Houston’s Democrat Mayor Sylvester Turner heaped praise on the recent George Floyd protests, which drew tens of thousands of people tightly packed into the city. He even addressed the crowd. Coronavirus was no problem, the protests were too important. Yesterday Mayor Turner cancelled the Texas state Republican Party convention, which was to be held in Houston and would bring in a tiny fraction of the numbers of those who attended the Floyd protest. The mayor’s reason to cancel the Republican Party convention? Coronavirus! Is this really about public health…or is it something else? Watch today’s Liberty Report:

Media and politicians are using the reported massive increase in positive Covid test results to call for another US lockdown. Meanwhile there are increasing doubts as to the accuracy of the tests. New Jersey is mandating masks and two Texas counties are threatening felony charges against those with positive tests who do not stay home. Are these fears justified? Has the continuing decline of Covid deaths become meaningless? Don’t miss today’s Liberty Report:

The rule “first do no harm” appears to have been thrown out the window in the response to the 2019 coronavirus outbreak. Some studies suggest that for every “Covid” death there could be 29 deaths due to the lockdowns worldwide. Famine, depression, suicide, untreated illnesses – all of these may overshadow Covid as the killer of the year. Plus in today’s program: Fauci says we’re “knee-deep in the first wave,” the New England Journal of Medicine suggests just suspending any worker who refuses the coronavirus vaccine, and Texas mask “mandates” explained. Don’t miss today’s Liberty Report:

The daily death count has morphed into the daily “new case” count, as 100,000 tests a day have exploded into 700,000 tests. Is it a wonder cases are increasing? But what they don’t dare mention is that deaths and even the death rate continue to decline. In fact the CDC warns that Covid is at the stage where it cannot even be classified an epidemic due to declining deaths. Still, more masks are required and petty dictators all around are calling for a return to lockdown. Can the truth ever be heard above all the lies? Watch today’s Liberty Report:

This July 4th, much of the United States finds itself under various levels of dictatorial orders from renegade governors, county, and local officials. The US is under rule by decree, not by rule of law. Looking at the original list of grievances the Colonists had against King George, it looks like most of them are met – and then some – by our current system of government. Can we regain our independence? Watch today’s Liberty Report:

In the latest attempt to increase economic pressure on two foes, US prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit to seize the gasoline aboard four Iranian tankers that set sail for Venezuela last month. The civil-forfeiture complaint aims not only to stop the delivery of fuel to Venezuela but also to deprive Iran of the revenue and deter future shipments. Just last week, the US imposed sanctions on five Iranian captains blacklisted for delivering gasoline to Caracas. Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute, joins In Question to discuss:

Several recent studies suggest that we are closer to “herd immunity” for Covid-19 than previously thought. Former CDC head Scott Gottleib said Covid would be gone by January because most people will have been exposed. Yet officials across the country are implementing policies that PREVENT this needed immunity! They are trying to keep healthy people apart. What’s their game. Plus in today’s program: We will tell you why Texas is seeing an increase in cases – it will shock you. Finally…it’s time for a new “Villain of the Week!” Watch today’s Liberty Report:

While they are cooking the books on “new cases” by ramping up testing and even double-testing, half the population of the US is living in states that are actually returning to some form of shut down. The Houston hospital capacity lie has pushed Texas back into shutdown. And no one is noticing that deaths and death rates continue to decrease. Is this pandemic becoming just about politics? Don’t miss today’s Liberty Report:

We cannot go back to the pre-coronavirus world, they tell us. Everything has changed and we must accept a “new normal.” What does this “new normal” look like? It looks a lot like a dystopian horror film, where privacy is destroyed, property is subject to political whim, surveillance is to be accepted, medical treatments can be forced on people. Should we accept totalitarianism as our “new normal”? Plus in today’s program: the real story of Houston’s “round two hospital crisis.” Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

The school closures, stay home orders, shuttering of businesses, banning of elective surgeries, closure of physical entertainment events, blocked flights, and sudden imposition of a central plan – it all happened suddenly from mid-March in the course of only a few days, and to enormous shock on the part of people who had previously taken their freedom and rights for granted. 

Despite enormous pressure from Washington, eight states did not lock down or used a very light touch: South Dakota, North Dakota, South Carolina, Wyoming, Utah, Arkansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. 

After 100 days, we are in a position for some preliminary analysis of the performance of locked down states versus those that did not lock down. AIER has already published the evidence that lockdown states had higher rates of unemployment. 

The Sentinel, a nonprofit news source of the Kansas Policy Institute, confirms our research by reporting the following data: locked down states have overall a 13.2% unemployment rate, while open states have a 7.8% unemployment rate. 

But perhaps this better economic performance came at the expense of health? 

In terms of health, locked down states have nearly four times the death rate from COVID-19.

The results do not prove that staying open necessarily caused the good outcomes, but should certainly lead us to question the notion that “lockdowns are necessary or else we all are going to die.” 

To be sure, many mitigating factors may exist. Open states may have had fewer long-term health facilities housing people with low life expectacies; in every state, these account for roughly half of all deaths from COVID-19. In fact, “deaths among a narrow 1.7% group of the population are greater than deaths from the other 98.3%.” 

Population density between the states also varies and that could have been an explanatory variable. The open states also lacked governors who mandated that nursing homes accept active COVID-patients. Earlier this month, we published some more detailed research “Unemployment Far Worse in Lockdown States, Data Show” by economist Abigail Devereux who found similar results.

A routine trope in the media is that people who oppose lockdowns are pushing freedom and wealth over safety and health. But as we can see from this clean examination of the results, the open states experienced less economic pain and less pain from the disease itself. 

We are seeing desperate attempts by politicians, public health officials, and media commentators somehow to make sense of why the United States pursued the course it did with the closures, stay-home orders, travel bans, and near-universal quarantine, in violation of every principle that America has celebrated in its civic culture. 

With the evidence coming in that the lockdowns were neither economically nor medically effective, it is going to be increasingly difficult for lockdown partisans to marshal the evidence to convince the public that isolating people, destroying businesses, and destroying social institutions was worth it.

Reprinted with permission from the American Institute for Economic Research.

DC Court of Appeals has ruled that the case against Gen. Michael Flynn must be dropped, after a judge ignored a previous order by US Attorney General William Barr to drop all charges. As more documents and notes by FBI officers involved in the case are released, it becomes ever more evident that this was no counterintelligence investigation – it was a coup attempt. And it went all the way to the top. Also in today’s program mask-mania continues to spread faster than the coronavirus, with Americans lining up to turn in other Americans for not wearing masks. But what happened in states that did not shut down? We discuss a Wall Street Journal editorial of yesterday with the hard numbers. Watch today’s Liberty Report:

Just over a week ago Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan praised the takeover of part of her city by protesters claiming to establish the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) where no police would be needed – or welcome. It would be a “summer of love” Durkan gushed. Shortly thereafter a strong man emerged to proclaim himself in charge and automatic weapons were handed out. Shootings and violence followed. Now the mayor is eating crow, preparing to reclaim part of her city. Also in today’s Liberty Report – More from Bolton’s book on how he sabotaged Trump’s outreach to North Korea and the latest on the “second wave” of coronavirus. Watch today’s Liberty Report: