday [6/25/2020] that he would compel Americans to wear masks in public if elected president.  In an interview with Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA, Biden said that he would use federal power to "mandate" masks.

Dallas County face mask policy is in effect through August.  Under the latest order, customers must wear a face mask when entering businesses in Dallas County or they may be asked to leave.  Friday morning [6/19/2020], Dallas County Commissioners voted 3-2 and passed an amended ordinance.  The order went into effect at midnight and ends on Aug. 4.  The amended version includes a $500 fine if a business fails to come up with a health and safety policy and post it "in a conspicuous location sufficient to provide notice to employees and visitors."

How Many COVID Deaths Are There, Really?  Currently the Centers for Disease Control says there have been 121,809 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. Most people, seeing that figure or reading newspaper headlines about Wuhan virus deaths, assume that means that in 121,809 cases, COVID-19 has been the cause of death.  But that isn't true at all. [...] We also know that some doctors have complained about being pressured to list COVID-19 as a cause of death, perhaps because the CARES Act provides a 20% Medicare bonus for COVID patients.  And most recorded COVID-19 fatalities are elderly people with one or more co-morbidities.

What good do the masks do, really?  [Scroll down]  After all, we have N95s, surgical masks, homemade cloth masks (enjoy the video), and the classic train robber bandana.  Just for good measure, as I wore my cup-style dust mask on my last pass through Costco, I saw staff members wearing required face coverings that came from lathe section at Woodcraft.  It should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that these masks are not all identical in their intended use and possible function against viruses.  The bandana and face shield represent the extreme of one side of the spectrum.  The shield blocks large objects (relative to viruses) traveling from striking the user's eyes at high speeds.  The bandana blocks the good guys from seeing who the bad guy is.  In both cases, breathing around them is very easy, and aerosols aren't blocked.  They may be effective against a sneeze, but ordinary breathing or talking defeats them easily.  The cup-style dust mask falls roughly into that same category.

Nike posts $790M loss after coronavirus pandemic shuttered stores.  Nike lost $790 million during a fourth quarter in which nearly all of its stores were forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company said in its earnings report Thursday [6/25/2020].  Sales fell 38 percent to $6.3 billion during the quarter, falling far short of the $7.3 billion that Wall Street analysts expected, according to Refinitiv data.  Nike posted a loss of 51 cents per share.  The company reported a profit of $989 million in the same period one year ago.

Families: Gov. Pritzker's Nursing Home Liability Order Strips Justice.  Families who've lost loved ones in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, patient advocates and attorneys are blasting an executive order issued by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker that they said protect an industry with a long history of issues.  "Families deserve answers.  Families deserve to know what happened with their loved ones," said Steve Levin, an attorney with Levin & Perconti.

CDC says COVID-19 cases in U.S. may be 10 times higher than reported.  The true number of Americans who've been infected with COVID-19 may top 20 million, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  "Our best estimate right now is that for every case that's reported, there actually are 10 other infections," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, said on a call with reporters Thursday [6/25/2020].  The assessment comes from looking at blood samples across the country for the presence of antibodies to the virus.  For every confirmed case of COVID-19, 10 more people had antibodies, Redfield said, referring to proteins in the blood that indicate whether a person's immune system has previously fought off the coronavirus.

Oregon County Reluctantly Rescinds Race-Baiting Mask Rule.  The Public Health Office of Lincoln County, Oregon, fearing an uptick in COVID-19 cases as lockdowns eased, decided to introduce a mandatory mask rule for all indoor public settings.  One small detail stood out:  citing potential "heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment due to wearing face coverings in public," the directive declared that the mandatory rule would in fact be completely optional for "people of color."  National attention and national mockery ensued. [...] Just to be clear, there was no way to justify this selective exemption on scientific grounds.  Social distancing and masks barely work as halfway measures; only a small proportion of a population needs to "cheat" for effectiveness to plummet.  The exemption was therefore nothing more and nothing less than putting politics of the worst kind ahead of common sense and basic scientific coherence.

Mailing It In.  Assembly Bill 860, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 18, is premised on ensuring safety in the era of the coronavirus.  Yet Wisconsinites voted in person in April, and the predicted spike in coronavirus cases from that public assembly never materialized.  The state's caseload did climb, but no steep increase occurred in the days and weeks after the primary, just a steady rise that has continued, partly driven by expanded testing.  Apparently the same can be said for the locations where George Floyd marches, encouraged by the media and many public officials, were held.  The pandemic, it appears, was a useful crisis — voting by mail has long been a priority among progressives, and the coronavirus outbreak provided sufficient cover to institute it.

The Left Craps Out.  The pandemic, and specifically the botched elite response to it, has exposed most Democrat state governors as either sloppy with people's lives (Cuomo, Murphy, and Wolf), or thirsting for absolute power to an extent unacceptable to any sane individual (all the above, with Newsome, Whitmer, and Mills added).  By April, the reputation of the Democrat political establishment lay in shambles, with further thrashing yet to come as cases involving businesses being ground under and granny being sent to the extermination center inevitably make their way to the courts.  The Antifa uprising simply carpet-bombed the rubble.  To the panic, hysteria, and callousness of COVID we can add the gibbering idiocy of the current Dem leadership.  Jay "What, me worry?" Insby had to take refuge in willful ignorance.  Mayor Jenny Durkan burbled on about "street festivals" and the "summer of love."  Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis whimpered like a small child, while Chicago's Laurie Lightfoot, a true Dem superstar, being black, female, and lesbian, was revealed as nothing more than a petulant, foulmouthed harridan.  The American Left collapsed in the face of both great crises of 2020, and furthermore, they were seen to fail.

Cuomo: Nursing Home Order 'Wasn't a Mistake' — Staffers Brought Infection into Nursing Homes.  On Tuesday's [6/23/2020] broadcast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) defended his order that sent coronavirus patients into nursing homes and blamed the infections in nursing homes on staffers bringing in the virus.

Floridians give local county commission flak for new mask mandate: 'We the people are waking up'.  On Tuesday in Florida, the Palm Beach County Commission voted to mandate that all residents over the age of two begin wearing masks while out in public starting at 12:01 am Thursday morning [6/25/2020].  In response, an assortment of local residents vociferously lambasted the commission reportedly for, among other things, "killing people," "obeying the devil's laws" and behaving like modern-day Nazis. [...] "You literally cannot mandate somebody to wear a mask, knowing that that mask is killing people," one resident said.  "It literally is killing people."

New COVID-19 infections rising, but new deaths flat as younger patients recover.  Even though new coronavirus infections are rising in America and around the world, new coronavirus deaths are largely flat, a trend largely missing from most mainstream media coverage.  Experts say the fact that new coronavirus deaths appear to remain flat is driven by more younger patients getting infected and recovering amid reopenings as the worst of the pandemic passes.  On Wednesday evening [6/24/2020], the Washington Post issued a breaking news email alert headlined "New coronavirus cases in the U.S. soar to highest single-day total." [...] Yet the article failed to mention that even while new infections are on the rise, new COVID-19 deaths are not.

Governors juggle new restrictions with reopenings as coronavirus cases surge.  The highest single-day total of new coronavirus cases was reported in the United States on Wednesday as governors take renewed action to curb the spread of the outbreak even as their economies are in the middle of reopening.  Cases across the country rose to 2.37 million, an increase from Tuesday of 39,000, according to COVID Tracking Project data.  Hospitalizations also hit record highs in Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

The Editor says...
That's one way to look at it, but the number of hospitalizations is only one statistic.  Keep reading:

Here's The Good COVID-19 News That's Being Buried By The Press.  Once again, the U.S. is undergoing a media-driven COVID-19 scare after a "spike" in infections.  But as we noted earlier this week, the number of cases depends on the amount of testing.  The key gauge to watch is deaths.  They've been falling since April, and there's strong reason to believe they're lower than the official count suggests.  The dreaded Wuhan virus is no doubt a nasty bug, worthy of our vigilance and ongoing concern.  That said, its virulence, as measured by the daily number of deaths, appears to be waning, as the chart with this piece, courtesy of the COVID-19 Tracking Project of the Atlantic, clearly shows.  The average number of daily COVID-19 deaths on a weekly basis has fallen from a peak of just over 2,000 to 700 or so.  That's a roughly 65% decline.  And it's no fluke.  The figure has been dropping steadily since April.

Media-Induced Fear Of COVID-19 Is Starting To Cause A Second Wave Of Severe Economic Panic.  Fear of COVID-19 absolutely crippled the U.S. economy during the first half of this year, and now it appears that there are some people that are pushing for that to happen again during the second half of 2020.  Earlier this evening [6/24/2020], I came across a headline that boldly declared that there will be "180,000 U.S. deaths of COVID-19 by October", and right now just about every mainstream news outlet is running stories about how the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. is surging.  And it is definitely true that we are seeing an alarming rise in the number of confirmed cases.

The Editor says...
From the very beginning of this mess, the objective has been to stir up panic.  There is no longer any basis for fear.  Take off your mask, turn off your television, and you will be back to 2019 in a matter of seconds!

Blatant official racial discrimination:  County orders white people to wear masks in public, exempts 'persons of color'.  Madness is in the air, with mobs terrifying guilt-ridden government officials, corporate leaders, educators, and the heads of all our significant institutions into violating previously sacred principles in an effort to prove their wokeness.  The Constitution and basic concepts of justice are out the window, and we face a grim new normal in which "getting whitey" becomes acceptable behavior from governments.  How else to explain this "Face Covering Directive" from the "Health & Human Services" mandarins of Lincoln County, Oregon, signed by Rebecca Austen, Lincoln County Public Health Administrator and Dr. David Long, Lincoln County Health Officer. [...]

Oregon county issues face mask order that exempts non-white people.  Lincoln County, Oregon, has exempted non-white people from a new order requiring that face coverings be worn in public — to prevent racial profiling.  Health officials announced last week residents must wear face coverings in public settings where they may come within six feet of another individual who is not from the same household.  But people of color do not have to follow the new rule if they have "heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment" over wearing the masks, officials said.  "No person shall intimidate or harass people who do not comply," health officials said.

A retired physician's take on epidemiologists.  I am a retired physician.  Over my career, I've had some contact with epidemiology.  I'll be blunt here:  I came away unimpressed with that field.  Here's why:  [#1] When a pandemic strikes, I've never once witnessed an epidemiologist get his hands dirty in providing actual patient care.  So where the rubber meets the road during a pandemic, they're useless.  [#2] Their models, and therefore their advice and counsel, are based upon best guesses from previous pandemics.  It's been pretty clear during COVID-19 that in any number of cases, their accuracy has been less than impressive.  [#3] Typically, the confidence ranges of their models are wide enough that you could drive a Mack truck through them.  Then, when actual outcomes fall somewhere within those massive ranges, they pat themselves on the back as though they've really accomplished something. [...] [#4] They get to have tunnel vision.  The concern of the epidemiologist is to focus on the disease and the disease only.  It is not their job to concern themselves with the economic, social, political, marital, and psychological devastation resulting from strict quarantines and lockdowns.

Coronavirus Derangement Syndrome.  Such an astounding disorientation as we are witnessing on account of a virus leaves little doubt that political maneuvering and the hand of corporate media have a lot to do with the oppressive official response to COVID-19.  Relying on the mainstream media for all you need to know about this pandemic is to put your faith in their honesty and objectivity.  Not for me, thank you, considering the track record.  Let me bring up what is missing from the usual reporting on coronavirus.  It is not being said loudly or clearly enough that the coronavirus is not a disease or an illness.  It is the name of a virus.  It is no small matter to know what is being talked about.  The distinction between the sickness and its cause gets lost in the media chatter.  Does "having coronavirus" mean you're sick, or does it mean you have a virus in your body that has been identified as COVID-19?  Not a trivial matter.  It's also not being said loudly or clearly enough that we've all, at some time, "had coronavirus."  It's not a disease or illness, remember, but a virus.  It is important to know that in one form or another, the coronavirus has caused respiratory illness for centuries.

New study says summer sun can kill coronavirus in 34 minutes.  The strong summer sun is capable of wiping out 90 percent or more of coronavirus living on surfaces in just 34 minutes, a new study has found.  Scientists suggest that "midday sunlight in most US and world cities during summer" is extremely effective in inactivating the virus that causes COVID-19 when it's been coughed or sneezed onto a surface, according to the study published earlier this month.  It found the virus is most infectious from December until March — when it can live on surfaces for up to a day or more "with risk of re-aerosolization and transmission in most of these cities."

New Coronavirus Cases Have Reached Record Highs in 12 States; Here's Why It Doesn't Matter.  The media has been issuing ominous warnings about the resurgence of new cases of COVID-19 in many states.  In fact, new cases are at record highs in at least a dozen states.  NPR published a list of states where new cases (as of Monday 11:59 pm, June 22) were higher than they'd been two weeks ago.  Topping the list was Oklahoma, which has seen a 268% jump in new cases.  Next up are Florida and Texas with increases of 184% and 154%, respectively.  The list can be viewed [elsew]here. [...] In early March, when various plans of dealing with the coronavirus were being debated, the choices were shown to us via a curve.  Two extremes were presented to us.  In the first scenario, we could go on with business as usual and the curve would nearly immediately turn upward and would peak quickly.  It would also fall as fast as it rose.  The obvious disadvantage to this choice is that the hospitals would be crushed trying to provide care for such a huge influx of patients at one time.

FDA warns not to use these 9 'toxic' hand sanitizers.  The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to avoid nine brands of potentially toxic hand sanitizers.  According to the report, the antibacterial gels and lotions in question may contain methanol, which can be lethal if absorbed through the skin.  At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, stores could hardly keep hand sanitizer stocked on shelves.  Now, having access to the ubiquitous product could be a matter of life and death.  The agency's alert specifically calls out products by Mexico-based manufacturer Eskbiochem SA de CV, asking them to pull these "potentially dangerous products" from the US market.  Lab tests revealed that one of its sanitizers, Lavar Gel, contained 81% methanol.  Another name, CleanCare No Germ, showed a methanol content of 28%.

What Happens When the Madness Ends?  At some point, tonight's hero on YouTube torching Wendy's or kicking a downed policeman on CNN, becomes tomorrow's commonplace, unnoticed felon — with a new warrant issued out on his head, and about whose fate and lengthy CV no one other than his parents much cares.  Governors and mayors can demand masks and all sorts of social distancing measures.  But once they declared that only those not demonstrating — the non-looting and nonviolent — were subject to their rules, while millions both peacefully protesting and violently looting were exempt, then their words meant nothing.  It will be impossible for them ever to be seen as credible again.  Virus or no virus, crowded freeways, and busy malls will soon be referenda on the bond of governors like Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer.

What coronavirus data show — it's time for the country to do this.  Political and public health leaders appear to have contracted another case of lockdown fever.  The governors of Oregon and Utah recently hit pause on their states' reopening efforts.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened to do the same in New York City on June 14, even as the city prepares for a new stage of re-opening on June 22.  Meanwhile, public health experts maintain it's unsafe for people to congregate — unless, of course, they're attending a protest that lines up with the progressive consensus.  This is all absurd.  After months of lockdown, the most reasonable interpretations of the data indicate that the COVID-19 outbreak is largely contained to a few geographic hotspots — and that the virus poses a far greater threat to specific at-risk groups than the population at large. [...] Fewer than 19,000 New Yorkers were hospitalized with COVID-19 at the outbreak's peak, a far cry from the 110,000 [Governor] Cuomo predicted.

Coronavirus Cases Are Climbing Again.  So What?  A dozen states have seen record highs in new coronavirus cases, blares the news media, accompanied by dire warnings of a "second wave" of the disease because those awful Republican states reopened too soon. [...] Even if there is a "second wave," it doesn't mean anything in and of itself.  For one thing the Centers for Disease Control has long predicted that coronavirus cases would increase as the country reopened, for the simple reason that the lockdowns were never intended to stop the spread of the disease, only to slow it down.  Remember?  Flatten the curve?

No, wait!  I still have 350,000 masks I need to sell!
Coronavirus is weakening, could disappear on its own:  Italian doctor.  An Italian infectious disease doctor believes the coronavirus has become less dangerous — and could disappear on its own without a vaccine.  Dr. Matteo Bassetti, the head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital, said the virus appears to have become less potent, possibly due to genetic mutations, the Sunday Telegraph reported.  "The clinical impression I have is that the virus is changing in severity," Bassetti told the outlet.  "In March and early April the patterns were completely different.  People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult to manage illness and they needed oxygen and ventilation, some developed pneumonia."

Democrats Hope COVID-19 Will Carry Joe Biden.  There is no history of 21st-century America that will not include analysis of the COVID-19 shutdowns.  Maybe a few will be truthful about their primary purpose: to separate President Trump from his supporters.  Anyone who is paying attention knows full well that Joe Biden cannot defeat President Donald Trump in any traditional way.  Not only is Trump a successful incumbent with a strong economy, which is always a formidable combo, but he is also the leader of a popular anti-globalist movement.  He has kept his promises, satisfied his 2016 voters, and expanded his base.  A senile has-been cannot hope to defeat a president in that position.

BLM protests have not led to a spike in coronavirus cases: study.  Black Lives Matter protests haven't seen coronavirus cases surge in cities since the massive demonstrations began, a study says.  The new research, which was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, found no evidence that coronavirus cases jumped in 315 cities in the weeks following the first protests.  Researchers determined that protests may have been offset by an increase in social distancing among those who decided not to march.  Using cellphone data, the study determined that more people opted to stay home "perhaps due to fear of violence from police clashes or general unrest."

The case for the two metre rule is falling apart.  With the Covid alert level being reduced from 4 to 3 it is surely only a matter of days before the government announces that it is relaxing the two metre rule — a move for which the hospitality industry has been lobbying for heavily, warning that pubs and restaurants will not be able to reopen until it happens.  Another sign of impending change came from Professor Calum Semple of the University of Liverpool, a member of the Sage committee, who told the Today programme this morning that he had changed his mind on the two metre rule and now believes that infection levels are low enough to make it safe.

Study Finds Some Governments Already Using Contact Tracing Apps For Mass Surveillance.  For months, privacy experts like Edward Snowden were warning about governments using virus contact tracing phone apps to conduct mass surveillance on citizen populations.  As most of us know, governments are already spying on domestic citizens, but if they have access to data from the contact tracing apps, it gives them yet another tool that helps to give them a clearer picture of everyone's day-to-day activities.

The morons of the pandemic.  Thursday [6/18/2020], the brilliant, non-scientist, governor of California started requiring facemasks for everyone.  The brilliant former governor, also a non-scientist, chimed in and said wearing masks should not be a political issue and anyone who makes it one is a moron.  I would say that anyone who doesn't have the cognitive ability to recognize that the masks have been a political issue from the start, not based on science, is a moron. [...] When the WHO and people like Bill Gates said that the disease would not spread human to human, that showed a tremendous lack of knowledge.  Anyone who treats them as experts now when they were so wrong in the past is a moron. [...] Anyone who called Trump a racist and xenophobe and said he was overreacting by implementing a travel ban from China is a moron.  Anyone who treats new modeling numbers as factual when previous ones have been exponentially off is a moron.  Anyone who continually repeats that millions of people with no symptoms are spreading the disease, with no scientific evidence, is a moron and that is the reason we are required to wear a mask.  Anyone who believes anything [Governor] Newsom says, or treats him as if he bases his decisions on science, when he just used made up numbers in March that over twenty million Californians would have COVID 19 by May is a certified moron.  Anyone, such as the CDC, who said that COVID 19 would easily spread off surfaces, with no scientific evidence, is a moron.  Anyone who treats CDC's pronouncements as gospel and fact knowing how wrong they have been in the past is a certified moron.  Anyone who continues to keep schools closed when there is little to no risk to children is a moron.  Anyone who treats Governor Cuomo as if he is an expert on how to handle COVID 19 when his state had the worst results and when he forced nursing homes to take sick patients in is a certified moron.

Cuomo brushes off criticism over nursing home deaths as 'shiny object'.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday again defended his administration's now-scrapped nursing home policy that critics say contributed to thousands of coronavirus deaths, slamming the controversy as "a shiny object" and "pure politics."  Cuomo's comments came during an interview on New York's WAMC-AM on Thursday.  He was asked about the criticism and whether he acknowledged the policy was "on the wrong track."  "No," the Democratic governor responded.  "The nursing home is an unfortunate situation on two levels.  Number 1, people in nursing homes died.  The nursing home [controversy] is pure politics, the Republicans in Congress, they think there's a vulnerability."  He added:  "The nursing home thing it's just all politics."

Cuomo takes a bow after his deadly nursing home decision.  There is an old saying that if you don't blow your own horn, there won't be any music.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo obviously is a believer, having ended his streak of 111 daily coronavirus briefings with another blast of praise for himself.  From March 2 until Friday, he held forth in marathon appearances that boosted his political ratings.  Early on he hit an incredible 87 percent approval in the state and an April poll found that 56 percent of national Democrats wanted to dump Joe Biden and make Cuomo the presidential nominee.  That support reflected how skillfully the governor performed in front of the camera.  He appeared to have command of the facts and used big graphics to demonstrate the flow of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

What If I Trust Science and Don't Trust Dr. Fauci?  [Scroll down]  When the virus hit our shores, we were preparing the health system to deal with a severe respiratory infection that caused Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).  Ventilators were all the rage and occupied the national response.  Within days of the first patients hitting the ICU in New York City, doctors were questioning this assumption.  Ventilators did not seem to be working, and the patients were presenting with severe hypoxia, or low blood oxygen, and other symptoms that were not indicative of ARDS.  This was not well-reported and all but ignored by the corporate media.  Our Health Experts™ never mentioned it.  Then some clinicians started talking about cytokine storms or an overreaction of the immune system that can cause damage to several body systems.  It is a complex illness and often requires immunosuppressive drugs.  These specific drugs were contraindicated on the national health guidelines for treating COVID-19 until very recently.  This is all very frustrating because the NIH knew in 2005 that SARS caused this reaction in the body.

Callous contempt:  The crisis of blue-state one-party Democrat goverance.  How's this for a disgusting evasion of responsibility? [...] Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called the mass COVID-19 deaths in New York's nursing homes "the nursing home thing" and "a shiny object" being played with for political purposes by his opponents, instead of the raw, rank, killing scandal that cause more than 10,000 people to lose their lives in nursing homes.  These patients were not just unprotected but explicitly put in harm's way on his orders.  It doesn't take a genius to know that in an era when nursing home patients were being blocked off from visits by their loved ones to protect them from potential coronavirus exposure, that putting live, COVID-19-positive patients right there in their closed living quarters where no one could get out was a death sentence to thousands, who ended up dying terrified and alone.  And that was done at his order on March 25 on 'non-discrimination' grounds, even as President Trump sent a hospital ship to New York harbor fully ready to take care of them.

WHO listens to these people any more?
W.H.O. Warns of 'Dangerous Phase' of Pandemic as Outbreaks Widen.  The world has entered a "new and dangerous phase" of the coronavirus pandemic, a top official from the World Health Organization said on Friday, a stark warning that came as the United States struggled to control spiraling outbreaks and as business leaders signaled growing unease with the country's ability to effectively contend with the virus.  Coronavirus cases spiked sharply across the American South and West, particularly in states that loosened restrictions on businesses several weeks ago.  In Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Arizona, daily counts of new coronavirus cases reached their highest levels of the pandemic this week.  Texas, which has seen known cases double in the past month, became the sixth state to surpass 100,000 cases, according to a New York Times database of cases in the United States.

The Editor says...
If "known cases double[d] in the past month," maybe it's because the rate of testing has doubled in the past month.

Coronavirus in one state (62).  There are many people in the world who say the COVID-19 epidemic will sweep us all away.  Let them come to Minnesota.  There are some who say that COVID-19 is the wave of the future.  Let them come to Minnesota.  And there are some who say in the United States and elsewhere we can work with the COVIDians.  Let them come to Minnesota.  And there are even a few who say that it is true that COVID-19 is an evil disease, but it permits us to make economic progress.  Let them come to Minnesooota.

Counsel of the Woke.  America has reached an epistemological breaking point.  For the first two months following the coronavirus outbreak, public-health experts insisted that we "follow the science" and implement their recommendations, even if it meant millions of lost jobs and significant restrictions on constitutionally protected activities, such as church attendance and freedom of assembly.  Blue-state governors quickly positioned themselves as executors of this neutral scientific knowledge, condemning anti-lockdown protesters as "anti-scientific;" meantime, social media companies banned anti-lockdown groups and censored content from lockdown skeptics.  But when protests erupted in the U.S. after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, many public-health experts reversed course — and subordinated "science" to their activist politics.

Appeals court judges threaten 'contact tracing' for religious services.  The shutdowns mandated by government to minimize the spread of coronavirus have affected schools, stores, government buildings, sports, concerns and much, much more, including churches.  The conflict between the constitutional right to assemble and worship in churches and health officials' demands that people not gather in groups has been stark in many cases.  Dozens of fights have erupted as churches insist they have a constitutional right to exercise their religion, and government bureaucrats say no.  One prominent war over the issue has been going on in Illinois, where Gov. Jay Pritzker ordered no churches could have services involving more than 10 people, an order he later made a recommendation.

The Editor says...
Contact tracing is all about domestic surveillance and control, not about public health.

Fauci falls, fumbles forbidding football.  It's been a long way down for Anthony Fauci, MD — from virtual dictator of a nation under virtual house arrest (and purported sex symbol) to laughingstock caught lying and blaming the public for his fall.  Fauci finally fessed up to his face mask fabulations.  He lied to us for our own good, of course. [...] Now, Fauci is complaining that ignorant Americans "don't believe science and they don't believe authority." [...] Fauci and the phony models have discredited more than one man.  The global warming fraud, totally a product of computer models, is now a much harder sell.

Americans Should Never Again Comply With Pandemic Lockdown Orders.  We're told a second wave of coronavirus infections is coming.  As businesses open back up and states relax lockdown orders, the number of new cases is ticking up in a handful of states.  We've heard warnings in recent days from the Centers for Disease Control and various public health experts and elected officials that a new series of lockdowns might be necessary.  What these experts and officials don't seem to realize is that Americans will never comply with their lockdown orders again.  They have burned their credibility to the ground, and they no longer have the moral authority to tell us what to do.  Simply put, the people in charge have shown themselves to be rank hypocrites who care more about politics than science.  For months, we were told that large gatherings were deadly because of the coronavirus, but when protests broke out in late May, large gatherings were suddenly okay.

Early data show no surge in coronavirus cases from protests.  Preliminary coronavirus testing data showed recent protests against racial injustice in several cities and states haven't caused a surge in new cases.  In Minnesota, where the death of George Floyd in police custody sparked protests across the country, 1.8% of test results among 3,200 protesters who were tested at community sites came back positive, the state's health department said.  Another 8,500 protesters were tested by their healthcare providers or at other sites, and .99% have been positive so far, the department said.  The seven-day rolling average of the percent of positive coronavirus tests in New York City has been below 3%, according to city health department data.  The city urged thousands of protesters to get tested and made testing available to anyone.

By the Time Trump Gets to Tulsa.  Any remaining doubt that curbing President Trump's campaign rallies was a key goal of the Democratic response to COVID-19 should be quelled by the Democrats' antic opposition to Saturday's Trump rally in Tulsa. [...] Never mind that Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery, which the Republican Party abolished in the United States after overcoming the violent resistance of the Democratic planter class in the Civil War.  The point is to find some pretext to stop President Trump from communicating directly to the American people while his campaign team uses the rallies to register voters and continue to grow Trump's support using its advantage in digital technology.  Key to the latter is an online app that rally attendees can download by providing a phone number.  It's an advanced data mining tool that places the Trump team light years ahead of the Biden campaign on voter outreach.

Airlines Ban Alcohol On Planes In Response To COVID-19.  Airlines are always looking to do less ... for more.  After the 9-11 attacks in the U.S. in 2001, airlines in America did away with most meal services (and many started charging you $50 for an extra bag — that'll teach those terrorists!).  Now, with COVID-19 emerging as a new threat in the states, airlines have decided to stop in-flight sales of alcohol on many flights ('cuz, you know, the coronavirus lives on those little bottles).  "Because COVID-19 can spread through surface contact, airlines have placed an emphasis on reducing 'touchpoints' between fliers and airline staff as much as possible.  And beverage service is a major source of those touchpoints," The Washington Post reported.

Whitmer extends Michigan's state of emergency through July 16.  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended Michigan's state of emergency Thursday through July 16 as a federal judge asked the state Supreme Court to clarify the governor's emergency powers.  The declaration, which was set to expire Friday, allows the Democratic governor continued authority to issue the executive orders that have created the framework for the state's coronavirus-restricted activity in recent months.  Whitmer's response to the pandemic has so far included 122 executive orders.  "The aggressive measures we took at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have worked to flatten the curve, but there is still more to be done to prevent a second wave," Whitmer said in a statement.

Federal judge asks Michigan Supreme Court to clarify Whitmer's emergency powers.  A federal judge asked the Michigan Supreme Court Thursday to clarify whether Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has the authority to continue issuing or renewing executive orders under either of the two state laws that govern her emergency powers.  The request came on the same day that Whitmer extended Michigan's state of emergency through July 16. [...] The federal and state lawsuits are seeking answers to whether state law allowed for the governor's emergency powers to continue after April 30, even without legislative approvals, and whether the emergency laws giving Whitmer virtually limitless authority violate the separation of powers between the governor and Legislature in Michigan's Constitution.

Mask-wearing is becoming increasingly politicized.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced Thursday [6/18/2020] that mask-wearing is compulsory in most public settings, making California the 11th state to mandate that people wear masks.  Public spaces include every workspace, public transit, and any facility in which people receive medical care.  President Trump, meanwhile, has discounted the benefits of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Brazil politicians break into hospital, find no virus patients.  Members of Parliament of Brazil break into hospital that claimed to have 5,000 infected & 200 deaths from COVID-19 & caught them red handed:  Not one person.

Texas county mandates coronavirus face masks in public, warns businesses could be fined for violations.  Officials in the San Antonio area have ordered people to wear face masks in public when social distancing isn't practical amid a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas as the state continues to reopen itself.  Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff issued an executive order Wednesday mandating the precautions.  In a press conference, Wolff and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg voiced concerns about younger people contracting the virus and infecting older family members.  "What we are doing here is to protect the life and safety of the San Antonio community," Nirenberg said.

'Death Sentence:' Why Did Dem.  Governors Place COVID-Positive Patients Back in Nursing Homes?  This week, House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis sent five letters to Democratic governors, demanding answers as to why these state leaders ordered nursing homes to admit patients who had tested positive for coronavirus.  The House Republicans noted that the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance suggesting that nursing homes should only admit patients if the facility could follow quarantine guidelines.  "Democrats failed our nursing home residents, plain and simple," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) declared in a statement Monday [6/15/2020].

The Media Said Trump Didn't Have a COVID Testing Strategy.  The Media Was Wrong.  At the beginning of March, there were fewer than 1,000 tests in the country on most days.  By the end of March, there were more than 100,000 a day.  The number climbed again before hovering somewhere around 150,000 a day for much of April.  Then it bumped up again, to more than 200,000 at the end of the month.  It surpassed 400,000 for the first time on May 17.  On May 29, it was nearly 500,000.  It's been in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 most days since, with a high of more than 580,000 just this just Friday [6/12/2020].  More than 23 million tests have been run altogether, more than 3 million over just the last week.  In April, 32 million tests were produced, and in May, 39 million, with the trajectory further upward.

Have the protests proved that COVID-19 risks are being vastly exaggerated?  By now, we ought to be seeing some evidence of increasing COVID-19 cases from the mass protests.  The fact we are not raises very serious doubts about the coronavirus lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions, many of which are still ongoing.  One explanatory hypothesis is the weather — that outdoor protests in warmish weather might have decreased the infectious potential of SARS-CoV-2. This seems highly unlikely.  Even if there is such an effect, it almost definitely doesn't outweigh the close proximity of protesters to one another.  Another explanatory hypothesis is that most protesters are relatively young, and therefore unlikely to fall ill but may asymptomatically transmit the virus.  This could well be the case, but there is not yet enough data to support this hypothesis and I am not currently convinced this is the most compelling explanation.  The third explanatory hypothesis is that we have vastly overestimated certain risks from COVID-19, limiting fundamental civil liberties of law-abiding citizens and getting it wrong.  It finally took unsanctioned mass protests to prove this point.  At this stage, I find the third explanation the most likely hypothesis.

Contact Tracing Is A Fiasco Rejected By Most Americans.  There were supposed to be armies.  Grand armies of contact tracers crisscrossing every county in the country on the hunt for the Chinese virus.  This was the key we were told to a safe reopening, they have been telling us this since back when they still told us not to wear masks.  Soldiers in this army would interview anyone who tested positive and track down the people they spent time with.  Supposedly serious people with TV shows and everything said with straight faces that we might need 100,000 contact tracers, maybe more, maybe everyone needs to be a contact tracer.  In New York, Michael Bloomberg stepped out of ubiquitous presidential ads (remember that?) right into being charged with leading the new public health Manhattan Project.  The result looks more like a middling 4th grade science fair entry.  Oregon reported last week that that the state has no idea how many contact tracers it has in the field.  In New York, several upstate counties are opting out of the program because their own local policies work better for them.  Meanwhile in Gotham, Mayor Bill de Blasio betrayed the deeply unserious nature of his tracing efforts by telling his tracers not to ask if people who test positive had been at a political protest.

Democrat Governors in MI, NY, NJ, CA and PA [have been] Sent Letter Demanding Why They Ignored Protocols and Sent Sick COVID-19 Patients to Nursing Homes.  An updated study revealed 42% of all US coronavirus deaths occurred in nursing homes.  That comes out to over 40,000 Deaths in Nursing Homes!  That is a bloodbath!!  Another 60,000 deaths were outside of nursing homes.  Which is what you might expect from a typical flu season.

The Editor says...
Really?  I saw an interesting interview with Scott Adams the other day, in which he pointed out that hardly anyone knows anyone who died of the flu.  When I had the flu a few years ago, I felt like I was dying, but apparently I didn't.

United Airlines Passengers Who Won't Wear Masks Won't Be Allowed to Fly.  United Airlines announced Monday [6/15/2020] that passengers who refuse to wear masks will be put on an internal no-fly list and will be banned from boarding future flights.  The airline said the policy will start taking effect Thursday [6/18/2002] and last for a minimum of 60 days, adding that the policy is being put into place to protect passengers and crew from contracting the coronavirus.

Dr. Saphier on prolonged school and summer camp closures:  The mental health effects for kids are real.  Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier said Wednesday [6/17/2020] that the mental health effects on children during the coronavirus shutdowns are a real concern, as many summer camps have declined to open this year.  Speaking on "Fox & Friends," Saphier said "94 percent of superintendents" across the country are not ready to talk about plans for reopening schools in the fall, raising concerns about the effects on children.  "This conversation is being prompted by surveys out of Italy and China where they reported that children were experiencing anxiety up to 70 percent of the time, saying that they were having feelings of anxiety or difficulty breathing.  Those surveys were done from March and April.  I would like to see more modern ones or more up-to-date ones.  Let me tell you, as a mother having three kids at home, the mental health effects of these shutdowns are real," she said.

Covid has laid the groundwork for revolution.  Covid is not and never was a health crisis remotely justifying the destructive magnitude of the measures imposed — allegedly against it.  It is and always was a seized-upon, contrived, promoted, exaggerated and prolonged wedge, utilized from the beginning by the political left for its ends, and abetted by an establishment already either dominated by those who hate our society and its history or too badly educated to love and defend either.

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Sues FDA for "Irrational" Interference of Access to Life-Saving Hydroxychloroquine.  The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons filed a lawsuit against Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA for "irrational interference" by the FDA with timely access to hydroxychloroquine.  Never in history have we seen such a determined effort by the scientific community and pharmaceutical industry to downplay and lie about the use of a successful drug to treat a deadly disease.

Coronavirus in one state (58).  In the data reported late yesterday morning, the Minnesota Department of Health attributed only 15 new deaths to COVID-19.  Eleven of the 15 new deaths occurred among residents of long-term care facilities.  Of the 1,298 deaths attributed to the disease by the Minnesota authorities to date, 1,030 are deaths of LTC residents — 79.3 percent of total deaths.  At last word, roughly 98 percent of all deaths attributed to the disease have occurred among LTC residents with serious underlying medical conditions or other mostly elderly non-LTC residents with serious underlying medical conditions.  When the Minnesota Department of Health last reported the median age of death of all decedents, it was 83.5.

COVID Madness — Chicago Ministry of COVID Compliance Introduces "Social Distancing Ambassadors".  Comrade Lightfoot explains why the Chicago Ministry of COVID Compliance needed to cancel the days-off for all police officers, and extend all shifts to 12 hrs per day.  According to the Chicago Mayor, the city will be deploying "Social Distancing Ambassadors" to help citizens accept their social responsibility.  The monitors will assist the public remaining disengaged from human contact as the Ministry begins permitting citizens to exit the confines of their homes.  Drone enforcement could likely assist. [...] The ministry has determined Blue state residents are safe at distances exceeding 6 feet.  However, inside that zone, at 4 or 5 feet or less, the virus creates a rapid death spiral and attacks with increased ferocity.  It is currently unknown why the proximity strain of the virus responds differently in Red states.

WHO director to give graduation speech at top Chinese university.  The World Health Organization director-general whose alleged pro-China bias prompted President Trump to withdraw US funding is scheduled to deliver a graduation speech Sunday at a top Chinese university.  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will address graduates of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, the Beijing school announced Monday.  His remarks will be "online" and it's unclear if he will travel.  Trump halted roughly $500 million in annual US contributions to the WHO in April, saying the United Nations body failed to vet Chinese misinformation about COVID-19, which emerged in Wuhan, China, late last year.

Thousands Dismiss Social Distancing in Brooklyn for Pro-Black Transgender Rally.  On the same day that thousands of protesters gathered around the Brooklyn Museum in New York to show their support for blacks who want to live as the opposite sex, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday warned that customers flocking to restaurants and bars in the state could lead to another coronavirus lockdown.  "Governor Andrew Cuomo warned New Yorkers against triggering a second wave of the coronavirus, singling out bars and restaurants in Manhattan and the Hamptons as the worst offenders among 25,000 complaints filed to the state," Bloomberg reported.  "We are not going to go back to that dark place," Cuomo said.  Aerial views posted on social media show people packed like sardines at the Brooklyn protest.

Trump Voters Have Had It With the CDC.  Just as President Trump's reelection team is being inundated by a tsunami of ticket requests for his first campaign rally since March, the public health bureaucrats who bungled the initial coronavirus outbreak have launched a new campaign of fear-mongering.  Last Friday, while Dr. Anthony Fauci cautiously speculated that the country may not see a second wave of COVID-19 cases, the "experts" at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were discussing the possible need for another phase of job-killing "mitigation efforts."  Not coincidentally, the CDC also published new guidelines for large public gatherings that obviously have more to do with hobbling the president's rallies than public health.

De Blasio's 'Contact Tracing Team' Isn't Allowed To Ask COVID-19 Patients If They Attended A Protest.  Democratic New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio's "contact tracing team" won't be allowed to ask COVID-19 patients if they attended a George Floyd protest recently, The City reported.  The "contact tracing team" is tasked with finding an infected patient's recent contacts and informing them about their exposure to the virus so they can self-isolate.  However, the team is not allowed to ask people if they attended one of the many recent demonstrations where thousands of people gathered closely together to protest the death of George Floyd, The City reported.

How the Riots Crushed Coronavirus Testing.  It may be a while before Americans can assess the full impact of the savage radical anarchist, Black Lives Matter, and antifa riots of 2020, initially sparked by the police killing George Floyd.  The losses to property will almost certainly run into the hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars.  Entire buildings were torched. [...] We know at least five police officers have been murdered by rioters.  Several hundred more officers have been assaulted, shot or run over by rioters.  But here's one thing we may not know for a while yet: how many rioters and protesters at these mass gatherings spread the Wuhan virus around.  Looters and arsonists burned down as many as 70 testing centers, according to a report in The Daily Beast.

Another day, another bogus report from CDC seeking to entice the public to continue wearing masks.  The CDC now says they have proof that wearing facemasks reduced COVID 19 cases in NYC by 66,000 from April 17th to May 9th. [...] There is no way they would know this, and it is as made up as the modeling numbers that CDC put out in March that showed that hundreds of millions would get the disease and millions would die.  That is the study that destroyed the economy and caused governors throughout the country to require us to wear masks, social distance and avoid large groups for the first time in our lives.

Oh Yeah, About Those Masks... The Credibility Ship Has Sailed.  Beginning roughly two weeks ago, we all watched as mass stay-at-home orders and self-isolation gave way to massive street protests, where tens or hundreds of thousands of people gathered together in the U.S. and around the world, often one on top of the other, chanting, yelling and singing: a virtual laboratory for what we had spent four months hearing was exactly what one must not do in the middle of this pandemic.  To the tyrants that order mask-wearing, it is the symbolism that is important.  The lockdowns should never have been ordered.  The masks serve as a visual symbol of fear, to show that the lockdowns were justified.  This is a total CYA effort in the face of the strong evidence provided by the states that never ordered the useless lockdowns.

The Coronavirus Mask Charade Continues.  When he announced on May 1 that masks would be worn in public places, Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker was emphatic.  "We view this as common sense.  This is going to be basically a way of life.  No ifs, no ands, no buts, no doubts."  However, doubts are showing up.  First, Baker's order said to wear face coverings when in public places and unable to keep a social distance of six feet.  Why'd he pick six feet?  There is no research showing that six feet means anything in a public space.  That six-foot idea is an arbitrary guess that was "conjured up out of nowhere," according to Professor Robert Dingwall, a top scientific adviser to the British government, which like the U.S. has adopted six feet as a safe social distance.  The authorities guessed that it might be a good distance because some study had shown that a cough could travel six feet in a tightly closed dead-air space.  The relevance of that to everyday life — who knows?

The Backlash Is Coming.  "We're all in this together" isn't completely true, but it isn't a complete lie, either.  Our ability to live our lives depends upon the judgment and actions of others, and the pandemic illustrated that in surprising ways.  Most Americans probably didn't spend a lot of time thinking about meatpackers or the supply chain of potatoes until recently.

What Social Distancing?  House Transportation Bill Would Pack Americans on Mass Transit.  For months, the news media and health experts have repeatedly told Americans that the main way to stop the spread of COVID-19 is to avoid crowded and enclosed spaces.  That guidance led to a nationwide shutdown of churches, schools, businesses, and other places of public gathering, causing the greatest disruption to our way of life in generations.  It seems like a bad time to pack as many people as possible into crowded and enclosed spaces.  Yet that's precisely the goal of the surface-transportation bill recently unveiled in the House, which would sharply increase federal spending on mass transit.

Our leaders ignore the high price kids are paying for coronavirus lockdowns.  The isolation and the loneliness of the COVID-19 lockdown hasn't been good for any of us.  We're on edge and angry at each other.  A Gallup poll in April found "the percentages of US adults experiencing significant stress and worry on a daily basis have increased in an unprecedented manner."  But that's nothing compared to what many kids have been going through and how they have been dismissed by those in charge.  Kids are resilient, true.  But it's been months of this lockdown.  Parents I spoke to feel lied to about how long we would be kept indoors.  "It was supposed to be two weeks to stop the spread," one mom told me.  "My kid is getting weird," three separate parents commented to me.  With no interaction with other kids and no idea when their lives will return to normal, many of the nation's children are suffering through this lockdown.

Nurse shares undercover video bombshell:  NY hospitals didn't isolate COVID-19 patients properly.  A Florida nurse-turned-undercover journalist who traveled to New York City to work at the hospital hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic says she witnessed negligent healthcare practices that very likely increased the COVID-19 death toll.  In an interview Saturday [6/13/2020] with Fox News, Erin Marie Olszewski, a registered nurse and U.S. Army veteran, said it was an "extremely common," "everyday experience" for healthcare workers at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens — the "epicenter of the epicenter" for coronavirus in the U.S. — to not properly isolate patients infected with the virus.  "And, there was really no reason for that," she said.  "There were resources that were not being utilized.  For instance, the Comfort ship, the Javits Center, and they had Samaritan's Purse.  So, we had options that weren't utilized."

The Editor says...
Yeah, and I'll bet there's a sign out in front of the worst hospital that says, "Heroes work here!"

Asbury Park, NJ gives restaurants blessing to defy state COVID lockdown.  Restaurants in Asbury Park, New Jersey are clear to resume indoor dining starting Monday, city officials have ruled — in defiance of Garden State Gov. Phil Murphy's coronavirus shutdown.  "We believe indoor restaurants can run in a safe manner provided they are subject to all the requirements outlined in Executive Order 152," said Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn, according to The Asbury Park Press.  A City Council vote in favor of the move was first reported by The Coaster, a local outlet.  Under Murphy's order, outdoor dining can resume on Monday [6/15/2020], but indoor dining remains a no-go.

Rikers Island Inmates Released Because of COVID Rearrested Hundreds of Times.  Hundreds of inmates were released from Riker's Island in New York City to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the prison.  Officials knew the risks.  And those fears have been realized, hundreds of times.  New reporting from Melissa Russo reveals that at least 250 prisoners out of the 2,500 who were released early have gone on to commit at least 450 more crimes.  "The NYPD is not happy," Russo said, somewhat understatedly.

Dr. Fauci's recurring disease 'nightmares' often don't materialize.  Nobody did more to kick off the U.S. AIDS alarm than [Dr. Anthony] Fauci, who was sole author of a 1983 piece in the prestigious JAMA in which he declared the disease might be transmissible by "routine close contact, as within a family household."  Fauci shortly thereafter ascended to the position he holds to this day as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  Fauci continued to raise the AIDS alarm.  In 1987, columnist George Will asserted on TV that the heterosexual AIDS threat was overstated.  "That's not correct," Fauci protested, followed by a prediction that the percentage of AIDS cases contracted via heterosexual transmission (then at 4%) would rise to 10% by 1991.  That rate never rose above 4%. [...] More recently, Fauci sounded the threat of the Zika virus, demanding billions more in taxpayer funds.  It barely touched two U.S. states before burning out on its own.

Gathering Is Essential — Unless You're Republican.  Destroying a business is tolerated, reopening one forbidden.  Democrats are bailing out rioters, and sending salon owners to prison.  Going to church is worse than trying to burn it down.  Protesting is a threat to public health, until experts declare your cause worthy enough.  These are the new, ever-changing rules of Democrats' America.  We'll forgive you if you have a hard time keeping up — but they won't.  After months shaming Americans who had the audacity to want to reopen their businesses safely as COVID-19 cases waned, social distancing is suddenly less important than "social justice," according to the media's health "experts." [...] These infringements must end.  We built up hospital capacity, flattened the curve, and under President Trump's leadership, delivered millions of medical and testing supplies.  The American people must be given the respect they deserve, and be trusted to make the best decisions for themselves and their families, communities, and customers, like many Republican governors have from the start.

Florida scientist makes [her] own COVID-19 map after refusing to doctor state data.  A Florida data scientist who claimed she was fired by the state for not doctoring coronavirus figures released her own COVID-19 map.  Former state Department of Health worker Rebekah Jones said she was fired because she refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen."  So now the enterprising Sunshine Stater has created her own map, similar to Florida's version, except for one major additional detail:  Her map includes report cards for each county on whether they meet the state's criteria for entering the next phase of reopening.  Jones told NPR she hopes to give people a source of trusted information untainted by the politics of reopening.

Fifty-four scientists have lost their jobs as a result of NIH probe into foreign ties.  Some 54 scientists have resigned or been fired as a result of an ongoing investigation by the National Institutes of Health into the failure of NIH grantees to disclose financial ties to foreign governments.  In 93% of those cases, the hidden funding came from a Chinese institution.  The new numbers come from Michael Lauer, NIH's head of extramural research.  Lauer had previously provided some information on the scope of NIH's investigation, which had targeted 189 scientists at 87 institutions.  But his presentation today to a senior advisory panel offered by far the most detailed breakout of an effort NIH launched in August 2018 that has roiled the U.S. biomedical community, and resulted in criminal charges against some prominent researchers, including Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard University's department of chemistry and chemical biology.  "It's not what we had hoped, and it's not a fun task," NIH Director Francis Collins said in characterizing the ongoing investigation.  He called the data "sobering."

The dangers of bowing to the mob and defunding the police.  Over the past few months, I have watched swaths of panicked civilians pressure local, state, and nationally elected officials to shut down global economic activity, lock free people in their homes, force people to cover their faces, allow certain organizations freedom to break those previous rules in order to riot and loot, and most recently begin dismantling police forces.  All of these policies have been enacted with nearly no regard for the downstream societal effects, but rather in an effort to deflect blame or responsibility on to other politicians or entities.  I am deeply troubled and worried about the leadership capabilities and convictions of our politicians in this country from top to bottom.

The COVID Skeptics Were Right.  When Alex Berenson, the former New York Times reporter, said that people will look back on the coronavirus lockdown as a "colossal mistake," many scoffed.  But with each passing day, as the failures of government at every level become clearer, Berenson and other COVID skeptics look increasingly perceptive.  The governmental cure was worse than the disease. [...] The sheer arbitrariness of the lockdown, during which pols, drunk on their new powers, deemed services essential or nonessential depending on their ideological preferences, has been punctuated by the riots and protests, where all the COVID rules suddenly disappeared.  We see nanny-state liberals, formerly so censorious of clustered gatherings, marching arm and arm with Black Lives Matter.  The shutdown revolved around an irrational assessment of risk, one which failed to weigh the consequences of crushing an economy, distorting social life, and suppressing freedom.

The Emperor's New Mask.  The NFL is testing face masks, not for the fans in the stands, but for the players.  Is there a face mask in the world that will stop virus particles from being inhaled when the players are inches apart and slamming into each other at high speeds?  Probably not.  But masks have become a cultural symbol.  That's why masks are being deployed in environments where they're ridiculous and useless.  A strip club in Wyoming reopened with mandatory masks.  At restaurants in Atlanta, waiters wear face masks.  Both are equally silly.  Non-medical masks might stop large droplets, but won't stop small ones.  People interacting at close range will be producing small droplets that a cloth mask won't stop.  When everyone is inches away from each other, talking and exchanging money, the masks are just a fetish.  What a mask says is more important than what it does.

Contact tracing is here, and it's even more frightening than imagined.  [Scroll down]  This is not friendly helpful government reach-out, folks.  This is government coming to your home, coming to your doorstep, telling you to stay at home, out of medical concerns for self and others — and stripping you of your privacies and individual rights to choose, your rights to self-determine, your rights to make your most basic personal health decisions.  And it's going to get worse with technology — with handy-dandy smartphone downloaded apps that do the hard part of data collection currently done by health office personnel.  Beware the app.  Avoid the app.  Beware the entire government contact tracing program.

Dr. Birx Says George Floyd Protests Have Resulted in the Destruction of 70 Covid-19 Testing Sites.  Dr. Deborah Birx, President Trump's coronavirus response coordinator, warned the nation's governors on a conference call that 70 coronavirus testing sites had been destroyed amid widespread protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.  During the Monday [6/8/2020] call, a recording of which was obtained by the Daily Beast, Birx said governors should "scramble now to make sure there is testing available in urban areas."

Obama to the Rescue.  For three years, Resistance Media and a set of political operatives who tag-team with their allies inside the federal bureaucracy have laid siege to the American public through their proxy war against the president they hate — and the country elected.  What the resistance yearned for was the kind of imagery that galvanizes resistance movements from Latin America to the Middle East:  a spectacular act of martyrdom that would crown their campaign of new age political warfare, which began with the Russiagate conspiracy theory, which was followed by a fraudulent impeachment process staged by the same political operatives, CIA officers, and media personalities who pushed "collusion" into the public sphere, to the three-month-long coronavirus lockdowns that were portrayed as matters of life and death only to be magically lifted to combat racism, after leaving nearly 20 million Americans jobless.

Gov. Noem:  Establishment Media Coronavirus Bias Shows in 'What They Choose to Cover, Not Cover'.  Much of America's news media manipulate public perceptions through sensationalism and omission of context to further a political agenda, determined Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), highlighting the industry's broad advocacy for lockdowns in relation to the coronavirus outbreak. [...] Noem continued, "They definitely spent a lot of time attacking — and I would say — really sensationalizing items and pulling out facts that worked for an agenda that they were trying to sell, and then rarely covering the good news of what was happening here in South Dakota, and that really is what is disturbing to me."

Whirled Health Organization.  The WHO has spoken, but (wait for it!) we won't get fooled again.  Once more, they've opened their inept, over-funded, Chinese-owned yaps to spread completely incorrect information about SARS-CoV-2, then issued an immediate retraction when their lies were challenged.  In this case, we're referring to their announcement several days ago that there was virtually no risk of contagion from asymptomatic spreaders, as such cases were "very rare."  Which meant that society could reopen fully and, as long as someone wasn't running a fever or hacking up a lung, social distancing and masks could be forgotten.  Hooray, right?!  Only they've now issued a "clarification" that what they really meant to say was that up to 40% of coronavirus transmission might be due to asymptomatic spread but "more information is needed."  Information which they apparently get by spending way too much time on Facebook.

The WHO Throws a Wrench In What We All Thought About the Coronavirus.  For months we have heard about how asymptomatic people, particularly the young, are unknowingly spreading the Wuhan coronavirus to vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with preexisting conditions.  The World Health Organization on Monday said asymptomatic people spreading the disease is actually "very rare."  "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said during a press conference.  "It's very rare."  Originally, the WHO and the White House Coronavirus Task Force said that otherwise healthy people could contract the Wuhan coronavirus and pass it on to others without knowing it because they lack any symptoms, CNBC reported.  The asymptomatic spread was the very reason most of the nation went on lockdown and social distancing was heavily emphasized.

The Editor says...
Does that mean we can immediately skip to Phase Nine, sound the all-clear signal, throw away the masks, and get back to (the old) normal?

Brazil pulls all coronavirus stats, then releases incompatible numbers.  Outside of the United States, Brazil has the largest number of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections; it's behind only the US and UK in terms of confirmed COVID-caused deaths.  Meanwhile, its leader, President Jair Bolsonaro, has frequently minimized the risks posed by the pandemic and has frequently been photographed taking minimal precautions — going without a face mask and hugging supporters.  Complicating his country's policy response, Bolsonaro has also fired his health minister in the midst of the pandemic, only to see his replacement quit after a month on the job.  All of that took place, however, against a backdrop of detailed data about the known extent of the COVID-19 pandemic within the country, allowing Bolsonaro's public proclamations to be tested against the facts.  Over the weekend, however, all of that data was taken down from government websites.

Recommendation: Do Not Install or Use Centralized Server Coronavirus (COVID-19) Contact Tracing Apps.  As I write this, various governments are rushing to implement — or have already implemented — a wide range of different smartphone apps purporting to be for public health COVID-19 "contact tracing" purposes.  The landscape of these is changing literally hour by hour, but I want to emphasize MOST STRONGLY that all of these apps are not created equal, and that I urge you not to install various of these unless you are required to by law — which can indeed be the case in countries such as China and Poland, just to name two examples.  Without getting into deep technical details here, there are basically two kinds of these contact tracing apps.  The first is apps that send your location or other contact-related data to centralized servers (whether the data being sent is claimed to be "anonymous" or not).  Regardless of promised data security and professed limitations on government access to and use of such data, I do not recommend voluntarily choosing to install and/or use these apps under any circumstances.

WHO Official Says It's "Very Rare" For Asymptomatic Patients To Spread Coronavirus.  How are our scientific experts still at odds over a fact as basic as whether asymptomatic patients are infectious?  There are nearly two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. alone available for study. [...] [H]ow can there be a dispute over one of the disease's most distinguishing characteristics, its supposed transmissibility by people not suffering symptoms?  This was, I thought, essentially the entire reason why COVID-19 was so hard to control and why nothing short of shutting down the economy could slow it down.  We couldn't stop it by quarantining the visibly sick because it wasn't just the visibly sick who were passing it around.

New Marxist frontiers:  The riots cured the incurable virus.  It was the biggest news story and most consequential policy decision of our lifetime.  The lockdowns destroyed potentially 53% of our GDP, paralyzed our health care system, shut down our education system, and induced a physical and mental health crisis along with a social, economic, and labor catastrophe that we still can't begin to conceptualize.  Yet we were told it was absolutely necessary for our survival because of the most dangerous virus ever that required these actions to some degree until there is a vaccine or a cure.  Well, it appears that we found a cure, though not a medical one.  From day one, the coronavirus response was a display of the tail wagging the dog — the media driving the scientific and medical community, not the other way around.  This is why the minute the media found a more exciting narrative to advance their agenda, namely racial strife, not only is the virus is out of the news entirely, but the cult-like devotion to quarantine, wearing masks, and the mind-numbing trope of "social distancing" has been repudiated within hours of the first sacred "protesters" smashing and burning storefronts in Minneapolis last week.

Trump critics used major study on hydroxychloroquine to attack him — the authors just retracted it.  An influential study in the Lancet used to attack the president for recommending the use of hydroxychloroquine against the coronavirus has been retracted after overwhelming criticism.  The editors of the publication explained on Thursday that the authors of the study could not obtain the dataset in the study in order for third-party reviewers to confirm the results.  The original study was published in the Lancet on March 22.  "Our independent peer reviewers informed us that Surgisphere would not transfer the full dataset, client contracts, and the full ISO audit report to their servers for analysis as such transfer would violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements," the authors said in the retraction.

They Blinded Us With "Science".  How would our leaders get through this pandemic without "the science"? It's never been obvious just what "the science" is, or why anyone would speak of science as a single truth, but the role it plays is quite clear. [...] Why, for instance, was the upstate New York economy shut down for more than two months, despite the small number of cases of Covid-19 in rural counties?  Why, as some offices and barber shops and other upstate businesses were finally about to reopen at the end of May, did Governor Andrew Cuomo infuriate local officials by suddenly announcing that this decision could not be made by them — or even by himself?  "We'll give the experts all the data," he explained.  "And if they say we should move forward, we move forward."  Everyone's fate now rests with the new oracles.

With recovery of last case, New Zealand has eradicated virus.  New Zealand appears to have completely eradicated the coronavirus — at least for now — after health officials said Monday the last known infected person had recovered.  The announcement was greeted with joy around the country and means the nation of 5 million people will be among the first to welcome throngs of fans back into sports stadiums, embrace crowded concerts and remove seating restrictions from flights.

The Real Looters are the Politicians.  In Portland, Oregon, "rioters have broken into Portland's main mall in downtown and began looting the Louis Vuitton.  Youths ran out with designer bags.  They shouted about expropriation," as Andy Ngo tweeted.  But that state suffered far more from Gov. Kate Brown's edict that banned residents from leaving their homes except for essential work, buying food, and other narrow exemptions, and also banned all recreational travel, even though much of the state had few if any COVID cases.  Almost 400,000 Oregonians have lost their jobs after Brown's shutdown.  In Grand Rapids, Michigan, looters pillaged a shoe store and many other businesses.  But the damage they inflicted was not even pocket change compared to the wreckage produced by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.  She prohibited anyone from leaving their home to visit family or friends.  Whitmer severely restricted what stores could sell; she prohibited purchasing seeds for spring planting in stores after she decreed that a "nonessential" activity (unlike buying state lottery tickets).  Though COVID infections were concentrated in the Detroit metropolitan area, Whitmer shut down the entire state — including northern counties with near-zero infections and zero fatalities, boosting unemployment to 24% statewide.

New Pandemic-Related Disorder: 'Zoom Fatigue'.  Looks like working from home turns out to be not so 'perfect' after all.

Here are three examples of why public trust in the scientific community is waning.  Many in the medical and scientific community have publicly come out in support of Black Lives Matter and the protests dominating the news.  It's a free country, that's their right to individually do so but it is quite another thing for their personal opinions to affect public health recommendations. [...] Protesting during a pandemic is doable if the cause is righteous, that's the message being sent.  An open letter signed by 1,300 epidemiologists and public health experts says that "protests against systemic racism, which fosters the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on Black communities and also perpetuates police violence, must be supported."  These professionals specifically say that their support of racial injustice protests does not mean they endorse other gatherings — you know, like protests about stay-at-home orders.  The open letter actually says that "COVID-19 among black patients is yet another lethal manifestation of white supremacy."

Why Did they Close the Schools?  On March 12, 2020, a banshee-like cry went out to an email list of public health professionals and government officials who were then in a state of mental meltdown.  Pull the trigger now, screamed the memo.  Close the schools.  As with any email chain, there were a few dominant voices who post more than others and with more passion, while others shrink back in fear of being shamed.  Such was the case here: one disciple of computer modeling, Dr. Carter Mecher of the Veterans Administration, was convinced that the coronavirus was another Spanish Flu.  Why he didn't explain.  Mostly he wanted to try out his closure/lockdown/social-distance model on which he had been working for 14 years since he first became a convert to agent-based modeling techniques.  Coronavirus of 2020 was as good an excuse as any.  Mecher emerged as the leader of the list, sending hundreds of messages of increasing alarm.

Desperate FakeNews Media in Overdrive.  [Scroll down]  Start with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a drug that's been around for 60 years and is one of the safer drugs currently on the market.  Ever since President Trump spoke of its potential benefits against the Wuhan virus, the medical establishment and fake news media have been in overdrive to discredit it.  If only Barack Obama had mentioned it early on as a potential treatment, then it would be in widespread use by now and Obama would be booking a trip to Sweden to collect the Nobel Prize in medicine.  But since the Orange Man promoted it, the predominantly left-wing medical establishment have been on a jihad against the drug.  The Lancet, a once prestigious medical journal, recently retracted a study they published, supposedly debunking any benefits of HCQ. The study was performed by a sketchy data analytics company with only five employees, four of whom joined the company only recently after Trump began mentioning hydroxy.  It appears that The Lancet was so eager to publish the paper that, "They were unable to complete an independent audit of the data underpinning their analysis."

Maybe it never was all that bad.
Doctors around world say COVID-19 may be losing its potency, becoming less deadly.  Doctors across the world are offering preliminary but encouraging reports that the coronavirus may be losing steam and becoming less deadly:  a behavior observed in at least one respiratory pandemic before, and a welcome sign for a world weary of nonstop COVID-19 fears.  Optimism over the coronavirus has been in short supply since January, when public health officials and politicians began publicly and repeatedly speculating that COVID-19 may be a semi-permanent fixture of global life for the foreseeable future, possibly for years.  The phrase "the new normal" has become an omnipresent part of American life, with medical experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci speculating that Americans may never shake each other's hands again, and some officials imagining that "social distancing" may persist into 2022 if not beyond.

Just Like That, Gun Control Support and COVID-19 Died This Week.  [Scroll down]  The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine had rushed into print articles from a sketchy outfit, Surgisphere.  These studies had not been peer-reviewed and seem to have been pure poppycock.  In the Lancet, it was about the effectiveness of hydrochloroquine and chloroquine, anti-malarial drugs the President had suggested might be effective in treating COVID-19 and which grandma-killer Governor Andrew Cuomo had banned as a treatment in New York.  Both once-prestigious medical journals have long been losing credibility, and this will certainly drive their authority down even further. [...] If there's no increase in COVID-19 cases after these tightly packed marauder marches, were they wrong then when they told us to stay locked down and away from crowds?

COVID and Climate Models Will Not Save Us.  We are possibly witnessing the most destructive scientific fraud in the history of man via the COVID-19 pandemic while shutting down the U.S. economy.  Hysteria is destroying people's lives.  This level of "groupthink has drove [sic] unnecessary global shutdowns."  When the majority of U.S. deaths those of and countries like Italy occur in nursing homes from the coronavirus, it's time to bring medical facts from physicians into this discussion.  One epidemiologist, Knut Wittkowski, has gone so far as to say:  "We could open up again and forget the whole thing" (COVID-19).  Stanford University School of Medicine professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, would likely agree with Dr. Wittkowski.  The deathblow for ending U.S. and global lockdowns comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC): [...]

Stanford study suggests coronavirus might not be as deadly as flu.  One of the great unknowns of the Covid-19 crisis is just how deadly the disease is.  Much of the panic dates from the moment, in early March, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) published a mortality rate of 3.2 percent — which turned out to be a crude 'case fatality rate' dividing the number of deaths by the number of recorded cases, ignoring the large number of cases which are asymptomatic or otherwise go unrecorded.  The Imperial College modelling, which has been so influential on the government, assumed an infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.9 percent.  This was used to compute the infamous prediction that 250,000 Britons would die unless the government abandoned its mitigation strategy and adopted instead a policy of suppressing the virus through lockdown.  Imperial later revised its estimate of the IFR down to 0.66 percent — although the 16 March paper which predicted 250,000 deaths was not updated.

Biden's Floyd Funeral Campaign Stunt Exposes The Elitist Left's Lies.  The Daily Wire reports that Joe Biden is expected to attend George Floyd's funeral.  Biden, however, is not expected to attend the funerals of any of the innocent Americans murdered during riots over the past two weeks. [...] But that's not the most outrageous thing about this story. [...] [There will be] "Hundreds, if not thousands, of attendees."  Some of them apparently flying in from around the country.  Normally, there would be nothing outrageous about this.  Except that, for the past three months, many Americans have not been able to attend the funeral services of their own family members due to COVID-19 restrictions.  In most states, funeral attendance was capped at 10 or 15 people, and only graveside services were allowed.  These are the guidelines still recommended by the CDC.

Chicago Opening Grant Park and Union Park For Protesters To Gather This Weekend.  Grant Park and Union Park will be designated spots for demonstrators to gather this weekend, as part of a plan announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot Friday [6/5/2020].  But Chicago just entered Phase 3 of the governor's reopen plan, and groups of 10 or more are still prohibited.  Or are they?  The city expects hundreds if not thousands to gather peacefully this weekend.  In addition to opening up Grant and Union parks, portions of Lake Shore Drive will also be shut down to deal with the crowds.

The Editor says...
This proves that the coronavirus lockdowns and "social distancing" restrictions are entirely political, and not based on immunology or public safety.  It is evident that the lockdowns can be lifted at any moment, upon the whim of the mayor, for the benefit of certain politically-favored classes:  In this case, anarchists, troublemakers, and potential rioters.  It's all nakedly political now.  If you're still wearing a mask and still worried about catching a virus-related disease at this late date, you aren't paying attention.

The Green New Deal Dress Rehearsal.  More than 1.4 million cases of Wuhan Coronavirus and 106,000 deaths in the United States alone have accompanied stay-home lockdowns, businesses bankruptcies, over 40 million unemployed workers, plummeting tax revenues and unprecedented debt.  Ongoing rioting, vandalism, arson and looting are compounding problems for many cities and minority communities.  But where many see disaster, others see opportunity.  Some want to use the crises to enact laws and welfare programs they could never get otherwise.  More ambitious activists see the lockdown as a blueprint or dress rehearsal for a total energy, economic and lifestyle transformation to "save the planet."  If three months of Covid lockdowns can reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, they argue, permanent fossil fuel bans are not just possible; they should be undertaken immediately.

Pandemic to Protests:  Coverage Shifted But Outlooks Didn't.  After three months of wall-to-wall television coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost overnight the live infection dashboards and often-uttered phrases like "social distancing" have all but disappeared, replaced with images of a nation in racial turmoil.  How are the major cable news channels covering the protests and what do their different narratives teach us about how the media frames national events?  The data provide some clues.  Since late February, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News have spent at least 15% of their daily airtime on the pandemic, based on data from the Internet Archive's Television News Archive processed by the GDELT Project.  CNN displayed a live dashboard of infection and death counts a total of nine hours a day, seven days a week.  As much as half of all news coverage worldwide mentioned the virus.

Former MI6 Spy Chief:  Coronavirus Was 'Accident' From Chinese Lab, Trump's 'Hardline' Approach is 'Right'.  The former head of MI6, the United Kingdom's foreign intelligence service, has asserted that the coronavirus "started as an accident" in a Chinese laboratory and that President Trump's "hardline" China policy is "right."  Speaking on the Telegraph's podcast 'Planet Normal', Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, is the latest voice to corroborate reports on coronavirus' man-made origins.  Many — including President Trump — have alleged the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the virus' source since it's located where the disease first spread.

Medical Journal Retracts Study Claiming Hydroxychloroquine Is Dangerous.  A widely read study claiming the use of the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus leads to an increased risk of death has been retracted, the study's publisher said Thursday [6/4/2020].  The Lancet, the medical journal that published the original study in late May, said in a statement that they "can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources," and "due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted."  "We all entered this collaboration to contribute in good faith and at a time of great need during the COVID-19 pandemic," they said.  "We deeply apologise to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused."

Lancet Formally Retracts Fake Hydroxychloroquine Study Used By Media To Attack Trump.  The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal that published a 96,000-subject study indicting the efficacy of the politically controversial hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 has retracted its findings that the malaria medication led to an increased risk of death.  "Today, three of the authors of the paper, 'Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis", have retracted their study," The Lancet said in a retraction statement Thursday [6/4/2020].  "They were unable to complete an independent audit of the data underpinning their analysis.  As a result, they have concluded that they 'can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources."

America in the 21st Century: 20 Long Years of Constant Brainwashing.  Hey, what happened to all those pervasive, ubiquitous messages from March, April and May, telling us ten thousand times every day to wash our hands and stay at home?  It was a hell of a brainwashing campaign carried out by our national news media and governments at all levels, and now it has basically vanished.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has gone from being the national grandfather figure who hands out constantly-shifting and always-wrong advice on your TV screen every day to some old guy cooped up on his basement who gets an interview with some daytime hack on MSNBC or CNN once or twice a week.  He told us yesterday he was very concerned about a coming new outbreak of COVID-19 due to the lack of social distancing being practiced by the looters and burners and rioters in the nation's big, Democrat-run cities, but no one was listening, which frankly is not a bad thing.  Mind you, he told us that while the very same statistical modeling idiots who projected 2 million Americans would die of this virus were now saying that, hey, all the staying at home and social distancing and washing our hands had no effect on the spread of the virus whatsoever.  But you weren't supposed to hear that.

Why Should We Trust Health Experts Ever Again?  [Scroll down]  Except, now we know that the study was, at best, sketchy [...] and unverifiable.  At worst, the data was entirely made up.  But the health experts, including those at leading medical journals, pushed the study as if it were gospel truth.  The CDC has been plagued by ineffective dawdling, and it really showed in this crisis.  The FDA couldn't do anything until the bureaucratic red tape was cut.  The health experts in government and out were all offering such convoluted and contrasting opinions from the start.  Their statements, when they were useful to the media in attacking Trump, were blared out across all the headlines to make sure everyone knew Trump is an idiot and he is unfit to be the leader of this country.  But whenever any of those narratives failed upon closer inspection, they were dropped.  It's as if they never existed.  Those experts, many of whom seemed just as willing as the media to make a comment solely at the expense of Trump, have really hurt their own credibility.  And the result is going to be, once again, a lack of trust in the experts from here on out.  Why should we pay attention to or trust medical experts when they have so clearly beclowned themselves for media exposure.

Comrade Whitmer Suspends COVID-19 Virus Mitigation To Facilitate Crowd Marching.  Comrades, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered the COVID-19 Virus to suspend the random infection operation while she organizes political marches to support the family of George Floyd.  All expressions of political protestation are not created equal.  Apparently the virus reluctantly agreed to conform with the request, and Fraulein Whitmer was permitted to violate her own social distancing rules and regulations.

Democrats give DOJ liars and conspirators a free pass.  Over the past few months, the media have subjected the public to a barrage of opinions about lockdowns, infections, and the value of a human life compared with the livelihood required to sustain it.  What qualifies as "common sense" changes by the hour; still, media influencers strictly police challenges to buzzy slogans meant to keep people afraid and at home.  Their cheap moral panic has turned the national discourse into a roulette wheel of grievance and threats that determines at random who is allowed to speak and on what terms.

How Do We Go From Cheering Cops to Hating Them in One Week?  Not too long ago, New Yorkers and city-dwellers across the country took a break from their busy lives to stand by their windows and cheer first-responders, which include cops, who were literally putting their life on the lines during the coronavirus outbreak.  Police officers assisted with transporting COVID-19 patients and continued to patrol the streets and risk infection from a violent suspect.  These police officers — like many first-responders — were finally getting the recognition that they deserved.  What a difference a week makes.

NYC City Councilman:  Blame Racism, Not Riots, for Post-Riot Coronavirus Uptick.  In February, this is the same person who told people to go to Chinese New Year celebrations:  "If you are staying away, you are missing out!" According to Mark Levine, Chair of New York City Council health committee, if there's an increase in coronavirus cases following the violent riots, racism will be to blame.

Democrats at War.  The Democrat party is at war with America.  That is the clear message of the Democrats' responses to the crises that have engulfed our nation over the last six months, made our streets war zones, and destroyed the small business communities that are the lifeblood of our system.  When the country was attacked by a deadly virus from China in January, the Democrats attacked the president's efforts to stop it at the border, then blamed him for the 100,000 deaths that followed.  Yet Democrat governors controlled the health systems of every major center of the covid19 devastation and were 100% responsible for any policies that failed.  When the president attempted to re-open the economy in May, Democrat governors and mayors issued draconian orders to arrest individuals violating their "social distancing" injunctions by strolling in parks, lounging on beaches and — worst of all — attempting to revive their barbershops and salons.

Was it Ever Really About the Virus?  For the past four months, [...] [w]e have heard about ventilators and ICU beds, social distancing and masks, death counts and vaccines, all to the point of over-saturation. [...] But suddenly it all stopped.  Coronavirus has been the most searched term on Google in 2020. At the time of this writing, on the last day of May, three-quarters of the top trending Google searches relate to the country-wide riots over the death of George Floyd.  Virtually no searches of the Chinese coronavirus. [...] How could such a black swan event disappear from the news so quickly?  This is another example of Rush Limbaugh's "drive-by media", quickly driving past a story that is no longer of use or relevance to the DNC media apparatus.  Was the past four months of media hysteria and panic really about the virus?  Or was it instead a means to a desired end?

The Rule of Doctors Threatens Trump's Reelection, American Well-Being.  [Scroll down]  The anti-Trump media immediately jumped into the fray, warning of plagues, boils, locusts, and frogs falling from the sky; in a trice, the second coming of the Black Death was upon us.  Millions would die, they confidently predicted, based on airy-fairy "models" from second-tier British universities (the same kinds of places that gave us the "global warming" hoax a decade ago).  If drastic measures weren' t taken right away, American streets would soon look like the zombie dystopia of "The Walking Dead."  Out of either ignorance or willfulness, the media began conflating infections with demises — this for a virus to which young and fit people with strong immune systems are essentially insusceptible, and whose greatest damage is done among an extremely elderly population with such comorbidities as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease — and even then, largely among people in nursing homes.  New York City's abnormally high death rate was merged with the overall national numbers, making things look worse even for folks in rural environments, where the disease is practically unknown.  Then, the goalposts started moving.  The measures, we were told, were to "flatten the curve" in order to slow the spread and thus prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.  When the hospitals weathered the outbreaks, we were told that the resumption of normal activity wouldn't be safe until widespread testing was underway, or until a vaccine was developed, or until the Twelfth of Never, whichever came first.

Fear: The Best Tool of the Ruling Class.  [Scroll down]  With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, pandemonium erupted worldwide as fear of the unknown initially governed both social and scientific responses.  Leaders abhor the prospect of telling a frightened public that they do not know how to respond to a new pathogen.  Informed response would require a learning curve time-span to fully understand the clinical impact on the public, but no one wants to be the unfortunate guinea pig awaiting nature's random death sentence.  Experts in epidemiology and infectious diseases were tapped for advice, and they turned to computer models for answers.  Years of failed computer-based climate predictions would be no reason to doubt the ability of virus modeling to predict its worldwide impact.  By mid-March, the computer had spoken and British scientist Neil Ferguson reported that many millions would die. [...] Subsequently, the computer derived predictions of millions of deaths proved to be grossly exaggerated.

Maine Governor Blocks Restaurant Openings, Advises Selling Food to Prisons.  Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills reversed her decision last week to allow restaurants in the state's southern counties to reopen June 1, suggesting to owners they sell already purchased perishable foods to prisons at the government contract rate.  Just days before restaurants in Cumberland, York, and Androscoggin Counties were slated to reopen to allow for indoor dining with health and safety measures in place, the governor reversed course, claiming an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the region.

We Must Stop Falling for the Coronavirus Moral Crusade.  Unlike agenda-driven climate change "crisis" claims, the COVID-19 pandemic has provoked blameless cause both for rampant dread and community behavioral restrictions that nobody expected nor wanted.  The rapidity and presumed lethality of the menacing invisible onslaught caught the whole world off guard and immune-defenseless.  Drastic safety responses were warranted.  Forceful behavioral controls were enacted.  Dangerous political precedents were established.  Although devastating, eventual hindsight will likely prove the coronavirus Armageddon- level fear factor to have been exaggerated.  We now know the virus is not nearly as deadly as early data from China suggested.  Lacking clear understanding of the new virus or good population infection and mortality data, early model-based casualty projections were substantially overestimated.

Leftie Governor Cooper Kills RNC Convention in Charlotte Due to COVID-19, Then Goes and Marches with Leftist Mob in Street.  Governor Roy Cooper was out walking with leftist protesters on Tuesday without his mask on.  Masks are for the peons.  Governor Cooper walked with leftist marchers despite their disregard for his coronavirus orders. [...] Governor Cooper wrote the RNC on Tuesday [6/2/2020] and told them he cannot guarantee a full convention due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO guidance:  Healthy people should wear masks only when 'taking care of' coronavirus patients.  The World Health Organization is recommending healthy people, including those who don't exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion, a sharp contrast from the advice given by American public health officials who recommend everyone wear a mask in public.  "If you do not have any respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough or runny nose, you do not need to wear a mask," Dr. April Baller, a public health specialist for the WHO, says in a video on the world health body's website posted in March.  "Masks should only be used by health care workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms of fever and cough."

The Risks vs.  Benefits of Face Masks.  There has been a shifting of positions on the use of face masks with the COVID-19 outbreak.  Initially it was not recommended, then we had different signals from the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and representatives of the CDC, the NIH and other agencies.  More recently, the policies recommending wearing face masks have become more prevalent and often mandated in public places.  Is there sound medical or scientific basis for the recommendations?  Is much of it simply virtue signaling?  Is there a legitimate rationale to do it to protect the vulnerable?  And if so, at what cost to the rest of society?

Dr. Fauci We'd Like a Second Opinion.  While Covid-19 can be deadly, so can delaying needed healthcare procedures because hospitals are closed to non-Covid patients.  Delaying treatments for concer or other chronic diseases can dramatically worsen treatment outcomes.  There are thousands of hospitals across the nation that do not have a serious problem with Covid patients but are banned from treating ordinary patients.

Scathing letter from health department insiders says N.J.'s pandemic failures led to 'preventable deaths'.  New Jersey's response to the pandemic inside nursing homes was "an unmitigated failure" that led to "preventable deaths," a group of anonymous health department employees charged in a letter to lawmakers Monday.  Moreover, the administration "is making things up as they proceed" in order to reopen the economy, the writers also allege.  The letter, sent to Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union and obtained by NJ Advance Media, also calls for the resignation of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and an investigation into other top administration officials who they said have mishandled the state's response.

Journalists Forget Their Own Predictions:  Millions of Americans to Die.  [Scroll down]  By this point, there were estimates aplenty in the media that there would be anywhere from almost a half million to 1.5 million to 2.2 million dead Americans.  But mysteriously in all the stories about the 100,000 dead Americans there is no mention — zero — of earlier media predictions that there would be ten or twenty times that number of deaths.  Not to mention that the media seems reluctant to focus on just why the number is up to 100,000 in the first place.

No Large Crowds at Church, But Street Protests are Fine.  According to the city of Memphis, citizens aren't supposed to hold large weddings or church services, but you can gather in a large protest and block part of Union Avenue.  The city government says you're supposed to stand six feet apart in bigger groups, but is it fine to be crammed together if it's for the "right" cause?  This is what the city seems to be implying when they allowed a group of more than 200 people to protest police brutality against minorities Wednesday evening.

8 Reasons Why I Don't Wear A Mask And You Probably Shouldn't Either.  The partisan divide over mandatory face coverings is one of the more interesting, if sad, twists of the Chinese coronavirus era.  On the one hand, the mask police insist that not wearing one is equivalent to being a literal Typhoid Mary and trying to purposefully kill everyone's grandma.  On the other, many conservatives, including this one, see it as yet another unnecessary and overblown reaction to what has been a pandemic defined by unnecessary and overblown reactions, and a particularly unsightly one at that.  Regardless of how you come down on the issue, nobody should condemn anyone for their choice of wearing or not wearing a mask.  That's my position, but sadly it's not shared by mask-shamer Karens and would-be tin-pot dictator Democratic governors who revel in their newfound godlike power to order citizens around like peasants.  Now that they've lost the war on staying locked down forever, they now seem to think everyone, everywhere, should be masked from now until the Wuhan virus disappears from the planet.

Riots are going to be the end of lockdowns.  Initially, political leaders said shutdowns were temporary expedients to ensure that infections were spread out over a longer period of time so that when there was a peak, the case count was low enough that it wouldn't overwhelm hospitals and trigger a collapse of the medical system.  Once that goal was achieved, however, leaders remained illogically reluctant to reopen the economy and transitioned from talking about hospital capacity to a supposed need to stay shut down until people felt safe.  The number of new coronavirus cases peaked in April and have been declining for the past month, even as states started easing restrictions and as testing has ramped up.  Nonetheless, scolds have spent the last few weeks on social media lashing out at those gathering on beaches, in parks, and by pools.  They have tried to shame people who don't wear masks even in the wide-open outdoors, where science has shown the risk of transmission is vanishingly low.

The Fog Is Lifted.  As the fog lifts on the mystery of the virus, we are beginning to see more clearly.  We know multiple things.  First, we can beat it.  Whether we mitigated correctly, or the models were entirely wrong, or it never was as bad as advertised, we don't know yet.  But we do know that we know how to beat it.  This, in spite of the nonsensical Democratic Party lockdown governors.  We also know that the hard-left apparatchiks know we have beaten it.  We also know that these same apparatchiks know that the economy will rebound strong and have better numbers than ever before the election.  It's pretty clear:  these leftist party leaders failed miserably trying to blame the virus on Trump.  Polls show he is the one most trusted, not they.  Their own failed policies in their states and cities are legion.  They not only failed, but consigned tens of thousands of seniors to death with their horrifying nursing home edicts and failed policies.  Manslaughter in plain sight.

The TRACE Act and the Rule of Law.  On May 1, 2020, Democratic congressman Bobby Rush introduced bill H.R. 6666, otherwise known as the "Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act" ("TRACE Act").  Ostensibly, the TRACE Act will limit the spread of COVID-19 by creating "mobile health units" that will "conduct diagnostic testing... trace and monitor the contacts of infected individuals" and then "support the quarantine of such contacts."  The TRACE Act allocates $100 billion in federal funds to facilitate this project.  Rush says "increased testing and contact tracing is the only way we will get back normal and safely reopen our economy."  Basically, Rush's position is that America should remained locked down until everyone is tested.  The TRACE Act will not keep Americans healthy or safe.  Instead, it will erode what remains of our constitutional freedoms — freedoms which have been all but washed away during the pandemic's hysteria.  Although the TRACE ACT has been sponsored by over 50 congressmen it received very little media coverage.

The CDC confirms remarkably low coronavirus death rate.  Where is the media?  Most people are more likely to wind up six feet under because of almost anything else under the sun other than COVID-19.  The CDC just came out with a report that should be earth-shattering to the narrative of the political class, yet it will go into the thick pile of vital data and information about the virus that is not getting out to the public.  For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26%.

Coronavirus may have been created in a Wuhan lab 'genetic engineering' experiment.  A growing number of scientists are raising the possibility COVID-19 was created in a laboratory, saying the option cannot be ruled out.  Leading immunologists and geneticists have told Sky News that there are two unusual things about COVID-19 that open the door to it being man-made rather than a naturally-occurring virus.  The first curious characteristic of COVID-19 is that the virus binds to human ACE2 receptor cells more strongly than it does to any other animal, including bats.

Disputed Hydroxychloroquine Study Brings Scrutiny to Surgisphere.  Surgisphere Corporation, the company that supplied data for a controversial study on the health risks of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients published in The Lancet last week (May 22), has found itself in the spotlight after researchers raised questions about the dataset.  The Lancet study, which lists Surgisphere founder and CEO Sapan Desai as one of four coauthors, reported harmful effects tied to the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine among patients with COVID-19.  In response to the findings, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several other health organizations stopped or suspended clinical trials of the drug while they look more closely into the compound's safety.

LancetGate: Pulling a Fast One on Proponents of Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine.  The Lancet is one of the world's oldest and best-known medical journals.  According to its "manifesto," it "sets extremely high standards.  We select only the best research papers for their quality of work and the progression they bring. ... We recognize that a great research paper is not enough and that it requires development, mobilization and exposure.  So we promise to set agendas, create context, inform leaders, start debates, and advocate for the idea that research can and will make a difference."  Pursuant to that mission statement, on May 22, 2020, the Lancet published a study by Dr. Mandeep R. Mehra of the Harvard Medical School and Dr. Sapan S. Desai of Surgisphere Corporation that concluded that the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ) did not improve the condition of COVID-19 patients and may have harmed some of them.  The study was purportedly based on the medical records of 15,000 patients who received either HCQ or CQ and 81,000 who did not.  This study set off an orgy of celebration by the progressive media.

Blaming White Supremacists For The Riots Is Nonsensical Gaslighting.  On Saturday morning [5/30/2020] Minnesota officials came out with an audacious and absurd explanation for the looting and arson that struck Minneapolis this week.  Apparently it was white supremacists from out of state who pretended to be actual protestors in an attempt to discredit the protest.  The evidence?  A vague claim and a lie.  It turns out that most of those arrested were actually Minnesota residents.  The hypocritical mental gymnastics from the liberal media in the past 72 hours were amazing enough to earn a perfect 10 from the stingiest East German judge.  First, we watched tens of thousands of people hold mass gatherings across the country, which just last week we were told would kill everyone, and the media suddenly didn't care.  It's like the Chinese virus just went away by magic.

Nancy Pelosi Lectures About Wearing Masks, While Not Wearing A Mask.  [Video clip]

The Media's Top Lies and Spins About COVID-19.  In such uncertain times, Americans can only hope that the media would follow suit and put aside partisan politics in the face of a global pandemic.  Sadly, some journalists and fake news outlets can't help themselves.  The media distorts and misleads, takes statements out of context, treats assumptions as facts, and in general, seems to want to sow as much rancor and fear as possible.  This is irresponsible journalism in a time when the nation needs just the opposite.

L.A. Reporter Goes Off:  Floyd Protests Expose 'How Ridiculous and Arbitrary' Stay at Home Lectures Have Been.  As the protesting/rioting/looting has played out in cities across America this week, I've noticed that there's one particularly important piece of information mainstream media reporters and Democrats have curiously left out of their stories/tweets on the protests.  Where are all the lectures from them about staying at home, social distancing, and wearing masks?  A few Democratic politicians, like the inept mayor of Minneapolis, have virtue signaled to protesters about wearing masks and social distancing, but most of our intellectual betters in the Democratic party and the MSM have largely gone silent on the matter.

Imagining covid-19 under a normal press.  [The New York] Times embraced abnormalcy in August 2016 when it demanded journalists abandon objectivity when covering Donald John Trump.  The Times demanded that journalists treat every statement by him as a lie that he must somehow prove.  The Times also demanded that journalists no longer seek his side of the story when reporting the news. [...] The Pandemic Panic is on the press, not the president.  The press has politicized the covid-19 response.  A normal press would have been careful and balanced in its reporting.  This press is loony.  At one press briefing four different reporters in four different ways asked the president if calling the Chinese Virus the Chinese Virus was racist.

COVID Senicide — The Overlooked Tragedy.  Nursing homes care for the elderly and infirm in our society.  These vulnerable citizens have fared poorly during the Wuhan virus pandemic. [...] New York has the highest nursing home death toll.  As AP reports,  ["]Of the nation's more than 26,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, a fifth of them — about 5,300 — are in New York, according to a count by The Associated Press, and the toll has been increasing by an average of 20 to 25 deaths a day for the past few weeks.["] The New York Post ups this number to an estimated 11-12 thousand nursing home deaths in New York State, half of the state's COVID fatalities.  This population is particularly vulnerable to the Wuhan virus often due to age and associated medical problems.

In a pandemic, no one wants to touch it.  Why cash has become the new Typhoid Mary.  The Almighty Dollar has lost some of its might in the time of COVID-19.  While most struggling businesses will take payment in any form to make ends meet during the economic downtown, a minority reject cash, fearing that it could be a transmission vehicle for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Some experts predict that the pandemic will accelerate a steady flight by American consumers away from dollars and cents.

The Editor says...
The abolition of cash has been a goal of the political left for a long time.  The coronavirus hysteria is just a little leverage toward that end.  Nobody other than the one-in-a-million germophobe like Howie Mandel or Howard Hughes is afraid to handle money.

Showboating With 100,000 Dead.  On May 27, the American coronavirus death toll rose to six figures:  100,000 lives lost.  That's a very sad number, made sadder when we ponder that the virus prevents loved ones from saying goodbye in person and makes any funeral an extremely small event.  America's largest national newspapers have all made dramatic front pages out of the number.  The New York Times came first on Sunday [5/24/2020], filling its entire front page and three more pages with names of the victims.  USA Today followed on Wednesday with an entire front page in black and white and photos of the dead.  The Washington Post waited until we reached the horrible number but still printed some stories on the front page.

Maine's Governor Janet Mills pulls the rug out from under restaurant owners she had okayed to reopen.  Maine restaurant owners are going to have a lot of rotting food and idled staff on their hands, after their governor suddenly reversed a decision to allow them to re-open on June 1st.  Having made the mistake of trusting their state governor, Janet Mills, the restaurants that were able to survive the lockdown spent scarce funds restocking their supplies and rehiring staff, in preparation for the promised reopening.  But not so fast!

Mask Hysteria.  few days ago, people in a Staten Island grocery store collectively shrieked in panicked terror because a fellow shopper was not wearing a surgical mask.  Hysteria quickly ensued, with masked shoppers forming a threatening mob, as some howled, "GET OUT! GET OUT!" and driving the non-masked deviant away from the store.  Watching the video on Twitter (of course!) was like seeing people in the Old Testament shrieking "Unclean!  Unclean!" at an approaching leper.  Were these terrified people justified in ejecting the maskless shopper from their midst as a means of peer pressure to wear a mask?  Joe Biden's chief health adviser, the bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, would probably say yes.  He has argued in the New York Times that mask-wearing should be universal and imposed by law.

A behind-the-scenes battle raged between top Murphy aides over $500k contract as nursing home deaths mounted.  New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and senior officials in Gov. Phil Murphy's administration clashed behind the scenes over the cost of a $500,000 contract for a consultant the state hired to help navigate the deadly coronavirus crisis inside the state's nursing homes, NJ Advance Media has learned.  Murphy announced May 6 that Persichilli had retained Manatt Health, a national health advisory consulting group, to assess the state's response to the coronavirus in long-term care facilities, where one in 13 residents have died in the pandemic.  And Persichilli seemed in full accord with the governor.  "They're going to hit the ground running," she said of the high-profile consultants.  But inside the administration, a different story was playing out.  In private conversations recorded without her knowledge and shared by a source with NJ Advance Media, Persichilli complained about the cost of the three-week contract with Manatt and the company's lack of experience with running nursing homes.  In the recording, she tells several unnamed colleagues that she initially had refused to sign it — even as she came under pressure from the governor's top advisors.

Virtue Signaling Masks [are] Smothering Our Society.  I have spent a lot of time since early March in the woods, in the company of birds, geese, a wild rabbit, a fox visiting my yard daily, squirrels, a racoon, five deer who enjoy the grass in our back yard at dusk, one coyote, wasps, bumblebees, a majestic eagle, a water snake, the river, flowers, grasses, two ospreys, and a lot of mud.  The daily trips to the woods saved my sanity when everything around me turned irrational and abnormal, "socially distancing" from other humans as if they had the bubonic plague, the "new normal" as the Democrat leaders turned Stalinists and their lackey mainstream media have been telling us non-stop for twelve weeks now.  Insane lefties took up the crusade of forcing everyone to wear face masks outside, in the woods, in state parks, in the house, in stores, while jogging, biking, in grocery stores, and in their own cars when they were driving alone.  A fashion industry has quickly popped up with useless face masks of various shapes, sizes, thickness, colors, and messages that fit the submissive and scared-to-death personality of the wearer.

The "Experts" Have Scammed The World, and EVERYONE Has Fallen For It.  An extensive collection of links to stoke your doubts about coronavirus dangers.

Why Were 'Experts' So Wrong About Florida?  Last week, the Florida National Guard offered free COVID-19 testing in Collier County, but they weren't overwhelmed with panic-stricken residents seeking tests.  Located on the state's southwest coast, Collier has not been a viral hotspot, and there seems to be little danger of a major outbreak there.  With a population of about 385,000, the county has reported 1,334 coronavirus infections since March.  Only 178 of those cases required hospitalization, and as of Wednesday, the county had recorded 46 deaths from the disease.  The worst problem for local residents was when Naples reopened its beaches earlier this month, prompting an influx of "out-of-towners," including residents from the Miami area, which has the highest COVID-19 rate in the state and where beaches are still closed.

When Science Becomes a Cult:  Granted, some of the public health failures surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic were the result of incomplete data, but many of them could have been avoided:
  •   Experts wildly over-projected the number of deaths, relying, in part, on a computer model that was poorly coded and unvetted.
  •   Experts locked down the entire country, ignoring differences in population density between rural areas and cities and vulnerability due to age and underlying conditions.
  •   Experts ignored lessons from the 1918 pandemic, which showed that lockdowns result in more infections and deaths by preventing herd immunity (National Academy of Sciences).
  •   Experts told us not to wear a mask, then told us that everyone must wear a mask, despite studies that suggest that cloth masks are ineffective.
  •   Experts tell us the masks protect those around us, ignoring previous research that showed that masks are much more effective in protecting the wearer (Plos One Journal).
  •   Experts told us we need to "flatten the curve" before we can open up society.  Now some are moving the goalpost, saying we should wait until vaccinations are administered.
  •   Experts did little to communicate the inherent uncertainties of their projections and the advice they were dispensing, thus creating a false sense of public trust.

The Science Turns Against America's Mask Fascists.  No less than the New England Journal of Medicine has dealt a body blow to America's growing army of mask fascists with the news that "wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection."  The reasons for this are both simple and logical: ["]We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.  Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal.  In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.["]

Hydroxychloroquine, Me, and the Great Divide.  I took hydroxychloroquine for two years.  A long time ago as a visiting cancer surgeon in Asia, in Thailand, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.  From 1987 to 1990.  Malaria is rife there.  I took it for prophylaxis, 400 milligrams once a week for two years.  Never had any trouble.  It was inexpensive and effective.  I started it two weeks before and was supposed to continue it through my stay and four weeks after returning.  But I stopped it after two years.  I was worried about potential side effects of which there are many, as with all drugs right down to Tylenol and aspirin.  These, however, are rare.

The Democrats' 'Governor Says' America.  Democrats have exploited coronavirus to override the U.S. Constitution to transform America into an evil game of "Governor Says."  By simply decreeing, "Governor says," our right to assemble and worship God is rescinded.  Governor says fake news media elites and government employees are essential and can earn a living.  Governor says Trump supporters are nonessential and cannot earn a living. [...] Out of nowhere, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that practically all Virginia business employees and patrons must begin wearing masks.  Northam's supreme-dictator decree comes on the heels of 35 states reopening and dramatically declining nationwide cases of COVID-19. So why on earth is he doing this?  The answer is political wickedness, folks.  It still blows my mind that by arbitrarily declaring a state of emergency a governor can force you to do something potentially detrimental to the health of yourself and your family.  Numerous health experts say masks are dangerous.

Contact Tracing:  Your governors, red or blue, are coming after you.  [Scroll down]  All it takes is to spend 10 or 15 minutes sitting or standing within six feet of another human being who was infected.  These are all potentially infected persons who must be tracked down and sent into quarantine, then interviewed to get a list of their contacts.  In the end, one case such as that of James Daggett can ensnare hundreds of healthy, innocent Americans, and send them into lockdown, simply because they happened to breathe the same air that James breathed, or stood next to someone who did.  Contact tracers are trained to make sure all of these people, healthy or not, get thrown into complete isolation, away from their children, spouses and other family members while they get monitored for at least 14 days.

Prestigious medical journal urges outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine regimen for COVID-19.  A prestigious medical journal is criticizing news media coverage of hydroxychlorioquine in the battle against coronavirus, saying there is evidence the anti-malarial drug combined with the antibiotic azithromycin helps in the early stages of outpatient treatment.  "These medications need to be widely available and promoted immediately for physicians to prescribe," the American Journal of Epidemiology reported in an article published this week that pushed back against claims the regimen has been dangerous or ineffective in all cases.  "Hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin has been widely misrepresented in both clinical reports and public media, and outpatient trials results are not expected until September," the journal noted, urging medical professionals and the public to recognize there are different stages of the disease that may require different treatments.

Time To Show The Better Angels Of Our Nature With Coronavirus.  The Centers for Disease Control has finally produced a report with a mortality figure for COVID-19, and it's good news.  Its "best estimate" is around 0.26%, as opposed to the original World Health Organization estimate of 3.4%. That's about twice the accepted rate for a typical seasonal flu.  But it's vastly below some 20th century flu pandemic rates, pandemics that didn't lead to widespread deprivation of human rights, the possibility of the greatest economic downturn since the 1930s with attendant misery and death and an ominous cry for a "New Normal."

More Reasons to Flee Blue States.  For years Americans have been relocating from blue states to red states in search of jobs and affordable housing.  The heavy-handed lockdown policies of governors in some blue states will no doubt accelerate this trend. [...] When states are sorted in order of deaths per 1,000 cases, an important pattern becomes evident:  Nursing homes in five of the seven worst affected states were ordered or paid to take in recovering COVID-19 patients.  Massachusetts rescinded this requirement after objections from the medical community, but New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan doubled down and turned their nursing homes into slaughterhouses for the elderly.  Instead of owning up to this mistake, the state of New York is trying to minimize the evidence by excluding nursing home residents who died in hospitals from their tally of nursing home deaths.

Obama CDC Boss Who Admired China's Response Put in Charge of Contact Tracing.  Two years ago, the NYPD was frog-marching Thomas Frieden, Obama's former CDC boss, with his hands cuffed behind his back after he was charged with third-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching.  Frieden had been accused of groping a female friend, but was shortly released without bail on his own recognizance, pled guilty to disorderly conduct, and had the charged sealed and dismissed.  And that shouldn't have been surprising.  Not only had Frieden headed New York City's Health Department for seven years, going to war against fat and big sodas, but he had remained a close Bloomberg ally.  And the billionaire was a major funder of Vital Strategies, Frieden's public health organization.  Now Governor Cuomo has announced that New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will be launching a tri-state contact tracing program.

Religious liberty means COVID-19 restrictions cannot target churchgoers.  [Scroll down]  Last month, the city of Greenville, Mississippi, fined attendees at one such service at Temple Baptist Church $500 per person.  Their crime?  Sitting in their vehicles and listening through their car radios to their pastor speak.  This decision, whatever its motive, makes no sense, especially since the drive-in restaurant just down the street from the church had people in their cars eating their dinner and listening to their radios.  That's why the U.S. Department of Justice swung into action.  In the words of Attorney General William Barr, "even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers."  On April 14, Mr. Barr filed a Statement of Interest on behalf of Temple Baptist.  The city of Greenville has dropped the fines, but it is still preventing people from meeting — in their cars, with the windows rolled up and no close social interaction.

Cuomo says NY businesses can deny entrance to those without masks.  New York businesses will have the right to deny entrance to those who refuse to wear a mask or other face covering under an executive order Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday [5/28/2020].  "We're giving the store owners the right to say, 'If you're not wearing a mask, you can't come in,' " said Cuomo in a press briefing at the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club in Flatbush, Brooklyn.  "That store owner has a right to protect the other patrons in that store.  "You don't want to wear a mask?  Fine.  But you don't have a right to then go into that store if that store owner doesn't want you to."

The Editor says...
Consider what this means.  The store owners now have permission to deny entrance to certain people because of the way they're dressed.  This can be used in ways that have nothing to do with masks.  For example, some business owners don't like red MAGA hats.  Some don't like police officers and soldiers in uniform.  It's a can of worms.

Cuomo blames everyone but himself for nursing home fiasco of his own making — and has got some doozies.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that New York Democrat so vaunted in the media he was once touted as a replacement candidate for wretched Joe Biden, is on the hot seat these days for his wretched performance in the coronavirus crisis.  He's become reviled for his outrageous decision to force New York's nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients by executive order, killing off 5,000 of the state's most vulnerable people.  He should be crawling under a rock in shame, now that word's gotten out.  Instead, he's blaming everyone but himself.

The New Internet Censorship.  [Scroll down]  According to the conventional wisdom of the powers-that-be, the unprecedented pain and suffering caused by shutting down most of the global economy has resulted in a "flattened curve" that saved millions of lives all over the world, so the benefit was worth the price we've paid.  Is that true?  It must be, because that's what all the experts have said!  Only the experts you've been allowed to hear have said it's true, but you wouldn't know otherwise because the information you are allowed to see on social media is being filtered.  YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki declared that her company will censor any information that fails to conform with the message of the WHO by flatly admitting, "Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations (on COVID-19) would be a violation of our policy."  In other words, we are now supposed to trust and depend on the United Nations as our only source of information. [...] The only authority figures whose opinions have been solicited and disseminated to the public during the current crisis have been Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci.  We have no reason to doubt their credentials as experts, but do we have any reason to question their judgment?  At minimum, we have ample reason to wonder if the coronavirus shutdown was ever necessary.

As non-COVID-19 patients return to Chicago-area emergency rooms, doctors see skyrocketing blood pressure and other side effects of delays in care.  One patient ran out of medication during the COVID-19 pandemic and ended up in the Loyola University Medical Center emergency room with dangerously high blood pressure.  Others, unwilling or unable to get consistent treatment for chronic conditions during the pandemic, have come in with out-of-control asthma, mental health crises or inadequately treated chronic kidney failure.  And then there are the patients who have been putting off treatment for chest pain.

Just How Exaggerated Is The COVID-19 Death Count?  As the "official" tally of COVID-19 deaths tops 100,000 in the U.S., we keep hearing how that number is likely a low-ball estimate.  But there's far more evidence that the death count has been knowingly exaggerated — possibly by a very wide margin.  A recent Seattle Times article pretty much lays out the charade going on.  The headline reads:  "Washington state's actual coronavirus death toll may be higher than current tallies, health officials say."  But the story itself leads one to the exact opposite conclusion. [...] The story goes on to say that the state's dashboard "reflects anyone who died, that tested positive for COVID, irrespective of cause of death."  (Emphasis added.)  Basically, the state has been matching up the names of those who died this year with a database containing names of people who tested positive for COVID-19.

Reopening the economy only works if people return to work.  Business owners across the country are lamenting that people are not coming back to their jobs, even when offered.  For small businesses able to survive the quarantine, more will need to be done to get their workers off welfare and back in the workforce.  It's going to require thoughtful action from state and federal leaders, as well as strict enforcement of existing laws regarding unemployment benefits.  Thankfully, some of the nation's governors are making bold and commonsense moves to address the three-headed monster of a health crisis, budget woes, and businesses on the brink of extinction.

Now completing a 360-degree turn:
CDC now says 'it may be possible' for COVID-19 to spread on surfaces.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its coronavirus guidance once again, acknowledging information posted on its website last week about the risk of contracting COVID-19 from contaminated surfaces was confusing.  The CDC now says the coronavirus can "possibly" be spread on surfaces and objects, though the virus is mainly transmitted between people.  This is not the first time the nation's premier public health agency has had to reverse course on information related to the coronavirus, including the agency's evolving guidance on whether a mask should be worn in public.

Top Australian vaccine scientist reveals how COVID-19's unique structure means it's either man-made — or a 'complete fluke' of nature.  Coronavirus is so 'perfectly adapted' to infect humans that the possibility it was made in a Chinese lab can't be ignored, Australian vaccine researchers conclude.  Professor Nikolai Petrovsky said the virus was better at attaching itself to human cells than to any other animal, explaining why it has infected five million people.  The vaccine expert warned the investigation into where COVID-19 started, as proposed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was as a result urgently needed and should have begun months ago.

The Editor says...
Please point to any (other) example of a "complete fluke of nature."  The earth was created to operate in an orderly manner.  There are no flukes.

Coronavirus may never go away, even with a vaccine.  There's a good chance the coronavirus will never go away.  Even after a vaccine is discovered and deployed, the coronavirus will likely remain for decades to come, circulating among the world's population.  Experts call such diseases endemic — stubbornly resisting efforts to stamp them out.  Think measles, HIV, chickenpox.

All in this together?  Across the country, some are more "in this" than others.  It's all a matter of being essential.  Or not.  Or caught at a particularly good (or not so good) stage of your life or career.  How do you prepare for the unexpected?  My dentist is non-essential.  It's impossible to offer virtual dental services.  Too bad for those who have gone without dental care for more than two months now.  My dentist owns and operates a small business.  I wonder how long can he continue to pay the rent without any income.  Yet government workers and members of our news media are essential.  Who makes these decisions: essential and non-essential?  Using what criteria? [...] My hairdresser has been allowed (allowed!) to re-open her home-based business starting next week so long as she operates at 25% capacity of her former load. [...] She has only one hair-cutting station.  Exactly how will she operate at 25% capacity?

Numerous Former Pelosi Aides [are] Lobbying For Companies Seeking Benefits Related To Coronavirus, Report Says.  Numerous former aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have reportedly transitioned to working as lobbyists for companies which have sought benefits from legislation related to the coronavirus, making a bundle of money for their firms in the process.  The Washington Free Beacon examined federal disclosure records and found at least seven of those aides, including Pelosi's former chief of staff, Nadeam Elshami, senior policy adviser Anne MacMillan, and special assistant Shanti Stanton, have represented over 50 different entities in 2020.  The Beacon added, "Their firms received over $2 million from these clients during this time.  These fees were for lobbying on multiple issues in addition to coronavirus legislation and policies."

Democrat Lockdowners Keep Getting Caught Breaking Their Own Rules.  Those leading the charge to keep America closed seem to have a problem living under their own rules.  On Tuesday [5/26/2020], Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was caught in hot water when her husband sought expedited boat service to take the family out on a lake in northern Michigan.  While Whitmer lifted statewide lockdown restrictions prior to the holiday weekend, the governor still warned residents not to travel.  "If you don't live in these regions... think long and hard before you take a trip into them," Whitmer said in a public press conference earlier this month.  Just days later, the owner of Northshore Dock LLC in Traverse City received a request from Whitmer's husband, Marc Malloy, leveraging his wife's high status to get the family boat up and running.

Dem Gov. Cuomo Blames The Nursing Homes For Obeying His Orders And Taking Covid-19 Patients.  [Video clip]

Lockdown-defiant NJ gym sues governor, state in federal court.  The defiant New Jersey gym that was repeatedly shuttered for violating the state's coronavirus lockdown is suing the state in federal court.  The owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr charged that Gov. Phil Murphy, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and other New Jersey officials violated their constitutional rights by forcing them to close up shop for three months, putting their business on the verge of collapse.  "If allowed to stand, now 67 days after the first executive order and over 40 million Americans unemployed, defendants' orders will not only continue to violate plaintiff's rights under both the US Constitution and New Jersey Constitution but will continue to inflict massive and widespread economic damage to plaintiff," according to the lawsuit, filed Monday [5/25/2020].

Cuomo's Coronavirus Personae All Fail the Statesmanship Test.  [Scroll down]  According to Cuomo, his decision to lock down the entire state and to impose on every New York county an arcane set of complicated benchmarks for reopening is not a policy decision, it's dictated by science.  Science, we are to believe, requires that every county have a 30 percent vacancy rate in its hospitals for both general beds and ICU beds, among six other complicated benchmarks, before its shoe repair and gardening stores can reopen.  Never mind that even New York City had thousands of available beds at its worst moment of crisis — the breakdown of Elmhurst Hospital, a poorly run public facility in a high-immigrant, high-poverty Queens neighborhood.  Three thousand five hundred hospital beds lay empty throughout the city, with two dozen new ambulances available to take patients to those beds, while hundreds of the sick languished without care at Elmhurst.  Never mind that the hundreds of additional hospital beds that rapidly were constructed in the Javits Convention Center, in Central Park, and on a Navy hospital ship in April were never fully occupied.

Democrats Are Running Out of Arguments.  The terror campaign conducted by the media when the coronavirus outbreak began effectively compelled President Trump and most governors to follow the advice of the audible scientists and "flatten the curve" with a comprehensive shutdown requiring huge numbers of people to stay at home.  As the unemployment figures that resulted mounted swiftly toward 40 million, the American Left, now including almost all the official Democrats and almost all the national political media, became instantly addicted to the prospect of holding the president responsible at the election in November for creating an immense economic depression. [...] The rabidly Democratic media who effectively are conducting the campaign for the beleaguered official Democrats, are left clinging to an indefinite shutdown that only panic can justify and that an increasing number of people, now including the president, believe should not even have been imposed.

If you still care what Dr. Fauci thinks, you're falling behind.
Fauci: Data shows no evidence hydroxychloroquineis effective at treating coronavirus.  Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said there's no evidence that shows the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is effective at treating COVID-19.  "Clearly the scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy for it," Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor, said during a CNN interview.  Fauci said evidence also shows the likelihood that the drug can cause severe irregular heart rhythms.

Canceled Contact Tracing Contract Reveals Michigan Authorized Democrat Firm for 400 Activists to Collect Medical Information.  A copy of the since-canceled contact tracing contract Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration executed with a Democrat operative's consulting firm, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, shows the firm would have been paid to recruit 400 volunteers to collect medical information from state residents.  The contract was signed April 20, 2020, between the Michigan Public Health Institute and Great Lakes Community Engagement, a nonprofit organization under the control of Mike Kolehouse, a Democrat campaign consultant.

American vulnerability and American strength.  Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, people predisposed to believe in conspiracies posited the idea that the coronavirus was a Chinese bioweapon manufactured in a Wuhan laboratory.  This was always far-fetched.  It seemed and still seems far more likely that the virus leaked accidentally from the lab, where safety procedures were known to be sloppy.  But one counterargument made against the weapon theory, that the virus was not lethal enough, always seemed unpersuasive.  Surely, a smart bioweapon made by a hostile power wanting to supplant America as world leader would not kill tens or hundreds of millions of people.  It would infect and kill only so many as to guarantee panic and shut down and ruin the enemy's economy while giving the perpetrator plausible deniability.

Medicare chief Verma blasts Cuomo for trying to deflect blame onto White House for NY nursing home deaths.  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma fired back at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wednesday [5/27/2020] after he claimed last week to be following "what the Republican administration said to do" when he ordered nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients who had been discharged from hospitals.  Verma told "The Brian Kilmeade Show" on Fox News Radio that neither she nor Trump instructed governors to place infected patients back in their original nursing home setting.  "President Trump took very early actions when it came to nursing homes," Verma said.  "We prohibited visitors [and] put out guidance to both nursing homes and states."

Let the Sun Shine In.  For a moment in April, the Internet tried to cancel Florida.  Photos showing crowds flocking to Jacksonville Beach amid the Covid-19 pandemic brought the hashtag #FloridaMorons to the top of Twitter.  The media eagerly spun scenes of ignorant spring breakers endangering themselves and others.  Nearly two months after America's first case of coronavirus, here was Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, joining neighboring state Georgia's "experiment in human sacrifice" by letting locals lift restrictions on their own.  Nearly a month later, Jacksonville's Duval County reports new Covid-19 hospitalizations in the single digits.  Rates of hospitalizations, cases, and deaths remain steady across Florida.  So far, fewer Floridians have died of the novel coronavirus than in New York's nursing homes alone (2,259 compared with 5,800, at least).  More than half of the state's known cases of Covid-19 are found in just four South Florida counties — the top out-of-state destinations for fleeing New Yorkers.

'Americans Don't Get Ruled' — Illinois Judge Unloads on Pritzker's Stay-at-Home Order.  Lost in the shuffle of the Memorial Day holiday weekend — unusual, though it was — an Illinois judge unloaded on Governor J.B. Pritzker's still-in-effect stay-at-home order this past Friday.  I've written previously regarding the significant distinction between Chicago — and even Springfield — and "outstate" or "downstate" Illinois.  This judge's decision further highlights that great divide.  The back story:  State Rep. Darren Bailey, a Republican from the state's 109th District, filed a lawsuit against Pritzker in April, asserting that Pritzker's stay-at-home order unfairly affected the residents of his home county.  Clay County Judge Michael McHaney issued a temporary restraining order in that matter, but only as to Bailey himself, opining that Bailey "has a clearly ascertainable right in need of immediate protection, namely his liberty interest to be free from Pritzker's executive order of quarantine in his own home."  Pritzker subsequently removed the case to federal court (Southern District of Illinois) and now, the U.S. DOJ has intervened in that matter, supporting both the challenge to the orders themselves and the removal of the case to federal court.

The Coronavirus Is Deadliest Where Democrats Live.  The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching 100,000, has touched every part of the country, but the losses have been especially acute along its coasts, in its major cities, across the industrial Midwest, and in New York City.  The devastation, in other words, has been disproportionately felt in blue America, which helps explain why people on opposing sides of a partisan divide that has intensified in the past two decades are thinking about the virus differently.  It is not just that Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to reopen businesses, schools and the country as a whole.  Beyond perception, beyond ideology, there are starkly different realities for red and blue America right now.

Coronavirus death toll is heavily concentrated in Democratic congressional districts.  The coronavirus outbreak has taken the lives of nearly 100,000 Americans.  Yet since the start of the outbreak, the death toll has been concentrated in a just a few places — mostly large metropolitan areas, especially the New York City area.  The places hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak — which have relatively large shares of ethnic and racial minorities and residents living in densely populated urban and suburban areas — are almost all represented by congressional Democrats.

Andrew Cuomo managed to kill Grandma — and New York's economy too.  Too harsh?  Well, report cards are snapshots, and the pandemic is an evolving event.  Numbers are shifting, and surely things will look different down the road.  But if New York had dodged the coronavirus bullet, this governor surely would be taking full credit.  So because in fact it has been hit squarely between the eyes, it seems reasonable to hand him the blame.  It was just six weeks or so ago when folks were touting the hugely telegenic Cuomo for vice president, maybe even as the fellow to replace a faltering Joe Biden on the Democratic Party's November ticket, should it come to that.  Heck, even I showered Cuomo with praise in these pages.  Not anymore.  The numbers are bruising the narrative.

Coverup:
NY Governor's order for nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients mysteriously vanishes.  One of the more dire statistics coming out of the mountains of data we've accumulated about the novel Coronavirus is the fact that close to half of all the deaths in the United States from the disease took place in nursing homes.  That figure applies to New York State, one of the hardest hit regions in the country.  And as time has gone on, increasing attention has been paid to Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order from March 25 stating that nursing homes could not refuse admission to patients, even if they tested positive for the virus.  Now, however, it's gotten a bit harder to find all of the associated information if you are researching this alarming statistic.  That's because the page on the New York Health Department's website where the Governor's order was previously published has gone missing.  If you had it bookmarked, it now redirects you to an unrelated page.

Fauci: Wearing A Mask Is Symbolic, May Be No Second Wave Of COVID-19.  One of the worst problems of mitigating the coronavirus pandemic has been the ever-changing advice from the experts and professionals in the fields of medicine generally and public health policy specifically.  One day we are told one thing, the next day brings different advice.  President Trump put together a White House coronavirus task force with Dr. Birx at the helm.  Vice-President Pence acts as coordinator.  One of the first pieces of advice was about masks.  At first, medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and others said that masks shouldn't be considered mandatory in the virus's mitigation, mostly out of concern for the supply of personal protection equipment for the medical community and first responders.  Mask production had to be ramped up quickly to keep up with professional demand, let alone for an increasing demand from the public.

The Editor says...
Why is demand for masks increasing at this late date?  The health crisis is over.  Masks are all about politics now.

Cuomo nursing home scandal — Deaths likely closer to 10,000 and it gets worse.  COVID-19 has already killed thousands of nursing home residents in New York.  An estimated 10,000 or more, double what the state reports.  It's hard to know what's worse, the dying or the lying.  Under criticism for forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to shift the blame to President Trump.  "Don't criticize the state for following the president's policy," Cuomo said at his Saturday news conference.  The governor points to a Trump administration statement issued on March 13.  Sorry, Governor, but you're twisting what the statement said.  The administration recommended nursing homes should admit patients even if they were coming from a hospital battling COVID-19, not that patients with COVID-19 themselves should be admitted.

Face Masks Just Became a Presidential Election Issue.  It would be silly to think that any issue in 2020 couldn't be politicized, but there is now a new level beyond expert-mode of how to get voters to line up on one side of an issue or another.  On Monday [5/25/2020], Memorial Day, former vice president Joe Biden took part in a ceremony in his adopted home state of Delaware.  Biden, as is required and/or strongly encouraged in many parts of the country, wore a protective face mask due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  The pictures weren't too flattering but given Biden's age and possible susceptibility to Covid-19, not unwarranted nor unexpected.

It's time to checkmate run-amok COVID-19 states.  Hopefully, many of the things that lie heavy upon the nation right now will be in our collective rearview mirror in the near future.  These things include constant mention of pandemic and crisis — hourly radio reports and TV news reports of coronavirus infections and deaths, face masks, the pronouncements of "experts" like the little gnome man and the scarf lady, and ubiquitous signs and messages that implore us to stay home and stay safe (OBEY!).  All of this is aimed at creating and reinforcing a state of fear and panic because scared people are easier to manipulate.  What will not, and must not, fade from our memory and consciousness is the stench of the actions of state governors and state officials who acted with little regard for the constitutional rights of their citizens.

Is COVID-19 fading away?  The Daily Mail (U.K.) says a technical report from Singapore predicts that COVID-19 will be gone in the U.S. by Nov. 11, the U.K. by Sept. 30, Italy by Oct. 24.  Maybe that's why the heralded Oxford University vaccine development group is getting nervous.  According to this account reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, the virus is disappearing, creating a panic among the vaccine developers.  In fact the virus is fading so rapidly that "Professor Adrian Hill said an upcoming Oxford vaccine trial, involving 10,000 volunteers, threatened to return "no result" because of low transmission of COVID-19 in the community."

Americans fight over everything else — why not add religious services to the list?  In the interest of fighting over just about any conceivable thing, even during a national pandemic, Americans are now arguing about the right to assemble together for religious services. [...] With some 39 million neighbors becoming newly unemployed in recent weeks, schools closed, normal living routines destroyed and the economy at a crawl, political pressures are mounting to begin reopening the economy.  But what about churches?  Fellow citizens in shorts, flip-flops and maybe masks can wander through Walmart, which, like many such stores, is deemed an "essential service."  But in the eyes of government, sharing faith observances in-person with fellow believers, once a bedrock national assumption, is not.  Instead, they were confined to virtual services in private.  Initially, the lockdown was sold as imperative to flatten the curve of COVID-19's spread.  Then, like the mission creep of some notorious modern military undertakings, a lockdown became essential to save lives.

In the end, it is the face mask that is the clearest symbol of America's divide.  There have been several great columns on the debate over mask-wearing in public.  Scott McKay at American Spectator explains why the mask is essentially useless:  The mask is not an adequate defense against the COVID-19 virus, gang.  The virus checks in at somewhere between 0.06 and 0.14 microns, meaning it's too small for any commercially available mask to effectively filter it out.  The pores on an N95 mask, which are the best masks you're reasonably going to find, and the vast, vast majority of you are not going to have N95 masks but rather cloth masks, which perform far less well, are 0.3 microns."  Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker writes about how "wearing face masks has become a cultural divide....  On the left, mask wearing has become a basic marker of good citizenship, no matter how silly it may be..."  Then on Tuesday [5/26/2020] at the Federalist, David Marcus astutely observes that the mask has become the political symbol of 2020.  Indeed it has.

These Are The Most Illogical Coronavirus Restrictions Still In Place.  While most of the U.S. has begun to reopen, some parts of the country remain under burdensome restrictions that can't be justified by either science or logic.  Most of New York, Michigan and the Washington D.C. metro area remains under lockdown through at least Memorial Day weekend.  Some beaches in Virginia and New York reopened over the weekend, but Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio made it clear that swimming is forbidden, saying beachgoers who swim in the ocean will "be taken right out of the water."

From Speech To Consumer Choice, Democrats Believe Everything Must Be Policed.  The political left is driven by an urge to supervise every aspect of our lives.  It's a corrosive impulse that shouldn't be accepted anywhere in a free nation, let alone practiced.  The backlash needs to begin now.  If not, our liberty will eventually be overrun. [...] Nothing in recent times illustrates the left's inclination to control as does its response to the coronavirus pandemic.  The Democrats want to keep people and businesses locked down while Republicans, with some exceptions, want to free people and unleash commerce.  Don't think the Democratic governors, mayors, and unelected public health officials who have put the most restrictive limits in place aren't enjoying the authority they've given themselves.  It's as if they've waited their entire lives for this moment to exercise raw power over the masses.

People nurture and savor their pleasurable fear.  The odds of a young healthy American catching and dying of the COVID virus are roughly 1 in 70,000 and going down.  Their odds of dying of sunstroke are ten times greater.  Their odds of dying in a car wreck or by suicide are a thousand times greater.  So why are many young healthy people afraid of dying of the virus?  I have a theory.  It's because fear is pleasurable. [...] Moreover, fear is not just highly stimulating but is also easy to get.  We can simply watch a scary movie or take a roller coaster ride.  Or get hysterical about COVID killing us.  Ah, you say, but there's no real danger in those things.  That's the point.  That's why they're perfect methods for stimulating fear.  With safe scary things like COVID, people get all the enjoyment of fear stimulation with none of the effort required to deal with real danger.

'This is my big worry': Obama officials and other Democrats fear strong, post-coronavirus economic recovery.  Democrats are bracing for the political impact of lifted lockdown restrictions across the country and other measures that could lead to a boom in the economy following the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report.  Jason Furman, one of former President Barack Obama's top economic advisers, gave a presentation to top Democratic strategists and donors last month.  He shocked the group with his prognostication.  "We are about to see the best economic data we've seen in the history of this country," he said, according to Politico.  "Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken."

J.B. Pritzker is a Horse's... Friend.  A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless that horse resides on the Pritzer horse farm in Wisconsin[.]  As he requests the power to seize private business property if owners open too early or not in concert with his wishes, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says it's not safe yet to hold indoor church services, but it's totally okay that construction workers travel to his Wisconsin horse farm to build his new house.  Construction workers have been deemed essential, especially union construction workers who have dues taken out to fund the campaigns of politicians like Pritzker and who get time off to ring campaign doorbells on behalf of Illinois Democrat politicians.  And so, apparently, is his horse farm, where the customers get better grooming services than the taxpaying citizens of Illinois.

CNN, MSNBC are peddling panic, moral judgment, not science and data, in coronavirus coverage.  We hope you had a happy Memorial Day weekend.  It's possible you have spent, along with millions of others, months trapped indoors per government order because of the coronavirus.  So, getting outside makes all the difference — grilling a hamburger in the fresh air, hitting the park, walking on the beach for a couple of hours.  It's essential.  All of us needed it.  Nature is medicine.  Happy, balanced people understand that intuitively.  You can't just sit on a couch all day barking at other people on social media.  Your soul will rot if you do that.  And unfortunately, it's too late for a lot of people at CNN, and they haven't even been trapped inside for months.  For reasons that no one in authority has ever really explained, cable news yappers have been classified as essential workers from the very first day of lockdown.

COVID-19 'surcharges' take customers by surprise.  Some companies are adding coronavirus surcharges to bills, infuriating customers enough to take their business elsewhere.  "Many customers are angry about the changes," wrote Ted Rossman, an industry analyst at CreditCards.com.  Rossman noted that roughly 86% of respondents from an American Express survey said they would stop patronizing a business if it applied surcharges to receipts.  A dentist in Florida charged patients $10 to help pay for the personal protective equipment worn by staff, which the mother of one patient felt she was not obligated to pay.  "I don't feel that I'm required to pay that," she told a local news station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Irish PM accused of breaking social distancing rules after shirtless picnic.  Ireland's prime minister has been accused of breaking his own social distancing rules after being snapped topless while picnicking with pals in a packed park.  Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stripped off with partner Matthew Barrett and two friends in Dublin on Sunday — just days after one of his senior officials warned against picnics or staying outside longer than necessary.  The photos sparked outrage, with the Irish Independent accusing him of being like other politicians "simply making things up as they go along" while others called for his resignation on Twitter.

A large percentage of Minnesota COVID-19 patients don't speak English.  The pandemic has heightened the need for interpreters as hospitals cope with a disproportionate number of COVID-19 patients who speak languages other than English.  As of mid-May, 22% of the Minnesota Department of Health's interviews with people who had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases required an interpreter — more than five times the proportion of the state's population lacking fluency in English.  At least part of the trend is driven by outbreaks at meatpacking plants that employ many immigrant workers, such as the JBS pork processing plant in Worthington, where hundreds of employees contracted the virus.

Obama, Clinton 9th Circuit Judges Suspend Bill of Rights Until Coronavirus is Cured.  Perhaps these two lefty scholars can point us to where the First Amendment states, "except in an emergency".  [They are] proposing the suspension of the Bill of Rights until there's a cure.  Which may never happen.  Bizarrely, the Democrat judges are quoting a minority dissent arguing that speech could be censored if it was inflammatory.  Jackson was arguing that the authorities should have the right to stop Nazi supporters from saying racist things in public because it would lead to disorder and then America would go the way of Nazi Germany.  Jackson was a great man, but wrong in this case.  That he's being quoted by the majority in this ruling is troubling at best considering the original implications.  The Democrat judges did not address the fact that Newsom is discriminating against religious observance.

Illinoisans head to Indiana to spend money as stay-at-home order continues.  While dining rooms remain closed in the state, many Illinoisans are crossing the border to go out to eat.  Many restaurants in Illinois are preparing for outdoor dining starting on May 29, but indoor dining rooms must remain closed.  As it stands now under Gov. J.B. Pritzker's five-phase reopening plan, indoor dining rooms in Illinois won't be able to open until the end of June.  Restaurants in Missouri have reported a steady flow of people coming over from Illinois to have a meal.  The same holds true for Indiana.

In a viral video, a supermarket mob rampages against a woman.  On Monday morning [5/25/2020], people woke up to a video on Twitter showing masked customers in a Staten Island grocery store screaming obscenities at a woman without a mask and shouting at her to "get out."  It's an alarming video because it shows how quickly people can be turned into human weapons when fear powers them.

Turning nursing homes into extermination sites: the Gretchen factor.  We're finally getting a clear picture of exactly how the beating of a 75-year-old nursing home patient by a man nearly one-quarter his age came about.  And boy, it is a shocker.  It turns out that victim and perp were sent to the Westwood Nursing Center in Detroit due to the fact that both were suffering from COVID.  The older man, an Army vet, was snatched from his apartment and dumped in the nursing home without any notification of his relatives, who then spent a considerable amount of time looking for him, to no avail.  As for the younger man, who is evidently named Jaydon Hayden, though the police haven't yet confirmed it, he was suffering from some sort of breakdown and had been sent to a group home to await treatment when he was diagnosed with the coronavirus and also dumped in the Westview facility.

I Am Criminal.  Fear is a tool of the tyrant.  Law is another tool of the tyrant.  When you put them together, you do not arrive at freedom, you arrive at more than even tyranny.  You arrive at terrorism, by means of law. [...] It is all about control, not safety.  The health department should serve (and probably really does serve) merely an advisory capacity.  It should not rank higher than the U.S. Constitution and certainly not when itself admits that not enough is known, even yet, about the coronavirus to use data to enforce such sweeping and absolute rule over a "free" people.  All things being equal and Americans actually being "free" rather than captive to a Soviet-style, bureaucratic omnipotent tyranny, there would be significant push back, even more so than what is taking place in Michigan with one of the worst, most explicit tyrants in power.  Except, perhaps, the Tennessee (Knox county) health guru who felt completely comfortable in stating that "communion is not a part of core worship."  Of course, I could go on and on about how communism has taken over American government all I wish, but these people put the color and sound to it that I never could.

5 Things I've Learned From COVID-19.  [#1] People Overreact.  In the absence of knowing what to do, people need to do something.  The masses feel better when they are preparing to defend themselves against an invisible threat, even if this makes no sense whatsoever.  Like pregnant mums writing a birthing plan, only for it to go out the window the minute you realize pushing something the size of a watermelon out of something the size of a doughnut is going to sting a bit.  When the threat of coronavirus came, ordinarily sane people were caught doing the strangest things: freezing onions, fighting over toilet paper, putting beans in their loft space.  It is comforting to know that the most fearful in our society will never need to buy toilet paper again.

Self-inflicted destruction of America, all for nought.  Stats now show that the mortality rate for the coronavirus is hardly more than the seasonal flu.  And when this is all over, it may even be less.  Trump was right all along.  But the left mocked him as they elevated Dr. Anthony Fauci to sainthood.  It turns out, this "expert" deceived us all.  The mortality rate for the coronavirus dropped from WHO's estimate of 3.4% to 2% to Fauci claiming it was 1%, and therefore ten times deadlier than the seasonal flu. (He plucked the 1% figure out of thin air, since there was insufficient data to make such a claim).  Now we learn that the overall mortality rate for this virus is not 3.4% or 2% or even 1%[.]  Instead, the mortality rate is around .26%.  Yes, you read that right.  .26%.

They Killed Everything Beautiful.  Massachusetts was the next-to-last state to begin re-opening, and the timetable set by the state is tortuous and vague, making planning for opening up again by businesses and organizations close to impossible.  The restaurant and hotel industries are still waiting for their rules from the commonwealth, but when they do open up — if they survived the financial hit from the shutdown — they should be able to do so fairly quickly, after replenishing supply lines, rehiring staff, and reconfiguring their operations for the "new normal" which incorporates the "social distancing" nonsense.  But for cultural organizations, the timeline for getting going is much longer.

Death, Politics and the Nursing Homes.  There still is a lot we don't know about the transmission and treatment of the virus, though you'd be well advised to skip the hysterical accounts in the fake news and rely on more substantive accounts elsewhere.  One thing has been consistently true, though:  The elderly have been the most vulnerable to this disease.  Reason would suggest, in that case, that instead of focusing enforcement attention on closing parks and beaches and arrests of lone surfers or churchgoers sitting in their closed window cars, attention should be paid to those institutions which house in close quarters the aged and infirm.  Apparently, however, Democratic governors live in a post-rational world.

It's Time to Be Americans Again.  There is more to life than not dying from COVID-19.  And, this just in, you can die from causes other than the coronavirus.  As Americans, we need to remember this, or else risk an extended period of economic distress that will cost lives as well as economic hardship.  The choice is not between people and profits.  We can indeed both walk and chew gum at the same time.  Let's get started.  As things currently stand, a majority of Americans understandably want to ensure their health and safety are taken care of before they even think about reintegrating into society.  After all, who could blame them for prioritizing the health and wellbeing of themselves and their loved ones.  But much of the fear and reluctance to return to normal society as we knew it is based on the current information being widely disseminated to the public by the media.

Control Measures Should Be Based on Emerging Evidence About the Danger Posed by the Virus.  As we move from lockdowns to something more closely resembling normal life, the emerging evidence about the threat posed by COVID-19 should inform our judgment about which precautions make sense.  The initial, ham-handed approach — which confined hundreds of millions of people to their homes except for government-approved purposes — should be replaced by more carefully targeted measures focused on protecting the people who face the highest risk.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current "best estimate" of the death rate among Americans who develop COVID-19 symptoms is 0.4%. By that measure — the symptomatic case fatality rate — COVID-19 is roughly four times as deadly as the seasonal flu but far less deadly than the Spanish flu.  Unlike the Spanish flu, which commonly struck down healthy people in the prime of life, COVID-19 primarily kills elderly people.  The CDC estimates that the symptomatic case fatality rate for people younger than 50 is just 0.05%, compared with 1.3% for people 65 or older and 0.2% for 50-to-64-year-olds.

Major changes ahead for American civil liberties are going to 'redefine us'.  As the coronavirus pandemic continues to play out and Americans see many of their leaders adopting draconian lockdowns, mandating business closures, and implementing additional policies that seem to run afoul of the Constitution, scores are concerned about what a 'new normal' may look like.  And not everyone is going to like it. [...] The technology to track people already exists and the concept already has a name:  Contract tracing.  However, the question isn't whether it can be done but whether it's legal to do so.

Throttle Up.  The phrase "Throttle Up" jumped into my consciousness in the last week when Trump and his coronavirus task force of government hacks and bureaucrat lackeys announced the guidelines for re-opening America, as if a formerly $22 trillion economy, tied to a $90 trillion global economy, could be turned off and on like a light switch.  Clap off, clap on.  It just doesn't work that way.  The arrogance and hubris of people who think they can declare a global shut down for a virus and think they can easily deal with the intended and unintended consequences of doing so, is breathtaking in its outrageous recklessness and egotistical belief in their own infallibility.  This contemptible belief in their own superiority has permeated every fiber of those who rule over us, particularly among captured central bankers, corrupt politicians, bought off scientists, and billionaire oligarchs.

Cooking the Books on COVID-19 Deaths.  Fox News, and other cable networks, run a COVID death count ticker on the side or bottom of the television screen just as they show the major stock indices during the business day.  Why are they so obsessed with deaths from the Chinese virus?  Most peoples' moods are already melancholic over the unending economic shutdown, along with social distancing, masks, and restrictions on movement and assembly not normally seen in free societies.  Why don't news networks show a tally of recovered patients rather than deaths?  Aside from the morbid, "If it bleeds, it leads" mantra that guides much news reporting, the media wants to pin each death on the tail of President Trump. [...] If more deaths are better for the Democrat and media narrative, expect to see inflated death counts, erroneously blaming non-virus deaths on the virus.

Where Is Cuomo's Apology for Killing 10,000 People?  [Scroll down]  But I still cannot fathom the mental disconnect from reality that induced Cuomo — not Fredo, who despises the CNN employer who pays him millions to attack the president daily, but the more dignified one who told our nation that America never was all that great anyway — to order New York nursing homes, which were medically and structurally unprepared for the challenge, to admit coronavirus sufferers into their facilities.  Under the governor's orders, they were coerced to comply, and somewhere along the lines of 10,000 seniors died as a result.  Cuomo's own government admits to nearly 6,000 of the killings attributable to his order.  The data are so shocking and indefensible that he understandably now plays three-card monte and does not count among his nursing-home killings any senior who contracted COVID-19 in a skilled nursing facility and thereafter was removed to die in a hospital.  No question that the honest tally is closer to 10,000 Cuomo killings.

In a viral video, a supermarket mob rampages against a woman.  On Monday morning [5/25/2020], people woke up to a video on Twitter showing masked customers in a Staten Island grocery store screaming obscenities at a woman without a mask and shouting at her to "get out."  It's an alarming video because it shows how quickly people can be turned into human weapons when fear powers them.

Of Course COVID-19 Deaths Aren't a 'Trump Death Toll'.  Does anyone seriously think that if Donald Trump were not president, the coronavirus pandemic would have never hit America?  The super PAC Democratic Coalition — which supports presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden — apparently does, because it has launched a series of ads describing deaths from the coronavirus as the "Trump Death Toll."

Hundreds protest in Sacramento against stay-at-home order.  Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the state Capitol on Saturday [5/23/2020] to protest against California's stay-at-home orders even as residents entered the Memorial Day weekend with newly expanded options for beachgoing, barbecuing and shopping.  The rally to demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom lift his restrictions on business, religious gatherings and other activities took on the atmosphere of a political rally and festival on a closed-off street.

Reopen America Now!  Sunday, Memorial Day weekend, was a beautiful sunny day.  Mary and I left our West Virginia home to make the 40-mile trek to Walmart and Home Depot in Virginia.  We drove past a Virginia megachurch which usually has state cops directing traffic for the congregation.  The parking lot was empty with a large "closed" sign.  Meanwhile, Walmart and Home Depot parking lots were packed.  Around 50% of shoppers wore masks.  Absurdly, I saw toddlers wearing masks, which were particularly annoying.  Professor Dolores J. Cahill, PhD is a highly credentialed and respected Immunologist and Molecular Biologist.  Prof. Cahill, world-renowned Dr. Russel Blaylock, Dr. Judy Mikovits, and countless other scientists around the world say wearing masks is dangerous.  Prof. Cahill explains that coronavirus is not transmitted through the air.  It is transmitted through droplets on surfaces.  Therefore, there is absolutely no need to wear a mask and no need for social distancing.  Prof. Cahill says when you are covered with a mask, you have less oxygen which puts your immune system under stress.  Because you are under immune stress, latent viruses in your body will reappear.  You will have more coronavirus and other latent viruses will reemerge.  Bottom line, fake news media insidiously hyping fear is harming children.  Which is not new.  Everything leftists cram down the throats of the public always harms people.

Why the Left is Weaponizing Science.  According to some "experts," science can sometimes be settled, meaning that in certain areas of study, the evidence has been deemed so overwhelming and indisputable that further debate is not only unnecessary, it is forbidden.  Only one interpretation of this evidence is possible. [...] Science was never intended to be used as a weapon to bludgeon or intimidate dissenting opinions into silence.  However, politicians and other authority figures have figured out that the only sure way to decisively win an argument is not to have one.  They have begun to experience success by weaponizing science in an effort to silence any intellectual opposition.  The basic strategy is simple and straightforward: anyone who dares to challenge the conventional wisdom (typically presented as the consensus opinion of scientists) will be mocked and ridiculed as "science deniers."

Mayor de Blasio Claims NY Businesses Are Doing Fine and Can Stay Closed For Months.  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a New York radio audience businesses in the city are "hanging on" and they'll be able to stay closed for several months.  "I've talked to lots and lots of business leaders, especially the smallest businesses.  They're very worried about their futures understandably, but they also are hanging on and they know it can be a matter of months until they'll be back in action," de Blasio said on WNYC Friday [5/22/2020].  Meanwhile, back on planet earth, The National Restaurant Association predicted that 11 percent of New York's 25,000 restaurants will permanently close by the end of May and the entire travel and leisure industry will lose up to 68 percent of its jobs.

Brainwashing & the New Vocabulary: 12 Words & Phrases I Never Want to Hear Again.  If you've been watching any type of media coverage or reading articles, you've probably seen or heard a plethora of words and phrases which are currently being perverted due to the coronavirus pandemic.  I don't know about you, but if I never heard "safe" or "new normal" again, I'd be a much happier person.  If you feel like people are being brainwashed through repetition, that's because they are.  Quite simply, these buzzwords and several others we'll discuss are being used to indoctrinate the public. [...] The "new normal" is most often used to get people to accept whatever unconstitutional or undignified rule that people in charge want us to find tolerable, like taped squares on the floor that we're supposed to stand in while waiting in properly spaced lines.

New CDC Figures Show Fauci's Dishonest COVID-19 Projections Were Garbage.  This madness has to end now.  Every single lockdown order inflicted on the American people these past few months needs to be rescinded immediately.  Once that's done, Fauci has to be investigated to find out why on earth he pushed these catastrophic measures on us using projections he knew to be false.  He also needs to be indicted for peddling his lies before Congress and held criminally accountable for all the death and devastation he's caused as well.  In case you hadn't heard, Matt Margolis over at PJ Media is reporting that the CDC now estimates the case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 to be only .4 percent.  As Margolis points out, that's much lower than the numbers used to frighten us into these lockdowns.  But there are a few factors he doesn't mention that demonstratively show we were unspeakably deceived rather than merely the victims of some disastrous but ultimately honest mistake.

Insane News Tidbits.  The funding priorities of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control suggests that they think diversity is an important input in making headway in the fight against the coronavirus.  On April 20, NIH and CDC announced the availability of grants to increase the "diversity" of biomedical research labs.  For example, academic virology researchers studying respiratory failure could receive hundreds of thousands more taxpayer dollars if they could find a woman or a minority to add to their project.  High school students and college students are eligible for the program even though they cannot contribute anything of value.  No scientific justification for the new diversity hire is needed.  The scientists must promise to mentor the new hire, which will take time away from their research with no offsetting gain.

Open Letter From LA County Public Health Professionals:  Ferrer "Not Qualified," Ignored Early Coronavirus Outbreak Warnings.  [Scroll down]  As Ms. Ferrer stepped into the role of Director, she replaced a career employee in the Department, Cynthia Harding, who has a very strong epidemiology background, and who had ably done the job as "acting" director for over two years with Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauzer as Acting Health Officer for the same time period, following the retirement of Dr. Jonathan Fielding. [...] Once Ms. Ferrer was appointed as Director, one of her first moves was to notify all department program directors that she was to be the ONLY voice and contact with the Board offices.  This broke down a chain of communication in place for many years that allowed local public health managers to assist constituents that contacted their local Board offices about a variety of health issues and act quickly on public health threats.  Ms. Ferrer is the ONLY control point for Board questions and communication in the department.  Even now, many managers complain that they don't know what's going on and are not being well utilized for the pandemic.

If you're stuck in your house, you're probably watching television.  Therefore...
The Media Wants America to Stay Closed Forever.  CNN doubled its audience in April, while MSNBC hit its best total-day ratings.  Network news programs rose 39% since last year, gaining over 8 million viewers for their best numbers in over a decade.  Cable news networks have become the most watched channels on cable and network news has been beating prime time programming.  The pandemic is the next best thing to Walter Cronkite rising from the dead.  The New York Times is up to 6 million subscribers with an increase of 587,000 digital subscriptions that it attributes to "widespread interest in news of the coronavirus pandemic".  Last year the paper was struggling to make it to 5 million subscribers.  Digital subscriptions are up across the industry.  Digital subscriptions rose 29% at the Dallas Morning News, 17% at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and the Poynter-FactCheck's Tampa Bay Times boasted of tripling the rate of digital subscriptions.

Gov. Gretchen 'Karen' Whitmer in Hot Water Over Husband's Vacation Hypocrisy.  Michigan's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has epitomized the political, draconian response to coronavirus imposed by some states.  Just recently, she extended the stay at home for Michigan until June 12th, forcing businesses to remain closed and people to not travel.  This wasn't in response to any scientific data, but appeared to just be retaliatory against recent protests of her actions.  But now, she's in a bit of hot water after it was revealed that not only was her husband looking to get their boat in the water for Memorial Day, but that he asked for special treatment in the process.

While contemplating mandatory mask order, Virginia governor caught without one on beach.  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam drew criticism Saturday after he was captured on social media photos without a mask while mingling with constituents on a beach.  The episode at Virginia Beach came one day after Northam reportedly began contemplating a mandatory mask rule for Commonwealth citizens when it reopens from the pandemic.  The order would require masks in indoor settings.  "Virginia Gov Northam on the Virginia Beach boardwalk; no mask, no social distancing," one citizen tweeted.  Another complained:  "Liberals consistently send a message of 'Do as I say, not as I do.'"

Harvard Prof. Blames Christianity's 'Malignant' Belief in Afterlife for Lockdown Protests.  Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker said Thursday that the push for reopening society from lockdowns comes from Christianity's "malignant delusion" of belief in an afterlife.  Atheists who believe in this life alone are more concerned with health and safety, Professor Pinker suggested in a Tweet, while Christians tend to devalue "actual lives" and live a riskier existence.

NYT Issues Correction After Coronavirus Death List Includes Suspected Homicide Victim.  The New York Times' list of 1,000 coronavirus victims displayed at the top of its Sunday edition included the name of at least one individual whose death reportedly had nothing to do with the pandemic.  "U.S. deaths near 100,000, an incalculable loss," the headline reads, just above the list of 1,000 names, meant to be 1% of the overall toll.  The outlet, however, removed the name and reposted the list via Twitter along with a correction notice: [...]

Don't Buy the Misleading Figures.  Here's the Real Story About How the U.S. Matches Up on Coronavirus Deaths.  The sheer ease with which the American left has politicized the deaths of thousands of Americans has shocked even me.  The United States is approaching 100,000 deaths and the left seems determined to make sure the public blames President Donald Trump for those deaths.  As PJM's Tyler O'Neil noted, the Democratic Coalition is trying to make "Trump Death Toll" a thing.  While Tyler effectively demonstrated the absurdity of blaming these deaths on Trump, I'm going to show that despite the headlines that suggest things in the United States are the worst in the world, that is emphatically not the case.

Democrats Face Criticism for Not Wearing Face Masks, Violating [Their] Own Rules.  Several Democrats who have insisted on strict stay-at-home orders — including the wearing of face masks when out of doors — have been caught violating the rules that they wish to impose on others for fear of spreading the coronavirus.  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who has suggested he might make wearing face masks mandatory, was spotted on the boardwalk in Virginia Beach on Saturday — without a mask.

The Doctrine of Media Untruth.  Take the strange case of the respective records of liberal New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Florida counterpart Ron DeSantis.  Both states have roughly equal populations, with Florida slightly larger by about 2 million.  Both have populations that travel daily back and forth between their respective major cities.  Both are major international tourist and travel hubs.  Both have widely diverse populations.  Both have large numbers of retirees and long-term-care homes.  Yet, New York has suffered 14 times the number of coronavirus deaths as has Florida.  Florida is now increasingly open, and on May 19 saw 54 deaths attributed to the virus.  That same day, New York was completely locked down and yet saw nearly twice that number at 105 deaths.  One would never know from the media of the contrasting fates of the two states during the epidemic.

Cuomo admits 'we all failed' at making coronavirus projections.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted Monday [5/25/2020] that coronavirus projections from experts were all wrong — and he's getting out of the business of speculating because of it.  Cuomo said he can't predict when the hospitalization and death rate numbers will drop to the necessary threshold required for reopening certain regions because as he put it, "we all failed" at predicting.

Hillary Clinton just thanked Andrew Cuomo for 'responsible decisions to keep people safe' in crisis.  In what could be the most tone-deaf and incorrect statement of the year so far, two-time failed Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton has just praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his 'responsible' leadership during the coronavirus pandemic to "keep people safe."  "I'm missing our Chappaqua Memorial Day parade today while also feeling grateful to leaders like @NYGovCuomo for making responsible decisions to keep people safe.  Wishing everyone a safe and healthy holiday. @BillClinton and I will be waving our flags at home," Clinton wrote in a tweet featuring a picture of herself, her ex-president husband, and Cuomo, laughing it up presumably during an earlier parade.

Has Trump been proven right yet again about the Wuhan virus?  President Trump is an extremely smart man who calibrates his speech to about the seventh-grade level in order to make sure all Americans, not just excessively verbal college graduates, understand him.  His uncomplicated speech patterns lead leftists to the erroneous conclusion that Trump is stupid.  That mistake, plus Trump Derangement Syndrome, explains why leftists instantly denigrated the predictions Trump made when the virus first broke in America.  Before Sunday [5/24/2020], of Trump's three most significant predictions, two proved correct.  Now there's news out of England that the virus's low infection rate is making it hard to put together a vaccine trial.  This news proves that Trump's third prediction, that the disease would die out as summer neared, was right, too.

$21 Million Brooklyn Field Hospital Shutters After Seeing No Coronavirus Patients.  A $21 million field hospital in Brooklyn, New York, authorized by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic opened and closed without seeing any patients.  The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook was one of several makeshift hospital sites throughout the city intended to relieve the city's overcrowded hospitals brimming with coronavirus patients, the New York Post reported.

$21M Brooklyn field hospital never saw a patient amid coronavirus pandemic.  A roughly $21 million Brooklyn field hospital authorized by the de Blasio administration at the height of the coronavirus pandemic opened and closed without ever seeing one patient, according to city officials.  The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook was one of several sites across the five boroughs converted into a medical facility as a way to relieve the city's overburdened hospital system as the COVID-19 crisis mounted.  Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans on Mar. 31 — a day after the USNS Comfort hospital ship arrived in New York Harbor to aid in the coronavirus fight — for the $20.8 million Red Hook field hospital with an estimated capacity for 750 beds.  The field hospital was built by Texas-based construction company SLSCO.

Hospitals flush with cash got billions in coronavirus bailouts.  Hospitals hoarding massive piles of cash got billions of dollars in federal coronavirus bailouts while vulnerable health centers were forced to scrape by, a new report says.  The feds have given more than $5 billion in grants to 20 big hospital chains that already had more than $108 billion in cash, the New York Times reported Monday [5/25/2020].  The money was among $72 billion in grants the Department of Health and Human Services has distributed to hospitals and other providers since April under the CARES Act — the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that Congress passed in March to shore up struggling businesses amid the pandemic, according to the paper.

The CDC's New 'Best Estimate' Implies a COVID-19 Infection Fatality Rate Below 0.3%.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current "best estimate" for the fatality rate among Americans with COVID-19 symptoms is 0.4 percent.  The CDC also estimates that 35 percent of people infected by the COVID-19 virus never develop symptoms.  Those numbers imply that the virus kills less than 0.3 percent of people infected by it — far lower than the infection fatality rates (IFRs) assumed by the alarming projections that drove the initial government response to the epidemic, including broad business closure and stay-at-home orders.  The CDC offers the new estimates in its "COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios," which are meant to guide hospital administrators in "assessing resource needs" and help policy makers "evaluate the potential effects of different community mitigation strategies."  It says "the planning scenarios are being used by mathematical modelers throughout the Federal government."

Cooking the Books on COVID-19 Deaths.  Fox News, and other cable networks, run a COVID death count ticker on the side or bottom of the television screen just as they show the major stock indices during the business day.  Why are they so obsessed with deaths from the Chinese virus? [...] Aside from the morbid, "If it bleeds, it leads" mantra that guides much news reporting, the media wants to pin each death on the tail of President Trump.  Twitter has a #TrumpDeathCount hashtag to blame every single death on the president, the more the merrier.  This is ahead of the fall presidential campaign where Democrats will attempt to blame the entire Wuhan virus mess on Trump, from the economic devastation to the total number of deaths.  If more deaths are better for the Democrat and media narrative, expect to see inflated death counts, erroneously blaming non-virus deaths on the virus.  The left is practiced at this since every type of extreme weather, from rain to snow, heat to cold, hurricanes to tornadoes, is blamed on global warming or climate change, depending on which term fits the weather in question.

COVID-19 becomes a political disease.  Just as the coronavirus begins to wane, another dangerous pathogen is infecting America — COVID-19 politics.  In the early days of the pandemic, state governors walked in lockstep, ordering lockdowns to mitigate coronavirus infections and safeguard hospitals from being overwhelmed with patients.  Now that the number of new cases is flattening, politics are taking over, with states veering in different directions.  Science no longer appears to be in the driver's seat.  Blue states are extending stay-at-home orders, while red states are opening for business.  Two playbooks are in motion.  Red states are scrambling to revive the economy as quickly as possible, to get people back to work so they can feed their families. [...] Blue states say they are continuing quarantines to save lives, putting the nation's economic recovery on the back burner.

Are we allowed to ask if the lockdowns killed more people than COVID-19?  Tucker Carlson opened his show on Thursday night with a 15-minute commentary that centred around setting the record straight on the response to the COVID-19 crisis.  He started off showing how 'our leaders' set the groundwork for the deprivation of our essential human rights with fear.  They used dire predictions of doom to soften opposition to the shredding of the Constitution.  We now know that the dire predictions to sell us on '15 Days to Slow the Spread' were wrong.  We also know that it didn't work as advertised, with antibody studies showing that most infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus were asymptomatic.  We know of the original source of the 'social distancing' and shutdowns that are a part of pandemic safety theater.  This draconian assault on basic human rights was also the strategy employed by the Chinese Communist Party.  Birds of a collectivist feather tend to flock together.  We were also told we could trust the Chinese, even though they have never shown themselves to be trustworthy.

Thousands Of Churches Are About To Defy Lockdown Orders.  It's About Time.  On Friday [5/22/2020], President Trump said churches and houses of worship are "essential" and called on governors nationwide to allow them to open this weekend.  If they don't, Trump said he would "override" governors, citing forthcoming guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In remarks Thursday, the president criticized some governors who have "deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential" but not churches.  "It's not right.  So I'm correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential."  Trump is right, but churches are already taking action on their own.

YouTube Censors Former CBS Journalist Sharyl Attkisson For Reporting On Hdroxychloroquine.  YouTube is not a group of doctors, nurses, or have any sense of medical education, but their Nazi CEO claims that they will not tolerate and they will remove any videos that present a different, lawful narrative against the current one they are presenting.  Former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson has come under their attack just as The Sons of Liberty have in attempting to investigate certain claims about COVID-19, 5G, coronavirus and drugs used as treatment, including hydroxychloroquine and chlorine dioxide.

Oklahoma: After State Killed 275,000 Jobs Over COVID-19, Sheriff Now Evicting Residents Who Can't Pay.  Since March, unemployment across the country has reached record and potentially catastrophic numbers.  In the entire country, a record 38.6 million Americans have filed for unemployment during the pandemic.  That corresponds to nearly 25% of the entire United States labor force.  While many of these folks are receiving unemployment from state and federal government, many others are not.  Millions of Americans — who watched states close non-essential businesses, subsequently crushing their careers — cannot even access unemployment benefits, according to the Economic Policy Institute.  While some of these problems have been remedied, for others, collecting unemployment insurance was never an option.

The grossest interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci I have ever seen.  Watching an actress worth $200 million go into an orgiastic state because Dr. Anthony Fauci, the "coolest guy on the planet" has agreed to chat with her and pontificate about his lucrative, 40-year-old pet theory on vaccines, is beyond depraved.  That's what happened when fading Hollywood A-lister Julia Roberts put on a serious-looking pair of specs and "interviewed" Fauci in the fawning Hollywood style.  Roberts, an actress, outdid any fawner in the entertainment industry press.  And it was disgusting.

Police Shut Down Bernardsville Shop On Facebook Live Video.  A live video captures Bernardsville Police shutting down a borough business for repeatedly violating Gov. Phil Murphy's executive order for having a non-essential business open during the coronavirus pandemic.  Katherine Hermes of Peapack and owner of Country Home Store at 21 Olcott Square can be heard on the video making an emotional plea to the officer.  "I am just trying to save my business," Hermes says.  "I am widow with three children who need to eat."

Congress must protect good faith businesses from COVID-19 liability.  Throughout most of the nation, the curve of the coronavirus has been decisively flattened.  The healthcare system has not only survived but also excelled, keeping more than 94% of confirmed infected patients alive, a number that will only increase as testing ramps up.  That's better than Britain's National Health Service or the healthcare systems of France, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Spain, Ireland, or Sweden, among others.  But there are limits to how quickly commercial and economic life can resume because no government snap of the fingers can restore life to the way it was.

Nolte: Retracting My Claim that Andrew Cuomo Is Not Responsible for Coronavirus Deaths.  Based on new facts, I have no choice but to officially retract my earlier statement that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) should not be held responsible for any coronavirus deaths.  Unfortunately, Cuomo is directly responsible for a number of coronavirus deaths.  Possibly thousands. [...] The government's responsibility is to save as many lives as possible, and our government — at the local, state, and federal levels — met this responsibility admirably.  Incredibly, no one in this country died due to a lack of medical care or lack of a ventilator.  Everyone who could be saved was saved.  What more can any reasonable person ask?  Well, in the case of Andrew Cuomo, we could have asked that he not pour plague into New York's nursing homes and assisted living centers, that he not mandate these facilities accept discharged hospital patients recovering from, and, therefore, still infectious with the coronavirus.

Still More Evidence That Lockdowns Were A Massive Waste Of Time, Money, And Lives.  The nation's economy is on track to drop by more than 30% in the second quarter.  Unemployment is well into the double digits.  Half of small businesses might close in the next six months.  All for naught, it would appear, giving the growing pile of evidence that the economic lockdowns didn't work.  The latest evidence comes from a report out of JP Morgan Chase & Co. this week.  It finds that there's been no increase in cases or deaths as other nations and U.S. states start reopening.  This flies directly in the face of all the public health expert predictions of a major spike once people started moving about. [...] Don't expect anyone to admit they were wrong.  The public health community — which has been peddling wildly exaggerated predictions of deaths — will never do so.  Nor will Democrats and the press — which are committed to the narrative that every death in the U.S. is President Donald Trump's fault.

Can We Sue Our Way Out of Quarantine?  State governors from coast to coast issued coronavirus-related lockdown orders about two months ago, closing businesses and restricting people's movements.  Government officials have taken unprecedented steps, seemingly without much calculation or forethought.  In New York, for instance, Governor Andrew Cuomo insisted on March 18 that he would not approve a shelter-in-place order; by March 20, he praised California's lockdown and announced Gotham's own stay-at-home regime.  New York and many other states have extended these orders indefinitely.  The reasons for the lockdowns have shifted.  Initially aimed at "flattening the curve" — slowing the rate of infection to avoid overwhelming hospitals — shutdowns keep getting extended, even as medical workers are furloughed and temporary field hospitals (set up to handle a surge in cases) are dismantled.  Officials have leaned haphazardly on broadly worded and mostly untested "emergency powers" statutes to justify whatever policies they deem necessary.  The command-and-control mode of leadership has struck many Americans as contrary to limited-government principles.

The CDC Just Gave Us the Biggest Reason to End the Coronavirus Lockdowns.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nows estimates that 35 percent of coronavirus infections are asymptomatic.  But that's not even the most important part of their latest estimates.  It's the CDC's new "best estimate" for the case fatality rate amongst symptomatic patients.  But, before I got to that, I should note that back in March, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a 3.4 percent fatality rate and Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated that the fatality rate of the coronavirus was about 2 percent. [...] According to the CDC's current best estimate, the case fatality rate of the coronavirus is .4 percent.  And that's just amongst symptomatic cases, which, the CDC estimates, is 65 percent of all cases.  This means the CDC estimates that the fatality rate for all infections across all age groups, symptomatic as well as asymptomatic, is approximately .26 percent.

DOJ warns Los Angeles, Illinois of possible illegality of stay-at-home orders.  The Justice Department warned state and local officials Friday of the possible illegality of their stay-at-home orders, as the agency continues to monitor restrictions meant to contain the spread of COVID-19.  In a letter to Los Angeles officials, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said their recent comments suggesting that stay-at-home orders may stay in place longer "may be both arbitrary and unlawful."  The Justice Department also said that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's "sweeping limitations" on Illinois residents raise constitutional concerns.

The end is always three weeks away, yet you never quite get there.
Governor Whitmer extends Michigan's stay-home order to June 12.  Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed another Executive Order extending Michigan's stay-home order until June 12.  "While the data shows that we are making progress, we are not out of the woods yet.  If we're going to lower the chance of a second wave and continue to protect our neighbors and loved ones from the spread of this virus, we must continue to do our part by staying safer at home," said Governor Whitmer. [...] The order extends the temporary closure of theaters, gyms, salons and casinos among other things in an effort prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Coronavirus Basics Too Many People Never Learned.  [Scroll down]  COVID-19 often produces only moderate flu-like symptoms, but sometimes it generates a catastrophic collapse, sometimes unexpectedly.  It is believed that a cascading overreaction of the immune system can causes mass death of cells, including in the sensitive tissues of the lungs, leading to death by oxygen starvation.  Researchers are hoping to directly target the genesis of a cytokine storm, which should blunt the worst symptoms of the disease.

Trump announces that houses of worship are 'essential,' calls on governors to open them up.  President Trump on Friday [5/22/2020] announced that new Centers for Disease Control guidance will classify houses of worship as "essential," as he called on governors to allow them to open "right now" after being closed during the coronavirus lockdowns.  Trump announced the policy for churches, synagogues and mosques, during a short briefing at the White House.

Open the States.  The citizen-led movement against overreaching COVID-19 lockdowns has been met with derision in the media, scorn from governors, and censorship from big tech.  OpentheStates.com was founded to address this dismissive response by giving the American grassroots a place to organize their communities and connect with existing re-open groups.  At OpentheStates.com, concerned citizens can sign the petition urging our national, state, and local leaders to re-open the states and connect with like-minded patriots.  We encourage all Americans to follow the CDC guidelines on social distancing, but we do not support government dictates that limit the constitutional rights that have made this country great.

There's no evidence coronavirus lockdowns saved lives.  Mass quarantines may have killed people.  It has now been 63 days — we're keeping track — since California became the first American state to issue a so-called shelter-in-place order for all citizens.  Governor Gavin Newsom's order was the beginning of an unprecedented coronavirus mass quarantine that has changed this country forever.  In many ways, the United States is hard to recognize compared to just two months ago.  Two months from now, it will be more different still.  In fact, it may be years before we fully understand the effects of what our leaders have done in response to the Wuhan coronavirus.  There are certain to be battles over how to interpret this moment many years from now.  It's possible your children will hear only one version of the story.  Uncomfortable facts by that point may have been scrubbed from social media platforms as disinformation.

Apple Sneaks COVID-19 Contact Tracing into Latest Phone Update.  If you install updates on your phone without reading the details then you might get an unwanted surprise.  The latest involves contact tracking technology.  Contact tracing technology, in theory, will notify users when they have entered the presence of a person with the coronavirus.  This project was begun in an effort "to protect people and get society back up and running," according to an April 10 announcement via Apple's newsroom.  Even if this technology supposedly works, surveys have shown that three in five Americans are either unable or entirely unwilling to use the technology.  Veteran and MMA champion Paul Lazenby condemned this update on Twitter:  "Contact tracing slipped discreetly into your latest IOS update.  No notice given, no attention drawn to it.  I wonder how many people really understand what a terrifying sign this is."

Fauci's Failures.  One of the greatest economic booms in our country's history has been brought to its knees by a virus. [...] Dr. Anthony Fauci is tasked with leading us through this as the resident "expert" that has all of America shut down.  It was his advice to President Trump that has locked down our country.  It is Dr. Fauci that has set the limits of what our country should do.  The damage is done when the experts are spreading fear and panic throughout the country and are allowed to set policy for the nation.  Dr. Fauci persuaded President Trump to "lockdown" the entire U.S. economy based on a false Imperial College model-based on the work of Dr. Neil Ferguson.  The Imperial College model has since been deemed to be a model "completely unusable for scientific purposes."  If the model was so flawed, why did Dr. Fauci not look closer into the results and question the facts as they were presented?

Plandemic: The COVID-19 Video YouTube and Facebook Don't Want You to See.  Over the last couple of days, I've had several friends send me a link to a video about COVID-19 called "Plandemic."  They said they can't post it on Facebook; Facebook either removes it or threatens them with suspension before they try to post it.  When I went to the URL on YouTube, it had been pulled for allegedly violating YouTube's terms of service.  A YouTube spokesperson told Buzzfeed News that they remove "content that includes medically unsubstantiated diagnostic advice for COVID-19."

Mysterious Deaths Of Covid-19 Researchers & Arrests Of Journalists Covering The Pandemic Are More Ominous Warnings Something Incredibly Sinister Is Going On.  Dating all the way back to 1994, Steve Quayle has kept a fascinating two-part list of mysteriously dead scientists, microbiologists, infectious disease experts and other 'medical experts in their particular fields' and we have to report that Covid-19 has brought us at least two more such mysterious deaths after two 'trailblazing' Covid-19 researchers were found dead in less than a month.  As Zero Hedge reports in this new story, "outside of academic circles, Dr. James Taylor and Dr. Bing Liu were relative unknowns.  Inside of the scientific community, however, the two had achieved something like rock-star status.  And now, within a period of 30 days, both young men are dead at a time when their talents are needed most."

Eisenhower warned us about people like Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the most intelligent men to sit in the Oval Office.  He wasn't just a good leader.  He was also quite prescient, known for his discussion of the Military Industrial Complex during his farewell speech in 1961.  This was essentially a prediction of what we saw with the Vietnam War and both Gulf Wars, particularly the second that was driven by this so-called Military Industrial Complex.  But in the same speech, he told of another challenge America would face, a challenge that we're seeing rearing its ugly head today during the coronavirus crisis.  His fear was that scientific-technological elite would drive policy.  When you read this quote, keep Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and other scientific-technological elites in mind.  ["]In holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.["]

The incredibly stupefying origins of the COVID-19 lockdown, the world's greatest mistake.  One would expect that a blue-ribbon team of experts would have carefully developed a policy with life or death implications for billions of people around the world.  A team of experts with the top women and men of the fields' microbiology and epidemiology interspersed with a few Nobel peace recipients for good measure.  It would be incumbent upon this bevy of boffins to methodically research what has worked in the past with other outbreaks and pandemics, especially paying attention to the subject of just quarantining the sick and protecting the vulnerable as well as looking at effective mitigation techniques, perhaps with an eye towards assessing ideas that are patently unworkable through practical considerations.  Well, one would be wrong in assuming that took place in developing the disastrous pandemic policies currently in place.  Instead, we have the absurd tale of a high school science project of a 15-year-old sophomore that ended up being the key part of almost every politician's plan for this kind of crisis.

Judge rules against Michigan trying to shut down barber defying lockdown — for the second time.  A judge ruled against the state of Michigan in their attempt to shut down the barber shop of a man who has become the symbol of resistance to social distancing edicts.  Shiawassee County Circuit Judge Matthew Stewart refused to grant a request from the state for a preliminary injunction against 77-year-old Karl Manke, who owns a barber shop in Owosso.  Stewart said it was a "close call" but ultimately he said the state did not prove their allegation that Manke's shop was an imminent public health and safety threat, according to the Detroit News.

Nationwide protest planned for Friday.  An organization called Open the States is planning nationwide protests on Friday [5/22/2020]. [...] Predictably, the left is claiming this is an "astroturf" operation as they try to discredit Americans across the country who are suffering economically and sickened by the tyrannical rule that has taken hold in blue states.  It remains to be seen how large the turn-out will be tomorrow.  I haven't seen any information about this circulating on conservative sites until I saw it at Legal Insurrection this week.

CDC Changes Its Mind About Wuhan Virus Transmission and That Tells You All You Need to Know About Our Current Mess.  [Scroll down]  Sadly, this kind of stupidity is par for the course for CDC. CDC has and does some great things but it is a failed organization that is currently living on its old press releases.  What it would rather do is be a Karen-esque nanny brigade that tells you how to live and deal with political issues like health disparities, and obesity, and guns than deal with disease.  When it does get put on the spot in an infectious disease crisis, it fails.  If you go back to the response to the anthrax attacks that happened around 9/11, particularly the attack on the Brentwood (DC) USPS facility, you find blinding incompetence is the order of the day.

Coronavirus: wearing a cloth face mask is less about science and more about solidarity.  [C]loth masks will affect both what you breathe in and where your breath goes when you breathe out.  But even so, the most optimistic estimates suggest that cloth coverings only have a minor effect on your chances of breathing in (or expelling) droplets containing a virus.  A small study of 21 healthy people concluded that a "homemade mask should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals, but it would be better than no protection".

Getting Our States Back To Work Quickly And Safely.  As President Donald Trump acknowledged in April, there is no net benefit in making the cure worse than the disease.  By adhering to the set of reasonable principles outlined in this document, states can get their citizens back to work safely.  With safeguards in place, the nation can manage the invisible threat of coronavirus and restore the public's confidence.  Work and free enterprise will fill store shelves and supply much-needed services.  There is pent-up demand.  Work is the backbone of wealth, and without prosperity, the nation jeopardizes its chances of fighting off the next threat.  Without prosperity, there will be pain and hardship, and the damage to economic stability and well-being will only increase the already-rising public unrest and lead to a powerful undermining of the legitimacy of governments.

What Medicine Is Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic.  We believe we have learned several things from this particular iteration of viral illness and the treatment options we have provided:  [#1] Initial survival after intubation for respiratory failure from COVID-19 in many reputable hospitals was 20 [to] 30%.  Only weeks later, it is 70 [to] 80%.  This is due to a multiplicity of reasons, but one is the use of prone ventilation, essentially breathing for them through a tube while flat on their stomachs rather than lying on their backs.  [#2] Use of oxygen-assisted CPAP and BiPAP machines for patients with very low oxygen levels in their bloodstream has proven desirable when intervention is done in time. [...] [#3] COVID-19 can cause advanced clotting disorders in the blood vessels and the heart. [...] [#4] Many of the stricken are pre-diabetic, diabetic, or morbidly obese.  Aggressive management of blood sugar levels is proving to be important in acute care.  [#5] Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, is common with COVID-19.

Tucker Carlson Exposing Governor Cuomo's Nursing Home Disaster that killed Seniors In Large Numbers.  [Video clip]

CDC: Coronavirus 'does not spread easily' except for close contact with infected patients.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued updated coronavirus guidelines that now downplay the chances of contracting the virus from surfaces, potentially offering relief to millions of Americans who have been concerned they might catch the disease from purchased groceries or delivered packages.  On its website, the CDC says that coronavirus is "thought to spread mainly from person-to-person."  Yet "the virus does not spread easily in other ways."  "It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes," the CDC also states on its site.  "This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads, but we are still learning more about this virus."

Who Believes the Lockdowns Were About Science?  Every state and local politician who imposed lockdowns pursuant to the COVID-19 pandemic claimed their decisions were based on "the science."  In reality, they ignored the advice of leading epidemiologists, relying instead on statistical models produced by "experts" with histories of wildly inaccurate projections.  The most notorious of these oracles was, of course, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, who claimed that coronavirus could kill 2.2 million Americans.  Based on such apocalyptic predictions, combined with overcautious warnings from Beltway bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci, all but a few governors implemented economically destructive stay-at-home orders — despite the reservations of respected epidemiologists who questioned the logic of lockdowns from the beginning.

Australian researchers see virus design manipulation.  A forthcoming Australian scientific study concludes that the coronavirus causing the global pandemic contains unique properties suggesting it was manipulated in a Chinese laboratory and was not the result of a natural occurrence.  Five scientists who conducted the study discovered an unusual ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as the pathogen behind COVID-19 is called, to easily infect humans.  The scientists said there is no sign so far that the virus can be found in other animals, including bats or the exotic wildlife sold for fresh meat at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified and where China maintains a major laboratory studying such viruses.

Keeping America Skeered.  When President Trump announced that he was taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to protect himself against contracting COVID-19, the Democrats and their mainstream media propaganda machine reacted with disbelief, horror, panic, and outrage. [...] Why are these people so upset? [...] Can it be that, by taking HCQ, President Trump is demonstrating in the most dramatic and effective way possible that the drug can be a "game changer" in the fight against COVID-19? Are the Democrats and media concerned that, by his example, Trump might raise doubts regarding their relentless drumbeat of warnings about the drug's alleged danger?

Baltimore Pastor Rips Up Cease-And-Desist Letter Mid-Sermon: 'We're Gonna Do It God's Way!'.  "Pharaoh doesn't get to dictate to God's people how they worship their God.  God is the one who defines the parameters.  God is the one that communicates his will and his plan for his church, not Egypt.  And I'm telling you right now, with this cease-and-desist letter in my hand, the Bible says to the New Testament church 'not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching,' and the closer we get to Jesus coming back, the more church we ought to be having, not less church.  Now that's God's parameters.  So I'm tearing up this cease-and-desist order right here, and I'm telling you right now, we're gonna do it God's way!  We're gonna do it God's way!  God tells us how to worship Him, nobody else gets to do that."  [Video clip]

Liberals Would Rather People Die Than Have Hydroxychloroquine Work.  The battle over hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus is a testament to just how far gone the left is now.  That someone like Joy Behar is paid millions of dollars to spew ignorance on television is a testament to just how far gone merit is.  That Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president is a testament to society's tolerance of senior abuse.  These three individual fecal storms of stupidity came together this week when President Donald Trump announced he was taking the drug as preventative measure after being exposed to White House staffers who tested positive, and the result was Olympic-level stupid.

It's time for media to say 'We're sorry' to Ron DeSantis.  When the coronavirus first appeared in Florida, the media's predictions were dire.  Many expected the state to experience a crisis similar to New York's since thousands of New Yorkers fled their home state for Florida in the early days of the pandemic.  Others claimed Florida's outbreak would be just as bad, if not worse, than Italy's, given that Florida is a huge tourist destination with a major international city and that it has a sizable elderly population.  Health officials echoed these warnings, arguing that Florida's hospitals would be overwhelmed and that the state's open beaches would become breeding grounds for the virus.  Not one of these predictions proved true.

DeSantis and Florida emerge as Trump showcase for reopening.  Once widely considered to be courting disaster with its coronavirus response, Florida may soon be touted as a success story and President Trump's model for reopening.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a Trump ally, and as his state's coronavirus numbers improve, he is telling the national media, "I told you so."  In a press availability, he said, "I was the No. 1 landing spot from tens of thousands of people leaving the No. 1 hot zone in the world to come to my state.  So we've succeeded, and I think that people just don't want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative, it challenges their assumption, so they've got to try to find a boogeyman."

Masks Aren't Meant For Presidents.  No, the president of the United States should not be wearing a mask.  Period.  Not ever.  If it brings you comfort to wear one, I have no beef with you.  To each their own.  Some feel safer with masks, while others feel safer with a legally concealed firearm.  God bless America.  You do your thing, and I'll do mine.  Nevertheless, the leader of the free world is an important symbol bigger than our individual comfort zones.  The media knows this, and it's why they're so desperate to get President Trump behind a mask.  CNN's Kaitlan Collins knows it's a game.  She's been one of the loudest voices during White House briefings chirping over why some officials wear masks and some don't.  President Trump has repeatedly explained that everyone in the White House is tested daily and given the option of wearing a mask if they wish.  As for him, he chooses to not.

How 'Flatten The Curve' Became 'Slow The Spread' And Proved 'Prolong The Pain' Is The Goal.  As part of the bait-and-switch committed by those who derive power from our fear, the phrase "flatten the curve" quietly became "slow the spread" thus proving that "prolong the pain" is all many of those people are interested in.  One of the main problems is that the experts coronated by the media represent only one side of the medical community's thinking, but are treated by the media as carrying 100% of the medical community's authority.  And that's because they're the ones who traffic in the most fear, and whose insistences assure the most collateral damage for our nation.  And the language shift we just saw happen is really no different than what they did with global cooling.  I mean global warming.  I mean climate change.  They reeled would-be victims in with very specific language that lost its value and capacity to incite submission, and then transformed the language into something they could push indefinitely.

Judge refuses state request to shut Owosso barbershop.  A Michigan judge denied the state of Michigan's request to shut down an Owosso barbershop whose owner has openly defied the governor's stay-home orders and continued to cut hair.  During a hearing Thursday [5/21/2020], Shiawassee County Circuit Judge Matthew Stewart refused to issue a preliminary injunction against Karl Manke.  Stewart said while his decision was a "close call," he could not grant the state's request because officials failed to demonstrate that Manke was posing an imminent public health and safety threat by serving customers during the COVID-19 outbreak.

California hospitals saw sharp drop in heart attacks during COVID-19 shutdown.  For years it's been one of the leading causes of death, a critical condition plaguing nearly every corner of the country.  Every hour, seven people die from heart disease in the state but since the new coronavirus pandemic, some Northern California hospitals are admitting fewer heart attack patients than before.

The Editor says...
It is possible that some cardiac patients are reluctant to go to the hospital due to the media-induced fear of Chinese viruses.  Also, the hospital is an especially unpleasant place to be these days, because visitors are not allowed, due to irrationally fastidious precautions against the Chinese virus.  If you are stuck in a hospital room for a couple of days, nobody can bring you some fresh clothes, or a book, or anything at all.

Michigan AG tells Trump to wear mask while visiting Ford plant:  It's 'the law'.  Michigan's attorney general urged President Trump to wear a face mask when he visits the state Thursday to tour a Ford Motor Co. plant and to adhere to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's coronavirus executive order, telling the commander in chief that he has a "legal responsibility" to follow the law.  Dana Nessel, a Democrat, penned an open letter to Trump Wednesday [5/20/2020] asking him to follow the face-covering policy of Ford Motor Co. and of the state of Michigan.  Trump has not been pictured wearing a face mask in public and said he's taking hydroxychloroquine, an unproven COVID-19 drug, as a preventative measure to ward off the contagious virus.

Why is There so Little Coverage of Nursing Home Fiascos?  The promises and predictions in the media have been plentiful.  The failing of those pandemic predictions has nearly been as widespread.  As consistently wrong as these seers of doom in the press have been there is one other failing they have been adept at delivering; holding local officials accountable. [...] For a time New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) had been something of a media darling.  For a time he was hailed for his leadership and his ability to either work with President Trump, or call out the administration for supposed problematic responses.  For a time he was hinted at as a possible presidential ticket name.  That time has ended.  In recent weeks, Gov. Cuomo's swelling presence has ebbed as problems with the response in his state have been revealed, with one in particular being a jarring reality.

From Frontline to Breadline:  How Governor Andrew Cuomo's Policies Have Created Financial Havoc for Nursing Home Workers.  Governor Andrew Cuomo's nursing home mandate, which helped to cause the deaths of thousands of patients, is just the tip of the iceberg.  The residual effects from the governor's onetime decision to force nursing homes to accept virus-positive patients will soon form an avalanche of problems too insurmountable to overcome.  As usual though, it's the mainstream media — both left and right — that gets to pick winners and losers when it comes to any unfolding story.  This is a shame.  Not only do the media often push misinformation about crucial issues, they are obsessed with theoretical outcomes and not actual causes.  This is why they are prone to jumping to illogical conclusions about critical situations.  The pandemic led them to create false dilemmas for ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and now many of them, especially on the right, are doing this with what is happening in NYC nursing homes.

Scientists believe cannabis could help prevent and treat coronavirus.  They have high hopes for a coronavirus breakthrough.  A team of Canadian scientists believes it has found strong strains of cannabis that could help prevent or treat coronavirus infections, according to interviews and a study.  Researchers from the University of Lethbridge said a study in April showed at least 13 cannabis plants were high in CBD that appeared to affect the ACE2 pathways that the bug uses to access the body.

Mandatory vaccination for coronavirus gains support from 'civil libertarian' Alan Dershowitz.  The media, computer modelers, epidemiologists, and the censors keeping dissenting views off of social media have succeeded in terrifying much of the political class and the American public into accepting far-reaching suspensions of civil liberties in the name of suppressing the spread of a Covid-19, a highly communicable flu strain whose lethality principally affects the elderly and those with comorbidities.  At the moment it is an open question whether the lockdown "cure" will end up being more lethal than the disease.  Last week, American Thinker took some flak, including from some conservatives for publishing Peter Barry Chowka's warning, "Mandatory coronavirus vaccination looming on the horizon."  But retired Harvard Law School Professor and prominent civil libertarian Alan Dershowitz has unburdened himself in favor of exactly that.

The Editor says...
If vaccines become mandatory, the any other drug could be mandatory, too.

No Pandemic Exception to Constitution.  Does the Wuhan virus, which arguably escaped from a Chinese virology lab, supersede the rights guaranteed to American citizens under the U.S. Constitution?  The owners of a New Jersey gym think not.  They want to earn a living and pursue their American dream, and like most business owners and their customers are not stupid, suicidal, or children.  They are American citizens watching their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being ripped away by dime-store Napoleons who see this pandemic as a chance to pursue the liberal progressive dream of controlling every aspect of our lives. [...] As some states, mostly red states, open up and people begin to regain their lives and their liberty, it is clear this toothpaste is out of its tube.

Doctors raise alarm about health effects of continued coronavirus shutdown: 'Mass casualty incident'.  More than 600 doctors signed onto a letter sent to President Trump Tuesday pushing him to end the "national shutdown" aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, calling the widespread state orders keeping businesses closed and kids home from school a "mass casualty incident" with "exponentially growing health consequences."  The letter outlines a variety of consequences that the doctors have observed resulting from the coronavirus shutdowns, including patients missing routine checkups that could detect things like heart problems or cancer, increases in substance and alcohol abuse, and increases in financial instability that could lead to "[p]overty and financial uncertainty," which "is closely linked to poor health."  "We are alarmed at what appears to be the lack of consideration for the future health of our patients," the doctors say in their letter.  "The downstream health effects ... are being massively under-estimated and under-reported.  This is an order of magnitude error."

Hundreds Of Doctors Warn Trump Of 'Exponentially Growing Negative Health Consequences Of' Shutdown.  More than 600 medical doctors wrote a letter to President Donald Trump this week that warned the president that continued shutdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic are going to cause a serious "mass casualty event."  "Thousands of physicians in all specialties and from all States would like to express our gratitude for your leadership," the letter, obtained by Fox News, began.  "We write to you today to express our alarm over the exponentially growing negative health consequences of the national shutdown."  "In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident," the letter continued. [...] "Tens of millions are at triage level yellow," the letter continued.  "Liquor sales have increased 300-600%, cigarettes sales have increased, rent has gone unpaid, family relationships have become frayed, and millions of well-child check-ups have been missed.  Hundreds of millions are at triage level green.  These are people who currently are solvent, but at risk should economic conditions worsen.  Poverty and financial uncertainty is closely linked to poor health."

'How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?'.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests, distorting several important metrics and providing the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic.  We've learned that the CDC is making, at best, a debilitating mistake: combining test results that diagnose current coronavirus infections with test results that measure whether someone has ever had the virus.  The upshot is that the government's disease-fighting agency is overstating the country's ability to test people who are sick with COVID-19.  The agency confirmed to The Atlantic on Wednesday [5/20/2020] that it is mixing the results of viral and antibody tests, even though the two tests reveal different information and are used for different reasons.

CDC now says coronavirus 'does not spread easily' on surfaces.  The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says the coronavirus "does not spread easily" through touching surfaces or objects.  In early March, the federal health agency was warning that it "may be possible" to pass on the virus from contaminated surfaces, according to Fox News.  Its guidelines now include a section on ways the virus doesn't easily spread — including from touching surfaces or objects.  "It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes," the CDC webpage states.

Democrats are using the global pandemic to alter elections.  While the world's attention remains on the coronavirus global pandemic, Democrats are exploiting the crisis to change America's election system in a fundamental way.  It should concern everyone.  My home state of Nevada, where I served as attorney general from 2015 until 2019, began voting in its first all-mail primary election after the secretary of state's unilateral decision to make the switch.  This move exposes Nevada's June 9 primary election to voter fraud.  Here, a coalition of Democratic Party-aligned groups seeks to implement further changes to the all-mail primary in an effort to alter our primary elections permanently to include mailing ballots to inactive voters and ballot harvesting.

The Democratic Party:  A Robbery in Progress.  [Scroll down]  The Democratic Party is attempting to cash in on the nation's current pandemic fears so that they may finally dig themselves out from the mountains of debt they've created through vote-buying schemes and interest group bribes that have kept them in continuous power of their state and city governments while creating the most financially insolvent treasuries in the nation.  The truth is that our present pandemic nightmare has set in motion an event that has been fermenting for over fifty years.  Corrupt Democrat politicos have been fraudulently using the tax-and-spend powers of their offices to keep their natural constituencies financially beholden to their electoral success for generations and generations with no immediate plan for solving their growing financial albatross except the ephemeral hope that one day, somehow, they'd be able to offload the cost of all that graft and corruption onto the federal government's tab for the national taxpayers from faraway states to pay.

Oregon Gov. Decrees Residents in Closed Counties Cannot Shop in Open Counties.  Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D-Portland) said that residents of counties that have yet to reopen may not travel to open counties to get haircuts or dine in restaurants. [...] Of course, Brown's lockdown orders have confused Oregonians since they began.  It turns out that many retail outlets shut down when they didn't have to do so.  As we approach the tail end of the pandemic, and as Oregon has consistently ranked in the bottom five states in terms of infections and deaths, Brown's scattershot approach to the virus has raised more questions than answers.

The Editor says...
In a free country, travel from one city to another is not restricted.

Minnesota Gov:  Eateries can have 50 people.  Churches?  Ten.  Minnesota is moving into the third phase of its reopening under Governor Tim Walz's plan on June 1st.  After plenty of comments from the public, however, he's been making last-minute changes to the plan.  The most recent update offered more opportunities for people to out for dinner and put some food in their bellies.  Food for the soul, on the other hand, still won't be quite as available.  Restaurants will be allowed to host up to fifty customers on outdoor patio seating, but churches will remain limited to 10 congregants whether they are indoors or outdoors.

The Editor says...
In a free country, the number of people who may attend a church is not restricted.

The Catholic Church Of Minnesota Will Defy Walz's Restrictions On Mass.  Minnesota's Catholic bishops say that they will be reopening churches for mass at 33% capacity, boldly defying Governor Tim Walz's decree that limits the size of religious services to 10 people.  Governor Tim Walz gave a press conference, Wednesday [5/20/2020], where he layed out a "phased plan" to allow his state's businesses to reopen.  While his new agenda permits bars and resturants to host up to 50 patrons at a time, churches are only allowed to admit 20% that number of worshipers.  The public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Minneota, the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC), says that their churches simply will not abide by this order come Sunday.

Study: Washington ranks among states with most restrictions still in place due to coronavirus.  Washington is taking a gradual approach to its reopening, using data and a series of metrics to determine when to move forward and continue easing restrictions.  But the approach differs from that of many other states across the country.  According to a new study from WalletHub, Washington ranks among the top 10 states with the most restrictions still in place due to the novel coronavirus.

Data Leak Suggests China Had Hundreds of Thousands of Coronavirus Cases in 230 Cities.  There are many reasons to doubt China's official numbers.  The official count of cases hit 84,000 at the beginning of March and has barely risen at all since then.  Since March 1, the official data indicates the country — with almost 1.4 billion people — has had only one day with more than 300 new cases.  China's official figures show just two deaths since April 17.  In mid-April, the city of Wuhan revised its number of coronavirus deaths from 2,579 to 3,869 — a statistically improbable increase of exactly 50 percent.

Ron DeSantis Has Had Enough.  Florida has been a shining star in the current coronavirus epidemic.  Its fatality rate is unusually low, in part because its governor, Ron DeSantis, has followed the opposite approach from that of the inept Andy Cuomo: he has gotten infected people out of nursing homes rather than stashing them there.  Of course DeSantis has been given no credit for his excellent performance.  When Florida reopened for business ahead of most other states, DeSantis was hit with a barrage of criticism from left-wing journalists, who among other things alleged that Florida was conducting an experiment in "human sacrifice."  As usual, the journalists were wrong.

The Coronavirus Timeline Liberals Don't Want You To See.  Monday, the infamous left-wing group MoveOn began running a digital ad slamming President Trump for his administration's "insufficient response to the Coronavirus pandemic" and encouraging voters to vote against him in November.  The ad features a timeline that gives viewers the impression that the government failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus. [...] The timeline featured by MoveOn does what most anti-Trump coronavirus timelines do: it ignores all the things that actually happened.  Unfortunately for them, I've compiled a comprehensive timeline from various sources that lays out the Trump administration's response in far more detail than they want you to see.  As this timeline shows, the Trump administration responded quickly and decisively in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, even as impeachment was underway.  This timeline covers the moment China revealed the virus to the world up to the day Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency.

The truth about US coronavirus deaths:  American fatalities per capita are lower than EIGHT European countries.  US deaths are lower per million than eight European countries despite having the highest total number of deaths in the world.  As of Wednesday morning [5/20/2020], there had been 92,000 deaths across America — the highest reported number of any country in the world by far, and more than 1.5 million cases.  Modelers are now predicting that another 4 million will become infected by July 24 and that as many as 290,000 could die in total if social distancing isn't adhered to.  But when weighing the death toll up against America's enormous population of around 328 million, then comparing the per capita rate to other European countries, the US slips to number eight on the list of the worst affected countries.

CNN's Harwood Complains, Doctors Who Want to Reopen [are] Like Scientists Who Don't Believe in Global Warming!  This morning [5/20/2020] on CNN Newsroom, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood attacked Trump allies in the GOP for looking for doctors who support reopening the economy to appear on television and advocate this position.  CNN obtained this information from a leaked conference call between members of Trump's reelection campaign, discussing finding pro-Trump doctors who will go on television and advocate the need to reopen.  CNN Newsroom co-host Jim Sciutto posed skeptically to Harwood, "Trump's reelection campaign is now recruiting doctors?  Friendly doctors who serve as supporters to help Trump in that message?  What are you learning?"  Harwood complained how doctors who would advocate for reopening the economy are the same kind of crackpots who don't believe in global warming or think mail-in ballots lead to voter fraud.  He ended his smug rant by saying this is why "educated" voters aren't supporting Trump.

Also posted under Liberals think you're stupid.

Killing Off a Pandemic is Engineering, Not 'Science'.  There are people in our society who lust for power and luxuriate in it once they have it.  Some are elected, many are not.  Call them governors, call them mayors, call them health administrators, call them bureaucrats, call them "journalists," the power mad have become a potentially lethal plague on America.  They have suspended our civil liberties "for the duration."  So what is the duration?  These power-mad people have moved the goal posts to the undeterminable far future when a vaccine cure will be available.  There has never been a successful vaccine for an upper respiratory corona virus.  So don't count on it this time.  If we do get one an instant Nobel prize awaits.  Waiting for a vaccine is just an excuse for continued suppression of our liberties.  Moving the goal posts is profoundly dishonest and un-American.  In the name of "science" some governors forbade experimentation with various pharmaceutical treatments.

Florida's Governor DeSantis brings out his inner Trump.  Florida chose a different lockdown path from the rest of America, protecting old people and letting other Floridians mostly roam free.  The media gleefully predicted disaster and have been disappointed that Florida has avoided the disaster and emerged from the pandemic scare with flying colors.  On Wednesday [5/20/2020], Governor DeSantis let the media know how disgraceful their reporting about Florida has been.  With an approving Vice President Pence standing beside him, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida gave conservatives a thrill when he let the media know how awful their behavior has been regarding Florida's approach to the coronavirus.  It was a performance that would have made President Trump proud, because DeSantis, instead of accepting and defending against the media's pro-Democrat narrative, attacked the media for having a narrative in the first place.

Gretchen Whitmer Allows Gay Swinger's Club to Operate While Barber Loses License.  There is perhaps nothing more confusing than Democrat governors' orders during the Chinese WuFlu pandemic.  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is by far the worst.  That was made clear with the news that a gay swinger's club [...] is being allowed to operate under her nose in Lansing while she aims her business-killing death ray on 77-year-old barber Karl Manke for giving haircuts.

Italians petition G20 nations to join Trump in defunding W.H.O.  President Donald Trump is not alone in his stand against funding the World Health Organization.  While critics of the president repeatedly demonize him for withholding U.S. funds to the organization, recently threatening to make the cuts permanent, it seems other countries are making similar moves.  A petition addressed to the leaders of nations that make up the G20 group, and signed by more than 200,000 Italians, is asking for defunding the specialized agency of the United Nations which has come under heavy criticism for its mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic at its outbreak.

Sweden: Coronavirus and the Concept of 'Trade-Offs'.  Sweden, unlike its Scandinavian neighbors, made different decisions to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.  It issued no mandatory orders.  It did not require its citizens to shelter at home.  True, as of May 4, more Swedes had contracted and died from the coronavirus (2,679 total deaths, a rate of 263.08 per 1 million people) than people in Norway (211, rate of 39.7) and Denmark (484, rate of 83.49), but fewer when adjusted for its population size compared with the U.K. (28,446 deaths, a rate of 427.83), Spain (25,264, rate of 540.71), France (24,864, rate of 371.18) and Italy (28,884, rate of 477.96).

The Same Fools Who Called Us Racist For Wanting Early Border Closures Now Admit They Should Have Closed The Borders Earlier.  We all remember what happened when the CCP Coronavirus started spreading and posing a risk to Canada.  People like you and me were calling for border closures early on, realizing that the way to protect Canada was to shut our borders.  Yet, when people like us were calling for that, the foolish people in charge like Justin Trudeau, Theresa Tam, and Patty Hajdu insinuated that border closures were 'racist.'  They claimed that 'stigma' was a 'greater threat than the virus,' a statement that will live in infamy as one of the dumbest things every uttered.

N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's careless cruelty shows in coronavirus nursing home policy.  The core of cruelty defining New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo marches on.  As many contend, his policies are responsible for the shocking number of deaths at nursing homes in the state.  In a response to a reporter inquiring about the situation, Mr. Cuomo declared, "He [President Trump] worked it out so we always had available beds.  Nobody was deprived of a bed or medical coverage in any way.  And still people died.  Still, people died.  Older people, vulnerable people are going to die from this virus.  That is going to happen despite whatever you do.  Because with all our progress as a society, we can't keep everyone alive."  Janice Dean, Fox News' senior meteorologist, was not impressed with Mr. Cuomo's remark.  Both of her in-laws died of coronavirus complications in a New York nursing home.

The American Media Has Betrayed America.  [Scroll down]  The media's capital crime, however, is their coverage of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.  And if the national media establishment had not already demonstrated repeatedly that they are nothing more than a political action committee attached to the Democratic Party, more people would be fooled.  But as it is, the timing of the virus, the response to the virus, and the reporting on the virus:  all of it is suspect.  The repercussions of media malpractice are more deaths, destruction of the constitution, and quite possibly an economic depression.  This is not overstating the case.  Imagine if the media covered this crisis with honesty.  Sure, in the early stages, nobody knew what to make of it.  But why were the only voices accorded credibility by the media those who called for a lockdown? [...] Worse, why has the media ignored every report or study or journal article or clinical abstract that finds treatment with hydroxychloroquine, zinc sulfate, and azithromycin to be effective?  Why have they persistently spread the lie that a seven-day course of hydroxychloroquine is dangerous, when millions of people have used it safely for years on end to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis?  Why don't we ever hear about doctors around the world who are successfully using this treatment to prevent COVID-19 in exposed patients and to cure it in patients who've tested positive?  Why?  Who is pulling the strings of mainstream media in the United States?

We Were Never Asked.  In the early days of the coronavirus, everyone went from being carefree and complacent to scared in the blink of an eye.  We did not know what we were facing, other nations were taking extreme measures, and apocalyptic predictions from scientists and public health officials created an overnight panic.  Quite voluntarily, most people avoided crowds, unnecessary trips to the store, going to the office, and anything that might increase their risk of catching the coronavirus.  Handshakes went out of style, as did restaurants, gyms, and travel.  Soon there was a run on surgical masks, which became so bad that authorities engaged in a "noble lie" to discourage their use by regular folks.  Now these same experts have reversed course, as if we will forget what they said only a month ago.  In addition to these voluntary measures, mandatory lockdown measures were imposed to "flatten the curve."  They were supposed to save our hospitals and preserve limited ventilator resources.  While severe, this mostly made sense, as the risk seemed enormous, and the lockdowns were sold as a temporary measure.  As soon as the "15 days to slow the spread" began to expire, however, the goalposts were moved.

Phase Two in the Battle to Reopen America.  Weeks ago, a large chunk of the country believed fake news media and health experts' lie that COVID-19 is the worst thing that ever hit the planet.  They said 2 million would die if we did not close down the country.  It would have been foolish for Trump to push against the tsunami of fear sweeping the country.  Trump wisely waited for evidence to begin surfacing that the predicted doomsday numbers of deaths were proven false.  In April, Trump announced his plan to reopen America.  As expected, Democrats and fake news media responded in outrage, hysterically claiming that over 100 thousand will die.  Trump realizes THAT a large percentage of Americans are over the fear and ready to begin living again.  Dr. Fauci wants the lockdowns to continue.  After expressing his respect for Dr. Fauci, Trump said he will proceed.  Now is the time for more Americans to step up and rebel big-time against power-drunk, evil Democrats.

Remember, scientists and computer models got us into this mess.
Scientists propose a 50 days on, 30 days off coronavirus lockdown strategy.  Fifty days of strict lockdowns followed by 30 days where measures are eased could be an effective strategy for reducing Covid-19 deaths while ensuring some level of economic protection, scientists claim.  In an EU-backed study published on Wednesday [5/19/2020], a cohort of researchers from nine countries simulated how various lockdown strategies would impact the spread of the coronavirus.

Don't Be Fooled:  LA Public Health Director is an Activist Using "The Data" to Advance an Agenda.  Those of us on the conservative side of the spectrum already know that many scientific fields have been highly politicized.  What most of us are learning in 2020 is just how politicized the public health field is and that some who are considered experts in the field, such as Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer, Ph.D., are not even medical doctors (even though some official websites claim she is).  Ferrer's numerous degrees include a Masters of Education, a Masters of Public Health, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Welfare.  An examination of Ferrer's career shows that, like many "public health" professionals, her focus isn't on public health as it has traditionally been known; her focus is that of an activist using "data" to advance an agenda of "racial equity," and personal and institutional success is measured in nebulous, politically-correct terms.  Understanding the paradigm in which these "experts" operate is foundational to understanding and pushing back against their attempts to manipulate public policy.

A Pandemic Does Not Suspend the Rule of Law.  In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials have imposed unprecedented restrictions on our liberties and livelihoods, acting on the assumption that they can do whatever they think is necessary to protect the public from a potentially deadly disease.  The courts, which were initially reluctant to second-guess state responses to COVID-19, are beginning to recognize that public health powers, while broad, are not a blank check.  The Wisconsin case involved a dispute between two branches of the state government.  The Republican leaders of the state legislature argued that Andrea Palm, a Democrat who runs the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, was exercising powers she had never been granted when she ordered the closure of "nonessential" businesses and confined residents to their homes except for purposes she approved, threatening violators with fines and jail.  This case was not simply a partisan spat.  It raised the question of whether a single executive branch official can unilaterally criminalize heretofore legal behavior, based on nothing more than her own judgment of what is required to protect public health.

Crenshaw nails what's fueling deep partisan divide, and why the Left's in 'no rush' to re-open America.  [Scroll down]  "The debate over reopening the economy has a peculiar characteristic:  It breaks down almost entirely along political lines," Crenshaw began the piece titled, "Why Does Reopening Polarize Us?"  "Liberals emphasize the dangers of an open society, shaming those who want to go back to work.  Conservatives argue the opposite.  Red states are steadily reopening, while most blue states lag," he wrote.  "House Democrats believe it isn't safe for lawmakers to go back to work, while the Republican-controlled Senate is back in session."  The former United States Navy SEAL gave a few reasons why the division exists, noting that, generally, liberals will oppose anything that President Donald Trump is in favor of.

A tidy takedown of Media Matters and its propaganda about hydroxycholoroquine.  For most thinking Americans, it is unnecessary to bother to fact check the propaganda group Media Matters.  If they have heard of Media Matters at all, they typically understand it's a smear group funded by donors with political and corporate interests whose names are kept secret.  (The last big Media Matters donor whose name was publicly revealed years ago was that of liberal billionaire activist George Soros.)  The problem is, too many news organizations and even journalism groups such as Poynter use Media Matters and their affiliates as if they are legitimate news sources.  They are either unforgviably ignorant of Media Matters' slants, or choose to keep readers in the dark because they agree with the slant.  One major interest Media Matters and its affiliates have served over the years is that of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Shutdown May Soon Collapse in Pennsylvania Thanks to Local Resistance.  As in the rest of the country, life in Pennsylvania has been greatly disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the chaos that has resulted from the state government's attempts to handle the situation.  On March 16, Governor Wolf ordered that all "nonessential" businesses be closed for at least two weeks.  They are still closed today, and as a result, 1.8 million Pennsylvanians have filed for unemployment.  At the end of December of last year, the state estimated that there were roughly 6 million employed persons in Pennsylvania.  If we set aside all the workers whose incomes have been reduced through pay cuts or reduced hours, or who for various reasons have not filed for unemployment, still nearly a third of people who were working in December are now out of work.

Northam ditches coronavirus restrictions for Virginia Beach after weekend sees crowds defy his orders.  Under Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's eased coronavirus restrictions in effect Friday [5/15/2020], the state's oceanfront was relegated to fishing and exercise only, and social distancing was required.  But that didn't keep crowds away from Virginia Beach over the weekend as temperatures reached the high 70s.  Sunbathers took to the sand, bikers peddled along the bustling boardwalk and newly reopened gift shops were crowded with customers buying hermit crabs and snow cones, The Virginian-Pilot reported.  On Friday, Northam, a Democrat, gave the green light for houses of worship and some businesses to operate at 50 percent capacity.  Outdoor dining — with different parties spaced 6 feet apart — resumed with some staff required to wear masks.

Dolores Cahill and Del Bigtree on the Covid19 fraud.  Professor Dolores Cahill discusses the Covid 19 hoax with Del Bigtree.  Prof. Cahill calls for an end to the lockdown, discusses vaccine safety and demands accountability from those in power.  [Video clip]

Wisconsin Governor Gives Up Efforts to Continue Statewide Lockdown.  Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D-Wisc.) announced that he will no longer be pursuing any attempts to initiate another statewide lockdown due to the coronavirus, as reported by The Hill.  Evers' decision comes after the State Supreme Court struck down his attempted extension of the stay-at-home order last week, due to his failure to cooperate with the state legislature in doing so.  Any further extension, the court ruled, would have to be agreed upon by both the governor and the legislature, which is controlled by Republicans.

Michigan Gretchen Whitmer seeds the nursing homes with COVID-19.  In light of the nursing home disaster in New York, what kind of a ghoul would take that as an example to emulate instead of a baleful death warning to avoid, and then order contagious COVID-19 patients into her state's nursing homes?  Only Michigan's hard-faced Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the ambitious Democrat who banned sales of garden seeds to Michiganders, saying she's doing it in the name of keeping everyone 'safe.'  'Safe' to Whitmer is seeding the nursing homes with COVID-19 patients, supposedly as a means of lightening the loads of hospitals.  Too bad if granny gets it.  Under Whitmer's executive order, which she just extended yesterday for a week, any nursing home with less than 80% capacity will be forced to create special COVID units, regardless of their ability to protect their other patients, with the special ventilation systems, trained staff, and personal protective gear something like that would require even if it were advisable, and none of which are included in her order.

I Don't Want To See One More Coronavirus Commercial.  No more "We're all in this together" ...we are decidedly not.  From celebrities doing Tik Toks from their palatial estates to Nancy Pelosi's subzero freezer filled to the brim with expensive ice cream it has become increasingly clear that we are indeed not all in this together.  Some of us are crammed into stale apartments.  Some of us are isolated with our abusers or family addicts.  Some of us are losing the businesses we worked our whole lives to build. [...] No more Zoom late night shows, no more Zoom daytime shows, no more Zoom "reunions" from your favorite casts and no more Zoom "specials" where the wealthiest among us try to soothe our pain from their poolsides.  Zoom's usability and popularity was possibly the most helpful thing to come out of this thing.  Now it is the most annoying thing and I would like to go back to having never to think about it.

Judge rules that Oregon virus restrictions are invalid.  A judge in rural Oregon on Monday [5/18/2020] tossed out statewide coronavirus restrictions imposed by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, saying she didn't seek the Legislature's approval to extend the stay-at-home orders beyond a 28-day limit.  Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff issued his opinion in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by 10 churches around Oregon that argued the state's social-distancing directives were unconstitutional.

Let's wait til the first lockdown is over before asking...
Will Americans Submit to a Second Lockdown?  The country, as a whole, is, and has been, opening up.  Sunday's [5/17/2020] New York Times reports that, for weeks now, more than two-thirds of the states have been relaxing restrictions as [President] Trump had urged. [...] Clearly, the opening in many states has been driven by popular protest and public demand.  Crowds have ignored social distancing to demonstrate for an end to the shutdown.  Protesters have refused to wear masks and engaged in the time-honored practice since the '60s of civil defiance and disobedience.  The protesters seem to be saying:  We deplore the losses and know the risks, but we cannot live our lives behind closed doors in our homes until the elites tell us, as though we were children, when we may go out in the yard.  Hence, the next question we are all likely to confront:  If there is a sudden resurgence of the coronavirus, a second wave, and the media elite and blue state governors demand a new shutdown, a new closure of beaches, parks, shops, restaurants and churches, will the people of this republic comply with those demands or defy them?

Sheriff Revolts Against Lockdown: 'We Are Not Stormtroopers.  We Are Peacekeepers'.  In a passionate Facebook post, Sheriff James Mendrick of DuPage County, IL, broke his silence in the wake of the Chinese virus pandemic-induced lockdown rules that have businesses gasping to survive.  "As Sheriff, I feel that my own 1st amendment constitutional right to free speech has 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," he wrote.  "I just can't do this anymore.  I stand with our citizens and businesses of DuPage County who have offered no trouble or no resistance to any rule we put upon them, no matter how strange."

The Virus Modeling Scandal and "the Years of Living Hysterically".  "If it bleeds it leads" is an old rule of local news.  You can add to that the need to create suspense and to hype each event as big, bigger, the biggest ever (just think of weather reports during hurricane season).  The bigger the threat the better.  The larger the number the better.  When the Imperial College of London reported in mid-March that its model predicted the COVID-19 virus could kill as many as 2.2 million Americans and more than 500,000 Britons if governments did nothing to control the spread of the virus, it became the benchmark for radical policies that were unbelievably destructive to society.  What might have been a more dangerous but manageable pandemic (which would be the fourth since 1975) suddenly became the species threatening, Spanish Flu-Black Death-end-of-times threat that required the most radical, draconian public health restrictions and economically suicidal behavior in modern history.

Was the decision to impose lockdown based on crude mathematical guesswork?  Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College "stepped back" from the Sage group advising ministers when his lockdown-busting romantic trysts were exposed.  Perhaps he should have been dropped for a more consequential misstep.  Details of the model his team built to predict the epidemic are emerging and they are not pretty.  In the respective words of four experienced modellers, the code is "deeply riddled" with bugs, "a fairly arbitrary Heath Robinson machine", has "huge blocks of code — bad practice" and is "quite possibly the worst production code I have ever seen".  When ministers make statements about coronavirus policy they invariably say that they are "following the science".  But cutting-edge science is messy and unclear, a contest of ideas arbitrated by facts, a process of conjecture and refutation.  This is not new.  Almost two centuries ago Thomas Huxley described the "great tragedy of science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact."

Redfield and Birx:  Can they be trusted with COVID?  U.S. military documents show that, in 1992, the CDC's current Director Robert Redfield and his then-assistant, Deborah Birx — both Army medical officers — knowingly falsified scientific data published in the New England Journal of Medicine fraudulently claiming that an HIV vaccine they helped develop was effective.  They knew the vaccine was worthless.  Redfield now runs the agency charged with mandating COVID vaccines.  Birx, a life-long protégé to both Redfield and Anthony Fauci, served on the board of Bill Gates' Global Fund.  Redfield, Birx and Fauci lead the White House coronavirus task force.

The Coronavirus Death Rate Is MUCH Lower Than the Estimates Justifying the Lockdowns.  Appearing on Justice with Judge Jeanine on Saturday night [5/2/2020], Dr. Debora Birx admitted something that anyone paying attention to the coronavirus pandemic has known for some time now.  "I think we underestimated very early on the number of asymptomatic cases," Dr. Birx said.  "And I think we're really beginning to understand there are people that get infected that those symptoms are so low-grade that they don't even know that they're infected."

Code Review of Ferguson's Model.  [Scroll down]  The code:  It isn't the code Ferguson ran to produce his famous Report 9. What's been released on GitHub is a heavily modified derivative of it, after having been upgraded for over a month by a team from Microsoft and others.  This revised codebase is split into multiple files for legibility and written in C++, whereas the original program was "a single 15,000 line file that had been worked on for a decade" (this is considered extremely poor practice).  A request for the original code was made 8 days ago but ignored, and it will probably take some kind of legal compulsion to make them release it.  Clearly, Imperial are too embarrassed by the state of it ever to release it of their own free will, which is unacceptable given that it was paid for by the taxpayer and belongs to them.

Did a 14 Year-Old Schoolgirl Invent the Lockdown Policy?  [Scroll down]  Her name is Laura Glass and in 2006 her dad, Robert Glass, was working as a scientist at the Sandia National Laboratories.  He and his daughter, then 14, co-authored a 2006 paper entitled 'Targeted Social Distancing Designs for Pandemic Influenza' and this paper, apparently, was referenced in a proposal about how America should respond to a pandemic drafted by by two doctors working for the US federal government in 2006, along with a team at the Defense Department.

How Many Excess Deaths Are Due to COVID-19?  One of the stats most commonly latched on to by lockdown sceptics is the number of people who would normally be dying at this time of year in the absence of coronavirus because it seems to show there's been no increase (or, rather, it did before the death toll began to peak). [...] Every year, about 600,000 people die in the UK and it remains to be seen whether more people will die this year than in a normal year and what effect, if any, the lockdown will have had.  For instance, about 10% of people aged 80 and over die every year and while it's true there's a risk they'll die if infected with coronavirus, they won't be significantly less likely to die if they don't catch it because they're likely to die of something else.

Oregon salon owner who defied lockdown says CPS questioned her son: 'I'm almost broken'.  An Oregon salon owner and mother who reopened her doors in defiance of a coronavirus-related state lockdown alleged that her son was paid a visit this month by Child Protective Services.  Lindsey Graham, owner of the Glamour Salon in Salem, reopened her business on May 5 despite being deemed "nonessential" under Gov. Kate Brown's executive orders in March.  Two days after reopening, and after receiving a letter from the city of Salem informing her she was violating her lease agreement by breaking state orders, Ms. Graham said Child Protective Services showed up at her house.

You're Nonessential — Keep Your Mouth Shut.  COVID-19 America has realigned itself into a two-part caste system, one made up of the essential hero, and the other comprised of the selfish, nonessential coward.  Essential heroes, like those who work in grocery stores, hospitals, Walmarts, and deliver for Amazon, are deserving of our admiration and praise. [...] My wife is one of these essential workers.  She's a clinician at a small hospital in Philadelphia, where dozens of people have tested positive for COVID-19.  In the middle of April she too tested positive, and subsequently gave the virus to me.  Luckily, our symptoms were minor, and we quickly recovered.  When my wife returned to work after her 14-day quarantine, there was a big sign on the front lawn that read, Heroes Work Here.  Although she was completely recovered and COVID-free, she still had to take a deep breath to keep from vomiting.  My wife was given special papers from her job to show she's an essential worker, just in case she was out driving around and a cop pulled her over and demanded to know why she was on the road.  I kid you not.

County Judge Rules That Oregon Governor Kate Brown's Covid Restrictions are Unconstitutional.  She had no legislative authority for these diktats.  More and more, the left is straight-up endorsing tyranny.  For the public safety and health, you understand!

Wisconsin Supreme Court Invalidates State's 'Safer at Home' Order.  On May 13, 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued its decision in Wisconsin Legislature v. Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, et al. and declared the state's Safer at Home Order unlawful, invalid, and unenforceable, creating a rush by local jurisdictions to issue orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19, resulting in uncertainty for businesses as to how to operate.

Judge tosses out Gov. Kate Brown's coronavirus restrictions in Oregon.  A judge in rural Oregon on Monday [5/18/2020] tossed out statewide coronavirus restrictions imposed by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, saying she didn't seek the Legislature's approval to extend the stay-at-home orders beyond a 28-day limit.  Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff issued his opinion in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by 10 churches around Oregon that argued the state's social-distancing directives were unconstitutional.

Georgia Supreme Court Says Yes, Economic Liberty is a Constitutional Right.  The Georgia Supreme Court this morning reversed a trial court decision that had declared that the right to earn a living is not a right protected under that state's Constitution.  In a unanimous ruling, the justices held that "we have long recognized that the Georgia Constitution's Due Process Clause entitles Georgians to pursue a lawful occupation of their choosing free from unreasonable government interference."  The case involves the state's laws regulating "lactation consultants" — that is, people who help new mothers learn to properly breastfeed newborn babies.  In the Peachtree State, you need a government license to do that, believe it or not.  That licensing requirement was challenged by a group of lactation counselors represented by our allies at the Institute for Justice, who argued that requiring government permission to help mothers breastfeed is so irrational that it violates the state's Due Process of Law Clause — a provision of the Constitution that for centuries has been understood as a prohibition on irrational laws.  But the trial court threw the case out on the grounds that there's no such right as economic freedom to begin with.

Fox News at NJ gym's defiant opening:  Crowd cheers as cop says they're in violation, then walks away.  A New Jersey gym kicked opened its doors early this morning as supporters celebrated the move in defiance of the state's coronavirus shutdown order.  Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey reopened Monday morning [5/18/2020] amid cheers from anti-lockdown protesters who were on hand to rally behind the business and send a message to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

NJ Governor Goes Full Dictator After Video of Gym in 'Defiance' of Stay at Home Order Goes Viral.  New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is levying new threats against citizens who dare to defy his "orders" after a video of a gym re-opening went viral yesterday [5/18/2020].  For background, here's the video, which includes clapping and cheering after police decided not to enforce the order with arrests.  [Video clip]

America Is Reopening Itself:  Will Politicians Be Able To Stop It?  As has been widely noted, we were initially told that we needed to shut down and shelter in place so that we would "flatten the curve" of infection growth to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed by people sick with COVID-19.  That benchmark was met a little more than a month into the lockdowns. [...] Yet many Americans are still under shelter-in-place orders, some of which have been extended.  We hate to use a cliche, but politicians have been moving the goalposts.  Flattening the curve isn't good enough.  They want to keep people home until there's a vaccine; or science, which has sadly become a loose term that means whatever the user wants it to, has established an effective treatment; or maybe until there are zero coronavirus cases.  This has rankled more than a few.

Andrew Cuomo's Reckless Choices.  ill de Blasio made terrible decisions as mayor of New York City.  But as more reporting emerges about the catastrophic decisions made by New York's governor, it's possible Andrew Cuomo deserves even more blame than de Blasio for what the coronavirus has done to the tri-state area and consequently the nation.  New York and New Jersey combined have suffered more COVID-19 deaths than any other country being tracked by researchers who run the Johns Hopkins crisis dashboard.  Cuomo made three breathtakingly bad moves in March that in retrospect amounted to catastrophe.

COVID-19 is killing Vermont's restaurants.  In the restaurant world, if the chefs run out of ingredients for a menu item, they inform the wait staff to "86 it" — remove it from the menu.  The shutdown in Vermont of essentially its entire restaurant industry will likely result in the "86ing" of 30% or more of its restaurants, never to reopen.  COVID-19 has killed 53 people in Vermont...and also thousands of jobs.  Restaurants nationwide are shut down, but Vermont's restaurant industry is particularly vulnerable.  In 2018, Vermont boasted some 1,413 eating and drinking establishments, and restaurants generated $1.1 billion in estimated sales.  In 2019, some 29,600 people were employed in restaurant and food service jobs (9% of all Vermont state employment).

Report: Chicago Mayor sent Police to Tow Cars, Block Church Parking Lot.  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot dispatched police officers to shut down parking lots and tow the cars of Christians attending Sunday services at a Romanian church, a religious liberty law firm alleges.  Liberty Counsel tells The Todd Starnes Radio Show that the mayor posted "no parking" notices around the neighborhood and around the church and "sent the police out to tow cars of residents."  "The church has leased the parking lot of a bank across the street for 18 years," Liberty Counsel said.  "Mayor Lightfoot had the police block the lot so churchgoers couldn't park there."

Chicago Thuggery Directed at Romanian Churches.  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has engaged in mob-like thuggery against the Romanian churches that have begun to meet in-person.  Even though these churches have their own private parking, and their members don't park on the street, the mayor ordered "No Parking" signs along the streets for nine blocks around the churches.  On Sunday [5/17/2020], Mayor Lightfoot blocked off nine blocks around the churches posting "No Parking" signs, hoping she would get the neighbors mad at the church.  However, the churches are not using street parking with their limited services.  The aldermen sent letters to the neighbors of the churches instructing them not to park on the street from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.  The letters stated the reason for the "No Parking" signs was due to the Romanian churches holding limited services.

Restaurant owners in disbelief as Massachusetts avoids providing details for industry to reopen amid coronavirus pandemic.  The words from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday were meant to offer some hope for small business owners as he spoke of reopening industries within the state.  For restaurant owners, it was what he failed to mention that evaporated any reason to hope.  As restaurants continue to withstand revenue losses of more than 75% over the last two months amid the coronavirus pandemic, Monday's plan revealed little new information to guide the industry forward.

Texas Reopening:  Bars, child care, sports among businesses opening in May.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday outlined the next businesses that will be allowed to reopen in phases this month.  Gov. Greg Abbott said bars across the state can reopen beginning on Friday [5/22/2020]. [...] Also on Friday, restaurants can operate at 50 percent instead of 25 percent capacity.  "Texas is prepared to move into Phase 2 for the further opening of businesses," Abbott said.

Rural America Rebels Against the Madness.  New York City is the center of the Wuhan epidemic in the United States, and in response to the virus, governors across the country have imposed shutdowns that might possibly be appropriate in New York, but are bonkers as applied to local conditions.  Initially, most of us tried to be good sports.  But as shutdowns lingered from weeks into months, and small businesses were destroyed by the hundreds of thousands for no apparent reason, the spirit of rebellion began to grow.  No doubt there were a number of places where rebellion flared today, but the one I know about is Albany, Minnesota, population 2,734, where a bar and restaurant owner stood up for his constitutional rights against the arbitrary power of the state's government.

"Mask Police Reporter," Kaitlin Collins Rips Off Mask Immediately After She Thinks Cameras Are Off, Rushes to Speak Maskless to Other Reporters.  Another black eye for the Karenwaffe.  This wouldn't be a story except Karen Collins here is one of the Firefighters bravely mask-shaming her targets.  Governor/Murderer Andrew Cuomo gets no mask-shaming for not wearing a mask at press conferences, but of course Trump does.  Karen Collins wears a mask at press conferences.  Until the moment the camera is off her.  Then it comes off faster than a t-shirt at Mardi Gras.

EU calls for independent probe of WHO's pandemic response.  The European Union and other countries on Monday [5/18/2020] called for an independent evaluation of the World Health Organization's response to the coronavirus pandemic "to review experience gained and lessons learned."  The resolution has the support of more than half of the WHO's member countries and will be discussed this week at the decision-making body of the U.N. health agency, being held virtually this year.  The proposal is intended to initiate "a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation" of the WHO's efforts to coordinate the international response to COVID-19, including the functioning of international health law and its actions within the greater U.N. health system.

Google slaps down conservative sites reporting the truth on coronavirus.  Google, the top search engine in the United States, appears to be hitting conservative sites who are publishing articles that run contrary to the accepted narrative surrounding the coronavirus.  Multiple reports have come into NOQ Report concerned with major drops in traffic from the search giant.  So, we checked our own stats and realized it had started happening to us as well.  We will not be "outing" other conservative sites who may require Google traffic to function properly (our biggest search traffic source is DuckDuckGo, which I highly recommend from a privacy perspective).  I will not be disclosing the names or websites associated with the people I talked to on this matter.  Google's various teams, for their part, have not responded to requests for information.

Nets Have a Meltdown After Trump Says He Takes Hydroxychloroquine.  Even though the FDA says the use of Hydroxychloroquine was up to a patient and their doctor, Monday's evening newscasts saw ABC, CBS, and NBC clutch their pearls after President Trump admitted he's been taking the anti-Malaria drug for several days to prevent catching coronavirus.  Acting as though he was self-medicating and not telling viewers that the drug needed a prescription to obtain it, which meant his doctor approved it, these liberal networks decried the medial precaution.  ABC's World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News kicked off their newscasts with the headline stealing development.  "But, of course, the headline that immediately took over all the others, when late today, the President said he's been taking hydroxychloroquine for more than a week," announced ABC anchor David Muir.  He added:  "But, of course, it led to immediate questions about why he's taking it, with the FDA warning that no one should be taking the drug for coronavirus outside a hospital or clinical trial."  Reporting on how the President said he had spoken with the White House physician before he started taking the drug, ABC chief White House correspondent Jon Karl didn't mention that it needed a prescription [...]

New York City Police Won't Enforce Face Mask Rule Following Outrage Over Woman's Rough Arrest.  The outrage that followed the publishing of a video of a woman's rough arrest for not properly wearing a face mask on Wednesday morning led to a change in police policy.  At a press briefing on Friday New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said:  ["]NYPD will continue to enforce the ban on non-essential gatherings, prioritizing dispersing groups of 6+ adults.  Absent a serious danger to the public, NYPD will not take enforcement action for failing to wear face covering[s].["]  This was not an apology.  Nor was his comment on Wednesday night when he tweeted:  "Face coverings are important to protect everybody — they're not optional.  But no one wants to see an interaction turn into this.  We've made progress with de-escalation.  This isn't it."

Un-furloughing the Economy.  The shocking rate of U.S. unemployment — officially 14.7 percent but perhaps as high as 20 percent — suggests an economic depression, possibly as deep and severe as the Great Depression itself.  The numbers represent millions of families living with grave economic uncertainty.  But the current unemployment rate does not have the same meaning that it normally would.  In previous recessions, almost every newly unemployed person represented a job that no longer existed.  That's not the case today.  A significant share of today's unemployed are furloughed workers, or contract workers seeing less demand, or laid-off workers whose employers will rehire them once they can reopen.  By some estimates, 80 percent of the unemployed expect to be back at their old jobs one day soon.  That may be too optimistic:  economists at the University of Chicago estimate that 42 percent of the unemployment is permanent, meaning that almost half of the lost jobs aren't coming back.

A better name for the COVID-19 masks.  A motorcycle, especially one with an upright sitting position, gives you an unmatched view of the world around.  You actually look down into cars.  It would have been beautiful, except that everywhere I looked, I saw the absurdity of the face masks that seem to be growing larger by the hour.  Was that a beautiful woman alone in a BMW convertible, top down, with a mask on?  Everywhere along open paths and sidewalks, people were walking, jogging, running, and pedaling furiously, all with masks on.  Some of the masks had grown so large that they covered from the chin to just under the eyes.  And then it dawned on me:  "FACE DIAPER!"  And I couldn't stop laughing.  Seriously, I nearly dumped my motorcycle.  Now, I know some people are saying, "What's it to you if some people choose to wear face masks?"  Because something this absurd cannot continue into the summer heat unless it becomes a mandate.  What will I do if the governor mandates that to work or go out in public, I must wear a mask?  And our governor, Ralph Northam, has been among the most aggressive of the blue-state governors in absurd restrictions.  Add to that that we know he is a fan of masks, as in college he often wore a blackface mask and sometime a white mask with matching robe, if you know what I mean.  So when people are doing a patently foolish thing, I feel it is my duty to point it out.

Mitigating Tyranny:  Lockdowns and Flynn.  [Scroll down]  For reasons not based on science, but on fearmongering by the press and autocratic leanings of some governors (for the most part, Democratic Governors Cuomo, Newsom, Whitmer, Evers, Northam, and Inslee) draconian lockdown measures were instituted by executive order.  These orders were often backed up by health commissioners, themselves ill-equipped by education or experience to offer sound advice.  The consequences of these actions have been to jeopardize the health of the poorest and most vulnerable and destroy the livelihoods of those not able to work from home or on academic and government payrolls.  At the same time, they released from prison some really hardcore prisoners, ostensibly to protect them from the virus.  In sum, they have most harmed the members of the very lowest tranches of the economy, which they have always claimed to represent.  The rebellion against the orders by affected citizens and courts continues.  Counties, municipalities, and sheriffs are refusing to enforce these orders.  My favorite is the sheriff of Fresno, California, who said she was too busy rounding up the criminals Governor Newsom had released to bother enforcing his lockdown edicts.

Covid-19 Is Becoming a Theory of Everything.  The desire to retrofit societies' infinite complexity to conform to a formulaic preconception may explain how a virus has overnight become a key to interpreting and restructuring the entire world.  COVD-19 immediately morphed from a disease to a philosophy that includes a multidisciplinary effort that defines other disciplines, including economics.  The wholesale applicability of COVID-19 first began with the expansion of the disease's symptoms into a DOE, or Disease of Everything that in turn has become the formula for interpreting the entirety of the field of medicine.  The long list of symptoms attributed to viral infection have expanded to the status of a universal affliction.  Symptoms include COVID toes, blood clots, organ failure and heart attacks, dizziness, difficulty breathing, coughing, sniffles, and much more.  Even children, initially thought almost immune to infection, are now coming down with "pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome."

There's Something Happening Here.  Thousands of flag-waving Californians descended upon the State Capitol Friday [5/15/2020] for a protest of Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide stay-at-home lockdown order, which has caused millions of residents to lose their jobs and businesses," wrote Katy Grimes in the California Globe.  Down in Huntington Beach in Orange County, as Fox News explained, protesters were backing up traffic for a mile on Pacific Coast Highway, while others staged rallies in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.  What could have prompted these Californians to get out in the streets?  Governor Gavin Newsom had declared them "nonessential" and they showed up with signs reading "All jobs are essential."  So, basically they want their lives back.  This is not what their governor wants, however.  On Wednesday, Newsom told reporters, "we believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications to that indicator," a reference to his shelter-in-place order.  The San Francisco Democrat didn't say what the modifications would be or when he would make them, and he didn't want people expressing their opposition in public.

Veni Vidi Fauci.  "We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country.  Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible, we can't keep going on like this."  That was President Trump in an interview on Thursday [5/14/2020].  By contrast, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House coronavirus task force wants to keep most everything shut down.  As the president told Maria Bartiromo, "I've disagreed," with Fauci on that question.  So has Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a medical doctor and a survivor of COVID-19.  On Tuesday, in a hearing with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Paul told Fauci, "I don't think you are the one person who gets to make a decision.  We can listen to your advice but there are people on the other side saying there's not going to be a surge and we can safely open the economy."  Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), did not appreciate the challenge.

Is it time for Fauci to go?  'Yes," he's been wrong at EVERY TURN!  [Video clip]

Operation Warp Speed eliminates Fauci's power to delay vaccines.  On Friday [5/15/2020], President Trump announced Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year if possible.  He put two "can-do" people in charge of the process — Glaxo Smith Kline's vaccine expert Mancef Slaoui to oversee vaccine development and Army General Gus Perna to oversee logistics.  Not only will they facilitate testing of the available vaccines, but they will also arrange production of promising vaccines even before they have been approved.  In contrast, during President Obama's Swine Flu (H1N1) epidemic, the CDC got vaccines approved quickly (just 7 weeks after Phase 1 clinical trials began), but then a shortage ensued while the vaccines were being produced.

How Many COVID-19 Deaths Are There?  Deborah Birx, the physician advising the White House's coronavirus task force, gave voice to a real concern earlier this month.  She told officials from the Centers for Disease Control that some of its numbers on mortality and case count could be inflated by up to 25 percent.  "There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust," the Washington Post reported Birx saying.

Lawsuit Against Cuomo Alleges 'Bloodless Coup' Has Stripped New Yorkers of Their Constitutional Rights.  The lawfare part of the lockdowns has begun in earnest with lawsuits being filed across the country against governors who ordered private businesses closed indefinitely with no due process and stripped them of their constitutional rights because of the Chinese coronavirus panic.  The latest lawsuit was filed by New York protesters in Rochester whose businesses have been shuttered by executive fiat.  The filing of the lawsuit was announced at a rally organized by RestartROC on Saturday [5/16/2020].

'We could open up again and forget the whole thing'.  Governments around the world say they are following 'The Science' with their draconian measures to stem the spread of the virus.  But the science around Covid-19 is bitterly contested.  Many experts have serious doubts about the effectiveness of the measures, and argue that our outsized fears of Covid-19 are not justified.  Knut Wittkowski is one such expert who has long argued for a change of course.  For 20 years, Wittkowski was the head of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at The Rockefeller University's Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

YouTube censors epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski for opposing lockdown.  Big Tech companies are aggressively tamping down on COVID-19 "misinformation" — opinions and ideas contrary to official pronouncements.  Dr. Knut M. Wittkowski, former head of biostatistics, epidemiology and research design at Rockefeller University, says YouTube removed a video of him talking about the virus which had racked up more than 1.3 million views.  Wittkowski, 65, is a ferocious critic of the nation's current steps to fight the coronavirus.  He has derided social distancing, saying it only prolongs the virus' existence and has attacked the current lockdown as mostly unnecessary.  Wittkowski, who holds two doctorates in computer science and medical biometry, believes the coronavirus should be allowed to achieve "herd immunity," and that short of a vaccine the pandemic will only end after it has sufficiently spread through the population.

Failures of an Influential COVID-19 Model Used to Justify Lockdowns.  Professor Neil Ferguson, who led the COVID-19 modeling team at Imperial College in London, resigned May 5 from his government advisory role after breaking the very same British lockdown rules that he had a role in influencing.  Ferguson led the Imperial College team that designed the computer model that, among others, had been used to justify the recent stay-at-home orders in England as well as in the United States.  We now know the model was so highly flawed it never should have been relied upon for policy decisions to begin with.

YouTube Censors Noted Anti-Lockdown Epidemiologist.  Welcome to the 2020 New World Order, when a social media platform like YouTube thinks it knows more about the coronavirus pandemic than an epidemiologist.

Brooklyn Park Paints Circles on Grass to Force Public Into Social Distancing.  I don't know if this is worse than the pool noodle hats that a restaurant in Germany is asking people to wear, but it's close.  A park in Brooklyn has painted what looks like parking spots for humans on the grass six feet apart from one another to force the public to behave.  And they're doing it. [...] If this is the "new normal" I want nothing to do with it.  I've adopted Ron Swanson's attitude.  I'll do what I want.  And if the government tries to stop me, I'm calling my lawyer.  This is out of control.  Are you going to sit in a little circle on the grass like a good social distancing sheep?

Adding to Dr. Fauci's diagnosis:  The critical case for ending our shutdown.  Basic science underlying a viral pandemic is absolutely critical.  But now is the time for the design of sound public policy — and that involves a far broader formulation than a single-minded focus on stopping COVID-19 at all costs.  Policymakers and the public have not received several key messages that are critical to alleviate fear and guide a safe reopening of society.  That has led to a gross failure in policy at the state level:  There has been a failure to remind everyone that the stated goal of the policy — total lockdown and whole-population isolation — has been accomplished in most of the United States, including the epicenter of New York.

Why we need a clinical trial of hydroxycholoroquine, azithromycin, and zinc ASAP.  A preliminary study done by New York's Grossman School of Medicine reports on the use of HCQ+AZT+Zinc versus HCQ+AZT alone in four New York Hospitals has issued its report. [...] The "main finding of this study is that after adjusting for the timing of zinc therapy, we found that the addition of zinc sulfate to hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was found to associate with a decrease in mortality or transition to hospice among patients who did not require ICU level of care, but this association was not significant in patients who were treated in the ICU."

The Obama-Biden Pandemic 'Playbook' Is Less than Advertised.  Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign has frequently pointed to a 69-page "playbook" that the Obama-Biden administration created for dealing with pandemics, arguing that President Donald Trump had ignored it.  White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany recently called the playbook "insufficient," according to the Washington Examiner.  In fact, the playbook is less than advertised.  Of the 69 pages, only 27 are the actual "playbook."  The first 13 pages are the table of contents, executive summary, and various title pages.  The last 29 pages are appendices.

Dr. Fauci and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims.  Although Dr. Anthony Fauci's NIAID (one of the institutes of the NIH) has lost its power to slow-walk a vaccine solution to COVID-19, he still retains his power to disparage HCQ (hydroxychloroquine), the most effective treatment against COVID-19.  During the last couple weeks, he has publicized two studies in which HCQ without zinc hasn't worked with hospitalized patients.  He has been so successful at disparaging HCQ that hospital use of HCQ has been declining.  HCQ is a zinc-ionophore (meaning that it helps transport available zinc from the bloodstream through cell walls into cells where it slows virus replication). [...] COVID-19 patients are largely drawn from groups that are known to have zinc deficiencies (i.e., the elderly, black Americans, diabetics, those with cancer, and those with low hemoglobin levels).  When Fauci tests HCQ on them without giving them zinc at the same time, many will die.

You can't criticize CCP influence of WHO.  That would be un-YouTube.

108 Million People in China Put Into Lockdown After 34 New Coronavirus Cases Detected.  The Chinese province of Jilin has placed about 108 million people into lockdown on Monday [5/18/2020] after roughly 34 new cases of coronavirus and one death were identified in the region over the past few weeks, according to a new report from Bloomberg News.  The new lockdown demonstrates widespread fear in China of witnessing another uncontrollable outbreak like the one in Wuhan that set off the global covid-19 pandemic in December 2019.

A tale of two governors.  Alas, the early "science," the early facts and analysis of COVID-19 suggests that those states controlled by the urban left are flunking by any fair mark up.  A New York (D) versus Florida (R) comparison, blue versus red, provides an early template for judging who gets high marks for crisis management.  By any measure New York is not just the national Covid hot spot, it is an international disaster area.  Andrew Cuomo's (D) state leads the nation in all statistical categories from infection to morbidity rates.  New York City (D) is now the toxic nexus for the nation.  The Big Apple is hands down the necrotic 2020 spoiler in the larger American barrel.  Badgering Washington for more of everything from the start, it turns out that team Mario miscalculated the need for damn near everything, including beds, hospitals, rescue ships, and respirators.  Mario Cuomo pushed city mayor de Blasio (D) aside and seized control of metro policy with hype and bombast, if not hysteria.  Incredibly, Cuomo was lionized by the media as "the only adult" in the room as he presided over the worst state or city medical crisis in America, if not the world.

Lock Up the Lockdown Governors.  It's week 7,298 of the #Coronapocalypse lockdown and a lot of Americans have reached the "I'm not staying here any longer, you idiots," phase.  I've actually been there for weeks but decided to play along with the New Rules because I was saving lives or something.  We are allowed to be opening up here a bit in Arizona, but some businesses are remaining closed and virtue-signaling all over the place, posting long social media messages about how it's just "not safe" yet.  I'm making a list of these places to make sure they don't get any of my money in the next year or two.  Some of them are favorites of mine, so it won't be easy. [...] There is a very real possibility that 20/20 hindsight will show us that little, if anything, was achieved by shutting down people's lives and livelihoods.  It will have been a self-inflicted and wholly unnecessary tragedy.

Good news:  COVID-19's grip is fading.  It is true that the pandemic's toll on our health and economic well-being has been devastating.  But a review of public reports, statistics, and studies shows that the future is not as dire as we are being told by the national media.  In fact, there is ample evidence that we are turning the corner on the virus and that the overwhelming majority of people are not at serious risk if they take commonsense precautions and follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.  Here are eight reasons why things are starting to look a little better. [...]

Why is THEIR health so important?
One Third Of Jail Inmates Nationwide Set Free in Unprecedented Coronavirus Jailbreak.  A new study reveals that almost a third of county jail inmates have been set free from the facilities during the coronavirus pandemic.  The Prison Policy Initiative study has determined that 32% of inmates at county jails have been set free. [...] Many jails have released up to half of their inmates, with facilities in Oregon, Arkansas and New Jersey releasing between 57% and 63% of their jail inmates.

One State Amends Coronavirus Death Count and the Numbers Are Significantly Lower.  From the start of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, one of the concerns was how the death count was being tallied.  White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said last month that the United States is taking a "liberal approach" to counting coronavirus deaths.  Instead of only counting those who died as a result of the virus, they are counting everyone who died who had tested positive, even if their death was unrelated to the virus.  "The intent is right now if someone dies with COVID-19, we're counting that as a COVID-19 death," Birx said at the time.  "There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition and let's say the virus caused you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem.  Some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death."

Blame governors for the coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.  If they are honest, historians judging the American experience during the coronavirus pandemic will excoriate our barbaric failure to protect the elderly.  We think of ourselves as civilized, but mindless policies and bureaucratic indifference turned many nursing homes and rehabilitation centers into killing fields.  At least 28,000 residents and workers in long-term care facilities already have died from the virus, according to a New York Times analysis done more than a week ago.  That represented one out of every three COVID-19 deaths recorded in the United States at the time and was likely an undercount because of reporting lags and varying state methods.

Cuomo Defends Nursing Home Policy: 'Older People, Vulnerable People Are Going to Die'.  New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is under fire for his disastrous policy of sending elderly Wuhan coronavirus patients to nursing homes.  President Trump even approved a temporary hospital at New York City's Javitz Center to house and treat coronavirus patients.  The president also sent a floating hospital packed with emergency supplies to New York to make additional space.  But with a fawning press behind him, Gov. Cuomo decided in all his wisdom that elderly people, sick and contagious with the Wuhan coronavirus, should be sent instead to nursing homes full of other elderly, vulnerable people.  The policy went on for weeks.  The press was probably too busy looking for bad news about hydroxychloroquine to question the governor's deadly directive.

Federal Judge Blocks North Carolina Governor's Restrictions on Church Services.  On Saturday [5/16/2020], a federal judge temporarily blocked North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's restrictions on indoor religious services during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.  In a recent statewide stay-at-home order aimed at reopening the state, religious services were instructed to be held "outdoors unless impossible."  Judge James C. Dever III sided with two Baptist churches who argued Gov. Cooper's restrictions on indoor church services violate their rights to worship and treat churches differently than secular entities like retailers.  While Dever believes the governor has acted in good faith, the judge also finds restrictions applied to one group and not another burden religious freedom and do little to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the judge wrote in a 22-page order.

Why the Lockdown Lost.  The nationwide lockdown during the 2020 global COVID-19 crisis will be the debate of historians for decades to come. [...] But it wasn't just Fauci's fault.  Inept governors running huge budget deficits tried to scapegoat their failures in financially upside-down states on the virus and simultaneously skate their way out of jams.  California, Illinois, and New York were in ruinous shape prior to COVID-19.  By going along with the ivory tower lab coat, by pinning blame on the orange man, and by believing their own press, these disasters in office could improve their personal standing.  But it all blew up.  Now...  Where's the accountability?

Garbage In, Garbage Out.  How many people have died from COVID-19? You can cite the official numbers, which vary depending on your source.  They're horrific, of course, but are they anywhere close to accurate?  Dr. Anthony Fauci testified this week that the number is probably higher, Dr. Deborah Birx, it was reported last week, thinks the number may be inflated by as much as 25 percent.  Who is right?  We don't know.  Fauci didn't cite much beyond his belief, which doesn't hold that much water considering he's held opposite positions on everything from the wearing of masks to whether or not coronavirus was a serious threat to Americans during the early stages of the pandemic.  Birx didn't cite much either, sharing an equally bad track record of prognostication.  The truth is we have no idea.

Leaked Videos From Wuhan Show The Apocalyptic Nightmare It's Become.  Wuhan, where cases of coronavirus were first reported before the outbreak spread across the world, has been dubbed "zombieland" by desperate locals.  Overcrowded hospitals, people dropping in the middle of the street, dying citizens treated in gardens because there is no room in the hospital, police bullying people into ambulances, 2-day old corpses under blankets it's like a bad nightmare these poor people can't wake up from.

The Coronavirus Lies Just Keep on Coming.  Check out this little video clip from Chicago.  Corrupt Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has just finished up holding her latest briefing, during which she and all of the reporters in the room dutifully wore their masks while they knew the TV cameras were rolling.  As the presser ends, everyone immediately takes off their masks, as several reporters approach Lightfoot to ask a few more questions.  [Video clip]  They just didn't know the camera was still running.  Watch how closely they crowd around the Mayor with their masks off.  Does that look like social distancing to you?

Timeline Of Blame:  Cuomo & De Blasio Are Soaked In Blood.  It's easy to overcomplicate the question of who is at fault for COVID-19.  The reason we have global organizations full of experts is for moments like the one we currently inhabit, and more to the point, for the moment a member state recognizes that it has a potentially serious problem: to prevent further harm.  In the case of infectious disease, the world looks to the health-related arm of the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO).  Until April 15, when President Trump defunded the WHO, the U.S. was footing the lion's share of the global watchdog's budget, nearly a quarter of annual operating expenses, most of which was spent on lavish travel, not curing diseases.

COVIDictators Beware:  The American Rebel Spirit Is Still Alive.  In the current environment of uncertainty and government overreach into all of our lives, there seems to be some light at the end of the government built tunnel.  This is not because we have actually reached the end, but because as with most things built by the government, it's crumbling.  In the past few months, dollar store dictators from across the nation have been implementing strict draconian regulations, in what appears to almost be an attempt to break the back of the largest economy to have existed on this planet.  Those who have tried to fight back have been punished like Shelley Luther, a salon owner in Dallas, Texas who saw the inside of a jail cell for daring to put food on her own table.  Even more recently, Governor Whitmer of Michigan decided due process was not to be afforded to a 77-year-old barber who had his state licenses stripped after ignoring local health officials orders to close his shop.

UN Human Rights Chief Tries to Scare Countries Into Continuing Lockdowns.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is suggesting that the draconian lockdowns most countries have enforced on their citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic might need to be extended to avoid a disastrous "second wave" of the virus.  Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet, a socialist and the former president of Chile, issued the warning on Thursday.  Bachelet claimed that the disastrous economic effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns are a small price to pay when you consider the possible alternative. [...] Bachelet must not watch much television or go on the Internet.  In America at least, re-openings are clearly being driven by unhappy citizens who want to go back to work and start their lives again — not by any "elites."  In fact, it seems like many elites — globalist health organizations, Democrat-controlled states and the mainstream media, for example — are the ones pressing to continue these authoritarian lockdowns.  The Human Rights High Commissioner is clearly of the belief that only government has the answers to the economic and health concerns brought on by the Chinese coronavirus.

COVID-19 Proves America Needs Economic Nationalism.  In World War II, America produced the gauze, iodine, and syringes that allowed allied troops to soldier on in the face of bloodshed and broken bones.  Times have changed.  Today, America cannot produce the basic medical supplies it needs to fight COVID-19.  Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services secretary, told the House Appropriations Committee that America needs 25 times more masks than it currently has stockpiled.  Worse still, it turns out that America cannot even manufacture the masks it needs because most of the factories are in China.  Evidently, it will take years for domestic mask-makers to fulfill the order placed by America's Strategic National Stockpile.  Until then we are at China's mercy.

Two Months Ago Today [...] the W.H.O.'s Coronavirus Mortality Rate of 3.4% Was Completely Inaccurate! — And We Were 100% Correct!  Exactly Two months ago, on March 17, 2020, we reported on the controversial Ethiopian politician and Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who claimed in a press conference in early March that the fatality rate for the coronavirus was 3.4% — many multiples that of the fatality rate of the common flu which is estimated to be around 0.1%.  This egregiously false premise led to the greatest global panic in world history.

COVID-19 Compliance Circles Begin in New York City.  Comrades, the New York Ministry of COVID Compliance is taking every precaution to ensure your safety.  The scientists at the New York parks and recreation compliance bureau have designed a new social safety system to permit continued enjoyment.  The compliant metropolitan citizens are leading by example, and all good citizens are now enjoying the benefits of correct behavior.  Continued compliance with the New York scientific standard for safe social engineering is greatly appreciated.  To further ensure your safety; while you explore the modified systems of freedom and liberty; the Ministry is providing uniformed Compliance Coaches, educators for our new society, at each of the designated parks and state approved recreation areas.

Alderman: Mayor's Office Bans Parking On Ravenswood Streets Near Church That Plans To Hold Sunday Services.  People heading to Philadelphia Romanian Church in Ravenswood on Sunday might have a hard time finding a parking spot.  Ald. Matt Martin (47th) said no-parking signs have been put up for several surrounding blocks near the church at 1713 W. Sunnyside Ave.  The signs have been mounted on Sunnyside Avenue between Greenview and Ravenswood avenues, and Paulina Street between Lawrence and Berteau avenues, Martin's office said.  The parking ban is in effect from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Sunday, according to Martin's office.  Martin said the signs were put up at the direction of the Mayor's office, in response to plans by the church to hold one or more religious services — in violation of the stay-at-home order for the coronavirus pandemic.

No Cure for Impatience.  Since the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic, I have observed a syndrome emerging in scientific research, namely publication of hopeful findings before there is any real evidence that the hope is well- or properly founded.  One or other of the hopes may be justified in the end, but the syndrome is not in itself harmless if it raises false hopes, puts additional pressure on politicians, and leads to a misdirection of financial and other resources.  Starting the trend was Professor Didier Raoult, of Marseille, for whom in other respects I have admiration, with his insistence that hydroxychloroquine, especially in combination with azithromycin, was virtually curative of Covid-19 disease.  He has provided nothing like proper evidence that this is so, which is not quite the same as saying that it is not so. [...] Then there was remdesivir.  A paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine that must rank as one of the most lamentable and irresponsible in recent years, and the competition is stiff.  It suggested that the drug was useful in the disease:  Patients were ill, patients were given it, and quite a lot of them got better.  There was no control group of similar patients who were not given remdesivir, so the effect of the drug, whether good or bad, was unknowable from this paper, which smacked more of advertising or stock manipulation than science.

Ruling Pandamerica.  As of May 13, 2020, 70 percent of Pennsylvania's 3,806 COVID-19 "related" deaths have occurred in assisted living facilities.  We have known since the onset of the pandemic that persons age 65 or older and/or with comorbidities such as diabetes and heart disease are overwhelmingly at risk of death should they be exposed to the virus. [...] To reduce the risk of infection, state officials prohibited visits to nursing homes by friends and families.  At the same time, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine issued a witless and ill-conceived directive requiring those facilities to readmit residents who have been hospitalized for COVID-19.  This was done regardless of the clear increased risk of harm that this posed to the health and safety of the facilities' aged and infirm patients.  The nursing home deaths were entirely predictable.  So why did Dr. Levine issue her mandate?  Was she simply unaware of the risk involved?  Apparently not.  You see, after requiring the assisted living facilities to admit COVID-19 patients, Levine moved her 95-year-old mother out of her nursing home to a hotel.

California City To Allow Reopenings, Declares Itself A 'Sanctuary City' For Business.  The central California city of Atwater has declared itself a "sanctuary city" for businesses.  The Friday [5/15/2020] resolution passed by the Atwater City Council allows business owners to open, openly defying Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus-related stay-at-home order.  The resolution affirms "the city's commitment" to "fundamental" human rights.  Churches and other nonprofits are included in the resolution, according to ABC30's Vanessa Vasconcelos.

CNN Reporter Who Chastised Trump for Non-Mask Usage Rips off Mask the Moment She Thinks the Cameras Are Off.  It's almost like all these reporters wearing masks while not being within 10 feet of anyone are just virtue signaling to push a partisan narratives.  Crazy thought, right?  CNN's Kaitlin Collins, who has tried to make a name for herself by getting into confrontations throughout the Wuhan virus pandemic (see Dr. Birx Takes CNN Reporter Apart After Attempted Gotcha Question), was caught red-handed yesterday.  As the press briefing ended and the cameras were assumed off, the "journalist" jumped out of her seat and ripped her mask off, even as she immediately walked closer to her colleagues.

Evidence emerges indicating COVID-19 was artificially adapted to infect humans.  Coronaviruses mutate naturally within their animal or human hosts, many of which produce no functional change in the virus.  Significant changes in the structure of a coronavirus can result in a "gain of function," that is, enhanced pathogenicity and/or an increase in transmissibility among animals or between animals and humans.  Such a "gain of function" has also been generated artificially through bioengineering, which has been demonstrated using a wide variety of viruses.

Limbaugh asks VP Pence about blue states with 'political desire to inflict pain' by not opening.  In an interview with Vice President Mike Pence on Friday [5/15/2020], conservative talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh opined that it appears as though some governors of "blue states" are pushing back on reopening their economies to harm President Donald Trump.  Pence, who told the host that both he and the president had kept Limbaugh in their thoughts as he battles cancer, was there to discuss the administration's progress on battling the coronavirus as well as plans to reopen the economy. [...] Early on, Limbaugh observed that Democrats would try to use the coronavirus pandemic to harm President Trump politically.  In February, the host blasted the Leftist establishment media, noting that "the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump."

Requests for N.J. public records rejected during coronavirus crisis as Murphy administration uses little-known law.  In 2005, New Jersey enacted a sweeping law called the Emergency Health Powers Act, giving the governor greater authority to take actions to protect Garden State residents during a health crisis.  Gov. Phil Murphy has cited the statute frequently the last two months as he's issued a series of orders to place the state in near-lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic.  But in an unexpected development, some government agencies in Murphy's administration have also cited the law to reject requests from media outlets seeking public records related to how the state has responded to an outbreak that has killed more than 10,000 residents and caused widespread unemployment.  The ability to obtain records is one of the key tools journalists, advocates, and everyday citizens wield to examine the inner workings of government and discover how your taxpayer dollars are being spent (or misspent).

The Coronavirus Lockdown Has Not Made the Air Cleaner.  Just about every day, someone claims that the air is cleaner.  That, we are told, is a small benefit of the coronavirus-induced economic lockdowns.  By reducing traffic on our roads, we are polluting the air less, providing a visible example of the supposed benefits of imposing more environmental regulation.  In my hometown of Seattle, one environmental activist told the local paper that people can "physically see that difference in the cleaner air."  The air-quality data tell a different story.  According to the EPA's air-quality monitors, levels of particulate matter — known as PM 2.5 — are not lower now and have, in fact, been higher recently than the median level of the last five years.  Consisting of particles smaller than 2.5 microns, PM 2.5 includes natural sources such as smoke or sea salt, as well as human-caused pollution from combustion.  In Philadelphia, a city health commissioner said, "I would expect our air pollution levels will probably go down because the number of vehicles in the streets are less."  Recent particulate-matter levels, however, have been close to the five-year average.  In Dallas, the levels of PM 2.5 are higher than average.

Eric Trump predicts Dems 'will milk' pandemic until Nov 3rd, then it will 'magically... disappear'.  Eric Trump appeared Saturday night [5/16/2020] on Fox News' "Justice with Judge Jeanine," to say what so many Americans are already thinking, that the Democratic Party is using the coronavirus pandemic as an election ploy to boost their chances of defeating his father, President Donald Trump.  The younger Trump pointed out that in a world Democrats have created, people can buy a bottle of liquor but can't go to church, and they can go to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion but can't go to a public library to vote — this being in response to the left's push for national mail-in voting.  "The Democrats are trying to milk this for everything they can and it's sad," he said.

Where coronavirus isn't:  What's kept cases officially at zero in these 200 counties?  In just four months, the deadly COVID-19 virus has infiltrated every state and major U.S. city.  But a scattering of remote counties continue without a single reported case, according to a USA TODAY analysis.  As of May 15, a total of 231 of 3,143 counties had no reported cases[.]  The list is getting shorter by the day, though.  In the first half of May alone, 40 counties went from zero recorded cases of the virus to at least one.  Georgia started the month with two zero-case counties.  Now there are none.  Tennessee also had two counties with no reported cases on May 1; two weeks later, only one remained.  Iowa went from eight counties with no cases to only four by mid-May.

The Editor says...
I don't know about the other states, but looking at the map of Texas, it appears that the counties with zero coronavirus cases are the least populous, or the least-densely-populated counties.

Detroit priest sprays holy water from squirt gun to maintain social distancing.  A Roman Catholic priest in the Detroit area has taken aim at his parishioners in a bid to maintain social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, using a squirt gun to shoot holy water.  Photos posted on social media by the St Ambrose Church show the Reverend Timothy Pelc shooting water into a car window as it stopped by the steps of the church.  He wore a mask, face shield and rubber gloves as further precautions against spreading the coronavirus.

The Editor says...
There is nothing in the Bible about holy water.  Anyone who believes that "holy water" is anything better than ordinary water is engaging in superstition.  Moreover, the Bible says that Christians will "lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."  (Mark 16:17-18.  See also Acts 28:8 and Mark 6:5.)  The priest mentioned in the story above doesn't have that level of faith.

US Rep wipes House floor with Dem governor for decision to 'extort the counties and kill our elderly'.  A Pennsylvania congressman slammed the state's Democrat governor for what he called out as an attempt to "extort counties and kill our elderly."  U.S. Rep. Scott Perry called out Governor Tom Wolf on Friday [5/15/2020] for the alarming number of coronavirus deaths in Pennsylvania's nursing homes, apparently a result of a policy that allows infected patients to return to the facilities they reside in.  Perry attacked Wolf for his withholding of funding to counties in the state while demanding more federal assistance as the elderly population in nursing homes have been decimated by the coronavirus outbreak.

You're less likely to object to the perpetual lockdown if you're intoxicated.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signs bill allowing cocktail delivery.  [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy signed legislation on Friday [5/15/2020] making it legal to sell and deliver mixed drinks and cocktails during the COVID-19 state of emergency, NorthJersey.com reported Friday.

Medical Misinformation, Part 2: Cure is Deadlier Than the Disease.  Is it possible that Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Coronavirus Task Force are suffering from temporal myopia?  According to the Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology, "Temporal myopia is the inability to consider the long-term outcomes of an action when making a choice."  I am a certified behavioral analyst, not a psychologist, so I'm not in a position to diagnose.  But from what I can observe, Fauci and the Task Force have made some horrifically short-sighted choices.  Either that, or we're dealing with an agenda much more nefarious than most Americans would care to consider.

The Imperative to Think in the COVID-19 Era.  The world can be a lonely place for those of us who suspect that the coronavirus pandemic or "crisis" is little more than a pretext by which, practically overnight, those who have long been aching for it executed nothing less than "the fundamental transformation" of America.  It's been that much lonelier given that, up until very recently, upon realizing that Democratic officeholders, their apologists in the media, and their constituents are exploiting the mass fear that they engendered for the purposes of furthering their own agenda, Republican politicians and conservative media personalities have been equally guilty of promoting the narrative of the second coming of the Black Plague.  Much more work needs to be done on the part of those in the Republican Party and conservative media.

Mandatory coronavirus vaccination looming on the horizon.  President Trump's promise of a vaccine yesterday implies words like mandate, monitoring, and immunity passports.  Contact tracing and tens of thousands of new government workers to spy on and enforce compliance with that unproven strategy which came out of nowhere last month were bad enough.  Now we have the next and possibly the final chapter:  A new medical mandate enforced by the military that will make Obamacare's onerous individual health insurance mandate seem like child's play.  There are those of us — millions of us, actually — who have refused to take the annual flu vaccine and any of the other fashionable immunizations that are hyped and sold to us by the medical industrial complex and the mainstream media.  When one looks closely, including into the scientific literature itself, there is just too little or no proof at all that most vaccines, including the annual vaunted flu shot, actually do any good — and/or are worth the potential dangers and the costs to personal health that lurk within all of them.  The few exceptions for an adult might include something like a tetanus shot after a skin-breaking accident.

It Wasn't The "Virus" That Crashed The Economy, It Was The People Who Obeyed.  Most atrocities in human history have all been committed by individuals and agents of government who were "just following orders" or "just obeying the law."  The virus didn't give any orders.  It was the people who obeyed the commands of tyrants that crashed the economy and ruined the livelihoods of others.  Most human beings still think like slaves.  Instead of asking questions or using critical thinking skills to ask if something is right before doing it, they simply obey perceived "authority".  The truth is, this lockdown is the fault of everyone who complied and everyone who used forced to exact revenge on those who disobeyed.  It was the same in all tyrannical takeovers in history.  The mainstream media keeps blaming the economic devastation on the coronavirus, but it wasn't the fault of a virus.  It was the fault of the government and the slave mentality of the police and the public willingly obeying their commands.  Mainstream media outlets are still trying desperately to spin the narrative and fault the "invisible enemy" for the very real toll on human life the government's overreaction has already caused.  This is nothing more than propaganda, and once you pick it up, you'll be able to see it.  The media doesn't want you to put the blame where it belongs and figure things out for yourself, so they hide behind deception headlines that will keep you in fear of COVID-19 as long as possible.  This is all a part of the larger plan to keep the public panicked about a virus and looking the other way when the tyrannical boots of the state come down on them.

The Moral Busybodies Strike Again.  There's a weird cognitive dissonance happening right now that is as revealing as it is alarming.  Just as we learn more details about all the ways Barack Obama and his henchmen weaponized powerful federal agencies to punish Donald Trump, Americans, oddly, are surrendering their own power to the same type of god-like government authorities under the guise of the common good. [...] The effort to stop coronavirus, much like the attempt to stop Donald Trump, has been presented by ardent defenders as their call to duty, a selfless act undertaken not to gratify their lust for power but to protect the public's best interest.  There is no discernible difference between the high-minded hectoring of former FBI Director James Comey and that of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer — their decisions are above scrutiny because, as they often scold their lesser subjects, these decisions are made for your own good.

NYTs and L.A. Times Reject NSC Advisor O'Brien's Column on Ventilators Because it 'Didn't Fit Their Narrative'.  National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien on Friday revealed in an interview Friday that the New York Times and Los Angeles Times declined to publish his recent column on American ventilator diplomacy because it "didn't fit their narrative."  Back in early March, many experts feared that a shortage of ventilators in America could be a public health catastrophe because there would not be enough of the life-saving machines in hospitals to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients.  The column describes in detail how the Trump administration became a world leader in the fight against the coronavirus by ramping-up production of ventilators.  The piece, which had high praise for Trump's handling of the crisis, was published at Fox News.

Dr. Scott Jensen — Truth on Covid-19 and Minnesota.  Dr. Scott Jensen is both a practicing physician and a Minnesota State Senator.  He brings a unique perspective to the affects of Covid-19 and the mandated social isolation on his patients.  [Video clip]

Stanford University doctor: 'You are mistaken' if you think coronavirus lockdowns provide safety.  Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, said people are "mistaken" if they think coronavirus lockdown policies are a solution that proves safety from COVID-19, PJ Media reported.  Bhattacharya recently led the largest COVID-19 antibody study in the United States, testing thousands of staff members of 27 Major League Baseball teams to get a better idea about how widespread the novel coronavirus already is.  Based on this and other research, Bhattacharya is opposed to continuing the lockdowns, and said they may even cause unnecessary harm.

The uncertainties of mask use demand that no one be forced to wear them.  Regular readers of Behind the Black will know that I have made it very clear I consider the requirement to wear a mask by government officials to be an incredible and inappropriate overreach of their authority, partly because they don't have that legal right, and partly because the science is very uncertain, with some studies strongly suggesting that the mask could have serious negative health effects.  Still, the science remains uncertain.  Because of this uncertainty, it seems to me in a free society, where everyone respects the idea of freedom, wearing a mask must be left up to each individual.  Sadly, the social justice warriors of our society no longer believe in freedom, and will try to shame and discredit you if you say publicly you will not wear a mask.

Masks Don't Work:  A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy.  Masks and respirators do not work.  There have been extensive randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, and meta-analysis reviews of RCT studies, which all show that masks and respirators do not work to prevent respiratory influenza-like illnesses, or respiratory illnesses believed to be transmitted by droplets and aerosol particles.  Furthermore, the relevant known physics and biology, which I review, are such that masks and respirators should not work.  It would be a paradox if masks and respirators worked, given what we know about viral respiratory diseases:  The main transmission path is long-residence-time aerosol particles (< 2.5 µm), which are too fine to be blocked, and the minimum-infective-dose is smaller than one aerosol particle.  The present paper about masks illustrates the degree to which governments, the mainstream media, and institutional propagandists can decide to operate in a science vacuum, or select only incomplete science that serves their interests.  Such recklessness is also certainly the case with the current global lockdown of over 1 billion people, an unprecedented experiment in medical and political history.

Neil Ferguson's Imperial model could be the most devastating software mistake of all time.  In the history of expensive software mistakes, Mariner 1 was probably the most notorious.  The unmanned spacecraft was destroyed seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral in 1962 when it veered dangerously off-course due to a line of dodgy code.  But nobody died and the only hits were to Nasa's budget and pride.  Imperial College's modelling of non-pharmaceutical interventions for Covid-19 which helped persuade the UK and other countries to bring in draconian lockdowns will supersede the failed Venus space probe and could go down in history as the most devastating software mistake of all time, in terms of economic costs and lives lost.

The entire panic, lockdown, and social distancing hysteria is based on this incomprehensible "bowl of spaghetti" computer program.
The Unexamined Model Is Not Worth Trusting.  [Scroll down]  The Imperial College model itself appeared solid.  As a spatial model, it divides the area of the U.K. into small cells, then simulates various processes of transmission, incubation, and recovery over each cell.  It factors in a good deal of randomness.  The model is typically run tens of thousands of times, and results are averaged — a technique commonly referred to as an ensemble model.  In a tweet sent in late March, [Neil] Ferguson — then still one of the leading voices within the U.K.'s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), tasked with handling the coronavirus crisis — stated that the model was implemented in "thousands of lines of undocumented" code written in C, a widely used and high-performing computing language.  He refused to publish the original source code, and Imperial College has refused a Freedom of Information Act request for the original source, alleging that the public interest is not sufficiently compelling.  As Ferguson himself admits, the code was written 13 years ago, to model an influenza pandemic.  This raises multiple questions:  other than Ferguson's reputation, what did the British government have at its disposal to assess the model and its implementation?  How was the model validated, and what safeguards were implemented to ensure that it was correctly applied?  The recent release of an improved version of the source code does not paint a favorable picture.  The code is a tangled mess of undocumented steps, with no discernible overall structure.  Even experienced developers would have to make a serious effort to understand it.

Andrew Cuomo in All His Ugliness.  Much of the nation these past few months has focused on New York state since it became the hotspot for the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.  Many have also complimented Governor Andrew Cuomo's response in fighting the pandemic, even to the point of suggesting he should substitute for presidential hopeful Joe Biden as the Democratic Party nominee to face Donald Trump in the November election.  On Tuesday [5/12/2020], Cuomo proposed a new law that aims to prevent corporations from receiving stimulus funds as a result of COVID-19.  While he presents himself as a governor who will tackle all forms of injustice, especially in light of his continual hands-on approach during this crisis, Cuomo is anything but the knight in shining armor he is being portrayed as.

'Fake news is not essential!' Tense scene as reporter walks through NY lockdown protest and feels the disdain.  There's a lot of frustration in the country today.  Frustration over a two-month-long lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, and frustration with the media for being more obsessed with destroying President Trump than providing reliable information during an unprecedented national emergency.  These frustrations came together Thursday during a Long Island reopening rally, as the protesters let a local reporter know how they feel as he made his way through the crowd, chanting "fake news is not essential."  News 12 Long Island reporter Kevin Vesey was covering the protest, with an emphasis on social distancing, and was ripped by person after person for being "fake news."

Gretchen Whitmer hit with nasty lawsuit by Michigan medical groups over 'drastic' and 'unconstitutional' COVID-19 lockdown.  Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer just got hit with some bad news when four medical groups and a patient seeking knee surgery in her state filed a lawsuit against her claiming that her strict coronavirus stay-at-home order is "drastic" and "unconstitutional."  The lawsuit was reportedly filed on May 12 by Grand Health Partners in Grand Rapids, Wellston Medical Center in Wellston, Primary Health Services in Ludington, and Jeffery Gulick, a Michigan man who wants to get knee replacement surgery, according to MLive.  The lawsuit names Whitmer along with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, and it calls for the immediate reopening of healthcare facilities for medical procedures that have been dubbed "nonessential."

They Blinded Us With Science.  [Scroll down]  Only occasionally, under the press of extraordinary calamities, do we attain the lucidity needed to pose fundamental questions anew.  The recent coronavirus pandemic is one such event.  An event of this kind forcefully and frontally challenges the reigning scientific outlook.  It does this in three ways.  First, by revealing science's internal limitations when it comes to mastering nature, let alone yielding ultimate truth.  Second, by underscoring the primacy of life itself over the scientific enterprise.  Third, by reminding us that there persists a vast range of human problems that no scientific discovery or technique can solve.  The deaths and disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus are tragic.  But we would be betraying reason itself if we fail to reexamine our most cherished civilizational assumptions through the rare window of lucidity lately opened for us.

Colorado changes data amid complaints that it inflated COVID-19 deaths.  Nearly a quarter of the people reported as coronavirus deaths in state statistics don't have the virus listed on their death certificates — at least not yet — the state Health Department said Friday [5/15/2020], adding more uncertainty to how many people the virus has killed in Colorado.  The number of coronavirus deaths in state figures topped 1,000 earlier this week, and the number stood at 1,150 deaths as of Friday afternoon.  But officials with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment revealed during a call with reporters that that number does not represent the number of people who have died due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The US is Dramatically Overcounting Coronavirus Deaths.  Over 86,500 people have reportedly died in the United States from the Coronavirus, and the fear generated by those deaths is driving the public policy debate.  But that number is a dramatic overcount.  Our metrics include deaths that have nothing to do with the virus.  The problem is even worse as the Centers for Disease Control over counts even some of these cases and the government has created financial incentives for this misreporting.  Relying on these flawed numbers is destroying businesses and jobs and costing lives.  "The case definition is very simplistic," Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of Illinois Department of Public Health, explains.  "It means, at the time of death, it was a COVID positive diagnosis.  That means, that if you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you also were found to have COVID, that would be counted as a COVID death.  It means, technically even if you died of clear alternative cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it's still listed as a COVID death."

Why I See Good Days Ahead.  Most of the coverage of our present circumstance has been noise; meaningless nonsense.  Our left-wing press has labored to make Donald Trump seem short-sighted in not seeing the Chinese Flu coming from afar.  No one ever sees anything coming from afar except by chance or by constant negativity that finally hits the jackpot.  Trump did fine.  On the Right, there are those who say the lockdown was an error and a few who say it was an evil plot to destroy the economy.  They may be right about the error — we won't know for a while and we may never know.  But the fact that most countries shut down proves that it looked like the best idea at the time.  Like the 20-20 hindsight media, the angry Right could express more wisdom by being silent.

The Editor says...
The nationwide shutdown may have looked like a good idea at first, but it quickly became apparent that the nationwide lockdown was an over-reaction, and yet the power-crazed tyrants (mostly) in Blue-state capitols (and the Dallas County Commissioners Court), are amplifying the fear and falsifying the body count in order to retain draconian levels of power.  And President Trump has apparently bought in to the nonsense.  That's why I don't see good days ahead.  Tyranny is far worse than disease.

Democrats Drunk With Pandemic Power Could be Undercutting Themselves Come November.  Flexing unearned influence has exposed the thirst for control of their citizens.  In Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf caught a whiff of his constituents working up the desire to step out and start living their lives once again.  The idea of citizens exerting their freedoms and basking in the normalcy of liberty was too much for him to stand.  On Monday he sent out a tweet storm, delivering a series of firm commands of how he intends to clamp down on those who might dare get the idea of doing things. [...] This governor, as we know, is hardly alone, as the petulant Pennsylvania tyrant is part of a widespread mob of Democratic governors who have been intoxicated by the sudden discovery of power they can impose on the citizenry.  Wolf does this with the comfort of no reprisals, as he is in the final stretch of a term limit regime — he is operating comfortably with a lame-duck Napoleanic complex.  Others, however, may have a reckoning ahead, and the wider Democratic party repercussions could be felt later this year.

New York's Terrible Decisions on Wuhan Coronavirus Screwed the Rest of America.  The curve of Wuhan coronavirus cases across the country has flattened and cities are slowly coming out of stay-at-home orders.  Businesses are opening back up and people are doing what they can to return to normalcy.  But the bad decisions made by politicians in the hardest-hit areas, specifically New York, should not go unnoticed as we start to pull away from the pandemic.  On March 2, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was encouraging residents to continue their regular behavior.  He even gave them ideas about what to do in crowded areas.  The virus had been in the country since the end of January and rapidly spreading.  Italy, a preview of what could come to the U.S. without proper preparation, was completely overrun, devastated and chaotic.

Our Nevermind Media.  Media observers are today noticing how strange it is for reporters to juxtapose panic about Florida, where the virus has done relatively little damage, with robust defense of New York, the coronavirus death capital of the Western world.  This week, after Politico Florida correspondent Marc Caputo noted that the long-predicted mass outbreak of coronavirus in his state still hasn't happened, with three full months having passed since the first dire warnings about spring breakers partying on the beaches, Daily Beast Washington correspondent and CNN analyst Jackie Kucinich threw the yellow flag. [...] The media loves to run with "blood on his hands" stories about nefarious Republicans, but you'll have a hard time finding even a quiet, pro-forma apology (much less an admission of bloody hands) from the media for their massive bungling of the early stages of the coronavirus story.

No, We Can't Wait Anymore.  Most of us are incredibly fed up.  While everyone is suffering, we are the ones risking our whole futures for this.  People tell us to stay positive and to find the beauty in little things.  We have tried our best to make the best out of this but, in truth, every day we watch our futures get further and further away from us. [...] If schools do not open in the fall, it would be one of the biggest sacrifices asked of America's youth in the history of this country.  Education is vital to America's future and we have the same rights to it as older adults across America once did.  Why would we just throw all of this away for the sake of an uncertain, and probably false, sense of safety?

As lockdown eases, other uncertainties lie ahead.  After months of the pandemic lockdown, we have arrived at a decisive time.  Communities around the country and around the globe are starting to take dramatic next steps as they try to move toward economic and social recovery.  You cannot help but wonder how this time of isolation has changed us and how those changes will reshape the world that awaits us.  As an example, last week, I looked at the airline industry and recent announcements of what passengers can expect as the industry tries to lure travelers back into the fold.  Not unexpectedly, they are banking on plane cleanliness as the draw.

The Editor says...
One thing this country doesn't need is perpetual and widespread hypochondria.

Covid-19 Internment Camps Being Set Up In Washington!  Internment camps are being set up at county fairgrounds in Washington State to house Covid 1984 patients.  The truth was announced though Rep. Matt Shea with an eyewitness coming forward and providing a photograph of the camps being assembled.  The witness confirmed that she spoke to the Mayor of Goldendale and it was, again, confirmed that these camps are being set up for Covid 19(84) patients.  These mandatory camps are being set up through what can be called a mandatory grant of money, as these counties are being required to set up these camps before they can open any new businesses, yet cannot afford to do so.  Trailers, as well as tiny homes, can be set up at the Fair Grounds, and hotels/motels could be used in some cases.  And it is required that these Internment camps are to be in place before the counties can move to "Phase 2" of Governor Inslee's plans.

The Bait-and-Switch Blues.  [Scroll down]  In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer won by a handy 53-44 margin in 2018 to become that state's governor.  Whitmer is, as Robert Stacy McCain aptly noted, America's worst governor.  She has proven that by doggedly repressing her state's economy despite its people loudly telling her they will not continue to allow it.  Whitmer's shutdown was, like all of the state and local examples of economic seppuku, which, for some strange reason, are continuing in Democrat-run states but not so much in Republican ones, predicated on the idea that if everyone stayed at home it would "flatten the curve" of the virus's spread and thus keep the health-care system from being overwhelmed.  Well, it wasn't.  And yet the shutdowns continue.  They continue in New York, where that state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, has won election with 63, 54, and 60 percent margins in 2010, 2014, and 2018.  Cuomo's orders actually killed nursing home patients in that state by insisting that nursing homes take in patients with COVID-19, spreading the virus to the most vulnerable people in society and ratcheting up the nation's worst fatality count.  Cuomo, who answers outrage over his blatant malfeasance by repeating the mantra of "We did everything we could," now is demanding much of his state stay closed until June 13.

'There is a cure': California biotech company claims it has discovered an antibody that can block '100%' of coronavirus infections.  Scientists at a California biotech company have found an antibody that completely blocks coronavirus in a discovery they called a 'cure,' Fox News reported.  Sorrento Therapeutics, based in San Diego, claims its STI-1499 antibody stopped coronavirus from entering 100 percent of healthy human cells in petri dish experiments.  It's one of several antibodies planned to be combined for a drug 'cocktail' Sorrento is developing in collaboration with Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Free State Tourism for an over-the-border haircut.  [Scroll down]  These are people who are glad to be back to work.  Are they essential?  Absolutely.  So is every other worker in the country.  Open it up, American governors, or the willing workers and their eager customers will open it up in spite of you.  We are adults.  We don't need nannies.  We will once again make personal decisions using common sense.  We will start making our own plans without waiting for you to "allow" us to have weddings, birthday parties, family events, meetings, and everything else we have postponed.  We will choose our own risks.  We've suffered your madness for nearly two months.  Now it's our turn.  We will take back our own lives.

Skateboarders defy city, clearing mulch off closed course placed there as deterrent.  Possum Creek Park in Gainesville just reopened this week, but it's opening in phases, as the skate park area is still closed.  Apparently, some skating enthusiasts didn't get the memo.  "We've been here this whole time with the park closed.  People have not stopped coming," said Michelle Dean, a concerned parent.  "There was 15 to 20 people here, mainly teenagers, playing and skateboarding."

Gov. JB Pritzker Urges Republican Critics To Stop 'Pushing Stories' About His Family's Whereabouts.  In the wake of questions about where his family has been staying during the statewide stay-at-home order, Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday [5/15/2020] said he's been protective of his wife and children's privacy, out of fear for their safety. [...] Last month, published reports revealed Pritzker's wife and daughter had been staying at an estate they own in Florida, prompting critics to accuse the governor's own family of flaunting the executive order he'd issued mandating people stay at home as much as possible, and avoid non-essential travel.  Pritzker had refused to answer questions on the issue until Friday, when he said his wife and daughter had been in Florida before he issued the stay-at-home order.  The governor said they sheltered in place there until recently, when they returned home.

Cuomo can't conceal his glee at news of defiant barber spreading COVID-19.  New York's embattled governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced that an upstate barber who violated quarantine, caught COVID-19, and then spread it to others, is reason enough for More Lockdown.  He said it with an impressive combination of coldness and glee, looking like some kind of hard-faced Caligula-like character.  Let them hate me so long as they fear me.

Antibody tests from 2 Snohomish County residents raise questions about when coronavirus first hit Washington.  She came down with a bug two days after Christmas, and for the next week or so, Jean, a 64-year-old retired nurse, suffered through a series of worsening symptoms: a dry, hacking cough, a fever and body aches, and finally, a wheeze that rattled her lungs.  But after two trips to the doctor, chest X-rays and prescriptions for several medications, including a "DuoNeb" solution inhaled through a nebulizer device commonly used to treat asthma, her condition slowly improved.

NY Tourist Arrested In Hawaii After Posting Beach Photos.  A tourist from New York has been arrested in Hawaii after he allegedly violated state regulations that require travelers to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.  Tarique Peters, 23, of the Bronx, arrived in Honolulu on Monday.  He then posted photographs on Instagram photos showing himself sunbathing at the beach and carrying a surfboard, state officials said.  "He allegedly left his hotel room the day he arrived and traveled many places using public transportation.  Authorities became aware of his social media posts from citizens who saw posts of him — on the beach with a surfboard, sunbathing, and walking around Waikiki at night," said a news release from the Hawaii COVID-19 Joint Information Center.

Enzyme that will make Bill Gates' vaccine microchip implant work known as LUCIFERASE.  Part of the plan for vaccination against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is to inject people with syringes that contain implantable "quantum dot" tattoos, which we reported are a type of microchip that would seem to constitute the Mark of the Beast.  And further proof of this comes in the form of the enzyme that Bill Gates has chosen to make it all possible, which has been ominously dubbed "luciferase."  According to reports, luciferase will activate these quantum dot "microneedles," as they are also called, effectively delivering the so-called vaccines into people's bodies.

Police State Dry Run [was] a Huge Success.  We have become part of a mass scale human experiment in government control and it turned out that stripping away our freedom wasn't all that difficult.  Under the guise of concern for our health and well-being, tyrants came out of the woodwork. [...] You tell me if what follows sounds like the United States, or China.  We've been told who can work and who can't, with language that separates us according to who is and who isn't "essential" as the almighty State supersedes individual rights and the family unit.  We've been physically and verbally harassed, threatened, fined, detained, arrested, jailed, and/or placed in forced quarantine.  Business licenses have been revoked.  Going to work without the permission of the government is now a crime.  So is going to the park or a beach.  Children playing together is also in defiance of the government.  So is placing flags on the graves of veterans.  The list of infractions goes on and on and on and on.  Examples read like the manifesto of a demented madman.  [Numerous additional links.]  Stay home.  Do not go out.  Do not earn money.  Do not pay your bills, feed your family, maintain your credit rating, live your life.  Do not make a single move without permission from the State or you will be punished.

The Lie That Launched a Thousand Lockdowns.  [Scroll down]  The Imperial College of London projected that more than 500,000 people in Great Britain would die if no protective measures were put in place.  The picture in the United States was even bleaker:  2.2 million people could die if the country didn't close.  Even with ambitious measures to mitigate the spread of the virus, the Imperial College model predicted that 1.1 million people in the United States and 260,000 people in Great Britain would die.  The governmental response was immediate.  Both the United Kingdom and United States ordered people to begin sheltering in place. [...] And almost overnight, states across America began implementing total shutdowns of restaurants, bars, retail stores, and every business they deemed "non-essential."  Unfortunately, the Imperial College model on which they all relied was staggeringly, disastrously wrong.  Almost immediately after it was released, [Neil] Ferguson's model came under fire from Oxford University epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, whose own modeling suggested that Coronavirus had been spreading in the U.K. far earlier than anyone suspected and that in most cases, it was either asymptomatic or so mild that it was confused with the common cold.

If they get away with this, they can arrest you for having any disease.
Michigan Judge Authorizes County to 'Involuntarily Detain' Suspected Coronavirus Victims.  A Michigan judge has granted the Kent County Department of Health the authority to arrest suspected coronavirus victims it deems a "health threat."  On April 6, 2020, 17th Circuit Court Chief Judge Mark Trusock granted an order sought by Kent County Health officer Adam London, who was seeking the power to "involuntarily" detain suspected virus carriers.

A Scientific Explanation Of Why Shutdowns Are Useless.  [Scroll down]  On the other hand, Dr. Bhattacharya has good news, too.  The fatality rate from COVID-19 is low — worldwide, somewhere between 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent, probably closer to the low end of that range.  The typical seasonal flu is said to have a fatality rate of around 0.1 percent.  So COVID-19 is probably somewhat worse than the average flu virus.  Further, another of Dr. Bhattacharya's studies found that 70 percent of those who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic.  That is, they wouldn't know they had had the virus if they weren't tested.  That percentage may be low.  Studies of prisoners in several states have found that more than 90 percent of those who tested positive were asymptomatic.  So the good news is, when you get COVID-19 — and it is highly probable that you will get it, regardless of what governments do — it is unlikely to do you any harm, and you probably won't know you had it.

She has a Ph.D. in Social Welfare, whatever that is.
Woman Dictating LA County Shutdowns Isn't a Medical Doctor, Paid More than $500K.  Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer made news Tuesday [5/12/2020] when she told the county's board of Supervisors that the "Safer at Home" order would almost certainly be extended for three more months when it expired May 15.  Outrage ensued, and the Board of Supervisors and Ferrer herself walked back those comments.  Turns out that walk-back was just a giant "psych!" because Ferrer announced the new order Wednesday — one with no expiration date.  But, give her credit for being literal — it wasn't a three-month extension.  To say that the vast majority of county residents are upset is an understatement.  As we at RedState have argued throughout our collective quarantine, the people making these decisions are people with stable, steady paychecks — paid for by We the People.  Ferrer definitely fits in that category, but the amount of her salary is stunning.  According to Transparent California, a watchdog group, Ferrer's total compensation package in 2018 was $553,249.

Flattening the Curve or Flattening Trump?  Flattening the curve is a new term for most of us not steeped in the world of public health or epidemiology.  Prior to the Chinese Coronavirus making a mess of lives and economies, this term might have featured in a Saturday morning infomercial on the latest weight loss fad.  Now it has become the holy grail of fighting this viral pandemic.  The New York Times, in a rare moment not bashing President Trump, explains flattening the curve.  There are two curves, a steep one and a flat one, as we have seen endlessly on the news.

Neurosurgeon Says Face Masks Pose Serious Risk to Healthy People.  Every Karen on Facebook is shaming her neighbors for not wearing a face mask.  We are being told by governors that if we don't wear them we are selfish, horrible human beings with no souls who want Grandma to die a horrible death.  Police are tackling people who don't wear them properly in the subway.  Grocery stores are throwing maskless people out and denying them service.  But now, there's another doctor weighing in — besides Dr. Fauci, bonafide sex god and ruler of us all, who also said face masks are largely security theater and of no use to the healthy.  Dr. Russell Blaylock, a neurosurgeon, has written an editorial addressing healthy people wearing masks to protect themselves from COVID-19 and his advice is:  don't.

Overview of coronavirus insanity.  Well worth your time.

Leaked data suggests China may have 640,000 coronavirus cases, not 80,000.  A leaked database from a Chinese military-run university suggests the country may have at least 640,000 COVID-19 cases — a figure substantially higher than Beijing's dubious claim that it has seen just 80,000 coronavirus infections.  The virus tracker, compiled by China's National University of Defense Technology and leaked to Foreign Policy magazine, appears to confirm fears that the nation's Communist government is hiding the true nature of the outbreak that originated in Wuhan late last year.

GoFundMe picks up the slack:
He's suspended for urging fellow officers to ignore stay-at-home orders — he also seems to be getting rich.  Greg Anderson, a Port of Seattle police officer and Special Forces veteran, has a problem with the direction this country is headed during the coronavirus pandemic.  He's prepared to lose his job over it.  In a viral Instagram video, Anderson urged fellow law enforcement officers to basically allow citizens their constitutional right to flout stay-at-home orders and go about their business.  "I'm seeing people arrested or cited for going to church.  I don't know what crime people are committing for doing nails in their own house," Anderson said in the video last week.  "We have to ask ourselves as officers, 'Is what I am doing right?'"

It's not over, and uncertainty abounds, but Israel's COVID-19 stats are stunning.  Lockdown and reopening policies have been inconsistent and illogical.  IKEA is doing a roaring trade, but bereaved families were barred from military cemeteries on Memorial Day.  We were allowed to run 500 meters from our home, but not to walk 500 meters from our home... unless we were on the way to the shops.  Restaurants were allowed to make deliveries, but not to have customers come and pick up takeout food, although some cafes were permitted to sell food and drink to passersby.  Supermarkets never closed, even though social distancing rules were not always upheld; open-air food markets have not yet been allowed to re-open, even though they promised to impose social distancing.

Tokyo mortality data shows no surge in deaths during pandemic.  As of Tuesday [5/12/2020], there were 633 deaths in Japan attributed to the virus, far fewer than the some 80,000 in the U.S, and 32,000 in the U.K., with Japan having the fewest confirmed cases and deaths of any Group of Seven leading democracy.  Japanese authorities have placed a high emphasis on identifying infection clusters and limiting their spread.

Infectious disease expert says he caught coronavirus through his eyes.  An infectious disease expert says he caught the coronavirus through his eyes on a flight to New Orleans that was "packed in like sardines," according to a report Thursday [5/14/2020].  Dr. Joseph Fair — a virologist and epidemiologist who has spent decades studying deadly viruses such as Ebola — was wearing a mask and gloves on the April 24 plane trip to New Orleans but fell critically ill soon after.  "I had a mask on.  I had gloves on.  I did my normal wipes routine, everything like that.  But, you know, obviously you can still get it through your eyes," Fair, 42, told NBC's "Today" show in an interview from his hospital bed.  He said the airline did not abide by social distancing measures — which he believes led to him catching the virus after droplets touched his eyes.  He didn't reveal the name of the airline he flew on or where he was coming from.

The number of new coronavirus cases is going down in 28 states as reopening efforts continue.  The number of new coronavirus cases reported each day is going down in more than half of US states, according to an analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.  In all, 28 states have seen a downward trend, including several that took steps toward reopening relatively early, like Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Colorado.  A notable exception is Texas, where case numbers are up between 20% and 30% since the state began lifting stay-home restrictions on May 1.  Thursday [5/14/2020] was particularly grim as the Lone Star State recorded 58 new deaths — the state's highest one-day increase in coronavirus fatalities since the pandemic began.

The Editor says...
Grain of salt:  How many of those deaths were due entirely, or even mostly to the coronavirus?

How Much Are We Spending To Prevent One COVID-19 Death — Millions, Billions, Trillions?  Nobody Knows.  "I'd say the cost of a human life, a human life is priceless.  Period."  That was Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, arguing for stretching the economically catastrophic lockdowns into the foreseeable future.  Never mind that more than 105,000 abortions were performed in New York in 2017 alone, at an average cost of about $600.  Clearly, human life is not priceless.  In a world where resources are limited and everything involves a tradeoff, we are constantly making decisions that put a value on human lives.  Federal regulators have even set an amount for what's called the "value of a statistical life."  During the Obama administration, the EPA put that value at close to $10 million.  Regulations that cost more than that to save one "statistical life" are seen as costing more than they're worth.

The governor's unscientific and misleading COVID-19 dials.  On April 29, Governor Inslee released a series of dials called the "COVID-19 Risk assessment dashboard," reflecting the data he claims to be using to make decisions about reopening the state economy.  He told the reporters that he was doing this "so we can be completely transparent with Washingtonians about how we are making these decisions," which he promised he is doing "based on data and science."  Analysis of that dashboard and the dials, however, shows this is simply not true and there are several problems.  The dial settings do not match the underlying data trends.  There is no data for some of the dials.  The dials are extremely imprecise, and some of the metrics the governor uses are meaningless.  These flaws are even more obvious when compared to New York's detailed and specific dashboard, which includes clear targets and transparent data.

A Farrago of Democrat Delusions Will Bury Them in 2020.  To judge from campaign oratory, it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that the Democrats and Republicans are contesting for the honor of governing the same country this election year.  The Democrats describe a country where, if the administration had acted more quickly and subjected the entire population to constant testing for the coronavirus even before any of its characteristics were known, Americans would have been spared scores of thousands of avoidable deaths.  It is a country where there is now no alternative to a near-complete national shutdown while the whole population submits to constant testing and anyone with whom an identified COVID-sufferer has met in the previous 14 days must be hunted down and forcibly quarantined. [...] It is hard to credit that the Democratic Party has adopted this fairy tale until its interpretation of recent legal events is taken on board.

Coronavirus pandemic takes huge toll on restaurants and bars.  Restaurants and bars have suffered a tremendous financial setback as people stay at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.  Even under a gradual reopening beginning in June, the industry is projected to lose $240 billion by the end of 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association.  An OpenTable report shows that reservations and foot traffic into watering holes and restaurants plummeted 95% through May 13, compared with a year ago.

Pelosi Coronavirus Plan Orders Felons, Illegal Aliens to Be Freed from Prison.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) latest Chinese coronavirus relief package includes a mandate that federal inmates, as well as local convicts and illegal aliens, be released from jail so long as a court considers them "non-violent" offenders.  Pelosi's plan would order the release of federal prisoners, illegal aliens in federal immigration detention facilities, and local convicts if they are considered by the courts and judicial officers to not be a threat to the community.

The Editor says...
They have all been proven to be "a threat to the community."  That's why they're in prison.

Why Trump Doesn't Get Rid of Fauci.  Why is Anthony Fauci the only medical and health official anybody ever consults?  Why wasn't there a panel of doctors the Senate committee talked to yesterday?  There's all kinds of different doctors out there.  There's all kinds of different health experts.  And they've all got their own theories of what's going on here and how to deal with it, what's the best course of action.  There's all kinds of thinking about this out there.  Why is Anthony Fauci the only health official and doctor that's consulted?

Seattle Cop Fired for Protesting Lock Down Just As Jay Inslee Declares He Will Confine People Without Food Who Don't Cooperate With Contact Tracers.  Sometimes two stories appear that that fit so nicely together that if you imagine this is all being done by a novelist with a gift for foreshadowing.  [On] Monday [5/11/2020], Port of Seattle Police Officer and Special Forces veteran Greg Anderson was terminated.  His offense, a viral Instagram post which he refused to take down.  You really need to read it.  [Video clip]  ["]I've seen officers nationwide enforcing tyrannical orders against the people and I'm hoping it's the minority of officers, but I'm not sure anymore.  We don't get to violate someone's constitutional rights because somebody in our chain of command tells us otherwise.["]  Bingo.  Across the nation we have seen police departments willingly accept orders to not apprehend many classes of criminals and divert officers to such important duties as arresting parents at playgrounds, rousting people off the beach, threatening ministers and church congregations with fines and involuntary isolation orders.  It is just a matter of time before a SWAT team shows up to shut down a restaurant.  Okay, we've already done that [...]

Outrageous: Now Leftist L.A. Mayor Proclaims that City 'Will Never Completely Open'.  The left-wing mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, has issued the shocking proclamation that the city will "never" fully re-open because of the coronavirus.  The liberal mayor insisted this week that the city will never fully reopen until there is a "cure" for the feared coronavirus.  This, though, is an utterly unscientific proclamation because science has yet to cure many viruses like the coronavirus.  So, if Garcetti is going to wait for a "cure," he may never be ready to allow his city to reopen.

An Orgy of Plague Death, Deferred.  Judging from the volume of gloomy revelations and dire predictions in the press, it seems there isn't much market for encouraging news these days.  We have journalistic integrity alone to thank for the series of reports that, taken together, paint a promising portrait of how the country is now navigating the pandemic.  The rate at which the country is conducting and processing COVID-19 tests — one of a few chief metrics that gauge a region's readiness to begin reopening public facilities — is at or approaching comprehensiveness.  What's more, the rate at which those tests return positive is on the decline and was, as of last week, below 10 percent.  Even some relatively hard-hit parts of the country are now in a position to have more available tests than test-takers.  More heartening, the states that have begun to experiment with a phased reopening of public and commercial spaces have benefited doing so.  Florida and Georgia, which relied on their publics to abide by guidelines that recommend frequent hand-washing, mask-wearing, and social distancing, have been rewarded for their faith.  More than two weeks have passed since these states began cautiously easing their lockdowns, and their respective caseloads continue to decline.

Perpetual Lockdown in the City of Angels.  The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro joins the podcast today to talk about lockdown from the perspective of the West Coast.  With his hometown of Los Angeles now planning to extend shelter-at-home guidelines well into the summer and early fall, what are the prospects that the public will abide by those recommendations?  And what are the chances that those who do will preserve their sanity?  [Podcast]

San Diego Supervisor Says Only 6 Of 194 Coronavirus-Recorded Deaths 'Pure' Coronavirus Deaths.  On Tuesday [5/12/2020], San Diego county Supervisor Jim Desmond said after digging into the data that he believes only six of the county's 194 coronavirus-identified deaths are "pure" coronavirus deaths, meaning they died from the virus, not merely with the virus.  Desmond was seemingly ruling out deaths from individuals with preexisting conditions.  "We've unfortunately had six pure, solely coronavirus deaths — six out of 3.3 million people," Desmond said on a podcast, Armstrong & Getty Extra Large Interviews, according to San Diego Tribune.  "I mean, what number are we trying to get to with those odds.  I mean, it's incredible.  We want to be safe, and we can do it, but unfortunately, it's more about control than getting the economy going again and keeping people safe."

Colorado man dies from astounding 0.55 blood alcohol level, coronavirus listed as cause of death.  The Colorado Department of Health and Environment is listing coronavirus as cause of death of a Colorado man despite the county coroner ruling that he died of ethanol toxicity with an astounding 0.55 blood-alcohol level.  A blood-alcohol level of 0.3 is generally considered fatal.  Although the unidentified man tested positive for coronavirus, County Coroner George Deavers said he disagreed with the state's assessment after his investigation with a pathologist revealed that the man's blood-alcohol content was nearly seven times the legal driving limit of 0.08.

Florida Gov DeSantis calls out other governors for 'draconian' lockdowns and says 'people have rights'.  Florida Gov Ron DeSantis tore into other governors who have ordered 'draconian' lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday as he took further steps to reopen his own state.  'You're not a dictator, you don't have unlimited authority, and people do have rights,' DeSantis said in an interview with Fox & Friends.  He made the comments after being asked if he thinks 'some of these governors that are just doing a one-size-fits-all for the entire state' are 'being too strict and going too far.'  'I don't think any governor has the authority to restrict anyone unless there's a direct relationship to combating this virus,' DeSantis replied.

Big police presence expected at Michigan protest of stay-at-home order.  A demonstration protesting Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order is set to take place on Thursday in the state capital of Lansing, with fears some might carry weapons inside the Capitol building. [...] The protest is organized by Michigan United for Liberty, which says it is a nonprofit with nearly 8,000 members, organized and formed in response to Whitmer's first stay-at-home order in April, which it views as unconstitutional.

Dallas doc is treating her patients with hydroxychloroquine with a 100% success rate, but has to lie to pharmacists to prescribe it.  Ivette Lozano is a Dallas doctor who is treating her COVID patients with hydroxychloroquine.  The recovery success rate of her treatment is 100%!  Dr. Lozano is blowing the whistle on the corruption, the misinformation being broadcast by the mainstream media, and the medical establishment's obstruction in recommending against the use of the one known cure for COVID patients — chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.  The "so-called experts," like Tony Fauci, are recommending against the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID patients, declaring that it has not been sufficiently tested.  Dr. Fauci is either a liar or a moron (neither of which is good), as hydroxychloroquine was thoroughly tested in 1955 and approved by the FDA that same year.

I'm pretty sure the residents of the graveyard are already immune.
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts Barred From Placing Flags At Veterans' Cemeteries On Memorial Day.  The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who have traditionally placed American flags on the graves of veterans at veterans' cemeteries on Memorial Day have been barred from doing so because of the coronavirus crisis.  The Scouts cannot perform their acts of honor because the Department of Veteran's Affairs has banned public events at the sites, Fox News reports, adding, "On Long Island, N.Y., where more than 500,000 veterans are buried at two national military cemeteries, there are demands for the VA to reconsider and rescind the ban."

Virginia restaurant's creepy plan to use mannequins to enforce social distancing gets mixed response.  A Virginia restaurant got some serious social media pushback after it announced how it planned to enforce social distancing when it reopens this Friday.  The Inn at Little Washington unveiled a plan that almost instantly conjured up "creepy" feelings online as reactions poured in to the idea of dressed-up mannequins being used to fill space at empty tables.

Music store owner weeps as he loses his dream due to COVID lockdown.  A Michigan man with a passion for music and teaching children has seen his life's work wiped away with the stroke of a pen by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.  Steve Walker, the owner of Walker Music & Textiles Co. in Hastings, Michigan, wept as he spoke with WXMI-TV during a recent interview in which he said Michigan's lockdown order had forced him and his wife out of business.

13 May LA County Supervisors:  Flashpoint for the Second American Revolution?  The LA County Board of Supervisors announced on May 12th a three-month extension of lock down or stay-at-home orders.  The LA Times concurrently reported that LA County's death toll stood at 1,613, which is said to be over half of the total for the entire state of California.  California has an estimated population of around 40 million people.  Which means coronavirus deaths in California represent around 0.000075 [percent] of the population, or about one thousandth of one percent.  And for this, all of Los Angeles will be subject to three more months of lockdown.  This is absurd and outrageous on its face.  Lethality rates for Covid-19 based on actual data do not justify this action in any way, shape, manner or form.  There isn't a shred of any 'science' backing up this decision; just political blather about insufficient testing making it too dangerous to conclude the worst is over.

No Blue State Bailouts:  Hold Democrats Accountable for Democrats' Policies.  As red states like Georgia and Texas methodically are ending their lockdowns and opening their economies without the spikes in hospitalizations and deaths that were promised by the progressive doomsday prophets, blue state governors continue applying economic pain to their constituents without any convincing reason to do so.  If "flattening the curve" was indeed the objective in states like California, the objective was inarguably met long ago.  We could debate whether or not the lockdown was the reason for that outcome, but what is not up for legitimate debate is the fact that hospitals in California being overwhelmed never even came close to becoming a reality.

The Peculiar World of Dr. Fauci.  A federal bureaucrat for 36 years, Fauci came wrapped in the white coat of medical science but with no claim to infallibility.  Back in the 1990s, Fauci was wrong that AIDS would ravage the heterosexual community.  In January of 2020, Fauci said it was unclear whether the coronavirus could spread person to person and cited a low risk to the United States.  In March, Fauci said the coronavirus might become a "seasonal cyclic thing," with "inevitable" new outbreaks.  In press conferences, Dr. Fauci did not underline the most important fact about COVID-19, the true mortality rate.  Instead Fauci showed a preference for computer models and their meaningless numbers.  Prophecy is not science, but on Tuesday Fauci warned about new outbreaks should the economy be opened up too soon.  Sen. Rand Paul, a medical doctor, called him on it.  Paul cited varying mortality figures and decried a singular approach for the entire United States.  "I don't think you're the end-all," Paul told Fauci.

Fauci's Song and Dance.  Dr. Anthony Fauci has never been muzzled by President Trump, as the lamestream media often charged, but maybe he should have been and should be still.  Before his tour de farce before the Senate Health Committee, the shy, modest, and unassuming Dr. Fauci emailed a New York Times reporter with a preview of his testimony, an apocalypse now prediction if we don't hang on to and follow his sage and expert advice. [...] Many would argue, and I count myself among them, that Fauci's consistently wrong advice using consistently wrong computer models has led to needless suffering and death.  Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show recently asked Dr. Marty Makary, professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. what he thought of Fauci's performance thus far and his assessment was not good:  ["]He's a good laboratory virologist.  But you know, in terms of preparing this country, he missed it...["]

Illinois coroner blames overdose spike in part on virus.  There has been a spike in opioid overdose deaths in a northern Illinois county in recent weeks and it could be because of increased isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, a coroner said Wednesday [5/13/2020].  DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgensen said 20 people in the county have died from overdoses in the past three weeks, in comparison to 96 in all of 2019.

Washington state directs restaurants to log all eat-in customers in order to reopen.  Restaurants in Washington state will be required to keep a log of each dine-in customer to facilitate contact tracing during phase two of the state's coronavirus reopening plans.  As part of the requirements, the log must be maintained for 30 days and must include each customer's telephone number and email address, and what time they came in to eat, according to officials.  "If you have somebody who has become sick and they were sitting right next to a person at a restaurant, to be able to identify that person could be very valuable for their health to try to save their life, and so we put that in place," Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday [5/12/2020].

The Editor says...
These mandatory lists of names, email addresses, and phone numbers will likely become "public records," and will then create a gold mine for email spammers and telemarketers.

Update:
Gov. Jay Inslee retracts requirement that diners provide contact info when restaurants reopen.  When dining rooms in Washington start to reopen in the coming months, restaurants will not be required to record customers' contact information after all.  In a walk-back of a controversial component of the restaurant reopening guidance issued earlier this week, Gov. Jay Inslee's office issued a statement on Friday evening "clarifying" that the state will not require customers to provide their contact information when they go out to eat.  Instead, businesses are asked to maintain a list of customers who voluntarily do so.

The Editor says...
This is why you should memorize the local time-and-temperature phone number, and have a throw-away email address.

The Danger of Letting Lab Coats Run the World.  It should be clear by now that most of the world's leaders were stampeded over the lockdown cliff like so many lemmings.  What caused the stampede is even more remarkable: a tiny coterie of obscure, soft-spoken epidemiologists in white lab coats playing with numbers.  Americans trying to keep up with the torrid pace of new developments over the past few months have been hearing about that work — the data-modeling these people do by feeding selected data and a variety of assumptions into a computer.  The computer then disgorges diagrams and charts that attempt to describe the future progress of diseases like COVID-19.  The most frequently cited COVID-19 modelers are those at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and similar organizations at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Imperial College in London.

Does Greta Thunberg have the answer to COVID-19?  COVID-19 is a riddle wrapped inside an enigma and hidden within a Chinese wet market, or possibly a CCP laboratory.  World leaders are baffled by how to respond.  The science keeps contradicting itself.  The world's greatest mathematicians can't keep up with the ever-changing data sets.  Who can the poor and frightened public turn to for help?  Never fear, Greta's here.  That's right.  Little Miss Thunberg, a 17-year-old Swedish girl who dropped out of high school to sound the climate change alarm, is turning her mega-brain towards COVID-19, just when we need her most.  On Thursday evening [5/14/2020], CNN will host a live town hall called 'Coronavirus:  Facts and Fears', featuring former acting CDC director Richard Besser, former HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Miss Thunberg.

Lockdown Logic.  When politicians begin slinging around words like "expert" and "science," any sensible citizen becomes a skeptic.  Being elected to public office does not qualify anyone to lecture the public on scientific matters, but this is never pointed out to cable TV viewers tuning in for the daily lectures from Governor Science (D-N.Y.).  Andrew Cuomo has a bachelor's degree from Fordham and a law degree from the University of Albany, and if he has any specialized knowledge about infectious diseases, it's only because he has presided over the worst COVID-19 pandemic in the world.  On a per-capita basis, nowhere has this virus been more deadly than in New York, yet no one in the media blames this public-health catastrophe on the governor — quite the contrary.

What Spread Coronavirus in New York City?  The Subways.  One hundred eighty-four thousand cases and counting.  New York City now has one out of every eight confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the United States.  Far more cases than Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Seattle and Houston combined.  More cases than the Lombardy region of Italy, the Community of Madrid and the Province of Tehran combined.  [Paywall]

Nearly 420,000 of NYC's richest residents have fled the city amid the pandemic [according to] smartphone data.  Five percent of New York City's population has fled since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the city, new smartphone data reveals.  From March 1 to May 1, about 420,000 residents of the Big Apple left, particularly from the wealthiest neighborhoods, reported The New York Times.  While there was relatively little change in some zip codes, others such as SoHo, the West Village, Morningside Heights, the Upper East Side, the Financial District, Midtown, Gramercy and Brooklyn Heights emptied by at least 40 percent.  Meanwhile, Manhattan's overall population fell by almost 20 percent.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont fires health commissioner in middle of coronavirus crisis.  Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has fired his health commissioner while the Nutmeg State grapples with reopening plans amid the coronavirus pandemic.  Lamont bounced Department of Public Health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell late Monday [5/11/2020] and replaced her with the state's Department of Social Services commissioner, Deidre Gifford.  Lamont refused Tuesday to say why he removed Coleman-Mitchell.  "I thought this was a good time to make a change," Lamont told Connecticut reporters.  "I think the job has changed, and I want closer coordination with our different departments." SGUgZmlyZWQgYSBibGFjayBmZW1hbGUhIFRoYXQncyB0aGUgYmlnIG5ld3MgaW4gdGhpcyBzdG9yeS4=

Why airplanes are still packed in the coronavirus pandemic — and is flying still safe?  Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and social distancing guidelines advising people stay six feet apart, reports of terrified airline passengers on packed flights continue to emerge.  Just this week, passengers on an Iberian Airlines flight became incensed over their crowded flight, which had jammed the plane to 70 percent capacity despite airline guidelines to have the cabin no more than half full.  And photos from a United Airlines flight last week showed passengers sitting shoulder-to-shoulder — while a doctor returning from helping fight the virus in New York had a similar experience with the carrier.

The Scientism Virus.  The perception that science is an "objective and verifiable" approach to knowledge, free of bias and beholden to no philosophy is flawed.  That scientists have a firm grip on the physical world is not in dispute.  But just what it is they are grasping remains unknown, given the necessity of reducing everything to quantifiable data that must fit the given frame of reference.  Tailoring data to suit a given aim has a nasty way of endowing nonscientific agendas with false "authenticity."  This is how evolution theory becomes evolution fact, how environmentalism turns into "climate change mandate," how theology becomes an asset of politicians... the list of abuses of science to gain advantage and control is long.  It is not that science needs to be put down, but that science not be deified or endowed with an authority it cannot possess, a too common belief among the technocrats and academics of our day.

One chart exposes the lie behind universal lockdowns.  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.

Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down stay-at-home order; Dane County institutes local order.  In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the state's stay-at-home order, handing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers a defeat in his administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Republicans and some business owners cheered the ruling as a win for liberty, while local officials in Dane County and Milwaukee immediately announced they would be enforcing the state's rules at the local level, creating a de facto regional approach to combating the spread of the disease.  In its order, the Supreme Court said Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm exceeded her authority with her sweeping order, declaring the mandate "invalid, and therefore, unenforceable," meaning some businesses and restaurants could open immediately.  But some counties, such as Dane, have already issued replacement orders enforcing the elements of Palm's order, and therefore must remain closed.

The wild west wasn't always safe, but at least those who lived there were free people who didn't live on government handouts.
Wisconsin Gov. Says State is 'Wild West' After Stay-at-Home Order Ruling.  Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said the state was the "Wild West" on Wednesday night after the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked an extension of his stay-at-home order.  The Democratic state leader told MSNBC that judges had created "chaos" in Wisconsin by voting 4-3 against the extension of state lockdown measures until May 26.  Wisconsin Supreme Court judges ruled on Wednesday that his stay-at-home extension was "unlawful, invalid and unenforceable."  The governor warned that there was "nothing compelling anyone to do anything" in Wisconsin as the novel coronavirus continued to spread across the U.S.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Orders All Residents Must Wear Face Coverings When They Leave Home.  Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that all residents will be forced to wear face coverings when they leave their homes[.]  "We're requiring all Angelenos to wear face coverings when they leave the house," Garcetti said in a statement.  "There are exceptions in place for small children or those with disabilities."  "Our Safer at Home order will remain in place beyond May 15.  Depending on public health conditions, we will continue to adjust the order to safely allow more businesses to operate and more people to get back to work," Garcetti added.

Family: Woman died during childbirth from treatable condition due to hospital lockdown.  An expectant mother in New York City apparently fell victim to the health care industry's prioritizing the coronavirus above all else when she died after giving birth to her son last month.  WABC-TV reported that Amber Isaac, 26, was excited to give birth to a baby boy, but experienced treatable pregnancy complications that were unable to be resolved, as she was denied an in-person doctor appointment and was instead offered telehealth services.

CBS reporter got the response her 'question' deserved.  The mainstream media's latest heroine/victim is CBS reporter Weijia Jiang who got into a tussle with President Trump at his May 11 coronavirus briefing.  Jiang, of Chinese descent, asked Trump an argumentative question, got an argumentative response, and assumed that the response was personal based upon her race, rather than what she said.  The case is a microcosm of what's wrong with the media, both in terms of pure bias, basic competence, and professionalism.

The Editor says...
What is the point of wearing a mask at the White House, if it's okay to pull the mask off long enough to yell at the President?  The fixation on masks is a sham and a farce.

Gym owner says he'll reopen Monday, whether or not Murphy allows it.  A business owner in Bellmawr has decided to "take matters into our own hands" by opening his gym in defiance of a state-ordered closing of nonessential businesses.  Ian Smith, co-owner of Atilis Gym, said he plans to open at 8 a.m.  Monday [5/18/2020] for members.  Smith said they've decided to limit capacity to 20% or about 44 people at a time, but he expects "thousands" of people to show up after a primetime national television interview Wednesday.

The Wuhan Virus Lockdown is a Colossal Blunder.  The Wuhan Virus pandemic is not the most significant crisis in our nation's history.  It isn't even the greatest public health crisis in our history.  But with the imposition of a near total national lockdown it is undoubtedly the greatest marginalization of personal liberty in American history.  Over the centuries, in virtually all societies, people known to be infected by various deadly diseases were confined and isolated in order to mitigate the spread and protect the rest of society.  Never have we confined the entire population ostensibly for the same objective. [...] But one question that the powers-to-be never asked themselves at the time was:  How do we get out of this?  Now they find themselves trapped by their own decisions. [...] What are the limits to the things that the State can legitimately do to a people living in a constitutional republic originally established on the basis of guaranteeing individual freedom?

Lock down failure.  First we were told that it was necessary to impose "social distancing rules" and shut down the economy for a few weeks in order to prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed by a sudden influx of COVID-19 cases, predicted to possibly be in the millions. [...] Fortunately, the prediction that millions would become sick was so wrong it is now considered a joke.  Moreover, it was quickly obvious that the healthcare system was not going to be overwhelmed.  So of course, we can now end these stringent social distancing rules and the lock downs, right?  Hah.  Now we are being told that the new social rules and the government-imposed economic shut downs are necessary to stop the spread of the disease, to protect us from further infection, to make us all safe from coronavirus, forever.  And if we do have to ease the lock downs at all, we have to do it as slowly as possible, and to change our behaviors forever.  Masks must be worn, businesses can no longer serve as many at a time, and we must change and limit our freedoms, just because we might possibly save one life!

Cuomo's COVID-19 Panic Killed Thousands In Nursing Homes.  In New York, 5% of the seniors living in nursing homes have died from COVID-19.  In Florida, the disease has claimed less than 0.6% of those in nursing homes.  What explains the vast difference in death rates among this vulnerable population?  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo panicked about COVID-19, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not.  Over the weekend, Democrat Cuomo announced that nursing homes would no longer have to accept patients discharged from hospitals who were COVID-19 positive.  Which leads to a question:  Why in the world were they required to do so before?  The reason was that Cuomo was panicked about hospitals being overrun.  So to clear beds, he told nursing homes that they had to take the elderly, whether or not they had COVID-19.

St. Louis County Sues to Put Fitness Center Out of Business in Legal Show of Force.  The House of Pain gyms are in danger of going out of business and declaring bankruptcy because St. Louis County Executive Director Sam Page wants to show everybody who's boss.  St.  Louis County filed suit in St. Louis County Court asking for an injunction to close two House of Pain fitness centers in Chesterfield and Maryland Heights, Missouri.  The suit alleges House of Pain is open for business despite an executive order by County Executive Director Sam Page that all persons must stay in their own homes and all businesses he deems "non-essential" must close.

Los Angeles Will Keep Stay-Home Order For Another Three Months.  This is nuts.  According to the Los Angeles Times city officials plan to keep the stay-at-home order in place for an additional three months.  However, this decision does provide further evidence the deep blue regions plan on maximizing economic damage.  The odd dynamic is, without a massive local bailout, and funding for the citizens who are on lockdown, how could they possibly even attempt to pull this off?  Is this LA plan of action dependent on Pelosi's brand new scheme for a $3 trillion spending package?

We now know that the majority who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic.  That changes everything.  Initially, the "experts" used the fear of asymptomatic transmission as a means of pushing for universal lockdown.  But that only makes sense if the number of asymptomatic are a minority and we are at the beginning of the transmission phase, in which such lockdown could work.  Now we see the opposite is true.  The overwhelming majority of those infected are asymptomatic, which grows to an absolute super-majority when you factor in the mildly symptomatic.  The fatality rate is therefore very small and very confined to a known population.  Thus, it makes no sense to lock down younger and healthier people who overwhelmingly don't get seriously ill, much less deathly ill, even if they contract the virus.  Moreover, the fact that this has spread so far and wide and most are asymptomatic demonstrates that there is no longer any "spread" to stop and we were months too late in trying to stop it even if we wanted to. [...] By going back to normal with basic precautions for most of the population, we will be able to achieve herd immunity much less painfully than previously thought while shielding the more vulnerable population.

How 'Flatten The Curve' Became 'Slow The Spread' And Proved 'Prolong The Pain' Is The Goal.  As part of the bait-and-switch committed by those who derive power from our fear, the phrase "flatten the curve" quietly became "slow the spread" thus proving that "prolong the pain" is really all they're interested in.  One of the many problems is that the experts coronated by the media represent only one side of the medical community's thinking, but are treated by the media as carrying 100% of the medical community's authority.  And that's because the media's preferred experts are the ones who traffic in the most fear, and whose insistences assure the most collateral damage for our nation.  It's really no different than what they did with global cooling.  I mean global warming.  I mean climate change.

Dr. Fauci has not been elected to anything.  He should not be dictator during this coronavirus crisis.  Dr. Tony Fauci appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday [5/12/2020] to testify before members of Congress.  The topic, of course, was the ongoing debate over when and how to reopen the country at schools and workplaces amid the coronavirus pandemic, when to do it, and how quickly.  Dr. Fauci left no doubts about how he feels on that question.  Opening up now, he said, after just two months of lockdowns, is a very risky, indeed a dangerous, prospect.  Letting Americans work and learn once again could be a catastrophe, he said.  And he wasn't just referring to a handful of hotspots that have been hit especially hard.  Entire states, Fauci said, likely need to remain closed.

Protect Your Family From Fearmonger Fauci.  There is nothing public health fossil Dr. Anthony Fauci can do or say to stop me from making the best choices for my children's health, sanity and resilience.  He appeared before the Senate on Tuesday to heckle states like Colorado not to get back to business — back to life — too soon and too quickly.  "Needless suffering and death" will occur, he told The New York Times.  "I think we better be careful (that) we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune from the deleterious effects," he testified.  Irked by Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul's very necessary reminder that no federal infectious disease bureaucrat is the "end-all" decider of our fate, Fauci warned against reopening schools because children in New York are "presenting with COVID-19 who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome, very similar to Kawasaki syndrome."  How dare you accuse us parents of being "cavalier" with our children's health, Fauci, when you are scaring them with dubious, unverified claims connecting a few cases of an alleged mystery pediatric disease to the coronavirus?

No more anonymous dining in Washington:
State orders restaurants to collect private info of customers, keep logs to open for table service.  Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is facing criticism for demanding that, as part of their upcoming reopening, restaurants begin collecting private information from their customers, including their names, their telephone numbers and their email addresses.  "If the establishment offers table service, create a daily log of all customers and maintain that daily log for 30 days, including telephone/email contact information, and time in.  This will facilitate any contact tracing that might need to occur," a "Phase 2 Restaurant/Tavern Reopening" guidance issued by his office on Monday [5/11/2020] reads.

'More Off Base Than Your Average Epidemiologist': Tucker Cites Dr. Fauci's 'Buffoon Level' Mistakes, Questions 'Powerful' Role.  Fox News host Tucker Carlson went through a laundry list of Dr. Anthony Fauci's "buffoon level" mistakes during a lengthy Tuesday night "Tucker Carlson Tonight" monologue.  Carlson cited mistake after mistake to make his case that Fauci has been "more off base than your average epidemiologist," yet has become one of the most "powerful people in the world."

Pritzker says he'll consider withholding federal funds from local governments that don't follow his reopening plan.  Some communities around the state have made it known they plan to open for business soon, despite a stay-at-home order and the governor's reopening plan.  Restaurants and bars have opened in Quincy.  Police there say they will only issue warnings and let the state handle any further enforcement.  During his daily news conference on Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he would consider withholding federal funding to communities that won't follow his plan.

Sweden Cared More About Islamophobia Than Saving Elderly in Nursing Homes From Coronavirus.  The debate over the Swedish model has been concentrated around whether countries should battle the coronavirus pandemic by locking down everything or adopting the more liberal approach.  This debate is as irrelevant to the actual causes of coronavirus deaths as the inhabitants of Constantinople debating whether angels have genders while the Islamic invaders were preparing to breach the city walls.  Preventing teenagers from going to the beach, as many American states and European countries have chosen to do, is going to have a very limited impact on a disease that is killing people in nursing homes.  While Sweden does have a higher rate of virus deaths than Norway or Finland, it's not because the bars are open.  90% of the dead in Sweden were over 70 and half of them lived in special housing.  Sweden has a higher rate of deaths in care homes than Norway or Finland, and lockdown enthusiasts have struggled to explain why keeping bars open would be killing people in housing for the elderly.

Los Angeles County 'with all certainty' will keep lockdown orders in place through July.  Los Angeles County's stay-at-home orders will "with all certainty" be extended for the next three months, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday [5/13/2020].  Ferrer, though she didn't issue an official order, said that timeline would only change if there was a "dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand."

L.A. County could keep stay-at-home orders in place well into summer, depending on conditions.  Los Angeles County's stay-at-home orders will "with all certainty" be extended for the next three months, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday [5/12/2020].  Ferrer later added that even if the orders remain in place through the summer, restrictions will be "gradually relaxed" under a five-step plan.

LA County's stay-at-home order will likely remain in place for next three months, officials say.  Los Angeles County officials are recommending that the stay-at-home order be extended for the next three months as the region continues efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.  At a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, county Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said the order will "with all certainty" be extended unless there is a "dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand."  Ferrer's comments came during a debate over how long the county's moratorium on evictions should remain in place.

Franklin Graham, faith leaders ask Congress to grant legal immunity to religious organizations reopening amid pandemic.  A long list of religious leaders signed onto a letter sent Tuesday requesting that Congress' next coronavirus relief package include legal immunity for religious organizations reopening amid an onslaught of new regulations surrounding the pandemic. "[I]n the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a proliferation of complex and often contradictory orders and guidelines at the state, county, and local levels, each purporting to govern when and how to reopen," read the letter, signed by pastor Franklin Graham, actor Kirk Cameron, and dozens of pastors.  In total, the letter has 300 signatories.